Mugshot:Day 8

ONLY ONE MORE DAY UNTIL OPENING!!! Today Daryl Dunbar came in to talk to us about cost of opening up a new business , accounting, and making a business plan. Then the rental equipment came in and we began to set-up our store. We hung the celebrity mugshots on the walls and put up our chain link fence. We also hung our glass menu in front of the door and organized our merchandise rack (i.e folded tee-shirts and such.) OPENING TOMORROW =]

Mugshot: Day 6

Monday! The start of our last week here at Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp! We started off the morning by doing final edits and revisions on our Press Release, it was a lot of hard work but we finished it. Then we sent it out to all of the contacts that we had found. After Lunch we split up into research groups and researched things such as licences and permits, payroll, health, insurance, etc. And then to end off the day Lawyer Joseph Levy came and talked about our research with us.

Mugshot: Day 5

Our first week is now over! We still have so much to do, in the morning we finazled our press release. around 10;30 Sabrina Espinal came to talk. She told us about how to brand ourselves and make sure we represent ourselves in the way we want to be seen. She also gave us a format for a resume so that we would know how to make one to give to future employers. We also worked on the sign to put outside of our store and we finished up the sign on the front window. A couple of us went to Jack's coffee house in the Seaport and copied down the layout of the store and the price list. Towards the end of the day, we looked up more names for our contact list.

Mugshot: Day 4

Today we finalized our promo to make our deal "buy a drink and get 1/2 off a cupcake." And we decided that our special drink would be raspberry lemonade and japanese green tea lightly sweetened with honey.
Also today we finalized our equipment list and finished the 1st draft of our press release. Then we found a great postcard company for our promo! =] And Larriss Raywood came in from Perkins+Will and gave us some ideas about the way we should layout our coffee shop. And to all end the day on a good note, we looked for a press contacy and researched the products we could buy and sell.

Mugshot: Day 3

Today we went to the NYPD police museum to conference with the directors to see if we could get a loan of their bratillian cards to exhibit in our espresso bar. We talked to Julie Bose, executive director, Kerri Brockner, office manager, and Beth Spenelli, registar. Elaine and Kimberly gave them our elevator pitch to see if they were interested in joining forces with us. After some negotiation they figured out some options for us. We could either A. make our own mugshots, B. use photo copys of some of there bratilian cards, or C. use celebrity mugshots. We all discussed and we decided to use all of their ideas for the shop. Then we went back to the shop and met Veronica Rosario, producer for Fox 5 News. She gave us ideas on how to start our press release, and write it so producers would want to use our story! Later on we talked as a group about ideas for our merchandise. In the end we opted to use buttons instead of mugs because if we used mugs over half of our budget would be gone. We also looked over a book that Shireen bought called Mugshots by: Raynal Pellicer to see if we could find any good mugshots to display. We ended up finding afew and are now working on blowing them up.

Mugshot: Day 2

We started our day with an overview of blog writing which was followed by a first look at our logo. We had two designs to chose from. One was the word Mugshot with a mug that had bullet holes and the o in "shot" was a cross eye. The second logo was a man with the cup of coffee in a striped black and white jumpsuit with a ball and chain tied to him and the ball as a o in the word "shot" We managed to narrow it down to a guy wearing a black and white striped jumpsuit holding a coffee mug with a ball and chain tied around his ankle, underneath the man was the words Mug Shot in bright orange with the ball of the ball and chain being the O of the word. We also suggested he should be dressed like of a business person.

In the afternoon we had had a guest speaker come in named Tiffany Winbush who is a PR consultant starting her own PR firm called Discover PR. She Talked about marketing vehicles and different ways to market such as postcards and fliers. While Tiffany was there Fuji TV a Japanese TV show came and filmed. At the end of the day JC came in and worked with us to brainstorm ideas and ended up talking about doing some mugshots or even have famous celebrities mugshots up on the wall and made an appointment to go to the police museum the next day.Then we broke up into groups. Sophie and Kimberly worked with JC to start our press release. And everyone else was doing research on cost of mugs and other things we may need.

Mugshot: Day 1

Today was the first day of the last session of Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp for Summer '09. We got to introduce ourselves and meet one another. We come from so many different places and are different ages but we all shared our interest in business and entrepreneurship. We learned about networking and marketing and their importance. Then, we went out in groups of 2-3 to check out the competition near us, the cross marketing opportunities, and interviewed people to see what age group and what preferences they had for coffee. When we got back to boot camp, we shared what we had learned so that we would know what to market and who we needed to market our products toward.



