“Don’t be scared of taking action now because a lot of people wait it out and they plan and they plan and they talk themselves out of it,” said Andres Perez.

Vice Presidents of Phi Beta Lambda and Alpha Gamma Sigma, Perez and Alex Ochoa, decided to kick-start their venture “Simple Cut Meals,” a meal preparation business in October 2018.

They plan on launching an application, along with Instagram and a website, that gives people different food options, taking into account allergies and other factors to make their business accessible to more people.

“We give [customers] a menu [on] Monday, you go ahead and look it over. We give you two options of the meal of the week to see which one you would like. Then, from there, you put in your order Wednesday, then we pick up the payment,” Perez explained.

Perez and Ochoa then would process the order, cook the meals on Sunday and deliver to customers on Monday.

“There’s so much we could do with the business and so much we would like to do with it that there’s no limits for us, really,” Perez said, “Our main thing we want to focus on is really giving people that healthy lifestyle or, you know, just options really.”

“Further on, we also want to see which charities we can donate to and really, you know, make a difference in people’s lives,” he said.

Perez and Ochoa’s future plans take into consideration legal matters, inventory and funding.

Jerry Ramos, business administration professor and club adviser, mentioned that 70 to 90 percent of small businesses fail within their first year.

He said, “This venture that they have is possible, at the same time, they need to lay out the foundation for success, meaning create a business plan.”

The business partners understand the notion of trial and error and learning from possible failures.

“I like to prove things wrong. I like to be that percentage [that] doesn’t fail just because in high school, [people] thought I wasn’t going to go to college, I did,” Ochoa said, “And I’m excelling in college now. So, I like proving people wrong, I like proving statistics wrong.”

During Business Week, Perez and Ochoa competed in the student pitch competition on Oct. 4, where they won first place in presenting their business idea to Cerritos College business professors and faculty.

They provided a sample of the food and “[The judges] loved it” Perez laughed, “At least that’s what they told us.”

After the competition, two professors approached them and told them they were interested in becoming customers.

“What they thought was pretty neat about our business pitch was we had really thorough research and we also had really good numbers in regards to like what we spend, how much the company is going to make… and what our potential losses can be,” said Ochoa.

Perez saw that the competitors didn’t have that.

According to the business partners, presenting their pitch in front of the professors was an ideal way to prepare for possible future investors and learn how to market themselves.

“I look forward to retiring early,” Ochoa laughed.