Extra Post May: FINALE...Life, whats next?

This is the picture that did not show up on one of my slides. This is a piece that I designed and created on my own for a wedding fruit buffet table centerpiece. I loved making this because of the branch that was centered in the middle, it was a great focal point to place the roses around. I also added elegance by putting in the diamond pins. 

This picture (no lie) contains the most influential friends I had in my 2 years of iPoly, not to mention some of my best friends. I just want to give them a shout out, this is the only picture I have of proof for my senior project due to my stress. Thanks to each of you for helping me, even if it was to lower my nervousness or stress levels. I can not express my appreciation enough. I will miss seeing you all almost every day. 

I found this picture from 1800Flowers Twitter Page. I just thought it was perfect because I can graduate now, since I am done with my senior project! I am so excited to move on from high school and onto my dream university.

This is a baby goat that I would like to own one day. 

I am extremely excited for UCI. I never gave myself high hopes of accepting this institution as my dream, in case I would not get in. But (Alhamdulilah) I made it! 

People that have made this possible, whether it be motivation, love, or prayers: 

My Parents (first and foremost)- Ibrahim and Fariha Baggia

My Grandparents- Nani and Nana

My favorite teacher/Second Mother- Mrs. La Russa

My Counselor- Mr. Goode

My Friends- Aman Shamim, Justine Solorio, Marissa Jasso

Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

1. Positive Statement:

I am actually proud of many things:
I was extremely proud of overall pulling and executing my activity and presentation together. I was proud of how my activity with the flower arrangements resulted in students having amazing feedback. I am proud that I did a project that is relevant to my life and my family business. I am ultimately proud that I will be able to use this project and implement it into my life when I go on to college.

2. Questions to Consider:

A. I would give myself an AE for my block presentation.

B. I would give myself an AE for my overall senior project.

3. What worked for you in your senior project?

In my senior presentation-
My activity worked, which was actually initially my biggest concern. Teaching how to be a florist in 10 minutes is really hard, it took me 2 whole months and I am still not a master now. But luckily my class actually listened to my third answer and when it was time for the activity I walked around to help. My content lecture also worked, I provided debriefs and sources after each answer to bring all the ideas together. I also think students loved my memes/puns, it kept them engaged and since it was a morning presentation I needed something like that to wake my students up. Lastly, I placed students in season groups with their friends.

In my overall senior project-
The fact that I worked with my parents as my mentors, in a comfortable environment.

4. What did not work for you in your senior project?

In my senior presentation-
I think mostly everything worked, if I had feedback from my students on what did not work that would have been helpful.One picture did not show up on a slide.

In my senior project-
Deadlines did not work for me, but that's a "me" problem.

5. Finding Value

This senior project has been helpful in getting me a job. Starting in the summer, my parents will add me to their pay roll sheets and make me an official employee so I can start paying for college.
I do not need to work in the fast food industry, I finally have a skill that I can actually use in the workplace. Speaking of skills: customer service, employee management, floriology and marketing.
Even though my future major in college does not consist of business, after doing this project I want to do a minor in Business. With a minor in Business I will be able to start my own company and become a CEO (my dream career!).

Mentorship

LITERAL:

Hours have been completed.

Ibrahim Baggia, Sweet Fruit Arrangements 

INTERPRETIVE:

This senior project has been an amazing journey for me, I learned more about myself and my parents as my mentors. I was able to love the work I did especially designing and creating floral pieces. In the beginning of this project I wanted to do what I thought was right for me to do. But I ended up discovering something entirely different. I actually enjoy the long hours spent on the busiest holidays of the year; working with the smell of flowers is priceless. The most important thing I have gained from this experience is being better leader and employee, a more creative designer and more knowledgeable about the field I work in. My parents have also noticed my growth and offered me a part time owner-manager position for the summer and when I attend college.

