What's Next

Existing Market

1. I think my next steep should be going into catering and making larger orders, so large orders of cupcakes or cakes for parties such as birthdays and weddings. I think this should be my next step so for any occasion, my customers can enjoy my sweets. I also think this will allow me to broaden my customer intake because now people can order my product for larger venues, this will help ensure customer loyalty.
2. I went back to my pre-existing customers and asked them what they thought should be my company's next move. I also asked them what they thought of my current next step of action and how they would react to such additions.

3. I think the next best step of action would be to actually offer cooking classes. I thought this was a great idea that one of the people I interviewed had and I think it could really broaden my market. This would be a very doable next step of action as it would require very little finance to help start it. This would help broaden my market because now any age would become more interested. A lot of people find cooking classes very fun and a good activity to do. This would make it the perfect addition to draw in more customers as people that like to cook, or have no idea how to cook, all enjoy learning new ways to bake yummy things.

New Market

1. Before I was targeting those with dietary restrictions, or those who had close friends and family that were restricted by what they could eat. I now decided to venture into the market in which people are not at all affected by these restrictions to see what I could do to draw their attention.

2. I think the first and most obvious thing I could do to add value to my business from this market would be to add products that are "normal," or, in other words, aren't different in ways of dietary restrictions. However, because my company's mission is to not just provide a bakery for those with dietary restrictions, but to also ensure that we pay attention and bring value to the quality ingredients we use, these "normal" goods would still be made with only high-quality ingredients. 

3. I interviewed people in the new market that I named in step 1 and asked them what they thought my next step would be. Some gave answers that would expand my current range that had to do with dietary restrictions, others agreed with me and said I should add these "normal" foods to my menu.

4. What surprised me the most by these new market interviews was how many of them actually gave answers that stayed "within the lines" of my current market and business. None of these answers were too out there or too new. I had guessed, as I said above, that at least one person would say to add the "normal" food to the menu, but I didn't think that so many answers would stay on the current line of vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free. I expected to here more answers about adding "normal" food, or maybe drinks (like smoothies) to my menu because I thought they as people not affected by these diets, they would see my bakery as more of a health shop than a place just for people to go and grab a quick sweet. I was surprised that many of these new customers really understood right away though that this wasn't just a health shop because we served vegan food or so on.

I obviously expected to hear a lot about adding the "regular" food to my menu. The only problem with doing so is how to do this in reality. It worries me to add too many diets to my menu because of the behind-the-scenes reality of keeping all of these dishes separate. I already thought I would have a hard time in keeping just the three diets separate in the kitchen, I'm not sure how much more it could handle. We would definitely have to have a very big kitchen in order to do so, or at least, a lot of storage for all the separate dish-ware we'd have to have on hand. 

This new market is not too attractive now interviewing three people. I thought it would be so easy to gain the attention of people without dietary restrictions and that they'd be open to trying new things. However, it doesn't sound like they really would be open to trying these different baked goods. Even those that said I should expand on my current range didn't seem to actually be interested in this food themselves, they seemed to be making this suggestion on the behalf of those with these restrictions. 

Week 12 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me the most in this reading was a lot of the reasons for lack of strategic planning have. The author states that one of these reasons is the lack of knowledge from the entrepreneurs, as well as the lack of expertise and skills. He says that entrepreneurs are usually generalists. Together these two facts surprised me because my perception was always that that's exactly the opposite of what entrepreneurs of, and this thought had always justified why I wasn't, or couldn't be, an entrepreneur. I thought entrepreneurs always were knowledgable in the field they were going into and of its market. I thought that what made entrepreneurs so successful and unique was their knack to take the general issues into a very detailed and specific solution. I also thought that this fact played into their open-mindedness, because they were so open to new ideas and beings, they always were one step ahead in thinking of the next best and helpful thing.
One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the short subsection about strategic positioning and the entrepreneurial edge. I wasn't sure if the author was trying to say that entrepreneurs don't come up with new ideas, but rather reinvent old ones, or if he was saying this was the case sometimes, or if he was just stating the fact that this is a good position to be in due to the fact that the exiting idea already exists and is successful and by making it better this can only confirm your inevitable success.
One question that I thought of during the section on the strategy matrix was how to you determine the "innovation" level and "risk" level. I found this theory very interesting and beneficial, and though the author defined these two terms in their relation to the matrix, I'm not sure if I quite understood how these characteristics are determined. How do you know if something has "high innovation" value or "low innovation" value? Is it just based off of how new and original the idea is? My second question has to do with the section on the entrepreneurial mindset and the author's goal in this section. Was he trying to point out how you can hear off the track of an entrepreneur and how to stay weary of that? And why is this a bad thing? Why should you not find a steady middle as a manager and entrepreneur? This way you can manage all the new ideas you have and see their potential all the way through.
In this same section is probably where I disagreed with the author most. I think that there should be a happy middle as an entrepreneur and manager. By finding this equal balance, you will be creative an innovative enough to continue growing and changing so that your company or brand doesn't dull and slowly fade away, while also not going to far outside the box for something that the public wouldn't be interested in and also an idea that could bankrupt your company. By finding this middle ground I believe this would ensure the success of your business, rather than lead to its downfall.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity
I believe the unmet needs for my customers is rather numerous. One of their unmet needs is the need for certain foods and ingredients. Another need of theirs is happiness, the joys that only a sweet treat can bring. I also believe an unmet need for my customers goes beyond just the food and what's in it, but also includes their social affairs. Dietary restrictions don't just restrict what foods they can or cannot eat, but also the places they can go and the people they can be with. In all cultures across the world, there is some form of bonding over meals. This is a time to relax, unwind and enjoy the company of your loved ones (loved ones being anyone from friends to family to colleagues). The changes in the environment that have created this opportunity is a mixture of things. One may be a evolutionary change in which more and more people have started to form allergies to certain ingredients, such as gluten. This may be a result of the shocking amount of processed chemicals that are more and more commonly being used in foods, specifically in the U.S. Another environmental change that has created my opportunity is a growing awareness of what people are putting in their bodies. Many more people are starting to take the quality of their food into consideration before eating. I think this also is due to the outrageous amount of chemicals being used in U.S. food market, and with more studies showing the harmful effects of these products, people are taking action.
People are just now reaching out and changing their routines to satisfy this need. This means that this is a growing market with lots of potential as it's fairly new and everyone is still trying to figure out which solution works best. This recent founding of this market means there is a lot of growth to come, which means big opportunity to those that jump on this ever-growing fad now.
I believe the window of opportunity for this market will be rather long as it keeps changing and new discoveries continue to be made. Though you might have to quickly jump into this market to ensure the unmet loyalty of this demographic now, I believe even if you miss this window, new loyalties can be made as opinions and knowledge keeps changing.

