In this Article, we interviewed Amy Chen, a sophomore currently studying at Taipei European School. She introduces her non-profit as well as the touching inspiration behind it, hopefully inspiring young students to take on their own business and become entrepreneurs.
Interviewed By: Dora Wang
Can you give a brief description of your business as well as the product you’re selling?
I started my small business because I wanted to give back to society. The business was inspired by my dog, Smizy, who I adopted last Christmas. Smizy was abandoned by his previous owner, so I wanted to give him all the love I could and to help unprivileged dogs by donating the profit to one of the adoption centers for dogs. I created my dog’s account last year and started documenting his life, and slowly, it gained a lot of popularity. During the journey I became more invested with anything related to dogs such as treats, toys and so on. I decided to make dog-friendly blueberry jam and other dog treats. I chose to sell jam in particular, since most of the jams that you see in your everyday market have a lot of additives, so I wanted to make a healthier version, that would suit dogs too.
What preparations were needed in order to carry out your business?
Firstly, it was important to understand the market of the product I’m selling to:the competition, t and whether my product will do well or not. Furthermore, I had to come up with a unique logo for my brand, as well as buying suitable packaging, for example mentioning the ingredients list and the expiration date. Everything that had to be prepared was only done by me, I had to hand stick the stickers on each jar- it was a long but necessary process.
Was there any challenges or problems you faced?
Yes, the first time I sold my blueberry jam, there were only a few people that were interested because my product was so niche. However I remained patient and soon there were other dog accounts that were selling their own products and we would help promote each others items to gain a larger audience. Many other dog accounts posted reviews of my jam which got more people to purchase my project.
What have you achieved through your business, and what goals do you wish to attain in the future?
The first time I sold my product, I donated all my profit however, this time I only donated 10% so I could use the profits to reinvest it back to my business to make it better. In the future, I wish to reach out to more potential customers and collaborate with different people through instagram who are in the same market as me.
What do you think made your business so successful?
I think a lot of time and effort was put into the business which allowed it to be successful because people could see my efforts and were able to trust my products.I even posted a video of my dog taste testing the jam and mentioned why it was worth purchasing.
If you could give any piece of advice to students who want to start their own business, what would it be?
I would say to plan out everything first to get a better idea of what you can do when the business starts running, and consider who your target audience is.
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