APPLIED:

I was able to answer my Essential Question by working in the stores and doing research. At first research seems extremely overwhelming and worthless but it is super important. I actually enjoyed collecting my thoughts in the I-Search paper and writing about my research with it, it helped my project come together and overall make a lot more sense. My Essential Question is actually actively helping my parents and their business because as my mentors taught me, I also showed them what I discovered and what they overlooked about small business growth. 

Exit Interview

1) What is your Essential Question?

How can a fruit and flower shop owner-manager best grow her family business?
ANSWER 1: By organizing in-store operations such as the partnership with 1800Flowers and relationship with employees and drivers.
ANSWER 2: By creating an appealing social media presence to attract customers.
ANSWER 3: Our stores need to be unique by designing new arrangements or product lines.

Best Answer?
The processes that I took to arrive to this answer are working in the store and my research. While doing mentorship, I created my own designs for new floral pieces. The most interesting thing I came across through all my research was when John Brant said “You can’t teach creativity. You can learn how to cut a stem correctly, but that’s not going to make you a good designer.” This quote stays with me to this day because I know exactly what he means. All the employees we hire mean nothing if they are not able to be creative and outside of the box, just because you know the standards of making an arrangement look the same every time does not mean you are a professional floral designer. I started out as the stem-cutter with no idea how to create an arrangement or be creative, but as I researched more about our products I was able to do more than just sit around delegating tasks. I strongly believe that as an owner-manager like John Grant, I would need that creativity to increase our growth rate.
3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?

The problems I faced reaching this answer was how to thoroughly explain my combined research and personal experiences in writing. I had a general idea of uniqueness and product lines but wording it out was difficult since I am not the best writer. I resolved this by talking about it with my mentor who in return helped me articulate my speech onto paper.

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

Making our store unique by designing new arrangements or product lines, I believe this is my best answer because I noticed that in the fruit and flower industry there is a lot of competition and to beat this we have to be innovative. One example is Edible Arrangements, they just announced their Hello Kitty products which is a new and unique product that our store does not provide, we would need to create a better product.

4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
Lisa Gutierrez brought me into the lives of two co-owners of a flower shop, their words and experiences were inspiration.
Professors Keiko Ishihara, Ryo Nakagawa, Shigekazu Ishihara and Mitsuo Nagamachi had research that was simple enough for me to understand the basics of how to create a new floral arrangement.

1. Gutierrez, Lisa. "Business is Blooming: Florists Need Flowers, Creativity--and a Whole Lot of Muscle." Career World, a Weekly Reader Publication, 38.3 (2009): 11-15.
2. Ishihara, Keiko, Ryo Nakagawa, Shigekazu Ishihara, and Mitsuo Nagamachi. "An E-commerce Site for Gift Flower Arrangements That Fit Kansei and Social Manners." The TQM Journal, 20.4 (2008): 338-347.

Extra Post April: EQ Change/ SD Botanical Gardens

I decided to change my Essential Question when I started writing my Research Paper. I discovered that my research was not towards organizing the stores but was more leading towards growth in the stores. The Essential Question was originally: "How can a fruit and flower shop owner-manager best organize and grow her family business?" but now it is "How can a fruit and flower shop owner-manager best grow her family business?". I removed the word organize and created it my first answer.

EQ: How can a fruit and flower shop owner-manager best grow her family business?

ANSWER 1: By organizing in-store operations such as the partnership with 1800Flowers and relationship with employees and drivers.
ANSWER 2: Creating an appealing social media presence to attract customers.
ANSWER 3: Making our store unique by designing new arrangements or product lines.

My question and answers are approved by Mrs. La Russa.

Ever since I started working with our store and training to become a florist, I have discovered a fascination with flowers. My family and I went to the botanical garden at Balboa Park in San Diego over the weekend and I was just in awe at the different species of plants. Obviously, we cannot create arrangements with such delicate and expensive flowers but it helped me by giving me inspiration. I also noticed the displacement of the flowers at the park, which was very different from the way they are usually placed.

SD Botanical Garden Foundation

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Literal:
(A) I, Sara Baggia, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 36 hours of work.

