Importance of e-marketing- Saturday 24 August 2013

One of elective courses offered this semester is e-marketing, which is proving to be extremely beneficial with regards to our business. We were given two websites to compare on various characteristics such as navigation, ease of use, appeal to the target audience and of course discoverability.  The websites compared were www.hertz.co.za and www.lingscars.com, if you are interested in seeing two extremes in the car industry.With it becoming increasing cheaper and easier to set up a website, these factors become even more important. The most important being discoverability, which relies on one’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Our website was launched last week, check it out at www.azurawear.co.za

We are currently working through each page to increase all the factors that contribute to the websites appeal and ease of use. Some of the changes you can expect are an about page that covers our story, the team, the product and how we give back as well as links to online shops, new style guide layout and PDF Style Guide link.

If you have any suggestions please email us at info@azurawear.co.za

Read More

Creativity in business- Friday 23 August 2013

As part of the postgraduate diploma in entrepreneurship offered at the University of Cape Town, students are offered the opportunity to do one of three elective creativity courses. Writing, music or bread making.
I selected the bread making course, run by a start-up in Cape Town BREADrev.

It was hosted at a beautiful tea room Montebello, in the suburb of Newlands. Three "Rocket Ovens" were set up and roaring, with large tables set out in front of them. We arrived to find two balls of dough, or boulangers of commercial dough ready to be shaped, proven and baked.



After learning the basic techniques of working with dough, we shaped the bough into loaves and baguettes and left them to prove on the top of the ovens. We then made cheese sticks with unbleached, slow ground flour, which were enjoyed with butter, jam, tea and coffee. By the time we were finished, the bread was finished proving, ready to be marked and baked.

The ovens are maintained at a temperature of 220 degrees Celsius, which takes continuous attention since they use wood. The beauty of using a wood oven is the additional flavour and the artisanal product that you create. Next week we will be making our own dough, which I look forward to as the art of baking lies in the dough.

The creativity in business allows students the time to relax a little, reflect and foster an environment of investing in ourselves as people.

Read More

Adding value part 2- Thursday 22 August 2013

Creation: The Azura can be worn in over 20 different ways and allows the consumer to be extremely creative in their clothing design and style. This product is up to the imagination as it can be worn as a dress, skirt, tunic, shirt, shawl and more.

Freedom: The beauty of it all is that it comes down to freedom, to do with as little or as much with the Azura as works for the individual. After all, it is for Anybody, Anywear!

Identity: We really care about our customers and want to see them enjoying their purchase. Soon we will launch a campaign around consumers in Azura’s, showcasing their personal style incorporating the Azura. We are also in the process of planning to events that bring buyers and interested customers together to showcase styles, how to create each style and new products that may be launched.

I think it’s safe to say we satisfy, in a positive and synergic matter, some of the fundamental human needs as described by Max-Neef (1989). It’s only up to us to ensure we present our solution to customers in a powerful way. Our sales and marketing approaches have been adapted and are still under consideration for further review in order to ensure we are adapting to the market and always taking the best approach we see possible.

References

Max-Neef Fundamental Human Needs http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/resources/2007-Manfred-Max-Neef-Fundamental-Human-Needs.pdf

EarthChild Project http://www.earthchildproject.org/

Read More

Adding value part 1- Wednesday 21 August 2013

Post launch of the business and the sales report being handed in, the team has had to critically reflect on our sales, marketing and product since it has gone to market. It also required us to consider if our product will allow us the ability to build a sustainable business.The important question is: does the business add value?

If we consider the fundamental human needs as described by Max-Neef (1989), our product is an economic good that satisfies the human needs of identity, subsistence, participation, protection, creation and freedom. This may seem bizarre, but ultimately you add value when you meet people’s needs in a powerful, positive and synergic manner. How do we satisfy these needs?

