Subject: Introduction to Business [BUSF0103]

Final Project: Charity Drive Event 11th – 14th February 2014

Group members:

Moy Chin Hoong (0314014)

Parham Farhadpoor (0313698)

Cassandra Wong (0313365)

Syafiq Zariful (0314702)

Objectives

Spastic Children’s Association of Selangor & Federal Territory was founded in 1960

and it is a voluntary non-governmental organisation. Their aim is to serve the disorder

children, they provide the free transport, education and treatment (including

physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy) to the disabled children.

They also have some facilities such as hydrotherapy pool, training kitchen, computer

laboratory, music room and sports training equipment for the children.

The purpose of Guardian charity drive is to donate all the profit made from the event

plus sponsorships to Spastic Children’s Association of Selangor & Federal Territory.

As this organization believes “Money in the bank is but mere number money in the

safe, you cannot take along with you but when you donate for a good cause It will be

duly registered under the watchful eyes of the Almighty God” and spastic children

deserve the best standard of care that love and modern knowledge can give, so

donations from people even few can show supports to these children and can help

them. For this reason, our target sales was to make at least RM1500.00 profit by

selling 240 muffins (each for RM5), 120 macaroons (2 for RM6), 10 handbands (each

for RM3) and also the sponsorships by those that really want to donate for spastic

children.

Target market

During this whole week of business charity drive, we were selling muffins that came

all the way from Penang. Selling the muffins were quite hard in the beginning because

people will be like 'oh i've had better ones before' so they won't buy from us. Our

customers who bought the muffins were mostly college students from Taylor's

University Lakeside Campus. Almost half of them were sold to our own friends who

were selling their stuffs too at the charity drive. In addition, some students would buy

them in the morning, like before 11am for their breakfast before heading to class. It is

like a grab-n-go breakfast. Some of them would just donate the money to charity

instead of getting the muffins. But for some people, they receive the muffins they pay

for it. When we asked them whether if they want to buy our muffins, they eyes would

sparkle first. but when we told them the price, they'll be like 'oh, so expensive, it's

alright'.. So i think one of the major reasons why customers were driven away was

because of the price we're selling the muffins. Other than that, besides targeting

college students, we also asked some of our lecturers to buy our muffins, and they did.

Whereas for the macaroons, we targeted on girls more than guys since most of the

girls would like desserts. And, most of the customers that bought macaroons from us

were girls. Besides, the handbands were all sold to males.

After this whole week of charity drive ,we managed to sell out all of our handbands,

muffins and macaroons with the help of another group who were having troubles

selling their products.

Competition Analysis

Since we were selling F&B as our main products for our Business Charity Drive,

there were a few competitors while selling our own products. One of our main

competitors was the one selling soya bean milk from Sue Yi's group and the one

selling waffles from Eelyn's group. Sue Yi's group was selling soya bean milk, junk

foods, and girl's accessories. But the main product that was challenging us from

selling our muffins is the soya bean milk. For Eelyn’s group, the one that was

stopping us from selling our products quickly were the varieties of food and beverage

they had. They were selling waffles, chocolate brownies, Oreo milkshake, dresses and

chairs. The main products that competed with our products were the waffle and

chocolate brownies that they selling. The customers would rather buy from them

mainly because of their prices were lower than us, the soya bean milk and waffles cost

only RM3 and RM4 respectively while one of our muffins itself cost RM5. Besides

that, everyone would want to drink a cold beverage on a hot day and that is why the

soya bean milk and the Oreo milkshake is a bonus for him or her.

Product & Packaging

After many discussions the charity drive group choice was food sector, however

choosing this type of business made lots of good points and bad points. For example

selling foods are usually easier to sell and more profitable as well, but Guardian

charity drive faced some extra expenses like typhoid vaccine. Next discussion was

about choosing the type of food, so all members agreed for pastries and among all of

them muffins and macaroons had been chosen. Muffins and macaroons have always

been the most popular pastries that everyone loves. For this purpose Guardian charity

drive found a very popular pastry that is famous for its muffins and the best flavors

had been chosen for this event, such as chocolate chips, blueberry, orange, and

mango. For macaroons, a famous pastry had been selected to provide the charity drive

love-shaped macaroons which was because of closeness of the charity drive with

Valentine’s day and they all came in chocolate, red velvet, lemon, earl gray, peanut

butter, and lavender flavors. At first the charity drive chose famous Penang biscuits

but it canceled due to lack of providing required licenses and certificates. Members

were also thinking of providing Xbox games such as Fifa14 for students to play for a

while and also donate little money for spathic children, but after discussions it

canceled due to the troubles that might be faced during the event and also it couldn’t

work that much for the charity drive to make enough profit. Other than that, we were

also selling some handbands, which were actually the collection of one of our group

members, Syafiq.

