Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
What is it like to take the plunge and set up your own green business? Diljit Binning, an Allen mother of three, is set to open an organic clothing store in McKinney on Earth Day, April 22 — and is going to tell us all about it. In the latest entry to a blog, she describes choosing stock for the store.
In order to operate a business the logical thing is stock.
Where can you buy stock? There is a wonderful very large market right here in Dallas.
A road trip is in order and to market Mary, Shannon and I go.
We head to downtown on a lovely Saturday, thinking it’s just like going to a mall. Going to the mall at Christmas is a good analogy. Parking is a nightmare, traffic wardens directing traffic all different ways; one warden even lifted a barrier and allowed some cars to park in a lot that said “no parking." I guess they operate by different rules depending on the wind.
Eventually we park and enter the huge building with the rest of the business world shoppers, complete paperwork and are handed official badges. Let the adventure begin!.
We decide on a plan to start at the top and work our way down to the bottom, the top was floor 15 .It is amazing, to see the amount of vendors and good displayed.
Our concept is green, organic, and environmentally friendly so we hunt out lines for us. Having researched the topic of ‘what is truly green’ we are armed with education and the keen buyers’ eye. We find a great line of jeans, we live and breathe in jeans, but the only environmentally friendly thing about this line was the thread… so that’s a no for us.
You will be happy to know that we did find some really great lines of stock and placed orders, so these will be available for all to purchase at our store.
Our concept is to provide a wonderful experience for the shopper in the goods we provide and wrapping of those goods.
For this we need to visit the bag store. We need recycled bags, tissue paper and boxes. Our go-to guy for this is Joel, he is the McKinney go-to bag /box guy.
Joel is one of those guys, anything you ask, he can provide, so we start by asking for a chair, cookies and wine! And he provides.
We look at bags shapes, sizes, businesses in our area their colors and bags, just like the Oscars, one simply can’t be seen in the same outfit!
We chose our line, it’s green and natural — these colors now belong to us, the eco-girls, Joel announces to the staff.
Ah, we are special. Joel the go-to guy, the promiser and the deliverer!
OPENING CELEBRATION: Strada Verde, located at 115 E Virginia Street in McKinney, is opening on Earth Day, April 22. The public is invited to attend an open house celebration from 11 am to 8 pm to explore lines of clothing, jewelry, handbags, shoes, gifts, and art — all made in the most environmentally friendly and humanitarian way possible. A portion of proceeds from the day's event will benefit The Samaritan Inn of McKinney.
Local designers, representatives, jewelry makers and artists will be on hand throughout the day discussing their Earth-friendly products. Light refreshments from area restaurants will be served, and a performance from reggae jazz-fusion band Aton will begin at 7 pm.
Barb is one of those attorneys, not only is she a wonderful friend, but gorgeous with a brain better than a NASA engineer.
We enlisted her help in putting the business together from the legal standpoint.
This is an easy task, we have an attorney, tell her what our name is, she will file the paperwork and over a coffee all is complete.
Ah! Not so fast!
You have probably guessed, following our adventures, nothing is simple, not even when you know an expert.
We knew we wanted to be a partnership. As Barb explained there is the ‘C’ or the ‘S’ partnership, a limited partnership, a domestic partnership, just to mention a few. Then there is the limited liability issue. Easy, limit everything to the assets of the business. We can’t take away the bread and water, or the kid’s spending money. Not so fast…limited means your assets too, except your prime home, and one car…ah the generosity!!
What do you do?
Ask your partner to sign a post-nuptial agreement.
You can just imagine when I told my husband at dinner, love you, now sign here! It’s your lucky day, you stay-at-home wife is starting a business, don’t worry she wants nothing of your earnings from now till you enter the bright light. They say marriages are made in heaven, I think mine was in heaven with God presiding along with his 2nd and 3rd in command.
We sign on the dotted lines. Barb advises we must pick the officers of the company, we flick a coin, best out of three, and the titles are settled.
Our business is legally settled, now we wait for the folks in Austin to process and send us the ‘big fat file’ all companies receive. The file that bears the company name, contains the tax information deadlines and the rules by which businesses in our category are governed
Great isn’t it, with the turn of a coin you are bestowed with a title, president vice-president, secretary, treasurer etc.
Wonder how other companies started, did they have competitions, perhaps duals at midnight or just with the flick of a coin. I can just imagine Google sitting over a coffee and saying’ head or tails, best out of three and becoming the president…..or maybe that’s how the government .decides which project to fund, or office to hold.
Either way it worked for us. We have titles and legal paperwork, thanks to Barb, the angel in the legal world.
It’s easy to have a dream and turn the light on.
The hubbies have given their blessings and the finance, the next step is to see if there is any "dirt" or hidden treasures that we need to know about.
How much do you know about your friends? We are about to embark on the venture of our lives and we want to be sure the closets are clear of any skeletons.
