Learning from the Challenges: Best For The World Honoree Lessons

B the Change Weekly: September 13, 2019

Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now on to the good stuff:

“In hindsight, we were spreading ourselves too thin, and as enthusiastic as we were, we were building an unseen debt of physical and mental exhaustion.” — Stephen Tracy of Keap

“One thing I knew for sure: 20+ years into my entrepreneurial journey, I was burnt out, stressed out, maxed out … and I wanted out. Whether that meant selling the business, shutting it down, or some other option, I was done. So where to go from here?” — Tim Frick of Mightybytes

“As we were operating out of our living room during the first 10 years, more profit would have been welcome, but passion for our vision meant that we invested most of our revenue into paying farmers higher premiums and expanding the number of producers who could benefit.” — Caryl Levine of Lotus Foods

While the premise of purpose-driven business holds a great amount of hope, reality can be a different story, as the quotes above from B Corp leaders show. But through their belief in business as a force for good and efforts to create strong company frameworks, these three and their colleagues have been able to weather financial storms and build stronger B Corps. So strong, in fact, that they all landed among the 2019 Best For The World honorees.

This week on B the Change, we share real-world business lessons from B Corps that rose to the challenge and landed among the best.

Coming Back from Triple Bottomed Out

As a Best For The World honoree for three years in a row, Mightybytes ranks among the top-performing B Corps on the B Impact Assessment and has seen profit and growth in that period. But before that string of success, the digital agency was in deep water from over-engineered processes and time-worn services that led to financial troubles.

On B the Change, CEO Tim Frick shares how good governance practices serve as the unsung heroes of stakeholder-driven businesses and proved crucial for Mightybytes’ turnaround tale.

On-the-Job Lessons as a Sustainable Leader

Pulling from a deep pool of belief and enthusiasm since its 2015 launch, Keap aimed to do it all as a purveyor of high-quality candles. Eager to get the word out about its business, the New York City-based B Corp workers went to pop-ups and candle-making workshops — and even took on extra jobs to keep things running — but in hindsight realized they were taking on too much.

On B the Change, co-founder Stephen Tracy shares how the Keap team turned personal struggle into personal growth and learned to find a better balance, personally and professionally.

The Best Kind of Change

From its start nearly 25 years ago, Lotus Foods operated as a B Corp with a mission focused as much on people and planet as on profit. When Lotus Foods leaders did decide to join some of its favorite companies and pursue B Corp certification, they turned to B Lab for help with what was a multiyear process — and now the company ranks as a 2019 Best For The World Changemaker.

On B the Change, CEO Caryl Levine shares how becoming a B Corp helped Lotus Foods grow a better company by exploring how it could improve through evaluation tools and collaboration.

Stay in the Know

Here’s your chance to catch up on all the good stuff we shared this week:

• Triple Bottomed Out: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Company Again
• How Becoming a B Corp Makes Your Company Even Better: Best For The World: Changemaker Honoree Lotus Foods Shares Lessons of Using Business As a Force for Good
• How 3 B Corps Are Addressing the Climate Crisis: Best For The World Honorees Work Toward Net-Positive Environmental Impact
• 10 Ways That B Corps Show How Business Can Create Value for All Stakeholders: Best For The World Honorees Forge a Path for Business Roundtable to Follow
• Keeping It Real: On-the-Job Lessons in Pricing as a Sustainable Leader: Best For The World Honoree Creates Candle Subscription Community and Builds Its Business for the Long-Term
• Is Profit or Purpose the Key to a Successful Social Enterprise? Seasoned Social Entrepreneur and CEO Paul Hargreaves Shares His Thoughts on Making a Career out of the Greater Good

B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.

Learning from the Challenges: Best For The World Honoree Lessons was originally published in B the Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.