Our _______________________________ The product and services you will off er

help(s) _______________________________ The community group, customer segment you will help

who want to _______________________ The job the community group you are serving wants to get done

by ____________________________ Verb (e.g., reducing, avoiding) and a customer pain

and ____________________________. Verb (e.g., increasing, enabling) and a customer gain

(unlike __________________________ ) Compe� ng product range and services proposi� on

community food enterprise start-up guide

start-up team leaders

start-up a food cooperative

reducing costs and avoiding wasted time

increasing clarity and harnessing passion

classic business plans

FOOD SOLUTIONa community food enterprise start-up guide

v1

Developed by Eat Well Tasmania’s Aff ordable Access Project (EWTi AAP) a partnership project between Eat Well Tasmania Inc. and the Heart Founda� on Tasmania.

www.eatwelltas.org.au | www.foodsolu� on.org.au

2

Contents

Where to start your start-up?

How to use this guide

Be a powerful teamDevelop clarity

Build a succesful business team

Create your policies and procedures

An� cipate the challenges ahead

Create value Discover what your customers want

Develop products & services your customers want

Test your products

Be a profi table enterpriseDesign your business model

Learn from succesful enterprises

Design your enterprise systems

Develop your ac� on plan

Improve and grow

Register and comply

Glosary of terms

Tools

References

About this guide

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5

6

7

10

12

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15

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21

24

26

27

30

31

32

35

36

38

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52

55

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3

3

Where to start your start-up?

You want to know how to start-up your food coopera� ve. Let’s not waste � me and get straight to the point: it all comes down to solving a problem for someone in your community, fi guring out how to create and deliver your solu� on, and having the best team possible to make it all happen.

Once you have assembled your team there are two ways you can go about this: you can either design a solu� on, launch it and wait to see which community group gets benefi ts out of it; or you can tailor a solu� on to a specifi c group you want to help and make sure you solve a problem for them.

Because you are star� ng a food coopera� ve, a social or community enterprise with the purpose of targe� ng certain community groups to help them access aff ordable fresh fruit and vegetables, you want to use the second approach and tailor a solu� on for the groups you want to help.

If we turn the start-up process into milestones, your fi st milestone is to assemble an eff ec� ve team, your second milestone is to tailor a solu� on for the community groups you want to help, and your third milestone is to design the way you will be crea� ng and delivering your solu� on.

In the pages ahead you will fi nd a start-up guide with prac� cal tools and guidance to achieve your milestones and help you an� cipate challenges with a simple step by step structure:

Can you imagine what it will feel like to take yourself and your team from where you are now to where you want to be? To get started on your journey navigate this guide, go to our website, download our work-sheets and tools, watch our coaching videos, and most importantly enjoy the process of being a posi� ve change maker in your community.

1 Be a powerful

team to be resilient

2 Create value for

you and your community

3 Be a profi table

enterprise to be sustainable

4

How to use this guide?

Do I use it from start to end?

You can work through the chapters from start to end, or you can dive into the areas you know that you will get the most benefi t from. Focus! Put your eff ort into an area and use the tools available in this guide. We encourage you to explore all the sec� ons of this guide. You are the one who knows what you need, explore, test and try.

This guide is writen for team leaders. In addi� on to giving you new frameworks and concepts to use, it will also give you tools that you can use with your team. You will get ideas to facilitate work and leverage crea� vity, points of view, passion, energy and drive from your team.

Why are you doing this?

Each chapter will answer the ques� on as to why that concept is important and why taking ac� on on that par� cular area is important for your start-up’s success.

The Trigger Questions

Because you know your community be� er than we do, instead of telling you what to do, those ques� ons are the best way to ignite your crea� vity and come up with solu� ons to the challenges you face. Trigger ques� ons are a fantas� c tool to work on your own or to guide your team to discus eff ec� ve solu� ons. These ques� ons will help you clarify what you want, why you want it and how you will get it. To answer them write rapidly, don’t get caught in the details, let ideas fl ow and have fun.

The Tools

Each chapter has prac� cal tools to help you with the development process and to write down and sketch up ideas. See the tools chapter (page 38) for work sheets and instruc� ons on how to use them.

Target and outcome se� ng ques� ons:

• What do you want for your community if you knew you could achieve anything you wanted?

• What would you go for if you knew you could not fail?

TO HELP YOU DEVELOP A FRUIT & VEGETABLE PRODUCT RANGE YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT

You want to off er your customers a range of fruit, vegetable and services they will want, need and will pay for. Instead of guessing what kind, how many, or what selection, use your fi ndings from the customer discovery and build upon them to identify what will help and satisfy your customer’s needs and bring benefi ts to them.

Gains creators

E.g. Access all week and after hours, help with recipies, buy from home and gets delivered.

Pain relievers

E.g. Practical and easy purchase. Service that supports the buyer, enjoyable experience.

Gain creators

Pain relievers

Ways to give your customer the benefi ts they want.

Solutions that will reduce things that annoy your customer.

Products & Services

E.g. Susbcription and membership available, seasonal produce, responsive customer service.

Product range & servicesA simple list of what you off er. All the items your customer can see in shoping window.

THE PRODUCT WORKSHEET

References and defi nitions

This guide is based on books, seminars, ar� cles, and tools by many authors and organisa� ons. On the reference page (page 53) you will fi nd a complete list and links.

5

Be a powerfull team

Empowering leadership nurtures powerful teams. This sec� on focuses on key issues to help you develop as a leader and support you in magnifying your team’s power to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The following ques� ons will help you think about key elements to be a team leader and nurture a powerful team:

• Have you created a common purpose for team members? Do you have unifying team vision?• Have you developed your iden� ty and skills as a leader?• Do you understand how you and your team members feel, think, and behave in diff erent

circumstances?• Do you talk your team, ask them what they need to do their job be� er and how you can help them

achieve that.• Have you trained your team to help them make be� er and faster decisions?• Do you trust and have confi dence in your team?• Do you guide, mentor and empower your team?• Do you create a team environment of mutual support?

An empowering team leader nurtures powerful teams.

Develop clarity

Having clarity is knowing what you want, why you want it and how you plan to get it by developing a vision, understanding your purpose and clarifying your outcome.1

Create policies and procedures

You want to have policies and procedures in place to defi ne what you do and how you do it. The understanding of how things are done will help guide your team with eff ec� ve decision making, maintain good work prac� ces and work delega� on.

Build a successful business team

Your team is your best resource and before you can nurture and build this resource you need to be in the best state to face the challenges that come with building a team.

Anticipate the challenges ahead

By thinking in advance on the possible scenarios you will encounter during the process of star� ng-up your enterprise you will be able to prepare, plan and minimise risks.

1

For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38.

6

Develop clarity

Having clarity is knowing what you want, why you want it and how you plan to get it. Clarity comes from developing a vision, understanding your purpose and clarifying your outcome. This will allow you to create and communicate your vision clearly to your team, and keep you focused on achieving your goals. Anything that distracts you from achieving your outcome can be considered a waste of � me and resources.1

Your idea Is your concept, your inten� on, or your fi rst possible course of ac� on. Brainstorm and shape alterna� ve direc� ons for your fruit and vegetable product range and services proposi� on. Be clear as to how exactly you are going to create and deliver what is valuable to your customer groups.

Your vision Is an image of what you want the future to be. If you don’t know exactly what you want or what specifi c results you want to get, you will most likely not achieve them. Having a clear vision will help you focus your eff orts in crea� ng your social enterprise. Your vision is what will mo� vate you and get you out of bed every day to work towards your goals.

Vision se� ng ques� ons

• If you could see into the future, what will your social enterprise look like in 5 years’ � me?• Can you describe it as if you were there? What do you see, hear, smell, and touch, taste? • Can you imagine what will be happening, who will be benefi � ng from it, how successful will

it be?

Your idea

Your vision

Your target

Your purpose

Your plan of

action

7

Your target Is what you want, it is the outcome or the result you are a� er. Achieving it will depend on you having clarity about what you want to achieve. Your outcome might change during the diff erent stages of your social enterprise, so revise it o� en. Once you know what results you are a� er you can make strategies to get them.

Target and outcome se� ng ques� ons

• What would you want to learn from working on your social enterprise? • What skills and character traits do you want to develop?• What do you want for your community if you knew you could achieve anything you

wanted? • If you had unlimited money, what would you want your social enterprise to be, to achieve?• What would you go for if you knew you could not fail? • How profi table would you like your social enterprise to be? • What diff erence do you want to make in your community and beyond?• What kind of contribu� on do you want to make in your community through your social

enterprise?• As you start your social enterprise, what are the 4 outcomes you want to achieve?• What would happen to your social enterprise if you didn’t get these results? What would

that mean to you, to your team and to your community?• How would ge� ng those four results aff ect your social enterprise?

Your purpose Is the reason you want whatever it is you want to achieve with your social enterprise. It has to ma� er to you and your team. You will need that purpose to drive you through the tough � mes and inspire yourself and your team. If you have enough whys you will fi gure out how to make what you want happen.

Purpose se� ng ques� ons

• Why do you want to make your social enterprise a reality? • Why is it so important for you and your community?• What emo� onal and logical reasons are behind you developing your social enterprise? • What are the reasons that drive you to develop your social enterprise and commit your

� me and eff ort?• What are the emo� onal, social, and fi nancial benefi ts you will get from your project? What

will it give you?• How would you feel if you achieve everything you want with your social enterprise?• What will it create for you and your community?• How will you feel having a successful social enterprise?• How would you feel if your social enterprise doesn’t succeed? What will happen to your

community if you don’t succeed?

