Reflection
My motivation for this project was simply that I wanted to start a business. I'm a new mom and a student, and I just wanted to do something for me. I wanted to have the ease of making my own schedule and doing something that was my own. Making it my EDGE project just happened.
There were so many steps to my project. First, we had a pretty adorable product that we thought would work out really well. But then we had to come up with a name, and let me tell you, we have lists of names, ideas, and inspirations. Then we had to register with the state and the county as a new business. We had to create the product, which meant we had to design it, find suppliers, learn how to stain, find packaging, and get people interested. So we found everything, learned some new skills, and started a social media page. We found a garage to rent as a work space. Then we had to practice marketing to the people we found. Once we finally got orders, we had to put them together and figure out how to manage the processing and shipping. Then we added more products, and now we are trying to figure out how to handle an increase of orders, especially orders that are so close to finals weeks! There were definitely some hiccups, like having to search far and wide for packaging, figuring out how to stain on multiple types of birch wood, spending more money than we wanted to, having to find a new (and very important) supplier one week before our pre-order date ended. But everything worked out, and we're doing well! We just donated a beautiful Christmas tree to the Cedar City Festival of Trees for the Iron County Care and Share.
My goal was to start a business, and I did that. But my goal was also to include things that I have learned from my business classes, which I have definitely done! There are things in my textbook and from lectures that we have used and implemented in our business. I was able to use quite a few skills that I gained from school, the business, and just life. I used my marketing skills for Social Media Marketing, including Facebook Ads, Instagram Accounts, every picture and post. But I also used little things that I learned from buyer behavior, like how to price things and entering new products, and making clock hands face up so it looks like it's smiling at the consumer. I have also been able to use my interpersonal and business communication skills, since I communicate every day with my business partner, our suppliers, and customers. I also gained skills in very simple woodworking, like staining, which was more difficult to learn than I thought it would be.
I have seen the outcome of starting my business, and it's still going. I've already started it, and now that's passed. The only place for me to look is forward at this point. We are getting multiple orders per day, which is not something we were expecting so soon. It really has been, and still is, such a crazy ride! This project will give me an edge over other competitors for jobs and opportunities. It give me the edge that employers are looking for, if I ever need to find another job again (let's just hope not).
Our process of creating sizes included tracing images from a TV onto newspaper, getting a poster cut out, a wooden cut out, and then leading to our final product.