With the transition to digital media being the norm, these days, one has to wonder if printed promotional campaigns can ever be green?

Marrying tried-and-tested marketing methods with the responsibility of being a greener business can seem like a difficult task, particularly at a time when many companies are feeling the strain financially. One of the oldest tools used by companies to promote their products and services are leaflets and brochures, but in a world where sustainability is becoming a key consideration, does the printed promotion still have its place?

In addition to being cost-effective, it’s possible to ensure environmental issues such as sustainability are still considered as part of a traditional leafleting strategy by purchasing promotional flyers from an eco-friendly printing supplier. If you are considering embarking on a traditional leafleting campaign, or would like to produce some printed promotional literature, it’s best to approach potential printing partners armed with a few questions that should help you snag the best deal for you and the environment.

Many businesses are aware that operating as a green business can help them to attract customers, so in order to ensure you yourselves aren’t guilty of greenwashing and that you don’t fall victim to the attempts of others at doing the same, you should establish a few basics. One point to check is whether the green printing company is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council – a not-for-profit organisation that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests. Companies who are certified under the group’s Chain-of-Custody programme use paper that can be tracked right back to certified wood grown in their forests. This means that the paper used to print your leaflets or other promotional materials has been sourced responsibly.

Waste should also be a priority: as well as making sure you don’t order more promotional materials than you need, you should check your green printers’ waste policy.

Flyerzone, an eco friendly printing company, separates waste into seventeen streams for recycling or processing and use vegetable based inks from large drums. Vegetable based inks are less harmful to the environment and pumping from drums rather than using small cartridges minimises the use of packaging. It’s even possible to recycle printing plates – so ask potential printing partners whether they have a recycling policy. In addition to being more environmentally sound, minimising waste makes solid commercial sense as those who use fewer resources are able to keep printing prices low and offer you a good price for their services.

How to Assess the Eco-Friendliness of Your Green Printing Services

Here are a few questions you can ask to assess the eco-friendliness of printing companies:

• Is the paper purchased by the company, from a certified Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) supplier?
• Do you have an environmental management system (EMS) in place? Is it certified to the ISO 14001 standard or verified under the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS).
• What type of inks do you use in your printing process?
• Do you use cartridges or drums as part of the printing process?
• What do you do with your paper waste?
• How does your business dispose of non-paper waste such as solvents?
• Can you provide assistance or advice if I have leftover printed materials that I need to dispose of?
• Do you recycle your printing plates?
• Do you have schemes in place which reward green ideas from employees?

Beyond the use of promotional printing, keeping waste to a minimum is a good lesson to take into your own workplace; as well as limiting your paper waste you can look to reduce energy use through harnessing natural light in your building, or installing solar energy panels to help you generate your own heat.

Use the lessons learnt in your promotional campaigns throughout your business and familiarise yourself with the waste reduction packaging directive, which tries to minimise the use of packaging, promote energy recovery and encourage recycling. Not only could this gain your business recognition as a green business, it could also net you savings both long and short term.

Microgrants Fund Creative Projects in Cities through Social Enterprise

This innovative micro-funding idea helps to generate money for creative projects in the city of Detroit and others like it. For the past two years, Detroit SOUP hosts a monthly dinner – soup, salad, bread, and pie – to raise awareness and funds for a local project. The entrance fee is $5 per person and anyone can attend the dinner, which takes place on the second Sunday of each month. Local community members and restaurants donate the food to keep costs really low.

During the evening, four creative projects present their proposals and dinner guests are then encouraged to vote on their favorite. Whichever project garners the greatest support receives the funds raised that evening – usually between $600 and $900. Find a guide for creating your own at crowdsourced funding project at SundaySoup.org.

Crowdfunding Start-up Provides Funds to Employ Americans Working for Charities

Yet another creative approach to crowdsourcing funds for charitable organizations, Giifa works to match private donors willing to provide funds for employee wages in nonprofits around the world. Not only does this approach help to solve crushing unemployment problems in the US, it also makes it possible to staff charities so that they can continue their good work.

Individual donors can give one-time gifts of $20 or more, directing it to a charity of their choice. The social enterprise is still in its infancy, but hopes to grow to help provide many jobs to member organizations in the coming months.

