By Ang Yiying

SOME years ago, voluntary welfare organisation Teen Challenge went into the food and beverage business with a mission to create jobs for ex-offenders.

Tapping the ComCare Enterprise Fund (CEF) under the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to run social enterprises, it opened two eateries.

Related link: » The key to success: Watch your costs

One of it - a franchise of the Killiney Kopitiam chain set up at Tampines Changkat Community Centre - folded after three years with a loss of more than $100,000. The other - a cafe in Thomson - closed its shutters after six months.

They are among the more than a third of social enterprises - businesses with a social mission - which applied for and received CEF seed funding, but failed. Out of 73 funded social enterprises, 47 are still active.

To give them a better chance of survival, the Social Enterprise Association was launched yesterday.

An idea mooted about two years ago by a 15-member panel, the association will help all social enterprises to network and to share best practices whether or not they received CEF seed funding.

It will be starting a Social Enterprise Development Centre next year to offer training in areas such as how to conduct business feasibility studies, business strategy and evaluation. To start, the association will help place Ngee Ann Polytechnic students studying Business and Social Enterprise as interns in the community next year. These interns will make up a potential pool of employees.

Speaking on the role of the association, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan said: 'It will provide another layer of security net, to give more social enterprises opportunity to survive and thrive.'

There are an estimated 150 social enterprises here and more than 80 cooperatives. The ministry's statistics showed that $5.5 million has been committed in seed funding so far through the CEF.

Referring to the failure rate, Dr Balakrishnan noted that if half of all enterprises succeeded in the real world, it would be a good track record.

He said social enterprises, like all start-up businesses, had a 'fairly high casualty rate' and that even undergoing stringent evaluation would not guarantee survival.

But to help raise the odds, social entrepreneurs such as Mr Nicholas Chee - the executive director of Sinema, which promotes local film talent - will be lending their expertise to the association.

Welcoming its formation, Teen Challenge board member and its former executive director Reverend Sam Kuna said the association would offer invaluable expertise. He said of his experience: 'I was a greenhorn going in, full of idealism. I'm not a businessman.'

The business director of another organisation, which had a failed social enterprise, said the sharing of best practices would be immensely valuable.

The HighPoint Community Services Association used to run a Chinese restaurant called Goshen, which shut down after a year because it was 'in the red'.

HighPoint's business director Joshua Tan said: 'It's a welcome help as what people lack is the business skills.'

But it's not favours that social enterprises want, said Dr Balakrishnan.

'If a catering company comes to you, don't give the contract simply because it's social enterprise, but be open-minded, look at what they're offering. If they offer good value for money, give them a chance. That's what we're asking for, fair opportunities, open doors.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.