(B) The online WIS Int. Course.

(C) Log is updated!

(D) I took an online course from where my mentor works, WIS Int. This course had no textbook because there were online slides and resources. I learned the 5 main roles of effective management: planning, organizing, leading, coaching and mentoring.

Interpretive:

I have a certificate of completion with signatures from the Vice Presidents as well as notes from the class. This component is significant for me to understand how to be a better manager.

Applied:

This component helped me answer my first answer to my new Essential Question, that is to organize the in-store operations. The only way to organize is by learning how to manage my employees first. This class gave me real examples and ideas on how I could start.

Extra Post March: NATURAL PRODUCTS EXPO

 

From March 6th through March 8th, I attended the Natural Foods Expo WEST with both of my mentors. This expo was an opportunity for our company to network with other companies. We found options for more efficient packaging and ways to wash our fruits using healthy and organic fruit wash. I was exposed to ways an owner-manager interacts with marketing reps and CEOs of other companies. At the Expo, there were Large Business such as Chobani and Fage but their were also Small Businesses like ours. I also observed how companies presented themselves to us when we approached their booth. Overall this was a great experience for me that I can take back to my research.

Here is what NPEW has to say about their event:

As an Expo West Exhibitor, you will:

• Meet in-person with buyers of natural, organic, and healthy lifestyle products
• Highlight new products and/or build brand awareness
• Network with the natural products community
• Keep up-to-date on new trends and innovative ideas
• Interact with trade and consumer press
• Boost your presence in the industry
• Strengthen relationships with existing buyers, brokers, and distributors
• Build new business connections

Blog 18: Fourth Interview Questions

Content: Post 20 Open Ended Questions to answer your EQ
 NOTE: These questions are similar to my Interview 3 questions, but they are specific to the flower shop only since I will interview the flower shop manager.

1.       Q: What are difficult aspects of working with flowers in general?

A: “

2.       Q: How do you organize your orders in the flower shop?

A: “

3.       Q: How do you distribute your orders to your employees in the flower shop?

A: “

4.       Q: How do you cope with stress during long hours?

A: “

5.       Q: How do you respond when an order has issues regarding your flower arrangements?

A: “

6.       Q: How do you distribute the flower orders to the drivers?

A: “

7.       Q: How do you organize flower orders in the fridge?

A: “

8.       Q: How does the bloomnet service affect work in your store?

A: “

9.       Q: How do you think Bloomnet could improve their service?

A: “

10.   Q: Are you unsatisfied with Bloomnet, if so, why?

A: “

11.   Q: What do you look for in an employee?

A: “

12.   Q: How did you memorize flower names?

A: “

13.   Q: How do you find out if an order is not in our system?

A: “

14.   Q: Do you expect that the flower store will expand in the next 5 years?

A: “

15.   Q: Where, do you believe would be the best place to expand the store?

A: “

16.   Q: How do you think we could expand our store?

A: “

17.   Q: Where do you believe would be the best location, why?

A: “

18.   Q: How are you preparing for Mother's Day?

A: “

19.   Q: What can you do to improve performance this Mother's Day?

A: “

20.   Q: What do you think is important in an owner-manager?

A: “

Blog 17: Answer 3

EQ: How can a fruit and flower owner-manager best organize and grow her family business?

Answer 3: Owner-manager needs to analyze all options for growth and assess how much growth is possible within the two stores.

3 Details:

• An Owner-Manager is essential to the business. This is why I have included this word in my EQ. Both of my mentors are owner-managers and they are the only ones  who know the business as if its their child and they can only determine its future.
• Growth is faster to achieve in a small business. Since our business is still small (25-50 employees) we are able to expand at a much faster projected rate.
• Growth needs to be assessed. Faster is not necessarily the best. Sometimes rapid change can cause many unidentified factors of destruction.

Kotter, John P. "Chapter 1." Accelerate. S.l.: Harvard Bus Review, 2014. N. pag. Print.

