Blog 24 Last Presentation Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

I am honestly most proud of the fact that I made thirty minutes of time, but content wise I really enjoyed my last activity, having everyone create they're own mini website based on they're own restaurant ideas, and how I was able to incorporate that in to my presentation. I think everyone had fun with the activity.


(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation?  Use the component contract to defend that assessment.

I would give myself a P I gave a nice amount of references to my mentor and I allowed space for my different sources along with that I had three solid answers and for my second answer I was able to incorporate it to a "real life example" by using a case study. 

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project? 

I would give myself a P. I did all that was asked of me I completed tbe components with an AE and completed my Mentorship hours over all. 

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

I think the research went amazing, I did a thorough search of all of my answers and provided statistics and details for my presentation. Other than that mentorship helped me out a lot with my first answer and my second answer. 

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project?

I would have most likely gotten a second mentorship so I could have a start up reference and another reference to my a full blown restaurant. It most likely would have gaven me more of a foundation, more room to compare and I would have had a better insight, but my interviews helped me make a comparison with that.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

Senior project has definitely made me feel a lot more confident speaking in front of people. Before I was just extremely nervous speaking in front of people even after four years at Ipoly but now, it's like, I talked for thirty minutes by myself in front of 33 people on a single topic based on one question. It is very fulfilling and makes me feel proud. It's a real confidence booster for when it comes to speaking and communicating this will definitely help me in things like interviews ir if in my future career requires me to create some sort of seminar or even for a college class. 

Blog 23- Exit Interview Prep

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

EQ: How can a manager ensure a successful start up restaurant? 

My three answers are business planning, location and advertisement. Through my extensive research I found that advertisement is the most essential thing to do when attempting to help your start up grow. Mainly because a starter up is something that isn't exactly well known and it needs attention, the people need to know that you exist and most people aren't really in to trying new things. So if you put your restaurant out there and show those new customers an amazing time, your bound to generate an amazing audience. 

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

My process included asking my mentor a lot of questions of how she got her catering company to kick off in the first place along with that I read a lot of articles and books that supported advertisement as a main source of generating consumers. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

Problems I faced would include finding really good sources, I would find some simple sources that supported my answers but they were usually never "blew my mind sources". I asked my mentor for some help since she did more researching on this than me. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why? 

These were the most significant ones because "Creating the successful business plan" included different sections of te business plan and advertisement is a section so it helped me come to the conclusion for my final answer. Same for the other source.

The two most significant sources:

The Future of Children by Princeton Bookings

"Creating the Successful Business Plan for New Ventures” create  a very strict explanation of a business plan (Hosmer, LaRue T, and Roger Guiles)

Blog 22- Independent Component 2

(a) “I, Michelle Villasenor, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work."

(b) Below is a link to a bibliography, my mentor also assisted me through the process: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DMCANjhxLJWG242G35v5UMuVuHtqf6R8z7NrqRmF-Jk/edit?usp=sharing

(c) Updated

(d) My independent component two is connected to my independent component one. In my independent component one I created a business plan for a restaurant I imagined called "Agent Vegan". In my independent component two I created a website made for that exact restaurant. My website is based on the original business plan fro Agent Vegan. In the website I placed the food options and wrote out description for each item, along with this I wrote out descriptions of the restaurant to "attract consumers". I also created a short thirty second commercial for Agent Vegan, I incorporated pictures, music and dialogue.

(e) Here is a link to the basic layout of what is on the website: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RFbJav8smQvK1zVQXAUvRaJGhqntkQ44kyaIopC4zwM

Here is a link to the created website: http://michellevilla101.wix.com/mysite 
 

Here is the mini commercial: https://youtu.be/Nx1jWjNQXUo

(f) My essential question is "How can a  manager ensure a successful start up restaurant?" well on of the things about a start up is that not many p eople know about it, it's new and it is up to the one in charge to drive in people. What better wayto drive in people than through commercials, and allowing web access to your consumers helps them decide whether they will like your restaurant or not. Many people nowadays just look online for reviews of new locations, it's important to keep a clean and convincing web page.

Here is a link to my hours log as well: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oHiF91gV31AEcXN9MwqqF6hh1O_JhJq1rmQbWmNjnxM

Blog 21- Interview 4 Reflection

 

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview? 

