The last blog entry is to inform future MGT 372 groups about how JMADDY Gear became divine entrepreneurs.

At this point due to time constraints we just stuck with our idea of survival bracelets and decided to use our remaining stock and make bracelets to sell. Though it seemed like we were losing the war we were going to surprise the other groups and win this battle (much like how George Washington did and defeated General Cornwallace in the end and got M’urica’s independence).

Within the last two weeks before finals we were able to make about $80 selling our remaining 16 bracelets. Though this may not seem much one should now that we had a huge profit margin. In the end we all made $25 each on profit and donated the remaining 20% of profit to “Toys for Tot” for the holiday season.

After our financials were done we continued on to our final step making the MGT 372 video. The video was a great project and we were able to implement all aspects to it by making it informal, funny, catching, and have a guest star appearance of “Jay-Z” in it.

On the final note, our group wants to thank Professor Wales’s effort that we put forth onto the semester. This was most truly a fun class.

Week 6, a change in direction! We are now focusing our energy on producing bracelets because it through various customer discoveries the profit margin between producing bracelets and producing dog collars showed to be of minuscule value. Therefore, by focusing on just producing bracelets we can produce more in order to server the JMU student body! 

We have also begun trying a different design for our bracelets. The new design would only encompass us to use one type of rope and therefore eliminating the process of binding two colors. So far we have had mixed reviews on the new design. Both male and female demographics seem to like the bolded two color coordination bracelets however the male demographic have also high remarks for the new design as well. We will continue on discovering our customer segments and hope to schedule some time next week with various clubs in order to get our product out there. The days are going fast therefore we are now stressing to make it big! 

This week JMADDY gear has focused on continuing to do more market research and discover how much customers are really willing to pay for our products. What we have learned is that many customers are more than willing to pay approximately $5 for our purple and gold paracord bracelets. We started production the previous week and have already sold the dozen or so we made. What we have found is that although our target market is people who would consider themselves adventurers, many other people are willing to buy the product simply for the unique school spirited bracelet that is unprecedented on JMU's campus. As for the pet collars, we have not begun production, but are still pondering on possible ways to make our rugged collars adjustable. Our current problem is that we would have to get measurements form each customer and then custom make the collar for every customer. We feel that this may make our already narrow market even smaller as many customers may not be willing to take measurements themselves, order the collar, and then wait several days to receive their product.

Board Meeting 2

Some things we took from your responses:
            Try to expand our market into other areas
            ›Maybe add another design
            ›Try to sell face to face to alumni and students at School sponsored events such as football games
            ›May introduce other colors for more specialization

The Statistics: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhZ6z9U6rHr0dGFFN1pNMTlpRGs5WlhLMnBiTFpNdXc

This past week were working on continuing customer discoveries and really trying to hone in on what will make our product stand out to potential consumers. We realized that students around JMU really like the idea of JMU themed dog colors. Through some customer interviews we even had people saying they would purchase one even if they do not have a dog, but would give it to someone as a gift! We have also decided to make our dog collars ourselves which will allow us to make them cheaper and keep costs down. It is so important for us to keep our costs down because our potential customer base is very concerned with price. Looking forward we would like to have the first batches of collars out by next week!! We are also going to continue to make the JMU bracelets because they are super easy to make and are actually selling and are able to give ussmall amounts of income as we await our dog collar production.

This week JMADDY Gear has focused on learning what is JMU students would like to see in JMADDY's gear pet line. Many students have expressed to us that they would be very interested in quality, school spirited pet collars; specifically for dogs and cats. One of the potential materials we would use is paracord, also known as "550" cord, for of its 550 lb weight capacity. Using a cobra weave, paracord can be woven to make an approximately 3/4" wide weave that can be made to your desired length. Using paracord as the material will allow us to offer a unique and incredibly durable pet collar to JMU's animal lovers. 

One of the problems we have realized with our product is the collars are made to length and do not accommodate adjustments. And because dogs come in many shapes and sizes it would be difficult to pre-make collars. This means we will either need to design a way to make these collars adjustable or only do custom orders. 

Another product we have been working on is a JMU colors paracord bracelet. We have already made some prototypes and they have gotten some great responses from students. Making the bracelets to be two colors involves cutting and melting two different colored lines of paracord and melting them together to form one uniformed piece. Its not too difficult but requires a little more time.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8KDF3rAfHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YwEZVEPJ2Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-R4tgNWTIc

Board Meeting 1 Suggestions:

}Based on the written assessments we are going to:
   
    }Continue with customer discovery to gather more proof of demand

    }Give the product a name more relating to Dog accessories

    }Focus on JMU Alumni and parents of Students as a Novelty Item

    }Distinctly define which products we will produce

    }Focus on person to person selling

    }Consider Cat Collars along with Dog Collars 

This is the first week that JMADDY Gear got together in order to begin brainstorming for ideas. After many frustrations on finding out what product we where going to focus on we came up with an idea to focus on the JMU community. We decided to go with the name JMADDY Gear and come up with a line of products for both the student body and their dogs. We still are not sure that we can use the domain name JMADDY but as entrepreneurs we shall act as detectives and find this out soon! We still haven't found out our customer discovery yet but are set on focusing on a product that associates with dogs. At first we were set out on producing dog jerseys but realized that the cost associated with this may be costly and it may be too expensive for students thus creating a low profit margin for us. After much deliberation we decided that JMU dog bowls or Vineyard Vines styled dog collars may provide us with low cost and a high profit margin.  As a team we will be eager to further act as detectives find out if JMU constitutes a large dog market for our products.  Perhaps we can start a new trend labeled, "dogs of madison?" Only time can tell my friend. 

Besides dog products we still are thinking about focusing on neon t-shirts and hats. Why? Because neon is cool and it will gain the attention of the student body!  

Gain Creators: 
- We are thinking about donating a percentage of our proceeds to a charity. For our dogs products perhaps donate a percentage to our local SPCA charter. For our neon product line we are still figuring out a charity to collaborate with. 

- By focusing some of our proceeds to charity we hope that the customer feels like they are with JMADDY Gear in an effort to support a good cause!! 

Customer Discovery: 
Apparently there may be a huge dog market in Copper Beach. Copper Beach just installed several dog litter posts due to an increase influx of dogs. 

 While I was running last night I also spotted several dog litter post on the sidewalks of Devon Lane. 

Southview Apartment just modified their leasing terms and now allow dogs which would add to our niche dog market. 

The average range that we figured somebody would pay for a dog jersey ranges from $20 for a small dog to potentially $40 for a large dog. 

Some people are actually willing to pay more for a snap-back neon hat v.s. a neon t-shirt. Potential revenue could possibly be 20 to $25 per hat and 10 to $15 dollars per tee. 


Conclusion: 
ON TO WEEK 2 of our entrepreneur journey. There's far too much to discover out there and TEAM JMADDY GEAR is eager to find out!