Bringing together and celebrating the good that locally-owned businesses have done for the Greater Grand Rapids has been an initiative that LocalFirst has been focused on in the past year.
Recently, the organization celebrated its Good for Grand Rapids campaign by announcing the eight top-scoring businesses that received Good for Grand Rapids Awards. Two of which were from the Wyoming and Kentwood areas: Lindo Mexico received a Good For Employees and Celebration! Cinema received a Good for Community.
LocalFirst Marketing Manager Mieke Stroub was on the WKTV Journal to talk about the impact of the awards with host Donna Kidner-Smith.
“It is to bring together and celebrate companies that are using businesses for good,” Stroub said about the Good for Grand Rapids. “And what that means is that they are being good to their employees; they are giving back to the community; they are creating high quality and more jobs for the people that live here.”
Businesses that participated took a quick impact assessment that is available on the LocalFirst website. Stroub said a business owner or someone very familiar with the business could do the assessment which would take anywhere from a half hour to an hour to complete.
“The assessment is industry specific,” Stroub said. “A restaurant is going to have different questions than a PR company. So the business owners who go in and take it only have questions relevant to them.”
More than 70 different business participated in the program. From the Wyoming and Kentwood areas that includes Daddy’s Dough and JoJo’s House of Beauty along with Lindo Mexico and Celebration! Cinema.
Participating in the program not only gives business insight into what they are doing well and what they need to improve upon, but another tool to attract high, quality talent to the West Michigan area, Stroub said.
“A common challenge across industries is talent or acquiring talent,” she said. “As we are noticing, the work force that is entering, they want to work for a company that they are proud of. They want to work for a company that pays attention to social issues, that gives back to its community. We are giving businesses the tools that they need to facilitate that.”
Along with the assessment, LocalFirst is also offering a series of workshops focused on helping business with their sustainability efforts. Information on the first three Good for Grand Rapids workshops are now available on the LocalFirst website along with other events such as mixers to get to know those who are in LocalFirst and have taken the Good for Grand Rapids assessment.
The Good for Grand Rapids assessment tool is also available on the website. Stroub said it is a free resource that a business owner can complete on his/her own time.
For more about LocalFirst, visit localfirst.org.