Translate your purpose into a statement of purpose

These are principles your enterprise is commi� ed to. Example from Unicorn Grocery:2

• Secure employment for members.• Equal opportunity by reserving some employment for people with learning disabili� es.• Wholesome healthy consump� on by trading in wholesome foodstuff s and household goods

of non-animal origin.• Fair and sustainable trade by trading in a manner which supports a sustainable world

environment and economy.• Solidarity in coopera� on by suppor� ng like-minded ventures and coopera� ves.

8

Your action plan Is the map to get things done, it is your strategy. If you have clarity you can come up with several ways of ge� ng the results you want. Having a strategy will help you pick the ac� ons that have the most impact in achieving what you want. Every single ac� on has an eff ect, so strive to get 80% of the results with 20% of the ac� ons.

This example will help you write yours:

• What you want: I want to run a profi table local social enterprise that will make fruit and vegetable accessible and aff ordable for my community,

• Why you want it: because I want to help my community be healthier,• How you will get it: and the way I will achieve this is by pu� ng together a team and

applying the 3 steps to a successful food solu� on.

Ac� on plan se� ng ques� ons

• How can you achieve what you want and enjoy the process?• How many ways can you fi nd to achieve what you want? • What resources can you use to develop a plan of ac� on to set up your social enterprise? • What system can you use to be effi cient in the use of your resources, � me, eff ort, money

and labour?• What are the specifi c ac� ons that will get you where you want to go?• What are the 20% of ac� ons that will produce the 80% of results you are a� er?• What system will you use to make decisions? • How can you evaluate your ac� ons to correct the ones that don’t give you results? • If the ac� ons you are taking are not producing results, how will you change your approach?

9

Build a successful business team

Your team is your best resource and before you can nurture and build this resource you need to be in the best state to face the challenges that come with building a team. To build a strong team you want to focus on developing team member skills to enhance personal resilience and group collabora� on. You also want to communicate clearly the vision, purpose and results the team is a� er. These ques� ons wil help you think about importan issues regarding your team and culture:

• Is there a sense of team? If not how can be improved? • How do you get people involved? Why do they get involved? What mo� vates people to get involved

in the enterprise? How can you fi nd out what mo� vates them to be able to provide what they need/want?

• Who runs the team, who is in charge, what kind of team structure do you have? Is it the most effi cient? • How produc� ve is your team/staff ? How proac� ve and ac� ve? Is your team taking ini� a� ve? How can

these be improved?• How clear is your vision and purpose? Is it being shared by your team and supporters?

The main skills you should focus on developing are:

Know how to make decisions

The 3 decisions you are making every moment: what should you focus on, what does this mean, and what should you do? Decision making is clarifi ca� on. It is power, makes you stronger, and lets you move forward. Know your outcome, know the problem to be solved. Be clear about what you want and why you want it: your outcome and purpose. Think in advance about how you will know when you are ge� ng what you want. Have a system. Make your decisions on paper, not in your mind.Use this steps for efec� ve decision making:1

1. know your outcome,

2. explore your op� ons,

3. mi� gate risks,

4. evaluate the situa� on,

5. and commit to your decision.

Know how to be in a resourceful state

Your team will be pu� ng all their passion and energy into building your social enterprise. Give your team the best chance of success by knowing how to keep yourself in the best emo� onal state. Knowing how to be resourceful will keep morale up and improve team communica� on and results

Know how to manage your time

Star� ng up a social enterprise is managing a project in which things have to happen in a certain sequence, a certain � me frame and with a restricted budget. Organise your team’s � me with this simple system for be� er results: 1

1. defi ne what you want to accomplish (your outcome),

2. be sure of why you want it (your purpose)

3. and decide how you are going to do it by pu� ng together a list of ac� ons that will get you there.

10

Know how to sell and infl uence

Star� ng up a social enterprise has a lot to do with mo� va� on, namely the mo� va� on you and your team have to follow through the ac� ons needed to start up your social enterprise and the mo� va� on your customers have to buy products. Have you ever wonder where mo� va� on comes from? There are two forces that drive our behaviour, we either move towards pleasure or move away from pain, and if you understand the balance between them, you will have the power to infl uence yourself, your team and your customers.

Have a positive infl uence in your team

Let’s imagine for a moment there is an ac� on that your team has been pu� ng off and you want it to get it done. By understanding the balance between pain and pleasure infl uencing your team you will have the power to mo� vate them to reach their poten� al. You could use these ques� ons to learn what is the pain and pleasure associated by your team members with ge� ng an ac� on done:

• What is the pain associated with not following through, ge� ng this done? What is the pain that has prevented you from taking ac� on?

• What is the cost of not ge� ng this done in the short and long term? Financially, socially, emo� onally, what would it make you or your team feel?

• What is the pleasure of not ge� ng this done? What is your team member gaining by not following through?

• What will you or your team gain from ge� ng this done?

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Create your policies and procedures

You want to have policies and procedures in place to defi ne what you do and how you do it. An understanding of how things are done will help guide your team with eff ec� ve decision making, maintaining good work prac� ces and work delega� on. You will be able to reduce misunderstandings and improve consistency and transparency.

As an example Salem Coopera� ve applies the following policies and procedures:3

• Product Sourcing and Selec� on Policy: how and why your enterprise sources and selects its products.• Sourcing and Selec� on Procedures: a descrip� on of the process you go through to bring new products

to market through your enterprise.• Storefront Opera� ng Procedures: for your store or stall.

Other examples taken from Unicorn Grocery:2

• Benefi ts policies: career path, staff discounts, individual learning budget, training guidelines, holiday allowance, etc.

• Staff policies: member review, probatory periods, casual employment, external complaints procedure, training a� endance, stocktake, student placement package.

• Regula� ons and fi nance policies: opening hours, return policies, equal opportuni� es, health and safety, protec� ve equipment and footwear, preven� on of harassment and bullying, mobile phone use policy.

• Structure related policies: casual and member labour, minute taking, collec� ve decision making, roles and func� ons of staff , team overview and job descrip� ons.

• Member job descrip� on: condi� ons, working hours, job summary, tasks and requirements for the job. • Recycling and consump� on: to minimise the use of resources.

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Anticipate the challenges ahead

By thinking in advance on the possible scenarios you will encounter during the process of star� ng-up you enterprise you will be able to prepare, plan and minimise risks. Study how your enterprise and your customers interact, how they come together and exchange diff erent things (products, value, informa� on, money, etc), and how this interac� ons can be improved. Use this roadmap as a guide.

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14

Create value

Discover your customers want

Observe, interview, discover and profi le your customer. Understand problems, needs, and pains. Who is this person?What is trying to get/do? What is this person not ge� ng? What are this person’s outcomes? What does she/he want to achieve?

Do you have a customer- product fi t?

Have you come out with the right solu� on for the problem. Are you crea� ng value to your customer with the product you have designed? If yes, con� nue to test. If not, go back and learn more about your customer to propose a new solu� on.

Develop your products and services

Solve the problem. Generate solu� ons to create value for this person. Now that you know everything about this person, how can you relieve her/his pain? How can you create gain? Gain creators, pain relievers.

Test your proposed products and services

Build a prototype and test your product. Gather data and improve.

Not yet? Go back to fi nd out more about your customer.

Do you have a product - market Fit?

Do you have a market for the product you have designed. Is there a market for it? Can you scale up your product? If yes, con� nue to test. If not, go back and learn more about your customer to propose a new solu� on.

Yes? Continue to build your business model.

To create value you need to solve a problem for someone.

yes

no

“Every successful business creates something of value... and your job as a businessperson is to iden� fy things that people don’t have enough of, then fi nd a way to provide it. The value you create can take on one of several diff erent forms, but the purpose is always the same: to make someone else’s life a li� le bit be� er. The best businesses in the world are the ones that create the most value for other people.”4

2

15

FIT

Push vs pull • In the push approach, you design/develop a solu� on and fi nd a group of people that would

have the problem you are solving. You don’t get to pick your group, it will naturally appear as it is a� racted to the solu� on you off er.

• In the pull approach, you look into one or several community groups to iden� fy important unresolved problems and propose a solu� on they would want. Here you get to pick the groups and tailor a solu� on for them.

This ques� ons will help you think about your strategy to create value:

• What is your value proposi� on? Is it new, more, or be� er than an exis� ng off ering? What is it you off er that your target customers really want? How did you decide what to off er to your target groups? Did you guess, did you interview them personally, did you inherit someone else’s solu� on, did you use other organisa� on’s’ solu� on?

• Did you use the push approach, (designed a solu� on and wait to see which customers groups benefi t from it)?

• Did you use the pull approach, (pick a group, worked closely with them to design a custom off ering)?• Is your value proposi� on working? Are you reaching the groups you want to benefi t? Are you selling

your products and services? How can you improve your value proposi� on?

The challenge of creating value

The percep� on people have of the value you off er is what mo� vates a transac� on between both of you. People will only buy your products and services if they believe they are ge� ng the benefi t they want. And that will only happen if you understand what value means to them. There are many ways you can go about to create value:5,13

• New value by crea� ng something totally new.• More value by adding more to an exis� ng product.• Be� er value improving something that already exists.

There is usually two ways to view this challenge and they are the pull and push approach. The push approach generates uncertainty and a reac� ve business, while the pull approach allows you to an� cipate and plan.6

Gains

Pains

Jobs

What customers want to achieve and the benefi ts they want to get with your fruit and vegetable product range and services.

The obstacles customers face to get what they want, the risks they will face if not getting your fruit and vegetable product range Anything that annoys your customers or prevents them from getting a job done.

