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“The ultimate hidden truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently” David Graeber
On Thursday 2nd May my good pal Piers Locke PhD had me come into MC for a movie screening of “Outgrow The System” a documentary by Swedish filmmaker Anders Nilsson. If you get the chance to see a screening I thoroughly recommend that you do.
Thanks also to the panellists Ali Adams , Basil Paul and Dalziel Paul for bringing some local context to the evening too.
Many people recognise the current economic system ain’t working but what do we actually want the system to do or be?
That’s what this movie is all about.
The original meaning of the word ”economy” is “household management” however it’s fair to say the word economy today conjures up different images.
When I hear a news anchor say “And now the latest from the economy in our economic outlook” I picture a Mr Creosote-type character coming on to tell us how he’s been working really hard and he’s stuffed.
The economy is the sacred cow of the West. The new religion. It’s Mediaeval Europe all over again. The high priests of finance and banking speak in their complex jargon, restricting access to the source of the truth.
Just keep consuming and you will find your way to economic heaven!
It’s turned out pretty much as JC said it would:
You can tell what’s informing a society by what the tallest building is. When you approach a medieval town, the cathedral is the tallest thing in the place. When you approach an eighteenth-century town, it is the political palace that’s the tallest thing in the place. And when you approach a modern city, the tallest places are the office buildings, the centers of economic life. Joseph Cambell
One of these complex words economists like to use is externalities. And perhaps that’s one of the biggest issues with our current economic system.
Yes, I don’t dispute that the current economic system has had some amazing positive outcomes. But it’s fair to say there are some significant negative ones. Pick your own social and environmental challenge and insert here.
Just think for a moment. Reflect on your own business.
What externalities are you contributing to?
Is everyone in your supply chain paid a decent wage?
How is your company spreading the wealth amongst its employees?
What environmental impact does your company have?
What does your business do for the local community?
The economy is how it is because we have created it this way. But it doesn’t have to be like this.
So what could an economic system that was accessible and understandable to all, that managed resources and maximised the positive social and environmental outcomes look like?
Well you need to go and watch the movie;-P
As a brief summary but without giving the game away the movie explores a range of solutions that are being tested as we speak.
They include the ideas of degrowth, the Not-for-Profit World i.e. businesses that do make a profit but put the profit back into the enterprise and share the wealth (check out Kilmarnock Enterprises for a great example of this), Doughnut Economics, the Wellbeing Economy, Participatory Economics, and establishing more worker-owned cooperatives. Another form that is briefly touched on is the idea of a Regenerative economy.
They do range from more aggressive types of reform (degrowth) to ones that are easier to grasp like exploring worker ownership schemes. Across the various options, the movie showcases how people are making some progress and scoring some goals.
The big problem though is that most of us are unaware of our externalities, and we don’t know what we actually want at the most basic level let alone what we want our business to achieve.
And maybe that’s why the vast majority of businesses are still operating from a Business As Usual standpoint. Make money, don’t do anything illegal. That’s the entry-level for business.
Admittedly some of these ideas are currently niche or fringe but what is stopping most of us from even seeing that the current system isn’t working for us let alone thinking about our externalities?
If you are reading this it’s most likely from a fairly comfortable position both physically and materially.
And you are also most possibly stuck on the hedonic treadmill of consumer capitalism. Living a life driven by your fears and desires, controlled by the many multi-billion dollar advertising industry that just wants you to consume!
Meanwhile, a larger number of the planet are barely getting buy and don’t have access to the most basic of amenities, particularly clean energy.
And that’s because we have been manipulated into believing that a good life can only be found in happiness via material success.
This is Edward Bernays and I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t heard of him.
The nephew of Sigmund Freud he was the man that introduced the idea of propaganda to the world.
He was essentially the guy who created the modern consumer-driven world that we live in. The one that tells us that a good life is about looking good, feeling good and having good things.
That we should chase material wealth in the pursuit of happiness.
He did this by recognising that we are emotionally driven by fear or desire and we need to fit into the tribe.
As he said,
“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.”
We are deeply conditioned to play nicely in the current economic paradigm. And it is this that is at the heart of the challenge.
This idea of needing a values change came through in the Q&A session on the night and this is at the heart of how and why change will happen.
Gus Speth summed it up the best.
I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address these problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation, and we scientists don’t know how to do that.
I have no idea which economic system is the best one. That’s well above my pay grade but I know that for us to get there it’s us as a species that need to develop first.
