Background: BOSS is a Berkeley based non-profit that aims to improve the health and financial situation of the poor, homeless, and disabled by providing a variety of resources ranging from transitional housing to professional development. BOSS was looking to create a benefit corporation, similar to what Ben and Jerry's has, specifically to employ the formerly incarcerated and provide them with a steady, livable wage in hopes that having a job will lower their risk of recidivism.
Solution: My team and I were tasked with identifying the most feasible industry for BOSS to create a benefit corporation in as well as creating a 5-year plan for the proposed business. We developed a sustainable business model that would reintegrate formerly incarcerated individuals into society while ensuring that the business would be profitable and the employees provided with a livable wage. We benchmarked over 125 similar benefit corporations and used Excel to build an algorithm that ranked businesses based on feasibility, profit, and demand. Upon meeting with the board at the midpoint of our timeline and mutually agreeing upon the proposed business, we projected costs for the initial 5 years and developed training, sponsorship, and marketing strategies to optimize employment and profit.
Impact: We ultimately proposed a mold remediation service to BOSS given their existing investment in related equipment, the abundance of demand in the Alameda region, and its optimal positioning as a decent source of income with low skill barriers to entry and plenty of room for growth. At our final presentation, a representative from Alameda County was invited and, by the end of our presentation, was sold on the business plan and agreed to hire BOSS's future business as a contractor for county property developments. 5 months after the completion of our project, BOSS was able to secure $150k in funding for their benefit corporation.
As marketing chair, I redesigned core marketing materials such as flyers, infographics, and Facebook cover photos using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. A majority of our club's marketing comes from word of mouth and Facebook, so I promoted a "Humans of TBG" campaign that reached over 1.9k people to advertise our club's diversity and reach more underrepresented segments of Berkeley's student body. I also set out to standardize our club members' Facebook profile pictures and cover photos during the weeks of recruitment in order to create a stronger Facebook presence. As a result, TBG achieved a record-breaking number of applicants, a 9% increase from past semesters.