“Profit is good. I love profit. And money in good hands is very powerful.”
This has been rattling around in my head since Michelle Sutherland and I spoke recently.
This year marks ten years in business for me. Thinking back over the decade has put me on a path of exploring what it means to be a business doing good in the world.
I don’t mean a whole bunch of values stuck on a wall. I mean the businesses creating a ripple effect through what they do, or how they do it. The ones genuinely considering their impact on the environment, on gender equity, on creating safe and inclusive spaces for their people.
So I sat down with someone who’s spent decades working this out from the inside.
Michelle is a social entrepreneur and B Corp consultant based in Scotland. She started in London, spent over a decade in Australia, and was in the top one percent of a global sales team.
That last detail matters. This isn’t someone who came to purpose-led business because the commercial side didn’t work for her. She was excellent at it and then chose to build something different.
It starts with remembering
Every business has a story. Most teams have forgotten it.
Somewhere between the founder’s original why and the org chart you have today, the story gets lost. Merging cultures, new people, acquisitions, growth.
Michelle has seen it first-hand with B Corp clients. Founders sitting in an assessment, working through the purpose section, and going, “gosh, I forgot why I started.” Not because they didn’t care. Because nobody had paused long enough to ask.
When was the last time your team heard the story of why your business exists? Not the elevator pitch. The real one.
Michelle put it simply: it’s a returning, not a discovering.
Humans are hardwired for connection and storytelling. It’s the honest story that connects hearts, and that’s where the real shifts happen.
The market has already moved
Michelle first heard the words “B Corp” in 2019, back when there were only fifty to a hundred B Corps across Australia and New Zealand combined. Today there are nearly a thousand. Globally, over ten thousand.
Eighteen to thirty-five year olds are the largest group who recognise the B Corp stamp, and who buy based on it.
And during COVID, when most businesses were shutting down or struggling, B Corps as a group saw growth rather than decline.
Now, you don’t need to be a B Corp, or want to be one, for this information to be useful. It’s telling us what buyers are looking for.
People want to buy from businesses that care, that are making an impact rather than talking about it, and that follow through on what they promise.
This isn’t a niche movement. It’s the market moving.
But it can cost something.
It’s important to also say that standing for something takes guts.
And actioning what you believe in could result in people pushing back. Losing existing clients or suppliers. Rubbing people the wrong way. Confusing the market temporarily. Time in making change to how things are done or who you’re working with.
But the resistance is part of shifting to truly be a business making a positive impact… whatever that looks like for you.
Where to start
If all of this sounds good but you don’t know where to begin, Michelle’s answer was simple.
Start in your own backyard. Not the whole industry. Not global change. Just what’s in front of you.
- Look at your suppliers. Are you checking who you’re actually handing money to, or going with whoever’s cheapest and easiest?
- Look at your tools. Who built the software you use every day, and what do they stand for?
- Look at your banking and super. Where is that money actually invested?
None of this has to happen overnight. The current B Corp standard is built around exactly that – a minimum starting point, then building year on year.
It’s not one giant leap. It’s one supplier. One switch. One honest look at where your money goes.
A gut-check for your next decision
Next time you’re facing a decision in the business, try Michelle’s exercise:
- Hand on your head – what does logic say?
- Hand on your heart – what feels like the right thing to do?
- Hand on your gut – what’s your instinct telling you?
Write down all three. That’s your next step.
Because you do have the power here. Where you spend your money, how you build your team, what story you choose to tell. Nobody else is choosing that for you.
What I keep coming back to
The businesses I see doing this well aren’t the ones with the most elaborate values statement. They’re the ones with the discipline to follow through. On suppliers. On standards. On how they treat people when it’s inconvenient.
Which means it’s rarely a values conversation. It’s about transactional /surface level leadership and rhythms wearing a values costume.
And this is why I don’t think any of this sits separately from commercial performance. It’s the same muscle. The businesses that can hold a standard when nobody’s watching are the same ones that can hold a sales process, a coaching cadence, a hard conversation.
That’s the kind of good that holds under pressure.
If you want to hear the full conversation Michelle and I had, including her founder journey, check out this episode.
🍏 Apple Podcast | 🎤 Spotify Podcast | 📺 Watch on YouTube
If you have any questions, come find me here on LinkedIn