I've been working on this project for over a year and it's now really taking shape and picking up momentum. I feel now is the time to speed up and build a team, so I need to get others involved.
In the short term, I want to expand the team with the following roles:
- Content writer(s) / journalist / Bcorp & GRI experts to help with the reviews.
- A PR, content and social media manager to help with publicity, getting links and traffic.
And in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future I need knowledge and skills related to:
- Finance
- Legal
- Business administration
- PR
- Data specialist
- Developer & designer
Now for anyone who want to consider to join me, please carefully read the following:
Values
Anyone who joins my team must 100% align with my company goals and values.
Most important is that there is no hierarchy and no management. Every person needs to be clear on their role and responsibilities and understand how his or her role depends on and relates to others. Everybody reports to everyone.
All people I work with need to respect and understand the value of transparency. Everything (except passwords and privacy-sensitive data) will need to be able to made publicly available upon request. So everybody better be on their best behaviour and only act in the interest of the company goal. There is no room for selfishness.
Skills
Skills need to fit the roles that need to be filled in the short and long term. I will invest a lot in finding the right candidate with the goal of him/her staying with me for a long time. So current skills need to fit current needs, but ambitions need to align with future needs too.
Salary & compensation
Now, this is a difficult topic. I still have little experience with running a business. I do have clear ideas about what I want and also, my B Corp certification ambitions come with certain requirements.
Currently, the site is being bootstrapped by me. There is no salary until there is enough revenue to pay for minimum operation costs and recover expenses made so far. Once there is revenue to split among operation costs and salary, I intend to split gains fairly with my team.
My idea is that I will only employ people essential to achieving the mission. Any other task is outsourced to 3rd parties. Since every team member will be crucial it seems fair that everybody earns more or less the same because everybody’s role and contribution are equally essential. To give an indication, the average pay ratio for B Corps is 7:1 (the average pay ratio for all businesses is 144:1).
How much is enough?
This question I plan to dedicate an entire post to this in the future as there is a lot to be said about it.
All I know at this moment is that my goal is not to become a millionaire. I have no ambition to own multiple sportscars, a yacht or a private jet, nor do I care for fashion or jewellery.
Money is a means to an end, not a goal in itself.
The goal is to earn as much money as possible for the Peas Unlimited Foundation and do good to the world and create opportunities for others to have a good life.
I find it important that we aim to live within the planetary boundaries and reduce consumption. I like a good life which requires some basics. A good life and happiness are not found in material things, but rather in health, relationships (love is connection) and experiences.
I'm thinking of capping salary to an x amount of the median income of the country of residence. Maybe the salary of a member of the European parliament could be a good guide, which is about €120k annually before taxes.
To be continued and updated once it becomes relevant.
