#1 - The social entrepreneurs' twist on 'start with a problem in mind', plus recommended reads and more.

Trends and inspiration from the purpose-driven business space

Sep 22, 2022

Hey fellow good business lovers.

Firstly, thanks so much for signing up! This is the first issue of Just Good Company -your weekly deep dive into information and inspiration from the growing purpose-driven business space.

This week:

A look at the social entrepreneurs’ twist on the start-up gospel ‘start with a problem in mind’.
Recommended reads and news - make your grant application stand-out, Patagonia and win up to £25k in tech for your female-founded start-up. (Scroll down for links to these)
Final thought - how the ‘sustainable fashion is complicated’ narrative actually serves fast fashion.

I hope you enjoy it and - especially as its the first issue - please do send any feedback my way.

🤓 A look at the social entrepreneurs’ twist on ‘start with a problem in mind’

There is one instruction every start-up is given - find your customer’s problem, and provide them with the solution.

Most other lessons really just hang off that. Don’t get obsessed with a product in and of itself. Fall in love with the problem. Relentlessly research how your customers solve it without your offering. Ensure there’s product market fit. Ensure there’s demand by making sure your customers actually have a problem worth solving.

It’s clearly good advice. But I’ve noticed that many social entrepreneurs start in a different place.

Instead of spotting a problem their eventual paying customers have, they uncover a problem their beneficiaries are suffering from. This is often linked to money - because of structural inequality or practical barriers to entry, there are groups of people who can’t easily make a living. People experiencing homelessness for instance, or prison-leavers or refugees.

Social Entrepreneurs then work out how that problem can be solved by bringing something to market that consumers will pay for.

I recently caught up with Jennifer Georgeson, the founder of my favourite London lifestyle and accessories boutique and good company So Just Shop, and was quite surprised by her answer to my question ‘so what led you to founding your company?’

It turns out that before starting her company, Jennifer worked in Public Health and International Development, specialising in women’s and maternal health. But time and time again she came up against the fact that ultimately health outcomes were linked to economic status:

“How can you take a child to the clinic for its free vaccinations if you cannot afford the bus fare? How can you send all your children to school if you only have enough money for one school uniform?”

It was that realisation that led her to pivot from direct health work to tackling economic empowerment. So Just Shop exclusively sells handcrafted products from female artisans in some of the most vulnerable communities around the world and by paying them a fair wage they can raise the living standards not just of the women, but also their families, children and communities.

Now clearly, So Just Shop wouldn’t be successful - either in profit or impact terms - if there wasn’t anyone who wanted to buy their products. Jennifer found a product-market fit, but she started with wanting to bring women around the world out of poverty and then finding a sales and business model she could use.

But it’s starting with the women’s problem - not that people want to buy unique and beautiful lifestyle products - which ultimately sets her business apart. There are many others, of course, who have taken a similar approach and those are the social entrepreneurs who I think really standout. Because fundamentally their bigger purpose is right at the heart of what they do.

N.B. Buy one, give one businesses are a good example, like Leiho who donate a pair of socks to someone experiencing homelessness for every pair sold or Hey Girls who do the same with menstrual products for period poverty. Both were started from the problem their beneficiaries were having.

Whilst not every business or organisation will have such a clear mission, I do believe there is a lesson for us all to work out how our organisations can have a wider impact than just solving a problem for our paying customers. We may not have a beneficiary group like So Just Shop, but we have employees, suppliers, partners, a local community, the environment. What problem are we solving for them? (Thoughts welcomed please!)

📚 Recommended reads and other good things:

Make your grant application standout: A refreshing and inspiring blog on how to make a grant application standout from charity sector expert Vic Hancock Fell. Especially the suggestion to begin with a beneficiary or customer quote, rather than ‘we were founded in X year to do Y'.
Patagonia: If you love good business but missed the news about Patagonia ‘going purpose’, you need to follow better people on socials! Regardless, this piece from SocEnt Pioneer’s Post is a good summary, including stakeholder reactions. I’ll likely cover Patagonia and what it might signal in a future issue (holla at me if you’d like this).
Event - How to be a force for good in a decade of action: It’s slightly scary, but there are only 8 years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Fellow sustainability start-up and app company, viaGood, is running an online event today at 5pm BST to discuss what role we can play in delivering them and I’ll be speaking on the panel! Register to join here. There’s a brilliant line-up (myself included/excluded!)
£25k Tech from Dell for women entrepreneurs: join their community and then apply to win up to £25k in tech to support your start-up. We just applied and its super simple. Deadline 9th October.

💡 Final thought for the week

This thread from Sustainable Fashion editor (and former Love Island contestant!) Brett Staniland is what I’m pondering this week.

Brett Staniland @TwinBrett_

I’ve been reflecting on recent news within sustainable fashion space & there’s a narrative which is gaining traction that I think is extremely damaging, but by no means an accident, and it is that, “Sustainable fashion is SO confusing and conflicting and hard to understand” 🧵

On the one hand, there is a lot of confusion, jargon and lack of substance (plus greenwashing) in fashion, but I also agree that its a narrative which serves business models based on insane levels of consumption. It also removes accountability from businesses because ‘its hard for them too’ and distracts that often what is claimed as sustainability action is really just marketing and greenwashing.

Let me know your views - again, I might delve into this in a future issue.

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