By Andrew Williams •
November 30, 2008
The Irish government has announced radical plans to introduce more than 250,000 electric cars onto the nation’s roads by 2020, a staggering ten percent of the total vehicles in the country.
If the scheme is successful, Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), the state energy agency, estimates an annual cut in CO2 emissions of around 350,000 tonnes. Transport currently accounts for more than a third of Ireland’s carbon emissions, higher than any other sector.
By John Simonetta •
November 17, 2008
This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see ProfromaGreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.
It is becoming more and more obvious that an economic slowdown is coming.
As Ecopreneurists what does that mean to us? I think it means that we need to remember the entrepreneur part of our names as well as the Eco. Tough times are when fortunes are made. They are when more people are open to new ideas, because the old ideas no longer seem to work. Tough times are times to get creative.
Some ideas to make tough times work for you.
Money that is being spent will need to go farther as there may be less of it in your client’s or customer’s budgets. So add value by looking at the full spectrum of what you are selling. Can you offer more and make your client a better deal (i.e. you sell the stove, but what if you can sell the stove, the pots, the pans, and the power for the stove all together). By offering more you can lower your price on the complete bundle but you may make better, larger sales as you are solving more issues for the client).
Who is your competition? Take them to lunch, ask them some questions. Maybe you can serve your clients better if you team together. Or maybe your competition doesn’t have the fight for this coming slowdown and you can expand your business by taking over theirs.
Same idea one step removed. Who are your competitor’s sales leaders, their designers, their useful people? Take them to lunch. Are they scared for their jobs? Show them how they could benefit from being part of a stronger, better focused company. Fear is an amazing motivator, but it also locks people in place. If you can help someone better their position with a better job, now is the time to pitch it.
