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The Green Business Launch Manifesto

491 Second Street Encinitas, CA 92024 760-271-7128 Jim@JimSimcoe.com

Table of Contents
FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE GREEN TRADE SECRETS GREEN RIGHT NOW BEST NEW GREEN MARKETS NATURAL SELECTION THRIVING GREEN IN BLUE OCEANS GREEN CEO MINDSET MASTER THE MARKET 4 RULES OF MARKETING READY, SET, LAUNCH 3 6 7 9 11 12 14 18 20 24

FORTUNE FAVORS THE BRAVE

Opportunity:
Virgil was right. The single greatest opportunity for entrepreneurs right now is sustainability. Contrary to popular belief, sustainability is not a fad or trend. Its not something that is going to dissipate with time. In the same way the Internet forever changed business, sustainability will forever change how we look at and run our lives. That is fundamental reason green business, if run correctly, will thrive. Unlike ANY other industry, sustainability offers unheralded advantages to the burgeoning Green CEO. Advantages include: 1. Tremendous public support. 2. Little, if any, competition. 3. Fantastic demand from consumers and businesses alike. When I launched my rst green business in 2006 it was virtually impossible to generate business. There was very little interest in the marketplace and almost no data to support any benets I spoke about. What a difference a few years make.

491 Second Street Encinitas, CA 92024 760-271-7128 Jim@JimSimcoe.com

Now our business is thriving and my team and I consult with companies large and small throughout North America. Some of the industries weve done work in include: Real Estate Non-Prots Education Solar Property Management Green Info Products Green Business Launches Commercial building management

Learning from mistakes:

In launching our business Ive made just about every mistake you can imagine. Some of my all-time greatest include: Paying for advertising in a guide that yielded exactly one client. It did however, allow me to be cold-called by other service providers incessantly for over a year. Giving a speech to a business group in Los Angeles that had no ability to buy from me. I spent a total of 6 hours driving to/from LA for a complete waste of time. To date, this remains one of the only speeches Ive ever given where I did not gain business. Taking on a client that I knew was not a good t for our company. Although the project ended successfully the amount of time and effort we put into it negated all of the prots we earned.

 Striving for Perfection, not Success. More on this one later as its a biggie... Suffice to say you can learn a ton from my mistakes. Two of the biggest keys is learning not to waste time or money. That said, the opportunity is waiting for you right now. Are you ready to take advantage of it?

GREEN TRADE SECRETS

Open Source Green:
I dont believe that business is a zero sum game. For me to win you do not have to lose. We can both win, both prosper and both run thriving businesses. If I didnt believe that I would never release all of my trade secrets to you in this paper. My selsh reasons for telling you all that I know: I want your green business to thrive. If your business thrives then we create more positive examples for other start-up green businesses to thrive. I believe in helping others. Plenty of people helped me when I was rst starting out so I am glad to return the favor. I dont believe in competition as there is plenty of business for all of us. I want to be a good example for my young daughters. This is one of the ways for me to do it. Everything in this paper, all of the advice, recommendations, etc. comes from my direct experience. None of this is theory. I built our business on effort, trial and error and constant learning. Im still learning today.

GREEN RIGHT NOW

Many doors, few signs:

The world of green business is a funny place: 1. Consumers want green although they cant really dene what it is or why they want it. 2. Green companies use guilt-selling to move products. Neither creates a sustainable long-term future for anyone. There are tons of green options (doors) in the marketplace with few reasons (signs) as to why you should choose them. Everywhere you look there is a new company purporting to be green and having a commitment to sustainability. They blather on about their technological advances and competitive advantages without doing the single one thing that most consumers want. They never tell you their why. They never tell you why they are in business or why you should care. For a simple example, look at Apple computers. They very rarely talk about the tech aspects of their stuff, they talk more about why you should choose them and why your life will be better if you do. Both are very compelling perspectives that well get into later in the marketing section.

Pitching pineapples to hawaiians:

Another common green business trend is to sell green to those who already get it and are already invested in it. The logic being that if they believe in it then theyre more apt to buy from you. Unfortunately this is awed logic. Why? The problem with this thinking is that maybe 5% of the total population either truly understands green or is behind it completely. And if you tailor your efforts to this group you lose because: 1. They already get it and may already have your product/service. 2. You miss out on the other 95%.

Put simply, dont sell pineapples to hawaiians. They already have them.

BEST NEW GREEN MARKETS

Three markets:
If you are passionate about green but have no clue what market or industry to enter, this section is for you. Put simply, there is more to green business than selling solar. There are industries to avoid (wind) unless you have at least $1M to invest and an engineering degree from Stanford. Below are the three strongest markets for the next decade.

