348. Felicia Rubinstein, Founder of HAYVN Coworking on getting B Corp Certified
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Connect with Kerrie at Impact Growth Partners: kerrie@impactgrowthpartners.com
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
TRANSCRIPTION
348. Felicia Rubinstein, Founder of HAYVN Coworking on getting B Corp Certified
00:00:00,"Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast, where every week I keep you updated on the latest trends and how tos in Coworking. I owned and operated Coworking spaces for eight years, and then served as the executive director of the Global Workspace Association for five years. And today I work with hundreds of operators and community managers every month, allowing me to bring you a thought provoking operator,"
00:00:26,"case studies and inspirational interviews with industry thought leaders to help you confidently stay on top of what's important and what you can apply to your own role in the Coworking industry. Welcome. I have two guests today, Felicia Rubinstein, who is the founder of Hayvn Coworking in Darien, Connecticut. And Kerrie McDevitt, who is the Kerrie, I assume you're the founder,"
00:00:55,"you said you're Awo women-owned business of Impact growth partners also in the state of Connecticut. I'll Let you, I'm not the founder, I'm sorry. Okay. But I'm a senior consultant. Okay, perfect. So, but women-owned business, so yeah. We'll, we'll dive into your full background. I just wanna tee up the topic for today. So we're gonna talk about becoming a certified B Corp,"
00:01:17,"which Felicia has done, and it's a global certification, which Kerrie just shared. And this came up, I was on a call and it came up because there was another Coworking space shift Workspaces in Colorado are also B Corp certified. And it's not very common that we come across this. It's a lot of work. I remember when Felicia was thinking about it being like,"
00:01:39,"Felicia, do you have time for this? So, but I think a lot of folks are really curious about it. And Felicia, I think a a lot of this was values driven for you and it was important for you to do. So. I wanna dive into kinda what the, what does it mean, what does the process look like? You know,"
00:01:58,"all the things. So why don't we start, Felicia, can you give a quick, quick, you know, anything else you wanna share about your intro with the audience? You've been on the podcast one time, it's been a while. I've known Felicia for a long time, and I mention you all the time. I probably mention you like every other episode,"
00:02:16,"I'll give a, I'm so honored. Well, that's why if I was like, you know, we're not even talking about any of the things we've mentioned, so I have a whole list of topics that we could do podcast interviews about, but I think you are an excellent operator and very creative and yeah, very committed to the people you serve. You started out as a female focus space."
00:02:36,"You do have male members, you do a ton of programming, a ton of support for startups. And then, you know, you're also just really focused on some of your business metrics that I've mentioned here and there on the podcast. So anyway, I'm so glad to have you. Anything else you wanna add and then maybe tell us, you know,"
00:02:53,"why, what, what, what was the moment when you decided you wanted to become B Corp certified? Sure. Well, first off, thank you Jamie for having me. And as you know, like yeah, I was so lucky that I found you the, like, the very first month that I was ever thinking about opening a Coworking space. And,"
00:03:09,"and that's over five years ago. I Know, it's been a while. Exactly. It's been a long time. But you know, you, you're my secret sauce to, to success here. So I a big fan and I'm really honored to be here. And I do remember when we were going through all the, you know, just planning for my business and,"
00:03:31,"and I think it was during C-O-V-I-D-I decided that I wanted to become a B Corp because I'm like stuck at home anyway, so why not? Why not do the work? Yeah. You're like, why would you wanna do that? So, and then I know today you had given a list of questions, so I was thinking about that as well. But honestly,"
00:03:50,"when I, when I thought about this or becoming a B Corp, I really didn't know what a B Corp was. I thought I was like, is it a B Corp or benefits corporation, which Kerrie, you probably get all the time. But I knew that I, you know, certain things were really important to me and I was putting this whole space together as probably most people have started Coworking spaces."
00:04:11,"You know, values are so important to do this. And, you know, at at Hayvn we are focused on health and wellness, women entrepreneurship, and I added in social impact and sustainability because really, you know, that's just so important. And it's, and it's something that I feel very strongly about. And, you know, our, our mission is,"
00:04:34,"you know, just, we really want to be an inclusive space where we empower those across Fairfield County to be the same. And, you know, it's all about, for me, you know, this is my third half career or whatever, as you call it. And, you know, I really wanna be around positive people that can make a change."
00:04:57,"And I, I feel that we very strongly that by identifying this way, I, I can work with people to make a change. And, and as we get into this more, you know, Kerrie and I are doing a lot together in the state of Connecticut, and I feel like we're really making a difference, but, Awesome. Okay, so,"
00:05:18,"well, Kerrie, maybe we'll jump over. Can you just give us the background? Yeah. Maybe sort of we'll go, we'll flip back to Felicia about sort of all the, the, you know, things you had to think about in order to become a B Corp. Do you wanna give us kind of the backdrop of what it is, you know,"
00:05:34,"what it looks like to be B Corp certified, who, you know, what types of businesses typically do it? It's, it's not a long list, right? It's, it's, yeah, you, you tell us. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into doing this, and then Yeah. What, what should we know about B Corps?"
00:05:51,"Okay, sure. So I basically, so I'm Kerrie McDevitt and I am a, what's called a, a trained B consultant. So it's a very niche field to be a B Corp consultant. So we are, as, as you said in the beginning, we are a woman owned firm, although we're based in Connecticut. We work, work with companies all over the country."
