Aspects of a Social Enterprise

One of the most important aspects about a social enterprise is that a social enterprise must be profit-orientated and have the intention to be sustainable as it is a business. However, most social enterprises lack a unique selling point to allow them to compete against other businesses in the same industry. This is also emphasized in an interview with Mr Benny Se Teo, the founder of Eighteen Chefs which is a social enterprise that aims to help ex-convicts and troubled youths to reintegrate back into society. Mr Se Teo explained in an interview that “A social enterprise is not a charity. You have to produce a good product to sell. The social aspect is important but it should not be the marketing point.” (Jagdish, 2015). It was also stated in the Eighteen Chefs website that they aim to serve affordable good quality food (Eighteen Chefs, n.d.). This mission in turn helps Eighteen Chefs to compete against higher end restaurants as the food served in Eighteen Chefs is more affordable and also of a good quality hence more customers would choose Eighteen Chefs over its competitors allowing Eighteen Chefs to have its success today. 

The success of Eighteen Chefs is however not achieved by some social enterprises. An example is Best of Asia’s Kampung@Simpang Bedok. Best of Asia’s Kampung@Simpang Bedok aimed to provide job opportunities in the hawker centre and also further support the tenants financially by providing rent subsidies until the tenants can afford them. Unfortunately, the social enterprise closed down in November 2013 as they could not compete against other nearby eateries who offered better quality food. The poor location of the social enterprise which was not very accessible further discouraged patrons from coming (Siau & Lee, 2013). With the lack of an unique selling point, other eateries such as nearby hawker centres and food courts were preferred over the social enterprise resulting in the closure of the social enterprise due to a lack of customers.

As seen from the two social enterprises, a social enterprise has to have a unique selling point to compete against other businesses in the same industry in order to attract customers to enable the business to be sustainable and earn profit. However, the unique selling point should not be the social mission of a social enterprise as this would result in customers only supporting the social enterprise in an act of charity which is most often one-off and hence does not help the social enterprise to be sustainable in the long run.

Reference Articles

Jagdish, B. (2015, October 17). The Govt should start hiring ex-offenders themselves: Benny Se Teo. Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/the-govt-should-start/2199122.html

Eighteen Chefs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.eighteenchefs.com/v2/index.php/about/eighteenchefs/

Siau, M. E. & Lee, A. (2013, November 14). First hawker centre managed by social enterprise shuts doors. Today. Retrieved from http://m.todayonline.com/singapore/first-hawker-centre-managed-social-enterprise-shuts-doors