Expert Financial & Business Insights for South Africa
Strategic analysis from Idea Accelerator and ready-to-publish content from Financial News Daily.
If imitation were that simple, small business owners could come up with knock-offs of other products and services and ring their cash registers.
Imitation can be a more important source for new products and services than the original concept or innovation. In fact, researchers claim that copying ideas can be more valuable than inventing something new. Up to 98% of the value from innovation is realised by the imitators rather than the innovators. Continue reading “A new twist on imitation”
I was going through some design suggestions recently for products made from recycled materials. My jaw dropped – woman’s accessories included ear rings made from cool-drink cans. A supposedly ingenious product was men’s cuff-links made from recycled laptop keyboard keys. And to top it all, woman’s tote bags made from traffic signs.
There is certainly no limit to the human imagination. You’ve got to give full marks to this sort of creativity gone weird.
But to step back from this world of wacky ideas for recycling waste products, why is it that recycled products are so unappealing to all but the most fanatical green consumer? Where are the must-have products so well designed that consumers drool over them?
At an eco-friendly exhibition I met up with an ecopreneur selling bags (including tote bags) made from tyre tubes. Yes, these bags were robust, sturdy and leak-proof. But you’d need to be so committed to the cause to drape one over your shoulder. The poor guy running this business has got his heart firmly in the right place but his designs don’t leave you salivating.
No wonder then that his main selling channel for his recycled rubber bags are eco–friendly shows and exhibitions. He travels, living like a gypsy, from show to show in the main cities selling his novel wares.
Surely more thought needs to go into the design of products made from recycled materials so that they stand more than a fighting chance against their non eco-friendly competitors?
For me, a brilliant example of what can be achieved with recycled materials were outdoor Navy Chairs made from 111 Coke PET bottles using a US Navy design (I’m not sure why the US Navy was involved in chair design but it’s clearly marked on the product). This is a product with aesthetic appeal. If they weren’t so expensive, I would have ordered half a dozen.
It’s a fact that marketing studies are showing us that there is a growing group of consumers who want to buy products made from recycled materials. But design and marketing are important for any products whether they are eco-friendly or made with little or no environmental considerations.
The start-up or small business owner doesn’t have the huge amounts of capital to run focus groups, psychographic and demographic market surveys and product panels. Yet, there are low-cost ways of testing products and services for design appeal before they are introduced to consumers. Product designers, of which there are so many, would leap at the opportunity to give advice to small start-ups and small businesses who wish to launch “green” products.
“Green” product pioneers could do much better business if they introduced professional product design and marketing into their new product development. Instead of falling in love with their products – one of the biggest mistakes most innovators make whatever the product — they’d first find out if customers like them and want to buy them.
I have a big problem with vegetables that I eat in restaurants – and that’s if you can find them anyway. The restaurants I go to – and these are nothing fancy let me assure you – are really a mixed bag when it comes to vegetables.
Most of them have no vegetables on their menu – can you believe it? Now I’m not talking about salads. I’m talking about real vegetables such as carrots, green beans pumpkin and so on. Another chain restaurant serves its “vegetables” but they are heavily spiked with sugar and cream sauce (if I really wanted to eat flour I would ask for it). Others drown their “roasted” vegetables in so much heavy oil that you wonder the impact on the environment let alone your stomach. Continue reading “Direct sales by local farmers can help slay yucky-tasting greens”
I recently saw an ad with a headline that said, “How to wake up with the financial genius in you”.
The business person then went on to explain how he and his wife had come up with a system to help others with increasing their wealth potential.
Any expert will agree that increasing your wealth to become financially independent is to be welcomed, especially in this economy when two incomes barely enough to pay for the monthly expenses. Continue reading “Can you really make money from ideas?”
When a partner and me launched a start-up in the grocery trade a few years back most of our initial time was spent planning – thinking about things like setting up a small distribution centre, identifying larger customers, working out whether our range was big enough and doing sums to see that our sales would be profitable.
As soon as we got going, all our time was spent rushing out to customers from early in the morning until late in the evening, selling and distributing our products. We had almost no time to think about our strategy, financial objectives and marketing.
If you have been involved in setting up a start-up business, then you will know that a new business venture is a complex process which involves spending a lot of time on planning and preparation. Once you get started, your time is eaten up by serving customers, checking your expenses, cash flow and re-ordering. Continue reading “Sustainability – a must-have or simply an add-on for start-ups?”
After a long time trying to persuade businesses to use less water, sitting on panels discussing water scarcity and consciously attempting to reduce my own water footprint, I came across an example of unbelievable water waste while on a stop-over visit to the water-stressed town of De Aar.
The afternoon was a scorcher – the temperature was up to 35°C. I stopped the car at a restaurant to get some coffee and splash my face with cold water to keep alert for the long drive still ahead towards Carnarvon.
As I opened the toilet door I immediately was confronted with an appalling sight – the hot water tap was on full blast. Someone had left it jetting out. Continue reading “Catering for the water-wise customer makes business sense”
A small business owner, or a start-up founder, visits a green fields manufacturing site and is forced to worry that her car parked nearby will be stolen.
A small business owner drives to work in fear of being hijacked.
A kitchen-table entrepreneur is too frightened to let her daughter walk to school down the road because what might happen. Continue reading “If you don’t have this one thing, sustainability is very difficult”
With this economy every bit of extra cash counts.
Many aspiring entrepreneurs are turning their hobbies, favourite pastimes, and passions into profitable businesses. They are making a living doing what they love. And because they love what they do, they work harder at it.
Experts say eight out of ten small business start-ups result from hobbies or long-term interests. Continue reading “Turn your passion into profit but look before you leap”
For the small business owner wanting to get started on a green journey there are more than 100 ways to begin but if you listen to all the ideas and suggestions and advice out there on the Internet in books and from consultants it would be pretty difficult knowing where to start.
I’ve noticed that much of this advice came about 4 to 5 years ago when in an enthusiastic rush advice flooded the market on “how to improve your bottom line, grow your brand and save the planet”, one hand “101 ways to turn your business green”, and “the hands-on guide to creating a successful and sustainable business”. Continue reading “100 smoking-hot ideas to make your business sustainable but which one is right for you?”
A digital ad campaign for Clorox Green Works mocked people who are conscious about their impact on the environment and the products and services they buy. If you’d like to see the ad, check it out on the Internet.
While many sustainability professionals are calling for boycotts of the product, perhaps what needs to be looked at more closely is the publicity people. They need to be better informed about what eco-friendly products are really all about. Continue reading “Glib green marketing gets sustainability crowd all frothed up”
