SIAN CUFFY-YOUNG always felt out of place as an entrepreneur, because what she wanted to do as a businessperson was always different from the many other businesses that she knew.

She would always complain to her business coach that she felt different, she told Business Day.

'I would always tell my business coach that something was different about what I am doing, I just don't know what it is.'

Cuffy-Young was told to look up the term 'social entrepreneurship,' and with that she found her place in the business world.

'I was like oh my God, this is me,' she said. 'I knew I was different, I just couldn't put my finger on what the difference was.'

Cuffy-Young, founder of Siel Environmental Services Ltd, which specialises in waste-management education and training, said impact-driven social enterprise will be the business model of the future - combining benefits for people, the planet and profits.

But in TT, social enterprises are not getting the attention they deserve. She said the business model has not been identified by the Ministry of Legal Affairs, and banks are still struggling to understand the viability of social enterprises. She is now calling on investors and the government to take a better look at these businesses which seeks out sustainability and profitability, while using their influence and reach to make the world a better place.

Social entrepreneurship, according to the US Chamber of Commerce's website, is a process where individuals, startups and entrepreneurs develop and fund solutions that directly address social issues. So, a social entrepreneur does not only seek profits, but seeks to explore a business opportunity that would have a positive impact in society and in the world.

Not to be confused with non-profit organisations, social entrepreneurship still seeks to make money.

A good example of a successful business in the social enterprise spectrum is popular shoe company, Toms, which was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, an entrepreneur out of Arlington, Texas.

Toms used a social-entrepreneurship model which would provide a pair of shoes to children in need for every pair it sold. Up to 2020, TOMS has given over 95 million shoes to people in need, and has extended that model to include providing access to safe drinking water from profits from coffee sales, free eyecare from profits from sales of eyewear, and other social issues such as preventing bullying and safe births.

Cuffy-Young's business model focuses on reinvesting its profits into its own brand of education and consultation in waste management. She provides this service in three areas, the first is through a waste education and literacy programme, at the centre of which is the children's book, Ky's Magical Adventures - Where the garbage goes.

'We are using story to be able to teach our nation's children about waste, what happens to it where it goes and what they could do,' she said. 'Because I always say that they are the eco heroes.'

Siel also engages in consultancy and education for individuals