In keeping with this blog's aim of publishing Perth-centric content I will include interviews with local business owners from time to time. The last such person I spoke to was Roy Butler who owns Tanks Very Much, which is based in Bibra Lake. His company produces rainwater tanks and raised garden beds as well as other products for those with a green thumb. He kindly answered my questions about working in the green business niche:

MATT: Roy, I'm interested in how your business has grown. What sort of people buy your products? Are they mostly those with a green outlook, or are they more wide ranging than that?

ROY: They're very wide ranging. Sometimes it's gentlemen in retirement villages who enjoy gardening, but whose knees are bad, and can't work on the ground anymore. So the raised garden beds give them that joy again. Or it's families with young kids who want to teach kids where veggies come from and show them the magic of planting seeds and seeing what happens when you apply water and sunshine.

MATT: So it's not just people who have that philosophical commitment to sustainability, etc?

ROY: Everybody's a gardener at heart. Somewhere down the line people want to get their hands dirty and grow their own food.

MATT: Thinking specifically about Perth -- where the cost of living has increased: Do they have economic reasons for buying rainwater tanks?

ROY: Unfortunately the government stopped the grant for rainwater tanks. People who get rain water tanks now are paying for it. But they are getting free rainwater from the sky. They are helping save water resources which are limited. A tank for the next twenty years will give you a supply of rainwater each year.

MATT: And what about other motivations ... Do they have concerns about fluoride in the water, for example? Are things like that a consideration?

ROY: Absolutely. That's mostly summed up by people saying, I don't like the taste of the tap water.

MATT: Is there some sort of government regulation regarding cleanliness and hygiene when it comes to the tanks?

ROY: I can't say that you can drink water out of a rainwater tank. I'm not allowed to say that. Rainwater tanks disappeared off the scene because of hygiene problems. So you do have to look after them. They're not like a solar system that just sits there and does the work. You do have to do the work and keep the gutters clean. You have to actually look at the tank water.

MATT: How often would you have to do that?

ROY: Say maybe two times through the rainy season. About once a month. Take a look at it. You're saving water every day, so you're taking responsibility for it. You need to look after it.

MATT: And what is your biggest seller -- the rainwater tanks or the raised garden beds?

ROY: Absolutely the raised garden beds. They keep the doors open.

MATT: Thinking of the business itself, how did it all start?

ROY: I had been working away. I wanted more time at home. I thought if I were to start my own business I should do it now. I'm not getting any younger. I wanted to get away from working for somebody else and get to do things the way I want. So I was looking for something that was hands on, environmentally friendly and manufacturing something I could sell to people and sleep at night knowing that I'd given them a good product. And rainwater tanks came into that category. So that's why I started with them. Unfortunately six months later the grant was cancelled. That made paying bills quite hard because demand for tanks dropped off drastically. But the veggie gardens came into their own and are proving popular year after year.

MATT: And is there any suburb or area that you do most of your business in? More environmentally conscious areas like Fremantle come immediately to my mind, but are your customers all over Perth?

ROY: A lot of the veggie tanks do go around close to the Freo area -- for example, there's one street in Coolbellup. They're Independent of one another but there are three houses in the one street that have garden beds ... But it ranges fom Joondalup to Armadale to Rockingham. I don't know where they're gonna go next!

MATT: How much do they cost?

ROY: Garden beds are around two hundred dollars. You can get a few nice crops of veggies going on in them.

MATT: So, it's not a luxury item, then ...

ROY: No, and the knee height ones are easy to fill. You just dump the soil in there and get your seeds in. They're easy to get up ... The higher ones are more for people with bad backs that can't get down to the ground anymore. So you raise the garden up to them. They take a bit more to fill. But a day's work gets one of those organized. You've got a garden at working height for the next ten years.

MATT: Thanks for your thoughts, and all the best with the business.

Applications are all the rage these days. You can get one for just about anything. I'm curious about how and why people create these apps, so I asked some questions of Leigh O'Brien, a Perth resident who co-created an intriguing and popular app called My Fantastic Funeral.

MATT: Firstly, please tell me about your app My Fantastic Funeral. What were the project's main motivations, and how did it come about?

LEIGH: My Fantastic Funeral is an app designed to solve two problems. It enables you to create the send off you want and relieves the stress for the family and loved ones left behind. You simply:

Add music.
Add photos.
Add other details.

Then share this information with family and friends to ensure your wishes come true. It is like an extension of your will with all the finer details included.

Above all My Fantastic Funeral is all about making your final farewell one to remember. Gone are the days where funerals have to be morbid affairs. Funerals should be personal,memorable and above all fun. It is a celebration of your life here on earth. The My Fantastic Funeral app was created to make funeral planning effortless and to assist you in making sure you go out with a bang!

The idea came about when a friend and I heard a song on the radio and thought we want this at our funeral but had no way of making sure our loved ones would play it so we decided to make an app and include a lot more detail. You can even use the app to tell people what dress code you would like as well as what charity you would like donations made to, where you want your ashes scattered and who should speak during the service.. We have tried to cover all bases.

MATT: It's an unusual idea, but I know that it's been quite successful. I'd imagine that some people would be skeptical about its potential appeal. Was this the case or not?

LEIGH: Let’s face it we plan and celebrate all big milestones in our life such as birthdays, christenings and weddings. We believe your funeral should be no different. In fact it is even more important to get the details right because funnily enough “you won’t be there ...”

The topic of funerals has been a bit taboo over the years but I think that attitude is changing. There seems to be so many more cases of cancer and other illnesses so people are starting to think about getting their affairs in order and I think the funeral planning is part of that process.

I know my dad who is a baby boomer felt a little bit strange about discussing funeral arrangements but once he understood the concept behind the app he changed his view. When he found out we would have played a song he didn’t want he soon cottoned on and realized why the app is important and what purpose it is there for.

I also asked some Gen-Y kids what they thought and they seemed not to be phased by the concept and thought it was a good idea. We also got some good feedback from an article that was featured in the Border Mail from some older readers so I think its slowly catching on.

MATT: Apps are huge business and amazingly popular. But do you need much technical skill to create them? If you aren't "geeky" enough to do it all yourself, how do you go about realizing your vision?

LEIGH: Initially we looked into building the app ourselves but discovered it would take us a long time to learn how to do it so we opted to have someone build it for us. We used the internet to make enquiries and got 3 or 4 quotes from different capital cities before deciding on a company. It was only supposed to take 2-3 months but in the end took about 6 months.

MATT: What advice would you give to anyone intending to create their own apps?

LEIGH: If you have the knowledge and skills then sure go ahead and build it yourself but if you are like us complete beginners I would suggest to outsource it to a professional.. I think it saved us a lot of headaches in the long run.
If you have a good idea for an app get some advice and give it a go. it is a little bit scary but you have to take risks to be successful.

MATT: What promotional methods have been the most effective, and why?

LEIGH: We started out on Facebook and Twitter and they have been working well for us. We are slowly building a following. We have just had a few articles published in local newspapers which seemed to have created some interest. We are hoping to feature in some big newspapers and on some current affairs programs in the future to further promote the app.

The app has been downloaded  in 11 countries so far and we are hoping that word of mouth will assist us in spreading the news about the app. We have a website: myfantasticfuneral.com.

MATT: Do you have plans to create other apps in the future. If so, what are they?

LEIGH: At the moment we will just concentrate on this one. We have plans to further develop My Fantastic Funeral so it will enable video.

I would love to create more apps in the future. I have been chatting to my niece and nephew about a fun game app so we will have to wait and see if we can get that one up and running..Its all about having fun on the journey..after all thats what life is about.