Then, we spent time brainstorming ideas for names of our new coffee shop, ranging from sports themes to construction themes to prison themes. We got really excited when we did this activity, and people were even coming up with ideas that would fit into the themes. Needless to say, some people were really disappointed when their ideas that they had been so attached to weren't chosen. The general consensus was for "Mugshot" which would have a humorous criminal theme. We even came up with a tag line: "Coffee: Make a break for it!" (Get it? Because of prison break and coffee break....ha ha ha :) Even though not everyone was happy with the name at first, we all came to like the name and we all had ideas for how to make this theme happen.






Come visit Mugshot coffee shop at 127 Fulton St. NYC on Thursday, August 27, and Friday, August 28!


By Austin M., and Elaine K.

Mötley Brüe: Grand Finale

When I look back two weeks, it's hard to believe all the unbelievable feats we have accomplished. Our goal was to open and run a coffee bar in two weeks. With only an empty storefront and a desire to succeed, the odds seemed stacked against us. Yet now, with absolute certainty, we can say we accomplished the impossible. It was a long road to this point, it was hard, stressful, but we always worked to our fullest.
Two weeks, its felt like just two days, we all wish it would last longer, but transience is an essential part of life. Now, as we leave this camp, we take with us memories of the times we've spent here. Here's hoping we'll never forget them.

Bloggers note: Your humble blogger would just like to say, “It was grand, I hope you enjoyed reading them just as much as I enjoyed writing them. And I enjoyed them a lot.”

Mötley Brüe: Grand Opening

Two days is a pretty short time to make an impact in the business world. All the marketing, decorating,and planning all goes in to these two finite seven hour periods. Creating Motley Brue is only half the story. Now we had to run it.
We all showed up early in the morning, ready to make this coffee shop happen. We set up our baked goods, purchased ice, and started our storefront advertising.
Business started out slow, but customers quickly started streaming in steadily. Working behind the counter was a tiring business, as we had to rush back and forth, calculating change, assembling iced limeade and teas, and packaging pastries. The work was especially difficult for our master barista, Alex James. Alex often had to keep up with multiple orders at once, but he gave the same high level of care and skill to every cup of coffee.
Around noon, Fox 5 news showed up, wanting to cover our unique coffee shop. Having Fox news in our shop seemed to bring more people in and soon we had lines which were out the door! The first and penultimate day of our coffee bar's life went very well. We made over 475 dollars, and each received 6.50 $ in tips to take home. Let's just hope tomorrow goes just as well.

Mötley Brüe: Day 8

The dream used to be but a wishful hope. The reality used to be merely an old storefront. Now, despite delays and plenty of obstacles, the dream is the reality. Today we finally finished our coffee bar. A couple of hours ago, we were almost hopeless behind, and we all doubted that we would ever finish this espresso bar. Yet 4 hours later, there it was, lying before us. The work that went into this afternoon was possibly our best yet. Almost everyone worked their hearts out, and wanted this coffee bar to succeed. We hauled heavy equipment into place, sewed a gigantic awning to hang over out bar, handed out an innumerable amount of flyers, and attached giant posters to the ever annoying construction barriers. It was a long and hard journey, but today we can say we opened a coffee bar in just eight days.

Mötley Brüe: Day 7

It's the beginning of the end, and the end of the beginning. Tomorrow will be the last day before we open our doors, and the last day of our long hours of preparation.
The penultimate day before opening was possibly one the hardest yet, as we push ourselves even harder.
In the morning, a lawyer who specializes in working for bars and restaurants came to speak to us about the various legal aspects involved in running a coffee bar. He taught us about all the legal ramifications of our decisions and the many choices any coffee bar owner has to make in order to be successful.
In the afternoon, we resumed our preparations for opening day. We started drawing the menu on our gigantic blackboard, worked on the decor, and ordered our supplies. We are still quite behind where we wanted to be today, but we are working twice as hard to finish in time. At times like these, it's hard not be pessimistic, not to give up in front of the overwhelming amount of work we still have to do. But I still believe that if we work as hard as we did today and yesterday, we can still finish this race against time.

Mötley Brüe: Day 6

Three days from the opening. Three days. Just three days. Today your humble blogger sees great progress, things are falling into place, and we are nearing the end of a long journey.

In the morning we had a guest accountant come over and show us the tremendous amount of money and funds needed to open a business. The staggering amount of money required just to open a small coffee shop was awe-inspiring.

