September 17, 2007
Green scene | A chat with Fred Horch, co-founder of F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies in Brunswick.
Founded: July 2006
Startup costs: $150,000
Employees: Horch, plus six part-time workers
Revenue, year one: $150,000
Projected revenue, year two: $300,000
Contact: 729-4050
56 Maine St., Brunswick 04101
www.fwhorch.com
How do you explain your store to prospective customers?
We struggle with that. I don't know how to explain it, other than that we're a little teeny department store. We sell a lot of different things, in a lot of different areas, and if you would like to figure out a way to help save the planet with your daily purchases, come and talk to me, because we can help you save energy. We can help you prevent pollution.
Tell me how you came to open this store.
My wife is a professor at Bowdoin College and I'm the trailing spouse. I practiced law in North Carolina, worked for an Internet [start-up], so I had a chance to cash out of that and just think about what I want to do with my life. And I decided that, of all the things you can work on, saving the planet is the most important thing. So I worked in the nonprofit sector.
When I came to Maine, I worked for [Maine Interfaith Power and Light]. And it was a great opportunity to meet a lot of people in the state, and among the people I met were the folks who own the Green Store up in Belfast. I really liked what they were doing, and in particular I liked the idea that you can have a mission to protect the planet and do what I was doing in the nonprofit world, but as a for-profit business.
I thought, if I had a store that was like the Green Store, that would be fantastic, and so I got in touch with the [owners] and said, "We should open a Green Store in Brunswick," so that's how this idea started.
Then what happened?
When I was running the Green Store, it's actually a very, very broad store. They sell everything from vitamins to clothing to the core products we sell in this store, and it was too much for me. I really wanted to focus on what I can do to help people save the planet, so that's when we decided to split off from the Green Store and start this store.
What are some of the most popular items?
Our big thing is composting. It's a really simple thing that everybody can do. Composting is the new recycling. Everybody makes garbage. The question is, what are you going about it? Forty percent of your garbage on average could be composted. You can compost in a warm bin under your kitchen counter. It takes up about three sq. ft., it can be done year round and it makes great compost.
And back when Al Gore's film was very prominent, we sold a ton of [energy efficient] light bulbs. That's since fallen out; it might pick up again when it gets darker, I don't know. But boy, Al Gore's film. One of the things they said at the end of the film was that you can buy light bulbs, so everybody came in, and we have a great collection of light bulbs.
How do you market the store?
One thing I try to do is be engaged in the community. So I give talks a lot, we go to events and we have a free email newsletter. We have talks in the store. And I send out press releases announcing the talks. One of our talks, for example, was an electric car demonstration, and we got on the front page of the paper here.
How do you cut down on your own energy consumption?
We use our own products. We used our paint on the walls, we used pine board without finish on them. Day to day, we try to turn the lights off when we can, we reuse packing material, we reuse our [shipping] boxes.
Another thing I did was hire people who think about [the environment], and so it just comes naturally to them, like, "Where do we recycle?" That's always the question when people first get hired here. If there's anything a business can do [to save energy], it's hire people that have the right mindset, because they'll think of all kinds of things that maybe the business owners don't think of in the day-to-day operations.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
Startup costs: $150,000
Employees: Horch, plus six part-time workers
Revenue, year one: $150,000
Projected revenue, year two: $300,000
Contact: 729-4050
56 Maine St., Brunswick 04101
www.fwhorch.com
How do you explain your store to prospective customers?
We struggle with that. I don't know how to explain it, other than that we're a little teeny department store. We sell a lot of different things, in a lot of different areas, and if you would like to figure out a way to help save the planet with your daily purchases, come and talk to me, because we can help you save energy. We can help you prevent pollution.
Tell me how you came to open this store.
My wife is a professor at Bowdoin College and I'm the trailing spouse. I practiced law in North Carolina, worked for an Internet [start-up], so I had a chance to cash out of that and just think about what I want to do with my life. And I decided that, of all the things you can work on, saving the planet is the most important thing. So I worked in the nonprofit sector.
When I came to Maine, I worked for [Maine Interfaith Power and Light]. And it was a great opportunity to meet a lot of people in the state, and among the people I met were the folks who own the Green Store up in Belfast. I really liked what they were doing, and in particular I liked the idea that you can have a mission to protect the planet and do what I was doing in the nonprofit world, but as a for-profit business.
I thought, if I had a store that was like the Green Store, that would be fantastic, and so I got in touch with the [owners] and said, "We should open a Green Store in Brunswick," so that's how this idea started.
Then what happened?
When I was running the Green Store, it's actually a very, very broad store. They sell everything from vitamins to clothing to the core products we sell in this store, and it was too much for me. I really wanted to focus on what I can do to help people save the planet, so that's when we decided to split off from the Green Store and start this store.
What are some of the most popular items?
Our big thing is composting. It's a really simple thing that everybody can do. Composting is the new recycling. Everybody makes garbage. The question is, what are you going about it? Forty percent of your garbage on average could be composted. You can compost in a warm bin under your kitchen counter. It takes up about three sq. ft., it can be done year round and it makes great compost.
And back when Al Gore's film was very prominent, we sold a ton of [energy efficient] light bulbs. That's since fallen out; it might pick up again when it gets darker, I don't know. But boy, Al Gore's film. One of the things they said at the end of the film was that you can buy light bulbs, so everybody came in, and we have a great collection of light bulbs.
How do you market the store?
One thing I try to do is be engaged in the community. So I give talks a lot, we go to events and we have a free email newsletter. We have talks in the store. And I send out press releases announcing the talks. One of our talks, for example, was an electric car demonstration, and we got on the front page of the paper here.
How do you cut down on your own energy consumption?
We use our own products. We used our paint on the walls, we used pine board without finish on them. Day to day, we try to turn the lights off when we can, we reuse packing material, we reuse our [shipping] boxes.
Another thing I did was hire people who think about [the environment], and so it just comes naturally to them, like, "Where do we recycle?" That's always the question when people first get hired here. If there's anything a business can do [to save energy], it's hire people that have the right mindset, because they'll think of all kinds of things that maybe the business owners don't think of in the day-to-day operations.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments