Episode 4 - What Matters Most - Choosing the Right Priorities for Your Business

How to focus your time, energy, and resources where it counts most - for your business and for the world around you.

💡 In This Episode:
... I introduce a powerful concept called double materiality - a simple, strategic way to set your business priorities by looking at what affects your business, and what your business affects.

We’ll explore:

• The difference between business continuity, risk management, and materiality—and how they work together
• What “financial materiality” and “impact materiality” actually mean (in plain language)
• How to use both views to find your true focus areas
• How to bring stakeholder voices into the process with stakeholder engagement
• How to map out the business-specific topics in a basic materiality matrix
• What to do with your priorities once you find them

🛠️ Quick Start This Week:
Try the 3x3 Priorities Grid
Take 20 minutes to write down:

1. What’s stressing your business right now
2. What your team or customers care about
3. Where they overlap

→ That’s your materiality starting point. No spreadsheets needed.


🎯 Perfect For:

• Small business owners feeling overwhelmed by too many “shoulds”
• Purpose-driven entrepreneurs who want to focus energy where it counts
• Anyone wondering how to connect impact with business value
• 
  

💌 Questions? Feedback? Ready to build your plan with a guide by your side?
Reach out at anca@3pimpactconsulting.com - I’d love to hear from you.

🎧 Listen now - and take the first step toward a more resilient business.

I am the founder of 3P Impact Consulting and I help small businesses build long-term resilience through sustainable practices. I adapt tools used by big corporations to fit the reality of purpose-driven small business owners - so they can grow with confidence, even in uncertain times. 

💻 Learn more about my work at www.3pimpactconsulting.com/services
📬 Subscribe to my blog and newsletter at www.3pimpactconsulting.com/resources

Transcript

Episode 4: What Matters Most - Choosing the Right Priorities for Your Business

How to focus your time, energy, and resources where it counts most - for your business and for the world around you.

Hello and welcome back.

It’s been a hectic last few days and I almost didn’t want to record this episode tonight… I feel exhausted…  but am pushing through… Maybe this episode will help someone do something good for their business today, and if I delay recording it that person might be left without a good resource... Or maybe it will just help me… check off a task on my to-do list that I promised myself will get done today… Either way, it’s worth using my last ounce of energy for today and seeing it published… so, here we go…

In Episode 2, we talked about business continuity planning - how to keep your business running when the unexpected happens.

In Episode 3, we dove into risk management - identifying and managing the biggest vulnerabilities that could disrupt your operations.

Today, in Episode 4, we’re looking at the same world, but through a different lens:

You may think “Anca, with everything going on, how do I choose what to actually focus on?”

This episode is all about choosing your top priorities, what to act on now, what to invest in next, and how to make sure your efforts reflect both your business goals and your values.

We’re shifting from reacting to proactively choosing direction. Today we’re talking about materiality, and more specifically, double materiality.

But before we jump into this, let me clear something up. You might be a little confused. You may be thinking “Wait, first you told me to prepare for emergencies, then to assess risks, and now to define priorities? Which one am I supposed to do first?”

And that’s a fair question. And my answer is: these aren’t competing tasks. They’re complementary tools that give you a more complete picture.

●     Business continuity planning helps you survive sudden disruptions.

●     Risk management helps you avoid foreseeable problems.

●     Materiality helps you focus. It guides where you invest time, money, and energy for long-term success.

Each one looks at your business from a slightly different angle. Used together, they help you build not just a safe business, but a strong, focused, and values-aligned one.

So today we talk about two kinds of materiality, how they overlap, how to identify the material factors that are relevant to your business, how to map them and a quick action plan.

Ok, let’s start today’s topic and talk about double materiality.

First off, materiality. What does it mean? In business, it refers to the issues that could affect your success or reputation.

Double materiality means we’re looking at this from two angles:

●     Financial materiality - what impacts your business, so your operations, revenue, or growth

●     Impact materiality - what your business impacts, so your customers, your employees, your community

When you combine both you get a much clearer idea of what really deserves your attention.

[The Outside-In View: Financial Materiality]

Let’s start with the outside-in view: financial materiality.

This is all about what could affect your costs, revenues, productivity, or operations. Think of it as the risk lens with a more strategic twist.

What kinds of things show up here?

●     Supply chain disruptions

●     Rising utility or fuel prices

●     Labor shortages

●     Regulatory changes

●     Interest rate hikes

●     Climate-related weather events

These may sound familiar from our risk management episode - and they should. But now we’re asking a different question:

“Is this a risk worth investing in fixing? Does it align with our bigger goals?”

Let’s say you’re running a bakery using a shared kitchen.

 Your biggest challenge might be limited access to equipment and inconsistent prep times.

 That’s not just a pain point - it’s a priority, because it affects both your operations and your ability to grow.

[The Inside-Out View: Impact Materiality]

Now let’s flip the lens.

Impact materiality is about the footprint your business leaves in the world.

●     How you treat your team

●     How you use energy or generate waste

●     Whether you support the local community

●     What kind of labor do your suppliers rely on

●     Whether you pay fair wages (living wages)

This is where we shift from survival mode to purpose mode.  What do you stand for? What kind of business do you want to be known as?

This view is about social, environmental, and governance factors that reflect your values and influence your reputation.

Maybe you have a composting program that diverts food waste. Or maybe you prioritize local hiring and offer flexible scheduling to support caregivers. Those are material impacts, too.

These things might not show up on a spreadsheet, but they absolutely show up in employee loyalty, customer preference, and community support.

And if they don’t? That might be something to think about.

[Double Materiality - Where the Two Meet]

So now that we’ve looked at both lenses - what affects your business, and what your business affects - let’s bring them together. This is where double materiality really shines.

