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< Example 5 >
Morinaga Yatomi Milk Center Retail 21 (named in the sense of a retail store in the 21st century) |
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Location: Yatomi-cho, Kaifu-gun, Aichi Prefecture
Capital: 7.3 million yen
Representative: Haruhiko Chizuki
Business area: Home-delivery sale of milk, tofu, udon and other food items
Date founded: December 12, 2000 |
1. Why and how the company was founded
Personal history of the founder: I worked for 18 years for a large distributor, selling short-life products. There, I experienced the positions of a manager of foods, drugstore representative, and other positions. I once even achieved sales of about 2.4 billion yen per year all alone.
It so happened that my father engaged in real estate rental and rented office space to Snow Brand Milk Products. Being the eldest son, I followed his father in renewing the office space rent and thought that milk sale might not be bad at all.
And the Japanese society entered an era when leading companies had to slim their workforce.
I watched a feature story on TV about milk delivery and thought that it is an industry required for the upcoming age of senior citizens. I also thought that running a convenience store was another good option, but that would require working together with my wife. She had been working for a large cosmetics company for 22 years. I had some good situations and good conditions for opening up a convenience store. But, having compared and studied the options, I consulted Mr. Nonomura of the local chamber of commerce and industry and decided on milk delivery. I chose it because milk delivery was something I could do all alone and a job where I could arrange my services on his own discretion.
Before I launched my business, a scandal surrounding Snow Brand occurred. In reality, about 80 percent of the former customers came back three months later. I found the business of milk delivery persistent.
The next year, the mad cow disease erupted. My associates and I lost about 50 customers (30 percent).
Attendance to the Entrepreneurship Workshop and other courses: After retirement, I attended schools on PCs and the tax laws for three months, thus learning how to land a new job and start up a business. When I went to Hello Work (Public Employment Security Office), I found a brochure on the Entrepreneurship Workshop and applied right away for the course of 2000. That was how I came to know the Entrepreneurship Workshop.
Before attending the course, I began to look for office space for starting his business. After six months of looking, I found the right space at last. |
2. Business overview
Description: Home delivery of milk products and food items
Characteristics: A job that one can do if only one has a refrigerator and a light truck
Concept: Bills are delivered to each consumer together with a copy of a home delivery bulletin (product explanations and information about health beans). 330 customers. |
3. How to raise funds
I started his business with a total of 7.3 million yen, consisting of 3.3 million yen as my own fund and 4 million yen in loan from the National Life Finance Corporation. I consulted Mr. Nonomura of the local chamber of commerce and industry. |
4. Challenges faced and actions and solutions taken
To solicit orders, I went to potential consumers with samples, while using a machine for measuring bone density at supermarkets and well-equipped public bathhouses to provide diagnoses of osteoporosis. I visited all potential customers to solicit orders.
To lure employees, I thought of doing so without spending too much money and of finding a good way to use 10,000 yen most effectively. The most important thing I thought of was to use his brains.
When I thought I could not come up with the results I wanted, I thought of running a help-wanted ad as the last resort.
Entrepreneurship point I: Pave the way by doing things you can do now.
When starting a business, it is important not to spend too much money. Remember to think from scratch. Do big investments lead to success? Or do successful people save money and use some ingenious ideas? The difference will probably get through to your customers as differences in your "wishes." |
5. Earlier plans and goals and the present status
It was really hard at first.
I had made a rather meticulous plan, but....
I made attempts with a three-year plan of policies and concepts, and achieved 50% of the targets.
I wanted his employees to understand that growing numbers of delivery personnel will make the company "more and more like a company gradually," and I employed three employees one after another. To lure applicants, I used Hello Work and ad inserts, along with other means, and took as long as six months.
The personnel he hired were one 20-year-old man who has been working but as part-timer only, a former insurance saleswoman aged 30, and a retiree aged 61.
The service hours are from 2:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., both very early in the morning. The delivery industry is another area being aggressively joined by large companies. However, large companies deliver the goods during the daytime because people do not want to deliver the goods early in the morning.
I stuck to early-morning delivery after all. Why? Because customers should want to drink tasty milk first thing in the morning.
Actually, milk delivery is limited to three days a week. It is a wonderful business model, where you can conduct transactions based on cash and you need no inventories, that is, you don't have to have a hard time in fund-raising. But there are two challenges: finding customers and securing personnel.
At first, I announced to my family that I would start new business on December 12, 2000, asking them to put up with the hard times for one year. My wife, who was team leader at a large cosmetics company, agreed willingly. |
6. Future development of his business
They say carmakers invest a sales cost of 200,000 yen per car. For people in my industry too, you could say that someone who has come up with a new efficient way to find customers will grow. You should change your thinking, and this may be true of every industry.
Newspaper and milk deliveries are profitable trades. Morinaga alone has 4,500 dealerships, Meiji 5,000, and as many as 18,000 nationwide.
However, I believe that the point to remember from now on is to find something that functions as the core, other than delivery. As an effective means of differentiation, I make it a rule to make a seasonal bulletin and deliver it to customers together with a bill.
I have the feeling that pursuing profit too much will not lead to success. After all, the service spirit is important. Why? Because sold things themselves are not differentiated.
Goal: I would like to establish a system where I do not have to deliver milk. I would like to acquire 1,000 customers in the Yatomi district. My goal is to convert my business into a joint-stock company when that target is achieved. Britain is the only country where a home delivery industry persists. But they use electric vehicles for delivery. I find it wonderful that they pay attention to the environment as well.
I would like to aim at achieving the British system as well. I hear that home delivery has disappeared in the United States. Why? It may be because the land is vast and buying large quantities of each product at a supermarket is part of the mainstream.
Entrepreneurship point IV: Take much time and effort to produce differentiation factors.
The more profitable a trade is, the more easily it produces differentiation factors. Why?
Because the entire industry is completely reassured. The more profitable, the more time and effort it may take to come up with ingenious ideas. But, at the same time, the more easily the results will come out. Use techniques used in other industries. |
7. Impressions I had on attending the Entrepreneurship Workshop, and subsequent guidance given by the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Mr. Nonomura of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Support Center gave me guidance on how to ask for loans, gave me advice about enterprise plans, and gave me various other assistance.
I had a hard time in asking loans for two and a half months. But it was decided that I would take the loan under a guarantee given by my wife and father. I successfully received two loans: one for equipment funding and another for running expenses with repayment periods of 5 and 9 years respectively. Mr. Nonomura advised me to ask persistently for the loans. So I did so persistently. |
8. What he obtained by starting his business
I have learned to control my time. When I was working with my wife, I worked all the time from seven in the morning until ten at night. I wanted to enjoy my hobbies during my free time.
I did golfing and weight lifting and I made friends there.
Not only Mr. Nomomura but people of my real-estate agency, landlord, and Chamber of Commerce and Industry provided particular care. |
9. His message to potential entrepreneurs
Mission, passion, and fashion are the keys.
It is fun to start your own business, you see. You start from scratch (actually from a negative figure), so all changes you can make are to turn into a positive figure.
Any kind of business offers some chances. It is fun to hear people say to me, "Thanks for your continued delivery, milkman!"
Entrepreneurship point VII: Become someone to be supported by people around.
On starting your business, you can build more direct human relationships than when you are in a big company. On the other hand, it becomes clear whether you become someone appreciated or not. Your business expresses nothing but your own life. |
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