Monitor Residents' Companies 2024: lasting impact makers in neighborhoods nationwide

Social Enterprise NL and LSA Residents present the Monitor Resident Companies 2024, which provides insight into trends within the movement of resident-owned businesses - local businesses founded by residents to strengthen their neighborhoods.  

The survey of 86 resident businesses from all 12 provinces shows that resident businesses are perpetuating as a vital source of social impact in local communities, despite being a young movement.  

“Entrepreneurship is an effective approach to increase livability in neighborhoods and close the gap between rich and poor. However, the rules around profit put pressure on the stability of resident businesses. Municipalities could look at this more leniently,” aldus Stefan Panhuijssen, Social Enterprise NL.   

Some key insights from the study: 

• More social themes: Due to integrality of issues, social developments, adaptability of resident companies and increasing trust among both residents and external parties, resident companies focus on an increasing number of different themes over time.  
• Working with municipalities: Resident companies call for equivalent and structural partnerships with municipalities to ensure and increase their impact. 
• Financially sound: Nearly half of the resident businesses generate more than €100,000 in revenue, and the number of profitable resident businesses is up 10% from 2021. 
• Rising employment: The average number of paid FTEs increased by 0.7. Paid workers are employed in 60% of companies. 
• More successful funding: The proportion of resident companies that obtained grants increased by 7%, while the number of rejections decreased by 4%. In addition, all fund applications were successful in 2024, compared to 9% rejections in 2021. 
• Importance of real estate: Nearly half of resident businesses generate income from rentals, making real estate still important to their financial stability. 

Curious about more? Discover all the insights in the publication and share it with your network. Together, we'll strengthen resident businesses and neighborhoods nationwide! 

Any questions or comments you'd like to share with us about the publication? We'd love to hear from you! Please email these to info@social-enterprise.nl