The legal question.....

To become a B Corp you have to be a for profit organisation like a Limited Company or Sole Trader. Charities and Mutuals are normally not eligible to apply. B Labs which runs the B Corp organisation here in the UK have some very helpful guides that I spent quite a lot of time reading to make sure we would be eligible. I have included some links to them below

Who can certify? - https://bcorporation.uk/b-corp-certification/who-can-certify/

Overview of the assessment process - https://bcorporation.uk/b-corp-certification/how-to-certify-as-a-b-corp/bia-overview/

There is a special category for early-stage (under 12 months old) businesses called ‘Pending B Corps’. This is a great idea as it helps an early-stage business to be clear about its ambitions even if they are not yet ready for full certification. You can find more information from B Labs here - https://bcorporation.uk/b-corp-certification/how-to-certify-as-a-b-corp/pending-b-corps/. This wasn’t the right for us as we have been trading for nearly two years.

So the big legal question for all of us interested in becoming a B Corp is whether we are happy to update our Articles of Association to include mission-aligned legal language. It’s a no-brainer to us as it -

‘Provide a legal basis to allow directors to consider the interests of all stakeholders, not just shareholders, when making important decisions- this is most relevant to stipulation from our perspective as we are not planning any of the below….

Protect the company’s mission and values through capital raises and leadership changes, and give business leaders more flexibility when evaluating sale and liquidity options’

Changing our articles of association seemed a bit daunting but the good news is that here in the UK the legal change required has already been written out in helpful detail by B Labs so we could send our accountant (who acts as our Company Secretary) everything they needed. I have included a link to the help pages here - https://bcorporation.uk/b-corp-certification/how-to-certify-as-a-b-corp/legal-requirement/#guide

So OK we were happy to make the legal change - what next? Setting up an account with B Lab is what I did next especially as I love to investigate a new digital platform!!