WHAT IS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

Posted on April 24 2024

What is a Social Enterprise?

So hello. It's been quite some time since our last blog post (sorry). That's not to say that we've been twiddling our thumbs or counting cattle. We've been extremely busy running our little business. It's just that time and resources are often a rare commodity here at Heartfelt.

We are excited to start blogging again and to share the ins and outs of life at Pinky Place, and what it's like to run Social Enterprise like ours. Which leads to our next question. Do you know what a Social Enterprise is? We get asked this question so often so we thought we'd take this opportunity to explain it to you as we are often confused with a Community Project - which we kind of are... but aren't. Oh dear, see why this can get confusing?!

Social Enterprises are revenue-generating businesses with a twist. Whether operated by a non-profit organization or by a for-profit company, a social enterprise has two goals: to achieve social, cultural, community, economic and/or environmental outcomes; and, to earn revenue.

A social enterprise operates like a business, produces goods and services for the market, but manages its operations and redirects its surpluses in pursuit of social and environmental goals.

An equally noble goal of social enterprise (aside from generating revenues to pursue a mission) is the training and/or employment of people who are typically excluded from the mainstream economy, thus creating capacity and self-sufficiency for individuals, and impacting their communities and lessening reliance on the social safety net.

So in a nut shell, all the beautiful things we make and sell at Heartfelt help to create a sustainable business that brings about change within our little community. Compprendo?

Great! So let's stop it there and sleep on it. We are going to be looking at our new Christmas designs next week and what we've been up to in the Heartfelt desig lab. We'll also be asking Martha a few questions and trying to understand what makes her tick. She is the heart beat of the business and boy do we love her for that.

Till next week, remember to always keep kindness in your heart x