Calling All Eco Entrepreneurs, Social Entrepreneurs, Sustainability Consultants, Green Businesses Owners

Do you want to help me co-create the Ethical EcoBiz Toolkit? Not only will you get a chance to be featured in my upcoming book, you’ll get a chance to be featured in the Entrepreneurs for a Change podcast, which is awesome publicity.

More importantly, your story will serve to inspire thousands of aspiring social entrepreneurs. The Ethical EcoBiz Toolkit will be released with the launch of the Green Business Entrepreneurs Success Summit, this Earth Week 2012 – that is April 16-20, 2012.

I am looking for YOUR personal stories that illustrate the challenges and success of social entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs with the BEST stories will be featured on in our podcast, and highlighted in our Green Business Entrepreneurs Success Summit.

Here’s What You Need to Do

1. Share a story that fits into one of the 4 categories below in the comments section of this post. You will get an awesome DOFOLLOW link to your website just for taking the time.
   
2. Sign up to our private Ethical EcoBiz Co-Creators Email list using the form BELOW - this will help me stay on top of my conversations with the group.

Here’s What You’ll Get

• You & your company will be featured in a highlighted section in the book
• You get to pre-order the Ethical EcoBiz Toolkit at a rock bottom discount – if you want
• If decide you purchase the Ethical EcoBiz Toolkit, you get free upgrades to the product, FOREVER

If your story is really compelling & you are invited to the podcast, you’ll get:

• An audio MP3 of the interview
• A slideshow video, using photos & screen captures of your website
• 2 blog posts with links of your choice, one from Green Marketing TV & one from Entrepreneurs for a Change
• Social media promotion of the blog posts – great free publicity
• Inclusion in the Ethical EcoBiz Toolkit in a highlighted section in the book or as an audio download OR
• Inclusion in the Telesummit as speaker or in the bonus package
• You get to pre-order the Ethical EcoBiz Toolkit at a rock bottom discount – if you want
• If decide you purchase the Ethical EcoBiz Toolkit, you get free upgrades to the product, FOREVER

All just for sharing your story.

Here Are The Stories We Are Looking For

Please post your stories in the comments section of this post. DO NOT submit your story by email as this is too much for me to manage. Take advantage of our DOFOLLOW commenting system and get an awesome backlink.

1. Inspiration.

We want hear about your life changing moments that erased all doubt from your mind that you were meant to be a social entrepreneur.

My favorite story in this category is the story of Jacqueline Novogratz, who started the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit social venture fund that invests in companies that use entrepreneurial approaches to solving global poverty. When she was young, she traveled to Rwanda, where she started a microfinance organization. There, she was driving along when she spotted a small boy wearing a sweater that she recognized as her own – her favorite sweater as a child, which she’d given to Goodwill many years earlier. When she ran out of the car and checked the interior label on the back of the sweater, it still had her name on it.

For Novogratz, the blue sweater served as a symbol and reminder of the interconnectedness of all humanity.

What’s your story?

2. Failure.

The most successful entrepreneurs have failed over and over again. My favorite quote about failure comes from Michael Jordan:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

My favorite social entrepreneur failure story was the story of mountaineer Greg Mortenson, author of 3 Cups of Tea and co-founder of Central Asia Institute, a nonprofit that has built 171 schools in the remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region where few education opportunities existed. In 1993, Mortenson attempted to climb K2, the world’s second highest mountain. After over 70 days on the mountain, Mortenson and 3 other climbers had their ascent interrupted by the need to rescue another climber. After this 75 hour ordeal, Mortenson gets lost on his descent from K2 and arrives, alone, weak, and exhausted, not in Askole, where the porters awaited, but in the village of Korphe. He was taken in by the villagers, treated as an honored guest, and nurtured back to health. In order to repay the remote community for their hospitality, he promised to build them a school. Thus, in failing to climb K2, Mortenson discovered his life purpose – to bring a balanced, modern education to rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Do you have a story of an endeavor, project or business venture that went down in flames, only so that you would rise like a phoenix from the ashes?

3. Mentorship.

Successful entrepreneurs almost never succeed alone. Most have had at least ONE mentor steer guide them in their entrepreneurial journey. Sometimes these are long lasting relationships, other times, these may be brief, but memorable encounters. Is there anyone you would like to honor as having impacted your life purpose in a meaningful way?

