Final Post

The entrepreneurial journey can be fun, fulfilling and very rewarding.  The path of entrepreneurship is loaded with difficulties challenges and some disappointments but if you have the drive and determination to overcome them you may very well find success. There are so many amazing things I learned this semester that can help any entrepreneur along this difficult and rewarding journey but there are a few that stood out to me more than the rest. I wish to share these principles with you now.

1.       Start with a plan – A business plan is what guides your business but a business plan is not enough. You should start by developing a life plan and understanding what it is you want from life and how owning your own business will help you achieve it. With your business plan be detailed and specific. Understand the market, what cost you may have and what milestones you need to reach to obtain success. Make sure your business idea is one that drives you, without that drive you will not have what it takes to get through the difficult times
2.        Work on your business, not in your business – This was a concept a did not understand before this class. Many business owners get so caught up in controlling the day to day operations that they leave little time to focus on the growth of the company and eventually lead themselves to getting burned out. To avoid this, think of your business as a franchise. Develop processes and procedures that allow other people to run the company without you overseeing every aspect of its operation. Another thing I want to add to this is treat your employees well, hire slowly and fire fast.
3.        Don’t Be Afraid to Fail – The last and final word of wisdom I want to leave with you is don’t be afraid to fail. It is in our failures that we learn the most. They may be difficult to swallow but the lessons the y teach us are invaluable. If you are too afraid to fail, you will not be able to take the risks necessary to be truly successful.        

Lesson 12

It’s crazy to me that there is only one week left in the semester. I have learned and grown so much as I have focused on the skills necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. This week was probably one of my favorites because it showed the importance of failing forward. In business and in life we all make mistakes, we all have disappointments and at times we all fail. This week we focused on learning from those mistakes, and failures and getting back up with every blow. Some of the most respected and successful people face many failures and disappointments on the road to success. The biggest difference is they learned from those failures and disappointments, got up and persisted on. This week I learned a lot more about Walt Disney. When he was young he was fired from a newspaper in Kansas City because they said he lacked imagination. He then started his own cartoon production company but ended up going bankrupt. He moved to California and started another animation company, where he created a cartoon character for Universal by the name of Oswald the Rabbit. Due to the contract Walt Disney signed he soon found out he didn’t own the rights to the cartoon he had created. Universal hired his animators out from under him and continued the cartoon without him. It was on the train ride home after learning he had basically lost his company that he created Mickey Mouse.  He faced many more blows throughout his life but he never gave up, he kept pushing forward. Many other people faced similar challenges. Michael Jordan was cut from his High School Basketball team and was told he would never be good at basketball; J.K. Rawlings was rejected by many publishers before she found one willing to publish the Harry Potter series. The one thing in common is that they didn’t give up and they learned so much along the way.

Failure has such a negative connotation in our society and people have become to see failure as a horrible thing rather than a learning experience. The one thing I really learned is that failure is not bad if you are able to learn and grow from it. I have thought back on mistakes and failures my dad and I have had with our company. Instead of seeing it as an opportunity to learn and grow I wrote it off as someone else’s fault. This is a common reaction but it stunts growth and keeps me from reaching my full potential. As I thought about failure I thought about the plan of salvation. We were sent her by God to make mistakes face disappointment and fail. That was part of his plan for us to learn and grow. Failure is such an important part of growth and if we don’t view it that way we don’t take full advantage of the opportunity to learn. This is something I needed to hear and hopefully I will be able to use these things to be a more successful business man in the future.  

Lesson 11

This week was another great week as the semester is beginning to wind down. We talked about family businesses which is something that is has been a big part of my life. My dad started our family company when I was young, so I have grown up being part of the company. The thing I found most interesting was dealing with family business issues such as succession and who will take the reins as head of the family company when the parent running it steps down, what is expected of each family member in the business, and setting boundaries for when business is discussed and when it is not.  I feel like communication is the key. In dealing with succession, a plan needs to set in place. The long term vision of the company needs to be created stating who will handle which positions and what their responsibilities will be. That way everyone understands what their role will be and you have something that can be referred to and enforced.  Another big problem with a family business is not allowing the business to take over family time and family life. Business boundaries need to be set so everyone knows when it is time to talk business and when it is time to relax and enjoy time with family.  This is something we never did growing up, it was business, business, business all the time and I feel like some of the family connections were lost amongst the midst of focusing on the business. Family businesses are great but some extra precautions need to be taken to avoid tearing the family apart.  

The other thing we focused on this week was purchasing an existing business, which is a very viable option. We read a case study that showed the importance of research and understanding what you want and expect when buying and existing business. It is very important that you have this understanding because if you don’t you risk purchasing a company that is not where you need it to be. We had the opportunity to look at businesses for sale and determine which business we would purchase and I really enjoyed this activity. It allowed me the opportunity to really think about what I want to do in the future and then look at viable options of making that happen.

This week was really great and I learned a lot. As far as the $100 project goes I am just working on my final presentation. I did not make as much money as I would have liked but I was able to meet the goal and I am very grateful for the opportunity. 

