And Why Reporting Season Is the Best Time to Start
For many small and mid-sized businesses, governance and ESG feel overcomplicated by design.
The guidance is dense.
The frameworks are heavy.
And most of it seems written for large enterprises with entire compliance teams.
So SMBs do what humans do when things feel impossible:
They delay.
Governance itself isn’t the problem.
The problem is trying to apply enterprise-level complexity to organizations that need clarity and focus, not more layers.
For SMBs, good governance doesn’t mean doing everything.
It means doing the right few things well:
When governance is properly scoped, it doesn’t sit on top of the business — it fits inside it.
Here’s what most businesses overlook:
Reporting season is already governance season.
During reporting, teams are already:
The structure is there.
The people are there.
The mindset is already in review mode.
As Abbey Lin – founder of Fortifai points out, this is when ESG and governance become manageable — not because of regulation, but because the business is already looking inward.
When ESG is scoped correctly:
Instead of creating new systems, businesses can extend the ones they already trust.
This is where SMBs see real efficiency — not by adding work, but by aligning it.
If governance feels overwhelming, it’s not a failure — it’s a signal that the approach needs simplification.
Start with what you already review.
Use reporting season as leverage.
Integrate, don’t overbuild.
Because for SMBs, smarter governance isn’t louder — it’s simpler and embedded in how the business already runs.
