Evan Carmichael tells Jose, who runs a party-supply store, that donating profits to feed the homeless can boost sales, but only if the charity is genuine. Authenticity resonates with customers and energizes the entrepreneur, but the primary driver must be the desire to help, not PR. If the motive is solely marketing, it will appear fake and backfire.
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Be genuine. If you don't really believe in what you're doing and you're just trying to sell people, if you're not genuine about it, customers will not buy from you and you're gonna constantly spin your wheels wondering why you're not making sales. Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. I believe that hungry entrepreneurs deserve help, and today I'm answering a question from one of my YouTube readers, Jose. Thank you, Jose. Tons of comments here on Jose's video here. Basically, after all these comments, the Summary is Jose runs a party supply store and he's wondering if he should donate some of his profits to help feed the homeless people in his community, and he's wondering if that will help his business or not. So Jose, anytime you involve some kind of charity with your business, it can, it can be great. It can be great for business. It's not going to be a huge boost, but it can help. People who believe in the same thing as you will buy from you over somebody else. Because they like the story, they like what you stand for. For me, I donate a lot of our money to Kiva, which is an organization that helps people set up businesses around the world, that helps them get out of poverty by starting up a business. And it's something that I believe in my core, is entrepreneurship is a way out of poverty, and so I like supporting as much as I can. I get flack for it because a lot of the people we support are out of Africa, and they say, "You know, you're in Africa, why aren't you supporting people in North America?" You might get the same thing. You might get people saying, "Why are you feeding the homeless? Like, why not give them training or do something else?" Homeless is kind of a controversial topic for a lot of people. But if you believe in it passionately, if you think this is the way out, you feel like you're doing a really good thing by giving them a meal, then put it as part of your business. And you should do it regardless of if you think it's gonna help business or not. Do it because you want to do it. Do it because it's the right thing to do. Every business should give back in some way, and it can help with your marketing, but that's not the reason why you're doing it. Don't do it just for the PR or the marketing side, because if that's the only reason, it's not genuine and it's gonna show through, and it won't have an impact. Customers won't care about it. But if you're doing it because you love doing it, you believe in it, you're able to talk passionately about it, you feel good about yourself going into your business knowing that you just helped feed 6 people that day, that's why you want to do it. And then that will give you energy, and that will lead to more business, and that will lead to customer referrals. So I don't know if you should do it or not. It depends on your motivation. If this is genuinely something that you want to do You believe passionately in it, then go and do it. Because every entrepreneur should contribute back to their community in some way. It doesn't have to be a lot. Some small way. It makes you feel better about yourself, it gives you more energy, and helping people is only good for your company. You will get more customers, it will help you grow your business, but it has to be genuine. Good luck. For those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. And hey, I want to hear from you. What do you think about this video? And if you have a question for your company, let me know. Leave it in the comments. I'll make a video reply for you guys. Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
