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When Community Becomes Your Competitive Advantage

• Jeffrey Bussgang

How businesses shift from selling products to building networks.

If a company can transition from simply delivering a product to building a community, they can unlock extraordinary competitive advantages and create a superior business model. In fact, strong communities help support the ideal business model. Specifically: • Enthusiastic members help acquire new members, resulting in lower customer acquisition costs and a tight viral loop. • Members of a community are loath to abandon it, resulting in increased member retention and therefore improved lifetime value. • Members of a community support other members in that community, resulting in high gross margins due to a lower cost of service.

The result of this are very real network effects: as engagement grows, the community gets smarter, faster to respond, more globally available, and generates more value.

We’ve seen a precipitous decline in participation in civic organizations in recent years; membership numbers are down for religious groups, labor organizations and non-profits. A cynic could interpret these trends as a sign that we have all become digital hermits, with our noses buried in our highly personalized screens. The reality is that powerful communities are not just alive and well but also booming. They just look different than they did 50—even 20—years ago. They are organized around businesses and brands and providing profound opportunities for companies around the world.

• JB Jeffrey Bussgang is a senior lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School and a general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. He is the author of  Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job (Harvard Business Review Press, 2017).
• JB Jono Bacon is a community and collaboration strategy consultant, a former community director at GitHub, and author of People Powered: How Communities Can Supercharge Your Business, Brand, and Teams (HarperCollins, 2019).

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How These Small Businesses Cultivate Community

Community is at the center of many impactful small businesses. But how do you cultivate a flourishing community that grows with and supports your business? In this article, small business owners share the insights and lessons they’ve learned from creating communities.

Content Writer @ Buffer

Building and managing a community has become a significant piece of the successful small business puzzle for good reason — customers want it. Sixty-four percent of online community visitors say they’re visiting those sites more often, and 46 percent say the sites have become more important to them over time. This shows that digital spaces have become just as important as physical ones as more people interact online than ever. Creating that space in a meaningful way is vital for brands that want to connect with their audience.

We’ve written about how to build a meaningful community for your business. Now, we want to share precisely how different businesses build community around their brands with the hope that it will inspire you. In this companion piece to the first episode of Small Business, Big Lessons Season 2, we break down the most significant learnings about community from small business owners who have built theirs successfully.

Extending company culture to the audience

Part of the purpose of building a community around your brand is to extend your values and culture to the people that are meant to benefit from your product — the people you want to help.

Holly Howard runs Ask Holly How , a consultancy that provides entrepreneurs with the tools they need to grow their businesses while staying true to their purpose. She has used a culture-first approach to consultancy and adopts the following analogy when thinking about community.

“We want to think about company culture as the soil […] It provides all of the nourishment, it provides the stability, it is the foundation,’ shares Holly.

Of course, extending company culture and values to external parties relies on knowing what those look like in the first place. Values are very important to us at Buffer, and the same rings true for the businesses we interviewed in this episode.

On identifying your company values and tying them to company culture, Holly says, “...ensure that your values are clearly defined and that nobody else defines your values for you. [Values] have to come from our own personal internal motivations. They can't be something that we [outsource to a] focus group.”

People aren’t islands and will always need a community of some sort to get by. Ari Weinzweig, co-founder and CEO at Zingerman’s understands that, saying, “We're all products of a community. And so understanding that, we can either be passive about the community, or we can embrace that that's the reality and then try to make it as healthy as possible. …the healthier the community, the healthier we are, and [vice versa].”

Involve your team in community and culture building

You can’t extend your company culture without involving your employees. If your culture internally isn’t great, if your employees don’t buy in — it’ll be hard to get that out to an audience.

“The internal company culture and the external community should mirror each other […] I like to say employees can't deliver an experience they don't receive. So if we're selling this experience to our community we want to make sure we're delivering the same experience internally,” shares Holly Howard.

The idea of creating a great internal culture that feeds into your external community is corroborated by Kelly Phillips, co-founder of restaurant collective Destination Unknown , who actively transformed the service staff culture at her restaurants.

Kelly shares that at Destination Unknown restaurants, to offer workers a stable income, the company uses a professional wage model where full-time workers are offered a salary with a bonus incentive. This differs from a traditional wage model where workers don't know what they're going to make as their pay is based on tips that leave servers at the mercy of guests. Workers are also incentivized by a bonus structure which is a monthly bonus based on good reviews.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Destination Unknown Restaurants (@destinationunknownrestaurants)

Kelly reports that turning the traditional idea of how service jobs are paid in the US on its head has led to amazing results. “The company has noticed a better quality of life for people and better teamwork. Servers are helping each other because they want to get good reviews because that's what their bonus is based on. And because they’re not as concerned with tipping, they can focus on providing guests with outstanding service that keeps them coming back.”

Bake community into the fabric of your company identity

From fitness to web3, some spaces rely on community to succeed from the jump. If you’re in an industry where your potential customers rely on collaboration with others either for education or networking, community should be part of your company identity.

Samantha Anderl and Andrea Wildt had a vision for the target audience of Harlow , a freelance management tool, before they even began building their product. So it made perfect sense to them to cultivate that community before they even started developing their tools.

Freelance Friends: Here are 3 things you can do to get paid faster 👇 ▫️Add clear payment terms to your contract ▫️Provide payment details upfront ▫️Automate your invoicing + set auto reminders — Harlow (@MeetHarlow) September 29, 2022

For the Harlow founders, they knew they wanted to build a product that would solve their audience’s problems. So instead of focusing on what they wanted to build, they went to their community and asked ‘what problems do you need help solving?’

“...the best way to understand [customers’ problems], for any organization, is to be deeply connected to your community. So it just made sense for us to start connecting with freelancers early on in order to get that feedback to ensure that we're building what they needed,” shared Andrea.

Huw Thomas, the co-founder of Paynter Jacket , agrees with this sentiment and tacks on extra advice for thinking about building a community-first brand. “...the best advice I have for building a community is building it before you're even ready. Before you have a product before you have launched, start building it. Start with family and friends, get them signed up, and then get their family and friends signed up and build it on Instagram, or whatever social media platform that you're comfortable with.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Paynter (@paynterjacket)

When your audience knows that they can trust you for whatever reason, whether that’s authority or expertise, or even sentiment, it’s easier to convince them to buy or engage with your product.

Samantha agrees saying, “We really want to build trust early on. If you build authority with your community, the more likely that community is to want to take a leap of faith and try out what you're offering or share your story. We'd been building connections and meaningful relationships … when we finally did launch, we had a bunch of people cheering us on and being really excited about what we're building and what we're trying to help solve.”

Curate a fanbase by building in public

We’re avid advocates of building in public and have been talking about it, and doing it ourselves, for years now. This is because we understand how valuable it can be for companies and their audience. Some companies have found success sharing every aspect of how they are building with their audience – Paynter, which sells clothing in limited-release collections called Batches, is one of them.

Becky Okell, co-founder of Paynter shares, “It's really easy to mix up having an audience with having a community, but we think that they are two really different things, you can have a community and feel so part of something. And I think it's all about how engaged you are with that brand or that business.”

And although the audience for a clothing company might not naturally blossom into a community the way a fitness brand might, Becky emphasized the value of putting in the effort anyway. “As an online clothing brand, [community] is not going to happen unless we really invest, try, and work for it. [But] building a community for us was super important [and] working in public was a huge part of doing that.”

Paynter’s strategy of attracting fans and community by building in public continues to bear fruit. Their audience is constantly engaged and sells out each collection of their jackets within minutes.

The brand also actively takes steps to engage its community with frequent in-person meetups held in different cities around the world. This allows them to be present in their community and extend it beyond clothing.

Create authentic connections by putting your personality front-and-center

Solo, small business owners have an opportunity to connect with their audience based on the strength of their personality alone. Azikiwee “Z” Anderson, head baker and owner of Rize Up bakery in San Francisco, California, is a passionate advocate for putting your whole self into your business.

Z shares, “The purpose behind my businesses the same purpose that is behind me, which is trying to make the world a better place. This is one of the first things I've ever done where I really feel seen, like my individuality resonates with people and that they're excited to follow my story – it's very freeing.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rize Up Bakery LLC (@rizeupbakery)

Connecting with people by showing them the real people behind the brand and letting them know about your passion for what you do and how you operate can deepen your connection with them.

Solving problems and being creative comes as naturally to Z as making great bread. He says about creating content for Rize Up, “A majority of the stuff that I put up is not really preconceived – I'm having a good time and so I show people what I'm doing.”

Go beyond online spaces to meet your audience face-to-face

Meeting in person is an invaluable way to create deeper connections with your audience. We’ve interviewed companies that do this as part of their community building, and the podcast interviewees are no strangers to the value of face-to-face interactions.

Sheena Russell is the founder and CEO of Made with Local , a Canadian snack foods company that has social impact baked in. She credits the community found by setting up at farmers’ markets in the early years of the company with the deep understanding and connection the brand has with its customers.

Sheena looks back at their farmer’s market days fondly and shares, “the market research that we could do with all those customers that came by was invaluable. I think we [now] have a clear view of exactly who our customers are at Made with Local. I don't think we'd be where we are today without having that foundation built of deep community connection.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Made with Local (@madewithlocal)

And Z agrees that in-person interaction is powerful for building community. “It's the easiest way to connect directly with people and have interactions where you matter to them and they matter to you…And so I wanted to be a part of that. And I wanted it to be a major part of what we do.”

Becky and Huw have also found ways to take their online clothing brand to offline spaces. They kicked off “Paynter at the Pub” as an anti-Black Friday event. “we thought instead of having a sale or trying to sell anything, let's just bring people together. And let's do it physically this time, it'd be so nice not just for us to meet our customers but for our customers to meet each other.” They made it open to absolutely everyone in their community, not just customers.

Meeting their community in person was really powerful for the Paynter co-founders, “ It was just really special to put faces to names, to have a really good chat [and] for customers to meet each other. ”

Shine the spotlight on the community — not the business

Community should be about the people within it — make it all about profit or your business, and you risk driving them away. And the best way to understand what your community needs from you is by listening to them, insist Harlow’s founders.

“We've really learned how important it is to start by listening,” says Samantha, “and to start by advocating and by honestly just being selfless. So you have to give to get when you're first building your community. It's so important upfront to establish that trust and that authority. And you really can't do that unless you spend the time listening.”

Andrea follows up, adding, “I feel like I can't stress that enough – that you can't go into building community, just from the perspective of ‘what am I going to get out of it?’ It really does need to be more of a selfless act of ‘how can I connect? How can I listen? How can I help? What resources can I provide?’ And that's where I think you're able to build the more robust and meaningful connections with people.”

Want more on cultivating communities? Check out the full episode.

The businesses we interviewed in this episode have further insights to share about community building and its value for brands. Check out the full episode here .

And for practical steps on setting up a community for your own business, see this full-length guide to community management.

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14 Community Engagement Ideas for Businesses (2024)

If you need to drum up community engagement for your business, here are some ideas.

By Mighty Team

April 12, 2024

11 min read

IN THIS ARTICLE

What do you do when you need to connect to the people who matter to your brand? When you need to build trust and awareness with the people who matter most to your business?

The answer for most of us requires community engagement. And while some businesses treat their most valued relationships like they’ll just fall into place, others recognize that relationships need to be nourished.

That’s where community engagement for businesses comes in.

In this article, we'll talk about what community engagement for businesses is and why it's important. Plus, if you need some inspiration, we are also going to share 14 community engagement ideas for businesses.

What is community engagement for businesses?

Community engagement is the intentional, concerted effort to build relationships with the people and organizations impacted by your company or business. It could be your customers, or it could be the general public. As long as someone is impacted by the work you do, they’re a candidate for community engagement.

Whatever your business needs community engagement for, it's vital to build positive relationships with the people who are impacted by or who impact your brand. That’s why it’s worth getting this right.

Learn more about Mighty Pro

Examples of community engagement for businesses

• Redbull sponsors extreme sports events or building competitions (e.g. Flugtag ).
• Oiselle Volée hosts an online community for runners to learn and make friends.
• Google hosts Talks at Google , bringing high-quality speakers together for their employees and the community.
• An online community releases a survey to see if community members are getting what they need.
• A construction company leads a community forum to talk about a planned land use change.

Why is community engagement important for businesses?

Businesses need community engagement for a lot of different reasons. Some have projects that will impact the community, and need feedback and input. Some have products the community will use, and they need ways to educate their users OR ways to collect input from them.

And some brands make community engagement a vital part of their brand identity. Engaging their communities helps them keep a pulse on what people care about, and keep in the conversation.

And while you might think of community engagement as a Leslie Knope-style town hall (for you Parks and Rec fans), a lot of businesses are doing their community engagement online with things like social media listening, social strategies, online forums , and brand communities .

14 Community engagement ideas for businesses

1. live events.

One of the most obvious ways to do community engagement is through live events. A well-constructed live event can help you build buzz and community at the same time.

A lame live event will probably have your employees sitting in a sea of empty chairs. Awkward.

If you're planning a live event for community engagement, think about these things to make it a success!

• Why? Why will people come to your live event? Are you going to offer them some kind of value? Are they going to have an experience that's fun or inspiring, or get something they can't get anywhere else? If you're asking people to take the time to show up, make sure it’s worth it!
• Who? Who is your community engagement for? You could have a packed house at a live event, but it's not accomplishing much if it's the wrong people. As you plan your event, it's important to be clear on who you actually want there. For example, if you're creating an event for local business owners, you don’t need everyone from the community there.
• How? How is it actually going to work? What will the event look like?
• When? Are you holding the event at a time when people can make it? Make sure your key stakeholders will be able to access it.

2. Traditions

Let's talk about an all-encompassing community engagement idea that we’ll call traditions.

Traditions happen on a somewhat regular basis, over a period of time. When you have a monthly happy hour or a special event or promotion once a year, it's sort of like a ritual.

You create recurring opportunities for people to connect with your brand. And in turn, they start to expect it and look forward to it.

For example, look at HootSuite. They are a social media scheduling company, and every year they do an annual Global State of Digital webinar that offers huge value to people working in marketing.

People look forward to it, and attendance grows every year.

Building the types of connections that people look forward to monthly or yearly is a very good thing for your brand.

Think about the things that are calendar based. Things you do for your customers or community on a regular basis. These could be considered traditions. For example:

• Annual meetings
• Weekly roundups
• Monthly newsletters
• Once a year sale event

3. Sponsorships

It's a tried and true method for advertising, but sponsorships can also lead to community engagement. Imagine this. You sponsor a booth at your local fair or trade show. What inevitably happens? You or your employees will stand there all day and talk to people.

You'll find yourself doing community engagement by accident. The people walking by will ask questions, chat with you about the business, and give you feedback. Some will be a waste of your time. But many will be valuable–especially if you choose the right conference.

If you have the budget for it, look for opportunities to sponsor conferences, events, or other relevant meetings in your industry. Get your name out there.

4. An online community

One of our favorite methods to do community engagement is with a thriving online community . An online community lets you connect with people at scale.

And with a modern community platform , you can add things like forums, messaging and chat, member profiles, Q&As, live events, live streaming, and more!

An online community lets you create a focal point for community engagement for your brand, and it's really really accessible. Anybody with a phone can get on and tell you what they think.

That's what makes it one of the best forms of community engagement.

For example, check out the brand Oiselle Volee. We mentioned their community above. They created a community for women who run, and along the way found they created a feedback loop that came with ideas for new products and comments on existing ones.

5. A course

If you want to engage your community, what about teaching a course ?

For some brands, offering education is a vital part of community engagement. Educating community members can lead to more buy-in and feedback on projects.

6. Open meetings

Sometimes, you just need a forum where you can listen. That's where an open meeting can be a really valuable method of community engagement for businesses.

People need to be heard. And although it doesn't always come easy, being a business that listens and acknowledges can be a powerful thing.

7. Webinars

Above, we mentioned Hootsuite's Global Webinar as a cool tradition they do every year. So let's dive into webinars a bit.

A webinar lets people see your face. Hear your voice. It lets them feel like they have a direct link to you and helps them feel like they know you.

Webinars create familiarity. It’s what makes them a great tool in marketing, but it also makes them a great tool for community engagement. A webinar could be live or pre-recorded. The format doesn’t matter as much if you’re offering a lot of value that people want.

If you've got community engagement that requires educating, you could consider a full-length course as we talked about above. But often a short webinar is enough to get the job done.

And if you have a recording of a webinar, it gives people the luxury of showing up when they want.

8. Polling members

Creating polls or questionnaires is a tried and true method of community engagement for businesses. Years ago, this was a challenging thing to do. Trying to get feedback from a community meant going door to door or making phone calls.

But now, with something like SurveyMonkey, it's super easy to whip up a survey and get feedback on what you're doing. Plus, the data is anonymized, so people are more likely to tell you what they really think.

You can share a link to your poll or survey with your community via email or social media. And if you really want people to respond, try adding in a goodie. Even offering a $5 gift card or a chance to win $100 will make a big difference to the number of responses.

9. Contests

Contests are a community engagement tool that a lot of businesses love. You can sponsor some type of contest or giveaway. Everyone gets really excited by it. And the person who wins has something valuable to show for it.

Whether you're sponsoring a local art contest or hosting a draw for a trip to Hawaii, contests are an awesome community engagement tool.

10. Volunteering

Has your company ever volunteered for something? If you can get some of your staff or leadership out in front of the public, it can be a cool community engagement opportunity.

But the thing is, volunteering done badly can also be a cringey disaster. So here are a few tips to make sure that volunteering works for your organization.

• Make sure you have buy-in. Forcing your employees to volunteer for something they're not excited about and don't believe in is likely to backfire.
• Let your employees lead with their hearts. If you are asking people to volunteer, give them a chance to choose the type of work they're doing. That way they can pick something that is meaningful to them.
• Make it a team-building activity. If your office volunteers for something together, it's not only great for the community, but it also gives them a chance to bond and build memories together. It can pay dividends for your culture.
• OR, give them time and space to do it on their own. You could also try giving a paid volunteering day to your employees every year. That way people can choose things that are meaningful to them which–again–leads to more buy-in for the idea. And they’re still out in public doing good work for your business.

11. Donating

Company donations can be another great community engagement idea for businesses. It might mean writing a check to causes you care about. Giving money–and getting tax write-offs–is a tried and true method of community engagement.

But you could also consider donating things like old equipment or unsold products, especially if they go to waste anyway. For example, when a restaurant or bakery donates unused food to a local homeless shelter, they are able to do some good with stuff that might have been thrown out anyway.

That’s a win for community engagement, and it’s not that hard to do.

12. Tell community stories

It's easy to tell the stories of your business. Most modern brands do this.

But what about telling other people's stories? What about featuring or spotlighting your community members, even without asking for anything in return?

By picking notable residents of your community, or customers with neat stories, and using your platforms to tell their stories in a way that's not salesy, you can do some really powerful community engagement.

13. Get involved in local business councils

If you are a business that has a presence in a community, what about getting involved in local business councils? Organizations like a chamber of commerce let you connect and meet with other business owners and get a finger on the pulse of the community at the same time.

You'll often find cool ideas for partnerships come out of business council meetings, plus opportunities for some of the things we mentioned above, like donations.

14. Give your space

Last, but not least, do you have a physical space your business operates out of that you could donate? Maybe you have a beautiful conference room that you lend for the meetings of a board of a local charity.

Maybe you have office space that's unused and you could set up a free co-working space for remote workers in your community.

