Financial Plan

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FINANCIAL PLAN $$$

The average entrepreneur’s salary is about $51,000 a year

The price of international shipping is around $60 with a 30kg maximum

The price of average insurance is $10,000 per month with a maximum benefit period of 5 years.

 

Below is a chart of what my financial state is currently at for this and the table of information for the chart as well.

 

Total Price Manufacturing Profit Wages Advertising Delivery Insurance
Plain $38,000 $32,000 $6,000 0 0 0 0
With Advertising $37,000 $32,000 $5,000 0 $1000 0 0
With Wages $93,000 $32,000 $61,000 $51,000 $1000 0 0
With Deliveries $92,940 $32,000 $60,940 $51,000 $1000 $60 0
With Insurance $82,940 $32,000 $50,940 $51,000 $1000 $60 $10,000

The costs per month and year depend on how many people purchase my product, the excess fees will come out of the profit, it I have any.

It was very challenging to find the right information for this table.

For a better version of the table click the link below for a PDF version:

My Product’s Financial Plan PDF

 

Unfortunately that is all for this term! I will do a presentation on how my product will work and why people should buy it. I hope you enjoyed my Innovation and Enterprise Blog Posts for 2018!

Until another blog post!

POTENTIAL MISTAKES

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3 problems and 3 mistakes

What could be a problem?

What could be the solution/adjustment?

 

1st problem that I would face:

Finding someone to manufacture the tiles would be a challenge as it I probably wouldn’t be taken seriously because of my age. Another factor that contribute to this challenge is that there might not be companies interested in manufacturing for my business or helping it. Furthermore, if I do get a company that wants to manufacture and it is overseas, I would have to pay for the cost of shipping them to Australia.

 

1st Solution:

To solve this problem, I could instead open up my own custom solar panels manufacturing business instead of a specific company for solar on rooftops. With this business, I could not only still create solar panels, but also create them for the use of many other purposes. With this, I will be able to gain money from other businesses requesting manufacturing for their solar panels.

 

2nd Problem that I would face:

Another problem that I could face by bringing it out into the market is that I won’t get any customers that want to buy my product. They may doubt the quality of my product because of coming out suddenly and trying to sell my product. They may want to turn to another company that is better known for its quality.

 

2nd Solution

I could furthermore, advertise that my product introduces new technology and guarantee a long and non-needed warranty that will last for many years. I could start advertising using different platforms such as social media and radio. If this does not work, I will need to change my idea to something that customers are actually looking for instead of putting time and effort into a solution that no body uses.

 

3rd Problem

The final problem that I may face is the price of my product. The price of my product may deceive customers. Being so cheap for a whole roof of solar panels, customers may assume that they are bad quality or knock offs of another big brand.

 

3rd Solution

To solve this problem, I could highlight the most important points of my product that make it smart, safe and strong in my advertisements. I want to draw attention to my product because of the environmentally friendly factors it possesses and not just the fact that it saves your electricity bills. I could always increase the price of my product to draw attention to people who can afford products at the high end of the market. It will also bring the profit of my business up and bring higher wagers for my employees.

Marketing Plan

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1. Partner:

I have a few partners in mind that may help me advertise and support my brand. SA Power Networks or power networks across the globe. They may be a potential partner as both the product and company is involved with electricity. NBN, Telstra and Apple are also big companies that specialise in data and electricity that could also be potential partners for my product. Elon Musk, although he has his own business, Tesla, may also be a ideal partner for my brand. As well as all these brands, SunPower, another solar panel business states on their website that you can become a potential partner to them as well.

2. Product:

My product will come in 4 kinds of aesthetics, including, a glass – smooth textured look, roof tile – tuscan look, a stone slate and a textured look to add sophistication to the location. It will also come in a few colours including, black, blue, terracotta, orange, red and for an extra fee a custom colour. It will furthermore come in shapes (only tessellating) such as triangles, rectangles, squares, triangles, pentagons and an ‘L’ shape that can be used for a layer effect. The tiles are approximately 10kg per square metre (depending on the shape of tile), which is safety within the weight that your roof can hold. They will come in packs of about 15 and will be delivered to your door and installed. Ordering the tiles, the dimensions of your roof will be needed to ensure that the tiles fit right. I will make sure that the warranty is long lasting, further ensuring its quality.

