(MIYB) The Fundraiser--Part I

The next few weeks of Make It Your Business (MIYB) Fridays will be very different from the projects we have tackled until now. Through the next few weeks' worth of blood, sweat, and tears, you will create and run your own businesses in a week of fundraising frenzy! Even better, you will be able to earn a group jackpot towards your clothing stipend accounts.

The Project
1) Today you will break down into groups of 2-3 people and spend about 20-30 minutes deciding what your fundraising "business" will be. You have a choice of doing any of the following three choices:

1. Creating a fundraising pizzaria
2. Creating a Valentine's gift/photo shop
3. Creating a lunch catering business

Additionally, you may come up with your own idea for a SMALL fundraising event/business, but your idea must not require too much start-up money and resources, and it must be feasibly completed in a few hours to be approved.

2) Once you have your ideas ironed out for your businesses, you will need to come up with a list of all the supplies you need. The less supplies your business has to purchase, the better for your team's ability to raise and earn money. Once you have a complete list for your business, you need to come up with a list of prices of the items/services you will sell. Using this, we will calculate your break even point, or BEP (the point where you've earned the money you spent out for supplies).

For the purposes of our project, this number (the number of products you have to sell to break even is determined by the following formula:

BEP = (total costs for supplies) ÷ (price of most popular products/services)

You will summarize this information in a worksheet that you will turn in as one of the requirements for today's project.

3) Lastly, for the remainder of your time today, you are to write a one paragraph summary of your chosen fundraising idea that you can include as your cover sheet for the work to follow in the next few weeks. Briefly name your group members, describe your idea, and choose two dates in February that all group members (or the majority) can agree to meet. (The fundraiser day for your group will only be on one of those days.)

Summary
Today's project is the first in a series of four MIYB project days. You will keep the same groups for all days, and groups are small, so it is important that everybody maintain good project attendance for the next few weeks. Also, all stipend money that is raised for the group will be split by group decision, so unproductive members beware!

By 6:00 today, you are to (1) meet with your group; (2) decide on a fundraising business idea; (3) come up with a supply, cost, and price list, and complete the worksheet; (4) determine your BEP; and (5) write up a fundraiser proposal sheet describing your project idea, members, and proposed date.

(Project) MIYB Project 3 - Head of the Class

Two projects ago, we learned about "Concept" as a component of the business plan. By business "Concept," we understand the main idea or set of ideas that describe how a business will achieve its financial goals.

"Concept" is the secret ingredient for a business's success; it answers the very general questions of "How?" and "By doing what?" when it comes to a business attaining its goal.

Here's a metaphor that might help.

A business's goal is like a finish line in a race. It's the place you are trying to get to within a certain time, or before other people get there to win if you're competing against others. But how will you get there? Does your strategy involve racing along the inside track? Holding back until the last minute? And just as important, what will take you to that finish line? Your shoes? Your breakfast? Gasoline?

All of these things that get you there (strategies, energy sources, etc.) work like a business "Concept." It describes specifically not where you are going but how you plan on getting there.

Take the example of a restaurant that serves food in East Harlem. Its goals--like any other business--might be to make a certain amount of money by the end of the year, or to become a household name in the surrounding area within six months. These things are fine goals to have, but they do not count as the business's "Concept." The concept of the business might be to put the customer first, or to sell a certain food that puts them ahead of the competition. These could all be components of the business "Concept" because they are all ways that they are going to succeed in reaching their goals.

Today's Project
Today's project will require you to make presentations to a class of MicroSociety students about what a business "Concept" is and get them to start thinking about what things could qualify as business concepts for the businesses they are building.

You are to go to an assigned room at 4:30 and introduce yourselves to the students in your classroom. Tell them that you are here to introduce an idea that they might find very useful in making up their business plans for their sectors. Then, with permission, present briefly about what a business's "Concept" is and give them a short oral quiz after your presentation.

Your performance today will be determined by the average quiz score of your group. The two highest scoring groups will be awarded $30 FWB toward their clothing stipends.

(Project) MIYB Project Two: Job Coaching

The project today will require you to help coach students in the Harbor's afterschool program, Senior Education.

