LifeCycles Project Society is interested in starting a social enterprise to help support program costs of our organization. Upon initial research we are interested in starting a holistic landscaping business that includes traditional landscaping services in addition to the creation and maintenance of native pollinator gardens, and drought resistant gardens. As one of our organization's main program's is the Fruit Tree Project, which works to rescue as much unwanted backyard fruit as possible, our landscaping business will also include fruit tree pruning and care. We want to encourage Tree Stewards to see their property as part of the Urban Orchard as opposed to a singular property - pollinators don't understand property lines. We want to offer this service through different subscription based models - ex. 4 times a year; 2 times a year solely to prune fruit trees; monthly; bi-weekly. We do not want to encourage one off customers but instead build a stable clientele base.

The primary focus for the student will be:

• Marketing - Complete a full customer, competitor, market, and environmental analysis of holistic landscaping businesses in Victoria, BC. Design a new marketing strategy based on the above analysis for our holistic landscaping business (product, place, price, and promotion);
• Strategy - Develop an implementation plan for entering a new market based on the above marketing and business plan development; identify funding and grant opportunities that would allow us to offer our landscaping service for free or heavily discounted to seniors, newcomers to Canada and other marginalized communities.

Our goal at the end of this experience is:

Marketing - For the student(s) to help us understand the gaps in the current holistic landscaping businesses already offered in Victoria, BC

Marketing - For the student(s) to develop a basic business plan for a holistic landscaping business based on the gaps they discovered by other businesses currently offering similar services. 

Strategy - For the student(s) to help us better understand how to break into the market based on the basic business plan described above

Strategy - For the student(s) to help us secure new funding that would allow us to offer our landscaping services at a discounted rate to various marginalized or under-served communities.