We need to extend our purpose horizons, how far into the future of doing good we can see.
Thoughts in the room on the night as to what this could look like fell into two extremes. At one end it was some AI-driven tech utopia of having more with less inputs and damage, others saw a return to basics, doing less with less.
I do know though that change is going to be messy and the very idea of doing business better is nuanced and all shades of grey.
But what we need is more of us to get involved. It’s time to reclaim the lost souls of business.
The first step to any change is awareness and if you have read this then you are now implicated.
I also know that B Corps are playing a massive role in shaping the thinking around what a new economy could look like.
Did you know that B Corps are now required to amend their corporate governing documents to ensure that they at all times consider the impact of their operations on other stakeholders like their employees, community, suppliers and the planet?
Some of the highest-performing B Corps are also worker-owned entities.
Think of how your business makes an impact beyond its financial return. Have a look at your broader performance through the B Corp Impact Assessment (it’s free to do).
Let me know your thoughts too.
What do you see as being the biggest externality?
What would your ideal economy look like?
If you want a chat about how I could help you on that journey I’d love to have a cuppa with you in person or virtually!
It’s B Corp Month and as part of our commitment to the movement, Grow Good is excited to announce the free B Better Virtual Summit ’24 happening on 20 March NZT.
The theme of B Corp Month this year is #ThisWayForward. Over a full day of interactive online workshops and expert panel events, we’ll discuss how the business sector is transforming itself and the world and which businesses will thrive in the next 10 to 20 years. We’ll explore trends and challenges for the next decade and we’ll discuss topics such as the force that is the power of female founders; the 2025 release of updated B Corp standards; and what it’s going to take to light a fire under transformation of the global economy via a B Corp revolution.
Along with a range of guest movers and shakers from the world of B Corp, we’ll dive into how we, as B Corps seeking to transform the economy to one that drives prosperity for all, can accelerate the positive change the world so urgently needs?
As a live, interactive event, questions and comments from viewers will be encouraged and used to guide direction of the discussions. The summit will be streamed live via Streamyard to Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
B Corp month Grow Good event – B Better Virtual Summit – Wednesday 20 March, 9.30am to 6pm NZT (Tuesday 19 March for US / EU / UK)
Session 1: 09:30 – 10:30 NZDT | 07:30 – 08:30 AEDT | 12:30 – 13:30 PST | 15:30 – 16:30 EST | 20:30 – 21:30 UKT
Interactive Workshop – Intro to B Corp – Tim Jones
The kick off! A fun and engaging introduction to B Corp with Tim Jones, that B Corp Bloke and founder of Grow Good, NZ’s first B Corp consultancy. If you’re new to the whole B Corp movement, this is the place to start. We’ll cover:
Session 2: 10:30 – 11:30 NZT | 08:30 – 09:30 AEDT | 13:30 – 14:30 PST | 16:30 – 17:30 EST | 23:00 – 24:00 UKT
B Corp women of impact – hosted by Tamara Pitelen
The B Corp movement is packed with brilliant and innovative women who are changing the business landscape. So, was the Dalai Lama right when he said the future is female? If so, what does a female influenced future look like? What can we learn from the Blackbird Kiki debacle? And how can we break down the barriers to more women entrepreneurs?
Session 3: 12:00 – 13:00 NZT | 10:00 – 11:00 AEDT | 16:00 – 17:00 PST | 19:00 – 20:00 EST | 21:30 – 22:30 GMT
Podcast interview with a special guest – hosted by Tim Jones. Guest to be confirmed.
Lunch break: 13:00 – 13:30 NZT | 11:00 – 11:30 AEDT | 17:00 – 17:30 PST | 20:00 – 20:30 EST | 24:00 – 01:30 UKT
Session 4: 13:30 – 14:30 NZT | 11:30 – 12:30 AEDT | 17:30 – 18:30 PST | 20:30 – 21:30 EST | 00:30 – 01:30 UKT
B Corp evolves: Understanding the updated standards. Panel discussion hosted by Tim Jones and Tamara Pitelen
Session 5: 14:30 – 15:30 NZT | 12:30 – 13:30 AEDT | 18:30 – 19:30 PST | 21:30 – 22:30 EST | 01:30 – 02:30 UKT
What lies #ThisWayForward for business? Panel discussion hosted by Tim Jones
In this session, we discuss how the business sector is transforming itself and the world as well as B Corp’s role in that. Which begs the question, which businesses will thrive in the next 10 to 20 years. And which will die?
