- Great problem section, for florists and the environment
- As it is a similar model to Misprint, I can see easily how this would work.
- You service journey could be simplified to even half the amount of steps, keep with the most important ones: bin drop off, bin collected, turn plant matter into paper, sell back - We addressed this and visualised our circular economy, plus simplified our small circular illustration into 5 steps.
- I think your costings are focused on the wrong parts first off, do you need uniforms, all those bins? We only budgeted for t-shirts so that the florists can trust that the person who is coming to collect their waste is from the offset team. The bins are set up in rotation so that the collection process can be easy and efficient. We also know that it is essential to keep the bins clean and mould free, so overtime a bin comes back to the workshop we can clean it and make sure that the bins are looking their best (most CBD florists don't have a lot of room in their shops, so the bin will be visible to their customers). We looked into an option of a bag that could be in the bin instead (and be made from our plant matter), but this didn't work given the amount of water on the waste.
- Your business model may need a little work. Maybe cover the cost of the bin in the rental, so it pays itself off over a month? We have made it so that one bin is paid on sign up (included in the sign up fee), but the other is our cost which will be covered when the florist has paid a few monthly payments.
- Cost your products made carefully, hand made paper is very expensive to make in terms of labour costs. We do agree with this, but at the same time we needed to make sure that we made it a price that the florists would still be willing to pay. We didn't want to detour potential florist clients who didn't join our initiative purely because it was too expensive for their business. We did talk to the florists and asked them how much they would be willing to pay.
- What happens to the plants you can't use? We will compost it and then sell it on.
- Good to see a growth plan, but think more broadly, could you expand to other "Offcuts"? Yes, we added wholesalers, flower markets, and gardening companies to our list to gather green waste from.
Saturday, 30 September 2017
Responding to Week 8 Pitch - Kareena's Feedback
Kareena supplied us with some great feedback! Here is the list of what she suggested and how we addressed it...
Designing our business timeline
We decided our timeline needed to be more simple and branded so I took that job on and came up with this:
And on our slides we showed the business timeline first, and then added in the product timeline.
And on our slides we showed the business timeline first, and then added in the product timeline.
Thursday, 28 September 2017
one pager text
Today in our meeting I researched past year's one pagers and wrote our one-pager text.
Background:
Green waste is unnecessarily ending up in the landfill. One of the major contributors to this is florists. With more than 7,000 litres of waste being produced by Wellington CBD florists on a weekly basis, this is a significant proportion of the landfill needlessly being filled.
Opportunity:
Offcut recognises an opportunity to intercept this waste before it is sent to the landfill, and repurpose it into a sustainable product.
Business summary:
There are two aspects to the Offcut business plan. Firstly, we provide a subscription based service which removes green waste from central Wellington florists. The second aspect is the use of the collected green waste to create a range of papers which can then be sold back to florists as wraps for their bunches.
Service:
Offcut provides florists with a 200L bin specifically for their green waste, which is collected and replaced on a weekly basis. There is a $160 one-off start-up cost to the florist, and then is charged at a rate of $20 weekly.
Product:
Offcut papers are made from the green waste collected through our subscription service. There will be a range of different papers available including some that will be made waterproof by a beeswax coating.
Offcut papers are 100% natural, 100% recycled, and 100% biodegradable.
Competitive advantage:
Offcut’s unique point of difference is that it addresses an area of waste which has not yet been tapped into, and is repurposing it into a sustainable product. Whilst there are organisations which remove and re-purpose food waste, there are no existing operations addressing green waste as an opportunity to reduce our environmental footprint . We have also developed our business plan to follow a circular economy system to try and re-direct the waste so that it never reaches the landfill.
Future:
There is an opportunity for Offcut to expand with this idea into other city centres. The product range will also develop over time into a diverse range of eco-friendly products such as plantable seed paper, seedling trays, gift cards, etc.
Desired Support:
- Advice from experts to further develop this idea into a foolproof and market ready business.
- Investment of approximately $192,000 to get the company off the ground.
Contact information:
Genevieve Jebson (Chief Executive Officer)
Samantha Chalmers (Chief Communications Officer)
Tia Woodley (Chief Operations Officer)
Monday, 25 September 2017
practice with Euan
We had been hoping to be ready to give a full practice presentation to Euan this morning however we were not as ready as we would've liked so gen and I read the presentation rather than 'presented' it.
Euan told us straight out that we need to practice practice practice so that we hardly even need our cue cards on the day - it will make a huge difference.
He got confused amongst all the numbers and wanted us to think carefully about which ones were truly necessary.
