The Most Rewarding Thing About Being a Business Owner
There are a lot of things that are rewarding about owning a business. Working with great clients, having their trust, and delivering results for them…working with great staff, building something with them, and knowing that you’re providing them a living…having the freedom and flexibility to do things your way…these are some of the things that come to mind.
But I think the most rewarding thing about owning a business is being able to do pro bono work that supports charitable organizations and gives back to the community. Making money? Sure, that’s fun – no doubt about it. But making a difference in people’s lives? That’s beyond compare.
The Atlanta Children’s Shelter became Prominent Placement’s pro bono client in 2004, when my husband Matt joined PPI. ACS was his client – he optimized their website, and although it was the first site he optimized, it still enjoys really high rankings (and website traffic, volunteers, online donations, etc.) today. In fact, his efforts earned us the first Gold AMY Award we had earned up to that point.
ACS is a day shelter for children, but it’s way more than that. It’s a NAEYC-accredited childcare center, which is a level of quality attained by less than 5% of all childcare in the US. While the kids are in school, the parents (often newly single moms fleeing domestic violence) get a full range of social services, from life skills workshops to job training to help with housing to medical attention.
Since opening 25 years ago, the Atlanta Children’s Shelter has provided care for nearly 8000 homeless children and helped over 5000 families total. The goal is to return the family to self-sufficiency and ACS is remarkably successful with this. In fact, other organizations from around the country often fly in to learn from them so they can copy their model.
For the third year in a row, Prominent Placement was a table host at ACS’ annual fundraising breakfast. A former client spoke, a mom who now has her own cleaning business and has saved enough money to buy a home. We also heard from a former student – a young woman who was at the shelter in 1997 and spent much of her childhood homeless. She was valedictorian of her high school’s graduating class last year and is now finishing her first year at Emory on a full scholarship. To say the speakers were inspiring was an understatement!
For more information on the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, visit http://www.atlantachildrensshelter.com. Here are some photos from our table.
Farrah, Mel, Kellie & David at the ACS Breakfast
Bryan, James & Ellen at the ACS Breakfast
Ellen & Stacy at the ACS Breakfast
