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Actual for You - The Sustainable Small Business
Deploying Six Sigma means entering a period of significant change in your organization. Productivity and morale almost always suffers in times of great change. The requirements of change and adaptation and the very human fear of the unknown add to stresses of the work environment. In these times, communication becomes more important than ever.Communication throughout a Six Sigma project is very important because the power and scope of Six Sigma demands a significant commitment from everyone in the organization. Six Sigma successes require clear and open communication at all levels to transcend departmental barriers that would otherwi
Profit
Just because profit has now been relegated to third in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organisation.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimise our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced
Whether you are door dropping leaflets, sending direct mail packs or putting inserts into newspapers you have a limited amount of time to make your appeal to your prospect. Assuming that your envelope has been opened, or your leaflet has been destined for a glance at the least, you have a matter of seconds to make your case and convince your prospect to carry on reading.Now, you can't outright make a call to action straight away, you need to convince first, so lets get started. Initially, you need to pique your prospect's interest. You can do this visually, with some eye catching design. You can do it literally by making an appealin
So, what is a “sustainable business”? One official definition goes something like this:
“A Sustainable Business is a constituted organisation that takes full account of its triple bottom line – i.e. managing and contributing to social, environmental and economic improvements in its business practices.”
Simply put, a business’s “triple bottom line" can be expressed in terms of the three Ps – People, Planet, Profit, and, most importantly, in that order. So now, rather than taking the conventional view and running our business primarily for profit, we are running our business primarily for the welfare of society and of the environment as first priorities.
Let’s face it, for most of us there are a host of different ways in which we care capable of earning money, even if some of those ways we believe wouldn’t generate “enough” income for our current needs. When we set up our own businesses, hopefully there are reasons other than money and capability that prompt us to do so. These reasons form our Business Purpose and they stem from our Business Values. They are what’s most important to us in our business lives: the non-negotiable parts. Examples of business purposes might be “providing enjoyable education programmes for adults”, “helping others to improve their health”, “enhancing the lives of children/the elderly/new parents”, “making marketing ethical and easy”.
Let’s look at the elements of the triple bottom line in more detail:
People
Think about all of the people who are involved with your business. Even if you don’t directly employ anyone else, who else do your actions affect? Who else does your business depend on? Your answer might well include your suppliers, your clients, your associates and colleagues. A sustainable business treats all of these people in a way that’s in keeping with its business purpose and sustainability, for example, by employing staff who live locally and sourcing from local suppliers. You could reduce your clients’ needs to travel by providing your products and services local to them rather than centralised wherever possible.
Planet
Many of you will be familiar with the term “Reduce, Re-Use, Re-cycle”. Maybe you are not aware that those instructions are stated in order of priority. That is, it is more important for us to reduce our consumption than it is to re-use items and re-using items is more important than re-cycling our waste. So, uppermost in the sustainable business owner’s mind will be minimising the negative impact on the planet of running that business by reducing consumption of energy, fuel, water and toxic substances.
Profit
Just because profit has now been relegated to third in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organisation.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimise our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced.
As more and more people seek to make their fortunes by starting their own business, there has been an increase in interest in finding the perfect business partner. The right business partner can make all the difference in the world, and an experienced partner can be a godsend for any new business venture. It is important for any potential entrepreneur to explore his or her options when it comes to business financing and partnership arrangements.When considering taking on a partner for the new business, it may be a good idea to have the partnership paperwork drawn up by a qualified business attorney. Having an attorney do the paper
Let’s face it, for most of us there are a host of different ways in which we care capable of earning money, even if some of those ways we believe wouldn’t generate “enough” income for our current needs. When we set up our own businesses, hopefully there are reasons other than money and capability that prompt us to do so. These reasons form our Business Purpose and they stem from our Business Values. They are what’s most important to us in our business lives: the non-negotiable parts. Examples of business purposes might be “providing enjoyable education programmes for adults”, “helping others to improve their health”, “enhancing the lives of children/the elderly/new parents”, “making marketing ethical and easy”.
Let’s look at the elements of the triple bottom line in more detail:
People
Think about all of the people who are involved with your business. Even if you don’t directly employ anyone else, who else do your actions affect? Who else does your business depend on? Your answer might well include your suppliers, your clients, your associates and colleagues. A sustainable business treats all of these people in a way that’s in keeping with its business purpose and sustainability, for example, by employing staff who live locally and sourcing from local suppliers. You could reduce your clients’ needs to travel by providing your products and services local to them rather than centralised wherever possible.
