Tips and resources to help you take your first steps towards ECOpreneurship!
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How can we be both business-minded and green?
This is the question which will be considered on these pages over the next few days, as we focus on both helping local entrepreneurs and helping the environment.
Part one: “How can we start a business that saves the planet?”
This is a question posed in a piece written especially for these news pages by the writer and teacher Joyce Wilson of Teacher Spark.
It’s a quick-start introduction to “ECOpreneurship” – full of helpful resources and a perfect starting point for nature lovers who are business-minded. As she has said, “While you’ve probably heard of ecopreneurship, surprisingly few people realise that starting a business can also help save the planet.” But it’s not just about the great outdoors: her piece should also help local economies recover.
How to Help the Environment Through Your New Business
Perhaps you love the idea of starting an eco-friendly business, but you’re worried that making business decisions with the environment in mind will be costly or unrealistic, and might even sink your business before it even has a chance. Thankfully, though, it doesn’t have to be this way. These days, more and more businesses are going green – and so far there are customers!
If you’re interested in exploring your business options and helping the environment in the process, The Vision Group for Sidmouth is happy to provide some tips and resources to help you take your first steps towards ECOpreneurship!
Startup Logistics
Before you can start doing business, you’ll need to fulfil a few logistical obligations.
- Decide on the products and services you want to offer in order to work out your business plan.
- To register your business and eventually hire employees, you’ll need to check out the legalities of setting up a business.
- If you’re looking for a retail location, search for a commercial rental in an area with lots of foot traffic.
Operate Sustainably
It’s important to emphasise sustainability in every area of your business, especially when it comes to your day-to-day operations.
- Ideally, you’ll want to work with suppliers who share your eco-friendly, ethical principles.
- If you’ll be shipping products by mail, choose packaging that does not need to be thrown out.
- Save money on electricity by setting aside a home office and doing at least some work from home. If you need to make some modifications to get the space you need, don’t fret; these kinds of renovations often improve your home’s overall value!
Reach Your Community
Spread your environmental values far and wide with these tips for reaching your wider community!
- Your marketing materials can actually be a vehicle for educating your customers on environmentalism.
- Link up with a nonprofit or charity that is working to save the planet.
- Bring new environmentalists into the fold by starting a work experience programme!
Running your business in an eco-friendly way doesn’t have to be cost-prohibitive or limiting. In fact, you will be amazed by how simple some of these sustainable choices can be. By implementing these recommendations, you’ll have a bright future as an ECOpreneur!
The Vision Group for Sidmouth aims to provide support for local people and organisations who are taking up particular issues for improving Sidmouth life, and to listen to residents’ ideas. We’d love to hear from you!
Photo via Pexels
With thanks to Joyce Wilson for creating this piece.