He wanted us to make sure we knew our key take-aways and reinforced these in the conclusion and one-pager doc.
He felt that the slides needed contextualising so that if they went back to them later they could try and remember what we'd been saying.
The numbers need to be visualised if we are going to use them!
Think about where we introduce ourselves - doing it at the start feels a bit 'high school'.
Make words on the slides bigger and have less of them.
So we will take this on board and try to craft a really seamless presentation.
Euan told us straight out that we need to practice practice practice so that we hardly even need our cue cards on the day - it will make a huge difference.
He got confused amongst all the numbers and wanted us to think carefully about which ones were truly necessary.
He wanted us to make sure we knew our key take-aways and reinforced these in the conclusion and one-pager doc.
He felt that the slides needed contextualising so that if they went back to them later they could try and remember what we'd been saying.
The numbers need to be visualised if we are going to use them!
Think about where we introduce ourselves - doing it at the start feels a bit 'high school'.
Make words on the slides bigger and have less of them.
So we will take this on board and try to craft a really seamless presentation.
slide designs
We want the design of our whole presentation to be easy to take in and really consistent. I spent some time 'designing' our circular economy diagram:
As a team we agreed that we liked the one with the words in the circle, so I branded this:
As a team we agreed that we liked the one with the words in the circle, so I branded this:
Thursday, 21 September 2017
Kareena's emailed feedback
Hello Offcut team
Great to see your pitch on Monday, some feedback for you to consider for the final presentation:
- Great problem section, for florists and the environment
- As it is a similar model to Misprint, I can see easily how this would work.
- You service journey could be simplified to even half the amount of steps, keep with the most important ones: bin drop off, bin collected, turn plant matter into paper, sell back
- I think your costings are focused on the wrong parts first off, do you need uniforms, all those bins?
- Your 'one off' costs on your one pager are mostly recurring costs, eventually you will need more stickers, more bins, more business cards. One off costs are things that are bigger like the printing press.
- I would probably double your monthly recurring costs. There's a lot of hidden ones, like internet, stationery, packaging for your paper, etc.
- Your business model may need a little work. Maybe cover the cost of the bin in the rental, so it pays itself off over a month?
- Cost your products made carefully, hand made paper is very expensive to make in terms of labour costs.
- What happens to the plants you can't use?
- Good to see a growth plan, but think more broadly, could you expand to other "Offcuts"?
General notes I will be sending to everyone:
- Learn your pitch so you can speak confidently with no notes. Keep you sentences clear, simple and short with slow pacing so you don't have to remember heaps. Practice at least 5 times.
- Your slides should have the info that makes you look really good, without making things up. What data tells your story the best?
- Iterate your pitch, perhaps practice in front of other teams and give each other feedback. What didn't come across? What worked really well?
- What do you want people to remember about you? this should be on the slides.
- A link to a confident pitch here
- If you are really stuck for slides, here is a list of what the standard pitch deck should consist of. This can be changed or rearranged depending on how you are telling your story. You could also use the business model canvas as a base.
- Here is a good article from a startup accelerator about the segments of your business and how to pitch them
- And finally, here is probably the most enthusiastic pitch ever. Just for fun, but also shows how passion can make a difference!
Let me know if you have further questions. I am away next week
Wednesday, 20 September 2017
Alternative bin source research
After receiving feedback that our bins could be sourced from a more sustainable material or company, we researched some recycled plastic places as we still need to use a plastic bin for our Offcut service.
http://www.2lp.co.nz/Second Life Plastics are a Levin based company which uses plastic waste from local businesses to create new products. We really like this company and would love to collaborate with them; however after a phone call with them we have discovered that the products on offer are not suitable and in order to create what we need we would have to buy sheets of plastic and create the bins ourselves which is simply not feasible.
http://www.recycledplasticcontainers.co.nz/Recycled Plastic Containers are a family team company which rewashes, reuses, recycles, and reconditions plastic containers for resale in order to create a more eco-friendly plastic product. Although we also liked this company we found that they were not able to provide suitable bins for our Offcut service.
http://www.reclaim.co.nz/productitems.php?id=anytime4908294936a39
Reclaim is a company (based in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch) which sorts through plastic to recycle it and it is locally or internationally made into new products. Though their mission is amazing they don't offer anything that would be helpful for is.
Reward sticker
We also knew that we needed to decide on a reward sticker rather than just showing a bunch of options.
So we developed this:
So we developed this:
More in depth cost projection
We knew from our Week 8 practice run that we needed to go more in depth with our cost projections and look into some other things we hadn't thought about like utilities. We looked up the cost of utilities in Wellington here: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Wellington and made some projections from this.
