Regardless of your company’s area of business, you likely went into business to secure a financial future for yourself. Let’s face it – that’s why any company exists: to make a profit for the ones who have invested their time and money toward its success. Even businesses owners who saw a crucial individual, community, or societal need and endeavored to fill it with a product or service do so to provide for their own well-being (otherwise, we’d be discussing nonprofit organizations instead of small businesses).
That doesn’t mean that your small business can’t focus on making a positive social impact. In fact, the more profitable your business, the more resources you have to devote to exacting change, the more influence you have when it comes to influencing others to join you, and the broader effect you can have on the world around you.
1. Can My Business Really Make a Difference?
Every business has the potential to have a positive impact, from the smallest single proprietorships to the largest global corporations. Of course, the scale of that impact will change depending on the resources you have available, but the fact that you’re here and reading this blog about making an impact is proof positive you at least have the desire to begin making some positive contributions to the world around you.
Simply put, your business does not need vast reserves of capital to “give back” to the community, nor do you need a nonprofit wing or a social action department to make a positive change. Many business owners fall into the self-defeating line of thinking that if their businesses don’t produce some item necessary for survival in a third-world country, they’re ill-suited to begin efforts to exact social change.
Not so. Making important decisions regarding the scope of your business’s potential contribution, the resources required, and the contributions you may already be making can help any business take steps toward promoting positive social impacts. Consider this quick guide.
Step 1: Determine Which Resources You Have Available Does your business have funding set aside for a charitable project that never came to fruition? Arguably the easiest way to start making a difference is to donate funds to an existing project (or projects) your company can get behind. A one-time donation is a nice gesture, while setting up an annual fund to give to more projects can help your company make a lasting impact on the community. Alternatively, maybe your resources are more physical than financial. With a little bit of money, you can host a fundraiser or sponsor an active one, and donate your own time and facilities for the event.
Maybe you don’t have the time or the money to make any extra contributions right now. Take a look at your existing business and hiring practices. Could you make an increased effort to hire members of a local sector experiencing unusually high unemployment, such as veterans or the homeless? Or, could you change your business practices to reduce waste and be “greener”? Both of these examples effect positive change on society without the need for a large, lump-sum donation.
2. Form a Social Program
This doesn’t have to be on the level of TOMS, which famously gives one pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair sold, to the tune of over 60 million pairs of free shoes. You may not have the resources, or produce the kind of product to contribute in that manner.
However, TOMS is a great example in that its founder, Blake Mycoskie, saw a need, wanted to address it and did so by using the resources at his fingertips. Over time, the company’s donations have extended to eyeglasses, clean water, and safe birth resources. It all started with a plan.
Start small – list what your business is capable of doing and address it on a committee level. If you can only handle making an occasional donation, for now, formulate a plan for regular giving as well as a plan to grow your contributions. As with any other effort, you’ll need to track resources, employees, and which endeavors are effective and which are not; think of it as you would your marketing campaigns.
3. Promote Your Efforts
Besides being good for your community, society as a whole, or whatever population you’re targeting with your socially positive actions, having a social impact is good for your business, too. In fact, it’s often touted as an effective reputation management strategy – showing goodwill to those around you can result in goodwill toward your company. You don’t have to be in hot water to want to garner goodwill; however, you do have to make sure your intended audience is aware of your contributions to receive it.
As with other marketing strategies, consider the avenues available to you. Is your project impacting your local community? Consider using branded messages promoting your project on local media. Something like “The ACME Company’s 2019 Fun Run For the Cure” is a great way to get your name out there while drawing participants – and an increased donation pool – to the event.
Use social media as well. For projects involving changes to company policy, increased hiring events, or donations to charitable organizations outside your community (think the Red Cross or other charitable groups), social media is often your best bet for reaching your audience.
As an added feature, accepting donations directly to your cause via Facebook’s payment option, or via your company website, increases your campaign’s efficacy and adds a level of trust that the funds will be directed as stated.
4. Get Out There
Any marketer will tell you that face-to-face interaction can be one of the most powerful elements of selling your brand, whether it’s products or your company’s social responsibility. For that reason, it’s important that you engage with your community or the other recipients of your social efforts. Be present, whether you’re simply presenting a check, hosting a fundraiser, or beginning a new program.
It can be easy for business owners – even small business owners – to become lost behind the corporate mask. If you and your employees are able to show that your company and the people behind it care enough to exact social progress by making a positive social impact, you’ll inspire others to join you and bring goodwill to your business. Marketing is important in this regard, too – simply showing up at an event does you no good if nobody knows who you are or why you’re there. You can use social media or other channels to promote your involvement with the actual implementation of your company’s efforts as much as you can.
For example, TOMS founder Blake Mycoskie usually disseminates the company’s shoe donations to pre-existing social change organizations with connections in the areas of need and allows them to distribute the shoes. However, there’s a photo of Blake fitting a child with a shoe on every shoebox TOMS has put out for years, along with the familiar tagline – “One For One.” Talk about goodwill!
No matter how far-reaching your social change, don’t let the beginning be the end. We in business know all too well that effective change doesn’t occur with a single effort; rather, dedication to continued impact is what will truly help shape your community in a positive way.
