Bearing It All EP 5: Ethical Entrepreneurship with Kate Ginsberg

Kate Ginsberg:

Hey y’all. I’m Kate Ginsberg, founder and CEO of Queen of To Do and the host here at Bearing It All. Today, I wanted to chat with you solo about what it really means to run an ethical company and be an ethical entrepreneur. This is something I don’t hear discussed very often. It often feels like the dominant narrative is that companies exist solely to be profitable, and that’s the end goal, especially with large corporations.

At Queen of To Do, we’ve been scaling for about four years now. It was just me until May of 2021. As we started to grow, I brought on Heather, my partner, who has handled operations since the beginning. She helped get everything up and running, managed the backend of the business, while I focused on the front end, customer service, training new employees, and onboarding.

Heather and I had been friends for years before working together, so we already knew that our personal values aligned. What mattered most to both of us was the people we were working with. Not profits. Not making a ton of money while paying our team minimum wage. As we grew, and we grew very quickly, we stayed focused on that. We now have 19 employees, all W-2 employees, not contractors.

We had to learn a lot, and we had to learn it quickly. But through all of it, we’ve consistently asked ourselves: What are our values? And do the decisions we’re making align with those values?

One thing we do as a company is choose a theme for each year. A couple of years ago, our theme was alignment and transparency. We wanted our team to feel comfortable coming to us with concerns, asking questions, and receiving honest answers. Alignment meant asking whether the decisions we were making were getting us closer to where we wanted to be.

We do want to build generational wealth for our families. That is part of our long-term vision. But we are not willing to do that at the expense of our team, our values, or our guiding principles.

I think where a lot of business owners run into trouble is that they’ve never really sat down and defined their company values. Or they haven’t examined whether those values align with their personal values. If your business values are not aligned with your personal values, you’re going to feel constant conflict. It’s never going to feel easy or sustainable.

Even with all the challenges of scaling quickly, learning how to be a CEO, learning how to lead effectively, and still providing exceptional customer service, everything we’ve done has been filtered through the lens of our personal values.

Profits are not the most important thing for us. We believe we will get there. We are moving in that direction consistently. But it cannot come at the expense of our team. Our team is not expendable.

Every single team member brings skills, wisdom, and knowledge to the job. They are trustworthy. They show up aligned with our values of transparency, kindness, and respect. They treat clients non-judgmentally, which is critical because many of the people we work with are in difficult or overwhelming situations.

Sometimes people are dealing with illness. Sometimes they’re neurodivergent. Sometimes their business has taken off, and they’re completely out of bandwidth. Sometimes they have busy families and kids and simply don’t want to spend their limited free time keeping their home spotless. None of that is a moral failure.

People carry a lot of shame around not having a perfect home. We do not believe in reinforcing that shame. Treating people with empathy and understanding goes a very long way.

That same kindness and respect applies to both clients and team members. We expect our team to be respectful, and we expect clients to be respectful of our team. We are explicit about this. We do not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. That is not who we are.

On occasion, that has meant making the difficult decision to release a client because their behavior did not align with our values. While we absolutely have clients whose personal opinions we may not agree with, there is no amount of money that would make me send an employee into an environment where they are not treated with respect.

Having clearly defined values and real consequences when those values are violated is one of the reasons our team stays with us long-term.

We pay our team well, far above minimum wage. We pay a living wage and, in many cases, a thriving wage. Many of our team members are able to work part-time and still meet their needs. They have time for doctor’s appointments, friendships, rest, and a life outside of work.

We don’t just tell our clients that delegation is self-care and that rest is productive. We believe that for our team as well. Our team deserves a life that is not just work and sleep.

If a team member tells me they’re taking time off, it’s not a request. It’s information. My job as CEO is to make sure coverage exists. Rest does not need to be earned.

We’ve learned that while we can teach skills, we cannot teach values. Finding people whose values align with our mission is far more important than finding people with perfect resumes. Most of our team sees the vision and wants to be part of what we’re building. When someone doesn’t align with the culture, they tend to move on naturally.

Another question we consistently ask is: What is the most important thing? If the answer is revenue, that lens will shape every decision. For us, people are the most important thing. Are we taking care of our team? Are we taking care of our clients? Are we making the lives of everyone we interact with better rather than harder?

That doesn’t mean we never get firm. But treating people with respect goes a lot further than showing up angry and reactive. We prioritize problem-solving and preserving relationships whenever possible.

If the choice is between making an extra hundred dollars or preserving a relationship, we choose the relationship. Money is not my primary motivator. Community and connection are.

We also ask whether our decisions benefit the majority of stakeholders, meaning the people impacted by those decisions. Do we have client consent before sharing photos? Are we respecting privacy? Are we presenting people fairly?

If a decision would significantly harm someone, we find another solution.

It wasn’t until participating in a professional development program about a year ago that I truly sat down and articulated our company values. For ten years, it was just me. Those personal values naturally guided the business. As we’ve grown, those values have remained foundational.

I am not the most important person in this company. I happen to be the founder and CEO, but that does not mean my success should come at the expense of others. We believe in rising together.

We distribute revenue thoughtfully. We acknowledge great work. We offer bonuses. We show appreciation. When someone asks for extra support, even if they technically could handle a task alone, we provide it. That benefits the client, the team member asking for help, the team member providing help, and the culture as a whole.

That culture of mutual support is critical as we scale.

I encourage all entrepreneurs to define their values, document them, share them with their team, and make decisions aligned with them. It’s not always easy. We’ve made mistakes. The goal is to offer ourselves grace, learn, and adjust.

Ask yourself: What are our company values? How do they show up in day-to-day decisions? How do we solve problems in a way that moves us beyond profit-driven business ownership?

Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments or reach out on our socials.