liuxitan

[liuxitan]

Week 13, Progress of Start-up Venture

What is working? 

I created more Christmas-themed designs and they are very popular among my customers. I also gathered feedback from my previous customers by providing an anonymous survey. Customers who did the survey will get an extra 5% off coupon for the next purchase.

What is not working?

 Time management is still a big challenge at this stage. All my assignments in other courses are approaching deadlines. Keeping up with both work and study is very difficult. I became a bit stressed out lately. 

How do you feel the project is coming?

I'm happy that the project is approaching the end. I can finally take some time off to reflect on this whole journey. I definitely feel like continue my business as a part-time job.

What are you learning about running a business?

Running a business is not easy, and problem-solving is a key skill to have. Since I have done this all by myself, I had to make critical decisions all the time. Maybe I need to expand my business and find a trustworthy partner.

What are you learning about yourself?

I learned that I need to lower the expectation. If I keep having high expectations of everything I planned, I will continue to experience frustration whenever things go out of hand. I need to accept the fact that I couldn't perfect everything I do.

[liuxitan]

Week 12, Progress of Start-up Venture

What is working? 

 I made a BlackFirday special discount of 20% off available from Nov 28 to Nov 31. The deal brought me more orders than I expected.

What is not working?

 Time management is still a big challenge at this stage. All my assignments in other courses are approaching deadlines. It has become very exhausting to keep up my business with old standards. I asked for help from my friends with the mailing service. I felt like I need to hire an assistant, but my budget is not adequate.

How do you feel the project is coming?

It has been very stressful lately with school work, personal life, and business. The project definitely became more of a challenge than fun. But, I think that's part of a real-life business venture. It always starts with an interest and grows into something bigger.

What are you learning about running a business?

I learned that running a business is not easy. Sometimes, I had to give up certain things in my personal life to keep my business running. I had to check my social media constantly since my business is heavily based on e-commerce. It is hard to balance out everything.

What are you learning about yourself?

I learned that even though I can be stressed out and get emotional, I can bounce back real quick after a breakdown. Positivity is one of my key values in life, thus I always look for the silver lining when things didn't turn out to be what I expected. 

[liuxitan]

Week 11, Progress of Start-up Venture

What is working? 

 I ended up spending a little more on marketing expenses and invested in Facebook Ad. It did bring out more customers. I'm planning to endorse a special holiday discount for the Black Friday and Christmas Discounts.

What is not working?

It has been quite stressful lately due to all my finals coming up as the semester is approaching an end. I couldn't make time for creating new designs because I have been focusing on my assignments and tests. I have to squeeze time into operating my business, which is quite challenging.

How do you feel the project is coming?

 There have been up and downs as the projects proceeds. I do feel the challenges and have learned many aspects of starting up my business venture.

What are you learning about running a business?

Personally, stress is an ongoing theme while running a business. I have learned to deal with many small issues, such as mailing service, customer service, managing the supplies. Sometimes, it's all about the little details. For example, a simple hand-written greeting card can increase customer satisfaction significantly. 

What are you learning about yourself?

I learned that I am very detail-oriented, which is helpful when dealing with customers. However, too much focus on details can overshadow the whole picture. I have to work on putting my attention selectively on more important tasks. 

[liuxitan]

Week 10, Progress of Start-up Venture

what is working? 

The referral discount worked and brought me more orders during the past week. I'm still hesitant to put more money into marketing expenses, but the Instagram ad was helpful.

what is not working?

I have been quite busy with school work and my personal life, so I delayed a lot of holiday-design updates. I have to squeeze more time into creating more designs.

how do you feel the project is coming?

The project has become more stressful as finals are approaching, however, I do like this whole experience. I have learned a lot about myself and how to start up a small business from this project. 

what are you learning about running a business?

I learned that starting a business is very time-consuming and requires a lot of passion. It can be stressful at times, and I need to improve on how to deal with stress and balance out my business and my personal life.

what are you learning about yourself?

I learned that I could not be a perfectionist in every aspect of my life. Sometimes, it is more important to balance out and let go of certain parts of life.  I couldn't grab on to too many tasks at one time, and it would be way much easier to do one thing at a time. 

