I wrote my start-up business plan for entrepreneurshipclass.
Please loot at the my outline and figure out what Idon't have or What I can add more, and write about the part indetail.
Executive Summary
According to Wisconsin Farming bureau there are 77,000 farms inWisconsin with a total of 14.4 million acres of land andagriculture in Wisconsin provides $88.3 billion to the stateseconomy. With the advent of the organic foods trend youngerhouseholds have seen a 68% increase in gardening. These farms andgardeners require soil replenishment yearly EcoPost seeks providethat service. While also recycling food waste which is a hugeproblem in America consumers have the added benefit of helping tosave the environment. In doing this EcoPost LLC offers farmers andgardeners an environmentally friendly alternative to soilenrichment we offer not only an organic product, but also a productthat helps cut down on food waste. We are environmentally friendlyon both sides of our supply chain.
Our clients are gardeners and farmers who seek natural andorganic methods to enrich their soils in order to better theircrops. Our operations are located in Heartland, WI and we seek tohelp Wisconsin farmers and gardeners in finding greeneralternatives to soil enrichment while bettering the environment byrecycling food waste.
Currently there are other a few composting companies withinWisconsin, but none of these companies have reached out to bignamed grocers or multiple restaurants. They do pick up servicesweekly or monthly to individuals or businesses that contact them,by going out and creating partnerships with grocers such asWalmart, Roundy’s, and Sendik’s we ensure a steady supply and gainfree publicity by grocers promoting their efforts against foodwaste utilizing our services.
EcoPost relies on outreach to market our product within ourtarget market by maintaining our presence at farmers market,farming expositions, and the Wisconsin Gardening Club Federations.We seek to engage our consumers directly we build a realrelationship with our customers. We pride ourselves in developing asuperior product that is not only environmentally friendly, butalso environmentally conscious. By engaging our consumers directly,we not only build a better relationship but also are able toaddress their needs and concerns which helps foster customerloyalty.
The corporate structure of EcoPost consists of an owner AbdulGuled, and four-part owners: Kyle Komplin, Qilin Jian, Hyung SukJi, and Tamara Alexander. [Enter individuals bios]
Industry and outlook
The compost industry is on the rise with the 2008 recessionbehind us and not a lot of manufacturing companies in the compostmarket allows for less competition. As stated by USCC ExecutiveDirector Frank Franciosi “Our record results indicate that thecomposting industry is growing and interest in expanding it hasnever been greater,”. Also, with the growth of urban gardening andthe need for more organic and healthy foods consumers have begun togrow their own fruits and vegetables. This bodes well for ourcompany since we promote organic materials with natural nutrientsfor soil development and to help grow organic and healthy foods.With consumers leaning more towards organic foods the need forusing natural fertilizer has increased and the market has not seenmuch new competition. To this end our company takes advantage oftwo critical needs. First using organic materials to increaserichness of soil and give better yields of crops. Secondly toreduce and reuse organic waste which helps better our environmentand eliminates food waste. Based on the interviews we conductedthis is a growing market with a lot of potential for entry andmarket share.
Now that people have a stronger sense of protection of theenvironment and are aware of the impact of the environment onsociety and humanity. In agriculture, the most common chemicalfertilizer is inorganic fertilizer. The factory produces thesefertilizers. Relevant investigations have shown that theutilization rate of chemical fertilizers is low, and the loss rateis high, which not only leads to soil pollution in farmland, butalso causes organic infection to water bodies, eutrophicationpollution, and even groundwater pollution and air pollution. Ourcompany respects organic fertilizers. Raw materials for makingfertilizers are made of natural materials that are readilydecomposed. In this way, our products can meet the needs ofconsumers and protect our environment. Processing the organic wasteinto compost takes time and lots of equipment, but the once theprocess is started it becomes very profitable and there is littleto no cost of sales. Most of the competitors in this market don’tnot reach out to large grocers and do not partner with wastemanagement instead they employ their own trucks for pickups andtheir services must be sought out. EcoPost reaches out to grocersand local waste management to effectively intercept tons of organicwaste meant for landfills in order to process our product whilealso reducing food waste.
