Chapter 1
Sara had to take a business major in university because her parents did not think art and design was a field they should spend so much money on for her higher educated abroad. She and Daniel got accepted in universities in California, United States and Sara had a lot of trouble with her business subjects in compared to Daniel who had been taking these subjects since high school.
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She had some trouble with marketing. Like for Example:
“Enlightening
The most enlightening aspect of this term is the fact that there are times that a community just cannot afford your product, not because there is anything wrong with the product but because it is expensive that they would rather buy other products for cheaper than your product. In these cases if your target audience is not changing then you have to come up with new products or services to keep customers engaged. It is possible to reduce the price or have offers for a temporary period to attract customer and it is possible to just reduce the price altogether and see how the customer responds. Sometimes it is important to know your customer and gain insightful information which would benefit your business.
Surprising
It is surprising that reduction in price and easy availability of a product could affect the customers and how they respond and purchase. Also adding new services to your business could increase the sale. Open new audiences or niche that could be catered.
Business Professional
I have been running my own business of product and services for almost four years and I have never thought that maybe my target audience cannot afford my product at the price I am selling, maybe I need to change my audience and not the product or change the product but not the audience. There are many factors that play an important part and one should be able to change a few existing factors to see how the audience reacts. When I started my firm I did not think that business plays a big part in running the business since I was a product designer offering products and services but I ended up realizing that business the discipline actually plays a big part because it is really about making profit in the end of the day. I was not receiving a salary from an employer I was the employer paying employees. I could not just pay attention to making different product and playing with ideas about the product how to improve it, I had to pay attention to making profit which I was not. After taking a few business courses from University of Illinois through Coursera specializing in leadership and starting my Bachelor in Business Administration at University, I have realized that I have to play around with business aspects of my firm, like marketing strategies, pricing, what is trending, customer retention and brand loyalty along with image of the brand which is very important. These should be changed around how one plays with different aspects of design by changing form and color of fashion design. There are businesses that ended up making a lot of money during the pandemic which made me realize how important the aspect of business is.”
These were her papers she was writing and she genuinely thought she might as well write a book.
Sara had been working for the last two years of her high school so she had some on ground experience which she could put to use in business studies. She has been making paintings since she was a kid and had managed to compile quiet a collection which she sold and gifted to her friends and relatives. She had started a firm on small scale with her mother where they exhibited their work, her mother would help her with selling her art work.
When she started business administration in University of California, United States of America and despite it being business administration and not art she was still excited. Daniel got accepted in the same university however he was late. He wanted to party completely with his high school buddies before starting college so he was not there was frosh week or orientation. Sara was glad that at least she knew someone from before and does not have to make new friends from scratch.
While Daniel had not showed up, she started to get comfortable in her dorm room with her new room mate who was from New York, she was brown. She could not stop talking about how racist they are that they put her and Sara in the same room because of the color of their skin. She had had enough of this country with their racist actions, she did not know what to do. She could not move to another country. Sara was just listening to her not knowing what to say.
She was aware of the black lives matter movement which exploded during the pandemic in the last couple of years though it did not have any on ground impact on Pakistanis since most of the people living in Pakistan are brown. No one took to the road and rebelled against the government because there was nothing to rebel against.
For her the pandemic had changed her life like it had changed many people’s lives with new restrictions on how to live; with masks, social distancing, sanitizers, the news being on all the time, not being able to travel, lockdowns, studying from home and losing loved ones because of covid or other fatal illnesses which could not be properly addresses because of the pandemic. Her mother was a doctor and she was at the Hospital she worked at all the times. While there were lockdowns on and off for about a year in Pakistan which disrupted her studies at school, she was stuck at home studying through zoom and meeting her classmates online. Her mother told her firsthand how dangerous it was to be working during the pandemic, since the virus was transmissible through air. Oddly her mother never got COVID, though her aunt and other relatives passed away in the past two years which was devastating.
When she had applied for universities, they told her to study online however her mother did want her to study online, she wanted Sara to be on campus. She had explained her situation to the admission and they let her apply for visa with a letter of invitation and because of COVID, it took six months for her visa to arrive and she had to send special documents that she received from her university to the visa office for them to grant her the visa. Finally she got her visa and she did not want to stick around in Pakistan and just party with people like Daniel, she wanted to be on her way to her new life and not holding on to the past like her friend. He was holding on to the popularity he received in high school and was not leaving for university on purpose not knowing how it would turn out.
Sara had already attended her first few classes and felt like home. She was just here in the new country for a few days and she liked it. She did not know what was holding Daniel back to Pakistan for so long. It’s not like he had a girlfriend he was spending time with before starting university.
Daniel had been told that he could attend university online and he was fine with that until the circumstances changed and they invited him to campus to start his classes. He could not avoid university for long and was on his way to the United States of America to attend second week of classes.
When he arrived he was surprised at the weather, it was not warm though it was September it was actually chilly and he was told by people there that it gets really cold in the winter. He started to settle in to his dorm room and found Sara come to his room to greet him. She had already found out what room he had and when he was arriving and was there to greet him even before he met his roommate. She looked happy to see him and he was surprised.
“Hey”, said Daniel.
“Hi”, said Sara. “How was your flight?”
“It was okay.” He said.
She smiled, “okay” and started walking towards him to his bed where he was sitting.
“I’m starting to feel like you are my girlfriend, I mean I just got here and you are here.” He said smiling. She stopped in her track and just stood barely away from him: “Well, I’m not.”
“I know that.” He said softly, smiling and she started to move again to sit next to him on his bed.
“So, how is this place?” he asked her,” I mean you can’t ask me that cause I just got here, you have been here was weeks”.
“I have not been here for weeks” she said looking away,” I got here like 6 or 5 days back. What kept you in Lahore?”
“I was learning how to be better at business”, he said, “You know, making connections”
“Yeah, I do not think that is what business is”, she said rolling her eyes.
“It is, guess you have not been studying. How are you finding studying business by the way? Did I miss much?” He asked her.
His roommate walked in, “Heeeeyyyhhhhh! I hope I am not walking in on something”.
“Nah, man. I’m Daniel” Daniel said to the black guy who had just walked in, “You?”
“I am your roommate and the name is Paul!” Paul said moving his hand forward to shake his.
Daniel shaked Paul’s hand and said: ”Hey, Paul”
“So, I guess, you probably want to rest after your flight. You are probably jet lagged” Sara said while getting up from Daniel’s bed, “I’ll see you later”. Daniel held her hand and said: “No, don’t leave. This is Sara, one of my closest friend from back home, Paul. Why don’t we all go for a drink in a bar nearby? Do you guys know of a place?”
“Well, not yet.” Said Sara.
Paul had settled in his bed and looked a bit taken of guard. “Sure, man”
“What kind of place do you guys like? I have beer here though, you can have it and get me some later if you want” Paul finished.
Daniel was still holding Sara’s hand and Sara had not sat down nor moved away. Daniel was now looking at Sara to say something. “What are you looking at me for? I do not think getting hammered immediately after landing is a good idea.”
Paul said: “Don’t get hammered, man.”
Daniel let go of Sara’s hand and said to her: “I am not going to get hammered”, looking a bit offended. Still sitting.
Paul quickly got on his feet to open the fridge and gave Daniel a beer and opened one for himself and asked Daniel: ”Is she going to drink?”
“I would not mind”, Sara said to both of them.
Daniel kept sitting, opening his beer now and Paul kept standing holding beer.
“Would someone get the lady, that’s me a drink?” Sara said smiling.
Paul went for the fridge again and gave her a can.
