Update 10 Reflective Essay

Enterprise in Action has helped me gain a lot of experience needed in order for me to bring any idea I have alive as a business. I always wanted to start up my on company, but until this course I didn’t know how hard it would be and how many challenges I would come across. With a good team all willing to work harder and with the help of a mentor we were able to make it through the year. I still want to own my own company but I am unsure whether I will continue working with Entrepower, or use the skills learnt to start a new venture.

I had a bad start to the year as when I first started this course, due to timetable complications; I unfortunately missed the first session. When I did get to my first session it seemed that everyone had already formed their team. As I never knew anyone I started speaking to Aubery and Mein, they told me they had space in their group and that I could be the 5th member. My first impressions of the team were that they seemed like bright lads with no direction. The first challenge we faced was to figure out what our product will be or would it be a service. After various sessions brainstorming and discussing amongst ourselves and with our mentor at the time Roberto Sica we came up with various ideas. We had crazy ideas to impossible ideas some of the ideas we did have were Strapbag, Condom Holder and Sat Nav watch. After careful consideration we scraped our initial ideas and carried on searching for that one special idea we all believed in.

“I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting where the last person left off.” This quote from Thomas Edison kind of explains how I got the idea for the MobiHold which at the time we called Phone Charger Holder. The reason I came up with the idea was that I saw a product on the internet with a similar use but I knew that it could be improved on and perfected. At this point of our journey our mentor Roberto Sica had to leave us due to personal reasons. We had to figure out alone how and who was going to design and manufacture our product. Before deciding this we chose to give everyone a role within the business based on the skills they bring to the team. I was chosen to be managing director; Aubrey was human resource & operations manager, Mein and Makinth where the marketing and sales team and Gordon was the finance director.

When deciding to choose whether to make the product ourselves or to hire a manufacturer we had to consider what would be the most cost efficient for us as a company. After careful research we realised that to outsource production we would have to order a minimum of 1000 products. Although we didn’t get a quote for the price of such a big bulk we knew it would definitely be an expensive investment. We then calculated the costs of hand making the products, this varied from £2.50 to £3.50 per product depending on the price of the type of material brought. This led us to decide to in-house production because although we know that in the long run outsourcing production may have been cheaper, we wasn’t sure about our demand and we didn’t want to be left with unsellable stock. The team equally divided the initial costs for 24 products this was the amount we expected to sell. Once the manufacturing decision was out of the way we then realised that we hadn’t chosen a name for our company or the product. Mein chose the names EntrePower for the company and MobiHoldfor the product. Makinth created the company and product logo’s, the logo for the company shows our dream of reaching a global market. The product logo is an extension of the product itself as u see the m in Mobihold is ‘holding’ the rest of the word.

During the module we had a few sessions with a team of senior staff at Waitrose these were a big help for my team, reason being is that we were probably one of the least confident teams. During these sessions we regularly had to stand up in front of everyone, and give everyone an insight into where we were at. The real problem for the first few sessions was because we didn’t know what product we was during, whereas everyone else did which made us even more unconfident in ourselves. Once we had found our product which we felt was the most innovative in the class it gave us the confidence we needed to grow within ourselves.

Once we had our products ready to be sold we was criticized during a in class presentation of our progress because we never had packaging. One of the mentors suggested that we use cellophane to package our products as we never knew how to do it and still keep costs low. When we first saw cellophane we didn’t like it we thought it would devaluate our product after help from Makinth’s family members, he was able to package the products using the cellophane making it look professional as possible. The way he did it looked very good but it also looked slightly feminine which we thought might have an effect on our target market. He also stuck the Young Enterprise stickers on the back to show who we are affiliated with.

Once our product and packaging was sorted we was advised to sell the products at a high price of £9.99, we didn’t think that was going to sell so we stuck with £6.99. When the first trade fair came along on Penhryn Road campus we were not ready at all. Our stall was very plain and unorganised on top of that we only sold 1. That was a real bad day for the team but the next trade fair we made sure it looked more attractive. We done this by adding a nice table cloth sorting out our layout and brought an extension cable to give a visual of how the product works. Something else we added was a deal for 2 products for £10 to try and help us gain more sales. The deal worked out for us although we still only made one sale this trade fair at least we knew that the deal was a good option to add. We then realised that all it was holding us back was our pricing so for the next trade fair on Kingston hill we would lower our prices. Our prices were lowered significantly which helped us make 16 sales, this showed us that the only problem was our pricing and there is definitely a high demand for our product within the market.

Towards the end of our journey we had to present our product to judges in a dragons den style. We had to talk about our journey the ups and the downs including finance and our future wishes for the company. Our mock dragons den presentation this was our last practices in front of judges in order for us to get feedback for the final a week later. Because some of the team members had prior engagements and coursework deadlines we were not able to practice before the mock. Because we did not practice our performance was not that good no one knew exactly what they had to say and these mess up lead us to go over the 8min limit. The feedback that was provided by the dragons was that we needed to practice more and be more enthusiastic. A week later was the final dragons den presentation this time we was fully prepared we redone our presentation slides less information less pictures. We also had a lot of practice to ensure that our timing was right. At first the timing was very off each team member had to adjust their speeches to enable us to meet the 5-8 min presentation time. The feedback we got from the dragons was that confidence wise as a group we have improved greatly. One of the dragons liked our product so much they brought two for £10 as soon as we finished the presentation.

During this course I learnt that my strengths are that I can push my team to work harder and boost their morals, I also learned how confident I can be. I also noticed some weaknesses within myself one being that I take too much of an laid back approach to a lot of stuff which sometimes leads me to being lazy and not getting things done until last minute.