The most important thing I learned from the interview would be the definition of success. When I asked Maria to define success she gave me a very interesting answer and I will definitely use that for my lesson. She defined success as not completing a task or getting a perfect score, but as attempting to complete a goal to the vest of your ability, if the restaurant didn't take off, it's okay as long as you tried your very best you succeeded. 

2.  How will what I learned affect my final lesson?

It fits my essential question, "How can a manager ensure a successful startup restaurant?"  This sort of defines the term success for me. Other then that I got some more inside information in regards to how to handle people and the different ways in which the location affects the restaurant. 

Interview:
https://soundcloud.com/michelle-985280227/interview-4

Blog 20: Interview 4 Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this persons area of expertise? 

I'm planning on interviewing Enrique Kina, he is the owner of Pollos Kikiryki restraurant. 

2. Post 20 open ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ. 

1. What is your definition of success?

2. What would you say was your best source of advertisement when your restaurant was just starting out? 

3. When did you know that your restaurant was going to make it? 

4. How did you get more and more people interested in your restaurant? Or did you just let your food do the talking? 

5. How can a manger ensure a successful restaurant start up?

6. What was the most helpful segment from your business plan?

7. Would you say that your restaurant went relatively the same direction as your business plan?

8. Why did you choose this location? What factors contributed to your final location decision?

9. Did you do a lot of research on restaurant start ups before actually starting a restaurant?

10. Why did you choose this type of restaurant? Like the food concept?

11. Would you say your location has held your restaurant back or benefitted it?

12. If you were to open your restaurant in another location where would it be? Why?

13. Would you say your restaurant is at the level of success you want it to be at as of now?

14. Typically, do you spend a lot on advertisement for your reataurant?

15. Describe a perfect day in your restaurant.

16. What do you do to get some advertisement on a new dish?

17. In what ways has your restaurant succeeded?

18. Was your restaurant generally slow in the beginning? Or faster? Why do you think so? 

19. What were some tough parts of restaurant management?

20. Describe some milestones your restaurant has gone through. 

Blog 19: Third Answer

Technically it's my condescending question and I hope all three of my answers were adequate

• EQ: How can a manager ensure a successful start up restaurant? 
• In order for a manager to ensure a successful start up restaurant they must have a fully detailed business plan.

"Communication is one of the key purposes of a business plan." It makes it easier when you are receiving a new member in to your restaurant, you can show them the business plan so they can get the big idea about what your restaurant is about. And you can easily share your business plan with companies that are interested in investing and especially when you are choosing to apply for a loan. It gives places an idea of your companies financial plan. 

"Helping you to manage your business is another important purpose of a business plan." Your plan is essentially a goal set for even before you started your restaurant. It helps keep everything under control, if your actual sales don't match your sales set in your business plan you can get an idea of what you must work on. 

"Your business plan can continue to guide you through various stages of growth as your business progresses." You can look back at your business plan to look over what worked for your business at one point if things within the restaurant start going south. Sort of like a reference sheet.

Your business plan already gives you the ideas on how to reach out to your customers. Use these methods when sales aren't so great. Use the sales section of the business plan so you can determine which specific types of advertisement would be best for your business plan. Then continue with modifications as your restaurant begins to expand.

1) http://smallbusiness.chron.com/business-plan-important-small-business-2672.html

2) http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-purpose-business-plan-760.html
3) http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/83818

• A business plan is a pre-restaurant statement. It helps you set the goals for your restaurant. When your restaurant becomes a reality it will become important for you to reference back to the business plan to ensure you are keeping up with these goals to ensure success. 

Blog 18- Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

• How can a manager ensure a successful start up restaurant?

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• In order for a manager to ensure a successful start up restaurant they must market the restaurant using all forms of advertising, social media, word of mouth and billboards. 

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

• In order for a manager to ensure a successful start up restaurant they must choose the perfect location in accordance to the style of the restaurant. 

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

• Choose location according to the amount of parking available in the area: an example would be if some of your customers want to meet up at your restaurant but they are each taking different cars, that's only one table but five different parking spaces taken up meaning there won't be enough for other customers who might come in in the same car. It's not good to have an extremely limited parking capacity. 
• You have to take a look at the businesses around you. If there are restaurants with a similar style to yours closer than four miles, then that could mean to much competition, especially if you're a start up. 
• Making sure your location isn't too crowded by other establishments, you have to make sure that it stands out among the others. If it's hidden people wont be able to see your establishment. 

