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.  

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