Purpose of Simple Swirls
I want to start a bread-baking company and use it as a tool, allowing me to practice and refine the skills that I have been taught throughout my time in the BYU-I Communications Department.
I will specifically focus on better developing the social media, digital marketing, and organizational principles which will help me to keep them fresh on my mind. I want to learn the essential techniques that come with smart business strategy. This will give me real world practice to ultimately refine my networking, marketing, and financial business skills.
I will design my own brand and logo, create and manage a social media account, and implement advertising strategies to familiarize myself with different markets. One very important goal of this project is to have a productive experience in managing media. I want to have skills and experiences that show I mean business and that have led to real-life results! I will retain this focus on fruit-bearing skills rather than self-promotion. I will have had an entrepreneurial experience that showcases the marketing, web-design, and leadership skills
Final Product
From start to finish! I found the perfect recipe that my customers loved! By the end of month 3, I had at least 1-2 orders a week! I had an order form set up to automatically notify me when orders came in. This order form included the customers information and type of order they wanted. I created a “pick up day” which was always Saturdays (unless they reached out to me about a conflict) and for the most part customers would stick to the regulated pick up day.
Process
I first had to decide on the most productive social media platform that would connect with my audience the best. Being located so closely and deep in the BYU Provo life, my audience is mostly students and younger families. I decided to choose Instagram and create content that would be most attractive to young families and students.
Throughout my experience, bumps in the road occurred. However, adapting to the problems that arise is part of the game. I had to play around with types of content to learn what was best received. Eventually, enough of my followers knew what Simple Swirls was all about so the marketing tactics changed slightly. At first, it began with introducing the product. It transitioned to customer experiences and evidence that my product was worth their time.
Experiences, Challenges & Takeaways
There was a definite learning curve to this new marketing endeavor. I ran into the flakiness of people and the adaptation when plans fall through. If there were three things that I learned from this experience: you are working with people, consistency is key and learn to adapt!
Working with people is a skill. Humans need love and care, just as much as loving and nurturing your new business. Life happens to them too, so its essential for them to walk away from your business with a positive customer experience. Making customer service a priority will benefit your business. People remember their experiences whether they are really great or awful.
Consistency is key! Realizing that all the plans I wanted to accomplish may not be what is best for the business is a hard pill to swallow. At first, I wanted to only post 2-3 times a week and find success that way. However, with a start-up business, you have to put a lot more content out at the beginning to help viewers recognize and realize what you are providing/what your service is. Learning what the balance between being irritating with the number of social media posts is too much and finding the perfect amount to help others see the value of your product can be tricky. This is where experimentation comes in to play! Playing around with different types of social media posts, videos and other marketing tactics will help you see what your audience responds to best. Ultimately in my experience, videos that had catchy songs in the background that were shorter with “moving” content were most popular. Another popular post was a more professional post about me! In this post I introduced myself let my audience know my goals and was transparent about how new I am at this.
Learning to adapt played a big role in my journey to understanding more about the organizational and marketing aspects of beginning a new business. With having a slow start to orders, I had to revise my marketing plan. I had to implement a new, proactive plan to get new customers. I noticed that a lot of the orders in the end, came from friends from my past. I hadn’t kept in contact with many of them, but they saw something they liked and ordered a loaf. My audience was right on! Students loved the bread, especially the “ministering bread” aspect. Part of my adaptation to finding more customers was introducing “ministering bread” to my customers. I had to connect the transition of going into a new season, semester and year with my “new” bread. Instead of only focusing on revealing new information to customers, I added the inspiration for ministering bread in my post.
MINISTERING BREAD POST:
“INTRODUCING: Ministering Bread! Submit your order for ministering bread through the link in my bio!
Here’s my inspiration for #ministeringbread
Hey folks! The last few weeks have been marvelous! As we near the beginning of springtime, the sun is coming out and our spirits are high! As a student ending her college career this April, many aspects of life become scarier and more stressful. It’s time for a “big girl” job? What?! The thought of having to accomplish so many big and small things coming up is overwhelming at times.
The other day, I had so many things to get done but didn’t have enough time to make dinner. Randomly, a friend brought over a pizza for my roommates and I to share. It was the best surprise ever! An act so simple as bringing over a pizza on a Tuesday couldn’t have been more perfect!
I want to take Simple Swirls down the same path. I want to help you make someone’s day with a sweet loaf of cinnamon swirl bread! I guess you could say it’s “ministering bread”🍞 ✨💖 #simpleswirls #ministeringbread #serve”