According to a study by The Fidelity Charitable Fund and Ernst & Young, most business owners are also inspired to give back to their communities — 89% of entrepreneurs donate money, both personally and through their companies, to support charitable causes, while 70% donate their time.

Because small businesses are well connected to their communities and motivated to provide support, they are in a great position to do a lot of good!

Giving back doesn’t have to mean a large financial outlay or donating hours and hours of your time. By connecting how you give (and to whom) with your interests, skills, services or products, you can contribute in a meaningful way and have a large impact.

Your small business can also get a lot in return. The causes and organizations you support will differentiate your business from competitors and can, in turn, strengthen your ties to customers and clients. Giving back to your community can increase your visibility, increase customer or client loyalty and also increase employee morale.

Here are some ways that you can contribute – and some San Francisco Bay Area business owners who are doing just that!

• Mentor other small business owners. There is a strong possibility that your success is due in part to the people that helped you along the way. You, too, can help others be successful. Do you have business expertise that could be valuable to someone either inside or outside your industry? Heidi Gibson, owner of The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen has made mentorship a priority. She offers internships to new food entrepreneurs and volunteers her time to help small business entrepreneurs in Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center’s Business Planning Class with their business financials.

• Organize a volunteer day for your employees to boost morale and foster increased engagement and team-building. You don’t have to have employees to volunteer. My volunteer experience with fellow Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association members at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank was a fun bonding activity for our local merchants association.

• Share your knowledge/skills with local organizations. Create a partnership with a local organization that is in alliance with your business and offer your expertise. Avital Food Tours offers unique culinary adventures in the Mission District, the Haight Ashbury, North Beach and Union Square. Owner Avital Ungar volunteers with the Legacy Bars and Restaurants Project run by SF Heritage. She has helped train tour guides for SF Heritage’s Haas-Lilienthal House and organized a pop-up speakeasy to raise money for the Project.

• Create customer incentives. Commit to donating a certain percentage of each sale to an organization, offer discounts to customers who support particular causes, or create a contest to encourage customers to engage. Shivani Ganguly, owner of Bom Dia Market in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood supports the non-profit Kitchen Table Advisors. In February, she supported them by donating all proceeds from the sale of prepared foods on one day.

• Donate products. Donating products or giving away samples at events can be a great way to reach new customers and support a cause that you believe in. Claire Keene of Clairesquares frequently donates delicious products to support organizations doing good work. She recently donated her treats to a silent auction supporting Techbridge, an organization that inspires girls to discover a passion for technology, science and engineering.

• Donate to organizations in line with your values. Supporting organizations that you believe in shows your customers your business’ values. Keith Goldstein, founder of Everest Waterproofing and Restoration Inc. is committed to donating a minimum of 10% of pre-tax profits to charitable organizations, both local and international, He also sponsors Tibetan refugees for jobs, helping them create new lives for themselves and their families in the United States. Neal Gottlieb, founder of Three Twins Ice Cream launched an initiative called Ice Cream for Acres. Three Twins donates money to land preservation efforts every time they sell a cup or pint of ice cream.

• Join a non-profit board. Ken Stram, owner of 2Bridge Communications is a board member of the Golden Gate Business Association, the city’s LGBT chamber of commerce. “I’m a bit introverted,” he says, “so being a board member gets me out of the office and keeps me engaged with the LGBT small business community. The board experience is sharpening my leadership and collaboration skills, too. The experience is also good for business—it positions me as a leader and puts me in front of an important audience on a regular basis.”

The Volunteer Center helps to match Bay Area non-profits with individuals looking to give back and get involved at a deeper level. Check out their Board Match events.

There are many ways to make an impact. How do YOU give back? Who are the small businesses owners that you know who are making a difference?

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Don’t miss it! Small Business Week begins and ends with Sidewalk Sales in 20 neighborhoods throughout the city, Saturday, May 16th and Saturday, May 23rd.

The kick-off event on Monday night, May 18th is not to be missed (tickets mandatory, but only $20). Flavors of San Francisco is a great opportunity to network with small business owners and small business resource organizations and eat delicious food from San Francisco restaurants. (Other mixers are taking place throughout the week, too.)

Friday, May 22nd will be the heart of it all — the Small Business Conference includes over 50 workshops jam-packed with info on a variety of topics relevant to small business. (Workshops are FREE but space is limited.)

Please participate!  Small Business Week is a great opportunity to network, gather good information and celebrate the small business community in San Francisco!

I’m proud to see Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center graduates featured on the Small Business Week website: Pinkie’s Bakery, Frisco Fried, Socola Chocolatier and Van Meter Williams Pollack.

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It is going to be a big week for small business in San Francisco. Small Business Week 2014 kicked off this morning with a gathering at Twitter headquarters with speeches from San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, and Maria Contreras-Sweet, the Administrator of the Small Business Administration.  There were also speakers from Twitter, Kiva and local businesses discussing the impact of social media on small business. Tonight’s gala, Flavors of San Francisco, will be a chance to mingle with over 1,200 small business owners and community leaders (and it’s already sold out).