3. Price:

Figuring out a price for this product is difficult as I also need to consider excess costs manufacturing and competition. On average, an Australian home uses approximately 18kW per day.

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-much-does-it-cost-to-manufacture-a-solar-module-in-2014#gs.1kFUbHc

This link, helped me with understanding how much it costs to make solar panels alone from a company in China. Their deal is 50c per watt. Starting with a $7,000AUD battery, then a 20kW system will cover 128m2 of roofing on a house. If there is 50c per watt and 1 watt is 0.001 kW, 20kW would equal 30,000w which is about $15,000AUD for a 128m2 roof. Plus the battery which is $7,000AUD, the total is $22,000AUD. Plus the cost of colouring and texturing the solar tiles will be at least $10,000AUD which will bring the total to $32,000AUD which beats other competitors prices which are at least $36,000AUD and around $60,000AUD. With extra costs to make profits and paying for the installation, the total cost is about $38,000-40,000 AUD.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sleasca/2017/05/16/tesla-solar-roof-cost/#127b8877621f 

 

4. Position:

I am planning that my product is around the Mid to High end to ensure quality at a reasonable price. By making my product high end, I can gain product and make people think that it must be high quality if it is expensive. Also by increasing the price, I can make sure that employees and staff are getting paid at a fair rate and have their entitlements. If I did place my product at the Low end of the market, not only would there be a high chance that I would be in debt due to all of the costs to manufacture my product, there would also be a chance that the customers might doubt the quality of my product due to it’s cheap price.

5. Promotion:

I could encourage my customers to buy my product because of it’s quality and how they can customise their own to make it unique to them and their house. I could also encourage my customers by making them feel that they will be the best house on the street and even in the neighbourhood. To get the message across to the buyers, I will create a website and use traditional advertisements to persuade them into buying my product.

Shouting Cleverly

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1: Target Market

My target market is to those who cannot afford the current price of living, or those who want to live for a lower expense. My product is also targeted to those who want to live off the grid and want a more sustainable life. Finally, my product is targeted to people that own industries or businesses that want a cheaper energy bill, helping them gain more profit.

2. Message Motivation

My message motivation is a combo of the topics rational, emotional and moral. Mainly moral and rational. In my message I will display how my product will improve their lives, what it does and why it is important. My product will be left with a positive environmental message. In my message, I will also add what would happen if they didn’t purchase my product.

3. Media Type:

to advertise my product, I am going to set up a website and traditional advertisement on television. This way, people at home will be able to notice and spread the word about my product. I am also thinking about designing posters to put on bus stops where lots of people can view it. By creating a website, I can have mobile advertising that everyone can view. If my product is lacking in business and profit, my last advertisement plan is to get flyers that can be posted in letterboxes.

4: Face of my message/Message source:

I don’t yet have the face of my message, but I think my business will either have my own face or be faceless. If I have a face, I might be able to draw more attention to by business, but if I have no face, my product may not draw attention. Maybe later, when I have a greater idea of the potential of my product, I may be able to find a ‘face’ for my message.

MY BRAND NAME

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The first name that I am thinking of doing is:

LIGHTiles

I decided to combine the world Light – because the sun light is what’s used as the source. I also used the word Tiles (- because I am selling tiles) and used the same ‘T’ from the end of light to make it look smart. I also put the ‘light’ word in capitals to differentiate the word light, from tiles. I haven’t formed a logo yet, but I am happy with the name.

The second name that I am thinking of doing is:

SOLARPlate

This name encapsulates the whole idea of solar tiles. I found another word for tile, which was plate and replaced it. I also used, what I like to call, the ‘no space’ technique where you don’t put a space in between the two words to create a better effect, so the customer can read the brand in one go.

The third name that I am thinking of doing is:

PowerSLATE

This name also encapsulates the meaning of the product in one word. I also used the ‘no space’ technique and another technique where I put one of the words in capitals (similar to the first one). I am still debating which name to pick as they all are related to the product, but I would also like a name that is easy to say and remember. For this name, I really wanted to use alliteration and call it PowerPlate, but that name is already taken by another company.

This is going to be a hard decision, but I think that picking the right name helps your company succeed.

Strategies – SWOT

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In this lesson I did a SWOT analysis…

I&E SWOT scan-27fuqwz

The link above is a mind map called a SWOT analysis which present some of my Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. With this I also had to come up with some strategies to help enhance my strengths and opportunities and mitigate my threats and weaknesses.

