MADISELL

The Big Finish

2009-11-29T21:39:00.004-05:00

Ah to live the entrepreneurial dream, an experience that many speak of but few actually experience because of the high risk and rate of failure. We began like many groups with the frustration of developing a profitable idea, and creating a method of actually gathering that value. We started with several ideas in completely different areas of the market, from cleaning services to breakfast delivery, and settled on the laundry detergent business. We had to physically mix everything and hand grate all of the bar soap that went into our detergent, which were both processes that we could have improved in the long run. Secondly, we could have established a more controlled boxing method to ensure that we didn't lose any detergent in the creation process. These simple things would help increase efficiency and add value to our venture and thus increase the ease of the completion of the project. The hardest part of the project though by far was the selling of the product, which was without warning to our team, but the level of difficulty was surprising. If we got to start the project over, I think we would begin the selling of our product even earlier than we did, and try to push the sales as much as possible early in the semester to relieve stress down the stretch.

We spent a great deal of hours and labor creating our product, but more than anything we had to peddle, push, and sell the product hard throughout the entire semester. If I could make one recommendation to the future classes that are beginning the process, I would tell them to stay patient and diligent, because the sales are out there. Once you have made your choice, and begun the process, try and fail forward, as we have talked about in the class, and quickly to ensure that you can restructure or restrategize if necessary. Also, make sure you know your teammates and trust them, as much as that is possible after only a few weeks in class. This is a big part of why we have been so successful as a team and I know this could make the project much much harder for some newly forming teams.

Our road was long and the battles were tough, but we made it through and had a little money to show for our effort. After all of our effort, we only have a few products remaining that we haven't sold yet, and we have made more than $200 in profit, so we consider ourselves a business success.

We Made The Goal

2009-11-15T22:49:00.004-05:00

We hit the $200 mark, and are still going up. We have several people interested in purchasing our product, and have orders to sell the last of the boxes we currently have. We plan on making a new batch to take home over break so we have a different market to sell to. Our goal is to sell another 20 boxes while we are home which will bring our total profit to over $300.
On the note of Sharp Shopper it does not seem like we will be able to sell our product in their store. We were never able to get in touch with the person that purchases the merchandise, so for the time being we will move on to other things.

Madisell Continues to Grow

2009-11-08T17:01:00.003-05:00

This week started off rather slow with very poor sales on the Warren patio, but we started making some sales buy the end of the week. We did not make to many sales outside of Warren, and we feel this was partly due to not enough people knowing that we were going to be there and that it was not the best of locations. Although that we did not make to many sales while we were set up we were able to get some people's information to send them out some more on OVERLOAD. We also had people email us to purchase some of the product. We have gotten very close to the course foal of $200 profit and are planning to pass it this week. We are selling on the commons on Tuesday, and we are hoping that the increased foot traffic will bring us a good number of sales.
We are still trying to work with Sharp Shopper, but getting into contact with the necessary people has proven difficult. Madisell is very focused on finding new ways to get our product out there. We do not want to have to be out there selling the product every day, so currently we have been talking with a group member's sibling to expand our market. Currently we are looking at 4 people selling the product and those 4 will get a certain amount for every box that they sell. Madisell wants to help create younger entrepreneurs and feels this is a great outlet for the younger generation to get started in.
Also the person that we sold wholesale to earlier has contacted us and is interested in ordering at least another case soon.

Slow Week

2009-11-01T20:35:00.002-05:00

This week we did not make any large number of sales. We sold 3 boxes all week. But while our sales were slow we have been trying to get into contact with Sharp Shopper to see if they would be interested in carrying some of our product in their store. Hopefully if all goes as planned we can start moving more towards wholesale and not have to worry about the individual sales. We have not quite gotten to the wholesale arena completely so we are still selling to individuals. We will be selling on the Warren patio this Tuesday from 11-2PM. And then again the following Tuesday on the commons from 11-2PM.

From Door-to-Door, to Wholesale

2009-10-25T20:42:00.003-04:00

This past week Madisell started to do some serious selling. The week started with a table in the Showker Lobby, an ended with us shipping out a case or OVERLOAD to a client. The following pictures are of us selling OVERLOAD in Showker.

We got a lot of positive responses from people walking through the building. And over all had a very successful start to the week.

On Wednesday, Madisell went to Net Impacts event in TDU (Taylor Down Under). Net Impact gave us several minutes during a break to get up and explain our product to the audience. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures of this event, but we did end up with a list of people interested in introducing us to other groups throughout campus.

To finish the week on Friday we shipped out our first wholesale order to MD. We sent our client 20 boxes of OVERLOAD, as well as several samples. We hope this will be just the beginning of these type of sales for the company. The following pictures show both the samples that we sent as well as the box that was shipped out. He will be receiving the detergent Monday, and plans to begin selling it right away.

Production

2009-10-13T21:10:00.004-04:00

Madisell made it's first large batch of detergent. The following pictures show some of the steps we have to go through.

First we have to prepare the soap, and turn it into a powder so it blends well with the other ingredients. Once we mix all of the ingredients together, it's time to start packaging.

