Abeja Candles: Terminal year end report

• Main Authors: Ang, Jean Kenji K., Cue, Kyla Allanah V., Dee, Kathryn Gail C., Norton, Diego Luis E., Unabia, Lloyd Anthony M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Entrepreneurship; Candle industry—Philippines; Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_dsi/136; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_dsi/article/1130/viewcontent/Abeja_Candles_Terminal_Year_End_Report_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Abeja Candles is a business that offers high quality-environmentally friendly scented candles. The focus of the product is to be therapeutic and to lower the stress levels of the consumer. The candle’s environmental aspect is that it uses a non-toxic wax known as Beeswax instead of the usual paraffin wax which releases toxic gasses into the air. Aside from this, Abeja Candles promotes sustainability and environmentalism with its products. The target market of the candles would range in the age demographic of 17-30 year old people of either gender who admire sustainably made local products. The product has an extra focus on those who are experiencing stress and anxiety as the Abeja candles offer various scents that uplifts an individual's mood. An increase in stress levels and mental health problems are present due to the Pandemic and the team of Abeja Candles would like to aid by providing a product that would alleviate the stress that an individual has. More and more consumers are switching to the more eco-friendly alternative by supporting locally made sustainable products. This is the reason behind the creation of Abeja Candles, to not only provide aromatic candles to its consumers but also to advocate for environmental, social, and economical benefits. With this, the business will be acquiring some of the supplies from local artisans and an example of which are the pots to be used which will be bought from a local pottery store in the province. Usage of dried petals is also one of the business’s unique features which will be sourced from a local flower shop. The business will try its best to obtain Filipino flowers to use for the candles. Abeja Candles is a business that offers high quality-environmentally friendly scented candles. The focus of the product is to be therapeutic and to lower the stress levels of the consumer. The candle’s environmental aspect is that it uses a non-toxic Beeswax instead of paraffin wax and soy wax which releases toxic gasses into the air. Since the pandemic has led to a drastic increase in e-commerce shopping the product will have no physical stores and will be sold primarily online. Due to this, the majority of the advertisement and marketing will be occurring online on social media platforms as the rate of internet users have increased. As mentioned, there has been a rapid increase with e-commerce platform users and with this, the business will utilize Facebook and Instagram as its main social media platforms used for advertising and marketing. This is to effectively reach a wider audience that will be beneficial for the business. Abeja Candles will also be offering discounts and coupons on social media as a form of promotion for the product to increase its audience. The platforms include Abeja Candles’ website, Instagram, Shopee, and Lazada accounts for receiving customer orders while payment will be done through debit/credit card, cash on delivery or Gcash before shipping the products. The platforms are also used to share interesting information about the products the business offers and communicate with its customers. This helps Abeja Candles to build good customer relationships to improve customer retention. The execution of the operational activities were planned in such a way that it will adhere to the rules and regulations imposed during the pandemic. While the business plan was still in process, the management team were already starting to contact potential suppliers to give time to delays because of restrictions with delivery. In this way, the business was prepared to look for alternatives in case one of the suppliers could not comply with the agreements. The execution plan of Abeja candles also includes a list of specific tasks that each manager must accomplish within the existence of the business. The list will help the team to reach milestones and set standards for how the business will operate in the foreseeable future. The management team guarantees that all deliverables will be done in an efficient and timely manner to avoid delays and unwanted instances. The business will be starting its operations in the month of October in the year 2021 under the PRACTICUM Course. By this time, the management team have already acquired the necessary supplies and had started the production process of Abeja Candles. The source of funding for the business will be from the partnership members of the business with an estimated start-up capital of ₱65,000. The estimated profit margin per product unit will be 73.40%. The business will be able to generate an gross sales of ₱337,500 in its 10 months with a neutral estimation and will be able to generate an income of ₱116,604 with a neutral estimation of forecasts. The company has also identified any risks that might affect the business then mitigate through proper planning. One of the anticipated risks are fire, typhoon and natural disasters. Next, challenges with shipping, suppliers, international currency and economic changes. These all affect the sales and production, hence the company plans to have financial provisions for these risks while also ensuring safety and health of workers to maintain optimum output The business will be in the form of a general partnership with five partner members. The members will take on separate responsibilities and roles that align with their skills and expertise. The CEO and head of decision making will be taken by Lloyd Anthony Unabia. Marketing and Advertising will be overseen by Kathryn Gail Dee. Finance will be overseen by Jean Kenji Ang while Operations will be done by Kyla Allanah Cue and Diego Luis Norton. It is important for the team to work together effectively to reach its common goal.