Rejuicynator Business Plan
Design 2
Initially I had decided that I wanted to work alone on this project, both as a personal challenge and also because I know I can be disorganised and this can be a challenge for people working with me. Also I like to work at my pace, sometimes taking it easy and sometimes working the whole night through, not everyone wants to do this. As time went on other people volunteered their time and I realised that some help would be no bad thing.
I used O.B.R.A.D.I.M to help me work out a business plan and have evaluated this part of the Rejuicynator design with action learning.
I used O.B.R.A.D.I.M to help me work out a business plan and have evaluated this part of the Rejuicynator design with action learning.
Observation
Many social and environmental issues
- Many herb/pesticides commonly used in agriculture
- Many diet based illnesses ie diabetes and obesity
- Many mental health problems with possible links to diet and lifestyle/stress related
- Stress on the increase
- Health topics can be dry and not very inspiring
- Community not as strong as 50 years ago
- Young and old people rarely mixing
- Rubbish/pollution increasing
- Most people buying supermarket food
- No other projects like the Rejuicynator
- Funding bodies keep on environmental/health related projects
- Project covers many areas of the curriculum at once so finantially benificial to schools
- Local organic food producers like Doorstep Organics are keen to be involved
- Lots of local growers in the area
Boundries
- A lot of work to do alone
- I don't have the skills to do justice to every part of the project
- Not everyone will be interested
- Money-£7,500 start up cost
- I have no knowledge of solar technology
- Getting known
- Legalities to do with transporting compost
- Contacts
- Transport
Resources
Interested people
- Gremlin-can make trikes from recycled items
- Karen-project worker at UnLtd
- Mum-great at accounting.Has run business
- Dad-Skip hire owner
- Ali-organised
- Caz-Gardener/permaculture designer/worked with kids and older people
- Pete-Involved in social enterprises and their operation/permaulture designer
- Debbie-Circus/learning support with children in schools
- Steve-excellent mechanic, good knowledge of engineering
- Sophia-circus/works with children
- Sam P-Bike mechanic
- Me-permaculture designer/artist/work with children
- James-solar panel expert
Finances
- £1.500 my own money
- £200 Masham skip hire
- Funding bids
- The rejuicynator generating it's own money when running
Publicity
- Yorkshire post/Ripon gazette/papers/zines
- Flyers-hand through doors/cafes
- Word of mouth
- Attending events
Evaluation
With interesting and interested people offering their time we have all the ingredients for sucess. I think over the perid of a year the Rejuicynator could be up and running and I don't see that funding will be an issue. What we don't know between us we are willing to learn.
Design
See design project
Implementation
- Construct trike- 2 months
- Buying juicer/cups/eco friendly cleaning products/blender jugs-1 week
- See jamees re making solar 'brains'-2 days
- research organic fruit and veg suppliers-ongoing
Maintainance
- On site maintenace-anyone working on the Rejuicynator must be trained in it's maintenance for any onsite repairs that are needed.
- Each year give bike and solar kit a service
- All kitchen equipment/work surface/handles and seat to be washed after every workshop
- Wash all materials after each workshop ie aprons and cloths
Choosing a Ltd company
During the building of the bike I started to look into the legalities of running a project like the Rejuicynator and what kind of structure it should be registered as. By this point Alison McNeill had become involved in the project
It seemed as though the best option was a Ltd company because should anyone become ill from the juice or smoothie we had given them and decided to sue with us with the project owing money, each member of our group, (We had to have a treasurer, secretary and chair) would only have to pay out one pound each.
We had to have Public liability insurance, that covered the cost of someone sueing us for food poisoning, but if we had to fold and we owed money anywhere, we would be covered by being a Ltd company and not be personally liable.
I also looked in being a CIC (community interest company) but with this structure the assets would have had to be passed on to another community group with no option to be able to use them as an individual if the project folded. I wasn't sure at the time which course the project would take, if it was going to just be me, me and one other person or several others. if it folded I wanted the option of being able to take it on as an individual again, still with social aims and objectives but probably as a sole trader.
As a Ltd company you need a chair, treasurer and a secretary so Easter Lees stepped up to fill the post but unfortunately moved south, staying on the volunteer list for festivals. Pete Tatham took up the post.
Several times we applied to companies house via post to register but due to mistakes, both ours and theirs, it kept being delayed so we decided to put registration on hold while we reassessed the situation
A workers coop
After a lot of research and planning we decided to involve more people to lessen the work load which was becoming quite high and with a time pressure of the festival season starting, quite stressful. We needed help with manning the website, general admin, running workshops, creating games for the workshops and the creation and distribution of publicity material.
Debbie Rhubins, Caroline Scott and Sophia Wheatly became involved.
Action Learning
What went well
- Everyone made the effort to understand each other.
- There was a lot of enthusiasm.
- With more peoples involvement came more inspiration, ideas, contacts and skills.
- With more people, the whole group didn't have to do every gig.
- I didn't have to do everything any-more so not so much burn out.
- Starting to use minutes at the meetings helped us progress in them and keep time better.
What went badly
- Communication.
- Organisation.
- Time management.
- Peoples other commitments meant not equal amounts of time were put in by everyone.
- There weren't clear enough guidelines on job roles.
- Often meetings had a bad structure. People were late or missed them altogether due to other commitments and when we did meet there was a lot of socializing and not much meeting. This did improve when we started taking minutes and laying down some ground rules about socializing after the meeting was over and also discussing one topic at a time, finishing it then moving to the next one.
Things I would do differently
- When starting a project I will always write down (with the person involved) what is expected of each person. This would've saved a lot of stress with miscommunication when building the bike with gremlins cycles.
- When I made the business plan I had already started the project and therefore didn't get the full benefit. I planned thoroughly for the machine but not the business plan. In future I will always use O.B.R.E.D.I.M - , from the start!
- If I started the the business again I would still by a Ltd company for the same reasons, but I would treat it as a hobby instead of full time employment.
- I would be reluctant to work with people in the same way ie, if I had started the project and then got others involved. I think it would be better to work with people from the beginning and create a project together because I found it hard to relinquish responsibility of parts of the project such as the accounts and when I had to take the reigns of this again it was hard because our ways of recording were very different. I kept being involved with most parts of the project instead of focusing on one area and this became stressfull also.
The Rejuicynator never became a Ltd company or a workers coop because we disbanded on July 23rd 2011 for multifacited reasons...
- Stress, due to bad time management and bad organisation(mostly mine) and too much pressure for the project to take off quickly. I wanted everyone to be able to earn money from the project and I wanted to have it as full time employment and therefore threw myself into it, quit my other jobs and went onto working tax credits and housing benefit(which as anyone who has dealt with these establishments will know-is also stressful|)
- I hadn't planned well enough. Having very little money soon became connected with the Rejuicynator in my mind and made me think of it as a burden.
- It strained the relationship Alison and I had. We lived with bits of the bike and trailer etc stored all over our house, and worked on the project together most days. We had very different working styles that often clashed. The stress contributed hugely to a temporarily damaged friendship.ble
- It stopped being enjoyable most of the time.
Ali decided she no longer wanted to be part of the project and shortly after I decided I'd had enough aswel so offered the project out to the rest of the group. No one had the time to take it on so I decided to keep it for a year to see wether or not I found inspiration again.
This inspiration is slowly being rekindled.