Kylotos After Action Report

In the beginning, Team Kylotos set out to achieve the profit goal of $200 while creating a new product that solved immense customer pain. We were the first group in our class to actually get up and running with our product: The Replaceable Lighter Keychain.

What happened was a long journey through the semester in making sales with our product. There was some tough times as we set up to sell on campus with a couple of sales here and there, but always running into the problem of college students either not smoking or not having cash on them. We also were constantly coming up with new ideas and seeing new opportunities for another venture to take off and were very close once. Our team was literally going to the car to buy supplies only to get a phone call telling us that our idea couldn't be done without a permit. We had two main ideas approved for on campus selling: a printer ink refill service and late night baked goods sales. The printer ink refill was an idea attached with the Replaceable Lighter Keychain in case we wanted to partake in that later, which we are glad we didn't. The refill device we were thinking of doing was only for inject printers and many required making a hole in the cartridge and patching them up, many times resulting in the patch wearing and coming off in the printer. That is something we didn't want to deal with. The late night baked goods sales almost occurred off-campus, before being called by the HDPT after we were given permission to sell and saying this was only for charities. The late night baked goods sales almost came to be on campus, but we pretty much ran out of time and had a lot of prescheduled events between the members that we couldn't get out of. All in all, we stuck with the Replaceable Lighter Keychain sales the entire time and met the goal while create an exciting new product.

We think that the differences in what we had in mind and what actually happened were neither really for better or worse, because we successfully went through and achieved the goals of this project. We definitely liked our original idea, but as we went on we wanted to have two successful ventures. This never occurred but we learned some valuable lessons from it and had some great ideas. Also, if we went through with one of those ventures without fully analyzing it like we did, we could have misjudged items and really negatively impact our profit standing.

As a group, we would have done a few things differently a second time around. We may have explored other avenues to sell our product such as setting up a deal with the bookstore or Mr. Chips. Having our product hanging up next to the cigarette packs in Mr. Chips would have been a great moment for consumers to be like, "hey I really need one of these." Having said that we knew it would have been difficult and probably cut into our profits a lot, so we did not pursue it. Another thing we wish we could have done was improve the product itself with some sort of plastic molding or something to make the outside shell look a little nicer. But to be able to do something like that we would have had to put in a lot more money and probably ordered a large quantity from the manufacturer to achieve any sort of profit margin. Having more avenues to sell the product and money to improve in it were the two main areas that we would try to do differently next time.

Some advice for future entrepreneurial teams would be to start early, keep brainstorming, and to sell sell sell! We believe that starting early and getting a jump on the project was definitely a smart move on our part as there were a couple of teams who didn't have much more than an idea a month into the project and we were already out making money. Although we didn't use some of our extra ideas we were always brainstorming on other ventures and ways to improve our venture. We think that was a key item of success as it kept us on our feet constantly and recommend this to groups in the future. Getting out there and selling your item sounds very simple, but is probably the most important key to success. You NEED to make sales in order to achieve the class goals and succeed. Make sales and improve on your selling techniques throughout the semester.

Our figures for the project were as follows:

• Profit: $203.79
• Expense: $89.21
• Income: $293
• Total sales: 78 lighters (large and small)

Thank you for following us through this journey and safe travels.

Cheerio,

Team Kylotos

Wrapping it Up

The semester is quickly coming to a close and our project is nearing it's completion and we are quite happy to say that we have achieved the goal of $200 profit! It wasn't an easy task and there were many challenges along the way, but we arrived at the goal before the deadline. Although, we may not have made as much or as quickly as other teams for this project, we got an early start and were consistent throughout the entire semester with sales.

                                                     Happy about achieving the goal!

At this point in time we currently have a profit of a little over $200 and still have a bit of stock to sell which we plan to do over the weekend. We consider this project a success, having created a new product to satisfy a common need in which there was no real solution for before.

                                                           Counting some money

Thanks for reading and following us in our journey to create and capitalize on a new viable venture.

