The Social Enterprise Coalition states that in 2007 there were around 55,000 social enterprises in the UK turning over some £27 billion. This is not insignificant! Their popularity has increased in part because the government believes they can be an efficient way of delivering services that meet important social needs – they therefore commission work from them. When this happens it would be quite normal for the purchaser/funder to specify the target outputs and so, in that way, the service remains supply-driven. But others have been set up because an individual “entrepreneur” has seen a need and set out to do something about it. Thus, some activities are reactive to funding opportunities whilst others are more proactively demand-driven. With the latter it is often the case that if the opportunity is viable and consumers will pay for a product that provides value for them, it could be provided by a profit-seeking competitor in just the same way that it can by a social enterprise. Equally, some customers will pay a premium price for a product that can demonstrate fair trade origins. Here, success lies in the ability to add and deliver the value that matters to the customer.
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