When something matters from both sides, financial and impact, that’s your sweet spot. That’s your signal that this issue deserves serious attention.

Why? Because these are the actions that do two things at once:

●     They help your operations, your bottom line, your business health,

●     And they contribute to the world around you - maybe your team, your customers, your community, or the planet.

Let me give you a few examples:

Let’s say you decide to upgrade to more energy-efficient equipment in your production facility. From the financial side, you’re reducing your monthly utility costs - great. But from the impact side, you’re also lowering your emissions, maybe even reducing noise or heat in your workspace, which your employees appreciate.

Or maybe you’ve been seeing high turnover in a particular department. So, you invest in clearer onboarding, better training, and maybe even some cross-skilling. Financially, you’re reducing churn and minimizing costly errors or delays. On the impact side, your employees feel more confident, more valued - and they stick around longer.

This is double materiality in action. These are the kinds of initiatives that check both boxes:

●     Smart for business.

●     Meaningful for people and the planet.

And they also make great stories to share with customers, partners, and even buyers. This isn’t fluff or greenwashing. It’s real, intentional alignment.

And here’s a secret: by engaging your stakeholders, even informally, they’ll feel more connected to your business - and more supportive of the changes you make. You’re not just guessing what matters - you’re showing people that you care what they care about.

[How to Choose and Act]

Alright, let’s talk about how to actually choose what to focus on, without getting overwhelmed or going down a rabbit hole.

Start with something simple:

●     List your top internal challenges - what’s causing stress, costing money, or slowing growth?

●     List what your customers, employees, or community seem to care about. What are they asking about? What makes them proud? What are they quietly grumbling about?

Then look for the overlap - those “aha” moments where business needs and outside expectations meet. That’s your focus zone.

Let’s take that one step further and bring in a concept called stakeholder engagement - and no, it doesn’t mean launching a 100-question survey or hiring a PR firm.

That’s just a fancy way of saying: talk to the people who are affected by your business and listen to what they care about.

Stakeholders include your employees, your customers, your suppliers, and even your neighbors. You don’t need formal surveys or a research firm. You just need a willingness to ask questions and listen.

Think of stakeholder engagement as intentional listening.

There are a few ways to do that:

●     Ask your team during a weekly huddle: “What’s one thing we could do to make your job easier or more meaningful?”, “What’s something we should fix or improve?”

●     Read online reviews or customer emails with fresh eyes: Are there recurring themes?

●     Chat with a supplier and ask what trends they’re seeing from other clients, or ask a vendor what trends they’re seeing in your industry.

These simple conversations help you refine your priorities. You don’t have to guess what matters to people - they’ll tell you, if you ask.

[Mapping Priorities]

Then, map out what you learned.

You can do this two ways:

1 is to put everything in a table. Create a table with 3 columns. The first column is ‘What matters to us’, the second one is ‘What matters to others’, and the third one is ‘Overlap/Focus area’. And then score them (give a 1 for not too important, 2 for average importance and 3 for high importance) and try to match the topics and see where they overlap. In the overlap columns add the 2 scores. Go for the ones with the highest score. For example:

What matters to us                           What matters to others                   Overlap / Focus Area

Rising energy bills (2)   Customers care about carbon footprint (1)  Invest in energy-efficient equipment (3)

High turnover in packaging line (3)    Employees want more training (3)     Build a simple skills program (6)

Delivery delays (3)  Customers frustrated with timing (2)      Diversify or strengthen logistics partners (5)

Or, the other way to do this, is to create a materiality matrix (another fancy term). This is just a simple grid:

●     Y-axis: Financial impact to your business

●     X-axis: Importance to stakeholders

Place your topics on this grid. High on both axes? Those are your focus areas.

Let’s say:

●     Energy use lands in the top right: it’s expensive and customers care

●     Local hiring is mid-financial, but high impact: it might still be worth your attention

●     Fancy branding? Maybe it’s low impact for now. You can deprioritize.

You can do this on a whiteboard or with sticky notes if you like. The point is: visualize where your attention should go.

[Taking Action on What Matters]

Now that you know what to focus on - what’s next?

Choose two or three priorities in the upper-right of your matrix, or items with high scores from your table. These are your action items.

●     Break them into small, doable steps

●     Assign ownership (even if it’s you)

●     Set a timeline: What can you start this quarter?

●     Share the “why” with your team and customers

This is a good way for a small business to build strategy - with focused, thoughtful action. One step at a time.

[CTA]

Don’t wait. You can start this today. Grab a blank sheet of paper and divide it into 3 columns.

Label them:

●     What’s stressing us out internally? (e.g. cost, delays, turnover)

●     What are our customers or team talking about? (e.g. sustainability, fair pay, quality)

●     Where do these overlap?  These are your starting priorities.

Spend 20 minutes brainstorming or talking with 1 team member and write down 2–3 overlap areas. Then create an action plan as outlined above. 

[Wrap-Up & What’s Next]

So, here’s what we covered today:

●     we talked about financial materiality (aka outside-in view), impact materiality (aka inside-out view), and the overlap - where the 2 meet (the concept of double materiality)

●     how to identify your focus zone starting with a stakeholder engagement

●     how to map your priorities in two ways, in a table format, or using a materiality matrix

●     and how to take action on the priorities chosen

Next time, we’ll go into something equally important: protecting your business in the digital world. Yep, cybersecurity. Even if you don’t have an IT person, you can take simple steps to protect your data, your systems, and your customer trust. That’s in Episode 5: Digital Door Locks - Keeping Your Business Safe Online.

That’s it for today. Thank you for staying with me and see you next time. 

Until then: stay focused, stay resilient, and keep choosing what matters most.