Confidence & Peace of Mind tools for Small Businesses and Start-ups who have joined the Circular Economy
Light is at the end of the tunnel, ahead……..
In this post:
In this pandemic moment, there’s plenty to learn from standing still.
Top Sustainable Business Trends for 2021,
Different methods to RE-THINK
Past crises teach us to put people and planet first
Some practical helpers – website fixes and/or Google things
…Remember list at the bottom of posts about Crises, Jobs and Recovery
Like I said in an earlier post last April:
In this pandemic moment, there’s plenty to learn from standing still.
The pandemic is an opportunity in front of you!
“Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
Winston Churchill
Did you take the opportunity to
pause and RE-THINK?
If not there is still time….the pandemic is slowing but is not over. Recovery is at least a few months off…………………..
It is Your ideas and drive that will bring your project/business to fruition. If your confidence is at a low point, maybe it would help to remember that the only thing that will see your project forward is you. Not a college degree (although that might help), but your imagination and effort, initiative, push, ambition, energy, guts, motivation, get-up-and-go.
I present to you some updates and tools for the coming –
Economic Opportunities!
Especially for those taking hold of the hand that planet Earth is stretching out to you.
Time to pull things together and build Confidence and Peace of Mind, to get ready to go Forward and March!
Here, you can Download the State of Green Business 2022 report to explore the top sustainable business trends of 2022, as well as two new components to this year’s report: the state of green jobs and skills, developed in collaboration with LinkedIn, and the state of net zero, by S&P Global Sustainable.
And/or review last years information:
Top Sustainable Business Trends for 2021
25, January, 2021
Joel Makower
Glimmers of hope amid tough times
Now, where were we?
A year ago at this time, we looked ahead and confidently saw more engagement, new initiatives and a continuation of the forward march of progress that constitutes a typical year in the world of [ordinary and] sustainable business.
And then 2020 happened……………………….
Every one has been touched by it in some way…. a little or a lot.
Have you felt this in your business? I have. Even my little blog, I have felt it. Like many websites on the internet, if your enterprise is not an essential immediate human need, you have seen the traffic to your website go down significantly during 2020. Has your Confidence been erroded and your Peace of Mind flown out the window? Mine did. As much as I believe in what I do, I am not a doctor, food or a job, or a ride to the hospital.
Such turmoil easily could have spelled the end, or a pause, of anything having to do with business and sustainability.
But it didn’t.
The forward march of progress not only continued but accelerated.
What happened? Two words:
business fundamentals
At last, sustainability has emerged from the shadows to be considered part and parcel of corporate success. Indeed, for many of the world’s largest companies, sustainability is now seen as key to minimizing risk, increasing resilience, enhancing competitiveness and unlocking new opportunities.
It appears that my little blog took the exact, correct approach when discussing the financing of Circular Small Businesses – ESG.
State of Green Business 2021
Foreword
by Richard Mattison
Chief Executive Officer, S&P Global Trucost
The global COVID -19 pandemic put a spotlight on the value of environmental, social and corporate governance considerations in capital markets. Global sustainability market benchmarks outperformed [traditional] mainstream indices and ESG investments achieved record inflows as [traditional] mainstream funds suffered widespread losses. The long held belief of ESG pioneers that top ESG performing companies, with their healthy balance sheets and advanced social license to operate, could be expected to show greater resilience, to such market shocks, proved correct. …
… A further indication of the increased commitment to ESG factors in investment decision-making and ownership can be found in the number of organizations signing up to the United Nations backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). As of September 2020,
the PRI counted over 3,000 signatories worth $103 trillion in assets under management (AUM), up from just 63 signatories worth $6.5 trillion in AUM in 2006. …
… As of October 2020, more than 1,500 organizations had expressed their support for the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), an increase of over 85% since June 2020. Nearly 60 percent of the world’s 100 largest public companies support the TCFD ….
… Building Back Better
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many weaknesses to the surface, in particular highlighting the destructive impacts of many business models on our natural resource base. …
… Now, more than ever, integrating ESG goals into business and government strategies can be a critical driver of longterm success.
