Yammay Cupcake Shop - Essay Example

Yammay Cupcake: I had been thinking about starting a business since the time, I had specialized in business. In summer, as I came back to my home, I watched my sister make cupcakes of various shapes and style. Some were the shape of a star, others were round like a moon. The idea to open a café popped up in my mind with the first bite of the delicious strawberry cupcake. With a flash, I knew what its name would be. It would be named, “Yammay Cupcake”. I started thinking about the shop’s location, cost of starting the business, design of the shop, organizational structure, equipment and ways of advertisement. I. Cost: In order to open the café, the first and foremost challenge in front of me is to identify the cost of making the plan of "Yammay Cupcake” café. I intend to start the business with US $24,000. I think about renting a small shop in the pearl land that I can acquire for US $800 per month. It is a new luxury mall, in a luxury area in Qatar surrounded by many offices and a park. I can guarantee that my customers will be employees, who will visit my café in their break time. Also, the families, especially kids in the park will make potential customers. I plan the location of "Yammay Cupcake" in such a way so that it will make the nearest cupcake café for the offices and the park. Also, I think I shall sell coffee, juices and lollipop cakes for the children. The fundamental ingredients for most of the desserts will be flour, sugar, oil, cream, natural cooking colors and chocolate. All of them can easily be purchased from a famous market in the locality. I intend to import ingredients for the cakes’ decoration from USA, for I know a good decoration shop in USA, that sells good decoration material for the cupcakes for little cost. That shop is IKEA. Its stores are available in many countries, though those in USA are accoutered with the most beautiful decoration material. I can tell this because I had visited the IKEA stores in Dubai and the decoration there was not like what I had seen in the stores in USA. I talked to the manager in the Dubai store. He told me that he would help me import decoration material from the USA stores for a fee of $150. The coffee will be imported from ILLY coffee shop in Italy. It is a wonderful shop. Nobody from my family ever forgot its taste and aroma. The ingredients will cost me US $3000 per month. I shall take all the equipment from a specialized shop that sold excellent equipment for cooking and coffee. The shops owner is my uncle. He will give me a good deal, and it will cost around US $2500 after discount. II. Polychronic: The culture of Qatar is polychronic. Duty is more important time. So I chose “Yammay Cupcake" café as my first business. I have many reasons for doing so. First, people in Qatari love to eat small sweet cupcakes after they wake up from their nap. After they wake up, many of them pick up their friends and go to the nearest café to enjoy sweet cupcakes with tea or coffee. Many of these potential visitors of cafés are single. Yet there are others who buy the cupcakes as snack with the Arabic coffee that they make at their home. They often first eat it with a cup of Arabic coffee, and later take a cup of red tea. These people are usually married men. They have a trend of taking snacks with tea at home. Many get the cupcakes cooked at home by their wives. III. Collectivism: The culture of Qatar is also very collectivist. In my opinion, it is great to be in a collectivist culture because you are never alone. Everything you have to do in a collectivist culture involves your friends and family. Another reason for choosing to open “Yammay Cupcake" café is that it can make a special place for Muslims to visit on Eid, weddings, gallery exhibitions, birthdays and private events. Usually in these events, they order the cupcakes with one or two servers, depending upon the events. They can customize their cupcake depending upon the event, like they can dictate the size and flavor of their cupcake. Also, many of them get the cupcakes made on order one day before they go for camping. Many cupcakes are delivered to the customers at their homes. In Qatar, especially in the afternoon, the streets are very crowded. Married men don’t like to drive when the streets are crowed, so they prefer their cupcakes delivered at home. IIII. Ascription: Ascription is an important trait of the culture of Qatar. Jobs are influenced by relationships. One’s family name and relations matter a lot. For example, if one candidate has a poor academic record as compared to another and both apply for the same job, there is great likelihood that the interviewer will favor the one who comes from the same family as he does irrespective of academic record. Hence, many jobs are offered for personal reasons. Accordingly, I expect my uncle to let me have one of his shops for a low price as he owns many shops in the mall in which I intend to open my “YAMMAY CUPCAKE" café. Besides, my sister will cook the cupcakes for me. V. Advertisement: In my culture, if one wants to advertise one’s café, one should have good relations, great stuff to offer in a great location with a good view. If one’s restaurant or café is small, it becomes easier to advertise. Eatables become a focus of advertisement in such cases. One should say in the advertisement that one’s café is the only café that makes cupcakes on especial orders. As soon as the first customer orders and likes the delivery, he tells his friends about the restaurant or café. His friends go and try the food themselves and if they also like it, they take the name of café further. It takes between two weeks and two month for a new café to become known by most of the people in Qatar. It mostly depends upon the relations of the owner, food and location of the shop. People soon get to know about a new shop in Qatar because Qatar is indeed, a very small country. Citizens mostly know one another. VI. Aim: My goal is to gain competitive advantage over other cafés in Qatar. I don’t think any shop in the pearl land mall provides the customers with the products of quality and price as good as that which will be offered by my café. “Yammay Cupcake" café will be the first café in pearl land mall that will bring new coffee brand from Italy and delicious homemade cupcakes. The will maximize the profits. Also, it will be a pioneer in this business. My business type is partnership because I am going to start the business with my sister. The business will be funded by me, and she will enrich it with her good cooking skills. The profit will be equally divided between both of us. Divisional structure will suite my business because I have two main products; coffee and cupcakes. “Yammay Cupcake" café will be the most creative in the presentation of cupcakes. Presentation will be according to events or occasions. Dealing with the customers is another thing that I should be aware of, especially that kids are too sensitive to deal with. I plan the decor for the shop to be modern and colorful. I will organize my business in two teams; first will be the project team led by my sister. Second team will be the problem solving team that will be led by me. My sister will take the training task in order to prepare the workers for the recipes of cupcakes. Arranging skilled workers for doing the coffee will be my task. The workers will be Indians and Filipinas because they are usually fluent in English. Also, they cost less than other workers. Read More