My gut says, that the companies born in this recession will be the stuff of legend by the end of the decade.  Here’s 5 trends for small business I see coming at us like a storm on doppler radar.

5. Mastering (note: the word “mastering”, not just tapping into) social media is one of the hottest of all online trends.

I thought “Sex” was the most searched term online in 2009. NOT! Facebook” in fact was the most searched term in 2009. (Source: Experian Hitwise)

Big business has discovered what many small businesses already know: Facebook is a great place to advertise.

Hop on the social media train, Jane, because it’s headed out of the station at light speed.

4. Going Local in a green farmers market sort of way: Consumers are increasingly looking for a local angle when looking where to spend their hard-earned dollar.

Example: The explosion of farmers markets across the country. According to Entrepreneur, “there are almost 5,000 farmers markets across the country, the result of more than 5% annual growth for the past five years.”

Additionally, with people staying closer to home right now and with the green ethos growing, home is where the heart (and dollar) is.

3. Sharing vs. Shared Experiences: We are all not watching or experiencing the same thing nearly as much.

For the small business person, it is vital to realize that 1) people look for, and increasingly expect, the personal, and 2) small, localized, immediate user-created media are where the eyeballs are headed.

2. Mobile marketing is exploding. Whether it is creating the Next Big App, offering customers a real-time mobile coupon, or creating a text marketing campaign, in 2010 there will be mobile options galore for small business.

It is a new world indeed.

1. The Start-Up Economy:

The outlook is both brighter and calmer. It is calmer because things are slowly getting back to, if not normal, at least something recognizable. And it is brighter because out of the rubble, a new, vital, innovative start-up economy is being born.

We have entered the era of small business. Whereas GM president Charles Wilson once said “What’s good for the country is good for GM, and vice versa,” it can now safely be said that what is good for small business is good for the country. Consider these statistics.

Small businesses now

• Number almost 30 million
• Employ more than half of all workers
• Constitute 99.7% of all employers
• Constitute 97% of all exporters
• Create the majority of business innovations
(Source: U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 2009)

With 10% unemployment for as far as the eye can see, with the unemployed running out of benefits, and with benefits not what they once were for the employed, start-ups of all shapes and sizes are taking root: One person shops, green home-based businesses, part-time ventures, online enterprises, high tech companies – you name it. These are the folks who, with their creative energy, drive, ingenuity, and hard work will be leading us out of this anything but great recession.

Burned out with funerals on TV? No disrespect to our late Senator Kennedy, but replaying it?… all day long? Is it just too much? Two things came to mind. Why does it seem like we’re going to have Princess Diana type TV coverage more often. Larry King talked about Michael Jackson for two weeks straight….WHY?

Michael Jackson’s funeral (and his life for that matter) exhibited all the worst nature- and death- denying aspects of our artificial world. However, the incredible level of interest in his funeral – as in those of  other icons like Lady Diana, Ronald Reagan, etc - shows that the problem of our mortality is as acute as ever it was in history. We are too afraid to face the fact of our own mortality directly, hence these celebrity deaths become mirrors in which we can work through the problem indirectly, without fear. Far from being disinterested in death and funerals, we are fascinated.

Who’s talking about how Un-Green these funerals and coffins seem to be?

Unfortunately, the opulent coffin chosen by Michael Jackson’s family to bury the King of Pop is about as un-green as you can get. Made from bronze and coated in gold, the estimated US$24,300 Promethean coffin, from the Batesville Casket Company, is built to last and impress rather than biodegrade.

However, green burial and eco-funeral options are becoming more commonplace. Green funeral advocates suggest using simple, non-chemically treated sustainable-farmed wood boxes or coffins and urns made from biodegradable materials. If using wood is an important part of the grieving process, consider opting for wood certified by the Canadian Stewardship Council.

Coffin and urn makers are looking for more sustainable options with coffins and burial urns constructed from recycled newspaper, cardboard, water hyacinth or banana leaf. Some of the green coffins and urn styles are lined with unbleached organic cotton, and urns are impregnated with flower seeds or tree seeds.

