2. Your feelings and thoughts 
I am so grateful that I chose volunteerism as my elective posting. Being at home is good but be able to wake up in the morning and being productive is something that I treasured so much. People have been complaining on how frustated they are to stay at home so the chance that I got to be able to contribute something for this country feels so meaningful to me and I am really grateful for that :)

 

3. How did you learn and apply the skill of decision making in your EP journey?
Throughout the journey, there was time when I got lazy or feeling motivated to do the volunteering. Everyday hard decision to be made is either to wake up and go to work or just continue to sleep. I trained myself to be more discipline so my daily decision is only to wake up and be productive.

 

4. How did you manage your time throughout this EP journey? 
As I am staying at college throughout this EP, I do really have other commitments as compared to if I am being at home. I worked from 8am to 3pm everyday and as I got back to my room, I used the time wisely to rest and have ‘me time’ for me to recharge before going back to work at tomorrow morning.

 

5. Your plan for next week (Week 4)
Week 4 is considered to be my last week of EP so I would definitely will try to work even harder and taking the last pictures with other volunteers as memory :)

The business is going well. I continuously promoted my project through WhatsApp and Instagram, and that really gained attention from others. Some people ordered multiple times which I am really thankful for, others helped by promoting my work to their friends. Strangers on Instagram often told me to DM this particular art account made for promoting artworks but I haven’t had the courage to slide into someone’s DM to promote my works yet. Maybe in the near future I will do that haha 🤣

I did face some difficulties this week but nothing I couldn’t handle. It’s just that I never thought it would happen to me this early. I never thought that someone would back out on me after I had finished the artwork this potential buyer was interested in. I would really appreciate it if they had the courtesy to tell me that they would not be buying the artwork, rather than just straight away ignoring my message for a week. Fortunately this thing was settled as soon as I could. Yeah, that happened. 

I also started to explore how to calculate the gross and net profit from every revenue and loss occured during my project. So far the financial is good and my business is healthy (not in deficit).

I was quite satisfied with how the project has been going. People loved my artworks and kept on promoting them. For me painting as a whole was a very interesting thing, it was not only therapeutic but it also instilled a creative mindset in me. Both in creating arts and promoting my project. It was not all sunshine and rainbows. There was a time that I thought of quitting (because of too much order influx I didn’t know how to handle it, and that I was exhausted from all the work I had to do for this project… weird take but it happened haha), but I was proud of myself because I didn’t give up in the middle of the journey. My future self would smack me for quitting and I don’t want that 😆. 

There were many occasions where I learned to make crucial decisions in order to make my project more successful. First, it was regarding the price of each item. Somewhere along the line I have to choose between making my artworks affordable and having a positive net income. But since I don’t want to end up in deficit, I have to opt for price adjustment. 

Second, since a potential buyer ghosted me, I had to make a decision between continuing to chat with them until I got a definite answer and selling the artwork to others. I chose the latter so that I would not waste any more of my time, and plus, I would not be getting income if I keep on waiting. Both of these crucial decisions are difficult to make but they are important to keep my project going smoothly. 

I have no problems regarding time management, I could say, since this project is done during my semester break. I learned how to prioritize and allocate my time for my project and other important things. If there is any painting to be done, I have already mapped out the schedule in my mind. I would spend a few hours painting, and then varnish and pack it the next day. Complex painting would take several days but the rule still applies. So far, this worked perfectly well for me.

I will keep on promoting my business by posting short videos and pictures of my finished products on my Instagram. I will also complete any pending orders before the final week is finished, and finalize my net profit as soon as I complete the pending orders. 

Do check out other packing videos and my finished products on @mini.artsyy ✌🏻

For this third week, I’ve continued completing pending orders and promoting my business on Instagram and Carousell. I’ve also created my first ever reels (which i was quite nervous to post T_T) which actually helped me obtained more orders :DD 

Aside from that, continuing my plan from last week, I’ve managed to do some research regarding cream toploaders and keyrings as future potential products. To be honest, I dont think I’ll be introducing keyrings anytime soon altho it would definitely look cute with the toploaders as a set but it is a product I will consider probably sometime after the elective posting period ends. 

