Business Model Generation & Budgeting
You don’t need a one-year feasibility study, a pristine warehouse or fancy refrigerated trucks to start up.
You just need a few farmers and buyers, and a person to move the product between them. Test the market. Starting small and learning before you have to manage buildings and equipment will keep you flexible and with lower operating costs. Worry about the fancy equipment after you’ve built up the demand. Many efforts that could get up and running in a matter of weeks instead get backlogged by years of planning and fundraising. No two aggregation and distribution businesses look alike and the best way to see what your community can support is to try it out.
Why Did We Create This Toolkit?
Local Orbit helps people build profitable businesses and healthier communities by providing business management tools to help rebuild local food systems.
It’s tough to run a business without good technology. Technology automates what can be automated. It enables efficiency and appropriate scale. It reduces errors, and it facilitates good communication and storytelling.
Before technology, however, people need access to shared knowledge and resources in order to create strong businesses that have the capacity to change the way we eat.
We work with – and learn from – dozens of entrepreneurs who are connecting local buyers and sellers with shorter, transparent supply chains across North America. We offer this toolkit to save you time as you start your own business.
This toolkit is a resource for the entrepreneurs who are building the New Food Economy. It draws from hands-on experience, while creating a framework for experimentation and continuous improvement that can help people dig in today and improve as they learn.