[liuxitan]

Week 9 Progress of Start-up Venture

what is working? I am still working on creating more holiday-themed designs, which are attracting more followers to my business. More and more people are interested in my watercolor design. what is not working? The promotional discounts are not attracting many customers as I expected. Maybe I should invest a little more in advertising and increase marketing expenses. how do you feel the project is coming? I'm getting more used to managing my work and study at the same time. It is definitely very challenging, but I feel like my self-management skills have improved over time and practice. what are you learning about running a business? I learned that business cannot always go as plans do. Even though having a detailed business plan did help a lot, there are still unexpected events that might happen. I have to be more prepared, especially considering the special current economic environement. what are you learning about yourself? I learned that I need to be paitience when dealing with business. I cannot control every single aspects of how my business is going to grow. The best option for me soemtime is to go with the flow and don't let the pressure and stress take over me.

[liuxitan]

Week 8 Progress of Start-up Venture

what is working? 

I started giving out a promotional discount of 10% off for first-time customers, plus a 15% referral discount if they got a friend to make an order with me, and their friend will also receive 15% off their first purchase. 

what is not working?

I need to take more time to create more designs that are holiday-themed. My current postcard designs are more free-spirited and artsy. I hope that creating more holiday related postcards will drive up the sales in the upcoming holiday season.

how do you feel the project is coming?

The project is quite challenging, especially when it comes to time management. I have to learn how to balance my work and life, which is very hard since I’m at home all the time.

what are you learning about running a business?

I learned that I need to be patient when dealing with clients. It would not be smooth on every transaction. Especially when it comes to artwork, people will try to bargain. I need to persist in what I believed in the value of my business.

what are you learning about yourself?

I learned that I can be a little bit emotional in a stressful situation. Sometimes I have to step back and take advice from my friend. It is an interesting journey of self-discovering alongside my business venture. 

[liuxitan]

Progress of Start-up Venture

What is working? I’m working on creating more watercolor postcard designs and post them on my TANART Instagram account. It has slowly increased my followers and hopefully brings more customers in the future. What is not working? Since I’m studying full-time. I have to create designs, manage course workload, and try to keep up with the business. I recently felt a bit burned out. I have to try to balance everything out better. How do you feel the project is coming? The project is definitely both exciting and challenging. I have learned a lot about entrepreneurship. The whole process so far has been a lot of fun, but I understand the hard part of maintaining the business is upcoming. I feel excited and nervous about it. What are you learning about running a business? Running a business is easier than I expected. I used to think starting a business will be a huge project, and I don’t have enough effort and energy to start up a venture of my own. Now, I understand that planning is really helpful. Having a detailed business plan and a calculated budget plan is very necessary. What are you learning about yourself? I learned a lot about myself during this whole process. I used to consider myself as more of an artistic person who is not good with numbers and business. Now, I have more confidence in myself from all the assignments I accomplished.

[liuxitan]

Financial Resources

Since my business is selling personalized watercolor postcards. I’m targeting a niche market. My business is not technology-driven, and the growing potential might not be as attractive. I will probably forgo venture capital, angels, business incubator, and government subsidiary at the beginning stage of my business. My ideal sources of financial support are: Personal Investment: I have saved up a couple thousands of dollars from my previous jobs. I could possibly use a part of it as future investment in my business. Love Money: My parents are willing to lend me money for me to start up a business of my own. We can make a contract on specific terms regarding the ownership of the business. Bank Loan: My credit score is pretty good, so I can probably get a good interest rate on a business loan. In addition, I have a very solid business plan, so I think a short-term start-up loan might be ideal for my business.

[liuxitan]

Business Operation Plan

I already had my watercolor painting kit purchased earlier this year. The kit will be enough for making watercolor postcards based on my experience. My major expense would be 100% cotton paper for the postcard. I checked my online and in-store resources and found the most suitable one on Amazon.ca. They sell pre-cut 100% cotton paper in postcard sizes in bulk and the cost is 56.60 CAD plus 2.83 CAD import fees for 100 cards. I already made one purchase and the shipment will arrive in 2 days because I have Amazon prime membership and the shipping fee is free of extra charge. Since my estimated sales is around 60 orders, I will probably need 300 postcards in total. I will stock up whenever my postcards are down to 30. It will give me enough window to order new supplies while keeping the investment risk lower. I will probably set up a business account with Canada Post when I reach 20 orders, which will be fair enough for covering the extra fee and save more money on shipping in the long run. I might need to invest a bit more in advertising on Instagram. I will probably buy a promotion package for 2 weeks in order to push my brand out there and reach potential customers.

[liuxitan]

Creative Advertising Exercise 

[liuxitan]

Consumer Persona

Consumer Catherine

About Her Catherine is the Sales Manager of a cosmetic company located in Downtown Toronto, Canada. She likes to explore arts, especially found interests in watercolor paintings. She often purchases and sends out postcards to her friends and family whenever there is a special occasion.

