30A – Final Reflection

1- It is been a journey of the learning experience reading my blog made me realized that I overcome several challenges. I remember that I was totally uncomfortable doing certain assignments such as the ones that included interviews. I am a shy person and it is hard for me to speak with people that I don't know, but I am glad this assignment helped me to go out of my comfort zone. I feel more confident when it comes to talking to others which is really important in my future career since I will be communicating with patients and other professionals. Moreover, I did 3 elevator pitch which let me practice for future presentations. I had to practice a lot but at the end of the day it turned out good.

2- I think the most formative experience was the elevator pitch videos because is not something that we commonly do. I think this helps me to prepare for future presentations it helped to practice the speed of my voice, body language, and movement of the hand and to memorized scripts. I feel totally proud that I accomplish to record these videos and that I improved every time that I recorded them. In addition, I feel extremely proud that I got to develop a bussiness idea that I have been thinking to demonstrate my baking skills, and that it might be a bussiness that can help my family to get an extra income and to start a new life.

3- I think that I have developed an entrepreneurial mindset because lately, I see opportunities for the creation of a product or service because I see that people have a necessity of them. Before taking this class my mind did not work that way. Moreover, I think that my mind is more open and I am always asking for feedback because I want to hear different points of view. Even if people don't say anything at the moment I ask what they think. When I cook something I ask my parents and sisters to give me their opinion on flavor, presentation, texture to know what I can improve to make it better.

4- If I had the opportunity to advise future students I will tell them that to be successful in this class they need to develop organization and time management skills because there is a lot to do. I will tell them to have an open mind at the time receiving feedback and use them to improve and see things from a different perspective and provide constructive feedback to others because is a huge help to know if you are doing this right or what you need to improve. In addition, work on a bussiness idea that you feel passion for because it will make your journey easier since you will have to stick to this idea till the end of the semester. Moreover, video lecture are important I recommend watching them and taking notes because cupcake questions come directly from these lectures.

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

The opportunity that I have been trying to develop is to open an online bakery where I am going to sell good quality homemade baked goods products. The quality of my products will be extremely good since they won't be frozen or preserve products and the products will be similar to the ones we can find in a regular retail store. In addition, I will be offering delivery services when customers place their orders we will deliver their product to their location, so they won't have to go anywhere. My potential customers are the ones that enjoy homemade and fresh baked goods products, but they do not have the skills or time to bake them. In previous interviews, I have identified that my target audience is families with children around the age of 2-16 years old. However, this can be very variable because young couples or college students have shown interest in my products too.

The need for my products is to address the lack of good quality baked goods products. Usually, the products that people buy in common retail stores are frozen and preserved and they lack freshness and the flavor is not what people ate looking for.  My product will solve these needs because it will deliver the freshness and the homemade flavor that people are looking for. My products will be offered in Orlando, Fl area and they can be for people that enjoy eating sweet overs the weekend, snake or maybe for people that want to organize special events.

I have mentioned before that a lot of people I interviewed they are loyal to big bakeries and that is one of my weakness as a small business. However, the reality is that many of these retail bakeries that are recognized by a lot of people do not deliver that homemade flavor people are looking for. My products will be recognized by flavor and freshness and with the delivery service, it will be something that will be appealing to a lot of people. 

Innovation

Many people may think that my idea does not have any innovation, but the reality is that the innovation is in the recipes that I have been developing throughout the years and this is what makes my product different from others. This journey has not been easy because baking is a lot about try and failure and I have to say that I have a lot of failures developing my recipes, but I was able to successfully creating the recipes for different products such as brownies, cakes, cupcakes, cookies and different kind of bread.  

One of my favorite thing to bake are cookies I actually consider myself a cookies monster because cookies are the best dessert ever especially if they are homemade. I have to say that this is one of the recipes that was hard to create and modify. I bake different kinds of cookies such as birthday cake cookies, sprinkle cookies, cinnamon cookies, lemon cookies, salted caramel cookies, and my favorite want chocolate chips cookies. All these cookies are chewy in the inside and crunchy on the outside. Each cookies weight 120 g and they are going to sell 2.25$ each cookie or dozen cookies for 25$. My brownies are characterized to be extra fudge and top with homemade Nutella each brownie will cost 2 $. 