Refrences
http://www.thomasedison.com/quotes.html

Update 9 last trade fair

On the 09/05/2013 we had our last chance to sell our remaining products as a team in the last trade fair. This last trade fair was on kingston hill campus in the business school. Because most people have already finished lectures and are getting ready for their exams we assumed there wouldnt be much people around to buy products. We was wrong this trade fair we reduced our costs too 4.99 and made the most sales ever during a trade fair.

Update 8 dragons den mock and final

On the 25/04/2013 we had our second mock dragons den presentation the was our last practices infront of judges in order for us to get feedback for the final a week later. because some othe the team members had prior engangements and courswork deadlines we were not able to practice before the mock.

because we did not practice our performance was not that good noone knew exactly what they had to say and these mess up lead us to go over the 8min limit. The feedback that was provided by the dragons was that we needed to practice more and be more enthusiatic about our product in the inital pitch and they also suggested thet we add to our reflection that we did not take all the chances we had to make as much sales as possible. The dragons also said that our presentation slides where to cramped and messy, we had too much information per slide and too much pictures which would distract our audience from what we are actually saying.

A week later On the 03/05/2013 was the final dragons den presentation this time we was fully prepared we redone our presntation slides less information less pictures. We also had a lot of practice to ensure that our timing was right. At first the timing was very off each team member had to adjust there speeches to enable us to meet the 5-8 min presentation time. the feedback we got from the dragons was that confidence wise as a group we have improved greatly. One of the dragons liked our product so muvh they brought two for £10 as soon as we fninshed the presentation.

Update 7 trade fair 2

On the 21/03/2013 team Entrepower had our second chance to sell our product to the public in Kingston Market Square. from the feedback given on the last trade fair we was able to improve the presentation of our stall. First as a team we went and got a large piece of material to makew the markjet stall look attractive. We also improved the way in which we presented our product by categorizing each product by design. I brought in a extenstion plug that we was able to use to easily show customers how our product works, this made explaining it a lot easier.

because of ther weather on this day there wasn’t many customers around but we did manage to sell 2 products on a offer of 2 for £10. the customer who did buy our products did say that it was quite highly priced this advice as well as where the next fair would be held swayed us to reduce our future price.

update 6 Trade Fair 1

On the 28/02/2013 my team and I had our first trade fair, this was our first time selling our product to part of our target market. This trade fair was a good opportunity for our team to gain first hand experience of one to one sales. We didn’t have any experience of selling our product as we had missed out on the previous trade fairs Milton Abbey cancelled due to weather conditions and Croydon because we did not have enough products made in time.

During for preparation of the trade fair each member of the team played a role to help us maximise sales. Makinth along with some family help made the products by hand as well as packaging them as professionally as possible using cellophane and left over material. Aubery and I both took pictures of our product to post up around our stall to catch the eyes of potential customers. Gordon controlled the financial part of each sale by recording each sale and creating receipts for customers. Mein was taking our products around the trade fair to try to bring in more customers for the team.

The feedback we was given from customers and judges was that our product was very innovative but we did not have a good layout. We also lacked a visual presentation of what purpose our product served. From the feedback given we knew what we had to do to improve the look and presentation of our stall in the next trade fair.

Update 5 last John Lewis session

One the 7th of February our team had our last session with the John Lewis group. This session was all about merchandising and presentation skills, the idea was to help us with our pitches when it came to selling our products face to face at the trade fair on the 28th of feb and 21st of march. During the session my team and I had to present our business and where we are at the moment, the John Lewis team provided feedback on how we presented and how we could improve. The main feedback we was given was about finding some sort of packaging for our product as well as our pricing. The pricing for us was very hard as we was given various prices when asking people what they would pay these prices ranged from around £4 to £10. Choosing a specific price would be hard for us because we wanted low pricing but because of the costs plus labour it would be hard to make out products less that £6 and still make a desired profit.

Update 4 back to business

For our first session back EntrePower met back up to discuss the main roles within our business being the managing director (me), financial director (Gordon), marketing and sales (Mein & Makinth) and the human resource manager (Aubrey). During the session we also had a look at a teams presentation of their product from a previous year. Watching their presentation have us an idea of how much practice and what kind of confidence is needed when presenting for a larger audience than we are used to.

Entrepowers Finished Product The Phone Charger Holder!!

Blog Update 3 Mock Dragons den

The week of the mock dragons den was a stressful time for the Entrepower team we practised throught the week to ensure we had the best pitch possible. on the day of the mock dragons den the whole team was nervous but we practiced the pitch over and over again until we perfected it. Our pitch was based on the product we had finally chosen and stuck to which was a hand made phone charger holder made of recycled bottles.

after practicing all day we then met with another group who’s product was personalised mugs, with the other group we both took turns presenting our pitch’s. To help with timing and to give pointers or advice where it was needed. This also helped our team with by boosting our confidence once we knew what other people thought of it.

the time finally came for our team to present our pitch to the Mentors we were all once again nervous as we were the last team to present. Having watch other very good pitch’s wer had to ensure ours was up to scratch. It seemed our practising payed off in the end as the mentors were really into our product and provided pretty good feedback with little criticism.

 

Blog Update 2 opening bank account

On the 26/11/2012, Team Entrepower officially opened the business bank account at Santander in Kingston. Unfortunatly I was unable to make the meeting at santander as  I had an exam on the date that Aubrey (HR manager) arranged it. Once i had finished my exam Aubrey updated me on what happened and let me know that the team would receieve business account cards in the coming days.