FOUR LOTUS

Independent study project

Four Lotus was an independent study project that I proposed to my professor. Nearing the end of my senior year of college I wanted to do something different and because of the flexibility of my degree I was able to start a small business and have it count as college credits.

The first step of my project was to find a way to source my bucket hats. I looked at Alibaba for some materials, but the shipping times and rates weren’t worth pursuing so I eventually looked locally and was able to source for a reasonable price.

Wholesale price for the bucket hats were $4-$5 and sold them at retail price at $15 each, however I made a deal that if they bought 2 it would be $10 each.

The reason I went with bucket hats because I liked the design and it was different from all the snapbacks that I saw around campus. Most of my target demographic was college campus students, but I eventually branched out to local businesses in my town where I set up my bucket hat display and if the store was able to sell any, I would split the profit 8-2.

I set up a website with the help of my friend and an instagram account which I figured would’ve been the best option to focus my limited time on out of all the social media sites.