– CLICK THE CC FOR SUBTITLES……..
If you have a tendency not to believe what Mr. Carney is saying…take a look at what happened at COP 26….He is half way there already!
Different ways to RE-THINK
With all those hats you wear, here are some ways that might be helpful for the Small Business owner to RE-think, rebuild her/his Confidence and recover Peace of Mind.
The Unique Ways in Which Small Business Owners
Are Adapting to the Pandemic
January 2021 – …Commissioned by Melio and conducted by OnePoll, the survey revealed that many respondents were able to progress / keep going during the pandemic by rethinking the way they operate their businesses.
Those that took the time to rethink made changes using HI TECH that streamlined the performance of daily buisness activities.
WHAT HAVE RESPONDENTS DONE IN ORDER TO KEEP THEIR BUSINESS AFLOAT?
1. Found ways to enable employees to work from home 23%
2. Digitized the way they get paid by customers 23%
3. Started selling products online 22%
4. Increased their digital presence on social media 21%
5. Digitized the way they pay vendors, etc. 19%
6. Increased their advertising/marketing efforts 19%
7. Revamped the website for their business 17%
8. Offered new, digital products 14%
9. Offered gift cards or discounts in the future 13%
10. Started drop-off/curbside services 12%
Vortex Bladeless is a tech startup on an intense journey to bring wind energy back down to Earth. In his capacity as co-CEO and co-founder of Vortex Bladeless SL, Raul Martín Yunta shares some of the lessons he has learned about starting a new enterprise with a big idea.
10 STEPS TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN YOUR STARTUP COMPANY
From: https://vortexbladeless.com/steps-successful-startup-company/
19 November 19 – … Each project is different and there is no perfect method to start it. However, it wouldn’t be bad if you ask yourself some questions before getting involved. I invite you to look for answers to each of these questions twice, once before and once after reading my notes about each question.
10 QUESTIONS THAT EVERY STARTUP SHOULD ASK THEMSELVES:
1.- If everything goes well, where does the project take us?
2.- …if not, how likely would the project be to find other outlets?
3.- Am I willing to try?
4.- Then, when do I start?
5.- Who will be my adventure partners?
6.- How much money should I put into play?
7.- …and if I cannot hire, how can I find the support I need?
8.- How will I find investors for the project?
9.- Will I be able to finance the project from awards and/or public aids?
10.- Well, it looks like I’ll finally be able to get more people to join the team, other entities that can collaborate with us, right?
Small Business Survival Plan after COVID-19
No money? No hope? Don’t give up! Your business can survive!
Even if you have totally run out of money and are completely without hope, your business can almost certainly survive the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, you can emerge with a business that is stronger than the business you had before the crisis. [Maybe consider his points and see if they help you RE-THINK.]
First, calm it down.
Second, understand the key positive difference for you in this COVID-19 crisis.
Because it’s a global problem everyone understands what your problem is.
You’ve got a carte blanche to stop paying your bills.
People don’t expect you to run your business and pay your bills the way you usually do.
But you do need a survival plan.
Forget how you ran the business yesterday. Today is a whole new ball game.
Don’t trim a little bit each week…make all your changes at once.
You just gotta find the time to create a great new plan.
…………….and more suggestions to RE-THINK and put a new business plan together.
Mr. Adams, has some good ideas to consider, but if you click on his link, you will find that you can not get off his link without closing the tab! Just FYI.
EU-Startups.com is the leading online publication with a focus on startups in Europe. The website was founded in October of 2010.
We write about internet and tech startups out of Europe and provide our readers with data-driven analysis, interviews and startup-related news. In addition to our focus on young technology companies, we also publish other kinds of news out of the tech-space that has a commercial or cultural impact on startups in Europe.
Each month, EU-Startups.com reaches an audience of more than 300,000 startup-interested and tech savvy people from across Europe.
Did you expect your business would sound like one of these by this time?