If you can find ways to use your space, especially when you're not using it anyway, it can create valuable community engagement.

Hopefully these ideas have kick-started your business's community engagement plan . It's important to choose things that feel like a good fit for your company, especially things that have a lot of buy-in from your team. But chances are, there's something on this list for everyone.

If you're interested in using a community platform as part of your engagement strategy , come give Mighty a try. We've built awesome cultural software that lets you bring together an online community with live events, live streaming, a discussion forum, and more. You can get all this in your own app, under your own brand. You’ll be amazed at what a branded community can do for your community engagement.

Ready to launch your own branded apps?

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Community Engagement 101: Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

Our Guide is designed to be your go-to resource, offering insights, tools, and actionable plans at every stage of the community engagement lifecycle—from planning and stakeholder analysis to implementation and long-term relationship management. Find answers to common questions in our FAQs, with additional resources suggested by our experts.

Discover the transformative potential of strategic community engagement — read on to find out more! 

Let’s build stronger communities together.

Table of Contents

Before we begin, community engagement is a diverse practice used in various industries and sectors. This guide introduces fundamental practices, frameworks, and tools standard across use cases, but additional best practices are likely relevant to your specific application. At the bottom of the guide, we share additional reading and resources to dig into community engagement across several more specialized focus areas.

Part 1: What is Community Engagement?

There are many different ways to define community engagement, depending on your background, objectives, sector, and industry. At VNL, we define it in the following way:

"Community engagement is the dynamic, collaborative process of working with and through groups of people—affiliated by geographic proximity, special interests, or similar situations—for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources. This process aims to address issues affecting the well-being of those people in a context of partnership, reciprocity, and facilitated communication, interaction, involvement, and exchange between an organization and a community, leading to a range of social and organizational outcomes.” Visible Network Labs

This definition aims to encapsulate the essence of community engagement as a multi-faceted, relationship-oriented practice that prioritizes mutual benefit, inclusivity, and active participation between both parties.

Important Definitions

Below are some of the most important terms and definitions you should know before we dig deeper.

• Community Engagement: The process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well-being of those people. ( Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) )
• Stakeholder: Any group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, the achievement of the organization’s objectives. ( Edward Freeman, in his foundational book “Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach )
• Social Capital: Networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups. ( Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) )
• Empowerment: The process by which people gain control over their lives, democratic participation in the life of their community, and a critical understanding of their environment. ( Source: World Bank )
• Equity: The quality of being fair and impartial; it is not the same as equality but is one avenue to achieve it. Equity involves trying to understand and give people what they need to enjoy full, healthy lives. ( Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation )
• Community Capacity: The characteristics of communities that affect their ability to identify, mobilize, and address social and public health problems. ( Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) )
• Community: A group of people who are brought together by something in common. This can include things like cultural background, shared experience, and geographic location. One person can belong to many different communities. ( Source: Washington State Health Department )
• Engagement: The act of sharing in the activities of a group, involving stakeholders in active participation, dialogue, and decision-making processes. ( Source: International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) )

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Why is Community Engagement Important?

Engaging with members of your community has many benefits, but the most common three cited are its impact on equity and inclusion, improved decision-making outcomes, and stronger relationships, trust, and accountability.

It Fosters Inclusion and Social Equity

One of the most significant benefits of community engagement is that it fosters a sense of inclusion and social equity. When communities are actively involved in decisions that affect them, it ensures that diverse voices are heard, including those from marginalized or underrepresented groups.

Community engagement makes policies and programs more equitable and fair, as a comprehensive understanding of community needs, challenges, and aspirations shapes them. The result is a more inclusive environment where community members feel valued and heard, strengthening social cohesion.

It Enhances the Quality and Sustainability of Outcomes

Community engagement is crucial for improving the quality of decisions made by organizations, local governments, or other bodies. Community members offer unique perspectives, knowledge, and expertise that can greatly enrich planning and decision-making processes.

When people are engaged and contribute their insights, the resulting plans or initiatives are often more practical, effective, and sustainable. These community-endorsed outcomes are more likely to be successfully implemented and maintained over time, as there’s a collective ownership and vested interest in their success.

It Builds Trust, Relationships, and Accountability

Engaging with the community fosters a sense of trust between organizations and the public. When decisions are made transparently, and community input is actively sought and incorporated, it demonstrates that organizations are accountable to the people they serve.

This trust is vital for the long-term success of any initiative, as it encourages community buy-in and participation, making implementation smoother and more effective. Moreover, trust can foster a more engaged citizenry, leading to ongoing partnerships and collaborations that bring about positive change for years to come.

The History of Community Engagement

The concept of community engagement has evolved significantly over time, with roots traceable to various social, cultural, and political movements. From early neighborhood associations and social welfare programs to the more formalized systems of today, community engagement has changed in response to shifting societal needs and technological advancements.

Development and Evolution

Originally, community engagement was more of a grassroots, informal process often linked to social justice and civil rights movements. In the 20th century, the concept began to formalize, spurred by academic research and institutional backing. For example, Saul Alinsky’s work in the 1930s and 1940s on community organizing laid foundational concepts for later engagement theories.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Civil Rights Movement, anti-war protests, and environmentalism further propelled the formalization of community engagement methods. With the advent of the internet and social media in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, community engagement took on new forms, allowing for digital communities and online activism. This has expanded the reach and influence of community engagement efforts, enabling real-time, global interactions.

Milestones in Community Engagement Practice

Several milestones have shaped contemporary community engagement, often driven by academic research, legal changes, or landmark projects. Among them:

• Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) (1974) : This U.S. federal program revolutionized the way communities could access and utilize federal funds. One of the critical aspects of CDBG was the requirement for community input into how the funds were to be used, setting a precedent for government-funded community projects that prioritize local needs and voices.
• National and Community Service Trust Act (1993) : This Act established AmeriCorps, a national service program aimed at involving young people in community-oriented projects. AmeriCorps members work in various fields, including education, public safety, and health care, embedding community engagement within multiple sectors.
• The Rise of Online Communities (Early 2000s) : The early 2000s saw the emergence of social media platforms and online forums that allowed for digital community building. Movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo leveraged these platforms for social change, demonstrating the power of virtual community engagement.
• Business Adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Late 2000s) : By the late 2000s, CSR had become a staple in the business world, shifting the corporate focus from mere profit to also include social and environmental well-being. Businesses now actively engage with their local communities as a part of their CSR initiatives, leading to a more holistic form of community engagement that spans across sectors.

Community engagement has a rich history influenced by social movements, academic research, and technological advancements. It has evolved to become a formalized, widespread practice that encompasses both physical and digital spaces.

7 Types of Community Engagement

Community engagement can be categorized in various ways, depending on the goals, strategies, and stakeholders involved. However, some main types of community engagement generally recognized in the field are:

1. Informative Engagement

This is a one-way form of engagement where organizations or government bodies share information with community members. The aim is often to inform the public about plans, changes, or events that might impact them. Tools used might include newsletters, press releases, and informational websites.

2. Consultative Engagement

In consultative engagement, organizations seek the community’s feedback on specific issues or plans. This could be through public meetings, surveys, or focus groups. While more interactive than informative engagement, the final decision-making power still usually resides with the organization doing the consultation.

3. Involved Engagement

Here, community members are involved in the decision-making process, generally through ongoing participation in advisory panels, working groups, or regular meetings. While the organization may still make the final decisions, those decisions are informed by sustained community input.

4. Collaborative Engagement

In this model, community members and organizations share decision-making power. This often involves partnership agreements or memorandums of understanding that outline the roles, responsibilities, and power dynamics. The community is involved in both planning and implementation stages of projects or initiatives.

5. Empowering Engagement

The most participatory form of engagement, empowering engagement puts decision-making into the hands of the community. Organizations act as facilitators rather than leaders, providing the resources, training, or support needed for the community to take the lead.

6. Transactional Engagement

In this type of engagement, the focus is on straightforward exchanges between the community and an organization. This could involve volunteer work, financial donations, or other forms of contributions in exchange for specific services or benefits.

7. Placemaking Engagement

This is a creative, collaborative process that involves community members in designing and shaping their own public spaces. It’s a multidisciplinary approach that involves local residents, public agencies, and professional practitioners in planning and design.

Stakeholders in Community Engagement

Stakeholders are crucial players in the process of community engagement, each bringing unique perspectives, resources, and influence to the table. Their participation enriches the scope of engagement and ensures that multiple viewpoints are considered, making the outcomes more robust and comprehensive.

Types of Stakeholders

Community Engagement Frameworks and Models

Community engagement frameworks and models provide structured approaches for effectively involving community members in decision-making processes, collaborative efforts, and problem-solving. These frameworks are invaluable for organizing activities, defining stakeholder roles, and setting goals. They also serve as tools for measuring the effectiveness of community engagement efforts. Below is an exploration of six notable models and frameworks in the field of community engagement, each with its own unique approach, strengths, and potential gaps.

Asset-based Community Development (ABCD)

Asset-based Community Development focuses on harnessing the intrinsic strengths of a community. Rather than concentrating on what is lacking or dysfunctional within a community, ABCD aims to empower localities by leveraging existing skills, assets, and capacities. This approach is commonly applied in local community development projects and social work. While ABCD is powerful in generating sustainable solutions and fostering community ownership, it may sometimes overlook systemic issues that cannot be easily solved through local assets.

Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation

Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)

The Community-Based Participatory Research model is most commonly seen in public health, educational initiatives, and environmental justice movements. CBPR stresses the importance of equitable partnerships between researchers and community members. It aims to produce research that is both ethical and relevant to the community involved. However, it also requires a substantial commitment of time and resources and might face cultural and social barriers that limit full community participation.

Active Community Engagement (ACE) Continuum

The Active Community Engagement (ACE) Continuum is a flexible framework that is often used in corporate social responsibility programs, public services, and education. It outlines various levels of community engagement, providing organizations with a roadmap to increase their participatory practices gradually. While helpful in assessing an organization’s current standing, the model’s linear approach may oversimplify complex community interactions.

Collective Impact Framework

Used primarily to address large-scale social challenges like systemic poverty or educational inequality, the Collective Impact Framework focuses on long-term collaborations that involve various sectors and stakeholders. This model’s strength is in its commitment to produce high-impact results through sustained, coordinated efforts. However, it demands significant resources and long-term commitments, making it less accessible for smaller organizations or communities.

Part 2: Preparing for Community Engagement

In this section, we delve into the essential elements that lay the groundwork for effective and meaningful community engagement. From stakeholder analysis to setting achievable goals and from choosing the right engagement model to understanding the local culture, comprehensive preparation is the linchpin of successful engagement. The upcoming chapters will provide you with practical tools, actionable insights, and case studies to ensure that you are well-prepared to embark on your community engagement journey. Let’s get started by setting goals together.

Setting Objectives

The first step in setting your objectives is to decide on the overarching goals of your engagement initiative. These should align with the broader mission of your organization or project, but also be specific enough to provide actionable pathways. Is your primary goal to raise awareness, generate public input, or perhaps, foster long-term partnerships? Your goals will influence every other aspect of your engagement strategy, so choose them carefully.

Long Term vs. Short Term Goals

Understanding the time frame of your engagement activities is crucial. Short-term goals often focus on immediate needs or pressing issues and may include activities like community surveys, town hall meetings, or quick impact projects. Long-term goals, on the other hand, require a commitment to ongoing dialogue and often involve more complex initiatives like community development or policy changes.

SMART Goals

After outlining your broad goals, refine them into SMART objectives : Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART objectives provide a clear roadmap for your community engagement activities and offer a robust framework for evaluation.

• Specific : The objective should be straightforward, clear, and well-defined.
• Measurable : You should be able to track the progress and outcomes.
• Achievable : While the objective should be ambitious, it should also be realistic.
• Relevant : The objective should align with broader goals and current needs.
• Time-bound : The objective should have a timeframe within which it should be achieved.

By setting objectives that adhere to these guidelines, you can create a focused, actionable, and impactful community engagement strategy. 

Conduct a Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder analysis is a systematic approach used to identify, map, and categorize the various stakeholders involved in a project or initiative. The process involves listing potential stakeholders, assessing their level of interest and influence, and understanding their needs and expectations. The goal is to develop a nuanced understanding of the social and power structures that surround an issue or project. This information helps inform engagement tactics, messaging strategies, and resource allocation.

How to Perform a Stakeholder Analysis

Performing a stakeholder analysis involves a few key steps:

• Identify Stakeholders : List everyone who is affected by your project or who has a stake in its outcome.
• Determine Interests and Influence : For each stakeholder, identify what their interests are in relation to the project and how much influence they hold.
• Prioritize : Based on their interest and influence, prioritize the stakeholders. This will help you decide where to focus your engagement efforts.
• Understand Stakeholder Needs : Finally, gather information on each stakeholder’s expectations, potential contributions, and how they will be impacted by the project.
• Review and Update : This is an ongoing process; circumstances change and it’s crucial to update your stakeholder analysis as needed.

Tools and Frameworks

Several tools and frameworks can help streamline the stakeholder analysis process:

• Stakeholder Maps : These are visual representations that help in understanding the landscape of stakeholders in relation to your project.
• Social Network Analysis: This powerful method can help you identify the most influential and important stakeholders in your network or community based on their interactions and interconnections with others in the community. Learn more further below in Part 5.
• Interest-Influence Grids : These grids help categorize stakeholders based on their level of interest and their ability to influence the project. This aids in prioritizing engagement activities.
• SWOT Analysis : This process can be adapted to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to stakeholder engagement.

By using these tools and following the above guidelines, you’ll be well-prepared to conduct a thorough stakeholder analysis. This will create more targeted, effective, and meaningful community engagement.

Budgets and Resources

Creating and managing a budget is an essential aspect of successful community engagement. A well-thought-out budget serves as both a roadmap and a reality check, outlining what is achievable within the resources available. This section will delve into three major facets of budgeting and resource allocation: time investment, financial investment, and human resources and staff.

Time Investment

Time is an often underestimated resource in community engagement. The planning, execution, and follow-up phases all require varying amounts of time. Time investment will vary depending on the scope and goals of your engagement strategy. Some activities may require long-term commitment, while others could be more short-term projects. It’s important to realistically assess the amount of time each stage will take and allocate resources accordingly.

Best Practices:

• Estimate time for preliminary research, planning meetings, and actual engagement activities.
• Include time for post-engagement evaluations and follow-ups.
• Be flexible; unforeseen challenges often arise requiring additional time.

Financial Investment

Your financial budget will be a key driver of what is possible in your engagement strategy. Costs can range from material needs like flyers and venue rentals, to more intangible costs like software for online engagement platforms.

• Break down the budget into categories, allocating funds for different activities or phases of your project.
• Be prepared for unexpected costs by including a contingency fund in your budget.
• Always track expenditures and compare them against your initial budget, adjusting as necessary.

Human Resources and Staff

No community engagement strategy can be executed without the help of dedicated people. Staffing considerations can range from volunteers to full-time employees dedicated to engagement activities. Each brings a unique set of skills and requirements, as well as cost considerations.

• Clearly define roles and responsibilities for each member involved in the engagement project.
• Consider the cost of training staff or volunteers in specific engagement methods or tools.
• Remember that more staff doesn’t always mean better results; focus on the quality and skills of those involved.

Communication Planning

When preparing a new community engagement program, plan, or initiative, Communication Planning is a critical component to consider for its success. Here’s what you should know:

Importance of Clear Objectives

First, your communication plan should align with the overall objectives of your community engagement initiative. Too often, groups create a blog or social media channels that never end up getting used, while creating a perception you’re not actually doing anything. Whether you aim to inform, consult, collaborate, or empower your community, your communication methods and messages should mirror these goals.

Audience Analysis

Understanding your audience is essential. Take time to analyze your audience and answer key questions. Who are the stakeholders, and what are the best channels to reach them? Are there under-represented groups that require special attention? Tailoring your messages and choosing appropriate channels will rely heavily on understanding the community you’re engaging with. For example, rural initiatives might have problems reaching their audience online in areas where broadband internet is still difficult to access. 

Internal Communication

The internal team needs to be on the same page. Define the decision-making process, allocate responsibilities, and establish a consistent update mechanism, like regular team meetings or an internal project dashboard. Setting up a Slack Channel or creating a Google Drive is an easy way to keep everyone updated. Project management tools usually include notifications and alerts to facilitate internal updates too.

External Communication

Decide on the tools and channels you’ll use to communicate with external stakeholders. These could range from social media platforms to community forums, email newsletters, and even printed flyers for those who might not have internet access. Often, the most effective community engagement takes place through real, 1:1 conversations.

 Increasingly, this can include in-person opportunities, virtual meetings, and events like webinars or Zoom calls. Not everyone likes virtual meetings; never doubt the power of an old-fashioned phone call. 

Timing and Frequency

The timing of your communication also plays a role. Are there milestones or deadlines that the community should be made aware of? Deciding on a communication calendar can help organize your external and internal communications and align them with your program’s timeline. Be mindful of cultural holidays or religious days you aren’t aware of that might interfere with schedules for the communities you are engaging with.

Crisis and Issue Management

Always prepare for unexpected issues or crises . Have a protocol for managing negative feedback or any problems that arise during the implementation of your community engagement program. Be proactive in developing messaging about your organization, efforts, and goals before you need them – not after.

Feedback Loops

Creating a system for feedback, both within your team and from the community, is vital. Feedback can offer new insights, help you improve your program, and make the community feel heard and respected. This can be a simple Google Form shared after each meeting or event or a comprehensive survey or focus group conducted regularly with community members and stakeholders. Using mixed methods usually results in richer, more informative data and results.

Creating a Community Engagement Plan

With all the considerations above in mind, you can now sit down and create a plan for engaging your community. Here are 10 steps to follow from start-to-finish.

1. Define Clear Objectives

Begin with setting objectives that align with your community’s needs and your organization’s capabilities. The objectives must be SMART—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

You may consider waiting to allow your community help co-create your overall objectives rather than coming to them with a solution pre-determined.

2. Conduct Stakeholder Analysis

Know who your stakeholders are and what they care about. This understanding informs your strategy and helps you tailor your messages. Use frameworks like stakeholder mapping to visualize this data and start creating a strategy and plan you can implement.

3. Budgeting and Resources Allocation

A successful plan needs adequate resources. Determine the time and financial investments needed for the initiative. Decide on the human resources and skillsets required, and allocate responsibilities accordingly.

4. Develop Communication Plans

Design an internal and external communication plan. The internal plan ensures that your team is in sync and effective in their tasks. The external plan aims at disseminating information, gathering feedback, and building relationships with the community.

Take time to analyze your audience and community and pair your message and tactics with your objectives and goals.

5. Timeline and Milestones

Setting a timeline helps in tracking progress and holding team members accountable. Include milestones that are pivotal to the initiative. These can be meeting specific targets or completion of particular activities.

A popular strategy is to setup several small wins for you and your partners early on to help build momentum and propel your collaborative forward towards more challenging problems to address.

6. Risk Assessment and Contingency Planning

Identify potential risks and have a contingency plan ready for any pitfalls you might encounter. This could include a crisis communication plan, backup resources, and alternative strategies to reach your objectives. Always take time to ensure you are not causing unintended harm on the community.

For example, take care to avoid exacerbating past damage or historical wrongs by taking into account trust and power dynamics, and consider reimbursing members of the community for their time.

7. Community Involvement Strategy

Decide how the community will be involved in each stage of the project. Are they merely to be consulted, or are there roles they can play in decision-making and implementation? Utilize frameworks like Arnstein’s Ladder to gauge the level of community participation suitable for your project.

