Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. While businesses and corporations are independent entities which a policed by the federal government, there’s another force which can impact them, and that’s public image and perception. A poor public perception of your business can erode your customer base and profits. The following contributed post is entitled, Corporate Social Responsibility And The Benefits For Your Business.
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In today’s business world, there are generally four ways to demonstrate your social responsibility.
1. Environmentally, placing a focus on your carbon footprint and taking measures to run a greener company. We suggested some of the ways you can do this in one of our previous articles here at https://bigwordsarepowerful.com/.
2. Philanthropically, running a business that is either specifically geared towards helping others, as can be demonstrated by the IT company at https://www.itforedu.com/ who work to serve the schools in our communities, or by donating your time and money to local charities and community causes.
3. Ethically, by running a business that treats its employees and customers fairly and responsibly.
4. Economically, by growing your business to profit your employees, shareholders, and customers, as well as yourself. You might also create job opportunities that are available to the local community.
These are the four main strands of corporate social responsibility, and as a business owner, you owe it to yourself and your business to consider each one.
Why?
Well, there are some obvious benefits to your business if you do, and these are outlined below.
You will improve your public image. With a negative public image, your business would suffer. If you became renowned for treating your employees badly, for example, or if it could be proven that your business had a negative impact on the environment, you would receive both public and media backlash. You would then experience financial losses when consumers decided to ditch your business in favor of a more socially responsible company. Turn that around then and think of the improved perception of your business when you start taking steps to be more socially responsible.
You will improve your employee’s morale. Would you want to work for a company that operated unethically? We assume not, and we are guessing neither would your employees. If they had the knowledge that the company they worked for was making active steps to support the local community, they would have greater morale and job satisfaction. Their productivity would then increase, and that would profit your business. You might also attract the best hires, including those millennials fresh out of grad school looking to make a difference in the world.
You will have an advantage over your business rivals. By taking steps to demonstrate your social responsibility, you are going to attract more customers to your business. By doing those things that your competitors aren’t, such as donating some of your profits to a local charity and using more sustainable ways to package your products when shipping, you will establish yourself as a company that cares. If your rivals don’t follow suit, then they will struggle to gain the same public recognition and positive word of mouth that your business will receive.
You will feel happier getting out of bed in the morning. Knowing that you are making a difference in the world should give you an extra spring in your step. And even on your worst days in business, those days when you are tired, and problems seem insurmountable, you are more likely to persevere if you know that what you are doing actually means something to others, as well as to yourself.
Demonstrating your corporate social responsibility is not only good for others, but it’s good for business too. Today then, think about what you could do, and then start to action any plans that could benefit both your profit margin and the local community around you.
Let us know what you think, and if you have anything to add to this article, perhaps in the way of how to demonstrate social responsibility, please share your ideas with us.