At least once a week, I like to profile a business and it’s website here on Boston CS (regardless of whether or not I have a working relationship with them). This week, the profile is on a Boston Green cleaning supply company.

Company name: Clean Green Solutions, LLC

Your name: Bill Scherer

Company location: 8 Mitchell St. South Boston, MA

Years in business: 1

Number of Employees: 2

Company description:

Clean Green Solutions specializes in ONLY green commercial cleaning products. The Rochester Midland Corporation, established in 1888 introduced their first line of cleaning products in 1986. The award winning Enviro Care bio-based products are Green Seal and EcoLogo certified and are dispensed via a traditional chemical dispensing unit for just pennies per quart. If you’re looking for a green alternative to a traditional cleaning product, we have it!

What was the inspiration for starting this business? Did you start it to solve a problem? Was it something you had always wanted to do? What made you finally pull the trigger to bring the company from a dream to a reality?

The Green Wave. CGS creates a solution for business’ looking for all green cleaning products.

What is the biggest obstacle that you have faced so far? How have you overcome this obstacle, or is it something that you still struggle with?

Internet clients

Why should people buy your product(s) over the competition?

Our products are Truly Green, meaning they are green seal and eco logo certified and surpass the EPA’s criteria for green cleaning products. The products cost less than traditional products and in most cases, work better.

What is your best selling green cleaning product?

All of the products do very well. I would have to say the Proxi Spray and Walk Away carpet spotter.

Who is your typical customer?

My typical customers are hotels, property management companies and maid companies.

Feedback

Clean Green Solutions is in a very hot niche right now. As he mentioned, Bill’s biggest problem is a lack of new customers coming in through the Internet. Check back tomorrow when I publish my analysis of Clean Green Solutions’ website.

Would you like to have your business featured?

If you would like to have your business and/or web site profiled on the Boston CS blog, visit our contact page and drop me an email.

Many people today assimilate the term blogging with some unemployed guy in his mid-twenties, sitting in his parents basement typing away on his laptop. Do yourself a favor and get this thought out of your head immediately.

Blogging is one of the more powerful Internet tools available for both small and large businesses. It’s also one of the cheapest forms of marketing you can utilize after word of mouth.

So if you haven’t already started a blog for your business, here are four reasons why should you should start today.

1) SEO – Blogging is an easy way to efficiently add fresh content to your site. As you build up this content, it will be indexed in the search engines, and your organic traffic will grow.

2) Content flow – Blogging allows you to add content to your site in a random order via posts. This makes it much easier for you to discuss a variety of topics without feeling like it’s off topic for the page.

3) It gives people a reason to go to your site – If you build it they will come. By “it”, I mean valuable and interesting content. If people keep coming back for your content, they’re more likely to become your customer.

4) Get free market research – Thinking about implementing a change to your business, but not sure how it will be received? Just ask your business blog readers for feedback and suggestions. Who knows what improvements might develop just by asking “what do you think?”

Today’s featured business is Gifted, based out of Boston, MA. I happened to find them on Twitter, so you can add this to your list of reasons to use Twitter.

If you are interested in having your business or site profiled here, please visit the contact page and send me an email.

So, let’s get right to my interview with co-owner Marie Corcoran…

Company name: Gifted

Company location: 53 Dartmouth Street Boston, MA 02116

Company description:

Gifted is owned and operated by two local artists; Marie Corcoran a potter and jeweler, and Luke Adams a glassblower and jeweler. We carry handmade crafts by local and U.S. artists as well as items that support different causes locally and world wide.

Years in business: 6 months

Number of Employees: 2

What was the inspiration for starting this business? Did you start it to solve a problem? Was it something you had always wanted to do? What made you finally pull the trigger to bring the company from a dream to a reality?

Luke is an established business owner of Luke Adam’s Glass and has done wholesale and retail throughout the years and Marie has owned Endless Art by Marie for three years dealing with solely wholesale. I personally wanted a local store where we could sell our product and also carry the works of talented artists we’ve met along the way, this also allowed me to cut back on the traveling and shows required for wholesale.

Luke and I always had an interest in starting a retail store and were lucky enough to reach that dream early on. We had briefly started to search for a store location and toss the idea around when a friend of ours needed to give up her store front because she was starting a family.

How did you come up with the company name?

After brainstorming for weeks on a store name, Luke came up with “Gifted” last minute and I think it’s perfect. It represents the talent that the store has to carry and the idea that we are a gift store.

What is the biggest obstacle that you have faced so far? How have you overcome this obstacle, or is it something that you still struggle with?

Figuring out hours and advertising. Being the sole employee, it can be trying to work the hours that you feel the business should be open. If it were up to me we would be open 24-7!

Advertising is our biggest conflict. So far we have only done one ad in a small local paper for two weeks before Christmas. I’ve personally gone around and handed out coupons to local businesses and homes. I also try to do as much networking online as possible since I feel like that’s where the majority goes now for information.

Why should people buy your product(s) over the competition?

Everything we carry has a person working behind it. They have come up with an idea, executed it and labored at getting it out there to share it with the world. Most of our artists are moms and dads, or young artists looking for their place in the art world. For Luke and I, we both find joy in making our work and want to pass that on to you so that the colors and shapes that inspire us can do the same in your own environment.

What, if any, forms of social media does your business currently use? Does your business have any plans to use social media in the future?

We currently use solely online media. We have our own website www.MadeByMarie.com, a Facebook page, a Yelp page , a Twitter page. We are also on Google search, Citysearch, Povo.com, Surfitlocal.com, local Yahoo.com, and many more.

My feedback

First, of I think it’s great that Marie and Luke finally pulled the trigger on starting this local business. They already have experience in running a business, which I’m sure has helped to curb the learning process as they fine tune this operation.

Strengths

Gifted has chosen to go the Internet route with their marketing plan. They can give themselves a pat on the back for this. It seems they have all of the essentials covered for getting the Gifted brand out there.

Another strength is that they are currently owner-operators of this business. I don’t have any insight as to the financial state of the business, but the fact that they do not have a payroll is a huge benefit.

From what I can see, the biggest competitive advantage that Gifted holds is that fact that they are in a very niche business. This means they have the opportunity to capitalize on less competitive long tail keywords. Madebymarie.com might never become a high traffic site, which is irrelevant given that the site has the potential to convert a lot of it’s traffic to sales.

Areas of Improvement

The extent of my suggestions pertain to the design of the site and SEO work. Check back tomorrow for my free site analysis of MadeByMarie.com.

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