Coco Craze: Terminal year end report

• Main Authors: Amorado, Alfred Justin D., Faustino, Danikka Faith D., Kho, Karylle Cate L., Tia, Charlene V., Yap, Daniel Jed P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Coconut industry—Philippines—By-products; Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_dsi/125; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_dsi/article/1138/viewcontent/Coco_Craze_Redacted3.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Coco Craze is an enterprise that aims to protect the environment through promoting product life-cycle sustainability by creating a product from something that is already considered waste. Moreover, the enterprise will be offering ethically sourced and environmentally friendly products for a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. It is also driven to improve and uplift the lives of its fellow Filipino coconut farmers. The enterprise will be offering handcrafted coconut goods which will be sourced from local coconut farmers in the Philippines. This will not only be a product that our customers will enjoy using but also, will be helping improve the lives of coconut farmers and local artisans in the country. The proprietors discovered a problem of excess coconut waste in the country, and it is burnt and discarded, which adds to the worsening environment. Moreover, the Philippine coconut industry is also considered “The Sleeping Giant” because it holds so many opportunities that are not fully maximized. With this, Coco Craze has taken this problem and turned it into a viable business idea. In today’s generation, sustainability has played a major factor on the purchasing behavior amongst consumers which resulted in businesses to integrate this characteristic into their overall operations. This attracts more customers to purchase their services compared to businesses whose operations have a negative effect on society and the environment, especially with the negative impacts of global warming. In line with this, Coco Craze aims to promote sustainability through its products with the main material it utilizes, coconut shells, that are naturally obtained and safely disposed of. Compared to usual scented candles sold in the market, the Coco Craze differentiates itself by using coconut shells as its candle vessel promoting sustainability. The Coco Candle will be a 200 gram hand poured soy candle featuring a polished coconut shell as its vessel. It will be available in three scents and will be sold for P445. The coconut candles benefit its users by creating a peaceful and relaxing ambiance, providing a good night's sleep, and improving one’s mood. On the other hand, since these coconut shells are simply burnt and discarded, Coco Craze has figured out a way to turn these scraps into beautiful coconut bowls. The Coco Bowls are crafted by our local artisans until they are smooth, and finished with coconut oil to show off its natural shine. This will be sold for P245 as a set of two (2) Coco Bowls (1 small bowl and 1 medium bowl) which can be used for different kinds of food like smoothies, desserts, and the like. Coco Craze will be utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram for distributing, marketing, and advertising its products. Moreover, the business will also use online marketplaces such as Shopee and Lazada to scale its distribution to the market. Coco Craze also plans to rent space in retail stores once the company is already able to establish its presence and once the situation in the country is already ideal for this expansion. The enterprise will also be utilizing various marketing and publicity strategies to ensure and instill brand loyalty and awareness. Coco Craze will be having three phases of activities: pre-operating, operating, and post-operating activities. For the pre-operating activities (June 2021 to September 2021), the proprietors will be doing the necessary preparations for the business launching. These activities include feasibility research, registrations, canvassing for suppliers, production of prototypes, and the actual production of the products. For the operating activities stage (October 2021 to June 2022), the entrepreneurs will be creating marketing strategies to prepare for the upcoming market launch. Moreover, social media accounts, Shopee, and Lazada accounts will also be created. The actual launch, selling, and marketing of the products will also occur in this stage. Lastly, the post-operating activities on July 2021 is where the owners will gather and evaluate feedback from customers. Moreover, financial auditing, performance evaluation and assessments, and business growth strategies will be discussed. With Coco Craze being a start-up business, one of the main objectives of the enterprise is to recognize the potential risks that it might encounter. Among the identified risks, the most plausible risks that Coco Craze would experience are the mishandling of shipments and insufficient funds. The enterprise will take precautionary measures to prevent these risks from occurring such as opting for a reliable courier and closely monitoring its performance to avoid problems with deliveries as well as preparing an accurate and detailed financial plan that will help aid the enterprise in managing its capital and other funds. Other identified potential risks were security failure, lost data, supply deficiency, customer complaints, lack of incurring sales and internal conflict. Although possible, these risks have less likelihood of occurring, however Coco Craze will still prepare and take preventive action to ensure the company’s smooth performance. In the company’s SWOT analysis, it has also identified a few threats that may affect the business which are mainly competition in the industry and the state of Philippine economy. Other business, which includes new entrants as well, that offers relatively the same products as Coco Craze poses a threat to the business since customers will have more options to choose from. In addition, the economy of the country tends to be unstable as it usually fluctuates which could mean that customers may opt to spend their money on necessities instead. Coco Craze is a partnership ownership amongst the 5 owners: Alfred Amorado as the corporate secretary and operations and logistics manager, Faith Faustino as the board member and the research and development manager, Karylle Kho as the chairman of the board and the integrated marketing and communications manager, Charlene Tia as the board member and the sales and publicity manager, and Daniel Yap as the corporate treasurer and the finance manager. All owners of Coco Craze are students of De La Salle University, taking up BS Entrepreneurship. These 5 partners have equally contributed their expertise and capital contribution for the start- up of the business. As for Coco Craze’s financials, the funds to be used for the enterprise’s transaction will come from the total capital stock amounting to ₱100,000 which consists of the equal contribution of the proprietors, wherein ₱57,902 will be used as the start-up cost. This will finance the costs the enterprise will incur at the beginning of its operations such as raw materials, equipment, professional fees and product development. The enterprise makes it a goal to sell a total of 86 units, an estimate of 45 units for Coco Bowls and 41 units for Coco Candles, in its first year in order to achieve its break-even. In addition, Coco Craze projects that in its first year, the company’s total income will amount to ₱24,977.66.