Karen Miles – social entreprenuer 27 November 2006
Posted by Catriona Pollard in social entrepreneur.trackback
I am continuing my theme around social entreprenuership and interviewed Karen Miles, Director of The Frank Team who offers resources in the area of entrepreneurship and career passion to community and youth group as well as corporates.
In your words, what is a social entrepreneur? Someone who makes new ideas and projects happen, or starts a business, that benefits people, then profit. The primary aim is about making a difference.
What does it mean to you to be a social entrepreneur? It’s who I am! I never realised when I first started The FRANK Team and FRANK magazine that there was a term like this to describe how I think, what I value, and what I want to do with my life. Some people think social entrepreneurs aren’t “real” entrepreneurs which is complete rubbish. Entrepreneurs all share the same skills – creativity, outside-the-box thinking, risk taking etc, but I choose to use those skills to help people rather than make lots of money. Really, when we all die, what do you want to have done – put numbers in a bank or make this place better for people?
What promoted you to become a social entrepreneur? Dissatisfaction with the corporate world. The politics, hierarchies and lack of empowerment frustrated me so I decided to do my own thing and start my own business. I eventually found where I ‘fit in’ when I realised I was great at communicating, and sharing life and career experiences with others – it made me feel on purpose. Expressing my values through my work means life and work blurs, so my life becomes about being self expressed and encouraging others to as well. Check out the Frank Team
I’m one of the advocate of Social Entrepreneur. This is a new paradigm that we need to spread all over the world. We need to campaign for more social entreprenuer since they are real people who have a heart and conscience for less fortunate sector of our society. Social entreprenuer innovates ideas and develop enterprise which caters the needs of the people not their own greed.
We rent clean, furnished rooms in single family homes to newly released non-violent, former offenders of soft crime. We now mentor other landlords how to do this work safely and lucratively. The parolees are thoroughly screened and are overall the best renters we could ask for. Its rewarding financially and we know we are making a difference as a Solcial Entrepreneur creating one solution to a huge problem. We would like to offer our background as Social Enterpreneurs to anyone interested in learning more. It’s an idea whose time has certainly arrived.