aquaponic business plan

Aquaponics Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Aquaponics Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your Aquaponics business plan.

We have helped over 10,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Aquaponics businesses.

Below is a template to help you create each section of your Aquaponics business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Growing Green Aquaponics is a startup aquaponics farm located in Salem, Oregon. The company is founded by Bob Hall, an experienced horticulturist who has gained valuable knowledge on how to grow food using aquaponics during the past ten years while working at Healthy Grown Aquaponics. Now that Bob has experienced managing an aquaponics farm, he is ready to start his own company, Growing Green Aquaponics. Bob is confident that his aquaponics skills, combined with his understanding of business management, will enable him to run a profitable aquaponics company of his own. Bob is recruiting a team of highly qualified professionals to help manage the day-to-day complexities of commercial aquaponics farming – sales and marketing, crop production, greenhouse management, fish farm management, budgeting, purchasing, financial reporting, system maintenance, and customer relations.

Growing Green Aquaponics will provide a wide selection of produce for grocery stores, restaurants, and individual consumers. Growing Green will be the go-to aquaponics farm in Salem for fresh produce available all year round. The company will be the ultimate choice for customer service while offering the best produce prices in the area.

Product Offering

The following are the products that Growing Green Aquaponics will grow and sell:

Customer Focus

Growing Green Aquaponics will target B2B customers in Salem such as local grocers, specialty food stores, and restaurants. The company will also target D2C customers including farmers market shoppers and customers who come directly to the farm to purchase produce. No matter the customer, Growing Green Aquaponics will deliver the best communication, service, and the freshest produce.

Management Team

Growing Green Aquaponics will be owned and operated by Bob Hall. Bob is a graduate of Oregon University with a degree in Horticulture. He has over ten years of experience working as an aquaponics technician for another local farm. Bob will be the company’s Chief Executive Officer and the Head Aquaponics Technician. He will oversee the production process, aquaponics system, and technician staff’s activities.

Bob has recruited a business management expert, Linda Flores, to be the company’s chief operating officer and help oversee aquaponics’s business operations. Linda will handle the day-to-day operations, including budgeting, vendor relationships, and logistics.

Bob and Linda have recruited an experienced marketing director, William Rivera, to become a member of the Growing Green Aquaponics management team. William is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Master’s degree in Marketing. Bob and Linda rely on William’s expertise to execute the company’s marketing plan and advertising strategies.

Success Factors

Growing Green Aquaponics will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

Skilled team of aquaponics technicians and horticulture experts who will oversee the growing process and conduct inspections regularly to ensure all produce is of the highest quality.
Growing Green Aquaponics makes it easy for customers to obtain the company’s products with multiple ways to shop. Businesses and consumers can purchase produce online, onsite, or at various local farmers markets. They can choose to have the produce shipped on a regular schedule, delivered on-demand, or picked up onsite. Additionally, customers can come to the farm and hand-pick their produce themselves.
The company offers competitive pricing and discounts for regular customers.

Financial Highlights

Growing Green Aquaponics is seeking $800,000 in debt financing to launch its aquaponics business. The funding will be dedicated towards securing the facility and purchasing aquaponics farm equipment and supplies. Funding will also be dedicated towards three months of overhead costs to include payroll of the staff and marketing expenses. The breakout of the funding is below:

Facility build-out: $340,000
Aquaponics equipment, supplies, and materials: $280,000
Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, utilities): $160,000
Marketing costs: $10,000
Working capital: $10,000

The following graph below outlines the pro forma financial projections for Growing Green Aquaponics.

Company Overview

Who is growing green aquaponics.

Growing Green Aquaponics is a newly established aquaponics company in Salem, Oregon. Growing Green will be the first choice for local grocers, restaurants, and consumers in Salem and the surrounding communities for its fresh produce available all year round. The company will sell its crops to local B2B customers and D2C consumers on-site and at farmers markets.

Growing Green Aquaponics will be able to guarantee the freshness, quality, and availability of its produce all year round thanks to the latest and most innovative aquaponics technology and a stringent quality control process. The company’s team of highly qualified professionals experienced in aquaponics, horticulture, and agriculture will manage the completely vertically integrated indoor farm. Customers can get a first-hand look at how aquaponics works by taking an aquaponics tour, participating in the company’s farm-to-table events, and picking out fresh produce straight from the facility.

