When’s The Right Time To Certify Your Business? 

I got an email the other day from someone I respect, and that I’ve known for a while. They’ve started another incredible impact-driven business, and they are thinking about certifying the new business, a staffing agency focused on creating good jobs that pay living wages in Central America. 

Their email ended with another question I hear all the time, “At what size (employee count) will it make sense for us to pursue certification?” 

The terrible answer to this question is, “It depends.” We’ve worked with businesses of all sizes and stages, and it’s always made sense for those individual businesses at that specific phase of their growth. So let’s dive into what exactly it depends on, and what to think about as you determine what’s right for your business and when. But no matter what phase you’re in, we’re here to help, and to show you why it’s always the right time to certify. 

Early Stage

My first certification was with an early stage business, Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic), that had eight employees at the time. Like most companies at that point, they were focused on revenue growth and balancing growth with the ability to deliver the services they had sold. There was no employee handbook, no real policies or non-delivery related processes, and no impact strategy. There was only a desire to build something different, something that wasn’t just business as usual. 

As we progressed through the assessment, we crafted their handbook and HR policies, using the questions from B Lab as inspiration for best practices. We created company KPIs around community impact, from volunteerism to pro bono work, and our environmental footprint. 

Simply put, the B Corp certification process laid a foundation for AdVic to scale. By the time I left to start Profitable Purpose Consulting, the company had well over 100 employees. And throughout that scale, no matter how choppy the waters or challenging the circumstances, they never lost sight of their mission to use business as a force for good, prioritizing both profit and purpose. 

One other benefit of certifying early that is worth noting is the ability to implement these improvements on a blank canvas. There is no undoing of how you’ve operated, or introducing new KPIs–you’re literally baking them into the business from the beginning. 

Social Impact Ventures–Early Stage

This is an important subset of the early stage category, because this one we’re incredibly passionate about. If you’re going to build an impact business that addresses social or environmental issues, uses software to track impact KPIs, or falls somewhere else under the social impact umbrella, you should certify as early as possible. 

If we had a dollar for every impact company that has reached out to Nathan looking for intros into the B Corp ecosystem, we probably wouldn’t need to be writing blogs anymore. We don’t know how to say it, so we’re just going to be blunt, “If you’re an impact brand looking to sell to B Corps and you aren’t a B Corp, that is a collective community eye roll you’re feeling.” 

Selling to or recruiting GenZ or Millennials, who are constantly bombarded with vague commitments to the community, to diversity & inclusion, to being green? Your message is most likely not getting through. For good reasons (wokewashing, greenwashing, causewashing), this generation will meet your claims with skepticism. 

Certifying early, or even going after Pending B Corp status in your first year, is a great way to signal your true intentions and break through the clutter and noise to differentiate your brand as a true impact business. 

Growth Stage

We’ve also worked with a lot of companies in the growth stage. From companies expanding into new markets or growing in existing ones, this stage presents its own unique set of opportunities and challenges. 

These companies usually reach out to us because they need to differentiate themselves from their competition for one of two (or both) reasons: acquiring new customers or recruiting & retaining top talent. 

This stage lends itself to be a little more hands on, and the level of effort will vary by business depending on where they are when they start the process. Are you already paying a living wage? Are you tracking social impact metrics and KPIs? How robust are your benefits? Do you have an environmental impact plan and do you know your carbon footprint? 

Implementing these things while in growth mode requires multiple internal stakeholders as we design whatever the required new process is. How will we track these metrics and communicate the changes to our team? Who will track them and drive their performance? How do we ensure we truly implement the changes and don’t let them fall off the company radar after we certify? 

These questions aren’t meant to scare anyone away from certifying. It’s just to stress the importance of strong executive team buy-in and identifying the right internal champion to drive the internal changes we’ll implement together. We’ve worked with some incredible companies in this stage and watched them leverage their certification for continued growth. 

Established Stage

The last category we want to address is the established business. And to be clear, this isn’t defined by any sort of employee count. We’ve worked with companies in this stage that have 11 employees, and others that have 150. They’re happy with the size of the business and the type of service it allows them to provide to the type of customers they want to work with. 

Companies at this stage typically have stable employee and customer bases, and enter into the process to further bolster employee retention and customer affinity. This makes it a fun time to certify as the effort is really focused on taking every aspect of the business from good to great. Established business owners are eager to take what we call “the long hard look in the mirror,” and make sure what they think they’re doing aligns with what they’re actually doing.

Even if your business is where you wanted it to be, stable and profitable, this is the phase where we see a lot of owners starting to think about legacy, giving back, and ensuring the long-term stability and survival of the business. 

Let’s have a conversation

No matter where you are, it’s always a good time to consider B Corp consideration. As you can see, businesses in different stages will have different areas of focus, and the strategy we employ might vary a little bit. But the overall process remains the same, as does the business value of the certification. 

If you’ve been thinking about taking the leap, reach out and let’s talk about it. We’re nothing if not honest, and we’ll help you look at where you are and what makes sense now or in the future. 

We love to have these conversations. If you want to talk, ask Nathan. He’s always more than happy to jump on a call and make a new friend.