eco-friendly

Enticing Potential Employees: 4 Strategies for Making Your Company an Attractive Workplace

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Attracting new and qualified employees can often be a challenging and complex process. There are many factors to consider when recruiting new employees, such as the background, qualifications, and educational history you are looking for. Many qualified applicants are searching for specific qualities in companies when job hunting. Therefore, not only will you need to be aware of the type of employees you are searching for, but you will also need to ensure that you have created a company culture that is conducive to their needs. The following information provides four helpful strategies you may want to consider in order to make your company an attractive workplace for job seekers.

Create a Desirable Company Culture

You should strive to create a desirable company culture by developing an environment that promotes innovation, inclusion, and diversity. This will allow employees to think freely and creatively to come up with new solutions to business problems. It will also show that the company is ethical in its hiring and promotion strategies. Everyone should feel like a valuable asset to the company, and employees should be encouraged to be respectful to each other despite their differences. All of these factors combined should help to create a company culture that attracts the top talent and discourages high employee turnover rates.

Offer Competitive Wages and Benefits

You will also need to make sure that you are offering competitive wages and benefits to your employees. The top talent wants to work for a company that values them and invests in their potential and professional success. Therefore, you should encourage their growth and always strive to reward hard work.

Make Ethical Decisions

Your company should strive to create a positive and ethical reputation for itself. This can be achieved through manufacturing products in an ethical manner that doesn’t damage the environment or communities. It can also be helpful to give back to your local communities through charitable endeavors and to listen to the feedback and concerns of your customers in order to provide them with the best products and services.

Become More Eco-friendly

Many companies are making a shift towards becoming more eco-friendly. This is something all businesses should consider because the health of our ecosystems is vital to our future. Ways you can reduce your carbon footprint and make more environmentally friendly decisions include reducing your energy and water usage, manufacturing products in a way that causes less harm to the environment, and disposing of waste in the proper manner through research and by hiring professionals, such as aerosol disposal services.

Overall, there are many ways you can make your company a more attractive option for talented and qualified applicants. You just need to strive to be ethical and compliant and to invest in the future of your employees. The aforementioned tips make excellent starting points and there are always ways to improve and grow in order to become a better company for your employees.

Guest author, Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. She went to college at The Ohio State University where she studied communications. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and long walks in the park with her 3-year-old husky Snowball.  @LizzieWeakley

Expanding Your Business? Top Considerations When Designing Your New Building

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If you are looking to build a new business location, then the process can often be nerve wrecking. Keeping some key points in mind may help the project go more smoothly, but remember that there will always be hiccups along the way. Here are some pointers to take into consideration to make the process of building a new physical location for your business goes smoother.

Think About the Materials

Although you will most likely be working with a construction company to get your new location built, you should keep in mind the supplies that are used. Do you want to use recycled or eco-friendly materials? Will there be chemicals for construction and roofing used? Talk to your construction project manager and discuss your wishes. In the case of chemicals, for example, ask which specific chemicals will be used. If needed, talked to a supplier like Seidler Chemical that they might be using to get that chemical. The same goes for other types of materials that may be used.

Choose the Best Location

You need to work with a real estate professional to choose the best location for your business. Keep local zoning laws in mind when choosing your location. If your business requires foot traffic, then think about building in a location where your business will be seen by those looking for those types of businesses. For example, if you are looking to sell used cars, then think about locating near other car lots as customers are more likely to head there when looking. On the other hand, if your business relies on trucks or trains to move merchandise, then you may want to consider building your business near interstates or the railroad depot.

Think About Design Elements

There are several design elements that you will want to consider when building a new location. Consider elements that will make your location attractive to customers who are coming to see you. Think about how much room your staff needs to work efficiently. Ask yourself how your product will flow into and out of your location. Likewise, consider how customers will flow through your building so that you can keep them safe while making shopping in your new location efficient.

Handle Finances

You will need the money to be able to build a new physical location, so it is important to get everything down on paper. After you have completed all your calculations, then go see a commercial lender if needed. They may also need a copy of your business plan and the last several years of business books. You may also want to see if there are any grants or low-interest government loans available to help you in the process. Keep great records of who you contacted and what they said.

