Lab on Starting a Cookie Business

Background and Introduction

You have dreamed about becoming an IT professional and entrepreneur since birth, however, you want to be prudent and have a backup plan; you intend to start a business with a couple of fellow classmates. Not just any business … you want to build a cookie empire!  You will use an old family recipe that has been handed down for generations in your family to start a business.

You can’t share the recipe with me (I know it’s a valuable family secret); however, I do know some of the primary ingredients in your cookies are as follows:

• Maple Syrup
• Fish (ideally Trout, Salmon or Cod)
• Wheat

Goals

• Your bakery needs to be located somewhere within Canada
• Initially you will sell your product online via a website and mobile application.  
• Over time, however, you would like your product to be in every major supermarket chain in Canada.  If things go well… eventually you want to export your cookies to every supermarket in the United States and Mexico, as well.  You have big plans!
• You have a great business idea and a terrific recipe. Although you do not have all the details of the business worked out yet, you want to begin the process of forming a company and protecting your intellectual property including the domain, website, logos, mobile app, etc.

Lab Instructions

Create a document in Microsoft Word in .docx format for this lab

Note that you must use Microsoft Word to create your document.  Do not use any other product that saves the document in Word format.  

Marks will be deducted if you do not use Microsoft Word

Formatting Information

Include a title page with the following information:

Name of your business

First and Last Name of all Team Members

Due date of the lab

Be sure to keep the question numbers intact and organized as shown below.

APA Requirements

You must use “in text” citations in APA format and you must include a reference page in APA format.

Videos provided in Content demonstrate the APA reference feature in MS Word that simplify this task and help you include the APA citations and reference page in your document.  You cannot/do not use footnotes for this lab.

Any screenshots related to this lab, for example, the domain search, must be captured and pasted into the related section of the document.  

To capture the screenshot:

In Windows, you can use the ‘Snipping’ tool

if you are on a Mac you can use Grab

All screenshots MUST BE LEGIBLE if the font is tiny to read, marks are not awarded Size and crop as necessary to ensure all text can be easily read by the PROFESSOR PASTE or INSERT screenshots into the document; do not provide any additional files.  

Any screenshots that are not copied into the Word document will not be marked.

Make sure that you format the document in advance of submitting the report.  You might want to print it out on paper first to make sure that it is formatted correctly.  This is a business-related document so a portion of the lab mark is related to the formatting of this document.

Goals

Read each question below carefully.  Answer each question below in your MS Word document.  Be sure to include the questions and the question number in your document, with your answers.

1. What is the name of the company?

It is important to choose a company name that is both representative of the product/business and ideally a name that is unique and easy to remember; you want to set yourself apart from your competitors.

You will want a web/mobile presence for your company.  When selecting the company name you should also relate it in some way to the domain name (or URL) that you would register for the business. Ideally, the company name and the URL for the business would be the same; however this might not be possible or feasible, it will depend on the name of the business.  For example, International Business Machines (IBM) uses ibm.combecause a URL comprised solely of the company name would be impractical.

2. What URL have you chosen; it must be available as a .ca in Canada

You must verify that your chosen URL can be registered in Canada as a .ca domain)

Using a domain name registration service of your choice, search to ensure that your domain name is available here in Canada.  

Insert a copy of the screenshot into the document from the domain registry company to verify that the domain is available and can be registered.

3. Can you trademark your Domain Name in Canada?  

Use the Canadian government Trademark Search Database to determine if the URL can be trademarked.

Insert a copy of the screenshot from the Canadian Trademark database proving that your URL (Domain name without the .ca) can be trademarked here in Canada.

You must be able to secure the .ca URL and the Canadian Trademark for the URL.  If either of these are not available, please start the process over again by selecting a new URL and/or company name.  

You need to find a combination of company name, an available domain name related to the company name and the ability to trademark the domain name in Canada.

4. How much profit will you make on each cookie?  

Show your calculation work to prove how you arrived at your number

When calculating – round each cost component to 2 decimal places

Calculate your figures on an annual basis

Your raw material costs for each cookie is 1.00

Lab Instructions

You will bake 5,000 cookies per work day.   The bakery is only open from Tuesday until Friday each week.

Four employees are working 40 hours per week at $12.50 per hour.  They work a four-day work week – 10 hours per day.   All four employees work the shift together.

The kitchen rental is a fixed cost: $4,100 per month and includes all of the raw material storage, baking racks, ovens, machines to box and label the cookies.  The monthly fee includes all of the electricity and water costs.

All other business costs per month of $2,850.00. This includes all other costs associated with the business: statutory holiday pay, payroll taxes Canada Pension Plan other employee related expenses insurance computer equipment, networking, etc.

Shipping costs are $100 for every 10,000 cookies

Each cookie sells for $3.90 plus HST

The bakery is closed for two weeks a year and all employees take their holidays at that time.  They are paid for their vacation time based upon their normal salary.

Note:  Your answer should be somewhere between $0.00 and $3.99.

For the multiple choice questions you do not need to provide any explanation with regards to how you answered each of the following questions:

5. Forms of Business Ownership – What type of “Form of Business Ownership” would be best, given that this business is manufacturing a product for human consumption?

Sole Proprietorship

Partnership

Federal Corporation

Provincial Corporation

Cooperative

6. Please choose one of the following cities; where would be the best city to locate your business?

London, Ontario

Toronto, Ontario

Vancouver, British Columbia

Quebec City, Quebec

Windsor, Ontario

7. What are the top two reasons why you chose the city you did to locate your business (pick any two of the following)?

Inexpensive labour

Access to highly skilled labour (great schools)

Close proximity to the customers

Reduce the costs of shipping your product to foreign markets

Near your supply of raw materials

8. You need a lot of money to start your cookie business.  50% of the money will come from equity financing.  Which two sources of equity financing do you hope to utilize?

Family and Friends

Bank Loan

Sell Shares in the Company

Venture Capitalists

Trade Credit

9. What would you be able to acquire when using Trade Credit?   

Fund Employee Payroll

Pay Monthly Rent

Pay Employee Bonuses

Acquire Baking Supplies

All of the above

10. It is always a good idea to create a business plan for your new business.  Match the section of the business plan with its description; simply write down the letter that is associated with each of the section descriptions as outlined below.

Executive Summary

Company Description

Marketing Plan

Operating Plan

Financial Plan

A plan that explains the strategy for achieving sales projections

Overview of the business plan

Identifies expected sources for financing the business

A detailed description of the facilities, labour, facilities, etc.

Describes the form of organization