Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp

The Jumping Bean Day 4

2010-08-13T07:50:00.001-07:00

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Originally uploaded by Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp

Day four of The Jumping Bean mainly focused on the appearance of the store and the press release. To kick off the process, after splitting into groups, students began write paragraphs of the press release. This basically took half of the day, after a delayed start, and much coaxing by Pam and Shireen.

Then, after a short lunch break, some of the teen entrepreneurs started to work off an original equipment list, and comparison-shopped on the web to find what we need and the sizes that the items are going to be. Some other students took another computer and found southern drinks, such as the “Virgin Mint Julep” and
“Good Ol’ Alabama Sweet Tea”. The timing was perfect, because just as the equipment list was being printed, the architect was ready to speak. He helped us measure the store, using a long tape measure; essentially supervising the entire planning process.

To top off all of the day’s activities, we were able to taste the cakeballs from Sage American Bakery! Most of the students thought they were excellent! In my opinion (Donovan) they were quite good. They will surely be a great success!

Day 3 of The Jumping Bean

2010-08-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

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Originally uploaded by Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp

Today’s events of The Jumping Bean saga were particularly special. The students ventured out into the field, uptown to 260 Madison Ave, to sit through a presentation by Julia Gaynor, a publicist for Affect Strategy, a public relations firm. In this hour-and-a-half presentation, she talked about how to make the press interested in a story, in our case, our espresso bar. She clearly conveyed what to include in a press release and informed us about a journalist’s deadlines and other technical terms related to the subject matter. We thank Julia Gaynor very much and hope her advice makes or breaks our experience with the press.

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Soon after a short train ride back down to Fulton Street, and a brief lunch break, we practiced an art called “spitballing”, which is a very reliable form of brainstorming. After breaking into groups, we finally met our goal of creating an opening sentence that would hook the mind to our press release. Tomorrow, we are going to write the press release and hopefully send it out in a few days.

Day Two of "The Jumping Bean"

2010-08-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

As the sun rose and business people flooded the streets of lower Manhattan, the planning of “The Jumping Bean” continued with ease. Day two started off with group brainstorming for a main sales product. Soon after some creation of ideas, the group stumbled upon a great new idea: cake balls! As opposed to previous sessions, “The Jumping Bean’s” specialty item will be a baked good instead of a drink. Cake balls are balls made of a variety of cakes combined with frosting and dipped in a candy-like liquid, such as fondue or caramel, which are mere examples of the vast league of baked goods we’ve entered.

In addition of contacting many vendors of various items, Pam, the Director contacted our baker, Jen from “This Chick Bakes”, to propose the cake ball idea. We sincerely hope that the baker’s plan works out and our cake balls work out well. Pam also took the students out into the South Street Seaport Pier area to cross-market, or collaborate with other vendors to promote our espresso bar. We inquired from a representative from Circle Line and gather brochures from the many NYC tour buses, such as Gray Line or Coach USA.

The day went on and after splitting into several groups; we started to pull some crucial aspects of our espresso bar together. One group contacted some rubber stamp and paper goods vendors and printers. Another filtered which celebrities we should invite to our opening. Finally, a last group thought of ideas of an apparent theme. We brainstormed those ideas, overlooking many themes of different natures. The theme went from vintage to vintage New York to Mexican to southern to Americana to "South of the Border" to Aztec. After much arguing and suspense the theme of "Jumping Around the World" came to mind, since many people in the area are tourists.

The afternoon flew by and it was 3:30 and "The Jumping Bean" didn't have a tag line. We brainstormed, using the thesaurus and the base word - travel (which is the basis of our theme). After coming up with words such as voyage, globetrotting, and other words not commonly used in everyday speech, the slogan literally floated into the brain of one of the students.

After a long day of work, we are now officially working with "The Jumping Bean - Your destination is just a sip away!"

Day 1 of The Jumping Bean

2010-08-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

Today, Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp kicked off a new session with the start of a new espresso bar/bakery in the South Street Seaport vicinity on the corner of Front and Beekman Streets. Upon piling into the drab-walled building at the early time of 9:00, students were off to a spectacular start. By immediately defining crucial terms, such as networking and marketing, the students formulated a plan for advertising and marketing.

After a quick lunch at the South Street Seaport mall, the group welcomed a guest-speaker, Ipshita, who is a professor at Pace University’s Graduate School. With her came one of her former students, whom she spoke and enlightened us with her knowledge. Ipshita’s presentation included a few exercises, which confirmed her explanations about marketing and networking. Then, under Ipshita’s professional supervision, the class broke up into three small groups to brainstorm coffee-related names for the store; all while sampling cookies from a local baker at “This Chick Bakes”.

Finally, as the day died down and the students were getting tired, each small group derived three name choices, which were narrowed down by a democratic voting process. The final three names were “The Battle of the Beans”, “Whipped”, and “The Jumping Bean”. Upon the final vote, “The Jumping Bean” was unanimously voted as the name for our new espresso bar.

