Claudia Rucher - BUSINESS REFINEMENT CONSULTANT

Beyond Ordinary Business Interview: Sept 2022
1. RD: Tell us about your business and the services you offer.
CR: I started Beyond Ordinary Business specifically for founders of service
sector businesses who want to leverage their business for good without
sacrificing their self-care and their values. Our vision is to inspire the
reimagination of the service sector as a vehicle to transform lives and
communities. I like to say that we are helping seasoned female entrepreneurs
build businesses that create abundance, connection, and empowerment for
all the stakeholders of the business, not just their clients. What makes Beyond
Ordinary Business special is our ability to marry profit with a kind humanized
work environment and out-of-this-world customer service!
Our clients are empowered women seeking to make their greatest
contribution, women who know that the old way is unsustainable and are
looking for a new way to uplevel their businesses and lives. This is where we
come in. We provide a customizable business framework that includes
practical financial literacy; planning skills training that includes effective
prioritizing, capacity building and time balancing; tools to track and reflect on
progress as well as impact and supportive accountability. This is definitely an
alchemical process, one that requires the outside support of trusted advisors,
professionals, and coaches who share our values for a kinder world of
commerce.
2. RD: How is your business model different than the traditional model that has
governed enterprise in our country since the Industrial Revolution?
CR: The core of our model is moving toward a collaborative approach to
business and away from a competitive one. Our business philosophy is
grounded in being in right relationship with all the stakeholders of our
business through a triple bottom line profit commitment and a long-term
focus on sustainability.
As to the former, we focus on three types of profit. The first is a people profit.
We see our business as a laboratory for human flourishing. We also aim to
make a financial and planet sustainability profit. This triple bottom line profit
commitment allows us to make a positive impact for all the business’s
stakeholders. In fact, according to the 2019 American Express Women In
Business Report, of the 6.3 million women owned businesses in the US 50% of
those are in the service sector. To me, that is 3.15 million opportunities to
leverage for good!
Another major difference is our approach to growth. Status quo business
growth practices focus on growth for growth's sake and can be quite
extractive for the humans working in the business! This is linear growth and
the expectation to go straight up day after day, month after month, year after
year is exhausting and extractive, not to mention completely unsustainable.
Our approach is regenerative and based on cyclical growth because we
incorporate rest and reflection into all our operational processes, planning and
expectations. The rate of growth is determined by the founder’s metrics of
success, not some industry expert telling you that if your business is not
growing it is dying and you are a failure. Our approach is very kind and
beautiful to the human spirit.