The Business of Generosity

Last Thursday, Branded Rebels had the opportunity to attend the Choices Gala in Woodland Park. Being in that room made me wonder if businesses are really meant to hold on to everything they create. Especially small businesses.

CHOICES has been part of Teller County for more than 35 years, serving people through locations in Woodland Park and Cripple Creek. Their services are free and confidential and include pregnancy testing, limited ultrasounds, STI testing and treatment, pregnancy education and support, parenting education, and baby boutiques where parents can use what they earn through parenting classes for much-needed supplies. They also take education into local high schools.

This work isn’t happening in some distant place. It's happening right here.

Organizations like this don’t exist on their own. They’re here because communities choose to support them, and businesses are a big part of those communities.

That’s where I started thinking about us.

We all know how it feels when every dollar is already spoken for—payroll, software, taxes, equipment, insurance, the next thing that breaks, the thing you forgot to budget for, or even the thing you did budget for but now costs twice as much.

Small businesses feel the pinch.

Which makes it really easy to say:

Someday, when we’re bigger, we’ll give more.

When we hit this revenue number.
When we have more margin.
When the bank account feels safer.
When there’s finally “extra.”
But what if generosity is like everything else we say is important?

If you wait until it’s convenient to make it part of your culture, it probably never really becomes part of your culture.

The Business We Wanted to Build

We didn’t sit around a conference table and decide to call ourselves Rebels because it sounded cool.

Other people started telling us that because we market differently. Because we ask questions other people don’t always ask. Because we tend to push against “this is how businesses are supposed to do it.”

Eventually, we embraced it.

But being a Rebel was never just about marketing. It has to show in how we run our business. Sometimes, that means making choices that don’t always add up on paper.

We don't want to build a company whose greatest accomplishment is that its owners accumulated more.

We want to build one that leaves something behind.

I think a lot of small business owners feel the same way. We started these companies because we wanted to build something. We wanted freedom. We wanted to create. We wanted to take care of our families and create opportunities for other people along the way.

But between revenue goals, growth plans, and profit margins, it’s easy to start measuring a business only by what it earns.

What if we also measured a business by what it gives?

Generosity Doesn't Always Look Like a Check

Giving back doesn't have to mean becoming the title sponsor of every gala in town.

Sometimes it means buying the table when you could have kept the money.

Sometimes it means sponsoring a Little League team. It’s always worth it!
Donating your skills when those skills can actually help.

Making an introduction.

Giving your time when writing a check would honestly be easier.

Choosing a local vendor even when you could save a few dollars somewhere else.

And yes, sometimes it means giving money even when you can think of dozens of other business expenses that need it.

The point isn't the size of the gift.

It’s about making sure generosity has a place in your business decisions.

Even when your business is small. Maybe especially then. 

Profit Isn't the Enemy

And because we're talking about business, this part matters:

Please make money.

Make enough to pay people well. Make enough to grow. Make enough to take care of your family. Make enough to weather the slow months and replace the computer that inevitably dies at the worst possible moment.

Build something sustainable.

Businesses don't need to apologize for profit. Profit lets us employ people, serve clients, invest, create, expand, and keep the doors open.

The goal isn't to see how tightly we can hold onto it all. Some of what we build is supposed to move through us.

Into our communities.
Into organizations doing work we believe in.
Into another small business.
Into someone else's opportunity.
Into something we may never personally benefit from at all.

You Don't Have to Wait

That's really what I walked away thinking about last night.

You don't have to wait until your business is enormous to become a generous business.

You don't have to wait until giving is so comfortable that you barely notice it.

Start where you are.

Maybe your business can't write a $10,000 check. That's okay.

What can you do?

What do you have right now—money, skills, resources, connections, a platform, or even an empty seat at a table—that could make a difference for someone else?

Use that.

Then, as the business grows, let the generosity grow with it.

Last night, we got to be in a room full of people supporting CHOICES and the work they are doing in our community. And I kept thinking:

This is what we want Branded Rebels to be.

Not someday when we're enormous. But now.

While we're building.
While every dollar still matters.
While generosity occasionally makes the spreadsheet look a little weird.

That may not make sense by traditional business standards.

Good.

Different looks pretty good on us.