(Class 20 Blog: Social Enterprise and the Arc Initiative)

Social enterprise is the way to go if you want to be an entrepreneur while helping out a cause. Unlike charities, social enterprises aim to make profit, but do so through ways that help solve a social or environmental issue. This is why I think that social enterprises can be more sustainable than their competition: consumers nowadays are more socially-conscious and this is reflected in their buying habits.

Furthermore, projects like Sauder’s own Arc Initiative, also help to stimulate the economy in developing countries with the increased number of competitive products and/or suppliers. The Arc Initiative can be extremely beneficial to the development of many new social enterprises around the globe, which is why I think that even if the United Nations is fully funded, Arc Initiative programs should still continue to be utilized to promote entrepreneurship of social enterprises.

With more funds, the UN is able to finance a number of additional programs within their multiple sectors. However, to get the additional funding, the UN has to be aware of the pressing matters that the social enterprises address. They would realize which issues require more help if more businesses and institutions come to aid these causes. Social enterprises help to make known the issues the world faces, and the Arc Initiative can help them get on their feet.

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We all know the saying: “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” The intent of the saying still holds true today – money isn’t something we can just get when we want it – but now there are ways to significantly increase the amount in your bank account without all the hard work. One popular method is to invest your money for returns; whether it be interest or dividends.

According to this article by Dan Kadlec, millennials (born 1980s) just recently became more interested in putting their money into stocks as investments. This is because the previous perception of stocks was that they were too risky and the market was not in the best shape. Compared to investments like bonds, term deposits, and GICs, stocks are definitely more risky, but I realize now that there can be opportunity cost to leaving money uninvested too.

Based on previous knowledge, I’ve always thought that stocks were much too risky to invest in by yourself since many external factors can change the price in a matter of seconds; as mentioned in class, time is risk. While the uncertainty of making money from stocks is still present, becoming more educated on how they really work and how to value companies has let me be more open to thinking about stock trends and managing my own portfolio someday.

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