Real Estate:
This market includes Realtors, Property Managers, Investors, Apartment Owners, REITS, and Commercial building owners. All tend to deal with existing properties and have a lot to gain from leveraging your expertise as a consultant or green service provider. The opportunity in this group is astounding. Less than 5% of homes or buildings in the US have any green features yet most people want those features. Huge opportunity here for you.

Home Owners:
The two biggest areas for the home-owner market segment are performing energy efficiency audits and holding educational seminars. Both are relatively simple sales processes and dont require a lot of equipment or years of education to start your business. Additionally, home-owners make great clients because they often refer their friends/colleagues if theyre happy about what you do. Finally, home-owners are easy to nd and reach. There isnt usually a complex decision making process they have to go through to decide whether to use your services or not.

Green Products:
In 10 years every product you see on the shelf at any store will have a green alternative. Toothbrushes will be compostable. Basketballs will be made from biodegradable materials. Literally almost everything will be made from green materials or have a green component to it. That said, the opportunity in this market is to either develop a green product or sell an existing one. If you choose to sell an existing one, pick something that you can sell to a huge market. Heres a great example: Solatubes. Solatubes makes easy to install energy-efficient skylights. These skylights cut electricity bills by bringing natural daylight into any home or office. They can be used in retail, homes, commercial, virtually any industry in any part of the world. Being a distributor for Solatubes would be a great green business to run.

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NATURAL SELECTION
Darwin had it right:
The concept of natural selection isnt just for the animal kingdom. Only the strongest green brands will survive. To truly be a player in the new green business frontier its crucial that you learn and accept this. Right now, there a lot of green companies that are enjoying short-term success because green is so popular NOT because they are good companies. (Think Pets.com circa 1996-bound to fail). Be wary of becoming one of these companies. You should launch your company with the long-term in mind. In fact, if you dont realistically believe you can grow to be either #1 or #2 in your industry category then you should nt launch there. My business is a perfect example of this. There are very few speakers, besides me, who travel the US and talk about the business of green real estate. I can dominate this market because there wasnt an 800 pound gorilla here when I started. Conversely would you ever seriously consider starting a sneaker company? Way too many gorillas and not enough of a chance of being #1 or #2. If you cant dominate, dont play.

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THRIVING GREEN IN BLUE OCEANS

Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne might be one of the best business books Ive ever read. i recommend it highly. The key premise of the book is: You can create high growth and prots by creating new demand in an uncontested market (blue ocean) rather than competing in a crowded market in an existing industry
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This is the cornerstone strategy to build your business. Pick your product or service and determine which industry would have huge demand and zero, if any competition for you. Going back to our Solatubes example, lets consider where Solatubes are sold most frequently and to whom. Largely they are sold in one or two units to homeowners at home shows, big-box retail chains, etc. Assuming this is a business you wanted to enter, Id suggest you sell to universities and other business that have large campus properties. The reasons are simple: Youll sell more units since their properties are larger. There are fewer people selling to this market. Compared to home-owners they have other reasons why they may buy Solatubes (good branding/PR, more comfort = increased productivity, makes them look cutting edge, have budgets or incentive $ to spend on energy efficiency, etc.) Youll be sailing along in a blue ocean of opportunity while your competitors languish in an overcrowded marketplace. Seek out blue oceans whenever possible. They can make or break your entire business.

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GREEN CEO MINDSET

Creating a thriving green business is no different from creating a thriving business. The traits that made Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey tremendous leaders can directly be applied to your green business. I would argue that all great leaders have three fundamental traits in common (that you must have as well) that made them great. They are: 1. Know their WHY. You must have a very clear picture of why you are in business and why people should care. 2. Track record of passion wins. Its crucial that you have a history of success in areas you are passionate about. 3. Unleash your strengths on the world.

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Why O, why?
If you know your why and are very clear about communicating it customers will be drawn to your company. People want to buy from people who believe in what theyre doing. I buy Mac computers because I believe in Steve Jobs vision of cool products to make life better. Thats Apples why and I dig it. Thats why i dont care about paying more for their products. I know I am getting their best and their vision is aligned with mine. That beats a 10% off sale at Best Buy any day.

