This is my Start-up Business plan in Enpreneurship class. Please make SWOT Analy

Question

This is my Start-up Business plan in Enpreneurship class.

Please make SWOT Analysis base on my plan.

Executive Summary

According to Wisconsin Farming bureau, there are 77,000 farms in Wisconsin with a total of 14.4 million acres of land and agriculture. Wisconsin provides $88.3 billion to the state's economy. With the advent of the organic foods trend younger households have seen a 68% increase in gardening. These farms and gardeners require annual soil replenishment. ECOPOST seeks to provide that service. While also recycling food waste which is a huge problem in America consumers have the added benefit of helping to save the environment. In doing so, ECOPOST LLC offers farmers and gardeners an environmentally friendly alternative to soil enrichment we offer not only an organic product but also a product that helps cut down on food waste. We are environmentally friendly on both sides of our supply chain. Our clients are gardeners and farmers who seek natural and organic methods to enrich their soils in order to better their crops. Our operations are located in Hartland, WI, and we seek to help Wisconsin farmers and gardeners in finding greener alternatives to soil enrichment while improving the environment by recycling food waste.

Currently there are other a few composting companies within Wisconsin, but none of these companies have reached out to big named grocers or multiple restaurants. They do pick up services weekly or monthly to individuals or businesses that contact them, by going out and creating partnerships with grocers such as Walmart, Roundy’s, and Sendik’s Food Market; we ensure a steady supply and gain free publicity by grocers promoting their efforts against food waste utilizing our services.

ECOPOST relies on outreach to market our product within our target market by maintaining our presence at farmer’s market, farming expositions, and the Wisconsin Gardening Club Federations. We seek to build reliable relationships with while creating high customer retention. We pride ourselves in developing a superior product that’s environmental friendly and creating more environmental responsible mindsets one client at a time.

Business Description and Vision

Business Description and Vision

ECOPOST is a green company that creates earth-healthy compost from excess food waste in

Wisconsin. We obtain our resources (waste) from businesses in Wisconsin and manufacture

compost that is healthy and nutritious. We are dedicated to environmental improvement and

elimination of food waste to ensure the preservation of our land. We aim to create an

effective product while simultaneously helping the overall health of our earth. We aim to divert as much food waste away from landfills as possible and create an affordable compost for the

hardworking farmers and gardeners of Wisconsin. We hope to double our capacity within the

next few years to have positive effects on as many people as we can.

Definition of the Market

Industry and outlook

With the 2008 recession behind us, the compost industry is on the rise, giving these circumstances allow startup compost company's entry into the market with little competition. According to USCC Executive Director, Frank Franciosi, “Our record results indicate that the composting industry is growing and interest in expanding it has never been greater,”. Also, with the growth of urban gardening and the need for more organic and healthy foods, consumers have begun to grow their own fruits and vegetables. This bodes well for our company since we promote organic materials with natural nutrients for soil development and to help grow organic and healthy foods. With consumers leaning more towards organic foods the need for using natural fertilizer has increased and the market has not seen much new competition. To this end our company takes advantage of two critical needs. First using organic materials to increase richness of soil and give better yields of crops. Secondly to reduce and reuse organic waste which helps better our environment and eliminates food waste. Based on the interviews we conducted this is a growing market with a lot of potential for entry and market share.

Now that people have a stronger sense of protection of the environment and are aware of the impact of the environment on society and humanity. In agriculture, the most common chemical fertilizer is inorganic fertilizer. The factory produces these fertilizers. Relevant investigations

have shown that the utilization rate of chemical fertilizers is low, and the loss rate is high, which not only leads to soil pollution in farmland, but also causes organic infection to water bodies, eutrophication pollution, and even groundwater pollution and air pollution. Our company respects organic fertilizers. Raw materials for making fertilizers are made of natural materials that are readily decomposed. In this way, our products can meet the needs of consumers and protect our environment. Processing the organic waste into compost takes time and lots of equipment, but the once the process is started it becomes very profitable and there is little to no cost of sales. Most of the competitors in this market don’t not reach out to large grocers and do not partner with waste management instead they employ their own trucks for pickups and their services must be sought out. ECOPOST reaches out to grocers and local waste management to effectively intercept tons of organic waste meant for landfills to process our product while also reducing food waste.

