Intending to raise awareness of the ideas of the free enterprise system for FBLA, sophomores Manha Khan, Aaryaa Joshi, and Benjamin van Strien began the Basket Bliss business, selling themed baskets to community members. The free enterprise system focuses on uplifting private companies that sell products or services with few limitations from the government. Selling these baskets allowed the students to get hands-on experience with the economic system that entrepreneurs throughout America use.
“For Valentine’s Day, many people want to get special people in their lives gifts but can’t find everything within a budget, so we wanted to incorporate different types of Valentine’s Day into one basket,” said Joshi.
Joshi learned more about supply and demand economics by selling the baskets. They also gained valuable insight into the marketing tactics needed to attract customers. Finally, they knew the importance of customer service, as they had to build relationships with their customers. They also understood the importance of customer feedback and how it can be used to improve products and services. This gave them an edge over their competitors, as they could capitalize on customer feedback and adjust their products and services. Not only did she learn the importance of the economic part of her project but also the social skills that come with teamwork and customers.
“From this entire project, we learned a lot of entrepreneurial skills; we also learned to work together to make our baskets,” said Joshi.
When starting a business, Joshi realized that to be successful, they had to learn critical entrepreneurial skills, interact with customers and build a strong bond within their group. Throughout her experience, she realized that the group could create gift baskets and successfully deliver them to their customers by working together. Each group member was accountable for their tasks, providing a sense of ownership and motivation. Working together also allowed the group to collaborate and learn from each other. This ultimately improved the team’s productivity and efficiency.
“The basket-making part was enjoyable, and delivering it to the customer was fun,” said Joshi.
It would not be a successful project if the teammates did not have a little bit of fun. Joshi claims she also enjoyed the project even though she learned crucial entrepreneurial and social skills. This emphasizes the importance of having fun in a team project. It also helps foster camaraderie and collaboration, which are necessary for any successful project.
“We wanted to spread knowledge about the American enterprise system and to teach people about it; we also needed to understand it, so we decided to do a business to understand how it works,” said Khan.
Khan believed that to educate people about the American enterprise system properly, it was vital for them to learn it themselves, and she concluded that making a small Valentine’s basket business was the best way. They were able to learn crucial business skills, such as money management, time management, and advertisement skills. They were able to apply these skills to their business ventures. They also had the opportunity to learn about the importance of customer service and building relationships with their customers.
“We surveyed students so they could say what they want to see in a gift basket and what they want it for, like holidays or events,” said Khan.
Through this process, the students gained a better understanding of how to tailor their products and services to the needs and interests of their customers. They also learned how to effectively market their products and services to potential customers. Additionally, the students learned how to manage their time and create an effective business plan.
“ We learned a lot about the business aspect and advertising because we had to do a lot of promotional stuff, and then making the baskets and delivering them was amazing,” said Khan.
The students had to understand the importance of marketing their products and services to drive sales. They also had to learn how to create a business plan to identify their goals, strategies, and budgets. Finally, they had to develop a plan to manage their time and efficiently complete their tasks. Though this was challenging, Khan says she enjoyed every part because she achieved her end goal: educating many people about the free enterprise system.
“We wanted to do a business for the project, and we thought that gift baskets would be a good thing to create because many people like gift baskets,” said Van Strien.
Van Strien believed that to create a successful business, his group needed to develop a company that was not subjected to a particular age group, race, or gender but instead super inclusive. So they decided to make gift baskets because they fulfilled everyone’s needs. Who does not love a basket full of goodies? Gift baskets also represent a sense of generosity and thoughtfulness, which can be hard to find in a physical gift.
“I like making gift baskets and finding out what we need: I realized I’m economically oriented and found the accounting and budgeting part extremely fun,” said Van Strien.
He found that he could find great deals on the items he needed and that the budgeting process was advantageous. He was also able to customize each gift basket to make it even more special and memorable. This experience gave her a newfound appreciation for budgeting and gift-giving. He was delighted with the results and felt proud of his ability to create a thoughtful and meaningful gift. He now understands the power that budgeting has to provide meaningful and memorable experiences.
After weeks of preparation, Basket Bliss started accepting orders, and families across multiple neighborhoods began requesting the Valentine’s Day baskets. Khan, Joshi, and Van Strien also promoted the baskets through word-of-mouth and flyers that were posted online. Short videos of the creation of the baskets and previews of what they would look like were also posted on the business’ Instagram story, @BasketBlissOTHS. The group members realized that an essential part of the free enterprise system was communication with the community to define the target market. Throughout the success of the Basket Bliss business, the students were able to experience the responsibility of being an entrepreneur and enhance their knowledge of the free enterprise system.