Following these helpful guidelines will help you get the project done quickly. It will often save you money. Building a custom-made business often leaves a great impression on your customers helping to increase your return-on-investment.

Guest author Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, CA. She enjoys kayaking and reading books by the lake.

Ways Almost Every Business Owner Can Save Money

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If you were to take a close look at just about any business, you would probably find ways that the business could save a ton of money. Businesses both big and small should be concerned with saving money. Even if you have a steady flow of cash coming in, you never know when you might go through a dry spell. Plus, the money you could be saving in certain areas could be put to better use in other areas. It makes sense to look at the places you can save money and then work towards them.

Here are some pointers that just about every business owner can use to save money:

Becoming More Eco Friendly

Becoming a more eco friendly business reduces the impact you have on the environment, and makes you more attractive to clients who are concerned with making the environment a better place, too. You’ll also save a lot of money, even if you take baby steps to making your business more eco friendly. Here are some ideas you can use to begin working towards a more eco friendly business right now:

  • Cut back on paper before going completely paperless
  • Buy from eco friendly, sustainable companies. You can get recycled paper and ink, for example.
  • Only use sustainable product packaging
  • Swap your light bulbs for more eco friendly light bulbs
  • Use more natural light rather than artificial light
  • Ensure everything is switched off before leaving the workplace at night

The above are just a few suggestions that will help you to become a more sustainable business.

Getting Rid Of Dead Weight

It might seem harsh, but you may have some dead weight in your business that you need to let go of before you can save money and move forward. Of course you should give people a chance to improve (plus this is what the law will state in most places), but if you have meetings and give written warnings and nothing improves, you may have to let employees go. Finding employees that are engaged and passionate about the work is important, but remember that your own leadership skills make a big difference too.

Creating Better Relationships With Suppliers

Creating better relationships with your suppliers is always a great way to save money. Whether you need cone bottom tanks for your warehouse or you’re looking for companies to provide you with stock to re-sell, creating relationships is the best way to save money.

Making Virtual/Temporary Hires

You don’t always need to hire a brand new employee when you have a lot of work on. Virtual and temporary hires can be just as effective, less expensive, and you have fewer responsibilities with them.

Allow Workers To Work From Home

Have you considered allowing employees to work from home every now and again? Not only is this more eco friendly, as you aren’t powering a whole office or getting your employees to drive into work, you’re going to save money on your overheads and other costs associated with working. It could even be a bonus for employees and make them more loyal to you.

4 Ways to Stop Your Business from Negatively Impacting the Environment

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Becoming more environmentally friendly is something that more businesses are considering. Taking these steps will help to reduce the amount of waste and the impact to the Earth. Here are some of the ways that your business can change their practices to become more environmentally conscious.

Invest in Recycling Programs

Recycling is an important step that your business can take to stop your impact to the environment. Many things that are utilized each day can be recycled instead of going into a landfill. Electronics are becoming easier to recycle in many communities. Some buyback programs are even offered because of the value of the metals. Another thing to consider is purchasing recycled materials. Being more environmentally conscious in the workplace can make your employees see the benefits for their homes.

Reduce Your Energy Consumption

Turning lights off that aren’t in use is a big cost saving measure for businesses. Another one that you may not have given much thought was the HVAC usage. You can reduce your businesses usage by investing in a more energy efficient roofing system. For example, foam roofing provides more insulative qualities than a typical roof. This can be especially beneficial if you live in an extremely warm or cold climate. You can increase your overall energy efficiency by reducing your greatest area of waste.

Look Into Green Scaping

Water runoff can present problems for the environment. Erosion and other issues can occur when large parking lots lack the proper drainage system. Green scaping or soft scaping can help with this issue. Add catch basins for the runoff from your parking area to help with erosion. Invest in landscaping that is more tolerant of your climate. You want to limit the amount of water that is used to keep it in good condition.

Create an Action Committee

Another thing that you might want to consider is creating an environmental action committee. This committee can keep up on the latest trends in how businesses can help the environment. Some of their solutions may even be able to save your business a little bit of money. There are always new gadgets and technology that appear on the market. If you’re unaware of these things, you may not be helping the environment as much as you could.