But they will! Give it time…. We Humans can dream. It can still happen. In fact, it looks like it is more likely than ever to happen. Patience………
EU-Startups Tag: circular economy
European startups helping create (and keep!) new positive habits in 2021
Rent tech, don’t buy – Grover, a Berlin based tech startup founded in 2015, is helping gadget lovers to enjoy tech sustainably. Designed around the circular economy model, the company has just completed its second international market launch in the Netherlands with its subscription service that allows customers to rent from a portfolio of over 1300 tech products. At the end of the rental period, customers can easily return the product and exchange it for something new. Aiming to reduce throwaway culture, Grover’s model allows items to be circulated up to 4 or 5 times.
Fight food waste – You might have heard of Copenhagen born startup Too Good to Go. As Europe’s leading app for fighting food waste, it’s transforming the way we go about getting our hands on food products. Launched in 2016, the app connects hungry customers with shops and restaurants with a surplus of food, giving them a discount on food that would otherwise go to waste. The startup has recently raised €6 million to continue fighting food waste and has teamed up with over 1500 partners like Carrefour, Accor and YO! Sushi. This app is a must if your looking to do your part to reduce food waste in 2021.
Reduce stress and meditate – Berlin and Istanbul-based startup Meditopia is helping users to calm their mind by changing their personal approach to mental wellbeing. Having recently announced Series A investment of €13.1 million, Meditopia is the most downloaded wellness app in non-english speaking markets, and downloads show no sign of stopping. With 3,000 pieces of content in 10 languages, the service is personalised to each region and the team also works with experts to provide users with mental wellness support in response to localised events such as natural disasters.
United Wardrobe, founded by 3 Dutch students from Wageningen University in 2014, has expanded from its base in the Netherlands to operate across Belgium, France and Germany. Its member base has grown rapidly to over 4 million registered users in 5 years.
Also from EU-Startups.com :
5 ways the pandemic will push innovation
The new paradigm has already been defined as a “Low touch economy”. …
… In this “low-touch” context, understanding what surrounds us is a crucial exercise for any entrepreneur: in each industry, identifying opportunities involves analysing which behaviours are changing and which ones we will drop, as part of the “old world”.
Post-Covid resilience will revolve around new topics that will stimulate innovation: Collaboration, Ethics, Empathy, Flexibility and Sustainability. …
GUIDING YOUR TEAM THROUGH CHANGE, SUSTAINABLY
One of the best ways to motivate employees, particularly during a transition is praise. Praising people’s efforts about accomplishing a goal not only motivates them, it also encourages and inspires them to do even better.
If you are leading a movement toward a more sustainable workplace, consider these tips:
1. Frame the issue in a way that will excite your employees and motivate them to action.
2. Demonstrate quick wins that can show how actions toward change are working.
3. Create safe havens.
4. Use symbols that will help create a feeling of solidarity and sort who your employees are and what they stand for to the outside world.
Past crises teach us
to put people and planet first
Mark Carney, the present UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance to prepare for COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021. He was governor of the Bank of England 2013-2020.
“I want to start with a broader lesson from crises.
Every crisis calls into question aspects of how we value and what we value as a society. That’s because crises normally have some form of mis-valuation at their heart. …
… The COVID crisis in part reflects years of undervaluing resilience despite ample and varied warnings of this risk. In fact, the annual advanced preparation costs for this [pandemic] would have been less [expensive] than one day’s lost economic output during the year 2020…
…What has happened with past financial crises is that after the horse has left the barn, if you will, we’ve then improved – and I’m going to be tortured by my analogy – we [have improved] the barn after the fact.
We won’t get an after-the-fact [chance] with the climate crisis. We have to improve reporting in advance….
… I used the example of BP earlier. There is not a taxonomy that would put BP or any energy company in the green – any large energy company – in the green camp. But a company that’s moving from brown to beige to olive to green is central to the transition. And we need tools in order to do that.