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are packed with workshops TED-style talks for entrepreneurs on a variety of topics, including identifying your target market, running your business in the cloud, accessing capital for growth, and business law. Check out the schedule and sign up for workshops – they are free but space is limited!

As a part of Small Business Week, I was interviewed by my colleague Ken Stram of 2Bridge Communications for the Small Business Week SF YouTube channel. I was asked to comment on staying in business for the long-term, and you can check it out here.

Small business has a tremendous impact on our neighborhoods, city and our local economy. There are over 80,000 small businesses and start-ups in San Francisco and small businesses create two out of every three jobs.  Check out Small Business Week 2014 and share what you learn!

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Each stone, with its special design and word of inspiration, is unique and the process of making them is a labor of love.

Every year my wife, Leslie, creates a new stone design. Together we select river rocks that are the right size and color, we wash and scrub them, I apply linseed oil to bring out their rich hue, and then Leslie glues interesting handmade papers to each rock, often incorporating string or twine. The last step in the process is adding a word of wisdom to the back of each stone.

After so many years of making these stones together and sending them off into the community, we started to wonder… where do they end up and what do they mean to people?

So we asked. Here is some of what we found out…

They decorate people’s bookshelves, tables and mantels:

They live in the office, the bathroom and the garden:

And they can be found in many rooms throughout peoples’ houses:

“One is on my table, another on my bookshelf, a fourth by my meditation area, and a fifth by my bedside.”

“The chaos of my life always benefits from having a few wisdom stones nearby. And yes, they are in every room of my house. Almost.”

For some people, the stones are decoration.  For others, they are continued inspiration. One colleague keeps her wisdom stones in her office and they inspire her communication with her clients.  Another colleague shared, “I sometimes have a client pick up a rock to guide our consulting session if they are stuck on some issue: it breaks them into a smile!”

This colleague used her wisdom stones at a party once as a way to introduce people to each other. Each party guest read a word on a rock and shared what it meant for them, which made for some fun ice breaker introductions.  She then mused that if she could remember which rock she received on which year, it would be interesting to look at the words of wisdom and see how they matched the trajectory of her business and her business growth.

It has been fun to see where these stones have ended up and what they mean to people. For me, making the stones and then giving them away is a way to connect to community… sharing small objects of beauty that bring joy and inspiration to those around me.

If you have ever received a PTA wisdom stone, please let me know what it means to you.

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poster by local artist Peter Linenthal

The Festival on Potrero Hill was like that for many of us. Daniel Webster School organized the play areas, face painting and the petting zoo, Goat Hill Pizza (and its active owner Phillip DeAndrade) sold great pizzas, Andy and Olia from Skool Restaurant had food for everyone who came by, Muttville Senior Dog Rescue was breaking hearts with their sweet dogs for adoption, and Lester and Kayren, owners of The Good Life Grocery set up a “farmers’ market” in front of their store with a large tent that created welcome shade.

As a board member of the Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association, I had fun “working” the PDMA table — handing out the Association’s new directory of over 160 active business members, and talking with local small business owners and residents about PDMA’s role in the neighborhood. It was great, as always, to see Supervisor Malia Cohen, (a past student of mine at Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center) in attendance and actively involved in the issues relevant to the neighborhood and her District 10 constituents.

Congratulations to Keith Goldstein and his volunteers for creating and managing such a great event – every year – all to benefit the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House.

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I invited four local business owners to attend so they could meet and network with fellow merchants. Networking can be hard to do if you haven’t done it much before. Often it takes getting out there and meeting people two or three times before you develop any lasting connections… but it does work. By putting yourself out there, sharing who you are and what you do, learning about other people and creating new connections…this is how we build a strong, local business community.

I’ve been a member of PDMA for the last three years and currently serve on the association’s board of directors.  Joining this group and actively participating in neighborhood business meetings and events has been a great way for me to engage with the neighborhood and other business owners. For me, community service and advocacy is a key part of what it means to be an active local small business owner. If we can strengthen the small business community neighborhood by neighborhood, the entire city benefits.

I hope you are getting out there, too, and making new connections in your community. If you need a place to practice pitching who you are and what services or products you have, let me know. I may be able to direct you to a group that can help you do that.  Be in touch!

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This festival was a great way to remember the strength of community that comes from the neighborhood and in particular, the local businesses that make it a vibrant place to live and work. A variety of local food establishments were involved this year, from the new restaurant Skool, to neighborhood anchors Good Life Grocery and Farley’s.

To be a part of a community, we need to show up, get involved, and support our neighbors. This year, after 20 years of doing business on Potrero Hill, I was invited to join the PDMA board of directors. I am learning a lot, working with other small business owners/volunteers, and seeing how a few people can make a significant impact through their involvement in local businesses, schools, organizations and the political process. Wherever you live I hope there are opportunities, like this festival, to come together as a community. If not, maybe it’s time to take the lead and organize something in your neighborhood!

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