At this point, I still need more strategies to help my business succeed and find ways to minimise the problems that are stopping me so at this point, I am still building on the ideas I have with some more points for each SWOT topic.

MY MISSION STATEMENT

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My Mission Statement

My mission:

What are you going to do?

My mission is to make sure that every house in South Australia can live on sustainable energy. I want to decrease the cost of living so those who can’t afford to pay their bills can have a chance to live under a roof. By creating this product, I can help be a part of a sustainable future. I want the community to know that you don’t have to live on money, but live on the environment that we can take for granted and use instead of wasting it.

My vision:

How are you going to do it?

I am going to offer an affordable price for each tile and offer a complementary battery to store energy for no extra cost. I will also offer an extra generator in case there are any faults or an electricity shortage for a small extra cost. As well as this a custom design feature will also be offered for a small additional cost to suit the needs and the looks that the customer desires for their house, apartment or industry. First I am going to start small beginning on a prototype to test how well it works and how much energy can be absorbed to power everyday appliances. I will then apply them to my own house and then advocate the need for more reliable and sustainable energy.

My Entrepreneurial Idea

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My entrepreneurial idea is Solar Tiles

My Entrepreneurial idea is:

To develop solar panel tiles that can be placed on your roof. This product will also come with a power generator and a power storage battery that can be placed in your garage or on the outside of your house. These tiles will generate sustainable solar energy for your house which can be used to save electricity bills, so you can be off the grid.

Desirable Atributes:

These solar panel roof tiles will be waterproof, sustainable and have a classy appearance. It also has an additional generator and battery incase of a fault or electricity shortage. These roof tiles will reduce the cost of living making it easier for people to pay their bills, giving them one less thing to worry about. These roof tiles cannot only be used for homes, but can be used for schools, industries and appartments.

It is unique because:

Normal solar panels are placed on your roof tiles, may often look messy or are not in a position where they can absorb maximum sunlight to power your house. They can also be an additional cost to building. With solar panel tiles, you don’t need to replace them or update them unless they get damaged. By using solar roof tiles, you only need to apply the tiles once in the building process on the house. Solar Tiles come in many designs and shapes to your desires and the shape of your roof.

It will add value to customers lives because:

Investing in Solar Tiles, you can avoid the stress of becoming in dept because of bills. Using Solar Tiles will not only be sustainable, but they will also have a positive impact on your wellbeing by reducing the stress of paying bills. Using Solar Tiles will be one less thing for people to worry about and will give them the feeling that they helped save the environment. Solar Tiles will help improve the cost of living for those who can’t afford to live because of the expensive bills.

I can’t wait to keep developing my idea and help create a sustainable environment!

An Introduction to being an Entrepreneur…

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Entrepreneurs

What are the skills and attributes entrepreneurs need to be successful?

What is an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is a leader. They may be small or large business owners that are prepared to take on financial risks. Entrepreneurs are problem seekers that create new inventions and solutions to help improve the lives of others. They are ready to take on risks and ready to fail, these failures they see as positive feedback for further improvement. They are problem solvers are creative thinkers that have big dreams. Entrepreneurs are always asking curious and try to find ways to positively impact the world.

 

What age can you become an entrepreneur?

There are no age limits to becoming an entrepreneur. The only requirements that an entrepreneur must have is determination. You can be an entrepreneur if you are determined and resilient you can become an entrepreneur. For example, Ellie Jordan and Taylah Golden were only 12 years old when they designed their own sleepwear line called Jordan Taylor. Furthermore, Molly Whiticker-Ferrie was only 14 years old when she created a business that focuses on birthday parties for girls called Fairy Friends Forever.

 

What personalities and qualities does an entrepreneur need to be successful?