                                                               Some of our profit

Best of Luck,

Team Kylotos

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!

We're all at home watching football and eating Turkey! Have a Happy Thanksgiving and try not to eat too much :).

                                                                            Lucky Guy

Gobble Gobble,

Team Kylotos

Back On Track

Since last week we have made great progress and are actually much closer to the profit goal than we expected. Over the weekend we all made some sales and closed a deal of 12 lighters for $50! As of now, we have a profit of about $180 and orders for additional lighter key-chains!

Over the break we will be selling the remaining stock and manufacturing some more of our product to make some additional sales, along with the usually external brainstorming.

                                          All about the Ulysses (correct pluralization) baby!

On the bake sale venture we are in talks with Jay Degioia of JMU Dining Services and are trying to get the paperwork for him to sign off on.

All in all, things are looking good and we will keep selling and trying to get mo' money.

Have a good Thanksgiving Break!

Sayonara,

Team Kylotos

Rough Patches

From our last posting a lot of things have happened. We were pursuing the late night hot dog/ grilled cheese idea and got so excited that we did not stop to think about vendor or health permits. As of now we are fully educated in the nature of food vending/ bake sale legalities.

Since we couldn't go with the hot dog/ grilled cheese idea Prof. Wales suggested a bake sale type deal, which we were also very excited about. After doing some pricing research we could make 24 cookies for $2.00 and buy a heat-keeping bag for about $2.00. We were planning to sell packs of 2 or 3 warm cookies for a dollar a pack, potentially making a lot of money. Cue legal issues.

We talked to Southview Apartments' Management staff and asked if it would be okay to sell on the premises late at night. Although they they couldn't give written permission, they expressed that they would not give us any problems and said we should call the police to make sure it is okay. We called the Harrisonburg Police Department and talked with many nice people there, but it took many phone calls and conversations starting at 3:30pm until 8:15pm before we finally got an okay. After that, the officer called back 5 minutes later and said, "Oh yeah, this needs to be not for profit." This ended Saturday's operations and put us back to the drawing board.

If you are nonprofit or doing group fund raising you can do a bake sale, but if you attempt to sell for profit of any kind you need a business license. If you are handling food you need to have a food health permit, unless selling baked goods at a bake sale, which is defined as a sale of baked goods at a specific location at a specific time.

Since then we have talked to Mr. McClain who refered us to Mr. Degioia of JMU Dining Services and currently are attempting to set up some kind of bake sale in the future.

While we are working on that idea/venture we are still selling our Lighter Key-chains. We will be in Showker Lobby Friday after class at 2:15pm and will be in the lobby again on Monday at 2:15 to 4pm. At this moment in time we have profits of about $90.00 and still have some future orders to fulfill. We are thinking about trying our luck with our product at the JMU football game tailgates this weekend as many groups have had success with that.

 Some pictures of us at work!

Until next time.

Glad tiding,

Team Kylotos

Days of Reckoning

Friday night will be a day of reckoning, a day of judgment, a day of change. Team Kylotos will be making some money by selling delicious Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Hot Dogs Off-campus as we were previously discussing. We researched some pricing and will probably be buying in bulk from Costco and selling them a couple dollars marked up.

                                               Don't worry, not these Hot Dogs.

Here's an event link: Late night food Sales

In terms of where we are right now - we have a profit of about $60. We're still selling lighters here and there and also have someone buying at least 10 next week so that's an additional $40 profit or so just from Lighter Sales.

In closing, we shall see how we do Friday night (maybe even selling things Saturday night, depending on how it goes) and with the projected sales of the lighters next week we should be getting ever closer to the profit.

Totsiens,
Team Kylotos

"Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change."

- Confucius

Alas, this is the seventh week of posting and time again to report the changes of our operation. At this point we are continuing the sales of our Removable Lighter Key-chains and currently have profits of over $50. (Yay!) Again, at this point we currently trying to sell our remaining stock to get us closer to that goal of $200 profit.