8. Tools and Technologies

Choose the tools and technologies that will aid you in community engagement. Whether it’s software for project management or platforms for virtual town halls, having the right tech stack can streamline your efforts.

Remember the impact social network analysis with PARTNER CPRM can have on a community engagement initiative. 

9. Monitoring and Evaluation Framework

Incorporate key performance indicators (KPIs) and other metrics to evaluate the impact of your engagement activities. This framework will guide you in making data-driven decisions and improving future engagements.

For example, you might decide to conduct a network evaluation over time to assess how your community engagement initiative changes the structure of relationships and interactions in the community.

10. Documentation and Transparency

Keep a record of your processes, learnings, stakeholder interactions, and changes made to the plan. Maintaining transparency not only builds trust with the community but also serves as a valuable resource for future engagement initiatives.

Share data back with your stakeholders and partners whenever possible to ensure they see the results of their feedback and participation and can benefit from the results themselves.

Part 3: Engaging the Community

You’ve laid the groundwork, defined your objectives, mapped out your stakeholders, and allocated your resources. Now comes the crucial part: putting your meticulously planned community engagement strategy into action. This section will guide you through the complex yet rewarding process of implementation. We’ll provide insights on how to navigate unforeseen challenges, sustain momentum, and measure the success of your initiatives.

Community Engagement Strategies and Tactics

Effective community engagement is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Different contexts, objectives, and stakeholders require varied approaches to ensure community voices are heard and incorporated into decision-making. Here, we explore various strategies and tactics that can be deployed in a well-rounded community engagement plan.

Strategy 1: Public Dialogue and Consultation

This strategy focuses on engaging the community to spark conversation and the exchange of ideas.

These are public meetings where community members can voice their opinions, ask questions, and engage in dialogue about issues that matter to them. It’s a transparent approach to involve the community in decision-making.

This involves inviting community members to give feedback on specific projects or plans. It’s often more formal than a town hall and may include expert presentations.

These are less structured than town halls and allow for an open exchange of ideas between community members and organizational representatives.

Written or online questionnaires can be distributed to gather public opinion on specific issues. This method allows for the collection of quantitative data.

Strategy 2: Collaborative Partnerships and Co-Creation

This strategy focuses on engaging the community to make collective decisions and innovative shared solutions.

It involves working together with community members to make decisions that affect them directly. This usually means giving the community real power over the outcome, or it may undermine trust and credibility instead.

Cooperation between a government agency and a private-sector company can help in achieving specific tasks or projects within the community.

This involves identifying all the community’s resources, funds, manpower, and skills to better allocate and align resources to meet goals amid competing priorities and needs.

Allows community members to allocate a part of the public budget, often through a democratic voting process.

Strategy 3: Research and Data Collection

This strategy focuses on engaging the community to conduct research or collect and share data and evidence.

Small, diverse groups of people whose reactions are studied about various topics, in guided or open discussions for research.

Collaborative research approach that involves community members in the research process, from establishing questions to collecting data and sharing results.

A method for examining relationships within a community to identify influential members and better target engagement efforts.

Structured tools for collecting data from a large group, either online or in person.

Strategy 4: Digital and Online Engagement

This strategy focuses on engaging the community to create or mobilize virtual relationships for diverse purposes.

Digital platforms where community members can discuss issues, share news, and give feedback.

Online meetings that allow for wider participation, especially beneficial when physical attendance is not feasible.

Communication tools that allow you to share information and collect survey responses to engage with members of your community over the internet.

Organized efforts to promote engagement or action through various social media channels. Provide the ability to reach targeted groups at an affordable cost.

Strategy 5: Education and Outreach Programs

This strategy focuses on engaging the community to educate and inform the public and specific target audiences.

Informational sessions, workshops, or educational programs aimed at informing the community about important issues or resources.

Community service activities that offer hands-on engagement and contribute to community betterment.

Involves the community in the planning process for neighborhood projects or other local initiatives.

These are organized efforts to bring public attention to social issues through various media.

Tools for Engaging the Community

Effectively engaging with a community involves a multi-faceted approach that leverages various methods and tools to build and maintain meaningful relationships. Grouping similar tools together can make your community engagement efforts more coherent and streamlined. Below are essential tools organized by their primary function in community engagement.

Data Collection Tools

• Surveys and Questionnaires : Software like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms can gather quantitative data to assess community needs and sentiments.
• Interviews and Focus Groups : Voice recording tools and transcription services help document in-depth discussions for further analysis.

Communication and Outreach

• Email Marketing Software : Tools such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact allow for targeted communications and management of large email lists.
• Social Media Platforms : Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are vital for broad outreach, updates, and live interactions.

Digital Collaboration and Events

• Event and Webinar Software : Use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Webex for virtual meetings, webinars, and online workshops.
• Virtual Whiteboards : Platforms like Miro or Jamboard enable real-time online brainstorming and planning.

Relationship and Partnership Management

• CRM Software : Systems like Salesforce can manage interactions with community members and stakeholders.
• Memorandums of Agreement : Digital tools like DocuSign can formalize partnerships and collaborations quickly.

Specialized Community Engagement Platforms

• Hivebrite : An all-in-one community management platform designed for close-knit communities of individuals like a neighborhood or club.
• PARTNER CPRM : Designed specifically for community engagement, this tool helps map and measure collaborative efforts.

Measurement and KPIs

Monitoring and measuring the impact of your community engagement activities is crucial for demonstrating the effectiveness of your plan, making informed decisions, and continuously improving your strategies. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other metrics help you understand what is working and what requires adjustment. Here, we delve into the qualitative and quantitative metrics and best practices for evaluating your community engagement efforts.

Qualitative Metrics

• Stakeholder Satisfaction : Interviews, focus groups, and open-ended survey questions can help gauge the satisfaction level of community members and partners.
• Community Narratives : Stories and testimonials can provide rich context, capturing the less tangible outcomes of engagement.
• Quality of Relationships : A subjective measure but crucial for long-term success. Tools like sentiment analysis can give some insight, but interviews and direct feedback are often the most revealing.

Quantitative Metrics

• Engagement Rate : This could include metrics like attendance at community events, participation in surveys, or interaction with social media posts.
• Response Rate : The percentage of the community that actively responds to engagement attempts, such as surveys or public comment periods.
• ROI Metrics : Calculate the return on investment by measuring the benefits gained against the costs incurred in the engagement process.

Best Practices

• Clear Objectives : Ensure your metrics and KPIs align with your specific engagement objectives. This ensures you are measuring what matters most.
• Baseline Data : Collect baseline data to measure progress over time and to understand the impact of specific initiatives.
• Regular Monitoring : Metrics should be monitored regularly but not so frequently that you don’t allow enough time for meaningful change to occur.
• Stakeholder Involvement : Involve community members and other stakeholders in the process of selecting KPIs and metrics, ensuring they reflect community priorities.
• Data Triangulation : Use multiple methods and data sources to validate your findings for a comprehensive view of community engagement success.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) principles into community engagement is not just an ethical imperative but also amplifies the effectiveness of your engagement strategies. Below we delve into the various aspects of DEI that are particularly pertinent to community engagement.

Important DEI Definitions

• Diversity : In the context of community engagement, diversity refers to the inclusion of people from varying backgrounds, cultures, genders, socioeconomic statuses, and abilities.
• Equity : This involves ensuring fair treatment, equality of opportunity, and promoting justice in the allocation of resources, benefits, and decision-making processes.
• Inclusion : This means ensuring that all community members are actively and genuinely involved in the decision-making processes that affect them.

Community Culture and Context Sensitivity

Understanding the cultural nuances, histories, and specific challenges of your community is vital. Cultural sensitivity includes not only acknowledging diversity but also honoring and leveraging it for more effective engagement. 

Recognize Power Dynamics and Imbalances

Within any community, there are power imbalances that must be acknowledged and addressed. Recognizing these dynamics and creating safe spaces where all voices can be heard is crucial.

Address Barriers to Engagement

Identify the economic, social, and cultural barriers that could hinder community members from participating. It could be as simple as providing childcare during meetings, or as complex as addressing systemic issues of disenfranchisement.

Practice Inclusive Decision-Making

Inclusion goes beyond diversity by giving people an equal seat at the decision-making table. This involves not just inviting varied voices to participate but ensuring their opinions have weight in the final decisions.

Remain Transparent and Open to Feedback

Transparency in processes, decisions, and communications is crucial for maintaining trust. Moreover, open channels for feedback—both positive and negative—should be maintained to continually refine your approach to DEI in community engagement.

Part 4: Post-Engagement Activities

The work doesn’t end when the community engagement event or program concludes. In many ways, the most crucial aspects of community engagement occur in the post-engagement phase.

This section will guide you through activities and best practices designed to assess the impact of your initiatives, build upon the relationships you’ve established, and set the stage for future engagement opportunities. From evaluating KPIs to maintaining open channels for community feedback, the steps you take now will not only measure the success of your current efforts but also inform and enrich your future engagements.

Analyzing Data and Feedback

Effectively interpreting the data and feedback collected during your community engagement initiative is crucial for understanding its impact and for planning future efforts. This section will delve into the various facets of this post-engagement analysis.

Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative analysis focuses on understanding the underlying context and motivations behind community responses. This can include analyzing open-ended survey questions, focus group discussions, and anecdotal evidence. Here, the objective is to uncover themes and narratives that numbers alone can’t tell. Thematic analysis and sentiment analysis are common methods employed to dissect the qualitative data.

If you are new to this and have limited resources, consider using Chat GPT or another AI program to review your qualitative data and feedback for common themes or patterns. It is an easy way to glean important information from your results if you don’t have much time to work with.

Tools for Analysis

Several software solutions and tools can assist in analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. For survey responses and structured interviews, software like SPSS or R can offer robust statistical insights. Qualitative data analysis tools like NVivo or Dedoose can help in coding text-based or multimedia data, enabling you to identify trends and themes. For a more integrated approach, Community Partner Relationship Management (CPRM) systems can consolidate various data points into a singular view.

Making Data-Driven Decisions

The objective of analyzing data and feedback is to inform your community engagement strategies with empirical evidence. Being data-driven means that your future initiatives are not based on assumptions but are shaped by real-world feedback and measurable outcomes. Make it a practice to incorporate these insights into your planning and decision-making processes for more effective and impactful community engagement.

Reporting and Documentation

Documenting and reporting are critical steps in the community engagement process. They not only ensure accountability but also provide a structured way to evaluate outcomes and learn for future initiatives. This section aims to break down the essentials of reporting and documentation in the context of community engagement.

Internal Reporting

Internal reporting focuses on disseminating the analysis and outcomes of the engagement initiative within your organization or team. It often includes both qualitative and quantitative data and may be shared in the form of written reports, presentations, or even dashboards. 

The purpose is to inform your organization’s leaders and decision-makers about what was learned, what worked, and what needs improvement. Internal reports may also be used to secure further resources or support for ongoing or future community engagement efforts.

Public Reporting

Public reporting aims to share the outcomes of the community engagement process with the wider community and any other external stakeholders. This kind of reporting should be easily accessible and written in a way that is understandable to the general public. It should also be transparent, including not just successes but also any challenges or failures encountered. 

Public reporting can take various forms, such as a downloadable PDF on a website, posts on social media platforms, or community meetings where the findings are presented and discussed. Public reporting enhances accountability and builds trust between the organization and the community it serves.

Creating a Feedback Loop

Feedback loops are crucial for any community engagement process as they enable ongoing communication and adaptability. A well-structured feedback loop not only collects data but also interprets and utilizes it to make informed changes. Below, we explore the essential components of a feedback loop in the context of community engagement.

1. Collecting Feedback

The first step in creating an effective feedback loop is to collect feedback from the community and other stakeholders. This can be done through various methods such as post-engagement surveys, one-on-one interviews, or focus groups. 

Tools like online survey platforms or traditional paper forms can facilitate this process. The key is to ask questions that are both specific and open-ended to capture a full range of opinions and insights.

2. Interpreting Feedback

Once feedback is collected, the next step is to interpret the data. This involves sorting through the responses to identify patterns, outliers, and key areas for improvement. Qualitative feedback may require thematic coding or sentiment analysis, whereas quantitative feedback can be analyzed using statistical methods. 

Software tools specialized in data analysis can assist in this phase. The goal is to extract actionable insights that can guide future community engagement strategies.

3. Implementing Changes

After interpreting the feedback, the final step in the loop is to implement changes. This involves taking the insights gained from the interpretation phase and applying them to modify your engagement strategies, communication channels, or any other relevant aspects of the project. It could mean refining your objectives, changing your approach, or perhaps even reconsidering the stakeholders involved.

Changes should be documented and, where appropriate, communicated back to the community to close the loop and prepare for the next cycle of engagement.

Managing Long-Term Relationships

Building and sustaining long-term relationships is a cornerstone of effective community engagement. These enduring connections are not just beneficial for current projects but also create a foundation for future initiatives. Below, we delve into key aspects of managing long-term relationships within the sphere of community engagement.

Relationship Mapping

Start by understanding who the stakeholders are and what roles they play in the community. Use relationship mapping tools to identify the different types of stakeholders and the relationships that exist between them. This will help you determine the key influencers and connectors in the community that you should prioritize in your long-term planning.

Consistent Communication

One of the most crucial elements in maintaining long-term relationships is consistent communication. Regular check-ins, updates, and two-way conversations are essential. Utilize a variety of channels—newsletters, social media, community meetings, etc.—to keep the lines of communication open and adaptive to community needs.

Trust-Building

Trust is the backbone of any long-term relationship. This means not only delivering on promises but also being transparent about the process, including setbacks and failures. Ensure you are consistently reliable, honest, and open to keep the trust quotient high.

Value Creation

A sustainable relationship is mutually beneficial. Regularly assess what value you are bringing to the community and what you are gaining in return. This can be in the form of tangible assets, like resources, or intangibles, like goodwill and trust. If the relationship becomes one-sided, it’s unlikely to last long.

Conflict Resolution

Inevitably, conflicts will arise. Having a well-defined mechanism for conflict resolution is vital. Whether it’s a formal grievance procedure or a more informal conflict resolution discussion, make sure to treat all concerns with seriousness and fairness.

Data-Driven Relationship Management

Leverage data analytics to continually assess the state of your community relationships. Look at engagement metrics, feedback loop data, and other KPIs to make informed decisions. This can guide you on when to ramp up engagement activities or when to pivot your strategies for better relationship management.

Celebrate Achievements

Finally, remember to celebrate the victories, big or small. Acknowledging and sharing successes not only boosts morale but also strengthens the sense of community, contributing to the durability of long-term relationships.

Part 5: Leveraging SNA for Community Engagement

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is a burgeoning field that provides an innovative methodology for examining the relationships and structures within a community. This part of the guide delves into how Social Network Analysis can be used as a powerful tool to enhance the effectiveness of your community engagement initiatives.

What is Social Network Analysis?

Social Network Analysis is the systematic mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, or other connected entities. The goal is to understand the network structure and the roles played by the various nodes (or individuals) within the network.

In the context of community engagement, SNA can offer valuable insights into how communities are organized and who the influential nodes within them are. This enables you to tailor your engagement strategies for maximum reach and impact.

Steps for Conducting a Social Network Analysis

1. bounding the network.

The first step involves defining the boundaries of the network you wish to analyze. This could be a geographic area, a particular issue, or a community defined by some other criteria.

2. Relational Data Collection

Collect data on the relationships among the members of your bounded network. This involves gathering information through relational surveys, complemented with interviews and focus groups, or by tracking and observing interactions and communication.

3. Network Mapping and Analysis

Utilize specialized SNA software tools to create network maps that visualize relationships. This stage involves statistical analysis to identify patterns and key nodes within the network.

4. Interpretation and Reporting

Based on your analysis, interpret the results to understand the structure and dynamics of your community network. Report your findings in a format that’s accessible and relevant to your stakeholders.

Applying SNA to Community Engagement

Here are four specific examples of SNA insights and lessons used to improve community engagement strategies and tactics.

Identifying Key Stakeholders

SNA can help identify individuals or organizations that are most central or influential within the network. Targeting these key stakeholders can be crucial for the success of your initiative.

Measuring Trust and Value

Through SNA metrics like centrality or betweenness, you can quantify the level of trust or influence that network members hold. This is vital for understanding who can serve as a trusted intermediary or advocate for your initiative.

Building Strategic Networks

Utilize your network analysis to create strategic structures for community engagement. This may include forming sub-committees, partnerships, or focus groups that mirror the natural clustering within your community.

Aligning and Sharing Resources

Identify the resources and assets that exist within your network and strategize on how they can be effectively leveraged. Knowing who has access to what can make your community engagement program more resource-efficient.

PARTNER CPRM: A Platform for Community Engagement SNA

PARTNER CPRM is a community partner relationship management platform that leverages social network analysis to generate powerful, actionable insights. Built specifically to support community engagement and collaboration, PARTNER includes everything you need to manage your stakeholders, collect relational data from them, map and analyze your community network, and interpret and share your results. 

Here are some of our favorite features for community engagement practitioners:

Survey Builder and Email System

Community engagement often requires gathering data directly from the community. PARTNER’s built-in survey tools can streamline this process and feed the data directly into the network analysis.

Dynamic Network Visualization

Being able to visually represent the network can make it easier to identify relationships, clusters, and isolated groups or individuals. Dynamic visualization allows for real-time updates, which can be critical for adapting engagement strategies over time.

Geospatial Mapping (ArcGIS)

This feature allows nodes to be placed on a geographical map, highlighting the physical locations of community members. For community engagement, understanding the geographic spread can inform localized initiatives and outreach.

Trust and Value Scores

Measure what matters with PARTNER’s validated network science metrics. Centrality shows which stakeholders are the most well-connected in various ways, while Trust and Value help measure the quality of your relationships over time.

Network Member Profiles

Access all your information and network visualizations for a specific community member or partner in their Network Member Profile. You can share the profiles with each partner to help democratize data and make your SNA results transparent to the community.

Learn More: Request a Demo

Are you curious about using PARTNER CPRM to inform and improve your community engagement strategy? The best way to learn more is by attending a demo with our Data Science team members. Request a demo today to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

If you do not see your question addressed below, comment at the bottom of the guide. One of our experts will get you an answer as soon as possible.

A: Community engagement is the process of collaboratively working with various groups of people, either connected by geographic proximity, similar interests, or specific challenges, to address issues that impact their well-being. The aim is to establish a two-way, reciprocal relationship where both parties are actively involved in decision-making, sharing resources, and contributing to outcomes.

A: Examples of community engagement include public town-hall meetings, neighborhood clean-up initiatives, online discussion forums, participatory budgeting, and public consultations on local development projects. These can range from one-time events to ongoing programs.

A: Community engagement offers multiple benefits such as increased community trust, more effective decision-making, and improved community health and well-being. It can also result in better utilization of resources, greater project buy-in, and more sustainable long-term outcomes.

A: A community engagement strategy is a planned approach detailing how an organization or project will interact with the community. It outlines the objectives, stakeholders, communication methods, and metrics for evaluating effectiveness. A well-thought-out strategy serves as a roadmap for successful engagement.

A: A community engagement framework is a structured model that provides guidelines for how community engagement should be executed. It offers principles, best practices, and toolkits to facilitate and evaluate engagement activities. Examples include Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation.

A: Evaluating community engagement involves both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative metrics may include the number of participants, survey results, or social media engagement. Qualitative methods might include focus group discussions, interviews, and participant observations. Often a combination of both methods provides the most comprehensive understanding.