I am interested in introducing the cream toploaders tho, but i’d like to try and test them out beforehand ><

Doing this project gave me the feeling of contentment and satisfaction as it allowed me to explore my creativity and test out new limits. Since custom orders vary a lot in terms of customer’s preference, sometimes it can be very challenging to ensure that the final product is something they are satisfied and happy about since I usually design it to how I think it would look good but tailored to their liking.

There was this one particular order in which the customer kept on asking me to add more stickers as they wanted it to look “very meriah” which at first kind of worried me as it was for a vaccine card order (which in my personal opinion shouldn’t be too much to prevent covering the necessary details), but I managed to wring out all the creative juices on my brain to make sure the design came out good and not overwhelming and thankfully they were “really satisfied with the outcome” (their exact words). The design turned out to be one of my faves ^_^

As someone who’s never ventured into starting up their own small business from scratch before (I am familiar with selling and trading my kpop merchandise but those were all personal collections that did not require preordering supplies etc), I’ve definitely learned a lot in the importance of making my own decisions down to the very finest details. 

Since I conduct this project alone, it is up to me to decide which products I would sell, from which stores should I order the supplies, the pricing and so much more. Therefore I am very thankful that this elective posting journey has helped built up my confidence to make my own decisions. True, there were a few choices before that I’ve regretted doing but I believe that any previous mistakes I’ve made has allowed me to learn so much more and improve for the better.

 In terms of time management, I did not have any problems as I am currently in my semester break. Therefore I am able to complete 2-3 orders per day depending on the design as I usually take 1-3 hours to do each. After that I will pack them and prepare the freebies. For postage, during the first two weeks I was in college so I would usually post them out together once or twice a week. For this third week, since I am already in my hometown (Sabah), I have to suit my schedule according to my parents thus postage is done on the weekends. 

Other than that, I have to remember to take photos and videos for each design I’ve made in order to promote them and editing does take a lot of my time. Therefore I usually do it at night.

My plan for week 4 is to complete any pending orders and continue postage. I also plan to post more videos. Since I’ve been keeping track of all my orders and I’ve already managed to cover my cost from the sales, I will also calculate my profits and generate my total sales to be included in my e-poster ^_^

the reels i posted, decorate with me! ^_^

1.     Your progress so far

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is in a pink of health :) So previously, I planned to release alphabet keychain on week 3 but it wasn’t going as planned. Well, I couldn’t do so as I am occupied with other orders. I have received two bulk orders in which both customers requested for bookmarks and heart-shaped keychain as a gift for their child’s teachers. 

 

Besides that, I have also completed all the orders for bookmarks except the ones that I have received in week 3. So far, my customers were satisfied and gave me good feedbacks. I like to make sure that all my customers are happy with their purchase, if not, I am willing to change the products if necessary. After all, customers comes first! 

 

For my business account, I have made a video and posted it as Reels on Instagram. Posting was not my favourite part as I get very nervous and unable to find suitable captions for my posts. However, to my surprise, I have managed to gain approximately 20 followers and received more orders for bookmarks from them. I also learnt about the Instagram algorithm in which we need to use trending audios, more transitions and hashtags in the caption to gain more views. My workspace was a mess everytime I get my hands on resin, that was why I never shows the process of resin making. However, I planned to show it soon to my followers so that they know how hard I work (I am kidding but it is true that I work very hard T_T)

 

2.     Your feelings and thoughts

Things were not always great in my business. There were ups and downs as well as uncertainties going on. I remember there was a time in which someone told me that I am very lack in creativity. My designs are all bad. The comments make me  felt disheartened. “Is it really that bad?” The feeling of insecurities came flooding in until I came across a quote that says ‘take bad comments as a redirection’. The next thing I knew, I indulged myself in creating more designs and finding flaws in my products. Though there was a lot of obstacles, I still feel very grateful and content with all the supports that I received. I am beyond happy to continue my business even after elective posting have ended.

