We never thought that we would get to this point. Getting through to the National Semi Finals and then to the Grand National Finals of the NFTE Business Competition was a huge achievement for us, this is the beginning of our journey to where we are today.
(Student Enterprise Business Competition)
When we first started to brainstorming our idea we had some doubts, whether or not our Shea Butter soaps would sell and if we would be at a loss after buying all our resources and supplies. As a team we were able to work through those doubts. We worked to make our products as good as possible for our first selling date. Our first obstacle you might say was our School Christmas Fair, which would be the first opportunity we would get to see how the public reacts to our product. We were very hopeful for our company and our products.
It was encouraging to see that the customers liked our soaps and as it was Christmas time we took advantage of Marketing and marketed our soaps as “ The Perfect Christmas Gift for Family and Friends” and this helped us sell out at our first sell date.
(Soaps We Sold At The Christmas Fair)
After our success at the Christmas Fair we started to think…. How can we improve our product? We decided to enter the NFTE Business, SEA and Griffith College Business Competition. We hoped to do well in these competitions. The decision was made, we want to make our Shea Butter Soaps as professional as possible! We changed the shape of our soap from rectangular to hexagonal because we wanted people to know us by a certain feature. This small detail made a huge difference and transformed our product presentation. At the Christmas Fair we undertook some Market Research by asking our customers to answer a small survey about our business. This helped us inestimably, as we now understood the needs and wants of our customers.
(Survey Results)
We decided to make some small changes that helped us in our journey: we discontinued our selection of Cinnamon soaps. They were really just a bonus to tie in with the Christmas theme. It was also the most disliked and unpopular. Reflecting at our sales and we started making Aloe Vera soaps, as Aloe Vera is extremely beneficial for the skin. We have stopped using soap dyes because we wanted to enter the Organic Health and Beauty Market.
(Home grown organic Aloe Vera for the soap bars)
As aforementioned we were hoping to enter the Organic Health and Beauty Market so we changed our packaging to 100% environmentally friendly. Our packaging switched from cellophane to brown paper tied with pure cotton string with our logo and ingredients labelled on top.
The beginning steps to become professional were to improve all of our products. Little did we know there was a lot more to do!
By Eimear Feeney and Wiktoria Zebrowska
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