Extra Post September- Business is...Blooming?

September News:

Our flower shop has a system what's called a florist to florist interface where any florist can place an order in the system with a specific zip code and we distribute for that florist in the desired area. But, under our agreement with 1800flowers we are not allowed to take any orders under $45, because it would not be profitable for us.

This month, our company decided to end an agreement with a company called FromYouFlowers due to many ongoing reasons. FromYouFlowers provided 80% of our florists to florists interface orders. The reasons for this were:

• FromYouFlowers send special requests on their deliveries which causes management issues with delivery routes in our company.
• 50% of their orders were under $45. Even though we have an agreement with 1800flowers, we still receive these orders daily. There is a way to reject these orders within 2 hours of receiving them, after 2 hours there is a penalty of $10, after 24 hours there is a penalty of $20, and after 48 hours the penalty is the full price of the arrangement.

Everyday, our company needed to reject 50% of the orders. This resulted in a very unorganized way to manage business because there was no way to reject the orders under $45. It was a very difficult decision, but our companies could not come to agreements. We will have less sales but we think we will still be profitable without having this disruptor in our business.

This situation has brought some new obstacles to the flower shop, which means more work for my mentor which also means more for me to learn! We are currently working on training employees  who are at minimum wage to save money. We are only going to have one designer and the new hires will be given less hours.

Blog 6: Second Interview Preperation

1. Who is your mentor and where do they work?

My mentor is Ibrahim Baggia. He is the owner and CEO of Sweet Fruit Arrangements Incorporated. He also works as Director of Operations at WIS International. LinkedIn

2. What 5 questions will you ask them about their background?

• Why did you choose this career?
• What kind of majors did you consider?
• Why did you start this fruit arrangement business?
• What were your original plans on a business?
• How did you begin to open this shop?
• How did you market and compete with Edible Arrangements?
• What made you decide to merge with 1800 flowers?

Blog 5: Mentorship Reflection

1. Mentorship Question: Describe your experience in how you found your mentorship?

I had many different ideas for my mentorship. First, I contacted many biotechnology firms and labs because biotechnology is the major I want to pursue in college. I never received a solid reply due to liability issues because of my age, so I moved on. Then, I decided to do a topic related to Robotics, because it has become a significant part of my life. Finally, my other option was our family business, which opened another shop during the summer. I had to chose between two very important topics which I will work on anyways throughout this year. To save my parents from the hassle of driving me to mentorship, I chose our family business. Through this topic, I will also be able to lower my parents burden at the new shop. By researching and working close with my dad, I will not only learn more about business but help manage and grow our small shops.

2. Research Question: What has been the most important article you have read and why?

The most important research piece I have read is an online textbook called The Future of Business: The Essentials. This textbook outlines supply chain management, selling process, and definitions of important terms such as wholesalers and industrial distributors. This book also explains how 1800flowers works. I will continue to use this book for the next research check. I chose this book because I want to learn more about how products are ordered and sold and the terms used to explain these processes.

Extra Post August- Flower Shop is now complete!

Today I went to visit the shops for the first time after my summer mentorship hours. I never had the opportunity to tell the employees and drivers about my senior project so I was very excited to do so.

Here's the good news. Whenever you start a business, you start small. When the flower shop had its opening in the summer, we shared a facility with a computer repair service,  next to the fruit arrangement shop. Today the owners of the computer repair service moved out. Now we have an entire shop which provides extra room for the growing business.

The sort of bad news: We had a power outage which interferes with orders coming in through the wire. Basically, we receive orders through Bloomnet, a service by 1800flowers for online orders. Fortunately, I took care of the problem by restarting the computer screens, opening our accounts, and printing the orders. We also have a great employee (more like a sister to me), Mariel, who fixed the power outage by herself.

Our family's flower shop is a dream come true. Just imagining how many people receive smiles everyday by such a sweet gesture, is priceless. Plus they smell so wonderful!

P.S. I love to change things up a bit, so I will be changing the flower arrangement on the left side of this blog. All the flower arrangements are the ones we offer through the website.

 

Blog 4: Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

     I plan to interview my mentor, because this will help me get experience being the interviewer since I am comfortable talking to my mentor.

2. What additional questions do you plan to ask? What are open-ended questions?

• Why did you start this fruit arrangement business?
• What were your original plans on a business?
• How did you begin to open this shop?
• How did you market and compete with Edible Arrangements?
• What made you decide to merge with 1800 flowers?

Open-ended questions give the opportunity to have detailed answers instead of just a simple yes or no. This way we have more information from the interviewee.

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

1. TOPIC: Small Business Management

2. Question of focus for this month:
     What is the best way to effectively manage and grow a small business such as a fruit and flower shop?

3. WB on right hand side of Blog under 'Project Links'.
     Working Bibliography



Blog 2: Summer Mentorship Component

Literal
1. (Know) Summer Mentorship Log
2. Ibrahim Baggia (562) 746-1874 at Sweet Fruit Arrangements
   
3. (Need to Know) What questions were raised because of the 10 hours of experience?

• Do I really want to do Business as my Senior Project?
• How can I incorporate Robotics into my Senior Project?

Interpretive

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?
 

 The most important thing I gained from this experience is that starting and expanding a business is very difficult and requires patience. Since Sweet Fruit Arrangements is a small business, my mentor has many more responsibilities than a bigger business company. Another important aspect is organization and leadership. I worked with the owner and the manager; I realized that both had to take initiatives and be good leaders in order to have balance with the employees and drivers.

Applied

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did what you did help you choose a topic?  Please explain.

I'm deciding on changing my topic altogether. I want to do the topic: STEM involvement in a Charter School. My new mentor will be Mr. Malara at Rowland Heights Charter School. The reason why I want to change my entire topic is because I want to incorporate Robotics into my Senior Project for both convenience and interest.