Aquaponics Business Plan Template

Aquaponics Business Plan Template

If you want to start an Aquaponics business or expand your current Aquaponics business, you need a business plan.

The following Aquaponics business plan template gives you the key elements to include in a winning Aquaponics business plan. It can be used for an aquaponics farming business plan or a commercial aquaponics business plan.

You can download our aquaponics plan template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.

 

Sample Aquaponics Business Plan Template

Below is an aquaponics business plan example with each of the key sections to help you write an aquaponics business plan for your own company.

I. Executive Summary

Business Overview

[Company Name], located at [insert location here] is an Aquaponics company that focuses on sustainable and organic agriculture. It also provides training services – locating, accessing, organizing and distributing information – related to sustainable and alternative agricultural systems, crops and livestock.

Products Served

[Company Name] will be able to provide customers with organic and fresh vegetables from the Aquaponics farm.

In addition to its produce [Company Name] also provides the following services:

• Production and Financial Planning
• Custom Farm Design
• Grow Lighting Solutions
• Greenhouses
• Installation
• Training
• Support
• Applications

Customer Focus

[Company Name] will primarily serve regional distributors of vegetables. Some products may be sold directly to manufacturers in the local area for the production of other products from these ingredients.

Distributors and manufacturers of food products in the region see growth in interest in organic products and are in need of organic ingredients for suppliers. Consumers show increased demand for these organic products at stores.

Management Team

[Company Name]’s most valuable asset is the expertise and experience of its founder, [Founder’s Name]. [First name] has been a farm operations manager for the past 15 years. He has spent much of his career working with Blue Ridge Farms, where he oversaw dairy, meat, and grain production.

[Company name] will also employ an experienced sales manager to sell to distributors and manufacturers. This will be a skilled salesperson trained in farm sales by [Founder’s Name]. An assistant manager will manage day-to-day operations of the farm.

Success Factors

[Company Name] is uniquely qualified to succeed due to the following reasons:

• [Company Name] will fill a specific market niche in organic foods. In addition, we have surveyed the regional distributors and received extremely positive feedback saying that they explicitly want to buy our products when launched.
• Our location is within 100-miles of numerous potential distributors and contains hundreds of acres of arable land.
• The management team has a track record of success in the farming business.

[Company Name] is seeking a total funding of $683,200 of debt capital to open its farm. The capital will be used for funding capital expenditures and location build-out, hiring initial employees, marketing expenses and working capital.

 

II. Company Overview

Who is [Company Name]?

[Company Name], located at [insert location here] is an Aquaponics company that focuses on sustainable and organic agriculture. It also provides training services – locating, accessing, organizing and distributing information – related to sustainable and alternative agricultural systems, crops and livestock.

While [Founder’s Name] has been in the Aquaponic business for some time, it was in [month, year] that he decided to launch [Company Name]. Specifically, during this time, [Founder] met with a former friend and fellow independent organic farm owner in South Dakota who has had tremendous success. After discussing the business at length, [Founder’s Name] clearly understood that a similar farm would enjoy significant success in his hometown.

Specifically, the customer demographics and competitive situations in the South Dakota area of his friend and in his hometown were so similar that he knew the business would work. After surveying the local market, [Founder’s name] went ahead and founded [Company Name].

[Company Name]’s History

[Company Name] has been fully dedicated to practicing and teaching aquaponics. It built and operated [number] community focused Aquaponic greenhouses – 3,000sq ft in [Location 1], at [Location 2] (3,000sq ft) and [Location 3] (5,000sq ft).

It further provided a wide range of products, kit aquaponic systems, design and consulting services and various levels of training.

[Company name]’s wonderful team of aquaponic experts loves to engage, inspire and empower home hobbyist, community leaders, faith based organizations, schools and farmers every day.

[Company Name]’s Products/Services

[Company Name] will be able to provide customers with organic and fresh vegetables from the Aquaponics farm.

In addition to its produce [Company Name] also provides the following services:

• Production and Financial Planning
• Custom Farm Design
• Grow Lighting Solutions
• Greenhouses
• Installation
• Training
• Support
• Applications

 

III. Industry Analysis

The Aquaponics industry is expected to continue to grow marginally over the next five years.
Demand for organic fruit and vegetables has increased in recent years, boosting the industry’s revenue. Last year, the value of the US organic market totaled about $7.3 billion. Produce is the most popular organic food, representing about 43.0% of all organic food sales. Consumers have become increasingly concerned with the potential effects of genetically modified (GM) vegetables and pesticides on their bodies. Therefore, more consumers are buying organic produce. This industry provides a steady supply of organic produce.

