How many times have you heard the words sustainability, awareness or entrepreneurship with impact in the last year? I’m sure many! These words are on the rise and not because of fashion, but because of reality.
It happens that we have neglected the place where we live. We do not protect our environment and that leads us, in some way, to not respect each other. This forces us to change our behaviors and to contribute, each one, their grain of sand to live in a better world.
In this note we are going to tell you how you can make your brand help change this reality and generate a positive impact on it.
start with impact
There are many definitions of undertake. At , our clothing business, we like to say that it is taking a “leap of faith”: you come up with an idea, you validate the business model and off you go. There’s the leap of faith, in encourage you to go with everything for that idea that you are passionate about.
Now when we talk about undertake with impactwhat are we talking about?
Let’s see what the Royal Spanish Academy tells us about each word:
Undertaker: Start a work, a business, an endeavor, especially if they contain difficulty or danger.
Impact: Set of possible effects on the environment or society of a modification of the natural environment, as a result of works or other activities.
If we join both words, we could say that if we undertake with impact we are starting a business that will generate effects on the environment or society by modifying its natural state. Correct! What we need to add is that the effect we seek to generate is positive.
Creating a business with impact is that, in addition to being profitable, it aims to collaborate with society and/or the environment.
That is what we do at Borna: we create products with unique designs that are manufactured under responsible practices, generating the least possible damage to the environment. In addition, we allocate a part of our sales to buy eco-bricks made with reused plastic, which help build spaces where craft workshops are held, thus promoting training and the generation of future employment.
Steps to undertake with impact
Your business can be born with an impact or reinvent itself to generate it. In the case of Borna, we reinvent ourselves.
When we started our venture, we did not know that the overexploitation of natural resources and the lack of responsible practices make the textile industry one of the industries that causes the most damage to the planet. We informed ourselves about the subject and decided that, if we were going to belong to this industry, we had to play differently.
That’s when we wondered “What can we do to change this reality? How can we do it?”. From these questions arise The 3 steps to undertake with impact.
1) Define your impact
What do you want to change? Where do you want to add your grain of sand?
Defining your impact is determine the objectives that you propose to collaborate with society and/or the environment and, in turn, boost your business. It is having a purpose that defines you and marks you a north. It is not easy, but it is the key to success.
If you are not clear about what you want to achieve, you will never be able to execute the actions to achieve it.. What you determine will be transversal to the entire enterprise, from the production processes to the packaging. That is why it is important that you are identified with your purpose.
In our case, we discovered that our way was in the social inclusion. We realized that we had the possibility of changing the lives of many people from our position as entrepreneurs, producing clothes in a different way and collaborating to create a better world.
This pushed us to analyze and rethink our processes to align them with this goal. From there comes the next step.
2) Create a strategy to achieve your purpose
Once you are clear about your purpose, you have to outline a strategy to achieve it. This is the “how do I do it” part, of carrying out the actions that generate the positive impact you are looking for..
If you are starting your business —even before—, think about how you can combine your business idea with the purpose you defined. For example, if you want to create a brand of sunglasses and your goal is aligned with caring for the environment, a good option would be to make the frames with recycled plastic. In this way, you would not only be accompanying your purpose, but you would give added value to your product.
If your business is already working, analyze your processes and see what changes you could apply to align them with your purpose.
At Borna we had been working responsibly with cooperatives and workshops, so we were already betting on inclusion. Nevertheless, we wanted that inclusion to reach groups that practically do not have access to employment.
We noticed that there were processes that could be carried out by people without a particular trade, the only thing needed was the desire to learn and acquire a work tool to get ahead. One of those processes is the finishing process: ironing and packaging.
We invite , an NGO that employs people with disabilities, to have them take charge of the process of finishing the t-shirts. In our country, people with disabilities have little access to the labor market, so it seemed positive to us to include them in our process.
The good thing about this alliance was not only creating more jobs within the organization, but also giving them the incentive to start a new business unit that they had not developed until now.
3) Measure your impact
If you don’t measure your actions, you won’t know if you’re doing things right. We are not telling you anything new, but measuring your impact is as important as measuring your sales. If, as we said above, your purpose is what marks your north, why don’t you measure it?
The measurement you make will depend on the impact you seek to generate. You can calculate hours of work, kilos of recycled plastic, liters of water saved; Everything will depend on your business. The key is to find metrics that define you.
In our case, our first alliance was with the , which promotes the labor inclusion of women in vulnerable situations through training in textile trades. They are the ones who sew the patches on our caps.
The first job was about 300 caps. Today, 3 years after having sealed our alliance, we have exceeded 7,000, in which more than 10 women trained in the foundation worked and who, at the same time, were gaining confidence and experience to continue generating other jobs and get ahead.
From Borna we were measuring the impact we generated from the number of articles produced and the people who worked on them.
Tips for starting with impact
- be consistent. Entrepreneurs believe that we can do everything and we want to save the world, but we are not Superman. You have to go from little, finding coherence in the impact you want to achieve. Your first step may be social, environmental, or both, but don’t get bogged down trying to do too much. It is better to do little and very well, than a lot and regularly.
- Entrepreneurship is a constant learning.And if you undertake with impact, even more so! It is key to understand that the road is long and is changing. The challenge is in be proactive and reinvent yourself all the timebet on resilience and thus adapt to the fluctuations of the market.
- I believed in alliances. They are essential for business growth. We chose to bet on the triple impact, promoting social inclusion and trying to cause the least possible damage to the environment. This means that our dream is shared with other foundations and/or companies, since we are helping many people get ahead and, at the same time, taking care of the common home for us and posterity.
- Sustainability is not a fad. We have to be aware of what is happening today and now on our planet and define how we can contribute from our place.
- I followed your purpose. On the road to sustainability that we are traveling in Borna, we learned that when you find your purpose, things flow with clarity. Your north becomes clear and precise and, if at any time doubts arise about how to act, ask yourself if what you are doing is bringing you closer to your purpose. If the answer is yes, you are on the right path.
conclusion
We can all undertake with positive impact. It’s just a matter of proposing it and feeling it, of finding the purpose and taking it towards the brand.
Finding this purpose in Borna made us wake up every morning convinced that we are no longer just making clothes, but helping to improve the world around us.
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