{"id":42755,"date":"2019-12-18T10:01:48","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T15:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=42755"},"modified":"2021-04-23T17:03:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:03:22","slug":"3-mission-driven-women-entrepreneurs-share-what-inspired-them-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/3-mission-driven-women-entrepreneurs-share-what-inspired-them-to-start\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Mission-Driven Women Entrepreneurs Share What Inspired Them to Start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social entrepreneurship is on the rise — and it\u2019s no surprise (to us, at least) that women are leading the way.<\/p>\n

A recent report by Deloitte, the giant professional services firm, found that 77 percent<\/a> of all business leaders now rate \u201ccitizenship and social impact\u201d a critical or important topic. That\u2019s a sharp change from decades of \u201cgreed is good\u201d thinking that previously defined corporate culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeading a social enterprise is about recognizing that, while businesses must generate a profit and deliver a return to shareholders, they must do so while also improving the lot of workers, customers, and the communities in which we live,\u201d according<\/a> to Deloitte.<\/p>\n

From a startup perspective, a growing number of entrepreneurs are taking up causes they care about and turning them into mission-driven organizations. Anecdotal evidence shows that women in particular are drawn to mission-based initiatives and firms. \u201cWomen\u2019s pursuit of social entrepreneurship<\/a> can be an important engine for the economy, particularly in the United States,\u201d according to a 2017 report by the National Women\u2019s Business Council.<\/p>\n

With social entrepreneurship on the rise, we asked three women business leaders to tell us what inspired them to start their mission-driven enterprises.<\/p>\n

1. A need to protect life in the country<\/h5>\n

\u201cSmall farms can’t make it without another income these days,\u201d says Leslie Bradford Scott, who began selling homemade bath-and-beauty products from her farmhouse kitchen in Bailieboro, Ontario, to support her farm and restore the property\u2019s barns. Her business, Walton Wood Farms, which now makes $2 million in annual revenue, employs members of the local community. \u201cOur team here, most of them are rural and were underemployed with no opportunities to learn new skills, and learn modern skills,\u201d she says. \u201cThey’re learning everything, from marketing to sales to operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Related: Read our profile on\u00a0how Leslie Bradford-Scott started Walton Wood Farm<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

2. A desire to address gaps in kids\u2019 education<\/h5>\n

\u201cWhen my daughter started elementary school, I was stunned at how little math she knew and understood by the end of second grade,\u201d says Angela McIver, who channeled her frustration into an after-school program called Trapezium Math<\/a>. The Philadelphia program, now in its 10th year, uses fun games to teach math concepts. McIver plans to expand her business to sell take-home materials called Trapezium Math for Home, and she\u2019s also developed a curriculum for teachers called Trapezium Math for Schools. \u201cWe create something that builds confidence in children around math and helps them to do math\u00a0 — really hard math — at really young ages,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is the thing that\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Related: She\u2019s Teaching Math to Kids That Need It \u2014 Which Is All of Them<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

3. An interest in solving a global health problem<\/h5>\n

\u201cI wanted to do something in the engineering field,\u201d says Erin Keaney, a graduate of University of Massachusetts-Lowell, who briefly considered designing toys and automobiles before settling on a more pressing health issue. \u201cThere are 54 million amputees worldwide, and 45 million of them lack access to a prosthetic limb.\u201d She founded Nonspec, which is on a mission to make affordable artificial limbs for amputees in developing nations. Her design uses medical-grade plastic rather than metal. Today, some 200 amputees worldwide use Nonspec\u2019s the leg prosthetic — and the company recently won $33,000 through an innovation competition sponsored by Siemens Stiftung. \u201cIt was incredible to see the impact that our device could have,\u201d Keaney says. \u201cJust seeing people be able to return to their favorite sport, to do things that they love easier, is really what sticks with me everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Related: Meet the Plastics Engineer Who\u2019s Raised $1 Million to Make Prosthetic Legs<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of women-led social enterprises is growing. These female founders turned ideas into businesses that are getting results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":42770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187,218,1,73,35,3],"tags":[20106,19761,19682],"class_list":["post-42755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-good-on-the-ground","category-topics","category-happening-now","category-startup-tips","category-entrepreneur-videos","tag-community-impact","tag-social-entrepreneurship","tag-women-empowerment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n3 Mission-Driven Women Entrepreneurs Share What Inspired Them to Start<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/3-mission-driven-women-entrepreneurs-share-what-inspired-them-to-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Mission-Driven Women Entrepreneurs Share What Inspired Them to Start\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The number of women-led social enterprises is growing. These female founders turned ideas into businesses that are getting results.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/3-mission-driven-women-entrepreneurs-share-what-inspired-them-to-start\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Story Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-18T15:01:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-23T21:03:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/17161005\/Mission-Driven-Biz.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"3 Mission-Driven Women Entrepreneurs Share What Inspired Them to Start","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/3-mission-driven-women-entrepreneurs-share-what-inspired-them-to-start\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"3 Mission-Driven Women Entrepreneurs Share What Inspired Them to Start","og_description":"The number of women-led social enterprises is growing. 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