4 Ways To Build Kindness Into Your Business
Kindness is infectious. When we see it lived out, it always seems as though we are called to respond. Even in the most simple of applications, it can lift spirits, encourage, inspire and restore. Maybe you think that the level of kindness necessary to achieve meaningful impact is beyond your grasp. There are problems of every shape and size, and knowing how to help can be so overwhelming: can anything I do really make an impact in the big issues? Do the little acts I take actually mean anything? If you think starting small isn’t enough, we’re here to tell you why that isn’t true.
Kindness compounds, but only if it starts somewhere. We all have the ability to start a wave of kindness: with a cup of coffee purchased for a stranger. With going out of our way to solve a problem. You begin to build an identity of kindness from the very moment you launch. It’s that identity that you establish early, that will make sure you are ready to apply kindness at every stage of life or business!
If you don’t start early, it might seem impossible to be as kind as you want to be. Sometimes, it feels like that costs something. The good news, is that there are so many easy ways, you can begin to build that foundation of kindness. And is there a better time to start than the Holiday Season?
Random acts of kindness.
When we first launched our Dubsado community, obviously the party was a bit smaller than it is today. As a simple way of employing kindness, we started to do free Starbucks days by sharing a Starbucks barcode for users to scan when they paid.
People would ask, “how you make sure people don’t buy 5 drinks.” Well, as our co-founder Becca perfectly stated, “good ole fashion trust.”
It was a small act at the start but one that established thankfulness and a healthy expectation of kindness. I think that as far as expectations are concerned, that’s an ok one to have on you. That’s how kindness compounds. Taking what you have, where you are, and making a little sacrifice built on trust. Today, we still do the same thing, but we are able to treat just a few more users (if you aren’t in our Facebook community, how about that for incentive) and have loved watching our ability to be kind grow!
The point is that it didn’t start as a massive giveaway: it started as a small act, and thats something anyone has the capacity for. Whether it’s coffee, or anything else, random acts of kindness are available to you every single day, wherever you are. You don’t need to buy anything either. Words and actions are often our most powerful vehicle for kindness and cost us nothing. There are so many ways to receive kindness, so if the budget is tight, spend a little time going out of your way with words, action or time!
Offer a gracious solution, to a minor problem.
When you start a business, those first clients seem like the "end all be all" to everything. You feel that if you don’t get it right now, you’ll never make it. So you roll out all the stops for them; whatever it takes to secure that business. No matter how difficult, rude, confusing or frustrating the experience is, you respond only with kindness.
Eventually, all that hard work and graciousness pays off and you arrive. You’ll get to a place where clients are blowing up your phone 24/7! Now you’re calling the shots because you’ve paid your dues to build your business. You can be more selective, demanding and particular about who you work with and how those interactions go. It’s something so many of us look forward to because we hate the insecurity that comes with having to give so much to just keep things going.
The truth is, there will never be a point in business where you’re too big to be kind. Making sure that kindness follows you at every step of your business evolution ensures you don't lose it! How can you do something unexpectedly kind in your service today? How can you bend the rules a tiny bit to make a small accommodation for a client? How can you let your clients know you care in a way that you are in no way obligated to? That's how kindness follows you!
Make gift giving routine.
The first suggestion applies to this, but lets go a step further. In the same way you can get in a habit of kindness, you can make gift giving a part of your identity from the very start.
How we can make it a point to go a step further than just offering a product or service? How do we offer not just a good business experience for our clients, but also an experience of kindness?
From the first moment you join our family, we want to go beyond expectations. We did that with a welcome gift we would send to every single new signup and continue that in some capacity today. It sets a precedent that more than just quality service, an experience is the norm with Dubsado, and we try our best to back that up.
How can you set a precedence of kindness? What can you offer as a gesture of kindness to your community? This doesn’t have to cost you much at all? Do you have the time to write out a handwritten note to every new client? Send a card? A pen and candy? A small packet of coffee? You know your community and business best. Think outside the box about how you might gift kindness.
Serve your community.
We live in a digital age, where connecting with our clients and community is easier than ever! We can make meaningful connections through the internet and have the power to literally change lives with the click of a button. Crowdsourcing campaigns help families recover from tragedy. Acts of kindness done in humility get shared by millions around the world. Consider tying your business to a charitable cause or non-profit you care about. Again, this is a great way to make kindness a part of your DNA.
I think, however, what really helps us to stay in touch with our ability to empathize and be kind, is literally going out and serving. We need to do things that take us out of our comfort zone in order to serve. Whether you’re joining a campaign that challenges you to perform an act or service you aren’t used to, or if you’re doing some good ole fashioned volunteer service at any variety of organizations, get out and help.
Maybe your dream is to expand your business to more people. When you do that, maybe you see volunteer and charitable work as a core component of your culture. Again, that has to start somewhere. You have the power to establish the foundation of kindness, with what you do on your own right now!
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We know we're probably preaching to the choir here, but we hope you are inspired to be kind in business. The creative entrepreneur community is such an amazing champion of doing business with kindness, so we have so much to learn from each other. Have any other fun, outside the box ways you implement kindness in your day or business? Let us know!