Target Market

Our company targets Farmers and Gardeners in Wisconsin who both can benefit from our

product which enriches their soil to grow quality crops. The gardeners we sell our product to

can be content knowing they are using organic materials to help fertilize the soil they use to

grow fruits and vegetables within their gardens. Urban gardens or communal gardens where a

group of people use a plot of land to grow their crops can also require large amounts of

fertilizer. Our main targeting strategy is for farmers and gardeners who wish to grow organic

produce that do not contain any chemical or synthetic materials. We pride ourselves in being

environmentally conscious and give an image of “environmentally friendly” towards grocers

who work with us. We also saw a lot of enthusiasm with the concept of recycling food waste

and creating organic materials to use for soil enrichment most gardeners we spoke to seem to

care about Eco-friendly products and being able to be green on both sides of supply and chain

appeals to them. Another target market for us is grocers who provide the organic waste we

need in order to make our product. These grocers will be offered low tipping fees for disposal

of their organic waste at $4 a truckload or $4 for 1500-2000 pounds we will be able to make

revenue on the procurement side of the supply chain as well.

Market Share

Currently Wisconsin facilities manage about 500,000 tons of compost yearly. Within the first

year we expect to operate at 40% capacity which would yield 10,000 tons of compost at an

annual income of $255,728 which would be around 2% of the market share. As we begin the

first year we will have a slow start getting our suppliers and materials kick started. Also, we will

have to build a manufacturing center where we can begin to make compost which is why we

estimate that we will not be able to reach full capacity within the first year. Our main product

we will start out with is a compost at units of 1 cubic yard. When we gain a foothold in the

industry we will look to quickly increase capacity as well as promote our product by outreach

within the Wisconsin agricultural community. There is lots of demand for our product and

meeting that demand will require more output of compost. By our second year we look to

double our capacity to 80% by increasing our output 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 at least 5% or

full capacity of 25,000 tons amounting to 3.125 million in revenue by the end of year 3. At

year four We look to expanding our market from just Wisconsin to neighboring farm states such as Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Being able to recreate deals with waste management and

grocers would be ideal before launching any expansion projects into these states. Building

another facility using our established model in anyone of these states will double our output

and market share in these later years.

Description of Products and Services

Product

Our products are made from natural and organic food waste. After receiving waste from various sources, we then use the waste to manufacture our compost. Our compost is made only from organic food sources and is much better for the earth than generic compost. The product we create is useful in many situations including gardening and farming. The Compost will be packed according to the needs of the target market. Since the target market contains both Small time gardeners and farmers, the product will be packaged in 40 lb respectively. Each Package cost $2.5. Consumers have the option to buy as many units as necessary. The product pack and the associated pamphlet should contain details of all the nutrients present in the Eco post and how each of the nutrients will aid in the growth of the plant. Unlike chemical fertilizers which produce each nutrients separately, this cannot be done for compost based fertilizers. Compost will be produced and packaged as single product only, which contains all the vital nutrients.

These natural and organic food wastes including crops, sludge, weeds, leaves, fruits, and vegetables. These materials are rich in organics and decomposed easily. Organic compost provides many nutrients that plants need in small amounts, such as boron. Compost has more advantage than using fertilizer because compost can increase soil’s fertility and its ability to hold moisture, Soil that is regularly amended with compost becomes wonderfully dark and crumbly and often

requires much less fertilizer compared to soil that has not yet benefited from regular helpings of compost.

Services

Tangible:

* Tip fees we charge grocers $4 per truckload of organic waste (spoiled produce)

* We partner with Waste Management they transport the organic waste to our dumping site and we save them space that they desperately need for their landfills

* We also provide our product processed compost from organic materials for $2.50 a bag (1 cu. Ft.)

* Providing the report from the Lab as a soil report card and suggesting the best suitable soil replenishment product by Eco post, and also the quantity of eco post that needs to be given to the soil.