00:06:10,"I also work with some Canadian companies as well to help them through the, through the certification. As far as being certified B Corp, this certification is verified through a nonprofit called B Lab. B Lab is a global organization. It's again, a nonprofit. And currently there are, over now there are 8,000, over 8,000 certified B Corp in the world."
00:06:33,"2,500 are within the US and Canada. So that number has, GA has grown sign pretty significantly over the past few years, even since Felicia was first certified in 2021. And basically a business can be of any size from startup to well established, larger corporation can become certified and one can become certified whether you're on the product, business or a service business."
00:06:59,"So really it's, it's not very discriminating. The assessment is the tool. There's a, it's called the Be impact assessment is the tool that one uses to become certified. One can also use the tool just to benchmark your social and environmental impact. Even if you don't want to become certified, it's a free tool until you press submit. And when you press submit,"
00:07:20,"that means you are actively pursuing certification. So, yeah, so, but it's a great tool to use, even for startups just to model your business for as being a socially and environmentally conscious business. So I help companies through this process, this certification process from beginning until end. So that means going through the assessment, the assessment is divided into different sections,"
00:07:44,"including governance, workers section, community section, environment, and customers. So basically one considers all what we call stakeholders, any, anyone, and really anything including the environment that has a stake in your business. So it's really a complete audit. The assessment is a really a complete audit of the business. So once you go through the assessment, if you reach currently,"
00:08:09,"if you reach a minimum threshold of 80 points, one can submit, I really like my clients to have closer to a hundred points because there's a strong chance that you're going to lose points during what's called verification with B Lab. So not only do you have to submit the assessment, but you also need to have any sup, any affirmative answer needs to have supporting documentation or policy,"
00:08:32,"basically affirming those answers. And then you go into what's called verification with B Lab, where an analyst from B Lab is assigned to your business and we'll review all of your answers and you'll even jump on a phone Zoom call like this with, with B Lab. So it, it's a, it's a rigorous process and that's why some folks like Felicia look for help to do it because,"
00:08:57,"you know, running your business is busy enough, this is really working on your business, so I'm always happy to, to help. So you mentioned a hundred points. How many points to are possible? Possible would be, it's basically out of 200 points. Okay. So, you know, you think of some certified B Corps that maybe are well known,"
00:09:21,"you know, something like a Patagonia, a Dr. Bronner's, they are, they, they actually are over, I believe about 150 or somewhere like that. But, but, but e but even scoring over 100 points or over 90 points is, is is very respectable and not easy to achieve. Got it. Okay. So, and then once you are,"
00:09:44,"we'll talk about the process in a minute. So like, Felicia, you've got a background and you've got your little b you know, B certified, you know, icon or logo on it. What, I mean, it governs how you operate. What are some of the other, you know, like ways that you like to demonstrate it or, you know,"
00:10:03,"sort of when is it an explicit certification that you sort of share or promote? Yeah, so I promote it all the time. Just when we give tours, I talk about our core values. I have it on our door, we have the little sticker, I have a little pin. But what's been great for me is really just being part of this community in Connecticut where I think when I started Kerry was I number like 11 or something like that."
00:10:35,"And now there's, now there's 33 companies in Connecticut that are B Corp. And we, Kerry and I are actually on the events committee. So we gather people of of course you are. Well, I'll tell you though, as as Abigail says, it's my passion project. Yeah. Because it's, it's like, oh my God, I got enough of my own events,"
00:10:56,"but we, we, but it, it, it's been fun. So we, we, we do four events a year with the events committee, but we've met so many great people in our community. Like there's, in our community alone, like Bigelow Tea and Athletic Brewing, I don't know if you know about them, but they Yeah, yeah,"
00:11:15,"they just became a B Corp last year and, and we had an event there. You know, they're, they're doing so well and, and Patagonia has spoken to us and on the former CEO of Ben and Jerry's has been at an event. And so just to be among all these people and a lot of smaller businesses too, it's been been great."
00:11:34,"And, and then when I am hiring people, when I am hiring vendors, you know, just thinking about things and even the events that we have at Hayvn, I'm always thinking about like, is this person local? Is it, you know, a minority business? And, and so we, we've had to create all sorts of documentation, but I have it in my bookkeeping and everything,"
00:12:00,"how, you know, how am I gonna be working with these people? So it's, you know, it's been really, really great. I'm interrupting for a second. Are you working on starting a Coworking space? I often emphasize how important the planning stage is. You've heard me say most unrecoverable issues happen well before you open your doors and they are related to the size of your space,"
00:12:29,"your real estate deal, and a few other things. If you think you are going to pick your favorite Coworking space and reverse engineer what you think you see happening in there, and then pick your own paint colors and your favorite furniture, you are in for a surprise. This business is really about making the right fundamental decisions that align with your individual personal and financial goals."
00:12:58,"So we wanna help you avoid the mistakes that a lot of operators make in planning and launching that can really set you back in terms of time and finances. So we have got your back, we have created a free training to help you really get behind the three key decisions that we think are the most critical for you to get right when you're designing your Coworking business."
