How we should react when economy slows down.
When the financial market is in chaos all across the world, people consider clinging on to whatever they have and also reduce expenses. And they think that everybody does so, mainly because newspapers proclaim as such.
Everyone ISN`T acting that way of course. In fact, some people and some businesses thrive no matter where the economy is going. And when you look for why that is, you find that the answer often lies in a simple place where most people have never even looked. Let’s explore together.
Whenever there is a downward trend, whatever it is, the best way to overcome it is by rising higher than it. If we drift with the wind and go where it takes us, we might find ourselves in dire straits, waiting for the wind’s mercy for deliverance.
The reality is that when we learn how to be in control and in our power, we can stay above everything that is happening no matter what happens around us. Let’s take a look at how.
‘Go-getters’ or ‘Go-givers’
Let’s say we want more - more profits, a pay raise, more holidays, more freedom, and more opportunities.
When we want something, the first thing we tend to do is to go and get it. So, we call ourselves ‘Go-getters’. And being a ‘go-getter’ is, let’s face it, a sign of leadership, activism and an early-adopter mindset. This is of course one of the keys to the success formulae we often read about. But there is a problem. It turns out that when we use this ’strategy’, there are some unexpected (but quite predictable) consequences.
The gist of the matter is that after ‘getting’ and ‘possessing’ it we tend to ‘get rid of’ it. We might actually jettison it or might become apathetic to the whole idea.
And when we are tired of one thing we concentrate on getting something new. And these fresh cravings never end. The more we go in search of newer things, the wider the chain of desire that makes us continuously yearn for things. It simply becomes an addiction!
So what if we turned our ‘desire to get’ into a desire to provide?
You’ve probably noticed that giving always creates a great feeling. And it comes from gratitude rather than from fear or greed. We can continue to give more and receive more on our now, ever-fulfilling journey.
Our charitable and contributing approach will produce charitable and contributing customers and group mates whereas our concern about the cost and “getting tendencies” would bring in only like-minded co-workers. Companionship with such people is surely not welcome for us!
Inspiring capitalism
Most enterprises are conscious of this now. Companies have now started providing for others in myriad ways. A complete change has come over as companies understand how the idea of giving is crucial to their business. In an article in TIME Magazine in July 2008, it was Bill Gates who coined the word ‘Creative Capitalism.’
He opined that the idea of providing for others could become a crucial factor in encouraging people to buy one product rather than another.
What he’s actually saying is that when a company links its business to giving in some way, that company and its products become more attractive to customers. It takes us way, way above what’s been called ‘the sea of sameness’.
Creative Capitalism is concerned about reaching higher than what we might reconcile for to arrive at where we hoped to arrive. When we can make the most of our design and inspiration in a way that assists and fosters the larger community of nations and continents, we are preventing the wastage of supplies, endeavours and capacities to succeed. Then we are crafting the most authentic success for ourselves and for the financial stability of the countries across the world.
The appeal of effective giving
CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility is the word used for delineating the process of business establishments giving back to the community. It is becoming an obligation on the part of enterprises to do so. But when they donate as a duty or just for creating a good impression, it would soon become easy to make out. However, it works as an interim ploy for survival.
However, ‘giving’ people and businesses always attract more. The passions and beliefs behind what they do are shared with the people with whom they connect. They attract something beyond what the slick PR or marketing campaign provides.
What is likely to be the upshot if some of the capital meant for marketing is apportioned for contributions?
From the act of giving rises something that transcends us. The act of contributing results in revelation. And this revelation ensues only when it reverberates across those whom we want to arouse. And we are aroused when we become part of the happening totally. We cannot be satisfied with the narratives that are passed on to us. Those tales have to be lived in. in the end it is human nature to yearn for the satisfaction of making our own donation - to our kith and kin and organizations and society.
Transaction-based giving makes it inevitable
The ability to give just got so much easier too, thanks to an initiative (some would say a ‘movement’) called Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One). Buy1GIVE1 is the home of transaction-based giving. Transaction-based giving changes everything. Let’s use some imagination to see why.
How wonderful is the situation where every time someone buys an ice cream, a child somewhere in an underprivileged country gets a cup of milk?
Equally exemplary would be the situation where whenever someone subscribes to a magazine, a tree would instantly get planted in a barren patch in another continent? Or, if every time one eats a hamburger another would instantly get at least a handful of rice?
