Puckerup Update

We are moving along in our business, but we are hitting a hard time with sales.  We are changing our marketing strategy in order to attract more prospective buyers.  The Google Form was not successful at all (only 2 orders), so we printed out order forms and put them in students boxes. It has been one day since the forms were placed and we have sold 3 units because of this method. 
The Grind has also sold a small number of units, so our partnership is working well. 

Our new project in our business is to make a video and written pitch for Kickstarter.  We are in the mitts of writing our written pitch then after that has been completed we will write the script of the video and film.   Our written pitch includes our pivot from the backpack company, our hurdles, what the funding would go to, our benefits, and our tagline.  We still need to come up with our tagline and plan to do that during this class period.  

Since our last post we have sold a total of 56 units making $112.  In order to meet our success goal we need to sell 24 more units.  We have added labels to our tubes so that look more professional.  

Tundra Tools Update #8: Opening/Trial Week

Last week, Tundra Tools opened behind the circulation desk for our trial. On Monday the 20th, we ended up not opening because of miscommunication and because we were not quite prepared. On Wednesday, Tundra Tools officially opened for the first time. We brought in containers to hold our items and stored everything in Kate's locker for easy transport to the library. Many people became aware of the business because of the time we chose to open (during break). We made a few sales, and some customers gave us feedback about our store and new items we should stock. After school that day, we purchased earphones and iPhone chargers to add to our inventory. Our most popular items have been highlighters, pens, and iPhone chargers. However, we made a mistake and ended up selling one of our chargers for the wrong price, causing us to lose five dollars. It was not a huge loss, but it helped us to reassess our communication. Also, we have observed that Tundra Tools gets the most business during break rather than during our free periods. This week, we plan to meet with Mrs. Sanderson to discuss our trial week and future plans for Tundra Tools. 

Team member Adam with our first two dollars

Husky BuyPass - Launch Delayed & Reflection

Unfortunately, we recently received an email saying we were rejected for the Amazon Affiliate marketing program. However, we are not letting this news get us discouraged, especially since at the time they reviewed our website we were still in our early development. We will continue to submit to the program and add more to our site until we are eventually accepted. We plan on adding reviews and more personalized products to add more unique content to our site.

In the mean time, we are working on our final project: our reflection presentation. This will be an overview of our experience creating the business and the struggles and successes we encountered. We will be presenting this week.

The Grind

We have officially opened and we are on a 10 day trial run. We are day 3 into our trial and have made around $90 in profit. However, we have broken even and have gotten new supplies, which cost around $70. We have been opening before school, during break, and on certain days during our free periods. The problems that we have run into are: not producing coffee fast enough, clean up takes a long time when we have to put the other business's supplies back where we found them (The Igloo's), and trying to keep up with the demand of certain bars. Our solutions have been to make a pot of coffee and not just have the Keurig, saving enough time to clean up during our last period open, and we have not exactly found a solution for our bar demand because our storage is minimal. We have added more to our menu based on feed back that we have been given, for example: Vitamin Waters, Whip Cream, and other bars. We are the most successful group so far out of our class mainly because of the demand for food at school is high. Overall, we hope to keep our spot longer than 10 days in that location and hope to expand our business's inventory. We are now working on a Crowd-funding Campaign for our final project (it will not actually go live because we are not 18) and and we are "raising money" to buy seating for in front of our bushiness. We are trying to make the space around The Grind a more inviting space with comfortable seating with a cafe-like feel. Overall we are in good shape and are making a good profit and have a steady cash flow.

VideAmigo Company Update 10!

This week has been a busy one for us here at VideAmigo.

1. We have begun working on our crowdfunding campaign. We are deciding to go with GoFundMe since it better suits our company (because it is a service and not a product we are trying to get funding for).

2. One of our video projects was presented at town meeting to a thunderous applause. That made us feel pretty good. :)

3. We have opened up a Google+ and YouTube channel.


For our reflection, we still need to focus on our prices. We are having a lot of trouble figuring out what our time is worth.

VideAmigo Company Update 9!

Above: VideAmigo's Custom "PuckerUp" Logo

In the past week, we've accomplished unprecedented achievements in our first week in business:

1. Our Final Business Plan is finalized and finished

2. Our services are finalized

3. We've made our first sales

VideAmigo has made seven sales in the last two weeks! With three currently completed and two finalized for tomorrow, VideAmigo is on track to break even by the end of the year.

Skype with Megan Grassell of Yellowberry

It was our pleasure to Skype today with Megan Grassell, founder of Yellowberry.  Megan began her own business when she was 17 (she's now 19) and she shared her insights and experiences with us.  What an amazing person--if you don't know about Megan or her company, check her out in Fortune Maganize, Fast Company, and the New York Times, to name a few places.  You can follow her company's progress on Instagram @yellowberrycompany and on Twitter @yellowberrybras.

