It Has Been Really Exciting Getting to Apply the Business Skills that We Have Developed since Arriving at Santa Clara University
My group and I have now been working with Floreria Juanita for a few weeks. We have been focused on getting to know Sandra and her mother Estella better and learning more about their business in order to establish how best we can make an impact. It has been really exciting getting to apply the business skills that we have developed since arriving at Santa Clara University to a real-world business, and coming up with ways to solve real-world issues, rather than hypothetical situations from the classroom.
Our group now is working on market research to see what the flower shop's competitors are offering and how our shop stacks up against them. As part of our competitive analysis, one thing that we did and are planning to continue with, is visiting other shops in the area, viewing how they are set up their stores and price their products. By doing this, we hope that we can gain ideas about how to better attract customers to the shop, as well as ensure that arrangements from Floreria Juanita are competitively priced.
Sandra has been very helpful and willing to work with us so far. Rather than us struggling to gain ideas from her or have to come up with them on our own, I think our group may have the opposite problem— we have too many ideas and now have to narrow them down! This is a great problem to have, and it has been really encouraging to see how open they both are to our help and ideas. I think that we are all excited to see what the next couple of months have in store for the business, as well as how it will impact them in the future.