Subsistence: We offer consumers good quality, multifunctional clothing that is locally made at competitive prices. Although we don’t directly fulfil the need, the Azura consumer is able to stretch income further by buying “more for less”, which offers a greater opportunity of subsistence in a holistic way 

Protection: Not only does the Azura provide protection in the form of clothing, it provides consumers with an opportunity to protect the environment and invest in the South African textile and manufacturing industry which are both under great threat.

Participation: Azura allows consumers to participate in a global movement towards sustainable production and consumption. Sustainability at Azura is three-fold: the Azura is a multifunctional item of clothing, offering over 20 different styles in which it can be worn. By ensuring we source good quality, sustainable materials and produce good quality products, we know our products will last. If not, we will fix it. Secondly, we produce in Cape Town and support local seamstresses who have been hit by mass production in China. Thirdly we donate 10% of our profit to a local NGO, the EartChild Project, who work in local schools educating young, underprivileged students on sustainable and healthy lifestyles.

To be continued…

References

Max-Neef Fundamental Human Needs http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/resources/2007-Manfred-Max-Neef-Fundamental-Human-Needs.pdf

EarthChild Project http://www.earthchildproject.org/

Read More

Valuable insights of a serial entrepreneur- Tuesday 20 August 2013

Each week we attend a workshop hosted for the entrepreneurship students. They have covered everything from innovation techniques, to pitching sessions and awesome guest lecturers. We  recently received a lecture from Tim Shier, a serial entrepreneur based in Cape Town. He covered an extensive amount of content for two hours, however the key take out points were clear, very inspiring and I would like my reflections with you.

• It takes extreme dedication, hard work and sacrifice to be an entrepreneur
• Be willing to be unpopular as the right thing is always almost not right for everybody. Leadership can be lonely and one has to remove oneself slightly.
• Stick to your passions in order to get through the dark times
• Investing in yourself is investing in your career
• Support, perspective and learning are essential in making it as an entrepreneur
• Now is never a good benchmark. Learning by design is the only way to stay ahead of the curve
• There is no way around delegation, but empowering the team and focusing on the little things are equally as important as its your people who really matter
• Know when to get out, because the time will come. The key is to do it right.

Those are rather serious, the most important was definitely have fun on the journey. If you live your life by design, why wouldn't you be having fun all the time anyway?

Read More

Reflections of the PDM Entrepreneurship- Monday 19 August 2013

It is a few days after launch, the pinnacle event of the diploma, aside from graduating. I began this diploma after graduating from an undergraduate degree at age 22. I wasn’t interested in studying further in the field of science and was fed up with all the theory! I didn’t feel ready to start working and had no idea what I would do anyway. This course offers a practical component alongside theory and a completely different approach to anything I had experienced, which is why I decided to do it.

In all honesty, it is probably the best decision I have ever made. The theory got heavier and the pace faster, but in a unique, fun and sometimes alternative approach. I could list the things I have learnt and it would be endless. Every day brings a new opportunity, challenge, experience and lesson. The reflections that have come to me over the last month are the value of networking, seizing each opportunity as if they will never ever exist again and committing to a life of continuous change in which you are adapting, learning and developing.

I am still unsure of where the journey will take me, but am certain that the lifestyle of an entrepreneur and culture of entrepreneurship and start-ups is the right space for me as a young, dynamic and motivated South African woman. 

Read More

Sunday 18 August 2013 Entrepreneurship

Something I read on the Internet that spoke very loudly to me....

A love note to entrepreneurs:

Do your best work.

Touch one person.

Make a difference to a handful.

Build a legacy not just an empire.

Keep your values front and centre.

Launch ideas from the heart.

See the world as it isn't.

Make passion your master.

Allow possibility to feed your soul.

Read More

Saturday 17 August 2013 Sales sales sales

Valuable lessons I have learnt about the sales aspect of business this week :

Individual 

With regards to sales on a personal level, I have learnt that I am more confident as salesperson when engaging a potential customer by physically demonstrating the different ways in which the Azura can be worn.

