Ground Booty: Day 8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.