Senior Savanna Wierenga wins prize for small business plan, ‘Ecoliners’

Home Features Senior Savanna Wierenga wins prize for small business plan, ‘Ecoliners’
Senior Savanna Wierenga wins prize for small business plan, ‘Ecoliners’

For the first time since 2013, a Hillsdale College faculty panel recognized a student’s work with the Twardzik Family Business Development Plan Award. Senior Savanna Wierenga received the honor for the business development plan she created for the Small Business Seminar.
“Savanna put a great deal of thought into her idea, which was evident in the quality of her final plan,” Associate Professor of Marketing Susan King said in an email.
Following the five-day, ten-hour course taken immediately after the fall of 2015 finals, Wierenga completed her plan for EcoLiners LLC. And now from the encouragement of her professors, Wierenga is looking to patent her creation and go into business based off her model with her father, John.
“I was surprised I won because the panel of people who graded it are really tough, but my hard work paid off,” Wierenga said. “I was shocked, but I wasn’t flabbergasted. I knew I put a lot of time into my project.”
EcoLiners are drum liners designed to protect homeowner’s outdoor trash bins from becoming messy. Designed for replacement every week, EcoLiners are made of biodegradable material that will not contribute to the growing size of America’s landfills, Wierenga said.
“It reduces infestation, reduces the cleaning on the inside; it reduces the smell, and it reduces debris falling out due to the wind or to garbage man improperly disposing the trash,” Wierenga said. “I figured the ‘eco’ would cater to all the green millennials. It’s just a big buzz word really.”
The bags are one foot longer than the trashcans to fold around the lip of the bins. EcoLiners can hold the full trash bags, and to empty the outdoor bins, all a person needs to do is pull the drawstring and take out the liner.
“It’s basically a trash bag for your trash bags,” Wierenga said.
A resident of Grand Rapids, Wierenga said cleaning out the outdoor trash bins during Michigan’s hot and sticky summers was a smelly job.
“It was just a gross project, and I didn’t like doing it,” Wierenga said.
That chore, however, lead her to develop EcoLiners and receive the business award.
In implementing the five topics covered in the small business seminar — marketing, management, finance, legal, and human resources — Wierenga spoke to suppliers, distributors, and other experts in creating her plan.
“She secured pricing from suppliers and talked to key groups to determine market demand and probable sales channels for the product,” King said. “In addition, she prepared detailed market and financial projections yielding a comprehensive understanding of her proposed business from concept to fruition.”
Wierenga contributed more than 40 hours of work to the project, which made her stand out to the judges, especially considering much of her communication with business professionals occurred during a 10-day trip to India over break, where there’s an 11-hour time difference.
“Her heart was in it,” John Wierenga said. “On the 14-hour flight next to me, she may have slept four hours. I kept hearing her banging on her computer.”
Savanna Wierenga first brought up the idea of working with her dad, who, as the president of Pilgrim’s Capital Advisors, has experience in business.
“I really think there’s a market for it,” John Wierenga said. “Coming at it from a parent and now business partner, I was just really impressed with Savanna’s enthusiasm about the five days of the class, and, when she came home after, her intensity and her heart, it was genuine. She asked a lot of questions.”
Savanna Wierenga chose Austin, Texas, as her target market. At $66,000 per year, household profit margins are larger than the national average, and the business-friendly environment makes opening a company there less risky, she said.
“Your business really has to tank there for them to take away your house, your dog, your car,” Wierenga said.
Additionally, Austin places environmentalism as one of its highest priorities. For example, the city bans plastic and paper grocery bags unless made of recycled material.
“They’re very green, and they’re working on a zero waste policy by 2019,” Wierenga said. “They will eat this idea up.”
The only business class Wierenga took prior to the seminar was Principles of Marketing. She studies Speech and English, though after graduation, she will work for Amazon’s human resources department.
Patent lawyers estimated it will take 20 to 30 hours of legal work for Wierenga to get her invention patented.
Wierenga said there are a few products like hers in circulation, such as biodegradable bags for lawn trimmings. None, however, are the size for outdoor depositories and include a drawstring.
Once Wierenga earns the patent, it will last for 10 years. During that time, she said she hopes to start the small business.
Until then, Wierenga is busy completing her senior thesis, preparing for graduation — and passing Science 101.
As for the business seminar, Wierenga said it was the most fruitful class she has taken at Hillsdale.
“You learn a lot of practical things for the business world that you’d never take into consideration before,” Wierenga said. “I give props to everyone who starts their own business and is successful.”