Session 6: 16:00 – 17:00 NZT | 14:00 – 15:00 AEDT | 20:00 – 21:00 PST | 23:00 – 24:00 EST | 03:00 – 04:00 UKT
The B Corp Journey – Panel discussion hosted by Tamara Pitelen
In the penultimate session of the summit, we talk to recently certified B Corps to learn more about their journey to Certification including why they wanted to do it, results, and key learnings about the process. The good bits and the bad bits.
Session 7: 17.00 – 18:00 NZT | 15:00 – 16:00 AEDT | 21:00 – 22:00 PST | 24:00 – 01:00 EST | 04:00 – 05:00 GMT
Happy Hour – Tim and Tam chat and highlights Q&A community chat etc – eg, controversy, celeb B Corps…
Becoming a B Corp reaps a host of benefits, one of these is how it makes you more attractive to other organisations, which brings you more business and wins you more tenders, bids and contracts. We call it the double whammy ROI of B Corp.
In brief, businesses are scrambling to meet the raft of new legislation and regulations, to conditions being implemented by governments, local councils, investors, institutions, etc. From cities with Clean Air Zones to climate change levies, polluter taxes, mandated emissions reporting, and a whole lot more. The business sector is no longer able to focus on making profit regardless of the impact on planet and people.
So organisations are looking to partner, hire, and buy from other businesses that have valid ESG credentials. It means they have an easier time of tracking their own emissions and showing visibility on their supply chain. We have a number of clients come to us about becoming a B Corp because they just lost a contract due to not being a B Corp.
Here are some examples of how being a B Corp won new business:
Around the world, organisations want to do business with credible ethical businesses for many reasons, e.g. healthier relationships through values-aligned partnerships, simpler emissions reporting, mutual growth benefits, as well as marketing opportunities.
That’s where B Corp Certification comes in. As an independently verified certification, it’s the gold standard and gives credibility to ethical claims.
It offers other organisations an easy way to spot a truly sustainable business from a greenwashing fake one that’s just saying the right things but not doing anything.
In summary, having the B Corp logo is a clear sign that your firm is committed to ethical practices. It gives your company an edge over non-certified competitors when you’re looking to win new business, which can only have a direct positive impact on profits.
Certified B Corps are a new form of business that seeks to value people and planet while making as much profit as possible.
If you think B Corp might be for you, check out our free e-book “2B Or Not 2B: The What, Why & How Of B Corp Certification” here.
Becoming a B Corp reaps a host of benefits, one of these is greater access to investment capital, loans and growth funds. We call it the double whammy ROI of B Corp.
According to B Lab UK, 70% of B Corps that seek equity finance end up raising the amount they want, compared with 56% of all companies.
Why? In a nutshell, more financiers, bankers and investors won’t work with companies lacking a sustainable strategy. These investors are under pressure from a range of stakeholders, including consumers, who are demanding better ESG performance from businesses. B Corp certification can therefore enhance a firm’s credibility with investors seeking sustainable returns.
According to Morgan Stanley, the growth of sustainable finance in the next decade will be driven by three main trends:
It’s about more than just avoiding the big polluters of the world; investors are actively seeking to invest in businesses with solutions to our biggest challenges. This includes renewable energy, energy efficiency, water technology, social housing, and more.
In recent years, we have seen a tectonic shift of capital. At the beginning of 2020, the value of sustainable investment in major financial markets globally stood at $35.3tn, according to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA), and accounts for 36 per cent of all professionally managed assets across the US, Canada, Japan, Australasia and Europe. The previous two years alone saw growth of 15 per cent, the GSIA said. Actions and ambitions towards decarbonization have also increased. This is just the beginning – the tectonic shift towards sustainable investing is still accelerating.
Here are some examples of how sustainability is shifting the economic landscape…
Around the world, institutional investors, bankers, private equity and angel investors, are demanding higher sustainability credentials from the companies they support financially.
That’s where B Corp Certification comes in. As an independently verified certification, it’s the gold standard and gives credibility to ethical claims.
It offers investors an easy way to spot a truly sustainable business from a greenwashing fake one that’s just saying the right things but not doing anything.
In summary, having the B Corp logo is a clear sign to prospective investors that your firm is committed to ethical practices. It gives your business an edge over non-certified competitors when you’re looking for loans, seed funding, growth funding, or other capital investment.
