TREP$ is a wonderful program because it is fun, but you can also definitely learn a lot about running your very own business. At the TREP$ Marketplace, we sold bookmarks, s’more pops and bottled water. We named our business A&E Factory after our names, Alyssa and Elizabeth. If I could go back and do TREP$ all over again, the one thing I would change is our product quantity. We made a lot. We sold a lot too, but we did not sell out like many of the other groups. Figuring out how much of your product to make is always hard because you don’t know how many people will buy it!
We learned a lot from TREP$. We never knew how much preparation and planning you have to do to sell a product. For us, coming up with a product to sell was the hardest part, but pricing can be tough too. Sometimes your products don’t even work out, which happened to us. Instead of bookmarks, we were originally going to make and sell popsicle stick bracelets. We had it all planned out, but it did not work out well because too many sticks were breaking and they were not bending like they were supposed to. So we decided to do bookmarks instead!
The TREP$ Marketplace is very busy. Time goes by quickly and you will probably get turned down a lot by customers. You can’t let that make you sad, you always have to smile! It definitely helps attract customers if you look happy and nice.
We did make some profit, so we decided to donate some of it to the senior center in our town because their apartments were flooded. So we bought them a meal from a local restaurant and served dinner to them. We also donated our extra bookmarks to them. You can learn so much about the world in such little time!