For this purpose Guardian charity drive asked the pastry to provide us nicer packing

for muffins and they accepted, so each of them provided to the costumers in very

clean and nice packs. However the packings for macaroons were a bit harder and

made some troubles for us because the macaroons were came in 20 per box. Therefore

we would need to repack the macaroons into 2 pieces per pack. We used a plastic that

printed with love-shaped to pack our macaroons because it might bring out the theme

of Valentine’s Day.

Pricing

Pricing is the most important part in running a business. This is because setting the

price for a product is the way too subjective and if you set the prices too high,

customers will not buy from you; but if you set the prices too low, then the business

will not have maximum profit. Thus, a business will need to think careful before

setting the prices. Our group chose to sell muffins and love-shaped macaroons due to

the upcoming Valentine’s Day. The original cost for per unit of muffin was RM3.00

at first. But, after we told the manager of the bakery, Miss Jamie that we are selling

their muffins for charity drive. She decided to sell the muffins to us at RM2.00 per

unit. So, as an overall we had ordered a total of 240 muffins from her and it cost a

total of RM480.00. The flavors included orange, blueberry, chocolate chips and

mango. After that, we got a sponsor of RM1.00 per unit of muffin from an individual,

Ms. Soh. And therefore the cost price for each muffin was now RM1.00. The muffins

were then be sold at RM5 per unit regardless what flavor it is. And this had fulfilled

the requirement of minimum 2 times the cost price.

On the other hand, the cost price for each macaroon was RM4.00 at the beginning.

Same as what we did when ordering the muffins, we told the manager that we are

selling their macaroons for charity drive and we had ordered a total of 120 macaroons.

As a result, we got the macaroons at RM3.50 each. After that, we also got an

individual sponsor of RM180.00 from Mr. John, the accountant from Shiangly

Builder Sdn. Bhd.(One of our charity sponsorship). So, we used this RM180.00 to

cover up the cost price of buying macaroons. So, the cost price of macaroons was then

became RM2.00 per unit. Thus, we were selling 2 love-shaped macaroons at RM6.00

where the cost price for 2 macaroons was RM4.00. We planned to sell the macaroons

at RM8.00 at first in order to met the requirement of minimum 2 times the cost price.

But after we did a survey around the campus, we found out that the price of RM8.00

for 2 macaroons was too expensive for most of the people. So, we were then decided

to sell it at RM6.00 so that we could sell it out as fast as possible. As what we had

learnt from Principle of Economics, the lower price would cause a higher demand.

Since the handbands were the collection from Syafiq, which also meant that the cost

price was zero. So, we planned to sell it at RM3 each and this caused us to make a

profit of RM3 per handband. Besides, it also reached the minimum requirement for

the selling prices, that was 2 times the cost prices.

Of course, it was just a muffin and nothing special and everyone could get it from any

bakery. But, there were few loyal customers for our muffins as they came back to our

booth and bought few muffins at one time. This was a great moment that we had and

this also meant that our muffins were gaining popularity around the campus. While

for the macaroons, we had purposely ordered the love-shaped macaroons instead of

the normal one due to the upcoming Valentine’s Day. This was to suit the valentine’s

theme and therefore attract more customers.

Furthermore, we had also met a lot of customers that rejected to buy our products.

Thus we used the strategy that Mr. Joe taught us – giving out our products as a gift

when they donated at a fixed amount. For instance, we were giving out one muffin if

they donated RM5.00 and above and one pack of macaroon at RM6.00 and above.

Other than that, we also sold our muffins to Alvin’s group at RM2.00 each and

RM2.50 each for the next day in order to sell out our products faster and help the

other group to earn more profit. While for the handband, we did not face any problem

in selling it, as it was the fastest selling product.

