Social entrepreneurship is all about identifying social, cultural and environmental problems and mobilizing funds to bring solutions to these issues. There are numerous problems concerning the people in the society and people wish to see changes by solving the issues but the real question is “How many people are actually working towards achieving the change that they want to see in the society?” Social entrepreneurship is all about recognizing the problems and moving a step forward to bring in the solutions to the problem.
The private organizations that are founded may be categorized under a business entity expecting to make a profit out of it but social business and social entrepreneurs are more than making profit. They does not intend to make profit or maximize their profit rather seeing someone benefitting from their help is more satisfying than making profit but this does not mean that social entrepreneurs do not need money. As a startup company or as an entrepreneur, the first challenge in bring the innovative ideas to live is the investment, the funds. Startups and entrepreneurs need funds to help others and address the issues concerning the society. However, this challenges does not hold back a social entrepreneur from gearing towards making change that they want to see in the society.
In Bhutan, there are few well known social enterprise and social business workers such as iHub, Loden Foundation and Thimphu Tech Park. Loden Foundation and Thimphu Tech Park is a good example of social enterprise. They gather people with innovative minds and creative ideas, they train them to become an entrepreneur and when there is innovative business idea competition, these people with, new, creative and new ideas can take part in the competition to get financial support from the companies. Loden Foundation does this share of the work, they provide the business idea competition winner with funds, so that they can implement their ideas. iHub is an excellent example of non-profit social enterprise founded by an entrepreneur. Established on 2nd June, 2017 by Tashi Wangdi, iHub is an incubation and innovation center for the young startups and entrepreneurs. Some people, even though they have funds, they fail to advance their original ideas into a real visible business. This is because of the lack of guidance from the expertise and this is what iHub actually does. iHub provides co-working space and mentorship to the startups and young entrepreneurs, so that they learn from their colleagues at their work place and as well as get the chance to interact with the mentors and sharing problems with them, so together as a whole team, the particular issue can be solved or the ways to solve the issue is created. This is a place where entrepreneurs get inspiration and motivation and also the real social business comes in.
The main aim of the social entrepreneurs is to change the society to a better place and as they are a part of these problems in the society, they are the brilliant and the courageous ones to come forward from the mass to make a positive impact through their innovative ideas, thus, they work towards improving the society by creating and developing strategies and solutions.
In Bhutan, the entrepreneurial ecosystem has not taken its perfect form but compared to few decades back, it is growing and gaining the attention of the people, especially the youths. Now young graduates understands the job market scenario and with their excellent ideas, they prefer becoming an entrepreneur rather than opting for a 9am- 5pm job. This is an indication that people are now aware of what entrepreneurship is, who the entrepreneurs are and what they actually do. This is also an indication that soon Bhutan will have more wonderful and inventive brains which will help in the development of the country as a whole.
Tashi Wangdi,Founder , IHub Bhutan