What we learned from Megan today:

• be fearless
• be passionate
• keep sight of your mission
• be humble
• ask any question you have (the worst answer you can get is "no")
• build your network with good people
• make the best use of your network
• take advantage of any open door (and push open the closed ones)
• be ready to learn on the job

We can't wait to watch Megan, and Yellowberry, continue to grow!  Thanks so much, Megan!

Tundra Update #7- Presentation and Final Business Plan

Last week, we presented our business to a panel of Flint Hill faculty.  We presented our ideas and questions.  We had a powerpoint that outlined each aspect of our business.  We are currently working on finalizing our business plan and will give it to the panel.  Our business plan includes: a business model generation, business planning details, risk planning, marketing planning, financial panning, operations, and success variables.  We will be meeting with Mrs. Peterson, the Assistant head of school for Finance and Operation, to answer where our business will be located, who will run it, and where we can store our supplies.

VideAmigo Company Update 8!

In the past week, two of our three person team (Sam Lisker and Mitch Arnold) successfully presented to the Flint Hill School administration with their pitch! Now that we've pitched to the administration, it is time to look ahead to see what VideAmigo will work on next:

Business Setup:

1. Finalizing our official business plan for the administration

a. This will be completed by the end of the week

Business management:

1. The completion of the logos for businesses by Mitch

a. Currently Mitch is working on two jobs, this should be done by the end of the week, but could extend to next week due to the importance of the business setup

2. The completion of the Palmer Studios job

a. This is currently a company wide effort that should be completed in a few weeks. We are currently waiting for an open time to go over to Palmer Studios to film, take pictures, and propose designs.

The Grind

Recently, we have been very busy prepping for our opening. We just ordered the food, drinks and materials we will need to run successfully! On thursday April 2nd, we presented our business pitch to some members from the school including our headmaster, business reps and other adults. Our presentation went very well and we finally received an answer about the igloo. The leadership board has come up with an idea to work with the parents association by possibly offering a 10 day trial to figure out if everything would work with regard to sharing The Igloo with The Grind Coffee Shop. We have our coffee machines, hot water carriers here and our other inventory is being shipped to the school this week. We have decided that we want to open this coming week. We pivoted from our original idea to open immediately after spring break and decided it would be more efficient if we opened by next week. We are also working on reorganizing our business pitch to turn into a more efficient document to give the leadership board. When ordering our food, we realized that with some companies we can subscribe to their supplies and gain discounts in the future with reordering our supplies. The bottom picture below is our logo that we created for The Grind. We have decided to have our logo printed out and placed on each of our cups, but want to wait until we create some profit to make this investment. The picture on the top is a list of our profit and purchase prices, along with an overall average profit from our intended inventory.

PuckerUp Update: Post Spring Break

Over spring break Catherine and Hayden made our product.  One afternoon before school started, the two came together and made the lip balm.  We made around 150 units of product (about 50 mango, 50 peppermint, 50 strawberry) and are selling the product for $2/unit.  We have sold 7 units so far for a total of $14.  At first we were going to sell each tube for $3, but after surveying the public, we thought that $2 would be a more adequate price to sell more units.  

In order to make the product we combined 2 parts Coconut Oil, 2 parts Shea Butter, 1 part Beeswax, and about 40-60 drops of flavor oil.  We melted the raw ingredients (not the flavor oil) in a glass bowl and set said glass bowl in an inch of water overtop of a stove on medium heat.  We let the ingredients melt completely before we added the flavor oils.  To fill the tubes, we used glass droppers.  We allowed the mixture to harden for more than 24 hours before capping the product. 

When we first tested the product it was pretty oily, however we allowed them to air out for a longer period of time before capping the product we were selling.  This allowed the product to firm.  

Last Thursday Catherine and Parker presented our product to a board of employees at Flint Hill.  Justin and Hayden were not present because of the Junior College Day.  Overall the presentation went well and we have a bulk order from one of the employees of Flint Hill.  They had some good questions that we are now processing as well as some comments that could help our business. 

We are now focusing on the selling and marketing of our product while making our business plan for the board.   

Husky BuyPass Update

This week our goal is to refine our business plan. Last week we pitched our business to a panel of school administrators. We received feedback and many questions arose during the pitch. For example, what would make it successful? Or why would an investor invest in our business? Our next step is to finalize the the business plan, especially the marketing strategy and launch date. The launch of our website and educating the community about our business are the two most important parts in the success in the start-up of Husky BuyPass.

Website Update:
Our website is still under construction but an image of a prototype is posted below.