Report #4

Executive Summary

The fourth year in business brought clarity and refinement of our services and our impact and value in the world. But we dropped the ball with our donation. One thing that's solidified is our commitment to continuing to show up honestly. It's a never ending learning and improvement journey.

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The Harvey team - all smiles!

We felt the pressure of life and business, but continued to deliver impactful work we're proud of.

The fourth year in business brought clarity and refinement of our services and our impact and value in the world. But we dropped the ball with our donation. One thing that's solidified is our commitment to continuing to show up honestly. It's a never ending learning and improvement journey.

May 2, 2023: The Harvey team - all smiles! 📸 From left to right: Gillian Perreira, Sarah O’ Terra, Ashe Davenport, Rebecca Smallchua, Rachel Lai and Simon Smallchua. (Update: Gillian, who was exploring a sustainability fashion / e-commerce venture, and Ashe, who embarked on a new journey in disability support, have bid farewell to their roles at The Business Pickle & Harvey.)

First things first: what or who is Harvey & The Business Pickle? Harvey, which I founded in in 2019, and proudly supported by our fluffy, four-legged namesake (Harvey), is a strategic marketing company with a simple mission: to help conscious businesses grow. Our new business The Business Pickle - is an Impact Strategy consultancy providing research and strategic planning to help conscious businesses increase their impact. For simplicity, we’ve combined all impact reporting into this one report as we operate with lots of overlap and shared resources.

From the clients we work with to the suppliers we choose, we generate as much positive impact as possible. The goal is to help brands follow their purpose, build community and create meaningful change.

This is our 4th Impact Report, a 7-part snapshot of what FY 22-23 looked like - good, bad and everything in between. This report is our commitment to transparency and accountability and is useful in helping us see where we can be doing better. I hope that by sharing our learnings, we might help someone on their business impact journey. It’s a labour of love, taking valuable hours, casting our minds back to 18mths ago, and reliving challenging times but I know it’s important.

This Impact Report is a summary of our FY22-23, broken into 7 parts plus this executive summary.

  1. FY22-23 Results - traffic light review 
  2. Clients - Help conscious business grow
  3. Team - Enable everyone to be their best
  4. Community - Enrich the community where we operate
  5. Environment - Regenerate and accelerate
  6. Governance - Open, fair and efficient operations
  7. Goals - eyes on FY 23-24

My personal highlights

We dropped the ball on our donation

It hasn’t all been positive. Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to make our annual 5% revenue donation this year due to our financial position. This was a difficult conclusion to come to as it’s something we have done every year since our first year in business, we should’ve donated about $32k (in line with previous years). I’m sorry to anyone we let down and hope to make this year’s donation in future years.

Our theory of change

We’ve also formalised our Theory of Change and made that our whole business strategy.

Harvey

Impact: We help impactful businesses grow with sustainable profits and growth trajectory.

Outcomes: Our clients walk away with

  • Clear brand positioning
  • Clear and confident customer growth areas 
  • Smart, targeted and measurable marketing activities
  • Optimised digital / UX 
  • Value for money
  • Harvey as a trusted partner.

Activities & Outputs: We deliver smart, no nonsense strategic marketing in the following areas.

  • Customer Research 
  • Brand 
  • Website
  • Marketing 
  • Technology 

Enablers: To us, our unique ways of working are just as important as the outcomes we seek.

The Business Pickle

Impact: We help organisations step-forward to create meaningful impact while maintaining profit.

Outcomes: Our clients walk away with

  • Clear roadmap endorsed by leadership & understood by team
  • After 12 months - 80% on track to goal & team is empowered. 
  • Realistic about current impact and tradeoffs with profit
  • Have new meaningful measurable impact  
  • Conscious of impact potential / improvement 
  • Leaders to inspire systems/industry wide change

Activities & Outputs: We provide high quality, holistic advice without the price tag of top tier consultants.

  • Consulting: ESG research and strategy
  • Community: content and research

Enablers: To us, our unique ways of working are just as important as the outcomes we seek.

  • Free research and resources 
  • Guided by our values
  • Marketing & PR
  • Impact and thought leadership (demonstrated in this report) 
  • Process, people & culture

We worked with impactful organisations of all shapes, sizes and industries

May 2, 2023: The team stumbling upon the office’s best kept meme

We’ve continued to do what we love across research, brand, marketing and leant much more into tech and impact strategy - across a total of 34 clients this year.