However, we are always scheming and brainstorming for new viable ideas and opportunities. The seasonal theme we mentioned last week is always an option and now we are really looking into cashing in on late night weekend food selling around different college housing locations. With two of us living at Southview Apartments, we were thinking of cooking up a bunch of food in one of our houses and setting a stand or something up outside in areas of high traffic. We were looking at food stuffs like chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, hot dogs, and quesadillas.

                                                                                Yum!

We were thinking that when young adults enjoy beverages late at night on the weekend many delivery food purchases are made. We wish to differentiate ourselves not only in our food selections, but also with instant gratification. Food like hot dogs or quesadillas is not delivered to people late at night, they can go to places like taco bell but as far as we know no one delivers these items. Also, having the food right there ready for puchase would be an added benefit converting many passerbys into potential customers.

Having condiments like ketchup or mustard for hot dogs and some sort of ranch dip for the quesdillas would be a must for customers. Lastly, we will try to make these items ready to transport in a paper or plastic bag and the quesadillas already cut up.

We are thinking for purchasing and selling these products next Friday to enjoy this Halloween weekend and get back to more business next weekend.

                                                                   Happy Halloween!

Grazie,
Team Kylotos

Seasonal Changes

Hey all,

Since our last blog post we have made it well above even and actually have profits of about $25 with plenty of stock left. Last Friday we sold some more lighter key-chains, but again there were not as many people as we thought there would be walking by. Probably because it was Friday afternoon, but we are hoping it'll be better tomorrow. Tomorrow we have a Commons spot again reserved from 1:30pm to 4:00pm, so we plan to sell from 1:30 to 2:15, go to the Adam McFarland even, and get back out to the Commons from 3:00pm to 4:00pm. Hopefully we will have some more success...

We also had some more ideas bouncing around for additional ventures, many to do with seasonal fall/winter items. Setting up a stand for hot tea, cider, coffee, or hot chocolate could be a viable business when it gets colder outside. Pumpkin pies slices or various other fall foods for $1 a slice would be something people may buy at the right time. It was also brought to my attention that maybe even talking to Dining Services/ Aramark could possibly result in some free unused leftover food items as they get to deduct those items for their taxes.


Continuing with the cold theme maybe we could sell some element protecting apparel such as purple beanies and/or fuzzy socks, like Kitten Mittens!!

Okay. Not really, but apparently they are a hit with the ladies and are something to consider.

Well, at this point we are trying to sell our stock and are looking into other ideas. Hopefully we will continue to make it closer to our profit goal of $200 and create value in doing it.

Merci Beaucoup,
Team Kylotos

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized." - Sun Tzu

Monday October 11, 2010 was the first official on-campus lighter sales event and it went well. Although, we were wanting to sell more lighters, the time and location was not the greatest. The 11am to 12pm time slot at Warren Patio is pretty vacant on Mondays, which was somewhat expected. We have another event Friday (after class, you should come) on The Commons from 2:30 to 4:00pm. We are hoping that this location will provide us with a higher amount of exposure to students.

We also have a Facebook page for the team now and will be updating events from it and it will serve as a point of contact for users. Click me: Team Kylotos Facebook page

We will be getting our initial financials wrapped up soon, but it appears that we are about broken even with plenty of product left to sell. We just need to keep pursuing our goals and get it to the customer.

Good night, and good luck.
Team Kylotos

Running Strong

This week we received some good news, we found out from Jason that we can sell our products on campus! We were able to visit him at his office with the competed forms and got approval. After taking the documents to Warren Hall for record purposes, we scheduled some initial dates for on campus sales next week and will be looking to schedule some more for the future.

Come visit us and our product Monday at Warren Patio from 11a.m. - 12p.m. and next Friday in front of the Commons 2:30p.m. - 4:00p.m. Facebook link for Monday: Lighter Sales Event

More research is being done on the ink refills, but it is looking good for now. The cartridge refill service got approved for on-campus selling as well, so we have no barriers to the product in the future, aside from costs.