Mainstream funerals have significant impact on the environment from the overuse of endangered woods, toxic finishes on the coffins, the cement vaults, embalming chemicals, chemically treated lawns, and pesticide-covered flowers. The Natural Burial Cemetery explains that each year US cemeteries bury an estimated 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid, 90,272 tons of steel (caskets), 2,700 tons of copper and bronze (caskets), 1,636,000 tons of reinforced concrete (vaults), 14,000 tons of steel (vaults) and 30-plus million board feet of hardwoods.

That’’s a bunch of stuff we put in the ground with Grandma that goes into our water, etc…. never mind the motorcade.

Most of us don’t have the natural option even presented to us - we’re given a narrow list of choices and if we want to express our love or respect we’re told that money, as represented in the price of the coffin, is the way to do that.

Worse, when we belong to a particular ethnic group we can be stuffed into a box by even well-meaning people. I’ve been told recently that blacks and Hispanics will never want our woven or natural coffins, because they rely on material status symbols to offset the discrimination they experienced as minorities in their lives. If I were Snoop Dog I’d be sayin’ “It’s my Escalade with by Doberman Pinschers on earth and the most crackin’ coffin I can find for birf-day.”

Until natural options are presented to us in EVERY major walk of life, there aren’t enough natural choices out there and people who are “sick of green” should just chill for a bit til the natural choices can get caught up (over 80% of burial caskets sold in this country are metal, with poly-based interiors, and most of those are imported, only sometimes with parts assembled here in the US).

Are you saying to me, “I would never want a box that bugs could get into?”
I’m asking all my male genes to step forward and be THE MAN of the CASKET. BUGS? …. F- Bugs!
Hey, I just watched “Inglorious Bastards” with Brad Pitt and my testosterone’s pumpin’.

How do you feel about that wicker basket casket?

I don’t think it really matters, right? This is a long nap that’s in front of you.

HomeGain is proud to support the cause of raising earth preservation awareness and green efforts within the real estate community.

The goal of any movement is the collective result — that small changes will make a huge difference. This campaign will provide ideas and inspire Realtors to make changes in the way they conduct business so they may help their clients make eco-friendly choices.

See their cool website NOW
Louis Cammarosano
General Manager

p 510 594 4121
f 510 655 0848

louis@homegain.com
1250 45th Street, Suite 200
Emeryville, CA 94608 ~mypodcastfile~ 

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Last week, Wal-Mart started putting labels on products indicating its product’s eco-friendliness.

Be honest. Buying green items can be down the priority list when we feel unwilling to pay more for environmentally friendly goods.

For you…is the green you care about, the green in your pocket right now?

Do you believe this could speed the creation of sustainable products and help the retail industry create a global standard for assessing “green”?

Angry Alerts!! They’re going off all the time when I ask people, “So, what do you think of Wal-Mart’s new green campaign?”…… Oh my, you would have thought I asked if the Pope was gay? Wow….lots of feathers get ruffled and I think it’s not based on much logic. At least I don’t hear much when I ask them why they feel such venom for Wal-Mart.

But Wal-Mart has worked to burnish its image. It has vowed to cut energy usage, reduce waste, and offer lower-priced health care to employees.

It is now upgrading its fleet of 3,500 U.S. stores, giving them a brighter look with wider aisles and lower shelves.

COOL NEWS YOU CAN’T USE
Retailers that win green shoppers may also find they have established a loyal customer base with research from Deloitte showing green shoppers buy more and shop more often than the typical shopper.

Bottom line, Wal-Mart will have a sustainability number on their products, or symbol on it to give a “true picture” of the environmental impact of your purchase.

Many of us shop there with shame, but that may be about to change. Wal-Mart came to power by paving over historical sites, paying only part-time wages and benefits to its workers, probable discrimination, and using per-capita more Chinese imports than a novelty shop in the airport. But, it does seem that Wal-Mart is now waking up from its long corporate nightmare.

The first inklings of visible change came last year when reusable shopping bags showed up for $1 at registers.

Slowly, organic products began to show up in the aisles. Now, it seems that the retailer is getting serious about its green image.

What you may not know is that Wal-Mart is the largest buyer of locally-grown produce in the country. They plan to expand their program of local produce to $400 million nationwide this coming year. Of course, there may be downsides to Wal-Mart gobbling up locally-grown produce such as local restaurants having to pay higher prices due to increased demand and large cities remaining underserved by Wal-Mart. But, in theory, local produce growers will increase production and possibly resuscitate the family farm. That’s a compelling scenario.