Ground Booty: Day 8

2010-07-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today we finished our business plans! Two speakers came to help us today to write our final and complete business plan. We split into four groups and each wrote a business plan. We than picked the best one which we will give to john, the owner of the frying pan, as grounds for our temporary business. After lunch we split into groups. We are coming down to the wire! The business opens tomorrow! How crazy?!?! One group went to put our post cards in the mailboxes of the buildings across the street, one group made buttons as our lowest giveaway prize, one group researched agua fresca recipes, and one group printed out the tickets for the treasure giveaway. Our shirts come tomorrow and we start business! Aparently News 5 is interviewing us! Its so exciting I can' twait! After the groups finished, we learned how to make our espresso drinks. That is the most important part!

Ground Booty: Day 7

2010-07-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Today we started fast and got down to business. We are all tired, but we are motivated to finish what we started. We set up the projector and began plugging in numbers. We started a moch business plan. We had to take into account insurance, taxes, employees, products, and rent. We did what we could saving the rest for tomorrow. After lunch a professional franchiser came to talk to us about what it takes to make a business go from a small corner store to a large franchise. He was an extremely interestng and fun guy. Once more we split into groups. A large group went to harass every day people to give our elevator pitch and hand out flyers. They say that was really great and fun! Another group looked up licenses and permits needed to start a business. They also looked up starbucks and dunkin donuts barista wages. A third group went to martha stewarts office and actually saw her!!! JEALOUSY! The end of the day was the best! Our espresso machine came! We began to set up our bar to figure out where we wanted to put the machine! It was 5:00 so quickly and we had to call it a day.

Ground Booty: Day 6

2010-07-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we had sent out the press release. At the beginning of the day we got out first real taste of the business. We saw the poster!!! The poster looks great! We actually got 2. One big and one small. We hung up the large poaster on the bow of the ship. It took a while, cutting string and attaching it. After the poster was all set we began talking about the menu. We split into groups for the rest of the day to cover more ground. One group contacted news papers, one caontaced radio shows, and television news. We asked for contacts, and sent our press release. Another group spent the rest of the day finishing the flyers which we needed asap to send them out. We got quotes from different printers and decided on the company that gave us the best deal. We got 1,000 post card for $200. This was a long, but eventful day!

Ground Booty: Day 5

2010-07-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

We began our day by getting right down to business. We worked on our press release for pretty much the whole day. JC came to help us figure out how we want to plan and begin writing the piece. Together we created an outline for which the 5 paragraph press release was to be written from. After getting down the key information about what each paragraph was supposed to say, we split into groups and each began writing. 4 groups worked on the 2nd through 5th paragraphs while JC took our original ideas to concot a new first paragraph. During our lunch break JC worked diligently on editing our paragraphs to read as a coherent piece. After ,uch group discussion, we finally finished our press release!!! Isabella Mia Sullivan called Empire Banners and ordered a huge banner with our logo on it. Shireen was able to have it delivered to her house since the company was already in Astoria :) At the end of the day, we discovered a game room at the bottom of the ship where we played ping pong. Aside from accomplishing our biggest task, the press release, we also enhanced our "ping pong skills." : )

Ground Booty Day 4

2010-07-26T09:05:00.001-07:00

Today was an eventful and knowledgable day. Our schedule was jam packed with three speakers. John, the owner of the frying pan, spoke to us first about the legal ins and outs of a business. We were informed about employee regulations, payrolls, and taxes. We also spoke about the numerouse different insurances necessary to be a "legal" business. Who would have known that an owner has to pay disability incase a workers severly injure themselves on the job!?!? After John spoke, Michael Hoefier came to talk about the importance of signage. Together we walked around the pier to find good places for our advertisements. We decided on doing a large poster for the bow of the ship. Once we reassembled, Michael told us about his job. He goes around the country, hired by one business, to make sure that the signange in each place is the same. This helps for a customer to know what is part of the business and what isnt. His example was, "How do you know if the valet service is provided by the four seasons? " He told us that fonts and colros help categorize a business by allowing the customers to know what is theirs and what is not. After this lesson we took our unch break. At the end of the day JC, a third professional who helped us with our press release, came by to start work. We sat down together and brainstormed spitball points which must get across in the release. Unfortunately it was 5:00 and not much of the release was finished. Tomorrow we will finally finish and advertise our business!!!

Ground Booty: Day 3

2010-07-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

After doing morning work we received a visit from the owners of This Chick Bakes, Jen Houston and Charley Tucker, and were rewarded with moist and delicious cupcakes. The flavors were carrot cake, chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet. Soon after work we took the M23, 5 & 6 trains to Wall Street and went into the Regus office building, with a stop to McDonald's first, of course. There we talked to Julia Gaynor who explained to us the meaning, purpose, and importance of Public Relations. We also learned that when writing a press release we should make it personal to the reporter or business person and to create a mind grabbing first sentence/paragraph. The day ended when we all went on a confusing, yet thrilling subway ride to get home.