Consider the scenario of someone attending a coaching session. It would be commendable if someone who needs similar coaching would get it as a direct consequence (and just at the cost of not more than 60 cents for the day’s coaching).
Where a motivational speaker at a conference is connected with a charity, part of his income might go to helping kids who have speech problems due to facial defects. It will be a matter of great satisfaction for the participants at the conference to know that their very participation is helping a deserving cause.
Consider whether you will be able to use transaction-based giving in your own exclusive way to go with your services or products to make your customers and other team-mates part of the saga of contributing. This is how you can do it.
The actual winning economy
Business ventures, on a global basis, have already internalized the efficacy of this transaction-based giving. A case in point is TESCO, one of the foremost supermarket chains of UK. The company’s programme ensures that a Kenyan child gets a school uniform when someone buys a pair of school trousers from them.
Mineral Water Company Volvic also rolled out their transaction-based giving program successfully last year. For every 1 litre of Volvic people buy, Volvic gives funds to build wells in Africa in a program they call Buy1 GIVE 10 (since every 1 litre sold essentially creates a flow of 10 litres in the well.
Small to medium sized companies are now starting to take leadership in expanding this global giving movement through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with a mechanism that has turned this transaction-based giving into something every one of us can be involved in.
Buy1GIVE1 is the abode of the most powerful transaction-based giving in the world because it ties up any enterprise of any size to any worthy cause in the world. It is creating an international community of entrepreneurial givers and for SME`s, Buy1GIVE1 correlates enterprises, their buyers AND causes in an unsurpassable way. The system has been so perfected that it is automated.
Any person can become a citizen of this phenomenon of global giving merely by getting a Buy1GIVE1 `VISA` directly off the Buy1GIVE1 site at www.b1g1.com. Those who have their own enterprise can become a B1G1 Business through applying online and selecting the charity and the primary service or product for launching the giving. Buy1GIVE1 forwards the entire contribution amount to their international Worthy Cause Partners (more than 528 projects are available for members to choose from) thereby making their contributions highly productive.
Do you know?
* One half of the world’s population -which is about three billion people-does not have a daily income of even two dollars.
* Even in the 21st century, which is the age of the internet, there are about a billion people who have never put a pen to a paper.
* According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. That is about 210,000 children each week, or 20 children every minute.
* 85% of the world’s water resources are utilized by just 12% of its population. And of this, even 1% does not live in the Third World.
* One billion people lack access to basic health care.
* Rainforests of about 63,000 sq. miles get destroyed every year.
Data From Global Issues
Buy1GIVE1 Businesses-check out these examples
* Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au)
* Education to education (www.kipmcgrath.com.au)
* Medical practice providing healthcare (www.primanora.com)
* Phone card to communication (www.ultimatecomms.com)
* Mind Expansion to curing (www.meditate.com.au)
* Losing weight to feeding children (www.bodychain.com)
* Aesthetic blinds to lights to schools (www.blindscouture.com.au)
* Socks for protecting feet from frostbite (www.socksforhappypeople.com)
* Coaching to educate social entrepreneurs (www.b1g1forcoaches.com)
* And for an overall look, simply go to www.b1g1.com.
Unearthing what we are looking for-Nature’s eternal secret
So let’s let us return to the starting point-turbulent economics and managing to get what we need. The needs are in fact not all that knotty. They are just a group of three words that begin with the letter S - strong bonds, solidarity and society.
When we can collaborate instead of isolate and when we can create an effective way to add to each other instead of taking away from each other, we discover there is so much abundance and resource already available in our world. And when we connect, not just with each other but with our true selves, we discover something really interesting-that we’re all ONE. Then we understand how easy it is to create a global community from something as simple as giving.
And nature gives us a real clue to that.
In the wild, all types of insects cross-fertilize plants to create fruits and flowers of endless varieties benefitting men and animals alike. The perfect give and take pattern was there even before civilizations started.
When a fiasco inundates the world, it should be leveraged to turn it into a benefit to return to normalcy. Now is the time to acknowledge what we have got and forge ahead to succeed.
And when you choose to start giving today, you will feel so much better despite the economic challenges. And when you feel better you will discover a renewal of hope and you will remember all tides change and the down will soon be up. Giving today is the one thing that you can do to change everything.
Discover more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing.