Goose Lopez-Torres was the top sales person at Central Florida Box Corporation in Winter Park, Florida. To get prospects to take his calls, he spent $200 a week dropping off bagels at their offices. He would return to a prospect’s office and see the same bag of bagels still there. Seeking a new way to make an impression, he bought a $60 pair of New Balance sneakers, sent one shoe in the mail to a prospect with a note that asked “Can I get a foot in the door?” Mr. Lopez-Torres got the meeting that ultimately developed into Complete the Pair, a charitable business alternative for anyone that wants to get in front of their target audience.

The Complete the Pair platform mimics LinkedIn in the way that people create a professional profile. Once a person purchases a package from complete the pair at 34.95 plus $4.99 shipping and handling, a shoe is mailed to the buyer and the other shoe is mailed to the prospect. The company started almost a year ago, so far they’ve sold 4,000 units with a 50% profit margin.

Here’s how it works: Each shoe is affixed with a 5-digit code that uniquely identifies a pair. There is a note inside of the shoe that tells the prospective client to log onto to the website to retrieve their unique message. Once they arrive, they can see the sender’s biography, picture, company information along with a custom note asking for a meeting to complete the pair so that the shoes can be donated to someone in need. They formed a partnership with Soles4Souls, a large shoe charity to handle their donations.

Mr. Lopez-Torres and his partner Scott Miller raised $430,000 to start the business. They received an SBA loan from BBT Bank for $120,000, put in $50,000 of seed money and $260,000 from investors all of which were friends and family. Complete the Pair largely targets sales professionals looking to land a meeting with a potential client. Recently, they started attracting job seekers with a desire to stand out and make a good first impression.

If you want to have more impact in your business here’s how to get started:

Decide On the Cause: What cause or change are you passionate about – nature, homelessness, or education? Make a clear decision of a single purpose that you want to align your brand with. Be able to share the story of “why” this cause is important to you and the difference you plan to make for the cause.

Find a Way to Deliver: Once you decide on a cause the business will serve, make a plan to deliver. You could either fulfill the need yourself, like Charity Water builds wells or you could form a partnership like Complete the Pair did with Soles4Souls.

Make the Offer Clear: If you are tying your impact to your pricing model, make the offer easy to understand. For example it’s more confusing to say that 10% of a sale goes to a non-profit, nobody, wants to calculate your philanthropic efforts. It’s much easier, to adopt the one-for-one model which is used by Complete the Pair, for every pair of shoes you buy to get a meeting, they give a pair away to a person in need.

Share the Story: You can’t make a difference if you don’t share the impact you want to make with your customers. Make it a part of your marketing messages, invite your customers to participate in any way they wish – whether it’s buying, spreading the word or volunteering. Lastly, don’t forget to show on your website and in social media the impact that you are creating – display and share pictures with your friends and followers.

A small business owner can make a big difference; you have a few ideas for changing the world.

What’s the impact you would like to have through your business?