Later, after a refreshing lunch break, our work resumed. Contacts were gathered, excel spreadsheets were filled in, giant press releases were reverently taped to the window. The intensity was apparent in all these tasks. The difference between today and previous days was like night and day. Suddenly our motley crew of teens became a professional team of well trained soldiers. Tomorrow it will two days, and two days after tomorrow, the public will be able to judge how professional we truly are.

Mötley Brüe: Day 5

Today, I have good news and bad news to report. The bad news is that we are really, really behind on our work. The good news is that today, we got quite a bit done. In the morning we had an HR specialist talk to us about getting a job and being an effective worker. After that informative session, we studied the various forms and permits which would be needed to open a real restaurant or coffee bar. The vast amount of permits and rules which one would have to complete in order to open a real restaurant was staggering. After lunch we went into a working frenzy. We finally did what was long overdue and gathered the remaining press contact info we needed and sent out the press release. We also worked on our floor plan, assembled an inventory of paper utensils, painted our sandwich board, created a flyer, and finished a draft of the menu. The sheer amount of tasks we completed was amazing, and so much better than yesterday. However with only three working days left before the public opening of our coffee bar, we are all worried that we won't complete our restaurant in time. But today's events showed that we really could get a lot done, and If we work this hard all the time, we will surely be able to open this shop in time.

Mötley Brüe: Day 4

Today, after hours of arduous and painstaking work, we finally finished our press release. JC really improved what was a lackluster at best press report. Now we actually have to finish our contact list (which we are really, really behind on) before we can send it out.

We also assembled our list of the required items to run the coffee bar. (fridge, dishwasher, microwave, etc) Several of us also painted our logo on the window (and it looks awesome!) and started working on our sandwich board.

In the afternoon we had an architect come in and help us out with our floor plan. We measured the various furniture items, like chairs and table and drew 2d scale models of each to place on a diagram of our cafe space. This helped us visualize what our shop would look and feel like with various furniture configurations.

We got quite a bit done today but we are still way behind what we wanted to achieve by today. We're really going to have to focus and push ourselves to finish the enormous amount of work we still have to accomplish before opening day.

Mötley Brüe: Day 3

Today was brainstorming day for our team. In the morning we discussed the state of the coffee industry. We emailed the companies J&R music world and Harley Davidson motorcycles for cross marketing opportunities. We asked the Harley Davidson company if they would allow us to exhibit one of their motorcycles to add to our ambiance.

Later on in the day we brainstormed a list of media outlets to send our press releases to. The list included various newspapers and T.V stations ranging from the New York times to the South Bay newspaper in Long Island. We acquired the contact information for the various media outlets and business we wish to cross market with.

A small group of us jotted down ideas we thought would be best form our menu and our sandwich board which helps us promote our business. We decided on promotions and specials for our menu and we also came up with ideas for our window display. Overall it was a very productive day and we hope tomorrow will be equally successful.

Mötley Brüe: Day 2

Today we learned three different ways to draw attention to our coffee business. We split up into three groups of three and each had a different task. One group had the task of writing the press release. In the press release, we had to describe the concept of our coffee bar business and why it would interest people. This press release will be sent out to magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets in the hope that they would cover us, which would give us more publicity. The second group had the task of blogging about the days work. This would spread the word about our business throughout the internet. The third group had to write a letter to potential cross marketing partners in order to increase business profits. One such partner was J & R, which is a music and electronics store which could potentially put on a musical event for our coffee business.

All of these tasks are helping us with one main goal right now. Publicity! We learned the value of networking and marketing to spread the word about our business. We will be able to get more customers into the door and increase our profits. Everyone is working hard and a great business is coming.

Mötley Brüe: Day 1

Today we began our first day at camp. The nine of us formed a circle where we learned each other's names and discovered a few traits about one another. While some of us are from Manhattan, some of us are from Brooklyn, Long Island, and even Chicago. Pam explained general ideas on how to begin a business and how even introducing ourselves to each other is a form of networking. We learned that networking is an ideal skill when publicity and customers are needed to start a business. With networking comes cross marketing, when two businesses exchange services to help promote one another.

Our team separated into three groups. Team one's task was to walk around the neighborhood and observe the surrounding buildings to further get an idea of cross marketing possibilities. Team two was assigned to locate our potential competition. Team three interviewed possible customers about their beverage preferences and the various genres of music they listen to, to further get an idea of the type of espresso bar people in the neighborhood would be drawn to.

Later on in the day we met together as a team and decided on a name for our business, a logo, and an ambiance to match. We brainstormed and came up with a variety of ideas from "The Dashing Bean", a club scene, to "Bean It", a play on words based on Michael Jackson's song "Beat It". Eventually our team decided on the Mötley Brüe, a rock and roll themed cafe.