Senior Ed is a program geared toward students aged 8-12 that teaches young students in elementary school about the fundamentals of the real world. As a part of this program, Senior Ed students participate in something called Microsociety, which is a pretend "work-world" that the students maintain. MicroSociety has its own currency, businesses, and workers who have work days and days off. Every student in MicroSociety is either a manager or worker in one of the businesses there, and s/he must interview for any of the positions seeked.

Today is a job fair day for the MicroSociety component of Senior Ed. This means that the students will be interviewing for the different positions that will be available to them in the hopes of landing the MicroSociety job of their dreams.

This is where you come in. The project this week is to:

(1) Work in a group to develop some coaching services that you will offer to MicroSociety students as they wait to be interviewed. The coaching services will be geared to prepare the students in some way for the interviews they will have today. The services you offer should not take more than 5-7 minutes for each student. (Some examples of services can be offering help in completing the MicroSociety job application, conducting a short a mock interview and offering feedback or pointers, or some other service that you decide upon.)

(2) Meet with the MicroSociety students as they wait for their interviews and offer your services to as many students as possible.

(3) Give each of the students you serve an evaluation slip that the student will use to rate your services. (Evaluation slips will be supplied to you.) You do not need to collect these back from the students.

(4) Create a written description of your services to be handed in by the end of the day.

Your groups will be judged based on the ratings they recieve and the completeness of the descriptions you hand in at the end of the day.

Good Luck.

(Project) MIYB: Business Plan Basics

As you have learned in the pre-workshop exercises today, writing a business plan is a big project that starts with good organization and dilligently researched information.
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Today's Project:
Today, as your MIYB Project, you will be broken into two or three groups and asked to create a basic business plan according to the criteria we went over earlier today.

Keeping in mind our "Focus Five" sections of the business plan ((1) Business Concept, (2) Future Goals/Past Milestones, (3) Customer/Market Information, (4) Competitor Information, and (5) Products and Services), create a basic business plan for Redken, a New York-based hair product company who won a 2006 Webby Award for website design in the Beauty and Cosmetics category.

Today's winning group members will recieve, individually, $30 toward their clothing bank. The deadline for submissions of business plans is today, at 6:00PM.


Good Luck.

(Reflection) MIYB Projects1-3

Over the past few Fridays at First Work, you have participated in projects that have tested your ability to create, explain, convince, ask, and express. In a nutshell, you have created plans for hypothetical businesses, designed a three-dimensional spatial representation of your hypothetical businesses, and come up with a startup budget that takes into account all the expenses that you will incurr in the course of starting your business.

Today, we are asking that you take time out of the Make it Your Business Project Series and reflect on your participation in the projects until now. We want you to consider:

• What you have learned about yourself in the process of participating in the projects,

What you have learned in terms of business know-how, and

What you have learned about other people or working with other people.

Assignment

Using the questions below as a guideline, write a narrative-style reflection of your work in the MIYB projects. You may write a hard copy first, but eventually, you will log onto your Blogger accounts and post your comments regarding the projects you have completed on your FirstWorkStudent blogs .

Personal Reflection

1. How would you characterize your participation in the projects? (Were you a leader? A team-player? A sleeper? A good organizer?)
2. Was there anything that really upset you in the project? Was was it? How did you react?
3. If you could change any one thing about your participation in the projects until now, what would it be?

Content Reflection

1. Were there any projects that appealed to you more than others? Which ones? Why do you think they appealed to you over the others? (If no projects appealed to you in particular, what would have appealed to you?)
2. What was the least appealing thing that you did in the projects? Why did you find this the least appealing thing?
3. If you had to do a career that centered around the work you did in any one of the projects, which project would you pick? (If no projects appealed to you, pick the project you would mind doing as a career the least.)

Team Reflection

1. How would you rate your team participation? (Did you go above and beyond the call of duty to help your team out? Were you very dedicated to the group and the project? What percentage of the group work did you do?)
2. What do you think your group members would say about you if they were asked to rate your participation in the group?
3. Who was the best person in your group? Why? (It's okay if you think that you're the best member of your group, but be sure to explain why.)

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Once you have finished typing up the answers to your questions, logon to your First Work Blogs and blog your answers in a post called "Make It Your Business Reflection."

At the end of the day, you will have the opportunity to meet with your fellow group members and, after awarding everyone 10 FWB, divide the remaining group rewards pot between yourselves. The amount that you allow yourselves will be the amount that will be paid on your behalf for the purchase of work attire sometime in the upcoming weeks.