00:13:25,"The model, not the colors, the model. And these insights come from years of operating, designing the model for two different locations, and then my work with hundreds of operators as they work on their businesses. So grab your spot in our training class, you can watch it anytime it's totally on demand and start your Coworking journey with confidence and the right strategies in place."
00:13:52,"You can grab that training at Everything Coworking dot com slash masterclass, it Sounds like, and, and hard. Well, yeah, yeah. So we could talk about that. It sounds like it makes you really intentional, like KerrieKerrieKerrie, you said people can use the assessment, they can sort of see how they stack up without submitting and I assume, you know,"
00:14:11,"paying a fee for, to, to do the assessment. So you could use it as sort of a guiding principle. I would guess though, sometimes what happens is people sort of like have a moment of going through the assessment and then they don't actually do the hard work of creating all the SOPs and Felicia, you know, your point about like hiring and,"
00:14:31,"you know, book like little things like right bookkeeping, who am I, what are, who are my vendors? You just have to be really aw, you know, conscious and aware of those choices all the time. So I could see it really helping you to just work that into your, like, this is how we operate, this is what we do."
00:14:49,"Versus sort of being a nice to have, Right? Like, and even the, the materials that we buy in our space. You know, I slowly mo I really try to stay away from plastics if I can. You know, we, we have composting in the space and our, our building is solar, which is amazing. So my landlord has the same,"
00:15:09,"the same vision. You know, I, there's so much more we could do, but it's, it's a start. And, and also for members, I was just counting up before we came, I think we have about 25 members that are in this sustainable social impact space. Yeah. Maybe even more. But, you know, and so we do attract people that are,"
00:15:28,"and then also I, I pass a lot of people who are thinking about becoming B Corp over to Kerry's group. Yeah. Hey, you know, because you cannot do this by yourself. So, which we can talk about. Yeah. So I, I am curious Yeah, about the, maybe Kerrie, that's easy for you. Maybe I'll have you talk about sort of the generic process and then I'll ask Felicia a couple of questions about,"
00:15:52,"you know, specific to Coworking spaces. One of them that I wanted to sneak in really quickly, it, that I think maybe people would worry about is it's, it's not related to the building you're in. Is that true? Like, you don't need to be in a building that has solar or like you could do this independently of your real estate."
00:16:16,"Sure. I mean, as far as that's concerned, again, the assessment, the B impact assessment questions change based on your answers. So it's, they're not, it's not stagnant. So depending on what kind of business you're in, if you're in manufacturing, you could be a work advisor, you could be a legal firm, you could be someone making chocolate,"
00:16:35,"you could be someone making soap, whatever it may be. The questions will vary based on the size of your company. Okay. Your last annual revenue and, and there are questions, for example, one of the questions in the environment is do you lease your space? Do you own your space? Are you in a Coworking space? Do you work virtually from home for the most part?"
00:16:54,"And so those questions will pop up. And then additional ga those are gated questions where there'll be different questions depending on how you answer. Okay, got it. Okay. Okay. Well, so that's important to know. So if you're applying as like a physical space owner, a business like a Coworking space, and you don't have control over your real estate in the sense that you don't own the building and can't make some of those decisions."
00:17:16,"Yeah. I mean, so yeah, can you walk us through like kind of overall what the process looks like? You know, what types of things are, are a part of the criteria, maybe? Yeah. How long does it typically take? Any of the things you think we should know? Okay, sure. So basically there are certain requirements,"
00:17:34,"you know, in order to become a certified B corp, one we've been speaking about is the completion and submission of what's called the B impact assessment, which is a tool. So again, you need to have a minimum of 80 to even submit. And in order to become certified, you need to maintain 80 points. So again, that's why you have to have some kind,"
00:17:51,"you know, you really can't submit without 85 to 90 that way. Another requirement is a legal requirement. So, you know, that's very important. So if, if a company is, for example, an LLC, like Hayvn Felicia's business, one needs to amend your operating agreement or articles of incorporation to reflect the fact that you do consider all stakeholders in your decision making."
00:18:15,"So there's actually precise language that needs to be embedded in that document. And that has to be, you know, a formal document and that has to be sent to be B Lab. So that's a requirement if you are an S corporation or a C corporation. And if it's available in your state, which at this point it's available in about 40 US states,"
00:18:36,"you need to become what's called a benefit corporation in your state. And so that's where people get confused with the certified B Corp status as opposed to the corporate entity called a benefit corporation. So a benefit corporation also considers not only its shareholders, but its stakeholders in its decision making. So that's inherent in the benefit corporation status. So that's very important that,"
00:19:00,"that makes a certification a bit different than a lot of other certifications in that there is a legal change that has to take place. So that makes it even more credible than it already is. So that's a requirement as well. So basically, you know, you go through the whole assessment, you know, again, you need to develop certain, as,"
00:19:20,"as Felicia mentioned, certain policies, maybe you have to revise certain policies, add certain policies that will reflect your social and environmental impact. So the assessment is, it's actually very smart, it has operational questions, but also one, one important aspect is what are called impact business models. So that impact business models I would describe as basically business models that make your business sort of stand out from a social or environmental standpoint."