Ground Booty Day 2

2010-07-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

With an early start at 10 o'clock we boarded the Frying Pan with a plate full of alluring brownies awaiting us from Corner Bakery. The brownies gave us an energetic start to the day. We gained the knowledge of vital skills such as the benefits and disadvantages of whole sale, retail, and the supplier. We learned that for us to buy whole sale and sell retail it would be more beneficial, instead of roasting our own coffee beans. After classroom work we decided on our slogan which in conclusion came to be "x-marks the spot, our coffee is hot." On our venture today through NYC offices we were able to find the office of Martha Stewart and we were given the number to contact her. During one of the many phone calls made we ordered possible baked goods that would separate our bakery/coffee shop from others by ordering from This Chick Bakes, a bakery that sells one of a kind baked goods. During the other phone call made we found out that during our 2 day business expedition we can raise money for the Tristate Bird Relief we can help birds affected by other oil spills, but we are torn between helping fishermen affected by the oil spill and helping the birds affected by the oil spill. This foundation informed us that no type of organization can participate in helping bp clean up the major oil spill. Later on today we learned that we may have the chance to have a shout out done for us on Martha Stewart's radio show.

Ground Booty: Day 1

2010-07-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

On Monday, the 18th of July, a dozen camp participants boarded a recently sunken ship named "the Frying Pan" with no real idea of what we were getting into. Our thoughts ran with question, such as "Where am I?", "Am I in the right place?", and "What are these people like?" We then saw Shireen, Jeremy, and Pam, the teachers. They were friendly, helpful, and clearly knew what they were doing. They began by introducing themselves, told us what their jobs are, and taught us about networking and putting our name out there. They than told us our objective for the camp; we were going to open up our own espresso bar on the Pier in which "the Frying Pan" was docked on. We decided to start by scoping out the pier, the boat, and all of the possible locations in which an espresso bar could be built on. We went deep into the bowels of the ship. We went to the rail car inexplicably placed in the middle of the pier. We went to the stage at the end of the pier. All seemed like nice locations for an espresso bar. After, we went deep into the ship, to a small room lined with a comfortable, red, couch, where we watched a power point on marketing. Then, we went back up into daylight to look around the nearby buildings to figure out who our primary consumers are and, more importantly, who our main competition is. We split into two groups; one went to the largest office building in the area. We learned that it was mainly filled with company in the fashion and art industries, and found that the doorman was willing to take our flyers. Our other group found our competition, 'wichhcraft, and took notes on the equipment that they were using, and the layout that they were using. They then went to Beyond 7, where the kind saleswoman allowed us to interview her and also agreed to give out flyers. After scoping out the neighborhood and having lunch of pizza, we went back to the small room inside the boat, where we watched another power point on branding and logos. Armed with our newly found knowledge, we went back up into the daylight and decided upon our name. Through much chaos and confusion, our team voted on "Ground Booty", with a theme of pirates/underwater.

Binder Bag: Finale

2010-02-19T11:50:00.001-08:00

The teens are showing a little sign of fatigue- not surprising since we are talking about the business of fashion all day long. I'm sure most of them have never broken down the mechanics of what it takes to start a business. I think one of the reasons most teens find our workshops interesting is because they are being introduced to a topic that they haven't heard before. I believe an entrepreneurial mindset is a necessary life skill and should be taught at their grade level.

What do we need to accomplish on our final day? Even though we have gathered costs, we still haven't crunched numbers to get an actual cost per bag and to see if it matches our price point. We need to make a final decision about where to enter the market; do we put the bag in Urban Outfitters, Macys or Bloomingdales? Or do we start at Barnes and Noble and Target? We are concerned because we were told that if you enter the market at the bottom of your "retail pyramid" you can't move up. Places like Urban will not be interested in buying your product if you've been selling in Target at a lower price point. Once we make a decision we can project income; how many stores will buy our bag? How many bags can we sell to them? And how much money will our designer, Alica Kim need to put her first order into production? Finally, what is the "next step" sales strategy for Alicia.

Thankfully, our first guest of the day is Andrea Katz, a high-end clothing and handbag designer- we hope she can help us with some of these questions! Check out her fashion line, it's very sheik and avant garde. www.akonyc.com

"You should enter the market where you think you should be" was Andreas answer to us when we told her of our struggle to decide on the retailer that would best suit the Binder Bag. Bingo! For some reason this obvious statement lifted our veil of confusion! The top of pyramid was our answer, Urban Outfitters we all screamed! BUT, we all agreed it would only work if Alicia upgraded the fabric to be more on target with trends, better durable texture, and tweeked the design suggested by all the experts.

Gregory presenting the Binder Bag to our guest with our 3 in house models.

Before Andrea could give us any advice she needed to see the bag. Gregory, our not-so-shy student, was easily elected as spokes person and provided the Binder Bag "elevator pitch" many times during the week, while the other students modeled the bags. Their flawless presentation would impress any buyer- great job guys!