Becoming a B Corp reaps a host of benefits, one of these is boosted customer sales and brand loyalty. We call it the double whammy ROI of B Corp.
Around the world, we’re seeing a tidal wave of consumers demanding to know more about the provenance of what they’re buying. From clothes to cars and food, consumers are voting with their wallets and increasingly choosing ethical goods and services, which is driving massive shifts in the business sector.
A few statistics to highlight this shift…
Given this soaring demand for sustainable products and services, companies are trying to figure out how to both be more sustainable and market themselves as such without risking accusations of greenwashing.
That’s where B Corp Certification comes in. As an independently verified certification, it’s the gold standard and gives credibility to ethical claims.
As well, it offers customers who are worried about issues like plastic pollution, climate breakdown, and social justice, an easy way to spot a truly sustainable business from a greenwashing fake one that’s just saying the right things but not doing anything.
When customers see the logo on a product or service, they tend to automatically trust that brand more than a non-B Corp competitor and thus be more inclined to buy.
In summary, having the B Corp logo on your packaging, marketing materials and pitch documents, is a clear sign to prospective clients/customers that your firm is committed to ethical practices. It gives your business an edge over non-certified competitors when pitching for business and is proven to have a direct positive impact on sales and profits.
Certified B Corps are a new form of business that seeks to value people and planet while making as much profit as possible.
If you think B Corp might be for you, check out our free e-book “2B Or Not 2B: The What, Why & How Of B Corp Certification” here.
Becoming a B Corp reaps benefits that often take businesses by surprise, one of these is worker retention and recruitment.
Basically, B Corps get first pick of the best talent, they retain existing staff longer, and staff are more engaged and productive.
We call this the B Corp ROI double whammy. There are many other surprise benefits of B Corp certification that we’ll cover in other posts. For this post, we’re looking at the ROI of B Corp on Recruitment and Retention.
Here’s what people say about working at a B Corp…
“Working for this organization marks the first time in my career where I’ve truly felt like my identity and values are embodied in the way in which my employer does business.”
“It feels like I’m just so much more than the work that I produce, and I’m valued for more than that.”
“As a team member, I feel more like a living creature who is cared about and working toward a common goal as opposed to a cog that is just working to meet the bottom line.”
While the reasons why people appreciate working at a Certified B Corporation differ by individual, they reflect the same guiding principle: Businesses that value the people who power their operations and, in turn, operate with their benefit in mind as well. It’s all part of the framework that businesses adopt when they go through B Corp Certification and legally commit to consider the impact of their decisions on their stakeholders: workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.
Here’s how B Corp certification can positively impact worker satisfaction and retention:
In summary, B Corp certification can positively influence worker satisfaction and retention by fostering a values-driven culture, promoting employee engagement, and implementing fair and inclusive practices. The emphasis on transparency, employee development, and a positive brand image further contributes to creating a workplace where employees are more likely to stay and thrive.
Certified B Corps are a new form of business that seeks to value people and planet while making as much profit as possible.
If you think B Corp might be for you, check out our free e-book “2B Or Not 2B: The What, Why & How Of B Corp Certification” here.
How do B Corps compare with other businesses?
It’s a question we get asked a lot around here at Grow Good.
But what people really want to know is, do B Corps make more money that ‘business as usual’ companies?
The answer is, overall, that’s a big YES. Numerous studies have shown that B Corps financially outperform their ordinary business counterparts.
Many studies have been done on this now and data from recent years shows that, overall, B Corps see higher revenue growth than their non-B Corp ‘business as usual’ peers.
A new paper by the Insights team at B Lab, summarises the vast data on revenue and headcount growth from the B Impact Assessment (BIA); a comparative international study of economic survival during the COVID-19 pandemic; and a literature review, delivering important findings. The report is called ‘Financial Performance and Resilience of B Corps’ and it asks: ‘how do B Corps compare to other businesses?’
To answer that question, B Lab analysed three sources: data on revenue and headcount growth from the BIA; a comparative international study of economic survival during the COVID-19 pandemic; and a literature review.
They found:
In addition to B Lab’s own studies, several independent studies have found promising results in terms of the impact of B Corp Certification on revenue growth rate, as well as sales growth. Paelman and colleagues (2021) note: “Our dataset allows us to study how the effects of B Corp certification [sic] evolve over time, which was previously untested. Our study documents a positive effect of B Corp certification on turnover growth and also that this effect increases with the time since certification, implying that certification requires some time for its full effect to become apparent.”
