Fragrance Herbs: Providing Fresh And Affordable Herbs To Local Industries

Cost Related

Revenue Related

Key Partners

Bank

Transport agency

Agricultural  input firms

Agricultural consultants

Media (bloggers)

The above will provide finances, transport, inputs and the related services. The media will do product promotion and advertisement .However these will just be indirect stakeholders and not partners to the business.

Key Activities

Production

Value addition

Packaging

Advertising

Value Propositions

My primary aim is to provide fresh herbs to clients and affordable price and on time.

Helping with the lack of fresh and customized herbs to restaurants, chemical, beauty and pharmaceutical firms.

Clients to book appointments to Fragrance herbs to place orders and customization requests.

I will solve the problem of providing firms with herbs they require, in good conditions as they prefer and on time without having to spare extra time for purchase as deliveries is a guarantee.

Marketing & Sales Communication

Social media posts on the walls of widely known bloggers.

Leaflet handouts to participants in industrial and agricultural shows.

Customer Segments

The initial target segment are industries  in  Birmingham  that use herbs as raw materials and have minimal time and labour to spare for sourcing of the herbs. These fall into restaurants, chemical, beauty and pharmaceutical industries.

Estimated target market: Birmingham has about 920 healthcare industries and restaurants and the entire percentage fits in the market definition. (Noon, 2020).

Key Resources

Human resources

Agricultural expert

Gardener

Blogger

Technical resources

Internet access

Land

Machinery

Product & Service Delivery Channels

Customers will place orders and special requests via email, phone calls, or in person.

The firm will ship the orders to the customers ‘chosen location or they can pick them from the farm on set dates.

Cost Structure

The most expensive cost will be acquiring or hiring land and premises.

Paying for labor and expertise.

Printing leaflets and social media posts

The products’ costs will be affordable , highest  quality and will be readily available.

The firm will acquire a considerable large piece of land  and make large number of promotional materials to exploit economies of scale.

Revenue Related

Fragrance  herbs will offer products at £50 per kilogram and other services at £30 per hour.The rates are in range with current market prices and what customers would afford and  pay.The herbs will contribute a near equal revenue to the overall revenue.Payment will be made on delivery via paypal or in cash to the business.

Explain the history behind your idea: e.g. how did you come up with the idea, why do you think it will be successful 

I am concerned for the health concerns that come with synthetic products that substitute herbs and related products. I have interacted with friends working with restaurants and beauty and pharmaceutical industries and they strain to get quality herbs for their operations. Therefore, the herbs market is promising and thus high probability of success .I am passionate about agriculture and this too influenced my choice of a business idea.

I will be the best for the development of the idea because am passionate about the process and already has contact with the potential consumers. In addition, I have pursued a course in healthcare and am conversant with the role and advantages of herb products. The idea will be fully exploitable with the expertise background I have in one other potential consumer industry.

Reflection: What do you understand by the term ‘reflection’? What is an ‘action learning set’ and why might it be more effective than individual reflection?

Type here:

Reflection refers to the process of regarding thinking about an issue of concern as a result of an experience or other triggers.It is critical in learning( Bravenboer, 2018).

I understand the term reflection as the process of critically considering an issue or experience in order to come with new insights in relation to the same.It is examining and analysing a situation by thoughts to determine its meaning,consequences or impacts.

Action set learning is method of tackling problems based on small groups usually peers.A group of people meets with intention of solving specific problem or understand the issues of concern(Shani and Coghlan, 2021 pp.518-541)

 Action set learning is may be more effective than individual reflectionbecause it allows members the concerned group to contribte democratically.People participate,learn and provide feedback.

Assumptions: What are the main assumptions behind your business idea? How could you test those assumptions? 

Type here: 

The number of industries in Birmingham will continue to increase and thus demand for herbs in the same.

To test:Research government publications regarding industrial growth in Birmingham  and herbs market.

The pharmaceutical,beauty ,chemical and restaurants consider herbs a key raw material in their operations .

To test:Issue survey questionnaires to the industries to assess the level of interest in herbs as a raw material. 

Cost Related

Revenue Related

Key Partners

Banks

Agricultural input firms

Agricultural consultants

Transport agencies

Machinery dealers

The above will provide finances, transport, inputs and the related services. The media will do product promotion and advertisement .They will provide technical advice on machine operation and maintenance. However, these will just be indirect stakeholders and not partners to the business.

Key Activities

Production

Value addition

Packaging

Advertising

Selling

Delivering orders

Value Propositions

My primary aim is to provide fresh herbs to clients and affordable price and on time.

Helping with the lack of fresh and customized herbs to restaurants, chemical, beauty and pharmaceutical firms.

Clients to book appointments to Fragrance herbs to place orders and customization requests.

I will solve the problem of providing firms with herbs they require, in good conditions as they prefer and on time without having to spare extra time for purchase as deliveries is a guarantee.

Marketing & Sales Communication

Type here:

Social media posts on the walls of widely known bloggers.

Leaflet handouts to partcipants in industrial and agricultural shows.

 A paid bill board 

Customer Segments

The initial target segment are industries  in  Birmingham  that use herbs as raw materials and have minimal time and labour to spare for sourcing of the herbs.

