Evan Carmichael says green products work when you genuinely believe in them, not as a marketing trick. Customers will pay 20-30% more for sustainable items, but they spot fake commitment fast. An entrepreneur who donated sales to feed the homeless found authentic purpose led to real impact and higher profits.
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Should I go green? Should you spend the time, effort, money to make your company a green company? I got a great question from one of my YouTube viewers, love you guys, Corona, who wrote in to say, "Would you purchase clothes made from recycled plastic bottles? Or do you think customers would care about these positive impact it has on the world?" So first of all, that's cool. I've never heard of clothing that's made out of recycled plastic bottles. That's pretty funky. But here's my answer for you and for anybody who's thinking about, should I introduce a new green initiative or a new social initiative? When it comes to those kind of important decisions for your business, I always approach it from a position of doing it to do it instead of doing it for marketing reasons. Typically, if you just look at the stats, you can charge 20 to 30% more if it's green or if it has a social angle. There is a little bit of a premium that people will pay if they know that there is a social component to it. But I would never say do it because of that, because it's not going to be genuine. People will see through it. If you're doing something only to try to make more money, people have a pretty high BS meter and they're going to see right through it. So what I say to you is do it to do it. Do it because it's the right thing to do. If this is what you believe in, if you believe in green business and entrepreneurs have a responsibility to make our world a better place, and this is how you're going to do it, if that's your belief, then you do it. Regardless of the impact it's going to have with your customers, you do it because it's the right thing to do. And if that's why you're doing it, customers will come on board and they'll believe it and they'll want to be part of the movement that you're helping create. Does that make sense? When you are only marketing something because you're trying to make money, customers won't buy from you. I had a great question like this a while ago where, uh, uh, forget the guy's name, he had a business where he wanted to give a portion of the sales to help feed the homeless. That are outside his office. And with an issue like homelessness, there's, there's a lot of controversy. People might say, "I don't support the homeless because I think they should go get a job." And others will say, "The homeless people, they need our help. They need help to get off the streets, and it's just the right thing to do to give them a meal." And he asked, "You think this would help build his sales?" And my response was the same. It doesn't matter if it's gonna help build your sales. Don't, don't do it because of that. Because if you do it and you're only trying to increase your sales, then people again will see through it and they're not gonna buy into it. They're not gonna come to your store. But if you do it because you feel it's the right thing to do, and even though some people might think, "I don't agree with him with what he's doing," but you're doing it because that's your stance and you believe in it and you want to help these people out. If that's why you're doing it, then go for it, and your sales will increase. By the time my video came out, he had already started, and he's had great results. He feels better himself about what he's doing. He feels that his business now has a greater impact in his community, and he's out there helping feed the homeless through his company, and it's resulted in more people coming and spending more money at his store. So it's worked, but it worked because he was really committed to it and he believed in it. So if you're thinking about recycled plastic bottle shirts, first of all, send me one because I want to see what it feels like. But two, again, make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Like anything else in business, you're doing it for the right reason. You're starting this business for the right reasons, to have an impact. You're doing it to do it, and if you do it for that reason Money will come. Believe. For those of you watching, thumbs up below if you like the video. Thank you so much, makes me wanna do more for you. And I wanna hear what you have to think. Leave a comment underneath, ask me a question about your business, I'll make a video response. I love seeing those come in, they really make my day every day, so thank you so much. Please leave a comment, and I'll see you soon.
