Our Recipe for Others: Six Ingredients for Future World Improvers

What we learned about starting social enterprises – and what we would do differently

After six years of Grenzeloos, hundreds of conversations with status holders, and more financial reports than we ever wanted to write, we have a list of insights we wish we had had sooner.

This isn’t a success story – we eventually closed our restaurant. But it is a story about what works, what doesn’t, and what you can expect as a social entrepreneur.

Ingredient 1: Choose a Business Model with Margin

What we did: We chose the catering industry because many status holders end up there and there are staff shortages.

What we learned: Hospitality has notoriously low margins (5-10% profit). If you add social costs on top of that (extra guidance, slower productivity, more dropouts), it becomes almost impossible to be profitable.

What we would do now: Choose a business model with margins of 30-50%. Think of consultancy, software, or specialist services. That gives room for your social mission.

Concrete advice: Don't just calculate what you need for a normal business, but add 50% for social costs. And make sure your business model can support those extra costs.

Ingredient 2: Measure Impact From Day One

What we did: For three years we were running on stories and intuition. It wasn't until 2023 that we really started measuring our impact.

What we learned: Without data, you can't improve, you can't account to financiers, and you can't prove that your company is worth investing in. Moreover, measuring helps you to become sharper in what you do.

What we would do now: From the first trainee, ask simple questions: how are you, what are you learning, what has impact for you? That takes 10 minutes a month and provides insight that is worth gold.

Concrete advice: Start with 3-5 simple questions that you ask each month. Build more complex systems later. But start now, because data from three years ago is worthless than data from last month.

Ingredient 3: Organize Governance Before You Need It

What we did: We started as three friends with a BV. Governance only came when financiers asked for it.

What we learned: Good governance is not bureaucracy, but protection of your mission. It gives financiers confidence and ensures that you do not make choices under pressure that harm your social goals.

What we would do now: Think about legal structure, governance, and decision-making processes right from the start. Not perfect, but conscious.

Concrete advice: Contact Code Sociale Ondernemingen or go to a B-Corp workshop. Even if you don't sign up, you'll learn what good governance means.

Ingredient 4: Start Small and Systematize Later

What we did: We jumped into building apps, systems, and processes before we knew what really worked.

What we learned: People are not software. You can’t systematize social impact until you understand how it happens. Systems should support what works, not dictate what should work.

What we would do now: Start with a few people, see what happens, experiment, adjust. Only after a few months build structure around what seems to work.

Concrete advice: Resist the temptation to try to systematize everything right away. Start with people, not processes.

Ingredient 5: Ensure Sustainable Founder Compensation

What we did: We as founders worked for years, largely unpaid, to keep Grenzeloos afloat.

What we learned: This is not sustainable and not fair. Exhausted founders make worse decisions and can have less impact. Plus, it sets the wrong example of priorities for your team.

What we would do now: Plan realistic salaries from the start, even if it means you grow slower. Better a sustainable organization than a quick burnout.

Concrete advice: Don't treat founder salaries as a luxury but as an investment in the continuity of your mission.

Ingredient 6: Be Willing to Change Direction

What we learned: Your first idea is rarely your best idea. The market, your target group and external circumstances change. Flexibility is better than perfection.

What this means: Stick to your mission (helping people integrate), but be flexible in your method (restaurant, care pathways, consultancy, etc.).

The Reality Check

Being a social enterprise is harder than being a regular entrepreneur. You have all the normal business challenges, plus added complexity because of your social goals. People expect you to be efficient as a business and effective as a social organization.

That doesn't mean it's impossible, but it does mean you have to be realistic about:

• How Much Capital You Need (More Than You Think)
• How Long It Takes to Become Profitable (Longer Than You Think)
• How much energy it takes (more than you think)
• How Much Expertise You Need (More Than You Think)

What We Would Copy

If we were to start over:

The focus on early intervention: Reaching people before they get stuck in the system has a huge impact.

The buddy approach: Personal guidance by colleagues works better than formal training.

The practical learning: Learning Dutch language and skills by actually using them is much more effective than theory.

The trial period: Trying it for two months prevents frustration and wrong matches.

What We Should Avoid

Scaling too fast: Better to guide five people well than twenty people moderately.

Too much hay on the fork: Running a restaurant, guiding processes and organizing governance is too much at the same time.

Subsidy dependency: Subsidies are start-up capital, not a business model.

Want to build perfect systems right away: Start with people, systems come later.

For the Next Generation

If you want to start a social enterprise, do it. The world needs more people trying to solve problems. But do it with your eyes open.

Social entrepreneurship is not a hobby, it is a marathon. You need perseverance, but also realism. Passion alone is not enough. You also need competence.

Learn from our mistakes, but above all make your own. Because ultimately every social enterprise is different, every target group is different and every context is different.

The only thing that remains the same is this: if you really want to help people, you will find a way. Maybe not the first one you try, maybe not the easiest, but eventually one that works.

And it's worth it. For them, and for yourself.

Thanks for reading our series. We hope our experiences help others build more effective social enterprises. Because the world needs all the help it can get.