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Unlocking Corporate Social Responsibility: 10 Impactful Ways to Give Back as a Business Owner

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article | Unlocking Corporate Social Responsibility: 10 Impactful Ways to Give Back as a Business Owner

Corporate Social Responsibility is neither a trend nor something only for the large companies with millions in revenue. It’s something every company can adopt to give back to society and make a positive impact. The acts can be intrinsically fulfilling and at the same time, increase your brand value.

Here, we have listed ten ways to engage in corporate social responsibility and give back to society as a business owner.

Practice and Promote Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is nothing but being a little kinder to the planet. The most common eco-friendly practice is minimizing waste: during manufacturing or when providing services. You can achieve it at every step of the production process. You can also advocate recycling and go for energy-efficient practices. Partner with local recycling programs and dispose of the recyclable materials used in your processes. Conduct an audit of your machinery and choose the most energy-efficient alternatives. By going green and minimizing your negative footprint, you will benefit the environment and at the same time, establish yourself as an eco-friendly business.

Start a Community Awards Program

Apart from contributing to society, you can also recognize other businesses that are impacting it positively. For that, you can start a community awards program. Community awards examples include Business of the Year Award, Excellence in Leadership and Service Award, Small Business of the Year Award, New Business of the Year Award, and Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Finalize categories, shortlist the nominees, and create an unbiased jury to judge the entries. You can also sponsor an event to expose your brand to potential customers.

Support Local Charities and Nonprofits

Charities and nonprofits operate with donations from other companies. As a business, you can help them by making regular contributions or sponsoring their projects. List down the local charities and nonprofits, and mark the ones that share the same values and business ethics as you. Contact them for partnerships or donate to a cause they’re working toward.

At the same time, promote these nonprofits and charities through your business and encourage customers to support them. It’ll position you as a socially responsible brand.

Encourage Employee Volunteerism

While helping nonprofits, you can raise awareness within your organization and encourage your employees to volunteer in partner charities. It can help you in two ways. First, it will allow you to further establish your image as a socially responsible organization at all levels and enrich the curriculum vitae of your employees. Having any volunteer experience will help them ahead in their career. So, your employees would want to contribute.

List down the core strengths of your employees, and create a volunteer program accordingly. It can comprise teaching or coaching a particular subject or training a small workforce.

Start Educational Support Programs

Starting an educational support program for your local community can also establish your company as socially responsible. Identify the community needs or partner with local educational institutions to understand how much support they require. You can contribute in two ways. You can create a scholarship program to support the underprivileged who can’t afford education. Or, you can create a mentorship program and bear all costs. You can also have one of your employees conduct the mentorship if they have the necessary skills.

Practice Diversity and Inclusion

Having a diverse workplace and welcoming people from all backgrounds also falls under corporate social responsibility. Create strong company policies and implement them. Provide diversity training within the organization. Ensure equal hiring opportunity by setting up an unbiased interview and hiring committee. Practice intolerance when it comes to racism and negative workplace behaviors. All these will surely help set your company apart.

Adopt Ethical Supply Chain Practices

Building an ethical supply chain system is another effective way to become a socially responsible company. Every organization has a supply chain that affects multiple stakeholders. Map your organization’s change to find issues with ethical practices and eliminate them. Build and maintain a supplier code of conduct. Adopt fair labor practices and only pick suppliers who share the same ethics as your company. Pick eco-friendly suppliers to stay green.

Engage in Community Development

Identify initiatives and local development projects that help make life easier for the locals and participate in them. Improve local infrastructure, make public spaces (such as parks and sidewalks) more accessible, and build roads, schools, prayer houses, and even healthcare facilities. You can also adopt or fund beautification projects that increase the comfort of the local population. It also allows you to showcase your brand name and build public awareness.

Develop Corporate Philanthropy Program

You can also design and implement corporate philanthropy programs to help the underprivileged. Make financial donations for education or healthcare. Alternatively, you can create a foundation with a specific mission. Encourage your employees and stakeholders to contribute so that all levels of your management are engaged in the practice. Don’t forget to measure the results and renew program policies once every year.

Engage in Crisis Response and Relief

Step in during natural calamities and help the affected of the locality. You can partner with local NGOs and fund their initiatives. Prepare when you receive the news of an impending natural disaster. Help create awareness in the locals. You can also train your employees to work as volunteers. Provide logistical support. Donate food, water, medicine, and other relief based on the disaster. Work with the NGO to reform the affected after the disaster has passed.

Establishing yourself as a socially responsible company isn’t too difficult. Taking a hard look around will expose you to multiple issues that need immediate resolution. As a company, you can directly donate to help those causes or actively participate in various levels to improve your community. Both will benefit the public and enhance your brand value while making your business more sustainable.

