Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2011. Margarita Albors’s age (30), the message being sent out for several weeks and the closed call for projects all refer to that moment.
At a time when social entrepreneurship is becoming more important and there is so much talk of business ethics, companies whose goal is to make the world a better place will have the backing of business incubators such as Socialnest.
Ethics is a profitable business. That’s the blunt message that has been going out for several weeks now: not only ethics in the chain of command and in how workers are treated, but also toward the environment and people on the edge of social exclusion. These businesses are winning the support and goodwill of consumers, who are willing to pay the same or even a little more if it means contributing to a good cause.
Margarita Albors, a 30-year-old from Valencia, will use Socialnest to help turn your business ideas into companies that make the world a better place.
Young as she is, this entrepreneur has already taken part in social enterprise projects from the United States to Europe, so her idea is no pipe dream: her project to support social enterprises has been studied to prove that it can be sustained over time.
Socialnest will help these entrepreneurs find funding, provide legal support and office space, and put entrepreneurs who have a social project in touch with mentors and business people who can contribute complementary knowledge.
If you have a business idea that helps improve the ecosystem, that could provide jobs for people with disabilities, help bring people out of social isolation, or do any other kind of social good, you can contact them and submit your project on their website, http://socialnest.org/, although the deadline for the latest call has already passed. That said, as we discussed in a previous article, a new kind of investor has appeared who is willing to put money into companies like these. Let’s call them philanthropic investors: they earn a return on the capital they invest (as they normally would), but they also support a good cause. That’s what Momentum Project proposed.
Business ethics: not chasing profit at any cost, promoting gender equality, creating value for customers and employees, not harming the environment and, above all, making the world a better place. These are the new profitable companies.
Further reading
- Bancaja awards for young entrepreneurs
- Socially responsible companies: tax and humanitarian advantages
- Profitable businesses to start in 2011–2012
- Profitable business ideas
- Business ideas with philanthropic causes
Featured image: Social Nest Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
