Blog Writing (Fall 2023)
The main goal is to craft a series of insightful, informative blog posts tailored for new entrepreneurs and creators. These posts will aim to guide, inspire, and educate this audience on various aspects of starting and growing their businesses. The content will be featured on FreshFind's learning portal (https://learn.freshfind.ca/), serving as a valuable resource for people looking to start a business from home or grow their existing local business.
Social Media (Fall 2023)
FreshFind is looking for a skilled and enthusiastic student for our Social Media Management Project. The goal for the project will be to oversee one of our social media channels to build a vibrant community and brand awareness for our company. Project requirements include:Community Building: Engaging with other individuals and businesses through our social media account to create a sense of presence and community on our social channelsUser-Generated Content Creation: Collaborating with local businesses to create content around the businesses and products on our platformContent Calendar Execution: Timely deployment of all our social media content to drive maximum engagementPR Generation: Engaging with prominent influencers and media companies, as well as creating content to promote us on their platform(s)
Business Development - Sales, Growth, and Success (Fall 2023)
The primary objective of this project is to strategically expand FreshFind's client base by identifying and engaging with potential new clients. This will involve a series of steps including lead generation, relationship building, effective onboarding, and continuous support to ensure client success on our platform. The end goal is to not only increase the number of clients but also to ensure they derive maximum value from our services, fostering long-term partnerships.
Data Analysis (Fall 2023)
The main goal for this project is to collect and analyze data that will help us discover new customers. Our goal is to understand new audiences and potential customer segments so that we can promote our platform to them and capitalize on new business expansion opportunities.
UI + UX Design (Fall 2023)
The goal for this project is to improve the design of our current platform as well as the user experience of internal tools.This will involve:Conducting background research on our existing web application for the product.Conducting background research on our internal toolingGoing through user interviews to gather feedback about areas for improvementIdentifying key areas of focus which might return the best results in a redesign. We have some in mind, but user interviews may help with discovery of other areas.Learning and using various software design tools. We primarily use Figma.Developing high fidelity designs, creating new workflows in our internal tooling, and testing new designs and workflows with users
Data Science & Analytics
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our business to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to use and manipulate data to gain greater insights for our company as well as our partners. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:How to capture all the necessary data points to effectively build and train advanced models?How to generate and analyze survey data to identify interests, wants, and needs?How to use recorded data to create full customer profiles, and how to then segment and target customers?How to use recorded data to provide value to customers (eg. bring attention to information, products, and experiences that they want/need)How to use recorded data to forecast supply and demand, and to optimize pricing?How to use recorded data to optimize local production (eg. know when and how much to plant of each crop, how many products to make, etc)How to predict production irregularities using external data sets (eg. weather & satellite data to predict yield and loss, machine or employee turnover, etc)How to use recorded data to optimize logistics (eg. minimize costs, minimize environmental impacts, minimize wait times)What can be done to visually represent this data using dashboards to help our users understand all this information as easily as possible?What new and disruptive technologies and models are being used in other organizations that may be a good fit for adoption at our organization?We are looking for students who can provide:Attention to our real-world challengesPractical solutions to address our challengesRegular connections with our team members when necessary for information exchange
Creative Copy Writer
Students will help drafting blogs, marketing emailed and web copy texts. We hope our Creative Copy Writer students will improve our SEO performance.
FreshFind - Business Development
Intrapreneurship Project Title: Business DevelopmentThis project accommodates: 5 studentsTime commitment per student: 70 hours per studentKey Project ActivitiesVendor RecruitmentOn-boarding supportGenerating leadsAnalyzing and improving business development and recruitment process (ie. social media, website) Analyzing sales and communications strategies and providing recommendationsCreating recruitment-oriented multimedia marketing materials (website content, videos, flyers, posters, posts)Ideal RolesBusiness DevelopmentOptimization StrategistLead GenerationSuccess SpecialistMultimedia DesignerFinal Project DeliverablesLists of leadsRecruited and on-boarded vendorsProcess optimization blueprintRecruitment-oriented multimedia marketing materialsProject Mentor Name: Michael MastrellaAdditional InformationOur e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We are looking to more effectively engage and communicate with new vendors, as well as grow our business and our brand by improving our platform and services to drive high conversion and customer retention. Some questions that could be answered to help us do this include:How do new vendors discover us?What messaging works most effectively when reaching out to new vendors?Does our digital marketing strategy communicate our brand and offering effectively?What can be improved in our outreach and marketing process to attract the types of businesses we’re looking for?What multimedia materials can be created for the website to make it easier to understand the brand and our offering?What can be improved in our on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their success?What more should we offer to increase revenue streams for our business and success for our partners?We look forward to working with you and growing together!
