Independent Component 2

1. 3/16: Paul Frank cake- 5 hrs. 3/19: Cupcake pops, mini cupcakes, cake balls- 7 hrs. 4/1: Boxing cake- 3 hrs. 4/19: Sesame Street cupcakes- 3 hrs. 4/24: Cake pops- 2 hrs. Total: 20 hrs. Remaining hours done with service learning- Saturday's 8am-12pm.

3. LIA:
Literal
(a) I, Amy Gracia, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) I baked and decorated cakes and cupcakes for birthdays. I tried something new which was making cake pops, mini cupcakes and small cake balls. I also put them together and organized them in a decorative way.

Interpretive
The overall process of baking can be really precise. From the actual baking, to the decorating and display. When baking, the little details may be stressful, but they make a difference in the final product. For example, the mini cake balls is cake that I shaped into mini cupcakes. Figuring out how to shape them and cover them to look like cupcakes was a challenge. The Sesame cupcakes has different detail to make the characters come to life as much as possible. All this detailing took extra effort and time.

Applied

Each time I bake I go through trial and error. I learn what works, what doesn't work, a better way of doing something. The more you practice something the better you are going to get. This has helped me further define what a quality product is. In addition, I realized how important consistency is. Each time you make something you need to be able to do it the same way next time. This is the only way to know how to improve your product, by knowing what you did and what you need to change.

Independent Component 2 Update

(1) What are you doing to fulfill the 30 hour requirement for this component?
I am continuing with my service learning, and baking.

(2) What are you currently working on? How many hours have you completed?
I go to the bakery every week and bake when I have enough free time. Not including service learning, I have about 12 hours of baking.

(3) So far, how is it helping you with your essential question?
At service learning, I have been "moving up", which means I'm getting a chance to experience the different jobs at the bakery. This helps me learn the operation of a bakery business. My baking experiences has been trial and error, and this is helping me find out what it takes to produce a "quality product" that not only looks good, but tastes good too. I'm starting to become more familiar with the ingredients and tools that I use, and am asking "why did this happen?" when something goes wrong.

Creative Expression

1. What type of art could you study to help improve your understanding of your senior project topic?
Baking in itself is a form of art. I could chose one ingredient, (lets say chocolate), and find all the different ways it can be used when baking (which there are tons). Because the art in baking usually comes from what you produce in the end, which has endless possibilities.


2. Give me ideas of what you could do or make for a creative expression presentation.
I could make an artistic display of products that I make. It could be a store front display, or an arrangement of my products, or the most appealing picture that can be used for advertising. 
I'm really not to sure what to do.------->Help!

The Product

     My product is a possible career choice. What I have learned so far has made me realize that I want to someday open and operate a bakery of my own. I want to make my bakery a friendly "family" environment similar to where I do my service learning. The employees have a relationship with many of the customers, which also attracts people. The reason I want to own my own bakery is because I can make all the creative decisions. I'm not just another employee doing my job. Don Bishop (owner), in my 2nd interview, said some of the employees don't have the same outlook on the business as he does, it is just a paying job to them. The way I see it, is if I had a bakery of my own, I wouldn't be another one of those employees. "If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life."
     Being owner would also allow me to know how to do every job. The manager at my service learning knows how to do every job, which I think is important. This allows him to work side by side with all of his employees, building a solid relationship with them. 

Fourth Interview Questions

1. What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company?
2. What do you think makes this bakery successful?
3. What kinds of things have changed since the bakery first opened?..the way you market. the way you make your product.
4. What makes your product a quality product?
5. What type of relationship do you have with your employees and how do you maintain it?
6. How do you keep your employees motivated? What are some of the things you try and do to keep them happy?
7. What advice would you give to someone who wants to run their own bakery?
8. What type of competition have you had to face? How did you handle it?
9. What kind of relationship do you have with your customers? How do you maintain it?
10. What do you do to attract new customers?
11. What time of year is the bast time for your bakery? Why do you think that is?
12. What time of year is the worst? What do you do to prepare for that?
13. What are your bakeries strengths and weaknesses?
14. How do you market your bakery/products? How do you know each method is effective?
15. What are some of your future business plans/goals? How do you plan to reach them?
16. What’s been your most successful strategy in building your business so far? 
17. What kinds of contracts do you have with people you work with now?
18. How has new technology affected your business?
19. How do you find employees to continue making your quality product?
20. How do you test new products? Do you get special requests by customers?

Independent Component 2

1) Discuss possible ideas you have to complete this requirement?
I will continue to do service learning and bake. I am also once again going to try finding a business class to take.
2) How will these idea(s) help answer your EQ?
Each time I bake a get a little more experience and practice of my own. It helps me see what each ingredient does and what makes a quality product. A business class will help me learn what it takes to run a business of my own. 

Final Draft

A. Introduction (1-2 min) 

1. My EQ "What is most important to running a successful bakery distribution company?"
2. Ask 3 people what they think are important factors of running a business. 
3. I chose to talk about the importance of location in running a bakery, because it has a great impact on the success of your business. Deciding on the perfect area is one of the first steps in starting your business.
4. My objective: After listening to my presentation, I want my audience to have a better understanding of what makes a good location for any type of business, specially for a bakery, and what factors can affect choosing a location.  I also want them to be able to determine what the best location in a given situation would be. 

B. Body (8-9 min)

1. 4 types of location 
• homebased 
• retail
• mobile
• commercial 
2. Factors to consider: Demographics
• affordable
• accessible
• pedestrian traffic and target audience-----> Collecting Data of area. 
• Primary and secondary
• parking
• location history
• competition
• business requirements and equipment needs
• distribution- market coverage 
3. Activity (6 min)
• Partners will be given different locations and they have to determine if it appears to be a good location. Then they have to answer what kinds of things would they need to know that they can't tell from the picture to determine if it really is a good location. Discuss each location as a class.

C. Conclusion (1 min)

1. Location, location, location! All work put into running the bakery may not matter if the location is not right. As you can tell with the activity, there is a lot you have to consider and pay attention to when choosing a location. You can't just look at a location and know it will be successful. 
2. Most important source- to be determined.
3. This semester I plan to bring together all of my business research with my baking research and make it apply better to my EQ.
4. Q&A

D. Materials 

1. 4-5 locations for 13 partners
2. Powerpoint: Projector.