Finding Hidden Social Entrepreneurs
A case in point…
Andre was a bright and ambitious guy I met on one of my numerous forays into the Dallas business networking culture about a year ago. I met him at BAC #5, the Business Assistance Center designated as such because it’s in Oak Cliff, a sprawling, mostly black and Hispanic community that runs along primarily south of the Trinity River, the Maginot Line of racial and political demographics that divides this city of over a million people that sits within a larger metropolitan area encompassing five counties and nearly five million people; the forth largest metropolitan area in the United States. On this day, at a luncheon sponsored by BAC#5 at the Brooklyn Jazz Café on South Lamar Street, he introduced himself and handed me a business card.
“What do you do?” I asked.
“I’m in real estate investment”, he responded. “I buy distressed properties that are in bad condition and flip ‘em...he said, using the popular term for investing in what we used to call “fixerupers”. I have a crew of guys that makes repairs and then I resell them to people who probably couldn’t afford to buy a home, but I sell them at a lower profit margin that I could normally make…single mothers, people on low incomes…that kind of thing.”
I paused a minute to ponder his statement for dramatic effect…and smiled;
“So you make money that supports this effort with the profits from the sales and you use that to help people at the same time?”, I asked.
“That’s right”, he responded.
“Do you know what a social entrepreneur is?”, I said.
He gave me a puzzled look. “No...what’s that?”
“You are a social entrepreneur”…I said with a grin. “You just don’t know it yet”.
I’m convinced Dallas has a lot of people like Andre; people working to benefit the community with their businesses but don’t have any idea they are part of a growing and strategic movement of economic empowerment that the best business schools in the world are developing MBA degree programs for. The challenge here in Dallas is to find them…find them, and engage them. Finding social entrepreneurs at the pre-engagement level, the level where people don’t now anything about double bottom line business models, sustainability, earned income strategies, etc…people who have never heard of Greg Dees, Bill Strickland, the Social Enterprise Alliance or Ashoka…people who can empower the next great movement in the field in a place where business is king but nobody has seen fit to develop a social venture community.
These are the hidden social entrepreneurs we’re looking for.
We are looking for them. Maybe you are one yourself? Maybe you know somebody who you think matches the profile I’ve outlined. Email us…let us know what you’re doing and how SBIG can assist you in the Dallas community. We have an organization in the DFW community now that fits what you’re trying to accomplish, and we’ve got dedicated people who can help you get where you want to go. SBIG can plug you into networks, introduce you to concepts you’ve not seen before, and help you become part of a grass roots movement that you can become part of a movement that eventually will catapult Dallas to national prominence in the field at the same time you grow your own business.
We’re looking for the hidden social entrepreneurs…are we looking for you?