11 common mistakes to dodge for social entrepreneurs

3 min readNov 21, 2021

We at BothOfUs gained the experience of collaborating with many social impact projects, which gives us experience in seeing common patterns of mistakes.

This article outlines to give tips on common mistake in social entrepreneurship and how to avoid/prevent these blockers in order to ensure a successful product development on the digital side.

The aim in this context is to guide your resources in order to be used in the most efficient way.

Good start is half done

Lot of mistakes happen in the initial phase of projects in the sustainability sector.

It is very sad to see brilliant innovation fade due to improper execution and entrepreneurs wasting on average up-to € 50,000 due to inadequate planning.

Not conducting a market feasibility study & not being informed about the market

As an entrepreneurs offer a truly unique product that is unparalleled in the market.

You need to know:

Who your target audience is
How to prfioritize tasks based on the MoSCOW principle (Must have, should have, could have approach)
How to bring value to users through your innovation

2. “Jumping” straight into development without a clear scope

It is worth taking time to have the next one or two years in mind already before the initial phase. This acts as a guideline to complete the product which:
Provides clarity in development,
Helps save time and cost on completing the project.

3. Rushing to create an app

When starting a product, it is advised to perform a pre-study, to identify if the solution is targeting the problem in the right way.

It is also important to keep the social or environmental, legal, business pillar of your project in mind.

4. Changing scopes after the development starts

Modifications in scope can result in:
Increased costs for the IT solution,
Deviations from the original mission of your social project.

We discuss how we freeze MVP scopes in more detail here.

5. Outsourcing to people with less social impact knowledge

Your consultants and the experts you receive advice from, need to know how to ensure the world's sustainability at a grassroots level in order to help you achieve your impact.
Cost of development is important however do not just go with doers, digital development need doers who can also bring ideas to table.

6. Compromising too much on quality

Your product must be properly executed, especially when we are talking about a social-oriented project.
Perform load testing, regression testing, security testing before release

7. Poor usability design

A misfitted design might deter your potential users from the application (website)

8. Not using SCRUM

Returning to bullet points 4, not using the SCRUM framework also often results in an unmeant outcome.
It is highly important to keep "one's finger on the pulse" in the digital world, and be able to quickly adapt to changes.

9. Not having brains who can contribute extra values from outside the values

It is advantageous to have partners who can look at your idea with “fresh eyes” and social impact expertise to bring your product to perfection.
Again this goes back to hiring some consultants from online consultancy platforms, it makes lot of difference to collaborate with right people, go with strong ideating partners who can implement rather than consultants from far away countries.

10. Protecting ideas too much and not being flexible for changes

Being a sustainable-oriented change-maker in a digital world requires spreading your brilliant ideas into the whole world and being adaptive to innovative improvements.
Do what is best for user and listen to user needs.

11. Panicking, nervousness

This final point often occurs as a result of the mentioned mistakes happening to young entrepreneurs.
However you won’t have to feel this kind of emotion while following our little guideline.