Businesses can grow even in small towns. In turn, small towns provide unique opportunities because of their concentrated market and limited population. But building a business that aims to help the community should not only focus on making profits but also promote the social good. This means that the business should value the community locals over the profitability of its sales.
Running a successful community-based business is all about meeting the current demand with a useful product or service. But creating a business that aims to help the people is far from easy. You have to think about a product or service that tackles a community problem while making a dramatic social impact.
Small-town business ideas vary from drugstore, daycare, and health clinics. A fragrance business is also a great idea to gather housewives and provide them with a small livelihood. For example, Fragrance Innovation Australi offers bulk fragrance oil supplies for those who want to start their fragrance business.
To help you with your admirable venture, this article will discuss how to run a small business that prioritizes a community’s social good. Take note of the key points to create a bigger social impact on your chosen community.
Think of a business idea
Aspiring entrepreneurs easily fall into the trap of the hottest business idea. They take so much effort in finding a groundbreaking product or service that they exhaust their efforts in studying different industries. Although there’s nothing wrong with this approach, sometimes the most marketable business idea lies in our everyday experiences.
If you’re looking for a great business idea for a community, it is better to identify its current problems or observe the everyday life of its locals. From there, you’ll be able to pinpoint which areas are lacking or needing improvement. Once you found the problem, take it as an opportunity to act on it using your passion for entrepreneurship.
Following your interests or passions will help you create a business idea. Look at the community events and activities you enjoy and look for areas you can improve. For instance, if you’re passionate about hairstyling, you can start a hair salon business and hire unemployed women in the community and provide training in grooming and hairstyling. As long as you have an interest in entrepreneurship, it is easy to pursue every business opportunity you’re passionate about.
A great tip is to focus on the experience than just creating a product. Start by understanding which parts of the experience you want to improve and think of ways how you can change the present situation.
Find ways to launch the business
As you work out your business idea, it’s time to create a plan on how to launch the business. This part will give you an idea if you want to establish a for-profit business or a nonprofit organization. The planning process includes deciding about the business structure, forming the team, and preparing the marketing strategy, and other requirements for starting a business.
Other elements of opening a business involve studying potential clients, creating a social media campaign, learning about the preference of the target audience, and promoting community engagement. Starting a crowdfunding campaign also helps in financing your new business venture and forming your initial consumer base. In fact, having community locals to support your business is extremely motivating and encouraging.
Although your business may not yet reach its level of success, it’s necessary to learn about the aspects of running a business for social good. If you’re keen to help the community members, use your entrepreneurial skills to your advantage. It’s not enough to have a great business idea and solid research, you need to fund your business, market your project, and acquire a steady consumer base.
Use customer feedback to your advantage
Customer feedback is important in any type of business. It helps measure customer satisfaction and improve products and services. Since running a community-based business means having a concentrated market and limited population, use it as an opportunity to personally engage with your customers and learn what they think about your product or service. You can maximize social media platforms or contact them via phone or email.
While running a business can get your hands full, it’s important to allot time and effort on entertaining calls and inquiries from customers. This will help you get more detailed feedback while making customers feel they are valued.
Creating a business that aims to help a small community requires determination to focus on the overall social good than just profitability. Not only will you increase the value of the community, but you will also provide job opportunities for the locals. In the end, a community-based business is all about addressing the community’s needs and creating a big social impact.