 

3.     How did you learn and apply the skill of desicion making in your EP journey?

There was a lot of decision making needed throughout my Elective Posting journey. Whenever I face problems, I would think hard on how to solve the problems. Most of the time I would weigh the pros and cons of each options that I have until I have the best one in hand. 

 

4.     How did you manage your time throughout this EP journey?

I would make resin every morning and evening depending on the orders that I got. Yes, it took a lot of time especially if the products need two layers of resin. The products that needed two layers of resin are those that uses flowers. It is because the flowers would float if we use only one layer as it density is smaller than the resin. Thus, it would jeopardise the end product. In my free time, I would scroll through social media to find new design ideas. I always remind myself that I need to manage my time wisely since I also have to spend my time with my family. 

 

5.     Your plan for next week (week 4)

In week 4, I will start taking preorders for alphabet keychain. I will also make more Reels to gain more followers. Lastly, I would complete my reflective writing and 10 minutes video to submit for Elective posting  final report. 

For the third week, I am making pretty good progress. More orders are coming in, from the help of my friends promoting my Instagram page. Almost all the commissions are portraits, to be gifted for their loved one such as couple and family. One of the customers requested a portrait of her late cat, which is to be honest a new challenge for me. The reason is, I rarely draw any animals so I am afraid of how it will turn out. Frankly, in my opinion, drawing human is much easier than drawing animals because animals have a lot of tiny details especially fur part. However, I am really happy with the final product and my customer liked it as well J I guess this is a sign for me to practice more in drawing animals hehe.

Happy as usual :) but stress is definitely on the list as well. But most days, coffee and a good playlist save the day.

Decision making often comes when I contemplate during the drawing process. For example, I have a few ideas while drawing the face part, hence I will come out with several sketches. Most of the times, I will send all the sketches to the customer for them to decide. But sometimes, regarding the background design, I have to decide it myself. This is a crucial part where I have to make a decision in order to create an artwork that will meet my customer’s expectation. 

 

I did my elective posting after the theory paper, which means during that time, we still didn’t know the date of our OSCE exam. I spent my first two weeks focusing on this project, and the other weeks by making a schedule. Usually, I will do the commission orders at the early morning or late night because I found that during those times are really peaceful to draw. 

 

To finish all the incoming orders and update my Instagram page. 

As we were already have experienced from the previous week, we are much more comfortable with the flow for this week. We got our own pace, we already knew our own roles and worked together as a team. We even take turns with the position if necessary. We already know what to do and what to expect. Simply put, we are killing it and we rocks! 🙌🏻😎

Aaaaaaa I cannot wait for this posting to finish! Hahahaha (just kidding :p) I enjoyed this experience very much, I mean— where can I even get experience of selling “burger tepi jalan” and at the same time doing my medical degree??? This is amazing and a worthwhile memories to treasure.

Very much thrilled to get our profit soon! Heheh show me the money~~ 🤑 I know… I knoww it’s not that much, but broooo, we worked so hard for this, we earned this and we deserve to hype this up! 😤💪🏻

Hmm… I guess we applied the skills on stock keeping, handling stocks, restocking, basically everything about the stocks! We need to think of how many chicken and beef patties needed to buy to meet the unexpected demands, but at the same time we must not buy carelessly because it will lead to waste and contribute to loss. We have to decide on buying stock according to market likings as well, for example, we noticed that our customers love beef burgers more than chicken burgers. So we bought extra packs of patties for beef. Not only for patties, other ingredients as well, the buns, the vegetables, the sauces and even the wrappers! We need to think about every single ingredient that involved in the process. It really does seem petty at a glance, but no boo, no, reality hits different. We tried to think hard and have to decide on these things even though they can be pretty unexpected and frankly, we cannot really decide them accurately though but we had to get the job done. Even though it’s hard and challenging to us, we still managed to get through them. 

