Can Small Businesses Be a Force for Good?

Can small businesses really be a force for good? Absolutely. But we need to talk about what that takes.

Reflections from Team Boo on responsible business, healthy and happy workplaces and the power of SMEs.

I’ve been reading the Institute of Directors’ newly published report, Business. A Force for Good?, and it’s given me plenty to think about, particularly as the founder of a small business that has spent the last 14 years trying to make workplaces healthier and happier.

The report explores what makes businesses more likely to have a positive impact on society. Not simply whether they make money, create jobs or have a lovely set of values on their website, but whether the way they operate genuinely makes things better for the people and communities around them.

It’s a conversation I’m really pleased to see happening, because I think small businesses have an enormous part to play in creating a fairer, healthier and happier society. But I also think we need to be realistic about what that involves.

At Boo, we are proudly purpose-led. We believe in good employment, fair pay, compassionate leadership, social value and the importance of community. We want people to feel safe, seen and supported at work, and we try very hard to practise what we encourage other organisations to do. But we’re also a small business with bills to pay, salaries to meet, customers to look after and all the challenges that come with running an SME. I think both sides of that story matter.

Small businesses, enormous collective influence

One of the figures that jumped out at me was that SMEs make up 99.85% of UK businesses and employ around 60% of the private sector workforce. That’s millions of people whose experiences of work, opportunities and wellbeing are influenced by decisions made in small businesses.

We often associate responsible business with large organisations, substantial social value budgets and glossy sustainability reports. But there’s an enormous amount of good happening quietly in small businesses across our towns and communities.

Think about the independent business that gives someone their first job, the employer who makes adjustments to help someone remain in work, the company that invests in developing its managers or the business owner who supports a local charity, mentors another entrepreneur or chooses to spend money with other local suppliers. These things matter, and while one small business might have limited resources, collectively we have the potential to make an extraordinary difference.

Healthy and happy workplaces are good business

One of the findings I particularly welcomed was the importance the report places on how businesses treat their people. In the IoD’s May 2026 survey, 79% of respondents considered the fair treatment, development and wellbeing of employees very important to long-term organisational success.

This is music to our ears at Boo! We’ve spent years encouraging organisations to recognise that workplace happiness isn’t a fluffy extra. It isn’t about beanbags, pizza Fridays or occasionally asking people how they’re feeling. It’s about leadership, trust, fairness, psychological safety, belonging and creating an environment where people can do their best work without sacrificing their wellbeing.

It’s why we recently published our Booprint for Happiness at Work, bringing together the things we believe make the biggest difference to people’s everyday experiences at work. Our Booprint challenges the idea that happiness is something employers can simply provide through occasional initiatives. Instead, it encourages leaders to think about the conditions they’re creating, the behaviours they’re modelling and the everyday experiences of the people they employ.

And I think this is where the IoD report and our Booprint connect so beautifully (or BOOtifully). You can have wonderful values, impressive accreditations and a brilliant social value statement, but if your people feel frightened to speak up, unsupported by their managers or exhausted by unreasonable expectations, something isn’t working.

Being a force for good starts with how people experience your business, not how you describe it. Good employment is social value.

Being a good employer isn’t always the easiest or cheapest option

At Boo, we’re proud to be a Real Living Wage employer, part of the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter community and a longstanding accredited member of the Good Business Charter. In fact, we were there right at the beginning, before Covid, and I think we may even have been the first microbusiness to sign up!

These commitments weren’t about collecting badges or keeping up with the latest business trends. They reflected the kind of business we wanted Boo to be, long before responsible business became such a prominent part of the conversation. And I think it’s important to say that doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest or cheapest option.

As an SME owner, there are times when you’re balancing the desire to invest more in your people with the reality of cashflow, rising costs and uncertainty about what the next few months might bring. When you’re a small team, every decision matters. We want to offer flexibility, development, fair pay, meaningful work and a genuinely supportive environment, while also making sure we’re building a financially resilient business that can continue providing those things.

Profit isn’t a dirty word. It’s what allows businesses like ours to employ people, invest in their futures, support our communities and keep delivering work that matters. What I particularly appreciated about the IoD report was its recognition that responsible business needs to be commercially sustainable.

We can encourage small businesses to pay fairly, invest in wellbeing, support their communities and operate responsibly, but we also need to consider the conditions they’re operating within. Late payments, procurement processes that prioritise the lowest price and increasing costs all affect the ability of SMEs to invest in the things we know make workplaces better.

If larger organisations genuinely value social responsibility, that needs to extend to how they treat the smaller businesses in their supply chains. You can’t champion good employment while expecting your suppliers to deliver everything for less and wait months to be paid. That feels like a conversation worth having.

Good leadership is where it all begins

Another theme running throughout the report is the importance of ethical leadership, organisational culture and accountability. At Boo, our mission has always included helping bosses be better bosses. Not because we think managers are the problem, but because we know the enormous influence they have on people’s experiences at work.

A good manager can help someone develop confidence, navigate difficult circumstances, feel valued and discover abilities they didn’t know they had. A poor manager can have quite the opposite effect. So much of this comes down to the everyday things. How we communicate, how we listen, how we respond when someone makes a mistake, how we manage pressure and whether we genuinely live the values we talk about.

