In this five‑minute advice video, Evan Carmichael discusses how entrepreneurs can decide whether to launch a for‑profit business or a nonprofit organization, especially when they have a social mission. He argues that for‑profits often provide a more reliable cash flow, which can be used to fund charitable activities, whereas many nonprofits struggle with chronic under‑funding. He stresses the importance of following one’s true passion: if you lack a genuine interest or skill in business, you should focus on the charity side rather than forcing a business model. Carmichael suggests a hybrid solution—partnering with a for‑profit entity or creating a revenue‑generating arm to support the nonprofit. He illustrates his points with analogies (banker vs. bowler) and urges viewers to pursue what excites them, warning against societal pressure to choose the “safe” path. The video concludes with typical YouTube calls to like, subscribe, and comment.
Chapters
Should you start a for-profit or nonprofit business? I love businesses that have a social angle, right? You should want to give back to your community, the people around you, and make the world a better place, not just through the product or service that you provide, but also just by being a company that wants to do good and find ways to do that. If it's donations, if it's supporting through time, whatever it is. I believe that it's a lot easier to have a bigger impact if you have money coming in. So many nonprofits that start up struggle because they don't have cash. They have no money, so they have a great, they have a great vision for what they want to do. They have a noble purpose, but they're constantly struggling and dying trying to find funds to make their business, their organization happen. You're constantly underfunded. And so I lean towards the for-profit side because by running a successful business, you have money coming in that you can then give back to whatever project you want. You don't need as much outside funding because you are making money. And making money and helping people are not mutually exclusive. Making a lot of money doesn't mean that you are not giving money back. In fact, they completely support each other. I got a question from one of my Facebook readers— love you guys— Raja, who wrote in to say he has a problem in that he's 18 years old, he's seen my videos, he wants to start a nonprofit or profit, he's not sure which one to do. He has a dream to help children in a lot of different ways. He's thinking he wants to do a for-profit business, but he doesn't have a business idea to start because what he really wants to do is start a nonprofit. You gotta follow your passion, okay? If you don't have a business idea, if you're not wired for business, then you can't start a business. You're not gonna have success, you're not gonna be happy, because what you really want to do is do the charity. If you're on the fence, if you're not sure, if you have business ideas and you don't think that you can marry that with a successful charity, then that makes sense because you can. That's just a limiting belief. But if you have no interest in business and you're struggling just to find a product that will work, then don't go into business. You have to go in it for the right reason. You have to go in it because you believe in that product or service that you're selling. So do the charity. What may help you is find a business partner, somebody who, who is running a business, and you could be their charity arm. So it's finding ways that you get cash flow, because if you're not running a company, you have to rely on outside people to give you money. But you'll still have more success at that because you love the charity part of it than you will trying to force a solution into being a business owner. It's harder, but you can still have success. You'll have the most success by doing what you're passionate about. This is like being, uh, You know, being a banker or being a bowler. Okay, the common advice would be, go be a banker. You can make tons of money being a banker. You're good at being a banker. You went to school for being a banker. Be a banker. But you love bowling. People will tell you, you can't make money as a bowler. What are you doing? Bowling? Are you kidding me? But if your passion is not in banking and it's in bowling, if you keep going down the banking career path You're gonna be stuck. You're gonna always feel like there's something missing in your life because you're not doing something that you're passionate about. You may be good at it, but you're not passionate about it. You're doing it for the wrong reasons. You're doing it for just the security and the safety and maybe external, you know, satisfaction of people support you. It's what society tells you to do. You're believing in them more than you're believing in yourself. You should go be a bowler. And if you are super passionate about bowling, you'll make money, and more money than you would being a banker. I believe that, and I've seen it happen over and over and over and over and over again. Just because society tells you this is what you have to do, if you go out and do it and you're not excited about it, you're not going to have massive success, and you'll always feel that something's missing in your life. So for you, don't force the business. Do the charity. You'll have more success. Believe. For those of you watching, you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. Subscribe to the channel to see more. Leave a comment if you have a question or you want to say something about this video. I love seeing those come in every morning. I read my comments, the best part of my day. So thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
