Not evil

I’m trying my best to do my best

We’re all trying to be good people, right?

When you run a small business, there are things to consider, choices to be made and values to uphold.

As I’ve developed my own business, I’ve realised it’s important to me to ‘do no harm’ and even to actively try and impove things.

This applies to my clients, their clients, the people beyond and the planet we all live on.

Read on to find out what I meant when I put ‘trying not to be evil’ in my LinkedIn bio.

For the planet

Well not really for the planet, the planet will be broadly fine, but we seem to be hell-bent on making it uninhabitable for humans.

It’s a huge, global, overwhelming job to try and reverse this climate shit-show. So I’m starting with the little things within my control, like my business.

We’re all so smugly paperless nowadays but did you know it takes huge amounts of energy to power the digital world? When you load a webpage, energy is used by data centres, transmission networks and your device.

Apparently when you add it up the internet uses more energy as the whole of the UK.

So what am I doing about it?

My green business

I use a website host which runs on 100% green power in energy-efficient data centres. They also plant a load of trees. It’s called Krystal (that’s an affiliate link, because mama’s gotta eat. If you’re not into that, here’s a non-affiliate one.).

I minimise my use of images on my site and in my emails. Talking of emails, I try not to send too many (while communicating effectively with clients!) and delete them when I’m done with them.

I use Ecosia as my default search engine, which plants trees every time I look something up.

I don’t fly to work. This is actually easy because I work in my flat or in a co-working space down the road.

Your green business

I recommend Krystal hosting to you, my lovely client. It’s what I use for my website maintenance plan: when I build your wonderful site, you get fast, green hosting and me to look after it for you.

I make your website as lightweight as I can and structure it so your customers can get what they need in as few clicks as possible.

Find out more about my sustainable website design service or read my answer to the question ‘What is a sustainable website?’

For privacy

Giant tech companies have their creepy fingers poked into so many areas of our lives now and the things they do are pretty gross. I’ve started the process of extracting myself and my business from their privacy-invading clutches.

Analytics

I use Plausible, which doesn’t obtain or store private data on visitors. Unlike Google Analytics. They’re also really lightweight, which helps with website efficiency.

If I build your site and you sign up to my website maintenance plan, you’ll get a monthly report on your visitors powered by Plausible.

Social media

I closed my business Instagram account (it’s owned by Facebook/Meta). If you would like to connect, find me on LinkedIn.

Browser and search

I switched from Chrome to Firefox. Did you know Chrome even tracks what you think about  searching for, when you type but don’t press enter? Ew.

Firefox doesn’t do that.

Ecosia, the search engine I mentioned above, is also privacy-focused and doesn’t track you.

Email

I use the privacy-focused Fastmail.

More info

Have a look at the resources on Below Radar.

Ethical marketing

I have pledged via The Ethical Move to put the person before the sale, communicate inclusively, truthfully, and clearly, and take responsibility for my part in changing the marketplace. So I won’t bullshit you. If I’m not the right person for your project, I’ll tell you. If something is outside my skill set, I’ll tell you. I try to be as honest as I can. And I won’t end my prices with a nine.

How about you?

Are you trying your best for people and planet in your business? Think you might like to work with me? If you’re not evil, we can talk.

Contact me