Group

Being part of such a big group seemed to make sales slightly challenging at times.  Not all members of the group are equally as good at selling as others, thus it is important to ensure that the stronger salespersons of the group are always present during events such as launch day. Being a stronger salesperson in the group, as I am more familiar with our garment, it was important for me to lead by example and assist other less confident group members where I could to increase the potential of sales.

Business

The location and presentation of a business and especially the physical stall during events such as launch day play a large role in the amount of sales that are procured. Ensuring that one has direct access to foot traffic, displaying a product demonstration video at all times and having access to a card payment machine could have resulted in increases sales for our business. Being part of a business it is my responsibility to ensure that specific aspects are addressed and that I am, similar to other business members, responsible for specific tasks to ensure that we perform optimally.

True entrepreneurship will never allow one to stop learning and working towards that bigger picture....

Read More

Friday 16 August 2013 Dreams

Today we had an interesting meeting with an inspiring individual called Dustin. Dustin is from Showcase and showed very keen interest in our product and offered his services as platform to sell our product online. He seemed very passionate about what he does and especially in helping students and other young startup businesses like ours to get off the ground.

It was lovely to have someone see so much potential in our product and in our work. When someone gets excited by your product and your vision it makes the challenging journey all worth while and the bumps in the road seem so insignificant all of the sudden. There should be more people like Dustin in the world! Dreams could go so much further with a little hope and support...

Passion should be the driver of dreams and dreams should become the reality...

Read More

Thursday 15 August 2013 Skills

Last night was an evening filled with preparation for our Professional Communications oral exam rehearsal as well as our written exam. Can you believe that even the rehearsal counts towards our term mark. I guess that this forces students to take it more seriously and actually come properly prepared. We all know the average student will try and get away with doing as little work as possible ;)

Many complaints and opinions were voiced regarding the exam, but we all know that it is necessary, it is one of those things that just has to be done and that will benefit us in the long run. Report writing is an important part of business and the life of an entrepreneur, thus biting the bullet and mastering the skill is the only option here.

Skillful and well-rounded entrepreneurs we shall become :)

Read More

Wednesday 14 August 2013 We are all crazy here ;)

Last night was a looooong night...

The team was up till late working on our Sales Report document that was due for hand-in today. It was quite a challenge documenting all the intricacies and lessons learnt from our big launch day. All the trials and tribulations that accompanied launch made this quite an important document for all of us as it was a big learning curve for the team and a starting point for necessary changes that are yet to come.

We are all aware that the hard work is not yet over and that it may only be beginning for us now... Yet, no one is willing to let this get us down and all of us are willing to go the extra mile to see our business grow and flourish. This is definitely a "learn to fail fast" entrepreneurial lesson for us and the faith will not flail.

People may call us crazy but entrepreneurs are those that do what they love and thus don't give up when faced with fear and challenges. From strength to strength we will climb!

Read More

Tuesday 13 August 2013 Darn cord!

Only the best is good enough!!!

With the challenges that product launch/exhibition brought valuable lessons were learnt. Quality control and not rushing production became two of our most valuable lessons from this experience...

The cord used in our garments was a big let down as it caused so many errors in production that most of our garments had to be returned to our CMT to be repaired. Using cord that was not spun tight enough for the intricacy of our garment style and rushing our CMT caused mistakes to be made and large disappointment for everyone involved.

A decision was made that the incorrect cord was sourced and it needed to be replaced by a higher quality and more attractive looking cord. Although this causes us to lose quite a bit of money, it gives our garment a higher quality look and feel and would therefore be more beneficial in the long run.

With this learning process comes sacrifices... Sacrifice of time and money. Production is not where we would want it to be and thus sales are not occurring as fast as planned. However, with a little more time and effort invested Azura shall prevail and reach success as order emerges from the current chaos...

