The biggest financial mission for this project will be to enable the carpentry workshop to gain more profit. At this moment all the profit from the sales are put immediately into paying the staff. Therefore little money is left to buy new timber, for new products. For this reason we want to offer the carpentry workshop a load of wood to obtain an initial stock for the carpentry workshop. We discussed this with Tina Wentink, who is in charge of the carpentry workshop, and she confirmed an initial stock is needed for the carpentry workshop to be able to grow.
Students4Sustainability will finance an amount of 500 euros to purchase this initial stock. As mentioned before, the workshop doesn’t make a profit of the sales. By receiving this fund, the carpentry workshop can get out of this vicious circle of not making any profit. With this boost they are able to grow again. A contract will be signed to confirm the collaboration between our project and Students4Sustainability.
In addition to the contribution of Students4Sustainability, we will also try to gain more money through different routes. For example, we will organize a goodbye party where people have the ability to donate money for our project. Also during our stay we will continue to provide many updates via social media with more information about our project and where we stand. Because the three of us all have a fairly large network of friends and acquaintances, we will continue to draw their attention to the fact that one can support our project and make a donation. We assume in this manner we will keep obtaining some money to put into the carpentry workshop.
To understand the current financial situation, there has been a research into the sales of the last six months. This overview shows the results of products made and the overhead costs. See extra information for the overview of all the products.
An expert's estimation on how many days an experienced carpenter would take to finish a product is generated. As is shown in the calculation in, some items did not cover the costs for an experienced carpenter. That’s why these items are not going to be chosen to be produced in the coming months. Only if the price goes up dramatically, these products can become financially interesting for producing. By now we just want to focus on the products who are most efficient.
In extra information overview is given for the estimated production growth for the coming months. A growth of 10% per month is used.
At last, there is a balance drawn up where the income and expenses are incorporated (see extra information. This balance shows that in the last six months the carpentry workshop has generated more expenses than income. This is a critical situation and it should be examined how these deficiencies can be put right. This will be one of the main goals during the second stage of our project.