{{client-services-list}}

My reflection on this report

As I reflect on the last four years since starting Harvey, one of the greatest challenges for me is being comfortable with sharing openly and honestly with the good, bad and unknown. 

Perhaps it is my corporate background or my asian culture / upbringing that’s led me to save face and portray I’ve got it all figured out, when really I might not have. So I’ve taken a leaf out of Brene Brown’s philosophy on embracing courage in vulnerability. This applies to how we lead the team, sharing finances openly, pushing for what we believe are best recommendations to clients (even if it’s uncomfortable / resistant), giving / asking for and acting on hard feedback, baring all in our annual impact report, owning our learning and development areas and calling out where we fall short.

Managing a business as a married couple, with 2 babies under 3, recovering from maternity leave (physically, emotionally, financially and the impact it’s had on the business) and building a house has put an immense pressure on us personally. Ooff. But being honest about where I’m at with ourselves and the team took the pressure off massively. 

Sometimes new parents can’t finish their senten…

During the first month back, I opted for low intensity, internal work instead of highly strategic client jobs. I shared openly about my experience of baby brain and women rejoining the workforce after a transition to motherhood that I don’t think is talked about or understood enough here.

The reality is, balancing impact and profit is tough—for us and our clients. Our economic future is uncertain, and climate change seems irreversible. But amidst it all, humans keep doing incredible things, inventing, changing, and learning.

Am I hopeful? 

It's a rollercoaster. Yet, every day, week, month, and year, I remain optimistic, making positive things happen. We focus on progress, take one step at a time, show up authentically and remain grateful for our health, family and privilege.

Our work is easier with amazing people and partners. Looking ahead, we want our impact to grow, our team and clients to thrive - ultimately I want Harvey & The Business Pickle to help many businesses create a better world.

I wish for momentum for our planet and children

In the grand scheme, I wish for momentum, turning ideas into lasting change. We want leaders to connect profit and purpose, slow down global warming, and see more people leading meaningful lives.

And for Margie, Arthur, and all young folks in our world, we hope they have a promising future—working on change, addressing challenges, and seizing opportunities left by previous generations.

Becky Smallchua x

May 2, 2023: Simon and Becky trying not to be awkward at our team photoshoots
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  • Maintain B Corp score from 134.1 with workers included
🟢
  • We officially re-certified in November 2023, and are pleased to report we achieved the same score (to the decimal point). Wild! We shared our experience of recertification here.
  • Share templates, documents, insight into business for good
🟠
  • We haven't done this publicly, but when people have asked, we have shared. And we're sharing a series of things as part of this impact report.
  • Maintain current ownership and governance
🟢
  • Harvey is 100% owned by the Smallchua Family Trust. Rebecca Smallchua is our sole Director.
  • Re-use, recycle and manage dangerous waste
🟢
  • We continue to implement our hazardous waste policy and are on a continuous learning and improvement journey.
  • We repair damaged hardware and minimise purchasing of new equipment.
  • Personally we're all Facebook Marketplace fans.
  • Be climate positive at work and at home
🟠
  • We don't track our CO2 emissions, rather we take a much more general and high emissions view. However, this year, we didn't donate to the environment (see above) so we can't say we countered our CO2.
  • Advocate for climate change / inspire sustainable living
🟢
  • We hosted a panel event on Zero Emissions Day in September 2023, along with our friends at Portable, where we interviewed industry experts on the opportunity to engage with community and work towards a more sustainable future. Recording here.
  • Donate 5% to the environment
🔴
  • We didn't make the donation this year as we're revisiting our impact giving model - more details here
  • Invest $20k in impact businesses plus $20k of pro bono time
🔴
  • We delivered some pro bono time but dropped the ball and had no official measurements in place.
  • We also did not invest $20k in impact businesses, and are reviewing this goal going forward. In the last 12 months, our three Impact Investments all lost their value (Whole Kids, Pronto Bottle & Kester Black). While it's not great, we accept this is part of ambitious investing, and each had their own challenges that they couldn't quite overcome.
  • Buy with intention from local and discriminated groups
🟢
  • We continue to be intentional about our suppliers as outlined in our policy and report the details in the Community chapter of our report.
  • Protest and boycott important issues (Australia Day, Melbourne Cup)
🟢
  • Yes and yes!
  • 9 day fortnights, with option for 4 day weeks
🟢
  • 80% work 9 day fortnights, 40% part-time hours, 10% standard working hours.
  • Improve and increase capability across team
🟢
  • Raising our emotional health levels through a leadership development program with Global Leadership Foundation.
  • Expanding output skills: Market research, Web design, content & copywriting, strategy & development and automation strategy.
  • Targeted and clear personal growth, if we are better our clients will be
🟢
  • A new process for 360 feedback, plus personal goal setting questionnaires that ask the big questions of where we want to go and how we'll get there. Also lots of accountability check-ins.

