The Group Is Very Excited to Be at the Point where We Can Make Tangible Changes and Contributions to the Business
The second quarter of the NPI class is all about implementing the plan and action items we spent all of last quarter creating. For Sweet Passions, a small custom-order bakery located in Alum Rock, San Jose, the plan contains two major projects. The first is to revamp the bakery’s website. When Sweet Passions transferred ownership less than a year ago to the current owners, access to the website was not included in that transfer. With that, we are working with a Computer Science major from SCU to build a new website with updated product offerings and contact info, and a more user-friendly way to place online orders. A small portion of our total budget will go towards the creation of a website in order to improve customer experience from their very first interaction with the bakery, which is often through a company’s website.
Our second action item is to get Sweet Passions a new light-up sign for the outside of the shop. Currently, there is only a sign in the window of the shop, which is hard to see from the street because of the high volume of customers in the shopping area who park in the lot in front of Sweet Passions. Even after the group has been to the shop several times, it is still a struggle to find the shop given the lack of a visible sign. We believe that this purchase will be very helpful for increasing awareness of the bakery and bringing in new customers. We are currently in the process of finding quotes for signs and applying for a grant through the city of San Jose to get the necessary permits to hang such a large sign. These fees can be costly, but if we are able to prove that Sweet Passions would benefit from such a sign, the city will waive the fees associated with it.
Moving forward into the implementation phase of the project, there will be much more communication between the NPI group and the business owner to ensure that she is happy with what we are working on and to ensure that we are able to follow through on our proposal. The group is very excited to be at the point where we can make tangible changes and contributions to the business after spending the last quarter researching and brainstorming the most efficient ways that we can help the business.