My cakes are characterized because the texture is fluffy and moist. Also, I offer a different kind of flavor and all cakes have a frosting. Customers can buy a slide of cake for 2.50$ or you can buy all cake the price will vary in how big the customer wants the cake. Cupcakes are also fluffy and moist with frosting on the top. The size of the cupcakes are regular and the prices of the cupcakes vary between 1.25-3 $ depending on the flavor and toppings of the cupcake. A dozen cupcakes can vary between 8-15$ depending on the flavor of the cupcakes. 

In addition, I am thinking of creating a loyalty reward program where people that buy my products will get reward points every time they buy one of my products. They can use this points to get futures discounts or gifts depending on the amount of point they have. This would help me to raise and build my community and it will help me to have loyal customers.

Venture Concept

The recipes that I created in the past will help me to bake good quality homemade products and this will be useful for people that are looking for fresh products with a good flavor. Moreover, the delivery service is something that is appealing to a lot of people since they do not have to go anywhere. The hard part to make customers switch will be the big competition that is in this field because sometimes people prefer to buy in some store that they already know even if the products are not what they want. After intervening a lot of people I realized that one of my biggest competition is Publix bakery because apparently is one of the best retail stores when it comes to baked products. However, these products are not as fresh or have the same flavor as homemade products. Moreover, the majority of these products are frozen and have a lot of additives to preserve the products. This gives me an advantage because my products do deliver good flavor, texture, and freshness. The products that I baked are not frozen and they don't contain additives. The prices are pretty much the same, so people will get a better product for the same price.

At the beginning of this bussiness, we would be a team of 5 people. Two people are going to in charge of the cakes, cupcakes and cake decoration. 1 person is going to take care of social media, website, taking the orders of the customers, and the delivery services. The other 2 will be in charge of baking the other products. This will be at the beginning, but I have to say that I would like to expand my business and I may need more employees by that time. I would like to have a bigger kitchen and more equipment such as ovens and hand mixers to have better handling of the products especially when I have to manage large quantities of products.

The three minor elements

The most important resource for my business the recipes that I have created over the years and the experience that my team and I have in the baking field.

The next opportunity that I would like to tackle with my current idea will be to have a physical location where I can have a bigger kitchen to bake large quantities of different products.

For me, it will be a dream to have this venue. I would like to create more recipes, but these products will be healthy options for people with diabetes or maybe some kind of allergies. 

Feedback and Changes

The feedback I received in my last post it was pretty positive. People mentioned that they have a better picture of my bakery and the products that I would be selling. They said that the breakdown of my prices was good. In addition, one of the comments was about creating loyal customers and building a good relationship with customers. I think this is true because I talked about the hard competition that I have with other recognized bakeries such as Publix bakery and build loyal customers will help me to grow and create a loyal community. This comment made me include a reward loyal program in the innovation section where I explained that customers will get points every time that they buy one of my products. Depending on the number of points they have they will get discounts or free products in the future. This will help me to create a community and increase loyalty. In addition, I talked about in the future a would like to have a bigger kitchen with more equipment where I can handle bigger quantities of baked products. This would help me to participate in bigger events or sell my products to other venues such as minimarkets. 

28A – Your Exit Strategy

1- I think my bussiness can stay in the market for more than 5 years because I sell products that people constantly consume. I think for a large return I will sell my bussiness in the next 10-15years because it takes time to build a good reputation and I would like to enjoy my dream a little more time than just 5 years. I don't think I will retire any time soon I would like to expand the business and maintain for future family members that are moving from Venezuela. This would help them to start a new life here and a way to gain money from a solid bakery.

2- The main reason of this exit strategy is because I am thinking about the future of my family. I still have some family in Venezuela and they are thinking of moving here to look for a better future just like my family and I did. If I keep the bakery more time I can build a good reputation and build an audience, so when they take the bakery it would be easier for them. Moreover, I would like to be involved in the business more time because this will give me a different experience.

3- I think this decision would potentially influence my family to accelerate their decision of coming to the United States to change their life. I think they will be more enthusiastic and motivated to start a new life doing something that they know how to do and the like it. I think that the fact that I know my family is planning to come here has influenced me to take this decision because I would like to help them. I know that starting over again is not easy and this will make their journey a little bit easier. Moreover, as I mention before baking is an activity that my all family enjoy and we are all good at it. The fact that they can be in this bussiness in the future I know they knowledge it will be a good resource for the bakery because the quality of the products will be maintained or even it can improve.

