Only today through our work with Craigslist Foundation was I put onto the great product created by Electric Pulp entitled Alltop. Why do I consider it so great? Because in 5 min, I can get all the headlines from the best green and non-profit blogs out there. And in such a friendly + simple user interface.

Scrap having 42 RSS feeds and 20 bookmarks to check what’s going on. This is way simpler and I don’t even need an account to use it. News is getting easier and easier to acquire and in quick bursts that the mind can digest. Their purpose statement sums it up perfectly:

We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web …. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In this way, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation.”

Q. What is profitability?
A. Gross Income - Cost of Goods Sold = Net Profit

While the above is a solid answer, its a bit generic. Often times we forget that its not only the profitability of a project we are interested in measuring, but the overall profitability of the company.

If we’re looking to measure the profitability of a particular project this formula works perfectly: Total Project Income - Cost of Contracted Services = Project Profit.

Example
$10,000 (Project Bid) - $3,500 (Project Hard Cost) = $6,500 Project Net Profit.

Its when we’re looking to measure the profitability of the company it becomes a tad bit tricky.

Here are some factors that come to mind when measuring the profitability of the company: Project Hard Costs (Contracted Services), Salaries, Insurance, Monthly Dues & Subscriptions, Travel & Entertainment.

Example
$400,000 (Company Revenue)
- $75,000 (Project Hard Costs)
- $180,000 (Salaries)
- $10,000 (Insurance)
- $25,000 (Dues & Subscriptions)
- $15,000 (Travel & Entertainment)
= $95,000 (Company Profitability)

Just because projects individually you may be working on are profitable doesn’t mean the company as a whole is profiting on them. Be sure to measure both aspects of profitability when measuring the sucess of your company.

What is the most amount of unused space in your business? Is it empty office space? Is it an employee or group of employees who are not working on something purposeful? Is it a great idea that is simply not being given due time and attention?

At Amazon, it was unused server and warehouse space. In March 2006, TechCrunch helped announce Amazon’s release of a web service called S3. S3 took unused space on Amazon’s dedicated servers (that they use to manage their web stores + data) and sold them to companies and organizations who were looking to buy on demand web space. Not only did they get rid of their waste (since it was unused space), they were able to make it available at a fraction of the industry’s going rates. Since Amazon was already managing these servers, they had no additional expenses. And these servers held market potential since they were top quality hardware being managed by top quality Amazon administrators. If your server went down, that meant Amazon store/data servers went down. So there is a vested interest from Amazon to keep your data stable and in working order.

S3 was only one of Amazon’s ways of getting rid of waste. In April 2007, they launched Fulfillment by Amazon. While S3 helped get rid of unused server space, Fulfillment by Amazon helped get rid of unused warehouse space. Again, they offer on demand storage space at a fraction of industry going rates that are managed and run by Amazon employees. They treat your packages just like their own, since to their employees - there is no difference.

In both cases, Amazon not only got rid of waste (unused space), but they helped the community and turned a profit. I liked to think of it fitting into the model set forth by William McDonough. According to him in Building Like Trees, Cities Like Forests,

Waste=Food. The processes of each organism in a living system contribute to the health of the whole. A fruit tree’s blossoms fall to the ground and decompose into food for other living things. Bacteria and fungi feed on the organic waste of both the tree and the animals that eat its fruit, depositing nutrients in the soil in a form ready for the tree to take up and convert into growth. One organism’s waste becomes food for another. One organism’s waste becomes food for another.

Isn’t that beautiful? What is all societies and businesses were able to do something similar?

Related Article

* Sustainability Is OUT, Eco-Effectiveness Is IN
* Growth is Good & Waste Equals Food

Two months ago, the dBoost crew got a chance to interview founder and CEO of Dwell Creative, Johnny Rooks. For those of you not familiar with Dwell Creative, they work with small green businesses to grow their branding and marketing strategies through direct authenticity. They are great in showing the difference between green marketing and green washing between businesses.

Our interest really peaked after reading their upfront and brutally honest manifesto. So we started by asking Johnny how he got started with the business and developed his identity:

