Who Benefits from Mission:Small Business? WorkingWonders Qualifies, Examines Small Businesses Health

July 18, 2012 - PRLog -- Weighing in at a mere two employees, WorkingWonders was a long shot to get the 250 votes required to qualify for one of twelve small business grants that will be handed out by Chase Bank and LivingSocial at the end of this summer, each one in the amount of $250,000. But they did it. What's more, founder BethAnn Lederer generated support the old-fashioned way, by pounding the streets and talking to people in the community.

“I would estimate that to get 250 votes, I probably touched the lives of 2,500 people,” Lederer said.

But the contest represented much more in the eyes of this forward-thinking entrepreneur.

Before the contest ended on June 30th, Lederer took a survey of the other small businesses operating in Maryland, where WorkingWonders is located. She found that of the approximately 1,200 businesses competing in the state, somewhere around 8-9% of them had reached the 250 votes required, or were in a position to do so by the close of the contest. Lederer then looked at these hundred or so small businesses to see what sectors they represented.

“By and large,” she reports, “qualifying businesses were predominately salons, health clubs, spas, and restaurants. They seemed to have a larger number of employees. There was even a division of a major medical center in Baltimore competing.”

Lederer was interested in where her company stood relative to other business that qualified for the Mission: Small Business Grant. “I think it's safe to say we might be the smallest business in Maryland that qualified,” she said.  “Among the really small businesses, the ones that looked to be our size, they were averaging well under 100 votes.”

The other thing Lederer looked for was a sustainability story. For how many of these businesses was building a new green economy front and center of their business plan? Her answer: “Very few.”

“People would ask me what are our chances of getting one of the grants,” she explains. “If they [the organizers] take into consideration the social value of a business, and what that business is trying to accomplish in its long term vision, then WorkingWonders should be a contender.”  Lederer remains encouraged by her company's role in a larger sustainability movement she's building on the east coast.

The experience of WorkingWonders speaks to the challenges of today's small business.  In particular, along with the difficulty of trying to generate growth, incorporating green initiatives can be even trickier.

“It's not enough just to be a successful business,” Lederer says. “If we want to change the world, we need to support social businesses.” With this in mind, even the smallest of small businesses has big incentive to think about their potential impact if, like so many dream of happening to them, they find the opportunity to grow.

*WorkingWonders is a sustainable retail store offering better home products that are predominately zero VOC, made in the U.S.A., and designed to help create a healthy, green lifestyle. WorkingWonders' mission is to build a new American Dream by making sustainability a seamless part of everyday life, championing environmentally and socially responsible practices on their e-commerce site, and working to build the nation's premier green home brand in Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. WorkingWonders is online at http://www.workingwondersus.com/