We decide it’s good to have background checks completed on each other. Do we go to the local police station and ask if they would like to take our finger prints, perhaps there is a CSI unit close by, or perhaps one has spent vacation time behind bars at some point?
We decide those numbers called Social Security would be most useful at this point, we enlist our friend Shannon, who runs a preliminary report with the numbers, they come our clean, we both have good credit, neither has been behind bars, no arrest warrants are waiting, and no vacation time planned in the future.
We decide we need to open a bank account and deposit the money we both have before we go on a spending spree! We choose Bank of America, we both bank their personally, and think perhaps the bank may award some brownie points to us.
On entering the bank we place our name on the waiting list, and wait, and wait, customers come and go, the TV is on, magazines are great, but we wait…. Finally it’s our turn, we are invited into a small office, we are excited, feel important, and then the banker Derek informs us, we need a tax ID number, we don’t have one… we quickly learn we need to file papers with the folks in Austin and they will send us a unique number.
How difficult is it to start a business, shouldn’t there be some manual at the library telling us step by step what to do?
A little sad and feeling unintelligent we leave. We call our friend Barb, an attorney and a great tennis player, and enlist her help.
These are the challenges that all dreamers must contend with, these are the times when you are thankful for friends who help at a moments notice, how blessed we are for these people in our lives.
They help us not to give up, they help us to cross the hurdles that come and remind us of the sunshine after the rain.
After baptizing the name Strada Verde, it’s home and back to family. Not too faraway, as I make the evening meal of chicken curry and salad, are my thoughts on how to approach the dear “better half,” or should I say the working half, and ask for a few thousand dollars. Oh, just a little more than the family allowance.
Within a few minutes the gorgeous husband of mine is home, a long day at the office, I greet him with a warm affectionate kiss and a glass of his favorite wine. Immediately he smiles, goes back into the garage and checks the car, comes back in, saying ‘OK what’s happened?’ Oh nothing I explain, it’s just that I love you, with a quick smile he sits for dinner. I light the candles and we begin to eat, my daughter is sitting wondering what’s going on, she eats slowly not to miss any action.
Then I take the plunge. Darling, I say, I need a few thousand dollars for Strada Verde. He smiles and has a quick laugh, sips his wine and proceeds to ask for the business plan. You know, the written thought-out plan that tells how much is need, what it will be spent on, when we will have the money back, what population our goods will attract, the break even analysis, and the profit and loss projections.
I stop eating, take a sip of wine and declare, well let me think, I am a wife, mom, arbitrator, housekeeper and taxi driver, oh I’d say a few thousand dollars will break even for my duties, so far.
As for the business plan, that’s easy I say, the plan is you give me the money and I make the business. Luckily at this point his mouth is full and I decide perhaps I should let him know the research I have done, the capital needed, the opening costs and the education on how green a product is and, of course, the marketing plan.
He is impressed!
Life is all about opportunities I say, the day comes when you want to walk on the path not taken, you want to turn right instead of the usual straight ahead. We all have dreams, it’s just the courage we lack to take the step to make the dream a reality.
A deep breath, a smile and the deal is complete.
The partnership of risk and belief in each other is sealed.
On about my fifth visit in a row to my usual coffee hangout with friends, sat the same blonde lady, eating lots of food and reading. She normally lifted her head and kind of smiled and that was the only greeting we shared. This one particular day I said, “O.K. enough, we must stop meeting like this” and with that said a friendship was born.
We seemed to hit it off straight away we laughed and discussed little things and then Mary said her dream was to open a wonderful eco-boutique, I laughed and said I had always wanted a business of my own too. With the kids growing up fast, and needing me for cash and taxi service, it was my turn.
She was studying for her masters in counseling, I thought great I could do with her services, after all who with children can do without a personal counselor!
Next time we met we exchanged numbers, and discussed it with those persons known as our “better halves." I called her and the plan was to move forward.
We drink organic milk, eat organic fruit and veg, exercise and even use organic beauty and household products. The next step is the clothing and accessories.
As they say, plant a seed and a tree will grow.
We wanted to do something good for the environment, bring in the organic cotton, bamboo, hemp materials, be stylish and trendy as well as earth-friendly. All the stars in Hollywood seem to be wearing organic clothing. We are with the fashion world, maybe not the size ‘0’ but still we do matter.
Whilst in England over the summer I bought a t-shirt with the words, “Save the planet it’s the only one we have” Now that’s inspiration, a message from above ..I would say!
A venture to take the path neither had trodden on before began.
The first biggest hurdle was the name….
Something green? Something eco?, Organic?….searching the Web thinking, looking in the dictionary! Yes those books we buy our children that just gather dust! Eventually the Italian name came and STRADA VERDE was born and baptized with champagne.
After all, who doesn’t love Italians!
Tell us. What is your business doing to be GREEN?
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