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Going green with your work from home business franchise

Written by: Candice Clem

Article Overview: It seems like everyone is focuses on the environment more than ever these days. If you want your business to go green, or want to attract more customers by going green, check out these simple ways to be eco-friendly with your own home business.

Going green with your work from home business franchise

Whether you’re worried about global warming, leaving a greener earth for the next generation or simply saving a lot of money each month, going green has benefits for you, your business and everyone else you share the planet with. While many larger corporations have to focus on their carbon footprints, even to the extent of buying carbon credits to offset their own pollution, many small businesses may not see the immediate appeal to going green, especially if it means decreasing your profit margins. This, however, is simply not the case. When you go green with your small business, you reduce consumption of everything from utilities to paper products, support other green businesses and often times you will increase the amount of business your company does. This is because these days, when given the choice between the two, most consumers will choose the greener alternative, even if it means paying a premium for it. If you’re ready to go green with your home business, or are just curious what the process involves, take a look at some of the easiest and most effective ways to go green and some fast-growing business opportunities that have already implemented many of these green habits.

Probably the biggest money saver and environmentally friendly move you business can make is to reduce consumption. It may seem like something you’ve heard over and over again, but take a look at some easy ways to save energy, and how quickly the costs add up.

1. Turn lights off when you leave a room (or better yet, install an inexpensive motion detector that will automatically turn lights on when you enter the room, and turn them off when you leave).
2. Set your power options on your work computers to save as much energy as possible; nearly every modern computer will have sleep or hibernation modes that can automatically engage when the computer is idle for a set amount of time.
3. Try to line up all of your trips outside of the home office so that you can accomplish all of your errands in one trip. Switch from paper receipts and invoices to digital whenever possible.

Of course, your mileage will vary when it comes to how much you can save by reducing your consumption, but speaking as a work from home entrepreneur, these were just the quick numbers based on my averages for a month, by just doing those three simple things, I would save between $25 and $50, depending on the time of year. This may not seem like an overwhelming amount of money, but consider that you’re helping the environment, you’re potentially attracting clients that will be impressed by your "green" status, and think about taking these principles and applying them to 20 or 30 other areas of your business, and the numbers start to add up pretty quickly.

Turning off lights and using less energy is great, but another great way to go green, attract more customers and become more cemented in your community is to support other green businesses. If you startup a teriyaki restaurant, buy your to-go boxes from a supplier that offers recycled cardboard instead of Styrofoam. If your business ships a lot of packages, buy your packing supplies from a supplier that will use recycled newspaper or biodegradable packing peanuts. Buying products that are recycled or products that can be recycled will attract green-thinking customers to your business as well as foster cross-promotion between your business, your green suppliers and a network of other green businesses in town. The list really goes on and on, and once you begin to think about how some of these principles can apply specifically to your business, you will begin to say plenty of new ways to save money, save the planet and even boost your own sales. If, however, you don’t currently own a small business or are looking to start a new one, here’s a couple work from home franchises that are currently available, and are going everything they can to make their franchises as green as possible.

DVDNow is a franchise that you may have seen popping up in the local grocery store in your neighborhood. This franchise takes a traditional video store and crams it into a vending machine sized kiosk full of the most popular rentals and new releases. How is this green? Consider that the overwhelming majority of DVD rentals are new releases, so having a machine that can rent out the most popular titles does the work of an entire video store, but only consumes a small fraction of the electricity, and none of the heating or other necessities of a retail store.

Vehicle Tracking Solutions provides GPS tracking systems for company cars and fleet vehicles for small, medium and even large corporations. Consider how much fuel could be saved each year if every car in a company’s fleet knew how to get to their destination, taking the route with the least amount of mileage. Another way to save is for companies to get creative with their route planning; consider that several major delivery companies have saved millions of dollars each year in fuel and productivity by choosing routes with only right turns instead of sitting and waiting for left turn lights to change.

Going green is a great idea for any business owner (or potential business owner). Saving money on your overhead, increasing your potential client base, even special tax breaks in certain states makes going green a no-brainer for any fiscally responsible business owner. Tack on the fact that you’ll actually be contributing to cleaner air and a healthier environment and its easy to see why green is the new black.

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Article Tags: amount of time, business opportunities, carbon credits, consumption, corporations, extent, global warming, going green, hibernation, home business, modern computer, money saver, motion detector, next generation, pollution, power options, profit margins, small businesses, ways to save energy, work computers



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