Session 2: Last Day of Cafeazy

What can we say we did it!

Session 2: Day 9 of Cafeazy

Patrick M. Celebrates the grand opening

Day 9 of Cafeazy, and we finally open our doors to the public! It has been pretty hard to believe that some of the ideas that we put down on paper have now been turned into a reality and that we are now serving customers. It's been pretty slow the whole day, but we had many customers and even a couple of big orders! The big orders let us get the feel of what it would be like if we were a big business and had a very busy day. As everyone ended up discovering, doing promotion outside of the shop was horrible. The heat was horrendous and no one wanted to do promotion, but it had to be done if we wanted to bring in more customers and more money. We ended up working in 15 minute shifts, patrolling the front of the shop trying to bring in people with the incentive of free cupcakes and chocolate truffles.

It was a good first day, and we had some tips that are going to be split between everyone. One problem we had was that it got very confusing at times, with people switching jobs every 20 minutes. The milk and sugar area was sometimes forgotten, and had to be cleaned up often. We even ran out of espresso near closing, and had to buy espresso from Starbucks to get us through to the end! However, at the end of the day, we worked very well as a team at conquering every single order, and we expect to do just as well tomorrow!

Session 2: Day 8 of Cafeazy

The team talking to Daryl Dunbar

Today, we started by writing out our business plan with Daryl Dunbar. We spent a lot of time talking about what we would do if we ran the espresso business for more than a year, including taxes and things like that. We then put up the awning and set it up so it would stay upright. The colors are blue and light blue. Thanks a lot to Andy Kettler for moving the wires for us (the wires that are holding the awning up in place)! After setting up the awning and making sure all the furniture was in the right place, we needed to buy milk. Running to Associated in the pouring rain, Brian, Patrick, and Siena went and bought enough milk to last us for the next two days while the business is open.

Patrick M. Sarah B. on the computer

Almost everything was set up to perfection, except for one last thing. All of the walls were blank slates, with nothing on them. They were boring, so to fix them, we went back to Tower Art and looked for paintings. Tower Art kindly agreed to donate 6 pieces of art: four big pieces and two smaller pieces. Now that everything was set up and ready to go, all we had to do was wait one more day until we opened our doors!

Session 2: Day 7 of Cafeazy

Patrick M. And Brian B. messing around

Today we created the menu for Cafeazy. We also sewed together the backdrop for the awning. We bought pillows from Century 21 for our window seat. The bench was also freshly painted white. In addition to working on the internal design of Cafeazy, we also began working on the banner and flag to hang outside of the espresso bar. The cushions were also covered with fabric according to the official Cafeazy color scheme.

Later in the day, we figured out our annual costs via our special entrepreneurial worksheets given to us by Emily yesterday. We found out that we would be in debt for quite some time and have to have over five hundred customers per month to upkeep the café. We also placed our order with the paper goods provider. Our sugar, cups, java sleeves, and more will arrive tomorrow!

We ended the day by trying to find a company that would make our t-shirts and get them here by opening! One more day till Cafeazy is open to the public!

Session 2: Day 6 of Cafeazy

After a relaxing weekend, we swung back into our business mode. Everyone started working on the many different things we still had to accomplish. It was great to hear that Patrick and Julia were able to get Godiva Chocolates to donate 200 of their new ice cream truffles. We will offer the truffles for free if we run out of cupcakes.

We also finalized our order form for the catering equipment and furniture. The total came out to be $355, but it's still a lot cheaper than buying the equipment. We went to the fabric store and chose the colors and designs we are going to use. We want to start making our awning tomorrow.

We had Emily come visit us and talk to us about start up costs and recurring costs. Emily works as a free lance accountant, who is in charge for bookkeeping for several major clients. We figured out the costs needed if we wanted to start a permanent business. After doing all the math, the money we would have needed at hand was around $160,000.

Our quarter page ad for the Downtown Express.

We finalized the ad and sent it to the Downtown Express so that it would be printed in the Friday newspaper. Along with the ad, we also ordered postcards that we could hand out to promote Cafeazy.

Siena finished decorating the sandwich board we are going to display outside our store to advertise our opening. A bunch of us went out to different coffee shops to see what the prices of various goods were and based our menu on these findings. And to end the day, Julia sent out our press release to NY1 and ABC.

