Tips to young social entrepreneurs: How to finance a startup

Monday, October 27, 2014

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – Social enterprise has been a buzzword in business and development in the past decade, as some experts would argue. The overarching concept is to involve marginalized communities in doing good business that would profit both the entrepreneur and the community.

But how does one go about starting a social enterprise? The biggest challenge, as some successful social entrepreneurs would say, would be finding the financial resources for the business. This, along with developing a product, are the first steps.

Vincent Rapisura, president and chief executive officer of the Social Enterprise Development Inc (SEDPI), speaking to young entrepreneurs during the British Council’s I Am A ChangeMaker ideation camp, said business startups are always challenging.

“We started SEDPI 10 years ago with the vision of addressing the capacity-building needs of development organizations in the field of micro-finance. It has gone a long way but it wasn’t easy,” one of the founders of the social enterprise said.

SEDPI is a capacity-building institution that trains other groups in micro-finance, financial literacy, and social entrepreneurship. From an initial capital of P45,000 (US$1,027),* the financing company now has P195 million ($4.45 million) based on audited financial statements in the past year. It has an annual turnover of P12 million-P15 million in the past 3 years.

“We’ve estimated that we reached out to a million households in the Philippines by building the capacity of development organizations that directly help them,” Rapisura added.

Rapisura gave tips to young social entrepreneurs on how to go about and finance their business startups:

Source: Rappler (link opens in a new window)

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