What customers are trying to get done and fi x in their lives and in their work and the needs they are trying to satisfy.

Gain creators

Pain relievers

Ways to give your customer the benefi ts they want.

Solutions that will reduce things that annoy your customer.

Product range & servicesA simple list of what you off er. All the items your customer can see in shoping window.

them from getting a job done.

In the following pages you will use the customer and product work sheets (below) to create value for your customers using the pull approach.

Graphic adapted from the value crea� on canvas.7 For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38.

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Discover what your customers want

You want to discover who your poten� al customers are and what they really want so you can create a fruit and vegetable product range suited for them. You want to answer these ques� ons:

• Who are your poten� al customers in your community? Who are your customer groups? • What do your customers really want? • What products, services, and features will create value for them? What sort of fruit and vegetable

product range will be valuable to them? What product range will meet their needs?

Learn what ma� ers to your customers and what they want in real life to create a product they would want to buy. You want to learn. Understanding your customer’s problems and needs will allow you to propose solu� ons in the form of products and services. The more you understand your poten� al customers, the less you will have to guess about what they really want and the be� er chances you will have of developing an off ering that matches their needs.

Pick a customer group to learn fromStart by focusing on a group of people from your community likely to buy from you and that will benefi t from your fruit and vegetable product range and services. Think of a group of people that you want to impact by making it easy for them to access aff ordable fruit and vegetables. As an example, most of Unicorn’s Grocery 2 (a food coopera� ve in the UK) customers fi t into one or more of the following categories: people who cook with simple ingredients, families with young children, and people looking for healthy food. Based on the Heart Founda� on’s Community Food Access Profi les 8 other examples of community groups that have diffi culty accessing healthy food include: households with low income and Centrelink payments, single parents families, people with a disability or chronic disease, households without a car, people experiencing housing stress, and people without shops at walking distance or with no access to public transport.

Interview your customers to create a profi leA profi le is a short descrip� on of a community group that will help you understand what they are looking for and what they want. The best way to gather the informa� on you are a� er is through an interview. With your interviews you should aim to deeply understand these three things: pains, gains and jobs, so get into your community and talk to them in their own environment.

Gains Gains are what customers want to achieve with your product and the benefi ts they want to get, like the convenience of having all one’s fruit and vegetables available at any � me, or the ability to buy fresh and unique produce. Use these ques� ons to help you think about your customers’ gains:

• Which savings would make you happy? Which savings in terms of � me, money, and eff ort would you value?

• What quality levels do you expect and what would you wish for more or less of? • How do current off erings and fruit and vegetable product ranges delight you? Which

specifi c features do you enjoy? What performance and quality do you expect? • What would make your life easier? Could there be special or more services, a special off er

or lower costs? • What are you looking for most? Are you searching for freshness, guarantees, locally grown,

ethics (fair trade, environmentally friendly), consistent fruit and vegetable product range, specifi c or more features?

• What do you dream about? What do you aspire to achieve, or what would be a big relief to you?

17

Gains

Pains

Jobs

What customers want to achieve and the benefi ts they want to get with your fruit and vegetable product.

The obstacles customers face to get what they want, the risks they will face if not getting your fruit and vegetable product range.

What customers are trying to get done and fi x in their lives work, and the needs they are trying to satisfy.

• How do you measure success and failure? How do you measure performance or cost? • What would increase your likelihood of buying certain a fruit and vegetable product range?

Do you desire lower cost, added value, or be� er quality?

Pains

Pains are the obstacles customers face to get what they want and the risks they will face if not ge� ng your products and services. They are anything that annoys your customers before, during, or a� er trying to get a job done or simply prevents them from ge� ng a job done that involves a fruit and vegetable product. For example, while cooking or preparing school lunches, being annoyed by having to go too far to get fruit and vegetables, local fruit and vegetable being expensive or poor quality are all possible pains. Use these ques� ons to help you think about your customer’s pains:

• How do you defi ne too costly? Takes a lot of � me, costs too much money, or requires substan� al eff ort?

• What makes you feel bad? What are your frustra� ons, annoyances, or things that give you a headache?

• How are current fruit and vegetable product ranges and services le� ng you down? Which features are they missing? Are there issues that annoy you?

• What are the main diffi cul� es and challenges you encounter in ge� ng and using a certain fruit and vegetable product range? Do you understand how fruit and vegetables can be used, have diffi cul� es ge� ng certain things done with them, or don’t want to do par� cular jobs that involve their use for specifi c reasons?

• What risks do you fear? Are you afraid of fi nancial, social, health, or technical risks, or are you asking yourself what could go wrong?

• What’s keeping you awake at night? What are your big issues, concerns, and worries? • What common mistakes do you make? Are you using fruit and vegetable products the wrong

way? • What barriers are keeping you from buying a fruit and vegetable product range or service?

Are there costs or other obstacles preven� ng you to buy?

18

Jobs

Customer jobs are what customers are trying to get done and fi x in their lives and in their work and the needs they are trying to sa� sfy. It could be the tasks they are trying to perform and complete, the problems they are trying to solve. For example eat healthy, invite friends over and feel proud of the food they have cooked, or feel good about their family health knowing they are helping prevent dietary related disease. Use these ques� ons to help you think about your customers’ jobs:

• What is the one thing that you couldn’t live without accomplishing? What are the stepping stones that could help you achieve this key job?

• What are the diff erent contexts that you might be in (at home, at work, weekend day out, with friends, with family, with colleagues)? How do your ac� vi� es and goals change depending on these diff erent contexts?

• What do you need to accomplish that involves interac� on with others?• What tasks are you trying to perform in your personal or work life? What func� onal

problems are you trying to solve? (Cook, prepare meal, snack, share food, serve meal for mee� ng, get groceries)

• What emo� onal needs are you trying to sa� sfy?• What are jobs or things you could do related to using fruit and vegetables, that if completed,

would give you a sense of self-sa� sfac� on?• How do you want to be perceived by others? What can the fruit and vegetable product range

and services do to help you be perceived this way?• How do you want to feel? What do you need to do to feel this way?

Rate the results to develop your product rangeThe informa� on from your interviews will be most useful if you organise it in order of impor-tance. Rate your fi ndings and discard what is not relevant and then priori� se the products, services, and features that will be most valuable to your customers. Now that you know what is essen� al for your poten� al customer, use this insight to develop your fruit and vegetable product range and services.

Other information to assist youBesides the interviews, you can use other methods to support the discovery of your customers. You can observe shopping behaviour, spend � me with your poten� al customers to observe their rou� nes, or analyse exis� ng informa� on like the Heart Founda� on’s Community Food Access Profi les.8

19

Interview Guidance9,10

Aim to get useful informa� on to create products and services that are valuable to your custom-ers. Remember to focus on fi nding what ma� ers to your customers rather than trying to pitch them solu� ons.

• The goal of customer insight interviews is not selling (even if a sale is involved); it is about learning. For example, don’t ask, “Would you buy our solu� on?”, ask instead “what are the things that infl uence your decisions when buying fresh fruit and vegetables?”

• Have control of who you’re interviewing and make the interviewee comfortable. A good interview should feel like you are having a normal conversa� on.

• Let your preconcep� ons go and leave room for discovery. Adopt a beginner’s mind. Listen with a “fresh pair of ears” and avoid interpreta� on. If something is not clear ask “why”.

• Let the interviewee know what you are going to do, what you want out of the interview, how long it’s going to be, and how it is going to be used.

• Listen more than you talk. Your goal is to listen and learn, not to inform, impress, or convince your customer of anything. Avoid was� ng � me talking about your own beliefs, because it is at the expense of learning about your customer. Don’t try to fi ll the void. Let the interviewee answer the ques� on before you interrupt. Most people need some � me to put together their thoughts and come up with responses. Be professional and friendly – not pushy.

• Ask open ended ques� ons such as, “Tell me what you would make your life easier....” or “Why having to do that is such a pain...?” Ask “why” to get real mo� va� ons. Ask, “Why do you need to do…?” Ask, “Why is ___ important to you?” Ask, “Why is ___ such a pain?” Avoid ques� ons that would bring a yes/no answer. They will never provide any insight.

• Get facts, not opinions. Don’t ask, “Would you...?” Ask, “When is the last � me you had to do...?”

• Don’t men� on solu� ons too early. Don’t explain, “Our solu� on does…” Ask, “What are the most important things you are struggling with?”

• Prac� ce, prac� ce, prac� ce. Interview some people you know quite well for prac� ce before trying it for real.

• Follow up. Get permission to keep your interviewee’s contact informa� on to come back for more ques� ons and answers, or for tes� ng your fruit and vegetable product range and services.

• Always open doors at the end. Ask, “Who else should I talk to?”

For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38.

20

Develop products your customers want

You want to off er your customers a range of fruit, vegetable and services they will want, need and will pay for. Use your fi ndings from the customer discovery and build upon them to iden� fy what will help and sat-isfy your customer’s needs and bring benefi ts to them instead of guessing what kind, how many, or what selec� on of fruit and vegetables you will be off ering, or what services you will be giving.

Turn information into product propositions6

Turn the informa� on you have gathered into fruit and vegetable product range proposi� ons. Brainstorm everything you think will address the essen� al issues you learnt from your customer.

• To address the pains you will propose pain relievers, solu� ons that will reduce things that annoy your customer.

• From the gains you will come up with gain creators, ways to give your customer the benefi ts they want.

When proposing your fruit and vegetable product range and services make sure you are clear on how you will assess the poten� al of your ideas. Asking the following ques� ons will give you a base to start the

discussion: 6

Gain creators Gain Creators describe how your fruit and vegetable product range and services create customer gains. They explicitly outline how you intend to produce outcomes and benefi ts that your customer expects, desires, or would be surprised by, including u� lity, health gains, social gains, posi� ve emo� ons, and cost savings.

