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Strategies for Small Businesses
As a framework for strategic decisions, sustainability is one of the most powerful tools available to a small business owner or manager. By looking at business decisions through the lens of sustainability, choices become clear, and the future looks brighter. Utilizing sustainability effectively in this way can be a challenge. This column is dedicated to showing you how you can use sustainability as a strategy to make solid choices for common business decisions.
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How, and when, to talk to funders for your business: an interview with Robert Bailey, author and investor
by Scott Cooney
Robert Bailey is a Capital Broker/Advisor to entrepreneurs and innovators in the renewable energy & biofuel industry, author, speaker on financing entrepreneurship and innovation. Rob often speaks about reverse engineering your way to "common sense" solutions. And having one or more "Plans B." He is also the founder and producer of SourceNewport, the economic think tank and conference on sustainable historic & urban development. He is the producer and host of the Solutions Radio program, and the author of "The Billionaires Little Black Book." . . .
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Teaching Sustainability Through Play
by Scott Cooney
Many teachers, therapists, and increasingly, sustainability professionals, will tell you that you can show people stats, figures, compelling pictures, and even videos, but perhaps the way many people learn best is through play. We decided to give this strategy a whirl and develop a board game based on sustainable economic development. Check out this video and let us know what you think! . . .
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Top three PR blunders and how to avoid them
by Scott Cooney
Even with great intentions, the best of businesses occasionally have slipups in their communications. Here's the top three PR mistakes many small to mid-sized businesses make, how to set yourself up to avoid them, and what to do if you slip up. . . .
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Employee engagement for energy reduction
by Scott Cooney
People in your office want to go green. The main barrier is lack of information, which leads to lack of effort, which leads to defensiveness when approached in person, so as to hide a perceived lack of eco-sophistication. . . .
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Raising Money for Startups
by Scott Cooney
Raising capital is consistently the #1 challenge for startups and entrepreneurs. Thankfully, there are options and resources you might not expect. . . .
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Getting Investment for Your Startup: Is Crowdfunding an Option?
by Scott Cooney
Getting capital for a small business or startup is consistently ranked the #1 challenge facing entrepreneurs. The Obama campaign in 2008 was able to raise large amounts of money through lots of small donations, and was able to outfundraise the well-heeled oil industry-backed Republican party for the first time in history as a result. Can you tap into this new "crowdfunding" trend to help your small business get the capital it needs? . . .
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Improving Customer Loyalty for Mission-Driven Companies by Wisely Focusing Your Marketing Dollars
by Scott Cooney
How can a startup in the green economy effectively use its limited advertising and marketing resources in order to get the biggest bang for its buck? Obviously, there is no easy answer, but a recent study published in the Harvard Business Review by a McKinsey and Company Online Marketing Specialist gives companies a solid suggestion about where to focus their dollars to effectively improve customer loyalty. Adapting that strategy for the green economy is a no-brainer, as people who buy green WANT to love the companies they buy from, and this method gives startup entrepreneurs great advice to do just that. . . .
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Green Event Planning 101
Planning an event for your company and doing it sustainably can be a fun and interesting way to engage your employees and show that your company is committed to more than just the bottom line. Here, we draw from Karine Brighten, a certified green business and event planner for the San Francisco Bay Area, and outline some of her tips for making your events as sustainable as possible--simply and inexpensively. . . .
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Planet Home: the Book and the Business Opportunity
by Scott Cooney
Recently, I interviewed Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder and former CEO of Seventh Generation about his departure from the company, about his new book, and about what was next for him. His new book, Planet Home, is not just an interesting look at how to green your home and keep your family healthy while saving money, but it is also a terrific business opportunity for aspiring eco-entrepreneurs. . . .
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Business to business marketing in the green economy
by Scott Cooney
Tonight, GreenBusinessOwner.com is hosting our first annual green business to green business (GB2GB) speed networking event at the Galleria Park Hotel in San Francisco. What we've learned about who is coming and who is not, who sponsored the event and who didn't, is gold for people in the green economy looking to market in the B2B space. . . .
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The First Step to Raising Money: Developing a Budget
by Irene Hsieh
Successful entrepreneurs possess many common traits: creative, idea-driven, optimistic, visionary, tenacious, willing to take risks, and hard working. While developing a budget may seem counter to many of those characteristics, it is essentially the blueprint of your operation and can actually be a powerful tool for helping you realize the design of your business. . . .
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