Intangible services:

* Reduce food waste within Wisconsin

* Provide natural compost for organic farmers and gardeners

* An environmentally conscious company partnering with us allows corporate allies to promote a green

* A free visit to the gardeners and farmers site to analyze the soil.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

Marketing Outreach

In recent years, composting as a form of solid waste management has improved. Most farmers and gardeners require high quality, environmentally-safe products. According to Waste 360, “Since these locally-produced composts are being used on a regular basis, it suggests that manufacturers are successful in properly educating their customers and setting the right price.” ECOPOST plans to use marketing tactics to educate our clients. Our first mission is to educate the client by informing them on the benefits of ECOPOST collecting their waste and hauling it to local farmers and gardeners. It’s important that our prospects understand that waste makes up more than 30 percent of some city’s daily trash, and resturants account for 70 percent of that produced. In order for ECOPOST to accomplish this objective we will have to take part in tradeshows. This way we are able to demonstrate to our prospects our product and how we can implement this to their business routine. Most of our prospects are farmers, gardeners, restaurant owners, grocery stores, and local waste managements. We understand that most of our prospects find composting to become a complex routine to fit into their day, and we hope that during these types of tradeshows that we can educate our prospects on how ECOPOST can create a convenient system to benefit their business. These tradeshows can aid ECOPOST in tracking tons of our target prospects based on the demographics of our current customers. In addition to using tradeshows to reach our target audience, we also have the option of cold calling, direct

mailing, open forums, monthly trade journals, and how-to-use articles. These are all inexpensive methods, considering we have higher costs in other areas of our business.

Sales Strategy

In order to price our product, we have to think about the long-term relationships and

marketing. In these case most prospects become loyal customers and our goal is to continue to

nurture that relationship. There are many different methods to pricing compost. According to

Waste 360, “Since compost is lightweight and often needs to be handled in bulk, the following

pricing strategies may help when considering variables such as geographical locations,

promotions and other marketing issues.” ECOPOST will use Free-on-board pricing for the

beginning stages of our company. Giving that preparing the compost is such a complex task for

most restaurants and grocery stores, customers will simply arrange specific days with ECOPOST

for pick up. There are many types of discounts that we can introduce to each client. Below is a

description of our business structure.

Promotion

a) Keep a list of the prospects, and keep them informed about the product. The arrival of the product should be intimated for the prospectus 3 months in advance via teaser campaigns and mailers

b) Sufficient advertising presence will be built via Local radio and TV stations, farmers markets, bill boards, pamphlets etc.

c) Social media, email marketing, search engine marketing will be used to build Eco post presence in digital map

d) Progressive farmers will be taken for a free manufacturing visit, and they will be used for positive word of mouth marketing.

Place

a) The product will be made available in an outlet present in the manufacturing premises

b) along with it the product will be made available in local farmers markets, community centers etc.

c) Online portal should be developed where the customers can order for eco-post product.

Business Structure:

> Charge fee to collect barrels from commercial sources.

o 1-3 times a week. $4 dollars a truckload.

> Use traditional piling methods to process raw materials into compost.

> Buffer with wood chips to maintain carbon.

> Final product will be bagged and sold to local farmers and gardeners.

Summary of Market Research

1. Of the 25 farmers interviewed

* 100% of them use or have used compost

* 16% use all organic materials to grow their crops

* 84% do not use organic materials (due to costs)

* 100% of farmers will not pay more than $3 (per cu ft.)

* 86% of farmer’s favor recycled organic compost over yard trimming compost

* 72% of farmers would like to have a compost supplier

* 84% of farmers would like their compost delivered

* 12% of farmers compost their entire land

* 60% of farmers want to reduce food waste

2. Of the 25 gardeners interviewed

* 40% use compost

* 2% do not use compost

* 58% have use every other season/depending on crop

* 24% use 0-2 bags of compost

* 16% use 2-4 bags of compost

* 32% use 4-6 bags of compost

* 16% use 6-8 bags of compost

* 12% more than 8 bags of compost

* 96% of gardeners use organic material

* 4% of gardeners do not use organic material (ammonia fertilizer)

* 80% of gardeners would pay $3+ for organic compost

* 96% of gardeners favor recycled organic material

* 100% of gardeners want to reduce food waste

3. Of The 10 grocers interviewed

* 80% want to eliminate food waste

* 70% believe their consumers are environmentally conscious

Operations Requirements for Medium S plant

For our operations we require land and a plant to make our products. When grocers and

restaurants want to get rid of their waste they pay Waste Management to deal with it. We plan

on an agreement with Waste Management to take this organic waste so they don’t have to use

space within their lots to store it. We then have them transfer the organic waste to our plant in

Allenton, Wisconsin where we will build a plant to make our compost. The following charts are

going to be what we need to make our material and the cost for buying land and building a

plant.

Explanation / Answer

SWOT Analysis of ECOPOST:

Strengths:

Weakness:

Opportunities:

Threats:

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