Monday, 18 September 2017
Week 8 pitch
Hey guys! Sam, Gen and I have been investigating waste in the florist industry. From our initial research we found that many florists do not separate their green waste from their general rubbish, and that on average, central Wellington florists each produce 288 litres of green waste per week - that’s more than one full large wheelie bin every week!!! Further to that, based on the 26 florists in the Wellington CBD, that adds up to approximately 7,500 litres of green waste being produced weekly. That’s the equivalent of 32 large wheelie bins which is ending up in landfill per week.
We discovered that many florists believe their waste can compost in the landfill, which is a misconception as there is no air in landfill for the composting process to occur with the waste instead rotting. Further to this, the nutrients from organic waste never get the chance to reach the soil due to the plastic lining of the landfill. Leachate is a natural occurrence when waste comes into contact with water, and this, along with the issue of harmful methane gas given off by the landfill are significant issues for society.
We discovered that many florists believe their waste can compost in the landfill, which is a misconception as there is no air in landfill for the composting process to occur with the waste instead rotting. Further to this, the nutrients from organic waste never get the chance to reach the soil due to the plastic lining of the landfill. Leachate is a natural occurrence when waste comes into contact with water, and this, along with the issue of harmful methane gas given off by the landfill are significant issues for society.
The rise of the ‘Eco-Citizen’ has been a slow building trend, but one that is in full fruition now, with many consumers opting for environmentally friendly options where possible. This in turn means that businesses look to satisfy these customers and improve their brand image with green initiatives.
In response to this, we have developed Offcut: a service-based enterprise that makes getting rid of green waste for florists in the city, easy, and helps the world a little bit.
We propose to offer a monthly subscription based service which provides florists with specific bins for their green waste to be disposed in. We will offer two different bin sizes, a large 200L bin and a small 150L bin, which will be collected and replaced weekly. The large bins will be charged at a weekly rate of $20, while the smaller bin at a weekly rate of $15 to the florists. We have arrived at these costs after surveying a range of different florists across New Zealand. There is also a one-off starter fee for each florist to cover the cost of one bin, with the cost of the other bin in rotation covered by Offcut. For the large bins, this start-up fee is $160, and for the small bin, $100.
HAND OUT PAPER
In response to this, we have developed Offcut: a service-based enterprise that makes getting rid of green waste for florists in the city, easy, and helps the world a little bit.
We propose to offer a monthly subscription based service which provides florists with specific bins for their green waste to be disposed in. We will offer two different bin sizes, a large 200L bin and a small 150L bin, which will be collected and replaced weekly. The large bins will be charged at a weekly rate of $20, while the smaller bin at a weekly rate of $15 to the florists. We have arrived at these costs after surveying a range of different florists across New Zealand. There is also a one-off starter fee for each florist to cover the cost of one bin, with the cost of the other bin in rotation covered by Offcut. For the large bins, this start-up fee is $160, and for the small bin, $100.
HAND OUT PAPER
The next step in our company’s circular economy system is to turn the collected waste into paper. These are some examples of papers made entirely from plant materials. We will develop a range of paper products to sell back to the florists; including wraps, tags, cards, general note paper, and more as we continue to expand. We plan on using beeswax to coat some of our wraps and make them water proof, as the reason florists currently use lots of plastic in their bunches is to accommodate the water on fresh flowers.
One florist we spoke to said that she spends $52 for 140m of plastic wrap per week, and $28 for 36m of paper wrap per week. This means in one month she spends $320 on bouquet wraps. If we were to supply just the wraps to all of the 26 florists in the CBD, we would generate approximately $18,000 per month income, if we were to charge the same amount for the wraps per metre as her current supplier. This demonstrates the profitability of our business as these wraps are only one of our products which Sam will expand on later in our product timeline. The same florist told us she would like to use a more Eco friendly option however she hasn't yet found anything that would suit the water resistant, flexible needs of her business.
We have mapped the Offcut journey, which will start with a call to arrange an initial face-to-face meeting where we will be able to educate florists on the environmental impact of green waste ending up in the landfill. This will be followed up by further evidence on our website, with the opportunity to sign up to our service during our initial meeting or on the website. Once a business is signed up we will work with them to arrange the bin drop off/collection that will occur weekly. Using an electric or hybrid vehicle we will collect the green waste from our CBD florists and take it back to our workshop where it will go through the paper-making process of being rinsed, boiled, shredded, formed by the moulds, pressed and dried. Then the papers are ready to be sold back to the florists.
