Step Eight: Completion?

I hesitate to even say this, but I think I am finished with my Senior Project. It feels a little bit odd. I just put the final touches on my business plan as I would present it to investors. There are an incredible number of considerations for starting a small business, and quite frankly, I’m not sure I would have the guts. This website was my only attempt to advertise, and it took a considerable amount of time. I cannot imagine the time toll that constantly marketing yourself and your business would require.

I have decided that if I were to launch my own baking business, it would be based from home and I would be more likely to create mixes than finished products. This decision came from reviewing countless websites about starting a small business and reflecting on the limited size of the vegan consumer base. Mixes ship farther than finished products without concerns over spoilage. It would also decrease expenses related to constantly running the ovens and decrease start up costs because there would be no need to buy big commercial baking equipment.

I would also market through the internet, through either this site or a similar site to reach the largest clientele possible. I would also definitely continue offering surveys like the two I completed for this project because classmates still keep asking me if I am bringing more food. It was an easy and effective marketing approach. Not only that, but it reached people who ordinarily would not consider vegan food. If I went out into the community offering surveys and handing out business cards simultaneously, I think I could appeal to a larger range. My most popular recipe was also based around being a slightly more healthful recipe, so I think that could also be a successful promotional approach.

Note: The photo is another from Alon's. These are the recipes used commonly in the bakery.

Step Seven: Non Response Bias

I am a little bit more excited to have non response bias than I should be. After all, any kind of bias is a bad thing, but I’m excited to know what it is. Non response bias occurs when not all of the people surveyed respond. So basically, I handed out twenty surveys and only got nineteen back. I honestly do not know how that happened because most people don’t even walk away before they taste both samples, scribble something down and hand me their completed survey. I’m not too worried about it. I doubt one survey would have made a big difference.

On to the results! Cookie A, which was made with pecans, was the winner by quite a margin. It was the one that seemed cakey. It was fun reading the comments on this batch of surveys because most of them were so positive. I had one that said, “Not great, nut also not vomit-inducing,” so they weren’t all positive, but most said things like, “Both are delicious!” The most common complaint was that the cookies were not sweet enough.

Cookie A (Pecans)
Mean= 4.316 Standard Deviation=.862 Proportion Who Prefer A: 19/19

Cookie B (Almonds)
Mean=3.211 Standard Deviation= 1.06 Proportion who Prefer B: 0/ 19

Non-Response Error: 1

Again, these results are not random, but just for fun, I did another significance test, and surprise, surprise, these results actually ARE statistically significant. The p-value is .0015 which means that I could reject the idea of the preferences being basically the same at a 1% level! That may not mean much to most people, but I’m pretty excited about that. It means that people actually had a strong enough preference for it to be reflected in the results!

Here’s the recipe for Cinnamon Pecan Cookies
(modified from this recipe: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6391.0)

Ingredients: (at room temperature)
2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsps baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tbs cinnamon
¾ cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup vegan sugar
¼ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup apple sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pecans.
2. In a second mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, vegetable oil, and apple sauce. When it is fully mixed, add vanilla, and mix. Add water and mix thoroughly.
3. Form a well in the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients.
4. Spoon rounded tablespoons of dough onto baking sheet. Press each ball down a little in the center. The cookies do not spread very much.
5. Cook for 5 minutes, then rotate the pan, and cook for another 8 minutes. Take the cookies out even though they may not look ready, and allow them to cool on the pan.