Business Development Representative
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Positions available: 6 individualsOur e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with individuals and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us with business development. We are looking for students who can:Find new small businesses and entrepreneurs that would benefit from our platformUse social media to network with businesses/entrepreneurs (and/or phone & email)Develop strong, ongoing relationships with prospective and existing client businessesSchedule meetings & sessions to explain how our platform works and how it will benefit themCoordinate with other team members to make sure the clients feel comfortable and supportedYou may be a good fit if you:Value supporting local businesses and entrepreneursEnjoy helping people and interacting with themAre comfortable speaking/messaging with new peopleAre organized and can manage communication with multiple people at onceCare about health, wellness and the environmentWhat you will get:Experience working with a real-life product/startupReferences for other engagements you decide to take onEquity options as bonusThis project is expected to be completed within an 80 hour work period.
Social Media Marketing
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to effectively communicate our brand and platform to a wide range of consumers and businesses. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:Does our digital marketing strategy communicate our brand effectively?What can be improved in our outreach and marketing process to attract the types of business we’re looking for?What can be improved in our on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their success?What can be improved in our sales funnel to improve conversion and increases purchases through the platform?What are some additional up-sell opportunities to increase revenue streams for our business?Some tasks that could help us face this challenge include:Analyzing sales and communications strategies and providing recommendationsExperiencing our current business development process and making recommendations for improvementsCreating a data visualization of our sales funnelManaging customer relations and making recommendations for improvementsCreating marketing campaignsCreating a customer relations process that makes it easier to support existing customersDiscovering and innovating new revenue streams that fit within our existing businessWe are looking for students who can provide:Attention to our real-world challengesPractical solutions to address our challengesRegular connections with our team members
Mobile UI / UX Design & Prototype
Our company would like to improve the design of our current website and upcoming mobile application.We would like a group of students to improve usability of our current website and create a prototype for our future app.This will involve:Conducting background research on our existing web application for the product.Identifying key areas of our current website and what areas of focus might return the best results in a redesign.Learning and using various software design tools. We currently use Figma.Improving on existing designs by using our platform and finding areas for improvement, developing high fidelity designs + prototype, and testing new designs with users
Business
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to effectively communicate our brand and platform to a wide range of consumers and businesses. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:Does our digital marketing strategy communicate our brand effectively?What can be improved in our outreach and marketing process to attract the types of business we’re looking for?What can be improved in our on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their success?What can be improved in our sales funnel to improve conversion and increases purchases through the platform?What are some additional up-sell opportunities to increase revenue streams for our business?Some tasks that could help us face this challenge include:Developing a market analysis of competitorsAnalyzing sales and communications strategies and providing recommendationsExperiencing our current business development process and making recommendations for improvementsCreating a data visualization of our sales funnelManaging customer relations and making recommendations for improvementsCreating a customer relations process that makes it easier to support existing customersDiscovering and innovating new revenue streams that fit within our existing businessWe are looking for students who can provide:Attention to our real-world challengesPractical solutions to address our challengesRegular connections with our team members
Supply Chain Consulting
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to effectively optimize our logistics network to minimize costs, travel time, travel distance, and environmental impacts, while maintaining high product quality when moving our suppliers goods to our markets and end consumers. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:Should we be building out more of our own logistics systems? Or should we be partnering with 3rd party logistical networks? Does this strategy change when dealing with suppliers in certain geographical areas? (eg. rural vs urban, US vs Canada vs EU)What considerations need to be made for temperature controlled logistics? (eg. frozen food products)What considerations need to be made for live products? (eg. flowers, seedlings, plants, etc)What key performance indicators should be measured to ensure we are optimizing logistical networks?Are forecasting improvements needed to effectively manage logistics? If so, how can we improve forecasting?What disruptive logistics practices should we be paying attention to and considering for future logistical models?We are looking for students who can:Provide practical solutions to address our challengesGenerate a high-quality report and presentation for our senior managementConnect when necessary for consultation and information exchange
Business Development & Sustainability
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to effectively communicate our brand and platform to a wide range of businesses. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:Does our digital marketing strategy communicate our brand effectively?What can be improved in our outreach and marketing process to attract the types of business we’re looking for?What can be improved in our on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their success?We are looking for students who can provide:Practical solutions to address our challengesA pragmatic report including root causes of our issues, possible action plans, and a functional timeline to mitigate the challengeOne-to-one weekly or bi-weekly consultation
Supply Chain
improve our supply chain logistics to make the products on our market more accessible to consumers
Client Success Management
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Positions available: 4 individualsOur e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.We are looking for students who can:Help our businesses (vendors and markets) to succeed and growOnboard new businesses onto our platform and help them get set upSupport existing businesses on our platform by receiving feedback and providing assistance - being the liaison between our clients and our product development teamCome up with new and creative ways to help our businesses serve their customers better and grow their businessYou may be a good fit if you:Enjoy interacting with people and building relationshipsGet excited by the idea of helping peopleValue community and supporting localAble to figure things out and learn independentlyCare about health, wellness and the environmentWhat you will get:Experience working with a real-life product/startupReferences for other engagements you decide to take onEquity options as bonusThis project is expected to be completed within an 80 hour work period.
