Operational Business Plan (4th year commercial beekeeping business)

Closed
Ron Glave
Owner/ Beekeeper
(2)
3
Project
Academic experience or paid work
100 hours per learner
Learner
Anywhere
Advanced level

Project scope

Categories
Operations Investment
Skills
business lending beekeeping business support systems application programming interface (api) quickbooks (accounting software) animal production business planning marketing planning wholesaling sales
Details

Established in 2019 in Revelstoke BC, BeeKind Honey Bees operated with 80 hives until April 2021.

In April 2021, BeeKind Honey Bees purchased an existing reputable 100 colony beekeeping operation in Armstrong BC (1.5hrs from Revelstoke).

Now operating at 250+ colonies our focus is diverse between, bee stock sales (Nucleus colonies and Mated queens) in the spring, beekeeping education opportunities for youth and adults spring and summer, and raw honey production harvested in the fall.

We operate mostly through our ecommerce website www.beekindhoneybees.ca and social media.

We have invested in developing a basic operational business plan through an online platform called https://www.liveplan.com that is integrated with our QuickBooks Online account providing real time financial data.

Now that we are in our fourth year of operation, and have defined our operational scope and business model, we would like to update our business plan to a point where it can attract small business lending, business support, grant opportunities, and potential investment. We're open to extending collaborative access to our LivePlan account to have it finalized there (ideally) or cutting and pasting a formal business plan in your preferred format into our LivePlan account.

Our provincial apiculture office offers a Business Plan guide for agricultural producers focused on Beekeeping that could be very useful. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/agriculture-and-seafood/animal-and-crops/animal-production/bee-assets/api_beekeeper-business-plan.pdf

Additionally, we are considering the purchase of an established beeswax candle company to compliment our operations and fill in the slower operational times. The business is https://beeswaxworks.ca/. They retail candles through their ecommerce website, and wholesale to roughly 50 accounts. The purchase of this business would require financing, and a suitable business plan to go represent our operations.

We currently have not started a formal Marketing Plan, however are applying to Riipen for this as our second project. We're open to a shared collaboration between the two plans for the greatest consistency and optimized effort.

Deliverables
No deliverables exist for this project.
Mentorship

The timing of this project completion (March 31st) works perfectly with our availability. April 1st our focus shifts to beekeeping work in the field. We are available to communicate by email, online meeting formats (Zoom/ Meet), and phone (text/ call) as needed to support this project and ensure a successful result.

About the company

Company
2 - 10 employees
Food & beverage, Agriculture

Established in 2019, BeeKind Honey Bees is Revelstoke's first full commercial Apiary. We are a small scale commercial honey bee stock and raw honey producer, beekeeping educator, and online beekeeping retailer, with operations between Revelstoke BC, (Columbia Shuswap Region) and Armstrong BC, (North Okanagan Region) Canada.

We offer quality products from the beehive (raw unpasteurized honey, bee pollen, bulk beeswax), and for the beehive (nucleus colonies, queen bees, basic beekeeping supplies and beekeeping equipment) to our customers and beekeeping community, along with a variety of beekeeping learning opportunities for all ages and levels of interest, through our Shop and Services.

We believe our passions paired with our values for kindness, generosity, teaching, and sharing, drive our business philosophy and guide our priorities. The combination of honey bees, beekeeping, and small business, is our medium to express our values into actionable, positive, lasting change.