How to set solid foundations for your purpose-led business
Tools & Resources
Key learnings
- Try using the Ikigai framework to explore the sweet spot that combines your passions, what you’re good at, what the world needs and what people will pay for.
- Take the time to figure out your numbers early to ensure you can cover your personal expenses – ideally through multiple income streams – and remember to account for rising inflation.
- Keep impact measurement simple to start – check out Anj’s social value framework to help with this.
- Recruit a diverse board to bring in different skills and attributes that you need to help you set up and run your business.
Beginning her journey as a social entrepreneur with a petition that garnered more than 126,500 signatures to help a family seeking asylum, Anj Handa has since become a pivotal figure in the not-for-profit sector. Here, the Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers shares her advice on uncovering your purpose, setting your organisation up for success, and overcoming common challenges.
With a background in public policy and communications, Inspiring Women Changemakers Founder Anj Handa leveraged her extensive network in 2014 to support asylum seeker Afusat Saliu and her two daughters. Working with a range of professionals volunteering their time and expertise, the campaign provided legal representation, financial and practical support.
What it also supplied was the motivation for Anj to create Inspiring Women Changemakers.
Attracting global media attention for the change.org petition signed by more than 126,500 people, Anj realised that by gathering professional, motivated people together, it’s possible to make an impact on the lives of others on a massive scale. Her organisation guides and inspires women to speak up about the things that matter to them, to take responsibility, and to take action.
Listen to your gut to uncover your purpose
With the maelstrom of recent global events stirring many people to reflect and reconsider their lives, social entrepreneurship is on the rise. For some, their purpose is clear. Others need some help to clarify what may at first feel like a vague nagging sense of injustice and a desire to change it.
The starting point, Anj advises, is to take regular time for self-reflection and to listen to your gut.
“Ask yourself, ‘what lights me up’, and ‘what fires me up’,” she says. “The two things aren’t necessarily the same.”
Anj acknowledges that female genital mutilation is a heavy subject, but it was this appalling threat to Afusat’s daughters that fired her up to help them. The actions she took tapped into her own expertise, and working with passionate, professional people was what lit her up.
Ikigai (pronounced ee-key-guy) is a Japanese concept that roughly translates as your reason to live. Anj uses its framework for her own development and to help changemakers in her workshops to explore their purpose and mission. The sweet spot is the intersection between what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what people are willing to pay for.
Through this process you connect with your own values, but you need to invest the time to think to get the benefits, Anj comments.
“People are sometimes so busy trying to run their own business or get the business off the ground that they’re not taking enough time for themselves,” she explains. “It feels like a luxury. But with 11 years of self-employment behind me, I can tell you it’s not a luxury – it’s a must do. And I wish I’d done that right back at the start in 2011, just to think about what is important.
“The values will also influence who you work with, who is buying your products and services, how they value you and whether that’s aligned.”
Before you get started - know your numbers
Once you get a sense of what you want to change, how you can use your existing skills and experience, some ideas for products and services that people need and will pay for, it’s time to look at the money.
“Cash flow is king”, Anj says. “Let’s talk about numbers early on.”
“Make sure that your cash flow is set up. Keep your payment terms tight. Specify them at the outset to make sure that you’re paid on time, so that you can pay others on time and keep yourself in flow and look after yourself."
Anj Handa, Founder of Inspiring Women Changemakers“Don’t judge yourself if you need to run your business as a side operation at the start.
“We all have very different circumstances, so think about your own personal numbers. What amount do you need within a month to comfortably pay your bills and to have a little bit extra for the things that you enjoy doing? Work backwards from that.”
What gets measured gets managed
Impact measurement can be a complex topic, but Anj advocates keeping it simple when you’re getting started and reflecting regularly on how you’re doing. She has created a social value framework covering six areas: governance, customer, supplier, employee and community inclusion, and environment.
She explains: “It’s about measuring what it is you want to do, setting yourself some goals and checking in with yourself – have I done it?
“It’s an ongoing process of changing and reviewing it. So, as an example, some of those measures for me are how many changemakers have I supported this year? How much reach have I had with umbrella organisations to really amplify the voices of changemakers?
“Link back to your vision, your mission and your values and think about how all of these things are contributing to it.”
Get the right people on board
Although many social entrepreneurs opt not to register as charities, the governance requirements provide a solid example for other business structures to follow, Anj advises.
Recruiting and managing your board is key to the smooth running of your business, whether these are appointed company directors, non-executive directors, or advisory boards.
“What I see happen with a lot of small organisations is they go to their friends, but that sets you up to fail in the long run,” Anj cautions. “You need people with the right attributes and to make sure you manage expectations.
“Have a code of conduct and a governing document that sets out how long they are going to stay for and what their responsibilities are.”
The Community Interest Company Regulator and the Charity Governance Code are good starting points, Anj recommends.
To recruit, the experienced charity board chair says tapping into social networks such as LinkedIn, as well as more formal networks will extend your reach and the diversity of your board. These include Reach Volunteering, the Association of Chairs, and Action For Trustee Racial Diversity UK (ATRD). Getting On Board also have free downloadable resources.
Tackling common pitfalls – mind the gaps
Many challenges for new social entrepreneurs arise from the gap between expectations and reality. These can appear in everything from cash flow projections and funding opportunities to product fit and how many ideas they can pursue at once.
During the pandemic, there have been various funding schemes available that have since disappeared. Anj highlights the need to build resilience in your financial planning. You need to ensure that you always have enough cash in reserve to cover your expenses, including your own salary.
A common oversight is that when receiving funding, a grant of the same amount as you received before will pay for less today because of inflation in costs.
Anj urges business leaders to ensure they build inflation into financial planning. Plan to apply for higher amounts in grants and increase prices for trading income.
She also recommends creating multiple income streams for building financial resilience.
“I have seen too many organisations go under because they have put all their eggs in one basket and haven’t considered how they might pivot if things don’t go to plan,” Anj explains.
“You can have a focus and still diversify your income streams,” she adds. “It’s about creating slightly different offers for different audiences.
“However, changing your whole focus just because you think of a new trend is not helpful. What builds your customer base over the long-term is showing up consistently with new offers around the same focus. If people know vaguely what you do, they can come to you and ask, can you help?”
As you try out new ideas, Anj cautions to keep collecting feedback from your customers or beneficiaries to ensure you stay relevant and meet their needs.
If picking the right ideas to pursue can be a challenge, so too can knowing which ones to pause or stop, Anj observes. Her solution is to capture the ideas and be led by the numbers.
“I believe nothing’s ever lost,” Anj says. “I have thought about ideas from five years ago and then brought them to the fore because the timing felt right. I keep journals reflecting on the year or the quarter, what’s gone well and looking at my numbers as well.
“I have a spreadsheet of the invoices I’ve sent out and what’s in the pipeline. This gives me a clear picture over a quarter or a year, of the kind of workshops, speaking engagements and consultancies that have been bought.
“The numbers tell you if you’re not getting repeat bookings, or you’ve got low demand for something. Then you can use a tool such as the Eisenhower Matrix, which will help you decide which activities to do, decide, delegate or delete.”
Next steps...
- This interview features in the Social Entrepreneur Index 2022 digital publication.
- For more information about Anj’s work, visit the Inspiring Women Changemakers
- Check out UMi’s Starting a Business Bundle for useful information and advice to get you started.
- See our article on business frameworks to help you make better decisions.
- UMi’s FREE Business Plan template will help you take your first steps.
Article first published 15 September, 2022.