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Daily Drip Taking Orders to Increase Business and Profits for Community Projects

The Daily Drip, the student-run cafe located in the first floor atrium at the UNL College of Business Administration, is now taking orders. Customers can go online and order individual or catering needs through a new website designed to improve both the customer experience and the business operations of the Daily Drip.

Murphy Larson, a junior finance and marketing major from Janesville, Wis., currently manages the Daily Drip, which is run by Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE). SIFE is an international non-profit organization that works with leaders in business and higher education to mobilize university students to make a difference in their communities while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders. The profits from the Daily Drip go to community outreach projects. Larson has already been integrally involved in her own SIFE project, called the LisaMom Foundation.

“Making the Daily Drip more profitable is important to me because my project helps provide nannies to families that have moms with cancer,” Larson said. “That’s important to me because my mom passed away from cancer and so I had a nanny.”

Larson helped implement the new website to minimize customer frustration.

“I love to go online and order a sandwich, and then just go pick it up,” Larson said. “I thought if other places can do that there has to be a way for the Daily Drip. We’ve run out of sandwiches in the past and seen a lot of frustration. Maybe a faculty member wants a sandwich for lunch and then finds out that all we have left is chicken salad. We want people to get what they want, when they want it. That’s important in running a business.”

Daily Drip

The Daily Drip is located on the CBA first floor atrium

For customers to receive their orders they need to go online and order the day before or by 7:00 a.m. the day they want their meal available. It also provides a way for individuals and departments to place orders for catered events.
“I really want people to think about the Daily Drip if they are thinking about catering for an event,” Larson said. “We can do sandwiches, cookies, pastries and coffee. We have done catering in the past but a lot of times people have just used us for buying soda. We want to get the word out that we can really provide a lot more.”

Other SIFE community projects supported by SIFE include working to develop entrepreneurial skills with students on an Indian reservation, helping women in Sri Lanka sell their jewelry and assisting the local Community Crops sustainable gardening organization practice proper business practices.

“The Daily Drip provides great experience, especially for our current manager Murphy Larson,” Dr. Sam Nelson, SIFE student adviser explained. “Murphy already has experience putting together an advisory board for a non-profit. She led that during her sophomore year and it was phenomenal. Now she’s getting to lead a business. It’s a different deliverable and forces her to look at different questions, but we’re lucky to have her because she does have so much experience in a short amount of time.”

Nelson is currently helping UNL SIFE students think about the long term strategies needed to keep the Daily Drip viable into the future.

“We’re at a point from the numbers perspective where we’d like to be a little more profitable,” Nelson said. “We think we can offer some better services and then figure out what that plan looks like even if we were to get a new building. Having students think through those issues is important, even if they won’t be here when that happens. They get to take part in the meaningful process of determining an organization’s future.”

Larson recommends that any UNL student that has a desire to help others consider joining SIFE.

“My freshman year I joined SIFE and I was kind of scared,” Larson said. “I didn’t really know what I was doing. Then things started to grow. I started the project that helps moms with cancer and it’s really cool that the SIFE team is so supportive. You can do whatever project you want as long as you have a passion for it.”

Published: August 23, 2012