Businesses have a social and ethical responsibility to do their part to help the environment. You can set a good example for your employees by taking these actions in reducing your carbon footprint.

Guest author Hannah Whittenly is a freelance writer and mother of two from Sacramento, CA. She enjoys kayaking and reading books by the lake.

Eco-Friendly Business: A Guide to Successfully Marketing Yourself as Green

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That green is all the rage lately is hard to disagree with. Not only are businesses discovering the vast financial benefits of going green; they’re also noticing that doing it for the right reasons has a lot more going for it than joining the party for the fun of it. If you’ve completed the tour of electronics around your office already, banned hard copies, and found ways to use less energy in general, you’d probably love to see your company celebrated by your community.

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Image by: Pexels

Don’t let your good deeds go unnoticed; here is a useful guide to how you can market your business as green and show it off from its best side.

Green is the most complex color

It should be easy enough to get the word out there when you know for a fact that you’re green through and through – yet, green marketing is no easy challenge. Do it for the sake of profits and the community is likely to punish you for selfishness; do it for the sake of the environment, and you could still risk being avoided.

It seems overly complicated, but there is a simple explanation to this. Sometimes, marketing yourself as green doesn’t speak to your target group quite as it should – and it all depends on what sort of business you’re in.

Think about it this way; when you hear that a business is green, what comes to mind first? Most likely, you’re not settling on luxury and comfort. The truth is that a luxury resort that is marketing itself as eco-friendly is likely to scare pamper-seeking guests away. They’ll think cold and short showers, going to the toilet outside, and sleeping under the stars; kind of romantic but not always comfortable.

As a business owner who offers comfort and luxury to their target audience, you should still be green and eco-friendly – just be it quietly. It saves you money in the long-run and is wonderful news for our planet, so don’t let snobbish customers who think eco equals discomfort steer you in any other direction.

It’s a good idea to think about who sustainability is important to, since certain demographics seem to care more than others. As a general rule, women tend to focus on soaps and cleaning detergents that are free of chemicals, especially when it comes to cooking and products for their children. A label of being green won’t sell your products, though, so don’t expect your business to bloom just because of this.

What do you mean by green?

Sure, we use it as an umbrella term for being conscious of the environment – but going green could imply various things to your customers. It’s important to communicate exactly how you’re contributing to keeping our planet healthy; with vague and imprecise boasting of being green, you risk confusing or even disillusioning your community.

The companies who are marketing themselves as such but fails to inform the consumers on the specific measures they’ve taken so far might be seen as dishonest. Especially when their competitors are successfully marketing themselves as green and provide detailed explanations of how they do it; by reducing carbon footprints, using solar energy, banning papers, and steering away from hazardous chemicals.

Go green but tell them how you do it and, even more importantly, why you’re doing it.

Find ways of incorporating this message without explicitly using the word ‘green.’ People are able to connect the dots themselves, and the positive message will shine through without the use of vague umbrella terms. To falsely show off one’s business as eco-friendly is known as greenwashing and you’d want to avoid this by all means.

Although you’re likely to find other guides online that tells you to incorporate your green vision in every part of your business – as well as the logo, we wouldn’t take it that far. Ask a marketing agency to help you with finding the right solution for your company; Cardinal Digital Marketing is a good place to start or have a look at this detailed guide.

When deciding on how to market yourself, remember that transparency and honesty are keywords to happy customers. Consider your target group, however, and figure out how you can tailor the message of eco-friendliness to fit their needs and wants.

Use online marketing

Whatever you do to promote yourself as green, make sure you do it online. It’s common sense, in a way, as thousands of leaflets on sustainability is both ironic and irritating to your customers. Plus, online marketing is a lot more cost-effective than the old-school traditional methods, which is excellent news for small businesses.

You can use recycled paper, by the way, which is also cheaper and more eco-friendly than regular printing paper. Concentrate on less paper and more digital, however, and you have vast opportunities for expanding your social media marketing as well as growing your email database. Less is certainly more when it comes to green marketing, so any signs of extravagant spending will be bad taste for your eco-conscious customers.

