Blog 23: Final Reflection

(1) Positive Statement
I am most proud of the audience and how well they interacted with me and my presentation because without their support it would've been really difficult.
(2) Questions to Consider

a. I would give myself an because my presentation ran smoothly and I gave all the requirements

AE       

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


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(3) What worked was all the help I got from my mentor to find my best answer

(4) (What didn't work) If I had a time machine I would've found my mentor early in the senior project process because it was difficult to find one.

(5) Finding Value

Senior project will help me in the future because it will help me with researching later in college and making sure I get good research.

Exit Interview

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

   

●     My first answer is  A successful cake decorator must be able to establish and maintain a well rounded relationship with their customer.

●     My second answer is cake decorators should create a great environment for their employees.

●     My third answer is cake decorators should Cake decorators should develop a pricing method to be above all the rest.

●     My best answer is cake decorators must be able to establish and maintain a well rounded relationship with their customer. Also fulfilling 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 my best answer is because it showed at most 10%  bump in their business according to an article published  by On top visibility Web Design &  Marketing titled “ Myths about customers relations”,relationships with customers 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 create a great work environment for their employees is not my best answer is because although it is important to not neglect your workers it wasnt as important as my first answer. As a cake decorator you must not only research on what customers  want but also incorporate what your customers want into your products. 

  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 customers number one. 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. 

Independent Component 2

Blog 19:  Independent Component 2 

Content:

LITERAL
(a) Statement saying: “I, Vincent Zepeda ,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 one of my mentors 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."

Blog 18 Interview 4 Preperation

1. What is the best way to create a decorative art themed wedding cake?
2.When you sculpt, is their any process you have that helps you with complicated sculpting projects?
3. When their is confusion with an order, what is the best way to solve the confusion?
4. What is the best part about doing a new order?
5. When you take an order, what do you usually talk about with the customer?
6. What is your mentality when cake decorating?
7. Do you personally think that improvisation is an important skill to have as a cake decorator and why?
8. How do you determine the price of a certain sculpt?
9. How do you keep up with all of the orders that you do?
10. What is most interesting about doing wedding cakes?
11. Have you ever had any orders where you had to improvise and why?
12. Do you think that simplicity can be a good thing or a bad thing? Why?
13. Why do you think that color is such an important factor in a cake order?
14. Have their been any instances where you had to do change what you were already doing on a cake order? What happened?
15. I have noticed that you put ribbon on the bottom of some of the cakes. Why is that?
16. When you cover a cake with fondant, what is the most important thing you make sure of?
17. Can you tell me one of the best experiences you have had when doing an order and why?
18. When you finish an order, what are some feelings when you give the cake to the customer and why?
19. Besides being able to sculpt, are their any other important skills that a cake decorator might find useful?
20. What is the best piece of advice you can give to an aspiring cake decorator?

Blog 17 Answer 3

Content:

• EQ: how best might a cake decorator fulfill customers expectations while maintains a viable business.
• Answer #3 : Cake decorators should develop a pricing method to be above all the rest.

• 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 16 Answer 2

1. My essential question is, “How best might a cake decorator fulfill customers expectations while maintaining a viable business?”
2. My first answer is, “A successful cake decorator must be able to establish and maintain a well rounded relationship with their customer.”
3. My second answer is, “A successful cake decorator should create a positive work environment for their employees.”
4. List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.
1. Organization establishes clear deadlines and goals.
1. A successful bakery is one that gives both great customer service and employee service.
2. Proper organization and delegation outlines what role each member plays in the staff.
1. In government, every level of senator and official and leader has a certain, specific job they must accomplish. One person can’t maintain government spending, deal with foreign affairs, handle internal scandals, and city infrastructure issues all at once, so the work is delegated.
3. Communication, especially when utilizing time and keeping up-to-date and constantly aware of dates, deadlines, and orders
1. When you have a group project, you always need people to communicate. Then, the group will know when meetings are, whether or not someone can make it to the meeting, what work needs to be done, and similar group project happenings.
5. "Business Resolutions to Create the Best Odds for Success in 2013: Part 1."
6. This with the help of my mentor helped me discover my second answer.
7. Discovering this second answer has brought me so much closer to finding my last and final answer which I'm kind of sad about.

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, Vincent Zepeda 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 along with customer relationship. 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 sitting in on consultations my mentor had with her clients. 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 arrange cakes into a great presentation layout for customers to admire.

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 piping and molding fondant. After I got my solid Essential Question I started focusing more on how the bakery that I attend, tends to their customers. I  also did some experiments by comparing our regular standard cupcake to our gourmet cupcakes, 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 (gourmet) 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.

Blog 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?

I am most proud of the fact that I got to hit my key points and I got to elaborate on them pretty well. I usually get really nervous and go over my points fast, but this time I didn't. Also that I made time. Phew.

2. a. What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation?
AE


b. I made time, I said a lot of information and I was loud and clear. Also i got a lot of positive feedback on how well I did on my presentation.

3. What worked for your Lessson 2?
The way I set up my presentation, I had the attention of the class the whole time and didn't drag on. Also my activity was very intriguing and hands on.

4. What didn't work?
Everything went smoothly there wasn't any error thank god!


5. What do you think your answer 2 will be? 
I think it will be more researched based. It will still be about building the bond with your customer because I firmly believe that without your customers you will get nowhere. 

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

Since school’s been out and I wasn't able to be at the shop all the time (due to vacations and other scheduling issues), I’ve mostly worked with the designers in cranking out cake creations from the content that has been submitted by our customers. I also was the lead store receptionist and also made all our icings for our products

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

I’d say the most important thing I learned is that you should always, always plan ahead. Since we took too much extra time completing special orders it was hard to produce for walk-ins.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers for your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

I would interview one of my mentors, either Darla or Sabrina. They would offer a perspective that I can relate to, and have the clarity of hindsight to add to their advice.