I would like to talk about how your business can deliver a massive helping of help.
You may think you’re only a small business or just one person, but every day you have the chance to help others, and far from being insignificant, one person’s help can have a massive impact, just like a wave can come from a ripple.
In this article, I share a few thoughts on how our business makes help go viral, just by doing what we do a little more thoughtfully.
Here are my three tips to make your help go viral:
1. CHOOSE SUPPLIERS AND PARTNERS THAT GIVE.
Where possible, we’re choosing suppliers that are giving organisations.
We’ve chosen suppliers that have a purpose or intent to contribute either time or money to some aligned charitable or philanthropic goal.
Our accountants – Inspire – for example – give one freedom day – a day of water, or a day of education, for every dollar they save me in tax.
Since taking over our accounting a couple of years ago, together we’ve already made a significant impact, donating tens of thousands of days of fresh water and education.
Based on this successful model, we’re doing this will other suppliers.
And to increase the impact, even more, we’re matching those giving impacts where we can.
2. UNDERSTAND THE ACTUAL SOCIETY-WIDE IMPACT OF YOUR SERVICE.
For our business Silver & Wise – where we help mature people start and run successful businesses – we’ve worked with the Human Rights Commission to build a model of our impact. Surprisingly, we have found that by helping 1000 mature people start and run a successful business, we can have an impact on the hundreds of millions of dollars in the Australian Economy.
The model includes the turnover of the businesses we help start, the tax they pay, the money saved from a mature person not being on unemployment benefits or social security and other costs avoided.
A small insurance policy isn’t worth the face value of the invoice – it represents a potential saving of thousands of dollars and hassle and upset. Even if not used, it represents peace of mind in the customer.
A bar of soap isn’t just worth the $3 someone pays for it – it represents hygiene and self-confidence and all manner of other impacts.
The impact of a music lesson isn’t the cost of the music lesson – it might add to a lifetime of enjoyment and aesthetic appreciation – not just of the musician but everyone who hears them play.
Understand how your product and service impacts the customer more broadly than the product itself, and you’ll see what I mean.
3. MAKE IT A HABIT OF BEING NICE.
Imagine the impact of being nice to someone, who then goes on to having a good day and being nice to others. The more we leave our staff, customers and suppliers delighted with the experience of dealing with us, the more we contribute to overall positiveness and happiness.
People who are positive and happy pass this on to others.
But so do angry people, or complaining people, or people who won’t solve a simple customer service issue quickly and easily for an upset customer.
You’d be surprised if you followed your ripple of kindness through the day of the person you helped. They might come across another ten people and have a positive interaction and then those ten each come across another 10.
Being nice, or helpful, or enjoyable to work with does indeed go viral – we just don’t see the likes and comments on a real-world interaction as we do on a social media post.
It is actually very easy to have a massive impact and ensure your impact goes viral.
Follow these three simple tips, and soon you’ll be having a much bigger impact on the world than you ever thought possible. Individuals do indeed change the world for the better. And it doesn’t require being famous or popular to do so.
Originally published on Smallville.