Passion Propels
The concept of passion wins really has nothing to do with business strategy. What it has to do with is exhibiting your level of passion when things are tough. Will you push through on something when it seems unbearable just because youre passionate about it? If so, youll be successful. Heres a very personal example (rst cue the melodramatic music): When I was 16 (1986) I played on my high-school lacrosse team. I lived and breathed lacrosse. I hurt my back badly and needed to have spine/back surgery which back in those days was not a small issue. After surgery my doctor told me I wouldnt play lacrosse again and I may never walk normal again. I was pretty crushed. After I got over feeling sorry for myself I committed to my rehab program. I was supposed to do an hour or rehab a day and I did at least three. I used to make my grandmother (God bless her) take me to the YMCA in the middle of winter in Massachusetts so I could swim laps. After several months and with the lacrosse season approaching fast I had another meeting with my doctor. He said he couldnt believe my recovery and said I could play lacrosse. Outside of getting married and the birth of my kids that was one of the best days of my life. A history of passionate wins will sustain you in your business if you believe in what you are doing.

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Unleash the Beast

Your chances of success dramatically increase when you focus on your strengths. Forget that nonsense of improving your weaknesses-that will never lead to long term growth. Look, if I am horrible at accounting, I should hire an accountant, I shouldnt try to get better at it. The most successful people in the world focus on what they do best and delegate the rest. In your business you should gure out your greatest strengths and work backwards from there. The single biggest question I get from coaching clients is How do I know what my strengths are?

Heres a few questions to steer you down the right path: 1. What are you awesome at and feel most comfortable doing? 2. What could you do with little preparation? 3. What do people complement you on most?

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4. What do you absolutely love doing? From my own life, my answers to all four questions are the same:

Giving speeches and coaching people.

I love speaking in front of huge groups, and I love coaching people to new heights in their lives. Ive given impromptu speeches with no preparation and am lucky enough to have gotten rave reviews on my coaching and speeches. Knowing that I spend as much of my time giving speeches and coaching* *As an aside I am absolutely horrible at web design. Thus I never do it and always hire an expert for me when I need it done. If I built a website I think I might crash the entire Internet.

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MASTER THE MARKET

Expertise trumps experience
To truly dominate your chosen market you need to do three things: 1. Seek success, not perfection 2. Answer the tough questions 3. Connect emotionally, justify logically If you master just these three elements you will master and own your market. Couple these tenets with the next section on marketing and you dont need 10 years of experience to be successful. Remember that Facebook and Google were both started by college kids with no business experience.

40/70 Rule
Colin Powell had a rule of thumb that said that he would act on a decision once he had enough information to have a 40-70% chance of success. He wouldnt wait until he was 100% because that would often be too late. You would do well to follow in his footsteps on this. When launching your business strive for success, not perfection. Of course you want a perfect website. Better to launch a good version now to get your name out there. Strive for success and let go of being perfect. Who wants to be perfect, anyway? Boring..

Question your customer

Rather than selling a product or solution, sell a state of mind. Sell an emotional state to your target customers. To do this you must rst be willing answer the toughest questions about your target customers. You must get to the heart of what drives them, what inspires them and why you align with their vision.
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Here are the questions to ask: 1. Who does your customer want to BE? 2. What does your customer want to FEEL? 3. Why will they thrive with YOU? Lets take an example of two energy auditors selling to homeowners. One sells on price and features and one is YOU. Price and features guy: Mrs. Customer, for $495 I come to your house and take various readings on your current energy efficiency and current toxin levels and give you a 30 page report with my recommendations You: Mrs Customer, I make sure you and your family live in the safest possible environment and spend as little as possible on utility bills. Youll enjoy peace of mind knowing that your home is healthier than any others in this neighborhood. Put simply, you and your family will thrive in this home when Im done with it So, who do you think gets hired more often and whos business thrives over the long-term? Get in your customers head and ask the tough questions. What do they really care about most? Find out and use that as your starting point.

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4 RULES OF MARKETING
More business books have been written about marketing than almost anything else. When launching a green business you can easily fall into that trap and spend the next 5 years reading marketing books. Were going to skip all of those steps andIm just going to give you the answers to the test. Remember, in launching green businesses all over North America these four rules are what Ive seen to consistently work over and over again.

Rule # 1- No Advertising
Advertising is arguably the biggest waste of time for any green business. It will waste your time and suck the money and life out of you. Why? One simple reason: Zero barrier to entry. If want to advertise myself as an expert dentist in the New York area I can put an ad in the New York Times and thats it. Never mind that Im not a dentist. Placing ads is easy and does nothing to qualify me as a dentist. There is absolutely nothing in advertising that qualies you as an expert and someone your prospects should contact. Advertising is a great way of shouting to the world, Im great! Call me, because, you know, Im really great! Better to have people shouting your accolades for you. Leading to..

