WELCOME TO
THE KYDYE
COLLECTION

WORK LOGS

1 3/14

The mentor process is going really well for my project. I asked a local teacher to be my mentor and guide me throughout the whole project. Since she is an elementary school teacher, she gives back to the community a lot as well as uses technology often to keep her class going over zoom with the pandemic. I finalized my question with it being, within today's generation, how effective is the use of social media on small businesses and in today's society? I also was able to get two people to interview for my project who are familiar with my topic. My first person I am going to interview is Mrs. Okimoto who is the head of Communications for Carondelet and can answer my social media based questions. My second interview is going to be with a small business owner named Angela Fazzalari who started during the pandemic.

2 3/16

My project is going really well so far. I was able to get interviews with both of my people for my essay through email which gave me time to put it into my essay. I got a variety of questions answered which will help me when writing my intro. I have finished my first body paragraph which I think is pretty good when it comes to introducing my topic. My senior project is running very smoothly and my mentor enjoys helping me and likes my ideas for my essay. I have my outline for my essay with an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion where I also introduce my project of starting the Ky Dye Collection. I am not positive if I am allowed to include my project in my conclusion so I need to ask in class.

3 3/18

Now that my essay question is finalized I was able to brain storm 3 solid paragraph ideas. For my first paragraph I am talking about the marketing aspect of small businesses and social media. In this paragraph I will continue to go into detail about marketing and how it is easy to get business opportunities and that you want to market to the right people. In the second paragraph I will talk about how social media comes in a mass variety from blogs, too websites and apps in which people can communicate via pictures and videos. I will bring up Angela who I interviewed as well as Mrs. Okimoto in the previous paragraph. In the third paragraph I will talk about how social media and everything within it is non stop growing and so it will not go out of style as some put it.

4 3/22

Kydye is growing really well. My followers are continuing to rise everyday on instagram. This week I had 8 sales for different hoodies and crewnecks. Seven out of eight of the sales were customs which I love because people are able to create their own designs. I moved The Ky Dye Collection over to Tiktok and the followers are continuing to grow, but a lot slower. I posted content that is similar to other small businesses and I mention the low prices as well as wanting to help people going through tough times with covid which made me start this small business in the first place. Tiktok and Instagram have overall been very good for my business because without social media I would have no way to access customers or expand my small business.

5 3/23

In my first Interview I emailed Mrs. Okimoto. She is the Director of Communications of Strategic Marketing at Carondelet High School in Concord, California. I was referred to her by a close friend because she works a lot with technology and social media in her daily line of work. She also has a past in a law firm and marketing for them so she is very experienced on my topic. We communicated through email and she was very professional and polite. I asked her six different questions relating to my topic and she answered all six of my questions. I thanked her for her time and I was very glad to have my first interview complete and be able to use her knowledge in my essay.

6 3/24

My second interview is with Angela Fazzalari who is a small business owner who I found off Instagram. Angela Fazzalari is the creator and founder of a small business called Golden Daze which she created to sell trendy clothes too teenagers and young adults. With a small following account of 4000 people she was able to reach top influencers to promote her work. She was so kind to answer a few questions for me which I will be able to use as a part of my interview. Senior project is going well and running a lot smoother than I expected it to. I feel like the spacing and timing for due dates is perfect and nothing is crammed.

7 3/25

My essay draft is coming to an end as I finish up the conclusion. In my conclusion I am briefly talking about my senior project and how The Ky Dye Collection is coming along. My small business is rapidly growing followers as I continue to promote it to the world via social media. I decided to stick to the platforms of Instagram and
Tiktok Because I feel like that is what is best for my businesses and is the best way to get a wide audience and potential customers. I was able to donate more of my profits to goodwill to help those in need. I donated to the goodwill in Concord. I donated about 100 dollars worth of tees, hoodies, and crewnecks to goodwill and they were very thankful.

8 3/28

My small business was going extremely well and had no unhappy customers until one girl messaged me to tell me that my brand was no good and that her hoodie was ruined. We messaged back and forth and I explained that I could send her a new one if she sent it back and she told me no. I apologized and told her I make my designs out of parchment paper and that perhaps she did not follow the washing directions. She never sent me proof that her hoodie was ruined in any way but then proceeded to make a Tiktok about The Ky Dye Collection and how it is no good. She made a video on Tiktok which received a lot of views. She then created a few fake accounts that were sending me DMs to delete my account.

9 4/2

The next day I was able to report her video because it was spreading inaccurate information and leaving out the facts that she did not follow the washing instructions. This was very stressful because I had bots that would DM me and it got to my head a little bit even though it is just people with nothing better to do, hiding behind a screen of a no picture profile and a zero following. A few days later people were commenting on her tik tok telling her that she is lying and that she is just bored with her time. People were promoting my small business and it was so exciting to see something good come out of the unhappy customer. I was able to delete all the mean comments and a week later the hate was gone.

10 4/5

This senior project and topic has taught me a lot about social media and not only does it contain a lot of good aspects but it also contains problems and mean people. Although the incident with the unhappy customer stressed me out for a few days, in the long run, I learned from it and now I know how to handle situations like that. It was also amazing to see that people who bought my hoodies and crewnecks were supporting me and helping to block out the hate. This helped me to continue making hoodies for people. One girl bought a few different items and even made videos of herself wearing the apparel and promoting it. It was amazing to be able to see that kind of support from someone across the United States.