Andrea providing us feedback on finishing touches that would make our product stronger

Andrea examined the bag and had many of the same comments as the other experts who critiqued it; use higher quality fabric, outside stitching not professional, fabric designs and colors not current trend, use velcro on inside pocket to prevent pencils from falling out. Andrea also pointed out to us that the seams were too big and would waste money when producing in volume-the excess fabric will add up she warned. All in all she liked the concept.

Finally, we get to meet our designer- Alicia Kim arrives. She is so happy to meet her team of teen entrepreneurs and grateful for all the work they are doing for her. She quietly sits by and listens as Andrea wraps up her time with us by helping us to figure out our costs per unit. She thinks we can get the bag made at a clothing factory for about $10 a bag. We end up at a cost of around $13-15 per bag after we factor in all of our other costs. We think we can make our price point at $45! I talk a little bit about how many boutiques we can sell to in the area, how many they would buy and how much money Alicia needs to make the first order. Andrea leaves us for another meeting and the teens are getting restless with all this number crunching- time for lunch. I hope Andreas fashion line does well, she is an amazing designer and has struggled with the economy like many businesses. We were lucky to have her speak!

We finally get to meet our designer Alicia Kim!

The teens are refreshed from lunch- good, because the rest of the day will be spent writing our business plan. Before Alicia slips out the door, she craftily asks the teens what their favorite colors are. Little do they know that she has offered to custom make a Binder Bag for each of them. I will include a copy of their written business plan. Before she says goodbye we get a photo of her with the team. We wish her luck and hope she sells millions of Binder Bags!

Next and final guest, Kathy Sussell, a serial entrepreneur, who will assist the teens in writing their business plan. Kathy's recent business is called Bravo, life coaching. I think she would make a good coach because she is very calm and seems capable of taking a step back to figure out the correct path a person should take to achieve their goals. Check out her website at www.bravolifecoaching.com.

Typing up our business plan with Kathy

How do you get 8 teenagers to stay focused and still while trying to write a business plan? Not easy, I tried cookies, hot chocolate and giving them each a turn at typing. They bounced and slouched and banged on their cell phones as Kathy tried to pull the answers from them. This is usually the toughest part of the program, maybe we should break it up into sections the next time and write a little bit each day. No matter how you look at it- it's an extreme business experience, the teens had a deadline of one week to launch a product. That is not easy and they should be really proud of their accomplishment, they pushed themselves and finished first! Good job team!

Binder Bag: Day 3

2010-02-18T19:49:00.000-08:00

We know our product, market postition and costs to manufacture.
How do we get the Binder Bag sold?

Identifying our market potential

We began our day at 14 Wall Street still struggling with identifying a retailer that best fits our product and where we would have the most chance of selling it at our price point. This was a difficult decision because the Binder Bag is not a handbag, it is meant to be a fashionable, sleek way to carry your book binder. It is not similar to a backpack because you can't carry a lot of stuff. We examined this dilema further by drawing a pyramid on the blackboard and catergorizing potential sellers within the pyramid structure. We concluded that Urban Outfitters was the best place to enter the market- but we heard they don't pay a lot. At some point I guess you just have to get out there to see who is interested in buying.

By late morning we set foot out the door to visit a not-for-profit showroom run by the Garment Industry Development Corp to help boost new designers. We were lucky enough to get an appointment with Andy Wade, Executive Director of the showroom and present the bag to him. He works with new designers in the showroom to help them find sourcing and also gives thems advice on how to launch their fashion line. Andy thought that since the Binder Bag isn't a handbag why get it manufactured in a handbag plant? It's not made of leather, it's not a complicted design, and we could get it manufactured cheaper if we went to a clothing manufacturer or someone who makes medical uniforms or placemats. He commented on the messy stitching surrounding the bag and warned us not to send it to a factory to have a sample made as it exists, because they will make it exactly the same way. This would not be acceptable to a buyer and they would surely pass over your line. He also thought we could cut costs and up the quality of the bag by eliminating the embellishments or hand drawn designs by opting for better fabric. Bing, bang, Andy knows his stuff.

Andy providing us some VERY useful feedback on the Binder Bag

Here we are again, hungry and standing in the middle of the very busy garment district. We decide to head down to the Financial District to grab some food to re-fuel.

We meet back at 14 Wall Street and get a quick lesson on how to identify the RIGHT press contacts. We brainstorm the different media outlets, sections, reporters and editors that might be interested in hearing about what we are doing. We realized that we shouldn't only focus on fashion editors but that business editors might be interested in what a bunch of teenage entrepreneurs are up to. We then break off into groups to tackle a few tasks before the end of the day. As one team takes a crack at writing the press release (So far we only have spitballs), another group begins making a list of press contacts and another team researches the cost of presenting at a trade show. Sadly, after we spent time honing our telephone pitch to the trade shows, they all hung the phone up on us because they were too busy preparing for market week and trades shows. Oops, I guess we would have known that if we were working designers.

