Social entrepreneurship, social enterprise and social innovation are related concepts within the umbrella of entrepreneurship that involve the creation of new products or services that address needs within and around the world. According to the Impact Garden: 

• Social entrepreneurship is about the mindset. It is the type of entrepreneurship that develops innovative initiatives and organizations that solve social, environmental, economic, or political problems.
• Social enterprise is about the business model -- whether operated by a for-profit or non-profit, the end result is both maximizing social and financial return.
• Social innovation is essentially creating ideas for change. It is "the process of developing and deploying effective solutions to challenging and often systemic social and environmental issues in support of social progress. Social innovation is not the prerogative or privilege of any organizational form or legal structure, where solutions often require the active collaboration of constituents across government, business, and the nonprofit world." (Reference: Stanford Centre for Social Innovation)

In the Medium page, Social TrendSpotter (2018), the article grapples with the differences between the three terms and the social sector in general by demonstrating their approach within the realm of entrepreneurship.

Generally speaking, there are three types of social innovation, including "product-based, process-based and socially transformative"

The Open Book of Social Innovation (2020) is widely known and a helpful tool that addresses methods used across social innovation sections (both public and private). These include: 

1. Prompts, inspirations and diagnoses: highlight the need for and inspiration behind innovation;
2. Proposals and ideas: draw insights and generate ideas through creative methods;
3. Prototyping and pilots: test and refine ideas;
4. Sustaining: sharpen your idea by identifying ways of sustaining it in the longer term (e.g.: income streams);
5. Scaling and diffusion: expand your idea (e.g.: ‘organisational growth, through licensing and franchising to federations and widespread dissemination’);
6. Systemic change: the ultimate goal of social innovation - the creation of new frameworks or architectures made up of many smaller innovations (e.g.: new technologies, supply chains, institutional forms, skills, and regulatory and fiscal frameworks).

And while the magnitude of social innovation and social entrepreneurship may seem large, there are many resources available to you for further success and opportunities for achievement, including mentorship, movies, books, etc.

Examples of Businesses Making Significant Impact

Change Please believes that the nation's love of coffee is so strong that it can help end homelessness. This social enterprise aims to train people experiencing homelessness to become baristas, supporting every part of their recovery journey, including therapy, living accommodations, customer service skills, etc. 

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Chooose has a mission to close the "multi-gigaton gap between climate intention and climate action." Founded in 2017, Chooose builds software that makes it easy and simple for businesses and individual to understand and act on their climate footprints. 

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Plume Labs by AccuWeather strives for more accessible air quality information to empower communities around the world. Every year, air pollution causes more than 7 million premature deaths. Their software service helps to proactively address information problems regarding air quality

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