Rachel Whitworth On Driving A Positive Impact Through The Power Of E-Commerce
Rachel Whitworth is the founder of Hello Good World, a tech startup and online marketplace on a social mission, to help bridge the gaps between consumers and business for good.
At Hello Good World people can shop by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Rachel also helps social enterprises, non-profits and good business increase their sales & positive impact through their validation rating on her e-commerce platform.
A key player in our sector in Queensland, you may also know Rachel from her social enterprise marketing agency House of Eden Studio, her work with Queensland Social Enterprise Council or most-recently, her role training young people in digital marketing at Yourtown Social Enterprises.
RACHEL discussES her experience and insights into her work in the social enterprise space; and Her key learnings after recently participating in the Impact BOOM ELEVATE+ Accelerator program.
Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)
[Eliana Cruz] - To start off, could you please share a bit about your background and what led to your work in sustainable business?
[Rachel Whitworth] - I originally started my marketing journey about 15 years ago when I came to Australia. I come from a photography and graphic design background and landed in marketing. I recognised there's a really amazing ability to help business grow if you can use marketing and communications to help create a change.
The only thing I recognised when I was doing that is that the businesses I was working for weren't aligned with my values. I was finding they didn't have the same ideologies around ethical production or sustainable solutions. About five years ago, I left my full-time job and started my own social enterprise called House of Eden Studio. I started to use my knowledge in marketing to help what I believe would be good businesses to grow. Over the years of working with hundreds of social enterprises and purpose-led organisations, I wanted to look at how I could increase my impact and help more people. Having that one-on-one impact with people was amazing, and working with the Queensland Social Enterprise Council opened me up to be able to help multiple social enterprises in one go. But, I still wanted to take it to the next level.
If I look at Hello Good World and where we are today, we're predominantly creating technologies to help use the insights I have learned through marketing and social enterprise.
We've identified major gaps, and using technology to help social enterprises escalate and create more change is where the future needs to go. We are quite far behind schedule in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and we just don't have any more time to waste. Recently, I participated in the Elevate+ Accelerator program. We really started to see large pivots of growth after the Social Enterprise World Forum here in Brisbane, and we're really excited to see what happens in the sector.
As the founder of Hello Good World, can you share why you created it, how it works, and the impact it intends to create?
About a year and a half ago, Hello Good World was formed at a tech start-up weekend. I had an idea to create a platform that hosted a number of social enterprises under one brief. I had predominantly worked in marketing for products rather than services, although I've done a lot of marketing strategies for service-based businesses too. I really thought, “how can I help more of these people?” There were definitely key insights I ought to be constantly having to tell social enterprises to do in terms of communications. It's much easier to do this as a collective rather than as individuals, and Hello Good World can support from there.
I wanted to use my skills to help more people and provide a one-on-one marketing service. I was not going to just get the job done as quickly as I can.
How the platform works is that we have a brand come to us, and they are validated through a process where we look at their supply chain, the business model, the outcomes, and the impact they've had. We then provide them with a brown, silver, or gold ranking depending on what stage of business they are at. We want to make sure we are not exclusive to social enterprise. I am a super fan of social enterprise, because I really do see that that model as having a huge and outstanding impact. This is because 51% of profits are reinvested back into the social mission, but we don't want to be exclusive to that. We allow anyone that has a business for good to apply, but you will only get onto our platform if you reach certain credentials. The other key piece is what do we do to connect businesses that make a difference with consumers, and that's through our marketplace platform. We also work with a lot of corporates and businesses to see how they can change where they're purchasing from to make a difference. We help them and other consumers to start to identify the impact they are creating through their purchases.
What are some of the key challenges you have experienced in creating an online marketplace to connect businesses that make a difference?
The key challenges for me are probably similar to a lot of other social enterprises. There's a lot of greenwashing and ethical washing happening. There's lots of people that think social enterprise is a buzzword. They are using it without knowing what it truly means to be doing social enterprise. It involves following a strategic social mission rather than just looking at business in terms of a bottom line. I am starting to see more and more people thinking, “this might be a good idea,” and trying to copy what we are doing. I believe we're a little bit further ahead, because we're always putting our social mission at the forefront and bridging gaps between consumers and amazing businesses. We can notice there are people trying to follow suit, and they may not have the same intentions we do. It's really important for us to keep our integrity around that, but also have general communications. The average person has no idea what a social enterprise is. We are all struggling with getting our name out there for people to understand.
