Green Business: Green Advertisement, Green PR, Green
Marketing, Green Office
We are going to explore the meaning of Green Business, from the Internet
point of view, using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as a tool to create,
generate, or migrate from a conventional business model, to a more earth
friendly, ecological oriented, waste reducing, and more efficient type of way to
do business, that we are going to name: Green Business.
I will describe a real life business situation, to make
it more clear and understandable.
A business owner was applying a conventional marketing model, on his "green"
small business, suggested by Rockefeller, in which about 40% of the initial
investment on a business, or the overhead in an established one, should be
expend on marketing, PR, advertisement, etc., for the business to grow.
He took a line of credit loan to subsidize his business overhead, and
specially expending about $5,000 a month on "paper" advertisement, news
papers, magazines, and color brochures. After a year, the owner had to
take a second mortgage, on the equity of his house, to keep up with the
overhead expenses (and advertisement).
At certain point, this person fore saw, his business would not
survive more than 6 months, at that expending pace. He will have to get
a part time job as a consultant, to support his business, or just close
it.
At the time Rockefeller came up with that type of marketing model,
the internet did not existed, obviously. "Paper" advertisement was the
only way, along with TV.
I suggested him to improve his website exposure, by optimizing it for search engines (SEO), and try to use this
"green advertisement" to attract the number of customer
his business needed to survive, and eventually to get out of the
negative cash flow. In this way he would be able to cut on PR and paper
advertisement.
The company was down sized, overhead greatly reduced, and marketing
expenses lowered to a necessary minimum. He went from a expensive and
deteriorating marketing model, that only big corporations can afford, to
a more efficient "green" marketing solution.
He is re-structuring his small business, based on internet exposure,
greatly improved web traffic, which is very inexpensive now days, and
has the potential to reach a much broader "audience".
Other ways to do Green Business
Interchange services or things instead of money. Give your services
(or part of it) in exchange for something you need. I optimize your
website, and you design my logo and my business card. I provide you with
this service or goods, and you give me in exchange your services or some
of your products. Trading it's green business, does not
generate waste or keep it to a minimum. You don't have to "waste" in
taxes (who wants his/her taxes used for wars, or to pay politicians
salaries).
Benefits of green business
Thousand of trees, used
to make paper, will be saved from the printing shops, as well as ink.
Electricity, which it proved to be a precious commodity lately, will be
saved, and the correspondent fuel to generate it. Pollution will be
greatly reduced, by eliminating the need to transport paper, to and from
printing shops, mailing trucks, air planes, etc.
People are looking more and more in the internet, for
things to buy, for services, activities to do, vacations, jobs,
entertainment, etc.,
How many times have you received a letter from your credit card bank,
telephone company, your bank, department store, financial company,
etc. inviting you, or offering you a "paper-less statement", or online
statement, instead of mailing you the monthly statement? How many times
we receive and online invoice, e-mail quotation, and there is a line
that reads some thing like this: "Please, think it twice before printing
this bill-statement. You could save hundred of trees and ink by not
printing it". Of course, the big corporations save huge amount of money
on paper, ink, mailing fees, and personnel. I'm not so sure if they care
about the environment, but the true is that enormous amount of resources
are also saved, from this used and abused mother earth. This is
green business too.
A daily green life style recipie (at least for me):
Drink a green smoothie and eat big green salads
Exercise outdoors. Run-jog-walk at the park, at the beach, or
on a trail (one of my favorite exercise places: Manhattan Beach sand
dune)
Eat more living foods, eat more greens vegetables and fruits
Take your spouse, girl friend, boy friend, just your friend, to
eat out to a green restaurant (my favorite ones, Jenny Ross'
118 degrees, Costa Mesa,
California;
Euphoria Living Food Cafe, Santa Monica, CA )
Read and follow Yaro Starak's
6 Tips To Reduce Your Stress in daily life and specially in
business. It summarized to this:
1. Exercise often
2. Listen to music
3. Personal Development
4. Eat good- nutritious foods
5. Sleep enough
6. Balance
If you have any suggestions on green business that can be done
through the internet, please let us know, we'll add it to our list in
this page. Thanks.
