eCommerce in Iowa

Here is an article from Co-op America.  I recommend you check out their website and GO GREEN!

Here are some ideas to help you get started on your own office greening.

1. Make your office ‘Climate Cool’ through Co-op America’s partnership with NativeEnergy
You can offset the carbon dioxide emissions associated with your office’s energy use and business travel by joining a “green tags” program. Green tags are energy credits created by renewable energy facilities that represent the environmental benefits of green power generation.

At Co-op America’s offices, we offset 100 percent of our global warming emissions through a green tag program with NativeEnergy, which is helping to build a 10MW wind farm on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.

If your office holds conferences or other events, be sure to consider offsets for all the travel to the event.  We make offsets available for all of our events including Green Festivals, our Green Business Conference, and our annual social investing conference. 

Be sure to do an annual energy audit. Many utilities around the country offer them for free.  If your office rents its space, encourage your landlord to do the audit and require it as a condition in your next lease negotiation.

2. Switch your office paper use to 100% recycled
Did you know that the average US worker uses 12,000 sheets of paper per year?

Paper accounts for roughly 40% of all municipal solid waste in the United States. Whether you work in an office or telecommute from home, chances are you use a lot of paper. Co-op America committed to switching our paper for our publications and our member letters to 100% post consumer recycled paper.

To find Co-op America’s Green Business Network™ members that supply recycled paper, check out the National Green Pages™ and search under the category “Paper.”

Learn more about eco-papers through our WoodWise program »

Find more green office products in the National Green Pages™ »

3. Introduce Fair Trade Certified™ and organic coffee and tea into your workplace.
Co-op America is encouraging workplaces all across the country to become Fair Trade Workplaces by switching their office coffee to Fair Trade Certified™.  Go the extra step by looking for Fair Trade Certified™ and organic coffee.

Check out the National Green Page™ to find green business that carry Fair trade coffee as well as tea, cocoa, and other Fair Trade products.

Do you already work in a Fair Trade Workplace? Sign up to be a member Co-op America’s Fair Trade Alliance, a national network of workplaces, faith congregations, schools, and community groups working to promote Fair Trade in their communities. 

Sign up now for the Fair Trade Alliance »

4. Invest in reuseable plates, cups, and utensils
Ask people in your office to bring in some items from home.  Or, check out a yard sale on the weekend to find second hand items for office use.

5. Make sure your office recycles paper, aluminum, glass, and plastic
If your building does not already offer the service, look for an independent recycling firm that can come and pick up your office recyclables on a weekly or biweekly basis.  If this isn’t an option in your area, work with individuals in your office to encourage people to take their recyclables home with them to put in their own residential curbside recycling.

6. Switch office light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs
While the initial investment may cost more than conventional bulbs, CFLs last longer– so over time your office will save money and save energy.

Find energy efficient lighting options in the National Green Pages™ »

7. Start an office compost program
At Co-op America, we keep a sealed compost container in our office kitchen and individual staff members take turns taking the compost home to add to their own compost piles. You can also chip in to get a worm composter for your office kitchen.

Read about worm composting in Real Money » 

8. Encourage use of green transportation to and from work
Offer incentives to encourage people to take public transportation, walk, bike, or car pool.

9. Buy green gifts
Whether you are buying a special gift for a client or a present for an office baby shower, make sure you buy green or Fair Trade items to show that you care about your customers and co-workers as well as people and the planet. 

Find thousands of green gifts in the National Green Pages™ »

10. Get a Co-op America membership for your office
You’ll get even more ideas about how to green your office purchasing choices.  You’ll receive a free copy of the National Green Pages™, a subscription to our green living newsletter Real Money, and much more!  Join now »

Christian Connett B(eco)ming Green, Positive Thinking, Resources coop america, green-iowa

As an eCommerce provider, we have to help businesses/organizations make the best decision for their online payment needs.  Throught the years things have changes from one type of Merchant Account to another.  We align with several great providers that include Authorize.Net, PayPal, Google Checkout, and a couple of other options.

Throughout these trials, uses, and experience I have accumulated a bevy of knowledge that help propel clients into making the best decision for their needs.  I don’t want you to get something setup, just because “the other guy is doing it”.   Everyone has a different need, and some needs are just slightly different.

Regardless, I want to lay out some helpful information to help you determine the best FREE merchant/payment solution.  Although both Google Checkout and PayPal provide great services respectively, one solution works better for some companies while the other fits more succinctly.  So here are my tidbits of thought:

GOOGLE CHECKOUT vs. PAYPAL WEBSITE PAYMENTS

 Cost of Setup for both: FREE

Processing fees:
Google Checkout = 2.2% + .20 per transaction
Google processing is FREE if you spend equal or less than 10 times  your Adwords spending.  E.g. if you spend $1,000 in Adwords, then your first $10,000 in processing fees are FREE!

PayPal Payments = 1.9-2.9% +.30 per transaction
Paypal has a sales-volume base for the percentage.  So the more volume that you take in, the better the discount rate (percentage).

The security of both applications are unsurpassed, and are just as trustworthy (if not more PCI compliant) than paid solutions.

Now these are just some points on integrating one of the solutions for your ecommerce store checkout process.  There are many other options you can utilize from these providers as well.

You can invoice from either provider through email invoices.  Easily bill your client.

I have to admit that for your small business, PayPal can be the most advantageous of the two.  There are many other services that you can leverage from PayPal, including gaining control over your funds a lot faster. 

Google Checkout is integrated into your bank account.  As soon as GC processes a payment, the funds take 3-4 business days to automatically transfer into your bank account.  In the meantime, you do not have access to those funds.

