Winter Market Reflection 2019

  1. What did you do?

During this winter market, my team and I created a company called MugShot. We sold mugs, hot chocolate packages, and a combination of both. Throughout the process, we had to create a business write that included many aspects of our business including our digital marketing, our advertising, and our financial literacy. After completing the write-up, we needed to produce our product. So, to finish it all in one take, my team and I went back to my house and painted, coated, and designed every mug. After finishing the polishing touches of our product, the sale crept up on us slowly. To make sure we were prepared, we designed the layout of our table and how we would talk/deal with customers. Come the week of December 10th, we spent our lunch hours selling and talking to customers about our product and making a revenue. Once the sale was finished, we had to record the sales in our financial literacy and make sure all the numbers added up. It was a great experience and I learned a lot of social cues and responses that worked and failed. While having a product that everyone wants can be beneficial, having a great marketing ability will prove to be even more advantageous.   

2. Who were you working with?

Through the course of this project, I worked with Saam Nourouzi and William Li to produce and develop the company Mugshot. 

3. Why did you do it?

I enrolled into Marketing 9 not because of any rumours that I could make money, but to learn the ins and outs of a business and everything in between. Whether it is understanding the difference between revenue and profit or the necessities of a business, I have quite the drive towards selling a product and getting involved in business like activities. I was interested in educating myself in this sort of subject as well as being in the shoes of a seller now makes me more aware of the problems that entrepreneurs have to deal with. A goal of mine was to create a product and sell it successfully and this class allowed me to do that. I undoubtedly appreciate all the knowledge and information this class provided me. 

4. What else happened that might be important?

An important lesson I learned throughout this assignment was that in these types of markets, the prices of products will change. Unfortunately, the customer has the power over the price if you don’t have a product they necessarily want. This was clear when our hot chocolates weren’t selling for the price of $2 per package. As entrepreneurs, we had to adapt to our customer’s reactions and lower the prices enough so they would buy the hot chocolate and we are still making a decent profit. Thankfully, our quick adaptation proved to be helpful as our hot chocolate almost sold out on the 3rd day. 

Another important lesson was to always respect the customer no matter what happen. In our case, a sketchy customer offered to pay for a hot chocolate package through PayPal. Being this as our first time selling, we didn’t have the experience to realize that this wasn’t a reliable form of payment. After the transaction, we noticed two problems. First, PayPal takes a percentage of the transaction so the $1 they originally sent turned into $0.67. We would still be making a profit, but we weren’t willing to go that low to sell our hot chocolate, we have to stay somewhat consistent. The second problem was that later that night, the customer requested a refund of their transaction. Eventually, with the help of our marketing teacher Mr. Valente, the customer took back the request and paid the remaining price of the hot chocolate. While in the moment, this was problematic, I realized now that it was an experience worth learning from, and boy oh boy I did.

5. Did any academic concepts become apparent during this experience?

Some crucial academic concepts that I used during this project were money management and critical thinking. If you weren’t keeping track of your expenses, your lack of responsibility will come back and bite you on the butt, affecting you both short term and long term. My company made the mistake and we didn’t count how many products we sold nor how much money we made. This caused great confusion and chaos when trying to balance out our numbers, on such a successful day too. The importance of money management is that it allows you to create a spending plan for your money as well as present your revenue, profit, and expenses clearly. No business can thrive if those three aspects of money management aren’t known. Take expenses for example, we had a $100 budget for this project. If we didn’t record our receipts along with all the money we spent, no banker or teacher would pay us our profits without evidence of expenses. 

Critical thinking plays a vital role in all business. An entrepreneur must always be on their feet, ready to adapt to the worst circumstances. An instance in which critical thinking was required during this project was when our original idea of printing images on the mugs failed. No matter what mug or paper we printed the image on, it just didn’t work. So, with the sale coming up in a few weeks, we had to improvise. With enough effort and teamwork, we figured out that we’d paint the mugs with nail polish, giving them a nice water-colour design. Another situation that requires critical thinking is marketing. How are we going to promote and sell a product that isn’t a need? Or how are we going to reach out to our audience in an effective and efficient way? These are some questions that our company had to answer in order to be successful. Whether it was lowering the price, or being advertising on our social media pages, or even providing a sample of the hot chocolate to entice customers into buying our product. Whatever methods we used, we had to figure out ways to shine the best light possible onto our product.

6. Did this experience differ from your initial expectations? Why and why not?

Whenever I thought about the Winter Market, I always imagined that the best product would make the most sales. It just made sense. If you have a product people are in love with, it doesn’t matter if you market it extremely poorly, people will still buy it if they like it. But high school students aren’t necessarily careful with their money, as in most cases the money they are spending isn’t from their own labour. So, there is little attachment or hesitation when parting with that money. Thats where marketing comes in. You have a very short amount of time to give a brief sales pitch of your product or else the customer will become disinterested. It is very difficult and yet very easy at the same time with enough practice. A simple connection between buyer and seller will give the seller an advantage throughout the transaction. With this connection, the seller can keep the buyer happy and intrigued, which leads to a sale. So with this new information about selling and marketing that I learned during the Winter Market, I now realize that it doesn’t matter if you’re selling scrunchies or selling elastic bands, as long as you believe and present your product as the best one there, customers will soon see it that way as well, therefore leading to sales.

7. What might/should be done in the future?

If I were to partake in another high school market in the future, I would focus on researching a product that is extremely popular with the customers. Because that amazing product paired up with my new knowledge on sales, marketing, and customer service should result in a new outcome, one with more successful and more profit. Another aspect of this project I’d do differently is advertising. Advertising allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition and give you an advantage over them. Like sheep, we all created one poster and one Instagram account. However, our possibilities to advertise our product was never limited to just those two ways. Some possibilities include promoting on the announcements, getting featured in the school newspaper, or even simply hanging posters in the bathrooms. Any of those methods could heavily impact the success and reputation of your company. The take away from this project is that running a business isn’t easy, but by improving from your mistakes and adapting to the circumstances, you’ll be sure to find running a company a breeze.