5.  What printed source best supports your answer?

• A start- up life and how the restaurant failed according to location

6.  What other source supports your answer?

• The Restaurant Book : The Definitive Guide to Starting Your Own Restaurant, there is a section that talks only about the factors that go in to choosing a location.

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

• When starting a restaurant business you need to ensure that the location is in accordance to the style of your restaurant. Consider if your restaurant is family or business oriented you might want to consider a vast parking are. Make sure you have little competition, so your restaurant stands out. Many small factors can contribute to the failure of a start up restaurant. 

Small note:
 "What is the most important factor element a manager must focus on to ensure a successful start up restaurant?" (I'm considering maybe changing my EQ to this that way it leads to one answer in specific as opposed to my original EQ which seems a bit more susceptible to multiple answers, I will set up a meeting soon) 

Blog 17- Interview 3 Reflction

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  

• The most important thing I learned from this interview are a managers point of view on the top steps to maintaining a successful restaurant. Which were, Positive attitude, listen to the customers and keep up to date with records. I feel like this part helped me come up with some more potential answers for my essential question. 

2.  How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?

• I feel like my questions were a bit more thorough this time around especially because ten questions is a lot, so I had to do some deep thinking in regards to which questions I should ask. I also feel like i have gotten more comfortable interviewing people. I don't feel as awkward as I did the first time and I enjoy listening to the answers and coming up with follow up questions or adding in my own bit of commentary. 

Link to interview:

https://soundcloud.com/michelle-985280227/interview-3

Blog 16: Independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
I plan on finding a more in depth understanding for my answer to my essential question, "How can a manager ensure a successful start-up restaurant?". Since my answer is advertisement I want to create a website for a restaurant based on the restaurant that I came up with in my business plan. Along with that I would like to create a commercial, also based on the business plan.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
The web page will be thoroughly examined and I will do my best to assure that all features work properly, I could take pictures of the progress I make each day, I will also work on the website when I'm with my mentor and she can sign off the hours that it took me to complete the website. As for the commercial I could include rough draft and final draft of the commercials script, and include rough cuts and other clips from recording dates.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
Since the answer for my EQ is advertisement, the website creation will help me understand the different colors and information that need to be on a restaurants web page in order to get the potential consumers attention. I would have to do a lot more research on restaurant blogs and web pages to see what they include. As for the commercial, it will help me come up with a creative way to connect with my consumers and get them to be interested in what I'm attempting to sell them.

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oHiF91gV31AEcXN9MwqqF6hh1O_JhJq1rmQbWmNjnxM/edit?usp=sharing

Independent Component 1

• LITERAL
  (a) I, Michelle Villasenor, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 31 hours of work.
  (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.
• There were actually multiple sources here is a link to all of them, they are in MLA format: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b6i0xJCTbaZ1WHIwErY_TWCt1u8GcCFeQFLchcrK7Bw/edit?usp=sharing 
• (d) I completed an entire business plan based on a restaurant concept of my choosing. I chose to use a vegan restaurant and named it "Agent Vegan" I made the business plan as legitimate as I could, I had to look fro averages when summing up costs for some materials but other than that the business plan is very legitimate. 
• Below is my business plan: 
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PQebk3rc3N3PhGQVga54f9P78WVTpgDLbjopkItAW1U/edit?usp=sharing
• Below is my mini reflection and title page with my resources:
• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I8cgwnIsYEnBuavLTXMvYnLB6c_jINoQcR1uKxQFf0A/edit?usp=sharing
• 
  
• INTERPRETIVE 
  I actually showed the log of the full 31 hours of work that I did and since I completed my business plan with my mentor I had her sign it as evidence. Below is my independent component log:
  
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oHiF91gV31AEcXN9MwqqF6hh1O_JhJq1rmQbWmNjnxM/edit?usp=sharing
• APPLIED
  This component helped me better understand the entire foundation of what it takes to run a restaurant. There were many different segments within the business plan from financials as in stating assets and payroll to what forms of advertisement are you going to use. I definitely received a way more in depth understanding of a restaurant start- up.

