Couples in ethical business: what’s love got to do with it?
Quite simply, everything!
Alanna & Pete Chapman of 27seconds Wine with their family in their beautiful vinyard in Wairapa, Christchurch.
When we talk about business, how often does the word ‘love’ come to mind?
From age-old war references (strategy, capture the market) to advice like “never mix business with pleasure”, the business world is riddled with divisive language and ideology.
How might our world be better today if businesses were built on love, purpose and the desire to empower others?
In the spirit of celebrating love this Valentine’s Day, we spoke to some of the wonderful couples on fair&good who are using their business to do what they love AND make a positive impact. Here are their insights on what it’s really like to run an ethical business together and how they make it work!
Kristy and Achan - Aho Creative
Aho Creative creates taonga (treasures) that celebrate and whakamana (affirm) the unique identity, culture, and aesthetic inheritance in Aotearoa, New Zealand. From beautiful scarves and clothing to intricately carved wooden kitchenware, Aho’s products are designed to be treasured but also used– fusing art with form and function.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about running an ethical business with your partner?
I don’t think we ever set out to run an ethical business in a way, because neither of us had run ethical businesses before. So the whole creation of Aho as a business has been an incredibly steep and wonderful learning curve. Since we didn’t have a business background, we brought ourselves to what we wanted to create. Instead of being guided by traditional business advice or methods, we’ve been guided by our gut and by our tikanga.
We wanted to build a business that reflects our whakaaro Māori and is rooted in our whanau values. It’s been really wonderful doing this together because it’s clarified the values we wish to shape the business with and the world we want to create for our children. I guess the biggest lesson would be learning to trust our guts and each other, and disregard the mainstream advice about what we should or shouldn’t be doing for our business.
How has running an ethical business shaped your family values?
I think our family values have shaped our business and vice versa! Our business looks like it does because of who we are as people, our values, where we come from and the culture we want to nurture in our family. We acknowledge the responsibilities and privilege that we have in creating something that we can feel proud of passing on to future generations.
It means that we’re always thinking long-term - we’re in this to maximise profit or have the highest business turnover. We’re in it with the mindset that we’re creating something intergenerational, something that has inherent value for our whanau. We don’t create anything that doesn’t reflect our own values, be it quality or purpose.
We’re always on the lookout for how we can serve our whanau, other whanau. We often challenge ourselves to create our products within a framework that honours our values and ensures that it’s sustainable for future generations. From making high quality items to the end-of-life of our products, we’re careful to create something that’s valuable because it’s our children who will reap the consequences of our short-term thinking. So we really have a long term perspective on what we want Aho to be.
When you're not working hard on your business, what's your favourite thing to do as partners/as a family?
We have 3 young children - a four-month-old, a three-year-old and a five-year-old so time is scarce! But we enjoy getting out into nature, going to the beach, going on walks, being in our garden. And cooking! We really love to cook together.
What's your advice for other couples venturing into ethical business together?
Learn your strengths! This was a big learning for us. Understand what you both bring to the team. I’m the creative, organic, non-linear one and Achan is the systems, processes, organised, strategist. While I was the creator, Achan was the one who saw the opportunity to turn Aho into something more self-sustainaing in terms of production. I’d say learning our strengths and outsourcing things neither of us are good at has been a good lesson for us.
It’s also important to create boundaries between business and life. Living together, working together and raising children is all a lot of work. But we’ve come to realise that we don’t always have to squeeze work into every other aspect of our life. Find other things to talk about and don’t let your enthusiasm for your business become all that you do.
Alanna and Pete - 27seconds Wine
27seconds produces beautiful wine grown sustainably on their boutique vineyard in Waipara. 100% of their profits are donated to Hagar, to help survivors of human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about running an ethical business with your partner?
That I married the right person! Ha. But I think I knew that before starting 27seconds. Maybe it's confirmed that more.
How has running an ethical business shaped your family values?
Our kids are too young to understand slavery. But I hope that as they grow up and awaken to the fact that for many, life is hard, they can respond with compassion and generosity.
I don't want them to feel they have to start an ethical business themselves! But I'd love for them to see that these two values (compassion and generosity) are a way that we can respond to the sadness around us.
When you're not working hard on your business, what's your favourite thing to do as partners/as a family?
We have three wee boys, aged between one to five so they keep us on our feet! We’re often found on our bikes, at playgrounds and if we run out of steam - ordering fries at our local cafe! Pre-kids, you'd find us at the beach.
What's your advice for other couples venturing into ethical business together?
Take a break. Don't work every day. We schedule a 24-hour break once a week where we take time out for some rest and relaxation. We don't look at our work emails, social media (mostly!) and we try to make it a really nice day. We've found this practice to have charged our batteries and kept us sane!
What is your Valentine's Day gift to each other this year?
A handwritten note, babysitters and dinner out. I'm hoping Pete will buy me flowers too. Pretty standard!
Hana and Gerard - Ethos & Co
Ethos & Co sources organically-grown coconuts to create their unique and sustainable skincare. 100% of their profits fund sustainable development projects in Cambodia. As a company, Ethos & Co are committed to ensuring that all suppliers have minimum social and environmental responsibility standards and monitoring in place for their own company and their suppliers.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about running an ethical business with your partner?
It's the importance of having a shared & deep passion for the change you're trying to create through your business - you both have to care so deeply about your cause that when things get tough (as they inevitably will!) your determination to keep going remains resolutely strong.
Base your ethical business on a cause that really moves you. For us, the life-changing experiences we had in rural Cambodia together a decade ago meant going back to our old lives wasn't an option. Those shared memories have kept us focused on our goal of providing opportunities for people in need in Kampot, through some major calamities we've faced together over the last nine years.
