Thinking further about what I want consumers to really get out of purchasing this product goes back to empowerment and wellness.

For me, making is empowering and gives me confidence. However, this may only be one small part in most people’s lives (including my own), in finding balance and happiness within your life.

Achieving balance in your life is one of the toughest things, since you only are just ONE person. What if you had a team of people coaching you through aspects of your life? What defines your wellness?

I was brainstorming earlier today and came up with this list:

Each section of wellness would have an “expert” behind it, working with me to help figure out monthly plans depending on age, gender (if that’s your thing), kind of transition, what aspect of your life do you need to work on the most.

This way, each month you get help from someone who knows a lot about the...

I was talking to my mom more about the idea of a subscription service for new home owners/ college students that would help them take care of simple problems when dealing with a new space, and I realized what was important about the experience was a phase of transition.

I’m beginning to think more about the kit as something that you receive as a way to help you through the beginning stages of adulthood. They’d be a little bit of support each month in figuring things out on your own for the first time. I see this being separated into three stages:

1) An option for parents to send to their kids between the last year of high school and first year of college. These kits would help them deal with living in a dorm, creating a work schedule, thinking about a budget, learning to deal with stress, and other problems that often come up your first year.

2) An option for recent college...

After going through various products I could find (let me know if you find any more boxes that i should look into!), there are two (more concise) ideas that come to mind. Both ideas would provide services that I haven’t seen before, and that I believe are worth investing time/money in.

A Subscription Box Service for New House/Apartment Owners

Many people are out of touch with what goes on behind the walls of their house/apartment so easy fixes like plumbing, electricity, and putting up shelves get outsourced to professionals. What if you were able to take care of some of these smaller-scale problems around the house, or in your first college apartment? How much money could you save? Would you feel empowered that you could rely on yourself? Would you be glad you didn’t have to call up your parents to ask why there’s a leak in the wall or how to put up that new wall mount for your first...

A couple of weeks ago, I went through a bunch of subscription services to see what was available in the DIY/Crafts/Education categories.

Here are some kits that are available, and what I think a new product could improve on what is already available.

“Groovy Lab in a Box”
(http://www.groovylabinabox.com)

This subscription service focuses in on a younger demographic to teach STEM skills through mini experiments.

From the website: “With a subscription to Groovy Lab in a Box, you will receive boxes full of everything you need to learn about and do hands on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experiments for ages 8+.

Because children are natural engineers, Groovy Lab in a Box blends Scientific Inquiry and the Engineering Design Process which allows children to create ingenious inventions, enhance critical problem solving skills, and have FUN!”

Pros: The...

I have been doing research on the different kinds of subscription services that are out there (in a later post, I’ll go more in-depth as to each ones pro’s and con’s) and something that really jumped out at me was that the boxes all seem to use a lifestyle to sell a variety of products. Even the boxes that are “arts and crafts” oriented are marketing a cool factor to sell pre-determined designs.

You can have celebrities curate what gets sent to you, and you can create your “own” knick-knacks through customization.

There’s this theory about how at first, Betty Crocker’s cake mix only called for you to mix in some water to make a cake, but housewives started to feel guilty about how little work they put in to say they made the cake. By adding in the need for an egg in the recipe helped the sales of the mix. (http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2002/08/in_the_mix)

In this way, many...

When I was younger, I never thought much about how I loved the toys that I could build structures with. I didn’t think it was odd that I helped my dad around the house, helping him fix cracks and leaks at a young age.

I did think it was pretty cool when my dad let me use the drill to put up a shelf in our house for the first time

I grew up with a family that would rather make something themselves than go out and buy it. If something needed repair, someone in my family could always find a way to fix it. I didn’t know I was living in a home of “DIY”‘ers and “sustainable and eco friendly” makers. They knew what they knew in order to maintain a nice quality of life for themselves.

I didn’t know how much my love of creating the best tri-fold boards and experiments for the grade science fairs would make me a good public speaker and designer. I always was proud of myself for not reading...