Read More

Monday 12 August 2013 Ri's reflections

Launch has come and gone... 

What and exciting and overwhelming day for all of us. This day came with many trials and tribulations but we conquered it all! It was amazing to see so many excited faces light up as we told them about our product and what it can do... Many weren't as enthusiastic, but that was to be expected as one product cannot be everyone's cup of tea.

The weather unfortunately did not play in our favour and the rainy miserableness could have deterred many a potential sale. None the less, a lot was learnt about selling our product, it is finally out there and there is a lot of room for growth and improvement. Things can only get better and more exciting from here on out.

Well done to the aspiring entrepreneurs that are Azura <3

Read More

Sunday 11/08/2013

Sunday 11/08/2013

 

To close of my blog session for the week, id like to leave you guys with 18 inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs written by various entrepreneurs over the years. Hope you will find these as inspiring as I have and may you all try to apply these to your everyday life.

 

1. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

- Peter Drucker

 

2. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”

- Vince Lombardi

 

3. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

- Steve Jobs

 

4. “My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had — everyday I’m learning something new.”

- Richard Branson

 

5. “Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself.”

- Oprah Winfrey

 

6. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

- Bill Gates

 

7. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

- Warren Buffett

 

8. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.”

- Jeff Bezos

 

9. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
- Thomas Edison

 

10. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

- Albert Einstein

 

11. “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
- Donald Trump

 

12. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

- Winston Churchill

 

13. ”Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
- Thomas Edison

 

14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

- Mark Twain

 

15. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

- Vince Lombardi

 

16. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”

- Napoleon Hill

 

17. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

- Bill Cosby

 

18. “Success is not what you have, but who you are.”
- Bo Bennet

 

Read More

Friday 09/08/2013

Friday 09/08/2013

 

This morning proved to be a very difficult one as most of us were tired from the  events of the whole week. However many things still needed to be completed thus it is true when they say an entrepreneur’s work day is undefined. Returning all items that we had borrowed proved to be a difficult task considering that we were still expected to attend class the following day. This day proved to give us a fresh perspective of how we performed on the day.

As much as we were despondent on the day of exhibition due to our performance on the day. Having a new perspective on things made on realize that we didn’t too badly considering that it is some what still winter in Cape Town and it had been raining heavily on the day of exhibition thus people would not be inclined to be thinking summer dresses t the top of their minds when they got into a stall.

 

Read More

Thursday 08/08/2013

Thursday 08/08/2013

 

As an entrepreneur you are faced with many different situations, and having been exposed to an exhibition environment you tend to learn that people may have different opinions regarding your product. In such cases you need to open for some criticism. That’s the only way you learn to refine your product to suit customer needs.

 

In terms of preparation you need to realize that no matter how much one prepares one can never be fully aware of what the outcome will be on the day. In such cases one has to learn to react to the situation and make best of what is available to you, a sense of bricolage is what is required.

 

 Operating in a student environment a product that is not complicated in its functionality would be a better sell.  This was evidenced by the number of sales achieved by teams with simpler products suited to the student market. Fashion requires a person who is already a fashion icon who has a legible brand which has equity amongst potential customers to promote the brand, and this was probably the best way to sell a fashion item. Simply promoting a products’ functionality and expecting high return on sales was not a viable strategy considering the environment that we operate in. One could say the simpler the better.

 

This was evidenced in the reaction from customers. The biggest critic being that as functional as the product is, it really does not make a girl look fabulous. This is one area we need to address as a group if this product will be viable in market,

 

However with all that said the greatest lesson learned as an individual would be the active engagement with customers. No matter how viable and practical the product is, it is up to the entrepreneur to sell it. This is when you realize what it means to Always Be Closing.

 

Read More

Wednesday 07/08/2013

Wednesday 07/08/2013

 

Exhibition day, this day was more daunting then we had imagined, the rain gods proved to not be on our side as the heavens continued to pour down for most of the day, this made it difficult for people to appreciate our product offering. This was due to the fact that any customer who has been walking in the rain and is soaking wet as a result, would unlikely choose to buy a summer dress when the is a rain coat being sold right next door.

