bGreen: Thoughts On Green

We’re Moving!

We’ve decided to move our blog to Tumblr.



Read about why here: http://bgrn.tumblr.com

Boom! Boston.com video and article!

We have been featured in Boston.com’s Innovation Economy section.  We visited Scott Kirsner, technology and innovation writer for boston.com, earlier this week to show off the bGreen Mobile Showroom.  Full article and video here.

BostonEco TweetUp

We’re going to be at the BostonEco TweetUp Wednesday. Are you? We have attended all of the BostonEco TweetUps and highly recommend you do too! It’s a great chance to check out a new Boston venue and connect with eco minded people. In fact, it was at a BostonEco TweetUp that we found our Mobile Showroom. So come by and maybe you’ll leave with a 27ft truck…



To sign up click here



For more information on the event click here



Where: Cafeteria Boston

279a Newbury Street

Boston, MA 02116



When: Wednesday April 28th



Why: Stop asking so many questions

Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! Yes today is actually Earth Day. It’s hard to know exactly when it is because Earth Day seems to have turned into Earth Week. Which is just fine with us. In fact, we think there should be Earth Year…maybe that’s taking it too far. We might run out of events to go to. Speaking of Earth Day events, how about a recommendation? If you will be downtown tomorrow make sure to check out 9.25 The River’s Earth Day concert on the Greenway. You can read more about it here.



By now we are sure you’ve heard the news but just in case, here’s a friendly reminder. For this week bGreen is offering 20% off the entire site for Earth Day.







We thought about making a dance video featuring the “bGreen dancers” and some tips on how to make your Earth Day (and life) more green. Then we realized that we were the bGreen dancers. So rather than subject you all to us dancing, we are going to offer 20% off the whole site! No coupon necessary. Just place your order and you will be given 20% off.



Don’t worry. One day you’ll see a video of us dancing and sharing green tips but for now enjoy your 20% off at bGreen.



Also, make sure to look for the bGreen Mobile Showroom around Boston on today. Honk or say hello if you see us.

Confessions of a former SUV Owner, Part Deux

Well, a week has gone by and I have a car. It was a stressful process but I found the perfect car for my life right now. I am now the proud owner of a 2007 Mini Cooper. It had every extra feature I could have ever wanted and was right in my budget range(15k max). The first week in my Mini has been great. I’ve fit into parking spots I wouldn’t have even taken a second look at with my Jeep. Best of all though,  the MPG is unbelievable! It seems  like I’ll never have to fill this car up.



I have learned a lot from this car search. In fact, I think it has changed the way I will shop for a car in the future. I did the majority of my shopping online and only went to see a car if met my needs, which made car shopping so much easier. Rather than spending a day going in and out of dealerships,  I could see everything in an hour right from my desk. I was also shocked when I was able to negotiate the price over email. It made my visit to the dealer a much more pleasant one!  (Yes, I still tried to get more off at the dealer, who wouldn’t?). The bottom line? Well,  there’s a few things:

1. The online world is still changing the way we shop and will continue to do so (we like this and are trying to change the way you shop for home products)



2. Think about your lifestyle BEFORE you get a car. I went from an SUV to a Mini and it hasn’t changed my life adversely at all. Why did I need all the space? In retrospect, I have absolutely no idea – possibly helping friends move. Guess what friends? Move it yourself (I still love you and will give you rides in my Mini but I am no longer the guy with a big car).



3. Be smart about the big purchases you make in your life. If you’re spending a lot of money on an item, you have every right to be sure you feel comfortable about what you purchase. I walked out on more than one salesperson who was trying to bully me into a car I didn’t want. Can’t help but think about bGreen in this regard. One of our main goals is to give you the best shopping experience. We want you to be happy with what you buy!

A New Look

It’s been a busy few weeks for bGreen.  We’ve been working on a website re-design, and if you’ve ever attempted one of these things, you’ll know it’s no easy task.  One change leads to 50 others, and so on and so on.  It just never ends.



There are many reasons we opted to re-design the site.  We received some great feedback from our valued customers and friends.  We searched the web to find sites we really liked, and adopted some of their design elements.  We received advice from some a successful web entrepreneur (more about that in the next post).  The result is what you see today at bgreenlifestyle.com.



