Beyond Mandela Day, seven great ideas for your business

Owner-managers may react with mixed emotions or disinterest to the phenomenon that has become Mandela Day (July 18) when South Africans reach out to the communities around them in remembrance of the great leader’s sacrifices and spirit of community building. For one thing, the lives of many business owners feel so frantically busy and precarious that anything other than a laser-sharp focus on the business seems like a dangerous distraction. Or even if you felt inclined to reach out and do something, the need out there seems so overwhelming against the size of your organisation that it feels almost pointless.

Such a range of approaches may be understandable, but it is an unfortunate stance towards something that holds a huge amount of potential for the smallest business if the owner has the right mindset, says Friedrich Meisenholl, Regional Investment Manager at Business Partners Ltd in the Western Cape. In fact, Mandela Day presents businesses with opportunities ranging from building networks, getting to know the community, team building and bonding and of course marketing and creating goodwill, says Friedrich.

For Mandela Day and beyond, Friedrich offers the following ideas for South Africa’s business owners on how to make the most of the spirit of giving:

1. Size does not matter: The power of a social phenomenon such as Mandela Day lies in the collective strength of everyone’s effort together. No individual’s action is important on its own. In a sense it is very much like voting – individually, a single person’s vote does not make much of a difference, but collectively, everyone’s vote determines the destiny of the nation. The important thing is to participate, no matter how small your contribution is.
2. It does not have to be tangible: Often people think of doing something physical on Mandela Day like painting a classroom or cleaning up a park, but it needn’t be. The need for professional services and knowledge work is just as widespread in South Africa and can make a significant impact on someone’s life. Think widely and creatively about the contribution that you and your business can make.
3. Let the community come to your business: You don’t have to shut up shop and go out to participate in Mandela Day. Organising a work shadow day for youngsters in your business, for example, is minimally disruptive and can change lives.
4. Mobilise your network: Any business is plugged into a network of suppliers, service providers and clients. Joining forces with them on Mandela Day and beyond can create powerful momentum. Or your role can be to facilitate bringing together a service provider in your network with a needy part of the community.
5. Charity starts at home: Before you reach out to offer help far afield, look at your immediately surroundings, and even to your employees inside your business. There might be a hidden need that you can easily meet and create long-term goodwill right inside your business.
6. Let your employees take the lead: Mandela Day or deciding on any charitable initiative can be a good opportunity for your employees to set the agenda, and for you to get to know your employees better. Create a platform for them to share what they are passionate about – Perhaps they are involved in a sports club at home, or a church, a charity, or a community project. Your business can offer to help in kind, or match their own contributions to their favourite causes.
7. Don’t be shy: There is nothing wrong with integrating your business’s community involvement with your local marketing and promotional efforts.  If you help to kit out a local sports team, for example, let them wear your logo. Link your website to that of the organisation you help or put up an advertisement on a structure that you help fix. Apart from the goodwill that it creates for your business, the visibility of your efforts helps to strengthen the idea of Mandela Day and community building itself.