Promotion

Promotion can be the most important factor in success of a business in selling

products or providing services to customers. In the other word promotion is an

activity that supports or provides active encouragement for the furtherance of a cause,

venture, or aim. Promotion for a charity drive is to encourage people to donate or

buy the products by giving messages and informing them about the charity. All of the

profit gathered from Guardian charity drive was sent to spastic children’s association

of Selangor and federal territory. And, this charity drive tried to give an opportunity to

the customers to join for helping spastic children and enjoy at the same time. All the

customers were informed by explaining to them how the donated money can help

spastic children and then they were more likely to help.

There are many strategies can be used for a charity drive such as flyers, posters,

webpages and many other ways. Guardian charity drive has set up a Facebook page

plus some posters and flyers, but still the best strategy for a charity is face to face

conversation that promoter can do by going around and asking people for donation or

at their charity station. At the end, based on the experiences, nothing works better

than talking to the customers to get their attention by explaining to them about the

situation. By the way asking for donation from people (carrying a donation box) and

give them the products as a gift (muffins or macaroons) works much better than

selling the products and in this way charity drives can make more money as

donations.

Sponsors

Every business would need a capital to set up. But for this charity drive, we would

need a lot of sponsorships in order to achieve the goal by making a profit of

RM2,000.00. Thus, we had approached few individuals and several companies and

businesses for the sponsorships of this charity drive. And, finally we got five

individuals and one company that sponsored us in the form of cash. The five

individual sponsors were Ms. Soh, Mr. John, Mr. Farhad Farhadpoor, Ms. Lim Siaw

Ying and Mr. Abd Zariful, whereas the company is Shiangly Builder Sdn. Bhd.

Ms. Soh is the loyal customer of the bakery that we bought our muffins and one of our

group members (Moy Chin Hoong) knew her personally. We met her while we were

there to order our muffins. So, we tried to approach her and ask for sponsorship by

explaining our situation. She was so kind and willing to pay half of cost for the

muffins, which was RM240.00.

Mr. Farhad, Ms. Lim and Mr. Abd Zariful were also supporting us in the form of

cash. We approached them by face-to-face meetings and our group members knew

these three individuals personally and they were supporting us because of our group

members. Each of them sponsored us RM100.00 and we got a total of RM300.00

from these three individuals.

Shiangly Builder Sdn. Bhd was supporting us in the form of cash too. We approached

this company by sending a sponsorship letter and also visiting to this company. The

reasons why we were approaching this company because they are finacially generous

and one of our group members knew the manager personally as well. And as a result,

we got a RM200.00 sponsor from this company. On the other hand, we got an extra

sponsor from Mr. John(the accountant of the company) while we were there to collect

the cash. We met him and explained to him about the situation. He was so sympathy

about the spastic children and willing to sponsor us a total of RM180.00 in the form

of cash.

Distribution

Since we got our muffins from Penang, therefore we would need to send the muffins

from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. We delivered the muffins by car from Penang to

Kuala Lumpur and then to Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus. On the other hand,

we got the macaroons from CupcakesChic, a famous dessert shop which the branch is

located in The Curve, Damansara, Selangor.

The customers did not have to wait for the muffins and macaroons since it was

already ready packed and can be sold to them directly. While for the macaroons, we

started selling them at 1 o’ clock in the afternoon because we needed time to get it

packed it into packs. How we can minimize the time was to get it the day before our

charity sales since macaroons can last for quite a long time if we put them in the

fridge. Approximately 200 customers in all bought our muffins and macaroons and

made some donations too. The customers could not order our products online because

it is a food, and it has an expiry date and by the time it is delivered to our customers, it

probably has already expired.

Green Measures

Nowadays green measures are becoming one of the most important elements that

businesses must consider about them in their products and services. Green measures

include discussion on environmental-friendly measures that can be adopted during a

process. Guardian charity drive also considered green measures as much as possible

and all of the products were foods that were packed with materials that can be

recycled after use. This group always tried to collect all the rubbishes and kept the

buff clean all the time. After gathering all the collected waste such as papers, cartons,

plastic cups and straws, they all sent to recycle bins for recycle purposes to help the

environment and also to enact a very short role in having cleaner environment besides

helping spastic children by collecting money for the charity drive. Guardian charity

drive tried to minimize the consumption of resources as well such as electricity and

water or minimizing usage of paper as another way to act environmentally- friendly.