4. Success.

Success comes in all forms. I was at the Hub SoMa, for an evening talk featuring different social entrepreneurs. Premal Shah, of Kiva, a nonprofit that enables microloans to entrepreneurs through peer-to-peer lending spoke of the day their web traffic “hockey sticked.” That is to say, after nearly a year and a half of low, steady traffic, suddenly, visitor traffic shot through the roof. Kiva has now enabled over $281M in loans with a 98.88% repayment rate.

Please share with some of your most amazing breakthrough moments.

AGAIN – Here’s What You Need to Do

1. Sign up to our private Ethical EcoBiz Co-Creators Email list using the form BELOW – this will help me stay on top of my conversations with the group.
2. Share a story that fits into one of the 4 categories below in the comments section of this post. You will get an awesome DOFOLLOW link to your website just for taking the time.

Thanks for collaborating!

Some entrepreneurs create a business around their passion.  They firmly believe if they follow their passion, the money will follow. Other entrepreneurs research the market, then create a business based on a gap, or need in the market. IMHO, these guys are the truly savvy entrepreneurs. Because they’re not personally attached to their business idea, and they’re not going to spend tons of time and money to create a product that they HOPE people will buy.

So here’s an awesome story from Zack Kalter, whom I met at Think Tank, the most awesome affiliate marketing conference around. Zack is working with Clearly Filtered these days, a green startup that makes portable water filtration products, including

Not only are their filtered water bottles BPA free, their filters remove 99% of chemicals, viruses, bacteria, and other nasty stuff.  I wish I knew about their bottles before I started travelling in the Brazilian Amazon for 5 months, especially after my UV water purification device conked out after month 1, forcing me to use toxic, government issued chlorine drops as my only alternative.

I’m particularly intrigued by their process. What does it take to research a market, then come up with a compelling product that sells? Here’s Clearly Filtered’s story, plus advice to aspiring green entrepreneurs on how to research a market and pick a product to sell:

Clearly Filter’s Green Startup Launch Story

As a startup in the green industry, we have spent the last 6 months choosing a product, coming up with a business concept, and implementing a full e-commerce solution for distributing our products online. We are a young company, but we have gone through some growing pains and would love to share a few key points for anyone out there looking to start a green business. Hope it helps!

Choose A Green Niche You Can Be Passionate About

When we first started thinking about what kind of business to start, we really wanted to do something that would have an impact on the world. We considered various initiatives in the green industry but when we were presented with an opportunity to market portable water filtration products, we knew we wanted to move forward with the idea immediately. This would allow us to do our part to combat the global water epidemic. We believe that starting a business without a purpose is setting yourself up for failure from the start.

We happen to believe that clean drinking water is a basic human right – not a luxury. We all need water and lots of it. But how do you know that the water you’re drinking is clean and free of contaminants? That’s the very problem we’re trying to address.

The typical solution, at least for those who can afford it, is to buy bottled water. But it’s terribly overpriced, the quality is poorly regulated and once used, the plastic bottles have a nasty habit of ending up in our landfills and oceans. Just because we have something at our disposal doesn’t mean that we should dispose of it.

It was these factors and more that led us into this business venture. Below the surface – at the very core – we knew it was vital that we keep our mission statement at the forefront of our daily activities. We want to help people save money, live a healthier life, and do our part to help preserve our planet. But none of this can be accomplished without laying the foundation of a successful business.

Niche Market Research Is Key

When starting any business from the ground up, you have to have to be aware of your competition. We knew that the water bottle niche was very competitive and filtered water bottles are just now becoming more popular. Our initial goal was to determine if our filters could stand a chance against the many competitors in the marketplace. Initially, we did some keyword research using Google’s keyword tool to get a gist of which keywords had the most traffic. Then we Googled certain key phrases like “filtered water bottle” to get a rough idea of who was advertising, which sites show up in the SERPs and which product images show up.

This gave us a clear look at who is making an impact with their SEO and PPC marketing. We began to jot down every company selling a filtered water bottle and we kept it all compiled in Google docs for easy collaboration. What we found was that there are a few huge players in this market. But, more importantly, we found out that our competitor’s filters aren’t anywhere near the caliber of ours. On our spreadsheet, we included how many contaminants each filter removes and it turns out that our filter can eliminate up to 99.99% of all fresh water contaminants while our top competitors only claim to reduce chlorine.

This was the first “a-ha” moment for us because we instantly knew that we had a better product – one that would allow our customers to feel confident that they were drinking pure clean water with every sip.

