What price altruism?

In promoting Mallin Media, I’ve discovered we’re a naturally suspicious lot. I say it as a compliment to the British. We’re not, as a nation, gullible. We despair of gullible people. I’ve known it for years as a journalist but it’s only been brought in to sharp relief since I’ve started trying to sell my own business. You see I started Mallin Media because I saw a need for the service amongst a particular niche market. Those are the small, hard-working organisations doing good things for their communities and local economies. The unsung heroes if you like. I wanted to help them shout, or at least sing to the rooftops about what they do.

The problem I’ve discovered is this: In most people’s minds, business is business and charity is charity and the motivations behind the two are very different. Start telling people you're a business selling to charities and you'd better have running shoes on. Now, that causes a problem for me because I genuinely set out to try and help people. Notice how I felt the need to say “Genuinely”? Making a little cash in the meantime was necessary but not sufficient. Trying to convince anyone that your primary motivation is helping is turning out to be a tricky prospect particularly when it requires asking anyone to pay for anything. Simply saying "I have to pay the rent too" just isn't going to cut it.

This is my problem of course and not the clients'. It's a poor salesman that blames his potential customers for the shortfalls in his pitch, but knowing a problem is yours does not make it any easier to solve.

Last Word: Is "ethical business" a contradiction in most people's terms?