The specific industries are healthcare industries and restaurants.

Estimated target market: Birmingham has about 920 healthcare industries and restaurants and the entire percentage fits in the market definition.( Noon,2020).

Key Resources

Agricultural expert

Gardener

Blogger

Technician 

Technical resources

Internet access

Land

Machinery

Financial resources

Loan from the bank

Product & Service Delivery Channels

Type

 Customers will place orders and special requests via email, phone calls, or in person.

The firm will ship the orders to the customers ‘chosen location or they can pick them from the farm on set dates.

Cost Structure

The most expensive cost will be acquiring or hiring land and premises.

Acquiring value addition machinery 

Paying for labour and expertise.

Printing leaflets and social media posts

The products’ costs will be affordable to the customers, of highest possible quality and will be readily available.

The firm will acquire a considerable large piece of land and make large number of promotional materials to exploit economies of scale.

On other inputs, purchasing will be through farmer’s societies.

Revenue Related

Fragrance herbs will offer products at £50 per kilogram and other services at £30 per hour. The rates are in range with current market prices and what customers would afford and pay. The herbs will contribute a near equal revenue to the overall revenue. Payment will be on delivery via PayPal or in cash to the business.

Pitch:

My partner and I drafted a script highlighting the key points as in the BMC1 model and every other aspect. However, some parts of the model missed on important that we found to be important through further research .For example on the target market, the first model was to general and that seemed to inappropriate .The second model highlights the adjustments.

The script was long and keeping the 2minutes was hard. However, reflecting on this will be useful so that I can make adjustments while providing the needed information. I will also use the criteria guide provided to ensure I use the criteria efficiently and save on time and other resources.

Assumption Testing 

The number of industries in Birmingham will continue to increase and thus demand for herbs in the same.

To test: Research government publications regarding industrial growth in Birmingham and herbs market.

Birmingham is the home for many manufacturing industries and healthcare is the city’s largest single industry(Grabow,2020 pp.263-275) Therefore, it is correct to assume a potential market as the growth is project growth this year by 7.5 percent(Parre,2020 pp.263-275)  

The pharmaceutical, beauty, chemical and restaurants consider herbs a key raw material in their operations.

To test: Issue survey questionnaires to the industries to assess the level of interest in herbs as a raw material.

The responses indicate 30 percent of the industries will be high interested, 55 interested in Fragrance herbs and only 15 percent do not have interest in using herbs.

Comment on your Action Learning Set:

A member from my action learning set suggested how I could narrow down the target market to a specific segment.

I helped a member in my action plan to consider revising her cost structure to include the major expenses.

The suggestions were practical and I took them up in my BMC.

However, the members turned up late due to personal issues and were also in a rush to finish, thus I could not engage them exhaustively .If participants were more committed the process would have been more effective .

Cost Related

Revenue Related

Key Partners

Banks

Agricultural input firms

Agricultural consultants

Transport agencies

Machinery dealer

The above will provide finances, transport, inputs and the related services. The media will do product promotion and advertisement .They will provide technical advice on machine operation and maintenance. However, these will just be indirect stakeholders.

Key Activities

: Production

Value addition

Packaging

Advertising

Selling

Delivering orders

Renting space

Website creation

Value Propositions

My primary aim is to provide fresh herbs to clients and affordable price and on time.

Helping with the lack of fresh and customized herbs to restaurants, chemical, beauty and pharmaceutical firms.

Clients to book appointments to Fragrance herbs to place orders and customization requests.

I will solve the problem of providing firms with herbs they require, in good conditions as they prefer and on time without having to spare extra time for purchase as deliveries is a guarantee

Marketing & Sales Communication

 Social media posts on the walls of widely known bloggers.

Leaflet handouts to participants in industrial and agricultural shows.

 A paid bill board 

A business website with contact details and updates of the available stock.

Customer Segments

The initial target segment are industries  in  Birmingham  that use herbs as raw materials and have minimal time and labour to spare for sourcing of the herbs.

The specific industries are healthcare industries and restaurants.

Estimated target market: Birmingham has about 920 healthcare industries and restaurants and the entire percentage fits in the market definition.( Noon,2020).

Key Resources

Agricultural expert

Gardener

Blogger

Technician 

Technical resources

Land

Machinery

Financial resources

Loan from the bank

Personal savings

Product & Service Delivery Channels

Customers will place orders and special requests via email, phone calls, or in person .The, contacts will be available in the business website.

The firm will ship the orders to the customers ‘chosen location or they can pick them from the farm on set dates.

Cost Structure

The most expensive cost will be acquiring or hiring land and premises.

Acquiring value addition machinery

Loan clearance

Website creation and management 

The products’ costs will be affordable highest quality and will be readily available.

The firm will acquire a considerable large piece of land and make large number of promotional materials to exploit economies of scale.

Revenue Related

Fragrance herbs will offer products at £50 per kilogram and other services at £30 per hour. The rates are in range with current market prices and what customers would afford and pay. The herbs will contribute a near equal revenue to the overall revenue. Customers will pay on delivery on delivery via PayPal or in cash to the business. Research into the commonly used credit card in Birmingham for convenience in payment.

