We recently connected with Stephanie Malon-Rufi and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Stephanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I actually just changed my business name and brand a little under two years ago because I wanted to have something that resonated with what I am doing and allowed for expansion.  My business is Spark Good Consulting and Coaching.

The word ‘spark’ represents the light that I hope to bring to……. It is about sparking ideas in new ways and inspiring others to think boldly and outside of the box and to incorporate a positive social impact.

The word ‘good’ is about bringing forth good into the world – good ideas, good practices, making social change for the good.

The name is expansive because while I am right now focusing my efforts on the entrepreneurs and small business owners who are using their business as a vehicle for social change, more can come. My holistic approach to my work means that I incorporate both the business and the person—- so spark good can be more. It can be about the individual spark that we find within ourselves. Being a successful entrepreneur requires increasing self-awareness. I want to also support this journey for our socially conscious entrepreneurs.

Stephanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Through Spark Good, I work with entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to use their business as a vehicle for social change. Other terms I could use are that I work with social entrepreneurs and with social enterprises. I came from the nonprofit world but learned that I love working with and in market-based business. Once I learned that you could have a positive social impact with a for-profit business, I was hooked. I love to see all the creative ways that we can tackle some of our communities’ biggest challenges by using a market based business approach.

I launched Spark Good (although under a different name at first) in 2018 because I saw a need for social impact businesses to have more business professionals in their ecosystem supporting their desire to use their business for social good, not only for profit. I initially looked for other entities in this ecosystem that I could collaborate with one workshops and other learning experiences. I still work with these collaborators today to provide classes, facilitate groups and work with some social entrepreneurs 1:1. I use my visibility platforms to continue to attract new clients and build my client base. In addition, I co-hosted the Social Change Leaders podcast for over 3 years and in April 2023 I will be launching my own podcast, Spark Good, which will focus on social impact businesses specifically.

I provide both consulting and coaching services. I mostly work with owners/entrepreneurs who have been in business (either PT or FT) for a few years. They have had some success and sales but are wanting to get to the next level. My consulting is around overall business and marketing strategy–all with a social impact lens. Often this involves helping the business owner to focus—-they have been trying many offers but now need to choose a lane and grow in it. I work with clients to create their strategic plans and we go deep into marketing and sales because that is the area that typically needs the most focus in order to generate the revenue necessary to get to the next level.

Often I will also work with clients on how to better manage their business in conjunction with their overall life and personal priorities. I am holistic in my approach which means both the business and the individual person need to work with one another in a sustainable and healthy way—avoiding burnout. Lastly, I do offer 1:1 coaching services to a limited number of clients. My coaching helps people to work through mindset blocks and other challenges that may be holding themselves and their business back.

The greatest impact of my work is the change in the entrepreneur/business owner. Our work often results in increased clarity and confidence which in turn means the entrepreneur is better positioned to boldly keep moving forward. Other results include specific business strategy, revised marketing and sales funnels, action plans and back end systems that work. When my clients start to report on the increased positive social impact they have had, I know that our work has been effective.

One challenge is that there is not common language around social impact business. There are a variety of terms – social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, B-Corps, B Certified, triple bottom line, social business, social impact business – so it can be a challenge for people to understand what I am talking about at first. It also means that it can be fragmented where all the social business owners are hanging out. I would like to change this which is why I continue to pursue thought leadership in this area and why I have my new podcast. Also, people are not aware of how expansive this concept can be. It is not just about your end result or “product” having a social impact but it is also about the way that we DO business. Traditional business practices can be predatory and oppressive to certain groups of people. It is just as important to change that as it is to change the output.

Will continue to grow my business. I will be focusing a lot in the strategic marketing realm because getting that right is so important for overall success. I will be offering ongoing strategic advising services as well so that I can be a thought partner for entrepreneurs around the area of strategy, marketing and overall social impact. It can be lonely in the CEO role and if I can provide supportive services as well as a community, I think that can help. Creating a community – virtual or in-person – is also important to me and we will see what shape that takes in the next few years.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Earlier in my business, I had to make a pivot in terms of who I was serving. There was a time when I was targeting the budding social entrepreneur – the person who has dreaming of taking their idea for social change and creating a social enterprise around it. One of my super powers is that I am a great distiller…..I can help someone take their ideas and passion and trim it down to something that is more bite sized and manageable. I thought, this would be great! Many times these individuals have a lot of experience in the realm of the social change they are impacting but not always a lot of business experience. “Another win!” I thought. I can help with that. However, this turned out now to be a great market for me. This target market definitely exists. And there was interest. However, a majority of people at this stage of business (essentially stage zero) do not have the funds to pay for my assistance. They may choose a single session with me. But my other offers did not fit into their nonexistent business budget. The pivot I made was to work with social entrepreneurs who had started their business, even if it was part time. But this proved to be a better target for me because people have a budget or were at a point where they are ready to make an investment to really make their business ‘go’ – also these business owners have some track record of at least a few sales so that we have some history to use as we create the best, focused strategy going forward.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

The process of me working full time in my business was a slow process. It took me a long time to realize that I am a business owner and I can work exclusively in the area that I want. For many years I viewed my self as a contractor, sometimes a contracted consultant. I had several different part-time positions while I also worked on my business. I did this for a number of years, slowly peeling away the contracts or part-time positions that were not a fit. It is scary to do this because each time you are removing part of the safety net. And, yet, it has to happen if you really want to grow.

Some of the milestones for me was to have a mix of both clients I work with directly and some work via organizations who are in the entrepreneurial ecosystem because the latter offered some reliable income.

This is not unlike what it is like for my clients who are really wanting to grow and have their social impact business be not only a vehicle for social change but a vehicle for them to create their own life and livelihood from. I have found the more you get in alignment with who you are, your own values, your zone of genius and your business….the better. It makes your work enjoyable and ultimately it is the path to begin suitable. That enjoyable piece is key. When I look at my schedule for the week I love my workdays. I love the work I do and the people I get to work with.

The last piece that has been an important lesson for me in this process (and one that I see with my clients too) is that the more in alignment you get, the more you are going to both attract the right people and repel the ones that are not a good fit. And being ok with saying ‘no’ or having others say ‘no’ to you. That used to be hard for me. I would bend like a crazy pretzel to fit into what it is they needed. And if I still got a ‘no’ I was upset by it. But now, I can so much more easily accept the nos and even have to give them out myself recognizing when there may be someone else who is a better fit for a particular client.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sparkgood.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smalonrufi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SparkGoodCoach/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smalonrufi/
• Twitter: N/A
• Youtube: N/A
• Yelp: N/A