Software Development
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Positions available: 4 individualsFreshFind is an e-commerce ecosystem that connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with individuals and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us develop software that will improve the lives of our stakeholders. We are looking for students who can:Write front-end or back-end software for our web platform using HTML, CSS, JS, RubyWrite SQL queries that will provide platform users better access to their informationYou may be a good fit if you:Value community and supporting localEnjoy thinking about how to make things betterLike freedom and creativity in your workCare about health, wellness and the environmentWhat you will get:Experience working with a real-life product/startupReferences for other engagements you decide to take onEquity options as bonusThis project is expected to be completed within an 80 hour work period.
Team Recruitment
The student will help support a variety of Human Resource programs and procedures to improve the strategic use of human resources for our team. Assist different teams in managing performance improvement, recruitment.
Employee Training & Development
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our business to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to enhance the performance of both new and experienced employees. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:Where are the main gaps in training and development that can lead to improved performance?What can be done to improve new team member on-boarding and job-related skill training?What can be done to improve integration times for adopting new processes and procedures?What methodologies can be put in place to assist with succession planning?How do we assess the key development goals for existing and future employees and what can we do to assist them in achieving those goals? How do we improve alignment between employees' personal development goals and organizational goals?How do we develop an employee life-cycle journey map for existing and future employees?What new and disruptive training programs are being used in other organizations that may be a good fit for adoption at our organization?We are looking for students who can provide:Attention to our real-world challengesPractical solutions to address our challengesRegular connections with our team members when necessary for information exchange
Shopper Research
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to effectively engage with new customers, and once engaged how we can best communicate our brand and offering to them. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:How do new customers discover us?What messaging works most effectively when reaching out to new customers?Does our digital marketing strategy communicate our brand effectively?What can be improved in our outreach and marketing process to attract the types of businesses and shoppers we’re looking for?What can be improved in our on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their success?What can be improved in our sales funnel to improve conversion and increase purchases through the platform?What are some additional up-sell opportunities to increase revenue streams for our business?Some tasks that could help us face this challenge include:Analyze our social media and website and provide insights on improvementsAnalyzing sales and communications strategies and providing recommendationsExperiencing our current business development process and making recommendations for improvementsCreating a data visualization of our sales funnelManaging customer relations and making recommendations for improvementsCreating a customer relations process that makes it easier to discover and support customersDiscovering and innovating new revenue streams that fit within our existing businessWe are looking for students who can provide:Attention to our real-world challengesPractical solutions to address our challengesRegular connections with our team members to understand and adapt to the effects of implemented solutions
Business Analyst
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Positions available: 2 individualsOur e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us with analyzing the market and identifying opportunities.We are looking for students who can:Explore and research the business landscape/opportunities using the internet (search, social media, forums, other online networks)Contribute to our larger picture of the market landscape and analyze to find trends and opportunitiesDiscover potential growth opportunities for our business development teamCoordinate with other team members and departments to optimize growth effortsYou may be a good fit if you:Value community and supporting localEnjoy thinking about how to make things betterLike freedom and creativity in your workAble to figure things out and learn independentlyCare about health, wellness and the environmentWhat you will get:Experience working with a real-life product/startupReferences for other engagements you decide to take onEquity options as bonusThis project is expected to be completed within an 80 hour work period.
FreshFind - Biz Dev
Intrapreneurship Project Title: Business DevelopmentThis project accommodates: 5 studentsTime commitment per student: 70 hours per studentKey Project ActivitiesVendor RecruitmentOn-boarding supportGenerating leadsAnalyzing and improving business development and recruitment process (ie. social media, website)Analyzing sales and communications strategies and providing recommendationsCreating recruitment-oriented multimedia marketing materials (website content, videos, flyers, posters, posts)Final Project DeliverablesLists of leadsRecruited and on-boarded vendorsProcess optimization blueprintRecruitment-oriented multimedia marketing materialsProject Mentor Name: Michael MastrellaAdditional InformationOur e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We are looking to more effectively engage and communicate with new vendors, as well as grow our business and our brand by improving our platform and services to drive high conversion and customer retention. Some questions that could be answered to help us do this include:How do new vendors discover us?What messaging works most effectively when reaching out to new vendors?Does our digital marketing strategy communicate our brand and offering effectively?What can be improved in our outreach and marketing process to attract the types of businesses we’re looking for?What multimedia materials can be created for the website to make it easier to understand the brand and our offering?What can be improved in our on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their success?What more should we offer to increase revenue streams for our business and success for our partners?We look forward to working with you and growing together!
