Blog 22: Senior Project Reflection

1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
I am most proud of presenting my answer 1 because I made 23 minutes of good quality research and I felt that it was very helpful towards my activity.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

    P         

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

      P+          

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

• What worked was all my presentations
• Mentorship
•  Research Articles
• Exit Interview 

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

• I would have not procrastinated on some assignments
• I Search Paper

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   
My senior project has provided me more experience on my future part time job as a cake decorator.
The ESA really helped me find out the credible websites in which I will use for my research papers at University of La Verne. 

Blog 21: Mentorship

Content:

LIA Response to blog:

    Literal

La Puente Bakery & Deli 

13734 Amar Road

La Puente, CA 91744

(626) 961-4545

Mentor: Ismael Cervantes

    Interpretive

     What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
The most important thing I gained from this experience,was that there is a broad range of things that pertain to cake decorating and that it is not just about the decorating skills. This is most important because it helped me expand on my answers and it helped me check and see if what I had researched in fact applied to the market in today;'s economy.

   Applied

     How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  

What i have done has helped answer my EQ by providing primary research to support a couple of my answers. I tested a couple of my answers with my mentorship, by applying and comparing what my research said to what I was actually doing throughout my experience. For example one of my answers applies to what drives customer demand and I tested that a few times by working the cash register and observing what items sold and identifying why they did. Another one of my answers was tested  by my independent component 1 in which I did extra mentorship hours and I compared the themed cupcakes with the plain cupcakes and I got to identify what was the target market for each product. What I found was that the Christmas themed cupcakes were mainly aimed to a younger customer as opposed to the plain cupcakes that were more affordable and made for adults to consume. 

Blog 20: Exit Interview

Content:

Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question and answers? What is your best answer and why?

   

●     My first answer is cake decorators should be original and creative to make profit in this economy.

●     My second answer is cake decorators should determine what drives customer demand.

●     My third answer is cake decorators should incorporate gluten free products to address the needs of many customers.

●     My best answer is cake decorators should incorporate gluten free products to address all customers’ needs because in today’s economy you not only have to differentiate yourself from the markets competitors, but also fit what the customers want. The reason why  My first answer Cake decorators should be original and creative to make profit as a cake decorator is not my best answer is because it only showed at most 10%  bump in their business according to an article published  by On top visibility Web Design &  Marketing titled “ Myths about creativity”, creativity derives from expertise , meaning that extraneous expertise can hinder the creative flow , although someone may never get 100% original ideas because  it has seemingly  become impossible to do.  The reason why my second answer  stating that cake decorators should determine what drives customer demand is not my best answer is because although finding out what customers want is essential, as a cake decorator you must not only research on what customers  want but also incorporate what your customers want into your products. Customers determine what products you will sell, so that there is neither a surplus nor shortage of your product. Lastly, one should incorporate gluten-free products so that all customers’ needs are met. The main goal for gluten free products used to be for Celiacs that had to follow a special diet. A growing number of people are going gluten-free by choice rather than medical necessity.  This market will continue to expand and is anticipated to grow at 25% and produced $4.2 billion dollars in 2013 according to Market research company Packaged Facts. The reason for this market is to offer products that generally most bakeries do not offer and it allows the business to prosper.  Essentially incorporating gluten-free products is my best answer because it has been proven to show more potential in making profit in this economy.

  2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

    