We have our own schedule. Usually in the morning, we will have our own free time, we will do whatever we want. Starting from 5.30pm to 10pm, then we will start preparing the ingredients, setting things up, selling, and lastly do the cleaning. Around 10pm-1am we will have an audit / accounting / inventory session where we will count the sales for that day, making sure everything was tally, cash flow were correct and transparent. Yeah, I personally think this part is the most tiring, both mentally and physically, maybe because we’re already physically drained after operating hours and the cleaning chores. Nevertheless, since everything was done together, we shared the laughter, the tiredness, and at the end of the day, it’s fine because we have each other. Even though this seems like a tiring and tight schedule, but trust me, we are still able to have plenty of rest. 

Closing and clearing stock. Might need to sell the leftover stocks to the college residents. 

Last accounting session. Yessss, finally the total profits revealed! Is it worth it? We will see. 

Okay I think that’s all byeeee, thanks for reading. 🤍
See you in the last entry! Stay safe, take care. xoxo

Thankfully  we already got the right pace of our business. We already know how to be  more organised and work as a team. Everyone has their own jobs that they are really good at. Therefore the work flow became more smooth. Usually, I will be the person handling payments and reply to customers' orders, sometimes I also will help to cook the burger as we take turns to go pray. 

Honestly, I really can’t wait for us to finish selling the burgers, as it was very exhausting (≧∇≦)/ 

At the same time, I feel quite happy on how we managed to pull through this business successfully and make it as our elective posting. Besides, I was so excited as we finally gained profit just after six days of selling the burgers. I think it was worth the effort.

In this  elective posting, I realised there are various skills needed even though we just sell some burgers and truthfully it is not easy to do a small business and the most important skill needed is undeniably the ‘decision making skill’  where it actually applies to almost  everything we do in life. This skill is substantially important  in our business as it will affect the outcome of our progress. Hence as I go through this, I learned how to improve my decision making skills  while I  calculate and estimate our stock, set up the stall strategically, formulate recipes and decide ingredients we should use when given few options, what extra thing we should consider in this pandemic and many more. It really helps me improve my decision making skill for future use.

 

We decided to make a schedule so we  won’t miss anything and manage to make time for other things too. Usually we will buy our stocks on the day we did not open our stall so it won’t be too hectic. On the day that we sell burgers, we would start around 5.30 pm. We will start with preparation of the ingredients needed, we will cut the vegetables, refill all sauces and slice the bread. Then, around 6.30 we will set up our stall and start selling around 7 pm. We stopped selling at 10 pm and cleaned up. After that, we will calculate our sales. We usually finished everything at 1 am and it was very tiring but we knew we should settle everything up to avoid unnecessary issues on the next sale.

 

For week 4 we planned to settle up our business as the semester break started and most of us were going back home so we felt that it was not very profit-making to continue our sale. Then, we  will  do all calculations needed in our ‘buku kira kira’ and see if there is any missing money.

Here comes our second week of selling the burgers! Remember how tired I felt last week, yes, I felt tired too during the second week but we, Burgermbira has improved so much. We got more efficient and fast as we already got the pace and momentum. We got more comfortable to work since we have learnt from the mistakes that we have made from our previous days of selling. It is tiring but I kind of developed a little faith in our EP project!

2. Your feelings & thoughts.

I felt a little relieved since we have improved a lot, so, the flow was smoother than before and of course, I was very, very excited to get our modal and profit back! It would be a lie if other sellers are not most excited about this. Of course we wanted the money because we have worked so hard for it. It was not an easy job...so, call me a materialistic or whatever that you want, the money is what I was looking forward to most of time ahaha!

