25 December 2018

1. Admin Matters

We decided to create a roster for writing the team blogs as some of us were falling behind on our individual posts. This would at least keep our team updates consistent while allowing for those who were behind on individual updates to catch up. The order of post authorship is as follows: Ram, Shun Kai, Cleo, Cheryl, Jiaxin, then Shiju. All posts will then go through Cleo for proofreading before being published.

2. Supplies

We also spoke about our materials sourcing, and whether or not to change our suppliers for materials like sand and figurines. The reason for this was because we were currently buying from multiple suppliers, and it was hard to keep track of financially as well as logistically. Some suppliers were more expensive, some didn't sell in bulk so we had to constantly restock, some had limited colours/designs, and for sand most of them had different textures and levels of coarseness which we had to take into account.

Keeping in mind the sales for our Christmas figurines, we then had to decide on how many event-specific figurines we wanted to get in future for Chinese New Year and for Valentine's day, especially since we were confirmed for MOX Parade at SOTA, which was to be Valentine's themed. We decided that for Chinese New Year we would keep it limited to animals that belong in the zodiac as animals were more generic and easier to sell, and that we would look into buying more couple and love-themed figurines for Valentine's.

3. Events

Shiju shared with us a few events that were coming up which we could consider going for. Those included:

• MOX Parade @ SOTA. Flea-market kind. More crowd than what we usually have, with different people and so a different customer profile than what we're used to as well. A lot of handmade products would be sold here and it would be held from 25^TH-27^TH January, 1pm-9pm, Friday to Sunday. It would be Valentine’s themed, which would serve as a nice test-bed for our products before the actual Valentines' period in February. Outdoor and indoor booths available, $314 for 3 days inclusive of electricity. As we were in the vicinity, we decided we would go check out the area first before making a decision.
• Katong Square Lifestyle and Vintage Market. 11-13 January, $270 for 3 days. 1pm-10pm. It would place more focus on vintage and handcrafted items, so we were considering bringing some hand-painted terracotta pots to complement our terrariums.
• Bugis near Arab Street. Rent TBC. 17 - 19 Jan. The area was full of textile, jewellery and carpet shops mostly, so it might not be too worth it to go anyway, regardless of the rental fee.
• The Woodgrove @ Woodlands. 18-20 Jan. $128 for 3 days. We'd never head of this place before, so after googling we found out that this was a new shopping center that would open soon, and they are planning to have bazaars in order to raise awareness and attract shoppers. We checked the location and decided that it was too out of the way (nowhere near any MRT stations, only a few residential areas nearby), and wouldn't be worth it.
• Turf Club The Grandstand. $128 for 3 days. 11am to 9pm. 18-20 Jan. Again, this was too out of the way and so we decided not to.