Inventive ways to run a company

This week I learned so much and thought in new ways!  I enjoyed learning about different companies that do inventive things to run their company.  Zappos pays new employees to quit after the first week of training.  It sounds so crazy, but it's incredibly smart!  This ensures that those employees who stay with the company are more than likely there for the right reasons which ensures that the company culture stays in tact.  JetBlue chose to focus their resources on providing things other airlines don't such as live tv and helping passengers put their bags away.  I thought it was a brilliant move to recognize that trying to provide food would be waste of resources.  These companies set out to improve a service and to stand out from other companies and they have done just that.

I believe that customer service is vital to any company.  I personally expect to get good customer service because I have provided it to others when I have worked.  To me it's simple and so I can easily get frustrated when I don't receive basic service from an employee.  As an employer we need to make sure we are providing the employee with the ability to do their best job and feel empowered to represent the company as they see fit.  Once we train the employee in the company protocol we need to develop a bond of trust to allow them to serve our customers to their ability.

$100 challenge

I am very excited to report on my challenge.  It is going very well!  I receive a lot of orders and fulfilled them this week.  My total sales so far is $96.50, with a cost of $31.50 which gives me a total profit so far of $65.  I have new orders for this week and plan to put another promotion out on my Facebook page.  The gluten-free cookies turned out very well which was exciting.  I will add this option to my offerings since the process is the same with just one ingredient change.

I have learned a couple things from this week so far.  First of all I didn't plan for packaging.  I had no idea how I was going to package my product, how much the packaging would cost and how much it would eat into my profits.  I have found some simple and inexpensive ways to get around this problem, but would have like to have had it figured out ahead of time.  I also learned to stick to my plan and say no when people ask for items that are not part of my offerings.  A lady asked me to make one dozen cupcakes for her and deliver them to a function for her.  She was trying to find a way to support me in my business venture and was willing to pay more than I was asking.  I agreed to do it.  The problem is that I had not priced out making cupcakes.  I also did not have the process streamlined and they were more time consuming.  I need to stick with the products I planned on doing only until I decided if/when I will add more offerings.  I don't regret doing the cupcakes, because I learned a valuable lesson.