While it is clear that market research is important, we also had to consider longevity of the industry. With each passing year our water is becoming more and more contaminated and we felt that this market is only going to become more and more relevant in the future. With the amount of natural disasters our world experiences, it never hurts to be prepared.

Cash Is The Lifeblood Of Any Startup

Product creation requires a great deal of work, and we realized that right away. There are many costs to prepare for, such as product costs, web cart creation, web designers, and fulfillment just to name few.

We really wanted to bootstrap the operation but we felt as though it would be in our best interest to bring some investors on board. We took one initial round of capital from two investors which gave us the leverage to complete our website, purchase initial product supply and hire a few key employees to work part time. It was, and still is, important for us to be extremely tight with our money and keep track of where everything is coming from and going to. We use QuickBooks to manage all of our transactions, which makes the process a little easier.

We also had to take into consideration future product redesigns and new releases so that we can have some flexibility in the way we want to position the company down the road. One thing we have learned is that innovation is key and staying stagnant for too long can lead to your death as a company.

Nothing Happens Without The Marketing

Remember that iconic line from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come?” Well, that just doesn’t hold true in the world of e-commerce. With so much competition you have to be on the ball and be able to find traffic sources any way you can. While talking about our marketing strategy, we understood that there were a few key ways that can generate the right kind of traffic to our site.

Paid traffic such as search adverting (Google, Bing, Yahoo) and media buys can be great if you target the right keywords, but it can also be expensive and risky if you don’t know what you’re doing. We decided that we would do paid search on a small scale to ease our way into testing the waters and would focus on a variety of free methods to minimize risk. Here are a few of the ways we will be marketing using free methods:

1. Guest blogging – This is actually what I’m doing right now. It often goes unnoticed but guest blogging is probably one of the best ways to gain exposure because it is a win-win for everyone involved. The owner of the blog gets a quality piece of content and as the author, you get the readership value and an incoming link to your site.

2. Facebook Fan Pages – Facebook is huge these days…obviously! We are making a huge push to our Clearly Filtered fan page to help educate our consumers and build relationships with them. Down the line, we’ll also be doing some paid Facebook ads to our fan page to spread awareness but right now we are starting with viral components like contests and word of mouth.

3. Video Marketing – Video marketing is something we feel very strongly about. We will continue to make new videos and promo pieces in order to educate and entertain prospective customers. YouTube videos are one of the best ways to communicate your message and personality and the insight feature is an awesome tool for understanding viewer demographics.

4. Forums – Forums might not work for all niches, but we believe that joining the conversation is a huge part of educating people about clean water and our products. Our goal with forums is to target different markets (such as health, travel and survival) and add value to the conversations currently taking place. The goal here is to not spam and genuinely add value to each conversation.

Philanthropy Is A Win-Win

When starting ClearlyFiltered.com we knew we had to include a branch of the company that incorporated a non-profit organization.

We’re really proud to announce our plans for the Clearly Filtered Foundation. The purpose of this foundation is to provide people with a platform to donate money knowing that their contributions will go directly to giving clean water to someone in need.

That’s the kind of thing that makes all the work we’ve put into Clearly Filtered seem worthwhile. It’s our way of giving back to the people who need it most.

If you can tie a non-profit into your business or help give back in some way (think Tom’s Shoes), it will both reward you as a company and give consumers the satisfaction of actually doing a small part for a great cause.

There is a lot to starting a green business and there will always be challenges. The important thing to remember is that a green business does more than make money – whether it’s a non-profit segment, or simply helping people live greener lives. We as green entrepreneurs need to keep these concepts at the forefronts of our minds and push forward in our entrepreneurial ways. Thanks for reading this post. We hope it gives you some insight into what it takes to start a green business.

If any of you are interested in checking out our products, we’d love for you to visit our site. Also… We are giving readers of Green Marketing TV a 10% coupon as our way of saying thank you for reading our post. Use coupon code: gmtv11

About Clearly Filtered:

Clearly Filtered develops portable filtered water bottles, which aim to help clean up our water, make us healthier, and eliminate the harmful waste of the bottled water industry. We are a young startup based out of Orange County, CA and are doing our best to create a sustainable green business that can both turn a profit and help the environment at the same time.

