Hey Simon,

I thought you might find this information helpful. We ran numbers on small scale Vermi composting business.

Table 1 -- Initial Investment

Particulars -Amount (Rs)
Plastic sheet - 240
Bamboo fencing - 2000
Earth worms - 24750
Total - 26990

Table 2: Yearly Income Statement

Particulars - Amount (Rs.)
Sales - 48000

Variable Costs
Cow Dung - 9600
Labour - 9600
Total - 19200

Contribution Margin - 28800

Fixed Cost: Depreciation 450

Net Profit - 28350

With these numbers, we figured out that it would take us 5 years to receive of money back if (i) 4/10 farms we trained are successful and (ii) we charge them 10% of profits.

hey simon,

In terms of sutainibility, when I tried to do open business plan for vermi-compost which has an increasing market here, and charged the successful enterprises 10% of their profit...it still took about 5 year just to get the money i spent on training farmers. Might need to look at other avenues.

Cheers,
Pankaj

Hi Pri,

Thank you for the comment.

Business incubators are indeed very helpful for young entrepreneurs. In Nepal, there are various business incubators that work for various fields of business. Its more about lack of information to potential entrepreneurs regarding from which incubators they can receive.

One project I did as undergrad student was to incubate a pickle making enterprise. The only problem we had was we were not entrepreneurs yet and as a result did not know exactly how one should think as an entrepreneur. We were more motivated to meet the project objectives and completing the activities on time. So may be after I have considerable business experience, I will feel comfortable enough to start to incubate enterprises.

Our target for step one are high school and college students.

Thanks,
Pankaj