Written by: Lance Cody-Valdez
Given the world’s mounting concerns about climate change and sustainability, it comes as no surprise that investment in green businesses is on the rise. In addition to creating green offerings, businesses aspiring to enter this industry need to have a plan for following sustainable and ethical practices, as these are viewed as key considerations by customers. Today, KJM Digital will explore the best strategies entrepreneurs should follow to establish a successful green business.
Conduct Thorough Market Research
The green industry is vast, with numerous niches each with its own set of probable products and services. As a new business, your first step will be to identify a profitable opportunity and then dive deep into factors such as year-on-year demand, sustainability, level of competition, and more.
Once you have a niche in mind, here are the next steps to follow:
● Conduct secondary research by reading reports from research databases. These reports provide in-depth insights regarding the industry, current/future trends, and the performance of major players in the market.
● Visit websites of market leaders of the niche and get a feel for the type of products they sell, the customers they target, and how they market their products. Competitive research will help to find overlooked customer pain points that you can target with new product offerings.
● Creating an SCV (Single Customer View) can be extremely helpful by unifying all the data you have about each individual customer into a highly streamlined profile that you can use to target and serve them more strategically; this is a good option to consider and can be a big help to sales reps, customer service reps, and marketers.
● Invest time in social listening by following major discussions regarding climate change and green businesses on social media platforms and forums such as Reddit. Pay close attention to key issues highlighted by customers and try to find trends your business can capitalize on.
Write a Strong Business Plan
A business plan serves as the founding document for the business and should include the following aspects:
● Market Analysis: Compile relevant facts, statistics, and trends drawn from your research which will be used to make key business decisions.
● Product Offerings: Provide a deep dive into each of your offerings. Include details regarding how they’ll be manufactured and used by customers. As a green business, you’ll need to ensure your practices are sustainable and ethical.
● Price Points: Profitability is a key goal for green businesses as well, hence study your competition closely and find the right pricing strategy that helps you capture market share while maintaining a healthy bottom line.
Create a Budget
Keeping costs in check is important to safeguard the long-term health of the business. However, as a new enterprise, you can expect to incur costs for creating a website, securing suppliers, utilities, raw materials, and much more. Additionally, those planning to set up offices in major cities should make provisions for affording monthly rent.
Budgeting is a tedious activity to manage manually, hence leverage the power of technology by using Excel, which is one of the best software in the market. Not only will it complete complex calculations in a flash, but it will help to keep your monthly costs in check. For instance, once you start receiving invoices, rather than storing them separately, you can add them to the Excel sheet itself. If you’re unfamiliar with this feature, refer to this resource guide regarding embedding a PDF into an Excel sheet.
Choose the Right Location
If your business is going to be a retail venture, your location will have a major role to play in your potential success. As you’re going for a green business, try choosing a location that’s walkable. Cutting down vehicle traffic is a win for everyone.
The success of your green business will heavily depend on how well you manage resources and remain committed to sustainability. To achieve these goals, utilize technology solutions such as excel and make the most of government grants to fund key projects.
KJM Digital works hard to support the creative community. Questions? Please email kjm@kjmdigital.com.