Business leaders are waking up to the power of purpose for their companies. A clear purpose can drive employee satisfaction and attract customers. It can help founders to build a business that reflects their values and goals.

Join the growing number of UK companies with a purpose beyond profit. Purposely helps you embed your purpose into the DNA of your business – in your company Articles.

Purposely is for founders who are using or considering the company limited by shares legal structure and who want to embed their purpose.

On the 7th February I was at the launch of Purposely –  new online tool which enables business to put purpose into its articles of association.

The launch was at the British Academy with an address from Professor Colin Mayor and hosted by Natalie Campbell, CEO of a very good company.

You can follow, support and share Purposely on twitter using #Purposely

It was fantastic to see so many people who are shaping a movement of purposeful businesses there to support the event including Kresse Wessling of Elvis & Kresse, the B Corp team, Blueprint for Better Business, Kin & Co, Tomorrow’s Company, DCMS and the Inclusive Economy Partnership.

In 2017 the Government launched a Mission Led Business Review

You can read the full report and recommendations here

One of the recommendations from the advisory board was:

“Government to encourage businesses to incorporate around a social purpose and commit to social impact by establishing clear entry points for entrepreneurs”

Last year the UK National Advisory Board for Impact Investing’s chapter on purposeful business published  “the rise of impact”, which included a recommendation to:

“Create a “friction free” way for new businesses to adopt social and environmental purpose in their legal articles.”

For the past year I have been part of a sounding board https://unltd.org.uk/working with UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, in partnership with law firmhttps://www.bwbllp.com/Bates Wells Braithwaite (BWB), and with strategic support from thehttps://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-digital-culture-media-sportDepartment for  Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to create an online tool to do just this.

The Purposely tool, which you can access here: https://getpurpose.ly/  is designed for smaller firms and start-ups – and helps them create, in a quick and simple way, a legal statement of their purpose.

The first-of-its-kind tool helps founders, entrepreneurs and third-party suppliers and service providers to embed a company’s purpose into their governing articles. By making it easier for businesses to have a legal commitment to social purpose, companies will be able to redefine what success looks like beyond profit and create a duty for Directors to act in line with this purpose for years to come.

“There is huge potential for businesses to play a significant role in  society by broadening prosperity and tackling inequality. As the Mission-Led Business Review showed, many business leaders recognise this but are often unaware that company law already allows them to commit to a purpose beyond profit and build this into their governing documents.”

Tracey Crouch MP, Minister for Sport and Civil Society

Purposely is accessible via a free online portal and asks users a series of questions about their business, before providing a set of modified company Articles based on their answers. This tailor-made legal framework legally obliges founders and business leaders to live aspects of their purpose, the scope of which is determined by how purpose-driven they wish to be.

If you work with start-ups, entrepreneurs or purposeful businesses and would like more information please get in touch about how we can share this tool with them.