Group evaluation:
Our team worked well together. We worked collaboratively and shared responsibilities throughout the whole unit. For selling our products we shared the responsibilities and the time to make and sell. By doing this it allowed us to have more time to further develop the product and our method of making it. Our profits were the highest in the class since we spent the most amount of time selling to the school.
Our team proved to be the most creative, and yet, proudly also the best managed. I believe the combination of our team members skills balanced out to an appropriate level of creativity and inspiration, alongside with necessary objective management skills (finance, client management, etc). Both of these are critical for a successful business, because the quality covers all bases, attracting customers, managing them, advertising, sales, etc, etc.
Self Reflections
(Abby).
For this unit I thinked I did a lot of work, but could have done more to help my team. If I had been more proactive I would have been able to do more for the time when I was gone. As for my partner Laila, I think she did a very good job. When I was gone and not able to help she was very responsible and took over the business. She did a lot to help our business and used her drawing skills to attract attention to our business when people had started to lose interest.
(Laila).
For this unit I believe I proved myself more responsible and capable than I originally predicted. While my best skills did prove effective in advertising; i.e poster designing, colour choice, etc. I also appeared to have shown skills in the Social category: I socialised well with our customers and even built small acquaintanceship/friendships with them and our conversations carry on even now. I also proved to work better in time management, a skill I always lacked. When my partner was absent for a week’s time I demonstrated I could manage all of the work independently.
While I did prove responsible while my partner was absent, she took on most of the responsibilities for the first period of time, managing our blog originally, advertising through emails and even engaging in the creative aspects, when I am aware that is not her forte or where she stands comfortable, which was highly appreciated. Including being in-charge of finance and making the full investment, in my opinion, the business is hers.
Suggested improvements:
A way that we could improve our product would be to find a way that could stop the color from leaking out and staining our customers hands. Another improvement would be to make the slime less sticky so that it would make less of a mess and would be easier for the customers to use. These improvements would allow us to reach some clients who have not wanted to buy our slime for various reasons. These changes would address some or most of those reasons.
As for improvements less specific to the product, and more specific to our team and managing our business, my biggest concern was our original investment. Originally we had invested more than we anticipated and had to return a few ingredients, but ultimately proved to be able to make a nice profit, which is what was important. Another change I would have made to our business would be to have spaced out sales and not sold so many products at once. This would space out our earnings and possibly increased them.
Profits and product
Total invested £45
Total made £190.45
Total profit 145.45
Individuals made £72.72
We worked to cover all our costs and ultimately make a sufficient and satisfying profit. We made the highest funds compared to any other student in the class, I believe we were so effective in our ability to both save our profits effectively, and spend strategically, thanks to the mathematical and business skills my associate possesses. Some shortcomings in our original investment were that we had invested quite a hefty amount, but after we realised we didn’t need everything we ordered and returned what wasn’t necessary. This may appear to have been a fault, but to me it appears as a reflecting example, we recognized that our original investment was too drastic, and then corrected it.
We sold almost all of our product, we roughly went threw 3 litres of glue, and there were only 5 product leftover which were kept for ourselves. It was really quite lucky that we we made such a significant profit because our ingredients were cheap, which might be the key to a successful business.
How we followed the 4P’s of marketing:
We followed the 4p’s of marketing because our place was in the canteen which is one of the busiest places in the school, this allowed lots of people to see our product. Secondly, our product was something that lots of the younger children at our school desired, this allowed us to have a specific target group that liked our product. Thirdly, we promoted our product a lot. We set up a poster that said when we would be selling and what we would be selling, we sent out emails the day before and the day of selling. Finally, our prices were fair for what we were selling. We were selling them at a price where we would make a profit but we wouldn't rip off our customers and this allowed them to come back to our business many times.
My partner and I sent out an email to four students asking them a few questions about our products. One of them responded (Maasyha) and we were thankfully able to evaluate and analyse what our businesses strengths were and what it lacked it the eyes of our target market.
Client Questions
Did you enjoy our product? Why?
I enjoyed your slime because it was available near us in a good price.
What would you change?
I think I would change how much you would make because you put 1 or 2 for each kind of slime you sold and maybe have more events so it can be more exciting.
Was the price fair? What price would you have preferred?
On most of the slime was fair in price, but for the "make it yourself slime" was a bit too expensive for what you’re getting for.
From this we can tell that our clients enjoyed our product due to it’s conveniency/ availability. I agree that this is important in selling a product for the same reason icecream trucks exist. If you go to your audience, they will see it as an opportunity and want your product. From this interview we can also see that we should have included more exciting deals and interactive activities. I agree with this because after awhile it became visible to us that our audience now owned our product, and now had no more reason to purchase more of it, unless they got an experience out of it. We can also see that our audience viewed our prices as fair, except the slime sundae bar. I don’t agree with this because the slime sundae bar offered the same amount of slime for approx half the price of the regular slime.