Bagel Monday Weekly Review, 12/27/2010

Bagel Monday
: Used two 50 pound sacks of flour to make over 550 bagels
: Danny started mixing at noon, and took 2 hours to mix at a relaxed pace. Dough looked decently developed, and got one tuck after 2 hours. Used half of the big table, could easily fit 4 sacks for the entire table.
: Cutting, Scaling, Preshaping and Shaping started at 6PM, and took 5 hours with Danny and Roger working. About 3 hours for preshaping and 2 hours for shaping. Technique changed quite a bit over the session, and efficiency will improve when we pick one technique to repeat.
: Used 32 proofing boards and 2 speed racks
– Create list and price of supplies
: Used 100X of active dry starter. Temperatures were around 65F, and proofing was moderate. Could have used more starter, and definitely would be able to when we develop the dough further.
: Danny got to La Victoria at 9AM to begin boiling and baking. Roger joined at 10:45AM, and we were done by 12:45PM. Entire process could be completed in 2 hours with 2 people.
– Need to add Sorting as a time cost. Sorting time for 550 bagels was potentially 1 hour.
: Jeff from SF Food Dude came to pick up bagels for a bagel competition. Still waiting to hear results, but have heard positive feedback so far. Jeff thought we had a niche market potential for “Berkeley, Santa Cruz, hippy granola” something or other.
: Currently are using Type85 High Extraction flour, which is a bit darker, and can resemble Whole Wheat for some people.
: Scott picked up bagels, and wants to talk more about Jewish Contemporary Museum buying bagels for an event
: Gave away sacks of bagels to GGP Market, people at Pops, the homeless hangout on Florida, someone at La Victoria.
– Create Sales Plan for where bagels are sent for Bagel Monday
: Gave bagels to Piotr, and talked about setting up Customer Account
: Danny enjoyed bagels, but still wanted a thinner, crispier crust; Mandy of Wholesome Bakery ate 3 bagels; Jaime preferred the bagels from 3 weeks ago. There was a decent amount of inconsistency with the bagels. We had some of the bagels in non boiling water, which softened them up too much.
: Total labor was about 10 hours for Danny and 7 hours for Roger, which comes to about 32 bagels per baker hour. Would like to increase efficiencies to 60 bagels per baker hour.
– Talk to Elliott about Bread Education Delivery Plan

Bread Education
: Was unable to effectively sell classes to anyone for the week
: Working with Gina at Homerun to promote Bread Education classes. We will offer 50% off $60 classes, and keep $21 per student per class.
– Work with Gina to develop offers
– Create Project Plan for Training Manual
– Check in with Urban Kitchen about February class

Communal Oven
– Check in about Tamales from person operating out of La Cocina.
: ForageSF looking for Commercial Kitchens. Something to keep in mind.
: Have been trying to contact Homestead Realty about property at Alabama and 20th, but have not gotten through
– Create budget for building oven and creating a basic bakery

Communications
* Follow through with Goal of writing every day
: Created Sitemap for website to easily see content.
– Recreate Bubble Chart Image Map
– Link to Flickr page
: Obtained certificate for professional help with packaging and logo
– Check in with Scott about Social Media Plan
– Create Facebook Ad and Google Ads Campaign to promote bread delivery

Finance
– Create Customer Account System. Name, Address, Phone, Email. Transactions: Date/Amount/Information
: Spent $120 on labor for Bagels.
: Bought pencils and pencil sharpener
* Create Stock Offering
– Ask JFCS requirements to apply for loan
– Call Hebrew Free Loan to get loan paperwork
– Call SBA to ask about loans

Operations
– Fill out Calendar for Production, Sales, Other Obligations, Bread Education
– Start using Quickbooks in upstairs office
: Segment Operations into Production, Sales, Distribution, Administrative
– Check in with Mary to see if she wants to run the Operations Program for the week starting Bagel Monday, January 3rd
– Spend half an hour updating Sales Plan
– Talk to Elliott about running Daily Fresh Bread Project

Improving Baking
: Learned a lot from 500+ Bagel Baking Session.
– Start tracking time for Mixing, Turning, Shaping, Baking, Sorting, Feeding Starter
– Call Brickmaiden about visiting in January
– Email Chad to check in
– Add SFBI classes into budget

Legend
: Information
– Todo
+ Done
* Priority