The old language was people before profit. I put it the other way round: profit for the people.
That is not a slogan. It is the hardest lesson of sixteen years running a social enterprise, and the one I most wish someone had handed me at the start.
Everything you do has to work economically. The money is what funds the wages, the stability, the benefits, the training, the second chances. The things that actually change someone's life are all paid for by a business that works. If the business does not make money, it cannot employ anybody.
And it is not only the people you employ. If you do not make money for yourself, and for whoever else is carrying this with you, you do not have anything. A mission funded by the quiet depletion of its founder is not sustainable. The mission deserves better, and so do you.
So here is the frame I use: a business that acts charitably, rather than a charity that acts like a business. Same goals, different framework. A profitable business gives your mission a sustainable income stream, leading to independence and not a dependence on funding.
If you are building something good, making it commercially strong is an act of care. It is what keeps the good happening, year after year, for the people who depend on it.
Profit for the people. In that order.