My name is Meredith and I am an 8th grader at Eisenhower Middle School in Wyckoff, NJ. For the TREP$ Marketplace at my school this year, I decided to sell hand-lettered wall art. I started doing hand-lettering last year for fun and taught myself by watching videos online and using practice sheets. I have a true passion for art and calligraphy and lettering quickly became one of my favorite pastimes and a great stress reliever for me. I practiced A LOT and eventually discovered that I was pretty good at it! At the end of last year, I made some hand-lettered quotes for my teachers and I got great feedback from it. It was then that I realized that creating wall art as a TREP$ project would be a great way to share something I love with others.
I named my company “Meredith’s Messages” because I love quotes and I think there’s a special quote out there for everyone. I sold my items at $6 for a quote on canvas, $2 for a quote on large paper, $1 for a quote on small paper, and $10 for a custom order – which is any quote and paint color of the customer’s choice! My price point was very successful and I highly recommend that sellers keep a low price for the marketplace. $10 and under was a common price point among the various booths and keeping my price reasonable definitely helped me attract customers. Another thing I did to draw customers was attach balloons to my table to help my booth stand out. I also made a price sign and made it easily visible for the shoppers to read. The booth is the first thing that customers’ eyes are drawn to, so you want it to be colorful and exciting to anyone browsing or buying. I displayed my canvases in clear plastic sleeves and put them large wooden bins so people could browse through all of them and find the message that spoke to them!
Another special part of my booth was my time-lapse video recording. I took a time-lapse video of myself creating one of my quotes on canvas and I played it on an iPad during the marketplace to display my lettering process for the customers. It was a great way for the customers to see that yes, indeed, I really made the items myself! It was easily visible to buyers when they walked up to my stand, so they got a glimpse of what my product was and how each one came to together. A highlight of the night was the comments I got after people viewed my video – “WOW! You really made these yourself?!” “They look so professional!” “This is amazing, I have to buy one!”
Overall, I really enjoyed taking part in TREP$. I learned so much about how to create and market a product, how to price items and shop for the best deals on material. But it taught me so much more than just the basics. It taught me that I am capable of creating a unique and successful business and helped me believe in myself. Before TREP$, I didn’t know I’d be good at creating and presenting a handmade product to hundreds of people – but I was!
TREP$ is such a wonderful program and I will always remember it as one of the best experiences of my middle school years. My advice for anyone interested in TREP$ is to create a project that you are passionate about, believe in yourself and work hard…then go for it and show your idea to the world! As my favorite quote says…”Write your own story!”
