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Solar Feeder

In: Business and Management

Submitted By johnsonb3
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Solar Feeder Case

The company Squirrel Defense Inc (SDI) was founded primarily by two men Bo Haeberie and Ed Welsh in october of 1998. With a stroke of luck these two men had the idea for what is now known as the Solar Feeder. This ingenious idea was a bird feeder that can repel squirrels with a small electric shock that at the same time is completely self sustaining through solar energy. While this idea and the product have proven to be popular and in demand overall the business strategy lacks sound fundamentals and a clear strategy, these are some of the problems SDI has faced since it's inception. The first problem SDI encountered was the time and energy that was spent creating the first solar feeder in the basement of Bo's house. Also, without the use of a professional engineer when first creating the Solar Feeder Bo and Ed spent more per unit then was actually necessary. This eventually led to a very high costs averaging around 90 dollars to produce just one unit which would then retail for approximately 300 dollars. This one fact can potentially limit the overall size and success of this company. Selling a product for a high amount in what is already a limited market will severely limit the potential customer base and thus amount of sales SDI can make. Along with thigh costs per unit two other areas of concern are in the production an distribution of their birdhouses. Even though the company has a proven product that is in high demand their production issues could be their downfall. In 1999 SDI had a six month period of back ordered delinquencies and wasn't able to fulfill any new orders. Part of this production issue stemmed from the fact that SDI was contracting untrustworthy companies to for integral parts of their two products. With the majority of the outsourced parts being "dimensionally out of tolerance" SDI's production was at a stand still and

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