It’s not necessarily an immediate effect though. Other studies do not find short-term financial gains after certification, especially for smaller companies (possibly because of the efforts required to certify).
In summary, if you want your business to be more resilient and make more money in the longer term, become a B Corp.
Does this mean that you should become a B Corp just to make more money? Well, you can but ideally, you’d also want to be part of a movement looking to transform the global economy to one that values people and planet just as much as profit. It might therefore seem ‘not very B Corp’ to be focussing on revenue growth at all.
But here’s the crux of it. In order to be a force for good in the world, B Corps need to be viable and profitable businesses. The more profitable a business is, the greater positive impact it can have on the world because money is a powerful changemaker. It bestows choices, freedoms, influence, and power. So let’s put more of it in the hands of people working to do good in the world.
💳 Download the Financial Performance and Resilience of B Corps paper now: https://infogram.com/1tgl93rr6z7d7df4xo1q6xv8d0ip86gl6lq
Are you more convinced that B Corp is right for you? Would you like to join the B Corp companies using business as a force for good? Here at Grow Good, we exist to coach people through the process of becoming B Corp certified.
The B Corp Impact Assessment framework is free to access and provides dozens of useful insights and opportunities for any business but it can be confusing and overwhelming.
We are consultants who have completed the official training provided by B Lab, the organisation that runs the B Corp certification programme. We live, breathe and sleep B Corp. We are your friendly B Corp buddies. We make it easier. We translate the questions into plain English and give you a host of template policies and example documents so you don’t have to start everything from scratch or reinvent the wheel. We show you how to unlock the big point scoring areas most relevant to your business.
Are you ready to go B Corp? It’s completely your decision but if you are, and if you think it would be helpful to have a guiding hand through the process, we’re here to help. Drop us a line or jump straight in and book a free call here.
Yours in purpose,
Kia kaha,
Tamara
This is me in my former life. I spent 10 years in medical device sales.
Right: Tim Jones at work in his previous life as a sales person for surgical medical devices.
Yes, think of Netflix programmes like “The Pharmacist” and “Painkillers” but not as seedy. At least the products I sold were actually fixing people who had things actually wrong with them.
Life was great. I had tons of money, a free car, healthcare, I’d get to go to the best restaurants, travelled internationally and was generally living an amazing life.
I thought I was living a life of meaning and I was, to a degree. My job was to go into operating theatres and ensure that the surgical teams got the best outcomes for the patients they were operating on.
But I wasn’t truly purpose driven. Because fundamentally I was only focused on me maximising my financial return.
After a while, I got thinking about things I was seeing in the industry that didn’t sit right with me.
It started when one of the companies I was working for got into a spot of trouble.
A company Tim worked with allowed patients to die rather than admit their product was not ready for market.
The medical device industry is hyper competitive and for companies to maintain market share they need to stay ahead of the pack. This means launching products to market as quickly as possible. It also means that patient care is not always the priority as was demonstrated with four patients dying on the operating table with the launch of one product. Sadly, this launch was being driven by the surgeon who was also as shareholder in the company.
At the time though, the internal spin machine kicked in and you are soon able to compartmentalise this and move on.
A few years later, there was another speed wobble when a whistle-blower in one of the major device companies reported their company to the US Department of Justice for making illegal payments to surgeons. They were, in many cases, literally being paid by the companies to use their products.
Again, the companies came out with the spin. ‘It’s a level playing field’ they said. ‘We are all doing it so it must be okay, right?’
Something inside of me just didn’t feel right.
I started to question what I was doing.
It was the birth of my daughter, Daisy, on the backdrop of the Canterbury earthquakes that made me really sit up and take a good look at what I was doing.
After all, if an industry that should be all about saving people was knowingly killing them just to make more money, what was I doing?
Some of the companies that I worked for even had the values about how their primary aim was to make people better engraved in stone in their offices, but it just wasn’t true.
All they cared about was profit maximisation at any cost, and the surgeons were not much better!
I got to feeling that I was living against my moral compass, I was a part of a system and a way of doing things that didn’t align.
Ultimately, I got to thinking there had to be more to life?
And so, in 2013 I finally decided enough was enough. I made the leap.
I clearly remember the moment when that switch was flicked. I was standing in the operating theatre bearing witness to some appalling but typical behaviour. I went home afterwards and said to my wife, ‘I’m done’.