Human Resource Planning

According to the chart above, Parham was the CEO(the group leader) and he had

distributed jobs for each of us based on our expertise. Parham himself would be the

salesman and being assisted by all of us as we all would need to take turn and go

around the campus for promoting the products. Then James would be controlling all

the cash flows, preparing the accounting report, ordering jobs and pick up all the

products. Whereas for Cassandra and Syafiq, they would help to promote our products

by going around in the campus and also in packaging.

Evaluation of resultsP&L Statement

PRESIDENT

JAMES MOY CHIN HOONG

ACCOUNTANT

PARHAM FARHADPOOR

CASSANDRA WONG

SYAFIQ ZARIFUL

TREASURER

PARHAM FARHADPOOR

SALESMAN

CASSANDRA WONG

SYAFIQ ZARIFUL

JAMES MOY CHIN HOONG

ASSISTANT SALESMAN

CEO

PARHAM FARHADPOOR

Sales Revenue

Day 1 382 Day 2 445 Day 3 453 1280 Cost of Good Sold Muffins -480 Sponsorship 240 Macaroons -420 Sponsorship 180 -480 Gross profit 800Add: Donation 833Adjusted Gross Profit 1633 Less: Operating Expenses Advertising Expenses -10.5Packing Expenses -6.5 Net Profit 1616

*all the units are in RM After all Guardian charity drive made RM1616 of profit from selling muffins,

macaroons, and collecting donations. However we did some right and wrong, for

example we decided to sell some muffins to one of the groups in cheaper price, so we

finished selling our products faster, and also helped them to make more profit. One of

the wrong decisions made by the group was setting the price for two macaroons at

RM8.00 but after we did a survey around the campus, it changed to RM6.00 for two.

After getting some advices from the lecturer, Guardian charity decided to prepare a

donation box and go around for collecting donations and giving the products as gifts.

This tactic really worked in selling the products faster, so people were more likely to

help than buying products from a charity. Another mistake from this group was

missing the first day morning, and therefore we lost many of the customers because

the best selling time for muffins was in the morning, as many people will take it as a

breakfast.

Appendix

The Facebook page for Guardian Charity Drive

The poster

The menu

James Moy Chin HoongFoundation in Natural & Built EnvironmentSchool of Architecture, Building & DesignTaylor’s UniversityNo. 1 Jalan Taylor's47500 Subang JayaSelangor Darul Ehsan.

Mr. Steven Moy

Re: Requesting Donation for Charity Drive Event

We, the students from the School of Architecture, Taylor’s University, are currently involved in

a fundraising event for our school project in February 2014. Therefore, we write this letter with

the intention to invite your company to become our sponsor in this event.

2. Our plan is to raise a total of RM2000.00 via sales of food products. All profits earned

during the event will be donated to the SCASFT, a society for the disable children, based in

Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

3. For your information, this organization was founded in 1960 and it is a voluntary non-

governmental organisation. Their aim is to serve the disorder children, they provide the free

transport, education and treatment (including physiotherapy, speech therapy and

occupational therapy) to the disabled children. They also have some facilities such as

hydrotherapy pool, training kitchen, computer laboratory, music room and sports training

equipment for the children.

4. As you can see, the SCASFT plays a vital tole in our society to serve the disable children.

Therefore, we would be delighted and it would mean a great deal to the organisation if you

could assist us in any possible manner.

5. I look forward to hearing your reply about our request. You may reach me at 012-5886183.

Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

___________________(James Moy Chin Hoong)

The letter that requesting for sponsorship

The receipts: -

The receipt for printing poster and menu

The receipt for the packing of macaroons

The receipt for the purchasing of muffins

The receipt for the purchasing of macaroons

The receipt gave by spastic home

The Pictures: -

Setting up the boothSetting up the booth

Our products

The muffins

Advertising

Stanley is buying muffins!!! =D

Money we earned $$ The ready packed macaroons

The collections from Syafiq The tray that we deliver our products

The red velvet macaroon The chocolate macaroon

The spastic home