What we should be doing when the economy is down.

When the financial market is in chaos all across the world, people consider clinging on to whatever they have and also reduce expenses. And they think that everybody does so, mainly because newspapers proclaim as such.

However, each and every person ISN’T doing so. There are sections of the society which prosper, come what may. Those, who feel surprised about this odd equation, can find the clue for it in a most obvious place where they might have missed it. It might be worthwhile to analyse it together.

Whenever there is a downward trend, whatever it is, the best way to overcome it is by rising higher than it. If we drift with the wind and go where it takes us, we might find ourselves in dire straits, waiting for the wind’s mercy for deliverance.

The truth is that when we know how to steer ourselves and be our own masters, we will able to stay afloat or swim against the current, come what may. Let us see how we can manage it.

‘Go-getters’ or ‘Go-givers’

Let’s say we want more – more profits, a pay raise, more holidays, more freedom, and more opportunities.

When we yearn for a thing, our response is to try to get it. By that yardstick everybody is a ‘Go-getter’. And a ‘go-getter’ is understood as a dynamic, enterprising person with leadership qualities. Such an attitude is a prime requirement for succeeding in life as we understand it. Nevertheless, there is an innate conundrum. When these approaches are put into practice, there are certain unanticipated, though unavoidable upshots.

The gist of the matter is that after ‘getting’ and ‘possessing’ it we tend to ‘get rid of’ it. We might actually jettison it or might become apathetic to the whole idea.

And when we are tired of one thing we concentrate on getting something new. And these fresh cravings never end. The more we go in search of newer things, the wider the chain of desire that makes us continuously yearn for things. It simply becomes an addiction!

Why don’t we turn our ‘getting’ into contributing?

Most of you are aware that the act of providing gives a sense of fulfillment. This ensues from gratefulness and not from panic or avarice. A person can go on providing more and receive more and know full satisfaction in the voyage of life.

Our abundant and providing attitude creates abundant and providing clients and team mates while our cost awareness and ‘getting approach’ would draw towards us only similar clients and team mates. And those are the type of people we would not like to be friends with!

Creative capitalism

Many businesses see this now. They are now starting to give more and more in various ways. There’s a veritable ’sea-change’ going on as more people ‘get’ the role that giving can play in their business. Bill Gates is a class example. In a July 2008 lead article in TIME Magazine he referred to it as ‘Creative Capitalism’.

He opined that the idea of providing for others could become a crucial factor in encouraging people to buy one product rather than another.

The essence of what he says is that when a business has ties with the idea of giving in one way or other, it is bound to be more tempting to others. It stands out above thousand businesses the attributes of which are similar.

Creative Capitalism is about rising above what we reluctantly settle for to reach what we truly aspire to. When we can capitalise on our ideas and imagination in a way that benefits and nurtures the wider community and network; we stop wasting our resources, efforts and talents in trying to temporarily win. We start creating the real win for ourselves and for the sustainability of our global economy.

The appeal of effective giving

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the phrase that’s often used to describe giving back at a corporate level. It’s becoming almost a required part of corporate business practice. Yet when it’s done out of a sense of obligation or with the intent to just make ourselves look good, people eventually get what it is. It still is a temporary strategy.

However, ‘giving’ people and businesses always attract more. The passions and beliefs behind what they do are shared with the people with whom they connect. They attract something beyond what the slick PR or marketing campaign provides.

So, what happens if we allocate some of the marketing budget to go toward giving?

From the act of giving rises something that transcends us. The act of contributing results in revelation. And this revelation ensues only when it reverberates across those whom we want to arouse. And we are aroused when we become part of the happening totally. We cannot be satisfied with the narratives that are passed on to us. Those tales have to be lived in. in the end it is human nature to yearn for the satisfaction of making our own donation – to our kith and kin and organizations and society.

Transaction-based giving causes it to happen on its own

A far better atmosphere for donating has become possible because of an idea (or we can call it a ‘phenomenon’) by the name Buy1GIVE1 (Buy One Give One). Buy1GIVE1 is the abode of transaction-based giving. Transaction-based giving overhauls everything. Let us put to use our resourcefulness and decide why.

For example, imagine if every time you had a cup of coffee at your favourite cafe, a child in Africa automatically got access to pure, clean water for one day?

Imagine if every time you subscribed to a magazine you love, a tree got planted automatically just because you bought the magazine? Or every time you dine out, you fed a child in need? Automatically again.