How has running an ethical business shaped your family values?
It's definitely positively impacted the way we live our lives and the decisions we make. We're more aware now of the power we collectively have as individuals in the world - that the small (imperfect) actions of millions add up to create a big impact.
We walk or scooter more now, grow more of our own food, buy better quality less often, and question more who or what has been harmed by cheap goods. We love supporting other small local producers creating better outcomes for the planet and have a much greater appreciation of their efforts and achievements through our experience of becoming 'makers'.
When you're not working hard on your business, what's your favourite thing to do as partners/as a family?
Getting out and walking anywhere in beautiful natural environments - nature's our biggest source of inspiration and where we think creatively, but it's also the best place to relax. The health benefits are hard to ignore - trees release volatile oils that positively impact our immune systems and green space supports our mental wellbeing. Here we're blessed with the ninth longest coastline in the world, a network of over 400,000km of rivers, 44 marine reserves, 10 million hectares of forest, & 80% of our species are found nowhere else in the world - so much to explore!
What's your advice for other couples venturing into ethical business together?
Most of all, hold fast to the core values that made you start out in the first place, create a fun working environment and make sure to celebrate the impact wins together, no matter how small!
Working together as a couple in business can strain the best relationships and an ethical model where you do what's right, not what's easiest adds a whole extra layer of complexity (especially if your impact is overseas like ours is). Focusing on the strengths you both bring, showing appreciation regularly, and active listening to avoid conflict (plus making an effort to understand & reflect back) makes a huge difference, especially if you're both strong-minded like us!
What is your Valentine's Day gift to each other this year?
Fair&Good is the best place for gift ideas and I've chosen Wellington Chocolate Factory's Ultimate Valentine Bundle. My gift involves a classic Italian movie but I don't know the details yet!
Corin and Sally - Seleno Health
Dr Corin Storkey (New Zealand) and Sally Huapaya (Peru) are a couple who work in collaboration with two farming families in the Andes and the Amazon of Peru to bring quality, sustainable maca and cacao to conscious Kiwi consumers. Their farm-to-table model focuses on preserving the ancient cultivation techniques, culture and history of both maca and cacao and connecting consumers directly to the farm and sacred spirit of the plant.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about running an ethical business with your partner?
That if you truly follow your heart, your values, and beliefs, your business will thrive. When both Sally and I are grounded, humble, balanced and flourishing ourselves and together our business follows. The universe has an amazing way of opening doors and attracting the energy that you are putting out.
How has running an ethical business shaped your family values?
100% - both Sally and I (Corin) came from corporate backgrounds having worked in a bank and the pharmaceutical industry respectively. Since creating our own social enterprise and putting our energy into bringing positive change both in New Zealand and back home (for Sally) in Peru as a couple, we have a changed vision for our future.
It’s now focused on gratitude, giving back and creating a loving family and community. If you work in an ethical way you just find yourself living by those values in your own personal life, for us both it has bought us more happiness within our lives.
When you're not working hard on your business, what's your favourite thing to do as partners/as a family?
We both love to travel, either overseas or here in NZ. We currently live in a motorhome and spend our time enjoying the beautiful beaches of NZ, surfing together and lapping up the sun. We also both love to cook and enjoy cooking delicious Peruvian dishes together after a long afternoon surf session.
What's your advice for other couples venturing into ethical business together?
Be happy, content and balanced within yourself. When you work on your own mental, physical and spiritual health you thrive in a relationship and working together can bring you closer and stronger. Sally and I have literally spent 24/7 together for the last 7 years and we have never felt more in love. So very happily married and loving every minute we can continue this beautiful journey of life together.
What is your Valentine's Day gift to each other this year?
We are sharing our brand new ceremonial cacao paste with each other this year with an intimate couples connection night. Having spent 2 years creating it we both feel like it is our own baby and now we get to share it with each other and have a night of cacao, massage, maca and lots of passion. If you want to also enjoy some V-day cacao and maca magic visit www.selenohealth.com to grab it now.
Joel and Lizzy - The Loyal Workshop
The Loyal Workshop is a leather goods producer in Kolkata, India. They provide alternative employment to women trapped in modern-day sexual slavery. The Loyal Workshop sells beautiful, well-crafted belts, wallets, bags and more. On their website, you can read about the women artisans who brought these products to life. Joel and Lizzy are the Sales and Marketing Manager and Head of Social Support for the brand.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned about running an ethical business with your partner?
How important effective communication is! We are often working in multiple languages, struggling with the heat, and working to resolve complex issues all while looking after our baby daughter and one another. If we don't get time together to connect and debrief then things at work and home can turn to custard pretty fast!
How has running an ethical business shaped your family values?
We try to live as simply as we can here in India. Seeing the first-hand impacts of poverty and exploitation every day, we try our best to be generous, open-hearted and kind to one another and our neighbours. Being subjected to incredible hospitality here also makes us desire to offer that more to others.
When you're not working hard on your business, what's your favourite thing to do as partners/as a family?
Head out for coffee! Our daughter has just started walking so we also enjoy heading out, pointing at and talking to every mangy street cat there is in our neighbourhood!
What's your advice for other couples venturing into ethical business together?
Do it! Make sure you are clear on your values, your level of commitment and the expectations you have of the venture and one another. Also, don't get too caught up trying to build something that you forget the reason you wanted to do it in the first place!
What is your Valentine's Day gift to each other this year?
We don't usually do gifts for Valentine's Day but we do enjoy a bit of chocolate or ice cream together most nights after putting our daughter to bed. So perhaps we'll get a big block to share!
