So far, the goal for the semester has been to get my business’ name out there. I have been fairly successful, because a lot of people I don’t know have approached me and complimented my cookies or asked ” Are you the cookie man?”. However, more than anything I’m struggling operationally. I have not been able to be consistent with my hours of operations, I have failed to find a stable delivery person, and I have yet to find a commercial kitchen that will be worth the expense. I have just received the failure fund money, so there are a few goals I need to accomplish in the summer. 1) I will need to buy a Costco membership in order to experiment with variable expenses and flavors. 2) I will search for potential commercial kitchens in the area or find the means to make my own with the money I’m making from my internship. 3) I will work on licensing and getting incorporated towards the end of the summer, because I will not be selling until next semester. 4) I will run a statistical analysis on each cookie in order to determine the best steps in terms of marketing the cookie.
Month: May 2017
This week I’ve spent some time thinking about Dreamcatcher Cookies Operations. The biggest struggle has been delivering the cookies within a reasonable amount of time. It takes me 12 minutes to bake, about two minutes to package and put in a delivery bag, and it takes the delivery person 5-10 minutes to deliver. In order to reduce time, I want the cookies to be pre made, or I am also considering renting an office to make Dreamcatcher Cookies a coffee/cookie shop rather than a delivery business. However, the issue with that would be competing with Summit, a local business that already has a fairly good head start. Another problem is keeping track of expenses. I need to start tracking my expenses on an excel sheet more religiously.
Since no sales are made in the summer, I am working on some marketing tools in order to increase customer acquisition. The main focus right now is the logo. I want to have a logo that’s memorable and will make people feel like they’re eating cookies from back home, with a twist (the flavors are unique). I would prefer the logo to be cool colors since it is a nocturnal service, and because I want people to eat them and feel calm, collected, and ready to get back to studying. Within the next month, I will hire a graphic design company to make a logo and business cards for Dreamcatcher Cookies.
