Enviropool

 enviropool Business Plan

Background

We are the environment.

We are Liverpool.

We are enviropool.

Liverpool has an extraordinary and amazing natural environment as well as the well-known and well-publicised city buildings and man-made environment.

Schools, Early years teachers, Children's Centres and Childminders are encouraged to use natural materials wherever possible. There is a huge demand for natural raw materials and thing made from them.

We have found a way of meeting this demand and at the same time encouraging our children and their parents to go out and appreciate and use our wonderful natural environment.

We are enviropool.

Our Business

Our business is to collect, use and re-cycle natural materials we can find around Liverpool for the benefit of our school, our pupils, other schools and the wider community.

We have three main product areas, which are:

1. Collect and provide a range of natural materials for schools e.g. acorns, conkers, shells, leaves, pebbles, cones, feathers, honey, beeswax, leather, slate, sticks, sand, seaweed, seeds vegetables, sponge, wheat, ferns, cotton, silk, plants and much more . . .
2. Make and sell decorative items which are made from the materials we collect e.g. Christmas decorations, key rings, wreath, painted pebbles etc, to sell at fairs, to parents and to the public.
3. Make and sell a range of educational products made from natural materials e.g. bamboo pens and wooden boards, counting pebbles, number stepping stones etc. to sell to schools and from our website.

Our Business Aims

• To help us and our teachers to learn about running a business.
• To raise money for our sensory garden, then grow things to re-use  in our business, so keep it going.
• To show off all the natural materials that can be found in and around Liverpool parks and coastline.
• To encourage other schools to use natural materials instead of plastic and man-made materials.
• To help all the children in our school learn about natural materials and where they come from.
• To develop links with businesses in our area including Dobbies, Lilly, Littlewoods, Asda and others (we’ve started this already).
• To develop links with schools in other parts of Liverpool, the UK and even further afield, while providing a service for them.
• To re-cycle and help the environment by showing how natural materials can be used.
• To get children and their parents to go to the parks and coastline in and around Liverpool and find out about natural materials you can find there.

Unique Selling Point

We think our business is unique because . . .

·         Some of the things we sell are really useful and clever and can't be bought anywhere else.

·         Things we make represent different cultures in Liverpool e.g. decorations made by parents from Estonia.

·         No one else is providing these products in this way.

·         No one else is using their business to encourage families to go to Liverpool’s parks and other natural spaces.

Also we think our business is really good because . . .

·         Teachers are busy and don't always have the time to collect natural materials for their class.

·         Because we are using common natural materials and re-cycling them, we don't have to pay for them, so we can make more money.

·         Some of the money we will make will be spent on our sensory garden – to grow things that will keep our business going in the future. We can also grow things which we can give to the church and to people in our community who need them.

·         We have lots of great ideas to find more customers and keep our business going in the future.

Customer Profile

Our customers will be . . .

·         Schools and teachers who need a supply of natural materials.

·         Parents and pupils who would buy the items that we would make.

·         Teachers who would use our natural educational products.

·         Anyone who does handicrafts at home.

·         Visitors to local businesses and shoppers in our local community.

·         Anyone who would buy Christmas, Easter and other seasonal decorations.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing is all about finding out about our customers and learning about what they will want to buy. 

It is also about finding out about our competition and what would make our products better than theirs.

• We are only going to make things if we think we can sell them.
• We are going to find out if people will want to buy our products, by asking a lot of people.
• We are going to find out who our customers are and learn all about them.
• We are going to ask people what natural materials they would want to buy by using a questionnaire and our website.
• We are going to find out all about our competition and their products by using the internet.

Sales Strategy

Sales is all about telling everyone about our products and making sure everyone know about our company. It is also about trying our hardest to sell as much of our products as we can. Finally it is about making sure our customers come back again and buy more thing off us. We are going to do this by . . .

• Designing posters and send them to local businesses.
• Phoning people up
• Getting our teachers to talk to teachers at other schools
• Designing a website which we’ve already set up called enviropool.co.uk – why not have a look !
• Designing a catalogue and price list for printing and website.
• Designing business cards to give to our customers
• Have a stall at local events, Christmas fairs etc
• Arrange events with our choir at local businesses, e.g. Dobbies, Lilly, Asda, Littlewoods and others at which we will sell from our stall.
• Offering 3 for 2 deals and discounts for returning customers.

Profit Projection

Things we need to pay for now are :

·          Paint, glue, card, glitter, paper and ink (supplied by school)

·          Decorative cellophane wrapping,£4.00/10m roll (x2)

·          Decorative ‘organza’ bags 25p each (x20)

·          Ribbon £2/roll (x3)

·          Wreath rings and heart shapes £1 each (x10)

·          Silver & gold spray paint £5 each (x2)

In addition, things we will need to pay for going forward will be :

·          More decorative wrapping

·          Postage and delivery for the things we sell

·          Website hosting (free in year 1, £17.95 per year thereafter)

·          Sales posters and other publicity material

·          Business Cards at 'Vistaprint.co.uk' for £7.24 (250 cards with our own enviropool logo)

How much money can we make  ?

We think we could make £200 profit up to the end of this year 2011.

We will spend  no more than £50 on resources, while selling £250 as follows:

·          50 small items at £1 each = £50

·          20 bigger items at £5 each = £100

·          10 items at £10 each (schools resources boxes) = £100

Further Business Development