A: Best practices include clear and transparent communication, inclusivity, consistent stakeholder involvement, and ongoing evaluation and feedback. Developing a well-defined strategy and choosing appropriate engagement methods are also considered best practices.

A: The 3 C’s often referred to in the context of community engagement are Collaboration, Communication, and Community. These represent the fundamental elements that contribute to successful engagement efforts.

A: Good community engagement is inclusive, transparent, and reciprocal. It involves stakeholders in meaningful ways, respects community inputs, and delivers on promises. It also involves a willingness to adapt and evolve based on feedback and changing community needs.

A: The best methods are context-specific but commonly used ones include public forums, surveys, focus groups, participatory action research, and digital engagement platforms. The key is to use methods that are most appropriate for the specific community, the issue at hand, and the resources available.

Additional Reading & Resources

Our team compiled this list of community engagement tools and resources to use for your needs. If you have any recommended tools or websites we should add to the list, please mention it below with a comment so we can share it with our readers.

• “The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation” by Jono Bacon
• “Community: The Structure of Belonging” by Peter Block
• “Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets” by John P. Kretzmann and John L. McKnight
• CDC’s Principles of Community Engagement, Second Edition
• IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation
• Tamarack Institute Resources
• Community Roundtable
• EngagementHQ
• Public Agenda
• Coursera – Community Organizing for Social Justice
• IAP2 Training Programs
• Community Engagement Webinar Series by Tamarack Institute
• U.S. EPA’s Public Participation Guide
• World Bank’s Community Engagement Toolkit
• UNICEF’s Tools for Community Participation
• Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship
• Community Development Journal

PARTNER CPRM for Community Engagement

Get involved.

Let us know how you’d like to get involved with the Jeffco PARTNER CPRM by choosing from the options below.

Join our next webinar: Marketing & Communication Strategies & Tactics for Networks & Coalitions

Choose a free gift.

Click one of the links below to download a free resource to strengthen your community partnerships, collaborative network, and strategic ecosystem. 

Network Leadership Guide

Advice for building, managing, and assessing cross-sector networks or coalitions of partners.

Ecosystem Mapping Template

A template to map the connections and interactions between key stakeholders in your community.

Network Strategy Planner

A worksheet and guide to help you think through and develop your network or ecosystem strategy.

Subscribe to our Network Science Newsletter!

Get monthly updates on VNL news, new research, funding opportunities, and other resources related to network and ecosystem mapping and management.

6 Steps to Building Your Community Strategy for 2023

A comprehensive, systematic approach to building a community strategy.

Community is universal. We've all been part of one in some shape or form — which is likely why so many communities are started without a strategy.

We all have experience with communities in the cultural sense. Even those who aren’t professional community builders will assume that communities can be run based on good intuition alone, or may even feel that being strategic about community is 'inauthentic'.

This isn’t the case. Strategies are absolutely necessary to help Community Managers run communities effectively at inception and while they grow. Strong strategies empower Community Managers to infuse the community’s authenticity into other parts of the business.

What is a community strategy, and why do Community Managers need one?

A community strategy is a detailed, long-range plan for how to support and evolve a healthy community in order to achieve the organization's business objectives.

Building a community strategy is essential for CMs because:

• It forces you to choose a tactic — even if it's the wrong one — which lets you measure what works and what doesn't.
• It also forces you to actively de-prioritize out-of-scope ideas, even good ones.
• It ensures your actions in the community align with your organization’s goals.
• It makes you consider best practices in context, instead of relying on boilerplate tactics that may not work for your community.

With that in mind, here's my systematic approach to developing a community strategy. We teach this process in our C School Foundations and Essentials level courses, and dozens of students have successfully used it to produce community strategies for their organizations.

Whether you're building an entirely new community, you're new to managing this particular one, or you're looking to refresh your community — it's never too late to develop or revisit your strategy.

How to build a community strategy

1. set a purpose and measure of success.

This initial planning phase involves outlining your community's why — the reasons it does or will exist. You’ll look at how the community will serve both its members and your company’s goals. To kick-start this process, ask yourself the following questions:

Who, outside of the company, am I building this community for? What do they get out of it?

Your answer could look like this: I’m building this community for project managers, who will have a space where they can connect with other professionals in the same field.

If your community serves a group that is different from your company’s core customer base, it's worth taking time to define your target audience and build personas . 

Be as specific as possible when doing this. Include demographics, psychographics, and personal details. Humanize your persona(s) with details about their goals, motivations, and frustrations.

Who inside the company is this community for? What do they get out of it?

It’s likely that most, if not all, of the company’s departments will reap the benefits of community. You could, then, have multiple answers to these questions.

Are there any conflicts between what the company and what members want from this community?

In other words, do your answers to the first two questions above align? For example, if everything the company wants is transactional (i.e. get survey results, answer tickets), but you think the most valuable community for customers will be about best practice sharing, that could be an issue. 

If the wants are at odds, you may have to develop a more comprehensive plan to meet both or de-prioritize one while you focus on the other for a time.

What are the main metrics my company already tracks? Which ones does this community have the biggest potential to impact?

Your organization will already be collecting and reporting top-level business metrics — things like monthly recurring revenue, customer lifetime value, new subscribers, etc. Make a list of the metrics your community can positively impact, which can help when you plan content and events for the community. 

There is no ‘right’ answer for this. Each community’s potential impact on metrics will depend on a combination of factors such as your product, company goals, and community purpose.

How will I measure success at launch, in the first six months, in the first year?

This is true with many projects, but in a community context, what's important (and possible) to measure will vary at different phases of maturity.

For example, within your first six months, it'll probably be meaningful to track new members and community adoption. After two years, you might find it more insightful to focus on how existing community members perform on company health metrics (like lifetime value) vs. non-community members. Defining what success means at different stages of your community’s lifetime will help you set realistic expectations within your company.

2. Research, research, research

This is something many community pros miss. The idea (or myth) that community is nebulous and un-trackable means even experienced CMs seem to default to hypothesizing about their community in the dark. 

It doesn't have to be that way. In this research phase, you will:

Speak to users and potential community members

If you do one thing in your research phase, it should be this: get feedback from members who fall into your target community persona to validate what you're considering offering. This should include questions on everything from your big-picture plans to platform to the kind of content you hope to produce. You could also run some of your ideas by users/prospective community members to see which ones are feasible.

Audit and analyze your company’s existing community efforts

Your company may not have a full-fledged community, but they may already be bringing people together in some way or another. You can look at things like in-person and virtual events , customer counsels, or ambassador programs to see what resonates with your community and what you can improve or do away with. You can also analyze this against your user interviews to see if there are gaps to fill.

Check out the competition

Look at your direct competitors' community efforts to determine what your members expect and how you can expand on what already exists. This is un-skippable for CMs working at big brands who want leadership buy-in. Nothing convinces people more than "our competitors are already doing it and we're behind".

You might also want to look at exemplar or model communities that fall outside your industry and see if there’s anything you can borrow from them. For example, if one of your goals is to help members make using your product a habit, you could look at fitness communities to see they support building habits and skills.

3. Plan content types and frequency

The next step in your community strategy is to create a plan for the types of community content you’ll produce , and how often you’ll share it.

Some of this work can and should happen during the research phase. As you get a clearer picture of what content you might offer in your community, you can run these ideas by interviewees or look for where your ideas overlap and exceed competitors' communities.

In this phase you will:

Determine how often you’ll share content

You should create content for your community at the day-to-day, weekly, monthly, and annual level. Not all this content will be equal — day-to-day content should consist of things you can create often and with minimal effort (such as simple engagement prompts or questions), while annual content (such as summits ) will require months of planning and has the potential to reap high rewards for both you and your members.

Decide access levels and what content to gate

Your community may have access levels (free and paid , or based on skill or experience), and your content plan should map the different types of content based on these access levels.

If your community has a paid member level, creating exclusive content or learning opportunities can add extra value for paid members. In addition to this gated content, your plan should also include content that will be available to all community members, including those who are on a free member level. 

You can also create content that’s open to a wider audience or customer base who aren’t community members to spread awareness about your community and help draw in more members or customers.

Draft a content plan

While your high-quality content pieces are best staggered (for consistency, and your own sanity) it’s worth making sure that you launch with at least one piece of highly desired exclusive content. This will give your members a look at the quality of content they can expect and the value the community will bring to them.

4. Share your strategy with key stakeholders

I like to call this phase, known in the industry as a ‘roadshow’, socializing your strategy — how you communicate and share these ideas internally within your organization and, in some cases, externally with your highly engaged members or advocates. 

Once you've waded into the strategizing process (and have some research and recommendations to show for it), this phase will take place continuously throughout the rest of the process.

This will require you to:

Find your champion

Spend some time talking to people in your organization about your community. Is there someone with power in your organization — preferably an executive — who is bought in from the beginning? Having them in your corner from the get-go can be invaluable if you need to convince leadership. 

Get buy-in from other departments

Choose one or two stakeholders from each department and meet with them to get department-specific feedback. Don't pull them in too early, or you'll risk your project snowballing out of scope. Be clear about what's already decided and what you're looking for feedback on — don't ask teammates to share feedback on project elements you’re sure you won't change.

Share your research and recommendations with leadership

Don't jump the gun on this one — the last thing you want to be doing is pulling higher-ups into the weeds with you. Your strategy needn’t be set in stone, but you will be more likely to get approval if you can back up your recommendations with concrete data and a solid direction forward.

Ask to present at a company all-hands or team-wide meetings

This will add gravitas to your work and help your colleagues understand how big of a deal a community project is. It's also a great opportunity to make sure everyone has the opportunity to weigh in and give feedback, even if they won't necessarily do so.

Make your strategy documents available to the company

However you choose to present your research and plans (a document, a slide deck, an internal wiki...), make sure it's easily accessible for anyone in your company, organized in a way that they can easily navigate and you can easily reference.

5. Choose and test your community tech stack

A large part of this phase will depend on your organization and how much technical support you have (or don't have). For many CMs, the below will be fait accompli. But if you do have the opportunity to get your hands dirty on the technical side, this phase requires you to:

Pick the main software platform for your community

You have many platform options to choose where to run your community . Again, there is no correct answer for this and differs for every community based on your purpose and needs.

In his talk at the 2021 Community Club Summit, Senior Product Manager (then-Senior Community Manager) at GoDaddy Andrew Claremont goes into detail on how to choose the right platform for your community by asking three questions: What do you need? What are your options? What do you, as the expert, recommend to stakeholders?

Decide what other software your community might need

Your content plan might require you to also engage with members outside of the main platform. You’ll need other tools or software to make this happen. For example, if you plan on hosting virtual workshops, you'll need a video calling software like a pro Zoom account or similar. If you have a newsletter just for your community, you’ll need a MailerLite or Mailchimp (or other email marketing tool) account to build your mailing list.

Check in with the tech team

For any flows outside your wheelhouse, you may need help from your company’s technical team. It's worth identifying these needs as soon as possible and pushing to make sure you have access to the project owner if you need ongoing tech support to help you resolve problems as (and when) they come up.

Test login flows

Step into your members' shoes — what does it actually feel like to log in to this community for the first time? Things might work perfectly in the admin view (i.e. your view) but be a confusing or frustrating experience for your members. Testing this before launch will give you a chance to eliminate bugs and create a smooth user experience. I'd also recommend having several coworkers create accounts and giving them a small checklist of things to try (log in, create a post, reply to a post, etc.) as a quality assurance process.

6. Launch your community

This phase is effectively creating a roadmap that lays out all the decisions you've made in the steps above, outlining what is going to happen when.

In this phase, you may need to:

Zero in on marketing channels (if any)

For most people, this will likely involve tapping into the main mode of communication between your company and your customers/prospective members, like a newsletter or social media.

You may also want to target a small group of people you'd love to have in your community and give them a personal invitation. A little one-to-one communication can go a long way. ‍

Decide whom to invite to the community and when

It's never a bad idea to start small. In fact, many community pros will recommend you intentionally limit the speed at which a new community grows. However, this is not always possible in practice, and if that's the case, it's OK — it just means you need to make an effort to layer relationship-building on top of an "open the floodgates" moment.

Develop an onboarding sequence for new members

A well-thought-out onboarding sequence can go a long way in making new members feel welcome and involved in your community. You can do this in multiple ways, such as sending a series of emails, encouraging them to engage in the community by introducing themselves, making a post, sending a personal welcome message , and so on.

Develop a plan to help new members become active

Welcoming new members is the first step to engaging them. Build some engagement plays into your content calendar (like rituals or a tagging strategy) to ignite the spark with new members and ease them into becoming active community members.

👉 Looking for engagement ideas for your community? Check out The Community Engagement Playbook that's jam-packed with over 50 tried-and-tested engagement initiatives and projects shared by CMs.

Last, but not least.

Your community strategizing isn't over once you've completed these steps. Strategies aren't a one-time thing to develop and deliver. That slide deck, wiki, or document you created should be constantly dusted off and built upon as you continue to learn about your community and your members.

Even if you have an existing community, you should continue to re-evaluate elements of strategy as you grow — so that you're always acting with purpose.

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How to Add Value to Your Business Through Community Involvement

Business owners must focus on getting involved in their local community to stand out.

Becoming a household name takes more than just a strong marketing presence. To stand out among peers, business owners must also focus on getting involved in their local community.

While building a name among locals will increase sales and brand awareness, making an effort to serve the community also creates happier employees and more loyal customers. By establishing themselves as pillars of the community, an owner can add real, immeasurable value to their business.

Community involvement is directly tied to the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR is more than just a trend; it's a new way of doing business. An estimated 82 percent of U.S. consumers say that corporate social responsibility factors into their decision-making process when buying a good or service.

During the California wildfires, countless businesses found ways to get involved and help out their community in need. From discounted hotel stays to free rides to evacuation centers, businesses offered support through financial or physical means. Their efforts to step in and assist the first responders and hundreds of evacuees did not go unnoticed and elevated their place in the community.

Fortunately, community involvement doesn't require a natural disaster, and there are many ways for small business owners to give back as part of their business plan. Regardless of community size, location or population, owners can do the following to become involved:

Volunteer Time and Space

Volunteering time and space makes community involvement easy. Time is a precious commodity, and donating large portions of it to a good cause signals to the community that the business owner is interested in more than just the bottom line. It's also something that the entire staff can participate in. Owners can encourage employees to join in on the cause by providing a certain number of paid volunteer hours per quarter or incorporate company outings during the work week.

If time is scarce, businesses can also volunteer their space for a good cause. They might consider using their storefront as a drop-off location for charity collections and local food banks. Gaining exposure while helping others is a win for both your business and the greater community.

Invest in the Community

In addition to investing their time and labor, owners can also invest in their community monetarily. Business owners who leverage their assets to sponsor local events like street fairs, farmers' markets and sports leagues can reap great benefits. Not only do their financial contributions keep the community alive and thriving, but sponsorships position the business as a cornerstone of the local culture and community.

Owners should be careful to choose initiatives that support the community in the long term. This will guarantee a lengthy partnership with those community members and an ongoing reputation of support. To do so, investments should focus on things related to socioeconomic development, jobs, education and healthcare. Scholarships and sponsorships for local students is an investment owners of every level can attain. Opportunities range from paying for a student's books to sponsoring a full scholarship to a local university.

Smart business owners should be on the lookout for sponsorship opportunities that relate back to their own business. For example, a small home repair shop might sponsor scholarships for a local trade school. Or, a hair salon might sponsor a local women's organization. Recipients will greatly appreciate the support and then continue to view the business as a strategic partner, which leads to more exposure for the brand as well as more opportunities to give back.

Develop Relationships with Leaders

A more strategic, long-term way for a business owner to get involved in their community is developing relationships with key local leaders. This may include connecting with leaders of social and environmental organizations, health and educational institutions, as well as other respected role models with a voice in community changes.

Getting involved with local leaders in either a personal or business capacity can be very valuable. Developing genuine relationship with individuals who are also members of organizations like the local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau can be even more beneficial. Once these relationships are established, opportunities will open up to become more than just a connection. A business owner can work to become a valued member, enabling them to establish a voice and influence changes within their local community.

Increased involvement with local leaders produces a two-fold benefit: not only do owners develop a highly valued voice, but the value of their business rises with it. Once a top-of-mind spot in the community is secured, local groups may offer guest speakerships, mentorships or an opportunity to fulfill a need for goods or services.

There's No Better Time to Get Involved

Beyond the obvious social and economic advantages, community involvement adds value to your business, which is especially important given today's active business-for-sale market. Taken from BizBuySell's 2018 Annual/Q4 Insights Report , for the third year in a row, a record number of businesses were bought and sold in the U.S. As more Baby Boomers reach retirement, more businesses are placed on the market. As these listings hit the market, a steady stream of entrepreneurs are buying them up.

Furthermore, these sold businesses are financially healthier than in previous years and receiving higher sale prices. Median revenue of sold businesses grew 6.3 percent over the previous year, while median sale prices increased 9.3 percent over the previous year. This hot, healthy market encourages competition between the equally healthy, profitable businesses. Smart owners are taking note of the competition and finding ways to add more than just financial value to their business through community involvement.

It's Hard to Lose When You Give Back

These options are just the start. Communities, just like small businesses, are unique and come with their own set of nuances and special traits. Owners are encouraged to find creative ways to get involved in the community and determine what feels right. The great thing about community involvement is that it is difficult to receive zero benefit from the exchange. Even if business doesn't immediately boom, owners are still left with the satisfaction of a bettered community and closer relationships with their customers.

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How to Develop a Community Engagement Plan: Strategies and Tips

3 Cs of Community Engagement

Creating an Engagement Plan

What you'll learn in this article:

• List item 1
• List item 2
• List item 3
• List item 4

Community engagement is no longer a buzzword; it has become a necessity for organizations aiming to create a lasting impact. But how does one go about crafting an effective community engagement plan?

The answer lies in a well-defined scope, strategic engagement approaches, innovative implementation methods, continuous monitoring and adaptation, and efficient collaboration and resources. Let’s dive into the details!

What we'll learn together:

• Defining community engagement, community engagement plan, and the 3 Cs of CEP: communication, collaboration, and consultation to guide you in your whole process of creation.
• Introducing the 7 steps to craft a successful community engagement plan for both beginners or starter communities and established ones.
• Leverage the power of technology and data through the use of Disco's AI notable features such as intelligent automation, co-pilot, and AI-generated images and texts.

Community Engagement Definition

Community engagement , particularly in the context of learning communities, is a critical factor in fostering a vibrant and interactive environment. It involves creating a sense of belonging among members, promoting active participation, and facilitating effective communication.

Explore the whole approach by downloading the Learning Community Playbook by Disco , and level up your game!

What is a Community Engagement Plan?

A Community Engagement Plan (CEP), also known as a "community engagement action plan", is a strategic roadmap designed to foster active participation and interaction within a community. It involves seven steps, the key to success when crafting your plan. Remember that CEP can be used by established communities or beginners--both can benefit from creating a harmonious, successful, and improved online community.

The 3 Cs of Community Engagement

Apart from this, there are 3 C's of community engagement : communication, collaboration, and connection-- which are all important in planning to increase the engagement of your members.

Communication - is the cornerstone of any successful engagement strategy as it fosters understanding and builds trust within the community. It involves not only disseminating information but also listening and responding effectively to feedback. It's about creating an open dialogue where everyone feels heard and valued.

