Alex,
I took a look at your sunflower seeds business plan, and have some suggestions for you.
First off, you're missing the point on price. The secret in business is to find a way to charge a high price for very little product, so that you may earn a profit. The Soviet Union has been dead for 20 years, Alex. It's okay to earn a profit. So if I were you, I'd consider a way to package not more than one and a half to two ounces of sunflower seeds for 99¢.
The best way to do that with "alternative" snack foods is to tell some bullshit story to make the product seem exotic and luxurious. I'm not sure how that's to be done with something so prosaic as sunflower seeds. Maybe the health angle or something.
Second, I liked your awareness of transport costs, but... Did you know that trucks are ten times more expensive than ocean freight, and almost as expensive when compared to rail? If I were planning to take 80,000 tons of bulk cargo out of Ukraine, I'd avoid trucks like the plague. A large truck is only going to be able to carry about 20 tons maximum, and that would be on good roads.
Eighty thousand tons of sunflower seeds would best be shipped by dumping them into railcars, and having the railcars dumped into a bulk carrier vessel. A Handysize bulker will ship 10,000 to 35,000 tons at a time.
But here's where the logic is missing from your business plan: 80,000 short tons is more than 2.5 billion ounces. Even at your five-ounce bag plan, you'd have to sell five hundred million bags of sunflower seeds to shift all the product you plan to buy.
I'm glad that you like my reviews and the next one is coming in the next hour. I am busy for the last several days with all kinds of stuff (downloading, cleaning, organizing, scanning, etc.) but I have 4 reviews in the works (just gotta write the text).
I have the profits all figured out and stuff. Since my brand is about value then it has to deliver reflectively: lots for less, while not sacrificing quality. Once the trucks will get to Norway then its a breeze. Only way on the ship from Ukraine is pretty much to Russia and Turkey.
Here are more excerpts from the paper:
Customs BrokerI chose the following customs broker to handle my order:
Straight Forward Custom House Broker
http://www.straightforwardchb.com/ Because they are located in Brooklyn and have knowledge plus experience in importing agricultural products into United States. Another critical factor that played role in my decision is that they also do freight forwarding and insurance, so it made sense for me to choose one company instead of several ones.
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Freight ForwarderThe freight forwarder will be the same company that will do the customs broker duties. This company (Straight Forward Custom House Broker) is a one-stop-shop for all the importing and customs needs. Straight Forward Custom House Broker will also clear the US customs for my project.
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Distribution1) Kiev warehouse to Netherlands (Port of Rotterdam) via truck
2) Netherlands (Port of Rotterdam) to NJ (Port of Perth Amboy) via cargo ship
3) NJ (port) to Camden, NJ warehouse
1) The order will leave from the UkrAgro Solutions (seller/manufacturer) warehouse in Kiev, Ukraine on trucks to the Port of Rotterdam (port # 42157) in Netherlands.
2) In the Port of Rotterdam the containers will be laded on the Maersk Kalamata container vessel, and will travel to Port of Perth Amboy (port code 4602) in New Jersey, United States.
3) After the containers will be cleared by US Customs, they will travel by trucks to my company’s warehouse, where they will await shipping to retail stores.
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MarketingThe marketing will be done by retailers. Big stores like Dollar Tree, Dollar General and Deal$ can advertise sunflower seeds in their weekly and monthly circular. Retailers can also place the seed packets at the counter as an impulse purchase item. The main aspect of my product is low price for 5.0 ounces of sunflower seeds.
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CostsHere is the breakdown of the manufacturing costs that are associated with the product:
Seeds - $1.56/kg.
Roasting - $0.12/kg.
Flavor Dusting (Seasoning) - $6.82/kg.
Packaging $0.03/packet
There is a total discount of 15% from the manufacturer if the order is over 80 tons, so I will use it to my advantage.
For my project I will place an order for equivalent of 4x 40-foot containers of Classic seeds, 1x 40-foot container of BBQ flavored seeds and 1x 40-foot container of Ranch flavored seeds. The total number of containers will be 6x.
Each container has a total of 2,395 cubic feet of usable area.
28x packets (5.0 oz. each) can fit into 12”x12”x6” box, or 28x packets per ½ of cubic foot. One cubic foot equals to 2x boxes or 56x packets. Using these numbers I calculated that 134,120 packets of seeds can be transported in one 40-footlong container. Multiplied by 6x containers, this equals to 804,720 packets of seeds.
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