Social Entrepreneurship

PEDN is a Ugandan non-profit organization that has reached over
500,000 youth with social and financial education, life skills,
business skills, youth mentoring and entrepreneurship training
since 2004.

We are sharing information on Social Entrepreneurship.
Who is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is someone who creates and runs an enterprise or business. The enterprise
may or may not have employees. Entrepreneurs are often creative, innovative, daring people,
and the businesses they operate are very important to communities.
What kind of entrepreneurs are there?
There are different kinds of entrepreneurs who create different enterprises. Mainly it is either
a social or a financial enterprise;
A social enterprise, often referred to as “not-for-profit” – a social enterprise is one that focuses
on making a positive impact on society, through social, cultural or environmental issues for
example. Its main concern is to address a social problem, not to make a profit.
And a financial enterprise is a business that provides financial and/or services and its main
goal is to make a profit.
How can I become a social entrepreneur?
Being a social entrepreneur is a very honorable thing to do. To become one, there are multiple
steps.
The first and most important one is to conduct a personal SWOT analysis (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). A SWOT analysis can help you with reflecting on your
strengths and find achievable goals.
The S in SWOT is for strengths, write down your personal strengths.

The W in SWOT is for weaknesses, write down as many of your personal weaknesses as
possible.

You can then use your personal strengths and weaknesses to identify opportunities as in O and
threats for T for a potential social enterprise.

Planning a Project
Your weaknesses
In order to plan a project you need to ask yourself two questions: –
And –
What will I make, do or create?
So, what is it the social enterprise will do, how can I do it?
What will the effect of my project be?
So, who will it effect, what kind of impact will it have on my community?
For planning a project or a startup, or an idea, it can help to work out the details and write
down the steps that you aim to take. That way the next step is always clear and you can make
sure to achieve your goal.
Reference: PEDN Empowerment for Girls Education (EGE) Manual and Journal (2017) and the
MOES Life Skills Toolkit (2022) in use by PEDN to train young people in Uganda.
NOTE: This article was written by PEDN to be published in the Good News Publication for July 2024, for young people 10 to 35 years. Teachers
can share this article with the young people they teach or parents / guardians can share this article with the young people in their homes or
communities.
Article by: Ida Petersen, a volunteer at PEDN