●     The process I took to find my best answer involved finding my first and second answers. I found my first answer while reading a book that was meant for background on my senior topic titled Professional Cake Decorating by Garret Toba, it was a college textbook that included everything there is to know about cake decorating. What really hit me at first, was that it was constantly repeating that you needed to be creative to have a presentable cake and that it also had to be original.  Then I had my second interview with Jorge Renteria and he then confirmed that in fact to make profit in his business his cake decorators needed to make their products creative and original. His main point was that cakes that were creative were targeted towards kids and they made the most profit on those products. After my second interview with Mr. Renteria I found that since La Puente Bakery #1 & #2 had a target market that was efficient, I started to look in on how to find a target market fit for your business and I came across an article by Alina Dizik titled 10 Questions to Ask before Determining Your Target Market. One of the questions that caught my eye was Who would pay for my product or service?, because it allowed me to look into that more and that meant looking for what drives customer to buy a product. At that time in Purther’s class we were learning about the concept of supply and demand and that is how I got to my second answer. My last answer came from thinking of ways to differentiate a business and I jotted down a list that included making custom cakes available to customers, Fondant cakes, Gluten Free, Vegan/ vegetarian.  And later I realized that gluten free products aren’t widely available a lot and I know because I was diagnosed with wheat allergy and I had still not found one gluten free bakery around La Puente.  So I started to look into the whole gluten free market and I found that not only was this product being purchased by people like me but also people who just want to be healthy, according to The NPD Research group one third of consumers were people who wanted to be healthy, maintain their weight, and just by choice rather than as a medical necessity. The University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center estimates that more than 3 million Americans — about one in 133 — have celiac disease meaning that the market isn’t driven by Celiacs. I later came across an article by Elaine Watson titled What’s the size of the Gluten Free Prize and it talked about the many researching companies that estimated what it is worth and they later found that Euro monitor Research group was the most accurate and pricing the market at $ 486.5 million and $285.1 million was from bakeries in 2013.  This is when I came into a conclusion that in fact incorporating gluten free products to address all customers’ needs is my best answer because it is 25% more expensive according to Packaged Facts and to make Gluten Free products is actually cheaper than the non-gluten free products because the products are made of rice. The market for these products is also fairly large and it is estimated to grow more. It also it kind of like a more specific thing a cake decorator should do to raise profits in their business. 

(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

     

●     A problem that I faced was during first semester was trying to find research. What I did to resolve this problem was go to the library and search for books about successful cake decorators and I came across a book written by Buddy Valastro titled Cake Boss and from that I remembered another famous cake Decorator Duff Goldman from Ace of Cakes and from those two books and looked into what steps they took to make their businesses so successful.

●     Another problem that I faced was that for my second presentation I had a lot of research and information to talk about and it could possibly go over the 30 minute time limit. What I did was try and condense my information by focusing on the quality research , so I looked through my PowerPoint and looked at the things I could go without saying and I decided to  exclude  mentioning some of the prior experience I had before doing my senior project.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

     

●     One of my most significant sources was Professional Cake decorating by Garret Toba a book that I had mentioned early which helped me get my first answer and it also helped me fix my essential question into focusing it on a business perspective rather than solely on the specific skills and techniques.  It also helped me out with my independent component 1 with my mentor Ismael Cervantes in which I did extra mentorship hours and what I did was compare the products that were original and creative to the regular ones and I calculated the differences in profits amongst the 2 categories. Throughout the independent component I kept on referencing to the sections were it taught you different unique piping techniques that I could use. 

●     .Another significant source was my mentor Ismael Cervantes because he has a lot of knowledge in the field because he has worked as a cake decorator for over 32 years because he began to work in the field at age 14. He helped me out with any questions that I had with my senior project and whenever I would find research on my answers I would first confirm if it in fact applied to the industry before I would identify it as support for my answers. 

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Content: 

LITERAL
(a) Statement saying: “I, Luz Cervantes , affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component

• "How to Prepare Your Business Plan." United Nations. United Nations, 2002. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
(d) Explanation of what you completed.  
What I did for independent component two was test out a possible answer for my Essential Question. The answer and main focus was on making a business plan as shown below. I made it 13 pages and followed the regulations for a business plan in the United Nations. I had to research all of the information included as well as asked my mentor for further information on the business.
INTERPRETIVE  
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 
This component helped me answer my EQ because it taught me that a Business plan is essential to make profit in this economy.  It's mainly more about the work and research that is put into it that's makes your Business successful. It showed me that the target marketing section is very important and it proved that it's a good answer for my EQ. As well as the marketing strategy section led me to my 4th answer which is "cake decorators should design a marketing strategy that will help create a positive demand in order to make profit in today's economy."

Extra Blog: Mentorship

Lately throughout my mentorship I have noticed how customer flow fluctuates quite a bit. That made me think about different ways that a business can improve.

• Study customer traffic flow
• Direct traffic to your products
• Direct traffic throughout your store
  

Blog 18: Third Answer

Content:

Just like you did for answer 1 and 2 post your:

• EQ: What is most important in making profit as a cake decorator in today's economy?
• Answer #3 : Cake decorators should create a postive work environment for their employees.
• 3 details to support the answer:
• It shows that you care about your employees, boosts morale, and encourages them to do better.
• The idea here is to give as much freedom to employees as possible so as to empower them to work how they want to. 
• It automatically makes working much more easier and effective for everyone, from the top of the organization to the bottom.