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Carol Dweck

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of the book is the mindset. The book discusses how different kinds of mindset can affect our decision or the way that we do things in different moments of our life.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I think this book connects with the class because we have discussed how we have to receive comments from others and go out of our comfort zone to succeed with our ideas. The mindset is important in this case because if you do not have the proper mindset you would not accept feedback, and may think that people are against you or do not like your idea. Moreover, when you are starting a bussiness a growth mindset is necessary because at the beginning may not be easy and the process might be a little slow. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

I will encourage an exercise where students have to develop a mindset ( growth/open) and make decisions with this mindset in any current situation that is currently happening in their life and see how was the process and results. After that make cooperation on how this mindset helped or no in the decision of decision making compared with other mindsets that they had in the past. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I think all book was ¨ aha¨ moment to me because a week ago my mom was telling me about mindset settings and a lot of what she said I could be related to the book. I have to say that lately, I am have not been in a good place mentally because of the anxiety of what is coming next in my future and all situation that we are currently facing. After talking to my mom I have been trying to improve my mindset and this book help me to realize that if I wanted to improve my move I have to change my mindset. It is amazing to see how your mind can help you to change your vision about something that is going on in your life, and you can apply this in a decision, bussiness, school, and other aspects.

26A – Celebrating Failure

1- Something that I have been trying to do during the summer semester and I failed was to workout at least 5 times per week. I started this goal around may but I have to say that I failed. I was able to workout somedays, but I was never constant. Some days I felt good and had free time to work out, but other days I was super busy and tired and I did not work out.

2- Something that I learned during this time is that I need to improve my time management skill and have a good balance between school and my personal life. I have to say that I got frustrated every time that I felt too tired and overwhelmed to workout because it was something that I wanted to do for me, but I put all my attention to my classes and at the end of the day did not have any energy for it. Therefore, I learned that I need to organize my time not just for my responsibilities, but also for my personal interest.

3- I think that failure is something that frustrates us and let me feel that I am not enough for the goal that I have set. However, failure helps me to realize that if I change something and do it differently it may give me a different result. This class has taught me that to be successful you have to go out of your comfort zone and take risks. Risk can be something that you want to do but you are afraid of it because of failure, or it can be something you do not feel comfortable with because you don't know how to do it. The reality is that sometimes those risks can help you to succeed or fail, and this is why people are afraid of them because no one wants to fail. However, failure can help you to change your perspective and the way we do things, and this will help us to succeed and avoid making the same mistakes in the future. I feel that I am more willing to go out of my comfort zone because I know if I don't do this I will not grow as a person or improve in my goals.

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market

I think that for my existing market what I would have to work on is to create new recipes for people that have certain health conditions such as any food allergy, intolerance, diabetes, or any other. I have tried to bake different healthy recipes, but I have not been able to get the results that I want. Therefore, I will work on it and hopefully offer these products in my bakery.

The three customers I interviewed were interested in my idea and they definitely would buy my products and use the delivery service. Also, they say they like the fact that the products were not frozen or have any additives in them. Moreover, they gave me some ideas.

Some of them mentioned that they love the delivery service and that they would totally use it, but they mentioned that it would be a good idea to have a spot to a location where they can pick up the order.

Moreover, they mentioned I could create a reward system to increase the loyalty of my customers and other customers will also be interested and buy my products. I have seen these reward programs in big clothes stores or in smoothies venues. I think is a great idea and it will help me to maintain my customers.

I love the idea to have a reward program form customers I did not think of this before and is a good strategy to bring more customers and to keep my current customers. After reaching the maximum points the customers will get a reward. I have not seen this in any of the big bakeries that I know.

New Market

I am currently targeting families with children's but this can vary to college students or young adults. Thinking about what another market I can target that is completely opposite is selling my product to big retail stores or to minimarkets.

My venue would add value to these stores because I will be selling them high-quality products with amazing flavor and freshness. This would increase their quality and customers that are looking for these products will buy more in their facilities. My business offers a variety of baked products and their presentation is appealing to the public. Moreover, the reward program can be implanted in the stores that I sell my products and customer will attend their stores because they get rewards.

I interviewed 2 people that are bakers and sell their products to other stores. They like my concept because they work with the same principles. They explained to me how is the process works with other stores. They mentioned they have been successful with minimarkets because they have believed in their products and customers seem to like it a lot. They bring their products to their stores 3-4 times per week. They have mentioned that working with big bakeries( Publix bakery) is almost impossible because they are loyal to their own brand and it is the cheapest option for them. Moreover, they mentioned is important to know how to manage lar quantities of products because usually, they order big amounts of different products.

