When junior Lila Mokhtari saw a chance to change the world with her soap business, Maji Soaps, she looked to global entrepreneurship competitions to continue this project.
This attracted her to apply for the Blue Ocean Competition that focuses on supporting solutions that benefit the greater business scope as well as the lives of people globally. After creating a 5 minute video about her Maji Soap Business, sharing Maji’s partnership with the Thirst Project in order to provide clean water to children globally, Mokhtati placed 2nd in the global competition.
“The whole system is really easy because it’s founded by these professors who created this concept of having a blue ocean as your business idea,” Mokhtari said. “So their whole idea is that you need to create a blue ocean in a sea of red oceans, with the red oceans being this market and industry that has too much competition. So you need to create your own category and to create your own blue ocean that varies without competition.”
Upon applying, the Blue Ocean organization provides a course for entrepreneurs, depicting graphs, charts, and quality aspects to add to each project video. Mokhtari shared that the next steps that followed was her creation of a video explaining the problem, the red ocean, and how she is creating a blue ocean
“ And then after I made that five minute video, then I just submitted it once and then they just continued judging it after every round. I was so excited when I found out I placed 2nd. I did not think I would get that at all,” Mokhtari said. “I was then given $700 to start the business, which will probably go towards finding manufacturing which will make it so I will be able to produce more soaps that I currently do at home.”
Taking what she has learned during the competition, Mokhtari hopes to make Maji Soaps marketable in retail brands, as she has gotten a lot of excitement from retail brands. However, she is yet to have resources to make this a reality.
“Right now, Maji packaging is a strip of paper that I print out around myself. But I’ve heard from retailer stores that they want either a box that can protect from dust, or some kind of shrink wrap. So I would say one of my major future goals is to look towards eco-friendly packaging that can be distributed into retail brands, and am excited for what is to come.” Mokhtari said.
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