Its All Over Johnny.

Well our journey is nearing the end and its been one hell of a semester.  At the beginning we had high aspirations but it turned out money isn't made on dreams.  We set out to deliver an alternative caffeine delivery system and our answer solved multiple problems.  First we were able to provide substance in the form of calories and carbs which are necessary for success and memory retention.  Normally when you consume caffeine it is in liquid form and you tend to forgo any food, leaving you empty.  So we thought it was going to be a great semester of selling and distributing EXTREME MUFFINS (patent pending.....nahht).  we also set up a website with paypal (extrememuffins.com) and a twitter account @muffinwin....check us out.

The disparities are due to a few things, as a group we had serious conflicting schedules making it difficult to meet and sell together.  Also the time needed to bake and the overhead involved were drastically underestimated.  Although we feel like our idea does have potential in various outlets, we were not the ones to take it to fruition because of our lack of operational capabilities.

We took away several practical lessons from our experience.  We recommend selecting a product that ties into your personal life in some manner, meaning that the problem your product solves should be one you feel personally affected by and would like to solve.  Our collective addiction to caffeine and subsequent idea formation did provide much needed motivation.  Another recommendation is to START EARLY, this cannot be stressed enough.  The sooner your group gets the ball rolling on an idea, the easier it will be to build momentum and solve problems as they arise.  It is even more important however to FINISH STRONG as we found out.  We definitely had some mid season struggles which can directly contribute to our lack of a strong close.  

 It seems overall that the more successful ventures in the class this semester were those that sold a fixed product which allowed groups to sell either together or individually with similar success.  Try and find something that is tangible that can be bought, customized or innovated, then resold with out a lot of overhead.

For all the bad there was a lot of good.  We learned many lessons which we will take with us long past the termination of the Fresh Horizon group.  Athough there are no posts left we would like to say that we are attempting to partner with campus cookies possible in the next week and are hoping to hear back from an ARamark representative about placing the EXTREME MUFFINs in Java city for finals week.  Well maybe we will make a final final blog post if things go well, but probably not.

We want to leave you with a quote that has meant a lot to our group...here it is

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Theodore Roosevelt  ...(Thanks TR)

April showers bring Muffin Powers

The inconsistent weather we've been experiencing in the Burg recently has got everyone in Fresh Horizons feeling exhausted, mainly from having to change clothes several times a day.  We assume y'all are feeling the same way, so we're going to bake a LOT of muffins in the next couple days to get JMU back in gear.

FH has been moving slowly the past week.  With the semester drawing to a close, the members have all been plagued by conflicting schedules and extracurricular demands.  However, with 3 weeks to go, we realize it's time to step our game up.  To be successful in this remaining time, we're going to have to sell our product with a newfound enthusiasm.

For muffin bakers such as ourselves, finals week is the holy grail.  The incredible pressure from projects, tests, and the resulting study time means JMU students will be tired and stressed to the breaking point.  This is the time where our muffin sales will shine.  Expect big numbers and big flavor in the coming weeks.

The sale begins when the customer says yes. -Harvey MacKay

These past few weeks have been exciting for all of us at Fresh Horizons.  We booked space in the showker lobby and began experimenting with different muffin flavors.  Unfortunately our sales in showker were less than stellar.  What we learned?  We did not have any signs saying what we were or what we were offering.  Next time we sell we will definitely need some sort of signage.  

Our Hype - its going well on twitter although our followers per day has declined a little bit.  We got a retweet from Adam McFarland which was exciting!!

We also now have a website that Matt Lazas is producing which looks promising so far.  (extrememuffins.com) Hopefully Professor Wales can push him to make it even more amazing.

Tony and Dave did some direct selling to the wonderful business professors at JMU and got a great response.  Special thanks to David Parker for buying 4 muffins - (disclaimer - he did not eat them all at once)

John made an appearance in a COB 300 class and gave our pitch.  His report states that there was a lot of interest so we will target them next.  We have also gotten requests for individual packaging and sales outside of showker at places like the commons and ISAT.  These will be our next moves to develop our product and our brand.

These next weeks will be big for Fresh Horizons and we look forward to providing everyone with the MOST  extreme muffins!!

later days,
Fresh Horizons

Free Capri Suns on the Horizon.....fresh.

We have accomplished a lot this week and the next few weeks should be even more exciting.

We have received our square card reader and have tested it.  It works like a charm.  Tony and Dave went to bank of america and set up a bank account to deposit our revenue.  The square website allows you to track all purchases as well as allow you to export your receipts into an excel document.  This will allow us to see the time and dates of the most purchases and plan to sell more on those days.

It will also allow us to accept debit and credit cards which will differentiate us from our competition on campus; vending machines.

We have also decided that we will be including a free capri sun with every purchase to differentiate our selves.  This will add value to our product and increase Fresh Horizons goodwill


Oh Yea and....

We're on twitter now, follow us @muffinwin for updates, deals and more specials.

Free CapriSUN on the horizon...fresh.

We have accomplished a lot this week and the next few weeks should be even more exciting.

We have received our square card reader and have tested it.  It works like a charm.  Tony and Dave went to bank of america and set up a bank account to deposit our revenue.

We have also decided that we will be including a free capri sun with every purchase to differentiate our selves.

We're on twitter now, follow us @muffinwin for updates and more specials

Emeril would be so proud of Fresh Horizons

This week was big for us. sweet.  we baked.  we ate.  we did work.  and we also made some prettty tasty muffins along the way.

Here is a picture tale of what we did -

              The girl at foodlion wanted to come bake with us...we also got her phone number 540 - 781 - 3454....call her

"Listen john this is the way its done!" - Tony
"Don't tell me what to do im all over it brah" - John
"Shut up and cook" - Tony

          Precision is key.

     Caffeine action shot, literally.

John's girlfriend has been nagging him for weeks about his lack of domestication.  His "I do me, girl" look illustrates his quest for an Iron Chef championship which he hopes to pursue after graduation.  

"This is definitely going to be my profile pic" - John 

We always practice safety first, dont wanna burn our hands on any muffins.

Tony's recent success in his yoga class has led him to seek serenity in every situation.  

"Hey, this is almost as fun as watching paint dry" - Tony

We now want to thank some of the inspirational figures that have led us to this point

 Charlie Murphy

The Birdman

Last but not least, Andy "Brink" Brinker

"You got dissed, you ate beef"

Supplies have arrived and we’re having a BLAST (of caffeine)

Week 3 – Supplies have arrived and we’re having a BLAST (of caffeine)

Our project is well underway.  Last week, David placed an order for our first batch of BLAST CAFFEINE and it arrived over the weekend.  David and his roommates sampled the product in powder form and concluded that it works as described from the product description.  They added it to meals as well as to liquids and had great success.  We’re planning to acquire the remainder of our materials needed to bake this week and get cooking by the weekend!  We’ll be using pre-made muffin mix (per Dwight’s recommendation) and the associated materials required for baking. 

None of us have much experience with baking, so the first round of muffin prototyping could prove fatal.

After acquiring all our materials and doing some testing, we’ll be able to conduct a cost analysis and determine the per-unit cost of each muffin.  This will allow us to develop an appropriate selling cost for our first batch.

Questions for in-class polling:

-When you eat muffins in the morning, which size do you prefer? (Small, Medium, BIG)

-For coffee drinkers, how many cups do you drink on average in the morning?

- What time of the day are you most likely to be drinking caffeine (Am, noon/afternoon time, PM)

- Are there specific days you drink more caffeine (m, t,w,th,f,s,su)