Beyond Business: How Jess built The Happy Movement to help communities

At Funding Circle, we spend lots of time focused on what small businesses need. Fast decisions, clear options, and a business finance partner who backs you. That’s the job, and we take it very seriously.

At the same time, we’ve always known something else matters just as much: what small businesses give back. 

Not in revenue or job creation, though that matters too. We mean something harder to put on a spreadsheet; the time an owner spends getting to properly know a client, the extra hour spent because someone needed it, the quiet ways a business shows up for the people around it, long after the transaction is done.

That question is where Beyond Business started. It's a new content series spotlighting small business owners who go further than the balance sheet, for their communities, and for the people in them. And the first story in the series belongs to Jess.

Meet Jess

Jess runs The Happy Movement. She could have taken the easier route; a steady job, predictable hours, none of the risk that comes with building something of your own. Instead, for the last six years, she's spent her days bringing movement, theatre, and genuine connection into care homes and community spaces.

It's the kind of work that doesn't often make headlines. There’s no selling the company for millions, no big investor pitches, no front-page news. Just a room of care home residents laughing harder than they have in weeks, or a community group finding a bit of joy on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.

As Jess puts it herself: this work was never going to make her a millionaire. But the real wealth, she says, comes from lifting someone's spirits for a whole day. That's the trade she's made, and watching her talk about it, it's clear she wouldn't make it any other way.

Going beyond business

Providing finance is our day job, but fully backing small businesses means seeing everything they bring to the table. Running a business isn't strictly about profit margins and cash flow - it comes down to the extra steps owners take for their communities every day.

We launched this project because backing businesses means seeing the whole picture. We want to back owners in every way we can, giving credit for all the extra effort they put in that might otherwise go unrecognised.

What's next

Over the coming months, we'll be spotlighting more business owners doing exactly work that  changes something real in the people around them.

Watch Jess's story, and if you know a business owner whose impact deserves to be seen, we'd love to hear about it.