Iterative Journey:

More resources are in consideration including finances and technician to operate. Personal savings are considerable sources of finances apart from the bank loan. The cost of web creation though not in the first model is worth it because it will increase search availability of the business in the internet.

The market will also be narrower to include only restraints and healthcare industries, which is easier to focus on and make projections.

After further research and engaging the potential customers in survey questionnaire, the evidence supports the previous assumptions. It is correct that the economy of Birmingham will grow considerably and widen the herbs market. Furthermore, it is beyond the expectations to have 85% of a representative sample interested in use of Fragrance herbs products.

The assumptions have changed to give a broader view of the market, production process and potential customers.

Competitor Insight:?

Direct competitor is any company that offers exactly similar product or service to the same market as the business while indirect competitor is a business that offers different services or product but could satisfy the same need and achieve a similar goal.

The primary direct competitors will the best ranked herbs and spice businesses including Wing Yip and Mehta Sundries.

In healthcare synthetic products can be used and in restaurants there are chemical flavours that would replace herbs. These are from indirect competitors including Trimite technologies and Evonik.

The major analogue is Baba Yaga Continental Gifts Limited which does herbs production but for ornamental purposes.

From the competitors, I was able to get an insight to have a specific target market segment and then grow the business with time. This is because herbs have multiple uses and thus varied consumers.

Fragrance herbs will be unique in terms of quality and focus on customer needs. In addition, the products will be accompanied by professional advice as needs arise.

Cost & Risks:  

The major risk is the extreme weather conditions in UK, which may cause damage to the crop during production. This will mean unmet orders and lost inputs.

An insurance cover will be useful in covering the risk and its potential impacts.

Another challenge will acquiring start-up capital because banks have many conditions they give loans to start up business.Incase of failure to qualify, microfinances will be handy in financing the project.

Finances are necessary to rent space, acquire inputs, machinery and other resources and for product promotion. These will be from personal savings and a loan from the bank.

List of Web Resources (at least 3)

List the web sites that you have used for your research. Note: you don’t have to cite them using the Harvard author-date format in the previous pages; you can just list them here e.g.

https://grasshopper.com/blog/startup-competition-guide/

Academic Sources (at least 3)

These should be listed in full Harvard Format below and in author-date format in the earlier pages e.g. on page 3 you might say “reflection is a form of looking back (Smith, 2014)” and below you would cite this fully:

Smith J. (2014) Theories of Reflection, 2^nd. Edn., Prentice Hall: London

https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/11021/7/Noon2020PhD.pdf

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/fcsr.12348

https://www.coursehero.com/file/pm77lt/Which-of-the-following-did-Gutenberg-invent-a-Reflective-mirrors-b-The-printing/

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JWAM-01-2017-0002/full/html

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1476750319852147

Noon, J., 2020. The use and production of natural antioxidants for food applications (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).

Grabow, K.N., Schumacher, J., Banning, J. and Barnes, J.L., 2020. Highlighting healthy options in a food pantry setting: a pilot study. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 48(3), pp.263-275.

Archer-Parré, C., 2020. Places, spaces and the printing press: trade interactions in Birmingham. Midland History, 45(2), pp.145-160.

Bravenboer, D., 2018. The unexpected benefits of reflection: a case study in university-business collaboration. Journal of Work-Applied Management.

Shani, A.B. and Coghlan, D., 2021. Action research in business and management: A reflective review. Action Research, 19(3), pp.518-541.

Continuing personal career development: reflection and action plan

Critically reflect on your experience and challenge faced and the abilities you have developed:

Team work

S.This work was to be in pairs to create a two-minute video and we choose my business idea.

T.I came up with the idea of Fragrance herbs and there I had to explain what it is about to my partner.

A .We formed a script highlighting the main points and it was edited to meet the two-minute time limit.

R .As a team we made a successful video and sorted the points in my model that had issues.

Time management.

S .During the model development and action learning set meetings members had classes to attend and personal appointments. Therefore, most showed up late and left early.

T .This left three of us most of the time to reflect on the work and cover up for the absent.

A .being a smaller number we had the chance to discuss issues in-depth and agree on the adjustments to make on the same.

R .I was able to make changes in my market segment and create a video effectively as well provide suggestions for my team members models.

Organisation

S .Market survey, data analysis, action-learning set up discussion and model adjustments.

T .to make sure I accomplish the above correctly and on time.

A .I administered questionnaires to the market segments, recorded the data on a notebook and did the analysis. I participated in the discussion and adjusted the model on suggested points.

R .It was a challenge getting the entire task done alongside other modules.

Personal action planning:

To realise my career goal I will need to work on my time management skills. This can make ca time to improve on quality of performance.

I will have to improve on organization skills so that I do not have to experience overwhelming situations and possibly make errors.

Teamwork.

I would have taken the initiative to ensure I consider all the members when setting discussion time. The members would have been fully involved and made a better contribution in the discussion.

Organization

I will always write a daily schedule and allocate time to every activity I have to engage in.This way I will have timeframes to work with and thus minimal likelihood to make errors.