• The research source (s) to support your details and answer:

•  Jackson, Emma. "Tips on Creating an Healthy, Efficient and Positive Work EnvironmentSmart Business Trends." Smart Business Trends. Smartbusinesstrends, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://smartbusinesstrends.com/tips-creating-healthy-efficient-positive-work-environment/>.

• "10 Ways You Can Start Creating a Positive Work Environment." Marygrove College, 12 June 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://onlinegrad.marygrove.edu/blog/bid/148228/10-Ways-You-Can-Start-Creating-a-Positive-Work-Environment>.

• Smith, Jacquelyn. "How To Create An Authentic And Transparent Work Environment." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 04 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/10/04/how-to-create-an-authentic-and-transparent-work-environment/>.

• Concluding Sentence: Cake decoraters should create a positive work environment, so that their job is more efficient and easier. 

Blog 17: Fourth Interview

Content :
1. What is most important in making profit as a cake decorator?
2. What do you think drives customer demand in a bakery?
3. What benifits do you get from advertising?
4. How does originality tie into your business?
5. What incentives do you give your employees?
6. Is there any special training you give to your employees?
7. How would you differentiate yourself from other competitors?
8. How do you deal with peak seasons?
9. When do you get the most customers?
10. How do you accommodate a lot of customers going through?
11. What is your process for evaluating prices?
12. How do you price your cakes?
13. What is your method for organizing cake orders?
14. How does the work experience influence your employees?
15. What item or product do you feel makes the most profit?
16. What skills do you feel are important for a cake decorator?
17.  How do you feel about making custom cakes?
18. How much profit do you make off fondant cakes?
19. Would you rather price your cake by serving or the cake in general?
20. What was your main focus in your business plan?

February Extra

So throughout February I have just been focusing on researching possible answers and I composed this list with these sources : What Factors Drive Demand? by John London, How to Determine Demand for Your Product. by Ric, Economics Basics: Supply and Demand by Reem Heakal

Possible answers:

• Understand your primary customer base

• Articulate your cake-decorating business’s peak seasons. You should be able to accommodate the demand of your product and services for customers around peak seasons,

• Articulate your cake-decorating business’s peak seasons. You should be able to accommodate the demand of your product and services for customers around peak seasons,

• Provide employees with a comfortable environment with competitive benefits and salary.

• offer employees regular trainings to hone in on skills and keep your business competitive with other similar cake-decorating businesses

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

Content:

EQ : What is most important in making profit as a Cake Decorator in today's economy?

Answer #2: Cake decorators should determine what drives customer demand. 

3 details to support the answer (a detail is a fact and an example):

1. Should make a survey of all potential clients to figure out what your customers want, for example you may ask if they prefer a mocha cake over a marble cake. As well as what they usually get at other bakeries that they go to. 
2. You should make a product that has repeat customers because it is easier to retain present customers than to look for new customers. For example, if you as the cake decorator see that your Oreo cake slice is selling a lot you should either elaborate more on the concept so that their is more of a variety for the product that is in demand.
3. finding out how you differentiate yourself from the other competitors in the industry. For example you may say that you are a bakery that offers cakes that are original and have a distinct flavor that no one can replicate.
   
   

The research source (s) to support your details and answer:  

• Source 22: Economics Basics: Supply and Demand by Reem Heakal
• Source 23: How to Determine Demand for Your Product by Ric
• Source 24: What Factors Drive Demand? by John London

Concluding Sentence:
In today's economy determining what drives customer demand allows cake decorators to make profit because it helps them figure out the products that will make profit and which products should be considered.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Content:

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
I plan on creating a business plan for the bakery that I mentor at. I will also do research on pricing cakes and start pricing cakes at the bakery and figure out if it is a profitable price. I will do that by calculating the amount of materials and ingredients the cake contains in a spreadsheet.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
I will log my hours and take pictures. I will also have a typed business plan and a spreadsheet on the data I collected from the ingredients put into each cake.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.
This will help me by identifying if having a business plan is essential to be a profitable cake decorator. As well as if making a spreadsheet and calculating the probable profit on each cake is important in todays economy.

