This is the first post in a series titled "Getting Schooled." We'll feature some of the lessons we're learning as we build bGreen from scratch. This first post deals with our foray into the world of PR. Something we admittedly know very little about. This is a brief instant message conversation we had with our PR guy, Brian Kramer, about the inner workings of PR for bGreen. We're trying to attract interest in bGreen by taking the approach of "watch these guys start a business, follow the steps they're taking, and figure out what they're doing right and wrong." Brian is helping us present this aspect of bGreen.
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Kramer: FYI, that entrepreneur freelancer just asked for green companies via twitter but I found out it's an ROI story
bGreen: interesting
Kramer: not quite appropriate
bGreen: no, but maybe that's his current niche
Kramer: my thoughts are that it's not quite your area of expertise and I'd hate to burn bridges on this one...plus now it puts my previous email, which he alluded to, back up on the forefront. it is very, very, very okay to not participate in an interview if it's not 100% appropriate. plus, I'm not 100% that this is for Entrepreneur
bGreen: so what's the move?
Kramer: i just passed on it. in the long run it makes you guys look that much more media-credible and it makes it so you're not "media whores"
bGreen: re: now it puts my previous email, which he alluded to, back up on the forefront how so?
Kramer: because he gets toooons of emails. barely got a chance to read mine and now he knows that I was referring to a green company and I resent it to him so he'll reread it this is what I was trying to tell you, these reporters are inundated with hundreds and hundreds of emails/story ideas every day so, it's hard to stand out without being a pain in the ass to them
bGreen: this the dude? ‘freelancer: Do any "green" companies follow me? Slight chance I might be able to use you in an article I'm writing.’
Kramer: yup. he does a ton of freelance, is a good writer, and he and I have a good rapport
bGreen: cool. do you have 5 minutes?
Kramer: sure
bGreen: ok, so explain to me how this works... he puts up a post like that, which is right off the bat a great thing. you dig around, figure out it's a ROI story. do you get in touch and tell him "hey, got a green company, but not right for this article?"
Kramer: sort of. I see that he tweets that, I call him up from the database of reporters that I have here at work, and basically ask him why/what he needs a green company for. he knows me, he knows that I won't bs him. so, he tells me exactly why. I can then say, "Yup, these guys can talk about it" or, "nope, they can't" or, "maybe they can, let me check in with their experience here.” more than half of PR is just paying attention to the right people
bGreen: very cool. so basically you say "my guys don't know anything about ROI because 1) they have no I and 2) certainly no ROI" but here's my pitch for them
Kramer: sort of, but not too far off. I basically called up your biz partner, JUST to make sure. he said, nope you guys can't talk about it. so I called back the freelancer, and said that they can't, but that these were the guys that I emailed him about from my gmail acct. he's on deadline now, but he'll read the resent email.
Kramer: I am a middleman; no two ways about it...I connect businesses with reporters.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
I love L.A.?
Back in May when we started to mold our vision of what we thought bGreen was going to look like, we decided to take a trip out to LA to do some research. There was an expo on alternative building materials and design taking place in Santa Monica (Alt Build), which was right up our alley, and it was the perfect opportunity for us to check out the green movement in California.
And here are our findings:
1. They just get it out there. Well, they get it to a point. They have recycle bins everywhere, special parking spots for drivers with hybrids, easily accessible organic food, and the list goes on. But don't ask any of the locals to walk somewhere. Walk? What's that? Despite being ahead of the times, they can't seem to shake the "drive everywhere" mentality of L.A.
2. Green stores are everywhere in L.A. and not one of them is doing the same thing. This peeked our interest. When McDonald's started, there were burger joints all over the place but not one of them ran the type of efficient operation that McDonald's did. Once McDonald's came out with a successful model, everyone copied it. From our tour of L.A. green stores, we have come to the conclusion that what we have are a whole lot of "burger" joints but no McDonald's.
3. Boston is better. OK, we'll admit when we first stepped off the plane (and for the entire first day), we felt like idiots. All we could think about was how much better life in L.A. was as opposed to the Northeast. The sun was shining, the people are relaxed, palm trees are everywhere. You get the picture.
[caption id="attachment_48" align="alignright" width="112" caption="Our first stop from the plane"]
[/caption]
Once our initial excitement wore off, we realized that Boston is better for the type of business we envision. It's easy to be green in L.A. In fact, if you're not, you might want to have your head checked. Being green in Boston or any other Northeast city isn't as easy. But why? We are educated, live in smaller homes, and probably have a smaller carbon footprint than our friends on the west coast, yet we aren't as green. (Editor's Note: Yes, having a smaller carbon footprint does technically make us greener. However, imagine how much smaller our footprint could be if you lead the "green" lifestyle they have on the west coast). We have yet to answer this question and hope to do so through bGreen. Green as a way of life.