So that is part of what we will be working through. …
… there are many lessons from past crises. We often feel that crises are unique circumstances. [ COVID 19 ] This is not unique. But this is very large. And it brings a social reset in my view alongside necessary economic adjustments. We have an opportunity to shift the economy to have a whole economy transition, turning an existential risk into what is, in my view, probably the greatest commercial opportunity of our time, and one that puts people and planet first.”
Are we there?????????????????????????????????
“In economics, things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.”
Rudiger Dornbusch
Some practical helpers
These are two people who have helped me keep Confidence & Peace of Mind for my little blog. Maybe they could help you!
I found Walid Mujahid on Upwork
I can’t remember if it was the first or second time I looked through the profiles on Upwork, but when I ran into this paragraph from Walid, I jumped on it and it has been just as he wrote for the last 2 years!
“You may have created a website with WordPress or you may have had someone build it from scratch for you. It would be exactly how you envisioned it except for some issues here or there.
Perhaps a button is not in the position you want it to be in or perhaps there is too much space above -or below- the navigation bar.
Maybe your website looks different on various devices and you want a more uniform look or maybe your site is slow and you want it to load faster for your users.
Be they styling/CSS ‘bugs’, site-speed issues, or something else, I will work with you to ensure that your website is exactly how you envisioned it.”
Walid Mujahid وليد مجاهد
————————————–You can find me on:
GitHub – walidmujahid
LinkedIn – Walid Mujahid
GET DISCOVERED. GROW YOUR BUSINESS.
PERSONAL GOOGLE CONSULTING SERVICES
Rank on Google
Advertise on Google
Let’s Grow Your Business
RankPlus SEO is Andy AuGustin, very helpful!
It is like having a personal mentor.
RankPlus Academy is also Andy AuGustin.
He can be the beginning of true Google understanding and more control of your marketing. It was for me. I both took the free course and spent a couple of hours where Andy showed me some things relevant to my own little blog.
Google Analytics: Free Training
THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU IF… Specifically, this course is for you if you’ve run into these kind of problems and you’re ready to find solutions.
Confused by Your Reports
Are you getting reports about your website that confuse you? Numbers and charts that are supposedly about your site but don’t make any real sense. This course brings information into focus.
Spending Money on Ads
If you’re spending money on digital ads, you need to be sure your money is going to the right places and working hard for your business. This course will show you how to track that spend.
You’ll discover which of your marketing efforts work the best (and the worst). You’ll learn how to use this information to get more sales and grow your business. This course can be completed in less than 30 minutes.
OR………………………………..
Did you read through this list?
It could also settle some nerves.
COVID 19 and Recovery posts:
COVID-19 >>> WE CAN COPE
Our Link To COVID 19 = Shrinking Bio-Diversity
Horrific Disruptive – Economic Opportunity!
How To Finance Your Own “Green” Recovery – 8 Tips For Small Businesses
Have You Been RE-THINKING Your Business?
Recycling Grants/Funding For Waste Plastic
What Makes An Economy Circular? Decompose To New Life !
EMF Accelerating The Circular Economy Transition
All the Job posts above have been updated. You can also find them all in:
Job Vacancies In Green Companies < More Now !
Burned Out? Color Your Future Green! With Planet Earth
What Is A Green Job? Green And Other Colors.
the individual job posts:
Green Recovery – Jobs & Money – Where?
8 Green Companies To Work For With Job Vacancies #2
5+ Green Companies To Work For With Jobs Vacancies #3
12+ Green Companies To Work For With Job Vacancies – Green, Yellow & Blue #4
Another 12+ Green Companies With Job Vacancies – Now – #5
13+ More Green Companies With Job Vacancies NOW #6
10+ More Green Companies With Job Vacancies NOW #7
Another 14+ Green Companies with Job Vacancies NOW #8
16+ Green Companies To Work For – Job Vacancies NOW #9
17+ More Green Companies To Work For – September 2020 #10
Another 14+ Green Companies To Work For – Job Vacancies #11
Now Hiring! Indeed! 15+ Green Companies With Jobs #12