00:19:51,"So it could be, for example, like a Bombas, we've heard of Bombas, they're certified beak corps, I'm wearing some right now. Ah, you shop with your shop. Yep. Shop with your dog. And basically Bombas donates one pair of socks to the homeless for every pair of socks that you purchase. And they have an impact business model,"
00:20:12,"for example, under the community section called Design to Give, because that's really an intrinsic part of who they are. It's really a part of the soul of the company. For example, Felicia has an impact business model currently related to what's called also in the community section called local economic development. Because she, for example, is based in Fairfield County, Connecticut."
00:20:36,"She, the vast majority of her customers or members are local. She purchases locally, she hires locally. She is a local business at this point. So that is an impact business model that she currently has. So with that, I, I sort of geek out about opening up what are called impact business models for the clients that I work with. Because as I get to know the clients better,"
00:21:00,"I can sort of see, you know, where we could possibly open up some more points for that. So whether it be, you know, if for example, you work with a lot of non-profit organizations, there's an impact business model related to that. There are certainly a lot of environmental impact business models as well. So, so those are just some,"
00:21:20,"you know, sort of opportunities that unfortunately, well, or fortunately because I've been through the impact business model dozens of times, it's sort of like taking the SATI think of it that way. I have a, I have teenagers now. The more you take the SAT the more you understand the test and all of that. If you've been through the assessment like I have maybe about 50 times,"
00:21:40,"you understand sort of how to open up those gated questions and those impact business models and that will give you more points that you deserve. You know, and, and that's really my job is to make sure that your final points, you know, value or your final, the final decision by B Lab adequately reflects all that you do. Hey there, I'm jumping in again this time."
00:22:04,"I am speaking to those of you that have, are either getting ready to hire a Community Manager or who have a Community Manager and you would like to support their training and development. We know how challenging it can be for co-working space operators to create their own training and development material to support their community managers. And this is so important in terms of onboarding new community managers and supporting the growth of your existing community managers."
00:22:35,"And we're getting towards the end of the year, what a great holiday gift end of year gift to give to your Community Manager. So the platform is really around a couple of things. One is access to a community of like-minded folks. We have a very active Slack group with really wonderful questions that are posed every single day. And we find that's one of the biggest values."
00:23:01,"We have community managers from all over the world and this is an excellent group of community managers that have invested time and effort into getting better at that role. And they are the kind of folks that you want your Community Manager to be by and hanging out with and they know their stuff or sometimes they don't and they ask questions and we help them out. So I am in the group,"
00:23:24,"we have coaches that are in the group to support them. So we love when they ask questions for things they need help with because the other aspect of the program is really around helping them get resources they need to make their jobs easier and to learn things that they can use in their role to be better at their job. So we provide some done for you resources like Google business posts,"
00:23:48,"detailed event ideas, et cetera, that they can just kind of grab and go and use. And we also provide monthly resources that add to our training library so they can do our certification. And then we have a lot of electives that help them kind of get better at all the things that that go with the role. So the, our community managers wear a lot of hats."
00:24:12,"So we break our content into industry knowledge for new community managers, community building operations, sales and marketing and leadership. So the leadership bucket is great for our more advanced community managers. We also have virtual office and digital mail training and coffee training for anybody who needs to know how to use commercial coffee brewers. So we have some of the, I'm just gonna give you kind of a sampling of content that we have."
00:24:44,"So in our community building modules, we have hosting your first member events, building community with budget friendly events, member events, swipe files, our sales and marketing modules. We have tour training, we have the training on the full Coworking sales funnel so they understand what that looks like. We have social media planning frameworks. We have, what else do we have?"
00:25:10,"Three simple steps to an effective marketing newsletter. These are just some of our samples. Ooh, these are some of our best utilized topics. Demystifying the process of letting your Coworking members use your address for their Google business listing. How to close a tour operations modules, how to set up automations, how to do a new member onboarding audit. Simple ways to use AI to boost your productivity."
00:25:35,"We have over 40 courses in the program, so we cover kind of higher level topics and then we also cover things that are timely, like the CMRA updates, Google Business updates, et cetera. So we get together monthly to do official training and we also host a best practice sharing call, which is one of the fan favorites of the group and the Slack group."
00:26:01,"So if you have any questions at all about the program, don't hesitate to reach out. You can learn more and register at Everything Coworking dot com forward slash Community Manager. Now back to our episode, Because really like look at Felicia, all that she does for the community. Yeah. All that she does as far as educating her members all as far as,"
00:26:24,"you know, whether she's supporting local minority owned businesses, whatever it may be. We wanna make sure that her, her public report and there, there's a public impact report that is available. You know, one, one can search on the B Corp directory and see all of the certified B Corp, including Hayvn, and see all of the detail as how they did in each section of the assessment."
00:26:46,"And we just wanna make sure that that public report adequately reflects all that, all that she does and all that. Any b impact, any certified B Corp does. So as far as the process, you know, basically, as I said, you go through the assessment, you gather all of the supporting documents and data, and then there is a,"
00:27:06,"a pretty rigorous verification process with B Lab where they will analyze all of that data, all of those supporting documents, all of your answers, and make sure that you are worthy of being a certified B Corp. So we as consultants, help you through that entire process. It usually takes, during covid there were a lot of, a lot there was increase in applicants."