For the most up to date information about us, our products or how you can get involved, visit us on the web at: www.ClearlyFiltered.com. You can also find us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ClearlyFiltered

Using RFIDs to Stop Illegal Logging

Can technology make illegal logging a thing of the past? The Forestry Department in Malaysia hopes so. They are currently trialing RFID technology as part of their anti-illegal logging campaign, according to The Star. Under pressure from the European Union to ensure that all exported wood, and products made from it, is harvested sustainably, Malaysia has turned to technology to solve their problem.

In this scheme, RFID tags are attached to individual trees, which then makes it possible to record and trace each felled tree, following its movements in order to apprehend illegal loggers. The hope is that with a successful program, the government can create export licenses that meet EU standards. Of course, Malaysia’s forests will benefit, too.

Using RFIDs to Minimize Waste Production

As landfill space diminishes, costs for collecting and disposing of waste go up. When costs are passed on to wasters, this is good news for encouraging consumers to practice their three Rs in order to reduce the overall volume of trash being sent for burial. But the current system bills each residential trash-maker a flat rate from week to week, regardless of how much they throw away. There’s no incentive to create less waste, and a disproportionate amount is charged to those who really ratchet down their garbage production.

Enter RFIDs. A business professor at Southeastern Louisiana University has proposed that RFIDs be used to incentivize individuals to participate in recycling programs. RFIDs might be attached to every trash can in a “pay as you throw” scheme that charges based on the weight of waste in each bin. The RFID technology would help to lower costs to those who conserve, and raise costs for those who don’t. The hope is that this system might just result in more reducing, reusing, and recycling. Let’s hope some green entrepreneur picks up the idea and makes it happen.

Image Via Flickr: Danka and cornstaruk

Yes, the rules have changed dramatically over the past decade, and all for the betterment of “clean-tech” small businessmen. The “virtual” age has arrived, but one area that has become more challenging, however, is acquiring adequate financial funding, the primary reason that most startups fail early. The previous decade has literally “scrambled” the playing field. If you have substantial capital that you are willing to risk in your new pursuit, then you are well ahead of the game. If you are like most Americans that are under water on their home mortgages and struggling to find new sources of revenue, then the path to securing startup capital may prove more daunting than expected. Here is a list of potential funding sources, organized by increasing level of difficulty:

• “The 3-F’s” Friends, Family, and Fools: The people that already know and trust you offer the easiest path to obtaining early funding. This group includes any lines of credit or cash advance possibilities on existing family credit cards. Trying to sell friends on your concept is also a good training ground to prepare for the more difficult investor audiences.
• Vendors and Business Partners: These groups will naturally benefit from your success because you represent increased sales for them. Don’t be shy in asking for advances that will help you build inventory or for longer terms for paying bills. Everyone recognizes how slowly cash turns over these days. They, too, are waiting for new growth to fuel our economic recovery.
• Development Agencies or Incubators: Every state and major university has established one of these agencies or incubators in a region near you. Seek their support to gain access to their networks of financial and business support patrons. These groups can also assist in filing for grants, an “art form” that only the experienced hand can make work.
• Your Local Banker: Unless you have large deposits on account or an income level that will support new loan payments, your local banker will most likely shun any request on your part for a loan. Most banks have suffered heavy losses recently and credit rules are tight. If you do have home equity, they can help with an SBA loan application. They generally do not invest in the promise of an idea, but they do have broad networks of contacts that may be able to help you. Approach them with this intent in mind.
• Angel and Venture Capital Funds: This industry is still licking its wounds from years back, and most capital raised is used to shore up the poor performers in their existing portfolio. Each fund manager may see fifty or more potential “deals” in a month and may select only one a quarter for further study. They usually demand that you already have paying customers for your business solution. If you believe that you can compete at this level, then get prepared, but expect a four to six month timeline before any check is written.
• Online Funding Services: A number of online funding services and communities have sprung up to help entrepreneurs find funding outside their geographic area and existing networks. Some, like RaiseCapital.com, incorporate social networking features to help entrepreneurs connect with investors, others, like  Prosper involve peer to peer lending.  Others, like Small Business Loans Direct is provide merchant cash advances and small business loans.

When starting your new venture, be sure to leverage your local networks and seek small business loans directly from new “virtual” sources before approaching the more time-consuming and structured alternatives.

To me, this question is very much like, “How do I find a husband / wife?”

Being a solopreneur is tough – too much work, not enough time. Somewhere out there, you know there is someone with complementary skills who could be your perfect match – kind of like a soul mate – someone to help grow the company and share the work.

