The teens are showing a little sign of fatigue- not surprising since we are talking about the business of fashion all day long. I'm sure most of them have never broken down the mechanics of what it takes to start a business. I think one of the reasons most teens find our workshops interesting is because they are being introduced to a topic that they haven't heard before. I believe an entrepreneurial mindset is a necessary life skill and should be taught at their grade level.
What do we need to accomplish on our final day? Even though we have gathered costs, we still haven't crunched numbers to get an actual cost per bag and to see if it matches our price point. We need to make a final decision about where to enter the market; do we put the bag in Urban Outfitters, Macys or Bloomingdales? Or do we start at Barnes and Noble and Target? We are concerned because we were told that if you enter the market at the bottom of your "retail pyramid" you can't move up. Places like Urban will not be interested in buying your product if you've been selling in Target at a lower price point. Once we make a decision we can project income; how many stores will buy our bag? How many bags can we sell to them? And how much money will our designer, Alica Kim need to put her first order into production? Finally, what is the "next step" sales strategy for Alicia.
Thankfully, our first guest of the day is Andrea Katz, a high-end clothing and handbag designer- we hope she can help us with some of these questions! Check out her fashion line, it's very sheik and avant garde. www.akonyc.com
"You should enter the market where you think you should be" was Andreas answer to us when we told her of our struggle to decide on the retailer that would best suit the Binder Bag. Bingo! For some reason this obvious statement lifted our veil of confusion! The top of pyramid was our answer, Urban Outfitters we all screamed! BUT, we all agreed it would only work if Alicia upgraded the fabric to be more on target with trends, better durable texture, and tweeked the design suggested by all the experts.
Gregory presenting the Binder Bag to our guest with our 3 in house models.
Before Andrea could give us any advice she needed to see the bag. Gregory, our not-so-shy student, was easily elected as spokes person and provided the Binder Bag "elevator pitch" many times during the week, while the other students modeled the bags. Their flawless presentation would impress any buyer- great job guys!
Andrea providing us feedback on finishing touches that would make our product stronger
Andrea examined the bag and had many of the same comments as the other experts who critiqued it; use higher quality fabric, outside stitching not professional, fabric designs and colors not current trend, use velcro on inside pocket to prevent pencils from falling out. Andrea also pointed out to us that the seams were too big and would waste money when producing in volume-the excess fabric will add up she warned. All in all she liked the concept.
Finally, we get to meet our designer- Alicia Kim arrives. She is so happy to meet her team of teen entrepreneurs and grateful for all the work they are doing for her. She quietly sits by and listens as Andrea wraps up her time with us by helping us to figure out our costs per unit. She thinks we can get the bag made at a clothing factory for about $10 a bag. We end up at a cost of around $13-15 per bag after we factor in all of our other costs. We think we can make our price point at $45! I talk a little bit about how many boutiques we can sell to in the area, how many they would buy and how much money Alicia needs to make the first order. Andrea leaves us for another meeting and the teens are getting restless with all this number crunching- time for lunch. I hope Andreas fashion line does well, she is an amazing designer and has struggled with the economy like many businesses. We were lucky to have her speak!
We finally get to meet our designer Alicia Kim!
The teens are refreshed from lunch- good, because the rest of the day will be spent writing our business plan. Before Alicia slips out the door, she craftily asks the teens what their favorite colors are. Little do they know that she has offered to custom make a Binder Bag for each of them. I will include a copy of their written business plan. Before she says goodbye we get a photo of her with the team. We wish her luck and hope she sells millions of Binder Bags!
Next and final guest, Kathy Sussell, a serial entrepreneur, who will assist the teens in writing their business plan. Kathy's recent business is called Bravo, life coaching. I think she would make a good coach because she is very calm and seems capable of taking a step back to figure out the correct path a person should take to achieve their goals. Check out her website at www.bravolifecoaching.com.
Typing up our business plan with Kathy
How do you get 8 teenagers to stay focused and still while trying to write a business plan? Not easy, I tried cookies, hot chocolate and giving them each a turn at typing. They bounced and slouched and banged on their cell phones as Kathy tried to pull the answers from them. This is usually the toughest part of the program, maybe we should break it up into sections the next time and write a little bit each day. No matter how you look at it- it's an extreme business experience, the teens had a deadline of one week to launch a product. That is not easy and they should be really proud of their accomplishment, they pushed themselves and finished first! Good job team!
No comments:
Post a Comment