“Going green” is all the fad—but for many businesses, it’s a fad reminiscent of the food industry’s obsession with “natural” marketing, where the term was bandied about as a marketing chip and any meaningful connection with health was essentially lost.

Similarly, a barrage of corporate “green” marketing terminology does not a truly green company make, and it’s easy to become numb to the idea that there really are good businesses out there doing really good things for the environment in ways that transcend marketing and self-promotion altogether.

But in business, the ability to assign value is king, and perhaps the problem with ecocommerce is that there’s no standard for really quantifying it. But thanks to Tim Gieseke and EcoCommerce 101, now we can.

According to Gieseke, “EcoCommerce . . . provides the framework to build an ecological intelligence system that allows the public arena of commerce to define sustainability.”

Gieseke shows us that economic development and bio-ecological preservation are more inherently connected than you might think, and that the  two goals can be met (and, in fact, are one and the same) with coordinated effort and a renewed dedication to seeing economy and ecology through the same lens.

Gieseke points out that “sustainability” is defined by us, the participants in the economy. EcoCommerce 101 is a roadmap for reshaping the market to support a sustainable future we can all be proud of.

Comment to win!

We’ve got three copies of EcoCommerce 101 to give away, and we want you to have one of them! Simply leave a comment explaining how your business has contributed to a greener economy (or plans to in the near future). We’ll select three comments at random one week from now, on Tuesday, February 21st, and we’ll contact you for your shipping details if you win. Or, order your own copy from Amazon now!

 

***Congratulations to our winners! We will contact you for your shipping information. The rest of you—don’t miss Click&Inc’s next Business Book Giveaway!

TAGS: eco commerce, ecocommerce, sustainability, tim gieseke

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In our second comment-to-win Business Book Giveaway contest, we bring you 6 Secrets to Startup Success: How to Turn Your Entrepreneurial Passion Into a Thriving Business by experienced entrepreneur, investor, and business consultant John Bradberry.

In 2007, Bradberry noticed a disturbing trend among business startups and set out to investigate why so many of them fail despite their investors and talented leadership. He designed a study so that he could isolate the differences between the successful companies he has started or invested in and companies that plummet shortly after opening their doors.

What he found was shocking—a surprising amount of entrepreneurs, Bradberry found, seem to let their passions lead them to jump feet-first into their business before they’ve done appropriate research or come up with a thoughtful plan for moving forward. The notion of having a plan when starting anything from scratch is standard procedure for many projects: building a house, renovating a deck, planting a garden, training a puppy—why should that crucial step of preparation and planning be left out of the equation entirely with something as important as starting a business?

To that effect, Bradberry brings his considerable experience and expertise to your small business. With 6 Secrets to Startup Success, you will learn:

• How to temper your passion for your new business so it doesn’t obscure your ability to think through business decisions clearly and logically
• How to start a small business that is researched, organized, and prepared for the future
• The things you should do today that can impact your business’s longevity
• How to shift your focus back to your customers and their needs, rather than your business and your desires

Complete with a valuable resources and references section, as well as workbook-style exercises to get you thinking down the right track, 6 Secrets to Startup Success can help your small business take the necessary steps now that can impact your success in the future.

We have one copy of 6 Secrets to Startup Success that we’re giving away to one lucky commenter on Friday, July 29th. So what are you waiting for? Comment to win a free copy and help your small business thrive! (And visit Bradberry’s blog, ReadyFounder, in the meantime for valuable tips and hints.)

Good luck, and thanks for playing!

TAGS: 6 secrets to startup success, customers, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, john bradberry, Small Business

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Click and Inc’s first Business Book Giveaway has come to a close, and three individuals who commented on the blog post have won free copies of Mahesh Rao’s Front Runners: Lap Your Competition With 10 Game-Changing Strategies for Total Business Transformation. Thanks for playing!

We plan to run a Business Book Giveaway promotion every now and then, so make sure to check back with us often as we continue to bring you hints, tips, and information from authors in the business world to help you stay informed and think critically about your small business.

TAGS: book, Business, business book giveaway, click and inc, front runners, giveaway, mahesh rao, Small Business

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Mahesh Rao is an entrepreneur with a gift: he has the ability to look logically and systematically at a business process or procedure, identify the weak links, and implement specific changes that will strengthen the entire system. With his considerable talents has helped organizations of all kinds, from entrepreneurs to Fortune 100 companies to the Japanese government to small business owners, use his strategies to transform their operation into a well-oiled machine. And now, these strategies are available to everyone.

One of the biggest struggles for entrepreneurs and small business owners is remaining flexible and open to the changing of the technological and regulatory tides. If you focus your entire system of doing business under a few principals, what happens when those principals prove to be ineffective or invalid? Change can be daunting for a business when you’re locked into a way of doing things and can’t see outside the enclosure you’ve built yourself.

The Book

In Front Runners: Lap Your Competition With 10 Game-changing Strategies for Total Business Transformation, Mahesh Rao teaches us how to embrace, not fear, change—and not a moment too soon, as the technologies available to the modern business have resulted in a rapid pace of change beyond anything we have ever seen. If there’s ever a time for your small business to let go of the past and embrace the possibilities and opportunities of the future, that time is now.

With Front Runners, you can learn to:

• Analyze your current business situation
• Isolate and resolve potential roadblocks and challenges
• Build a flexible organization that accepts and thrives on change
• Improve communication across your entire business
• Connect with people on a personal level, which will facilitate teamwork and shared goals
• Give cross-functional teams the tools to be more efficient and effective

The Giveaway

This week, Click and Inc is giving you the opportunity to receive a hardcover copy of Front Runners at no cost to you. It’s simple—just leave us a comment, and we’ll select one submission at random out of all comments received by Friday, July 15th. If you’re the winner, we’ll contact you for your mailing address and ship the hardcover book to you, absolutely free.

Tell your friends!

TAGS: Business, change, entrepreneur, front runners, mahesh rao, Small Business, strategies

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