11 4/10

For this work log I want to explain how I typically make my KyDye apparel. Once I receive a Direct Message off of Instagram I help them figure out which type of custom they would like to create. Customers are able to order a custom hoodie, crewneck or t-shirt. All customers are able to add a custom inspirational quote to their apparel or even a logo of their choice. Once the customers chooses their type of apparel and logo they are given the option to have it a solid color or dyed. I process the orders through direct message on instagram and take Venmo as the form of payment. I donate 10 percent to goodwill and use the rest to order the items and keep KyDye going. Orders typically are ready to ship in 3-5 days.

12 4/18 

As a way to help give to others around my area, I set up a park meet up for young children to play soccer. I brought KyDye custom tee shirts to the meet up so the young children would be able to play soccer wearing a custom shirt. Their parents loved that the kids were able to meet up in a covid way safe with cute t-shirts. The kids worked on soccer drills with soccer plays I know, as well as a mini scrimmage at the end. The kids were also given treats at the end to celebrate their hard work playing the soccer activities and drills. The mini soccer camp was a great way for the kids to get out and about as well as for the kids to get a free custom KyDye tee shirt.

13 4/23

I am currently working on updating my website because there is a lot to be done to ensure it meets all of the requirements as well as looks good. My website is missing some work logs which I am working on as I type as well as a few spelling errors that need to be updated. I also have a few more papers that need to be signed to update my progress and so I will have to take the sheet to my mentor to get it signed. Senior project is going really well and I'm glad I chose the topic that I chose. My website needs a little work on the reflection as well because I want to be able to squeeze in everything that I did and learned from this experience and senior project. 

14 4/25

    Today I met up with my mentor again and I gave her a run down of what I have been up to revolving around my project. We met in the afternoon in person and I was glad we were able to meet up again because I explained to her how my KyDye sales are going as well as how the website is coming along. She loved the idea about the soccer camp and so I showed her pictures from the camp. My mentor gave me a few website tips which was nice because it helped me to not procrastinate and get everything finished in time before each deadline. Before I left, I thanked her again for being my mentor and told her we would talk again soon.

15 4/29

In addition to selling inspirational and custom hoodies to people around the world as well as donating to goodwill, I wanted to help spread positivity online via instagram. From time to time I would post uplifting and helpful posts on my instagram to support those that are facing hard times this year. I posted for people to help give back to Texas as well as numbers for people to find support. Social media is a good way to get your voice heard and so posting on social media allows for people to become more aware of what is happening around the world and how to help out. I posted at least once a month in order for my followers to help out with their community as well as those who are not in their community.

16 5/1

Now that The KyDye Collection has reached 8000 followers on Tiktok and 7000 followers on instagram I feel like it is time to make some sort of change to my small business and add an addition. After having my followers answer a poll on my instagram story, the numbers showed that they would love to add college KyDye. I feel like college KyDye would be a fun way to reach even more followers and help to give back even more to goodwill. I would eventually sell custom crewnecks, hoodies, and tee shirts that have college sayings and college logos on them. I feel like this would benefit KyDye a lot and be a fun new experience to try out. Senior project is running very smoothly with my small business and with my mentor meetings.

17 5/7

After starting my own small business, The Ky Dye Collection, I was able to see what role social media plays through an entrepreneur's lens. This experience and senior project allowed me to push past my comfort zone in order to open an online business, improve my marketing strategies, create and sell products, as well as deal with the negative side of social media which consisted of mean people who just wanted to be heard from behind a unknown “user 48354” screen. This whole process consisting of all of the ups and few downs inspired me to want to pursue marketing and entrepreneurship next year in college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I will most likely minor in one of the two, but there's a chance I could double major with my current major and then one of those would be my second.

18 5/9

I picked up my essay today after school and I received an 86%. I was very glad to have passed but I was hoping to do a little better. I read through the grading and I was told my introduction was well written. I incorporated my college essays into my senior essay introduction which helped me write a very good essay. I was glad that I could check off the senior essay off my to do list and focus on the remaining tasks that are a part of the senior project. I told my mentor about my grade and she was very excited for me which I was happy about. The next task for my senior project is to work on my presentation speech which I am a little stressed about because we have not gone into depth about the instructions in class yet. 

19 5/12

 After keeping track of all Ky Dye orders, I wanted to make some sort of art to show what I have accomplished throughout the past year. After purchasing a map from Michaels, as well as a frame, I printed out the labels to see how many orders I sold and from what state they were from. I realized I had too many orders to place them all on my map and so I found a way to narrow it down. I decided to put a pin on each state at least one person purchased from. After placing all the pins and counting them I realized I sold Ky Dye to a total of 34 states. In the future I hope to continue Ky Dye and reach all 50 states in the United States and maybe even another country. 

20 5/15

Today in class I learned that I will be presenting my research paper in a few weeks. The speech has to be eight to ten minutes which is a little stressful because I do not like giving speeches. I need to learn to get over this fear of public speaking because my major has to do with communications and so I will be publicly speaking a lot in the future. I will start this journey by practicing my speech a lot to be well prepared for when I present. I usually do well at the end when it comes to speeches and so I hope this one will meet all the requirements and I will be able to destress. Senior year is almost over and so I need to end it on a good note with my speech presentation.