We had to pass on the opportunity to supply hall 6's CNY event due to us not being able to settle the invoicing issue in time. We took too long to register our LLP with ACRA. Due to this, we missed the wave of back to school/CNY events that we could have supplied for.

However, we are still working with Banyan hall to supply them for orientation in Aug. We are in talks for a few meals that they will be having. Since the orientation programme will span a few days, they wanted us to help them with their breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. They had given several requirements and budgets and we are in the middle of discussions. They needed breakfast snacks, packed meals for lunch and also buffets for finale night. The past few weeks, all of our members were searching for different suppliers that would be able to fit their budget (which was quite low) but we have found suppliers for many of them and are seeing whether Banyan would be ok with them. Some of these suppliers were quite low priced and would also be great for other events that we may have.

Another hall that approached us was Binjai Hall. They expressed interest in getting 200 Onigiris for one of their events. We had an agreement on the price and we are waiting for their side to get approval for their event proposal before they formally put in an order. In the mean time, it is quite a lull period as there aren't many events that required food. Hopefully, we will be able to secure some deals for events in the 2nd half of the semester.

We had also approached NTC to let us supply food for the presentation night and we found out about the Ariba system that the school uses. School departments have to look for vendors on the Ariba system to supply food for their events. Thus, we have set up an account on Ariba to look for any potential events we could do. However, there also doesn't seem to be many events that would require our services.

Right now, all of our members are also quite busy, having to juggle mid-terms, internship interviews that all of us are required to do in the coming summer break, attending entrepreneurship events for our reflective report and also preparing for the business showcase presentation. What we have done is to network at these entrepreneurship events to see whether fellow entrepreneurs would be willing to work with us or introduce us to any events. Hopefully it can produce some results.

Jiayou Chop Chop!

It is now the end of week 1 and including fixed costs, chop chop had made a loss of $500. We had to act and make bold moves in order to minimize our losses for the coming week. We had a skype call at 1030pm and these were our minutes.

Issue 1: Reduction of MOQ and increasing the shelf life of products

After liaising with our suppliers, they have decided to extend the shelf life of the Onigiris by 1 day and also reduce the MOQ to 100 for us.

Issue 2: Ordering for week 2

This was one of the most daunting problems that we faced during the meeting. It was really difficult for us to decide if we should carry on operations on week 2. We did have some disagreements but we knew that we had to avoid an impasse to allow the conversation to carry on. After an hour of discussion we decided that Chop Chop! will not carry on operation at the Hive to sell Onigiris from week 2 onwards. A few reasons being:

1. Much of sales were of low quality, i.e. supported by friends/ friends of friends which is not sustainable.

2. Even though the MOQ is reduced to 100, we were not confident that we will be able to sell 33 a day. Furthermore in the second week, low quality sales will fall drastically and we will need to depend on cold sales completely. Even if we sell all 100, we could barely break-even.

3. More losses will quickly deplete our financials and it would be even more difficult for us to pivot by then.

However, we also realised that stopping our operations at hive could bring us these problems too:

1. The brand chop chop! could be affected as social media will no longer be updated and students who genuinely want to buy our onigiri will not be able to buy them anymore.

2. Building of the awareness and brand will also be wasted.

Issue 3: How to move on from here?

Now that we are not selling Onigiri's anymore, it is very important for us to set our plans in the right directions to ensure that we do not make any wrong move anymore. After discussion, we have decided to move towards catering to event based activities such as camps or one off meals that departments wishes to have.

This was an idea we came up with during one of the days we were operating at the Hive. We reached out to NTU Hall councils and student organisations asking whether they would be interested in catering Onigiris for their events. We soon realised that there could possibly be a market for not just Onigiri, but packed meals like bento sets. 2 of the organisations got back to us and immediately wanted to place orders for 100-200 pax each for their events. We felt that this could be a possible way for us to pivot our operations as our main goal in the first place was to bring in bento sets after the Onigiris. However, without an established brand, it may be difficult to persuade and clinch more of such deals. As such we will be approaching more school bodies to work together.

Issue 4: Invoice Issue

As chop chop is not officially registered under the registrar of ACRA as a legitimate business entity, we faced a problem where many of these school organisations wanted to purchase from us but were unable to as they would require a official receipt to do claiming and other works. We are currently working on this issue and finding alternative solutions. However in the event that we cannot find any, we might have to register under ACRA in order to produce the invoices required by the school. We will be blogging on the progress of this issue in the next entry.

Issue 5: Initializing our new business model

We will be looking for more suppliers on top of customers as we would like to provide our customers with a greater variety of food options when they want to order with us. Currently on hand, we only have suppliers for Japanese cuisines such as Bentos and Onigiri, Lei Cha, and Boon Lay's Power Nasi Lemak.

The group will also continue to expand our search for more customers to allow us have a higher probability of clinching a deal.

JIAYOUS CHOP CHOP !!!

We conducted our bento food testing today. The staffs from RE&S prepared a total of 5 flavors for us to try.

A few observations noted were as follows:

Portion was decent. Both the side dishes and meat were adequate. The rice portion was more than sufficient.