Make a point out of it

A part of being liked is to be predictable – and people don’t like businesses who say one thing and do another. Someone who is truly passionate about the environment and wants to make the world a better place by starting with their own business should be rewarded, but they should also be honest. We expect you to carpool, to have incorporated a green company culture, and we certainly expect you to be consistent.

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Image by: Pexels

Make it fly by allowing this green thinking to shine through every corner of your office; it’s excellent PR, you know. Engage in local environmental causes, make donations to charities in your community, and source your produce or products from local farmers. As a household, you’d be good to nature by investing in your community; as a business, you’d do the same.

Get your employees on board

To be consistent, you’re going to have to spend some time on figuring out your company culture. It’s such a buzzword these days but for good reasons; a company works as a team where you happen to be the leader. That means that the message of eco-friendliness and sustainability needs to come from the top and work its way downwards; nobody’s going to follow your lead unless you show them that the green culture is here to stay.

Start by reaching out for suggestions. It’s an ideal way of making them feel involved – plus, you’re likely to get a lot of great ideas. Happy employees are listened to and taken into consideration; when you ask for the opinions, make sure you put them into life. It might mean investing in more natural cleaning detergents or successfully incorporating meatless Mondays into the cafeteria menu – but it’s all worth it.

Next, find ways to remind them of your green vision in a non-intrusive way. Tell your team to turn off their computers at the end of the day, install a water dispenser to eliminate plastic bottles, and put up a few friendly reminders in the bathrooms to make sure no taps are dripping.

These are small but effective ways to be a more sustainable business while also keeping it real. Don’t lose their respect by preaching sustainability and driving to work every day; they’ll look up to a leader who takes the bus or carpools like the rest of us. Market your business as green for the right reasons, and you’re in for reduced costs as well as a happier community.

More Companies Retiring Paper for Online Simplicity

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paperlessThere’s more to retiring paper than just saving trees, especially when it comes to the business world. More and more companies nationwide are cutting paper out of the workplace and never looking back.

Here are just a few benefits of adopting a paperless mindset at your business:

U.S. Companies Going Paperless

When it comes to going paperless, a number of U.S. companies have already made the transition and for good reason. According to The Paperless Project, office workers waste up to four weeks each year just walking back and forth from the fax machine and copier to retrieve documents.

Saving time isn’t the only reason paperless offices are catching on across the country. The benefits are almost endless, which is why both Google and Facebook have gone completely paperless. Likewise, banking institutions like Bank of America and Wells Fargo are encouraging their customers to choose paperless statements.

If you haven’t noticed already, local utilities companies are also encouraging their customers to choose paperless statements.

So, how exactly can your business benefit from a paper-free environment?

Cost Savings

As the following article looks at, whether you choose to take 5 steps to a paperless life or you want to get rid of paper in the office cold turkey, the cost benefits alone will surely keep you paperless for the long haul. From paper and printing supplies to the printers and copying machines themselves, paper is a real budget killer.

By switching to digital files and online document sharing, your business can save money and time. As an added benefit, there’s a good chance your business already has the equipment necessary to make the paperless change – as in computers and an internet connection.

File Sharing Efficiency

Copiers, printers, and those dusty fax machines are quickly being replaced by PDFs and emails.

That’s right, if you’re looking to share documents within your company or with outside parties, paperless file sharing is by far more efficient than paper documents.

You can share files via email, a closed network, the cloud, or via mobile devices. Not only that; whether you need to send a contract that requires a signature or a 400-page report, going the digital route is instantaneous and requires, you guessed it, absolutely no paper!

Disaster Recovery

Disasters can happen at any time in an office environment. Whether it’s something as serious as a break in or something as common as a lost document, it’s nice to know your business has something to fall back on.

With paper files, once they’re gone, they’re gone. However, online documents can be password protected and backed up beyond the point of redundancy. This means whether there’s a natural disaster or a lost document, there’s always a way to recover.

Eco-Friendly Business Practice

It’s more important than ever to promote environmentally friendly practices in the workplace. By going paperless and encouraging your customers to do the same, you are helping to reduce waste and carbon emissions that result from paper production. Your paperless business will benefit not just your budget, but the planet as well.

If your business has the paper blues, turn things around by going green and going paperless.

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including small business and the environment.