This session in school I got to do one of my favorite projects of the year. This is the Business Fair. It is a process of 3 months and the awesome thing about it is that you have to come up with a product, go through the whole process of (creating a logo, stating the value proposition, getting your costs, doing interviews, getting feedback, do tests, pitching your product to investors, doing the production of your product and finally selling it to the world.) Last year was my first Business Fair at Acton. They have been doing this every year and it is putting us as young teenager kids ahead of the game. Many people dont start doing these sort of things until they are in collage. Doing this at an early age is a advantage because we are being taught to get out of our confort zone, growing our confidence, knowledge and independence.
Last year I decided to sell cookies. I created my business called “Cookies For Foodies.” This was my first business fair and I wanted to try selling something simple to see how things were and to know exactly what I was getting into. I started doing different recipes to try and by that I took many samples into school and finally decided to sell the two most liked cookies. These were chocolate chip and cinnamon cookies. I was thrilled when I had a clear vision of what I wanted to sell. I started by doing a draft of my logo. I did many mood boards full of designa until I finally combined many ideas into one. I finally had my logo.
After that I started to do all off the math. The not so fun, long part. After that I started preparing for the Shark Tank Pitches in which 5 investors/entrepreneurs come in to listen about your product. They give you feedback, suggestions on things they see about your product. Because they all have different businesses they have many experiences that can help your product. IN the end the time that you spend with them is really valuable because they can get to tell you things that you hadn’t even thought of before! and one of the cool things that they
This is were I learned the most because I had never done this. I had to make a list of all the ingredients I was going to do for each cookie, know how many cookies came out per recipe, the amount of ingredients per bag and all of that had to be combined so that I could get to know my unit price, breakeven, sunk investments, and my total cost. Knowing all of this was really important because it was the key into knowing all about my product and most importantly to being organized. With all of this information I was able to improve my product and presentation. The feedback they gave me was amazing and I learned many things that I applied to this years Business Fair.
Last year I made my presentation on Prezi and I learned that the simpler things are the better they are. The more things you have that are not relevant to your presentation, the more distracting it becomes. You have to be really specific and to the grain with all of your information. I only had 3 minutes to pitch my product to the sharks so all off those seconds are gold. You have to show confidence and hunger to convince the sharks about your product. Another thing that they gave me feedback on was to add more graphics to the presentation. I understood that it has to be balanced because some people are more visual than others. The less slides you have the better and put as tiny information as possible.
In my personal experience, I have never been a shy person on stage. sSo for me it is really easy to talk. I know that for some people it is not but I do have a tip on learning your pitch. I believe that you shouldn’t memorize because it will literally sound like a robot. The point here is to let things flow and to be as natural as possible. (Never letting go you confidence and volume.) So the best way to learn your pitch is to structure it with key words that are linked to your ideal speech or presentation. Doing this lets your your voice flow more by making tit look even more natural. I learned that the way you look is your first impression. Many things are linked into this like your physical presentation (the way you look.) Your body posture (straight, chest a little bit to the back, grounded feet, arms between your stomach or laid to the side, and have a clear, loud voice.)
Many of these small things help make a big impact on your presentation and that was some of the things that I learned while participating in the practices for the pitch. After we did our pitches, it was time to start getting prepared for the Business Fair. So I borrowed money from my investors (my parents) and I went off into the local grocery store to buy the ingredients as planned. I was supposed to sell 110 cookies so I got into production as fast as I could. I packaged my cookies on a rice paper bag with a pretty white & gold ribbon. A sticker of my logo was placed in the middle of the parchment paper bag and at around 8:30 I was at the Business Fair. I sold the chocolate chip cookies at 15.Q and the cinnamon cookies at 10.Q and the best thing is that I sold out! After that business Fair I was satisfied abut my product but that i would be raising the bar even higher for next year.
I believe that I am learning more and more each time. This business fair has been hard on some things but also gotten easier on others. For this year I choose to sell granola. I was doing a brainstorm of what I wanted to do with this business fair and that is when the name came up. Granolab. Because I wanted to challenge myself even more for this business fair, I decided to look at the options after the business fair to expand my product. I came up with ideas and in the end, one of my plans is to continue selling the granola in deli shops, gyms or even by delivery. I also learned that there are cheaper ways to get your products. These are the distributers. I got my products so much cheaper by contacting distributers than buying all off the ingredients from the grocery store.
I went thought the whole process (same as last year) that included the logo making, costs, etc. Making the costs this year was easier than the last because I had more experience. One of the most valuable things I learned in this business fair is to know your competition because that is going to open and question your mind in ways you hadn’t thought of before. By this you can also see how to make your product better and to compere it with others. One new thing I did this business fair were surveys. I have been told that you have to know what people think about your product. So I did the surveys. I did 12 questions about my products and the results gave me new ideas and made me consider many things.
On my shark tank I got to tell all of my producto information. Everything went preeety smooth and I was able to get in the end some really awesome feedback. Some that really caught my attention were:
1.Reach out to potential influencers to promote product
2.Label the nutrition facts on the back of the package
3.Make a list of the multiple uses of the granola
4.Create more exotic flavors
5.Have seasonal flavors
6.Write the different types of diets that can eat the granola
7.Reach out to the potential market areas in which I can sell my product
Each time I do this, I get more and more confident. I learn more about the terms in business and now I am looking forward to selling the 60 bags of granola on the 2018 Acton Academy Business Fair. I believe that the sooner you start doing this, the more ahead in the game you are.
Victoria Morales 