We took our newly acquired boxes and started filling them with detergent. After a short period of time we had put all the detergent into boxes.

We have printed out instruction labels for the back of the box, and will soon be getting the front labels printed as soon as we decide on a logo for OVERLOAD.

OVERLOAD

2009-10-12T08:33:00.005-04:00

Our boxes are out-for-delivery as of this morning. Madisell will be making a large batch of the detergent, which we will then package in our newly arrived boxes. On other news Madisell has decided on a name for our product, which is "OVERLOAD". There is a competition for designing a logo for the box, and the winner will receive a free box of OVERLOAD. Also we now have a Facebook page that people can folow us on, and find out when and where we will be selling. Click HERE to follow us on Facebook.

Venture into UREC

2009-10-07T18:57:00.003-04:00

Madisell is currently trying to be the main supplier of laundry detergent for JMU's University Recreation Center. The proposal will be brought up in the board meeting, which will be held tomorrow, October 8, 2009. We will be able to compete with the prices that UREC is currently paying, while at the same time reducing the impact they are having on the environment. This venture would be a major boost for the company. It will bring in large amounts of capital which can be put into researching new products, and will give the company a standing contract.

Let the Sales Begin!

2009-10-04T20:35:00.003-04:00

Today we made the first of our many forecasted sales. At a unit price of $5.00 per box, the detergent is only costing the consumer about $0.07 per load. That's still at least half the price of the leading brand names of laundry detergent. And on top of the difference in price, Madisell is offering a product that is environmentally friendly, with no chemicals and boxes made from recycled materials. The detergent is also allergen free, so there is no need to worry about it irritating your skin.

Madisell is still trying to come up with a name for our product. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to give us your input.

Packaging

2009-10-03T10:17:00.001-04:00

After our brown paper bags failed to contain the detergent during the free sample give away we decided to continue looking for an alternative. We looked into several different packaging choices. The three major options we had were small brown boxes, large cups, and chinese carry-out boxes. After discussion with both consumers and the companies to see how they should handle the detergent we decided to go with the chinese carry-out boxes.

We decided to go with the plain white carry-out box because we would be able to put our own logo on the box. We also choose these boxes because they are made from recycled materials, and are recyclable themselves. Another deciding factor is that consumers seemed to like this style of packaging the most, because it is both but and different.

Samples for Class

2009-10-01T20:19:00.000-04:00

We decided to make a small batch of detergent, so we could give the class a 3-load sample bag. We decided to to give out samples so the consumers would be able to test our product and come back to purchase more. The word of mouth created from this marketing scheme will also bring about new customers that are willing to purchase large amounts of the product. The formula we will be offering to the public is environmentally friendly, with no harmful chemicals, it is allergen free, and is cheaper than it's competitors.

Trials

2009-09-30T10:05:00.001-04:00

Once we had the different formulas made up for the detergents it was time to test each one. We ran several tests for each. Each load had a shirt stained with mud, was sweaty, and food stains. Not all of the detergents got out all of the stains. But one of the formulas got the stains and the smells out. Below are pictures of 2 of the trials.

This is to of the mud and grass stained shirts before the wash.

In these to pictures you can see that the dirt and grass stains came out of the shirts, but this load did not get rid of smells very well.

This batch was able to get rid of odors, but not all of the stains

We held many more trials that these 2 in order to come up with a working formula. We did finally come up with a formula after the 16th trial. This formula was able to get the moldy smell out of old towels, get rid of stains, and got rid of the body odor left from athletes.

Making the Detergent

2009-09-26T16:46:00.000-04:00

Now that we have gathered all of the ingredients need, we began to experiment with different combinations. We quickly found that grating the bar soap would be the most difficult and time consuming task. Each soap gave us different results after being grated. As seen in the pictures below the octagon soap got much finer than the ivory soap, which resulted in a clumpy product. After grating several bars of soap we had enough to begin mixing the batches together. We had seven different bars of soap grated, and 2 different recipes to try for each. After combining all of the ingredients we had fourteen different detergents to try.

Getting Ingreients

2009-09-25T14:35:00.000-04:00

After looking through numerous recipes, Madisell came up with a list of ingredients to start with. To start we went to the local grocery store to purchase smaller amounts of each ingredient, because we were not sure which would work better with each other. We got the basic 3 main ingredients, which consist of borax, washing soda and baking soda. To add that extra bit of cleaning power recipes called for bar soap as well, so we got several different brands of soap to test which haas the best cleaning capabilities. Some of the soaps we tried were:
Dial
Ivory
Irish Spring
Octagon
Dove
and several others

Our next step will be to make several different batches of the detergent and figure out which has the best cleaning capabilities.

Getting Started

2009-09-24T14:26:00.000-04:00

Madisell decided to make and sell laundry detergent. Currently people are paying anywhere from $0.20 - $0.40 per load of laundry when they use conventional detergents. Not only are these detergents expensive, but they are not very environmentally friendly. Madisell has found a way to make detergent that cost much less than the leading brands, all natural, environmentally friendly, and has no allergens.