This new market looks appealing to me because it will be a great way to expose my product to a larger audience. Moreover, it will be a new challenge for me because I have never sell my product to another big venue, so it will help me to gain experience to work with others and it would let me work with large amount of products. I already knew how the process was because a good friend of my mom sells her products to minimarkets in Miami. It did not surprise me that recognized bakeries such as Publix or Walmart won't be open to selling other products than their own products since is something that is their own brand and it is cheaper to produce those products that buying from other suppliers.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

The opportunity that I have identified is to create good quality homemade baked goods and sell them at an affordable price. Moreover, these products are going to be delivered and in this way, customers do not have to go anywhere. The potential customer to consume my product are people that are looking for homemade flavor, but they do not have knowledge, skills, or time to make these products. Based on the previews assignment the majority of the audience that I will target are families with children around the age of 2-16-year-old, but even this is the main target the audience can vary since young couples or students are interested too. The need for my product address the lack of good quality baked goods, usually, people buy baked products in retail stores and these products do not deliver the homemade flavor that people are looking for, or maybe the products are not as fresh as they promise to be. Therefore, my product will solve this need since they would have homemade flavor and freshness, non of my product will be frozen or preserved. The product can be for the family to enjoy a sweet over the weekend, snacks, or even take it to an especial event. I am offering my product and the delivery services in the area of Orlando, Fl.

Even that a lot of people are loyal to big recognized bakeries such as public bakery people are looking for better-baked products and this is the opportunity to make my product shine. Moreover, due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, people are avoiding going out, so our delivery is convenient in this situation. This opportunity will be always open for people that want to consume fresh homemade baked goods, or if they need to take any baked goods to an especial event.

Innovation

Many people may think that my idea does not have any innovation, but the reality is that the innovation is in the recipes that I have been developing throughout the years and this is what makes my product different from others. This journey has not been easy because baking is a lot about try and failure and I have to say that I have a lot of failures developing my recipes, but I was able to successfully creating the recipes for different products such as brownies, cakes, cupcakes, cookies and different kind of bread.  

One of my favorite thing to bake are cookies I actually consider myself a cookies monster because cookies are the best dessert ever especially if they are homemade. I have to say that this is one of the recipes that was hard to create and modify. I bake different kinds of cookies such as birthday cake cookies, sprinkle cookies, cinnamon cookies, lemon cookies, salted caramel cookies, and my favorite want chocolate chips cookies. All these cookies are chewy in the inside and crunchy on the outside. Each cookies weight 120 g and they are going to sell 2.25$ each cookie or dozen cookies for 25$. My brownies are characterized to be extra fudge and top with homemade Nutella each brownie will cost 2 $. 

My cakes are characterized because the texture is fluffy and moist. Also, I offer a different kind of flavor and all cakes have a frosting. Customers can buy a slide of cake for 2.50$ or you can buy all cake the price will vary in how big the customer wants the cake. Cupcakes are also fluffy and moist with frosting on the top. The size of the cupcakes are regular and the prices of the cupcakes vary between 1.25-3 $ depending on the flavor and toppings of the cupcake. A dozen cupcakes can vary between 8-15$ depending on the flavor of the cupcakes. 

Venture Concept

The recipes that I created in the past will help me to bake good quality homemade products and this will be useful for people that are looking for fresh products with a good flavor. Moreover, the delivery service is something that is appealing to a lot of people since they do not have to go anywhere. The hard part to make customers switch will be the big competition that is in this field because sometimes people prefer to buy in some store that they already know even if the products are not what they want. After intervening a lot of people I realized that one of my biggest competition is Publix bakery because apparently is one of the best retail stores when it comes to baked products. However, these products are not as fresh or have the same flavor as homemade products. Moreover, the majority of these products are frozen and have a lot of additives to preserve the products. This gives me an advantage because my products do deliver good flavor, texture, and freshness. The products that I baked are not frozen and they don't contain additives. The prices are pretty much the same, so people will get a better product for the same price.

At the beginning of this bussiness, we would be a team of 5 people. Two people are going to in charge of the cakes, cupcakes and cake decoration. 1 person is going to take care of social media, website, taking the orders of the customers, and the delivery services. The other 2 will be in charge of baking the other products.

The three minor elements

The most important resource for my business the recipes that I have created over the years and the experience that my team and I have in the baking field.

The next opportunity that I would like to tackle with my current idea will be to have a physical location where I can have a bigger kitchen to bake large quantities of different products.

For me, it will be a dream to have this venue. I would like to create more recipes, but these products will be healthy options for people with diabetes or maybe some kind of allergies.