Even more compelling are the changes which have already happened due to Wal-Mart’s example. Last year, Wal-Mart ceased selling baby bottles and other baby products containing bisphenol-A, which the FDA still approves, but is generally considered to be dangerous by child advocates. Companies either stopped making the bottles with the chemical, shifted production to other products, or shut down completely. When Wal-Mart said that they would only sell concentrated laundry detergent, production of non-concentrated detergent bottomed out.

Now it seems Wal-Mart is going to directly demand more of their suppliers. The Arkansas Business News reports that a new questionnaire will ask suppliers questions about their total annual solid waste production, reduction goals, water use, third-party green certifications, and their role as corporate citizens in their communities. No specific standards have been set by Wal-Mart as benchmarks or cut-offs for ousting unacceptable suppliers. But, it stands to reason that if a business was handed this questionnaire when applying to be a Wal-Mart supplier, they would be likely to try to make their practices fall into line with what they thought might please the largest retail distributor in the world.

All of this is part of a “Sustainability Index” being developed by Wal-Mart. It is unclear whether the retailer will use the index to privately manipulate their supply chain, or if it will develop into a full-blown informational tool displayed on shelves or packaging to alert consumers to the sustainability of products.

Wal-Mart’s CEO recognized at the latest “Wal-Mart Sustainability Summit” that simply reducing the Wal-Mart corporation’s carbon emissions and solid waste were only 8% of the actual environmental impact of the business. The supply chain itself must be completely transparent and overhauled to make a truly deep environmental impact. With that in mind, it seems plausible that within the next few years, each product you buy at Wal-Mart will have a sustainability number or symbol on it to give a “true picture” of the environmental impact of your purchase.

Of course, as soon as these indicators show up, detractors will point out the flaws in the system. Uncovering greenwashing is an Olympic sport amongst environmental activists. I’m all for that. I think that abuse of the systems which are already in place give consumers a false sense of environmental awareness. But, we do have to consider that ANY system of sustainability information is better than what we have now, which is nothing.

It will be extremely important for activists to keep a close eye on Wal-Mart’s green efforts. The scales may well tip to the point that Wal-Mart has too much power to determine which products are considered sustainable for their own ends. But, by the same token, I believe we must remember that it wouldn’t matter if Wal-Mart did nothing. People would still shop there because they are suffering financially.

Wal-Mart does not have to care about the environment. The plain truth is that Wal-Mart is growing while virtually every aspect of the business world is losing money. The worse the economy is, the more people will flock for $1 cans of spaghetti sauce. Maybe it’s time to cautiously consider Wal-Mart a partner and less of an enemy? Isn’t this (in part) what critics of Wal-Mart have been asking for all along? Can Wal-Mart be rehabilitated?

Hey and what is Target and Best Buy up to? I’m pretty sure that if Target or Best Buy set a goal of reducing energy use by 25% or something in all new and existing stores we’d see a headline here saying something to the effect of “Target saves the world !!! Aren’t you glad they aren’t the evil soul-killers that Wal-Mart are?!?!?”

They are green in a practical-good-for-the-little-guy store…..with their innovations ($4 prescriptions) Wal-Mart is taking the lead.  If others follow, it’s probably going to be because they can’t afford to give up the competitive advantage saving 20% on energy would give to WM.

When Walter Cronkite passed I sure didn’t feel a wave of sadness like I did when Peter Jennings died.

I knew Mickey had an affinity for Walter, and I think I just discovered, how close, in terms of friends, my brother was with Cronkite.

Who knew?

When you have a famous brother you’re proud of and you’re writing a book, “Grateful but not Dead”, about your famous family, hey, how can I not blog about it.

This just made me feel so good to know Walter adored my brother so so much. Wow!

In a 2004 interview with Details magazine, Cronkite enthusiastically told the reporter, “Mickey Hart is a good friend of mine,” as he showed off a giant gong in his office. “He’s a real expert on percussion instruments around the world. And he gave me that lovely thing. You can play a tune on it, it’s so beautifully tuned. It’s quite remarkable. It’s from Tibet.”

Check out the rest of the story…pretty cool.

Thanks for being part of this Hart of Green Grateful Dead Journey….what a long strange trip it’s been.