Jeffrey made another batch of Oobleck and slime at home. For now, he'd stop making glow-in-the-dark and scented slime. He started to prepare his next set of recipes, glitter slime and foam slime.
Arriving at school the next week, he finally caught up with Aleena during the passing period before band class.
"Hey Aleena", Jeffrey greeted his bandmate.
"Hi Jeffrey", Aleena waved at him.
"I have your jar of perfume slime, it took me a while to make", Jeffrey handed over the jar.
"Here's $20", Aleena opened the jar and started playing with it.
"Does your friend still want a jar as well or...", Jeffrey started to say.
Soon the sound of a kid running toward them could be heard.
"Hey Jeffrey, here's $20 for the perfume slime", She handed Jeffrey some money.
Jeffrey took out a box and took out 4 dollars and 4 quarters.
"Here's $2.50 for each of you", Jeffrey said.
"It's for being my first customers. I only have 8 of these left before I run out and I'm keeping some for my science project"
Soon the door to the band room opened and the 3rd period beginner's band class had begun. All the students went to the storage room to grab their instruments and assemble them.
Jeffrey had earned an extra $35 and although each jar cost roughly ~$8. In terms of breaking even with supplies he still needed $90 more dollars. That meant selling 5 more jars at full price to just break to even. The rest was barely a dent in the other materials he had purchased for the other recipes. He was looking at reaching $250 for his first month's benchmark.
Jeffrey made a chart in a green notebook. [The Science Project]
Week 1: 2j @ .4
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4:
Goal: 12j @ 2.4 + (3j f. PL)
Jeffrey still had to advertise a lot more. He remembered a business web novel that talked about marketing strategy before. Even the largest fashion companies like Gucci and Dior paid millions to advertise, so that meant small business and companies like his needed to do the same to keep up.
At lunch time Jeffrey met up with Preston.
"Hey Preston, did you bring the money?", Jeffrey asked him.
"Yeah, it's right here", Preston said as he pulled out $20 from his wallet.
Jeffrey handed Preston a jar of glow-in-the-dark slime. It was a bright green color with a hand drawn gear logo on the side that read "The Slime Factory".
"If you sell 10 jars, I'll give you one to keep", Jeffrey offered.
"I feel like a sales manager scumbag, giving rewards to employees", Jeffrey thought to himself.
Jeffrey didn't have a good image of sales managers. It must be difficult for marketing departments and CEOs. However, one skill Jeffrey wanted to learn was to be more thick skinned. He had a bottom line, but he also needed to let go of his own deep-seated misconceptions if he wanted to succeed.
Preston similarly didn't have the sense of greed or interest toward money that his friend Jeffrey did. His main goal as always was focusing on studying and getting good grades.
"No thanks Jeffrey, you can keep it", Preston offered.
"You sure?", Jeffrey asked.
"Yep, I'm sure", Preston responded.
"I'll keep one saved for you anyway. Think of it as a work bonus or perk", Jeffrey tried to make Preston take it. If his partner didn't want what they were making, it was going to be difficult to get others to buy it. However at the same time, Preston was a friend.
This business and friendship thing is difficult to manage, he was going to have to be more principled and figure out a way to separate the two clearly.
"OK, maybe we'll get an ice cream or something", Jeffrey offered.
Preston took the jar and walked away.
"Haa", Jeffrey sighed. It seemed that doing things in life was much more nerve wracking then reading it in a webnovel.
Jeffrey's own insecurity and fears about being inadequate and what others would think of him started to discourage him again.
"I'm so embarrassed asking others to buy this."
"Why would anyone want a jar of slime?"
If Jeffrey was ever going to succeed at this, he was going to need to find some self confidence and fast. This entrepreneur stuff was freaking hard and his biggest obstacle was himself.
While Jeffrey was stuck in his own head, school continued on. The other students were packing up their backpacks, taking tests and generally just going about their own day. Jeffrey was just another student among many, invisible, ignored and just ordinary.