This year marks the 40^th anniversary of EarthDay, celebrating and raising awareness of our natural surroundings and theimportance of sustainability.  Wonderinghow to celebrate this popular, nationally-observed day?  One way you can, on Earth Day and any otherday, is to use electronic billing.

Put simply, SmartPay is a green choice because it savespaper.  However, there is more to thissimple fact than appears at the surface. Let’s consider everything that goes into the process of traditional,paper-ridden billing and payment.

As we learn from a young age, paper comes from trees. Yetover 70% of the trees used to make paper are not trees grown in tree farms forthat purpose[1].  Instead, these trees are forest-harvested,chopped down from their natural ecological and biological habitats. In turn,these trees take away the health of the environment, as well as for otherplants and animals.  The papermanufacturing industry is also the third-largest user of fossil fuels aroundthe world[2]and is the single largest industry in its amount of water consumption[3].

Emissions from vehicles also must factor into this equation,since vehicles are used to transport the original paper itself, as well asbills and invoices.  As the end user notonly receives their bill or invoice online but also pays online, vehicleemissions are further reduced because a run to the post office, bank, or bothis cut out from the process.

With Americans using over 85 million tons of paper per year[4],the impact on the environment proves to be a substantial one.

And all of this is simply skimming the surface; that’s notto consider other elements of traditional billing, such as the number ofresources needed for ink for the invoices and bills, nor the paper used forenvelopes.  A change in the way you doyour billing and payment means a change in the amount of paper used anddemanded yearly, which means a change in the state of the overall environment.

On this Earth Day, choose to celebrate by considering achange in your daily lifestyle.  Chooseelectronic billing and payment.  Theenvironment will thank you.

"Small is the new big," according to Seth Godin. Where businesses used to want to appear to be big, they may now want to look small, cutting edge, and nimble. Small businesses, by this reckoning, should revel in their fresh, new identity and their close-to-their-roots feeling. And many do.

Good for them. What if you still want your business to look a little bigger than it really is? You may be in an industry that still places mroe trust in larger businesses. You may plan to be much bigger next year than you are now, and prefer to begin as you mean to go on. You may just prefer the idea of a bigger business.

You can do it online. And we can help.

We're not talking about deception, here. We're just talking about a highly professional self-presentation.  Here are some steps you can take to give yourself an image worth growing into:

• Have a professionally designed website. Nothing says "just getting our feet wet" like an amateur website, and yes, everyone can tell.
• Put thought, effort, and a bit of money into your logo design. This is an investment, but you can get a lot of mileage from that one investment, and it fixes your company's identity the way few other things can. This is not the place to choose something generic or auto-generated.
• Use a corporate style. Avoid down-home, handmade effects. Sure, they can be attractive, but a polished, professional air makes you look like a larger company even if you're really working out of your garage. A traditional font, rounded corners, and neutral colors may be elements you'll want to use -- discuss it with your designer. Don't be shy about that, either. Your designer can help you create just the image you want to present.
  
• Use a consistent style. Large companies get everyone to use the same style in their correspondence and writing; you should do the same. 
• Say "we." Even if you're the only employee right now, you can still say, "We carry..." or "We'll have that for you..." or "We've been in business since..." Just be sure to keep it consistent: don't say "we" sometimes and "I" sometimes, or you'll seem confused.
• Use online services to pick up the slack. SmartPay e-billing, SugarCRM, professional email, and other online tools give you a "big company" look from the beginning.

Last year, businesses and nonprofits might have discussed whether social media might be a useful tool for their particular organization. Now, we know that our customers are looking for us at Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, so we'd better be there.

We hosted the Fargo Twestival and saw for ourselves that social media has the power to make a difference. This year's donations were twice last year's. It can make a difference in your business, too.

If you're ready to stick your neck out,  take a few simple steps to make sure your first forays into the wilds of social media are effective:

• Have a goal.  By choosing a simple, measurable goal, you set yourself up for success, and you can measure the outcome. If you plan to "Improve our company's reputation," you might have difficulty deciding when you've succeeded. If you decide to get 100 followers at Twitter or 500 fans at Facebook, to double the amount of traffic you get through social media, or to gain 30 links through social media,  then you can tell when you've succeeded.
• Recruit some allies. At a party, the animated group with a fun conversation going draws more people than the lonley wallflower. Get your staff, friends, and family to help you kick things off. Start a discussion, and others are likely to join in.
  
• Remember you're not advertising. You can suggest to your whole address book that they become fans of your business page -- once. You can e-mail people and ask them to add a link to your website onto their Facebook pages -- once. It's not intrusive, and some people will be happy to learn about you. Doing it every week is irritating, and doing it every day is spam.
  
• Be interesting. You may get some helpers to kick the conversations off, but you have to say interesting things to keep people coming back. Talk about your new products, sure, but don't forget to share things that are useful and entertaining. And occasionally you can share a little personal tidbit -- but watch out for too much information. Trouble with fellow employees, snarky comments about competitors, or complaints about customers are not going to do your company any good.
• Measure your results. Watch your site analytics for visitors coming to your site from your social media networks, use Facebook Insight , even create a special offfer for your network. All these efforts will help you see what's being most useful for your company or organization. 

Soon, you'll be enjoying your online networking as much as you enjoy meeting people in the physical world.