 

However as much as the day didn’t work out to be a resounding success, a lot of positives can be taken from the days events as we finally got our product on the market and even though we didn’t make as many sales as we had anticipated. The positive factor was that there was a lt of interest in the product and as a result we managed to capture a lot of orders on the day. This paves the way forward for us as we no know that the product is marketable, maybe not much as a fashion item, but a multi-functional garment which will save one closet space and a lot of money in the process.

 

Another major concern for the group at the moment is the quality of garments being made by our CMT, some group members found some major defects in our products only last night, this resulted in the lady’s in our group staying up all night doing their best to save as many items as possible so we could at least have some items to sell for the launch today. Thus a lot of credit has to go to our ladies as they work they did saved the day for us. Imagine a situation where e we have a stall and no product to sell on the day.

 

However with the difficulties faced on the day lessons were surely learnt especially when it comes to dealing with outside suppliers or manufactures, simply trusting someone word is not enough when your whole production is reliant on that person delivering on time. A valid memorandum of understating needs to be signed when dealing with any outside party, this is a lesson to take with in to the business world.

Read More

Tuesday 06/08/2013

Tuesday 6/08/2013

 

For some reason today I woke up with a lot of nerves and seriously worried as some things weren’t not able to be completed yesterday, the banner needs to be picked up today, the mannequins as need to be picked and lastly the frames from Earthchild project that we will be using to decorate our store.

 

As it can be imagined this day will be full of running around and stressing, however I’m glad to say that all our arrangements went according to plan, even though we experienced some hairy moments during the day all got managed to be resolved. Tomorrow promises to be exciting day as scary as the prospect of finally launching our product is. As we don’t know how the market will respond to the product, whether the weather will hold out or not as our product is predominantly a summer item, so should it rain people will automatically operate in a winter mind frame and this could prove to be at our disadvantage

Read More

Monday 05/08/2013

Monday 5/08/2013

 

Mondays has become a very lazy day for me lately, Not having classes to attend give me a chance to catch up past readings that I haven’t completed as yet and a chance to complete reading for the week ahead.

 

However before I elaborate too much on the week ahead, I would first like to talk about the past weekend events which ended up with me attending the Earthchild Project movie screening which was held at the SHALA in Gardens.

 

This proved to be a very worthwhile event to attend as it further opened my eyes on the extent of the work done by Jenna and her remarkable team. I was further inspired to support other initiatives which undertake such work, as it takes a few people within the community to make a sustainable change, however all these individuals can not do it by themselves and thus require help from ordinary citizen. Even though we probably wouldn’t be able to put aside enough time to play an active role in making a change. We can however make an indirect impact through raising awareness and contributing with charitable donations. A helping hand can go a long way if we all work together.

 

The week ahead on the other hand proves to be full of excitement and a lot of worries as we all run around doing last minute preparations for the exhibition to be held in two days time. Most of our preparations are in order and we hope to have a successful event this week.

 

However as much as one can prepare, an event of this magnitude can never be fully prepared for, as this is the first time we realize our product and brand onto the market. There is a lot of anticipation of what the day will turn out to be and how people will react to our product.

Read More

2nd August

Today we had ourboard meeting with our directors. I was great to meet with them and get advice and feeddback as to where we are headed in terms of our launch. The response we got from them was positive and it was nice to know that we had made progress despite the hickups we had along the way. The directors were impressed with our promotional strategy, and how we were promoting our product online, as well as how we would promote it on campus.

The directors howver were concerned about the pricing of our product, stating that pricing it at R250 may slightly high, and because we are targeting the student market we should maybe look to pricing it at around R199, in order to draw in more customers. As a group we then had a seperate meeting to discuss the issue of our price and made a group decision that we would put the price down to R220 on the day of launch. This was done in efforts to try and drwa in more customers and get our brand out there, and focus on making profits once we are a more established brand. Hope this works on the day!!