Growing Green Aquaponics History

Growing Green Aquaponics is owned and operated by Bob Hall, an experienced horticulturist who has gained valuable knowledge during his ten year tenure working as an aquaponics technician at another local aquaponics farm. Now that Bob has gained the experience and knowledge of how to manage an aquaponics farm, he is ready to start one of his own. Bob has begun recruiting a team of highly qualified professionals to help manage the day to day complexities of commercial aquaponics farming – sales and marketing, crop production, greenhouse management, fish farm management, budgeting, purchasing, financial reporting, system maintenance, and customer relations.

Since incorporation, Growing Green Aquaponics has achieved the following milestones:

Registered Growing Green Aquaponics, LLC to transact business in the state of Oregon.
Has begun negotiations to purchase the property.
Reached out to numerous contacts to include local restaurants, grocers, and farmers markets to start getting vendor contracts.
Began recruiting a staff of accountants, aquaponics technicians, maintenance workers, and sales personnel to work at Growing Green Aquaponics.

Growing Green Aquaponics Services

The following will be the crops Growing Green Aquaponics will grow and sell:

Industry Analysis

The global aquaponics industry was valued at an estimated $872.7M and is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.9% to reach $1,807.29M by the year 2028. North America is the leading region in market share due to its focus on advancements in aquaponics technology and a growing demand for organic food, followed by Asia and Europe. The Organic Trade Association reports an increase of 5.6% in organic fruit and vegetables sales in a single year in the United States. Aquaponics is an attractive option for health and environmentally-conscious consumers who are looking for sustainable organic foods free from pesticides and chemicals.

The aquaponics market is highly fragmented with a handful of major players and an expanding global market for emerging companies making up the rest of the market share. Industry operators can achieve a competitive advantage by selling high quality, in-demand produce, effective marketing campaigns, and keeping up with local food trends.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

The precise demographics for Salem, Oregon are:

Customer Segmentation

Growing Green will primarily target the following customer profiles:

Grocery stores
Specialty food stores
Restaurants
Farmers market shoppers
Individuals looking for fresh, clean, organic produce

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Growing Green Aquaponics will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.

Healthy Grown Aquaponics

Healthy Grown Aquaponics is one of the largest commercial aquaponics farms in Salem, Oregon. The company grows a variety of crops including tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, herbs, leafy greens, and eggplant. Healthy Grown Aquaponics sells its produce to local restaurants and grocery stores. Healthy Grown Aquaponics aims to deliver high quality organic produce grown through its innovative aquaponics process. The company uses a stringent inspection process to ensure all of its products are the best quality. Healthy Grown Aquaponics’s team of experienced aquaponics professionals inspect each crop weekly to ensure optimum quality.

Salem Aquaponics

Salem Aquaponics is a small aquaponics farm catering to local restaurants, grocers, and farmers markets in Salem, Oregon and surrounding areas. Salem Aquaponics provides fresh produce including tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and squash all year round. The company provides tours of the facility to local schools for a nominal fee. The owners of Salem Aquaponics are former restaurant managers and farm-to-table supporters so they understand how important it is to the community for restaurants to have fresh produce that is locally grown.

Sustain-Able Aquaponics

Sustain-Able Aquaponics is a trusted Salem, Oregon-based aquaponics farm that provides superior produce to consumers in Salem and the surrounding areas. The company is able to provide a wide variety of fruits and vegetables using its state-of-the-art aquaponics equipment. Sustain-Able Aquaponics serves local grocers, specialty stores, and individual consumers with guaranteed fresh produce all year round. The company prides itself on being the number one choice for sustainable produce and its contribution to the growing farm-to-table movement.

Competitive Advantage

Growing Green Aquaponics will be able to offer the following advantages over their competition:

Skilled team of aquaponics technicians and horticulture experts who will oversee the growing process and conduct inspections daily to ensure all produce is of the highest quality.

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Growing Green Aquaponics will offer the unique value proposition to its clientele:

Growing Green Aquaponics provides flexibility in how customers can shop. Customers have the option to purchase produce online, onsite, or at various local farmers markets.

