How to give back to the community as a successful business owner and blogger

I recently thought about giving back as a successful business owner or blogger. Not claiming I am, I was just fantasizing when I’d call myself a successful business owner and blogger and when it’s time to give back to the community. 

Of course, there are a lot of social ways to give back, like volunteering or donating money to organizations you support. But I’m talking right now about giving back to the niche or community you work in.

Over the years I discovered so many great tools and apps, I connected with the best bloggers out there, met great startup founders and so on and on. I make use of a lot of free tools but recently started to notice that most of the plugins, apps, and programs also have a ‘paid’ option.

I like to keep my business costs as low as possible, so why pay for something you can get for free? Is it to make things more smooth? Experience things with no ads? Or just for the extra possibilities?

I do pay for a few ‘free’ tools, like Planoly, Tailwind, Teachable, OneDrive, Evernote, NordVPN, newsletter software, and Google Apps. But I wish I could give back to all great companies (big and small) I support and daily use. How?

How to give back as a successful business owner and blogger

I’d love to give back to Canva and get Canva for Work. Give back to Buffer because their blog is great (and of course the tool!). Subscribe to Death To Stock Photo because their free photo hacks are awesome. I’d hit that ‘donate’ button every time a plugin asks me to donate.

I’d buy stock photos that are cool.

I’d sponsor my favorite bloggers by buying ads and by donating to buy them a cup of coffee. I’d purchase all the courses of my favorite peeps (so I’d get to learn something too!).

Next time I need to hire someone I’d hire that newbie struggling to find their first clients. I’d eat out every day in all the lovely lunch places I worked the past few years when it was too expensive for me to get lunch every time so I only got 4 cups of coffee.

Right now I can only give back by being open about all the things I know and learned and by always responding to every email I get. I honestly think this is the smallest thing you can do and I find it incredibly rude when people never reply back.

A short reply can mean the world to someone who asked you for advice or another question, so don’t be rude.

It’s not just all materialistic

I think about giving back when I think about ‘having a lot of money’. It’s not all about materialistic things. I’d love to have a lot of money for the freedom it gives me and that I can really help others (secret wish is being an angel investor someday lol).

I’d give back to all the newbies, all the creatives doing great things and all the hard workers doing awesome things and sacrificing their own lives, by living in a small shared apartment while missing out on life happenings of their friends working on their dream.

I’ve been there and I still not at a place where I could give back the way I want, but I’ll get there, in small steps! Thinking about these things every now and then will help you reach your goals faster.

So I do. And to be honest, it really does!

I’m curious what you’d do to give back?