Final Post for November

This has definitely been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences we have had in the College of Business. We started off the semester with a goal to reach $200 in profit, and we have exceeded our goal by almost $60, reaching a total of $259 in profit and over $300 in revenue. We spent countless hours baking chocolate chip cookies this semester... We baked and sold over 1,200 cookies so far.

This experience has most certainly enlightened our perception on the entrepreneurial process. We realized that we needed to commit ourselves to this business if we wanted to reach our profit goal, and that's exactly what we did. We had to schedule several bake sales in Showker Lobby, and set aside time during the weekdays to bake cookies for several hours. We dedicated ourselves to this business because we felt passionate about our cause... giving people the opportunity to support a notable charity of their choice, while receiving a bundle of delicious cookies in return for their support. We did have to go through some paperwork and talk to a few administrators before we actually began selling, but we learned that this was a vital (and necessary) step if we wanted to sell our cookies, and to make it possible to allow our business to grow.

We definitely learned a few things during our short-lived entrepreneurial lives this fall. During our first bake sale, we quickly realized that we set the price for a bundle of 3 chocolate chip cookies too high. We originally priced them for $1.75, but we changed it to just $1 afterwards. Also, since we were preparing the cookies from scratch, it took us several attempts to perfect the baking process... we had quite a few burned batches when we started! One of the biggest take-aways we learned from this business project is the advantage of networking. For example, Campus Cookies donated over 60 free cookies for our cause. We also sold over 700 cookies to the West Point Military Academy in New York. These opportunities helped us tremendously in reaching our profit goal.