Recently I've had the pleasure of taking part in an informal mastermind discussion series with several green business writers and sustainable business consultants. We have talked at length about recent market developments in sustainability, ecological business trends, and opportunities for growth in the green economy. It has been a great growth experience for me that has opened my eyes to a number of exciting directions in the green economy despite the overall turmoil of the overall business markets.
One of the other participants in these discussions (actually he took on the role as leader of the group) was Scott Cooney. Scott has an MBA with extensive experience in sustainable business. Until recently, he was project manager for one of the largest global sustainability consulting firms in existence. His client list truly is the who's who of big business in the United States. Scott is also the author of
Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur, published by McGraw-Hill.
Here is a recent interview with Scott about his book that you may find interesting. To be fair, the questions were suggested by the larger group. For ease of convention, I've claimed responsibility for them here (sorry, guys).
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GBO:
Why did you write Build a Green Small Business?
SC:
In an ideal world, I'm hoping to catalyze nothing short of a revolution to make our entire economy go green. I just feel that so many of our environmental and health problems would evaporate without the need for regulations or what some might see as heavy-handed government intervention if our economic engine turned green. Many others have written about it. I love Bill McKibben's focus on relocalization in
Deep Economy. Joel Makower has some brilliant insights. But I saw that there was a niche yet unfilled, and that was help for the aspiring eco-entrepreneur to demystify the process of starting a green business.
GBO:
What was the initial response when you first started writing the book?
SC:
Like with many other things I had done before, people kind of thought I was nuts. Then about a year later, as the manuscript was nearing completion and I had been rejected by small environmental publishers, the economic news kept coming out tinted green. Every day on CNN there was a story about alternative fuels or organic foods or green buildings, and all of a sudden I started getting more attention for the book. My agent, Ted Weinstein, was the one that suggested we skip the smaller publishers and shoot for the big
dogs, who had suddenly awakened to the need for green business books.
GBO:
What experience did you have that made you think you'd be a good person to write this book?
SC:
When I was an MBA student back in 1999, my strategic marketing class had us write business plans for a new business. I have a knack for leaving things like that for the last minute, and so a semester project ended up being a last minute cram job. I had to write what I knew, so I wrote a business plan for a green business. It was an eco-friendly landscaping business. I had done some landscape work for a summer, and I knew environmental issues pretty well, so the business plan came out pretty well, despite my procrastination. The business plan met with a lot of raised eyebrows and dubious looks, but a few years later I started the business and it really took off. After the first season, I took my winter and began a green business directory to help promote my landscaping business, and that REALLY met with skepticism. My brother literally asked me if the book would have more than ten businesses in it. The first edition came out at 104 pages and contained green businesses from all over the Salt Lake City area where I lived at the time. Two years later, the third edition was at about 250 pages and contained well over 600 businesses. In the process, I met with each of the owners of these businesses and interviewed them to make sure they qualified for the green business directory, and managed to learn quite a bit about running a small green business. At some point, I realized that I was one of very few people with this body of knowledge, and
decided to put it in a book to try to help hundreds or thousands of aspiring eco-entrepreneurs start their dream businesses.
GBO:
The state of the economy gives many people pause when it comes to starting a business. Do you feel it's a good time to start a green business?
SC:
If you look back at other recessionary periods in history, they tend to be a time with a lot of entrepreneurial activity. There are a lot of advantages to starting a business during a downturn. You can start with contract work, as many companies have trimmed payrolls and are looking to outsource a lot of work to outside contractors. Through this, you can build a reputation and a client base. Also, it's a great time to find some terrific employees and partners. There are a lot of great people
unemployed right now.
GBO:
What are the downsides to starting a green business or business of any kind right now?
SC:
Capital is tough to come by right now. It's a combination of the banking meltdown and loss of confidence by venture capitalists. But that doesn't mean it's not out there, you just have to be really thorough with your business plan and make a convincing case. There are also quite a few businesses in my book that require very little start-up capital, so if you're interested in one of those, this might be a fantastic time to get going.
GBO:
What are you hearing from eco-entrepreneurs?
SC: A lot of them have tightened the belt, but in many
industries, they're growing. A friend runs a carbon offsets
company, and they are hiring and growing. You'd think that
would be a bad industry, being a somewhat discretionary expenditure for
many businesses, so I think that bodes well as a barometer of the green
economy. Another friend runs an organic pizza chain and
they're doubling in size from 15 outlets to 31 this year just with
existing franchise development, though they may in fact triple in size
before all is said and done in 2009. A colleague who runs a
vegan cafe says that being in a walkable neighborhood keeps him very
busy. So I think the underlying fundamentals of the green
economy, such as localism, community, walkability, etc. are just
getting better and will continue to do so. Gas prices have
dipped, but they'll be back up before you know it, and those companies
and entrepreneurs that position themselves to be resilient to those
fluctuations will be in great shape going forward.
GBO:
What's the best piece of advice you might give an aspiring
eco-entrepreneur?
SC:
Don't forget that a green business is still a job. Run one
that you'll enjoy. Lay out the step-by-step model on paper or
on a dry-erase board, and make sure you understand all the moving
parts. It's particularly important to know exactly what
you'll be doing, because you're going to be doing lots of it, so it
might as well be something you like, are good at, and that allows you a
level of comfort with your day-to-day activities. Stressing
out over the budget, managing employees, etc., is normal for a small
business owner, but this should not be compounded by stress from the
actual job itself. This is actually Rule #1 in my intro
chapter about what it takes to start a green business.
GBO:
What's next for you?
SC:
I am really trying to manifest some sort of a "Center for Sustainable
Entrepreneurship." I would really like to have a group of
people that can provide mentoring, coaching, and consulting for
aspiring eco-entrepreneurs and those who already have a business but
want to take it green. It would be sort of a green business
incubator ... allowing people to learn about the green economy, then
turning them loose on the world to start their green business with all
the tools they need.
GBO:
Any more writing projects?
SC:
I'm starting to write for a few magazines, and am putting a proposal
together for my next book. It's going to be more focused on
the economics of the green business community, and I'm really having
fun with the research right now.
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Scott operates a blog on green business topics at
EcoprenuersGuide.
