David vs. Goliath: How to Make Your Small Social Enterprise Stand Out

By Christie Garton

Social enterprise and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are hot topics in the business world–and for good reason. The success or failure of your company could depend upon your CSR efforts. In fact, nearly 90 percent of consumers are just as likely to purchase as to boycott a company based on the company's CSR practices (or lack thereof).

And it’s not just your bottom line that benefits. Consumer trust, loyalty, and public opinion all skyrocket for companies that successfully implement ways for their products and services to make a greater social impact.

But for small businesses, social enterprise, or using your for-profit business to help solve societal issues and make a positive social change, may be easier said than done. With major players like TOMS Shoes, Warby Parker, and The Honest Company flexing their extensive access to resources, how can smaller enterprises stand out from the crowd and gain the support they need to make noticeable social change?

In reality, small social enterprises actually have several advantages over larger corporations. Keep reading to learn how to use these advantages to attract consumer attention and drive large impacts with smaller investments.

1. Play to your expertise.

When you have limited resources, the key is to utilize what you do best in a focused and strategic way. While your company may not be able to match the efforts of TOMS and Warby Parker on a global scale, you can make an equally important impact by playing to your strengths.

Small businesses inherently have deeper ties to their communities and intimately know the challenges faced by the people around them; use this to your advantage. Choose a specific issue, find your local niche, and invest your time and resources into solving a tangible, yet critical problem.

My company, UChic, is a big believer in this strategy. After discovering that lack of access to education is a major barrier for young women, it became our mission to bring about change that would give women the tools they need to succeed through college and beyond. Though this issue plagues women globally, we evaluated our resources and started local, providing small micro-grants to girls in our community pursuing their dreams.

We’ve since expanded the grant program nationwide, awarding up to $1,000 in scholarships to help young women with tuition, out-of-state internships, conferences, and anything in between. By finding our niche and focusing our efforts, we were able to make a big impact without stretching beyond our capacity.

2. Be nimble.

While large social enterprises may have more capital, people, and influence, they also have more red tape to consider when making business decisions. Smaller organizations have the benefit of mobilizing quickly around innovative ideas.

The ability to test and adjust based on real-time feedback on social impact is a major advantage that small businesses have over large corporations with social enterprise models. Social enterprise isn’t a “one size fits all” system–there are a variety of models and platforms that function differently for each business.

This is where staying nimble becomes important, especially in the early stages. It allows you to experiment frequently, fail fast, and make necessary adjustments–a huge perk when choosing the right social enterprise model for your business.

3. Partner and connect.

A small social enterprise’s best asset is its ability to partner with its community. Local chambers of commerce often have programs that help connect businesses and provide guidance, giving additional access to resources you may not have received alone.

For example, partnering with the Women's Foundation of Greater Kansas City has been imperative for UChic. Through their Girls Grant Project, the Women's Foundation connects us with exemplary young women perfect for our 1,000 Dreams scholarship program, and in turn, we offer grants, internship opportunities and more to their members. By aligning goals, we're able to share legwork and cut costs, ultimately increasing our capacity for social change and benefiting us both.

Bonus tip:

When choosing an organization with which to partner, consider those that are a local branch of a larger, national group. It gives you flexibility to expand your social enterprise capabilities when you’re ready to scale.

Standing out from a crowd of established social enterprises with large followings and deep pockets is a daunting task, but by utilizing the power of tight-knit communities, staying agile, and partnering together, your small social enterprise is on track to make a big difference.