Archive for the 'eco-friendly' Category
An article caught my eye this morning about a local Massachusetts Elementary School which is considering an internationally recognized, global education, curriculum. called the International Baccalaureate. Wikepedia states that, “The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), is an international educational foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] Founded in 1968 in Geneva, IB offers three educational programmes for children ages 3–19.”
According to Dan McDonald of the Metrowest Daily News, “International Baccalaureate exists in 2,827 schools in 138 countries and serves about 778,000 students. Central to the program’s coursework is the examination and analysis of subjects on a global scale.” Does a global approach to education make sense? In our new, “The World is Flat”, highly interconnected globally community, wouldn’t it make sense to incorporate common educational elements across all schools? Can we add weekly web seminars from talented and renowned teachers and subject matter experts from Europe, Asia, The Americas and other regions? Could this virtualization of education reduce costs, improve education and increase awareness? And will the economies of scale of online education result in a gradual but consistent movement to approach education from a more global and virtual perspective? Share your thoughts on this topic – comment away…
Tags: Global Education, International Baccalaureate, Virtual, Virtual Education
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Many business owners choose or create flawed small business models which are inherently more difficult to run profitably. As an adopter of a completely virtual and highly profitable model over the past 6 years, I have leveraged a few key fundamentals which have made it dramatically easier to find a consistent path to profitability:
• Find a short path to the money – whenever possible avoid businesses with a long lead time and significant investment to achieve profits. If your business model requires this, consider a different or complimentary business.
• Insist on client deposits – we never begin a project without a deposit and my cash flow is excellent. Once a client has paid a deposit – they become a partner – not just a client.
• Work the virtual business model – No office space, employees (use contractors), no servers, no expenses, no travel, no utilities – essentially no costs – translate to a much easier and faster path to profits.
• Utilize outsource contractors instead of employees – with so many qualified contractors available today, why invest in a large office and hire employees. Work from your home office and contract with 10, 15 or more talented independent contractors – if you create the correct virtual infrastructure – you can often accomplish more with fewer people and far lower costs. And we never have workers sitting on the bench.
• Invest in Cloud Computing solutions, not server based solutions – in a recent web seminar on behalf of one of our clients we registered over 350 senior executives which resulted in 235 attendees. Registration is automatic, tracking is automatic, reminders are automatic, web seminar reports take minutes, our solution even allows us to run the session redundantly in case of internet interruption. Total cost for unlimited meetings and web seminars is less than $20 a week. And since it is an SaaS application, our administrative and infrastructure overhead is zero.
My lead generation and marketing services company eschews traditional brick and mortar trappings, leverages some of the best contractors available in North America and enjoyed a record year in the challenging 2009 economy. Your Virtual Success, due out in April 2010 (Career Press) reviews these key principals. If you would like more information on my virtual business model, go to www.alanblume.com or www.startupselling.com.
Tags: eMarketing, Entrepeneurship, Lead Generation, Small Business, SOHO, statup business, telecommuting, Virtual Business
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The weather outside is frightful – but my virtual morning commute was delightful. The temperature was in the low 30′s this morning providing the backdrop for a combination of snow and freezing rain. Unfortunately the storm hit during the morning commute making a typically bad commute, simply terrible. Of course, in my virtual office I was comfortable and ready to go at around 7:45am, with my Starbuck’s Pike’s Place coffee, and a good internet connection. My car was snow free, still parked in my garage as I glanced occasionally out the window and remembered what it used to be like to sit in bumper to bumper traffic on Route 128.
On mornings like this, I especially appreciate my virtual business model and virtual lifestyle. It was a tremendously productive day for us at www.StartUpSelling.com. We ran a successful web seminar for one of our clients with 175 registrants and 118 attendees; we posted a web site update for another client, downloaded lists, distributed web seminar reports, sent out multiple email campaigns and called many targeted prospective clients on behalf of our B2B clientele. In other words, it was business as usual.
