If you own a business, growing your business is one thing that tops your priority list, right? Some of the common through which you can do is by inviting more customers, retaining the current ones, and expanding offerings for your products and services. But, if you plan to be more involved in the community, that may seem less important and is overlooked!
Indeed, community involvement can really prove beneficial for your business!
There are plenty of advantages of small business. The business owner doesn’t need to pour bundles of money. He could start the business easily and, if not successful, close it quickly. He wouldn’t have to employ too many workers, and the laws in regard to small businesses are somewhat flexible.
However, one salient aspect that’s hardly being tapped on is community involvement. Studies have found that a small business could actually grow from community involvement.
What is community involvement?
Community involvement is an effective as well as one of the easiest ways to establish a positive reputation and increase brand awareness among people. It gives you a chance to grow your business. Also, it allows you to establish meaningful and profitable connections and creates an opportunity for you to give back to those in need!
Yes, you can say that community involvement allows you to have the power to impact the community in which you operate positively. Undoubtedly, that being said, there are different ways in which you can do this. You must participate in community services to have the full and complete idea for doing so for a business aspect.
Some of the ways in which you can take part in community services are by making financial donations on behalf of your organization. Or, you could also host employee volunteer days by effectively partnering with non-profit. Some of the community involvement programs have been listed below to ease your way.
Community involvement programs
Booking.com
It provides help while a natural disaster hits humankind. Interestingly, you will find Booking Cares created by Booking.com. It is an internal community fund where all employees stand a chance to donate money or even useful items to different destinations hit by natural disasters. If some employee is willing to dedicate their service, they have it done by dedicating eight hours to give back to the community in whichever way they like!
Asurion hosts a volunteer week.
Each year, you can find the Asurion’s Week of Compassion to be held that allows employees to volunteer their valuable time to support different causes. Interestingly, in the past years, around 200 employees participated in different volunteer opportunities at six non-profits in the local area in the latest program.
SmartBear raises money for breast cancer.
Interestingly, SmartBear hosted an in-office event where manicures to locals were offered in the community. It was done as a part of an effort to raise funds and support for breast cancer research.
Affirm arranges regular volunteer events.
There is a volunteer group of employees at Affirm. It is worth mentioning that they frequently meet to set up different events to support their community effectively. In this way, they always help the company host different community involvement programs for mentoring children, hosting food drives, and creating kits for local fire victims.
With that, you may be wondering about how you can take part in community involvement, right? But, before that, understanding the scope of participation for your business is really important to get the best steps to work for you. So, why do you think community involvement is essential for your business? Here is the answer that we think is perfect for dealing with the current market. Get them to improvise your answer to this!
Why is community involvement significant for your business?
Apart from the growth opportunities to offers your business, community involvement also serves as an invaluable platform for your business to effectively promote your products and services.
Yes, it can also help you promote your business values and ethics. Indeed, that is one of the most important factors to staying on top among the best and loyal of the customers for your business. When you engage in community involvement programs and events regularly, each time, you are fostering a positive workplace culture and building strong relationships with your local community. Isn’t that great?
In addition to that, you also stand a chance to serve the needy and change lives for their better. Undoubtedly, if you want to stand out among your competitors, choose community involvement to be the best way for your business.
Before you think more about what you get with community involvement, here are the benefits listed! List them down to reason the most efficient step for your business now!
The benefits of community involvement
Indeed, when we are talking about the benefits, note that there are potentially no drawbacks of participating in community involvements. Yes, you and your employees may have to sacrifice some of the time and money on their side, but the rewards are worthy enough to make the sacrifices.
Get into a deeper dive into the plethora of benefits for choosing to give back to the community you live in!
It helps you increase awareness of your brand.
First of all, what do you understand by brand awareness? Does brand awareness refer to how familiar are the customer with your business brand? For instance, you can understand it like this: when someone says they are in need of a Windex, you know they are referring to glass cleaner, right? That is because Windex has developed excellent brand awareness among people.
Interestingly, this can also be understood with the brand Xerox. Indeed, Xerox is a company that dies document outsourcing and even digital printing. But commonly, you will mix up the term photocopying with the word Xerox, as it has become the brand of it, right!
Now, while brand awareness is essential for businesses, it is crucial for small companies and start-ups. After all, if people are not aware of your business, they probably won’t be able to explore and buy from it.
