How one life was changed through a business
Our focus is always on people, which is the first part of the Triple Bottom Line (3BL). Impacting just one person through gainful employment can affect a broader circle around them. The 3BL ensures that we never lose focus on the priorities of benefiting people and communities. We do this through gainful employment, giving access to broader markets for their products, helping the environment through sustainable practices, and ensuring that the business and the business model remain a viable benefit for years to come.
But what is the impact on a person? How does it really affect them and their families to start these social businesses in these remote regions? Here is one story from an entrepreneur on how a life was changed through a local business startup.
We sat on the warehouse patio, sharing freshly picked lychee with our friend and manager, Noy. As we were chatting, we felt free to ask him a question that we had been curious about hearing his perspective on: “How has life changed for you since you’ve started working for us?” As he looked at us with a smile on his face, we waited for his response. Before he could answer, not wanting to make him feel he had to answer a certain way, we jumped in with, “Or maybe it hasn’t changed that much at all… Has it?”
“Oh, wow!” he exclaimed, “My life has changed drastically since you hired me!”
He went on to explain. “Before working for you, I never had money to do anything. I had to work so hard to feed my family. We had mountain gardens and spent all our time working the land to have enough food on the table. If anything came up that we needed money for, even simple school supplies for our sons, we had to borrow money from relatives. If they had none, our only hope was that there would be a truck coming by needing to hire a few of us to shovel sand that day. There was no way ever to save money or even plan for the future. I drove a beat-up motorcycle that broke down more often than it ran, and I always owed money to my relatives and friends.”
Noy continued, with that smile never fading, that life was very different indeed. He no longer had to work the mountain gardens. He chuckled shyly that his new motorcycle has been a nice change to drive around on. Knowing he has a paycheck coming each month has allowed his family to own a few luxuries for the first time. He’s been able to buy a refrigerator and even a gas cooking stove, which means his wife no longer has to haul as many heavy baskets of firewood from the mountains to their home. When one of his kids gets sick, he has money for medicine. If their teachers ask for new supplies, they can go to the market and buy what they need. If their roof begins to leak or they need to get a new part for their rice huller, they know they can count on their paycheck to help cover those expenses. Having never had an opportunity to receive a stable income before in his life, this new ability to plan and save money is freeing.
Noy nodded his head with a faraway look in his eyes as he thought back on how much his life has changed since he began working for us. “Yes,” he summed up, “It is very good to have my job. I am thrilled you gave me this opportunity to work for you.”
All it takes is just one opportunity. For Noy, it led to radical changes in his life that benefited his entire family. Now, they can afford better access to healthcare and education. Dozens of families such as Noy’s experienced the same change in their lives thanks to other Solbon partners across South East Asia. All it takes are socially-minded entrepreneurs willing to take the risk to see lasting change.
To learn more about the business that Noy manages CLICK HERE.