Consultation - is an essential step in the engagement process because it acknowledges the importance of the community's input in decision-making. Consultation ensures that the community's views are genuinely considered, enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of the engagement plan. It's a two-way process that depends heavily on the strong communication foundation laid in the first step.

Collaboration - means involving community members in the decision-making and implementation processes. It's about building partnerships and alliances, sharing resources, and co-creating solutions. Collaboration is the culmination of effective communication and consultation, and it is what transforms an engaged community into a powerful force for change.

7 Steps to Create a Community Engagement Plan (+Expert Tips)

Step #1: Establish Clear Objectives

Establishing clear objectives in a community engagement plan helps in defining goals, setting measurable targets, tracking progress, and maintaining focus. To effectively align these objectives with an organization’s mission, adherence to the SMART criteria (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) is recommended.

Essential components for establishing clear objectives include the identification of stakeholders, definition of outcomes, setting parameters, ensuring a clear purpose, and maintaining clear communication. To maintain clear and concise objectives, you should pinpoint the plan’s purpose and goals, grasp the community’s needs and values, and formulate influential objectives that promote accountability and keep the team on track.

Expert Tip: Always ensure that your community goals align with your business goals. This alignment is crucial because it allows your community engagement plan to support and advance your organization's mission and objectives. It creates a synergy between your community and your organization, leading to mutual growth and success.

Step #2: Understand Community Members

Recognizing and analyzing stakeholders is vital to understanding their informational needs, thus influencing the creation of the community engagement plan.

Their interests significantly influence the formulation of the community engagement plan, and their feedback directly affects decision-making, the establishment of relationships, and the outcomes.

To engage your audience effectively, you need a thorough understanding of their needs and interests. This approach ensures that engagement efforts are customized to meet the specific needs of the community. Methods such as assessments, interviews, focus groups, and surveys can offer valuable insights into the perspectives and needs of stakeholders.

Expert Tip: To gain a deeper understanding of your target audience, consider utilizing survey tools such as Google Forms and Typeform for data collection. Additionally, you can assess their skills/knowledge using online quiz tools .

Step #3: Design Engagement Approach

Formulating your engagement strategy requires you to devise a strategic communication plan, choose suitable tools for community consultations, and employ a variety of marketing techniques. This approach ensures comprehensive outreach and caters to diverse preferences and behaviors, thereby facilitating engagement with a wider audience.

Moreover, exploring supplementary tools alongside the traditional mix can present fresh avenues for engagement and potentially extend outreach to a broader spectrum of community members while tackling specific obstacles.

This well-rounded approach bolsters the impact of your engagement efforts, ensuring a more effective and inclusive community engagement process.

Selecting Appropriate Engagement Methods

Choosing the right engagement methods is central to successful community engagement. This includes interacting with local residents, area-based groups, and communities of interest--depending on what kind of community are you running. If you are running a virtual one and are a customer community , then you should interact with your customers who are members.

Selecting the most appropriate methods involves community engagement processes such as scenario testing with multiple policy plans, debating policies with participants, and explaining how the organization can collaborate.

Moreover, integrating online and offline engagement methods offers several advantages, including the establishment of lasting relationships, reaching a wider and more diverse audience, and the concurrent collection of quantitative data online. This dual-pathway approach ensures multiple avenues for community participation, enhances transparency and governance and increases the overall acceptance of proposed changes.

Expert Tip: Leverage the use of online tools to foster engagement among your members. You can utilize Miro, Kahoot!, and HyperIsland toolbox to gamify your live sessions! These can be integrated and embedded in the Disco app so you don't have to worry!

Developing a Communications Strategy

Formulating a communications plan is key to successfully communicating your engagement plan. This involves:

• Capturing a wide range of voices
• Fostering inclusive conversations
• Identifying community needs and priorities
• Building consensus on proposals
• Utilizing participatory platforms

To effectively promote your community engagement plan, it is crucial to follow these steps.

To ensure accessibility for diverse audiences, balance online and offline engagement techniques, address language barriers with translations, and conduct research to understand diverse needs and preferences. The most effective communication methods involve understanding the audience, providing frequent updates, fostering two-way communication, and maintaining a consensus-driven approach.

Expert Tip: Communication can happen everywhere inside your community. Streamline your communications and make sure it's smooth and engaging. You can start with social feeds to foster open discussions, direct messaging, and Slack integration if you use Slack as a communication tool. All of these notable features are part of Disco's subscription plan for only $79 per month, perfect to start a community online.

Step #4: Set the Stage for Future Participation

Setting the stage for future participation is a pivotal step in community engagement planning. It involves presenting a summary and background information to establish credibility within the community and initiate the process of garnering community consensus for the engagement initiative.

Understanding the project context is crucial in this stage. Alongside setting the stage, cultivating an inclusive environment is fundamental to community engagement. It requires recognizing and valuing diversity, ensuring accessibility and inclusivity, promoting equal participation and representation, and building trust and fostering collaboration.

Typical barriers to inclusivity include a lack of trust, awareness, understanding, and time. However, these can be addressed by establishing a reliable relationship with community members, allocating sufficient time and resources, maintaining transparent communication, and actively soliciting feedback.

By setting the stage and fostering an inclusive environment, we can ensure that all community members feel valued and heard, thereby strengthening the overall engagement efforts.

Expert Tip: Organize a town hall meeting to share your progress with your members. Seek their support and involvement. Remember, it's important to create an inclusive environment from the get-go. Listening to their thoughts and opinions is a great starting point.

Lastly, organize your community events by using a community platform such as Disco. It guides you with an end-to-end process--from creating an event, announcing it to your members through Slack and email notification, and attendance tracking to participation report.

Step #5: Monitor and Adapt Your Plan

It is necessary to monitor and adjust your plan to guarantee its effectiveness. This involves tracking engagement, gathering feedback, mitigating potential risks, and reporting outcomes. The analysis of feedback data plays a critical role in identifying prevalent themes and perspectives, influencing an organization’s priorities, and refining future engagement strategies.

Moreover, assessing the efficacy of a community engagement project facilitates the identification of successful practices and insights that can be integrated into upcoming project and consultation activities, thereby ensuring ongoing development and enhancement.

Identifying and mitigating potential risks are also essential measures to consider stakeholder relationships, environmental impacts, and regulatory requirements.

Tracking Engagement and Gathering Feedback

Assessing engagement and collecting feedback are essential in pinpointing areas for enhancement and securing successful outcomes. Effective methods for gathering feedback in online communities include conducting customer feedback surveys, utilizing email and contact forms, and running usability tests.

Primary metrics to consider when assessing online community engagement include demographic diversity, retention rates, session lengths, and client satisfaction rates.

Expert Tip: Avoid tracking engagement manually as it can consume a significant amount of your time, leaving you with less time to focus on more crucial tasks. Opt for a subscription to a community platform that allows you to track member progress and automatically download reports, saving you hundreds of work hours.

Mitigating Potential Risks

Diminishing possible risks is vital for the triumph of your community engagement plan. Understanding specific regulations and guidelines to ensure compliance in the location where community engagement is being conducted is important.

Typical risks associated with community engagement plans include a lack of trust, insufficient time and resources, and unrealistic expectations.

Recommended strategies for mitigating risks in community engagement involve:

• Consistent, authentic, and transparent engagement
• Honest communication
• Active listening to community feedback
• Monitoring risks
• Conducting surveys
• Implementing risk reduction strategies

These mitigation strategies are crucial for foreseeing and preventing potential risks.

Reporting and Communicating Outcomes

Delivering and communicating key messages is critical for building trust with residents and encouraging ongoing participation. Effective reporting strategies include:

• Reiterating project objectives
• Describing the engaged parties
• Summarizing opinions and ideas
• Tailoring messaging to the audience

Data for community engagement outcomes is gathered through various methods including:

• Focus groups
• Observations
• Analysis of social media

Incorporating feedback from community stakeholders by presenting powerful quotes or ideas helps to display the community sentiment, facilitating a better understanding of the findings from community engagement activities.

Expert Tip: In case you find it challenging to arrange a town hall meeting for transparent reporting, an alternative could be compiling a detailed written report based on the data gathered from community engagement activities. There are numerous channels to disseminate this report, including emails, social media posts, social feeds, and in-app notifications . It's advisable to utilize all these avenues to ensure everyone in your community stays updated.

Step #6: Enhance Engagement Through Collaboration and Resources

Cooperation and resources are significant elements in boosting your community engagement. Collaboration fosters trust, promotes and facilitates community participation, and establishes a unified structure for stakeholders to collaborate effectively.

Encouraging and supporting community participation, recognizing and rewarding active members, and consistently enhancing collaborative methods are effective ways to promote active community involvement.

Building Partnerships and Alliances

Establishing partnerships and alliances can considerably broaden your reach and fortify your engagement endeavors. Partnerships cultivate supportive relationships between programs and other community agencies, facilitating diverse representation and full participation, and aligning expectations for effective collaboration.

Incorporating alliances in a community engagement plan can result in economies of scale, increased market share, resource pooling, and risk sharing.

It is advisable to establish partnerships with a variety of organizations, including formal and informal community partnerships, non-equity strategic alliances, networks, coalitions, movements, public-private partnerships, collective impact initiatives, local and regional nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, and businesses and corporations.

Expert Tip: Take a look at Learn Biomimicry's success story of collaboration. By collaborating with Biomimicry Institute, they scaled their online learning community to a thousand members!

Step #7: Leverage Technology and AI

Harnessing the power of technology and AI in executing the community engagement plan offers numerous benefits. It streamlines the process of engagement, making it more efficient and less time-consuming. AI can analyze vast amounts of data to provide insightful feedback, helping to optimize the engagement strategy.

Furthermore, it can automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for community leaders to focus on more strategic initiatives. These technological advancements allow for a more personalized, adaptive, and responsive approach to community engagement, leading to higher satisfaction levels among community members and fostering a more engaged and vibrant community.

This is where Disco’s innovative tools come in handy. Disco offers a suite of exemplary community tools to reach a wider audience and collect varied feedback through online platforms. Specific features offered by Disco include AI-powered automation, co-pilot, and generated images and texts. Learn how you can utilize them here.

A step-by-step guide to build and grow a thriving learning community.

Wrapping Up...

In conclusion, the process of crafting an effective community engagement plan involves seven steps to succeed. With hard work, transparency, and leveraging technology--you can create a successful community engagement plan and increase the engagement of your members!

Going back to defining what is "community engagement", remember to download the free Learning Community Playbook and explore other content such as community flywheel, learning community blueprint, the member growth journey, etc.

Lastly, don't miss our 14-day free trial , a little gift for our first-time users. Enjoy!

Keep reading

The Learning Revolution of 2024: How AI will Fuel the Growth of Transformative Community Learning

Top 5 AI-Powered Community Platforms in 2024: Level Up Your Game in Community Building

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20 Small Town Business Ideas To Meet Your Community’s Needs

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Small towns provide a unique opportunity for business owners. They often offer lower costs, less competition and a tight-knit community that can help spread the word about a new company with minimal marketing efforts.

Of course, every small town is different. Just because a business thrives in one community doesn’t mean it will turn a profit in another.

It’s critical to do your research and understand your target audience before starting any business. With a limited population, you need to ensure your company can generate enough consistent revenue to make your new venture worthwhile.

Here are 20 small town business ideas to get you started.

Small town business ideas to meet your community’s needs

1. coffee shop.

A cozy coffee shop can be a hub of community in a small town, providing a warm atmosphere for people to gather and catch up.

Running a coffee shop requires long hours and hard work. You’ll need to invest in lots of equipment, including high-quality coffee machines, grinders and brewing equipment. You’ll also need well-trained staff who make your customers feel welcomed. A good location that’s easily accessible to morning commuters is also key.

2. Ice cream shop

A classic ice cream shop can bring joy to people of all ages. During the summer, your ice cream shop can become the go-to destination for customers looking to beat the heat.

If you’re located in a cold climate, you can operate the business on a seasonal basis or expand to offer non-frozen items like soup and sandwiches to keep customers coming back all year long.

3. Hardware store

With fewer big-box stores, a hardware store can fill a crucial need for the community. While hardware stores require a significant investment in inventory and infrastructure, you can start small and grow over time.

4. Antique shop

Small towns are often rich in history, and an antique shop can tap into that nostalgia. Antique stores can thrive in downtown areas — especially if your community attracts tourists — and support other small business owners by renting out booth space.

5. Fitness studio

Small towns may not have the same fitness options as big cities, which could help your new business thrive.

If you focus on offering classes like yoga and pilates, you’ll save tons of money on expensive gym equipment. You’ll need to pay for trained instructors, but otherwise, you can control costs.

For example, if you open a yoga studio and charge $10 a class, you can bring in $300 for a single one-hour class with 30 students. Running several classes a day can help make your fitness studio profitable in no time.

6. Local tours

Are you a walking encyclopedia about your town’s history and architecture? If no one is offering tours of notable landmarks or regional attractions to tourists, you could have a corner on the market.

The best part? There’s hardly any overhead or startup costs, save marketing expenses. You can put your knowledge of the area to good use — and spin up a profitable business at the same time.

Love to bake? Starting a bakery might sound like a dream, but with hard work and the right business plan, you can make it a reality. You’ll need to identify where your bakery can fill a need in your small town. For example, you could become the first wedding cake baker in the county who offers delivery.

You can start a bakery business at home and expand to a retail location over time. You’ll need to familiarize yourself with food handling permits and regulations in your state and invest in some industrial-grade baking equipment before you get started.

8. Day care

If you love kids and have experience in education or child care, opening a day care can be a rewarding experience.

Parents in small towns often struggle to find quality child care, and a day care that offers a safe and nurturing environment can be a real lifesaver.

You can offer part-time care after school or a nursery for babies and infants. You can operate the business out of your home, and child care is a service that’s always in demand. Just be aware that you’ll need to get an operating license and state regulations may limit how many children you can watch.

9. Food truck

Food trucks can help fill demand in small towns where dining options are limited. Food trucks are also more cost effective than operating a full brick-and-mortar restaurant.

You can partner with breweries or wineries, and become a staple at local events like farmers markets. You can also make your food truck available for private events, like weddings and birthday parties. News spreads quickly in small towns, so it won’t take long for your food truck company to attract a following.

10. Bed and breakfast

Many small towns are short on lodging options for out-of-town visitors. While opening a hotel or motel requires millions of dollars, a quaint bed and breakfast can fill a need in the local market with fewer startup costs.

That’s not to say operating a bed and breakfast is a walk in the park. You’ll need to manage reservations, clean rooms and invest in basic guest amenities, like fresh linens. You’ll also need to comply with local laws and regulations.

11. Thrift store

Small towns often have limited shopping options, so a well-run thrift store can be a treasure trove for bargain hunters.

You can source your inventory from local donations, yard sales and even online marketplaces to keep costs low.

12. Cleaning service

People are busier than ever and a cleaning service can tap into that market.

You don’t need a degree or a physical storefront to operate this business, which can help you keep overhead costs low. You can offer a range of services, from basic cleaning to deep cleaning, and even organizing services.

Maybe your small town has a lot of older residents. Marketing your business to seniors who have limited mobility could help you build a loyal customer base.

13. Auto repair

Auto repair is always in demand, especially in small towns where people rely on their vehicles to get around. When someone’s car breaks down or starts experiencing issues, they may not be able to drive it all the way to a bigger city to get it serviced. That’s where a small town auto repair shop can shine.

14. Gas station

A gas station can be one of the few essential services that residents and visitors need on a regular basis. As a result, gas stations can generate consistent demand, even in an economic downturn.

Getting started is costly but a gas station can also operate a convenience store or car wash, generating additional revenue.

Some small towns have more gas stations than nearly any other business. But if there’s a lack of competition or a vacant gas station for sale, opening a shop could be a smart move.

15. Lawn service

People need their lawns mowed and many are willing to pay for it. Lawn care services are a great scalable business: You can start small with a few clients, offering basic lawn care services, like mowing, raking leaves and trimming hedges.

Over time, you can grow your business to fit the needs of your small town residents. You might offer pest control, landscaping or tree removal services if there’s a lack of local competition in the area. To stay profitable all year in colder climates, you could include snow removal and shoveling services.

16. Hair salon or barber shop

People need multiple haircuts a year, which is a huge money making opportunity. Hair salons can also serve as a hub for the community, and customers will appreciate having a local stylist who knows their preferences.

Real estate can be cheaper in small towns, so if you’ve always dreamed of opening your own hair studio or barber shop, a rural location could help you save money on rent. As an owner, you could rent space to other stylists too.

With good management and a solid marketing strategy, a hair salon can be a successful small town business.

17. Tow truck service

Towing services are essential, especially in areas where people rely on cars as their primary mode of transportation. In a small town, there may not be many options for towing services, which can supply you with a steady stream of customers.

You can expand your business with other services, such as jump-starting dead batteries, unlocking cars and changing flat tires. Each service you add can boost revenue for your small town business.

Of course, you’ll need some automotive experience and startup money to buy a tow truck (think $75,000 to $150,000). You’ll also need to hire staff who are knowledgeable about the equipment. But with the right people and tools in place, operating a towing service can be a great way to make money.

18. IT and computer services

Are you good with technology? With more people working remotely, providing IT services in people’s homes can make your business a valuable addition to the community.

Alternatively, you could open a small storefront for computer or cell phone repair. When someone’s cell phone or computer stops working, they often turn to the closest repair shop to get it serviced as quickly as possible.

You’ll need to effectively market your business to help get the word out. But once you build your reputation as a tech wizard, it’s only a matter of time before jobs start rolling in.

19. Photography

From weddings to professional headshots to high school graduation photoshoots, a trusted and experienced photographer can make great money in a small town.

If you’re passionate about photography, you likely already have the equipment and editing software you need to get started. Building relationships is key since a bulk of your business will likely come from referrals and word of mouth.

20. Tanning salon

Other than the initial cost of buying a few tanning beds and renting a small location, a tanning salon has very few overhead costs. At $1,500 to $3,000 a piece, you could purchase four tanning beds for less than $12,000, which is much less expensive than opening other types of stores, such as a restaurant or even a hair salon. You can charge customers for a monthly subscription or a one-time fee.

You’ll need to research the demand in your small town first. Women frequent tanning salons more than men, so finding ways to advertise to this demographic is important. You might consider offering a discount or incentive to stylists at hair and nail salons who help send clients your way.

Picking the right small town business idea

Small communities offer a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs, but don’t let that small-town charm blindside you.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when starting a small town business.

• Conduct market research: Identify any gaps in the market that your business can fill. Get a pulse on what the community needs and is willing to pay for by speaking with residents, local business owners and other leaders in town.
• Develop a business plan: A business plan outlines your goals and strategies. It should also include information on your target market, competition, marketing strategy and financial projections. A business plan is also required if you need to secure funding from lenders and investors.
• Understand your competition: Ideally, you want to be the only business in town that offers a particular product or service. If other businesses exist, you need to determine if your idea is truly unique enough to attract the steady customer base needed to ensure long-term growth. People tend to be loyal to what they know, so if you open a new business, you’ll need to gain people’s trust and build your reputation.
• Secure funding: Some businesses are cheaper to launch than others. If your business requires a physical storefront or multiple employees, you’ll likely need funding from outside sources, such as a small business loan . Carefully research how much it will cost to start your business, then identify funding options with low interest rates. A one-stop shop — like Lendio or Nav — can help you sort through your options all in one place.

Customize your website with an easy-to-use site builder that’ll make your brand look professional and polished in no time.