00:27:27,"So the time, the waiting time was was longer. Now currently, I, I mentioned to my clients, depending on the size of the company, but it can take anywhere between, from start to finish starting with me anywhere between nine months to, let's say 12 months from beginning to end. So it is not a short process. One has to be committed to it,"
00:27:48,"and it doesn't have to be just one person on the, on the, in the business who's committed. Sometimes it's nice to create a a b team, so to speak, that that, that works together. Yeah. It's not, not a fun process at all, but I'm trying. She makes, but it's a, I said it's, oh,"
00:28:05,"because I didn't know what I was getting into the first time and, and now I'm recertifying so Kerrie's been helping me through that. 'cause every three years you have to recertify. Okay. Wow. But like the first time, I didn't know what I was getting into, you know, I took the assessment. I actually, I, I worked with Connecticut's small business development center."
00:28:24,"My advisor started it, but then we, we moved over to someone who specialized in it. But, well I, it's funny 'cause Kerrie and, and Jen Goran who are at the company, they had come this, it just was random. Like Jen had come over and said, Hey, I wanna tell you about this B Corp thing and you should consider it."
00:28:43,"And she put a whole presentation. I'm like, well, I I'm in the middle of it and I would love for you to help. Yeah. You're waving the flag. Yeah. But it was, it was one of those, I, I said, it's almost, it felt like doing laundry every week or like, you keep folding it and then it keeps coming back and there's more things you have to do and more things you have to do."
00:29:03,"It's, I'm understanding it more this time, but there's, you know, so a lot of papers that you have to create and, and luckily I also have, one of my members is Alexis Brooks, I feel like you've spoken to before. She's, she's a lawyer and she, Well I was thinking earlier when you were talking about the legal requirements, I was like,"
00:29:22,"good, thank Felicia has a lawyer in the space who's Yeah. Who's, You know, there. And she's been, she like, has rewritten all the agreements and, and now she also is on our, the local Connecticut committee too. So it's been, you know, a great way to integrate everybody. But yeah, it, it was, it's,"
00:29:43,"we're doing it again. And it, it's better this time. I think we're, we're gonna hit submit tomorrow, right? Is that what you said? Yeah, we Should, we should. We're we're right. We're ready now. So yeah, But we've been meeting every Friday for three months, is it, or two months and just going, it seems like a lot going through."
00:30:02,"And then, and then I have homework on the weekends to find all this stuff. So yes, it would be great to have a, a team. That would be it. It's mostly start Creating document, like what's the, the laundry part of it, like what's, what's sort of the heavy lift? It's running numbers, right? Well, go ahead."
00:30:20,"Yeah, I mean, ba basically, I would say, you know, again, for every affirmative answer in the assessment, and they're between two to 300 questions within the assessment. I mean, again, it varies depending on the size of the company. The larger you are, the more complex the process can be. But there's a lot of tracking that's involved."
00:30:39,"Whether it be, for example, from the mp, you know, all your employees noting to see how much, you know, you know, so whether it be a list of your employees with how much they're paid, where they live, are they being paid a living wage for the county where they're living in, you know, assessing, for example,"
00:30:55,"the diversity of your, of your workers, you know, of your staff to a list of your significant suppliers, those you purchase from. So B Lab is concerned about, you know, who, who are your suppliers, as well as who are your customers, who do you serve, and who and who do you purchase from? So as, it's as important as far as looking at your supply chain as well as,"
00:31:19,"you know, taking care of your, your own members or your own, your own customers as well. So as far as the data gathering, it could be, for example, depending on what impact business models especially that open up, you be gathering information. So if you have a design to give, as I mentioned, the Bombas model, you,"
00:31:36,"you know, we have to make sure that you're tracking, for example, all those socks you're donating or if you're donating monetarily or if you're donating through 1% for the planet. We just have to have the, the evidence for that. So it's, it's a little bit like, yeah, defending your dissertation in a way, you know, just to make sure you have everything lined up."
00:31:53,"But my job is, I describe myself as a cheerleader slash nudge. So I'm, I'm organizing as we go along as well. So we have a shared folder. So by the time my clients get to verification that pro with B Lab, that process is not as, cha should not be as challenging. 'cause every, everything is ready. You're not scrambling at that point."
00:32:13,"Like folks who perhaps don't have consultants, they might be scrambling to gather that data. Like, for example, showing that you're a significant percentage of your clients or nonprofit organizations, or that a significant portion of your suppliers are women-owned businesses. You know, because all of that is, is important to B Lab. And they, they're, they're looking for that information."
00:32:37,"So, so yeah. So, so it's just, you know, it's also me, you know, the way I operate. I just want to make sure that the client is ready with any supporting, whether it be a policy, you know, if we need to edit, you know, I help edit, whether it be employee handbooks, whether it be,"
00:32:51,"you know, we, maybe we need to create a remote worker policy, a lactation policy looking at parental leave, you know, all of that work we, we help with. So in a lot of cases, my clients will come back and say, wow, I not only became B Corp certified, but I got all of my operational Yeah. Right."
