Small Businesses make a Strong Contribution to Communities, but can be More Effective.

Small businesses are often the backbone of engagement in local communities.  When I was involved with the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, I was always impressed with how the local store, repair shop or professional was engaged with everything from working with local schools to speaking at city council meetings. Their volunteering, along with funding, is organic and real.  Too often their efforts go unrecognized.  There are many tools that large businesses utilize in their corporate social responsibility work that can be easily adapted to help small businesses be successful in their efforts to be a good neighbor.  Tools on how to more effectively engage employee volunteers.  Ways to look at leveraging your contributions/sponsorship budgets.  Utilizing the business’s core competencies, and values, to benefit the community in a way that also adds bottom line business value.  I encourage small and medium size businesses to put together a community relations plan to better manage their efforts while maximizing their investment.  It doesn’t need to be complex, but a road map to help plan for what makes strategic sense and almost as importantly gives you a solid reason when you say no to requests.  There are so many problems and issues that we face that need help.  Healthy communities mean healthy customers.   High school and college graduates provide for a stronger job pool for future hires.  Jobs provide opportunity to buy homes, purchase goods and services, contribute to the tax base.  The alternative is unemployable people who either require social services or get caught on the wrong side of the law and enter the criminal justice system.  Let’s harness the collective power of small and medium size businesses to be part of the solution to many of societies challenges while creating a healthier environment for businesses to thrive.  www.bclc.uschamber.com