{"id":184,"date":"2012-04-01T20:55:34","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T00:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=184"},"modified":"2012-04-04T19:14:32","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T23:14:32","slug":"how-your-small-business-can-do-good-while-doing-well-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=184","title":{"rendered":"How Your Small Business Can Do Good While Doing Well: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

For most of us, our Small Businesses are not\u00a0charities<\/strong> – we are in it to make a profit.\u00a0\u00a0That does not mean, however, that our businesses cannot be philanthropic.\u00a0\u00a0A lot of you may be saying, “Seriously, are you kidding?\u00a0 I don’t have the time or money to help others.\u00a0 All of my energy is spent just keeping my business afloat.”\u00a0 But, even if you are short on time, money, resources, or all three, your business can have a positive impact on your community.\u00a0 This post\u00a0discusses\u00a0ways your business\u00a0<\/strong>can\u00a0inherently serve the community.\u00a0 Hopefully, it will also make you appreciate how your business probably already does.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Be the “Third Place.”\u00a0<\/strong> Before Bottle Washer and I opened our business, we\u00a0wanted it to be a Third Place.\u00a0 We broke the rules for our type of business to be sure it was.\u00a0 Our facility is bright and cheery, has plenty of comfortable seating, hot coffee, a welcoming staff, and a diverse client base always eager to stay a little longer to shoot the breeze, talk politics, or complain about the weather.\u00a0\u00a0 Friendships have formed and rivalries have melted within our walls.\u00a0 You are just as likely to encounter someone dropping off a basket of tomatoes to share or bringing a power tool to lend as you are someone coming in to actually patronize our business.\u00a0 That is okay with us.\u00a0\u00a0It hasn’t hurt our bottom line one bit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

You have no idea\u00a0what a Third Place is?\u00a0 Of course you do.\u00a0 It’s the bar in Cheers<\/em>, the coffee house in Friends<\/em>, the beauty salon in, well, just about every show about beauty salons.<\/strong>\u00a0 It’s the no-pressure, all-accepting\u00a0place everyone secretly wishes they had to go to hang out.\u00a0 It’s the place where you can relax, don’t have to impress anyone, and maybe will even spot you if you are a bit short on cash.\u00a0 The Third Place, popularized in sociological literature by Ray Oldenberg in The Great Good Place<\/em> and Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone: America’s Social Capital<\/em>, is the location other than home (the First Place) or work (the Second Place) where people gather to socialize, interact, debate, exchange ideas, make new social contacts, and reinforce old ones.\u00a0 It is a center of\u00a0 personal support and civic involvement.\u00a0 <\/strong>Historically houses of worship and municipal properties, like parks and community centers,\u00a0were the Third Place.\u00a0 As our society becomes more secularized, commercial entities are assuming this role.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Friday two of our\u00a0patrons\u00a0had\u00a0a rousing, knock-down, drag-out debate over the accuracy of Fox News vs. CNN reporting.\u00a0 It was getting pretty heated.\u00a0 As they were walking out the door together, one said to the other,\u00a0“I don’t know what I would do without this place.\u00a0 I come every day just because it makes me feel better and my problems seem smaller.\u00a0 Even my wife says when I come home I am more relaxed.”\u00a0\u00a0 That is a Third Place.\u00a0\u00a0People want and need a welcoming, nonjudgmental place to go – it\u00a0could be your business.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Provide a livelihood for others.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you have employees, you are already providing a community service –\u00a0an opportunity for them to financially support their families.\u00a0 Do not underestimate the importance of this act.\u00a0<\/strong> Recently I watched the movie Courageous<\/em>.\u00a0 In it one character, Javier, looses his job.\u00a0 He is living so close to\u00a0the edge that the loss of this job on Monday could mean eviction for his family on Friday.\u00a0\u00a0When Javier secures a day laborer’s job, his new employer, who hires him for a week to help\u00a0build a backyard shed, has no idea of the impact his hiring has on Javier and his family.\u00a0 It literally saves them from homelessness.\u00a0\u00a0Even if your employees are not as desperate as Javier, chances are they are not independently wealthy and working for you because they can’t think of a better way to fill their days.\u00a0 Without your Small Business, they would need to find another source of that lost\u00a0income.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recently the media was spotlighting a rising young community activist, hailed as the next Barack Obama, who was investing his time in helping impoverished individuals access available\u00a0assistance programs.\u00a0\u00a0A worthy cause to be sure, but I can’t help but wonder: what if this young man had spent that time and effort starting a small business and employing <\/em>those same people?\u00a0 How would he change and empower their lives then?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Provide an essential service or product to\u00a0the community:<\/strong>\u00a0 If customers are buying your product or service, you are offering something they desire or need.\u00a0 Perhaps they patronize your store because you have the best selection, the best price, or are most convenient for them.\u00a0 But maybe you are the only provider of an essential service, such as medical care.\u00a0 It might be more profitable for you to locate elsewhere, but if you closed or moved your business, these customers would not have access to your product or service.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Provide stability or impetus for change to an area.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0This is often discussed in the context of\u00a0urban renewal in depressed\u00a0neighborhoods, where one keystone business spearheads a renaissance.\u00a0 However, it also happens in small towns.\u00a0 Last week public radio ran a short segment about a Vermont bank that decided to open up small branch offices in isolated rural towns.\u00a0 This seems like a misstep.\u00a0 Can a tiny hamlet really support a bank branch?\u00a0 Previously, these residents had to drive up to 45 minutes just for basic banking services, like use an ATM, make a deposit, or cash a paycheck.\u00a0 Guess what the bank discovered?\u00a0 Simply by making a small investment in these villages in the way of a one-person branch, these areas experienced a bit of a resurgence.\u00a0 Suddenly people weren’t driving 45 minutes to do their banking.\u00a0 They were staying in town, and while they were there, they were stopping by the general store to pick up supplies, going to the hardware store for grass seed, and maybe even getting a bite for lunch.\u00a0\u00a0 A successful small business can affect the economy of an entire town or neighborhood.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does your Small Business provide jobs or valuable services?\u00a0 Are you a public gathering place where people can strengthen their community ties?\u00a0 Is your Small Business a leader in\u00a0the economic development of your neighborhood?\u00a0 If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you are already doing good while doing well.\u00a0<\/strong> Part II of this post will give you more ideas to expand your philanthropy.<\/p>\n

In what other ways does your Small Business inherently add value to your community?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most of us, our Small Businesses are not\u00a0charities – we are in it to make a profit.\u00a0\u00a0That does not mean, however, that our businesses cannot be philanthropic.\u00a0\u00a0A lot of you may be saying, “Seriously, are you kidding?\u00a0 I don’t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[8,46],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-small-business-and-community","tag-small-business","tag-small-business-and-community-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}