All in all, our trip to L.A. was a great success. We learned a lot about what is already happening in the green industry and a lot about how we want to be a part of the green movement. We also got addicted to Coffee Bean Iced Tea. This has proven to be a serious issue as we cannot find anything nearly as good in Boston. I guess we'll have to plan another trip to L.A. Yes, for Iced Tea.
And here are our findings:
1. They just get it out there. Well, they get it to a point. They have recycle bins everywhere, special parking spots for drivers with hybrids, easily accessible organic food, and the list goes on. But don't ask any of the locals to walk somewhere. Walk? What's that? Despite being ahead of the times, they can't seem to shake the "drive everywhere" mentality of L.A.
2. Green stores are everywhere in L.A. and not one of them is doing the same thing. This peeked our interest. When McDonald's started, there were burger joints all over the place but not one of them ran the type of efficient operation that McDonald's did. Once McDonald's came out with a successful model, everyone copied it. From our tour of L.A. green stores, we have come to the conclusion that what we have are a whole lot of "burger" joints but no McDonald's.
3. Boston is better. OK, we'll admit when we first stepped off the plane (and for the entire first day), we felt like idiots. All we could think about was how much better life in L.A. was as opposed to the Northeast. The sun was shining, the people are relaxed, palm trees are everywhere. You get the picture.
[caption id="attachment_48" align="alignright" width="112" caption="Our first stop from the plane"]
[/caption]Once our initial excitement wore off, we realized that Boston is better for the type of business we envision. It's easy to be green in L.A. In fact, if you're not, you might want to have your head checked. Being green in Boston or any other Northeast city isn't as easy. But why? We are educated, live in smaller homes, and probably have a smaller carbon footprint than our friends on the west coast, yet we aren't as green. (Editor's Note: Yes, having a smaller carbon footprint does technically make us greener. However, imagine how much smaller our footprint could be if you lead the "green" lifestyle they have on the west coast). We have yet to answer this question and hope to do so through bGreen. Green as a way of life.
All in all, our trip to L.A. was a great success. We learned a lot about what is already happening in the green industry and a lot about how we want to be a part of the green movement. We also got addicted to Coffee Bean Iced Tea. This has proven to be a serious issue as we cannot find anything nearly as good in Boston. I guess we'll have to plan another trip to L.A. Yes, for Iced Tea.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
When Good Plans Go Bad - You Had Better Have a Business Plan
(This is the first of a two, maybe three, maybe even four, part series on when good business plans go bad)
Having grown up in and around the business world, and having worked in the business world for the last seven years, I've always heard about how you can't run a business without a business plan. You need a business plan. Want a minuscule bank loan? You need a business plan. Want to speak with anyone that has earned their MBA in the last 10 years? You had better have a business plan. Want Venture Capital money? You had better have a business plan. Want to mention Venture Capital in a completely unrelated blog post? You had better have a business plan. I think you catch my drift. You NEED a business plan.
Well, I'm here to tell you that bGreen has a business plan. Actually, we have several drafts of business plans that when you put them together probably make one full business plan. To be quite honest, I'm really pleased that we don't have a single complete business plan. After all, once the ink dries on your business plan, the first thing anyone will tell you is that it's become obsolete. Let me begin to share with you why the sum of our parts might actually be greater than the whole.
When bGreen was just an idea, before bGreen was even called bGreen, we had an idea to try and bring green to Boston. The products were already in our lives, but they just weren't right there and readily accessible. Want a KleenKanteen? Search around. There are knock-offs all around, but the real thing is hard to find. Want BioBags? Good luck finding them. Try some sketchy shop that sells via uBid.com. You just couldn't get the stuff. So we said to ourselves, let's put together a store and sell this stuff. So began bGreen Business Plan Version 1.0.
So, after a couple months of planning, a meeting on Cape Cod, 5,000 miles on a plane to and from LA, countless trade shows, conventions, networking events, product research, location scouting, more planning, and endless hours of "borrowed" wifi, we had a pretty good idea of what bGreen was going to look like. So we started to put together our business plan. We had a killer outline. Just the right amount of green industry overview, marketing info, product info, executive summaries, etc etc. When we came to the finance section of the business plan, this is where Version 1.0 became Version 1.Not Happening. Here's what spooked us:
Do you have any idea how many water bottles and biodegradable trash bags you need to sell to cover your overhead? The number is astonishing. It's something like 1,500 water bottles per month. 50 a day!
Adios Business Plan Version 1.0. Our business plan beauty that was the compilation of all of our efforts for the past few months now just became filler for the recycle bin. Maybe we were foolish to attack the finance section last. Maybe. Hell, you can't run a business on dreams and concept alone. But I honestly think that we benefited by ignoring the finance section, and simply coming up with a great concept, product, and vision first. The numbers will come together eventually. Anyone want to buy some water bottles?
