The Ultimate Guide to Starting an Ethical Business

The ethical sector is booming and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down, so it makes sense that you’re looking into starting an ethical business. But you’ve probably got some questions. Questions such as:

– What makes a business ethical?
– Is the market big enough?
– And, what do I actually need to do to start a business?

Well, we’re here to help with our ultimate guide to starting an ethical business.

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Want A Sneak Peek First?

The guide is made up of 22 sections that are split into four chapters.

Below you’ll find section one from chapter one, ‘How big is the ethical sector?’, as well as a list of all of the other chapters so you can see what the guide covers.

Chapter One – Ethical Business

This Chapter Covers:

> How Big Is The Ethical Sector?
> What Is An Ethical Business?
> The Three Pillars Of Ethical Business
> The Challenges Of Running An Ethical Business

How Big Is The Ethical Sector?

Put simply, it’s massive. At the end of 2019, Ethical Consumer reported that spending and finance in the UK reached a record level of £98bn, up from £87bn in 2018. And whilst the pandemic has been a challenge for a lot of sectors it’s pushed the ethical conversation higher up the agenda for many customers.

For example, Ethical Consumer reported in December 2020 that Fairtrade grocery sales increased by 13.7% between October 2019 and October 2020. And this is set to grow even further as 28% of people plan to purchase Fairtrade in the future compared to just 15% pre-pandemic.

Read the full report on pre and post-pandemic ethical consumer spending.

If you’re looking to launch into the business-to-business (B2B) sector sadly there’s no SIC code (‘Standard industrial classification’ which the Government use to classify businesses) for being ‘ethical’.

BUT, there are three types of business you CAN identify which are CICs (Community Interest Companies), Social Enterprises and Charities.

Currently, there are about 19k CICs growing by 20% year on year, 470k social enterprises (official 2017 Government estimate) and 168k charities.

So from approximately 6 million registered businesses in the UK, 10% come from these 3 sectors, suggesting those are organisations that are more led by their ethics and what they refer to as a ‘triple bottom line’ (TBL focuses as much on social and environmental as on profits).

This is then where the guesswork comes in to extrapolate out of all the 6 million UK businesses, how many others beyond that 10% are ethical and sustainable? But we would ask, why bother? How many customers are you looking for as a business-to-business company? If you can already see that there are over 600k in the UK alone it gives you a pretty good idea that there are plenty of opportunities out there.

Chapter Two – Planning & Research

This Chapter Covers:

> Define Your Why
> Define Your Customer
> Research Your Competition
> Define your USPs
> Test Your Business

Chapter Three – Getting Started

This Chapter Covers:

> Write A Business Plan & Sales Forecast
> Funding Your Ethical Business
> Name Your Business
> Determine Your Business Structure & Register It
> Open A Bank Account
> Write A Code Of Ethics/Mission Statement
> Find Your Service Providers
> Create A Brand Identity

Chapter Four – Preparing For Launch

This Chapter Covers:

> Write A Sales & Marketing Strategy
> Build A Website & Get A Professional Email Address
> Get your marketing materials and set up your social accounts
> Protect Your Business
> Hire your team

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