But how do you find this person? More importantly, how do you find someone you can trust, especially with money.

Well, finding a business partner is a lot like dating. You never know where / when you might run into your “soul mate.” Finding “the One” could be totally random, like an unexpected encounter at the supermarket or at the gym. Maybe you are already connected on Facebook. Maybe you meet through friends. Or you may have to go on an online dating odyssey and play the numbers game.

And let’s say you meet someone or several compelling candidates. Then, there is the process of getting to know each other. Do you have similar goals? Similar values? Do you have complimentary personalities and can you work together? Is the timing right for both of you to get hitched? Most importantly, can you trust each other?

It’s extremely important to evaluate the reputation of your potential partner, no matter how talented or motivated they might be. If you are going to get hitched, you want to be damn well sure your partner isn’t crazy. This advice from Tristan Kromer, of GrasshopperHerder.com is golden:

Does his/her spouse support the project? Are they friends with their ex-coworkers and ex-wives? You’re going to go through some hard times and spend more time with your co-founder than a married couple and emotional stability is very important.

A business partnership is a lot like marriage – you will be spending a lot of time with your partner and making critical decisions together. You want to be sure this person has your back and isn’t going to turn around and betray you, rob you, or kill you.

One of the biggest mistakes I made was taking on a business partner who had no friends. Sure he had Facebook friends and random social engagements. But I noticed, over time, that no one really called him and he didn’t have any true, longstanding friendships. He had experience, motivation, and dedication to hard work. I had worked with him on another project before and based on this experience, thought the partnership had potential. A year and a half later when the business wasn’t doing so well, he turned around and ripped me off.

Never underestimate the amount of time it takes to truly know somebody.

That being said, finding a business partner, like finding a mate, has its challenges, but it certainly isn’t impossible. Here are some tips to finding the right business partner.

Questions to Ask Yourself on Finding a Business Partner

• Why do you need a partner? Is it to share the work load? Is it because you can’t afford to hire someone to fill a key role in your organization? Does VC funding depend on you identifying a Co-Founder? Is your business growing so quickly that you simply can’t handle it alone?

• What are the characteristics of your ideal business partner? Take the time to sit down and visualize this person. How many years of experience does he/ she have? What skills and expertise does he / she possess? Which industry influencers does he / she know? What is his / her personality like? What values does this person possess? What does this person like to do in their spare time? Really get specific about it and write it down.

Take the time to really get clear on your reasons for seeking a partner and what the ideal partner will look like. Once you have a clear idea, I recommend spending a few minutes each day visualizing working this person, imagining that the person already exists, that you are right now, in this moment, working with your partner, and the two of you are kicking ass and taking names. Allow yourself to tap into the Law of Attraction so that this person shows up in your life.

Where to Find a Business Partner for Your Social Venture

Just as with dating, it’s going to be hard to find a partner if you are home all day and night, staring at your computer screen. You know what it is to be a business, time starved entrepreneur, but you are not going to attract a great business partner, if you give off the vibe that you are busy and unavailable. This is just not sexy – you need to shift your mindset to be “Open & Available” immediately.

There are many places where you can meet a potential partner. At the same time you need to be realistic. If you live in a big city, your options are greater. If you don’t, you may have to consider relocating to a big city near you. In some cases, it may be strategic to relocate to another country – it will all depend on your industry and where the global hubs are.

Here are some places:

• Local and national industry events. For social entrepreneurs, it could be a conference like SOCAP, the leading edge conference on social capital markets. For green entrepreneurs, it could be Opportunity Green, the leading green business conference. Local events like the TEDx series are also great places to meet fellow change makers.

• Startup events. Startup events like Startup Weekend, Techcrunch Disrupt, and Startupfest are awesome places to meet bootstrapping startup entrepreneurs who are also keen to partner up. While these conferences may be tech oriented, you never know what tech startup is also serving your industry.

• Local Meetups and networking events. There are Meetup groups all over the world on any topic. While the list is small and events can be spontaneous, it may be possible find Tweetups organized around specific interests in your locale, especially if you live in a big city. The young but growing Green Chamber of Commerce lists networking events, and the Hub, a global social enterprise co-working space is a venue for many social entrepreneurial happy hours, presentations, and fundraisers.