Consider the scenario of someone attending a coaching session. It would be commendable if someone who needs similar coaching would get it as a direct consequence (and just at the cost of not more than 60 cents for the day’s coaching).

Or if a conference sponsors has arranged a speaker, part of whose income goes to help kids who has speech impediments due to deformities, wouldn’t that be a matter to feel satisfied? Just by attending the conference and paying for it, you are becoming part of a noble cause.

Imagine the perfect scenario where transaction-based giving can be applied in one’s own special manner to correspond with the available products and services to include every member of the group and customers. It is possible.

The economy where all benefits

As of now, enterprises all across the world are realising the power of transaction-based giving. TESCO, one of the better known supermarket chains of UK, has correlated its sales in such a way that when someone buys a pair of school trousers from them, a child in Kenya gets a school uniform.

The Mineral Water Company known as Volvic is one that has followed swiftly in this transaction-based giving program. They connect their water selling to well digging in Africa and call it Buy1 GIVE 10, because when one litre of water is sold, the money that comes from it helps in making a 10 litres flow in the well that is being dug.

Small to medium sized companies are now starting to take leadership in expanding this global giving movement through Creative Capitalism. Buy1GIVE1 (www.b1g1.com), a Singapore-based Social Enterprise came up with a mechanism that has turned this transaction-based giving into something every one of us can be involved in.

Buy1GIVE1 is the home of the most impactful transaction-based giving in the world because it connects any business of any size to any cause in the world. It’s creating a global community of business givers and for SME`s, Buy1GIVE1 connects businesses, their customers AND charities in a way that hasn’t been done before. And it all happens automatically.

You can become a citizen of this global giving movement by simply getting a Buy1GIVE1 `VISA` directly off the Buy1GIVE1 site at www.b1g1.com. And if you own a business you can become a B1G1 Business through a simple online application and select your cause for your main product or service to kick-start you’re giving. Buy1GIVE1 forwards 100% of the contributions to their international Worthy Cause Partners (there are now over 528 projects you can select) making the giving even more effective.

Are you aware?

* Half the population of the globe -about three billion people-is forced to survive on less than two dollars a day.

* Even when the new millennium dawned there were still almost a billion people who were illiterate.

* According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. That is about 210,000 children each week, or 20 children every minute.

* A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water; and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.

* About a billion people have no access to minimum health care facilities.

* Rainforests of about 63,000 sq. miles get destroyed every year.

Data From Global Issues

Buy1GIVE1 Businesses- take a look at these examples

* Buy1BUILD1 (www.sunsplashhomes.com, www.arkgroup.com.au)

* Learning to learning (www.kipmcgrath.com.au)

* Medical practice providing healthcare (www.primanora.com)

* Phone card to human interaction (www.ultimatecomms.com)

* Relaxation to healing (www.meditate.com.au)

* Losing weight to feeding children (www.bodychain.com)

* Blind installation to lighting up schools (www.blindscouture.com.au)

* Socks for protecting feet from frostbite (www.socksforhappypeople.com)

* Coaching to educate social entrepreneurs (www.b1g1forcoaches.com)

* And for full details, just log on to www.b1g1.com.

Finding what we are looking for-Nature gives us the clue

So let’s come back to where we started-economic turmoil and getting what we want. What we all really want is actually very simple. You can sum it up with ‘C’ words – connection, collaboration and community.

When we can team up rather than break up and thus create a perfect way to combine resources rather than carry away from one another, we will perceive that there is so much more profusion and so many reserves present on the planet. And when we build relationships, not just with one another but with our innate selves, we understand something infinitely beautiful-that we’re all ONE. Then we realise how simple it is to form an international society from something as commonplace as giving.

The secret was always alive in nature

In earth’s natural workshop, beautiful butterflies fertilize flowers and help to produce gardens that continue generation after generation. It was there even before recorded history.

When a crisis hits the world, we can see an opportunity to get back to the simplicity. It is now actually time to be grateful for what we have in order for us all to keep thriving.

And when a person opts to begin giving today itself, the sense of euphoria would be much more, notwithstanding the economic problems. And with this sense of elation comes a reawakening of hope that will remind him of how the power and direction of tide can easily change. And his giving might be that which brings about this change.

Find out more about how Buy1GIVE1 (BOGO) can transform your business using Cause Marketing.