Innovation
I'm going to be selling bakery goods, this means foods such as cupcakes, sweet bread (like banana and blubbery), muffins, etc. The different between your normal cupcake and mine will be what's in it, ingredients wise. I will have three different styles of similar foods, so a vegan cupcake, a gluten-free cupcake and a sugar-free cupcake. So the vegan cupcake wouldn't have any eggs or milk in it and the gluten-free cupcake wouldn't have flour and so on. What this innovation will do is two things; one, it will create a sweet-shop for those that need these certain foods and, two, it will be bring together a variety of different dietary restrictions together under one roof so that this is no longer a "speciality" shop or food. I would be selling my baked goods at different prices depending on the product. A cupcake or muffin would probably be about $3 or $4, while a loaf of banana bread would probably be closer to $8 or $10. The price would also take into account which diet it followed. Gluten-free would probably be the most expensive so that price might be a dollar more than that of the other foods.

Venture Concept
I don't think for my particular product it's so much as "switching" as a searching. Because this is such a new market and so little currently exist and people are still trying to figure out the best fit for them in these new dietary lifestyles, there's a constant searching for what is better (tastier) and easier (more convenient). This is why I think my business will be so successful in giving this demographic what they want as the "sweets" for these diets are still being discovered through new ways of making them taste as "normal" as possible. My business will also be convenient as no longer will my customers have to search for the perfect recipe that maintains their dietary needs and then take the time to shop and bake these goods, rather they can easily divulge their sweet tooth with one quick stop to my shop. My competitors are other small restaurants that serve to similar diets as myself, this can range from the savory for dinners and lunches, to other sweet shops such as Karma Cream (a local restaurant in Gainesville that serves vegan ice cream and some other vegan foods). I think these competitors weakness when compared to mine is two things; one, there's very few speciality in which the shop is just a bakery, and two, mine would be one of the first to serve multiple dietary needs, rather than focusing just on one which is how almost all of the restaurants that currently exist are.
I think specifically the location would play into my business concept because if there are other shops already like mine that exist, there are almost none in Gainesville, or at least close to campus. My shop would be in the immediate surrounding area to UF's campus, most likely in the area of  University, 13th, or Archer. To start off with, my business would have very few employees. There would be someone to act as a manager/business/financial advisor, one or two bakers, and one or two cashiers that would also do any necessary bus work. This would total to about five employees for one location.

Minor Elements
My company's secret sauce will be our diverse menu in the fact that it serves so many common dietary needs.
My next goal for my company would be to bring in either more sweet goods that they could buy (that would fall under the existing diets we serve), spreading out into more dietary restrictions, or teaching baking classes.
I think the best way I can describe where I see my venture in five or ten years would be something similar to Sprinkles Cupcakes, a well-known specialty cupcake shop that I believe started in New York and has now spread across the nation with multiple locations. I want my business to become sort-of a franchise so that everyone no matter where they live can enjoy their favorite baked goods no matter what they're diets consist of, but I also want to make sure my bakery maintains a homey feel to it because that's how I imagine a bakery should feel. I believe this type of warm and welcoming setting for a bakery will succeed the most in accordance to customers' desires.
This first shop will help me as an entrepreneur because it will have started in Gainesville, a college-town is the perfect place to start a new business as you can get the most feedback and more people are more open-minded in the areas. I believe this opportunity will allow me to grow and learn the most to perfect and polish my business to be the most successful it can be.