Use the following trigger ques� ons and ask yourself could your fruit and vegetable product range and services:

• Create savings that please your customers in terms of � me, money, and eff ort? • Produce outcomes your customers expect or that exceed their expecta� ons by off ering

quality levels, more of something, or less of something?

Gains

Pains

Jobs

What customers want to achieve and the benefi ts they want to get with your fruit and vegetable product range and services.

The obstacles customers face to get what they want, the risks they will face if not getting your fruit and vegetable product range Anything that annoys your customers or prevents them from getting a job done.

What customers are trying to get done and fi x in their lives and in their work and the needs they are trying to satisfy.

Gain creators

Pain relievers

Ways to give your customer the benefi ts they want.

Solutions that will reduce things that annoy your customer.

Product& services

A simple list of what you off er. All the items your customer can see in shoping window.

21

• Outperform current fruit and vegetable off erings and delight your customers? Regarding specifi c features, performance, or quality.

• Make your customers’ work or life easier through be� er usability, accessibility, more services, or lower costs.

• Do something specifi c that customers are looking for in terms of good design, guarantees, freshness, ethics, local source, or specifi c or more features?

• Fulfi ll a desire customers dream about by helping them achieve their aspira� ons or ge� ng relief from a hardship?

• Produce posi� ve outcomes matching your customers’ success and failure criteria? In terms of be� er performance or lower cost.

• Help make buying easier through lower cost, be� er quality, improved performance, or be� er design.

Pain relievers

Pain relievers describe how exactly your fruit and vegetable product range and services alleviate specifi c customer pains. They explicitly outline how you intend to eliminate or reduce some of the things that annoy your customers before, during, or a� er they are trying to complete a job or even prevent them from doing it.

Ask yourself the following trigger ques� ons. Could your fruit and vegetable product range and services:

• Produce savings in terms of � me, money, or eff orts? • Make your customers feel be� er by ge� ng rid of frustra� ons, annoyances, and other things

that give customers a headache?• Put an end to diffi cul� es and challenges your customers encounter by making things easier

or elimina� ng obstacles? • Eliminate risks your customers fear in terms of fi nancial, health, social, technical risks, or

things that could poten� ally go wrong? • Help your customers be� er sleep at night by addressing signifi cant issues, diminishing

concerns, or elimina� ng worries? • Limit or eradicate common mistakes customers make by helping them use a fruit and

vegetables off ering in a be� er way? • Eliminate barriers that are keeping your customer from buying fruit and vegetables

off erings like introducing lower costs, or elimina� ng other obstacles that prevent them from purchasing?

22

Propose products and servicesThis improvisa� on worksheet will help you quickly brainstorm and shape alterna� ve direc� ons for your fruit and vegetable product range and services proposi� on. It will guide you to be clear as to exactly how you are going to create and deliver what is valuable to your customer groups. Create several diff erent direc� ons by fi lling out the blanks in the sentences below. 6

Our _______________________________ The type of fruit and vegetable range and services you will off er

help(s) _______________________________ The community group, customer segment you will help

who want to _______________________ The jobs the community group you are serving wants to get done

by ____________________________ Verb (e.g., reducing, avoiding) and a customer pain

and____________________________. Verb (e.g., increasing, enabling) and a customer gain

(unlike __________________________ ) Compe� ng product range and services proposi� on

For an example on how this tool can be used see the cover page.

For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38.

23

Test your proposed products and services

You want to answer some important ques� ons to get strong evidence that customers will put their money into your range of products and services:

• Have you developed a product that fi ts your customer’s needs? • Can you produce it and deliver it in real life? • Will it work, fail, sell? • How will your products and services do in real life?

Test if you have a customer - product fi tYou have come up with a great set of products and services that you want to test to check if you understood what your customers want. “... What people really want today is easy, quick, service that is fast and without any hassles… eff ortless.” 11,12

Build a prototype and test Build a prototype of your best idea and test it in real life. You are looking to get your product out to get feedback and cri� cism that will help you improve. Make your test cheap and quick, this is about learning fast. Build a MVP (minimum viable product), a simple version of your product or bundle of products. For example, if your product is a seasonal veggie box, build a couple of boxes; buy the vegetables, pack them, sell the boxes and deliver them, it doesn’t have to be perfect. This will tell you if you have a customer-product fi t. If your poten� al customers get enthusias� c, then you know you are crea� ng value and addressing what ma� ers to them.

When tes� ng the prototype ask yourself:

• Is there a good connec� on between the set of products and services you are proposing and the customers you have profi led?

• Did your prototype work?

Discuss your results with your team and fi gure out how to improve it, or discard an idea if it fails.

yesIf your test is successful, then it’s � me to con� nue and scale it up.

If your test fails, then it’s � me to evaluate and pivot. no

Persevere or rethink your proposal?

Test if you have a product - market fi t ...Look at the big picture and fi nd out if there is a market for your set of products, if you can produce a large enough quan� ty to meet the demand and if you can make

a profi t with it. You should also look at key trends and compe� tors. If your set of products and services sa� sfy a strong market demand, you’ve got it! How would you know? Your set of products might sell more than your compe� tors’, or your customers will think of the range of products and services as a must have.6

To change your product off ering, look for new ideas, other features and approaches, and test again.

24

Now fi nd out if there is a market for your product and if you can scale it up and make money with it.

How do you rethink your proposal?

Stay grounded in what you have learnt and use it as a founda� on to con� nue. Don’t start from scratch, use “what if” ques� ons to guide you during the process of rethinking your range of prod-ucts and services:

• What if your product serves another customer segment you didn’t intend to in the fi rst place?

• What if you discover there is another problem that needs to be solved for your customer and by changing your set of products you could solve it?

• What if what was a single feature becomes a product or service on its own?• What if your set of products would work be� er if they are delivered in a diff erent way,

through another channel?• What if technology could fi x what is not working with your set of products?

For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38.

25

Be a profi table enterprise

The Third step: Be profi table to be sustainable. To achieve this you want to design the way your business will create value for your community and for your enterprise. If you want to make a diff erence with your enterprise, survival in not enough. You want to make a profi t and use that sustainable fl ow of money to help as many people as you can.

Design your business model

There are many ways in which your social enterprise could work to create value for you and your commu-nity and you want to design the most effi cient one. Ask yourself what is the best way your social enter-prise’s basic building blocks can work together to deliver value to your customers while being profi table? Iden� fy the basic building blocks to create your business model. (20,21)

Learn from successful enterprises

Learn from businesses that are successful at doing what you want to do. Get inspira� on from, replicate and model the best of what they do. Success leaves traces behind that you can use to make building your business model easier. Start by researching successful social enterprises and food solu� ons and asking ques� ons about the way they work:

Design your business systems

Discover your enterprise’s structure, processes, and systems. Did you no� ce during the process of coming up with the right business model that there are many processes happening and many transac� ons being made between the diff erent elements? It is like an ecosystem that you can name and map to develop your organisa� onal structure, processes, and systems. Your social enterprise is in constant movement with a fl ow of things being moved around and fl owing through your social enterprise so that you can get your products and services to your customers. It is like water running through pipes that you need to man-age in an effi cient way.

Develop your action plan

Having a plan puts you in charge and gives you control needed to manage risks. Go from business mod-el to business plan. If you don’t plan you will fi t in somebody else’s plan, and that plan might not have the outcomes you want or the values you have, be a strategist with a plan! This is cri� cally important to achieve the results you are a� er. There are key parts you want to focus on for your social enterprise to succeed. While your business model is a representa� on of how your business works, your business plan is a detailed proposal of what you will do to turn it into a reality. Use the business model you have designed as a base to put together a plan.

Improve and grow

Your past is not your present and is certainly not your future. No ma� er what has happened in the past, yesterday is not today, and although it has brought you to where you are now, it does not defi ne where you are going. Every day you have the ability to refocus, to correct your path, to adapt and transform to produce be� er results. A ques� on you want to answer is how will you con� nuously monitor, evaluate, and adapt or transform your business model?

Register and comply

You know what you want to do and how you want to do it. It is � me to do all the paperwork required for your social enterprise to start opera� ng. You will register as a business with a coopera� ve structure and comply with authori� es to operate as a food business. This process will have a cost that you should include in your budget. Search for the standards and codes of prac� ce that apply to your social enterprise in your local community and at a federal level.

3

26

Design your business model

“Most products fail, not because we fail to build what we set out to build, but because we waste � me, money, and eff ort building the wrong product. To overcome this I strongly advocate redefi ning the “true product” and “real job” of an entrepreneur: The true product of an entrepreneur is NOT the solu� on, but a working business model. And the real job of an entrepreneur is to systema� cally de-risk that business model over � me.” 19

There are many ways in which your social enterprise could work to create value for you and your commu-nity and you want to design the most effi cient one. Ask yourself what is the best way your social enter-prise’s basic building blocks can work together to deliver value to your customers while being profi table? Iden� fy the basic building blocks to create your business model:20,21

1. Customer groups: the diff erent groups of people or organisa� ons your enterprise aims to reach and serve. They are the heart of your enterprise business model. Without their support buying your enterprise would not be able to survive for long.

• For whom are you crea� ng value?• Who are your most important customers? • How can you group your customers by common needs, behaviours and a� ributes?• Do you focus on one large group of customers with broadly similar needs and problems or

on a specifi c niche customer groups?

2. Customer rela� onships: the types of rela� onships established and maintained with custom-ers. It infl uences the customer experience.

