'Life-fulfilling work is never about money- when you feel the true passion for something, you instinctively find ways to nurture it'
I am studying accounting and I am passionate about fashion.
I am currently in the process of opening an online shop that features female apparels and accessories.
My favourite fashion designer is Victoria Beckham. I began reading up books on business and entrepreneurship written by successful businessmen. I read a lot of fashion magazines and did lots of research to keep myself updated of the fashion trend.
Cineleisure's Next Online Sensation 3- The local heroes was taking place at Cathay Cineielsure Orchard Basement on Saturday, 5th April 2014.
In this challenge, we were allocated into groups of 3 and my groups mates were Luna and Clinton.
There were a total of 10 groups and each group was given a Yono FlashPay of $300 to purchase items from the mall tenants (only at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard) such as fashion accessories, fashion items and footwear.
We were all put to test the entrepreneurship and marketing edge- setting the price of the items and coming out with our own marketing strategies.
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1pm-3pm: Purchase of selected items and set-up store
As you can see we were only given 2 hours to shop and set up our mini booth which isn't really enough for us because by then when we started decorating our booth, 30 minutes was wasted and we were only left with 1 hour 30mins to finish up our shopping spree. However, my group did managed to get everything we wanted given with the short time limit because we had our discussion earlier on so basically we just head to the respective outlet and purchase them.
(Shops we visited were FEMMEX and BEADSTREET// Items bought: Snapbacks, belt, bangles, phone accessories, earrings, necklace and nail polish)
Mini-booth set up
3pm-6pm: Local Heroes Sales Begins!
With everyone selling exactly the same thing, it's quite hard to sell the items so in that case, developing a marketing strategy is vital. Without one, your efforts to attract customers are likely to be haphazard and inefficient. The focus of our strategy was to make sure that our products meet the customer needs. To achieve this, we actually came out with a flexible strategy.
We gave up the idea of selling clothes and focus more on accessories instead. Why accessories? The world of fashion is not limited to clothing only. It includes end number of items. To me, fashion accessories is very important. Clothing may make up the majority of an outfit but accessories are more significant than you may think. Most of us would have those times when we don't feel like putting too much into our attire for the day but don't want to appear sloppy and plain jane-ish. This is when accessories come to our rescue. Let's take a really basic outfit as an example- a colorful statement necklace match with a black tank top and a pair of dark denim jeans. Accessories further emphasize your style, taste and preferences. They help you to make the best of each and every item you own.
Thanks to accessories, we can create a flowing wave of style from head to toe.
Pricing Strategy: It's important to find out what your competitors offer and what they charge. It's probably unwise to set your prices too much higher or lower without a good reason. If you price it too low, you will just be throwing away the profit. But if you price it too high, you will lose customers unless you can offer them something they can't get elsewhere.
We bought most of our accessories at a very low cost and we had our price range set in between $2-15. (Try to sell off your items at cheap prices from the start, it's a great way to make a sizable profit)
6pm-6.30pm: Conclusion of Sales and Presentation of proceeds to SPCA
At the end of the event, our sales proceed was about $100+.
Overall, a total of $1832 was raised// All sales proceeds were donated to SPCA! :)
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Through Local Heroes, I was exposed to life skills and techniques.
It was indeed a great start-up and experience for me.
Thank you for having me, Cathay Cineleisure Orchard.
Nevertheless, it was also my first time setting up a booth, i had a lot of fun times with my team mates as well as the other contestants. Pretty proud of my efforts that I'm able to help the animals in SPCA.
You know you don't have to feel upset that you didn't raise a huge amount. To the less fortunate, even a small amount means a lot to them. In other words, what I'm trying to say is, it doesn't matter how much you have raised. What matter is helping others make you happier- Do good, Feel good.
If there's a chance in taking part in such event again, I wouldn't mind going for it! :)
{Some tips that may help to guide you along as a flea market vendor}
An attractive display- Does not necessarily mean that it should be very organized, professional or having an expensive display. In my opinion, it depends on your strategy too. Don't scare away customers- You need to balance your seller's personality between passive and aggressive because if you tend to be too pushy, you could drive your customers away.
Know your customer needs, Set your price reasonably, Join the social media wagon and free advertising.
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Hope you guys enjoy reading! :)
Itsgonnagetsensational!