We stress that it is important to consider the seriousness of the decision you will be making. Take into account that not everyone will necessarily be in attendance in your group today, and a fair consideration of their work will be necessary to ensure that all parties find the decision fair and agreeable.

Things to Consider for MIYB Project 3

Helpful Facts and Hints

Flooring: The original flooring of the business space is hardwood everywhere except for the bathroom, which is tiled.


Licensing: List of Licenses that You Must Apply for in New York (if they pertain to your business, that is.)


Inventory: For finding prices of things that you might need for your store, you may want to look up the items in Froogle, Google's comparison shopping search engine.

Contractors: You're probably going to have to call a contracting agency up to get an estimate on the work you need done. (Example: "Hi, yes, I'd like to get a quote on having a wall knocked out. The measurements for the wall are 12' by 12' by 1' thick.")

MIYB Project 3

Financing


Background
According to the United States Small Business Association, successful business planning takes into account several aspects of designing a businsess. An integral stage in the planning phase is financing. According to the website on starting a business, financing is often what makes--or breaks a business:

While poor management is cited most frequently as the reason businesses fail, inadequate or ill-timed financing is a close second. Whether you're starting a business or expanding one, sufficient ready capital is essential. But it is not enough to simply have sufficient financing; knowledge and planning are required to manage it well. These qualities ensure that entrepreneurs avoid common mistakes like securing the wrong type of financing, miscalculating the amount required, or underestimating the cost of borrowing money. (Financing Basics, my emphasis)

The Project
Today's project will ask you to budget out the projects you did for the last four MIYB days. By the end of the day today, you will need to hand in an Excel Spreadsheet that shows the total estimated startup costs for your business and explain any changes to the business plan you make based on budget considerations.

Here are some resources to help you get started and focused:

______Budget Resources_________
Startup Costs Calculator (This is a good place to get ideas for your spreadsheet)
Contractor Listings (They can give you quotes to help estimate your remodeling costs)


_______Floor Layout________

(To print out the floor layout so that it shows correctly, click on the picture, go to File > Page Setup in the new window that opens up, delete the values for Header and Footer, set all margins to zero, click OK, and then print the picture by clicking File > Print > Print.)

MIYB Project 2

(The floorplan that was given to all groups for reconfiguration for their businesses.)

MIYB Project 2

Previously, on Make It Your Business, Project One Contestants did surveys of the East Harlem area to complete a business map of the surroundings. Their task was to put their understanding of the importance of business location to use and apply it to a map of all of the businesses in a six block area stretching from 108th Street to 102nd Street and bordered by Madison and Fifth Avenues to the east and west. They were told to work in two groups and note the business-type and price range of each of the locations on their map, and with the map complete, decide on a hypothetical business and location that would be ideal to start in the area. While neither of the groups completed a map of the entire area they were asked to survey, based on the quality of the maps, it was decided to split the prize pot--100 First Work Clothing Bucks--between both groups. The proposed businesses were a laundromat and a clothing store.

Project Background
* The groups this week competed for a pot of 160 First Work Bucks (20 for each participant involved), and the project was as follows:


The 2-Part MIYB Project last week was as follows:

"THE GOOD NEWS: Your plans for a new business (from Project 1) was approved by Mr. Belvedere Q. Moneybags, and he even went as far as to find you an empty storefront space in the area to start your business.

"THE BAD NEWS: The empty storefront you have is not necessarily ready to be used for your respective businesses. (It used to be a ground floor doctor's office.)

"THE PROJECT: Your job this week is to take the floorplan for the space that Mr. Moneybags has secured and (re)design the space for your business. You can knock out and change any of the inside walls, but you may not change any of the outside walls. (You can't change the shape of the whole building, now, can you?!) Also, you must leave the four dark black square areas intact in your plans. These are support pillars for the building. (If you knock these out, the whole building will come down on your head!)"

Materials
Materials at the students' disposal this week were construction paper, 1000 jumbo popsicle sticks, a large piece of balsa wood, wood clue, scissors, sandpaper, and markers.

Teams
For Project 2, Will, Jonathan, Millie, and Amyra were on "Team Laundromat" and Miriam, Edith, Peggy, Stephanie, and Atenas were on "Team Clothing Store."



Project Development in Action