Benefits Catherine gets the following benefits:  A free personalized greeting message by choice  A unique watercolor design that differs from generic store-bought postcards  Postcards are all 100% cotton paper based which is environmentally friendly and come with luxurious texture. 

Use Cases Catherine purchases postcards from TANART to send her greetings to her family and friends.

Catherine’s high school girl friend recently got engaged, so she decides to purchase a watercolor design postcard. She will browse the TANART Instagram account and find the perfect design with pink clouds and shadows of two holding hands. She will direct message TANART through Instagram and state out her inquiries on the design. She will receive an invoice based on her requirements. She will send out payments through PayPal. The postcard will be mailed through Canada Post in 3-5 business day. Catherine occasionally wants to purchase a special design that she likes. In this case, she will DM TANART on Instagram and purchase the lux package by sending out the pictures she likes and gets a tailored design which will take 7-14 business days to proceed before shipping.

Previous Solution and Pain Points Before TANART, Catherine purchased generic postcards from stationary stores and drugstores.

Problems with this include:

 Generic greeting message – Store-bought postcards often comes with written greeting message that are bland and general.  Boring designs – Store-bought postcards are mostly designed to fit generic purposes and lack a sense of artistry and uniqueness.

Buying Trigger Catherine got bored by the generic postcards and wanted to find something exciting and fits her tastes in watercolor painting.

Buying Process Catherine found TANART when she browsed Instagram and searched #watercolorpainting and # #watercolorpainting.

She followed TARART on Instagram and found some designs that she really enjoyed. She made her first purchase of a watercolor galaxy painting postcard as a gift to her younger sister who recently graduated from college. Her sister loved the postcard. Catherine then regularly checked TANART’s Instagram to see if there were any new arts she liked regularly. 

Choice Factors There were a few factors when Catherine chose to purchase a postcard:  The design of artwork - The postcard has to be esthetically pleasing and unique to fit her taste.  Time – Postcards are purchased prior to a special occasion, so the process of receiving the postcard can’t take too long.

[liuxitan]

Local Competition

My company is TANART. TANART provides creatively designed and custom-made watercolor postcards that are made of 100% cotton paper, which is also environmentally friendly. My three major competitors are: Vistaprint: a company that offers a wide range of customizable small business marketing products that include customizable postcards. Their strengths include the wide variety of choices they have in paper and design. They are a big company, so they are capable of printing the same design in bulk and charge less. Their weakness is mainly quality control problem. Due to the large amount of orders they receive, some of the customers can receive postcards that have wrong alignment and color payoff. Staples: a well-known company that sells stationary and offer printing services. They also have their own custom postcard services. Their strengths include: lower pricing to print in bulk and an option for same day postcards that charge $10 more if the order is completed before 12pm. Their weakness is less creativity because their templates are mostly generic designs. Renee Nault Art (On Etsy): She is a Canadian artist and illustrator based in Victoria, BC. Her work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, books, advertising, and gallery shows. She is selling watercolor postcards on her Etsy store. Her strengths include her unique designs and amazing watercolor skills. Her weakness is the lack of customization because there is no option for a custom-made postcard option in her store. All of her postcards are premade and printed designs of her artwork.

[liuxitan]

Message Map for the company “Krave Beauty”

[liuxitan]

My Entrepreneurial Potential Strengths and Weaknesses

Hi, I’m Liuxi Tan. After I took the entrepreneurial potential self-assessment, I want to share my results with everyone. My strengths include self-confidence and high tolerance towards ambiguity. My self-confidence has helped me go through countless difficult situations in my whole life. As an introverted person, I gain energy from my alone time. But I have never shy from interacting with people, or feel anxious and stressed in social events. I used to be huge procrastinator, ironically, that helped me learn how to perform well under stressful situation. I can handle stress pretty well and keep calm at most times. For example, towards the end of a semester, I can still manage to study at a good pace without getting burnt out. On the other hand, my weaknesses include lack of motivation towards success, not ambitious, and low power appeal. I have always been a chill person. In fact, a little too chill when it comes to long-term planning. I used to be more of a risk-taker when I decided to come to Canada to study all by myself. But the first year was so hard that I was kind of traumatized. As a result, I tend to stay in my comfort zone nowadays. If I want to be my own boss in the future, I need to learn how to motivate myself better and push myself towards my limit.