Eliadis, Dino. "Why Do So Many Small Businesses Struggle with Growth?." Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 24.2 (2013): 127.

Phillips, David. "Towards Relationship Management." Journal of Communication Management, 10.2 (2006): 211-226.

This is my last answer because the first two were mostly dealing with organization. This is the answer that corresponds with growth.

Extra Post February: BUSIEST DAY OF THE YEAR

 

 

VALENTINES DAY! This year we started sending out orders as early as February 8th and finished on February 17th. We had more than 1,000 orders. I made almost 50 flower arrangements. Above are just some pictures of our stores and the work I did.

Answer 2

1. What is your EQ?

How can a fruit and flower shop owner-manager best organize and grow her family business?

2. What is your first thesis sentence answer?

Ensure that both Sweet Fruit Arrangements and Sweet Flower Arrangements stores meet 1800Flowers expectations of ordering and delivering processes.

3. What is your second thesis sentence answer?

Employees should be hired and trained to meet 1800Flowers expectations on producing the arrangements.

4. List 3 reasons your answer is true with real world applications:

1. When the employee doesn't understand how to properly create an arrangement. An employee should be trained to be able to create a fruit and flower arrangement, its too difficult just to observe and start making the product, which could lead to many errors for new employees. This also entails understanding how to clean and cut the stems of the flowers and fruit.

2. When the employee doesn't understand how Bloomnet processes work. Bloomnet is the online wire by which we receive orders. I believe every employee should understand how to use Bloomnet online service so that when an order comes in last minute they are able to respond efficiently. Especially, when we receive messages through the wire for cancelations or adjustments, employees need to understand how to read them.

3. When the employee doesn't understand the kinds of arrangements and names of fruits and flowers used. 1800Flowers sends their own books with a huge variety of arrangements. These are the arrangements that a consumer choses from 1800Flowers.com. So when the customer orders the arrangement an employee would have to look through the book to find out how many flowers are in the arrangement, what container we are using, what it looks like, etc. One of the biggest parts of this job is remembering the many names of the flowers, fruits and arrangements.

5. What printed source best supports your answer?

Gitman, Lawrence J., and Carl D. McDaniel. ʺChapter 12.ʺ The Future of Business: The Essentials. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western, 2008. N. pag. Print

6. What other source supports your answer?

Gutierrez, Lisa. ʺBusiness is Blooming: Florists Need Flowers, Creativity--and a Whole Lot of Muscle.ʺ Career World, a Weekly Reader Publication, 38.3 (2009): 11-15.

7. Concluding Thoughts:

I drafted this answer while working in the store for my Independent Component 1 and my Interview 3 with my second mentor was also an inspiration. I have worked in the store as an employee for many years and now with this project I observe real world applications as stated above. My first answer was specifically related to order and delivery processes, now my second answer is specific to employees. The only way to organize and grow our business is to start from the bottom with the employees and work towards the top. If they don't function efficiently we will not be able to successful at organizing the business.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

Content:

The Independent Component 2 is an opportunity for you to add a dimension of creativity and/or an additional outlet for research.  The goal of the component is for you to explore your answers in more depth.  On Friday, April 24, 2014, you will be turning in the following to your blog to prove completion of this component:

·       Log of hours on an digital spreadsheet (with total number of hours included)
·       Evidence of the 30 hours of work     

For this blog post and approval, please answer the following questions.

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

 I will be attending an Online Management Course that is provided by my mentor's company WIS International. This course is given in not only his company but many other businesses. My mentors actually require me to take this course and there are many sets of classes and sections to this so that it will give me comfortably more than 30 hours required to pass Independent Component 2. I will take this course online on Mondays and Wednesdays because it works best with my iPoly and Cal Poly Courses schedule. I expect to finish by the due date which is April 24th.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

In order to receive an AE or E and to prove that I have taken this course for the next few weeks. I will take notes from the online textbook and use that as my main resource piece for the Independent Component 2 Blog Post. Along with having a notebook (which will be a physical copy of my work) I will also provide short reflections of each day I work on the online course. I will also have the certification of completion. This ensures three pieces of physical evidence. The final evidence is my Independent Component Blog Post. I will have meet more than expected.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.

