Local Biz Blogs Official Blog

We recorded entrepreneur Jay Coen Gilbert giving a presentation on B Corporations, his latest project after selling the popular apparel company And1 which he co-founded. B Corporation is a new set of standards and legal framework for using the power of business to create public benefit. B Corp businesses meet high performance and legal standards, while building a collective voice for conscious businesses.

B Corporations turn the traditional corporate model on its head. They use the power of capitalism to address the pressing social and environmental issues we face. This is an opportunity to create a new sector of the economy, and a better world.

I gave a brief interview to David of Vator TV on triple bottom line reporting.

People. Planet. Profits. We all understand the last item. But socially-conscious entrepreneurs, like Mike Paunovich of LocalBizBlogs.com, give equal consideration to the environmental and human impact of their enterprises. This is triple bottom line (TBL) reporting.

Triple bottom line reporting is a framework for socially responsible companies to measure and report on their impacts on society as a whole, beyond the profit line.

Paunovich says that while it's easy to quantify the "profit" line, it's much harder to do so with the environmental and social impacts of a business. No standardized practices exist for quantifying these additional bottom lines, allowing for a lot of subjectivity among organizations that claim TBL adherence. But at the same time, this presents an opportunity for social entrepreneurs to band together to find a solution for TBL reporting best accepted practices.

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This is a story about how a local pharmacy has thrived in the face of growing competition. By going against the grain and providing specialized services and solutions, Cheri Garvin and her staff at Leesburg Pharmacy meet the needs of many people who desire more attention, customization, and selection than what is offered at chain-store pharmacies. Leesburg Pharmacy is known for its state-of-the-art compounding lab (which none of the big guys have) and customers come from towns far away for this unique service.

Not without challenges, Garvin's team must deal with an increasingly complex pricing structure set by insurance companies. Chain-store pharmacies have the advantage here - they are able to negotiate lower prices because of the high volumes they purchase. Insurance companies continue to pay less and less for drugs these days, forcing Garvin and Co. to reconsider their unique service offerings.

For more, watch the video and read about Leesburg Pharmacy.

Edit: Embedded video not working, removed. See video link above.

Today I came across this video tutorial explaining social bookmarking and how to use Del.icio.us to organize and share your bookmarks. Del.icio.us is great because your bookmarks can be accessed from anywhere. You can pull your Del.icio.us bookmarks into your BizBlog using the Links Tool, just as we are on the LBB blog. Linking to web pages that relate to your products and services helps establish creditability by providing additional information to customers.

More 'Plain English' tutorials can be found at CommonCraft. Learn more about linking and how to use the Links Tool.

 

Demo Girl has a great screencast tour of Technorati: the search engine for searching blogs, photos and videos. Learn the basics, and how to add your BizBlog to Technorati's directory of 94.3 million blogs. Technorati is a great resource for finding content to reference in your own blog. Search by keywords or tags. You can even save search terms in a watch list and Technorati will automatically keep you updated.

Watch Demo Girl's Technorati Tour (flash required)

Related LBB post: Keep Up With The Buzz Topic Resources for Your Blog

Last month I attended the fifth annual BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) conference in Berkeley. I felt unexpectedly inspired throughout the entire conference. I met business owners (most also run BALLE chapters) from around the country who are working to improve their local economies and communities. By expanding the bottom line to include people, planet, and profit, they are changing their business practices to meet the greater needs of the community.

From the BALLE website: "We envision a sustainable global economy made up of Local Living Economies that build long-term economic empowerment and prosperity through local business ownership, economic justice, and environmental stewardship."

No fluff here. The people I met are serious and dedicated. And they have good ideas too.

I learned of BALLE by stumbling upon a Michael Shuman interview when searching YouTube for local business related videos. Shuman attracted my attention when he squashed the myth that big-box and corporate chains dominate the economy. It turns out 58% of our economy is rooted in local businesses. And over the past 10 years, local businesses have lost only 3% of their market share to non-local business. Author of The Small-Mart Revolution and Going Local, Michael Shuman is an ultra-entrepreneur himself. He promotes the concept of 'going local' by directly helping communities and business owners establish sustainable relationships.

I caught up with him at the conference and recorded his keynote speech for the LBB blog. Shuman shares his insights and stories from a year-long book tour, meeting people and visiting communities across the country. He gives examples of how local ownership makes a positive impact on communities by increasing jobs and improving quality of life.

 

Want more? Conference Recordings is selling CDs and DVDs from the conference. 

Does your BizPage need a refresh?

You’re in luck. Now you can add more kinds of rich media to your BizPage with a new batch of tools.

Photos Tool - pull photos from your flickr stream
Video - Embed YouTube and Google Video videos (support for more soon)
Links - Pull links from your Del.icio.us bookmarks

Give our demo business a visit to see them in action.

We had a good time trying to find coffee related videos for the demo business. Here are the ones that didn't make the cut:


Fiesta Frappe
M.C. Escher Inspired
Boss Japanese Coffee
Retro Maxwell House Commercial
Retro Folgers Commercial
Another Retro Maxwell House Commercial
Tolerate Mornings