Christmas Market Reflection
$30, one goal, to make as much money as possible. The Christmas market was a project in Term 4 that covered the subject of economics. It tested our skills of product making , starting your own business, and understanding of the market.
Preparation
Our task was to make a product, a business logo and name, an advertisement for our product, and we only had 6 weeks! The first four weeks were a waste for us. We spent a long time expanding on a brilliant idea, only to be shut down by the teacher. The second idea we had was also shut down. That was all the ideas we had. We couldn’t think of any ideas for a few days and it was a very stressful process. It wasn’t until we had a major breakthrough, when we had found an idea. Tennis balls, with a mouth cut out, that would hold keyrings and keys. We spent the next 2 weeks developing the item and buying all the items needed to create it.
Market Day
After 6 weeks of hard work, determination, and lots of preparation, the big day came. The 5s and 6s rushed out of the buildings and straight to the stalls. We were positioned in quite a good spot, lots of people were walking past, but no one was buying. It started off slow for us, with only a couple of purchases in the first few minutes. Many people took a glimpse and just walked off. It wasn’t until a big group of friends came over. They looked interested and many of them started buying our products until we sold out. It was a success for us, $20.50 wasn’t a lot but for the product we had made, it was as good as it got. I had a huge sense of relief, I had made it to the end.
What did I do well
We persevered and were very resilient even through the hard times. During the last two weeks (when our product was approved) we were very time efficient, we got things done very quickly despite the lack of time.
What could I have improved
Time was definitely a big enemy that we faced. We had many breakdowns because of the fact that two of our ideas were disapproved. We weren’t very good at thinking of innovative ideas, most were already made by other groups or the product was not innovative.
Final Thoughts
Although this project had many ups and downs, this was a good learning experience for me proving that it wasn’t that easy to start up a business. There were many things I could take away from this experience and apply into future projects.
