Presentation Reflection (Final Blog Post)

I wanted to make my presentation honest. This was my ultimate goal for presenting and I didn't want any parts of it to seem blown up or try and make it seem like it was more than it was. I could have come out and said, "Oh, I'm going to change the world and end all hatred," and stuff like that, but its simply not true. So to purge my presentation of this, I wanted to make it unscripted. By unscripted I mean I didn't want to have a hard copy of what I was going to say so that I wouldn't be tempted to read off of cards, and so I could change what I could say each time. Also it eliminates forgetting my lines because there were no lines to remember.  

Another thing I wanted to do was use some of the talking and speaking techniques that I have learned from my dad. Enunciation and using the stage were the main two. I made it a goal to move my lips and use a loud and clear voice when presenting. I also tried to walk up and down the area that we got to fully get a feel for the stage and to get into what I was talking about more. Speaking with my hands and utilizing hand gestures keeps the crowd’s attention, and so that was also something I tried to do. 

Overall, I think that the presentation went pretty well. I didn’t stammer, the crowd giggled a couple of times, and I didn’t sugar coat any of my work so I think I did what i had to do. Now I think that the project well very well too. I already mentioned my original business plan and talked about how that one was wrong, and so I’m glad I realized that I needed to take my time and do it right. I can’t bs this project because I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing this project for me and so I can make something that I’m proud and can spread my message and what I think is important. 

I made good progress and I intend to continue making progress, changing and morphing along the way. Me and Arslan could go on to do big things, as long as we plan right, take the right advice, and make the correct moves. All of our planning and work should be seen and will be able to be bought in the next months or even weeks. So, check us out when we drop (winky face + gun finger + outdo music). 

Week Update 4

This update is going to be mainly about the conversation I had with Rich Sednak. I already talked about him in my past post, but I want to go into more detail including sharing the raw notes and lessons he told me would be important and essential for virtually any business. 

Here are the raw notes that I typed during the phone call: 

1. What's more important, the plan or the execution?

Rich Sednak - plan 10% , execution 90% 

Investors care about:

1. Ideas 

2. Market

3. Team most important because they will execute 

Investors care more about the team because the plan is subject to change. 

Every business plan is wrong!! - There are faults in the plan that aren't obvious 

Make sure that people want it 

Make money from other sources (Jorge and Nick) 

Tssprint.com 

So the first thing that I typed is a question that I’ve be accustom to asking people older than me and I get different and pretty interesting answers. Here I asked Rich and he replied that the execution is far more important. He said that the execution is 10 times more important than the plan. He said that this was the case because all plans are subject to change and that no plan should ever stay the same. He said to make sure that I made a plan that can be altered and changed so that it can fit whatever avenues we choose to pursue. He also chalked this proportion up to the fact that the plan can change, but the team won’t. The people that will be executing won’t change so you have to make sure that you are working with some one hungrier than you if you want to accomplish your goals. 

Then he began just giving me general ideas about what investors look for in potential businesses. He said that the three main things that they will look for in a business plan is a person who can generate and convey ideas in a clear and concise fashion. I’m good at speaking and explaining so I think I can present my ideas in an attractive and informative fashion if need be. Then investors look at the market. This includes competition, if it will grow, how it will be shifting in the future, what other factors influence it’s profitability, and things like this. Before an investor gets involved and puts their own money on the table they want to make sure that their dollars will grow. So they do their homework and gather all the information they can. I’ve already explained the importance of choosing a good team to work with, so I won’t go into that again. 

He then touched again on why plans evidently must change. He talked about hidden problems that you will run into and ones that you could never plan for. So your team gain must be versatile enough to adapt and change. Resistance to change is futile. 

And some thing that I was told by Aayush, my dad and rich was to make sure that we have an audience. To see this, we might take a tip from Rich and use a website where we send them our design and then we get a cut of the shirts they sell. We will get around a fifth of the money we could be getting, but this will give us an idea of the audience we will be catering to. 

And finally, we caught wind of another business in the school who will also be selling shirts. The people in charge of this are our friends Jorge and Nick. I got to talk to them and discovered they get each shirt made for about $15 - $16 per shirt. Then the mark up will be up to $40! It seems ridiculous to me, so I thought maybe we could get the shirts made for around $3 -$7 from our supplier, sell them to Jorge for around $10 - $12, and then have them save money while we make a couple dollars on the side for our use. Rich thought this was a great idea and definitely something we should do. 

So as you can see, Rich gave us some pretty useful advice that we will be able to use going forward. 

Potential Connects

Wow, a couple interesting things have occurred in the past two days. I got in contact with two more potential connects and my head is spinning! It's ridiculous! One lead I had to chase down and the other wanted to talk to me.

The first person was a man named Rich Sednak. He spoke for FBLA earlier in the year and was a judge at the last shark tank. I approached him there and got some of his information. I arranged a call for today at 4 and I'm going to get a little advice from him. He even runs this company that helps high school students start companies. Maybe Ashe will become one of them!

