Yesterday, I attended an open house at my husband's workplace. He works for Dow AgriSciences at the Davenport, Iowa, station. Officially, they had the open house to celebrate completing their new office construction project. Part of the celebration was to give a $10,000 donation to Habitat for Humanity. Now, please don't think I'm cynical or pessimistic, because I fully believe that one can simultaneously be giving, altruistic, and charitable while also serving their own business interests. So, yes this was a celebration and a good deed to the community, but it was also a public relations event.The event had a good turnout - over 50 attended including one of the television news stations. And I speculated why that was so; here's what I came up with:
- Free food - a delicious lunch catered from a local restaurant, including dessert (peach cobbler - Yum!)
- Personal Invitations - several stakeholders in the company and community were personally invited and they were each invited to invite an additional guest
- Pre-printed name tags - they made it feel official and that you were truly an invited guest
- Promotional Swag - booklets and pamphlets about products plus pencils and notepads (which are pictured and I had to text my husband to grab me some because I forgot to do it)
- Charitable Donation - the above-mentioned check to Habitat, a large check was presented and pictures were taken
It was a nice event and, luckily for my husband and his colleagues (and probably the attendees), it was planned and attended by three employees from the corporate office who I assume were from the marketing (or at least a related) department. So, what's the lesson small businesses, particularly small service businesses, can take away from this big, corporate event?
First, if you're kind of an in-the-background company (my husband's company develops seed corn for farmers, not exactly something "out there" in the world too blatantly), you might need to get creative to find something to celebrate. My husband's work happened to have built a new building for the sole purpose of advancing the business - but it did create jobs for local construction professionals, has the potential to create new jobs for the company itself, and it added to the local economy - something valuable and worth celebrating. So, if you have a new development in your company, don't be afraid to brag about it a little. Even if you don't hold a party, you can send a press release and see if the media will cover it.
The second lesson is to partner. In essence, Dow AgriSciences partnered with Habitat for Humanity for the event by donating a check. But, it wasn't just a random donation - Habitat for Humanity is an organization which the employees (corporate and local) value and support so they could combine this genuine desire to help a worthy organization with having another organization help promote the event and give another reason for the media to cover it. So, if you have an organization or cause about which you feel strongly and want to help, do it under your business persona and let people know (again, it doesn't have to be an event but simply a press release or announcements on social media).
As a small business, you can learn from corporate America - it just takes some creativity. And if you are genuine and authentic in everything you do, you don't have to worry about feeling guilty because it helps your bottom line as well.
Happy Celebrating!
-the Wordsy Woman
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