VARIOUS WAYS COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS

Community involvement is an effective way to increase brand awareness, establish meaningful connections with people, establish a positive reputation, and grow your business. It opens new doors for growth, innovation, and connection. Through community involvement, businesses can positively impact the community in which they operate and positively impact the world as a whole. You can participate in community services by; financial donations on behalf of your business, participate in non profits, and many others. Below we give you a number of benefits which shows that all business owners should get involved in community services where they operate.

1. It helps you increase your brand awareness.

A business’ brand awareness refers to how familiar consumers are with your brand. Brand awareness is very important for businesses because if people don’t know you exist, there is no way they can buy from you. Community involvement offers the opportunity to every business to promote their products/services or spread awareness of their brand’s presence in a way which helps communicate what the company stands for. When you support the community, people come to know about you and mention your business to others. Participate in community events, organize fundraisings, help nonprofits to offer your business the chance to attract new customers. Remember, consumers like purchasing from those who participate in social services.

2. Foster a positive culture of collaboration.

Your business’ culture is the specific characteristics of your business. It represents your business’ core values, behaviors, traditions, and attitude. It is what differentiates your business from your competitors and makes your business stand out. A positive culture helps your business attract and retain good employees, collaborate with other businesses of your field who can help you grow (don’t see all businesses as your competitors). Employees who work with businesses that have good company culture tend to work harder to help the company attain its goals. Many people want to work with those who give back and care about others. Involving your business and your employees in social services to enable them to support others will greatly contribute to developing your company’s culture.

3. It helps businesses build trust with your community and operations.

In today’s competitive marketplace, consumers only want to purchase from businesses they trust. You should give valuable reasons to people that will make them buy from you. Consumers always want to see that businesses care more about their well being than making money. You need to reassure consumers that you did not come there just to sell your products and exploit them for cash or data. Involving in community services will make you participate in volunteer events, non profits, and others. We all know that customers like buying from those who are active in social services. So all businesses need to care about the way they are perceived by consumers. You should prove to the community that you participate actively in community development. As such people will get more involved with your business than those of your competitors.

4. Forge alliance with other local businesses.

Community involvement brings your business into contact with other local businesses. Not every business in your industry represents a treat; others may offer complementary products/services. Community involvement enables you to forge alliances with other businesses that may strengthen your business and local community as a whole. It brings companies in contact with neighboring services and retailers that could help you out of any bad situation.

5. It enriches employees and improves their morale.

A study found that employee involvement in volunteering helped them feel better about their companies. Asking your employees to volunteer their time in the community makes them develop a greater level of engagement at work. It increases employee engagement and sense of belonging at that company. This is particularly recurrent with small businesses because most employees live and work in these same communities. Moreover, it creates another context for employees to get to know each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and personality.

6. It helps attract and keep local talents.

Community involvement is a great way to attract and maintain local talent. Most people usually like to deal with businesses that care more about other people’s well being than focusing on profit making. Community involvement is the greatest way companies indicate that they are not just in for money but for the greater good. According to some scholars, an organization’s commitment to social issues is a deciding factor for 64% of millennials when choosing to apply for a job.

7. Leverage local ties.

Though some small and local businesses do not have enough resources and time like large businesses, community involvement represents an advantage which small businesses have over large companies. Large companies often find it difficult to connect with communities on a local level. This is where small businesses have an advantage because they naturally have closer ties to local communities; chances are high that employees live and work in the same area which makes community involvement more genuine and honest.

Community involvement has a lot to offer to small businesses. To ensure a long term prosperity, businesses should sustain a healthy community. When a business places the community first before the business itself, they create lasting relationships with individuals and other local businesses.