John R.: We started about 4 years ago and the timing was perfect. I started it because I was sick of promoting consumption - but had no idea the marketplace would explode as it has. It feels good.
Dhrumil P.: Was Dwell creative founded with the intent of working with eco + natural brands or did it evolve to that position?
John R.: Like you, it was a combination of business acumen and philosophy. We started focusing on environmental sciences and grew to more green and social responsibility issues.
Dhrumil P.: Did you see the shift coming from your personal life? Meaning, did you get into social responsibility + green business because your own personal life was headed in that way?
John R.: I think it was already there. But the fortunate awareness I have gained interacting with our clients and just learning has certainly pushed my life towards deeper responsibility. After all, I’m a consumer too. But it started from within…it started with a hope that i could build a business based on environmental and social awareness.
Nirav S.: We saw alot of that responsibility come out in your manifesto. Can you tell us a little bit about the origins of your manifesto. Was this something you put together in one sitting, or did it evolve over the course of your career?
John R.: Like most things, it started in a local bar. We were talking about how to attract better -more aligned- clients and get rid of some not-so-aligned ones. We decided to publish the manifesto as a client pre-qualification tactic. We had one of our clients call and say “Just read the manifesto - I guess you don’t want us as a client anymore…” I hadn’t thought about them specifically, but if they some something in the manifesto that they didn’t like then perhaps they were not a great fit. Funny, they left us for a year and came back…more aligned - maybe they saw the green light, I don’t know.
John R.: We are big into aligning with our client’s mission. Why bother, otherwise.

Just a beautiful manifesto that Johnny and Dwell has developed! We’ve started with our mantra - but Johnny has got us thinking about how to expand that further. We still get clients that are not the best suited for our line of work and what we’re passionate about. And I know the only reason we attract them is simply because we haven’t defined ourselves very well.

With Dwell, its not just their intention + manifesto that sets them apart from the rest. Its their daily actions and the service they provide to others. So we inquired about their latest projects and the types of services they offer:

Dhrumil P.: John, tell us about a client you are working with right now that really gets you excited… when it comes to mission.
John R.: Energycures.org - This is a national campaign for a non-profit that is connecting the dots of poverty and environmental devistation in developing nations. The Cure to both of these is Clean Energy. They fund clean energy entrepenuers all over the world so they are creating jobs and providing clean energy to areas that use diesel or cow dung or harvested wood to heat homes and cook. And, they have been doing it for 14 years. Its a very real solution to global problems…
Dhrumil P.: What are some of the campaigns you’re taking on for Energy Cures or services that you are providing?
John R.: We have done strategy, public relations, the web development, banner ad development, media buy, event strategy…signage. postcards and promotional items (band aids).
Dhrumil P.: And when implementing these strategies for green companies, do you use the same approach you did marketing standard companies? Or is there a difference in approach?
John R.: Great question! The difference is in the language we use. There is some real problematic language out there right now. “Green”, for example, is now a punchline. It has - I think - lost its authenticity. When BP claims to be Green, what does that mean for the real greenies? It becomes meaningless. We have to be much more aware of the marketplace and their awareness of what is going on. The strategies are the same- maybe we use more PR than traditionalists…but thats the third party validation that is important to the LOHAS consumer.
Dhrumil P.: Great point
Nirav S.: Can you give us an example of the language differences?
John R.: “What once was Trash became a Waste Stream and is now Waste
Resources.” Resources is a powerful word. It implies a necessity. It was at the heart of the environmental agenda of the 90s and is concerned with the needs of the society. Resource allocation is a concept we must all grapple with and, with the exception of while supplies last, in the worst advertising there is never a shortage of any resource. Drink until you are full. Consume. Remember though that resources themselves—in the traditional view—have no intrinsic worth. It is not until a resource produces a product (captured energy, tires, etc.) that it has value. Today, resources are at the core of many green advertising claims. Whether we are talking about oil, solar, water, land. Resources today, start to have
value in themselves.
John R.: “That was a cut and paste from a paper I am writing on Language.”

Amazing! And it really is all about the language that one uses when communicating about green and being a green organization. There are so many companies and organizations with wonderful ideas on greening your life and your surroundings. But the message truly gets lost when you’re not able to communicate your vision + purpose effectively through language.

At dboost, we always start all our design mockups and webpages with content in place. Real copy makes a huge difference in communicating a message compared to filler text. Design is not just about art work and pretty pictures - its about communicating and embodying a message.

Before we completed our conversations with Johnny, we asked Johnny about his own greening habits and tip:

Dhrumil P.: John, a lot firms are starting to take on the meaning of being green even though there client list doesn’t fully reflect. And they are interested in taking steps to make there work place greener. Could you throw out some tips for ways that other creative firms or small teams can lower their eco impact?
John R.: We off-set what we can’t reduce with NativeEnergy (nativeenergy.com). They are a client and they kick ass. Paper is a huge part of our impact. We used all 6 sides as much as possible (I write very small). Makeing sure our vendors are using soy inks and PC paper whenever the budget permits. Mostly, just staying educated and taking it home with you. It doesn’t end at the office. We need to be evangalists.
John R.:We throw out about 1 bag of trash every 2 weeks. We recycle everything. It’s become a game to see who can re-use more.

You the man Johnny and we really appreciate the time you gave to us and our readers.

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that the key to operating a successful business is managing cash flow. One of the latest tools we have added to our online arsenal is a Cash Flow Management System called Pulse App.