Cheers
Tarisai xx

Read More

Exhibition nightmare

August 1st

today wasnt such a great day for Azura. We learnt that our cutter who was meant to cut our fabric for lauch had not yet started cutting and only left the material to rest on Tuesday, when he was meant to have done it over the weekend. Our material takes two days to rest so we were only able to pick up the material from him today, after having to go there and beg him to cut our material, as we were now very behind in our production line process.

We managed to get the material to the CMT this afternoon, however with the delay from the cutter, we are no longer able to meet the quantity of products that we had wanted to produce for exhibition, as our CMT is only able to sew 40 products in one day. With some negotiating with the CMT we managed to ask her workers to work overtime for us over the weekend so that we would be able to produce more productsto sell at launch. From this nightmare I learnt that production is not an easy field to be in at all and that one constatntly needs to be checking up on the line of production, and not just assuming that things are being done by the producers, as this is not always the case.

Time to rest, its been a long day

Night
Tarisai

Read More

Communication is key

31st July

It is now officially one week to go till our product launch. emotions are high, filled with excitement as well as anxiety. At this stage communication as a group is very important, however as a group our communication levels are declining. It seems in our business, communication seems to be getting lost along the way, and certain deadlines are failing to be met because of this. Our business has failed to reach two deadlines due to poor communication and as a result members are not happy with some members lack of communication.

Communication within groups and in any business is very important as it helps with planning ahead and making any changes to previous plans if neccessary. It also helps group members know where other members are experiencing difficulties and allows them to see where they can assist in the process. Without proper communication, no assistance can be given as members will not know where they can assist and that there was a problem. so today i learnt the importance of communicating as a group, for the saying is true, that together each person achieves moreand we are a group so we should communicate and help built each other up to reach our final goals.

Thats all from me today

Cheers
Tarisai xx

Read More

Police horror

30 July 2013

Today was a different day in our group. One of our group members had gone "missing" from the time we wrote exams last semester. We as a group had thought she had just left the course and nolonger wanted to continue. However when we recieved an alarming message from a family member of hers saying she had not contacted them in over a month and were wondering if we had heard from her. As a group we found this very alarming and took it upon ourselves to go straight to the police station and report a missing person, after having called her a number of times with no response except hearing a very alarming conversation with a male in the background when one call was accientally picked up.

Myself and two group members went to the police station nearest her house and started filling in missing person forms. I must say it was a very scary process, one which i thought i wouldd never encounter in my life. We unfortunately did not have enough information about our group member to fill in the many pages of information needed. One of the officers asked us if we had been to her house, and we said we hadn't as we didnt know where she lived. However we then went to her house and found her there and were very relieved to find her alive and well.

This was a very different experience for us as a group as we never thought we would end up in such a situatuin ever. We are happy now, however that the full missing report did not then have to be filled.

Cheers
Tarisai xx

Read More

welcome back to school

Monday 29th July

Hi, its me again..

So its back to school after the long long holiday. Its the start of the third week back at school so setteling down is becoming easier. This semester has started off on a fast pace. It feels like there wasn't really a holiday and we've been literrally thrown into the deepend with production, due to the  launch of our new product being just days away. Being in the marketing department of our business has lead me to have a new appreciation for how important the marketing of a product at the market penetration stage is.

This had made me realise how important the message and content that you put out to your potential customers is. The wrong message being sent out can potentially ruin the brand and what you would like your brand to represent. Our brand represents Freedom, and coveying this message in the best possibe way, linking it to our product with losing the attention of our potental customers is difficult. Hopefully Azura will be able to impliment the best marketing stratergy prior to the launch in order to leur in as many customers as possible.



Thats all from me today

Cheers
Tarisai xx

Read More