In today’s competitive market, you can set your business apart by contributing to the communities in which it operates. Customers want to do business with companies that prioritize social good. And that’s the major reason you should take your business’ philanthropic program seriously. Plus, doing social good offers numerous benefits to businesses, including helping in employee retention, customer acquisition, and brand awareness creation which will inevitably impact a company’s bottom line. In today’s podcast, Matt Ostanik from Grateful and Stephen Halasnik from Financing Solutions discuss how businesses can use social good to promote growth.
Summary
How Businesses Can Use Social Good
The concept of social good has become more important than ever, and every small business owner should learn how to leverage it to affect their bottom lines. Today, it’s not enough for your business to have quality products, a fantastic financial plan, excellent customer service, attractive employment packages, and more. Although they’re awesome business strategies, don’t forget that your competitors also use the tools too, which is why you need to do more to stand out from the pack.
There are numerous benefits to doing social good, including employee retention and customer acquisition. People want to see your business move beyond the overriding idea of profit-making and impact society for good. Moreover, social good has extra benefits for businesses, including helping brand building, fostering loyalty, and more.
For example, Financing Solutions, a leading provider of unsecured small business lines of credit, donates 10% of its profit to charity as a way of doing social good. Read on to see the importance of social good and how you can use it to take your business to the next level.
What Is Social Good?
Social good is defined as charitable actions taken by a business, firm, organization, or individual that provides some sort of benefit to the general public.
Social good has become an indispensable feature of business operations in recent times. Business owners have learned to support a cause that matters most to their customers and employees. They do this because they want to give back to the society they operate in. And more importantly, for customer loyalty, employee recruitment and retention, and brand building.
Using social good at your business is a veritable tool to engage your employees and customers while creating a lasting impact worldwide.
What Are the Benefits of Doing Social Good for Businesses?
There are plenty of benefits associated with doing social good and that’s why smart business leaders do it. Below are the pros of social good for a company.
It Creates a Sense of Purpose
Beyond the profit motive, social good gives a high sense of purpose and responsibility to business owners by helping them understand that they’re part of the larger society where they operate their business and are morally responsible for making it a better place. Suppose you truly believe that your company has a responsibility in some way for social good. In that case, you’ll become more meticulous and passionate about how you lead the affairs of your business, knowing full well that the success of your business will also translate to the good of the public.
In addition, committing to business philanthropy creates a vision for your company. It makes you more creative and innovative as you will constantly strive to grow your business revenue so you can make a sizeable contribution to society.
Helps In Brand Building and Reputation
Another important benefit of social good is that it aids brand building. When your business is committed to supporting a particular cause, sooner or later, people with similar interests will get to know your business. They will want to do business with your company. For instance, if your business supports the fight for a greener environment, your company’s product will invariably resonate with people who care about this cause.
Additionally, social good can help promote and popularize your brand. By constantly investing resources into philanthropic work, your company’s brand name will improve. A case in point is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which contributes to Microsoft’s reputation.
Promote Employees Retention and Engagement
Employees want to work in a business that prioritizes philanthropy. Employees who strongly believe in their organization’s mission are passionate about working hard to deliver those goals. An inspired employee tends to be more creative and productive and will go the extra mile to ensure their assigned tasks are well done.
Further, social giving helps employee retention, especially when they share the same cause. A high staff turnover rate is incredibly detrimental to business growth. According to Gartner,
With this in mind, it becomes imperative for business owners to devise means of holding onto their employees. Plus, doing social good helps attract a talented, resourceful, engaged, and mission-driven workforce to your company.
It Fosters Community Bond
A business that does social good to its community is loved. Consumers prefer doing business with organizations that help them. If your business helps a community somehow, that community will also reciprocate through loyalty and patronage.
Plus, they can help advertise your product through word-of-mouth marketing, increasing your brand awareness and customer base, which leads to increased revenue.
How Can You Integrate Social Good into Your Business?
If you’re thinking about how you can start doing social good, the tips below can get you started.
Understand Your Mission
Start by assessing your company’s mission, values, products, and services and how you can leverage them to meet the needs of people in your community. Then, ask the following questions: what are the gaps that need filling, what are the steps to take, and how will your charity giving affects your target customers?
If, for example, your company offers technology solutions, you might consider bringing STEM education to underserved students. On the other hand, if your company uses a lot of paper, you can help plant trees or support organizations that campaign for recycling and sustainability programs.
Reach Out to Charity Organizations
If you cannot start your philanthropic initiative from scratch, you can alternatively partner with existing nonprofits.
You can consider reaching out to Grateful, a great platform facilitating charity giving. Grateful helps businesses give to nonprofits that matter most to their customers and employees.
Engage Your Employees.
You can engage your employees by offering them paid time off, commonly referred to as volunteer time off (VTO), to give back to communities. For example, if you’re running a health clinic, you can embark on medical outreach giving free medical care to people.
This can help strengthen relationships between your company and people and among your employees. In addition, it will help deepen loyalty, develop teamwork and enhance employees’ skills.
About Our Guest
Matt Ostanik is a serial entrepreneur who has founded four startups. In 2019 he started working on Grateful, a new platform that helps socially good businesses participate in “grateful giving” by donating to their customers’ and employees’ favorite nonprofits. In today’s world, social good has never been more important and is a powerful tool for businesses to increase customer retention and employee engagement.
About Financing Solutions
Financing Solutions provides an easy-to-setup unsecured small business line of credit to small businesses. The small business financing product is a great cash backup plan that costs nothing to set up, nothing until used, and is inexpensive when needed. Financing Solutions is rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and 5 stars by the BBB/Google Reviews.
Unlike a traditional business bank loan, our business credit line requires no collateral or personal guarantee (except in fraud cases), making it an excellent alternative business financing option. Small businesses often use their line of credit for short-term expenses, working capital, to make payroll, or for business investment, especially when business cash flow is temporarily down.
Get a free, no-obligation business line of credit quote by filling out our simple 2- minute business line of credit application here.
Remember: The time to set up a credit line is when you don’t need it.