The Quadruple Bottom Line of BAM is a guide of sorts and a template for metrics for owners. It is part of our fabric at IBEC that we keep all four areas in mind as we coach and rejoice as we see progress. We thank God and work hard to further the progress into more progress. As we begin 2024, we rejoice with four businesses which are excellent in each of these four measures. They can be models for future success and bright lights to look back upon.
Each of these is developing well in all four measures but we highlight just one in each story. IBEC has a small part in them all as we provide coaching and consulting services.
Part 1: Profitability and sustainability – PhotoUp in the Philippines
Part 2: Job Creation – Kijani Forestry in Uganda
Part 3: Discipleship of Jesus: A Manufacturing company in Central Asia
Part 4: Stewardship of Creation: Outland Denim – Cambodia
Profitability & Sustainability at PhotoUp
The bottom line is that it’s hard to run a profitable/sustainable company while seeking to innovate, grow, and have social impact. So, how do we do it at PhotoUp operating in the real estate outsourcing industry that is notoriously low-margin and eye-wateringly seasonal? In a word: differentiation.
More specifically, we build a pipeline of value that increases as users move through their customer journey that is greater than that of our competitors. How we do this profitably is through what we call our S3 offerings of services, software, and staffing.
First, our US based sales team calls every online lead within five minutes, and our support team responds to online chats on average within 43 seconds. Second, we constantly seek to lower the barrier of entry to use our services by streamlining the sign-up and ordering process. And third, we invest in building software to help our customers run their daily operations, which we include for free when a client hires one of our dedicated staff members.
Our big ‘ah-ha’ moment was when we realized both clients and staff members were most satisfied when we let them work 1-on-1 via a 12-month dedicated staffing contract, which in turn helps reduce seasonality with each new contract.
Today, after three years of launching our new staffing offering, we have over 90 signed contracts. What’s even more amazing is these employees can be effectively managed by just a handful of managers, as daily tasks for staff are handled directly by the client.
For our team at PhotoUp, our goal is to help put people, planet, and profit on a more equal footing. The credit for our budding success goes squarely to our incredible team, a lot of perseverance, and a bit (okay, a lot) of providence. Learn more about the PhotoUp story on our website or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Larry W. Sharp, BAM Support Specialist, IBEC Ventures
Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com