• What kind of rela� onship does each of your customer groups expect you to establish and maintain with them?

• What kind of rela� onships do you have with your customer groups, is it personal or automated?

• How costly are these rela� onships?• How do you acquire and retain a customer?• How are these rela� onships integrated with the rest of the business model?• Are your rela� onships personal and based on human interac� on?• Do you have dedicated personal assistance, self-service, or automated service?• Have you created a community so they can support each other and solve each other’s

problems?• Are you invi� ng customers to be co-creators and help create value for others?

3. Products and services: solve customer problems and sa� sfy customer needs and wants.

• What are your products and services? • What bundle of products, services and benefi ts are you off ering to your customer groups?• What value do you deliver to your diff erent customers groups?• Which of your customer’s problems are you helping to solve?• Which customer’s needs are you sa� sfying?• Do you sa� sfy a new set of needs the customers didn’t perceive before because there was

no similar off ering?• Are you improving an exis� ng off ering?• Are you tailoring products and services to specifi c needs of individual customer groups?• Are you including your customer groups in the co-crea� on of your products and services?• Are you off ering a similar product and service at a lower price? Are you making it more

accessible? Are you making it easier to use?

27

Key Partners Key Activities

Fruit & Vegetable range and Services

Customer

RelationshipsCustomer Groups

ChannelsKey Resources

Revenue StreamsCost Structure

Eat Well Tasmania Inc. www.eatwelltas.org.au Adapted from the Business Model Canvas by Strategyzer (strategyzer.com)

The different groups of people or organisations your enterprise aims to reach and serve.

The types of relationships established and maintained with your customers.

The products and services that solve customer problems and satisfy customer needs and wants.

The most important actions to operate successfully.

The most important things and assets in your enterprise. (The things you need to get the job done).

Your network of suppliers and partners.

Are all costs incurred to operate your enterprise.

The ways your enterprise communicates with and reaches its customers to deliver a product (through communication, distribution, and sales).

There are many ways in which your social enterprise could work to create value for you and your community and you want to design the most efficient one. You also want to answer a question: What is the best way your social enterprise can work to deliver value to your customers while making money?

DESIGN THE WAY YOUR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE WORKSDEVELOP YOUR BUSINESS MODEL

The cash your enterprise generates from customers.

4. Channels: the ways an enterprise communicates with and reaches its customers to deliver a product (through communica� on, distribu� on, and sales). It plays an important role in the customer experience.

• Through which channels do your customer groups want to be reached? • Which channels work be� er, are most effi cient, more cost-eff ec� ve?• Are you using your own channels (sales force, online), using a partner channel, or using a mix

of both?• How do you raise awareness about your products and services?• How do you help customers evaluate your products and services?• How do you allow customers to purchase your products and services?• How do you deliver your products and services to your customer groups?• How do you provide post-purchase customer support?

5. Key ac� vi� es: the most important ac� ons to operate successfully. How do they operate?

• What key ac� vi� es do your products and services require? Your distribu� on channels, customer rela� onships and revenue streams?

• What kind of produc� on and problem solving ac� vi� es do you require?

6. Key partnerships: the network of suppliers and partners.

• Who are your key suppliers and partners?• What key ac� vi� es and resources are you ge� ng from partners?• What strategic alliances do you have with non-compe� tors?

28

• Do you have strategic partnerships with compe� tors?• Are you in a joint venture?• Do you have buyer-supplier rela� onships to assure reliable supplies?• What are your mo� va� ons for a partnership: op� misa� on and economies of scale, reduce

risk, acquire resources and ac� vi� es?

7. Key resources: the most important assets. The things to get the job done, they can be physical, intellectual, fi nancial or human. They can also be owned, leased or acquired from key partners.

• What do you have, what things do you invest your money in?• What key resources do your products and services require? • What resources your distribu� on channels, customer rela� onships and revenue streams

require?• What physical, intellectual, human and fi nancial resources do you require to get the job

done?

8. Revenue streams: the cash an enterprise generates from customers (cost must be subtract-ed from revenues to create earnings). These are the arteries of a business model.

• For what value is each customer group willing to pay?• For what do they currently pay?• How would they prefer to pay?• How much does each revenue stream contributes to the total revenue?• Do you have one-� me customers or are they recurring?• Do you sell products, services, services with usage fees, or a subscrip� on fee for con� nue

access to a service?• What are your pricing mechanisms?

� Predefi ned pricing: list price, feature dependent, volume dependent, dependent on the type and characteris� cs of your customer groups.

� Dynamic pricing: by nego� a� on, based on supply and demand.

9. Cost structure: are all the costs incurred to operate an enterprise.

• What are the most important costs inherent in your business model?• Which key resources and ac� vi� es are most expensive?• Is your cost structure cost driven, are you minimising costs wherever possible?

For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38..

29

Learn from successful enterprises

Learn from businesses that are successful at doing what you want to do. Get inspira� on from, replicate and model the best of what they do. Success leaves traces behind that you can use to make building your business model easier. Start by researching successful social enterprises and food solu� ons and asking ques� ons about the way they work:

• How do others do business? • If they are successful, why are they successful? • If they are not successful, why are they not? • What are they doing right? • How can you replicate their success?

When learning from succesful models focus on the 9 building blocks of a business model:

Research successful local social enterprises

If you fi nd a social enterprise you want to learn from, contact them and ask if they can help you. If they have fi gured out ways to do what you want to do, their accumulated knowledge, experiences and advice could save you � me and eff ort. Some examples to get you started:

• Food Co-opera� ves: Bondi Food Collec� ve, Alfalfa House, Greenbox Food Co-op, Almaxeira (Barcelona, Spain), Source Community Wholefoods, Rhubarb Food Co-op, Damper Creek Collec� ve Food Co-op, Playford Food Co-op, Manchester Veg People.

• Retailers: Northern Rivers Food Link, Alfalfa House, HillTop Fresh, Waterbridge Community Pantry, Foodskil, Geelong Victoria, Peoples’ Supermarket.

• Farmers Markets: Community Grocer (Part of Community pop-up market), Harvest Market (Launceston), Port Produce Market (farmers market at school), Robinvale Community Growers Market, Swan Hill Victoria, Ramsgate Farmers Market (Syd).

• Fruit & Veg Box Schemes: Food Connect, Oooby, Source Community Wholefoods, Waterbridge Food Co-opera� ve.

• Meal Box schemes: My Food Bag, Hello Fresh, Playford Food Co-op, The Cook’s Grocer.

• Group buying: Bondi Food Collec� ve, Bronte group buying.

• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): Channel Living, FoodConnect, CERES Fair food

• Customer groups• Customer rela� onships• Products and services

• Channels• Key ac� vi� es• Key partnerships

• Key resources• Revenue streams• Cost structure

30

Design your enterprise systems

Discover your enterprise’s structure, processes, and systems. Did you no� ce during the process of coming up with the right business model that there are many processes happening and many transac� ons being made between the diff erent elements? It is like an ecosystem that you can name and map to develop your organisa� onal structure, processes, and systems.

Your social enterprise is in constant movement with a fl ow of things being moved around and fl owing through your social enterprise so that you can get your products and services to your customers. It is like water running through pipes that you need to manage in an effi cient way.

For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38.

Place this block in the center

and build your model around it.

Your Enterprise

SCustomer

Money

Information

Supplier

Product Range Service

Transport

Government

Your CommunityHouse

Wellness

TransportCredits

The busines model kit 22, 23

The business model kit will help you develop your systems as if they were pipes. You can start by naming all the poten� al actors in your ecosystem. Map out the ini� al transac� ons with your customers (product, service, experience, money, reputa� on, data, credits, and expo-sure/a� en� on). Add other transac� ons with suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders.

Look at your business model and play around with it. Draw arrows to follow the fl ow. Most likely for each ar-row you will need a system. Be innova� ve and keep your processes small and eff ec� ve. Remember your goal is to get the product to your customer as cheaply and easily as you can. Get straight to the point and avoid wasteful pro-cesses. Here are some examples of some general processes that your social enterprise might have: man-age human resources, billing and revenue collec� on, customer service and support, sales and marke� ng, accoun� ng and technology, quality and product/service delivery, funding process, manage your fi nancials and physical assets, product development, leverage resources.

31

Develop your action plan

Having a plan puts you in charge and gives you control needed to manage risks. Go from business model to business plan. If you don’t plan you will fi t in somebody else’s plan, and that plan might not have the outcomes you want or the values you have, be a strategist with a plan! This is cri� cally important to achieve the results you are a� er. There are key parts you want to focus on for your social enterprise to succeed. While your business model is a representa� on of how your business works, your business plan is a detailed proposal of what you will do to turn it into a reality. Use the business model you have designed as a base to

put together a plan.

These structure and trigger ques� ons will help you through the process of analysing key elements and to include cri� cal informa� on in your plan. 20

1. The team• Team profi le.• What is best about your tea.

Trigger questions

� Do you have a team to turn the business model you have designed into a reality? � What kinds of people with what skills does your business model require? � What type of mindset is needed? � Under what structure will your team work? � What kind of people do you need to run your processes and systems? � What reward system does your business model require? � How can you mo� vate your people?

2. The business model• Vision, purpose, outcome, values.• Strategy.• How your business model works.• Your product and services proposi� on.• The community groups you are targe� ng.• How you plan to mo� vate your customers to buy from you.• Your Key resources and ac� vi� es.