Resources for small town business owners

Starting a small town business can feel intimidating, especially if this is your first company. Connecting with the right resources can make the difference between struggling and thriving in your community.

Your local chamber of commerce

Getting involved with other small business owners is a great way to stay abreast of changes in the community, and it can be a valuable resource for growing your company.

Chambers of commerce can also provide access to mentorship programs, business directories and marketing opportunities.

You can find contact information for your local chamber of commerce online.

SCORE is a volunteer nonprofit organization supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration that connects business owners with mentors from similar fields for free.

The organization provides in-person mentoring at more than 230 local chapters as well as remote mentoring via email, phone and video.

U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration is a federal agency that provides support and resources to small businesses. They offer business counseling, training, education and access to financing.

The SBA also has a network of local offices and resource partners, including Small Business Development Centers, which provide free or low-cost assistance to small businesses.

Networking events

Networking can be a great way to find new clients, develop professional relationships and promote your business.

In a small town, networking events may be more informal, such as a weekly meetup of business owners at the local coffee shop.

But don’t be afraid to network outside your immediate community. Getting perspectives from businesses outside your small town can help you grow.

Make sure to bring business cards and other marketing materials to hand out, and be prepared to talk about your business and what makes it unique.

PRO TIP: You don’t need to be a social butterfly to thrive at networking events. Here’s how to network for introverts .

Rachel Christian is a Certified Educator in Personal Finance and a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. She focuses on retirement, small businesses, investing and taxes.

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17 Business Ideas that Help the Community

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Written by: Esther Strauss

Esther is a business strategist with over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, executive, educator, and management advisor.

Edited by: David Lepeska

David has been writing and learning about business, finance and globalization for a quarter-century, starting with a small New York consulting firm in the 1990s.

Published on July 29, 2022

Just about everybody wants to live in a warm, welcoming close-knit community, and you can help build one by starting a business that helps people live better, more fulfilling lives. Maybe it’s recycling or daycare, a clinic, a tree farm, or a bookstore. 

The location of your business will be crucial — somewhere it will be noticed and make a real impact on the town. Check out our list of strong community-building business ideas to jumpstart your entrepreneurial thinking.

1. Recycling Service

Are you all about going green and saving the environment? Then why not start a recycling business and turn your passion into your livelihood. You could fight climate change, help locals get rid of their waste and make good money all at the same time — now that’s a win-win! 

Getting started won’t be cheap, as you’ll need a vehicle to collect and transport the recyclables and a sizable processing facility, as well the appropriate licenses. But you should see a relatively quick return on that initial investment as the US recycling industry is worth billions and growing fast. You’ll just need to decide which types of recyclables you’ll focus on, such as collecting glass to melt down into jars. 

Before you dive in, you might want to check the recycling rates for your state, as some states are much more profitable when it comes to recycling.

Do you love spending time with young children? If so, a daycare business could be the perfect venture for you. Busy parents often need childcare services while at work, so you would be providing a crucial service while spending your day with toddlers.   

You’ll need to acquire daycare certification, which usually entails a relevant or at least two years caring for children. You’ll also need to find a good-sized space, preferably in a residential area with minimal competition. And you should outfit it with lots of toys, drawing materials, high chairs, cribs, and more, and get yourself some good insurance, because little kids tend to find trouble. 

Once all that’s done, you’ll just need an appealing website and a decent marketing campaign, and you’ll be off and running and helping to build a strong community.

3. Non-medical Home Care

As Baby Boomers age and need more daily assistance, the non-medical home care market is growing fast. If you like helping people in your community, you could start your own home care business and improve people’s lives while also making a good living.

Of course, you’ll need to do a bit of work to get there. First, your state may not require licensing for non-medical home care. Check with your state for details. If you don’t need a license, it’s still a good idea to get a bit of training, even from an online platform like Care Academy.  

Next, your business will definitely need reliable insurance in the event of any incidents, so be sure to get that. Finally, just register your business and start offering your services on home care platforms and services sites like Angie’s List. With a bit of luck, determination, and strong marketing, you’ll be caring for people in no time, and building a strong community and a successful business.

4. Bookstore

Do you love reading? If so, opening your own bookshop could be a great way to encourage reading in your community while making a living doing what you love. Even in the age of Amazon and e-books, independent bookstores have been making a comeback , increasing by more than half in recent years. People have begun to appreciate bookstores not only as a good place to buy a new book, but as a community gathering place and event space. 

You’ll need to find a great location, and build a sizable inventory of books, with your selections based on your personal tastes and preferences. You’ll also need to decide what other products you might offer — literary knickknacks, coffee and snacks, reading accessories? Beyond that, it’s relatively easy to get started. And if you do it right, the customers will surely come, and keep coming back.

5. Farmers’ Market

Every community needs a great farmers’ market to boost local diets and local producers. So why not start your own farmers’ market? It’s a great way to begin your entrepreneurial journey and promote a healthy and nutritious diet. You’ll also be helping local farmers earn bigger profits by giving them a venue to sell their produce directly to consumers and eliminating the middlemen. 

The number of farmers markets has been increasing. As of 2023, there were more than 8,600 farmers markets across the US . Some markets sell only fresh fruits and vegetables while others also carry meat, eggs, baked goods, dairy products, and flowers.

First, it’s important to link up with the local farmers. It’s easy to find them; just ask the US Department of Agriculture for a list of farmers in your area. It’s also important to find a big area. If you plan this carefully, your farmers market can be very rewarding.

Starting a clinic can be a fantastic way to help people in your community, boost your reputation and build a career. It’s a fast growing US industry, driven by an aging population. Even retailers are building walk-in clinics to provide convenience to customers.

The first step in starting your clinic is to choose a niche. Will you focus on urgent care, or primary and preventive care? Is it going to be a mobile clinic? Who is your target market? You will find the answers to these questions as you do your research. Make sure to comply with licensing and insurance requirements. You will also need to be innovative in marketing your services to reach more prospective patients and achieve success.

7. Handyman Business

If you’re good with your hands and enjoy fixing things, starting a handyman business could be a smart move. For one thing, you’ll be doing what you love and taking care of people’s problems. For another, the US handyman industry has been growing steadily for years, and by 2032 the broader home services market is expected to double ! So there’s clearly a real opportunity out there. 

A key first step will be determining which services you will offer. In addition to repairs , you could offer maintenance, painting, cleaning, drywall, carpentry, minor renovations and more. Read about the handyman business opportunities here . Next, buy all the necessary tools and start advertising your services on online platforms like Angie’s List. 

You could also reach out to landlords, developers and residential complexes offering to provide your services at a discount. Once you’ve delivered great work in your first few jobs, you can bump up your rates. With any luck, you’ll soon be helping the whole community live more comfortably.

8. Dollar Store

Think all dollar stores are the same? You might be surprised just how many different types there are. From party supply to variety stores, there’s a dollar store out there for everyone. So, if you’re thinking about starting your own dollar store, what are you waiting for? Dollar and variety stores are on an upward trend . With consumers becoming more price conscious, dollar stores are expected to thrive again now that restrictions have been lifted. 

Starting your own dollar store business can be fun. But how to go about it? You might consider a niche to differentiate your business. You can set up a small convenience store, a do-it-yourself shop or a bookstore. You can start by buying products from other dollar stores and reselling them. An option is to start as an online retailer, and use your website and social media accounts as your storefront.

9. Crowdfunding

The crowdfunding market in the United States is projected to grow by 2.11% (2024-2028) resulting in a market volume of $0.50 billion in 2028.

Get started by developing a website that will enable interaction between those looking to raise funds and those looking to donate. Through this crowdfunding platform, the crowd may make financial pledges to support a startup or help someone in need. Among the more popular crowdfunding platforms are Kickstarter, Patreon, GoFundMe and Indiegogo.

You could review them to inform your site and decide what kind of platform you’ll create. You could set up an equity-based crowdfunding platform and help raise capital for startups while providing investors a financial return. Regulated crowdfunding is also equity-based, but is regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission because it deals with securities.

10. Grocery Delivery

The grocery delivery market worldwide is projected to grow by 12.03% (2024-2029) resulting in a market volume of $1381.00 billion in 2029. With online grocery shopping, consumers no longer have to spend time queuing in supermarkets. They simply browse through a retailer’s website or app, shop and check out, pay for the items online, and have these delivered right to their doorstep. 

If you’re thinking of starting a grocery delivery business, now’s the time to do it. You have at least three options: operate your own delivery service, work with a franchise, or sign up with an established retailer. Consider carefully the pros and cons of each option before deciding on which business model to choose. Assess the competition as well and identify possible clients if you’re going to give it a go on your own. Whatever your decision is, plenty of opportunities await.

11. Tree Farm

Growing trees helps fight climate change. But did you know it’s also a great way to earn money? The $8.1 billion tree and shrub farming industry in the US is already bouncing back from the pandemic. An increase in housing starts and rising demand for food products will drive growth in the next three years. Trees take a long time to grow, so it’s best to start your tree farm business now. 

You can start small and establish a tree farm within your property, or you can go all in and purchase or lease acreage for a larger operation. Among the ways to earn from your tree farm business is to focus on high-value fruit trees. Another is to select trees that produce specialty wood for furniture or fiber for clothing. You can also establish a nursery and sell tree seedlings. By choosing the right trees and promoting your tree farm business, you can make a fortune in farming.

12. Car Repair Shop

At least 70 million US vehicles are more than 15 years old and in need to repairs. This means growth opportunities for car repair shops across the country. If you’re looking to start a car repair shop, now is the time to do it. The US sutomotive service market size is estimated at $188.13 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach $251.52 billion by 2029.

One of the challenges to starting a car repair shop is the high startup cost. You’ll need to invest in some tools and equipment like hydraulic lift, diagnostic machine, air compressor, jack and jack stands, and more. You’ll also need to undergo training in auto service and repair, a prerequisite for a National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification. This certification will give you an advantage and make it easier for you to obtain liability insurance and find financing. With proper training and a lot of hard work, you should be able to give your community better, safer vehicles.

13. Home Building

Starting a home building business is no walk in the park. There are many hurdles to jump, and it takes a lot of time, effort, and resources to make it happen. One of the most important elements for any potential builder is finding the right land for development.

You have some options on that count. You can purchase land that has already been developed or will soon be developed. Or you could buy undeveloped land that is more affordable but may require more work on your part before it’s ready for construction.

The important thing is that, before you start building, you make sure your business has all the required licenses and permits and complies with all regulations. Then you can start giving your community gorgeous homes that boost families and property values.

14. Pharmacy

People everywhere need their meds! Of course, US drug store revenue increased during the pandemic, growing a steady 3% annually since 2017. The industry is expected to grow further and surpass $750 billion in 2032 as the aging US population boosts demand for prescription drugs and other maintenance medications. If you’re a licensed pharmacist, this could be your opportunity to set up your own business and start a pharmacy.

It’s important to find a good location and reliable suppliers of medicines before you get started. It’s also a good idea to scope out the market and see what existing pharmacies are offering so you can devise ways to make your pharmacy stand out. Some pharmacies offer blood pressure tests, vaccinations, and delivery services. Most carry both branded and generic medicines, which are priced lower, is a wise choice. It’s important to keep these and other trends in mind when you create your marketing strategy. With a lot of hard work and a bit of creativity in promoting your business, your pharmacy will soon be up and running.

15. Life Coaching

If you’re good at helping people navigate major changes in their lives, you might consider becoming a life coach. US demand for life coaching is increasing due to pressures of modern life and increased acceptance of coaching services and methods.

A life coach provides counseling services and helps clients explore possibilities in the areas of personal development, financial issues, career path, relationship issues, and more. There is no licensing requirement for life coaching, but it’s to your advantage to obtain certification that will let potential clients know you underwent training.

There are many certifications you can apply for, but the most prestigious is the certification from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Besides undergoing training, it’s also important to have empathy for your clients. With these, your life coaching business can be truly rewarding as you coach your community toward success!

16. Professional Organizing Service

All of us could use a bit of Marie Kondo now and then, which is why the US home organization market has doubled in the past 15 years to $14.2 billion and is still seeing steady growth. If you have a knack for organization, you should know that right now is an excellent time to start your own organizing business. You could work from home for a minimal investment and make good money while helping people go from chaos to calm.

Some professional organizers focus on closets, others on garages and storage spaces, while still others focus on at-home workspaces. Some organizers even go corporate and help businesses organize their desk set-up, filing systems and office supplies. It’s important to establish the services you’ll offer before you begin your marketing efforts. Once you know which type of organizing you’d like to do, you could start offering your services on a platform like Angie’s List and start helping people simplify their lives. Ahhh, I feel less stressed already.

17. Botanical Garden

Starting a botanical garden as a business idea presents not only an opportunity for entrepreneurial success but also offers immense benefits to the community. A well-maintained botanical garden can serve as an educational hub, introducing community members to diverse plant species, their uses, and importance in the ecosystem.

Schools and institutions can collaborate for educational tours, workshops, and hands-on experiences, promoting environmental education among students and adults alike. The garden can also offer training sessions on sustainable gardening practices, plant identification, and the importance of biodiversity, thus fostering a community that is more environmentally conscious.

Moreover, botanical gardens offer a serene escape from urban hustle, providing a space for relaxation, meditation, and connection with nature. Such green spaces are known to improve mental health, reduce stress, and promote physical activity.

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• Recycling Service
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• Farmers' Market
• Handyman Business
• Dollar Store
• Crowdfunding
• Grocery Delivery
• Car Repair Shop
• Home Building
• Life Coaching
• Professional Organizing Service
• Botanical Garden

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How Entrepreneurs Can Use Community Service For Growth Community service can be a great way for entrepreneurs to get involved in their communities and make a difference while also growing their businesses. Here's how.

By Frederik Bussler Edited by Chelsea Brown Aug 24, 2022

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Many companies start as a way to fill a need or resolve a problem and build their success around helping to make people's lives easier. This means that community service is a core value for many leaders, whether they realize it or not. It takes a special type of strength to lead, and this strength can often be found in dedication to larger goals.

The power of community service became apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic forced many businesses to shut their doors, some entrepreneurs found ways to pivot and use their skills to help those in need.

For example, After-School-All-Stars, a national nonprofit that provides free after-school programs, quickly adapted its offerings to provide meals, distance learning, mental health support and more for students and families. Another example is Unilever, the consumer goods giant, who provided soap, sanitizer, bleach, ventilators, food and more to areas in need.

Related: The Power of Giving Back: How Community Involvement Can Boost Your Bottom Line

Smaller businesses, too, chipped in around the world. For instance, global manufacturing company, NJF Worldwide, became one of the leading providers of PPE to the U.S. government during the Covid-19 crisis. Founder Ryan Leonard, who began the firm shortly after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, brought with him the value of "selfless service."

Several other recent events have also shown how important community service can be for entrepreneurs. In the aftermath of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, many business leaders have been vocal about the need for systemic change. And in the wake of the war in Ukraine, the freight company, Meest-America, shifted its business to supporting Ukrainians.

What these examples have in common is that they demonstrate how community service can be used as a tool for growth. When entrepreneurs dedicate themselves to helping others, they open up new opportunities for themselves and their businesses. Acting on core values can help build a loyal community of consumers and create an engaged workforce ready to work towards common goals. It can also help you strengthen your leadership skills and discover new opportunities that can grow your business significantly.

Related: How Growing Businesses Can Prioritize Community Involvement

Building a community around your brand

When it comes to encouraging brand loyalty, creating a community around shared values is essential. In a 2017 survey by Cone Communications, 87% of consumers said they would purchase a product because the company advocated for an issue they cared about. Also, 75% said that they would refuse to purchase a product if they found out that the company advocated for issues contrary to their beliefs.

Whether it's a community in your local area or a community that comes together around a shared issue, service can help you build a brand identity around your values. In the case of NJF Worldwide, Leonard shared in a CEO Weekly article that he makes sure his community can always benefit from his business. He makes sure to share his success, donating to local charities and sponsoring local non-profits.

A commitment to service can help you become a leader, not only in your business but in your community. It can also boost visibility and brand awareness , making your company stand out from the competition through its responsibility and action. It can even help you find partnerships and business opportunities that align with your values.

Related: We Offer Time Off to Volunteer as a Unique Perk -- But It's Also Good for Business

Create a positive workplace culture

While community service is an essential part of connecting with your customers, it can also be a great way to build community inside of your company as well. The Great Resignation has revealed a desire for purpose that many employees have, one that they are willing to sacrifice their income and career opportunities for.

One of the best ways to create a workplace that is engaging and fulfilling for your employees is to focus on your core values. When employees are working for a company that shares their values, they will be more able to see the purpose in their career and work for their shared goals.

While community service may come naturally to many leaders, it's essential to do it with thought and intention. Thinking about community service as a part of your business strategy will allow you to grow your business and be ready with solutions when your community needs you most.

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How to Write a Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide + Examples

Noah Parsons

24 min. read

Updated July 29, 2024

Writing a business plan doesn’t have to be complicated. 

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to write a business plan that’s detailed enough to impress bankers and potential investors, while giving you the tools to start, run, and grow a successful business.

• The basics of business planning

If you’re reading this guide, then you already know why you need a business plan . 

You understand that planning helps you: 

• Raise money
• Grow strategically
• Keep your business on the right track 

As you start to write your plan, it’s useful to zoom out and remember what a business plan is .

At its core, a business plan is an overview of the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy: how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

Most business plans also include financial forecasts for the future. These set sales goals, budget for expenses, and predict profits and cash flow. 

A good business plan is much more than just a document that you write once and forget about. It’s also a guide that helps you outline and achieve your goals. 

After completing your plan, you can use it as a management tool to track your progress toward your goals. Updating and adjusting your forecasts and budgets as you go is one of the most important steps you can take to run a healthier, smarter business. 

We’ll dive into how to use your plan later in this article.

There are many different types of plans , but we’ll go over the most common type here, which includes everything you need for an investor-ready plan. However, if you’re just starting out and are looking for something simpler—I recommend starting with a one-page business plan . It’s faster and easier to create. 

It’s also the perfect place to start if you’re just figuring out your idea, or need a simple strategic plan to use inside your business.

Dig deeper : How to write a one-page business plan

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• What to include in your business plan

Executive summary

The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally just one to two pages. Most people write it last because it’s a summary of the complete business plan.

Ideally, the executive summary can act as a stand-alone document that covers the highlights of your detailed plan. 

In fact, it’s common for investors to ask only for the executive summary when evaluating your business. If they like what they see in the executive summary, they’ll often follow up with a request for a complete plan, a pitch presentation , or more in-depth financial forecasts .

Your executive summary should include:

• A summary of the problem you are solving
• A description of your product or service
• An overview of your target market
• A brief description of your team
• A summary of your financials
• Your funding requirements (if you are raising money)

Dig Deeper: How to write an effective executive summary

Products and services description

This is where you describe exactly what you’re selling, and how it solves a problem for your target market. The best way to organize this part of your plan is to start by describing the problem that exists for your customers. After that, you can describe how you plan to solve that problem with your product or service. 

This is usually called a problem and solution statement .

To truly showcase the value of your products and services, you need to craft a compelling narrative around your offerings. How will your product or service transform your customers’ lives or jobs? A strong narrative will draw in your readers.

This is also the part of the business plan to discuss any competitive advantages you may have, like specific intellectual property or patents that protect your product. If you have any initial sales, contracts, or other evidence that your product or service is likely to sell, include that information as well. It will show that your idea has traction , which can help convince readers that your plan has a high chance of success.

