The Grass is Greener for Eco-Friendly Business Ventures In The Next Decade

Green is more than just a fad--it's a paradigm shift that's changing how we live today, and how we will live tomorrow. A "green" business plan draws on natural resources sustainably, developing products and services in harmony with the environment. Here are five business ventures that would leave a small carbon footprint--but make a big impact on the market.

Bamboo Fashion Boutique
The market for green fashion is growing faster than...well, bamboo. Bamboo is revolutionizing fashion as a sturdy and sustainable fiber for clothing. The plant can grow several feet a day, and is ready to harvest within three to five years. Customers like bamboo because it is soft, inexpensive, and socially responsible. Mother Nature likes it because the robust, hypoallergenic weed can be produced without chemical fertilizers or antimicrobial treatments. Tap into the bamboo boom by opening a green fashion boutique. Capture window shoppers with a Main Street shop, or tap into the worldwide market with a Web storefront. Web Designers can help you build a Web site armed with online credit card processing capabilities.

Green Housecleaning
Cleanliness is next to godliness--assuming you trade the caustic chemicals for eco-friendly cleaning products. Homeowners are willing to pay a premium for housecleaners who leave the environment unharmed and the toxins out of their home. Your green housecleaning service can offer total tender loving care (TLC) to your client's home and the environment. To go the extra mile, offer houseplant maintenance services--plants clean the air of carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. Logistics are the number one challenge in running a housecleaning business. Keep your cleaning staff coordinated and your customers happy by investing in a call center to answer calls and schedule weekly appointments.

Eco-Marketing Consulting
As green fever sweeps the market, businesses are scrambling to publicize their commitment to sustainable business practices. Entire brands are built on green values--Whole Foods, Patagonia, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream, to name a few. Today's businesses need a capable marketing specialist to manage their eco-friendly image. Internet advertising offers a zero-impact means of getting the word out without killing trees. Internet Marketing companies can help you with search engine optimization and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. For a full eco-marketing service, offer environmental certification management consulting. Certified Organic, Energy Star, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) are some of the high-profile certifications that can make or break a green brand.


Paperless Office Consultant
From medical clinics to law firms, businesses are afloat in paperwork. Efficiency and, in the case of health care, government regulation, demands a transition to digital records. Apply your project management and IT skills to help businesses go paperless. Depending on your experience profile, your consulting business may specialize in IT consulting, data processing, medical billing, creating electronic health records, or another field of expertise.To get your start, establish a credible Web site by hiring a web design firm that will help you with building an online presence and advertising your services and if necessary, take on a pro bono project to build your reputation.

Green Bike Shop
Highway gridlock and air quality concerns are driving more and more motorists off the road and onto alternative vehicles such as bicycles. Yet most bicycle stores cater to Spandex-clad athletes with racing and mountain biking frames unsuited to the urban commute.Your urban commute shop meets the need for business-suit-friendly transportation options. A selection of European bicycles with chain guards and Vespa scooters will help commuters get to their destination in style. For riders who put utility first, custom-build sturdy bikes with cargo baskets, coolers, and trailers. With bikes and scooters like these, customers will never miss their gas-guzzling SUV. Online Marketing is a great way to get the word out about your services. A locally-focused PPC campaign can also help establish you as your town's cycling guru.

By building an eco-friendly business, you're helping build a better future--and tapping into a vast emerging market. You can use online business networking sites to network with Green Entrepreneurs, Venture Capitalists and Industry Experts to build your green business venture for the next decade.

Hot New Entrepreneurial Enterprises

Sometimes, smaller is better--just ask the micropreneurs flourishing in today's marketplace. A growing set of entrepreneurs are building successful businesses by serving a niche market. Micropreneurs aren't trying to become the next Bill Gates or Larry Ellison. They're thriving small-scale on the strength of a loyal customer base and utilizing social business networking and utility tools to help with sales lead generation.

Micro-Enterprises Rely on E-Commerce Solutions

Micropreneurs are rewriting the rules of small business--and they're relying on the internet to make their business model work. A New York Times feature on startups explains: "the Internet has given people an extraordinary tool not only to market their ideas but also to find business partners and suppliers, and to do all kinds of functions on the cheap: keeping the books, interacting with customers, even turning a small idea into a big idea."Thanks to a range of online small business resources, today's micropreneurs have the resources to build their venture on a shoestring budget.