We wanted to make the shopping experience easier, safer, and more dynamic.  Now, at the top of the page, you can find easy ways to contact us, log in to the site, get at all your account info, and view your order history.  Search is where it’s at, so we’ve prominently featured a huge search box at the top of every page.  Search away!  We’ve highlighted our top sellers right in the header of the page.  As we always say, if other people love an item, well, it’s worth taking a look at.  All your shopping categories are easily accessible in the left column of every page.  Navigate around - we’re certain you’ll find some great green products you’ll love.  At the bottom of the page, you can still follow us all over the web, easily navigate throughout the site, and visit our blog (which has a new address: http://blog.bgreenlifestyle.com).



We’re really excited about these changes.  We think it’s makes shopping with bGreen a much better experience.



Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out more features, like a featured brands section, some top search info, and a blog re-design to match the new site, so be sure to check back often.



Oh, and we almost forgot to mention something.  As a “thanks for being patient while we crippled our site for a few days preventing you from shopping” we’re offering you 20% off your order using code RELAUNCH at checkout.  This coupon is good through next Monday, Feb 15.

2009 bGreen Year in Review

Back when we were young whippersnapeprs spending summers in Brookline, NH, Barry used to do a Week in Review for all the staff.  Well, it seems fitting that we do a quick Year in Review for bGreen.  Without further adieu…

• Just under a year ago bGreen was nothing more than a figment of our imagination.  Over a few beers and a few burgers, we hatched the idea for a company made it easy to go green.



• We actually had a name before the company even existed.  bGreen.  Be Green.  Barry GREENstein.  It seemed to work.  Now we just had to build a business around what we thought to be a clever name.



• Again, before the company even existed, we took a trip to LA to see what the green movement was like out there.  It really blew us away, we met a ton of cool people, like the guys from The Green Hive and The Green Life. Aside from making us totally pissed about living in Boston and not California, the trip made us shift gears and come up with the bGreen online store.



• In June, we hired a team of lawyers from the VC Ready Law Group to hammer out our business details.  What they (and we) thought we be a straight forward agreement turned into a month long ordeal.  I think it worked out well for everyone.



• In July, we officially became bGreen Group LLC.  We had our funding in place, our legal details hammered out, and now we just had to do something.



• We spent the next several months developing a website, developing an online store, scrapping a business plan or two, tweeting our little hearts out, and trying to spread the word about bGreen.  We learned some valuable lessons during this time, and make our fair share of mistakes.  But as the great Bob Ross used to say, “We don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents.”



• The Fall months brought us quite a bit of good times.  We launched our website, lined up all our inventory, launched our online store, made our first sales (thanks moms!), networked like crazy, had a few people tell us our idea was lousy, and had a few more people tell us our idea was awesome.  We’re leaning towards the awesome side.



• We took a trip to Arizona in Novemeber to attend GreenBuild.  Again, we met a bunch of people, saw that there’s really something behind the green movement, and solidified our plans for moving bGreen to the next level.



• December’s been interesting.  We launched the bGreen Weekly Deal.  Each week we’re selling one green & eco friendly product at a deep discount, with the hope of helping people go green quickly.  We love the models setup by companies like Woot and Steep & Cheap, so we figured why not have a green one of those.



• But the biggest thing December brought us was our entry into 2010.  We have the most exciting aspect of bGreen in place.  In the tech and VC world there’s a term a lot of people use for crazy new stuff.  Disruptive.  Changing the way people thing about certain things and changing the way we do business.  We think the next phase of bGreen is disruptive, and we look forward to sharing that with you in the near future.

Top 5 Sellers Through 12/21/2009

We wanted to share with you our top selling products. We figure if some people like these, maybe even more people will like these.  We’re all about sharing and spreading the love.  We’ll be publishing this list every two weeks.  If you’d like to see it more frequently, please let us know in the comments.  You can buy any of these products in our store and get 10% off your order for being a loyal blog reader with coupon code BLOG10 at checkout.

1. Klean Kanteen Wide Insulated Bottles



2. Free Charge 12 Volt (currently out of stock)



3. Solar Hybrid Flashlight



4. EPIC All Purpose Cleaner



5. Zogoflex Dog Toys

LAUNCH!!!

After months of development, a trip to California, a thrown out business plan, meetings, more meetings, a change in strategy, weeks of test orders, a trip to Arizona for GreenBuild, 417 trips to Il Panino Express, three failed launch attempts, and a whole lot of love and hard work, bGreen is happy to announce that we’re open for business!

You can checkout the store at http://shop.bgreenlifestyle.com.

As a special thanks, please use the coupon code BLOG10 to get a 10% discount on everything you buy. As always, orders over $100 ship free.

We’d love to hear what you think, so either leave a comment on this blog, or drop us an email at bgreen@bgreenlifestyle.com.

Happy shopping, and thanks from the bGreen team!