00:33:08,"Every, everything, all my ducks in a row, you know, I have now a, a comprehensive employee handbook I'm proud of and, and, and other things. So I think it's sometimes a two for one or a three for one. You know, that Yeah. You're getting a lot of things done in the process. Yeah, I was wondering that,"
00:33:23,"'cause Felicia, you did it shortly after you, I mean, you hadn't been open for that long. So was, were you sort of in that camp where it sort of helped you to create, like, create some of that documentation and formal procedures Yeah. That you hadn't gotten to yet? Yes, absolutely. You know, creating website pages that we needed,"
00:33:44,"getting the, my employee handbook, we had one, but updating it and, and you know, and, and also just looking at like what Kerrie said, how are, are you paying your employees? Are you paying them at living wages? And unfortunately, as you know, in Fairfield County, it's crazy. But yeah, there, there was,"
00:34:04,"there was a, a lot of that. And, and luckily we have a, a bunch of it from last time that we can just Yeah. Pull out again this time around Presentation. Yeah. And now you're updating all of your, all of your documentation and staying current. So Felicia, I'm curious, like for other Coworking space owners that are listening that are interested,"
00:34:21,"you, you already had sort of a mindset that was very aligned with B Corp and, and you know, some of the activities you were doing, but what were some of the gaps? Like, were there things like that just like you weren't doing that you needed to do to, to sort of check the, check the box? Or am I not thinking about that the right way?"
00:34:43,"Lemme think. I mean, Kerrie, you, you're kind of knowing what I didn't have. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, again, I I I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't use, I mean, I understand the checking the box Yeah. But this is much more, this is much more than checking the box. Right."
00:34:58,"And it's not a certification for anyone who just wants to check a box. Yeah. Because it is, you know, it is really one has to be aligned. The values have to be aligned in that you be con taking into consideration, you know, all of your stakeholders and, and also that you have a social and, and environmental vantage point to everything basically that you do."
00:35:20,"And as you mentioned before, being quite deliberate now in your choices. And I think what's really exciting about the, the certification is how it can really invigorate a community, whether it be the entire Hayvn community, for example, whether it be also the group of employees that to feel really, there's a real sense of pride to work for a B Corp."
00:35:41,"And, and that's one of the main rea one of the reasons why folks and businesses want to become certified now. Because, you know, fortunately this upcoming generation, and you know, I look at my daughter who's 19, you know, she, she really is very deliberate in where she makes her purchases. She'll be deliberate in where she ends up working,"
00:35:59,"that she'll want to work for a business that cares about the environment and cares about social issues. So that's the, and there it's proven that B Corp have a higher retention rate amongst their employees, that people really feel, you know, that their values are also aligned with the business' values. So not only does it attract consumers, which I think Felicia can speak to,"
00:36:20,"you know, and, and, and attract folks who want to rent space from her, you know, they search up where the B Corps, you know, I think that Felicia's had that experience, which is amazing, huh? Yeah. We've had people from England, you know, that are coming over to the States and they need a place for a meeting room."
00:36:37,"So they've, they've used our space for that and, and members that have joined because we are a B Corp, Because that's sort of like a criteria for them. They wanna align. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. So I, I I think it's, yeah, I agree with what Kerrie said. It's not like a check the box. Like,"
00:36:53,"I don't think everybody should do this. Yeah. If, you know, just for the sake of doing it and, and you know, looking at your ROI, you know, it's a different type of return on investment that we're talking about. Although things are changing, like in this, in the state of Connecticut, last, was it last week,"
00:37:12,"two weeks ago, we did an event at the legislator's off, and we got 60 people from around the state of Connecticut to come who are all in the focus like BB Corp or B Allies, and they are putting a, a bill together to get, if you are a B Corp, you can get tax credits. And which is, which is cool because I,"
00:37:36,"so, so things are changing, you know, for, for us, which is great. Yeah. So, but it really is about it, this being the type of business that you want to operate and the way you wanna do business and behave and sort of having a way to communicate that externally. Like the, the seal, you know, says like,"
00:37:57,"right, we really measure up to these external standards and we can sort of communicate it that way. Yeah, yeah. Really a sale of approval, you know? Yeah. A sale of approval. And It's a pretty rigorous one. I mean, it, it's, it's As it should be, as it should be. And actually the standards are evolving as we speak,"
00:38:15,"as far as the assessment. It's currently in the process of, you know, it's always being, there's always, you know, input in changing due to input from folks who are taking the assessment. But this is a pretty significant change that's coming up that will come into play sometime in 2025 where the assessment is, is changing. So that'll be interesting to see as well."
00:38:34,"But I was going to say, as far as the ROI, I think one of the main ones, well I, I always mention the employees and attracting great workers because e even B Lab has a, workers has a site, a recruitment site called B Work, where folks who are looking to work for B Corp, you know, can go to look for,"
00:38:54,"for jobs and, and, and that's, you know, so there are a lot of resources, but I think the, one of the main ROIs is really the community, whether it be on the global level, whether it be on the US Canadian level, whether it be on the local, you know, as far as, you know, we're on the board of,"
00:39:09,"you know, the be local Connecticut, which is a fairly new organization, but there are many be locals throughout the world. So, and if there isn't, like there wasn't in Connecticut a few, couple years ago, so we decided to start one. So it's just a great community. There are annual biannual retreats where you can go and meet with others."
