Boost Cafe

Mission Statement

To provide nutritious and invigorating food and beverages to our valued customers.

Vision Statement

We envision becoming the source of a small boost of energy that keeps Hudson Valley residents and visitors going throughout the day.

Initial Ideas for My Business

My business, “Boost,” belongs to the service industry. Boost is a café-style restaurant offering a diverse range of food items, including burgers, wraps, salads, and sandwiches. Additionally, Boost features protein shakes, energy drinks, smoothies, and coffee. What sets Boost apart is its flavorful energy drinks and the unique “Make Your Own Bar,” where customers can craft their perfect drinks using various available flavors. While we anticipate success in the New Paltz area due to our distinctive menu, potential competition exists, particularly from a café known as the Green Bar. The Green Bar offers smoothies, acai bowls, quinoa bowls, shakes, brunch toasts, organic juices, and more, similarly to some of our offerings. However, we believe our “Make Your Own Bar” and diverse menu options will differentiate us.

Our business caters not only to individuals of all ages residing in New Paltz but specifically targets budget-conscious college students eager to maintain a healthy diet. We’ve designed our menu with affordability in mind, prioritizing the health needs of college students. We also accept hawk dollars, making it convenient for students on meal plans to dine with us. Furthermore, Boost is available on popular food delivery platforms like Grubhub and Doordash, ensuring a broader customer base and convenient meal delivery.

The future building of Boost Cafè

Boost Cafe’s building on Main Street

Boost’s strategic location at 6 NY-208, on the outskirts of campus where the town begins, ensures easy access for students. Additionally, its proximity to Main Street attracts both locals and tourists. Overall, Boost is ideally situated to serve tourists, town residents, and students.

Why I chose this type of business

I chose this business because I am a student athlete at SUNY New Paltz, and I understand the importance of maintaining a healthy diet while juggling practice, games, classes, and homework. Some days, finding time for a balanced meal can be challenging, and I wanted to address this issue. Another reason I chose this industry was because I also have an interest in restaurant owning and just food in general. I grew up watching cooking shows with my dad and have always loved to watch them in my free time. In addition, as a kid I would always play cooking games where I was the waitress/ cook/ interior designer and manager all in one. Those games were always fun for me to play, until I had way too many customers and wouldn’t know what to do anymore. I think this inspired me to open this type of business. In addition, I’m also curious to see how restaurants are managed/run. Who knows if this industry will interest me in the future, and if I ever find myself being involved with it.

My Past Experience with Business Plans and/or Research Essays

My senior year of high school I took an English course called, AP Research. This course was dedicated to spending the whole school year conducting a research paper. This research paper was about 5000 words long. We spent about 4 months brainstorming, drafting and conducting the research aspect before writing the official paper. My experience with this was less than favorful. The topic I chose was Disney Adults. Luckily, I felt very passionate about this topic and was very curious to research the factors contributing to the formation of Disney Adults. Aside from the topic itself, I felt the class was very challenging and at some points it was very hard to manage my time and stay on top of completing each section by the given date. As for my experience writing a business plan, I’ve written parts of a business plan only a couple of times. I don’t remember my experience writing this as well as I do my research paper, but as far as I can remember it was a positive experience. I’ve written parts of a business plan for a couple of business classes that I took in high school, along with a business club I was in. With this experience, I hope that I wouldn’t have as much trouble as I’ve had in the past when it was my first time doing something like this.

Leading Research Question and Related Questions

  • Why is Main St in New Paltz, NY a good location for a health bar/ café?
  • How many other cafés are there in this area?
  • What makes the cafes in New Paltz so successful?

Preliminary Internet Sources

I found two articles discussing the history as well as the reason why New Paltz is such a heartwarming and special town. The first website I found was Wikipedia. On this website, it includes the history of the town of New Paltz as well as some demographics. The town of New Paltz was founded by French immigrants in the 1800s. A bunch of historic sites and geographic areas are named after them. I’m going to try and incorporate some French into my café to honor the history of New Paltz. The website also included the population of New Paltz from 1820 until the year 2020 when the last census was conducted. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Paltz,_New_York). The second website I found was an article called “Top things to do in New Paltz NY (And where to stay & where to eat!)”, created by Elle-Rose. This website is the ultimate guide to the town of New Paltz. This article states that New Paltz is a vibrant and fun village with lots of activities to do and things to see. The article also includes how New Paltz is a popular tourist spot, mainly for people who live in the city. Because of the many options of transportation in New Paltz, it makes a great spot to travel to, whether its just a day or a weekend. (Top things to do in New Paltz NY (And where to stay & where to eat!) – the world and then some). Both of these websites looked helpful in providing background and necessary information needed to complete my business plan.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) Use Statement

For this essay, I used ChatGPT. Surprisingly, this was my first time using ChatGPT, apart from using it for class for our in-class AI assignment. With that being said, I’m not that experienced in what tools ChatGPT offers. After I finished the essay, I asked the AI if it could review my essay and check for vocabulary, grammar and other important errors that might hold back my essay. I found this to be very valuable and I feel like it really helped me bring my essay up to the next level.