-Nicholas Moise

My Digital Footprint

What would happen if you were to search yourself up online?

  • If you were to search my name up alone, you don’t get many results, just people sharing my last or first name. However, if you search for 3-4 minutes, eventually you will find a few sites and images about me and my involvement in my past schools. You will also find links to my old youtube channel and my instagram.
    • https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNNiYphuMDpC5RuLi9QpLBA – Youtube Channel
    • https://www.instagram.com/nicholas.moise/ – Instagram Account
  • If you were to search up my name and included either volleyball or baseball with it, you would find articles and pictures about me and my team winning provincials for baseball or my volleyball team’s highlights.
    • https://www.ducksvolleyball.ca/teams-2/15umale/ – Team Roster
    • http://www.cmmba.com/home.php?layout=1705913 – Baseball Article

Here is the link to a Canva in which I fully answer all the required questions.

Canva:

->Link here<-

P.S. if the writing is too small, without full-screening the poster, you are able to zoom in and magnify the words.

I chose Canva because it is a useful presentation tool that is available to everyone even without a Facebook or Microsoft Word account. Not to mention it is more visually appealing than most presentation apps and it allows me to share all my information as well as answers in a unique way.

 

Citations:

          15U Male. (2019, December 3). Retrieved December 10, 2019, from https://www.ducksvolleyball.ca/teams-2/15umale/
          Coquitlam Red’s Win Provincials. (2016). Retrieved December 10, 2019, from http://www.cmmba.com/home.php?layout=1705913
          Moise, N. (n.d.). Nicholas Moise. Retrieved December 10, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNNiYphuMDpC5RuLi9QpLBA
         Moise, N. (n.d.). nick (@nicholas.moise) • Instagram photos and videos. Retrieved December 10, 2019, from https://www.instagram.com/nicholas.moise/

 

 

 

 

Climate Change – Youtube Clip

On September 23rd, Greta Thunberg gave a powerful, provoking speech to many world leaders and U.N. ambassadors. The purpose of this speech was to scare, no to scold all of mankind for turning their backs on the world. Many moons ago, countries together made a promise to clean up the carbon in the atmosphere and reverse global warming. But because of their empty words, entire ecosystems are collapsing, people are dying, and countries even have to go as far as changing their capital because it is flooding.

This speech was to raise awareness and finally start to do something impactful about climate change. Don’t get me wrong, all across the globe a countless amount of people have been doing their part in saving the planet, but imagine how much more efficient and effective our path to a clean planet would be if world leaders who have influence and money will join the cause.

This video is quite important to me, as it should be important to everyone because the Earth is ours to take care of and we are destroying it. We are the problem and the solution. So let’s not start a mass extinction, because humanity has a bright future ahead of us. So all in all, we need to realize that the Earth is our home and to keep our home we will be instituting change. If you cannot keep up, then get out of the way. Because right here, right now, we draw the line.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYxt0BeTrT8

 

Working Out – Image

Many people look at working out as a chore, unnecessary, or simply dangerous. But those are just excuses that people use to avoid going to the gym. There are numerous benefits to working out and starting at a young age will prove to be advantageous. This image depicts some students in high school bench pressing an impressive amount of weight. At first glance, people assume that its a dangerous exercise, that it’ll stunt his growth, he’ll tear something, etc. But you have to realize that most, if not all, common exercises have been created to stimulate your muscles and cause no pain whatsoever if done properly.

I heavily encourage that teens should try to get at least 3 sessions of 2-hour exercise a week, it doesn’t have to involve lifting weights, but any type of strength or cardiovascular training will do the trick. Some benefits of working out include improving your health and wellness,  boosting your immune system, improving your overall mood, and decreasing the risk of chronic diseases.

Working out is important to me because it is really crucial that you start developing good habits at a young age. Nearly 30% of all children under 20 are obese and that needs to change. I’m not saying being fat is bad, everyone should be comfortable in their own skin. But everyone should be provided with the resources to change if they please. So by working out or getting involved in physical activity, you’ll realize it is an amazing way to pave a reliable, fit path for your future self. All in all, working out severely benefits your body, your life, your mental and physical health, and so much more. So do yourself a favour and go hit the gym this weekend, trust me, you won’t regret it.

Source: https://www.stack.com/a/why-teens-should-workout

 

Time Management – Quote

“Until we manage our time, we can manage nothing else” – Peter F. Drucker 

As a student of high school, not to mention a student in the IB program, it is extremely essential that I prioritize my time and have a firm, strict schedule. I have the advantage of coming from a high school, Alpha Secondary School in SD41, which lead to me developing and utilizing my time management skills. High school consists of a tough battle between academics, extracurriculars, social life, and leisure, but this battle can be won by all students if they conquer their procrastination. Some benefits of time management include less time spent on chores/homework, provides more free time, lowers your stress, and helps you focus so you always produce your best work.

Time management is important to me because many students coming into high school have trouble balancing their activities and prioritizing their tasks. They join too many clubs, they get flustered by the amount of work/homework, and they constantly stress over every little endeavour given to them. High school shouldn’t be revolved around stress and worry, it should be revolved around the amazing experience you will have over the next 4 years. And if you develop and hone your understanding of the importance of time management, it will prove to be worthwhile. Even though this isn’t an overnight change, it can be developed by the end of the 1st semester and will flourish to be an excellent asset in high school that will benefit you greatly, providing an exciting, stress-free secondary school experience.

Source: https://allauthor.com/quotes/75878/

 

 

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