My EQ wants me to discover (as an owner-manager), in depth of how to manage the stores. I currently cannot manage the store without having a class to know the basics. One of my mentors recommended this course because he has taken it and also provides it to his employees in the business. This course will help me discover my 3rd Thesis Answer in the future when I complete Independent Component Work. I will also be able to use the textbook as references for my research notebook. Finally, this course is benefitting me with answering my Essential Question, research notebook and references for my Senior Project Final Presentation in May.

4. Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.
DONE It is highlighted in Purple under Independent Component 2

Independent Component 1

LITERAL:

(A) I, Sara Baggia, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 36 hours of work.

(B) Sources that helped me with my independent component 1:

• "Plant Gift Guide - 1-800-FLOWERS.COM." Plant Gift Guide - 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. N.p., n.d. Web. 2015. http://www.1800flowers.com/plant-gift-guide?flws_rd=1.
• http://conversations.com/
• This website was useful because I was able to study their investment management and yearly reports. http://investor.1800flowers.com/
• Julie Mulligan Floral Lifestyle Blog http://www.1800flowers.com/blog/julie/
• This website taught me floral and plant care as well as useful handling tips. http://www.1800flowers.com/blog/

(C) Independent Component is pink section under Senior Project Hours Log.

(D) Explain what you did:

Throughout my SME senior project, I have focused more on the leadership aspect and in return neglected the most important aspects of the stores, which are the fruit and flowers which is now the highlight of my independent component!

I want to outline my independent component 1 to make it more clear to break down and explain:

1. Research: The basis of what I did was mostly my own research on how to design the fruit and flower arrangements. Whenever my mentor hires new employees, he has to make sure they have just the right amount of experience in floral and fruit design. Not too many years or too less months. Here is why. In order to be trained for 1800Flowers based arrangements, you have to be very flexible. You need to be able to adapt to different designs based on what the customers order. Keeping in mind, sometimes the customer orders with specific instructions. When I started my training for independent component, I worked with 2 women named Blanca and Maricela. I would say they are also part of my research. Most of my research as you can see above is from the 1800Flowers websites. I also have books that they provide for every season, which are posted below under "Interpretive". These books have pictures and instructions for each arrangement.
2. Studying: In order for you to be an owner-manager for a business you would need to understand what your employees are doing. In a fruit and flower shop business I discovered that this means studying the names of the flowers, plants and fruits. I spent many hours with flashcards trying to study those so that when it was time for me to make the arrangement I knew what the instructions were about, even without looking at the pictures. This also helps with time. I can not waste valuable time as an employee trying to figure out the names of our products. This also includes names of arrangements. On the wall of our flower shop, we basically have a mural of all the arrangements. But during crunch time we can not focus on trying to find them.
3. Fruit Design: Before my independent component, I was already an employee at the fruit shop. I already know the basics of fruit design and chocolate covered strawberries. During my independent component however, I feel like I have mastered this art to its full extent. I can now create any fruit arrangement. I still need to manage my time, an arrangement should take no longer than 30 minutes to create. This helps me understand my employees. By mastering this myself I am not only able to lend a hand anywhere its needed but I am also able to teach new hires.
4. Flower Design: I have never worked with flowers in my life. Surprisingly it is more difficult to work with flowers than it is to work with fruit. Since our flower shop is barely even 1 year old, this is my first time actually working with flowers. I had to read many blog posts from http://www.1800flowers.com/blog/ in order to learn the basics. I also had help from our two employees, Maricela and Blanca. They demonstrated, I learned, I made. I made a few arrangements which are posted below under "Interpretive". I picked some of the more difficult arrangements so that I could start strong. I am still trying to master the art of floral design.
5. Managing: Sometimes my mentors take a break and so they let me manage the store for a few hours. Managing the store is basically managing the employees and making sure the right arrangements are made ready for the drivers to deliver.