It helps cultivate trust in your organization.
If customers don’t trust your business, they won’t buy from you- it is SIMPLE! This facet is particularly applicable to the current marketplace. If the customer lacks reasons to trust your brand, he/she probably won’t invest time and money in you and thus, would be buying from your competitor!
So, what is your way of cultivating trust among your customers?
One of the best ways to ensure your customers trust you is to provide exceptional customer service. You can also respond to customer reviews and have an active presence on social media platforms. Additionally, improve your security aspect so that customers feel secure to be around your brand!
Another great way to build trust is to participate in community involvement. If you are dedicating your resources to your community, you are positioning your business as an organization that values causes more than making money. The customers tend to trust those companies which help those in need.
For instance, if they meet your employees at volunteer events or even go along with your philanthropic efforts over the web, they will trust you more. And once this trust has been established, you get better chances of growing your business. Indeed, you will get the motivation to run your business rather than getting updated by your competitors!
Create a culture of positivity
Indeed, not to be forgotten, culture is the character of your organization. It is something that makes your business brand acceptable for maximum people around you, right! Creating a culture of positivity around yourself will help you stand out among your competitors.
When you resonate with a positive culture, you tend to attract the top talents and have the correct approach to retain them. This is a benefit you get while recruiting and training employees cost.
Secondly, employees are often satisfied with their work culture if the company’s overall culture is cheerful and amiable. They tend to be more productive. Yes, you can also count on them to go the extra mile to ensure your business is booming.
Promoting and being a part of community involvement significantly contributes to a positive company culture for any business. Indeed, every employee working in a company would like to be associated with a company that believes in giving them back, right!
We all feel the need to take a break from the everyday schedule we have to be free at mind. So, participating in community involvement can be a great idea to be positive and more productive always.
In this article, we’ll surface tips on how community activities could help your business.
Create a branding
Your business needs a brand name. Community involvement could be instrumental in earning a brand name for your business. If you donate money for a cause or uphold the community’s interest through your business, community members may start finding interest in your company and may become your clients. In other words, serving the community interest could give you potential leads, and your business could get a distinct identity.
Pick an issue
In order to run a successful business these days, you need to be one step ahead of your competitors. A great way to achieve that is to pick an issue and highlight it through your business. Make sure the issue represents the theme of your business. For example, suppose your business belongs to the printing and publishing industry. In that case, you could invite non-profit organizations to measure the amount of carbon emission and take measures to curb it. This would make you popular among the communities that want to reduce carbon footprint. That, in turn, could help you fetch new leads based on your newly established contacts within those communities.
Host community meetings
That’s perhaps the simplest and the most effective way to infiltrate into a community and get new clients. First, get acquainted with few communities whose line of work matches your business. If you have a spare room in your office, invite them to meet. Organizations conduct such meetings frequently, and if you host those meetings, you’ll form a positive relationship with community members and get new leads.
Sponsor community activities
Giving away cash is a red signal to a businessperson. So you may not like it. But try looking at it from a manipulative perspective. Sponsoring a community is like making an investment. The key people in that community will be obliged to you, and from them, you’ll get contacts of many heavyweight business people, who are also linked to that community. Rest is how you could persuade them to strike a business deal with you.
In short, small businesses need to grow, and owners of those businesses should leave no stone unturned in getting new clients. Being involved with a community gives you ample opportunities to bag clients.
Share your knowledge
You will find many people in your community who can effectively share knowledge and also help you pave a new way for yourself. For instance, if a non-profit needs a programmer or a web designer but cannot find that or can’t afford them, you can anytime volunteer to design or program their requirements for free.
Sponsor a sports team
Most of the time, you will find an adult or youth sports team in your community. Indeed, you can anytime sponsor a tea and get publicity from the crowd as the logo will speak for you in this case. It will appear in all the uniforms. Indeed, if you are really looking forward to supporting your community but don’t have enough time, this can be an excellent option for you.
The bottom line
The first thing is there is not much requirement of money while you look forward to community involvement. The one thing that is needed is, however, is the desire to help others. If you are committed and creative, you can effectively create a community involvement program to give back to the society you live in, right!
So, what are you waiting for? Get a complete understanding of the above-stated facts for participating in community involvements now!
