Heidi E. Peterson
October 11, 2005
Business Plan Thoughts

More qualitative/quantitative data throughout plan. Must explain how we
arrived at certain conclusions using specific, succinct and explicit language.
o Specifics about various product categories, rationale, projected costs to
implement, markups, turnover
o Membership data: How what where when why
o How education, marketing will impact cash flow/revenue

Buyers Club: Organization (including job descriptions of coordinator/s), reasons
for implementation, how it will affect membership, start-up, cash flow, how it will
tie into determining customer demands for products, how this impacts the timeline
for opening a store.

Produce: How will this be structured? Criteria for venders? Mark-ups? How do
we handle payment to venders?

Price determinations. Where do we get our products from? Relationship with
distributors? What is their mark-up? How does this impact ours?

Membership: How does this transfer from Buyers Club to co-op? Discounts?
Must members work for discounts/ How often? What jobs?

Board development. Detailed job descriptions of each member. Non-students
shadowing student members?

Detailed job descriptions for board members, student board members,
volunteers, and Work/study.

Marketing: overall plan, marketing materials, community outreach. How
marketing will impact sales and membership
o What marketing materials will be developed? By whom? When? How?
o Canvasing for new members. When will membership drives occur? how
will they be structured? Who will coordinate? What will their impact be,
using specific, quantifiable numbers. Our membership will increase by X
% over X period of time because of the membership drive….
o Co-op Newsletter. Who what where when why how
o Fundraising events. Types? How often? In-store is optimal to bring
people in. Events for specific groups of customers—student cooking
classes, ingredient-specific classes, nutrition and obesity awareness
programs, Hispanic-focused programs for Hispanic community and from
Hispanic community to other groups, women and body image, basic
concepts about our values: sustainability, organic vs. non-organic,
agricultural issues, keeping customers informed of legislation that impacts
co-op, etc.
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Heidi E. Peterson
October 11, 2005

Education: connection w/Whitman, faculty, classes, community partners in
education, including orgs in the community, school groups, other non-profits.
o Must determine list of community partners in education and their
respective roles within the co-op. We must make a stronger case for how
we bridge the college/Walla Walla communities.
o Whitman components. How will the administration relate to co-op?
ASWC?
o Whitman classes/faculty that will participate—their scope of
involvement
o How will co-op engage in the community? What types of community
programs, donations to other orgs., maybe eventually offering small grants
to other orgs in the community/ What are we giving to the community (in
direct, clear language)?

Work/study participants. What responsibilities does Whitman have in regards to
management, recruitment, financial paperwork? Are they on board?

Competitive Analysis in chart form. Also, list of agricultural competition, CSA,
Farmer’s Co-op run out of NAPA, next to John’s Wheatland. Add Wal-Mart to
chart, update info for Huckleberry’s.

List of future funding sources, grants and federal/state funding sources

How does Whitman garden fit into this plan from an organizational standpoint?
From a financial standpoint? Waste recycling/composting produce from store in
garden?

Future building considerations. How green will it be? How important is this to
us? This could be a part of the educational components and potential funding
exists to make the building “more green.”

Recycling Center in co-op? Recycling as part of educational component? Student
program tie-ins? Other community groups as a partner to oversee this? School
groups?
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