If I Were CEO of Growing Leaders

While not working hard in the garden and recipe testing, Growing Leaders students have been reflecting on our business and marketing strategies. Students were asked to imagine themselves as CEO of Growing Leaders, and write a journal entry proposing a new idea to help us meet our 2019 financial goal. The most popular proposals were selected and students have been working in committees to make each a reality. Read on to see what Gwen, Sanam, and Olaf had to say:


I think that we should make a cookbook that people can buy, which includes all of our recipes. I think we should do this because from our comments, we know that many people would buy them. Also, you might think that people would stop buying our meals if they could make them at home, but they wouldn’t always want to be cooking, and people probably want to support our business. I also think we should put flyers up around school with instructions on how to order a meal, This would be good for people like 6th graders, and people who aren’t in Growing Leaders. They would know how to order and when.
-Sanam, 7th grade

As we are $4,000 behind out goal, starting in January, there will be changes. First of all, we would begin to sell GL merchandise online and at the sale, and we would open an online tip jar. We would also make a presentation to give in advisory classes at school, to go with an announcement in Willard Word and the Willard E-Tree. We would start printing flyers to post around Berkeley and use student Instagrams to shoutout GL as some people have 200+ followers that would boost awareness. We could also cut back on snack, but not all the way because it adds up lots of money. Lastly we would open up more business opportunities like more kinds of desserts and drinks.
-Olaf, 7th grade

As the CEO of Growing Leaders, I think that we should focus on having morning coffee and baked goods sales. I also think that making a cookbook could be a good idea to improve sales. For morning coffee, we could set up a stand at the garden gate, and have parents drive by and pick up coffee and add ons. We could do it on Monday mornings, because people are usually very tired, and they could just come by and pick up their breakfast. Customers have already asked for a cookbook, and I think we could make a lot of money selling it.
​-Gwen, 7th grade

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