Business Plan: Thrift-A-Truck

Social Entrepreneurship has shown me how to create my own business and how I would present my ideas to investors. Throughout the class, we have discussed what makes a great business. A great business has a plan, a mission, and a vision along with highlighting the target audiences and budgets. The main kind of businesses that we talked about in class were non-profits who use their gains for the greater good. There are also companies that use their business to make money and to improve their own business. Here, I am focusing on a social business called Thrift-A-Truck that works towards helping low-income families and people around the Chicagoland area. It's basically a thrift store on wheels that travels through different Chicago neighborhoods. I chose to create this business because since I was a kid, I've always loved antique shops and consignment stores. I live a little outside Chicago so I'm not as close to the stores I'd like to shop at. Thrift-A-Truck is really made to benefit people who are tired of traveling long distances just to shop at resale stores. I want to make thrifting fun and easy for my community.

I found this Action Project really challenging because I had to think outside the box, and I've never thought of making my own business. It took a lot of work to research evidence that can back up my claims. I really liked that I'm able to make a change through fashion and this is a head start if I actually wanted to pitch this to investors, which is exciting to me.

VIA @NicoleMclaughlin on Instagram, Patagonia Skirt.
Nicole is a designer who reuses clothes to design new clothes.
She has made a suitcase of sneakers, bras out of Nike socks,
shoes out of tennis balls, and so much more.

To see my calculations in detail: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14XcL-UKYgh_44HJIeR6OI-5wd2s-SutUejnYdpx0lww/edit?usp=sharing

Citations:

“Industry Market Research, Reports, and Statistics.” IBISWorld, www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/thrift-stores-industry/.

“The Largest Online Consignment & Thrift Store®.” ThredUP, www.thredup.com/.

Write Your Business Plan, www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/write-your-business-plan.