Client survey metrics

  • 3 / 5 value for money (1 - 'could charge less' and 5 - 'could charge more')
  • 8 / 10 likely to recommend
🟢
  • 3.4 / 5 value for money
  • 9.2 / 10 likely to recommend

No destructive clients. Revenue breakdown: 17% Good, 59% Great, 24% Amazing

🟠
  • No destructive clients.
  • Revenue breakdown: 17% Good, 59% Great, 24% Amazing (A little over on Good and under on Great, but on target for Amazing - which is most important, so we're happy with that)
  • All staff spend 80%+ of their time on clients
🔴
  • Spent 64% of our time on clients (under). Due to team changes (recruitment, onboarding and offboarding) and extra investment in training, personal development and community engagement (e.g. B Local), we did not hit this target. On reflection, we will think 80% is too ambitious and we'll be revising to 70% going forward.
  • Regular, honest check-ins about how we feel
🟢
  • Stand ups, development sessions, watercooler chats, impact updates and more.

$994k revenue (Up $211k on FY2223)

🔴
  • $833,588. Revenue was up 6% YoY. Midway through the year, we adjusted down our target to $879k as team growth / services shifted. The main reasons we didn't hit target were scope creep and overruns, both of which we're trying to manage better with process improvements.
  • Maintain B Corp score from 134.1 with workers included
🟢
  • We applied for our B Corp re-certification at the end of this financial year and are pleased to report we achieved the same score (to the decimal point). Wild!
  • Share templates, documents, insight into business for good
🟠
  • We haven't actively done this publicly, but when people have asked, we have shared. And we're sharing a series of things as part of this impact report.
  • Maintain current ownership and governance
🟢
  • Harvey is 100% owned by the Smallchua Family Trust and Rebecca Smallchua is our sole Director.
  • Re-use, recycle and manage dangerous waste
🟢
  • We continue to implement our hazardous waste policy and are on a continuous learning and improvement journey.
  • We repair damaged hardware and minimise purchasing of new equipment.
  • Personally we're all Facebook Marketplace fans.
  • Donate 5% to the environment
🔴
  • We fell short here, we didn't make the donation. More details here.
  • Advocate for climate change / inspire sustainable living
🟢
  • Be climate positive at work and at home
🟠
  • We don't track our CO2 emissions, rather we take a much more general and high emissions view. However, this year, we didn't donate to the environment (see above) so we can't say we countered our CO2.
  • Protest and boycott important issues (Australia Day, Melbourne Cup)
🟢
  • Have a RAP, engaged stakeholders and implemented more change
🔴
  • Due to competing priorities and limited time (no lack in desire) we de-prioritised our Reconciliation Action Plan as we want to do it meaningfully and have the capacity to follow through. However, we took a few first steps outlined here.
  • Buy with intention from local and discriminated groups
🟢
  • We continue to be intentional about our suppliers as outlined in our policy and report the details in the Community chapter of our report. We took it one step further this year with a public call to pledge to audit suppliers in this campaign www.supplier-impact.com
  • Invest $20k in impact businesses plus $20k of 100% pro bono time
🟠
  • We delivered some pro bono time but dropped the ball and had no official measurements in place. We also did not invest $20k in impact businesses because of the reduced revenue with Becky on maternity leave.
  • Sarah personally donated her photography equipment valued at around $7,500 to empower a content and brand producer in the Solomon Islands.
  • 9 day fortnights, with option for 4 day weeks
🟠
  • 40% work 9 day fortnights, 40% part-time hours, 20% standard working hours.
  • Improve and increase capability across team
🟢
  • Elevated our tool nerd level. See here.
  • Expanding output skills: Market research, Web design, strategy & development, video editing, and automation strategy.
  • Targeted and clear personal growth, if we are better our clients will be
🟢
  • Lots of on-the-tools growth, structured learning through weekly Lunch 'n Learns and Intro to Programming at RMIT.

