Solopreneurs can use their business for good – come together, for a common good and accomplish more than you could on your own! Here are some ways on how to use your business for good.
Fire Sale
First, let’s start with the definition of a fire sale:
A fire sale is the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices, typically when the seller faces bankruptcy or other impending distress. The term originated in reference to the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage. -Wikipedia
When it comes to the online business space, it’s a little different than that. In this case, it’s a bunch of digital products bundled together and sold at a low price for a limited amount of time. And usually, it’s a group of people, not just one person, contributing to the digital products to be sold.
The awesome thing about a fire sale is how quickly it can generate a large amount of cash! This works great for immediate needs – unexpected expenses, medical emergencies, disasters, and more.
When it comes to running a fire sale, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Be sure to set a reasonable time limit for your sale. You don’t want it to go on for so long that people lose interest, but you also don’t want it to end so quickly that people feel like they missed out.
- Promotion! Use all your marketing channels – email, social media, affiliates, etc. – to get the word out there. Be sure to include all of the relevant details in your promotions: dates of the sale, types of products included the value of all the items included, and of course, the price people will pay to purchase.
A quick note about fire sales and affiliates. Maybe you’re thinking that if you’re trying to use the fire sale to do good, you don’t want to have to pay commissions because you want all the sales to go to the cause. Don’t think like that, though! Affiliates can be one of your biggest assets in generating even more sales! They’ll help get the word out about the fire sale, bring word to new people outside your regular circle of influence, and more. And there have even been times when affiliates have chosen to donate all their commissions back to the cause or not even use their affiliate link to promote it!
After you’ve run a fire sale don’t forget to follow up with your customers (and contributors) to let them know how much their support meant to you. This is a terrific way to build relationships and turn one-time buyers into lifelong fans.
Fundraiser
Hosting a fundraiser is another fantastic way to use your business for good. Fundraising lets you give back – whether to your local community through an organization like Habitat for Humanity or on a more global level through something like Water for People – and make a positive impact in the world. One of the great things as an online business owner is you have a lot of tools and resources at your disposal to help you raise money for your fundraiser!
- Social Media – you likely already have a strong presence on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Use this to your advantage during your fundraising efforts! Create posts about the fundraiser, sharing photos or videos related to the fundraiser. Utilizing social media is a terrific way to reach a large audience quickly and increase the visibility of your fundraiser.
- Email Marketing – Another great tool at your disposal is email marketing. More than likely, you’ve been building your list, and this is a wonderful way to reach potential donors who aren’t on social media or may not follow you on different platforms. You can also use email marketing to provide updates on the fundraising progress and of course to thank donors once the fundraiser is over
One thing worth mentioning – as an online business owner it’ll be easier to get people on board to donate if you provide something of value in exchange for their donation. For example, let’s say you’re a business coach. You could offer access to one of your digital courses for people who donate up to (whatever amount you feel is adequate) and then anybody that donates (again, whatever amount you feel adequate) gets a 30-minute coaching call with you.
By utilizing these different platforms you have at your fingertips, you can maximize the impact of your fundraising efforts and make a difference in the lives of those in need.
Offer an Internship
An internship can provide valuable experience for someone who wants to learn specific skills in an area in which you’re an expert. By providing an internship opportunity, you are doing good because it will help someone gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in that area.
Here are two examples of people that went through internships to gain knowledge and know how to provide skills that would help them build their businesses:
- Christina Lemmey of MultimediaContentsSolutions.com. She went through a podcasting internship and went on to become a Podcast Creation Coach and helps solopreneurs plan, set up, edit and present their podcasts to the world.
- Val Selby of ValSelby.com. After going through an internship, she went on to provide online event consulting services to help people run successful bundles, summits, and giveaways.
If you are interested in providing an internship, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Make sure the intern is a good fit for your business.
- Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the intern.
- Provide supportive feedback throughout the internship.
By taking these steps, you are ensuring that both you and your intern have a positive and productive experience.
Now let’s look at some specific examples of people who have used their online businesses to do good.
4 Examples of People Who Have Used Their Business to Do Good:
1. Kelly McCausey of Love People + Make Money
There are several examples of how Kelly has used her business for good:
- Replacing a broken computer in 2007
- Paying a single mom’s electric bill
- Fulfilling holiday business wishes
- Blessing a family in mourning
- Helping cover her nephew’s cancer treatment
The opportunities are endless, as you can see from the different ways Kelly’s business has helped others!