Market analysis

Your target market is a description of the type of people that you plan to sell to. You might even have multiple target markets, depending on your business. 

A market analysis is the part of your plan where you bring together all of the information you know about your target market. Basically, it’s a thorough description of who your customers are and why they need what you’re selling. You’ll also include information about the growth of your market and your industry .

Try to be as specific as possible when you describe your market. 

Include information such as age, income level, and location—these are what’s called “demographics.” If you can, also describe your market’s interests and habits as they relate to your business—these are “psychographics.” 

Related: Target market examples

Essentially, you want to include any knowledge you have about your customers that is relevant to how your product or service is right for them. With a solid target market, it will be easier to create a sales and marketing plan that will reach your customers. That’s because you know who they are, what they like to do, and the best ways to reach them.

Next, provide any additional information you have about your market. 

What is the size of your market ? Is the market growing or shrinking? Ideally, you’ll want to demonstrate that your market is growing over time, and also explain how your business is positioned to take advantage of any expected changes in your industry.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write a market analysis

Competitive analysis

Part of defining your business opportunity is determining what your competitive advantage is. To do this effectively, you need to know as much about your competitors as your target customers. 

Every business has some form of competition. If you don’t think you have competitors, then explore what alternatives there are in the market for your product or service. 

For example: In the early years of cars, their main competition was horses. For social media, the early competition was reading books, watching TV, and talking on the phone.

A good competitive analysis fully lays out the competitive landscape and then explains how your business is different. Maybe your products are better made, or cheaper, or your customer service is superior. Maybe your competitive advantage is your location – a wide variety of factors can ultimately give you an advantage.

Dig Deeper: How to write a competitive analysis for your business plan

Marketing and sales plan

The marketing and sales plan covers how you will position your product or service in the market, the marketing channels and messaging you will use, and your sales tactics. 

The best place to start with a marketing plan is with a positioning statement . 

This explains how your business fits into the overall market, and how you will explain the advantages of your product or service to customers. You’ll use the information from your competitive analysis to help you with your positioning. 

For example: You might position your company as the premium, most expensive but the highest quality option in the market. Or your positioning might focus on being locally owned and that shoppers support the local economy by buying your products.

Once you understand your positioning, you’ll bring this together with the information about your target market to create your marketing strategy . 

This is how you plan to communicate your message to potential customers. Depending on who your customers are and how they purchase products like yours, you might use many different strategies, from social media advertising to creating a podcast. Your marketing plan is all about how your customers discover who you are and why they should consider your products and services. 

While your marketing plan is about reaching your customers—your sales plan will describe the actual sales process once a customer has decided that they’re interested in what you have to offer. 

If your business requires salespeople and a long sales process, describe that in this section. If your customers can “self-serve” and just make purchases quickly on your website, describe that process. 

A good sales plan picks up where your marketing plan leaves off. The marketing plan brings customers in the door and the sales plan is how you close the deal.

Together, these specific plans paint a picture of how you will connect with your target audience, and how you will turn them into paying customers.

Dig deeper: What to include in your sales and marketing plan

Business operations

The operations section describes the necessary requirements for your business to run smoothly. It’s where you talk about how your business works and what day-to-day operations look like. 

Depending on how your business is structured, your operations plan may include elements of the business like:

• Supply chain management
• Manufacturing processes
• Equipment and technology
• Distribution

Some businesses distribute their products and reach their customers through large retailers like Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, and grocery store chains. 

These businesses should review how this part of their business works. The plan should discuss the logistics and costs of getting products onto store shelves and any potential hurdles the business may have to overcome.

If your business is much simpler than this, that’s OK. This section of your business plan can be either extremely short or more detailed, depending on the type of business you are building.

For businesses selling services, such as physical therapy or online software, you can use this section to describe the technology you’ll leverage, what goes into your service, and who you will partner with to deliver your services.

Dig Deeper: Learn how to write the operations chapter of your plan

Key milestones and metrics

Although it’s not required to complete your business plan, mapping out key business milestones and the metrics can be incredibly useful for measuring your success.

Good milestones clearly lay out the parameters of the task and set expectations for their execution. You’ll want to include:

• A description of each task
• The proposed due date
• Who is responsible for each task

If you have a budget, you can include projected costs to hit each milestone. You don’t need extensive project planning in this section—just list key milestones you want to hit and when you plan to hit them. This is your overall business roadmap. 

Possible milestones might be:

• Website launch date
• Store or office opening date
• First significant sales
• Break even date
• Business licenses and approvals

You should also discuss the key numbers you will track to determine your success. Some common metrics worth tracking include:

• Conversion rates
• Customer acquisition costs
• Profit per customer
• Repeat purchases

It’s perfectly fine to start with just a few metrics and grow the number you are tracking over time. You also may find that some metrics simply aren’t relevant to your business and can narrow down what you’re tracking.

Dig Deeper: How to use milestones in your business plan

Organization and management team

Investors don’t just look for great ideas—they want to find great teams. Use this chapter to describe your current team and who you need to hire . You should also provide a quick overview of your location and history if you’re already up and running.

Briefly highlight the relevant experiences of each key team member in the company. It’s important to make the case for why yours is the right team to turn an idea into a reality. 

Do they have the right industry experience and background? Have members of the team had entrepreneurial successes before? 

If you still need to hire key team members, that’s OK. Just note those gaps in this section.

Your company overview should also include a summary of your company’s current business structure . The most common business structures include:

• Sole proprietor
• Partnership

Be sure to provide an overview of how the business is owned as well. Does each business partner own an equal portion of the business? How is ownership divided? 

Potential lenders and investors will want to know the structure of the business before they will consider a loan or investment.

Dig Deeper: How to write about your company structure and team

Financial plan

Last, but certainly not least, is your financial plan chapter. 

Entrepreneurs often find this section the most daunting. But, business financials for most startups are less complicated than you think, and a business degree is certainly not required to build a solid financial forecast. 

A typical financial forecast in a business plan includes the following:

• Sales forecast : An estimate of the sales expected over a given period. You’ll break down your forecast into the key revenue streams that you expect to have.
• Expense budget : Your planned spending such as personnel costs , marketing expenses, and taxes.
• Profit & Loss : Brings together your sales and expenses and helps you calculate planned profits.
• Cash Flow : Shows how cash moves into and out of your business. It can predict how much cash you’ll have on hand at any given point in the future.
• Balance Sheet : A list of the assets, liabilities, and equity in your company. In short, it provides an overview of the financial health of your business. 

A strong business plan will include a description of assumptions about the future, and potential risks that could impact the financial plan. Including those will be especially important if you’re writing a business plan to pursue a loan or other investment.

Dig Deeper: How to create financial forecasts and budgets

This is the place for additional data, charts, or other information that supports your plan.

Including an appendix can significantly enhance the credibility of your plan by showing readers that you’ve thoroughly considered the details of your business idea, and are backing your ideas up with solid data.

Just remember that the information in the appendix is meant to be supplementary. Your business plan should stand on its own, even if the reader skips this section.

Dig Deeper : What to include in your business plan appendix

Optional: Business plan cover page

Adding a business plan cover page can make your plan, and by extension your business, seem more professional in the eyes of potential investors, lenders, and partners. It serves as the introduction to your document and provides necessary contact information for stakeholders to reference.

Your cover page should be simple and include:

• Company logo
• Business name
• Value proposition (optional)
• Business plan title
• Completion and/or update date
• Address and contact information
• Confidentiality statement

Just remember, the cover page is optional. If you decide to include it, keep it very simple and only spend a short amount of time putting it together.

Dig Deeper: How to create a business plan cover page

How to use AI to help write your business plan

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can speed up the business plan writing process and help you think through concepts like market segmentation and competition. These tools are especially useful for taking ideas that you provide and converting them into polished text for your business plan.

The best way to use AI for your business plan is to leverage it as a collaborator , not a replacement for human creative thinking and ingenuity. 

AI can come up with lots of ideas and act as a brainstorming partner. It’s up to you to filter through those ideas and figure out which ones are realistic enough to resonate with your customers. 

There are pros and cons of using AI to help with your business plan . So, spend some time understanding how it can be most helpful before just outsourcing the job to AI.

Learn more: 10 AI prompts you need to write a business plan

• Writing tips and strategies

To help streamline the business plan writing process, here are a few tips and key questions to answer to make sure you get the most out of your plan and avoid common mistakes .  

Determine why you are writing a business plan

Knowing why you are writing a business plan will determine your approach to your planning project. 

For example: If you are writing a business plan for yourself, or just to use inside your own business , you can probably skip the section about your team and organizational structure. 

If you’re raising money, you’ll want to spend more time explaining why you’re looking to raise the funds and exactly how you will use them.

Regardless of how you intend to use your business plan , think about why you are writing and what you’re trying to get out of the process before you begin.

Keep things concise

Probably the most important tip is to keep your business plan short and simple. There are no prizes for long business plans . The longer your plan is, the less likely people are to read it. 

So focus on trimming things down to the essentials your readers need to know. Skip the extended, wordy descriptions and instead focus on creating a plan that is easy to read —using bullets and short sentences whenever possible.

Have someone review your business plan

Writing a business plan in a vacuum is never a good idea. Sometimes it’s helpful to zoom out and check if your plan makes sense to someone else. You also want to make sure that it’s easy to read and understand.

Don’t wait until your plan is “done” to get a second look. Start sharing your plan early, and find out from readers what questions your plan leaves unanswered. This early review cycle will help you spot shortcomings in your plan and address them quickly, rather than finding out about them right before you present your plan to a lender or investor.

If you need a more detailed review, you may want to explore hiring a professional plan writer to thoroughly examine it.

Use a free business plan template and business plan examples to get started

Knowing what information to include in a business plan is sometimes not quite enough. If you’re struggling to get started or need additional guidance, it may be worth using a business plan template. 

There are plenty of great options available (we’ve rounded up our 8 favorites to streamline your search).

But, if you’re looking for a free downloadable business plan template , you can get one right now; download the template used by more than 1 million businesses. 

Or, if you just want to see what a completed business plan looks like, check out our library of over 550 free business plan examples . 

We even have a growing list of industry business planning guides with tips for what to focus on depending on your business type.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

It’s easy to make mistakes when you’re writing your business plan. Some entrepreneurs get sucked into the writing and research process, and don’t focus enough on actually getting their business started. 

Here are a few common mistakes and how to avoid them:

Not talking to your customers : This is one of the most common mistakes. It’s easy to assume that your product or service is something that people want. Before you invest too much in your business and too much in the planning process, make sure you talk to your prospective customers and have a good understanding of their needs.

• Overly optimistic sales and profit forecasts: By nature, entrepreneurs are optimistic about the future. But it’s good to temper that optimism a little when you’re planning, and make sure your forecasts are grounded in reality. 
• Spending too much time planning: Yes, planning is crucial. But you also need to get out and talk to customers, build prototypes of your product and figure out if there’s a market for your idea. Make sure to balance planning with building.
• Not revising the plan: Planning is useful, but nothing ever goes exactly as planned. As you learn more about what’s working and what’s not—revise your plan, your budgets, and your revenue forecast. Doing so will provide a more realistic picture of where your business is going, and what your financial needs will be moving forward.
• Not using the plan to manage your business: A good business plan is a management tool. Don’t just write it and put it on the shelf to collect dust – use it to track your progress and help you reach your goals.
• Presenting your business plan

The planning process forces you to think through every aspect of your business and answer questions that you may not have thought of. That’s the real benefit of writing a business plan – the knowledge you gain about your business that you may not have been able to discover otherwise.

With all of this knowledge, you’re well prepared to convert your business plan into a pitch presentation to present your ideas. 

A pitch presentation is a summary of your plan, just hitting the highlights and key points. It’s the best way to present your business plan to investors and team members.

Dig Deeper: Learn what key slides should be included in your pitch deck

Use your business plan to manage your business

One of the biggest benefits of planning is that it gives you a tool to manage your business better. With a revenue forecast, expense budget, and projected cash flow, you know your targets and where you are headed.

And yet, nothing ever goes exactly as planned – it’s the nature of business.

That’s where using your plan as a management tool comes in. The key to leveraging it for your business is to review it periodically and compare your forecasts and projections to your actual results.

Start by setting up a regular time to review the plan – a monthly review is a good starting point. During this review, answer questions like:

• Did you meet your sales goals?
• Is spending following your budget?
• Has anything gone differently than what you expected?

Now that you see whether you’re meeting your goals or are off track, you can make adjustments and set new targets. 

Maybe you’re exceeding your sales goals and should set new, more aggressive goals. In that case, maybe you should also explore more spending or hiring more employees. 

Or maybe expenses are rising faster than you projected. If that’s the case, you would need to look at where you can cut costs.

A plan, and a method for comparing your plan to your actual results , is the tool you need to steer your business toward success.

Learn More: How to run a regular plan review

How to write a business plan FAQ

What is a business plan?

A document that describes your business , the products and services you sell, and the customers that you sell to. It explains your business strategy, how you’re going to build and grow your business, what your marketing strategy is, and who your competitors are.

What are the benefits of a business plan?

A business plan helps you understand where you want to go with your business and what it will take to get there. It reduces your overall risk, helps you uncover your business’s potential, attracts investors, and identifies areas for growth.

Having a business plan ultimately makes you more confident as a business owner and more likely to succeed for a longer period of time.

What are the 7 steps of a business plan?

The seven steps to writing a business plan include:

• Write a brief executive summary
• Describe your products and services.
• Conduct market research and compile data into a cohesive market analysis.
• Describe your marketing and sales strategy.
• Outline your organizational structure and management team.
• Develop financial projections for sales, revenue, and cash flow.
• Add any additional documents to your appendix.

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

There are plenty of mistakes that can be made when writing a business plan. However, these are the 5 most common that you should do your best to avoid:

• 1. Not taking the planning process seriously.
• Having unrealistic financial projections or incomplete financial information.
• Inconsistent information or simple mistakes.
• Failing to establish a sound business model.
• Not having a defined purpose for your business plan.

What questions should be answered in a business plan?

Writing a business plan is all about asking yourself questions about your business and being able to answer them through the planning process. You’ll likely be asking dozens and dozens of questions for each section of your plan.

However, these are the key questions you should ask and answer with your business plan:

• How will your business make money?
• Is there a need for your product or service?
• Who are your customers?
• How are you different from the competition?
• How will you reach your customers?
• How will you measure success?

How long should a business plan be?

The length of your business plan fully depends on what you intend to do with it. From the SBA and traditional lender point of view, a business plan needs to be whatever length necessary to fully explain your business. This means that you prove the viability of your business, show that you understand the market, and have a detailed strategy in place.

If you intend to use your business plan for internal management purposes, you don’t necessarily need a full 25-50 page business plan. Instead, you can start with a one-page plan to get all of the necessary information in place.

What are the different types of business plans?

While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering.

Traditional business plan: The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used when applying for funding or pitching to investors. This type of business plan follows the outline above and can be anywhere from 10-50 pages depending on the amount of detail included, the complexity of your business, and what you include in your appendix.

Business model canvas: The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.

One-page business plan: This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business. You’ll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences. It’s most useful for those exploring ideas, needing to validate their business model, or who need an internal plan to help them run and manage their business.

Lean Plan: The Lean Plan is less of a specific document type and more of a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, test, review, refine, and take action based on performance. It’s faster, keeps your plan concise, and ensures that your plan is always up-to-date.

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

A business plan covers the “who” and “what” of your business. It explains what your business is doing right now and how it functions. The strategic plan explores long-term goals and explains “how” the business will get there. It encourages you to look more intently toward the future and how you will achieve your vision.

However, when approached correctly, your business plan can actually function as a strategic plan as well. If kept lean, you can define your business, outline strategic steps, and track ongoing operations all with a single plan.

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

Table of Contents

• Use AI to help write your plan
• Common planning mistakes
• Manage with your business plan

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• Business Continuity Plan FAQs

The Bottom Line

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), and how does it work.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? 

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster.

Key Takeaways

• Business continuity plans (BCPs) are prevention and recovery systems for potential threats, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
• BCP is designed to protect personnel and assets and make sure they can function quickly when disaster strikes.
• BCPs should be tested to ensure there are no weaknesses, which can be identified and corrected.

Understanding Business Continuity Plans (BCPs)

BCP involves defining any and all risks that can affect the company's operations, making it an important part of the organization's risk management strategy. Risks may include natural disasters (fire, flood, weather-related events, or pandemics), acts of terrorism, or  cyber-attacks . Once the risks are identified, the plan should also include:

• Determining how those risks will affect operations
• Implementing safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks
• Testing procedures to ensure they work
• Reviewing the process to make sure that it is up to date

BCPs are an important part of any business. Threats, disruptions, or halts to the business activity for any period of time, mean not only losses and higher costs but also difficulty to start back again, which leads to a drop in profitability, financial loss, and potential bankruptcy and liquidations. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs or the customers who move to the competition. It is generally conceived in advance and involves input from key stakeholders and personnel.

Business impact analysis, recovery, organization, and training are all steps corporations need to follow when creating a Business Continuity Plan.

Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic. Business continuity planning is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of major disasters such as fires. BCPs are different from a disaster recovery plan, which focuses on the recovery of a company's information technology system after a crisis.

Consider a finance company based in a major city. It may put a BCP in place by taking steps including backing up its computer and client files offsite. If something were to happen to the company's corporate office, its satellite offices would still have access to important information.

An important point to note is that BCP may not be as effective if a large portion of the population is affected, as in the case of a disease outbreak. Nonetheless, BCPs can improve risk management—preventing disruptions from spreading. They can also help mitigate downtime of networks or technology, saving the company money.

How To Create a Business Continuity Plan

There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid BCP. They include:

• Business Impact Analysis : Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time-sensitive. (More on this below.)
• Recovery : In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.
• Organization : A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.
• Training : The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.

Companies may also find it useful to come up with a checklist that includes key details such as emergency contact information, a list of resources the continuity team may need, where backup data and other required information are housed or stored, and other important personnel.

Along with testing the continuity team, the company should also test the BCP itself. It should be tested several times to ensure it can be applied to many different risk scenarios . This will help identify any weaknesses in the plan which can then be corrected.

In order for a business continuity plan to be successful, all employees—even those who aren't on the continuity team—must be aware of the plan.

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis. It identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis. The worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers who are well acquainted with the business. These worksheets will summarize the following:

• The impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and process
• Identifying when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts

Completing the analysis can help companies identify and prioritize the processes that have the most impact on the business's financial and operational functions. The point at which they must be recovered is generally known as the “recovery time objective.”

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

BCPs and disaster recovery plans are similar in nature; the latter focuses on technology and information technology (IT) infrastructure. BCPs are more encompassing—focusing on the entire organization, such as customer service and supply chain. 

BCPs focus on reducing overall costs or losses, while disaster recovery plans look only at technology downtimes and related costs. Disaster recovery plans tend to involve only IT personnel—which create and manage the policy. However, BCPs tend to have more personnel trained on the potential processes. 

Why Is Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic and business continuity plans (BCPs) are an important part of any business. BCP is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of threats and disruptions. This could result in a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition.

What Should a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Include?

Business continuity plans involve identifying any and all risks that can affect the company's operations. The plan should also determine how those risks will affect operations and implement safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks. There should also be testing procedures to ensure these safeguards and procedures work. Finally, there should be a review process to make sure that the plan is up to date.

What Is Business Continuity Impact Analysis?

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis which identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis.