Paypal however provides instant access to your funds via the PayPal Account.  You can send money as soon as 30 seconds after the transaction completes.  You can also transfer funds into your bank account (again 3-4 business days).  OR – sign up for the FREE PayPal debit card!  PayPal does provide a FREE debit card (Mastercard).  The card allows you access to your funds IMMEDIATELY.  I would suggest using the card as a credit card, because you will get 1% cash-back on every purchase that you ’sign’ for!  Thereby reducing your transaction fee by 1%…

PayPal provides recurring payment solutions, Google does not have this functionality as of yet.  PayPal is accepted as a form of payment on many merchant websites, whereas Google is simply a ‘checkout’ process.

You decide what works best for you.  Google Checkout is simple, especially handy if you utilize Adwords.  PayPal is a lot more flexible and can help manage funds/billing a little better.

If you have any questions about these or other solutions, give me a call – I am here to help you succeed.  I support small business, and I hope that you do as well!

To forward thinking…
- Christian

Christian Connett Resources, eCommerce

You need to make the most out of your time, and I have a couple of remedies for you and your precious time!

Here are a few FREE applications that are easy to install and help make your (computer) life more productive.

YouSendIt
One of the oldest temporary file-storage online apps, YouSendIt can handle files up to 100MB in size and is a good site for parking large files for others to download.
www.yousendit.com

Spybot – Search & Destroy 1.5.2
Spybot is one of the oldest and most respected names in the fight against spyware. In addition to combating the online baddies trying to hijack your PC, the latest version features a file shredder and can also wipe your system clean of your Web-surfing tracks. One click of the Search for Updates button keeps you protected from the latest threats. Download now

PrimoPDF 3.2
You don’t need an expensive version of Adobe Acrobat in order to create PDF files. PrimoPDF lets you “print” to PDF format from almost any Windows application, even letting you optimize the file depending on if it’s destined for print or onscreen reading. The utility also provides password protection and encryption (either 40-bit or 128-bit) options for your PDFs, along with the ability to control how the files can be edited by recipients. Download now

Revo Uninstaller 1.42
Many great utilities draw upon features that Windows offers and take them further. Revo Uninstaller goes beyond what Windows does with its Add/Remove Programs function, cleaning up any remnants (like Registry entries) of a removed app that Windows might otherwise miss. It also gathers up files related to broken applications so you can clean them off your system. Download now

CPU-Z 1.43
A tweaker’s godsend, CPU-Z can tell you everything about your PC’s core components, including basic specs such as processor name and RAM amount to overclocking essentials such as clock multiplier and voltage settings. If you want to find out all the crucial information about what’s going on “under the hood” of your machine, CPU-Z is essential. Download now

Quick Startup 2.3
We love any program that can help speed up boot times, because—let’s face it—we use Windows. As you’re probably already well aware, lots of Windows applications take the opportunity to load themselves when you start your PC, whether you want them to or not. Quick Startup shows you all those programs gumming up the works, then allows you to disable the ones you don’t really need to launch at startup. Download now

iDump 24
One of the admittedly few annoyances with owning an iPod is that Apple makes it difficult to transfer files from your device onto a PC, which becomes a headache if you load tracks onto your iPod at work and want to put them on your home computer. A simple solution is iDump, a utility that makes copying songs from your iPod to a computer as easy as selecting tracks and deciding which directory you want iDump to transfer them to. If you’ve filled the player with thousands of files, iDump lets you sort songs by criteria such as artist, album, genre, file size, bit rate, and more. It also has a search function to let you find that one particular track you need to hear on your PC right now. Download now

Free Registry Defrag 2.32
One of the “joys” of an older Windows-based PC is that the Registry gets stuffed with remnants from entries for software programs you’ve deleted from your system altogether. A quick way to give your system a little performance boost is to close up the gaps in your Registry file caused by scattered data. That’s where Free Registry Defrag comes in. It compacts and optimizes your Registry (though it doesn’t remove invalid entries), and it even runs on Windows Vista. Download now

RAM Idle LE 1.5
Another way to give your PC a speed boost is to make it allocate available system memory more efficiently. RAM Idle can automatically balance free RAM available with the needs of the programs you’re running. It also allows you to manually earmark a certain amount of memory for a particular application. If you can’t add more RAM to your system, RAM Idle is a no-cost answer to memory bottlenecks you’re experiencing now. Download now

These applications are free of charge.  The data/links are provided by computershopper.com – These links and apps are tested and found to be safe and sound, however use is at your own risk – I am not liable for ANYTHING that comes of the use/installation/download, etc.

Christian Connett General

Did you know that you don’t have to transfer money from PayPal to your bank and wait the 3-4 business days?  You don’t have to look for the ‘Pay with PayPal’ icon on a website to purchase using your PayPal account.

If you want access to your PayPal money AS SOON AS ITS IN YOUR ACCOUNT… Then you want the official PayPal Debit Card.  This is not a scam, it is FROM PayPal themselves.

There are some GREAT benefits to having this card, aside from the obivous (access to your funds immediately). 

1. You get access to your money right away
2. You get 1% CASH BACK for every purchase using the card (as a credit card/signing)
3. You can use it at an ATM machine and withdraw money any time (there are ATM use fees)
4. 100% Protection against unauthorized purchases
5. Use the card ANYWHERE MasterCard is accepted

If you want the PayPal Debit Card – APPLY NOW.  You don’t have to have credit, etc.  Only a PayPal account in good standing.  This is a great attribute to your business.  Of course, as with all transactions/income with PayPal, you will have to file your own taxes and keep track of income/expenses as PayPal does not report to the IRS.

Christian Connett Resources paypal, paypal debit card