It is as if historically, every single Government minister thought that an entrepreneur was educated in a public school and held numerous degrees; employing high school graduates with nine ‘A’ levels to make the tea! Then as the first minute of the new Millennia struck, there was a realisation of the truth; which is that many true entrepreneurs leave school with rather average qualifications. More importantly, many of these entrepreneurs actually come from normal if not deprived backgrounds.
Further to this new way of thinking by the UK Government, it has quickly been grasped that if you selected thirty people from an average class room anywhere in the UK and looked to develop entrepreneurialism within it, certain members of the class will show signs of early progress. Clearly if these ‘young entrepreneurs’ are encouraged and given the right opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial spirit then in time they may well develop their own businesses, frequently employing the people that they know, for example; some of the other remaining members of their class or from their local community.
Since the acknowledgement by Governments that encouraging entrepreneurial spirit is the most sustainable way to reduce deprivation and to secure long term job creation, new commercial opportunities with social and profitable outcomes have started to present themselves. The post millennium entrepreneurs have welcomed this warmer approach and have now started to work closer to the public sector to generate new commercial opportunities but with a number of social characteristics.
In short the authorities, who many entrepreneurs believed were there to hinder their progress and commercial development, now seem to be assisting them. Common sense has finally prevailed and entrepreneurs now feel empowered and encouraged to get involved in commercial sectors that were once considered monopolised by the local authority.
A new era of social entrepreneurialism has been born, in fact just re-branded, because the truth of the matter is that many of the new areas that modern day entrepreneurs find themselves working in where formerly expected to be not for profit or simply carried out by local authority employees.
Entrepreneurial objectives have now got wider and the understanding by entrepreneurs that having a profitable business, which employs local people and cares for the local community and social needs, is much better than just having a profitable business.
By default, our communities are enjoying modern day Social Entrepreneurialism?