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BiD Grade Plans
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Business established

1

Biogas As An Alternative Source Of Energy

Biogas is the cheapest source of energy. If widely used could help ease pressure on forest and reduce carbon emission to the ozone

Biogas, compared to other technologies has many uses. It used in lighting and cooking in households. The by-product generated (fertilizer) are used on domestic level and for commercial purposes, thus improves food security for the poor- saving them in reduced food bills and increase income generation from the sale of home grown produce and thus reducing poverty.

Facts

Legal status business
Formally registered
Year of establishment

2007

Sales (US$)
Two years ago: 0
Last year: 0
This year (forecast): 42,107
Year 2 (forecast): 184,020
Year 3 (forecast): 287,835
Net profit after tax (US$)
Two years ago: 0
Last year: -176
This year (forecast): 11,156
Year 2 (forecast): 40,619
Year 3 (forecast): 63,316
Total number of Employees
Two years ago: 3
Last year: 29
This year (forecast): 8
Year 2 (forecast): 11
Year 3 (forecast): 25

Finance needed

Finance needed for fixed assets (buying of machines, buildings, ...) 36,700
Finance needed for working capital (salaries, stock, rental, leasing, transport, ...) 59,080
Total finance needed (US$) 95,780

How do you expect this to be financed? Please note: the total amount mentioned here should be equal to the total finance needed at the previous question.

Own Contribution in cash 10,000
Loans (debt) 60,780
Share capital that you seek from investors (equity) 20,000
Other sources 5,000
Total finance needed (US$) 95,780

The Business

What is your product/service?

We promote biogas technology through installation of biogas plants that use animal waste (cow and pig waste) and also human waste.
Our clients are small scale farmers, large scale farmers and Institutions like secondary schools, colleges and prisons. We also sell biogas products like lamps, stoves, water heaters and power generators to these clients. We also engage in biogas awareness creation through holding workshops in communities.

What customer need/problem do your products/services satisfy?

Biogas provides clean gas for cooking, lighting, heating, and power generation to our clients. The effluent from biogas plants is a rich bio fertilizer that improves soil nutrients naturally, increases yields.

How will you make the product/service?

After awareness creation and biogas promotion is done through workshops in targeted potential areas, interested clients request us to develop for them a proposal and from there we start engaging ourselves with such clients and later when they get prepared with requirements, we go on site and install for them biogas plant. After installation is complete we also sell them biogas appliances to use biogas with.

Explain how you will sell your product/service (marketing strategy) and how you will reach your customers (distribution strategy)?

We will sell our products to the clients through exhibitions in agricultural events like Agricultural Shows, workshops and seminars. In such events the attendance of our targeted clientele is normally high. We shall also be organizing seminars with schools that are closely near another in a targeted locality in order to expound to them the importance of installing biogas plants and its benefits. We also reach clients through established clients.

To whom are you selling, what is your market?

Our main clients are farmers that have reared cows/pigs in zero grazing units or with such interest.
We also target institutions such as boarding schools/colleges and prisons with large population and mainly users of FIREWOOD/LPG as fuel for cooking meals. When biogas gets installed to such clients, we shall be making a considerable milestone in conserving our environment.

Describe your competitors?

My competitors mostly deal with solar and Energy saver firewood Cooking stove, though those dealing with Biogas are there, but not in rural areas. Compared to biogas, my competitors does not produce byproducts that can help in taming poverty among the rural poor. Biogas holds the greatest promise as a cheap household energy source because it is renewable, simple to generate and convenient to use.

What makes your business different/better than your competitors (competitive advantage)?

My business is better than my competitors because they don't deal with biogas. They deal with business that does offer me much competition in terms of farming (fertilizer), cooking and lighting.

What makes your business, your product or service innovative?

Biogas, compared to other technologies is truly innovative. Not only is it used in lighting and cooking in households, the by-product of the gas generation process, produces highly nutritious bio fertilizer that are used on domestic level and for commercial purposes, thus improves food security for the poor- saving them in reduced food bills and increase income generation from the sale of home grown produce and thus reducing poverty.

How will you ensure the growth of your business?

I will be ploughing back the bigger share of the profit margin in business to ensure that more facilities required to enable business expansion and running more efficiently are put in place. We will recruit more professionally qualified employees and open branches in all potential regions with all necessary machinery to run business efficiently in every region.

The Entrepreneur & Management

Describe the entrepreneur & management

Samuel and Agnes Marete founded Sky Link Innovators. Samuel is well advanced in renewable having served as an engineer for Granite rock and Biosolution systems and Engineering.
Agnes is well versed in administration having worked as a civil servant for 12 years. She holds an MBA in strategic Management and Entrepreneurship.
George Onyango has experience in development issues and has a Diploma in Nonprofit Management.

What specifically makes you and (if relevant) your management team most qualified to build this business?

Our team consists of professionals that is environmentally and socially conscious, young, with full energy to exploit higher levels of achievement, and eager to better their living standard and those of their fellow citizens through their own efforts.

How much time do/will you expect to spend per week in the business?

Much of my time is spent in business except on a Sunday and other social events that I am part of. Leisure time is mainly on Sunday after service.

Development

How does your business improve the local living standards (social and environmental)?

Smoke that is said to claim about 1.6 million deaths per year worldwide (WHO report) has been reduced.Biogas is a clean gas that burns without smoke thus solves this problem once and for all to all that install it. Time spent to fetch for firewood is also reduced enabling children to learn. Forest depletion is spared as people has alternatives.

1 comment

preserve the earth

let us use biogas to reduce carbon emissions and thus be albe to preserve the planet earth.

17 Dec 09, 11:03 George Onyango, 17 Dec 09, 11:03