Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

SME Strategy founder and CEO, Anthony Taylor, was inspired to launch SME Strategy in 2011 after spending time as a board member within several non-profit organizations in Vancouver’s downtown east side. Through this experience, he observed that despite the great philanthropic effort organizational leaders were putting in, they often did not meet their desired outcomes. Strategic planning was introduced as a tool to support these organizational leaders to first reach alignment and then develop clear goals and a path of action to implement their plans to have greater impact in their communities. Realizing that this work could have impacts beyond the local non-profit realm, Anthony was inspired to grow SME Strategy by offering strategic planning facilitation services to both non-profit and for-profit SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises) throughout BC, Canada, the USA and beyond. After operating as a 'solopreneur' for nearly 3 years, Anthony brought Jenna Sedmak (CCO) on board as SME Strategy’s first team member. After working together for some time, they noticed that many non-profit and SME leadership teams lacked the capacity, knowledge or experience to implement their strategic plans. Collaborating with Anthony around a vision for SME Strategy’s next phase of growth, Jenna led the development of the strategic plan implementation programs. Slowly, steadily, and intentionally, SME Strategy has continued to grow and now includes a team of 5 passionate full-time facilitators and 2 contract/partner facilitators. The entire team is committed to delivering excellent services with a client-centred approach through Socratic questioning and a well-defined program that is designed to solicit client expertise, participation, and alignment. Beyond demonstrating passion in our day-to-day work at SME Strategy, we also support each other in pursuing personal career goals and external passions. We have team members who moonlight as DJs, take on contracts to teach university courses, attend conferences, and engage in community events. Additionally, Anthony demonstrates his passion for local business by supporting the small business and education communities through working with business case competitions at UBC & SFU.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

As a small business within BC, we are understanding of the challenges small organizations face, especially those within non-profit sectors. We have always offered a 10% fee reduction as an in-kind donation for any organization within these areas, but when the Covid-19 pandemic caused the first round of lockdowns, many charitable organizations were faced with immense financial burdens and the simultaneous need to make strategic decisions and pivots. In order to help those within our BC, Canadian, and global communities, we launched our corporate giving back program: Strategic Planning for Non-Profits, where we offered (and continue to offer) a 65% fee reduction for small non-profits and charitable organizations that cannot afford our consulting fees with the 10% reduction. Through this, we have given over $170,000 CAD in in-kind donations, with an estimated breakdown of: $57,000 reaching organizations within BC, $26,000 reaching organizations across Canada, and $87,500 reaching organizations throughout the USA and globally. Within BC, we have supported non-profit and charitable organizations in sectors such as: elder care, lifeguarding, emergency services, chambers of commerce, food security, affordable housing, healthcare, and the arts. Throughout other areas in Canada and globally, we have supported sectors such as: humanitarian relief & aid, 2SLGBTQIA+ equity, community housing, child care, education, healthcare, food security, land preservation, human trafficking crisis support, low income family support, and addiction services. While we focus many of our efforts around supporting BC and Canadian organizations, we also see ourselves as global citizens and community members, which is why our program is not limited to BC organizations. Through program reviews and quarterly check-ins with these organizations, we hear firsthand how this work and our programs have had a positive impact on the organizations and their communities. Several organizations have reported back that as a direct result of their work with us they have increased their donations, improved their processes, strengthened their membership bases, built their community presence, and directly impacted more constituents. We also do not limit our giving back to these programs. SME Strategy also regular donates to different charitable causes and sponsors local events. Some causes that are especially close to our hearts are cancer research and equity in sports.

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

SME Strategy would be honoured to be considered for a business impact award that recognizes our support for local businesses and communities within BC. We are a small organization aiming to make a big impact. We are committed to fostering continued growth and resilience within the local business community, and this recognition would help us to expand our giving back programs. Winning this award would enable us to continue to support positive change, as each organization that we support will have a greater capacity to support their teams and their communities.

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

While our primary mission is to support organizations to build their strategic and leadership capacities within their teams, our team members come first and are at the heart of our values and decisions. We believe that if we support our people, our people will support our clients. To demonstrate this in action, we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in action. This means taking action to reduce unconscious bias within our hiring process, ensuring opportunities for personal development for all roles, and offering work-life balance or integration options to meet the needs of individuals and families. Steps we’ve taken to reduce bias in the hiring process are ensuring that we utilize gender-neutral language in our job descriptions, encourage those who identify as a minority to apply for the position, considering non-traditional education and experience with transferrable skills, and having a consistent assessment rubric for all candidates interviewing for a role. Steps we’ve taken to open opportunities for development and growth include offering an hour of paid time each work week for team members to focus on learning goals, incorporate an annual stipend to contribute to individual development, and hold quarterly sessions to share our learnings with each other and to develop as a team. Steps we’ve taken to support work-life balance or work-life integration for our team members include offering autonomy and flexibility around work schedules and having a hybrid work environment where most work is done remotely unless we are working directly with clients or coming together for our annual internal strategy retreat. We believe that our people can be their best selves at work when they are experiencing a full, balanced life. In addition to the above, we also exceed BC government regulated paid time off requirements, offer one paid day off per year for volunteering, and encouraging team members to develop in their careers by supporting their passions whether within or outside of our day-to-day work.