The second is a man that I've only come to know as Connor. I met him through my dad and he just called me about twenty minutes ago asking about the company. He asked about the name, who I am, what we are about at Ashe, and so I let him know. He was really interested in the idea and liked the back ground info and seemed interested to work with me. He owns his own clothing company and I think that he will be a good help to us! I got his number and so we should be meeting soon.

All this is really exciting and makes me feel like a real business man. I hope to work with them in the near future.

Comments Update

I just realized that I was commenting on posts without posting who I commented on. So here are the people from the various weeks:




Week 4: Alycia Lee, Arslan Amir, Catelyn Huang, and Trevor Bert






Week 3: Arslan Amir,  Kat Saddler, Nathan Leung, Toni McFarland






Week 1 & 2: Sarah Kollender, Jacob Cohen, Matt Autieri,  Helen Autieri

Updated Vlog

Here is the link to the blog for the week. I hope you all enjoy! (Please watch the whole thing)

ORIGINAL VLOG

ALTERNATE VLOG IS RIGHT HERE (Skip to 3:20 and 5:10 ;);)

Well This Is Awkward :/

It turns out that our logo can't be the knot that I hoped it could. It turns out that it's actually the command symbol on the mac keyboard and I feel like this would take away from the symbolic impact of the knot. It isn't a huge blow; it just means that I have to find another symbol or logo to represent the company. 

Week 3 Update

This week not too much has happened to be honest. I drew a few more shirts, posted them, and drew a pair of sweatpants (which is an outlet we are also thinking of pursuing as well) but that was practically it. We came to an agreement on the logo (which Arslan posted and I probably will right after this is up) which we decided should, also, be some cultural symbol. I stumbled across some symbols called the Adinkra symbols a while back, before the project, and thought that I could choose one to be the logo. The specific one we chose is called, “The Knot of Reconciliation” (#29 on this list). It represents a bond between two parties (us and the customer) and we are then in a mutually beneficial relationship. 

Another thing that happened just today was I began reaching out to a couple people who are already in the t-shirt business or were in the past. I recently began listening and reading up on a guy name Tai Lopez, a self made millionaire who preaches the importance of utilizing your currently established network. He’s had a TedX Talk and had some pretty interesting things to say. To follow this man’s advice, I scheduled a meeting during IE with Aayush Sanghrajka (I’m very sure you know him) so Arslan and I can get some advice from him on the future of the business. Beyond Aayush, my dad mentioned to me that he knows a guy that is already in the business and would be willing to meet up with me or Arslan and I and give us some advice. 

These people could turn us onto new people, new places to sell, a broader audience, a better advertiser, or a better method of producing the product. All of these would help, and no advice can hurt. To follow faulty advice would hurt. On top of these things, I read a couple articles about the importance of culture in our lives and how geometry plays a role into the design of clothes and architecture on Islamic art. I had some prior background knowledge, so nothing was too surprising. My readers, on the other hand, haven’t, and so I hoped to enlighten them on this little piece of knowledge. 

In the next week, we will place our first order of shirts, a test run, just to see what they’ll be like and why we’ll wear to the Talk which is 15 days away. Wish us luck! 

How the Muslims Made Art

My parents once donate some money to the making of a documentary dedicated to the beauty of Islamic art. I've always known that to be an artist you must be meticulous. Each piece of the painting and final product has a reason for it being there. But when I watched the film, I learned about the role that math and geometry played into not only architecture, but the art as well. The shapes that were used were symmetric, and the figures were proportionate to each other and each design that was displayed was more intricate and beautiful than the last. So here is a short article that I found on BBC about it. There is a lot more that goes the art, but this is just to hopefully intrigue you to explore for yourself.

Designs (No. 2)

Here are two more shirts that designed this week. They both, potentially, have the official font for the company written on them. It may change and it's not official yet, so these shirts may not look exactly the same. If you look at the more detailed shirt, you'll see that it contains a greek type curly print that you can find on cups, grails, and goblets. Its outlined with some basic dots and the whole shirt is symmetrical. I'll save the importance of symmetry for another post, but I know that it was something the Muslims were especially known for.

Diversity and Development (Article)

Diversity is a very important aspect of human life. So I decided to research its role in the development of people and I came across this article posted on The Economist in July 15th, 2004 about specifically that.


Here is the link: http://www.economist.com/node/2926697


This is a quote that I found interesting in the article:
"Diversity and development might seem to sit oddly together. But they are intimately linked..."
I'm not too sure why this line stood out, but I thought it would be an interesting thing to share.

Website Update

Hey, everyone go check out the website @ http://aseattire.com ! No products are up yet, but the website is pretty much finalized.