00:39:29,"And there's a lot of collaboration that happens amongst B Corp as well globally. So whether it be Ben and Jerry's, you know, as a B Corp working with, whether it be Grayston Bakery, you know, they use their brownies, you know, so, you know, I think that everyone's trying to, and it's a very collaborative versus competitive community,"
00:39:47,"so we all support each other. Yeah. It's, it's very similar to our Coworking groups. Yeah, I was just thinking. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a very similar community in general of, of people that just you love to be around, So, yeah. So is there a fee to get certified? There is a fee. Again,"
00:40:06,"the assessment itself is free until you press submit. So the submission fee is anywhere between, I believe it starts at $150 and up, maybe up to like 500 or $750 to submit. And that's basically to, to, that goes towards B Lab because of all the, I'm sure there's a lot of time that's spent going through the assessment and so on."
00:40:28,"So they wanna make sure that you're serious if you press submit, because you'll be then put in the queue and then eventually you'll be verified. And then there is an annual certification fee that's based on your annual, past annual revenue. So that is anywhere the minimum is, I will say 2000, but I'll put an asterisk next to that because I'll, I'll explain also their equity discounts."
00:40:52,"But the minimum is 2000 and up, again, based on your annual revenue. But if your annual, if for example, you, I think it's up to $3 million or $2 million in annual revenue. If you are a woman owned business, if you are a bipoc owned business, if you're L-G-B-T-Q veteran owned, if you're a business with less than a hundred thousand in annual revenue,"
00:41:13,"there are lots of different equity discounts where you can receive up to 70%, 40%, 70%. It depends on the category you can receive a discount on, on the annual certification fee. But with, with the certification fee comes a lot of resources, again, being part of the community. Yeah. And yeah, and it goes to support. And then there's the time."
00:41:33,"Felicia, if you had to, if you had to estimate how many, how many hours did it take you to do the, the first round, or how about how many hours a week do you think you spent on like the sort of the process and the documentation for the, you know, sort of the verification part of the process, Maybe 30 hours total?"
00:41:58,"What are you thinking Total? Yeah, I mean, I would say, I mean, as far as, you know, again, it depends how you approach it if you're working with a consultant or not, but I usually tell folks to a lot about two hours a week for at least for six weeks. And then there might be in, in between after submitting,"
00:42:17,"there might be a couple of hours of work per week or every other week, you know, that you should put aside just for B Corp stuff, you know, just to, to follow up. But, you know, some weeks you might not have anything and other weeks you might have a little bit more. But, but I mean, I feel like this time around,"
00:42:32,"we, we started when, in February, I think when I was out in Tahoe Jamie. Oh, Nice. That's what I was doing. Yeah. But I think there was a lot of like minutiae work that I was doing on over the weekends after I, I had the an hour and a half call with Kerrie and we tried to do some of the stuff,"
00:42:51,"then she gave me homework, and then I had lists of stuff to do. So yeah, it probably was, it was probably about 20 or 30 hours. And Kerrie, is it typical that you have like long-term relationships? Like you see people through, you know, the initial certification and then the recertification? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm basically,"
00:43:13,"I, I never think of like an ending an end date with my clients because we keep in touch. I'm always available if folks want me to speak to their teams, for example, about what it means to be a B Corp. I do that quite a bit. So just keeping in touch and then before you know it, it's time to sort of start getting ready for the recertification."
00:43:35,"So time flies. And we also, at Impact Growth Partners, we offer, we'll do like webinars once in a while to gather all of our clients together so that our clients actually, we love to connect our clients with other clients, whether they be in similar fields or not. But we like to build our, you know, we have our own little subgroup of,"
00:43:54,"of impact growth partners, clients. So over the years, you know, we, we try to bring them together as much as we can virtually, so we do that as well. So yeah, we have, I I, I think of a lot of my clients like Felicia as, as a friend and, you know, just want them to,"
00:44:10,"to just, I just like to see their businesses grow and be successful and benefit as much from being part of this amazing community. Felicia, for anybody who's thinking about this, like, do you have a sense for like, who, who is this a no-brainer for, and who do people just sort of inherently know? Like is there any, I think the thing I'm still trying to solidify is like a category of like,"
00:44:35,"things you have to have in place besides like, hiring and vendor relationships. Like, like the, I think the analogy I keep thinking is like the well building standard. And so when I say checklist, I'm thinking like, do I have enough plants? You know, do I like, you know, like there's, they, I think they have literally like things you,"
00:44:55,"you know, sort of like verify like that you, is it, so I'm trying to like Yeah, yeah. Get a little more like, what's the word? Tangible about sort of what's on the assessment, Right. Well, I I'm thinking like anybody who's like me that has a women focus. Yeah. Women centric, or not even women, but could be,"
00:45:17,"right. Or like Minority or Yeah. Any Sort of economic development support for particular. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Nonprofit focus for sure. And then again, may maybe people that are focused on sustainability in their business Yeah. As well. You know, which I know there's a lot of, lot of groups that, That are, I think that Right."
00:45:38,"Tends to be inherent in Yeah. In, in how people think about their Coworking business and designing it, you know, that way. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I, and I, and Kerrie, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's also if you are, well yeah. Educational focus that you do, do these events and, and bring communities together that way."
00:46:01,"Economic development. Yeah. I mean there, there's something for everyone really. I mean, again, that's, you know, Felicia's talking about different impact business models that, especially Coworking spaces could have, you know, Felicia has a whole what series on sustainability and educ, you know, she's educating her members constantly. And again, the local economic development and,"
00:46:27,"you know, whether it be social impact giving back, if you have a, a considerable, like if you donate back to nonprofit organizations or 1% for the planet, there are lots of different opportunities, but I, but I don't think it's so much of the checking the box again, the, the, the assessment is in the process of being, of evolving."