The IoD report challenges businesses to look beyond good intentions and consider whether their structures and cultures actually encourage good decisions. I love that distinction. It’s not enough to say we care about people. We need to demonstrate it in how we lead, how we make decisions and what we’re prepared to challenge.

And that applies to us at Boo just as much as it applies to the organisations we work alongside. We don’t get everything right. We’re human, we’re learning and sometimes we’re juggling more than we’d like. But we try to remain curious, reflective and willing to do things differently. That’s what good leadership should look like.

The social value of being rooted in your community

Boo is proudly based in Bolton, and I absolutely love being part of our local business and voluntary sector community. Through our involvement in We Are Bolton and the many brilliant charities, community organisations and businesses we work alongside, I see the value of collaboration every day. I’m also incredibly proud to Chair the Bolton Family Social Value Partnership, which brings organisations together around a shared ambition to make Bolton an even better place to live, work and grow.

We’ve recently refreshed our Bolton Family Social Value Pledges, aligning them with the six missions of the Bolton 2040 Vision. What I love about these pledges is how practical and accessible they are. They recognise that social value isn’t just about charitable donations or big corporate initiatives. It’s about the choices we make every day, from paying the Real Living Wage and buying from local suppliers to creating opportunities for young people, supporting community organisations and looking after the wellbeing of our workforce.

One of the most important distinctions we’ve made is between social value, which is what we do, and social impact, which is the difference we make.

It’s a simple distinction, but an important one. We can all be busy doing good things, but are those things making a meaningful difference to the people and communities we’re trying to support? That’s why our pledges encourage organisations to think about both their commitments and the outcomes they create. And crucially, they’re designed to be achievable for businesses of all sizes. You don’t need an enormous budget or a dedicated social value team to contribute to a thriving Bolton. You just need to recognise the influence you have and be willing to use it positively. Take a look at our latest impact report here!

Purpose is important, but so is being honest about our impact

The IoD report identifies seven dimensions that help businesses reflect on their purpose, accountability, ownership, incentives, wider impact, relationships and customers. What I particularly like is that it doesn’t suggest smaller businesses need complicated governance structures or endless reporting. Instead, it encourages us to ask better questions.

Are we making decisions that reflect our purpose? Are we treating people fairly? Are we sharing opportunities? Are we building positive relationships with our customers and suppliers? Are we thinking about our long-term impact rather than simply the next financial return? These are questions that any business owner can ask, regardless of whether they employ three people or three thousand.

At Boo, our values are about enjoying what we do with vibrancy and energy, collaborating to create the perfect customer solution, caring for our team, our customers and our community, and understanding and valuing what is important to each individual. They’re not simply words we’ve chosen because they sound nice. They’re the things we want people to experience when they work with us or alongside us. In our Booprint for Happiness at Work, we explore how values need to show up in our everyday behaviours, including how we listen to one another, approach difficult conversations, manage conflict and take responsibility when things don’t go quite to plan. I think that’s particularly important for small businesses, where the culture is often shaped by just a handful of people and the decisions we make every day. Having values doesn’t automatically make us a values-led business. It’s whether we continue to demonstrate them when we’re busy, under pressure or facing difficult choices that really matters.

Are we still caring for our people when we’re under pressure? Are we making space to understand what’s important to each individual, rather than assuming everyone needs the same things? Are we genuinely collaborating with our customers to find the best solutions, and are we creating an environment where people can bring energy and enjoyment to their work? Those are the everyday moments that shape our culture and ultimately determine whether we’re making the positive difference we set out to make.

We need to make it easier for good businesses to thrive

There’s another important message I take from this report. If we want more businesses to become a force for good, responsibility cannot sit solely with individual business owners.

Government, policymakers, investors, commissioners and larger organisations all have a role in creating an environment where responsible business practices are supported and rewarded. We need procurement that recognises quality, good employment and social value. We need fair payment practices. We need policies that recognise the realities of running smaller businesses, and we need to stop treating investment in people as an optional extra.

Most importantly, we need to recognise that healthy businesses and healthy communities depend on one another. When businesses thrive responsibly, they create employment, develop skills, contribute to the local economy and support public services. When people are healthy, supported, fairly paid and able to participate in work, businesses benefit too.

If we want businesses to be a force for good, we need to create the conditions that allow good businesses to thrive.

So, can business be a force for good?

Absolutely. And I think thousands of small businesses already are. But I don’t think being a force for good is something you can simply declare. It’s something you demonstrate through your decisions, your relationships, your leadership and the experiences of the people around you.

For us at Boo, that means continuing to champion healthy and happy workplaces, helping bosses be better bosses, investing in our own team and contributing to the community we’re so proud to be part of. It also means being honest about the challenges of running a small business and recognising that we’re always learning.

Our Booprint for Happiness at Work encourages organisations to think about the conditions that help people flourish. Perhaps we need to apply that same thinking to the wider business community and ask what conditions we need to create to help responsible small businesses flourish too.

Because if we want businesses to be a force for good, we need to help them be successful, sustainable and genuinely good places to work. And I reckon that’s a pretty worthwhile ambition.

Becci Martin
Founder and Director, Boo Coaching & Consulting

Inspired by the Institute of Directors’ Business. A Force for Good? report (2026) and our own work developing the Booprint for Happiness at Work.