This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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You might've heard of carbon offsets. If you've ever gone to book a plane ticket and they're trying to upsell you on a bunch of stuff, they're gonna upsell you for your seat. They're gonna upsell you for insurance that you probably don't need. And you might also see this little option to purchase carbon offsets, which are supposed to balance out emissions. It's like funding a rainforest project to cancel out the CO2 from your flight.
At least that's how it's supposed to work, but there was some reporting by The Guardian and other journalistic outlets that showed many rainforest protection offsets, ones used by airlines or coffee companies, et cetera. They were wildly over credited or even worthless. So big corporations responded by hiring these expensive audit firms that are responsible for making sure that the offsets do what they're supposed to do. I still think it's a very kind of slippery sort of business, but nevertheless, it is a big business, selling carbon offsets and then checking to make sure that they are actually valid. So for small brands and solo creators who are interested in that world, you can't really afford a six-figure audit, of course, but many of those brands are still touting that their products are carbon neutral.
They're still kind of saying our products are environmentally friendly, we are offsetting carbon emissions and so on. So all that to say, a caller today sees the credibility gap. They want to offer a quick, affordable check that validates a customer's offsets before critics or regulators call them out. Can this be helpful? Is this a potential business idea?
And how can he keep the workload under two hours per client? Which is gonna be our goal since the price will be relatively low. Let's talk about it, detailed question and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hello, this is Mateo from San Antonio. During my sustainability management master's degree, I learned a lot about carbon accounting.
I've noticed eco-conscious people and companies brag about offsetting their flights or packaging, but no one checks whether their credits are legitimate. I'm wondering if there's a market for a small third-party verification service, basing auditing an individual or small brand's carbon offsets and issuing a validation report they can share online. Would anyone play a few hundred dollars for that peace of mind or do only large corporations buy certification? And how would I scope the work so I'm not drowning in paperwork for a small fee? I think the first challenge here is to prove that demand is actually real.
I think I'm a little bit skeptical that a lot of brands are willing to pay for that. And I could be wrong, but that's why we need to prove demand is real. So it's always helpful to look at pain points, not just questions or ideas. Everybody in the world has a business idea, but what problem is your idea solving? That's a much more helpful question.
So I think small brands may not always be asking this question, but they do fear negative press and lost partnerships. If you look on LinkedIn for sustainability plus small business, you're gonna see thousands of owners sharing various eco-claims, like promoting how ecologically or environmentally sustainable their business is. And so I do think it's fair to say a lot of them would probably pay a few hundred dollars. They would rather do that than risk a public green washing takedown. So that is the pain point.
And I think that is where you focus. Then I also think you package one very clear deliverable, don't get into ongoing consulting, package a clear specific deliverable like the 48 hour offset check. And so your client's gonna upload receipts or links to purchase credits. You're gonna confirm those projects in some databases that basically kind of work together to provide accountability in the industry. And then you give them a quick two page PDF summarizing the tons of carbon they have offset, any ID's, maybe a verified credits badge or infographic.
So nothing super complicated. You build this in a systemized way that can be delivered over and over. And then you price by tier, not by hour. Perhaps it's $250 for a solo creator. Perhaps it is $500 for a boutique brand.
And maybe they get a 30 minute Q&A call as part of that. So then if you're doing two audits a week, you're getting three to $4,000 a month for around four billable hours, which is pretty good. As part of that, you wanna build a friction-free workflow where it's really simple, like people come in, they fill out a form, then you go and do this report. Maybe that has some like Google Doc or Canva integration built in, but basically like you're not gonna spend more than two hours on any one of these audits. I think that is the path that you would pursue.
Like I said, I think it might be hard going at first, but if you can tie it specifically to the pain point, like the fear of negative press, then maybe that's your best bet. Of course, let us know how it goes. Maybe you'll think of something that I missed and I would love to be wrong or I'd love to have an update. And listeners, if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. So excited to make the show for you every day.
You can also download every single episode of the pod. They're completely free on that website. Much more is coming up. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School.
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From the Onward Project.
