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Business and entrepreneurs

Small businesses: the social influencers

By Administrator | 2 May 2018

Louisa Forrest didn’t hesitate in letting her customers know that she was in full support of the recent same-sex marriage vote.

“We pushed it heavily via social media, mail outs and on the end of all our emails,” the Sydney managing director of nappy and laundry service, Lavenderia, says.

Small business as a platform

Forrest uses her small business as a platform to be outspoken on other issues, too. Fair trade, fair work, ethical production practices, sustainability and environmentally friendly production values, for a start. Lavenderia turns over around $250,000 a year.

“As the saying goes: 'One must be the change that one wants to see in the world', and we took that quite literally and ran with it,” Forrest says.

“Really, any business that isn’t putting their weight behind a social issue is disadvantaging themselves in a much more astute and socially aware marketplace. Consumers have a strong social conscience these days,” she says.

Charity takeover

Being outspoken is important to Sydney’s Sharon Melamed, too.

She recently began turning her 13,000-strong social media channels and many more website visitors over to a different charity each month, allowing them to spread their message to her followers.

The managing director of business matchmaking site Matchboard launched the initiative after  two people she knew died of cancer recently. Matchboard turned over $500,000 in 2017. Read more

Nina Hendy - Brisbane Times - 30 Apr 2018

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