Cheryl Entry #10

Last Saturday marked our first ever launch of products!

After hours of making the terrariums, agonizing and worrying about coming up with the different designs, we made it!! Since the event lasts over the span of two days from 10am in the morning till 10pm at night, we had created a roster to take turns at the event. The guys in our group took the very first shift and woke up early on Monday morning to do the setting up, keeping us posted about the design of the setup and the minor hiccups faced- the sand in some terrariums shifted so those were the ones that were not displayed.

Previously, I had come up with a google spreadsheet so that we will be able to keep track of the sales more easily, while also allowing for real time updates for those who are not on shift.

I was on my way out on Saturday and I passed by the booth since I lived close to white sands, and I realized that from afar, that was no notice leading the public to the event. It didn't even seem like an event was taking place, which worried me since there was nothing we could do if the traffic was low. It was only when I walked past the sheltered area that it became obvious that there was event going on with the rows of vendors.

When I reached the booth, the guys told me that there was another terrarium booth down the corner selling the exact same terrarium as we did (the glass was exactly the same, the figurines were exactly the same), except that ours cost $12 while theirs cost $16.

It felt like playing CAPSIM all over again and realizing that you're competing in the low tech segment and winning by setting the lowest price. Our designs were also prettier (largely thanks to Cleo).

Throughout the first day, we realized that there were quite a few customers who asked if we did workshops- something that we have discussed many times, but have never been able to come to an agreement with. Some asked for personal workshops while others asked if we did corporate ones, and we told them that we would be willing but they had to go through our email to schedule for available timings.

At the end of Day 1, I heard from our chat that our booth actually managed to get among the highest sales for the vendors along our row. What a feat :D

On Day 2, it was pouring in the morning and it was miserable lugging all the things to the booth. Ram, Shiju and Jiaxin who did the closing shift had brought over everything to my house because it was near the event.

At night, we dropped our usual price of $12 to $10 as a form of last minute promoting. Although we didn't manage to sell all 100 terrariums that we have made, it was still a wonderful experience. Knowing that our terrariums were well received is extremely comforting, especially when every piece required a lot of effort on our part.

Some insights gained from the event:

• There is a high demand for workshops
• Cheap events may not necessarily be good. Even though it was held at a mall, the booths were spread out and it seemed like the event organizers did not promote it effectively. We definitely suffered in terms of customer traffic
• Setting up booths with corporations seems to be a better idea. Shiju managed to get the contact of someone from OCBC who was kind enough to let us set up a booth in their branch in December. We can contact other companies for similar opportunities in the future
• Cat figurines got wiped out quickly

December will definitely be a peak period for us with Christmas coming. We have scheduled two events and after the exams we are going back to being terrarium producing machines!!

Even then, I would gladly welcome it. Looking forward to the end of the hell known as exams!!