Target Market
Our company targets Farmers and Gardeners in Wisconsin who bothcan benefit from our product which enriches their soil to growquality crops. The gardeners we sell our product to can be contentknowing they are using organic materials to help fertilize the soilthey use to grow fruits and vegetables within their gardens. Urbangardens or communal gardens where a group of people use a plot ofland to grow their crops can also require large amounts offertilizer. Our main targeting strategy is for farmers andgardeners who wish to grow organic produce that do not contain anychemical or synthetic materials. We pride ourselves in beingenvironmentally conscious and give an image of “environmentallyfriendly” towards grocers who work with us. We also saw a lot ofenthusiasm with the concept of recycling food waste and creatingorganic materials to use for soil enrichment most gardeners wespoke to seem to care about Eco-friendly products and being able tobe green on both sides of supply and chain appeals to them. Anothertarget market for us is grocers who provide the organic waste weneed in order to make our product. These grocers will be offeredlow tipping fees for disposal of their organic waste at $4 atruckload or $4 for 1500-2000 pounds we will be able to makerevenue on the procurement side of the supply chain aswell.
Market Share
Currently Wisconsin facilities manage about 500,000 tons ofcompost yearly. Within the first year we expect to operate at 40%capacity which would yield 10,000 tons of compost at an annualincome of $35,000 which would be around 2% of themarket share. As we begin the first year we will have a slow startgetting our suppliers and materials kick started. Also, we willhave to build a manufacturing center where we can begin to makecompost which is why we estimate that we will not be able to reachfull capacity within the first year. Our main product we will startout with is a compost at units of 1 cubic yard. When we gain afoothold in the industry we will look to quickly increase capacityas well as promote our product by outreach within the Wisconsinagricultural community. There is lots of demand for our product andmeeting that demand will require more output of compost. By oursecond year we look to double our capacity to 80% by increasing ouroutput from 10,000 tons to 20,000 tons which will give us a 4%increase in our market share. Our goal being a market share of atleast 5% or full capacity of 25,000 tons amounting to 1.6million by the end of year 3. At year four We look toexpanding our market from just Wisconsin to neighboring farm statessuch as Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Being able to recreate dealswith waste management and grocers would be ideal before launchingany expansion projects into these states. Building another facilityusing our established model in anyone of these states will doubleour output and market share in these later years.
Organization and Management
Eco Post will be structured as an LLC Corporation with equalownership:
Abdul Guled - 20% with an operational role
Qilin Jian – 20% with a logistics role
Kyle Komplin – 20% with a marketing role
Hyung Suk Ji – 20% with a supplier relations role
Tamara Alexander – 20% with an outreach role
Our business will have a main office that acts as a type ofheadquarters. If not the same building, it will be in closeproximity to our main plant. Employees and owners will meet here inthe mornings to go over daily activities, check voicemails andemails, discuss strategies, and various other things. In additionto the main office having its own phone line, contact numbers forupper management will also be provided for urgent matters, etc.Company phones will be provided to members to upper management andare expected to be on at all times during the workweek.
Operations Requirements for Medium S plant
For our operations we require land and a plant to make ourproducts. When grocers and restaurants want to get rid of theirwaste they pay Waste Management to deal with it. We plan on anagreement with Waste Management to take this organic waste so theydon’t have to use space within their lots to store it. We then havethem transfer the organic waste to our plant in Allenton, Wisconsinwhere we will build a plant to make our compost. The followingcharts are going to be what we need to make our material and thecost for buying land and building a plant.
Table- Characteristics of differenttypes of composting facilities analyzed
Technologies Required
Annual Operation costs
Our annual operating costs is directly tied in with our capacitywe will start-out with low capacity to test out our market and makesure to build on a good foundation with the quality of our product.Once we perfect our product which we expect to take 1-1.5 years wewill increase our capacity from 25,000 to 100,000. If the qualityof our product holds by year three we expect to increase ourcapacity to 200,000 and if we have a good enough foothold in ourmarket look to expand to surrounding states such as Minnesota andIowa. Our operations cost will start out at $34,000 and by yearthree it will be $197,000 and could increases based on growth andexpansion.
Annual operating costs of prototype compostingfacilities