Lesson 10

The focus of this week’s material was franchising. Franchising is big business in the United States and across the world. I have visited many franchises but I did not know how much goes into getting a franchise set up. I thought franchising was like a product store for businesses. You choose which one you want, you buy it and you are all set. That is not even close to the way it works. The biggest positive of purchasing a franchise is that you are purchasing a tried and true business most of the time with brand recognition and a solid following. With Franchises the Franchiser has gone through and perfected all of the processes and you do not have to go through the trial and error yourself. Along with the positive comes the negative. There are so many restrictions that come along with owning a franchise. You are limited on the decisions you can make, you are geographically bound unless you purchase more regions, and there are large costs associated. You typically have to pay the franchise fee which is just the rights to use the brand, then you have to purchase all of the fixtures and equipment and on top of that you have to pay yearly fees (typically a percentage of your annual revenue).  I learned that franchises can be a good choice for starting a business but there is a lot involved in getting them going. The biggest is research. You need to understand the market and geographic demand for the franchise you are looking to purchase. You want to make sure that the franchise is a good one and will do what they say they are going to do and are willing to give you the support you need. Just like any other business there is a lot of ground work involved. It is not just an off the shelf product like I thought it takes research and a good plan to make it successful.

For my $100 project there hasn’t really been any changes. I did get another sell that put me safely above the $100 needed. While I didn’t make $200-300 like I had hoped it was still a great experience and it taught me a lot.  It also made me realize just how hard and frustrating it is to own a business but it also taught me how exhilarating it can be. I have caught the bug for sure and cannot wait to work on my next business.  

Lesson 9

This week has been a really great week for me and I learned a lot of things. The focus of this week was process improvements. I have never paid that close of attention to process improvements or why they are important but as we began learning about it this week I realized I have been a part of many informal process improvements where I work and even a couple of very big ones that were not talked about as process improvements but that is what they are. As we learned about process improvements we looked at the story of Burt’s Bees and how it began. Several years into the business Roxanne who started Burt’s Bees realized that for her company to grow things were going to have to change. They moved to North Carolina where Roxanne realized that to be successful and grow the current processes weren’t going to work. At the time everything was made by hand and required a lot of labor which was expensive. That is when she began automating the processes of her company so that her products could be mass produced quickly, efficiently and as cost effectively as possible. This story and the other information we studied this week made me realize just how important processes are for a company.

For my $100 project business, this week was great. I went from very little in the way of sales to over $100 in profit this week. I realized this week that patience and persistence are key to meeting goals and making your company successful. I really started talking my business up and spreading my business cards around and that made a huge difference. People from work began talking about my products and I began getting more sales. One of my products completely sold out this week and I am beginning to real feel the excitement growing in my company. I am not ready to give it up, I have so many more ideas of products I could add and ways to make my company better. This has been one of my favorite classes I have taken so far and I really enjoy everything I learned while doing this project this semester.     

Lesson 8

This week we learned about hiring and firing. We learned more about the much known business quote “hire slowly, fire quickly”. Hiring should be done very carefully and methodically. The person you are hiring is a representative of your company. I really like the approach that Jet Blue took to finding high quality employees and making sure they stuck around. The first step was defining the values that guide the company. By defining the companies values you are able to hire people whose values align with those of the company. The second thing I thought was really interesting was that they customized benefit packages for each different position category. They knew that flight attendants tend to be at a more transitional point in their lives and are not long term employees because of this they offered them other benefits rather than retirement because that is something that would be less beneficial to them. This is a really interesting approach because it allows them the flexibility to give their employees what they really want. Jet Blue understands that by putting employee happiness first they will deliver better service to the customers. The flip side to hiring is firing. If someone is not working out and you have done all you can to help them, you need to let them go. This is something that can be very difficult but it is something that is very necessary. Overall I found this week very interesting and very informative.

As far as my hundred-dollar project goes, everything is going pretty well. I had a few more sales this week and I am getting closer to my goal. I talked with a family member who does website optimization and she gave me so great insight on my website and how to improve it. This project has been much harder than I expected it to be. I have done a lot more networking and marketing this week by handing out business cards and talking to people about my business and this really seems to be helping. It is forcing me to step outside of my comfort zone but it has been a great experience for me. I am just plugging away and trying to drum up more sales. I am starting to get nervous that I want reach the $100 profit but I am still hopeful that it will happen    

Lesson 7

This week was a great week to learn about leadership qualities. Not only did we study leadership in class this week but I also focused on leadership at work as part of the employee Leadership Academy. If you think about who the greatest leader of all time was most people begin to think about Jesus Christ. He was the perfect example of many things including leadership. He lead by example as shown when he said "come follow me". Nothing was below Christ, he showed this by washing his disciples feet, this simple act also showed how much he loved and cared for those who followed him. One of the things that was brought up was that Christ operated on fixed principles and because of this his leadership was consistent.

As leaders we need to be willing to put our pride to the side and be willing to help our employees and those we lead to really grow and get an opportunity to learn. We also need to be willing to listen to them and show them that we value and trust their opinions. Employees more than anything want to be heard and they want to feel valued. Leadership is how this happens. Through showing love and respect for those we lead we help them grow and develop and this allows are company to grow as well. I really enjoyed learning about leadership this week.

While I really enjoyed learning about leadership I really struggled with my $100 project this week. I launched my website, Facebook page and marketing campaign this week and nothing happened. I was sure that I would get a huge influx of people wanting to buy my product but that is not what happened, I had a ton of people visit my website and I only had 1 purchase. It is really frustrating because I feel like I have a great product to offer but it is not being viewed that way. I have asked a couple of people for suggestions on how to make my website better and I have shifted my focus from social media marketing (which I will continue to do) to talking to everyone I know about my business. I am printing business cards to hand out and I hope by networking and talking to people that I will be able to generate more sales.