There is a 99.9% chance your business is defined as a SME (small to mid-sized enterprise with under 500 employees and/or under $1B in annual sales). You and your peers might be small, but you employ 67% of the world’s employed workforce. You run the world economy.
Your business is not like governments or large businesses. You don’t have big budgets or big staffs. You need to see immediate beneficial results – a project’s ROI must not only be positive, but also fast.
What do you need most?
Answer: According to studies, the #1 thing all businesses (no matter their size or where we are in an economic cycle) need is competitive differentiation – standing out from your peers and convincing the prospect to buy from you versus the other guy.
Why is this harder for you, a SME, than it is for bigger companies?
Answer – SMEs are more sales-centric and more dependent on face-to-face selling. You don’t have big budgets, to create brand imagery. Your ‘brand’ is typically individuals.
What has the internet…and Covid-19…done to make things worse for you?
Answer – The internet has created a platform for consumers to pre-review a company online. They are making go/no decisions based on if they feel your company satisfies their needs….before you have the chance to have a face-to-face.
What is the top thing consumers are looking for and that companies can stand out by having?
Answer – 87% of consumers want you, a candidate for their business, to be certified sustainable. There is +$2 TRILLION in consumer spending LOOKING to move to certified sustainable companies.
How are certified sustainable SMEs that promote their certification as a differentiation tool performing against their non-certified competitive peers?
Answer: Growing dramatically faster. +75% overall growth; +67% investor ROI; +24% Net Income; +15% sales gains; +11% EBITDA.
Net, if you want to differentiate and stand out from your competitors, a powerful, and financially-beneficial, flag to wave is sustainability certification.
This brings us back to our tag line – Doing the Right Thing can lead to a Good Thing. In letting Edenark Group help you become certified sustainable and also help you promote same, you are doing the right thing for the environment, all your current and future stakeholders; and also building your brand and making more money.
Author: David Goodman, Alignable 2020/21/22 Local Business Person of the Year, and CEO of Edenark Group (https://edenark.com/ ), which provides the world’s premier environmental sustainability certification program, the Edenark Group ISO 14001, designed/priced for SMEs.