What Makes a Business Sustainable?
The following is an excerpt from a newsletter published February 8th, 2024
Hello, my good people!
Welcome to a new year (and happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate).
I'm trying something different with the newsletter today—let me know what you think.
Ready to mind map out loud with me?
What comes up when you consider sustainable business, or making your business more sustainable?
Here's what comes to mind for me:
— Do the averages make sense?
I don’t plan or make business model calculations (i.e. my hourly rate or monthly working hours) so that every week/month looks the same, I do it so that the averages make sense. Some months I work more and that’s not a sign of a failing structure. It’s simply a high swing, which is always balanced out by a low swing.
A business modelled on “what we can make/do/create on a great week” leaves little room for your humanity. Or for life to surprise you!
— Do you have a repeatable process for getting new work?
This is the heart of marketing and sales, my friends. There is a tremendous amount of self-trust, steadiness, and agency that comes from having a repeatable set of activities you can rely on to get new work. This is one of the main foundations I build out with clients. It doesn't seem matter if it's an Office Hours session with a new-ish business owner or I'm a full-on fractional CMO for an established business with several employees… we've all got to figure this out and we weren't taught how to do so in a way that honours the humanity of ourselves and others.
Related: Four ways to get new work.
— Are you willing to not only make your product/service, but to market it?
You have to be able and willing to market what you’re selling, otherwise all you've got is a collection of beautiful things that have no where to go.
— Expression.
An expressed self is a sustainable self. I believe there needs to be room for you in your business if you want to be in it long-term (that might be through your voice, your values, your creations…). This is a balance, especially with co-founders, but it is why you’ll notice me ask the question, “Where are you in all of this?”.
When we have limited access to ourselves in our work we have less access to our vital energy, and thus less “staying power".
(This is also why I'm big on brands/businesses having a point of view. Less reliance on ads/algorithms. More sharing ideas that spread/endure.)
— Dual (or multi) consciousness.
A business is a meeting point between yourself, others, and some cause/aim. While (self) expression within your business is important, a business is not all about you. It's a mutually beneficial relationship between parts. It’s very easy to get caught in the gravity of one area at the expense of the others.
We must learn how to hold multiple parts at once.
— Meaningful work.
Everyone has a different definition of meaning, but I do believe your work needs to be meaningful to you for you to want to stay in it. That doesn't mean your work needs to be groundbreaking, it simply means there's some meaning to be found in what you do or how you do it.
Tip: Where there is a lack of meaning, look for a lack of relationship.
— Relationship.
We live in a world devoid of relationship. We're detached from where our products come from, and where the materials come from to make those products. We often don't understand, or think about, how what we do and the way we do it impacts the broader systems with live within (environment, community, etc). How can you use your business to bring us back into relationship?
Somewhat related: How to write product copy that resonates. (I give prompts for how to talk about that relationship in your marketing)
— Tending to relationship.
A business is not a mechanical collection of parts to be optimized. It is a living, breathing thing built out of relationship. And those relationships need to be tended to.
Consider a business with cofounders: you've got the relationships between founders, the relationship each of you has to the business, the relationship your work has with the market… see what I mean?
If any of those relationships are majorly off and/or repair isn't possible, staying in it gets harder.
(!! This stuff is juicy! And I love helping co-founders navigate these layered dynamics.)
— Aligned incentives.
Things get crunchy when your customers or your investors have totally different incentives than you do. A certain amount of tension is generative, but when multiple aspects of the business are moving in different directions you get a tangle, stall, or dead end of energy.
This is where thoughtful business model design is key.
— Lack of exploitation.
Our current model of capitalism relies on exploitation (of people, planet, etc.). The folks I work with are not keen to repeat that, so we're looking for anywhere exploitation shows up in your business model. Is there mutuality here? Is there benefit all round? What about when we zoom out to consider community, planet, etc?
In particular: are you exploiting yourself?
— Long-term client relationships OR consistent new customers.
If you’re working with people for a short period of time or you have the kind of product people buy once, you’re going to need a consistent flow of new people coming toward your business in order to be sustainable. And if you’re the type who works with a handful of people at a time for a long period of time (about 75% of my business is like that) then you need the capacity to build and sustain those relationships.
Thinking about it visually: we either need lots of new energy consistently flowing into the business OR swirling arrows of energy within the business (clients you keep working with or a handful of key relationships that keep bringing you new work). Or!… some combination thereof.
— Product/market/founder fit. Do you like your job?
I find people focus on only two of these variables (usually product/market fit) at the exclusion of the other. You can create something that's profitable and beloved… but is it the business you actually want to run? I often see people on two ends of the spectrum. They have a business they enjoy running but it’s not profitable. Or they have a profitable business that “works” but they don’t like their job.
You have to be able and willing to run your business.
Your business has to be able and willing to support you.
— And finally… How do you measure success?
What you measure directs the growth of your business. Optimizing for profit leads us to different decisions than optimizing for revenue… just as measuring newsletter responses leads us to a different kind of sharing than optimizing for open rate.
If you're interested in sustainability…what are you sustaining? And do you have markers of success that let you know you’re on the right track?
I would love, love to hear what comes up for you when considering sustainability in business. Any thoughts or questions you want to share? Articles, podcasts, or books you want to recommend?
Reply and let me know,
— Kate
Notes & Resources.:
For the nerds among us: it's worth noting that sustainability and flourishing are often defined as two different things. Sustainability talks about sustaining what currently exists. Flourishing talks about alternative economic models than centre something other than economic growth. Sustainability is taught as the overlap of social, environmental, and economic good. Indigenous wisdom teaches us to look at sustainability/flourishing as a nested set of interdependencies… a society is dependent on the environment it exists in, and that society creates an economy on top of itself to meet its needs (h/t Antony Upward & Ondine Hogeboom of Flourishing Startups)
I'm not addressing the social and environmental component of sustainability here. Not because I don't care, but because that's not my area of expertise. This is reflective of the conversations I have with clients and the ways I'm able to work with them… How do we make a go of this?! How do I build something I actually want to run, that does good by people, that doesn't burn me out, that can actually pay me a salary, that is creatively fulfilling…. etc etc.