• Unconferences and BarCamps. Unconferences are a space for peer to peer learning and arose as a user generated alternative to expensive industry conferences. Unconferences may be organized in conjunction with an official event, or as the peoples’ alternative at a nearby venue. If you are unable to afford a official conference pass to to an important industry event, consider organizing your own unconference in a nearby cafe, bar, or event space. Check out Unconference.net for resources on organizing your own unconference. BarCamp is an international network of user generated unconferences. The first BarCamps were tech oriented, but now, BarCamps have been organized around a wide variety of topics.

• Entrepreneur co-working spaces. If you are a solopreneur, consider joining a co-working space. Not only will you meet other entrepreneurs, you can benefit from the ideas, energy, and creativity that permeate the space as well as the awesome networking opportunities. The Hub is my favorite, but there are many more out there.

• Your personal and professional networks. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your personal and professional networks for referrals to amazing partner candidates. Be sure to tap into the power of LinkedIn. You will probably need to upgrade your account to be able to send InMail to contact prospective co-founders directly. You can also post an ad in the job boards that indicates you are seeking a co-founder. Depending on the financial constraints of your startup, this may end up costly and there is still no guarantee that this method will land you a qualified co-founder or partner.

Business Partner Dating Sites

I am amazed at the number of online business dating sites that have sprung up to help entrepreneurs connect with each other. Here are a few:

• Partnerup is a social network for small business. here you can connect with other entrepreneurs, find a SCORE mentor, find partners, ask a question, and promote your business.

• Venturrocket is an entirely new way to quickly and easily find top talent or land your perfect job. There are no job posting fees and no “premium” resumes, and you only pay for results.

• StartupAgents is an online matching service dedicated to helping high-tech startup companies worldwide find the talent they need to build next generation products and services. The service provides both companies and individuals the ability to create detailed profiles that allow for a faster more successful matchmaking process. They focus on software, hardware, life sciences and green technology.

• Founder Dating is a US based offline networking organization that aims to bring together super talented entrepreneurs with different backgrounds and skill sets to start innovative new companies.

• Techcofounder is is an online directory of passionate developers interested in launching a new startup. If you are looking for a CTO, look here.

• Build It With Me is also another developer focused tool that connects design & development entrepreneurs. It exists to make creating apps easier by connecting like-minded designers & developers with the same goal: create cool & useful apps.

Much thanks to Tristan Kromer of Grasshopperherder.com, who posted awesome discussion threads on Quora on how to find good startup partners and how do you know if you’ve found the right co-founder .

Tips on Finding the Perfect Startup Business Partner

• Make sure your partners skills and experience do not overlap your own. Otherwise you may find yourselves forever butting heads over the same issues, while crucial areas of your business are ignored. For small startup tech companies, an ideal partnership triumvirate often looks like: 1. Business Strategist 2. Developer 3. Designer

• Avoid partnering with friends and family. Picking a partner outside of your immediate social and family circles is wise, because you put your personal relationship at risk if things don’t work out. Furthermore, it’s always healthy to avoid having family dramas seep into your business relationships. Or to have the drama factor forever taint your community long after your partnership is over.

• Define your roles clearly and early in the relationship. And don’t make it vague like, I’m the CEO and you are the COO. Then who does the Marketing? Who handles IT issues? Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, recommends sitting down and mapping out all the roles in your organization, with descriptions on what each role will be responsible for. If you are a 2 person business, you and your partner can divide up the roles between yourselves equally. That way there is no confusion as to who does what.

• Don’t forget to do a background check on your business partner. And yes, since we are comparing biz partnerships with marriage, I would even go as far as recommending a background check on your soul mate as well.

• Hire a lawyer. If you are in business, be professional and make sure you and your partner have a legally binding agreement. Martin Zwilling, CEO of Startup Professionals Inc. gives this advice:

Especially when dealing with co-founders that haven\’t worked together before, meet with a lawyer with all the partners present and tell him what type of company you are starting, who is contributing what, and other relevant information. Get it written down. Later will be too late.

The most important thing about finding a business partner for your startup is doing your due diligence. Because splitting up is painful. If you are lucky, you part amicably, and no one takes anything personally.

If you are not lucky, your business divorce could cost a lot of money, a lot of time, and stress. A failed business partnership could leave you broke, destroy your reputation and ruin your health. Some entrepreneurs I know even go as far as to say they will never take on a partner again, because it’s not worth the hassle. But if you do find the right fit, the benefits of having a trusted team player can be amazing.