Namaste,
Team Kylotos

"Doubt can only be removed by action" - Goethe

We continue our journey in this process of value creation and in the past week have had a lot of success. Dan going to Spaghettifest this past week brought in the sale of 6 "Lighterlungs" (official name to be determined) and even more amazing than that is the publicity he brought for our product in The Breeze. Excerpt from the article in The Breeze below:

With the application process for on-campus approval still in the works we have decided to look into other ventures as well to tag onto the form with the "Ligterlung" to get it approved all at once. The best idea we have at the moment would be an ink refill and recycling service. We would advertise, probably on facebook, the creation of this and tell people to bring in their ink cartridges at different times and places that we post online. We would buy a kit, like the ink station below, and refill ink catridges wherever we set up.
 
We were thinking about also telling people to bring in old cartridges as well, ones that they don't want to refill from old printers. We were going to try to set up something with a store, such as staples, and bring in old cartridges to recycle for a set amount of money per cartridge. That way we have the option of filling up your ink cartridge and saving you time/money, or recycling your old cartridge and helping save the Earth while making a bit of money.

Hopefully the coupling of these two ventures will be a success and will yield profits much higher than the requirement.

Until next time,

Team Kylotos

A Product is Born!

As team Kylotos continued to elaborate on our pains that we have identified, we decided that we could fix the pain of losing your lighter. We began brainstorming ideas and it didn't take long to come up with the simple idea to attach a lighter to something much more important i.e. car keys via a key ring. So we worked on several generations of prototypes and finally designed one that was made out of tin with tape wrapped around it that holds the lighter tightly, but can be replaced. This allows the customer to either take the lighter out of the sleeve and refill it with fluid, or replace the lighter entirely. The process has been refined and as opposed to 15 minutes to make the first "sh--s weak" edition, we can now make a high class one in 4 minutes.

The idea was generally well liked among both smokers and non-smokers, but two negative issues continued to come up. The vast majority of the time it was brought up by non-smokers who weren't as familar with the problem of lighter loss. The first problem is the idea that a smoker will just start losing their entire key-chain and be totally screwed. Dan is the only smoker in the group (and entire class for that matter) and his outlook on it was that he could lose a lighter anytime. Dan could lose it under the seat of a car, in a couch, giving it to someone to light a cigarette, or wherever. But his keys, he holds onto like they are Midas' gold.

The second question or problem that both smokers and non-smokers comment on is that the product already exists somewhere because it's so simple. It doesn't matter that this product might exist somewhere, because it doesn't exist at the 7/11 down the street or the HESS next to it. It also doesn't exist at B&B tobacco, any Exxon in Harrisonburg, Liberty, Food Lion, and yes my friends, even Wal-Mart. But it doesn't stop there, it also doesn't exist in anyone's pocket at JMU or Blue Ridge unless we made it and gave it to you.

In addition to that little rant, there's this link too, after searching Bic lighter key-chain in Google images search, this "same product idea" was the first response and his is rather ghetto compared to Kylotos.
http://www.zombiehunters.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=54819

Off to sell at Spaghetti-fest in WV this weekend.

Sincerely,

Team Kylotos

The Beginning

This begins our MGT 372 blog and the online record of Team Kylotos' endeavors. Kylotos consists of Dan Auth, Cody Connors, and Michael Gentilini who are on the quest to entrepreneurial success and a target profit of $200 for the semester. After some in-class group exercises and our first official team meeting earlier this week we are exploring different ideas to address consumer pains.

After the first meeting we came up with the top three pains of losing your lighter, there being No JMU VT shirt yet, and having scratched CDs/DVDs. We even designed a shirt on Customink.com:

A couple days after our meeting we quickly began to realize that there were already multiple JMU VT shirts being made and probably will not look into that venture further. After the  Points of Pain Idea Examination Fair exercise in class, we got some interest for the CD/DVD scratch repair from Prof. Wales and are going to explore this option as well as many others further.


Until next time.

Kindest Regards,
Team Kylotos