Everything a Caring Business Owner Should Do About Looking After Their Workforce

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article | Everything A Caring Business Owner Should Do About Looking After Their Workforce

In today’s business world, it is vitally important to show yourself as a caring boss and business owner. In fact, do this correctly, and you could find that it makes your business the one where everyone wants to become an employee, therefore making it far easier to fill vacancies with the best talent around.

Of course, to attain this high standing amongst employees, both current and potential, you will have to put time, money, and effort into some key areas.

Keeping Your Workers Morale High

There is so much literature on why you should care what your employees think and feel about your business and the benefits of having a workforce with high morale. However, you may be curious about how you can heighten the morale of your workforce. Well, the first step is always to say thank you for their hard work and commitment.

This should not just be done by some soulless email but should come from you and be delivered in person to get the right response from your workers. This should then be followed up with a reward or thank you gift that is not a throwaway item or gesture. Research your employees, find out their interests, hobbies, or what they enjoy, and gift on these principles. Lastly, don’t make your gifts or thanks a one-time-only affair but do it frequently.

Ensure Workers Comp Is in Place

You should also make sure that your business has purchased worker’s compensation insurance for all of your employees to show that you have your worker’s best interests at heart. Taking care of your workers should they become ill or suffer an accident and not be able to attend work and therefore get paid is essential in your employer-employee relationship.

To assist your workforce and have them feel you have their best interests at heart, you should also provide them with details of what a workers comp is, what is covered, and how to cash a workers comp settlement check. This may mean that they need to get specialist help from a lawyer to ensure that they are going to be completely covered, and you, as a caring employer, should make them aware of this important factor.

Not supplying your employees with workers comp could mean that you are opening your business up to some immensely large bills, lawsuits, and possibly even the chances of a jail sentence. On top of this, you may also find that you have lost your right to conduct business in the current state that you operate in.

Final Thoughts

You should most certainly strive to look after your workforce; they are, after all, your business’s best asset. You shouldn’t just do this behind closed doors either, and you need to let your employees know that they mean a lot to your business and that you are grateful for their effort, attendance, and what they bring to your business. You can do this by saying thanks, rewarding them frequently, and ensuring that you have adequate working compensation insurance in place should they require it.

A Few Ways To Start Your Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | A Few Ways To Start Your Entrepreneurial Lifestyle

Being an entrepreneur is something that you ever want or you don’t. When you are an entrepreneur you commit to working for yourself and do whatever you can’t make yourself and your company or companies in some cases succeed. There are lots of different ways to become an entrepreneur and lots of different levels to start at, you need to find what’s right for you with your age and budget that you have and what level of investment you want to make, to begin with. Being an entrepreneur is a wonderful thing. It gives you flexibility, freedom to choose how you spend your days as well as a better work-life balance. It also allows you to further your career as much as you want to without any restrictions from companies that have their own rules. Where is it a normal 9-to-5 job he may only ever reach 40,000 a year whereas when you’re an entrepreneur the possibilities are endless.

When you starting at the very beginning of wanting to become an entrepreneur and work for yourself most people start with a side hustle, this normally goes alongside their normal 9-to-5 job which they are looking to scale and grow their business to a point where they can leave their normal job and follow their passions and their own company. There are lots of different ways you can do this and the top tips everywhere for entrepreneurs and advice to help you start. There are lots of different ways you can become an entrepreneur. There are things like social media managers and virtual assistants. These are service-based companies and something that you can do in the comfort of your own home or even sitting on holiday as long as you have a laptop and Wi-Fi. As a social media manager, you are stuck at the capacity of how many clients you can handle but you are also able to then further and outsource clients to people who can then work for you. Prices vary all over the world in the US the average is about $1000 a month per client so if you have 10 clients a month that’s $10,000 a month before tax. There are lots of online courses to help you train and learn to do these roles and some of them are free too.

If you’re ready to look at more of a commitment and have a bigger investment amount you’re able to put in you could look at buying a business that’s already there and making it your own. There are lots of businesses for sale all over the place as well as franchises and it’s not a look at the top places where the businesses are. This will give you a bit of a head start into being an entrepreneur and having a business as all the base and foundation work is already done. You’ll be able to come in and take over and make it your helping to scale and grow the business which will increase profits, turnover and the growth of the company.

Essential Tips For First Time Business Owners

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Essential Tips For First Time Business OwnersRunning a successful business can be one of the most rewarding endeavors an individual can pursue, both financially but also due to the satisfaction it can bring. With that being said, running a business, be that a small start-up, mid-sized enterprise, or a global brand, managing your business is not easy, especially if you’ve never been in that position before.

