Tweet

Cinnamon Rolls, Breast Cancer and Your Business -- How Doing Good Can Grow Your Business

Written by: Michele Pariza Wacek

Article Overview: More than ever before, consumers are socially minded. In many cases they want to know the businesses they patronize are also socially minded. Connecting your business to a good cause is more than just making you "feel good" it can also make good business sense. So what are some ways to start? (Other than writing a check.) Well, here are a few ideas you can use:

Cinnamon Rolls, Breast Cancer and Your Business -- How Doing Good Can Grow Your Business

It can make good marketing sense to partner with a nonprofit or a cause.

Consider what my marathon friends did when they were raising money to participate in the 3-Day Walk (you walk 60 miles in 3 days to promote breast cancer awareness and raise money for research). They approached a local restaurant called Backburner, which was famous for their cinnamon rolls. For a week, every time someone bought a cinnamon roll, they donated $1 to my friends for their walk.

I personally hadn't heard of the restaurant, but when I found this out, my husband and I went and had breakfast there (complete with a cinnamon roll of course!)

So this turned into a win-win for everyone. My friends won because they were able to get donations for their walk. Susan G Komen wins because they get more money to donate to research. The restaurant wins because they get additional promotion and good will helping out a good cause. And I won because I got to eat a yummy breakfast and discover a new restaurant. (We're ignoring the calories I consumed here.)

More than ever before, consumers are socially minded. In many cases they want to know the businesses they patronize are also socially minded. Connecting your business to a good cause is more than just making you "feel good" it can also make good business sense.

So what are some ways to start? (Other than writing a check.) Well, here are a few ideas you can use:

1. I'm participating in a teleclass summit to help raise money for St. Jude's Children Hospital. Why not put together your own telesummit and have proceeds go to a good cause?

2. Or if a summit is too much work, just do one teleclass, charge a low fee and let people know proceeds are helping support a cause.

3. Have a sale and let people know a percentage of proceeds are going to support a nonprofit.

4. Offer to give a product of yours for free if people donate. Or put together a special teleclass only for people who donate. (I would put a time frame around this if you do this, for instance they have 48 hours or a few days to donate.)

5. Put links to your favorite nonprofits in your newsletter or on your website. (But don't make it so prominent you encourage people to click away from your site and not support YOU.)

6. Give away your time. If you're a service professional and you find your client pipeline has slowed down or dried up, donating your time to a nonprofit can be a good way to jump start your business. The exposure can help you find new clients plus you can make it known you support their cause. (And don't forget to get a testimonial.) Now, be careful with this strategy, I've used it myself but make sure you don't go too crazy donating your time or you could end up getting really stressed out when you client work picks up again.

But whatever you do, make sure this is coming from the heart. People can sense if you're not being sincere, so make sure you truly do believe in the cause if you're going to publically help support it.

Related Articles
  October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  Do Good and Do Good for Your Business
  American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine Advises Women Not to Reject Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy Based on Newly Published Study Stirring Fears About Cancer
  When Cancer Came to Visit me my Whole Life Changed Forever!
  Take a good look at yourself... and grow your business.

Article Tags: backburner, breast cancer, breast cancer awareness, business sense, calories, cinnamon roll, cinnamon rolls, connecting your business, donations, good business, good marketing, local restaurant, marathon, nbsp, proceeds, raising money, st jude, susan g komen, writing a check, yummy breakfast



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
The Little Man Introduction - Good Morning, This is John Hoover from Little Man Consulting. Our company has been floating along as a after thought for a few years. This year we decided to make a go of it. So far we are doing great. We are Virtual Administrators, Web Developers, Database Designers, and Software instructors. Basically, if you have someone in your office to do it, we can do it virtually. Our company was created to "Provide Big Business Resources to the Small Business". Wish me luck, I plan on revolutionizing the small business world with this!
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
Re: what position to request? - Hi Michael, How about Online Business Development Manager? Good luck with your start-up. David


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Reverse Mentoring

Think Time

ROSI Return on SUNK Investment

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.