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May 17, 2011
Mini-plant Ownership
A properly managed and marketed Options for Life Mini-plant business can generate over a million dollars in Sales in just two years.
Mini-plant equipment comes largely pre-assembled with easy to understand instructions for hooking the components together. Or, for a nominal charge, a technician can be provided to set up the filling line. Access to water, drainage and a 220-volt line is required.
The entire filling line footprint is about 500 square feet. Another 1,000 square feet or more might be required depending upon how much supplies and finished product you want to store.
How does the Mini-plant operate?
• Step One. A pre-measured amount of Glass Cleaner concentrate (for example) is poured into the 100-gallon mixing tank and filled with cold water. [Concentrate containers and pre-labeled bottles are all color coded to avoid mishandling.]
• Step Two. The now ready-to-use solution is pumped from the mixing tank into the semi-automatic filling machine and four bottles are filled at a time. 300 to 600 bottles an hour can be filled depending upon the crew you have and how fast they work.
• Step Three. Bottles are moved down the conveyor belt to the capping machine. From there they are boxed. That’s it!
The entire operation can be run by two to three people depending on how may units you want to produce in a given period of time. Two people can fill 300+ bottles an hour. Three people can fill 600+ bottles an hour. Between different product runs, the filling machine is cleaned by simply running cold water through it. Almost all of the mixed batch is used so there is very little waste in the process -- and certainly no hazardous waste.
The cost
The Options for Life Mini-plant equipment itself costs under $30,000, but there are other cost considerations. We estimate that it would take about $165,000 in startup capital and 18 months to run the Mini-plant until it’s producing a positive cash flow. But that depends entirely on how quickly you build up sales. Several large institutional accounts in the beginning could have you profitable in just a few months.
If you know how to work with Excel, you’ll have no problem working with this financial planning template. The sheet on the workbook that you’ll want to ‘play with’ is the first one titled “Plant Inputs.” You can plug in your own cost assumptions and sales projections to determine at what levels of each you can be profitable. The assumptions we have made are very conservative and have, for example, the Mini-plant owner as general manager deriving no salary but his/her income from the net profit. But even that assumption can be changed by you.
If you have any questions about the Workbook and how to use it, feel free to call us. If you find the Workbook overwhelming, then have someone with accounting, financial management and/or number-crunching experience review it with you.
For more information, e-mail us at info@optionsproducts.com
Include your day time phone number and request that an Options for Life owner call you about Mini-plant ownership.
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