One florist we spoke to said that she spends $52 for 140m of plastic wrap per week, and $28 for 36m of paper wrap per week. This means in one month she spends $320 on bouquet wraps. If we were to supply just the wraps to all of the 26 florists in the CBD, we would generate approximately $18,000 per month income, if we were to charge the same amount for the wraps per metre as her current supplier. This demonstrates the profitability of our business as these wraps are only one of our products which Sam will expand on later in our product timeline. The same florist told us she would like to use a more Eco friendly option however she hasn't yet found anything that would suit the water resistant, flexible needs of her business.
We have mapped the Offcut journey, which will start with a call to arrange an initial face-to-face meeting where we will be able to educate florists on the environmental impact of green waste ending up in the landfill. This will be followed up by further evidence on our website, with the opportunity to sign up to our service during our initial meeting or on the website. Once a business is signed up we will work with them to arrange the bin drop off/collection that will occur weekly. Using an electric or hybrid vehicle we will collect the green waste from our CBD florists and take it back to our workshop where it will go through the paper-making process of being rinsed, boiled, shredded, formed by the moulds, pressed and dried. Then the papers are ready to be sold back to the florists.
We have also developed a reward for participating florists that is visible to both the public and other florists, to display that they are a part of our initiative, and are addressing their environmental impact. We are currently exploring the design of this. The sticker will be presented to the florists after 3 consecutive months using our service, and would remain with the florist as long as they stay subscribed to our service. This reward will be a key aspect of our strategy as we are aware that these visible displays are a significant contributor to behavioural change. Think of it as similar to the heart foundation tick, or Fair Trade badges.
Our business timeline outlines our intentions during the first 3 years of operation as we progress through our initial set up, growing our customer base, expanding our paper making through a potential partner, and expanding into other cities. Our product timeline shows how we plan to expand and develop a diverse product range that will eventuate in products like seedling papers and trays that promote the growing of new flowers. Plant based products even have the potential to expand as art papers, egg cartons, and other general packaging.
We have broken our costs up into one-off start-up costs, and recurring costs, the breakdown of these costs can be found in our one-pager. We have arrived at a total of around $71,000 in one-off costs, and are looking at approx. $11,000 in recurring monthly costs. This means that to get our business started we need around $82,000. We qualify for a $50,000 waste minimisation grant, so require a further $32,000 to get our business off the ground.
We believe that Offcut is addressing an important environmental issue, and has found a nice gap within which it can make a difference, and hope that you will invest in this idea.
Our business timeline outlines our intentions during the first 3 years of operation as we progress through our initial set up, growing our customer base, expanding our paper making through a potential partner, and expanding into other cities. Our product timeline shows how we plan to expand and develop a diverse product range that will eventuate in products like seedling papers and trays that promote the growing of new flowers. Plant based products even have the potential to expand as art papers, egg cartons, and other general packaging.
We have broken our costs up into one-off start-up costs, and recurring costs, the breakdown of these costs can be found in our one-pager. We have arrived at a total of around $71,000 in one-off costs, and are looking at approx. $11,000 in recurring monthly costs. This means that to get our business started we need around $82,000. We qualify for a $50,000 waste minimisation grant, so require a further $32,000 to get our business off the ground.
We believe that Offcut is addressing an important environmental issue, and has found a nice gap within which it can make a difference, and hope that you will invest in this idea.
Florist waste levels calculations
Here Sam and I have calculated the level of waste which Wellington CBD florists produce. This helps us to look at what sort of impact our business could have by diverting this waste from the landfill. It also will help us to calculate what potential level of resources we may have for our paper productions.
We have also planned a section for the pitch on this.
Bin designs
When we were talking about bin designs and patterns - I stumbled across this cool image that is another way we could look at designing the bins:
Friday, 15 September 2017
Business flow/website flow brainstorm
Here I have drawn up another plan for how our website may look/what different sections it will include.
As well as this I have begun to plan out our business flow model better so that we can further plan this to discuss in our pitch.
Wednesday, 13 September 2017
Eco-Citizen
We wanted to be able to reference the macro trend growing in society of people choosing eco-friendly initiatives where they can. So I did some research into this and found a great article on the "Eco-Citizen"
http://ecopreneurist.com/2016/10/26/green-entrepreneurs-think-eco-citizens/
http://ecopreneurist.com/2016/10/26/green-entrepreneurs-think-eco-citizens/
Meeting - reward sticker
At our meeting today we tried to get our initial thoughts towards the design of our reward sticker, to start we looked up some ideas on pinterest:
These are what I came up with:
These are what I came up with:
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