Binder Bag: Day 2

2010-02-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

Sarah teaching us about brocades at Mood Fabrics

Since we only have 4 days to figure out how to launch a product, we have a busy day ahead of us. We spent yesterday getting to know the Binder Bag, who might buy it, where it belongs in the marketplace, and how much it should cost. Today we need to figure out our resources and the costs of manufacturing. Alicia Kim, our handbag designer has been hand-making the Binder Bag for a few years and is ready to have it manufactured professionally- an intimidating thought for most!

Our first stop for gathering sourcing costs is Moods fabric store, famous for being featured on the TV show, Project Runway. You think, no big deal, find some fabric we like, get a price, and off we go. Of course not! While waiting for a late member of our team, we spent some time petting Mood's dogie mascot, Swatch, until we were greeted by the very entertaining Sarah, an expert in fabric science who offered to share her expertise. This should have been our first clue that this was not going to be an ordinary visit to a fabric store. Sarah traipsed us around Moods to introduce us to all sorts of beautiful fabrics including the fabric hand-me-downs created by designers like Marc Jacobs and Zac Posen. The glitch-you can't sell your product to the public using their fabrics, but you can give them away to all of your friends- this method should only be used if you are not interested in making money for your designs. The highlight of our time spent with Sarah was when she started lighting swatches of fabric on FIRE!

We were so amused that she was actually lighting fabric on fire that we missed her point. In the midst of this educational tour of fabric science, one of our students seemed to be suffering from a stomach flu and threatened to vomit all over the fabric if she didn't high-tail it home. One down. We were so razzle-dazzled by Sarah's presentation that we almost forgot why we were there-to gather costs. We gave Sarah a hearty thank you and spread out to seek the price per yard of our favorite fabrics. We were now late for our next appointment with Barry Martin, a manufacturer of high-end garments.

The beauty of the garment district is that all the resources you need to launch a fashion line are in one big cluster. Thankfully, we only needed to travel one block to visit Barry Martin's manufacturing plant. Barry was a little disappointed when we arrived late and was confused when we mentioned something about igniting fabric. Even though we learned that Barry mostly produces high-end clothing for companies like Coach, we gained valuable experience by talking the talk with him and by getting an inside look at an actual plant. It turns out that Barry's cost estimates for manufacturing the Binder Bag was too high for our price point, but cheap for him since he is used to manufacturing $3000 dresses and handbags. Regardless, he was very generous with his time and proudly showed off the alligator skins he had hanging around.

Barry and Diego inspecting the bag to give us our first estimate

It's now a little after 12:00 and everyone is famished. We don't have time for a leisurely lunch because a local newspaper reporter is scheduled to speak to us at 1:30 about how to write a press release. Once again we scramble for take-out food and hop on the express train to 14 Wall Street.

We arrive to our Donald Trump style conference room on the 20th floor. A little background on our office space; Teen Entrepreneur Boot Camp recently won a contest held by Regus Offices that awarded them an office space for one year based on their promising entrepreneur program.

Huddled around a humongous conference table, we listen to Terese Loeb Kreuzer, editor for the Battery Park City Broadsheet, and founder and editor-in-chief of the Travel Arts Syndicate, talk about points to consider when writing a press release. We "spitball" important facts we think should be included. We all agree that we should play up the angle of eight teens launching a business so that we can stand out from the hordes of designers clamouring for attention too. The exercise of writing a press release proves to be an effective method in getting us to understand our product further. We spend the rest of the afternoon hammering it out- it's not so easy.

Binder Bag: Day 1

2010-02-16T13:44:00.000-08:00

What better place to start learning about the business of fashion but the garment district? Our team of 8 ambitious teenagers began their journey in the design studio of Jodi Arnold, an established fashion designer. We all gathered around Jodi in her huge loft space as she introduced us to the odds and ends of what it takes to run a fashion line- we quickly learned that it is much more than sketching dresses all day! Nearby her production manager was making adjustments to a dress on a fit model while someone else was updating the clothing racks surrounding us.

In between answering questions from her staff, Jodi spoke to us about everything from sourcing, sample making, production and getting the product out there. We learned that we needed to approach people who buy for stores if we wanted to get our product out to the public. Jodi told us that she started out by knocking door to door at small boutiques, presented at trades shows and finally made it to showrooms in major cities.

Jodi explains to us what a "look book" is.

Before Jodi disappeared for her next meeting, she offered us the opportunity to wander through her huge loft to meet her staff. The studio was buzzing with activity; first we met the PR team and they told us of the challenges they face trying to get noticed by fashion editors - besides thinking creatively, they suggested a lot of networking. Roxanne, the production manager took time out to tell us how she is in charge of making sure Jodi's designs get made and placed in stores across the world. She follows the process from NYC to China, sometimes to India and back to the USA- wow, that is some responsibility. Next we met a design assistant who was making changes to a beaded design that will be embroidered in India, a pattern maker was adjusting a silk screen print that needed to be placed just the right way on a pattern and sample makers were busy in the back sewing new samples to be sent to their factory in China. Thank you Jodi for welcoming us into your studio, we learned a lot- and it's not even noon time.

http://www.jodiarnoldnyc.com/

As we were heading to the train that would take us to our conference room at 14 Wall Street we noticed a Fashion Kiosk, we decided to stop in and see what they could tell us about launching a fashion line. There are many ways to find resources and information about the business you want to start, you just need to be resourceful. We asked the girl sitting in the kiosk if she knew of any handbag manufacturers in the area and she quickly printed out a list for us. That was easy.