Demand for industry products will also be bolstered by growth in per capita disposable income. Per capita disposable income is projected to expand, which will likely encourage consumers to buy more organic fruit and vegetables.
 

IV. Customer Analysis

Demographic Profile of Target Market

[Company Name] will primarily serve regional distributors of vegetables. Some products may be sold directly to manufacturers in the local area for the production of other products from these ingredients.

These businesses typically gross from $5 million to $50 million in annual revenues and source their supplies from within a 100-mile radius of their facilities.

Distributors and manufacturers of food products in the region see growth in interest in organic products and are in need of organic ingredients for suppliers. Consumers show increased demand for these organic products at stores.

Customer Segmentation

The Company will primarily target the following two customer segments:

• Regional Organic Distributors: Organic food distributors source organic vegetables from medium and large farms, and sell them to food manufacturers who process, package and sell the products.
• Organic Product: Small manufacturers that process organic products work directly with local farms to keep costs low whenever possible.

 

V. Competitive Analysis

Direct & Indirect Competitors

The following businesses are located within a 2-mile radius of [Company Name], thus providing either direct or indirect competition for customers:

Aquaponics Incorporated
Aquaponics Incorporated operates premium oyster farms on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. These two farms combine leading-edge science with generations of experience on the water to produce seed, systems and strategies for oyster production. Further, its waters boast a proprietary mineral and saline content for high-quality oyster production.
In addition to producing and distributing premium oysters, the company designs, manufactures, and distributes aquaculture equipment, and offers consulting and hatchery services.

Mountain Aquaponics
A valuable resource for aspiring aquaponic farmers, this company specializes in aquaponics training, licensing, and installation. The company aims to make life more sustainable through aquaponics. Today, Mountain Aquaponics can be found in all 50 states and 25 countries.

Aquanauts
This aquaponics system farm is one of the largest in the country. Both a working growing facility and an education center, Aquanauts sells its produce online, at its onsite farm stand, and to many restaurants.
In addition to offering farm tours and special events, aquanauts hosts aquaponics classes and provides aquaponics supplies to aspiring farmers. The company believes that reconnecting people with local food sources helps to empower communities and curb food insecurity.

Competitive Pricing

All competitor pricing is customized based on the location, square footage, equipment, training and support needs.

Competitive Advantage

[Company Name] enjoys several advantages over its competitors. These advantages include:

• Client-oriented service: [Company Name] will have a full-time sales manager to keep in contact with customers and answer their everyday questions. [Founder’s Name] realizes the importance of accessibility to customers and will instruct the sales manager to proactively solicit feedback from customers.
• Management: [Founder’s Name] has been extremely successful working in the farming business and will be able to use his previous experience to assure clients of the care that [Company Name] will take to create the best organic products. His unique qualifications will serve customers in a much more sophisticated manner than [Company Name’s] competitors.
• Transparency:To continue to assure customers and the government of the organic quality of [Company Name]’s products, operations can be inspected by customers at a moments notice, and a guide to the operations will be created to detail all the steps in the production process for each crop.
• Product Line: By offering organic produce, [Company Name] will seek to hedge against price volatility in any one of these commodities.

 

VI. Marketing Plan

You can download our aquaponics plan template (including a full, customizable financial model) to your computer here.

[Company Name] will use several strategies to promote its name and develop its brand. By using an integrated marketing strategy, [Company Name] will win customers and develop consistent revenue streams.

The [Company Name] Brand

The [Company name] brand will focus on the Company’s unique value proposition:

• High-quality, organic produce
• Service built on long-term relationships
• Transparency of operations to achieve customer assurance of organic quality

Promotions Strategy

Targeted Cold Calls

[Company Name] will initially invest significant time and energy into contacting potential customers via telephone and then by visiting their facilities. In order to improve the effectiveness of this phase of the marketing strategy, a highly-focused call list will be used; targeting distributors and manufacturers with an expressed interest in organic products. As this is a very time-consuming process, it will primarily be used during the startup phase to build an initial customer base.

