‘Green’ businessman gives free advertising during recession

At a time when most businessmen are re-thinking the business model just to stay afloat during this recession, one man is taking it to the extreme. Eric Salci, founder of the new Green House showroom in Penryn is offering something very unique and free to companies who sell anything ‘green’.

The Green House, a showroom of sustainable green products focusing on energy efficient systems recently had its grand opening March 21. ItÂ’s the first store of its kind in the area solely dedicated to selling sustainable renewable energy products and more.

Here’s the really cool part, The Green House will host monthly mini “Home & Garden Green Shows.” They will be scheduled the first Saturday of each month, the first being April 4 from 10a.m. to 2p.m., and booth space will be absolutely free.

These mini shows will have a Home & Garden Show feel and will be located outside on the former used car lot that The Green house currently resides on. The best part is that Salci will not be charging any fees to local companies to participate and showcasing their green wares. ItÂ’s free. Salci felt this was his part to helping out the business community.

“Since I have this big empty parking lot, I thought it would be nice to have a local non-commercialized feeling monthly Home & Garden Green Show event for other local companies that sell green products, and I wouldn’t even charge them for it,” says Salci. “It’s my way of helping out other companies during these difficult times.”

Salci will be relying purely on word-of-mouth and local advertising for the mini green shows and feels that over time they may get popular with the locals who wish to go to a place where environmentally friendly green products will be sold. Rallying together as a team with other companies that promote sustainable green products and to have them under one roof sounds like a good marketing strategy to Salci.

He is also the owner of ES Electrical Construction Inc, established in 1996, offering full service residential and commercial electrical services and energy efficient technologies and is located under the roof of The Green House.

To further the kind-heartedness of Salci, he even allows a company called Rain Harvesting Systems to utilize space at The Green House without charge. Salci hopes that permanently incorporating this up-and-coming water conservation technology, along with their superior gutter filtering product called Gutterglove, within his sustainable product group will not only help the company during the recession, but also allows the public a broader view of the ‘green’ industry. The co-founder of Rain Harvesting Systems is proud of Salci for his thoughtfulness.

“Even though the rain collection industry is growing, business is still slow for us and I’m very fortunate and thankful that Eric is helping us out,” comments Lenney. “I think that incorporating our rain collection systems, which also includes our rain tank filtering system Gutterglove Gutterguard will be of benefit to all that visit his store.”

Eric Salci hopes that by providing a haven of free booth space at his mini green shows will also stimulate the economy by being an example of what other companies could actually do as well.

“If other companies across the country could mimic what I’m doing and help other local businesses in similar ways that I am doing it, would help keep costs down and also give more exposure to them,” said Salci. “I’m self employed and understand the difficulties of running a business, so in a way, this recession is giving rise to new ways of working together as a team.”