However, base on appearance, we found that the meat on the bento was not as appealing as we want it to be. The discoloration of the broccoli made it unappealing too. Base on taste, we found the broccoli to be a bit soggy. The staffs did mention that they will work on the broccoli and promise to help resolve this issue. On a side note, the combination of the sauce and rice was not bad.

One suggestion proposed from RE&S was that we can beautify the package by adding a bow or ribbon to wrap around the centre of the bento. This might boost the perceived value of the bento .

The group was not really satisfied with what RE&S has to offer. We found the price a bit high and given the current outlook of the bento, we are unsure if we want to move forward by using their bento. The doubt right now is whether there will be demand during operation. If we will have to move on with the bento, we might have to come out with strategies to repackage the whole bento. However, it would mean an added cost...

As for now, we have decided to focus on our onigiri. The bento meals might come into play after Chinese New Year. For now, let's hope Monday will bring in good sales!

JIAYOU CHOP CHOP!

In today's meeting, we have managed to confirm quite a few issues regarding the business. The points are summarised as below

Confirmation

• Date of Launch - 14 Jan 2019
• Flavors - Chicken, Tuna, Salmon
• Quantity - 150 daily
• Price - $2.50 each
• Location - Hive far corner
• Confirmation of ordering system and processes - Whatsapp (Telegram bot creation in progress)
• Payment system - Paylah only
• Food wastage protocols (Give away to friend, Take home, Throw away)

Marketing Plans/ Strategies

• Buy 4 get 1 free promotion (First 2 weeks tentatively)
• Influencer (Giving her onigiris as a form of promotion) - number to be confirmed but 10 at the moment
• Giving out free onigiri to the first # customers, the number is to be confirmed
• Festive season promotion

Operation Logistics

• Sticker, Banner, Table Cloth to be purchased before 14 Jan

Financing

All capital is already injected, now we can begin disbursing the expenses and start the operations.

-Payment to suppliers - estimated weekly payments ($1.25*150*4+$40*4)

Jiayou Chop Chop !

According to our surveys, we have identified that Japanese cuisine is one of the most popular food options which students crave for lunch. Hence, we decided that RE&S, a Japanese leading food service company would fit the bill.

Today, our team visited RE&S, and we managed to understand more about what they have to offer. We sat down to share with them our business idea and they also went through with us the selection of food they offer. One of their main concerns was whether we would white label their product. Due to the fact that they will be doing several food testings, they hope to gain some recognition from it.

However, from the team's perspective, we hope to brand our Chop Chop not just in terms of service but also the food we offer. While they did suggest us to focus more on the service which we provide rather than the product, our team would still prefer to have the food under Chop Chop's brand.

Moreover, one of their other concerns was also the type of Bento which we would be working for our project. As both our team and RE&S want to ensure a great distinction between what Koufu and us are going to sell, they wanted us to do a more thorough study on our competitor's analysis and also the kind of ingredients we would want in our bento.

As for now, our team will be working on creating another survey - this time, a survey to allow our customers to choose their preferred Bento in reference to what RE&S has to offer. We will then study the results and meet RE&S again to come out with the ideal bento for an ideal price and then continue to work from there...

JIAYOU CHOP CHOP! :D

Today, our group had a discussion regarding the operation plans of Chop Chop! We have arrived at the following operation plan as follows.

Daily operation of Chop Chop!

10 am– Team will review volume of online preorders, inform supplier of additional order if necessary.

11am- Our suppliers are expected to start delivering the food supplies reach us at approximately 11.45pm.

12pm - Chop Chop! will commence operation and online preorders will be closed.

1. Online orders will reviewed at 10am.

Justification

The cut-off time may be pushed earlier as suppliers may require more time in order to prepare the food in advance and deliver it on time. However, as of now, 10am would be the preferred time as it ensures that we are able to maximise the orders we can potentially meet on a daily basis.

2. Orders to expected to be prepared by 11am.

Justification

As we take into account of time required to transport the food, depending on the location of the supplier, food is expected to be prepared by 11am. Something we may have to consider is that the duration the food can be kept after preparation, especially with regards to NEA regulations.

3. Our store will operate based on 2 queues – one for online orders and the other for walk-ins.

Justification

This is to ensure that people who opt for online orders continued to experience the faster queue and hassle-free of collection of food. This is mainly because the walk-in queue is likely to experience a slightly slower moving queue as they are still required to make virtual payment on the spot.

4. Online orders will be closed at 12pm

Justification

Due to the lack of real-time inventory tracking system, this is to ensure that we have sufficient stocks to accommodate both walk-ins and online order customers.

An example scenario will be:

In the case where there is only one in-stock left and a walk-in customer and an online customer ordered simultaneously, we would not be able to accommodate to both at the same time. It would be unfair and inappropriate for us to decline the walk-in customer’s purchase and at the same time we would require real-time inventory tracking systems in place to ensure that the online orders can be met. Since real-time inventory tracking system would require additional capital (if done through automation) and/or manpower (if done manually), we would have to close the online orders before 12pm.