Business Development

http://www.landfallgardenhouse.com/Business Development/Business Development.htm

Contention

In Newfoundland, since 1992, small towns such as Bonavista have claimed a maxim "there is no work here". After thirty years of this complaint, it is time for the town to grow up.

Bonavista has many opportunities to establish profitable businesses and generate in-town revenue.

Our hurdle is the crippling belief that one only needs to work four months of the year to gain twelve months of personal income.

This sad cycle will be broken when we educate our youth to the point where they know how the rest of the world operates, rather than just teaching them to pass exams and apply for unemployment.

Proposal

Set up a never-ending series of two-man teams to develop and run a local business for a period of two years.

Example

"Manufacture, sell, install and populate composting bins."

Such a business will need a written business plan, a bank loan, facilities for storage and construction, tools, marketing, advertising, sales, employees, payroll, book-keeping, logistics, material supply, and more.

This is a serious undertaking; a written history/diary must be developed on the grounds that "If it ain't written down, it don't exist", data must be captured ("Management Measures"), and predictions made, for without predictions there can be no feedback, and without feedback there can be no error-correction, and without error-correction, there is no learning and there is no growth.

Suppose two young people pursue such a small business venture, and then apply for those jobs which specify "Min. 2 yrs exp reqd". Our students do not have the min two yrs exp reqd, but they do have full documentation on their efforts at establishing and running a self-contained business for two years. Only an idiot would not recognize the value in that experience, and who wants to work for an idiot?

Example

The first business finds itself running out of scrap timber, so we set up a business to cruise around Bonavista looking for piles of scrap timber, broken fencing and the like. The business purpose is to source, collect and prepare scrap timber. The business can later be broken down into the businesses of sourcing and collecting timber, trimming timber and removing nails, even to the point of taking orders for shipments of quantities of defined-size scrap timber to be prepared and delivered to the compost bin business.

Example

The first business realizes that assembling rectangular compost bins from panels can be spun off as a separate business that takes in prepared scrap timber and assembles rectangular panels and supplies nylon ties to hold the panels in place. This is a panel-kit business.

Example

The first business spins off an assembly and installation business that takes in prepared panels and assembles them on-site in a configuration requested by the land owner.

Example

The first business spins off a business for marketing, advertising, sales, site installation, liaison with supplies of grass clippings and sawdust from lawn-mowing contractors and chain-sawyers, negotiations with individual house owners for clippings collection, ...

Example

The first business spins off a business for large-scale composting on a town site. Such a business may lease the services of the town council to turn the windrows every two months. Sale of composted soil to the town council and the general public is a source of revenue.

Example

The large-scale composting business spins off a nursery business that supplies flower shops, charity sales, and individuals with indoor house-plants. This business may hold regular weekly educational sessions for the public, plant-swap meetings, and similar events.

Example

The large-scale composting business spins off a nursery business that supplies popular plant seedlings to house lots and plants them in a prepared bed, stakes them, and so on. Such a business helps start a gardening culture in town which boosts the need for compost bins and improves the profitability of the first business, and hence all the spun-off businesses.

Status

One business has spawned seven off-shoot business. We now have sixteen young people learning how to establish and run businesses. And that was all based on the development of a simple composting business.

What happens if two students elect to promote "re-use"? The first business in this area spawns businesses to re-use clothing, re-use appliances, re-use materials, and in turn these spawn businesses to repair clothing, repair appliances, ...

A significant part of the seasonal work force in Bonavista lies in the culinary arts. What about a business to bake bread? Make pies? Cakes? Cooked meals for distribution? Sourcing ingredients for meal preparation? This sort of business may host regular educational sessions on how to bake bread, how to make meat pies, and so on.

The list of possible businesses is not endless; there are limits, but to date, Bonavista has ignored this great opportunity to have its youth break out of the government-teat mentality.

With all these business ventures, a suggestion is made to start a coordinating business that organizes monthly seminars, offers samples of errors and mistakes, student-successful plans and proposals, supports student mentoring by students ("The best way to learn, is to teach")

(1) Soil remediation

(2) Baking and cooking (bread, cookies, casseroles & soups)

(3) Live performances (drama, musical, skits)

(4) 12vDC applications (wind turbines)

(5) Rain-water systems

(6) Tree nursery

(7) Mechanical tools

(8) Solar cookers, water-heaters, solar heat-exchangers

(9) Rent a friend (newcomers, welcome wagon, ...)

(10) Town-twinning, Sister cities

Notes

(1) The proposal is not to establish a business that will support the two team members, but to perform every stage in the cycle of creating a business and aiming to make it break even.

(2) After ten years in full-time or part-time work, when the bright idea strikes, the person will have retained what was learned during the two-year period ten years before.

(3) Although Canadian currency is a useful unit of measurement, the goal here is to educate, not to create a business that supports two people.

(4) The focus being on learning, we do not think of a compost bin as extruded plastic from a large industrial facility; we think of a creative approach using local resources.

(5) A community-based approach rather than a formal educational. That is, bypass the cumbersome education departments and institute a committee of four or five local people.

(6) Think "they are learning" rather than "I am teaching them"

(7) "_______ is not happy with the course he is doing. He’s excellent in everything but math. He has applied to the Armed Forces. This town will hold him back, I understand that. There’s nothing here for young people."

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)