Trigger questions

� What type of organiza� onal structure does your business model require? � Do you know what are the key resources and ac� vi� es you need to make your business

model work? Do you have a strategy? � What are your strategic goals, how do they drive the business model? � What informa� on fl ows, processes, and workfl ows does your business model require? � Are you ready to adapt and modify the business model in response to market reac� on? � How will you con� nuously monitor, evaluate, and adapt or transform your business

model?

32

3. Financial analysis• Breakeven analysis• Sales scenarios and projec� ons• Capital spending• Opera� ng costs• Funding requirements

Trigger questions

� Based on the blocks of your business model, can you es� mate your budget, sales, opera� ng costs, expenses, how many customers you will acquire, revenue, and cash fl ow?

4. External environment• How does the economy in Tasmania and in your community aff ect you• Market analysis and key trends• Compe� tor analysis• Compe� � ve advantage of your business model

Trigger questions

� How does your social enterprise fi t in your community environment? Are there policies to support you? Are you ready to compete with other enterprises?

5. Implementation road map• Projects• Milestones• Roadmap

Trigger questions

� What will it take to make your business model possible and how will you do it? � Do you have milestones? � How will you track tasks and responsibili� es?

6. Risks analysis• Limi� ng factors and obstacles• Cri� cal success factors• Specifi c risks

Trigger questions

� What are the risks and obstacles you will face? � Do you have a SWOT analysis? � Do you have a feasibility study? How can you conduct a feasibility study? 25

33

Calculate the costs of implementing your planMake sure you have enough money to start your social enterprise. Business Victoria26 advises to break down your costs into:

• one-off costs (establishment costs e.g. licence fees, insurance); • cost of purchasing all necessary equipment to be used in the enterprise over the next few

years (for example assets such as equipment, tools); • working capital, which is the money you need to set aside to cover the ini� al set-up stage of

your business for running costs.

Develop a start-up budget with a detailed list of your start-up costs. To determine your major expenses review your business plan. Examples might include:

Plan for profi t“It doesn’t ma� er if your business brings $1,000,000 a year in revenue if you spend $1,000,001. Business is not about what you make, is about what you keep.” 24

You want to bring more money in than what you spend and have a posi� ve diff erence between the revenues you generate and your total expenses. If you stay in business for long you will be able to compensate for all the eff ort, � me and money your team and supporters put into se� ng up and running the enterprise. You will also be able to help as many people as you want.

How do you know how much is enough profi t? It depends on what your plans for that profi t is. The following ques� ons will help you plan for profi t:

• The profi t you make is a tool, what do you want to do with the excess money you produce? Reinvest it in your enterprise, support other projects, your community, your customers, your staff ?

• How many people do you want to help? How long do you want to help them for? • Do you want to save some money to have a cushion to deal with uncertainty and change that

might arise in the future?• Are you bringing in suffi cient revenue to cover the costs of running the enterprise? Do you

have enough surplus to compensate your staff and supporters so they fi nd value in working for you?

• registra� ons, including ABN and business name,

• licences and permits,• accountant and

bookkeeping fees, • solicitor fees, • rental lease cost, • u� lity connec� ons and

bonds (electricity, gas,

water), • phone and internet

connec� on, • computer so� ware, • stock/raw materials, • insurance, • building and contents, • vehicle, • prin� ng, sta� onery and

offi ce supplies, • marke� ng and

adver� sing website• equipment or capital

costs, • furniture, • staff , training, wages,

uniforms, • and running costs.

For references on this chapter go to page 53. For tools to help you build a successful business team go to page 38.

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Improve and grow

Your past is not your present and is certainly not your future. No ma� er what has happened in the past, yesterday is not today, and although it has brought you to where you are now, it does not defi ne where you are going. Every day you have the ability to refocus, to correct your path, to adapt and transform to produce be� er results. A ques� on you want to answer is how will you con� nuously monitor, evaluate, and adapt or transform your business model?

Measure to make informed decisions You can only change and improve what you know. To analyse you want to measure, you want to know the facts, the numbers. Decide early on what are the areas you want to monitor are and how you will do it to get the right data to analyse. To get an idea of the data you could record and the type of analysis that might be helpful to produce have a look at the sta� s� cs used by other so-cial enterprises. For example Unicorn Grocery Coopera� ve focuses on measuring wages and sales per product. Think on what is important for your business model.

Set your categories of improvementThis are the areas you want to focus on to con� nually improve. These trigger ques� ons will help you think about areas of improvement:

• How can you priori� se what is most important?• What are you doing that is working and what is not?• How can you get more leverage, how can you get more support and resources? • How can you improve things and enjoy the process? How can you enjoy more what you

do?• What can you improve your role as a leader to guide your team to meet their needs?• How can you infl uence your team to improve their values and fulfi lment?• What are the things � me and eff ort is being wasted on?• What processes can you get rid of or swap to improve your systems? • What things have you been pu� ng off that can be tackled now?• What things have you fail to follow through? To act on?• Where is the eff ort being focused? Is it being focus on the right areas to make the business

model work successfully?• What simple small changes can have the greatest results? • What is the 20% of ac� ons that can get you the 80% of results?• How commi� ed to success are you and your team?• How mo� vated are you and your team?• How can you take on board the sugges� ons for improvement that you have go� en from

your customers and team?• How can you save eff ort, � me, money, resources? • Are you ready to adapt and modify the business model in response to market reac� on?

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Register and comply

You know what you want to do and how you want to do it. It is � me to do all the paperwork required for your social enterprise to start opera� ng. You will register as a business with a coopera� ve structure and comply with authori� es to operate as a food business. This process will have a cost that you should include in your budget. Search for the standards and codes of prac� ce that apply to your social enterprise in your local community and at a federal level.

Decide your business structureA business can be legally structured in several ways and there are advantages and disadvantages for each. Seek professional advice and look for a structure to support the development of your enterprise.

Some ques� ons you should think about:

• How is your enterprise’s business structure set up? • Is it set up as a company, business, sole trader, coopera� ve, a project within another

organisa� on? Is this the best structure for your enterprise? • Is the structure suppor� ng the development and success of your enterprise or is it holding

you back or crea� ng tension or confl ict?• According to the structure, who is responsible, accountable? Are the roles and

responsibili� es within your team and supporters well defi ned?

Types of co-opera� ves:• Trading (distribu� ng) co-opera� ve: formed to undertake a commercial venture where

members can share in profi ts made from trading and the asset growth of the co-opera� ve. • Non trading (non distribu� ng) co-opera� ve: A non trading co-opera� ve is a ‘not-for-profi t’

organisa� on that can be formed with or without shares. While a non trading co-opera� ve can conduct commercial ac� vi� es, it is prohibited under law to distribute surplus funds to members from profi ts or upon winding up.

Register your business• Star� ng your business Checklist.27 The Australian Business Offi ce: A guide in the form of a

checklist that covers what you need to do, comply with and think about before you start a business, when se� ng it up and running it.

• Australian Business Offi ce. 28 Star� ng and running your small business: Provides guidance on registra� on and licenses, business planning (business plan, marke� ng plan), business fi nances, taxa� on, ge� ng suppliers and equipment, business premises, star� ng or ge� ng your business online.

• Australian Business Licence and Informa� on Service (ABLIS). 29 A one-stop applica� on that helps you fi nd all the local, state and federal licences, registra� ons and permits you need. Use the ABLIS search for specifi cs on your social enterprise.

• Tasmanian Government Business Offi ce. 30 A guide with advice on topics like star� ng a business, growing and improving your business, managing customers and suppliers, fi nances, tax and insurance, employing and managing people, get your business online, and exi� ng your business. It includes a start a business checklist.

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Register your cooperative• Consumers Aff airs and Fair Trading:31 If you decide to register your enterprise as a

coopera� ve, the registrar of co-opera� ves can assist you with informa� on on applying for registra� on, cons� tu� on and model rules, responsibili� es and du� es of directors, coopera� ves na� onal laws.

• Hobart Community Legal Service: 32 Becoming a Coopera� ve: Informa� on of what you need to do to register as a trading coopera� ve.

• Tasmania Coopera� ves Act 1333. 33

Comply with regulations• Find the right insurance with advice from the Australian Business Offi ce 34 and Business

Victoria 35.• Food Safety for Businesses and Community Organisa� ons,36 Department of Health and

Human Services.• Coopera� ve Policies, and other internal documents from Unicorn Coopera� ve.37

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Glossary of terms

Social enterprises40

· Are socially driven organisa� ons that apply a commercially viable strategy to a business venture to achieve a social outcome for the community (Tasmanian social enterprise loan fund, 2011).

· Are organisa� ons led by an economic, social, cultural, or environmental mission consistent with a public or community benefi t; and trade to fulfi l their mission (where trade may be monetary or non-

monetary), and derive a substan� al por� on of their income from trade.

Sustainable enterprise

The ability to con� nue opera� ng your enterprise for the foreseeable future. Money fl ow is the key to be-ing a sustainable enterprise

Co-operative social enterprise41

A Co-opera� ve Social Enterprise is a self-help organisa� on which is formed to meet a common social need of its members. Most social enterprises are part of the not-for-profi t sector of the Australian economy. Many provide services to a stakeholder group that are not the owners of the enterprise (eg social enter-prises run by chari� es). The remainder are member benefi t organisa� ons (co-opera� ves, mutuals) that provide social services to the owners (members) of the enterprise.

Trigger questions

These ques� ons are a fantas� c tool to work on your own or to guide your team to discus eff ec� ve solu� ons. They are the best way we have to help you ignite your crea� vity and come up with solu� ons to the challenges you face. To answer them write rapidly, don’t get caught in the details, let ideas fl ow and enjoy the process of answering them.