Digital Content Creation
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Positions available: 4 individualsFreshFind is an e-commerce ecosystem that connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with individuals and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us create digital content that showcases our mission and progress. We are looking for students who can:Help craft our digital content strategy (ie. What kind of content will resonate with our users and community? Which channels make sense?)Create/curate written & visual content (Blog articles & social media posts)You may be a good fit if you:Value community and supporting localEnjoy thinking about how to make things betterLike freedom and creativity in your workCare about health, wellness and the environmentWhat you will get:Experience working with a real-life product/startupReferences for other engagements you decide to take onEquity options as bonusThis project is expected to be completed within an 80 hour work period.
Communication
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.We face a multitude of challenges around effective communication. These are some of the following areas where improved communication can have a big impact on our business:Effectively communicating our brand to consumers and businesses through digital marketing and outreachBuilding a community of followers with properly communicated newsletters and community outreachBuilding stronger and more effective partnerships with improved communication in proposalsImproving communication during on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their successEffectively communicating bad news so that the audience remains engaged with the platformGeneral communication across the web platformInternal team communication of business and product vision, strategy, roadmap, and day to day prioritiesSome tasks that could help us face these challenges include:Creating a "Welcome" newsletter & strategy around future newslettersCreating communications for partnership proposalsImproving onboarding messagingImproving messaging when there is bad news (no search results, orders cancelled, etc)Creating messaging for how to start and end live chat supportImproving messaging across the web platformWe are looking for students who can provide:Attention to our real-world challengesPractical solutions to address our challengesRegular connections with our team members
Customer Discovery
Our project is open to individual students or groups.Our e-commerce ecosystem connects consumers with their local producers and suppliers of fresh food and other artisanal products. We work with entrepreneurs and small businesses to help get their unique, high quality products more known by consumers. Our vision is to make fresh, unique and wholesome local products more available and accessible.We would like to work with students in helping us support our businesses to succeed.The particular challenge we are facing is how to effectively discover new customers, and once discovered how we can best communicate our brand and offering to them. Some questions that could be answered in helping us face this challenge include:How do we discover new customers?What messaging works most effectively when reaching out to new customers?Does our digital marketing strategy communicate our brand effectively?What can be improved in our outreach and marketing process to attract the types of business we’re looking for?What can be improved in our on-boarding and support processes to retain businesses and ensure their success?What can be improved in our sales funnel to improve conversion and increase purchases through the platform?What are some additional up-sell opportunities to increase revenue streams for our business?Some tasks that could help us face this challenge include:Analyzing sales and communications strategies and providing recommendationsExperiencing our current business development process and making recommendations for improvementsCreating a data visualization of our sales funnelManaging customer relations and making recommendations for improvementsCreating a customer relations process that makes it easier to discover and support customersDiscovering and innovating new revenue streams that fit within our existing businessWe are looking for students who can provide:Attention to our real-world challengesPractical solutions to address our challengesRegular connections with our team members to understand and adapt to the effects of implemented solutions
Creative Copy Writer
Students will help drafting blogs, marketing emailed and web copy texts. We hope our Creative Copy Writer students will improve our SEO performance.
Media & Marketing - Winter
Our team is looking for a marketing wizard who can help us build brand awareness, create engaging content, drive more consumer traffic, and improve our SEO positioning. Project requirements include:Content Creation: Collaborating with local businesses to create content around the businesses and products on our platformContent Calendar Execution: Timely deployment of all our social media content to drive maximum traffic to our sitePR Generation: Creating engaging content for deployment to prominent media websitesKeyword analysis to determine relevant search terms to our organizationA strategy document to outline: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) requirements to ensure our organization appears on the first page of Google for relevant keywords & Social media requirements to increase the number of followers/likes and sharesUltimately, you will be working on planning and/or content creation for our organization, including video, social media, and other collateral that we can use.
Supply Chain
improve our supply chain logistics to make the products on our market more accessible to consumers
Supply Chain
improve our supply chain logistics to make the products on our market more accessible to consumers
Supply Chain
improve our supply chain logistics to make the products on our market more accessible to consumers