The GEM Model

This week’s lesson material included a lot of good information. As I was reading, one particular article stood out to me. “The GEM Model” by Stephen W. Gibson was a clear cut article outlining three things that “can help your business grow and grow”: Gathering, Enhancing and Marketing. Gibson explains this using a lemonade stand business as an example. In the gathering phase, the raw materials such as sugar, lemons etc. are purchased. The enhance phase is where the lemonade is made (the raw materials are enhanced). The marketing phase is where the signs are put up, the stand is built and friends are sent out to wave down cars to buy some lemonade. This was a simple straight forward article with three necessary steps for business growth. I thought about my small business for the $100 challenge as I read. I would like to open a small gift shop online selling handmade unique knitted gifts. As I read the article I checked off the steps that I had accomplished. I currently have my raw materials ready to go. I spent a week winding yarn getting it ready to be knit and making sure I had all of my needles in order. I now need to enhance my raw materials by deciding on the patterns I want to use and start establishing my inventory. Marketing will be the last and toughest step for me. Of course I will use word of mouth and start it myself, however, I’m not sure how else to go about advertising my business. There are many small knit shops on the site I am going to use so I need to figure out how I am going to market my particular shop to make it stand out from the rest. That is a challenge in and of itself.