 | Customer Service - Employees must know the ins and outs of every
product that is sold in the store so that they can answer the customers
questions. |
| Location - It must be located in an area where there is a large
population of people that are comfortable paying more for items that are
environmentally friendly. The location must be where there it is easy to
find. The rents have to be reasonable. It is important to balance these
things out. College towns, surfing towns, tourist areas, and high income
areas may be good areas to consider. Again, it is probably not a good
idea to rent in a high rent area unless you can get a really good deal.
You also do not want a location that people cannot find. Put it in a
location where your target market is already going. Spend a lot of time
finding the right location. Some areas that could really use more Green
Stores are: New York, Florida, Chicago, San Diego, and San Francisco. |
| Financing - It is very important to go into this without debt. There
are too many regular expenses in running these businesses. Running up
debt really does not make sense with green stores. If you do not have
the cash yourself, see if you can get a trustworthy business partner
that finance it for you. Try and stay away from Venture Capital. Expect
it to take a while for your business to grow. You must be able to keep
your store stocked properly and still have a healthy cash flow to hold
you during slow times. All retail businesses have slow times of the
year. Another problem that I have seen time and time again is where a
store is doing well and then goes into debt to grow faster and it gets
them into trouble. Slow healthy sustainable growth is a much better
idea. |
| The green store industry is not for people that are looking to get
rich quick. It takes a special type of person to want to open a green
store. Someone who wants to become an important part of their local
community, and who wants to teach people how to make daily choices that
help protect the health of their families, themselves, and the
environment at the same time. Running a store like this involves a lot
of educating the customers on why it is important to choose products
that are made by people that are treated fairly and also made of
earth-friendly materials. |
| Create a good marketing strategy. Be creative. |
| Products - You can offer a wide mixture of products or specialize in
a certain area, such as body care products, household products, garden
products, bedding products, gifts, clothing, hemp products, organic
cotton products, building products, etc. |
| Inventory - Choose products based on what sells in your store.
Continuously add new products so that when people come back they can
find new things. |
| Honesty - Be honest about your products. Learn everything about them
and do not exaggerate the facts. This is an extremely important point.
|
| Green Stores are a business and must be run like a business. Don't
waste money. Take calculated risks and always have a backup plan: if
this happens, then.... |
| Make sure that you set basic standards on what type of products you
are going to have in your store and stick to them. |
| The store must be neat, organized, and easy for people to find what
they are looking for. |