Somewhere between eating lunch and meeting a former merchandiser from Nike, we finally met the product we were gathered to launch. So, what is this mysterious product we are so eagerly trying to put into production you ask? The Binder Bag! Binder bag is a sleeve that disguises your nerdy binder as a fashionable handbag!

Okay, now we have a product, what next? According to our guest speaker from Nike, we need to do some research about our target market and competion and find out what our price point is. (How much will people pay for the Binder Bag?). We also need to identify retailers that fit our style and might be interested in buying our product. We learned about product positioning and why choosing the right "shopping experience" is important to attract customers. We talked a lot about marketing during the week.

Not wasting any time we hit the blustery, snowy streets of Soho to do some market research. We ducked in an out of stores on Broadway to check out the handbag selections trying to pinpoint our competition, niche and to identify our pricepoint. First stop, Scoop;too expensive, not our competion. Bloomingdales;too many designer bags;not too high-end for the Binder Bag. We were surprised to hear the sales lady say that the college students didn't have a problem buying $150 designer totes- go figure. Let's take it down a notch, how about Forever21? No, they didn't have much of a selection and too cheap. We couldn't find our niche; we're not really a handbag,where do we fit in? Last stop, Urban Outfitters; the team felt we shared the same style and price points, but we were not sure if the fabric quality of the Binder Bag was up to snuff for Urban. As we stood around a table of clothes, tired from a long day, wet and cold from trudging around, we decided to pick this conversation up tomorrow.

doing our first round of market research! identifying our competition

Teens Learn New Business Model That Teaches Manufacturing!

2010-02-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

This winter, Teen Entrpreneur Boot Camp will bring together twelve teens to work alongside up and coming designers to help launch their products or fashion designs. In the past, teens have learned to open a new retail business; this new business model is a lesson in wholesale and manufacturing.

The teens have one week to find a factory, figure out cost of production, and develop a sales and marketing strategy. For our first workshop, the teens will collaborate alongside Alicia Kim, a Queens native, to help her launch Binder Bag; a fashion-savvy way to carry your binder!

Our first session has begun, so stay tuned for daily updates about their progress.

Mugshot:Day 8

2009-08-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-14T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-06T13:23:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-05T13:41:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-31T14:02:00.000-07:00

What can we say we did it!

Session 2: Day 9 of Cafeazy

2009-07-31T07:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-23T13:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Session 2: Day 2 of Cafeazy

2009-07-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

Rachel from Tribeca Treats

Rachel came in today, and she told us about opening a business. She owns a bakery in Lower Manhattan called Tribeca Treats, which she's owned for over two and a half years. She brought in delicious treats for us, including cupcakes and small cookies. They were amazing, thank you!!!

Learning how to make coffee with Pam!

We learned to make coffee with Pam. It didn't turn out very good though most of the time. It was fun, but very confusing and we still have a long way to go before we become experts!

Anita talking to us about PR

We learned about the differences between Public Relations and advertising. Anita told us that PR could generate a lot of hype, which we need to get Cafeazy going, but could be hit or miss. She also told us that advertising could get expensive quickly, but was more of a sure thing. We will use all of this valuable and helpful information to get Cafeazy on its feet.

Session 2: Day 1

2009-07-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

All of the campers in front of the building on day one!

Today, we learned about networking and its importance in business. We had a hands-on experience when we introduced ourselves to each other, and learned about each other. Michelle came in and gave us an idea on customer importance, such as relevant facts about their coffee habits. She explained marketing to us, and how vital it is when it comes to starting a business. We also discussed how we would match up to and beat the competition.

We split up into 3 groups, with each group tackling a different aspect of what we learned. The first group worked with customer relations, the second group investigated the competition, and the final group explored the businesses and corporations surrounding the area. We regrouped and discussed our findings back at our soon-to-be coffee shop. The first group discovered that customers don't like to travel far to buy a cup of coffee. The second group found that our biggest competition would be Starbucks, due to its immense popularity. The third group was able to make a relationship with a nearby doorman, who would gladly pass out flyers advertising our shop.

After a refreshing lunch, it was time to come up with a name for our shop. A wide variety of names was brainstormed, ranging from Koffee Khan to Battery Acid. It was decided that the new name would be Cafeazy, a combination of the words Café and Easy. Pieces of paper were passed out to get a wide range of possible logo ideas, which will be put to a vote tomorrow!!!

Day 10: Espresso Yourself Finale

2009-07-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hard at Work!

Even with the sidewalk blocked off have customers!

customers "table tagging!"