00:46:44,"So there may be a little bit more of that with the next assessment a year from now or so, as far as having some minimum requirements in order to be, to be certified. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was helpful the way you said, it's sort of like a, it's like a smart assessment and it sort of varies depending on Right."
00:47:00,"Your, your model and Yeah. That makes a little little bit of sense to me. Felicia, anything else you would share for somebody who's thinking about becoming certified? Well, just, you know, make sure that it's, it's the right thing for your business model, and you have the stamina to do it. It is hard as a Coworking owner,"
00:47:19,"you're trying to do so many different things. Yeah, yeah. But you know, if you have a good handle on your numbers as well, that's important that it's at your fingertips, which I think most Coworking owners are, and yeah, I I think I, I actually, once you do, you go through it, you realize that maybe you can go for the women owned business,"
00:47:42,"women in business certification as well, because I think someone said that's a lot easier than this one. But yeah, it's, it's really worth it for, for me, and I think, I think people should at least do, like Kerrie said, the assessment and see, just to see how you're running your business. So it's, it's great to,"
00:48:03,"you know, just what do they say, you know, be a business, business is a force for good and you just feel like you are making a difference in, in the world. Yeah, yeah. Totally. So, Kerrie, can, can we link to the assessment in the show notes? Like if that's just something like on a site that people can go through and to your point,"
00:48:23,"until you hit submit, it's yours to. Yeah, sure. I mean, I mean, someone, again, it's a free assessment. We can also link certainly to our business if folks want to go through that assessment with a consultant, because oftentimes, you know, again, it it, I think some folks who come to us, they start the assessment and they realize it's pretty complex."
00:48:44,"Yeah. And they don't really know how to answer the questions. Yeah. And then they turn to us as well. So certainly any of you, you know, if you have any questions you wanna reach out, happy to jump on a call. You know, there's no, no strings attached, but just to talk about the B Corp, you know,"
00:48:58,"movement, talk about the certification and how we can help. Okay, perfect. I was gonna ask yeah, if you kind of guide people through how to think about whether it's Yeah. Right. For them, of course. Ready to dive in. Okay. Love it. Then yeah, we'll put your contact info in the show notes as well. Awesome."
00:49:13,"Thanks for doing this. I, I think it's a, well, Felicia, I should ask, do you know, off the top of your head, who else is any other Coworking space operators that are There? There was one, I think that, like the hub or something. I, I feel like you had mentioned it at the last meeting."
00:49:32,"I wrote it down because I think the first time I went through I had asked you, I said, are there any other Yeah, cowork. And at that point, you, you didn't Have any I wasn't aware of any. Yeah. Yeah, I Think you were, I'm gonna do a quick search for that right now if you, if you have a minute."
00:49:45,"Yeah. And you said shift is, yeah. Is that new? Yeah, theirs might be newer. Yeah. I'm trying to remember their timeline and I can't remember what, when they said they went through it. I don't it, they must be still within the first three years. Maybe I, but I could totally have that wrong. So I'll ask them."
00:50:04,"And I feel like there's a, a space in Australia as well. Okay. Yeah, I, I mean I'm happy to send this to you, but I did pull up, there are certainly plenty of Coworking, I mean, quite a few. Woo. Oh, I'd love to see that. More Than 10. Let's see, so there's Weta,"
00:50:21,"Coworking, and I can just run through these in Bueno, arc Coworking in London. Let's see. See, it's much more popular in the, in overseas. Yes. ESGI mean, just that whole concept is Right. Is more of a focus in, in Europe for sure. In the uk In Impact Hub in Madrid, you know, there are some that are incubators as well,"
00:50:44,"but Quench is in Victoria, British Columbia, Australia, Okay. Oh ha. Australia is, so Brad, that's the one. Okay. And then Quench is Tessa McLaughlin, I think is her last name. Loughlin. I, I have to look it up. She's been on the podcast too. You would love her. Felicia, if you haven't met her."
00:51:02,"I, I, I've heard her podcast. I Remember it. Yes. Okay. Impacto, Ecuador, impact Hub Burn Desk Lodge in Bristol, the uk. Ah, See, so there's only a few in the states places. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe it's just me and there's only 2,500 total. So Yeah, it does, it surprise me that there are a lot,"
00:51:25,"not a lot of Coworking spaces. Felicia and Kerrie, thank you for taking the time to do this, for sharing the process and kind of an overview of what it looks like to be a B Corp. And Kerrie will definitely put your contact info in the show notes. Anybody who's listening, please reach out. And Felicia, Felicia, I have a feeling you get lots of outreach anyway,"
00:51:43,"but thank you and congratulations. I mean, the work that you're doing has a lot of impact and for, you know, sort of formally recognizing that and continuing your commitment to that. I know it's a lot of work and I know it's very meaningful to you. But, but yeah, it's, it's great to be to, to, to to see what you're,"
00:52:00,"you're doing and, and you're an inspiration to many of us. So thank you. Thank you, Jamie. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you like what you heard, tell a friend, hit that subscribe button and leave us a rating and review. It makes a huge difference in helping others like you find us. If you'd like to learn more about our education and coaching programs,"
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