MBA1670 Q&A Wednesday: Should I offer discounts to nonprofits?

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Hey oh welcome to the $100R Show. Powerful business lessons every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100mba.net and today's episode is a Q and A Wednesday episode. On our Q and A Wednesday episodes we answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over at Omar MBA net and we'll answer it right here on Q and A Wednesday. Today's question is from Trish and Trish asks. A few times a month I get emails from nonprofit organizations asking me if I offer a discount. My business sells custom made screen printed T shirts and my margins are a bit low so offering a discount kind of scares me. But at the same time I want to help nonprofits and see that they might be loyal customers if I do offer them a discount because they're a nonprofit. Would love any advice on this topic. Love the podcast. Thank you Trish. I love that Trish asked this question because many of us, we get emails, we get things that come on our desk and we don't really think about it too long or Maybe we question it for a moment. But Trish is really thinking for a moment, hey, wait a minute. Is this an opportunity? Is there something I can do here? And I'm here to tell you, Trish, yes, there is something for you to do here. This is a huge opportunity that can help you and your business. Not just because you can earn business, but it's a way for you to actually get some free exposure and marketing. And I'll tell you why. Can't wait to get into this one. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So Tricia owns a business that sells screen printed T shirts. And a few times a month she gets asked if she offers nonprofit discounts. We get asked this question a lot at webinar Ninja. Do you offer a discount for nonprofits? And we do. We offer a discount for those who are nonprofit. All they really need to do is email us from a.orgemail and we check out their website and if it looks legit, we give them the discount. Now, Trish mentioned that her margins are pretty slim as it is. So the first thing I want to say to you, Trish, is only offer a discount if it makes financial sense. And by the way, it doesn't have to be like 50% off. It could be 10% off, it could be 5% off. A discount is a discount at the end of the day. And it could be the difference between going with you or your competitor. So if you can discount and you can make it work for you, you could say, you know, I can give you a 10% discount if you buy a product totaling, you know, over $500 or $1000. So the more they spend, the more discount you can give them or at least have a threshold to make things easier on you. But of course, if the answer is, hell no, I cannot give a discount, then that's totally fine. You need to make sure you're profitable. But if there is a way for you to be profitable and give a discount, especially if they buy volume, you know, lots of inventory, or, you know, T shirts in your example, then go for it. Okay. Now the other thing that I see other companies do is that when they offer a nonprofit discount, they ask the nonprofit organization for something in return. They're like, hey, we are happy to give you, you know, 15% off as a nonprofit. Use this code at checkout. We would be honored and we'd really appreciate if you put our logo on your website as a supporter of your business, as a supporter of your nonprofit. You know, you are Giving them a discount. You are supporting them with the discount. And many organizations, I would say most of them will say yes to that. They're like, yeah, sure, we can do that. It doesn't cost so much. They just send an email to somebody who manages the website. You give them the logo and they just pop it up there. Now when somebody visits that nonprofit's website, they see your logo, they're like, oh, what's that? They can even link the logo to your website, to your business, which I highly recommend because that gives you a backlink and it's great for SEO, search engine optimization. And this gives you free marketing. Okay, yes, you're giving a discount, but you're also getting some marketing in exchange, which is good, especially if it's a larger organization that gets a lot of traffic and you can get an understanding of how much traffic a website gets by going to SimilarWeb.com then it's a huge win for you. And nonprofits are used to doing this because they may get donations, they may get sponsorships, and they're used to, you know, sharing love with people that help them out. The other thing I want to mention is that you said in your question that you think maybe they'll be a loyal customer. This is very, very true. Okay, Your hunch is right. Nonprofit organizations, they make decisions on their suppliers, the tools they're using, their products or services. They probably don't switch if they don't have to. As long as you're delivering on your service or your product, they're happy to stick with you for the long run. So it's a decision that somebody needs to make in the organization. They make it. If they go with you, you're looking at a long term customer. Reorders of these T shirts. The other thing is that if you're a supplier, like you're a T shirt supplier. A lot of these nonprofits know other nonprofits and they share the Rolodex. They say, hey, I'm looking to print T shirts. Do you have any recommendations? And they recommend you because they're using you. Don't underestimate the word of mouth marketing that you will gain from having an institution use your products. Now, a word of caution, okay? You need to check out what this nonprofit is all about. Okay? You can't just blanket say all nonprofits get a discount because an organization could be nonprofit, but not necessarily be aligned with your values as a company. You could be a not for profit, for any cause. Okay? So just keep that in mind that you want to do a little bit of due diligence and make sure that, hey, if you're going to be associated with this nonprofit, have your logo on their website, all that kind of stuff that your brand, your customers, they really resonate with that nonprofit or at the very least are not opposed to that. For example, I know this is going to sound crazy, but for example, part of your brand is to use all natural plant based materials. Okay? You don't use any animal materials, leather, anything like that in your products. And a nonprofit says, hey, we want to order your products. And that nonprofit is maybe a hunting organization. I'm not here to judge any of these positions, whether it's those who love animals and don't want to use their materials or those who are into hunting. But these are opposing organizations and I would say philosophies or beliefs or values and it just doesn't make sense for you to support that organization and be associated with them if it's opposed to your brand and what you offer your customers.

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Wrap up today's Q and A Wednesday. Trish's question about offering nonprofits a discount if it works for you financially. If you can offer a discount, you can again offer discounts for volume. The more they spend, the more discount you can give them. Or, or you can give them a discount if they order after a certain price point or dollar amount. This can work for you. This can be a long term customer that's aligned with your brand that can also give you free marketing on their website. So definitely an opportunity you want to seek out. Thanks so much for listening to Q and A Wednesday. If you have a question you want to ask, go ahead and ask it. Just email me@omar00mba.net I'll make sure to answer right here on Q and A Wednesday. Also, if you're listening to this right now on your phone or your device, subscribe on whatever app you're using to listen to this podcast. We're on Spotify, we're on Stitcher Radio, we're on Apple Podcasts, we're on Himalaya, we're on every app, Overcast, you name it. Just hit subscribe. That way when the next episode comes out, it's right on your device. Also, by hitting subscribe, which by the way is absolutely free, you get access to over 1600 business lessons in our archives. Go ahead and do that right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this anytime you can make it a win win for you and another partner, another company. Explore that option because that is a recipe for a long term relationship. When somebody is getting something out of that relationship and you're getting something out, you're both are motivated to keep working with each other. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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