5 Sustainable Business Model Design Tips for B Corps and Impact Startups
Want an Impact Business Model for your B Corp or Startup?
Whether you’re designing it in from scratch or looking to transform, there are 5 underlying principles you need to consider in your design:
🟢** 1 ** Specificity
Make sure you're benefiting a specific stakeholder group with a specific positive benefit or outcome.
What specific problem are you solving?
For whom are you solving it?
Keep the scope nice and tight so that you can have the greatest impact.
🟢 ** 2 ** Materiality
The benefits can’t be negligible, you need to be able to evidence their significance.
What material positive social or environmental impacts are you delivering?
Clearly defining the 'what', then enables you to define the 'how much', which feeds into point 3...
🟢 ** 3 ** Verification
How do you evidence your material impact?
An Impact Business Model has to be able to be documented and verifiable through your data.
What is your research design/how are you measuring your impact?
What internal data are you using to demonstrate and verify your impact?
How much of an impact are you really having?
Is the data good?
Make sure this comes across with ease in your plans.
🟢 ** 4 ** Lasting
Your business model is at the core of your offering, it can’t be changed on a whim. It’s part of the very nature of what, how and why you do what you do.
So focus on designing ongoing commitments that are hard-wired into your business, for all to see.
This is worth a lot of time and effort as it is at the heart of defining your business.
🟢 ** 5 ** Extraordinary
One day it will not be this way but currently, having an impact business model is uncommon and therefore, extraordinary.
Embrace your uniqueness, shout it from the rooftops, differentiate yourself and go all in on making a difference by using business for good.
Now that people are more aware of our climate and ecological emergency and are seeing it play out in their everyday lives, the market is more ready than it has ever been for the types of goods and services that B Corps and Impact driven startups like you can offer.
It’s not just good for the world, it’s good for business too.
Planning a B Corp submission? Check out this link for a full list of B Corp Impact Assessment business model categories to align your business to as well (more on these another day): https://pos.li/2j9qtx