Cliché “SSE companies do not make a profit”
In this Meet an entrepreneur video, several entrepreneurs from the social and solidarity economy share their experiences and points of view:
François Georges, general manager of ProActif
Frédéric Liégeois, founder of Picto Communication Partner
Daniel Tesch, director of the ULESS
Jean Lasar, founder of Survcoin
Piotr Gawel and Magdalena Jakubowska, cofounders of Art Square Lab
The cliché challenged in this video? “SSE companies do not make a profit”
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Bookworm? Read the transcript!
Transcription de l'intervention de
Frédéric Liégeois, I am the founder of Picto agency. Our DNA is to inform to take action. To do so, we created different media starting with Infogreen.lu, the daily news platform, then NEOMAG, which is a corporate magazine for the construction industry. And last but not least, 4X3 magazine, the only magazine and media to be accredited ‘SIS’ – Société d’Impact Sociétal – and recognized as being of public utility here in Luxembourg.
With:
Frédéric Liégeois, founder of Picto Communication Partner
François Georges, general manager of ProActif
Daniel Tesch, general manager of the ULESS
Piotr Gawel and Magdalena Jakubowska, cofounders of Art Square Lab
Cliché “SSE companies do not make a profit”
When we take a closer look at SIS, they are companies, they SA, SARL and cooperatives. Therefore, it’s impossible to run the company without making a profit because if not, you’ll no longer be able to pay wages and costs and will be forced to close down.
Whatever the company, if it’s not destined to be developed or to be profitable, it can’t be called a company. For me, in the name ‘social company’, the word ‘company’ means making a profit while being profitable in impactful areas.
A social company must be profitable and the profit must be partly financial. We must invest in our businesses, so we have to generate a profit. We don’t distribute profits to shareholders, the entirety of the profit goes to our company and our work so as to make sure that we can continue to provide the same quality of work in the future. It’s obvious that a company such as ours makes a smaller profit because we have additional costs that a traditional company doesn’t have. We provide a wide range of social services, we provide training which sets us back quite a bit, so it would be absurd to try to compare our company’s productivity rate to a private one using the same criteria.
We have to start thinking about social companies first and foremost as companies. Of course, we make a profit. What matters is what they do with that profit. Social entrepreneurs reinvest their profit in social causes, this leads to a circular economy. Nevertheless, the profit aspect is part of the process.
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