Lesson 2 Reflection

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

I was most proud of my answer, I feel very confident with the answer I chose fro my essential question, "How can a manager ensure a successful start-up restaurant?". I feel like advertisement was a good way to go and I was able to add in some funny advertisement pictures to get a couple of laughs. 

2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?

 P

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

I feel like I used appropriate volume and my hook was a bit entertaining and then I explained how the connected with my topic. I also gave two sources and used my mentor to explain an example. I also believe that my activity resonated well with the answer to my essential question, and my debrief worked well with the lesson in the activity. 

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?

My answer worked for me and my mentor and all of the sources that we have had to study over the past six months definitely helped me conclude my answer. I feel like my hooked worked relatively well too, I feel like it caught most of the viewers attention and I was able to do a proper debrief afterwards,

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

I feel as though my activity could have gone better, I I could turn back time I would have probably had more specific instructions and added a target audience along with the concept of the restaurant.

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

I feel like my answer two is going to be the business plan, my independent component is actually me creating a business plan and through the past few months of working on it, I've found a lot of relative importance in the whole creation process of the business plan. 

Blog 14: Third Interview Preparation: How can a manager ensure a successful start-up restaurant?

*Time to listen and find some answers* *The gif is from the movie The Interview and James Franco is in the middle of an interview* *heh*

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

I'm planning on Interviewing Enrique Kina, he is the owner of Pollos Kikiryki restaurant.

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview?

I still haven't set a date with the actual interviewee but I had asked one of my peers(who is the owners niece) if he would be okay with an interview and she said yes. Now I am planning on setting a date over the weekend.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

What is the most important quality a start up restaurant must have in order to ensure success?

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

Do you happen to know any other successful restaurant owners, any that might have helped you along your start up journey?

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 

1. When did you know that you're restaurant was going to make it?

2. How did you get more and more people interested in your restaurant? Did you do self advertisement? Or did you just let your food do the talking?

3. How can a manager ensure a successful start-up restaurant?

Blog 13: 10 Hour Mentorship Check in

1. Where are you doing your mentorship?

I am doing my mentorship with my aunt, Karina Reel usually in her home office. At times we do go out to observe different possible locations for her specific restaurant start up or we talk to some people who can help her perfect her personal recipe. 

2. Who is your contact? What makes this person an expert? 

My contact would be Karina Reel she has has the appropriate degrees to have a start up with business administration and finance major. She has also previously had her own catering company in the past. 

3. How many hours have you done during the school year? 

I have done a total of twenty-five hours of mentorship during the school year.

4. Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor work together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours? 

My mentor and I sometimes  go out and do some investigation on different restaurants/fast food places and right down the "do' and dont's". I also sometimes organize my mentors papers and she asks me to take a look at her final business plan we actually went through a couple of names, which was funny because we were so set on "Yummies" in the beginning but with time that changed. My mentor and I have gotten very close over the days that we have been working together, it's fun and interesting to brainstorm with her. I plan on continuing my work with her by this summer she will hopefully have her business up. 

Blog 12- Holiday Project Update

*Getting back to school, time to put my grr face on*

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?

I actually continued to work on my independent component during my "me times" when I wasn't spending time with my family. I got to finish up the executive summary part of my business plan although technically that is something that is saved for last, I already had a general idea of what I wanted in a restaurant, so I can just change up some parts as I continue on completing my business plan. I also got to spend some more time with my mentor, we had some brief talks about my business plan. 

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

The most important thing I learned is that time and structure is everything. I had actually started off my business plan thinking I was just going write about a simple Italian restaurant but then I started thinking more about perhaps making it a bit more new, something more challenging and I started thinking about a vegan only restaurant, I started thinking about the different costs since vegetables and other vegan dietary substances do actually cost more than pastas. I also started thinking about how many people are actually interested in vegan food, I want to be able to reach a broader range of customers. How can I convince other perhaps non-vegans to give my restaurant a try? Hopefully this will be more of a challenge and so far I'm having fun with it. 

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

I actually plan to talk to one of my friends uncles, she has two uncle's that own a Peruvian restaurant if I recall correctly, she offered to help me get an interview with them. I'm hoping since they are two restaurant owning people they can give me an honest report on what it is like for them to run their restaurant.