2. Cindy Bidar of CindyBidar.com
In 2019 Cindy had a friend who lost everything in a devasting house fire. She immediately jumped into action, reaching out to her online community. The result? Twenty-five people came together to provide some of their best training in a fire sale bundle offer that Cindy sold for a one-time low payment, all proceeds being donated to the friend who lost everything in the fire.
Cindy knew she couldn’t have as big an impact on helping her friend rebuild from the ground up, on her own. But she knew if she put the word out to her community and they shared with their communities, the reach (and impact) could be bigger… and it was! Cindy was able to provide a hefty amount of cash to her friend.
3. Marisa Corcoran of MarisaCorcoran.com
In 2021 Marisa used her business to donate to Sage USA: an organization committed to advocacy and services for LGBTQ+ elders. She was hosting The Copy Chat (season 6) – her free masterclass series – and decided to offer a copy of the recordings for a one-time payment and 100% of the proceeds were donated.
4. Tishia Lee of TishiaSavesTime.com
Many years ago, Tishia’s then 4-year-old nephew was diagnosed with leukaemia and in 2015 went through a life-saving bone marrow transplant. Knowing the financial burden her brother & sister-in-law faced, she wanted to help with a financial blessing. She knew she couldn’t offer much financial assistance on her own, so she went to her peeps in the online space and host a fundraiser.
Several people donated products for a bundle that donators received access to. There were many financial contributions aside from purchasers of the bundle as well. At the end of the fundraiser, she was able to bless her brother and sister-in-law with a cheque. Today, her nephew is healthy and thriving!
There’s one thing each one of these business owners has in common – they didn’t make these things happen on their own! It was because of many people came together for a worthy cause. And they each had things set up in their businesses to make it possible for them to do good.
Let’s look at some tips to help ensure you set your business up to do good too…
3 Tips to Set Yourself Up (Your Business) To Do Good
Tip #1: Build Passive Income
There are many ways you can build passive income but two of the most popular ways are affiliate marketing and promoting your own products (if you don’t have any yet, it’s time to create some).
When it comes to both affiliate marketing and promoting your own items, put the time and energy now into setting up promotions that can work well in the future. This means spending time writing blog posts that you can use affiliate links in or that you can link to the sales pages of your items.
But don’t stop there! Have a podcast? Then talk about it! Blab about it on social media. Create video content around it. And don’t forget to add it to your autoresponder messages too.
The next time you find yourself with a few hours to spare, use it to create some of the promotional items mentioned above or create your next course.
Tip #2: Build Your Mailing List
I’m going to say it just in case it needs to be said – if you don’t have a mailing list yet, start one TODAY! Seriously, it’s that important! Tools like Aweber, Mailerlite, Active Campaign, and Convert Kit – just to name a few – make it easy to get started.
If you do have a list, it’s important to ensure you are winning new subscribers regularly. There are numerous ways you can do this:
- Free opt-in offer gifts
- Webinars
- Virtual summits
- Participate in bundles
- Be a guest on podcasts
Each of those is a great list-building method.
Tip #3: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel (Repurpose What You Have)
There is no need to always be creating new courses, podcast episodes, blog posts, videos, and more. More than likely you already have a ton of this content out there so it’s time to put it to work… again.
Devote some time going through your courses and the sales pages too. Make sure everything is up to date (do links work, etc.). If things need to be updated, do it. Then you can relaunch those products.
Next, spend some time going through old blog and podcast episodes. Again, you’ll want to make sure things are up to date and that links, etc. are still working. You can create new graphics for the posts, add affiliate links where it makes sense (if they’re not there already), and add a CTA if there isn’t one and it makes sense to add one. Once you’ve done that it’s time to republish and re-promote.
As you can see there are several different ways you can use your business for good and some ways to ensure your business is set up to be able to do it. I hope this has inspired you to think about different ways you can use your business for good too.
Resources for Your Business
Canva – A graphic design platform to easily create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content. Find beautiful pin templates that you can easily edit and use in your blog posts.
Mailerlite – An email marketing tool. Use for free with up to 1000 subscribers.
Tailwind – Schedule and automatically publish your social media content.
Content Conga – Content for bloggers and businesses.
Creative Fabrica – Font, graphics and craft files for business and personal use.
AIOSEO – AIOSEO, short for ‘All in One SEO’, is a popular WordPress plugin designed to help website owners optimise their content for search engines. It is a tool used to improve a website’s search engine optimisation (SEO) to increase its visibility and rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs), such as Google.
Shop for business supplies by creating a Free Amazon Business Account. Customise your business account to suit your business needs. (Must be a registered business). Create an Amazon Business Account Here (US). If you’re in the UK, set up your Amazon Business Account Here.