Profi t

“Profi t means bringing in more money than you spend: Profi t = Income – Expenses. For a business to survive, it must eventually make profi t. You can’t operate at loss forever. Profi ts also provide a “cushion” to the business to deal with unexpected events. Profi ts are important, but they don’t have to be only goal for star� ng a business. Exploring interests and helping others, for example, are also valid reasons to start a business.”42

Value

Is the benefi t you provide to your customers through your products and services. If you have found a way to solve a problem for someone that is willing to pay for your solu� on, you have create value. “The more real value you create for other people, the be� er your business will be and the more prosperous you’ll become.”4

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The tools

Each chapter has prac� cal tools to help you with the development process and to write down and sketch up ideas. You will fi nd all the tools, work sheets and instruc� ons on how to use them.

To discover what your customers want (page 16)

Interview guidance to give you the ground rules of interviewing. Remember to focus on fi nding what mat-ters to your customers rather than trying to pitch them solu� ons.

Trigger ques� ons to help you trigger the responses you need to develop your customer profi le. Use and pre-pare your ques� ons in advance. Remember to be open minded and look for responses that will challenge your teams’ assump� ons.

The customer profi le worksheet to help you keep your focus on the informa� on you are a� er. Use it to record in it everything you hear and observe.

For your product & services design process (page 20)

• The product and services worksheet to help you brainstorm and organise your ideas.• The trigger ques� ons to inspire you and help you determine what makes a great product and service. • The idea creator to help you propose products and services.

To design your business model (page 26)

The business model worksheet will help you transform informa� on and ideas into business model proto-types and explore and test the best one for your community. To use this tool with your team:

• Assemble a diverse team (diff erent ages, experience, and customer knowledge) to generate fresh ideas. • Have all your informa� on and research available (all team members should be familiar with it). • Print and use the business model worksheet and aim to generate as many ideas as possible rather than

to cri� que. Don’t be afraid to draw your concepts to explore new ideas. “What if” ques� ons will help you imagine possibili� es.

• Pick your best ideas based on es� mated implementa� on � me, revenue poten� al, possible customer resistance, and impact on compe� � ve advantage.

The SWOT analysis worksheet will help you evaluate your business model by asking as many ques� ons as you can to help you think about the strengths and weaknesses of your business model. Is your product and service suited to your customer needs? Will your social enterprise make a profi t? And so on.

To design your systems (page 30)

The business model kit will help you develop your systems as if they were pipes. You can start by naming all the poten� al actors in your ecosystem. Map out the ini� al transac� ons with your customers (product, service, experience, money, reputa� on, data, credits, and exposure/a� en� on). Add other transac� ons with suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders.

Look at your business model and play around with it. Draw arrows to follow the fl ow. Most likely for each arrow you will need a system. Be innova� ve and keep your processes small and eff ec� ve. Remember your goal is to get the product to your customer as cheaply and easily as you can. Get straight to the point and

39

avoid wasteful processes. Here are some examples of some general processes that your social enterprise might have: manage human resources, billing and revenue collec� on, customer service and support, sales and marke� ng, accoun� ng and technology, quality and product/service delivery, funding process, manage your fi nancials and physical assets, product development, leverage resources.

To develop your plan of action (page 31)

Plan of ac� on worksheet to help you analyse key elements and include cri� cal informa� on in your plan. It includes a set of trigger ques� ons in each sec� on to help you think about cri� cal issues.

• The business model worksheet to help you see the big picture of how your social enterprise works and what are the key issues to get it up and running.

• The roadmap infographic to help you focus on choosing your milestones and develop you implementa� on roadmap.

• The SWOT analysis worksheet to help you evaluate risks, challenges and opportuni� es during the start-up phase. (page 51)

To develop your start-up budget (page 33)

The start-up cos� ng worksheet to help you create a detailed list of your start-up costs. To determine your major expenses review your business plan. Examples might include:

• registra� ons, including ABN and business name,

• licences and permits,• accountant and

bookkeeping fees, • solicitor fees, • rental lease cost, • u� lity connec� ons and

bonds (electricity, gas,

water), • phone and internet

connec� on, • computer so� ware, • stock/raw materials, • insurance, • building and contents, • vehicle, • prin� ng, sta� onery and

offi ce supplies, • marke� ng and

adver� sing website• equipment or capital

costs, • furniture, • staff , training, wages,

uniforms, • and running costs.

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41

TO HELP YOU DISCOVER WHAT YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT

Eat Well Tasmania Inc. www.eatwelltas.org.auAdapted from the Value Proposition Canvas by Strategyzer

Understanding your customer’s problems and needs will allow you to propose solutions in the form of a fruit and vegetable product range and services. Through interviews you should aim to deeply understand these three things:

Gains

E.g. Convenience of having all one's fruit and vegetables available at any time, the ability to buy fresh and unique produce, to be able to prepare yummy healthy school lunches.

Pains

E.g. Annoyed by having to go too far to get fruit and vegetables, local fruit and veg is ugly, is expensive, quality is poor, or it is boring.

Customer Jobs

E.g. Feel good about their family health knowing they are helping prevent dietary related disease by healthier food choices.

Gains

Pains

Jobs

What customers want to achieve and the benefi ts they want to get with your fruit and vegetable product range and services.

The obstacles customers face to get what they want, the risks they will face if not getting your fruit and vegetable product range Anything that annoys your customers or prevents them from getting a job done.

What customers are trying to get done and fi x in their lives and in their work and the needs they are trying to satisfy.

THE CUSTOMER WORKSHEET

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43

TO HELP YOU DEVELOP A FRUIT & VEGETABLE PRODUCT RANGE YOUR CUSTOMERS WANT

Eat Well Tasmania Inc. www.eatwelltas.org.auAdapted from the Value Proposition Canvas by Strategyzer

You want to off er your customers a range of fruit, vegetable and services they will want, need and will pay for. Instead of guessing what kind, how many, or what selection, use your fi ndings from the customer discovery and build upon them to identify what will help and satisfy your customer’s needs and bring benefi ts to them.

Gains creators

E.g. Access all week and after hours, help with recipies, buy from home and gets delivered.

Pain relievers

E.g. Practical and easy purchase. Service that supports the buyer, enjoyable experience.

Gain creators

Pain relievers

Ways to give your customer the benefi ts they want.

Solutions that will reduce things that annoy your customer.

Products & Services

E.g. Susbcription and membership available, seasonal produce, responsive customer service.

Product range & servicesA simple list of what you off er. All the items your customer can see in shoping window.

THE PRODUCT WORKSHEET

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

To help you identify your enterprise’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats.

SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGHTS WEEKNESSES

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

Strengths• What do you do well? • What internal resources do you have? what

posi� ve a� ributes, tangible assets?

Opportuni� es• What opportuni� es exist in your market or the

environment that you can benefi t from?• Has there been a market growth?• How is your � ming? Is there a window of

opportunity?

Weaknesses• What can you improve?• What do you lack? Exper� se, skills, technology?• Are you in a poor loca� on?• What is holding you back?• What advantages do you have over your

compe� � on?

Threats• Who are your exis� ng or poten� al compe� tors?• Is there any shi� s in consumer behavior, the

economy, or government regula� ons that could impact your sales?

• What factors can put your enterprise at risk?

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53

References

This guide is based on books, seminars, ar� cles, and tools by many authors and organisa� ons that have developed and tried in Australia and abroad, start-up innova� on methods like the lean start-up, design thinking, human centered design and neurolinguis� c programming. The list and links below are the refer-ences each chapter is based on. They should serve you as a start to do your research and discovery.

Be a powerful team

1 Robbins, Anthony (1998). The � me of your life. Robbins Research Interna� onal, Inc. P. 176

2 Unicorn Grocery Food-Coop. 2015. Grow a Grocery. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.unicorn-grocery.coop/grow-a-grocery.php. [Accessed 01 October 15].

3 Salem Food-Coop. 2015. Policies and Procedures Templates. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://salemfood.coop/about-us/policies-and-procedures/. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Robbins, Anthony. The power to infl uence, the sales mastery course. Robbins Research Interna� onal, Inc. P. 191

Community Door. 2015. Governance and accountability Templates. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://communitydoor.org.au/organisa� onal-resources/administra� on/policies-procedures-and-templates/governance-and. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Create value

4 The personal MBA / Josh Kaufman. 2005. Value crea� on. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://personalmba.com/chapter/value-crea� on/. [Accessed 28 October 15].

5 Ries, Eric (2014) [2011]. The lean startup: how today’s entrepreneurs use con� nuous innova� on to create radically successful businesses. Crown Publishing. p. 103

6 Osterwalder, Alexander; Pigneur, Yves; Bernarda, Gregory; Smith, Alan (2014). Value Crea� on Design. How to create products and services customers want. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 323

7 Strategyzer, (2015), The business model and the value proposi� on canvas [ONLINE]. Available at: h� ps://strategyz-er.com/canvas [Accessed 01 October 15].

8 Heart Founda� on Tasmania. 2015. Community Food Access Profi les. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.hear� oun-da� on.org.au/driving-change/current-campaigns/local-campaigns/Pages/Healthy-Food-Access-project.aspx. [Ac-cessed 28 October 15].

9 Sparkminute. 2011. 30 Tips on How to Interview Like a Journalist. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.sparkminute.com/2011/11/07/30-� ps-on-how-to-interview-like-a-journalist/. [Accessed 01 October 15].

10 Jessica Ravitz and Chris� na Zdanowicz, 2010. Tips to master the art of interviewing. CNN, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: h� p://edi� on.cnn.com/2010/IREPORT/10/01/interview.� ps.irpt/ [Accessed 01 October 2015].