TEBC teens at their best

Disassembling the set up

An Ode to Alistair

2009-07-17T07:09:00.001-07:00

Hard at work! making our shop clean
So Strong!!

Working hard......
working the register with Omari

Alistair and Yoela sending out press releases!

haha. ok so, we thought about how much Alistair's happy vibe ment to us, and now that he left... well, the vibe isn't so happy as much as it is tired. So this post is just for Alistair, with all these cool pictures! (even if he hates being in them)!

Goofing around with Omari

Alistair, if you're reading this, we all just want to say that you were a valued member, totally cool, and really fun to be with. Even though you never got a random as some of us, you still knew how to light up a room. ( or a whole coffee house, in our case :D) Thank you for just being alive!!!! ahahahahahahahaha lol. (of course by now you can probably tell that i (yoela) wrote this while still really tired and deliusional.) We had fun even if it was just having lunch all together, or staying after to look at embarrasing pictures/videos of us. None of us live close to you, and we dont know how ofter you come into the city, but we hope to see you around!!!!!!!!
Love- The Espresso Yourself Team!
(Yoela, Omari, Zoe, Mina, Alexi, Sabrina, Shireen, Michael, Billy, and Pam)

Day 9: Espresso Yourself

2009-07-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

The always happy Alexi at manning the fort

At the start of yesterday we had some difficulty with our coordination...PROBLEM: no coordination but as time went on we learned how to work together and found a system that worked for all of us. We had trouble grasping the concept of espresso drinks but in the end we all mastered the cappuccino. On Tuesday, Zoe worked hard on creating a schedule for our business days, with some people on drinks, some on cashier and food, and some on samples/fliers. But once again, difficulties struck. We ran out of fliers first thing in the morning, so that made 3 people without jobs, construction closed off portions of the street, decreasing the flow of traffic, and many people would look at the store front, but would just walk by. Even with our series of unfortunate coincident, we still managed to see a light side. With the customers that we DID have was a good amount for the first day. In total, we made $400 over profit on the FIRST DAY!!!!! I think that's pretty good, if you ask me. We ran out of Blueberry Lemonade during the "lunch rush", so I guess it was really popular!! The coffee stencils were a hit. They looked AMAZING!
Shireen's Stencil Success!
We all had a lot of fun, and did really well! The kids were allowed to keep the tips that they got. we made $56 in tips, so each kid got $8.
With all the joy in opening up, there was a hint of sadness among all of us. For Alistair, it was his last day with us. He would be leaving for Japan later that night. But he was a valued and awesome member of the TEBC community!!!!!
Alistair working the register

Day 8

2009-07-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

Alistair, Yoela, and Omari helping the delivery guys unload the catering.

Today we got our furniture and our coffee, and we were able to set everything up from the bar to the tagging tables! It looks really cool!

setting up!

Today, the final speaker came in to talk to us. His name is Daryl Dunbar and he's a business consultant. He helped us write our business plan. We sat around a table and went over what we did in the last two weeks, including our finances, marketing research, and advertising. We came to realize that setting up a business isn't as easy as just setting up a lemonade stand on the corner, it takes a lot of hard work. In reality, we realized that we would be more than $68,000 over our budget. Yikes! So once again, we are thankful for al the things we had graciously donated to us! Thanks Everybody! So far, we're all ready, except for our final touch, graffiti-inspired paintings!!!!!!

yay! Andy's plumber was conveniently in the area and hooked up our water line for our handwashing sinks!

Shireen and Alexi picked up our custom-made stencils for the coffee graffiti!

while they were away we got our T-shirts shipped from Alyssa SanValentin!

We are excited about tomorrow, and are well prepared .We learned how to make coffee, espresso, americano, and mochas. We'll get our treats later, and our milk will be fresh tomorrow! I hope all of you will come down and visit us between 8am and 5pm!

day 7

2009-07-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. Lawyers named David Helbraun Esq. and Joseph Levey came in and taught us about leasing information such as acquiring licenses and permits. These were some of our favorite speakers because they really made sure to interact with us and include us in their presentation. After lunch we received our equipment delivery. Yay! We now have our espresso bar and materials. Mina finished the press release and sent out more emails than we thought. Michael did the drink menu and put it up (it's very pretty.) Shireen, Sabrina and Alexi went to get the order of the flyers and stickers. There were a few typos, however they still came out beautifully!! Pam today showed us how to make espresso drinks. Zoe finished the schedule and assigned the team their jobs. Today was a very productive and fast moving day.

making use of the new equipment!

step 2....

step 3...

and done!

Yoela making an espresso

Day 6

2009-07-13T12:49:00.000-07:00

Our new curtains!

Today, Emily, an accountant and friend of Teen Entrepreneur Bootcamp, visited us and helped us get an estimate for our day to day costs, as well as any and all start up costs. Her advice was much appreciated and we were very suprised and grateful when she offered to contact her brother, a graffiti artist, and ask him if he would contribute to our cause.