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Rule # 2- Heavy PR
A smart public relations strategy is a goldmine for any newbie green entrepreneur. Being featured as an expert by someone else is always good. It invariably leads to increasing your brand and your standing in the marketplace. True story: When I rst started eco-consulting, I got a call from a local reporter who wanted to feature me on a local station. We shot a feature and it appeared on a local Sunday night news program. A producer from Fox TV was watching and he called me the next day to shoot a similar feature. I shot that feature which led to another feature on NBC. Ive booked numerous speeches and other business largely from those TV news spots. I was perceived as the expert even though I hadnt been in business for very long. That is the power of good PR. The more you are seen as the expert, the more people will approach you for business. An ancillary benet of being approached for business is that you can largely set the fee you want. Theres very little haggling because, after all, you are the expert. So dont be an advertiser, be the expert.

Rule #3- Speak/Write AMAP/ASAP

Hand in hand with a strong PR plan is to spend as much time writing or speaking to your target audience. Key to this is AMAP/ASAP which means: As Much As Possible/As Soon As Possible Dont wait until you are perfectly ready, start speaking and writing right now. You have an opinion, you have a perspective and chances are people are probably interested in it.

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One of the easiest ways to do this is to create a content calendar for both writing and speaking. For example: Monday- Write 1 website post, contact 3 local groups for speaking engagements. Tuesday- Write 1 blog post, contact 3 national associations for speaking engagements. Wednesday- Plan an event to host for target clients. Thursday- Write 1 white paper and contact 5 business associations (Rotary, etc) for speaking engagements. Friday- Contact 5 local universities about being a guest speaker in their adult education classes.

Rule #4- Rule the Web

Most marketers or web experts will say that traffic trumps everything. They tout SEO tactics and promise to get you on the rst page of Google. Unfortunately thats not really what you need to ensure your business will thrive online. What you need is targeted traffic that converts to closed deals. Traffic = good. Targeted traffic = great. Closed leads from site = Essential. At the end of the day your website does you no good if you dont convert leads from it into closed deals. Focusing only on traffic can really hurt your business long-term. Lets discuss the two main functions your site must perform for your business. And yes, there really are only two to focus on. They are: 1. Provide value. 2. Provide credibility.

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Every page of your site should either provide valuable information to your target clients or establish you as the expert in your chosen eld. Both functions bring you closer to your prospects and lead them to choosing you. Give info and value away freely. That may seem counter-intuitive but in reality it can be the best thing for your business. Why? Because people will subconsciously think, Wow, if shes giving this info away for free, I cant imagine how much she could help me if I were to hire her. Establish your credibility with testimonials, speech transcripts, videos of you on the news, etc. Demonstrate that you are a results leader in your market. Master these two site functions and you master the web.

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READY, SET, LAUNCH

The time is Now
The best time to launch your green business is a year ago. The second best time to launch it is today. The third best is tomorrow. Hopefully you get the idea that getting to market in a working fashion now is better than launching 3 months from now perfectly. Remember, were looking for success, not perfection.

Launch accelerators
There are a few things you can do to accelerate your launch. Heres a partial list: 1. Target ve high visibility prospects and offer them your services in exchange for a testimonial. That gives you project experience as well as a recognized customer base to leverage. 2. Determine what events your target clients attend and attend them as well. Schedule meetings with them at the events if possible. 3. Contact every website editor, podcast creator, news reporter, radio host, etc. that your potential clients may listen/watch or read. Offer to do guest posts, interviews, etc. Most of these resources are starving for content so youre actually doing them a favor. 4. Work your network. Call (no email, no facebook messaging) people in your network who may have contacts who can help you. State clearly that you need a favor and dont beat around the bush. 5. Engage in social media to research potential clients and/or potential speaking/writing engagements. 6. Create 30 day goals and manage to them weekly. 7. Hire a coach or accountability partner.

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YOU are who we are waiting for

Launching a green business isnt easy. You need to combine hard work, passion and intelligence to really be successful. A little luck doesnt hurt either. The question really isnt whether its easy or not. The question is, How valuable is you business to our world? Are you reducing the impact on the planet and making peoples lives easier/healthier? If so, then its a worthy pursuit even if its not easy. People all over the world need us to launch and run successful green businesses. We all deserve to live/work in healthier environments with better products and more opportunity. If youre reading this youre on the forefront of that opportunity.good for you. Now its time to leverage that opportunity and launch. Five years from now youll be glad you did. I know I am. I hope this manifesto has been helpful. Please feel free to contact me directly with questions at Jim@JimSimcoe.com or 760-271-7128. All the best... Jim

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