Simply stated, a sociopreneur is someone who is a “social entrepreneur.” Now, if we stray a little from the simple, we could say that they are entrepreneurs who make money in order to work on big social projects. While a lot of companies and individuals who start businesses get into philanthropy for tax breaks or good press, sociopreneurs are all about helping people from the get go. This is what makes them different. To understand this new breed of entrepreneurs a little, let’s look at both aspects of the term.
First, there’s the social aspect. While a lot of companies make an effort toward customer service, far too often, they don’t do anything on a large scale to help the neighborhoods they operate in, leaving the people in these communities without help that could make their lives better. When large corporations and business owners do this year after year, it begin to has a unconscious (and sometimes even conscious) effect on the people in the community (note the lack of the word customers.) Sociopreneurs don’t forget to give back (in big and small ways) to the communities that they operate in.
Secondly, there’s the entrepreneur aspect. While the sociopreneur is similar to other entrepreneurs, there are some differences in the way they approach business. They’re still concerned about profit and the bottom-line, but not so much that they forget the “bigger picture” they have for helping as many people as they can. In the long run, it’s going to be this ability to step back and look at the bigger picture that will make sociopreneurs more successful than people who are in business for all the wrong reasons.
I extracted out all the different forms of preneurship. The list below is of course a fictional list. By the time we start making money and working hard we start becoming a mix out of the 9 Preneurs below. Some more some less. The list below gives an idea what is needed nowadays and hopefully gives inspirations for new and revolutionary ideas.
Ultrapreneur (ultra high achieving philanthropists)
Ecopreneur (driven by nature)
Alphapreneur (money driven)
Bosspreneur (control freaks)
Dadpreneur (lifestyle orientated)
Sociopreneur (want to change the world for the positive)
Mumpreneur (family comes first)
Execpreneur (corporate animals)
Webpreneur (internet driven)
Passionpreneur (driven by doing what they love)
Safepreneur (risk averse)
Entrepreneur (drive by financial rewards)
