Running a values-led business: easier said than done
We launched our new website this week. It had been designed two years ago, but between building the product, supporting our users and generally keeping the plates spinning, it sat waiting. Not forgotten, just not the most urgent thing on the list.
Getting it over the line meant sitting down and revisiting our mission, our values, and a bit of the story behind Growing Good. It took longer than expected - not because we didn't know what to say, but because writing it down properly made us think harder about it than we had in a while.
It was a useful exercise. This post is a bit of a reflection on what came up.
The bit nobody really talks about
When you start a business with a clear sense of purpose - ours being to help small-scale food producers and retailers run more viable, sustainable businesses - it's relatively easy to hold onto that in the early days. Everything is close, decisions are quick, and the people you're helping are right in front of you.
But as things grow, that gets harder. Not in a dramatic way. Just quietly, gradually. The to-do list gets longer, the commercial pressures become more real, and it becomes easier to make decisions based on what's convenient rather than what's right.
We're not immune to that. Running a small software business is hard, and there are plenty of moments where the sensible commercial option and the values-led option aren't quite the same thing.
What we actually believe
George and I ran a veg box scheme together for years before Growing Good existed. We knew first-hand how difficult it is to make the numbers work, even when you're doing things well. Good growing, loyal customers, a real community - and still the margins were tight and the admin relentless.
That experience is baked into what we've built. We're not a generic software company that happened to land in the food sector. We understand the problem because we lived it.
Reminding ourselves of the mission this week - "to strengthen local food systems by giving small-scale businesses the tools needed to thrive, to be commercially successful and remain true to their values" - it felt like something we actually mean rather than a marketing line (what a relief!). The irony isn't lost on us that it describes our own challenge as much as our users'.
How we try to hold the line
We don't always get it right, but here's roughly how we think about it:
We try to build software that solves real problems, not software that looks impressive in a demo. If a feature doesn't genuinely save time or protect margin, we question whether we should build it.
We price in a way we think is fair - not a race to the bottom, but not extractive either. We want our users to stay with us because the software is good, not because switching is a pain.
We've grown almost entirely through word of mouth. That's partly because we've not had budget to do much else, but we've also found it's a decent signal. If people recommend you, you're probably doing something right.
And we try to be patient. We've been fortunate to have early individual investors who care as much about the mission as the return, and that's given us the room to make decisions we're comfortable with, rather than ones that just look good on a spreadsheet.
No big conclusions
This isn't a post with a tidy ending. The tension between running a viable business and staying true to why you started doesn't really go away - you just get more practised at navigating it.
What the website exercise did was give us a moment to be clear about what we stand for, which makes the navigation a bit easier. That feels worth doing now and again, even if it means the website takes two years to launch.
If any of this resonates - whether you're running a food business or building something else entirely - we'd be glad to hear your thoughts.
Read more about our mission here. Send me an email here.
Steve.