Hihihi!
Today's article is rather short, its one describing 4 famous social incubators.
Oh ya, these are legit!! If any one of you are serious about securing funds for a business idea, please READ.
Just incase you guys are like me, clueless about what social incubators are here's the definition I gathered from the article- Programs that provide social entrepreneurs with the opportunities to network with mentors, get their advice, refine their business model, perhaps secure start-up capital by pitching their business ideas.
Since incubators are supposed to promote growth, I guess social incubators promote growth of social entrepreneurs and their ideas/business plans.
So anyway, the main point of this post is a discussion I had with Shaz.
We met for dinner right, and she was telling me about this malay social entrepreneur who started a business providing employment for the malay community. In the article he shared that one of the biggest difficulty he faced was retaining staff. His idea to combat this was to offer up a portion of the shares of his company to employees who stay in the company for two years. Shaz then proceeded to tell me that she thinks he's really dumb, how much of his company is he willing to sacrifice?
That would grow to become a serious issue because if too many people has a say in the business direction, there will be slow progress. Therefore, I believe that such social incubators are not only applicable to young social entrepreneurs with seedlings of ideas but clearly also very crucial for "experienced" social entrepreneurs whose ideas may still be a little too premature.
Most of the incubation programs are catered for new social enterprises or targeted to successful social entrepreneurs. I believe that this distribution is very useful and efficient as the needs of specific groups of social entrepreneurs can me met. However, I feel that there should be cross-fertilisation of ideas among social entrepreneurs as well.
Hi Grace!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post you have there (: I do agree with you that these social incubators or 'platform for growth' should also be applicable for SEs whose ideas are a little 'premature'. Even though they are already 'experienced' in the field, however some of them does commit grave mistakes that might hinder the growth or impact made by the enterprise. The HUB is an unique incubator, I think that this is a good spot that these at-risk-SEs could go to. They can sought for solutions from like-minded people and work on their challenges.
Hi Grace!;)
ReplyDeleteI agree to an extent that these social incubators serve as good starting for budding or even new social entrepreneurs. This is because they are able to guide participants on business paths and avoid pitfalls that these mentors have went through. Further, some programs instill pitching of business ideas alongside with other like-minded entrepreneurs to encourage healthy competition which can prepare the participants for the competitive industry.
However, I noticed that some of the incubators requires applicants to attend program sessions only in a specific area or have to fork out a large sum of program fees. This may deter some budding entrepreneurs from participating as they may not have sufficient funds to pay the cost of travelling or fees.