BurgWear

As some of you have noticed I have recently added a link to a company called BurgWear.  This is because I thought I should support the company that I am working for.  I am taking a course that is called the integrated business core(IBC).  (Brian took it when he was here and I'm sure some others who have attended BYU-I or Ricks have heard of it.)  This course is worth 12 credits so we have 12 hours in class time, plus homework, plus we have to start and run a business.  Sounds easy right?!

As we started our business we all were separated into groups by our teacher, then we had to start brainstorming on ideas that would work as a business.  There were about 5-6 ideas thrown around, most of which were food related ideas.  Then we found out from the school that because of all the construction occurring on campus we were not allowed to sell food because of storage issues.  No big deal, we can always come up with new ideas.  

Well we went on a three day camping trip in the mountains as a whole class and while we were there we were able to brain storm and come up with different ideas.  The idea that everyone agreed on and was thought to be the best, was winter apparel. (Probably just because we were in the mountains where it was colder then the rest of the world and we were all freezing.)  But this idea come with us when we came back and we pursued it.  

We looked into many different options of clothing and apparel to sell, but as we asked people on campus on what they liked and how much they would spend we narrowed it down to scarves, Beanies, earmuffs with speakers in them and rice bags that you heat up in the microwave.  

We then proceeded to write a business plan and prepare it for a loan committee.  The loan committee consisted of local bankers from three different banks.  The money really came from the school, but it had to be approved by these bankers and they decided how much to give us.  

Well they like everything except the earmuffs with earphones.  They were too expensive and the wholesaler that we found was not trustworthy.  Therefore we received the money for everything else.  This was a little tricky though because most other IBC businesses have only done one product and the professors thought it was going to be a lot of work, but it is good for us.  We then ordered our products, bought a tent to put our stuff in outside, for the cold.  And proceeded to run our business.  

Everything was going pretty dandy, not selling as much as we had hoped, but inside our projections for the most part.  We have learned a lot and are wishing it would be a colder winter then it has so we would sell more, but it just happens to work out that way.  So for the most part we have been really enjoying it.  

Then out of the blue our teacher tells us that all the leaders are fired and we have to reorganize our company.  This was unexpected especially since our CEO, who is from Burley and his dad own Hogans in Rupert, was a really good leader and really helped us when we were confused at the beginning and help us stop and think things through.  Now we have to change thing up.

So we all got together as a company and voted a new CEO and new leaders for the Marketing group, the Operations group, and the Finance group.  After voting in the CEO I then went to the marketing group, which I am a part of, and voted for a new Chief Marketing Officer(CMO).  After voting who else would you think got stuck with the position.  Yep I did.  That just means I get to go to more meetings and help plan more things!  Fun!

I am actually excited for the chance to learn more and to be more involved.  It is really a fun company and we really get along so it should be fun to now be in leadership for a few more weeks.  

If you have any ideas on marketing Beanies Scarves and rice packs I am open to outside advice.  And if you want to buy anything, go to our website and I would love to take your orders;)