3. How did you learn and apply the skill of decision making in your EP journey?

I learnt how to calculate our burger stocks and managed to decide on whether to restock and if yes, how many of it. That all requires a lot of thinking and I am happy that we managed to get it all together. If you are wondering on how do we calculate it, we actually counted the number of stocks remaining and then set our target sales the next day. If the stuffs are not sufficient, we would go out to restock it the next day. Our aim is to always reach the target and push our marketing game to get more people to buy our famous burger!

4. How did you manage your time throughout this EP journey?

Our time management is pretty amazing, I would say because we still had time to rest, study during daytime and sell burgers at night. I was impressed of myself because I did not know how I did manage to juggle all of that. It was a bit hard for me at first but I could catch up as days went by. Practice definitely makes perfect!

^{5. Your plan for next week (Week 4).}

Our plan is to close our business next week and start focusing on OSCE! I really thought it was going to be a long journey but I felt like it was just yesterday when we randomly planned to sell burgers.

For this third week, I continued promoting my pink business on Instagram and Whatsapp. I have also personally messaged my prospect and customer for follow up if there is any improvement or skin reaction after applying any MaryKay product that they bought.  I also challenge myself to buy and hold more stock on hand so that I can target how much I want to gain for this month. Before this, I just submit order customer through InTouch (MaryKay Digital Application that used to submit all the orders direct to the company) and sent the item ordered to customer directly from warehouse where I don’t even have to post out the item, company will help me out. I also start using skin analyzer to attract more prospect consulting skin with me. Skin analyzer can be phone or device analysis that helps evaluates the skin using insights from characteristics of overall texture, number of wrinkles, skin tone and undereye appearance. This application gave me rough ideas on how to explore more about prospects’ skin condition and consult them for solution. But somehow, I found that phone analysis is not as accurate as device analysis because phone analysis is depending on lighting and focus of phone camera.

I feel a bit exhausted this week since I got my second dose vaccination and not feel very well for few days. I also having severe internet connection problem in my housing area (I’m not sure why) plus my motivation to continue the business start going down since I did not get any customer for this week. But I still enjoyed what I have learned through customer’s skin analysis. I get my motivation back after I joined a session with our Senior National Sales Director from Richest Ruby Area which she reminds us to always reflect on ourselves why do I start this business. At first, I thought that I start this business is only because of completing my elective posting but then I realized that I really love Mary Kay business since this business is full of rewards and recognition based on our effort. For this month, Mary Kay company make a 4 in 1 pink pouch as a monthly ordering bonus (MOB) for FREE for all beauty consultant who submit order or reach the highest 600pts above. I hope I can achieve that sales target by the end of this month and get the beautiful pink pouch bag. 

Doing online business has taught me much about good decision making and how communication skills help in deciding. Because with a good communication skill, comes good decision-making skill. In businesses, I spend more time to think ahead reading for some actionable tips I can apply for my business and be where the customers and prospects are as well so that I can stay connected with my customers online. Every day during this whole course, I will decide how exactly do people want to reach my business. Do they prefer calling me or maybe texting or WhatsApp? Which online platform could give more reach either Instagram, WhatsApp or Facebook? Thinking this through help me choose my communication channel wisely. Other than that, when it comes to consulting customers about their skin condition it needs me to decide which products that suitable them the most.

5. How did you manage your time throughout this EP journey? 

It’s quite challenging to manage my time since I have never into entrepreneur before. In the first week I barely have time with family because I spend most of my time with online session and classes. Then I need to plan for my poster and promoting content which needs a lot of effort and time. I need to decide what product should I promote on that day and find the best time to post it in social media. So, I make my own planner and schedule everything to get my holiday sufficient for this month. At night I will decide what product I will promote on the next day, do some reading and find product material. Then, on the next morning I will post them on social media. Then I will help my mom prepare for lunch because usually prospect approached me on the evening. If there is item I need to post out, I will be packing it on that evening or the next morning and post it as soon as possible.

Be more proactive to achieve my Monthly Ordering Bonus from company.