Industry Events

By attending regional farming conferences, association meetings, and symposia, [Company Name] will network with industry leaders, and seek referrals to potential customers. [Founder’s Name] will often attend with the company sales manager, but both may attend separately in the future as they gain experience in this networking.

Internet

[Company Name] will invest resources in two forms of geographically-focused internet promotion—organic search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. The Company will develop its website in such a manner as to direct as much traffic from search engines as possible. Additionally, it will use highly-focused, specific keywords to draw traffic to its website, where potential clients will find a content-rich site that presents [Company Name] as the trustworthy, high quality producer of organic foods that it is.

Pricing Strategy

[Company Name]’s pricing will be competitive compared with Nature’s Bounty Farm. Pricing will be about 50% lower than retail prices to allow for wholesalers and retailers to earn their margins.
 

VII. Operations Plan

[Company Name] will carry out its sales operations through phone calls and visits to customer offices. The sales manager will increasingly direct sales activities, although [Founder’s Name] will be heavily involved at first.

The assistant manager will run the day-to-day operations of the farm, including scheduling and assigning the work of farm hands, sourcing and purchasing supplies and basic equipment, keeping the company’s books, maintaining legal licenses, handling insurance and ensuring that the company meets government regulations. He will contact specialists for equipment repairs when needed.

Field work by the farm hands will be from sunrise to sunset, with indoor work during the hottest parts of the day and after dark. Field work will include preparing fields for planting, the planting process, tending to planted fields, harvesting, and packaging grain into bushels.

Milestones

[Company name]’s long term goal is to become the dominant player in the aquaponics market.

The following are a series of steps that lead to our vision of long-term success. [Company Name] expects to achieve the following milestones in the following [xyz] months:

 

VIII. Management Team

Management Team Members

[Company Name]’s most valuable asset is the expertise and experience of its founder, [Founder’s Name]. [First name] has been a farm operations manager for the past 15 years. He has spent much of his career working with Blue Ridge Farms, where he oversaw dairy, meat, and grain production.

[First name] is intimately familiar with the operations requirements for a farm producing the same products as [Company Name]. He has received organic training certification to become an organic food producer.

[Company name] will also employ an assistant manager to manage operations. This will be an experienced operations manager who will be trained in farm operations by [Founder’s Name]. Furthermore, a sales manager will be hired to focus on marketing, sales, and customer service to distributors as manufacturers for [Company Name] products. These two individuals will either have undergraduate business degrees or years of relevant operations or sales experience.

Hiring Plan

In order to launch the business we will also hire the following additional employee:

• Farm Hand: (1 full-time to start) Additional farm hands will be hired if capacity increases or if another farm is started.

The hiring process will be managed by the assistant manager who will be directly responsible for the farm hand, with oversight and approval by [Founder’s Name]. This individual must be in top physical condition, have experience in physical labor, and have great mechanical facility and care for the quality of his work and products.

The assistant manager and [Founder’s Name] will provide back-up support for the farm hand in the busiest times and when he is out sick or on vacation.

 

IX. Financial Plan

Revenue and Cost Drivers

[Company Name]’s revenues will come primarily from sales of organic produce and trainings on Aquaponics farming.

Prices are expected to fluctuate with market volatility on the rise, although they are expected to rise consistently, on average.

Key Cost Drivers

As with most services, labor expenses are the key cost drivers. The staff of four will earn competitive salaries allowing [Company Name] to hire experienced workers. Furthermore, the costs of the mortgage and its interest for the land will be significant.

The major cost drivers for the company’s operation will consist of:

• Salaries
• Mortgage
• Marketing expenses (associations, events, internet marketing).

Capital Requirements and Use of Funds

[Company Name] is seeking a total funding of $683,200 of debt capital to open its farm. The capital will be used for funding capital expenditures and location build-out, hiring initial employees, marketing expenses and working capital.

Specifically, these funds will be used as follows:

• Build-out of farm and equipment purchases: $273,200
• Initial marketing expenditure: $10,000
• Property down payment: $100,000
• Working capital: $300,000 to pay for marketing, salaries, and lease costs until [Company Name] reaches break-even

Key Assumptions

The following table reflects the key revenue and cost assumptions made in the financial model.

 
5 Year Annual Income Statement

 
5 Year Annual Balance Sheet

 
5 Year Annual Cash Flow Statement