Student Firm Hopes To Ride Trend To Business Success
Third In A Series
Hopping on a trend and marketing it to financial success is what a group of Vanier students want to accomplish with the business portion of their Entrepreneurship 30 class.
“It is very trendy. Everyone in this group is very passionate about crystals, we all think they are very beautiful so we thought it would be a good business venture to make them,” Ann-Marie Rouault-Chedid president of Cristal-Li said.
The student company is not just hooking onto what they see as a trendy product but they are also hoping to catch a vibe with everything right down to the company name to hopefully resonate sales. The group has targeted women 14 years of age and over as their most likely clientele.
“Our company name is Cristal-Li which is crystal in another language. It is Catalan we thought it was a pretty name and so we used it,” Rouault-Chedid said.
Student members of the Cristal-Li team - MJ Independent photo
She said the crystals are ethically sourced with their supplier being the metaphysical store located on Main Street North.
“We were able to work with them and buy them at a wholesale price,” she said about source the major component of their products,” Rouault-Chedid said adding since the company they accessed their raw materials sell similar products the group would be looking to partner with other Moose Jaw stores to drive product sales.
The group is looking at selling their handmade product at The Shoppe, The Moose Jaw Co-op and Moose Jaw Tourism.
Rouault-Chedid said the group centered in on what type of business to start as part of their Entrepreneurship 30 class through market research that used polls to decide on the product and who their target group should be to market the product to.
Although they finally decided to create a product targeting a female 14 years of age and over demographic they did not leave men out of the business equation.
“For the men’s side of it we thought men could buy for their spouses or significant others, children etcetera ,” Rouault-Chedid said.
Social media marketing will also be part of the business’s selling strategy.
“We do have an Instagram account which is just CristalLi and you can DM in the comment section for orders.”
The group is offering three types of necklace products - black macrame, silver cage and tan macrame. The necklaces allow the wearer to easily remove the crystal and replace it with another crystal if they chose to do so.
The business offers a bundle with a necklace as well as three different crystals.
On-line the student business also has a website which can be accessed by clicking here.
“A lot of people are wearing crystals right now. A lot of girls do have crystals on them at all times. This is just a nice way to hold them in a stylish way,” she said.
A look at the selection of crystal colors available - MJ Independent photo
The handmade necklaces will be available until the end of the semester break with the group having pre-order forms for people wishing to buy.
Products range in price from rings retailing at $10, to individual necklaces at $15 each or a necklace holder with three crystal bundle costing $20.
The business has an altruistic element as 20 percent of profits will be going to Transition House.
“We chose that charity because we are a group of women and our target market is women and so we thought it would be good to give back.”
First in the Series - Entrepreneurship 30 Is Not Just About Taking Care Of Business
MJ Independent is writing a series of stories surrounding the Entrepreneurship 30 class taught at Vanier Collegiate. This is the third story in that series - more are coming.