11 Forbes Entrepreneurs. 2015. What Is Value? The Costco Value Proposi� on. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2015/03/26/what-is-value-the-costco-value-proposi� on/. [Accessed 07 November 15].

12 Reis, Eric, 2011. 10 Classic Strategies For A Fast, User-Focused Company Reboot. Fast Company, [Online]. 1, 1. Available at: h� p://www.fastcodesign.com/1669814/eric-ries-10-classic-strategies-for-a-fast-user-focused-company-reboot [Accessed 01 October 2015].

13 The personal MBA / Josh Kaufman. 2005. Value crea� on. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://personalmba.com/chapter/value-crea� on/. [Accessed 28 October 15].

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14 Best engaging communi� es. 2012. What makes a product “fi t” a market? Or how to achieve product-market fi t? [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://bestengagingcommuni� es.com/2012/04/25/what-makes-a-product-fi t-a-market-or-how-to-achieve-product-market-fi t/. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Be profi table

19 Lean Stack / Ash Maurya. 2012. The Lean Stack – Part 1. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://leanstack.com/the-lean-stack/. [Accessed 28 October 15].

20 Osterwalder, Alexander & Pigneur, Yves (2010). Business Model Genera� on. A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. p. 288

21 Strategyzer, (2015), The business model and the value proposi� on canvas [ONLINE]. Available at: h� ps://strate-gyzer.com/canvas [Accessed 01 October 15].

22 Board of Innova� on, (2015), 16 blocks to visualize your business model [ONLINE]. Available at: h� p://www.boardofi nnova� on.com/business-model-templates-tools/ [Accessed 01 October 15].

23 De Mey, Nick , 2009. How to build any business model with only 10 blocks. Business model innova� on. [Online]. Available at: h� p://www.boardofi nnova� on.com/2009/03/19/how-to-build-any-business-model-with-only-10-blocks/ [Accessed 01 October 2015].

24 Kaufman, Josh, 2013. The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business. 1st ed. Australia: Penguin Books.

25 Tasmanian Government business.tas.gov.au. 2015. How to conduct a feasibility study. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.business.tas.gov.au/star� ng-a-business/tools-and-checklists/fact-sheet-how-to-conduct-a-feasibility-study. [Accessed 28 October 15].

26 Department of State Growth. 2015. How to conduct a feasibility study. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.busi-ness.tas.gov.au/star� ng-a-business/tools-and-checklists/fact-sheet-how-to-conduct-a-feasibility-study. [Accessed 07 November 15].

27 Australian Government business.gov.au. 2015. Star� ng your business Checklist. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/templates-and-downloads/checklists/star� ng-a-business-checklist/Pages/default.aspx. [Accessed 28 October 15].

28 Australian Government business.gov.au. 2015. Star� ng and running your small business. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.business.gov.au/small-business/Pages/star� ng-and-running-your-small-business.aspx. [Accessed 28 October 15].

29 Australian Business Licence and Informa� on Service (ABLIS). 2015. ABLIS search. [ONLINE] Available at: h� ps://ablis.business.gov.au/pages/home.aspx. [Accessed 28 October 15].

30 Tasmanian Government business.tas.gov.au. . 2015. Star� ng a business. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.busi-ness.tas.gov.au/. [Accessed 28 October 15].

31 Dr Robyn Eversole, Senior Researcher Ms Kylie Eastley, Research Associate Ins� tute for Regional Development University of Tasmania. 2011. Tasmanian Social Enterprise Study. Baseline Study Report. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.utas.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_fi le/0003/126642/Report-Final.pdf. [Accessed 01 October 15].

33 Tasmanian Legisla� on. 2015. Coopera� ves Act 1999. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au/tocview/index.w3p;cond=;doc_id=85++1999+AT@EN+20040810150000;histon=;prompt=;rec=;term. [Accessed 28 October 15].

34 Australian Government business.gov.au. . 2015. Insurance. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/tax-fi nance-insurance/insurance/Pages/default.aspx. [Accessed 28 October 15].

35 Business Victoria. 2015. Find the right insurance. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.business.vic.gov.au/se� ng-up-a-business/how-to-start-a-business/fi nd-the-right-insurance. [Accessed 28 October 15].

36 Department of Health and Human Services. 2015. Food Safety for Businesses and Community Organisa� ons. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/publichealth/food_safety/informa� on_for_food_businesses_and_community_organisa� ons. [Accessed 28 October 15].

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37 Unicorn Coopera� ve. 2015. Grow a grocer. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.unicorn-grocery.coop/grow-a-gro-cery.php. [Accessed 28 October 15].

38 Heart Founda� on Tasmania. 2015. Community Food Access Profi les. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.heart-founda� on.org.au/driving-change/current-campaigns/local-campaigns/Pages/Healthy-Food-Access-project.aspx. [Accessed 28 October 15].

40 Consumers Aff airs and Fair Trading. 2015. Co-opera� ves. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.consumer.tas.gov.au/registra� ons/co-opera� ves. [Accessed 28 October 15].

41 Hobart Community Legal Service. 2015. Becoming a Coopera� ve. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://www.hobartlegal.org.au/tasmanian-law-handbook/community-and-environment/community-organisa� ons/becoming-coopera� ve. [Accessed 28 October 15].

42 The personal MBA / Josh Kaufman. 2005. Value crea� on. [ONLINE] Available at:h� p://personalmba.com/profi t/. [Accessed 28 October 15].

Australian Centre for Co-opera� ve Research and Development (ACCORD). 2003. ACCORD Publica� ons. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.accord.org.au/publica� ons/index.html. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Co-opera� ves Federa� on of New South Wales & RDA Mid North Coast Inc. 2013. Co-opera� ves in Australia. A Man-ual. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.rdamnc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Coop_Manual_FINAL.pdf. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Co-opera� ve Federa� on of Victoria Ltd and The Government of Victoria, Department of Natural Resources and Environment. 2001. The Co-opera� ve Start-Up Manual. The essen� al fi eld guide for star� ng Co-opera� ves in Victoria. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.australia2012.coop/downloads/coop_start_up_manual.pdf. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Co-opera� ve Development Services Ltd. 2012. Tasmanian Co-opera� ves. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.coopde-velopment.org.au/taslinks.html#wholesale. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Co-opera� ve Development Services Ltd. 2012. Retail Co-opera� ves. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.coopdevelop-ment.org.au/retailcooplinks.html. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Unicorn Grocery Food-Coop. 2015. Grow a Grocery. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.unicorn-grocery.coop/grow-a-grocery.php. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Heart Founda� on of Australia. 2015. Healthy Food Access Project. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.hear� ounda-� on.org.au/driving-change/current-campaigns/local-campaigns/Pages/Healthy-Food-Access-project.aspx. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Co-opera� ve Development Services Ltd . 2010. Types of Australian co-opera� ves. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.coopdevelopment.org.au/typesofcoops.html#trading. [Accessed 01 October 15].

Co-opera� ve Development Services Ltd . 2010. Co-opera� ve Social Enterprises. [ONLINE] Available at: h� p://www.coopdevelopment.org.au/cselinks.html. [Accessed 01 October 15].

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About this guide

Food solu� on is a start-up guide and coaching service that helps social entrepreneurs and start-up team leaders who want to create food coopera� ves that make fresh fruit and vegetables aff ordable and accessible for Tasmanians. This is done by increasing clarity, harnessing people’s passion to be successful, reducing costs, and avoiding wasted � me.

This resource is being created with your best interest in mind to support you and your community in understanding the process of developing and star� ng a local food solu� on.

When star� ng up your social enterprise you will face uncertainty. The goal of this resource is to reduce uncertainty, and risk of failure, and to save you � me, money and resources by reducing wasted eff ort through an innova� ve way of approaching start-ups that helps you build the focus and clarity needed to turn your plans into reality. What it really means to you is major savings as well as the opportunity to lead your community to a be� er quality of life.

About the Aff ordable Access Project

The Eat Well Tasmania Aff ordable Access Project (EWTi AAP) is a partnership project between Eat Well Tasmania Inc. and the Heart Founda� on of Australia (Tasmanian division), which aims to increase the availability of aff ordable fruit and vegetables (preferably locally grown) for sale in priority neighbourhoods and communi� es across Tasmania. This project is made possible through funding from the Heart Founda� on and works on many levels:

• Crea� ng a resource guide to inform communi� es wan� ng to implement a local food solu� on and providing support on the use of it.

• Iden� fying relevant models that Tasmanian communi� es can implement as a local food solu� on. • Advoca� ng for increased access and aff ordability of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Our Team

This resource is being created with the support of many people who have given their valuable feedback and ideas. Thank you to all that generously gave their � me, who tested the tools and resources and provided valuable feedback. Special thanks to Eric Sivret for edi� ng the guide.

Eat Well Tasmania Inc. Marisol Miró Quesada, Aff ordable Access Project Offi cer. Nenita Orsino, Execu� ve Offi cer

Heart Founda� on Tasmania Leah Galvin, Healthy Food Access Project Manager.

About the October 2015 release

Food Solu� on, a community food enterprise start-up guide (v1) is the fi rst version of this guide. Following the principles of the start-up methods explained in these pages, our development process involves a constant itera� on, real life tes� ng and constant improving.

To comment and provide feedback please contact Marisol Miró Quesada at aap@eatwelltas.org.au or visit www.foodsolu� on.org.au and www.eatwelltas.org.au.

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Developed by Eat Well Tasmania’s Aff ordable Access Project (EWTi AAP) a partnership project between Eat Well Tasmania Inc. and the Heart Founda� on Tasmania.

www.eatwelltas.org.au | www.foodsolu� on.org.au