4.  Post a log on the right hand side of your blog near your other logs and call it the independent component 2 log.

Blog 14 : Independent Component 1

Content: 

LITERAL

(a) Statement saying: “I, Luz E. Cervantes, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component

"Cake Boss" by Buddy Valastro really helped me with my independent component because it helped me evaluate what factor pertain to his success in making a mass amount of profit as a cake decorator in today's economy. It also helped give me ideas of experiments that I could try out in my mentorship to identify what is most important in a small business. 

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.

( its under "Links")

(d) Explanation of what you completed.   
Throughout my independent I helped out with decorating a lot of cakes and designing quite a few on paper. I also helped with attending customers and trying to memorize all the prices of the products to see how much profit the business earned. I also started looking into what materials where  put into making the cake and how much it cost, then i estimated how much it could be priced according to the articles I had read. I also helped rearrange the cakes and bread products so the customers could see the products better and it helped with the overall presentation. 

INTERPRETIVE

Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.

In the beginning of my Independent Component I just started doing basic stuff like Practicing shells and all the basic cake decorating techniques. After I got my solid Essential Question I started focusing more on how  the bakery that I go to makes profit. I did some experiments by comparing plain cupcakes and the "creative" cupcakes and what I found , was that the cupcakes that had a theme or some type of design were priced more than the plain ones. In the end I noticed that the cupcakes that looked like there was more effort put into them sold more than those that had no design. I also noticed that when a small child would walk by and see them they would ask their parents and what I found was that these cupcakes were mainly aimed to a younger customer base.  I also helped design some cakes, that are displayed below and I helped decorate them a bit. At times I had to be by the register and speak with customers and focus on prices of products.

 

APPLIED

How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.

The component helped me understand the foundation of my topic because at first I had thought about the skills, but it never came to mind that there was so much more into it. For example, I had never paid attention that the presentation is key to making a customer happy with your cake or product.  Also the more original you are, the more people are willing to pay a little extra for that item. For example the Christmas cupcakes as shown above compared to the plain cupcakes which were cheaper.

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

Content:

1. Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
I think that I am most proud of how people reacted to my presentation because it seemed like they really liked to learn information about my topic.

2. Questions to Consider
       a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

           P +      
       b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
I think I deserve a P+ because I put a lot of time and effort into every aspect of my presentation. I feel that I did a really good job by making my EQ poster creative. I also felt that I gave more than 10 minutes worth of quality research to support my first answer.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
I think that the hook activity worked for me the most because it was my only chance to make a first impression and make people pay attention to what I was going to talk about.

4.  (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
I think the thing that didn't work as well as I thought was the cleanup and my PowerPoint was glitching on me. I could easily just save more time for cleanup and I could fix my  PowerPoint  settings.

5. Finding Value
What do you think your answer #2 is going to be? 
I think it would most likely be that Knowing how to price cakes  is most important in making profit as a cake decorator in today's economy.

January Extra Post

So for the month of January While in mentorship I would help out with the register, but the thing was that business was rather slower than other months. I also helped make cream puffs which I had no idea how to make. I also helped decorate a couple of cakes throughout the month. What I learned was that when there are no customers in your business, always occupy yourself with something productive.

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

Content:

Post 10 open-ended questions for approval you want to ask an expert in the field of your senior project.  The first question should be your essential question.

1. What is most important in making profit as a Cake Decorator in today's economy?
2. What do you think it takes to open a business?
3. What do you think is most important in making a business plan?
4. How important is creativity in your business?
5. Do you have any suggestions to any books i should look into that will help me learn more about cake decorating?
6. If I were to open a bakery, what cities would you recommend?
7. I have looked into many cake decorating skills, which ones do you think are essential?
8.  How can you calculate whether or not your business is making profit?
9. How do you determine the price for a certain cake you make?
10. What is your method into organizing cake orders?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 hours check

Content:

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
La Puente Bakery
2.   Who is your contact?
Jorge Renteria
3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?   
20 Hours
4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
In the 10 hours I helped decorate Christmas themed cupcakes and I observed that the more creative you are, it is most likely for you to sell and make profit.
5.   Email your house teacher the name of your contact and their phone number confirming who they should call to verify it.  

(626) 961-4545