How To Keep Business Values Strong As You Grow
Many businesses start out with a mission and values.
But as they grow and acquire more people, systems, and operational changes, how do they keep that identity strong and authentic?
Browne Accounting has managed it and here, they talk us through how.
Keeping Values at the Heart of Big Business Decisions
Before Covid-19 made working from home not only necessary but more widely accepted, co-founders Cameron and Mallory Browne began their remote accounting firm, Browne Accounting, while living in Southeast Asia.
What’s cool about Browne Accounting is how it has integrated its passions and values so authentically.
From the beginning, sustainability has been a key value ingrained in the Brown Accounting ethos. They started by joining 1% For The Planet and The Conservation Alliance.
The company then worked towards becoming - and is now - a Certified B Corporation.
In the first year of opening, the founders wanted to get things going. Cameron explains that they would work with anyone who had a cheque, but a few of their key clients were either a Certified B Corporation or were working with 1% For The Planet.
Browne Accounting always had their environmental mandate, and they knew they wanted to build their business to be different.
Cameron puts it that they simply wanted to work with:
“Rad people doing rad things”
Finding Like-Minded Clients and Employees
Cameron explains that in the midst of the “ecommerce gold rush”, Browne Accounting found themselves falling into the ecommerce niche, which suited their remote company well.
Their customer base increased due to the growth of sustainable ecommerce business, and they began to onboard more clients with progressive businesses who had a similar passion and vision.
Browne Accounting has continued to grow as their clients have, which has meant needing to onboard more staff - a key opportunity to humanize their company’s values.
When looking at employing someone new, it’s essential for them to have the right cultural fit. Cameron believes that it is important to have a shared passion; therefore, who they hire is often more important than what they do. Sharing these values allows the clients to see a genuine and authentic team.
If the team weren’t on the same wavelength as their clients, then this wouldn’t be possible.
When it comes to onboarding new staff members, he explains that they are slow to train and teach over a long period so that they become part of the family.
How do you maintain your key values in your business?