These worksheets summarize the impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and processes. They also identify when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts.

Business continuity plans (BCPs) are created to help speed up the recovery of an organization filling a threat or disaster. The plan puts in place mechanisms and functions to allow personnel and assets to minimize company downtime. BCPs cover all organizational risks should a disaster happen, such as flood or fire.  

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages A1-C1.

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Richland Source

North Central Ohio's Independent Local News

Passing the torch: How to maximize your business succession plan

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This story is part of an ongoing series exploring north central Ohio's workforce trends and how different organizations, including businesses and schools, are adapting to current challenges. Thanks to our presenting sponsor, Gorman-Rupp Company for its ongoing support of trusted independent local journalism.

MANSFIELD — Jake Penwell spent more time at the funeral home than the average teenager.

The Shelby native was just 14 years old when he got a part-time job at Turner Funeral Home. After school, his parents would drop him off or his employers would pick him up.

By the time he could drive himself to work, Penwell knew he’d be taking over one day.

“The Turners were always very forthcoming,” he said. “They wanted me to own the funeral home.”

Penwell continued working for the Bob and Catherine Turner, learning every aspect of the business. He went to college, obtained his funeral director’s and embalmer’s license in 2013 and bought the funeral home five years later.

This month, the business officially took on a new name — Penwell Funeral Home.

To this day, Penwell calls himself the product of a good succession plan.

“They just took me under their wing. They taught me everything,” Penwell said. “They wanted me to be successful as much as I wanted to be successful.”

Good succession planning ensures a business owner can comfortably retire and the enterprise can continue operating under new leadership.

Barrett Thomas, director of economic development for the Richland Area Chamber, recommended business owners start thinking about succession at least five to 10 years before they aim to retire.

Waiting until the last minute may mean accepting a less-than-stellar offer or having no time to groom a successor.

Sam Van Cura of Total Performance said he’s seen several local business close for that reason.

“Good will is a big part of selling a company and good will has to do with name recognition,” he said.

“It’s worth a lot of money when you sell a business, but it’s worth nothing if you don’t have a succession planned. I just feel sorry for people that work their whole lives, build up a business and don’t get to sell it.”

A strong succession plan benefits other employees and gives entrepreneurs the chance to get the highest return on the investment.

But the impact also ripples beyond the people earning a paycheck.

Want to learn more?

The Richland Area Chamber is hosting a BOSS (Business Owners Sharing Solutions) session on succession planning on September 25 from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. Speakers will include Mark Dorman of Succession Plus, Scott King of The Gorman-Rupp Company, Kristine Lindeman of Alumni Roofing Co. and Jake Penwell of Penwell Funeral Home. The event will be moderated by Carl Fernyak of Richland Source and Carrousel Properties. For information and tickets, click here .

Strong succession strengthens communities

When small businesses continue to operate for generations, it benefits not just customers, but employees and communities at-large.

“We’ve seen the results of businesses that leave the community,” said Jessica Gribben, an economic development manager at the Richland Area Chamber.

“Either the (owner) retires, has no plan and the business ceases to exist, or ownership transfers outside of the community.”

While a business may survive financially with a non-local owner, the benefits small businesses bring to a community often diminish.

“Things tend to just leave the community — that wealth, decision-making, philanthropy, jobs — all those things,” Gribben said.

Planning ahead can help prepare small businesses for a smooth transition between owners, but Gribben and other experts say it’s easy for entrepreneurs to put succession planning on the back burner or ignore it entirely.

“They don’t want to think about life after they’re out of their business. Maybe they don’t think their business can run without them or they’re so invested, it’s part of them. So it’s just a really hard topic,” Gribben said.

For others, it’s simply a challenge of finding the time.

“It’s not easy. It takes a lot of resources to do it well,” Thomas said.

“You need your accountant, your lawyer and your financial planner all together to work on this thing, and that is expensive to get time from all of those people. When it’s not the primary thing you’re trying to get done, it’s tough to dedicate that much time to it.”

Nevertheless, business owners and experts repeatedly told Richland Source that planning ahead is worth the time investment.

“A lot of businesses are sold at the end with no plan and and maybe out of just complete exhaustion, maybe frustration,” Penwell said.

“Businesses can always be sold. But I think successful business transactions happen because there’s a plan ahead of time.”

We asked several area business owners for advice on how they navigated this transition.

If you’re selling your business to an employee, hand over responsibilities gradually

Jay Miller has worked for DRM Productions for 18 years, working his way up from software engineer to CEO.

An eighth-generation entrepreneur, Miller realized by his mid-20s that he wanted to be his own boss. It was something he discussed early on with DRM founders Bob Jones and Dave Damron.

“When I came on board here at DRM, Dave and Bob were kind of towards the end of their careers,” Miller said.

The trio ultimately decided to map out the company’s succession plan years in advance — Jones would retire first, followed by Damron five years later.

“I couldn’t afford to pay (Miller and his business partner, Jonathon Pierce) what they were probably worth at the time,” Damron recalled.

“So I said, over five years, you can have one quarter of the business, and then after that, they could buy out (the rest) from Bob and I over time. We did it slowly, and so they knew the business.”

According to plan, Miller and Pierce took over DRM Productions in 2019 — each with a decade of experience at the company under their belt.

Put other companies leaders in the forefront

Chaz and Austin Schroeder have been the co-owners of Black River Group for just under two years.

But the brothers and third-generation business owners were primed to take over long before their father and his business partner retired.

“Probably nine to 10 years before we actually took full control and bought them out, we were basically stepping in and assuming the majority of their role overseeing and running the entire company,” Schroeder said.

Giving future successors more responsibility leads to a smoother transition within the company and for customers. It also reduces stress for the business owner.

“If you start planning and putting people in place to take over for you, then you get to go on vacation, you get to have more time outside of that office,” Thomas said.

“You also get the benefit of knowing if you get hit by a beer truck, then there’s someone to take over.”

Prepare on more than just a business level

Conversations around succession often focus on keeping the business running. Dorman said sellers should also be thinking about what the sale means for their own lives, both financially and personally.

“It can be very, very emotional. You’re detached from your professional community, all your contacts, your networks, your relationships — particularly for men,” he said.

“Oftentimes, their whole identity and sense of self is wrapped up in their business and next thing you know, nobody needs them anymore.”

If you can’t fathom retirement, consider scaling back instead

One major obstacle to succession planning is that a business owner genuinely enjoys their work and doesn’t want to give it up completely.

Thomas suggested that business owners who feel this way find a middle ground. It’s possible to stay involved without staying in charge.

Bob and Catherine Turner continued to work at the funeral home for more than a year after they sold it to Penwell. Damron still helps out at DRM Productions with big projects.

“Rick Taylor of Jay Industries is doing the same thing,” Thomas said. “He’s not the CEO of Jay Industries anymore. That’s Paul Boggs.”

“I asked Paul, ‘What’s Rick doing? And he said, ‘Whatever Rick wants … he’s still involved, still knows all the things and gets to go do the parts that make him happy.'”

Other quick tips

• Don’t assume a potential successor wants the job. If you think they’d be a good fit, start a conversation about their goals.
• Don’t assume you know what your business is worth. “I’ve seen a lot of business owners who thinks their business is worth $5 million and then they get a business valuation and it’s $2.1 million,” Thomas said.
• Don’t string a successor along. If you tell someone you want to sell them your business, give them a relative timeframe and do your best to stick to it.

Thanks to Gorman-Rupp Company , Spherion , North Central State College , Ashland County Community Foundation and The Ohio State University Mansfield for their generous support of trusted independent local journalism.

Katie Ellington Serrao Staff Reporter

Staff reporter at Richland Source since 2019. I focus on education, housing and features. Clear Fork alumna. Always looking for a chance to practice my Spanish. Got a tip? Email me at [email protected]. More by Katie Ellington Serrao

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Most community college students plan to get 4-year degrees. Few actually do

Dylan Peers McCoy

[WFYI] Community college transfer numbers 

Ever since he was a kid, Tyre’k Swanigan dreamed of going to Indiana University. But after he graduated from high school, he decided to start at community college. He figured he could keep his full-time job and transfer to IU later to earn his bachelor’s degree.

At first, Swanigan, now 23, did well. Then, he said he heard from an IU recruiter that some of his community college credits might not count toward his degree.

College is hard enough — try doing it while raising kids

“I was like, why am I wasting my time at a two-year community college when I know that I need at least a bachelor’s to do anything that I want to do?” said Swanigan, who wants to work in a leadership role at a school.

Swanigan eventually withdrew from the community college. And he’s not alone.

Community college is often touted as an affordable start for students who want to earn bachelor’s degrees. Yet only 13% of community college students actually go on to earn degrees from four-year institutions within eight years, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education in 2023. Indiana has one of the lowest community college transfer success rates in the nation.

“It's ridiculous,” said Swanigan, who attended Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis. “It pisses me off honestly, because I was at Ivy Tech, right? And this is me. Like, this number — I’m a part of that.”

With their open enrollment policies and low tuition, community colleges offer crucial access to higher education. They educate 41% of all U.S. undergraduates, according to the Community College Research Center . And when those students enroll, 83% plan to transfer to four-year schools, according to the Center for Community College Student Engagement.

But that transfer process can be fraught with challenges, including structural barriers that force students to spend time and money taking extra classes.

“Most students leave empty-handed,” said Huriya Jabbar, a professor of education policy at the University of Southern California. “There are bureaucratic hurdles. There are really opaque transfer policies. There's not enough information about … which courses will transfer.”

How the deck is stacked against transfer students

Jabbar co-wrote a book, which will be published in September, about community college transfer students . Her research focused on Texas, where policies vary by institution and major.

“When a student enters community college, they need to know not just what major — area of study — but which university they plan to transfer to,” Jabbar said, “because what they do at the community college to transfer will vary.”

The new kids on campus? Toddlers, courtesy of Head Start

College advisers are supposed to help students prepare to transfer, making sure they have the right credits for the degree they’re pursuing, and facilitating a smooth transition to a four-year school. But in Texas, Jabbar found that these advisers had large caseloads, which limited their ability to help students. Advisers also struggled to keep up with changes in degree requirements at different institutions, Jabbar said. Sometimes they gave students information that was outdated or wrong.

According to Jabbar, one common problem transfer students face is being forced to take extra classes. That happens when four-year schools don’t give students credit for all the classes they took in community college, or the courses are counted as electives instead of major requirements.

When students lose credits, it’s time-consuming and expensive, said Lorenzo Baber, director of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Office of Community College Research and Leadership.

“That's money,” he said. “That's a couple thousand dollars, which matters.”

Two-thirds of community college students take classes part time . And they often juggle jobs, caregiving and other obligations that can disrupt their education.

Because of that, Baber said, improving transfer success is not just up to higher education institutions. It requires investments in social supports ranging from child care to broadband access to health care. Someone might be forced to leave school, for example, to provide for a sick family member who has limited health care access.

“You could have the best designed programs,” Baber said, “but that gets rendered meaningless if somebody needs to stop out because they need to take a job to pay the bills of their household.”

A transfer policy that could help

Research suggests statewide policies to make transferring easier can help students earn bachelor's degrees and avoid taking unnecessary classes .

In Indiana, where Tyre’k Swanigan lives, community colleges and universities are trying to improve.

Changing Face Of College

In 'never too late,' finally, a guide for adults going to college.

About a decade ago, Indiana lawmakers required public colleges and universities to create transfer pathways for students who complete associate degrees. If an Indiana student earns an associate degree in nursing, for example, they can transfer to a public, four-year university without losing credits, said Mary Jane Michalak, a vice president at Ivy Tech Community College, where Swanigan started.

"Whenever possible we direct students into those pathways,” Michalak said, “because by state law then those credits are supposed to transfer seamlessly as long as it's within the same program."

Other states have created similar transfer policies. In 2010, California created a special associate degree that’s supposed to make it easier for students to transfer. In 2021-22, almost half of the community college students who transferred to four-year colleges in California had those diplomas .

Some Indiana universities and community colleges have partnered up to help make transferring easier for students, an approach that institutions in other states have used . This year, Ivy Tech announced a new dual admission agreement with Indiana University Indianapolis .

But Indiana doesn’t yet know if the state’s efforts to improve transfer success are working. That’s because the federal data published in 2023 — which found that only about 7% of Indiana community college students earn four-year degrees — follows students for eight years. The people it tracked started back in 2014, the year before the state's new transfer pathways kicked in.

Tyre’k Swanigan started college in 2019, and even with the state changes, it hasn’t been easy.

Swanigan almost went back to school this summer. But tuition was expensive. He started a new job. And he was pulling himself out of a difficult relationship.

“The longer I wait and life happens and issues come up,” Swanigan said, “the harder it is to get back into school.”

Five years after Swanigan started college, he’s still determined to earn his bachelor’s degree — eventually.

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Harris to unveil new wave of economic policies for small businesses, communities, in economic speech Wednesday

By Kayla Tausche and Tami Luhby, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to propose a handful of new benefits to entrepreneurs and small business owners to spur the creation of millions of new businesses, as part of a second wave of economic proposals set to be unveiled Wednesday.

In an economic speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Harris plans to call for expanding a tax deduction for costs associated with starting a business and removing regulatory hurdles – like filing requirements and operational licenses – for businesses of a certain size, according to a Harris campaign official. It’s an attempt by the Harris campaign to appeal to a critical middle-class constituency that could help boost her chances in November.

“This is one of my singular priorities, is to invest and grow our small business,” Harris told a small business owner in Savannah, Georgia, last week, alluding to the forthcoming tax credit she’d propose.

Small businesses are currently granted a $5,000 deduction for expenses related to their first year of operation, according to the Congressional Research Service. Harris will propose raising that to $50,000, the official said, citing the average business’ outlays of $40,000 to get off the ground.

Harris is also aiming to surpass the 19 million new businesses under the Biden administration with a new goal of 25 million.

After releasing a first wave of more populist policies to increase government involvement in retail pricing and the housing market, Harris is crafting a pro-business, low-regulation platform aimed at taking the air out of Republican broadsides.

And, advisers say Harris is expected to borrow another page from a playbook that’s traditionally been used by conservatives: Branding herself as fiscally disciplined.

Harris is expected to argue on the campaign trail that the revenue gained by rolling back certain provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of former President Donald Trump’s signature achievements in his first term, should be used to fund community-level investments and other programs that affect Americans in a more targeted way. One close adviser told CNN that Harris believes the federal government should “use those expiring tax cuts to get at issues that affect the bottom line for the average American.”

Small business growth is at the top of a list that,  as CNN has previously reported , also includes investing in underserved communities and assisting working families.

Community-based lending

Harris also plans to propose a new fund of undisclosed size to allow the country’s smallest banks to cover interest costs on loans to new business. As a senator and as vice president, Harris has worked to provide funding to these banks to invest in startups outside major cities. In particular, Harris promoted legislation that provided capital to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs),  which are dedicated  to serving low-income people and communities that are missed by traditional lenders. While many small businesses struggled during the Covid-19 pandemic, those owned by people of color  were hit hardest.

On Wednesday, Harris will call for more funding for those banks.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, who has worked with Harris to increase access to this capital across the country, said CDFIs are critical because they have been able to step in to lend to new businesses with no financial history.

“Some new businesses go to seven different banks to try to get a loan, but they can’t get one because they don’t have a three-year track record,” Adeyemo told CNN in an interview.

Interest rates – which have risen for all businesses in recent years – are far higher for smaller companies, too, often making it cost-prohibitive for them to borrow even if they can get a loan.

“Ultimately the cost of capital is going to be something that matters a lot,” Adeyemo said.

Harris’ prior economic proposals

The small business measures come three weeks after Harris released a four-part package aimed at making housing, groceries, child rearing and health care more affordable. Many of the proposals build upon efforts the Biden administration has already unveiled.

To make purchasing a home more affordable, Harris would provide up to $25,000 in down-payment support and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. She also wants to create a tax incentive for builders who build starter homes sold to first-time buyers and to expand an existing tax incentive for building affordable rental housing. Plus, she would ban algorithm-driven price-setting tools for landlords to set rents.

Harris is also proposing a  federal ban on price gouging  in an effort to lower grocery prices, though her campaign has released few details about the measure.

In addition, Harris wants to restore the American Rescue Plan’s popular  expansion of the child tax credit  to as much as $3,600, up from $2,000, and is calling for it to be made permanent. The enhancement was  only in effect  in 2021. Harris would also add a new child tax credit of up to $6,000 for middle-class and lower-income families with children in their first year of life.

The vice president also wants to expand the current  $35 monthly cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin  and the upcoming $2,000 annual limit on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs generally to all Americans, not just Medicare enrollees. Plus, she would extend the  more generous Affordable Care Act premium subsidies  that are set to expire at the end of 2025 and accelerate the speed of Medicare’s drug price negotiations.

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Why A Thoughtful Business Plan Is Essential For Success

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Starting a business is an exciting journey, full of opportunities and challenges. For women entrepreneurs, particularly those transitioning from corporate life to entrepreneurship, the path can feel daunting. But with the right roadmap (a well-thought-out business plan), you can navigate the uncertainties and set your business up for success.

A business plan is more than just a document; it's your blueprint for building and growing your business. It outlines your goals, strategies, and the steps you need to take to achieve them. A strong business plan not only guides your decisions but also communicates your vision to potential investors, partners, and employees.

Here’s why a business plan is crucial and how you can create one that will steer your business toward success.

The Importance of a Well-Thought-Out Business Plan

1. clarifies your vision and objectives.

As you build out your business plan it forces you to think deeply about your business idea and if it’s a viable idea. What exactly are you trying to achieve? What are your short-term and long-term goals? By putting these thoughts on paper, you create a clear vision that will guide every decision you make.

2. Helps You Understand Your Market

Researching and writing a business plan requires you to analyze your market. Who are your competitors? Who is your target audience? What are the market trends? This understanding helps you position your business strategically and identify opportunities for growth.

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Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, 3. defines your strategy.

A business plan includes your marketing strategy, sales approach, and operational plan and outlines how you will achieve objectives. This strategic framework ensures that your efforts are aligned and focused on achieving your goals.

4. Secures Funding

If you need financial support to start or grow your business, a well-prepared business plan is essential. Investors and lenders want to see a clear plan for how you will generate revenue and repay any loans. A business plan that demonstrates a thorough understanding of your industry and a solid strategy is more likely to attract funding.

5. Guides Your Decision-Making

A business plan serves as a reference point, helping you make informed decisions that align with your long-term goals. By consistently referring to your business plan, you ensure that every decision contributes to the overarching vision and objectives of your business, ultimately driving growth and success.

6. Tracks Your Progress

A business plan includes milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that allow you to track your progress. Regularly reviewing your business plan helps you stay on course, adjust your strategies as needed, and celebrate your successes.

The bottom line is that creating a business plan is a crucial step in turning your entrepreneurial dreams into reality. It’s your roadmap, guiding you through the complexities of starting and growing a business. For women entrepreneurs, especially those transitioning from a corporate career, a well-thought-out business plan can provide the clarity, confidence, and direction needed to succeed. Take the time to craft a business plan that reflects your vision and sets the foundation for a thriving, profitable business.

Melissa Houston, CPA is the author of Cash Confident: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Creating a Profitable Business and the founder of She Means Profit . As a Business Strategist for small business owners, Melissa helps women making mid-career shifts, to launch their dream businesses, and also guides established business owners to grow their businesses to more profitably.

The opinions expressed in this article are not intended to replace any professional or expert accounting and/or tax advice whatsoever.

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