Author Archives: Martin

Steps to Starting a New Business

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Worst Case Scenario

Worst Case Scenario

If you have a checklist with steps to starting a new business, the very first thing on the list should be a business plan.  In particular, you want to validate your concept by doing research on the industry and environment.  What problem exists and how are you solving this problem? Who is your competition and on what basis are they competing? What are your competitive advantages?  Does your business possess any barriers to entry?  If you can satisfactorily answer these initial questions, then its time for a business plan.

Rhonda Abrams, in A Successful Business plan states: A business plan provides mechanisms to enhance your management in these areas:

  • Marketing.  By developing a marketing plan based on a well-defined target market and evaluation of your industry and competition.
  • Operations.  By evaluating and establishing the procedures, labor deployment, and work flow necessary to run your business from day to day.
  • Finances.  By realistically projecting cash flow, income and…
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Green is the New Black

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Welcome to the Green Giants Blog! We hope you will find our posts about sustainable start up ventures and the environment valuable and thought provoking.

We're here to help!

We're here to help!

As our first post on our new website, we want to spell out exactly what we mean by sustainability. Sustainability means lots of things to lots of people. The coolest definition we’ve heard is: “Being sustainable means you provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future.” With regards to the triple bottom line, first postulated by John Elkington in ’94, the most important factor is economic. If your business is not economically sustainable, then you won’t be around to do much good for very long. So the first thing you, as a business owner, need to worry about is getting or keeping your business profitable.

And the resources out there to support your start up are abundant. Most mid-size cities…

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