Corporate social responsibility lets you combine doing social good with your business model. According to a study by Nielson, 55 percent of online consumers are willing to pay higher prices for products and services from companies dedicated to having a positive impact on the world. But while owning a business is about more than just profit, it can be hard to remain profitable while dedicating time and resources to corporate social responsibility initiatives like investing in green solutions, volunteering, or making charitable donations.

Here are four ways you can make a difference in the world while growing your small business.

1. Focus Your Vision

Every business needs a vision so they can prioritize how to use resources and help guide their decisions. Corporate social responsibility is no different. Pick a cause that’s important to you, choose an end goal, and then work backward to strategize how to use your resources to achieve it.

Concentrating your efforts on one cause uses your resources efficiently, increasing the likelihood of accomplishing your goal. Your team can also see how working together leads to positive results, which encourages collaboration and engagement.

2. Be Bold

Make sure your vision is bold. If you spread your resources too thin, you may achieve many small accomplishments, but achieving one extraordinary accomplishment is much more impressive.

Making a big impact on your cause is an excellent marketing opportunity because it gets customers’ attention. Put your name out there by focusing on a single socially conscious statement.

3. Show People You Care

Giving people insight into what’s important to you shows people that you care about more than just profit. By doing social good, you will engage your team and appeal to your customers.

Your Team

Concentrating on your bottom line is important for expanding your business, but so is creating a positive workplace for your team. Being dedicated to a cause engages employees, motivating them to work harder. In fact, according to Hay Group, offices are up to 43 percent more productive if they have engaged employees.

An engaged atmosphere is even proven to improve your bottom line. The Hay Group study also revealed that companies with engaged employees have 2.5 times the revenue versus competitors with low engagement levels.

Your Customers

Social responsibility is a major lure for customers. Being committed to making a positive impact differentiates a business’ brand and increases its marketability. Having a cause increases sales and customer loyalty because it aligns your business with customers’ ethics. If they believe you are sincere, they will purchase your product or service.

Many popular businesses have based their brand on this approach, such as The Body Shop and Nature’s Path Foods, Inc.

4. Work Together to Make a Change

Starting out can be intimidating for small business owners, especially when they don’t have any experience in corporate social responsibility. But, there are programs that support businesses working together towards a shared cause. For example, the Vancouver Economic Development Commission’s The Leverage Lab is a BC program that works with businesses to promote sustainability, innovation, and collective impact education.

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