• Did I miss any tips on finding a great business partner for your startup?
• Do you think its better to have a partner for your business or to go solo?
• Do you have a partner nightmare you care to share?
• Do you have an awesome love at first sight story about your awesome business partner?

Please share your thoughts below!

Social Enterprise Makes Empty Commercial Buildings Available to Charities

Finding affordable, short-term office space from which to operate can be a real challenge for cash-strapped charities, but no longer with the help of 3Space. This fantastic idea comes out of the UK where 3Space makes it easier for charitable organizations to operate by offering them temporary housing in vacant properties.

This organization matches landlords who have short-term properties available with charities needing space for short contracts. 3Space takes care of all the administrative details – advertising the property, finding users, and getting legal documents signed – which reduces the burden on landlords. In exchange, the charitable organizations get the space they need for the time they need it. Projects like The Big Empty Shop Experiment and Foodcycle’s pop-up restaurant have both taken advantage of this option.

Artists Find Homes in Empty Buildings through Social Enterprise

Another great project, Renew Australia, connects artists and community projects with commercial spaces sitting vacant on a temporary and/or low-cost basis to ensure they’re used until a full-paying renter comes along. This helps to revitalize downtown communities while giving starving artists and other creative groups a place to do their magic. Their stated mission is “to catalyse community renewal, economic development, the arts and creative industries across Australia.”

The great news is that Renew Australia will be expanding to America to spread the social enterprise idea far and wide. Both Canada and the US will benefit from this expansion in the next couple of months. The site also includes DIY resources that help you put together a creative space reuse program in your own community.

Green entrepreneurial

UBeauty Recycled Tire Garden Pots

Upcycling used, worn tires, UBeauty is a company that’s producing garden pots to benefit Pakistani communities and the planet, too. Started by an Australian company, UBeauty’s tire planters are constructed by underemployed people in Pakistan out of an old leather workshop using old tires that would otherwise sit in a landfill and pose fire hazards.

The tires are stripped of remaining tread, hand cut, and stitched together by hand using durable nylon thread.  Any excess rubber tread or steel belting is recycled, too, making it a wholly-green business model. And the great news is that the company operates according to Ethical Trading Initiative standards. To date, the pots are only available in Tasmania or Melbourne for between AUD 10 to AUD 75.

PaperFlops Recycled Newsprint Sandals

Created using upcycled newspapers by the new Indonesian company, PaperFlops, are green sandals that are great for the environment and provide a boost to local economies. Using other recycled and natural materials like coconut shells, biodegradable materials, natural rubber, and palm tree roots, mentally and physically marginalized individuals stitch them all together into functional green footwear. Each pair of sandals uses up 1 kilogram of newsprint, and is finished with a natural sealant to keep them durable even in wet weather.

Bringing Renewable Energy to Those without Clean Power in India

Much of India remains non-electrified, making power one of the biggest development issues for the country. Being touted as a “radically affordable” renewable energy option, Simpa Networks may be the key to making solar available to 1.6 billion consumers in the world.

Working on a progressive purchase basis, Simpa Networks provides solar photovoltaic systems to customers at very affordable rates. Customers put down an initial, but small, down payment, and then they pre-pay for the service. Once the prepaid credit is exhausted, the solar system becomes disabled temporarily, until the customer tops up to add more “credit” to their energy bank account, which they can do by mobile phone.

The best news is that each payment goes toward paying the capital costs of installation so that once fully paid, which can be in as few as 10 years, the customer owns the clean energy system for the rest of its useful life. The company currently offers this service in Karnataka, India, but hopes to expand globally.

OliveTrips for an Eco-Friendly Commute Using Only Your Mobile Phone

This newest Indian solution to hitching a sustainable ride to work starts with a Gmail address and a mobile phone number. Anyone can register their car, vehicle, or bicycle with OliveTrips, listing the seating capacity, mileage, and fuel type. From there, “vehicle” owners input their hoped-for destinations, including dates, co-rider preferences, and other details. This all gets entered into the OliveTrips database which can be accessed by anyone looking for a ride that matches their requirements.

A user can then express interest in a desired trip, which generates an email and SMS sent to the owner of the ride. Users of the service get reports periodically from OliveTrips that detail the environmental benefits they’ve obtained by using greener travel methods.