Project Blog (Week 2)

Welcome, to Ase Attire! Here we will be making our own shirts and have total control over what happens. We use cultural or tribal designs to influence our shirts. We plan to use similar techniques used by the Native Americans, Greeks and Romans, Africans and the Arabs. We think that these designs and techniques are nice and can’t be found on many other shirts on the internet. So we have taken advantage of this in order to set ourselves apart from the competition. Intricate patterns, simple designs, and excellent quality.

                This week we launched the social media outlets and have started showing some of the designs (They’ve been posted on the blog already). We made an Instagram (with 26 followers in a day and counting), a Facebook page, a twitter, the actual website domain name has been bought and we have Nathan Leung (of Leung Enterprises) making it. We don’t have many designs to show yet, but you can’t really get a respectable company up and running in less than two months.

I’m starting to think that this project will be less about sales and actual selling of the shirts as much as it will be about preparing it and all the things that go on behind the scenes. Personally, I think that the creative side of the shirt business is simpler, but harder to report on. While on Arslan’s side, it’s rather black and white and not really varying in information. There are set rules to a business plan and methods that have been proving for balancing a proper budget. But the creativity aspect is an open-ended question where the answer is left up to the artist and the accuracy is up to the customer. There isn’t a right or a wrong way. There are just things that work and things that don’t.

My tasks in the upcoming weeks are to design (obviously) and look up the importance of self-expression, culture, and diversity in human life. If culture is going to be part of my inspiration, then it’s imperative that I research its role in society and everyday life. So look out for a few articles or websites I may post in the future.

DIY Shirt Company

One of the articles I read are http://t-shirt-business.com/how-to-start-a-t-shirt-business-quick-guide.

A real do it yourself site. It talks about where to buy what, but the cost is a bit expensive for us. This talks about buying the actually press machines and the various ink colors and stuff like that. Also there is no creative advice. It’s entirely based on making shirts for the people around us, businesses, the school, sports teams and the like. We are considering doing this as well because it has an already existing and ever evident audience. but I'd like to keep this separate from the Ase name. They don't really mix in my mind.

Samples

It may not be much, but I drew up three basic shirts today. We're considering making long sleeve shirts as well as t-shirts, so these are the long sleeve and short sleeve designs. They're pretty rough and don't even have colors yet. These aren't ready to be put onto the shirts and are still in development. Nevertheless, here they are:

Social Media Expansion

If any of you would like to support the company, then follow us and share us on social media. In the upcoming weeks, we'll start posting designs and things of the sort. The website should be up and running soon as well.
Facebook: Ase Attire
Instagram: @Ase_Attire_Co
Twitter: @Ase_Attire
Website: AseAttire.com

"Ase" and Why It Is the Perfect Name

I understand that the name "Ase" may be a bit out there, but there is good reasoning behind it. (The name of the company was almost "Ase Ire" (ah-shey-ee-ray), but I think it would have run a bit long. The word "Ase" is Yoruba for the life force that flows through our bodies. It is a greeting, and a statement meaning "right on!" A feeling of belonging and embracement of diversity. When I go to my masjid, I hear it all over the place. Mostly as a substitute for, "I know that's right!", but occasionally as, "What's up?" Friendly and welcoming, it is highly spiritual and exactly the effect that we want the readers of our site and our customers to feel.




Culture is running through the veins of this company from the name to the product. For more information I hope you want to know, check out this site below:


http://www.aseire.com/meaning.php

Pre-Project Blog (Week 1)

I’m not going to lie, this whole T-shirt idea could go one of two ways, either up or down. The up is we sell a lot of shirts and expand. We start to design more shirts and are able to include more people, we get big in the area, and we just move up from there. The down is we design shirts that are liked by few people and are only bought in small quantities. Then the business dies and we are left with nothing to learn from and no way of rebounding. The second one is a natural fear that should pass when the first shirt is sold.

But despite that, both scenarios are in pursuit of common goals. They both chase the measurable goals of having our own products of quality, development of a spirit that is hungry for sales, production of sales, not even profits, and collaboration as well as utilization of the existing network of people around us. I think that the most important one on this list is the last and the first. The first because it shows that we were working for the 5 weeks that we have, and the last because it really is one of the ultimate tests of our progress in life and our entrepreneurial abilities. Networking is important in life, and to be able to prove this at our presentation by showing its role in the end product, I feel like we will then be seen as real business men.

I learned networking’s importance from my father from a young age, indirectly, but I learned it nonetheless. We will be able to see our progress by the number of friends we make or use to help the business. Our success can be measured in the amount of profits that we make. We will be able to see the progress in the increase in creativity of our shirts. For example, the first shirts we make may be simple and rather bland, but then the shirts we release will be better crafted, including maybe the use of more colors or more detailed designs, or maybe just a better quality material was used than the first order of shirts. But this is all in the weeks ahead, and only our efforts and time will tell what profits we reap.

P.S. I just realized that I’m not doing this for the grade, I’m doing this because I want to and because it will help me. And isn’t that truly what these projects are for?