While this online tool may not replace the use of an accountant or Quickbooks for that matter, it will replace the use of the robust excel spreadsheets you use to manage your companies monthly income and expenses.

Prior to Pulse App finding us, we were using the ever popular aforementioned, Excel spreadsheet to manage our monthly budgets. While we became accustomed to updating it on a monthly basis, as one months budget would come to a close and another months budget would open, it was hard to visualize where we would stand financially 1 year down the road or 3 months down the road for that matter.

When creating our budgets, every month would have its own sheet, so in order to see what happened at the end of last month you would have to go back and forth on different sheets, making it difficult to visualize your companies overall flow. I’m sure there are multiple different ways to do this in excel that may be better than the method we were using, but whatever excel method your using, can’t beat the usability and ease of Pulse App.

As you can see we highly recommend the application, and the best part about it all is that its FREE!

Getting Real (by 37signals) has been a philosophy that has truly empowered our team. It’s given us a language toolset that has made it so much easier for our team to communicate things we’ve always know, but had a hard time expressing.

Although we learned a lot of the principals bootstrapping our own company, we felt there was entire technologically inclined nation missing out (with a few exceptions) on some of these golden nuggets. That’s why we embarked on a journey this past August to translate the book into Hindi. And here’ it is:

Getting Real Hindi Translation

Although India is a country known for it’s appreciation of English, especially in the technology sector, we feel that taking this translation on will give a few individuals insight into a whole new world of creating applications and enjoying the process.

Helping Green Companies Spread the Message

by Hiral Dholakia-Dave | Times of India, Nov. 13, 2007

The Idea

“Dharma” fulled their ambition and a Gujarati enterprise got them cracking with a novel business concept. Since 2001, a group of 20 something NRGs [Non Resident Gujaratis] — including a college dropout — have been helping green, socially-responsible and nonprofit organizations spread their mantra through the web.

Most of their clients are what they call “Future 500″ companies”, small businesses that have revolutionary products and the potential to impact the future in a big way. But their portfolio has also grown to include working on projects for Fortune 500 clients like Cisco Systems, Microsoft and HP.

The web development company, DharmaBoost, is a brainchild of Dhrumil Purohit, 25, who with the consent of his parents, dropped out of school to start a business. Since he understood the Internet well, he started creating websites for local clients.

It was then that he realized that often the people and organizations that have the best ideas, ideas that could transform the world, are often the worst at understanding technology and how to leverage it.

Becoming a Team

Even though Dhrumil Purohit, 25, Mihir Kothari, 24 and Nirav Sheth, 23, knew each other growing up, from Garba and Gujarati Samaj, it wasn’t until college that they became great friends.

“It was in our second year of college that we realized that all of us had gone through our own spiritual transformations and awakened to our relationship with Dharma. We not only became good friends but spiritual brothers. We would go on adventures, spend time learning from monks, host lectures on nutrition , etc. We would talk of Gandhiji’s work and ask ourselves, how could we can make an impact with the skills we have?” says Dhrumil.

When it came to think about their professional futures, they began discussing the idea of working together. Mihir and Nirav joined Dhrumil after graduation. “Every project that we take on, we ask ourselves, “How is this project going to better the world,” says Mihir. Raised in Delaware, Mihir decided to get into the family tradition of entrepreneurship after a brief stint in the corporate sector.

Purpose

“Dharma means nature, essence and purpose, and Boost means bringing you closer to something. So we chose the name because we are a company that provides consulting services that bring organizations closer to their individual purpose - using the Internet,” says Dhrumil. Apart from using spiritual principals and meditation to govern business and make work fun, they also take time off from work to volunteer. “It isn’t uncommon for us to spend time of things we care about. We took off between March and July to help plan the 2007 Jaina Convention in New Jersey. A very rewarding experience,” he adds.

The Future

The group has a development team that works with them in New Delhi. “We want to create a meaningful, fun and fruitful work environment for young people, especially talented young Indians. There are so many young Indians that are working in jobs that they don’t enjoy because of the prestige and the money. If we could match both [prestige and money] and add purpose, we would become a great company,” sums up Dhrumil.

We’re happy that Al Gore received this honorable award. He’s brought so much awareness to the whole world about climate change and the necessity to go green.

When it comes to web development, 37Signals has said it over and over again: Design First. And there have been countless other web firms who have backed this up and possibly even said this same statement before 37Signals made it popular. But this message hasn’t yet passed down to the customer level. To customers, design first is a project development approach. To them, it doesn’t really impact their work or process. Why should it?

Why is it so important for a customer?
Because it helps reduce development costs.