In summary, my independent component is  compilations of my individual contributions to the stores as well as my independent training of creating and designing the arrangements. I trained myself because I was already observing how to make it from my mentorship and my research helped quite a lot.

INTERPRETIVE:

Defend your work, explain significance, and provide evidence.

I created/designed these arrangements:



Blanca is demonstrating how to make a bow in slow-mo. This is the bow seen in the flower arrangement on right picture above.  

These are examples of the books that contain orders we have to create from 1800Flowers. These books give specific instructions like a cook book. I had to constantly use them for my reference when I practice. There are different books for each season. Right now we are using the one on the bottom left.

APPLIED:

Include examples to how your independent component helped you understand the foundation of your topic.

My project is Small Business Management and my Essential Question is "How can a fruit and flower shop owner-manager best organize and grow her family business?"

In order for me to understand how I can organize and grow our family business first I need to start from the bottom:

I need to relate with the employees. The only way I can do this is by working along side them and learning how to make the arrangements myself. That is why I focused this component on training myself.

I need to understand basic terminology. I worked on memorizing and learning the different names of the arrangements, flowers and fruits. I can not waste my time looking through pictures and pictures to find out what a word means.

I need to learn management skills on my own. What I discovered is that there are many management books I can read but unless I actually place myself in that position I will not be able to realize my strengths and weaknesses. I can relate to this because of my leadership in Robotics and Diversity clubs.

These 3 elements combined with my previous understanding of how our stores function helped me understand the foundation for my topic.

Extra Post January: VALENTINE PREP

ITS ALMOST VALENTINES DAY and oh how much I love prepping for the big week.
Valentine's Day or should I say week is the busiest for our stores.

What have we been doing?!

• Hiring Flower Designers
• Hiring Fruit Arrangement Designers
• Hiring Drivers
• Interviewing New Employees
• Training New Employees
• Pre-Ordering Fruits and Flowers
• Ordering a Refrigerated Truck
• Preparing Arrangement Books

Wish us luck as we prepare to bring smiles to lucky Valentines!

Lesson 2 Reflection

Content:

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

I am proud of finishing with having said everything I had to explain about my senior project. I am proud that my activity was fun and engaged the audience as well as reflecting my 1st thesis sentence answer.

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?
    AE       P          AP       CR       NC

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.

           I feel like I deserve this grade because I made all the P Requisites. I had a nice and visible EQ poster with a flower arrangement and chocolate covered strawberries. I had an engaging activity which was related to my project and mentorship and gave insights to the audience on what I do at my mentorship on a daily basis. I know my speech was fast paced but I asked for reflections and the audience said they could still understand what I was saying.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

My activity and prezi where on theme of time and it was presented in an organized manner so the audience could follow along.

4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?

Talk slowly and take a few breaks.

5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?

Improve relationship between owner-manager and employees.

EQ / First Answer

EQ: How can a fruit and flower shop owner-manager best organize and grow her family business?

A1: Organize in-store operations effeciency to meet 1800flower expectations by providing quality products, accurate order processing, timely deliveries, timely notifications of deliveries and proper communication.

Blog 12: Mentorship 10 Hours Check

Content:
1. Sweet Fruit Arrangements
2. Ibrahim Baggia (562) 746 1874
3. 88 hours
4. I had a constant routine at the stores. Every morning, I would help one of my mentors with setting up delivery routes and assigning deliveries. Then I would either work at Fruit shop or Flower shop. I would work small jobs either wrapping arrangements or designing arrangements, or simply washing fruits or flowers.

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

Content:

1. I was at my mentorship for most of my break, working with my mentors because Christmas and the Holidays are our biggest times of the year.

2. The most important thing I learned was how to assign deliveries and organize routes when our store was packed with orders coming in. I learned this while working at the shop with my mentors.

3. For a 10 Question Interview I would talk to another owner-manager in the fruit and flower business affiliated with 1800Flowers.