Our Goal Has Been Reached!

So far we have sold a total of 60 towels, exceeding our goal of over 200 dollars profit! We have decided to lower the price to 3 dollars and have benefited greatly from doing so, for we sold 20 of our towels at this price. Also, more people are willing to buy our product at this reduced cost and we still know many students who plan on buying one and say they will be contacting us this week. We will continue to market our product through specials as we did before Thanksgiving with selling 2 towels for 5 dollars which worked well for us. The towels are being sold now more as a JMU novelty item then a rally towel since football season is over, but plan to promote our product again as a rally towel when basketball season gets into full swing.

Overall, our experience as entrepreneurs was a great one. We all learned so much of what it takes to be a truly great innovator and how much effort it takes to make an idea an actual product or service. As entrepreneurs, being able to experience the highs and lows is a feeling like no other. Picking up our towels from the printing shop and making our first sale was the biggest thrill for us all, knowing how much time and effort we put in to getting the product to market. Also, as part of being an entrepreneur, it is nice to have the freedom to put parts of your profit to good causes as well. We are donating 10% of our profit to a sustainable cause to help the environment. Starting our own business really opened up our eyes to the small business world, and intrigued us of all the possibilities being an innovator has to offer.

As entrepreneurs we have learned a great deal from starting up our own business. We learned that it is much harder and takes a lot more time and effort than any of us would have ever thought. Getting all the signatures to use the JMU logo and be able to sell our towels on campus was a giant task that at points during the process we did not think our product would ever make it to market. Also, pitching the idea to an investor/ sponsor was a new experience for all of us and was eye opening. From one perspective it is amazing how people are willing to give a good amount of money to invest in your product. On the other hand it took a lot of persuasion to convince our sponsor that our product was worth his time for him to invest in. We will take away from this experience the knowledge of what is necessary to be an entrepreneur and to start up your own business such as time, effort, and money. In the future, I think we all now realize what it takes to be a real entrepreneur in the business world.

Promo Time?

So this week were thinking about doing a week long promotion possible. Doing something like 3 dollars a towel or 2 for 5 and seeing how that turns out. Were taking in as much feedback as possible to see how people feel about this and were hoping this results in a positive turnout. We look to sell on campus this week as well again. Hopefully this promotion will increase our sales.

Decisions Decisions

We have currently sold 40 towels, and need to sell 50 to make our $200 profit mark. So as of right now we are still currently debating and trying to use feedback to decide on the price of the towels. We feel very confident that we will hit the profit mark we need, but we may then also have 100 towels sitting around.

Bumpy Road

This week we sold towels in Festival. We sold several towels but not nearly as many as we would have liked. Therefore we are highly considering reducing the price from 4 probably down to 3. We have talked about going down to 2 if a large number of people respond positively to 2 dollars over 3. The next couple days we are going to talk to classmates and friends to see get their input. Our sales so far have not been bad for we are almost 3/4 the way to our goal of $ 200 profit. Also, this week we plan on picking out a sustainable cause to donate too, possible something to do with the carbon footprint of making our towels. We feel that it is important to help be eco-friendly in any way possible. Therefore, we have some major decisions to make this week.

Crunch Time

So far we have sold over 30 towels, and are well on our way to reaching our target of 200 dollars profit. I am currently working with a connection in my business fraternity to try to make a major sale which would increase our revenue greatly. On the marketing front, we are planning on making a facebook group, and possible twitter to get our name more out their to the JMU community. This is our last home game while everyone is still here so this week is really going to count for us. We plan on selling hopefully in a few spots around campus this week as well if everything goes to plan.

where to go from here

We are currently looking to try to sell the towels in different places like Festival and the Commons. We also are looking for more marketing decisions to help boost sales.

Round 1

Today we had the front desk of Showker reserved to sell the towels. While we sat there through prime time traffic (10am-12:30pm) we did not have the sales turn out we expected. People seemed very interested and wanted to buy the towels, however no one has cash on them these days. We though about trying to rent a card reader but we don't think it would be profitable for us. The only bright side was when Dr. wales tried to buy 20 towels at one time.

Time to sell

So far we have just begun to start selling towels. We were a little nervous at first but it looks like they are going to sell very well. The next thing we need to do is to get together with our sponsor James McHone to work on our marketing. We are working on a few ideas to help with marketing.

OUR VISION

One of my good friends who goes to PSU- his friend made this video. It is definitely worth checking out.

Rally Towel- White Out-PSU

This is what i envision for JMU....... the whole student section waving rally towels. The atmosphere would be incredible.

Hopefully we can make this happen!

RALLY TOWELS HAVE ARRIVED!

So the towels are finally in! We picked them up on Friday and they look awesome. Check them out...We started selling them this weekend.... and are planning to really start to market/ promote and spread the word around campus in these next two upcoming weeks before the next home game.

disappointing loss this weekend.... but hopefully we will get a win at William and Mary this weekend. GO DUKES!

Bill "Clutch" Wales

One Tuesday i went to the office of Business services to get the final approval to use the Duke dog symbol. I was immediately shut down one day before we were planned to start production. So we were left sitting there with the sponsorship money we needed, the printers ready to start, and we came up one signature short. Well surprise, surprise, along comes Dr. Wales and on Wednesday morning we were in business. He cleared everything and they allowed us to use the JMU symbols.

Getting The Ball Rolling

We met with the coordinator of student activities to see if our rally towels idea would be acceptable at school. He seemed to love the idea and sent us over to the deputy director of athletics. He also seemed to like our idea, but gave us some hurdles we are going to need to get through. We need to create a letter for the sponsors that we will potentially try to get, to let them know that we are not affiliated with JMU athletics and that their donation would be separate from their athletic donation. We are still waiting to hear back from the deputy director of athletics to see if our letter is acceptable. If it is this week we will get the towels made hopefully before the weekend for parents weekend.