Thursday, August 21, 2008
Saving For the Future With Cloth Diapers
This Summer, I have been fortunate to be part of a CBC Radio Business Makeover Series. I was paired up with a group of university business students from St. F.X. University in Antigonish to go over a pressing business question I had: whether or not to open a retail location. Rosie from SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) and I met, chatted, and she and her colleagues worked out a budget and a few scenarios as to what could happen if Nurtured were to have a greater presence in the community. The interview can be heard here: nurtured.ram.
Following the interview, I received a number of interesting emails, including this one from a listener in Ontario:
"Dear April,
I just heard your interview on CBC; I admire your resolve regarding your enterprise. Let me contribute some good news.
My sons were born 1989 and 1990, at a time when I was commuting 70 minutes each way through Toronto traffic to my job as a programmer-analyst. So I was busy all around. Nevertheless, I decided to use cloth diapers for my children, even though I had two in diapers simultaneously.
According to some statistics at the time (please verify for yourself), one can save $1000 per year per child when going this route, compared to using disposables. Based on this I decided to put the $1000 once a year into our mortgage, which at the time - hear this - resulted in one year less in mortgage payments at the end. So in other words, every year of washing diapers took one year off our mortgage! *) This was a beautiful incentive, and perhaps you can work out the latest figures and present this to your customers.
*) It depends on what "stage" the mortgage is at. Ours, being in its early years, was still very interest-heavy, so the $1000 directly against the principal made a big difference.
Besides, as mentioned I was really busy with a high-responsibility job, two babies and the commute. I didn't however find it a particular hardship to wash diapers when I came home. (It's not as if we had to scrub them on rocks beside the creek.) In the summer I hung them on the line, and in the winter I strung them up in the laundry room. I secured a babysitter who was cooperative ("... and by the way, I use cloth diapers. I would bring you an odour-free pail to collect them. Would you mind...?" After everything was discussed, of course Maggie wouldn't.) Once the washing became routine, it was a win-win situation all around.
Let me congratulate you on your enthusiasm, April and your benevolent motives. Have I mentioned I'm not a programmer any more? I have been an entrepreneur for the last 14 years. Together with my husband, I am now an Environmental Consultant.
Best of luck and much success!"
Anyone who has attended our workshops knows that using cloth diapers saves up to $2,000 per child. Imagine if we did actually apply this savings to our mortgages, or create an RESP for our children, this is a very exciting proposition!Labels: cloth diapers
|
Archives
Brand Labels
Category Labels
Friends of Nurtured
|
Account
Subscribe to Posts [