Jomato's Last Entry for the Semester!

Our group initially set out to provide a great product that would appeal to everyone. It was hard to identify such a product because there are too many differences in opinions so we decided to go with a product that we knew a majority of the JMU population would love enough to pay money for. We also wanted out product to be inexpensive but be worth buying at the same time.
We came up with a great product in the JMU Ping Pong Balls that many agreed is a great idea and was a great thing to have because it combined the ideas of school spirit and a recreational sport.

We sold them at the rate of 1 ball for $1 or 6 balls for $5. As of December 6, 2010, Jomato has sold $354 worth of ping pong balls in a span of about only 3 weeks. We are very proud of our achievements up to date but still have some selling to do. This is because it took us a while to come up with a viable idea so we missed a few opportunities to sell our product in the beginning of the year. During the BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS during class, we actually put JMU Ping Pong Balls as a potential idea but it was overlooked by other ideas that ended up being not used because of really high initial cost or lack of interest such as JMU opoly, buying and reselling USB drives, or a commoditties basket.

A FEW SIGNIFICANT LESSONS that can be learned from JOMATO:

*Don't waste time, every second spent of the venture should make it better! (TIME IS MONEY)

*The earlier you can start, the greater your chances of success

*Avoid having HIGH initial costs!

We DO plan on continuing to sell the ping pong balls next semester as the weather gets nicer and more opportunities to sell OFF CAMPUS come up such as open house at different apartment complexes, continued word of mouth advertising, and other major social events.

Slow Week but PLANNING FOR A STRONG FINISH!

This week, we tried to sell our ping pong balls at ISAT but it wasn't as successful as we had hoped. More than that, we were informed that we weren't allowed to sell our product on campus unless it was through the bookstore. We had thought the original agreement was that as long as the bookstore wasn't currently selling the product, we were allowed to sell on campus because we wouldn't be competing with the bookstore. We will NOT be making that mistake again. We do apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused to the Bookstore, Mr. McClain, or Dr. Wales.

On a BRIGHTER NOTE, we do have a final strong sales method planned to try to get sell the rest of our balls this semester. We are currently working with bookstore representative, Mr. Mark Glenn, to set up tables in the bookstore during finals week. The plan is to catch the attention of students who have just sold back their books and have cash on hand. We know our product is purely bought on impulse so we are hoping with the joy of the end of semester and the feeling of having cash, students would be more willing to BUY OUR BALLS!! Despite the fact that the final sales figures are due Monday, we will continue to try to sell the balls until they are gone.

OUR FINAL BUSINESS STRATEGY:

STUDENTS SELLING BACK THEIR BOOKS WILL LEAD TO

MORE MONEY IN THEIR HANDS WHICH SHOULD LEAD TO

NO MORE BALLS IN OUR HANDS!