Session 2: Day 5 of Cafeazy

Today, we found more out about employment from our guest speaker, Sabrina Espinal. She told us about the Do's and Don'ts of teen employment in particular, such as how nose and tongue piercings are usually frowned upon. Then, we split up to learn about different aspects of business, pertaining more to the legal stuff. We learned about licensing, permits we needed, taxes we had to pay, insurances we needed, and the New York City Health Department regulations we had to follow to stay open.

Sarah B. and Patrick M. in line at the Health Department.

After lunch, it was time to make more phone calls to our PR contacts. Most of them had us redirected to an email address, but it was still very productive seeing as we had over 40 contacts. We finished up a lot of our projects like finalizing our press release and finishing our ad. We also looked up some of our equipment that we needed and found out the prices. We also picked up our freezer that we had ordered from Craigslist.

Session 2: Day 4 of Cafeazy

Today we started to finalize everything we had worked on yesterday. This included completing a press list, contacting/visiting potential sponsors, our final logo painted on our front window, finding a supplier (and freezer) for our special drink, the Vanilla Espress, and brainstorming furniture and café set up (interior designing) with the assistance of special guest David Meinhart.

We searched the web for different potential PR opportunities and successfully completed our list. Among those on the list were some of our guest speakers from previous sessions and days. We can’t wait to get on the phone tomorrow and let the world know about Cafeazy and Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp! We also went out on the streets to Chase Bank, Bank of America, Godiva, Carvel, Häagen Dazs, and Associated Groceries where we had our fair share of hits and misses. In the end we managed to make a deal with Associated Groceries, who kindly agreed to donate 5 gallons of vanilla ice cream to us! As for the other businesses we visited, everybody is now well informed about our upcoming opening and about the Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp (although some of these companies were more gracious than others). At Bank of America we talked to Pam’s banker, Mahwish and will be in further contact with her later this week about a possible business deal (as well as with Chase Bank and Godiva).

This morning we all came into the shop with the pleasant surprise of seeing our name on one of the front windows! Michael did a great job of painting, drawing, and finishing the logo on the window!

Michael working on the logo!

Later in the day, David Meinhart came in and gave us a few lessons on interior designing and then we came up with our own interior layout of Cafeazy! We figured out what kind of furniture we want along with where we want to place everything. Besides the constant disagreement of different floor plans, we managed to come up with a blueprint that we all agreed on! Thanks David!

David teaching us about interior design

Cafeazy's future floor plan!

Our next steps for tomorrow and next week are to follow up with Chase, Associated, Bank of America and all of our other future participants. In the next few days, we will also be picking out our furniture. One week till opening!

Session 2: Day 3 of Cafeazy

We finally decided on our new logo!

Dani and Francesco showing us different ways to advertise.

Today Dani and Francesco from Community Media LLC visited and talked to us. Their company prints newspapers that are circulated around New York City, which include Downtown Express, The Villager, Gay City News, Chelsea Now, and Thrive NYC. Their presentation showed us many different ways advertise and attract more customers. They even gave us a free quarter page ad for the Downtown Express! This is really great news since these ads usually cost around $600 for one day. We also started to make our flyers and the ads. We want to have a promotional event so people would have an incentive to keep the flyers and come to our coffee house. We really liked the idea of having Chase Bank or Bank of America sponsor us and buy 200 cupcakes from Tribeca Treats, so we could give them away for free with our coffee.

Finding the cost of the equipment and furniture needed for our shop.

We researched and found out how much money we needed to start up a coffee business. Although we are going to be renting most of the equipment and furniture, it was interesting to see how much it cost to buy things like coffee brewers, display cases, under-counter refrigerators and panini grills. Many of these things cost way more than we had expected; coffee brewers and small refrigerators were priced over $1,000. Renting the equipment would be more cost effective for Cafeazy. We also tried to find some furniture, but many of the sofas were too extravagant for the shop. Hopefully we can find something that fits our needs soon.

Speaking to the owner of Tower Art Gallery and negotiating with him.

Our group also visited a local framer and art gallery, Tower Art Gallery, and after speaking to the owner, Jon, it turns out that the gallery was more than willing to donate some of their artwork for us to hang up when Cafeazy opens next Thursday and Friday. We want art that is colorful and relaxing, and they had many compositions that fit job.

Two of the many great works of art available for us to use at Cafeazy.

We finished up the day by writing our press release and compiling a list of people to mail it to. On our press release we detailed what the Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp does and what Cafeazy is offering to the general public that other coffee shops aren't, the relaxed atmosphere, the escape from the hustle and bustle of the financial district and our signature drink: the Vanilla Espress, a shot of expresso drizzled over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. We are looking forward to each and every day.