Entrepreneurs, How To Help Yourself By Helping the Environment
The other day, i was thinking that entrepreneurs really waste a lot of time and energy on things which are not absolutely necessary and which cause harm to the environment. Saving on small things not only helps you to save time, energy and money but also helps the environment. Examples -
1. Avoid outside meetings as far as possible. Try to minimize travel. Unless the meeting is between multiple teams, long and complex in nature, try to avoid it. Think for a while, is it really necessary to meet that guy. Can this stuff be discussed over phone, or the net ? It is a waste of petrol, and waste of time(you are going to waste 1 hour in the traffic). When you can use web-collaboration softwares like GoToMeeting , WebEx, Zoho etc. to conduct presentations and meetings across the globe in real time using audio – visual aids. You can do video conferencing. You don’t really need to meet for every small thing.
2. Avoid courier, printing etc. Many companies have already come out of this but many still love brick and mortar. You can send invoices in a PDF format by email. There is no need to print, stamp and courier it. (One internet company asks me repeatedly to do this and i have tried to explain them every time.). You can sign documents on PDF and communicate by email.
3. Books and Magazines are burdens. Avoid buying books and magazines as far as possible. Read them online. I used to buy lot of magazines and books but now i realize that as soon as you finish reading it, it becomes a burden. You can get all books and magazines digitally. Get an iPad or Netbook and keep books in digital format so that you can read them on the go.
4. For some digital businesses on the internet, try to hire work from home or part time employees. This might not be possible for every job position, but yes it does help somewhere. Jobs like customer support, content writing and production, editing etc. can be done from home. It will save you time and money. The employee saves 3 hours of travel time and hence more productivity. He saves petrol and helps the traffic.
