Today we celebrate blog action day with 15,500 other blogs. The focus—our environment.

Many businesses say that they’d love to follow practices that are better for our environment and local community… but they say that those ideas simply cost too much. I doubt that. Most environmentally aware companies actually make MORE money through their efforts.

The immediate expenses would be higher during your implementation, sure. But in the long run? I bet your business would benefit even more. The same goes for any huge purchase like equipment and training courses. Bigger initial cost, better long-term results.

A lot of small town businesses aren’t going to make these changes on their own. You, the consumer, have to urge them. I have made it a habit to speak to managers and owners of local businesses. I tell them my concern and ask if it’s something that they’re addressing or planning on doing something about. Local produce? Locally-made foods? Recycling? Pesticide-free products? Programs that give back to the community’s development and sustainability?

Most employees just shrug me off. Mangers listen (or at least seem to pretend to!). If you keep going home miserable, complaining to yourself, nothing will change. If you start speaking out, things can start to change.

After years of Styrofoam at every function, my local church has quit purchasing Styrofoam. We spoke up. Today shouldn’t just be a day to post about the environment. Blog Action Day means we ought to be taking action, don’t you think?

The SBA (U.S. Government’s Small Business Association) even offers two environmental loan programs to (1) help engineer, manufacture, market, install, or service energy conservation measures or (2) allow the ability to plan, design, and install a pollution controlling facility. So what’s the excuse?

And how about all those local businesses that keep handing out Styrofoam…

I ran into this little post over at Medallia Blog a few months back and wanted to share the idea with you. A large pharmacy company wanted to tap into the market for aspirin in the middle east. The problem was that many of the people are illiterate so using words is out if they want to go for the maximum amount of people being able to understand the ad.

What they did was place this on many billboards…

After running the campaign for a few weeks, the advertising had no effect whatsoever. After a bit of market research, (Also known as asking people!) the problem dawned on them. Arabic is read from right to left, so the pictures were being read in the wrong order making it look like the medicine actually causes the discomfort.

A constant problem for us millionaire wannabes is that we’ve got a lot of ideas that never seem to develop into something concrete. Guy Kawasaki, the guy we all turn to for the occasional kick in the butt, has done it again in his book, The Art of the Start.

He’s got five tips that he calls GIST: Great Ideas for Starting Things

1. Make meaning (Inspired by John Doerr). The absolute best reason to start something is to create meaning, to make a product or service that makes the world a better place.

2. Make mantra. Mission statements are so long. They’re boring, and they’re irrelevant. No one can ever remember them. Instead, make your meaning a mantra. Answer the ‘why’ of your organization. Your entire team can get on the right course if they actually know why you’re all there.

3. Get going. Start creating and delivering your product or service instead of the silly details like pitching and planning. You don’t make money there.

4. Define your business model. No matter what kind of organization you’re starting, you have to figure out a way to make money. The greatest are short-lived without a sustainable business model.

5. Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions, and Tasks). The last step you need is to compile three lists:

(a) major milestones you need to meet;
(b) assumptions that are built into your business model; and
(c) tasks you need to accomplish to create an organization.

I just picked up a book from Seth Godin. If you haven’t heard of him, then you are really missing out. He has published quite a few bestselling books and is quite the knowledgeable fellow. His site is www.SethGodin.com and he has some great marketing and business ideas. I haven’t finished the book ‘Free Prize Inside’ yet, but I have made it through the first section. It has a lot of really great ideas about ’soft innovations’ which are inventions and add-ons to products. An example is the free prize in cereal that makes the kids want Fruit loops over Captain Crunch. Things that aren’t exactly world changing, but product pushing.

I am going to share a clip from the book that I found interesting.

My argument so far:

1. Advertising doesn’t work so well, because you can’t buy attention.
2. Big R&D hardware innovations don’t work because they’re so risky and ever more expensive.
3. Soft innovations are the sweet spot, the free prize, the means that will allow your organization to grow and thrive.
4. Anyone, including you, can create a successful soft innovation, even (and especially) if you’re not in the marketing department.
5. Not only is it profitable, but it’s empowering, engaging and fun.

So, you may be wondering, if this is so effective and so productive and requires so little training, why doesn’t everyone do it?

Exactly.

The Reasons Everyone Doesn’t Do It

They’re scared.
They’re organized to resist change of any kind.
They don’t understand that soft innovation isn’t risky, it’s free and important.
They don’t realize how much their bosses want them to pursue soft innovations.
They’ve never been sold on doing it, and they’ve never been taught how to do it well.

This Means There’s Huge Opportunity

Everywhere that you go, when you start to, you can come up with ways to make products better. Or perhaps a more attractive way of displaying them. Once you get your mind exercising, the ideas just begin to flow.

Not only have I enjoyed this book so far, but I went to Amazon to see what else he has available I ran into “The Bootstrapper’s Bible” which is available as a PDF. I just purchased and downloaded that for less than three bucks, and I’ll let you know how it is.

I should also include a link to his blog here, Seth Godin provides a wealth of information here as well.

I just ran into this article about finding the balance between self promotion and integrity. Where do you draw the line, and how should you promote yourself towards you boss and others? Without isolating yourself of course.

The ideas in the article come from a book called Selling Yourself without Selling Out: A Leader’s Guide to Ethical Self-Promotion. I haven’t read it yet; however I hope to get a chance to pick it up sometime this fall.

The five ideas in this article are:

1. Educate up.
2. Expand your network.
3. Tap other people’s expertise.
4. Acknowledge your team.
5. Celebrate success.

Check out the whole article over at Marketwatch. Of course they have a description and example on each of those five ideas.

I recently was able to recover a long lost Aridni post called “How to have ten thousand ideas in five minutes.