On average, a 30~40% reduction. The reduction comes from removing the unknowns that Web firms use apart of their quote calculation. Quotes are traditionally provided to customers in response to an RFP or similar. And this is before any actual design work is initiated or ideated. Companies that send out an RFP are asking firms for a full website quote, from start to some ideal finish. And companies who can’t afford or don’t want to go through the lengthy RFP process, just simply ask for a design and development quote from all their local firms. Then they make a choice by looking at the following in descending priority: a) Cost, b)Time to Complete, c)Past Experience, and d)Actual scope of work.

So when web firms take a stab at creating a quote, they take into account all the stuff they do know.

Needs a CMS, check.

Needs a search tool, check.

Requires a shopping cart, check.

So now I have my knowns listed. What are my unknowns?

What type of CMS is the best for this site? I don’t really know.

How extensive are the search parameters? Not really sure.

What type of shopping experience are they looking for? A good one?

And the natural response for Web firms is to use their past experience of building a CMS, a search tool, a shopping cart and put in buffer time. Buffer space for this feature, buffer for this functionality, overall buffer in case project changes on a whim, etc.

So the responses that a customer receives is inherently bloated. Bloated atleast two to three times the actual cost of development if all the unknowns were removed. And this all resulted because Web firms don’t know what to expect. If at the end, the project turns out to have a huge scope and all the features talked about by the Web firm - the cost works itself out. But in most cases, the project turns out much smaller than what the Web firm anticipated. So the customer ends out losing, both in cost and time. Yes, even time!

In the past few months alone, DBoost has been asked whether or not we were trying to low ball a company due to the estimates we’ve been providing. Try to maybe sneak in to the running of an RFP process since we know cost is the first thing a customer looks at. But the answer is of course no. We just don’t include the buffers into our estimates. We try to keep it real. We honestly don’t know how much time it will take to develop the back-end. It could be as simple as utilizing an existing CMS and plugging in your data. Or it could be as difficult as creating a Facebook style social networking application. How can you know without designing the interactions?

Most RFPs and web summaries don’t show design. They don’t have any interactions included in them. And very few of them ever have layout diagrams. They only show possibilities of what can be done through hierarchical content.

So just like you wouldn’t hire a contractor to build your expensive house before the architecture plans were completed, don’t hire a Web firm without knowing what you want them to provide. First figure out the design and user interactions. Pay a Web firm to do that for you and have your “architecture” completed. Then if you want to hire them for development, they won’t have any unknowns. And you can cross check by showing your “architecture” to other firms. Do it the right and effective way. Save some money and time!

Seth Godin sheds light on this a little further in an article entitled “How To Create a Good Enough Website“:

Start with design. Don’t involve the programming team until you’re 90% done with the look and feel of your pages. It’s cheap to change design if it can’t by supported by programming, and cheaper and faster to have design done in Photoshop before you commit to cutting it up and coding it.

I’m going to go out on a limb and beg you not to create an original design. There are more than a billion pages on the web. Surely there’s one that you can start with? If your organization can’t find a website that you all agree can serve as a model, you need to stop right now and find a new job.

Not a site to rip-off, but an inspiration. Fonts and colors and layout. The line spacing. The interactions. Why not? Your car isn’t unique, and your house might not be either. If you’ve got a site that sells 42 kinds of wrapping paper, why not start by finding a successful site that sells… I don’t know, shoes or yo-yo’s… something that both appeals to your target audience and has been tested and tweaked and works. No, don’t pick a competitor. That will get you busted. Pick a reasonably small but successful site in a totally different line of work. Say to your designer: “That’s our starting point. Don’t change any important design element without asking me first. Now, pull in our products, our logo and our company color scheme and let’s take a look at it.”

Sandeep Sood doesn’t think the world is flat. He actually thinks it is pretty curvy.

The world is full of strange curves and contours. All this ‘flat world’ talk tends to gloss over the cultural differences, language barriers (even if you speak English, it doesn’t mean you understand it the same way only, isn’t it?), management challenges, time differences etc. that global collaboration brings up.

When we accept that the world is still round, we can have a better conversation about these challenges, deal with the management issues, and work harder on bridging cultural understanding.

We couldn’t agree with Sandeep more. Although we’re big Thomas Friedman fans, and do agree the world is flattening, we see the effects of the flat craze in the web software world everyday. Often it comes in the form of over ambitious projects that lack a core manifesto. Projects that try to do everything or copy everything with the hopes of hitting a home run somewhere along the line. Projects that lack intention and deep purpose.

Which, of course, is nothing new. Companies have been putting out unfocused projects since the dawn of time. But, what is different is that the web has made it easier for people to launch. It has never been easier for goodness to succeed, but it has also never been easier to nonsense to fail.

Just because the web makes things easy-er doesn’t mean your project can coast on a poor foundation. Surprise, surprise, you still need to do work.

Teenage boys know curves are a good thing, but seems some executives have forgotten. Luckily we have Sandeep to break it down for them.

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