Planet
Many of you will be familiar with the term “Reduce, Re-Use, Re-cycle”. Maybe you are not aware that those instructions are stated in order of priority. That is, it is more important for us to reduce our consumption than it is to re-use items and re-using items is more important than re-cycling our waste. So, uppermost in the sustainable business owner’s mind will be minimising the negative impact on the planet of running that business by reducing consumption of energy, fuel, water and toxic substances.
Profit
Just because profit has now been relegated to third in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organisation.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimise our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced
When starting a new residential cleaning account you'll need to explain to your new customer why you charge more for the "first time" cleaning. A first time cleaning of a new residential cleaning account is more like a "spring-cleaning" and needs extra staff time to remove extra soil and build-up. Your staff may spend anywhere from 4 to 8 times longer to clean a first time residential account than an existing client's home.Why the extra time? A customer who has never had their home professionally cleaned is likely to have soil build-up throughout the house. Or, if you're taking over an account from another residential cleaning cont
Let’s look at the elements of the triple bottom line in more detail:
People
Think about all of the people who are involved with your business. Even if you don’t directly employ anyone else, who else do your actions affect? Who else does your business depend on? Your answer might well include your suppliers, your clients, your associates and colleagues. A sustainable business treats all of these people in a way that’s in keeping with its business purpose and sustainability, for example, by employing staff who live locally and sourcing from local suppliers. You could reduce your clients’ needs to travel by providing your products and services local to them rather than centralised wherever possible.
Planet
Many of you will be familiar with the term “Reduce, Re-Use, Re-cycle”. Maybe you are not aware that those instructions are stated in order of priority. That is, it is more important for us to reduce our consumption than it is to re-use items and re-using items is more important than re-cycling our waste. So, uppermost in the sustainable business owner’s mind will be minimising the negative impact on the planet of running that business by reducing consumption of energy, fuel, water and toxic substances.
Profit
Just because profit has now been relegated to third in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organisation.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimise our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced
There is a potential cost to every decision we make in our businesses. Every time we decide to take on a project, it will without question affect many things in a positive or negative way.It is true that we must take some level of risk in our businesses otherwise we are short changing ourselves and we will never reach our potential. But how much risk is too much and how do we decide if the project we have in front of us is the right project right now for us?As with many things in order to make a decision, we need to ask ourselves some important questions. We have to consider what we might gain and lose from taking each proj
Planet
Many of you will be familiar with the term “Reduce, Re-Use, Re-cycle”. Maybe you are not aware that those instructions are stated in order of priority. That is, it is more important for us to reduce our consumption than it is to re-use items and re-using items is more important than re-cycling our waste. So, uppermost in the sustainable business owner’s mind will be minimising the negative impact on the planet of running that business by reducing consumption of energy, fuel, water and toxic substances.
Profit
Just because profit has now been relegated to third in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organisation.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimise our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced
a. Marketing success begins with your attitude or your state of mind towards the marketing process. If you think that marketing is difficult and burdensome, that's exactly how it will be to you.See marketing as a fun thing to do. Believe that your marketing WILL bring you lots of customers. Decide to enjoy the process (you have to do it anyway, so you might as well enjoy it),then go on and have a ball while you're at it!Remember, by marketing your products and services, you are making people aware of something that could be useful for them. Think of it that way - it may help you stop thinking about how uncomfortable you feel
Profit
Just because profit has now been relegated to third in the business’s bottom line does not make it any less important as a concept. For a business to be sustainable in the sense of growing and surviving long term it will need to generate a profit (unless it was set up as a not-for-profit organisation.) What the triple bottom line does is to remind us to keep profit generation in perspective with the other elements. With our business accounts as with our personal finances, if we keep our costs to a minimum and minimise our consumption, the income we need to generate to cover our costs and pay ourselves is reduced.
Communicating your Sustainability
Once you have incorporated sustainable business practices into your everyday business operations, it is worth considering how you can use that information to communicate your sustainable approach with the outside world. For example, on promotional leaflets you could include the words “printed on recycled paper”. If you are providing refreshments for visitors to your business, you could let them know, for example, that the food they are eating is organic and locally sourced wherever possible.
How will this benefit you? Other people who are endeavouring to lead sustainable lives and run sustainable businesses will be attracted to doing business with you if they believe doing so will make a positive contribution to their triple bottom line. They will feel more comfortable in your company and better able to establish a relationship of trust with you. In short, it will strengthen your business connections with similarly minded people and contribute to your business not only being a financial success, but inwardly rewarding and meaningful for you too.
To help you in your business planning, I’ve produced a “Sustainable Business Checklist” which you can view and download from here http://www.sallylever.co.uk/documents/SustainableBusinessChecklist.pdf Do let me know your thoughts and comments on this and how useful you find it.
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