Many exciting and budding entrepreneurs see their first-time businesses have to fold year after year, all because they may not have been prepared in some way and, due to that, mismanaged the business. If you find yourself in charge of a business for the first time, here are a few vital tips to ensure that you can excel in the role and grow your business too.

Get An Education

One of the best ways to ensure that you’re prepared for all the different responsibilities involved with running a business is to get an education and understanding of everything you’re expected to do. One of the best ways to do this is through a business degree, as this will give you solid foundations in all departments, such as business analytics, finances, team management, and more.

However, this option might not suit everyone, especially those who have too many responsibilities that they can’t give up to get an education. If that’s the case, the next best thing is to learn as much as you can through online learning and tutorials (LinkedIn Learning and Skillshare is fantastic for this). You can also attend seminars, both in-person and online, and read books from industry experts.


Make Sure Your Business Is Efficient

Time means money within business. This means that if you can perform tasks quickly at a good standard, your business will serve more customers and generate more income. One of the best ways to ensure that your business is prepared and efficient is to invest in automation software. With this type of software, you’ll be able to perform certain tasks quickly, giving you more time to work on other things. Automation software can help with financial management, organize calendars, and so much more. Click here to find out some of the best business software you need.

However, with this emphasis on software and digital solutions, you need to make sure that your IT and computer hardware is up to scratch. Furthermore, as you will be utilizing digital platforms, you need to ensure that you are protected and that your hardware and software are well maintained. This can be hard for a new business to do in-house, which is why it’s a good idea to invest in the small business IT support London companies like Computer Being offer.

Listen From Others

It can be easy, as a new business owner, to dismiss the naysayers and doubters. However, it’s actually a good idea to listen to these concerns if they’re coming from people more experienced than yourself. Understanding why people might not support your business proposal can help you tackle the problem head-on and ensure that your business starts with a more solid foundation.

Furthermore, when you hire your first team members, be sure to listen to them, including their advice, concerns, and ideas. These people will likely grow with you and the business, so it’s a good idea to get their insight, as it can be helpful. There’s nothing wrong with being confident in your abilities. However, you should never dismiss and ignore valid criticism and concerns.

With these tips, you should be more comfortable with the prospect of owning a business and should be in a better position to be successful within it. However, these tips are not the be-all and end-all, and it’s a good habit to continue learning and developing as a business leader, as this will drive you forward and be more successful.

A 3 Step Plan To Deal With Your Weaknesses As A Business Owner

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | A 3 Step Plan To Deal With Your Weaknesses As A Business Owner

You won’t like to hear this, but you’re not perfect. Nobody is, and nobody ever will be. Some people seem like they’re perfect, but they have weaknesses just like anybody else. As a business owner, you can’t afford to let your weaknesses get in the way of your success. You have to understand how to deal with things that hold you back.

As it happens, this is a lot easier than it seems. Dealing with your weaknesses can be boiled down into a straightforward three-step plan – which can actually only last two steps, but you’ll learn about that later. How do you do it? Well, read on to find out…

Step 1: Identify your weaknesses

It begins by recognizing where your weaknesses lie. Many of you probably haven’t thought about your strengths and weaknesses before. More specifically, you only think about your strengths! Assess your life and consider what you’re good and bad at. Is marketing your weakness? Do you struggle with productivity and time management? Are you really bad at organizing your admin tasks?

Look at your daily workload and think about what comes easy to you and what is more of a struggle. If possible, ask someone close to you if they can think of your weaknesses. Often, you need someone else to point something out before you realize it yourself!

Step 2: Learn from the experts

Once you know your weaknesses, you can start improving them. The easiest approach is to learn from the experts in your weaker fields. Let’s say that leadership is a particular weakness of yours. You’ve acknowledged this, and now you can attend online business classes focused on leadership. Here, you’ll be taught key points and skills from someone who is a strong leader and knows what it takes to become one.

The same goes for any other weakness you have; get help from people who deem your weakness as their strength! Business classes aren’t the only way to do this, you can also read books, listen to podcasts, etc.

Step 3: Hire people who know best

After the second step, you may be in a position where you’re more confident and have conquered your weakness. In which case, you can carry on with running your business. However, what if you still struggle and can’t wrap your head around a certain topic? In this instance, move onto the third step where you hire people who know best.

If you’re really bad at something and it’s taking too long to master it, get someone else to do it for you. Hire an admin assistant to organize your day if you still struggle to handle all the admin tasks. Outsource a marketing agency to draw up your marketing strategy if you can’t get to grips with it. Source help from experts to cover your weaknesses and ensure your business has no cracks!

After following these steps, you will be in a position where your weaknesses are no longer a problem. Either you have mastered them, or someone else is taking care of them. Either way, your business is in a much better position.