Now, the medical device world is a very strange one in many ways and so I thought perhaps all the things I’d seen were specific to that industry.
So, I applied for around 60 different roles in all sorts of industries. I just wanted to get a feel for what else was out there.
Ultimately, I was hired as the General Manager for a firm of surveyors in Christchurch.
At first it felt great.
I was building a team and helping them pursue opportunities that were supporting the rebuild of Christchurch after the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.
But after a while the cracks started to appear.
Within the company, it was clear that maximising profit was the overarching driver for all decisions – frequently at the expense of personnel.
But beyond that, most of the people in the wider construction industry also just cared about maximising their financial return at any cost to society or the environment,
It was a proper case of out the frying pan and into the fire.
There was this growing misalignment within me – what I now call the authenticity gap.
There were two Tims living inside me – Work Tim and Home Tim.
Work Tim is the one who towed the line and nodded in the meetings about increasing utilisation and productivity while Home Tim was in my heart telling me that I was on the wrong path.
And I was really struggling with life. With this dualism. I couldn’t get my head around the fact that life was just going to be like this.
Is this all there is for the next 40 years?
I figured ‘well it must be me, not them’ and this created some high levels of depression and anxiety. I just wanted out of this system.
But to help work out why I was feeling that way, I went searching inside myself for some answers:
How had I ended up here?
How had we all ended up here?
Why did I spend so long thinking that what I was doing was actually okay?
Why couldn’t anyone else see what I was seeing?
Surely, I couldn’t be the only one struggling with how we were running the show?
Well, the good news is that I wasn’t alone.
Having gone down a Google rabbit hole I stumbled across this group called B Corporation.
B what?
Certified B Corps are a new form of business that seeks to balance purpose and profit. This means that rather than solely focusing on profit maximisation, they consider the impact of their operations on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.
There was this collection of businesses around the world that felt the same way as me!
They had a common vision of working to be the best for the world, not the best in the world.
They were these amazing organisations that had a declared higher purpose that was prioritised over just making a profit.
A bit more research showed that there was even one in New Zealand, and it was called Eagle Protect and it was in Christchurch!
After a week of umming and ahhing I figured I had nothing to lose so I sent the CEO Steve Ardagh an email and asked him if I could come round for a cuppa.
A 45-minute meeting turned into a 2 ½ hour extravaganza of my mind being blown by the possibilities of this B Corp movement.
I knew that this is what I had been looking for.
I’d found my tribe.
But how could I get amongst it?
Initially I thought that I could get the surveying company I worked for to look at B Corp.
But they were just not interested.
At the same time, I was also keen to explore the idea of coaching and training as a career path. It had been something that I had toyed with for a few years but didn’t know how to get into it.
After a couple of conversations with some contacts though I managed to get a role doing just that.
Working for a small family-owned business that was values-aligned, I thought they might be open to this B Corp idea, but they just had too much on their plate to consider it.
It seemed that I’d reached a dead end.
But then I figured I’d been talking to everyone about this B Corp concept, perhaps I should pony up and go do it myself.
And in late 2015, I was offered the perfect opportunity as I and the rest of the team were made redundant from the training company.
Now for anyone contemplating the leap into self-employment, here are a few tips on how not to do it:
There were compelling arguments pulling me back, to go and get a ‘proper job’ as my mum would say, but my sense of resolve was massive due to my sense of purpose, and I knew I only had one option.
To go and start my own B Corp.
2016 was a year of challenge for sure.
Starting a business in a fledgling industry was tough enough.
But the harder conversations were to be had with my father over three-month long trips back to the UK as we tried to work out our relationship as he was getting more ill.
All the while trying to make a crust and keep my business alive.
But the more I looked at what I felt I was being pulled to do, the more my resolve was strengthened,
Unfortunately, November saw my father pass but by the end of 2016, the launch of my new company, Grow Good, was on track.
I was certified as one of the first 10 B Corps in NZ and my personal purpose was locked in – to co-create a world of abundance that my daughter could inherit, where every human thrives in a manner that is regenerative to each other and the planet we call home.
And that’s what I am all about now.
I do that by helping others get on the B Corp journey.
Maybe you want to grow more good in your world?
Maybe you don’t know where to start?
It’s completely up to you but our e-book could be a great place for you to start to learn more about B Corp and how it can help you become the business the world needs right now… or if you’re ready to chat about it, book some time in with me here.
Yours in purpose,
Tim