Does this remind you of someone?
As affiliate owners it is easy to feel as though we have no free time to ourselves. Running our business is a full-time job. So, too, is training our staff. And training clients. And simply training. Throw in obligations towards spouses, children, elderly parents or brand-new girl/boyfriends and it’s amazing we accomplish anything at all. We miss school plays and recitals, friends’ housewarming parties, and let’s not even discuss the way our dogs look at us when we leave the house. We’re busy Affiliate owners and we simply don’t have time for anything else.
Well, we hate to break this to you but there is something else we should always make time for: and that is social responsibility.
It’s a fancy term for doing good things beyond legal, financial or other business obligations. It encompasses charity and is completely for the benefit of your communities – beyond the walls of your local box community.
You fielded a winning softball team in the town league? Terrific. You hosted a free bar-b-q for your members? Awesome. Your float won first place in the Labor Day Parade? Cool. But that’s not what we mean. We mean organizing a coat drive, a food drive or a back-to-school-supplies drive for the community. We mean devoting one day a month to welcoming disabled or disadvantaged persons to your gym or, better yet, having your box staff volunteer at a local hospital. We mean creating a special pass for veterans and members of the armed services or, better yet, doing that AND bringing a WOD to your local firehouse and police station for free one Saturday every month. We mean showing up at school board meetings to lobby for healthy, nutritious lunches or, better yet, serving a healthy, nutritious lunch to a church community.
Whatever you choose to do, making time for social responsibility will add value to your business. It will increase your presence in the community; enhance your positive reputation; garner trust, boost staff and client enthusiasm, and give you an advantage over your competition. So make the time.
Share with us what you chose to do, how it went, what you learned about yourself. 3…2…1…Go!