There's a common misconception that a social enterprise is not-for-profit. Even when you start to talk to investors or VCs, there are so many people that have no idea what we are talking about. This becomes a huge struggle for growth.
There's a gap in the market I do see starting to change for all of these amazing businesses, which is just that they need to be seen and heard.
Where does social enterprise fit into the Sustainable Development Goals, and what opportunities have you identified for entrepreneurs to address local/global problems?
When a brand comes on board with us, we look at all of the amazing things they're doing. We look to see if that is attributed to any of the indicators underneath the Sustainable Development Goals, because almost all of them are addressing a social or environmental mission at the core of their business. You'll find they will align with a minimum of one of the SDGs, but some of them, because of the way they do business, think about every single thing that they do, from where they're purchasing, to how they're hiring, to creating more inclusive opportunities and helping their communities. All of those things together are where we start to see these businesses are not just ticking one goal, but they're actually ticking several. I am an absolute lover of the Sustainable Development Goals, because they're so easy to understand. When you see those goals, and you know there is a deadline of 2030, it's easy to recognise we are trying to achieve a world with zero poverty, gender equality and education for all. It just makes sense. On the same token, we are 43 years behind schedule. Those goals were potentially unachievable when they were first set, they already knew that we were going in a backwards direction. Social enterprise is a pivotal business model in helping us achieve those, because it helps rewind that clock back.
If all businesses just chose one social or environmental issue that they wanted to tackle, I believe we would actually be able to achieve those goals by 2030. We've got a long way to go.
Impact Boom has been proud to have worked with you on the Elevate+ Accelerator. What were some key lessons from that program that would be valuable for other purpose-led entrepreneurs seeking to create their own impact?
Having been in social enterprise for a while, it was always really good to just reiterate some of the things I've heard. But, I have to say, I'm an absolute super fan of everything that the Yunus Centre does. It was just out of this world to be able to hear those key insights from absolute leaders in the world, not just in local economies. From Ingrid Burkett to Alex Hannant, it was just sensational. I loved Ingrid’s straightforward thinking of “you need to make sure you've got a business that is a business and not just a hobby”. It needs to be actually making money, because you need to make sure you've got that business model down pat. You've got the sales, the income, and what you are doing with those profits sorted. If you're even making a profit to start off with, you must consider what to do with those profits. You need to make sure you've got a business. The key insight is you do sometimes lose, because your heart is so big that you want to help everyone and do everything, but you end up giving away too much of yourself. That was really powerful.
Alex came in at the end of the program, and it was really good to re-identify some of the things I maybe do myself, for example giving too much of myself and maybe working towards burnout.
It was really good for me to see that I'm not alone and that we have to look after ourselves if we're going to be looking after our social enterprises.
Some of those insights involved looking at my business, and some meant taking a good hard look at myself as well. I think those two combined lessons are the only way that business can move forward too.
What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently that are creating a positive social change?
Well, these are probably from my Elevate+ cohort, the group of people I was with. I’ve gotten to see them grow and expand, they're all sensational. I'm a huge fan of the startup landscape and small businesses. People like the Mend boys are creating an app that's going to completely transform what it looks like to have a chronic health condition and managing that. Then, there is the Circle Group who are using IT services to change the world. For me, my cohort are the heroes of social enterprise, and I can't wait to see where all of those journeys take them.
To finish off, what books would you recommend to our listeners?
By doing so much business, I honestly don't have that much time to read. I do listen to a lot of audio books and podcasts, including the Impact Boom podcast. I always put a little caption at the beginning of this answer that you don't always have to read to absorb information. But in terms of the books that I have found really helpful over the years, one is probably Simon Sinek’s, Start with Why. I do encourage you to use different methods of absorbing information. It’s probably going to sound really geeky, but I also really love reading the reports published by the Social Traders and Social Enterprise Australia. I'm much more of a number’s person, and I have to say that they're probably my most recent reads. I found it quite fascinating to see what's happening in the social enterprise sector, what needs to happen, and what we need to do. It fills my heart and helps my mission too.
