Tundra Tools Update #10: Final Updates & The Future

Yesterday, Tundra Tools had our final class and presented our Kickstarter project and reflection of the semester. It was a good way to wrap up all of our hard work. After our initial trial, we were only able to open for one more day, but we hope that our business continue to run and sell supplies (and maybe even spirit wear!) next year. Overall, we made about $55; we were not as successful as some other groups, but we worked hard to start a business we were proud of. We hope that Tundra Tools can continue to be a part of the Flint Hill community in the future!

Above is our Kickstarter Pitch video

Final VideAmigo Company Update! (what happens now?)

Sam advertises for a proposed GoFundMe Video

With the end of our Small Business Class, the VideAmigo now has to decide what to do. Sam is off to college, but Josh and Mitch remain to run VideAmigo if they choose. If VideAmigo ends, then it was a fun experiment and a great look into how to run a business. If VideAmigo continues, then we have much to work on in order to improve. Anyone who has taken the time to read these blogs, we just want to say thank you for following VideAmigo through its development and launch, it has been a very fun experience. We all hope to take our expertise that we learned with us into the future.

PuckerUp

5-11-15

Today we met with Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Velchik and they told us that we were unable to directly relate PuckerUp with the Flint Hill Fund unless PuckerUp donated to the Flint Hill Fund.  Our original idea was to sell the lip balm directly through the Flint Hill Fund, however FHS is trying to get away from transactional gifts.  If PuckerUp donated all of its profit to the Flint Hill Fund, then PuckerUp would be listed on the Flint Hill Fund donors, which would get out name out into the world.
While here, Mrs. Evans and Mrs. Velchik gave us the ideas of marketing PuckerUp through the Miller House by either having samples or selling them in a basket.  Our lip balm would be paired with a business card in which we would explain our story and our emails to order more lip balms.  They also gave us the idea of attending the Fun Fair on May 16th (which Mrs. Starnes also gave us the idea to attend) and they also offered to provide a table for us to set up our product on.  We are not sure if one of us would be able to attend because of athletic conflicts, but we are going to try to market ourselves there.
We are making another batch of lip balm tonight because the bag which contained the 1st batch magically disappeared.  We are altering the recipe a little so that they are less buttery and more waxy.
We continue to make progress on our final project.

The Grind

Last Friday, May 1st was the last day of our 10 day trial, however, we were only open for 8 days do to our key problem that inhibits us from opening in the morning on some days. This week we have been working on creating a presentation to present to Mrs. Sanderson who will approve the rest of our trial for the year. We had the meeting with her during our small business class this Wednesday. The conversation went really well and she was very impressed with our profit and total sales. We are currently waiting for her to get approval from a few other administrators so that The Grind can open back up. At the end of our 10 day trial we have made $560.40 and $332.07 of that was profit. While we are waiting for approval, we are taking this time to start our final projects, which is our crowd funding campaign. For this campaign we are trying to raise money to create a cafe area around The Grind with comfortable, inviting seating and music.

Tundra tools update #9: The Meeting and Reflection

This week Tundra Tools had a meeting about our trial run with Mrs. Sanderson. We talked about a new location because the AP exams are taking place in the library. We decided by the end of our meeting that we need to do another trial run in a new location. The new trial will take place where all of the schools bake sales take place.  She also gave us advice on making sure we track what we sell and how many items we have left. We are working on going to Mr. Reed, who is our high school principal, to schedule the dates of our actual trial run. We are also finishing up the reflection portion of our final project, and next week we will continue to work on the Kickstarter portion. WE LOVE OUR FANS AND THANKS FOR READING

VideAmigo Company Update 11!

Currently, VideAmigo is in the beginning stages of our GoFundMe and Journey projects. Our personal reflections have been fully written out, and our final presentation to present to the Small Business class is currently in the works. As for our GoFundMe project, Mitch has begun working on organizing our mission statement and rewards for certain funding packages. We're still unsure if we're going to actually go live with the GoFundMe project or keep it as a "what if" type of project. As for the business itself, we're currently working on contacting a potential client that could help VideAmigo fulfill a profit. 

The projects will be done on schedule, but it is currently uncertain whether or not VideAmigo will have time for production services with the various tasks at hand.

Advice from Entrepreneurs

Last week three students' fathers spoke with our class to offer their advice on entrepreneurship.

Here's a snapshot of what Tom Schuler, Ed Kennedy, and Curtis Anderson had to say:

• People need to willing to take risks
• Being an entrepreneur = being a leader = vision + being able to delegate
• Must be willing to make a decision and move on (let go of control)
• To be a leader = growth potential
• Be aware of what you don’t know
• Understand your customer
• If you don’t know where you are going, you can’t get there
• If you don’t know where you are, you can’t move forward
• “Entrepreneurial gene” is in 3% of people
• Figure out what you want to do
• Figure out what you are good at
• Get really good people around you to grow the business
• What you need: great idea, good plan, $$$
• Cash flow management is the lifeblood of a business; essential problem

Good luck!!

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.