How To Start A Green Business As A New Ecopreneur [Guest Writer]

The following article is from guest writer Carla Lopez, joining me for her second guest post on this blog!

These days, more people are thinking about how they can do their part to help the planet than    ever before. That is the reason why two-thirds of consumers prefer eco-friendly brands. They want to spend their money where it will really make a difference. If you are interested in becoming an ecopreneur who is looking to start a green business, check out these helpful tips from Primeval Pixie on how you can start your green business from the ground up.

Create A Business Plan

The first step is to think about the type of business that you want to start and then create a business plan that you can follow until you reach the desired results. Since you want to be a green company, you need to decide if you want to start a company that sells green products like eco-friendly appliances, or if you want to start a standard company but use green equipment and recycled materials to do your business.

Whatever you decide, you must create a business plan that outlines the product you plan to sell, how you hope to manufacture that item, where you will get the funds to start your operations, how many employees you will need, what your marketing tactics will be, and the target demographic that you hope to market towards. Get all of this down in writing and create actionable steps that you can accomplish along the way. 

How You Can Go Green

If you decide that you want your business to be as clean as possible, then there are several tactics that you can try, like encouraging remote work. You can also make a commitment to have a paperless environment, where instead of printing out every document, you email messages to the employees so there is no paper waste.

In the case that you ship out packages, you can make adjustments so that you use as little paper and cardboard as possible. Think about how you can accomplish this goal. Can you ship your orders in smaller boxes and minimize your use of plastic and paper materials? 

An even better way to go is to forget standard cardboard altogether and instead use recycled boxes and cornstarch or mushroom packaging that doesn’t hurt the environment. Keep in mind that many small businesses can be started at around $3k-5k. However, a green business using alternative materials can be closer to $13,000.

If you need more inspiration for how to go green then look at other companies that have done it before. For instance, the PepsiCo company has transitioned to an electric trucking fleet and IKEA stores now use solar panels. 

Market To The Masses

Once you get your business up and running, you will want to start marketing your products. Begin by creating a well-designed logo that will show off your brand and get the attention of potential customers. The good news about creating a logo is that you don’t have to be a professional designer or pay a fortune to create one. Instead, try using a free logo maker to simplify the design process. This is a great option because you can either create a logo from scratch or use a pre-made template that you can modify with your own colors, text, and wording. 

With your logo in place, you can now start sending out your marketing materials. Since you are a green business, you will want to forgo the paper mailers and instead focus on email campaigns and social media marketing. Since so many people are excited about the idea of eco-friendly companies, you can make your marketing efforts easier by mentioning in your emails that you are a proud eco-friendly company and you should also post that information on the front page of your website so everyone knows that you are a company that cares.

These days, more and more people are embracing the necessity of sustainable living. Some are still hesitant to apply this philosophy to the business world, though, thinking it will be too difficult or too expensive. However, as you can see, all it takes is proper planning and you, too, can make a difference for generations to come!

Primeval Pixie is a writer, herbalist, and cosmic witch wandering amongst the fairies, unicorns, dragons, and mermaids. If you have any questions, please email contact@primevalpixie.com.