Today was mostly a day of great news. A few days ago, we bought large sheets of black and blue cloth that today we made into curtains (see above). These curtains are going to work as barriers when the coffee shop is open. We placed all of our orders today, including paper goods, which Omari managed to negotiate the price down nearly $70. off the paper good order. Also, we made the drink menu and managed, thanks largely to Shireen and Michael, to put our logo on the window of our coffee shop.

Our mentors Shireen and Michael painting the logo on the window

P.S. This is our teacher/mentor/designer/counselor/everything! Shireen and Michael who came out to help!

day 5 very busy

2009-07-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

Mina and Michael getting fabric ready!!!

Mark and Mahwish from Chase bank came in to talk to us about finace and credit in the the morning. After lunch, Zoe and Mina went with michael to 40th street to go get the blue and black fabric for our back curtains. The curtains will act as barriers to separate the customer area from the employee area. Meanwhile, Alexi and Sabrina were finding counters and placing orders for the pastries from Tribeca Treats. Yoela and Alistair sent out the press releases to various TV and Radio stations such as NY1, CBS, and 1010Wins, as well as Newspapers such as The New York Times, West Side Spirit, and Our Town.

Alexi placing pastry orders and getting insurance quotes for our business plan!

Sabrina calling party rental companies for our catering equipment

Omari getting quotes for paper goods and supplies

posted by:

Mina & Zoe

Yoela & Alistair

day 4

2009-07-10T13:04:00.001-07:00

Alexi, Sabrina and Mina are doing the birds eye view of the espresso bar

Mina, Zoe Sabrina, Omari, and Yoela discussing what the layout should look like.

We got new paintings from an artist named Michelle Aragon, "The Many Faces of Mimi" which we used to decorate the walls of our espresso bar.

Architect David Meinhart taught us the importance of layout and structure. We cut out furniture pieces and measured our espresso bar layout on a piece of paper.

We wanted to have T-shirts with the Espresso Yourself logo on it, but we weren't sure because of the price. The price we found was $186, and that's a lot for us. But earlier that day, Shireen said she had a surprise for us, but we had to wait until the end of the day to hear it. Surprise!!! Whadd'ya know? The surprise was silk screened T-shirts that would be made by Shireen's friend. We also got price quotes. We thought about fliers and postcards. When we compared prices for each, it turned out that the postcards were cheaper. But the excitement didn't stop there! we had our first Tweet at us! it was by emanney and it said "@teenespresso can't wait to have my first cup!" We were psyched!!!!

Every thing is going like planned!!!!! yay!!!

Day 3 - espresso yourself

2009-07-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Billy doing his job and look we got new paintings!!!!!!

On day three we picked the logo that Shireen designed based on our ideas. Later we made a list of all the equipment needed to open our espresso bar. We went to local coffee shops to see how they layout all their equipment, after we researched the cost of the equipment, pluming and electrical specs. Then we came up with marketing vehicles (ways for us to advertise ourselves) and made our sandwich board.

pricing out everything is stressful!

Billy helping us out with the board after we came up with the layout

As the day progressed we came up with stencil phrases which we use to decorate all of our espresso drinks. We priced fliers, stickers and flags at both local and non local stores. We also learned about having an Internet presence such as facebook, twitter and blogs. We conducted market research by asking potential customers what they buy the most at coffee shops.

as we had success. We are so close to being up and running, we know we will do great!

Day 2 of Espresso Yourself

2009-07-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

We give a lot of thanks to Andy Kettler who donated us this gorgeous space.

This is the interior view just a week and a half before opening!

Day 2 In the morning, a guest speaker named Rachel, from Tribeca Treats, came and talked to us about PR and advertising, which is basically how she promoted her business which is also a very important component when you start or have a business.

Not only did we learn from Rachel but we also learned how to write a press release from Antia Aboulafia. She is the Director of Communications and the NYCLA (New York County Lawyers' Association).

The last thing we did that day was create a logo that we all agreed on. We learned that picking a logo was very important because we needed to choose a design that attracts all different kinds of crowds, not only teenagers. We chose a graffiti design since it attracts everyone. It also had to express what we're selling, which is espresso and other drinks! So we included coffee beans.

Interesting facts about our space:

It was built in the late 1800's and is classified as a historical landmark!

It was used to be a calculator and slide ruler co. run by a family.

Day 1

2009-07-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

top: Mina, Sabrina, Alexi, Zoe, Omari, Alistair
bottom:Gabriella, Yoela
Day 1- We learned about networking. Ms. Holley, a professor at Baruch college, came to talk to us about it. Networking is when you know people that can help you start your business. For example, Zoe knows the CEO of about.com!! This is very helpful because then we can advertise our business on about.com.

We went around the neighborhood and wrote down the types of people that would be visiting our shop, we found that people 26 years+ are our target market. We are now focusing the style of our new espresso bar on those ages.

We chose the name- Espresso Yourself- we chose this name because it sounded good for all ages and it could be put in any design category. We can design the coffee shop in any way. We all agreed to this good name. Some runner ups were Cafein-o Royale, Fill er' up and Black Magic.