Businesses, especially small businesses or start-ups, have a lot of legwork to do in order to become successful for a sustained period of time. From the planning and financing stages to recruiting and hiring to advertising and brand building, not to mention the overwhelming amount of bureaucratic paperwork to be filled out and filed, the life of a beginning entrepreneur is a hectic whirlwind. This is to be expected, and is something that must be done if a business is to be successful.
Once all the hoops have been jumped through, all of the red tape has been cut, and your business model has been established, the next trick is to build and maintain a solid reputation in your field and, along with it, a positive presence in your local area. What the reputation part is lacking in ease, it makes up for in straightforwardness – the esteem that people will hold your company name in is a direct result of the quality of service or product that you provide and the level of professionalism shown by your employees. A positive presence takes a little more effort on your part, but will also go a long way towards helping you to uphold that reputation.
Know Your Market
Researching your market is the most important part of this process. In my industry, which is helping people to recover from addiction, the base is as wide and diverse as the American population, and finding certain opportunities to increase company name recognition are plentiful. Depending on the service or product that your company provides, finding those kinds of opportunities may prove a little more challenging, but do not give up hope – they are out there. You just have to find them.
In the addiction rehabilitation field, one of the most vital aspects of what we offer at the treatment centers that I have founded is an environment that is designed to foster real, meaningful connections with other people that will form a solid framework for the strong support network that is necessary for long-term recovery. This is achieved through any combination of number of different approaches – group support meetings, peer interaction, and the simple knowledge that someone else is going through the exact same experience are just some of the ways that we encourage this emotional development.
How to Create a Positive Presence
Yet, that is within our halls, so how can this help our influence and create a positive presence in our community? The benefit of this goal in our recovery program is that this can be achieved literally anywhere. It isn’t restricted to our treatment facility grounds. For an example, some of the people from Serenity Recovery, a rehabilitation center that I founded in Western Michigan, headed to Grand Rapids for a day at the Ah-Nad-Awen Park where the 9th Annual Recovery Palooza was being held in observation of the 2015 National Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Month.
On September 19th, 2015, dozens of treatment centers and recovery support groups came together to share inspiration, encouragement, and hope with each other. Our corporate sponsorship allowed our group, which included staff members like the Serenity Recovery Personnel Director Mike Wilkerson, to set up a booth where information was shared in print and through verbal interaction. There was plenty of opportunity for the patients to go around to other booths, speaking with other people in recovery and learning about different groups and events that will be helpful to them in maintaining sobriety after graduating from the Serenity Recovery center.
Focus on Networking in Your Field of Expertise
The biggest benefit to our patients was an added sense of camaraderie and the ability to strengthen the connections that they have already made with each other, and also to forge the beginnings of a new path in recovery. This is also advantageous to the success of the business, as our participation in the Recovery Palooza demonstrated our willingness to reach out to the community and sponsor events that bring positivity to the area and revenue to other local businesses. Networking at events that are centered on your field of expertise is always invaluable, but perhaps even more beneficial is the confidence and security that comes with having the support of the community in which you are operating.
Throughout the years that I have opened and run addiction treatment centers like Serenity Recovery, I have discovered that, where most industries’ bottom line is the shareholders’ returns, this is one field where profit is not at the forefront of daily operations. Profit is, of course, important in any business – without it, you literally have no business – but in some cases it has to take a back seat to your vision, the manner in which you fulfill a need in the world. Building a strong positive presence in your community will increase your business’s longevity and strengthen the influence that your company has in your area. Concentrate on these areas first, and profitability will be the last of your concerns.
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