More info at: www.startupselling.com www.alanblume.com
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Lead Generation, Small Business, StartUpSelling.com, Virtual Business, Virtual Office
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The holiday season is upon us and I enjoy the many cards and photos that friends and family send. From a virtual perspective, would I enjoy them as much if they were eCards and images? It takes a lot of gas, oil, electricity and pollution to deliver them. According to the US Census, 1.9 Billion Christmas Cards are sent every year. Some of these are recycled, but most are still delivered traditionally, by the US Postal Service “685,000 career employees and 101,000 non-career staff, making it the second-largest employer in the United States (behind Wal-Mart)…The USPS operates the largest fleet of commercial vehicles in the country—some 212,000 vans and trucks.”
Can we say it as well electronically? eCards will supplant paper based cards in the near future. They get better every year; can be customized with photos, music, etc. Most importantly they are environmentally friendly and almost completely green (they still take some electricity to send and the materials in your computer are often made in an environmentally unfriendly way). It will require a paradigm shift in the way we think about holiday cards, however, as with all things, the more cost effective distribution system will ultimately win, and virtual will supplant paper based delivery. The US Post Office delivers another 18 billion pieces of mail and packages during the holiday season, thus eCards would represent a significant 10% reduction in deliveries, though there would still be a long way to go.
This year, we’re sending almost all of our cards electronically. Regardless of how you decided to send or receive cards, we wish everyone a happy holiday season!
Tags: eCards, Ecofriendly, holiday season, seasons greetings, Virtual, Virtual Business
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Have you read $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner? It’s a very interesting read as he predicts what the future will look like with rapidly rising oil prices. Like most predictive works, there are some things which seem plausible, and others that do not. His basic premise, the inevitable depletion of oil reserves and incremental rise in gas prices seems very likely. However, there are two key factors that are not truly addressed. First, the author presupposes that there will be no cost effective replacement for oil before gas hits $20 a Gallon, if ever. He argues that oil is so cheap, there is no alternative that could provide a cost effective replacement. I’m not ready to buy into that argument; I believe that a combination of greed and technology (is that contemporary capitalism?) can still provide a viable solution. Secondly, and more applicable to the theme of my blog and upcoming book (Your Virtual Success: Finding Profitability in an Online World) is the extremely positive impact of virtual business on energy consumption. Imagine the reduction in consumption if half of the current workforce worked from home instead of commuting to an office. The reduction in energy consumption would be staggering. Combined with solar, wind, hydro and emerging green technologies, and we could see a dramatic change in consumption. Will this happen overnight? No, but it certainly could happen before we see gas hit $20 a gallon.
Tags: $20 a Gallon, AlanBlume.com, emerging business, StartUpSelling.com, Virtual Business, Your Virtual Success
Posted in business, eco-friendly, emerging business, Entrepeneurship, green, Home Office Business, Uncategorized, Virtual Business | Leave a Comment »
Enter stage left, or at least from the room to the left, my 20 year old daughter, college student and blogger. She works virtually as an intern for Mother Nature Network (MNN). MNN has assembled a group of college students across the country to blog about eco-friendly projects, businesses, and community activities. I had suggested she research commuter behavior statistics and compile this data into a poignant blog entry about the amount of fuel wasted every day that we commute by car. She thought this sounded like a lot of work, estimating hours of research for a modest albeit somewhat interesting blog entry. Her approach was to create a video blog interviewing me in my home office, using me as an example of how people could be more eco-friendly if they worked from home. She did a video that panned from her room to my office next door. The result was effective. She accomplished a better result, with more effective material in a much shorter span of time. Why could she do this? She looks at things from a Generation Y perspective, part of the Skyping, Blogging, Instant Messaging, emailing, internet based generation that will become a far more virtual and eco-friendly generation than my generation. Her video link is below. http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/connecticut/student-blog/video-dads-green-business
Who is Mother Nature Newtork MNN http://www.mnn.com/about-us? According to their web site: “MNN wasn’t designed for scientists or experts. It was created for the rest of us, the regular person who wants information written and created in a way that everyone can understand – both in personal pursuits and business decisions. We’re your one-stop resource and an everyman’s eco-guide offering original programs, articles, blogs, videos, and how-to guides along with breaking news stories.”
www.alanblume.com www.startupselling.com
Tags: blogging, eco-friendly, Entrepeneurship, Home Office, Lead Generation, Marketing, mother nature network, Small Business, Virtual Business
Posted in business, eco-friendly, emerging business, Entrepeneurship, green, Home Office Business, Uncategorized, Virtual Business | Leave a Comment »
