Entrepreneurial Spirit + Business Metrics Focus = Social Impact Success 

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In This Episode

Are you constantly feeling like everything you see online makes it seem like everyone else is doing better, succeeding faster and are just overall better at business and entrepreneurship than you? Have you been chasing that overnight success? Our guest today, Matt Symes has a frank and direct attitude towards helping people understand where the issues in their business are. He calls out some of the perfect success stories that are highlighted and talks about the struggles real companies face as they grow.

If you are an entrepreneur, this is a must-listen episode! Put your headphones in to listen, though as this lively conversation has a few explicit words thrown in.

Episode Breakdown

First 10 Minutes 
We re-introduce Matt Symes of Simplicity Designs and realize we may have a missing episode somewhere in our archives. The group talks about what Simplicity Designs does and how it works with businesses. The group discusses entrepreneurship and where businesses run into issues and the mindsets that need to be shifted to succeed.

10 Minutes – 20 Minutes
Matt expands on his point about how a lot of business struggle and fail when they grow into the 1.5 – 5 million revenue range. The group talks about how, as the business grows, you hit infrastructure issues by needing more resources that you might not be able to afford. The group talks about the type of people or perspectives that are necessary to continue the progression of the company.

20 Minutes – 30 Minutes
The group has an honest conversation about the reality of entrepreneurship. They talk about books to read, how people are always trying to make things seem perfect online, and how you should be honest about your journey.

Matt Symes

Matt Symes

Founding Partner, Symplicity Designs

Matt is a Founding Partner at Symplicity Designs. Over the last decade, he has helped introduce more than 350 organizations to the Principles, Methods, and Tools of Performance Excellence. Over the last 6 years, he has guided the deep transformation of numerous organizations in all sectors. He has led the successful transformation of companies as large as 30m in revenue to as small as a 2 person, 250k PR firm. His passion, though, is to help Small and Medium sized Businesses scale – They are the engine of our economy.

Matt has also worked to help Government improve and co-led Symplicity’s largest and longest transformation with the Francophone education sector in New Brunswick. As a part of being B-Corp certified, Symplicity has given more than 3.2m in Low-bono, Pro-Bono, and cash in support of various Not-For-Profits. Matt has led most of these efforts, including the most recent work with the IWK Foundation.
In addition to guiding the growth of organizations across Atlantic Canada, he is also charged with leading the growth internally at Symplicity. He is in the trenches with you, scaling an organization right here in Atlantic Canada and living the same Problems, Challenges, and Opportunities as all of you.

About Symplicity Designs

Symplicity Designs Recognized as a “Best For The World” B Corp for exceptional community impact in Atlantic Canada
(Moncton, NB) Symplicity Designs, a Certified B Corporation, has been named a Best For The World honoree in recognition of their significant positive impact on their community and for how they’ve built this level of care into their business model. Symplicity was one of three companies recognized in Atlantic Canada in the Changemaker category. The category celebrates this year’s most-improved Changemakers, whose impact score improvement ranked in the top 20 percent of all global B Corps.

Ranking in the top 10 percent of all 3,000 B Corps for their positive impact on their community, Symplicity Designs earned this honour because, after achieving B Corp status, they used the B Impact Assessment as a springboard to seek out more ways to improve their impact on the world and in their local community. Symplicity Designs was also assessed on their practices and policies around community service and charitable giving, including whether their product or service is designed to solve a social issue, such as access to basic services, health, education, economic opportunity and the arts.
“When we founded the company, we pursued the B Corp certification because we believe that their critical set of measures will guide us on our journey to improve the world, through every business we work with,” said Matt Symes, Managing Partner. “It’s not just about profit, but about purpose”.
Best For The World recognition is administered by B Lab, the global nonprofit that certifies and supports Certified B Corporations, which are for-profit companies dedicated to using business as a force for good. Today there are 3,000 Certified B Corporations across 64 countries and 150 industries, unified by one common goal: to redefine success in business.

B Corps meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corp Certification doesn’t just evaluate a product or service, it assesses the overall positive impact of the company that stands behind it—like Symplicity Designs. Using the B Impact Assessment, B Lab evaluates how a company’s operations and business model impact its workers, community, environment, and customers. To achieve the B Corp Certification, a company must achieve a score of at least 80 points on the assessment.
1,000 B Corps from 44 countries were named to the 2019 Best For The World lists, including Patagonia, Beautycounter, Dr. Bronner’s, TOMS, Seventh Generation, and Greyston Bakery. The 2019 Best For The World honorees are determined based on the verified B Impact Assessments of Certified B Corporations. The full lists are available on https://bcorporation.net/.