Harini Kannan Week 15 - The Slime Empire That Almost Was
The Slime Empire That Almost Was
Every time I find myself making slime, which is actually quite often, I get a very specific memory. Not to YouTube tutorials or the stress of cleaning slime off my carpet before my parents (although these did happen), but back to fifth grade. Back when my friend (whose name I will not reveal because she would kill me) and I were co-founders of a highly unlicensed yet semi-successful slime business.
It started as a simple idea that two 10-year-olds dreamed up. Slime was all the craze at the time, so why not profit from it? We convinced our parents to take us to Target and buy supplies: glue, food coloring, baking powder, saline solution, shaving cream, glitter…the list goes on. They were confused and suspicious but decided to let us be.
We began with advertising to our friends. $5 for a regular-sized container of slime of any color. $7 for a glitter or foam beads addition. Surprisingly, we got some orders—around six if memory serves. I even made a notebook to track them. We started making the slime for our loyal customers, who ended up being rather happy with their respective products. We were on our way to becoming a Fortune 500 company!
Then, disaster struck, and our slime empire that almost was came crashing down. Our parents learned about our little scheme and refused to take us to Target again to buy more supplies. We had only completed three orders at this point and still had three left. So, we talked to the people who would, unfortunately, not be receiving their orders and apologized for the inconvenience. As expected, they were furious and demanded their money back. We complied because what choice did we have? And that was the end of our beloved slime business.
Although I still blame my parents for putting an end to my entrepreneurial beginnings, I like to look back and remember the era. Not just the glitter explosions and frantic mixing in plastic bowls, but the excitement of feeling like my friend and I were doing something big. It reminds me of a time when all it took to feel important was slime supplies, a notebook of six orders, and a dream. The business might have flopped, but the memories? Definitely stuck.
Hi Harini! Similarly, I had also begun a small business but instead of selling slime, I sold toy cars to my friends. My friend and I started this business because we both wanted to get a new lego set to share, but our parents refused to buy it for us. Now at this time my birthday was around a month away and I asked them to buy the set for me for my birthday, but they did still not budge. They said if I somehow earn the money then they will buy the set for me. This sparked the idea of selling toy cars to people on the road. Now it was a rough start. We sold 4 cars, and they were to the neighborhood kids. Now the lego set was forty dollars, and we made ten dollars, so it was going to be a long time until we would get the set. My birthday rolls around, and when I open the first gift, it was the lego set that I had asked for. I thought my parents were serious about not getting me the set, so I guess this whole idea was selling toy cars was not worth it. But I still try to look at the positive side, which is making new memories with my friends when we had started this small business.
ReplyDeleteHey Harini! For everyone, there was a moment in everyone's life where they have been addicted to slime. I remember opening my first package, and it that satisfying "pop" that came from the container, knows you have opened the slime. It was so fun, especially since my cousins enjoyed it to, so we would just play with slime and talk about life. My most favorite idea was when we decided to make our own slime, and that just went horribly wrong. I'm not an instructional manual type of person, so I was eyeballing everything, and It somehow turned into some volcano, I don't even know how to explain. I still have a stain in my garage because I didn't expect it to make a mess, but it's ok, mistakes are what fuel the next adventure. I could never get into selling anything, I honestly, sadly, never had the marketing experience, and yes, I was definitely afraid to fail, but now that I'm older, I look back at it, and thought I should have done it. Overall, I loved reading your blog!
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