9 Tips for Socially Responsible Businesses

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Josh Friedman and Mark Grimes launched Better World Media Network to help find the right advertising partners for Web publishers whose aim is to improve the world. The business owners want to do right by society, but they also don't want to limit their vision of financial success.

Says Friedman, "We want to build a for-profit business and do good in the world." Here are nine tips for the small-business owner who wants to be socially responsible while still growing that bottom line.

What's Important to You?

Before taking up a cause or adopting any platform, examine what is important to your business. But also keep in mind the needs of your company. Being socially responsible and operating a successful business are not mutually exclusive.

"The best definition of social responsibility is a phrase that isn't exactly original: doing well by doing good," says Phillip Gordon, director of the Center for Socially Responsible Business at Mills College's Lorry I. Lokey Graduate School of Business. "Figure out where your business intersects with society. Then sit down and think where you have the most impact and if you have a high impact, where can you get some benefit for your business."

Clean It Up

According to Giving USA, one of fastest-growing charitable areas is the environment. Do your share by streamlining your packaging and going paperless. Lower your company's energy bill by investing in energy-efficient equipment. Offer to plant trees for every product or service that gets bought. For every customer who elects to receive quarterly statements electronically via email rather than on paper via snail mail, TIAA-CREF plants a tree.