To be an entrepreneur, you need the following qualities: self-confident; persistent; looking for opportunities; creative; independent as well as an interdepended learner; a risk taker; a leader; determined and willing to work as well as motivated and energised. All of these skills being equally critical to becoming an entrepreneur. Beginning with self-confident to be an entrepreneur, you need to have confidence in yourself and believe you can work towards a goal. You need to be hopeful and assertive. Persistent – To be an entrepreneur you must be able to fail and then learn from your mistakes and always keep trying. Being persistent can help you become competitive and a problem solver. An opportunity seeker – you must be able to seek and take every opportunity that comes by you, even if you fail, you can learn from your mistakes. Opportunities help you take risks which will help you become successful. Creativity is one of the most vital qualities you need as an entrepreneur. You must be able to think creatively and problem solve when things don’t go your way. Learning Independently and interdependently are different, both of them can help you become an entrepreneur. Firstly, you have to be able to work interdependently as you need the ability to work with others such as your customers and the people around you that can help you. However, working independently will prove that you don’t need to rely on anyone else to do your work and that you have the ability to start a business. To be a leader you must work independently, you must be able to help and support people around you and take full action in your idea. Being determined is also a very crucial skill that you need to have to be an entrepreneur, you must be able to work hard and commit time and money to your idea so it can become successful. Lastly, you must be a motivated and energised person. You must be able to devote time and energy into your idea. You must be able to motivate yourself to think and work to your goal.

 

Person 1: Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is a successful entrepreneur who launched an app called Facebook in the year 2004. Mark Zuckerberg is an entrepreneur because he understood the whole process of his idea and how it works, he was willing to devote time to achieve his goals and plan his idea out and he was willing to develop a unique business idea. He was able to achieve this with the mindset of an entrepreneur. By being successful, he was able to donate significant quantities to charity causes. Furthermore, he has been able to get more than 1 billion users from the year 2015.  Mark Zuckerberg had a vison for the free flow of information between people. Throughout the years of Facebook’s presence, Mark Zuckerberg had a problem which he has overcome which was controversy within Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg had the idea of Facebook when he was in college. In college he took on the work of being a computer programmer and he began creating websites on of which was Facebook.

If I could give three tips for Mark Zuckerberg for continued success I would tell him to firstly aim his target audience lower as Facebook has sometimes been called an ‘Old People App’. If he wants more users, he would aim his target audience to teenager and people in their 20s. I would also tell him to either incorporate the Facebook Messenger App into Facebook by having a direct link or something similar. Furthermore, start brainstorming ideas to adding other components to Facebook such as an anti-cyberbullying filter to help stop online bullying.

 

Person 2: Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the co-founder of X.com which is more well known as PayPal at the age of 28, SpaceX in 2002 at the age of 31 and Tesla Motors in 2003 at the age of 32. Elon musk is an entrepreneur as while doing recent business in SpaceX, he had to face the challenge of his business almost going bankrupt until he successfully launched his fourth rocket after the other 3 had failed. Another reason why Elon Musk is an entrepreneur is that he gave an advancement to the knowledge of space and humans. He says that he isn’t here to become the richest man in the world, but here to put every single penny and ounce of energy into expanding human knowledge and ‘Advancing Humanity’. Elon Musk has many goals and has and is working very hard towards them. Elon Musk shows the ability to take on risks and put all of his energy into his business not by supporting his own life but supporting the humanity and knowledge of others. Elon Musk displays the skills of persistence when he trialled many rockets to which the fourth one succeeded. Elon Musk also displays the personality of dreaming big and having great goals that may not be possible but are worth trying for.

 

What would Australia’s economy look like if there were no entrepreneurs?

If Australia didn’t have any Entrepreneurs, we would never move on or discover new things. Being an entrepreneur is about pushing the boundaries and advancing what is possible. Entrepreneurs earn money out of their business and this money proceeds to government funding to support our lives and provide us with education. Without entrepreneurs, Australia would not move on and we would not be at the same level of modernity as we would if there weren’t any entrepreneurs.

 

Have I ‘Got What It Takes’ to be entrepreneur?

I think that I almost have what it takes to be an entrepreneur I have the persistence when events don’t go to plan or fail, I also have the love for learning new things if it is science, maths or art, anything that enriches my learning makes me feel good about myself and enables my self-confidence. I don’t have as much self-confidence as I would like to have but being an entrepreneur is about not only learning about business and problem solving, but also learning about yourself and understanding if you are willing to take risks for the price of success. I am also creative and love to think logically. I always try to be organised and always make sure that I finish projects by the due date. The only thing that doesn’t make me an entrepreneur is an idea. I don’t currently have any idea of what new things I can discover or what I can be, but that doesn’t mean that I can never be an entrepreneur. It just means that I need more time to discover more about myself and find something that I love to do to help support the lives of others.