Stay tuned for Part 2, titled "When Good Plans Go Bad - Don't call 1-800-Got-Junk Just Yet"
Having grown up in and around the business world, and having worked in the business world for the last seven years, I've always heard about how you can't run a business without a business plan. You need a business plan. Want a minuscule bank loan? You need a business plan. Want to speak with anyone that has earned their MBA in the last 10 years? You had better have a business plan. Want Venture Capital money? You had better have a business plan. Want to mention Venture Capital in a completely unrelated blog post? You had better have a business plan. I think you catch my drift. You NEED a business plan.
Well, I'm here to tell you that bGreen has a business plan. Actually, we have several drafts of business plans that when you put them together probably make one full business plan. To be quite honest, I'm really pleased that we don't have a single complete business plan. After all, once the ink dries on your business plan, the first thing anyone will tell you is that it's become obsolete. Let me begin to share with you why the sum of our parts might actually be greater than the whole.
When bGreen was just an idea, before bGreen was even called bGreen, we had an idea to try and bring green to Boston. The products were already in our lives, but they just weren't right there and readily accessible. Want a KleenKanteen? Search around. There are knock-offs all around, but the real thing is hard to find. Want BioBags? Good luck finding them. Try some sketchy shop that sells via uBid.com. You just couldn't get the stuff. So we said to ourselves, let's put together a store and sell this stuff. So began bGreen Business Plan Version 1.0.
So, after a couple months of planning, a meeting on Cape Cod, 5,000 miles on a plane to and from LA, countless trade shows, conventions, networking events, product research, location scouting, more planning, and endless hours of "borrowed" wifi, we had a pretty good idea of what bGreen was going to look like. So we started to put together our business plan. We had a killer outline. Just the right amount of green industry overview, marketing info, product info, executive summaries, etc etc. When we came to the finance section of the business plan, this is where Version 1.0 became Version 1.Not Happening. Here's what spooked us:
- Monthly overhead (rent, taxes, insurance, utilities) in a killer location = $10,000 minimum
- Average Profit margin = 50%
- Monthly sales to cover overhead in said killer location = $30,000 minimum
Do you have any idea how many water bottles and biodegradable trash bags you need to sell to cover your overhead? The number is astonishing. It's something like 1,500 water bottles per month. 50 a day!
Adios Business Plan Version 1.0. Our business plan beauty that was the compilation of all of our efforts for the past few months now just became filler for the recycle bin. Maybe we were foolish to attack the finance section last. Maybe. Hell, you can't run a business on dreams and concept alone. But I honestly think that we benefited by ignoring the finance section, and simply coming up with a great concept, product, and vision first. The numbers will come together eventually. Anyone want to buy some water bottles?
Stay tuned for Part 2, titled "When Good Plans Go Bad - Don't call 1-800-Got-Junk Just Yet"
Thursday, June 4, 2009
It's Not Easy Being Green
[caption id="attachment_20" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Paperstone Counter Top"]
[/caption]
What does it mean to be "green"? That is something we at bGreen have been struggling with since we began this business in January. Always trying to be on the cutting edge, we came across a number of different green products that we found extremely innovative and it turned out they were green/eco friendly too.
The problem is finding these different materials or products. There is no central location where you can be sure you will be able to purchase all the innovative green products for your life. Our mission at bGreen is to provide the best green and eco friendly products to our consumers. Everything from Paperstone (a counter top made of recycled paper) to Poo Poo Paper (paper made of Elephant poo, yes poo).
[caption id="attachment_19" align="alignright" width="205" caption="Poo Poo Paper"]
[/caption]
The list goes on forever, but all of the products share two similar traits - one, they are innovative and two, they are good for the environment. We will be using this blog to track our progress as we get ready to launch our website, online store and then a super double secret phase 2! We hope to provide you with great information and products. Feel free to hit us up on email or Twitter if you want to talk: bgreenstore@gmail.com & twitter.com/bgreenstore
[/caption]What does it mean to be "green"? That is something we at bGreen have been struggling with since we began this business in January. Always trying to be on the cutting edge, we came across a number of different green products that we found extremely innovative and it turned out they were green/eco friendly too.
The problem is finding these different materials or products. There is no central location where you can be sure you will be able to purchase all the innovative green products for your life. Our mission at bGreen is to provide the best green and eco friendly products to our consumers. Everything from Paperstone (a counter top made of recycled paper) to Poo Poo Paper (paper made of Elephant poo, yes poo).
[caption id="attachment_19" align="alignright" width="205" caption="Poo Poo Paper"]
[/caption]The list goes on forever, but all of the products share two similar traits - one, they are innovative and two, they are good for the environment. We will be using this blog to track our progress as we get ready to launch our website, online store and then a super double secret phase 2! We hope to provide you with great information and products. Feel free to hit us up on email or Twitter if you want to talk: bgreenstore@gmail.com & twitter.com/bgreenstore
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