No destructive clients. Revenue breakdown: 15% Good, 60% Great, 25% Amazing (Here's what the classifications mean)

🟢
  • No destructive clients.
  • Revenue breakdown: 10% Good, 66% Great, 25% Amazing
  • All staff spend 70%+ of their time on clients
🟢
  • Spent 71% of our time on clients (over by only 76 hours).

Client survey metrics

  • 3 /5 value for money
  • 8 / 10 likely to recommend
🟢
  • 3.4 / 5 value for money
  • 8.8 / 10 likely to recommend

Maintain current revenue

🟠
  • Revenue down 16% YoY
  • Regular, honest check-ins about how we feel
🟢
  • Stand ups, development sessions, watercooler chats, impact updates and more.

New

Returning

22 Bricks
ABCH
ATEC
Abundant Water
Anantaya Jewellery
B Lab ANZ
BZE
Bank Australia
CPSN
Certification O
Chaulk
Client Fabric
Clockwork Films
Common Ground
Compass Studio
Cyclion
Dog & Bone
Envirotecture
Evee
Farm My School
Fellten
Gewürzhaus
Global Leadership Foundation
Goodtel
Green Collar
Hagens Organics
Hey Doodle
Jasper Coffee
Jaunt
KOSI
KingPump
LVLY
Lee Christison
Lumen
MIIROKO
MK Local Foods
Marnie Hawson
Merry People
Nexa Advisory
No Lights No Lycra
North West Guadalcanal Association (NWGA)
OBG
One Small Step
Parliament of Victoria
Peninsula Hot Springs
Pixii
Portable
Possible
Prisma Legal
ReCo
Shadowboxer
Strongim Bisnis
Studio Schools Australia
Thankyou
The Next Economy
The Salvage Yard
The Sociable Weaver
Time
WIRE
Whole Kids
iDE

B Corp

Not-for-profit

Diverse ownership

22 Bricks
ABCH
ATEC
Abundant Water
Anantaya Jewellery
B Lab ANZ
BZE
Bank Australia
CPSN
Certification O
Chaulk
Client Fabric
Clockwork Films
Common Ground
Compass Studio
Cyclion
Dog & Bone
Envirotecture
Evee
Farm My School
Fellten
Gewürzhaus
Global Leadership Foundation
Goodtel
Green Collar
Hagens Organics
Hey Doodle
Jasper Coffee
Jaunt
KOSI
KingPump
LVLY
Lee Christison
Lumen
MIIROKO
MK Local Foods
Marnie Hawson
Merry People
Nexa Advisory
No Lights No Lycra
North West Guadalcanal Association (NWGA)
OBG
One Small Step
Parliament of Victoria
Peninsula Hot Springs
Pixii
Portable
Possible
Prisma Legal
ReCo
Shadowboxer
Strongim Bisnis
Studio Schools Australia
Thankyou
The Next Economy
The Salvage Yard
The Sociable Weaver
Time
WIRE
Whole Kids
iDE

No items found.

Research

Brand

Website

Marketing

Technology

Impact Strategy

22 Bricks
ABCH
ATEC
Abundant Water
Anantaya Jewellery
B Lab ANZ
BZE
Bank Australia
CPSN
Certification O
Chaulk
Client Fabric
Clockwork Films
Common Ground
Compass Studio
Cyclion
Dog & Bone
Envirotecture
Evee
Farm My School
Fellten
Gewürzhaus
Global Leadership Foundation
Goodtel
Green Collar
Hagens Organics
Hey Doodle
Jasper Coffee
Jaunt
KOSI
KingPump
LVLY
Lee Christison
Lumen
MIIROKO
MK Local Foods
Marnie Hawson
Merry People
Nexa Advisory
No Lights No Lycra
North West Guadalcanal Association (NWGA)
OBG
One Small Step
Parliament of Victoria
Peninsula Hot Springs
Pixii
Portable
Possible
Prisma Legal
ReCo
Shadowboxer
Strongim Bisnis
Studio Schools Australia
Thankyou
The Next Economy
The Salvage Yard
The Sociable Weaver
Time
WIRE
Whole Kids
iDE
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