 

I am really excited to continue my journey into the world of Innovation and Enterprise. I will update you next week with another blog post!

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#8 EIGHTH (AKA LAST) LESSON OF PROJECT – SOLAR POWER TRAFFIC LIGHTS

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Hi Everyone,

I apologise for another late blog post because I had other homework commitments as well. I can’t believe that it’s almost the last week of school and this is my last blogpost for my Semester 1 STEM course. Of course I will miss STEM lots. I worked really hard on my project and I am really proud of it. It may not be a significantly super technical project that has Auduinos, Soldering and coding, but to me it’s perfect. For the amount of time that we were allocated for this project, I am proud pf my work.

Throughout this project, I had an amazing experience learning and experimenting with solar panels and how they work. I think that apart from the improvements, that I have done the best that I can to make it work. I have tried to put as much effort in as possible. I enjoyed getting to follow my passion and research and plan something that I am passionate about and love working on. I think that this task helped me develop and improve many skills overall.

To present my work, I have an A4 blue display book with clear plastic slips that I am putting my work in. I have a total of 18 pages including the original drawings which I added. Here is the evaluation that I composed. Overall, I will miss writing blog posts and working on my project.

Until next time!

– Olivia 🙂

 

EVALUATION

Solar powered traffic lights

PROBLEMS I HAD AND HOW I SOLVED THEM:

Throughout this project, I had many problems and luckily found a way to solve them. The first problem I had was deciding whether to solder, use a hot glue gun or bend the wires to connect them together. I thought that I automatically had to cross glue gun out because I wasn’t sure if it would interfere with the energy flow through the circuit. I chose not to use a solder iron because I thought it might be too difficult and I won’t be able to unsolder a mistake that I might make. I ended up just bending the wires because it was the easiest process to perform and I could easily retrace my steps and fix any mistakes if I was doubting it or it wasn’t working.

 

Choosing the process of bending wires to connect them also caused challenges. I found that the paperclip conductors were very stiff and I had a hard time bending them in place. I also had to reassemble wires in the circuit to each other as they would always slip of. To fix this problem, for the LED lights, I bended them to an angle where the wires would not get past the corner. Another challenge in this process was connecting the wires themselves, I found it difficult to wrap the wires around the conducts of electricity such as the LED lights and the paper clip pieces. The final problem I had with the wires in general was stripping the insulator off of them. At first, I either cut too far, therefore cut the wire off or not cut enough, this would lead to me cutting the wire off too. After a few days of practice, I mastered the art of stripping insulators off of wires.

 

I had a few minor problems during the process of developing the materials list and costing. Most of the items on my list were difficult to find in some shops. Some of these materials included cellophane and small solar panels. The locations that I found these in were ‘The Reject Shop’ and ‘Jaycar’. Jaycar also had many other small electronic goods that would be useful for projects like this.

 

Although the topic of ‘Drawings’ came before the ‘Materials list and costing’ section, I found that for my project, I needed to know all the materials I needed and the size so I could accurately draw where every component of my project would fit. A challenge that occurred in the drawings section was deciding where the conductors of electricity would go so the alligator clip would be able to reach it, but also so it was efficient. My best and final idea was to stick them out of the back of the traffic light box (this may be a hazard as the ends are sharp). I also had trouble deciding which way the solar panel would stand up and how it would stand up, would it use columns or triangles. This part of my final product varied.

 

During the development stage of the process, I encountered a large mistake that I’d made. This was that I accidentally hot glued the side of the traffic light box which I would be putting my hands through to fix and place the circuit. In the end, I made a compromise and decided to leave the top side open, although this was a challenge, I eventually made it work.

 

The final challenge that I encountered during this project was putting the cellophane and aluminium foil around the circles of the traffic lights. To do this, I cautiously opened the front side of the traffic light box and stuck them on with tape. It worked in the end.

IMPROVEMENTS TO THE FINAL PRODUCT:

Next time, I would’ve like to make the covers over the lights (picture). This would be a good idea because the colour would improve the brightness and be better seen. I also think that the general neatness of the traffic light could be improved as some of the hot glue is messy and sticks out. I would’ve also liked to create a better system for them by possibly using an Arduino to code the lights. The last think that I would’ve liked to know, is that my final product worked with the solar energy as I have been unsuccessful with using solar energy.