With minimal upfront investment, you can:

1. Create an Internet storefront for retail sales. E-commerce solutions can create a Web site with point-of-sale (POS) capability. Online POS systems enables secure credit card processing on your site, allowing you to keep the doors open 24/7.
2. Reach your niche market. Online sales lead generation and marketing tools excel at targeting interested consumers and businesses.
3. Communicate with your customers via online business networking tools, a blog, or social networking tools. Social business networking sites offer powerful resources for finding your needle in the haystack, also known as your niche customers and partners. They can also help you keep in touch; today's customer service agents use online media such as twitter, facebook, tradeseam and email correspondence to connect with the public.
4. Need niche supplies or equipment to launch your niche business? Tradeseam connects entrepreneurs and suppliers of all stripes. You'll find business resources including manufacturing companies, international suppliers, and everything under the sun online.
   Web-based technology offers a range of resources for small business owners. Time-tracking software and online accounting programs are just two examples of today's affordable, productivity-enhancing business tools.
5. The Internet offers the reach and low startup costs to support a niche business.
   Spotlight on Niche Enterprises
6. For many micropreneurs, the Eureka moment--the business idea--derives directly from a personal passion. The following entrepreneurs built a following--and a profitable business--catering to like-minded individuals.

Specialty Food Carts
El Dorado tacos? Chow Fun to go? More and more specialty food carts are cruising urban neighborhoods, with offbeat menus to serve the random craving. Restaurant consultant Clark Wolf notes: "Mobile food is one of the hottest things going all over the country. Brooklyn has its ribs truck, Manhattan has its dessert trucks, and now Los Angeles has the cupcake patrol."
Specialty food carts rely on social networking tools such as Twitter, Facebook to broadcast their coordinates. The strategy seems to work. L.A.'s Kogi taco truck draws between 300 and 800 by tweeting its location in advance, "setting off a taco-minded flash mob."

Pedicab
A physically fit duo in Spokane, Washington has pedaled to success with a pedicab service. Cheaper and more eco-friendly than a cab, the bike-based taxi is finding no shortage of riders around the downtown area. To get the wheels rolling in your own leg-powered cab service, you'll need pedicabs, licenses, insurance, and a local marketing campaign. Once you've gained a loyal ridership, you can establish a call center or online-based dispatch service linking riders to your mobile phone.

Guerilla Marketing Agency
Seattle businesses looking to make a unique statement can count on Wexley School for Girls to get the job done. The agency uses off-the-wall guerilla marketing stunts to build publicity for clients. For example, they created a buzz around Copper Mountain ski resort by staging a National Snow Day with improv ski-patrol actors and fake snow. The stunts aren't for everyone; "either you get what Wexley is selling--a very particular sensibility and approach toward marketing--or you don't," comments an admirer. But the agency isn't looking for mass appeal: "Wexley is biting off little pieces, looking to take on a particular niche of a business."
Build your own businesses staging publicity events for businesses. Start with an eye-catching Website Design and online marketing campaign to get the word out. As the costs of running a business come down, micro-enterprises are flourishing. These small businesses focus on a loyal niche, taking advantage of online business networks to communicate with customers, source, distribute, and to manage the venture.

In today's Internet-driven economy, it's no longer necessary to chase the next big thing. A great small idea can take you even further.

Don't let your internet marketing efforts take a summer vacation

Strategies to make the most of the summer slowdown

When most people hear the word "summer," thoughts turn away from work to days at the beach, camping, traveling or summer sports with kids. We normally think of summer as a time when work generally slows down. However, spending on marketing during a slowdown has actually been shown to increase sales leads once spending picks up- according to one study, businesses that increased advertising during the ‘01-‘02 recession saw sales increase an average of 3x times more than businesses who kept marketing spending flat.Here's how to get a head start on Internet marketing efforts this summer:

1. An online marketing strategy like Search Engine Optimization or Search Marketing only works well if your site is equipped to deal with the increased traffic. Hire a website design services firm to make sure your site is easy to navigate and has the capacity to handle more visitors. If you don't have an e-commerce section, now is a good time to accept credit card processing on your site and build a shopping cart. Companies providing merchant account could also have special rates given the slow economy.

2. Develop strategies to land more customers. The way to do that, particularly for small businesses, is to use effective sales lead generation and small business marketing solutions to connect with new customers, partners and suppliers and create a positive experience. Make sure you give every customer the best experience you can. That means clean restrooms, courteous staff, eye contact, handshakes. You've got to do this better than the other people out there. Another good option for local businesses is community involvement. Join a small business networking communities or the Chamber of Commerce. Sponsor a Little League team. Let the Girl Scouts do a car wash in your parking lot. This is part of bonding with your community and becoming an established part of it.

3. Try New Social Media Strategies. If you've been putting off launching a social media strategy, such as starting a blog or using Twitter, now is the time. During the summer, you'll have the time to implement a strategy, hire interns to do the leg work and track different programs making adjustments along the way.