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Growing Green Aquaponics is as follows:

Social Media Marketing

The company’s marketing director will create accounts on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. He will ensure Growing Green maintains an active social media presence with regular daily updates and fun content to get customers excited about aquaponics.

Professional Associations and Networking

Growing Green Aquaponics will become a member of professional associations such as the Aquaponics Association, American Fisheries Society, and the Oregon Aquaculture Association. The leadership team will focus their networking efforts on expanding the company’s vendor network.

Print Advertising

Growing Green Aquaponics will invest in professionally designed print ads to display in programs or flyers at industry networking events. The company will also send direct mailers to local restaurants and grocery stores.

Website/SEO Marketing

Growing Green Aquaponics will utilize the in-house marketing director that designed the print ads to also design the company website. The website will be well organized, informative, and list all the produce that Growing Green is able to provide. The website will also list information on the company’s events and guided tours.

The marketing director will also manage Growing Green’s website presence with SEO marketing tactics so that when someone types in a search engine “Salem aquaponics farm” or “aquaponics farm near me”, Growing Green Aquaponics will be listed at the top of the search results.

The pricing of Growing Green Aquaponics will be moderate and on par with competitors so customers feel they receive value when purchasing the company’s produce.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Growing Green Aquaponics.

Operation Functions:

Bob Hall will be the CEO and Lead Aquaponics Technician. He will oversee the aquaponics technicians, production process, and the aquaponics system maintenance. Bob has spent the past year recruiting the following staff:
Linda Flores – Chief Operating Officer who will manage the budgeting, vendor relationships, and logistics.
Susan Smith – Staff Accountant/Bookkeeper will provide all accounting, tax payments, and monthly financial reporting.
William Rivera – Marketing Director who will oversee all marketing strategies for the company and manage the website, social media, and outreach.
Jessica Mitchell – Quality Control Manager who will oversee all inspections of products, equipment, and processes.

Milestones:

Growing Green Aquaponics will have the following milestones complete in the next six months.

9/1/2022 – Finalize contract to purchase property.

9/15/2022 – Finalize personnel and staff employment contracts for the Growing Green Aquaponics management team.

10/1/2022 – Begin build-out of the facility, purchase equipment, and start production.

10/15/2022 – Begin networking at industry events and implement the marketing plan.

11/15/2022 – Finalize contracts for initial grocery, farmers market, and restaurant vendors.

1/15/2022 – Growing Green Aquaponics officially opens its facility up to customers and starts shipping out online orders.

Bob has recruited a business management expert, Linda Flores, to be the company’s Chief Operating Officer and help oversee aquaponics’s business operations. Linda will handle the day-to-day operations, including budgeting, vendor relationships, and logistics.

Bob and Linda have recruited an experienced marketing director, William Rivera, to become a member of the Growing Green Aquaponics management team. William is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a Master’s degree in Marketing. Bob and Linda rely on William’s expertise in the company’s marketing plan and advertising strategies.

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

The revenue drivers for Growing Green Aquaponics are the fees charged to customers in exchange for the company’s products. When it comes to pricing, the farm will monitor production costs, average prices charged by competitors, and product availability in the market to ensure its prices will generate a healthy profit margin.

The cost drivers will be the overhead costs required in order to staff an aquaponics farm. The expenses will be the payroll cost, utilities, greenhouse equipment and supplies, and marketing materials.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Key assumptions.

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and in order to pay off the startup business loan.

Average pounds of produce sold per month: 9,000
Average fees per month: $15,000
Overhead costs per year: $640,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, aquaponics business plan faqs, what is an aquaponics business plan.

An aquaponics business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your aquaponics business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections.

You can easily complete your aquaponics business plan using our Aquaponics Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Aquaponics Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of aquaponics businesses, some examples include: Retail and Farm.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Aquaponics Farm Business Plan?

Aquaponics businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding. This is true for an aquaponics farming business plan and a commercial aquaponics business plan.

What are the Steps To Start an Aquaponics Business?

Starting an aquaponics business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop An Aquaponics Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed aquaponics farm business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your aquaponics business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your aquaponics business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Aquaponics Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your aquaponics business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your aquaponics business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Aquaponics Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your aquaponics business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation.

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your aquaponics business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

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
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].

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

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.

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.

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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:

Marketing expenses (associations, events, internet marketing).

Capital Requirements and Use of Funds

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