Week Fourteen

I think a big thing about entrepreneurship is not coming up with a new idea. Anybody can come up with a business idea or a product, but just because you can think it up doesn't mean that somebody wants to buy it. Even if people like the idea, that doesn't mean they want to use it. The key is finding a pain point. The key to finding the pain point is talking to customers. Customers can tell you what is wrong with a current solution and help give you inspiration that will help you solve the problem and that the customer will want to use. Sometimes you have to be careful though as Henry Ford said that if he asked his customers what they wanted they would've said a faster horse. Those ideas are rare and we must always be careful of making our idea sound good and make it actually good. Then comes sticking with what we're good at. Knowing what you are good at might take time, but by figuring that out, that will determine how you will complete your products or services that your customers want. Also, having a great team. In another class I have, there was a presenter who told us about how there was a study that concluded that the more founders there are for a business, the more successful it will be, but also you shouldn't have a founder that doesn't bring something necessary to the foundation of the business, and also that they don't have overlapping skills. When you do have the business up and running, you need to keep in mind your priorities. There are two extremes to entrepreneurship. Putting in too much time into the business, or not putting enough and letting employees run everything about the business. You need to be somewhere in the middle, but also don't let personal matters fall to the wayside like family and friends. It is easy to let the business take over.

Week Thirteen

This week was interesting. Things that I learned to prepare in my other class I was able to apply to this one. I have been watching a lot of Shark Tank, and while researching an entrepreneur who tried and failed, I saw Mark Cuban and was very intrigued to read about his past aside from what they already give on the show. I learned a lot from his story and seeing him in action on how he invests his money on the show was enlightening. In the article I read, it mentioned that he doesn't invest in companies that he doesn't feel fit well with his areas of expertise, even if he thinks it is a good idea. While watching the show I started to notice that no matter how much he enjoyed the product or idea, if it wasn't something he was extremely familiar with, he backed out. On the show he wouldn't say it was because he was uncomfortable or not confident, he would give other very thought out reasons and responses. Comments that were more constructive than just I don't want to be in that industry. I also liked reading about working on your business and not just in it. There is more than just working yourself to death or leaving everything to your employees. The best place to be is somewhere in between the two extremes.

Week Twelve

A few things this week mentioned family businesses. There is a great difficulty in family businesses. That familiarity brings trust and helps you count on them more quickly, but oftentimes that closeness can get in the way. It is never easy to tell someone you love that something is being done wrong, or that they need to change something. I also think that when starting a business it is imperative to bring people on that fulfill a business requirement. This keeps you organized and everybody will have a role in the development of the business. This keeps everyone motivated and everyone knows what is expected of them. Business relationships and family relationships may be difficult to separate, and it a business relationship goes sour, the family one might also likely fall apart.

I've been having fun with the $100 challenge. The Facebook page has been fun. I've never done that before and it's been interesting to see all the things that I can do with it. So far it hasn't helped. I'm wondering if maybe I haven't done something with it that actually allows people to see it. Sales are going well. It is a very fun assignment. I am excited for it to be over though, it has been very stressful at times.

Week Eleven

I got to learn a lot about Dental Fix Rx this week. I was able to learn about Philip May and his experience with the franchise. It was a different idea than I had thought about before. Franchises to me always seemed like something where you put money and then don't really work much to make the income. With this franchise there is a lot of work involved. I knew about learning for Jimmy John's. There is a few weeks of training, but there is no apprenticeship before you start selling sandwiches. The business starts with you and depends entirely on how many appointments you can make, and how much equipment you can fix. It is a lot of work and is definitely not a "passive" income.

Ties are selling. I'm glad to be back in Rexburg. I thought the Facebook page would be a lot easier than it has been. I feel like I am using unprofessional pictures. I had a teacher last semester who was selling watches through a Facebook page and he had a friend who was a professional photographer who took pictures for him. I was surprised at how much of a difference that really makes. I wanted a watch, but I am not as impressed with ties in various positions against a wall. I wonder how I can pose them better, or if there is a program I could use to alter them to look more professional.

Week Ten

I learned a lot about franchises that I had not known before. I had no idea that a lot of chain restaurants are franchises. I had always assumed that it was the business acting as a whole to open new locations and not a franchisee opening them. I also didn't know about the requirements to even start a franchise that so many of the franchises have. I knew there were royalties to pay, but I didn't know exactly how all of that works out. Looking up the options made it so much easier to understand. Also, I read a lot about business processes today. It didn't feel like there was much of a relationship between that and the other assignments about franchises. It did feel like it was all information I should know.

Driving and dealing with family things this past week had me a little caught up. I didn't ending up getting any more sales like I had hoped to do from afar. I am back in Rexburg and hopefully I can get back on track. I am working on the facebook page and should have that up in the next few days. I worry that it won't be very effective, but there is really only one way to find out for sure.

Week Nine

I love reading Good to Great. I have read a lot of it for another class. It is an extremely information packed book. It focuses a lot on first who then what. I watched a video from a man a while ago that focused on that specific point. I can't exactly remember if it is the author or someone close to the writing of that book that was in the video, but he repeated himself many many times saying "first who then what". Most of the time we focus on the problem we need to solve and not so much the people that could make a great team to solve whatever problem. More of what we read this week was about the hiring process. I felt as though I was getting a sneak peak into the interview process. Having applied for many internships, it was interesting to be thinking about it from the other side of the table. As the interviewee, you aren't so much thinking about them not asking the right questions, or not making a good impression on you. Also, we watched a video about Matt Stewart. He made some interesting points about not focusing on the money or profits of your idea. Get the focus on what you want to do and it will make money. He said that all of his failures were because he had an idea that he wanted to make money off of. If you love what you do and can find people with similar passions in your related area you can do great things and the money will come, but don't let it be about the money.

I've been pretty busy in Washington this week. I can't directly sell to people because I am not in rexburg, but I have been looking for better places to buy ties after I make more money. I feel like everywhere I look there is always a better deal than the last ties I bought, and the ones before that. I can never find the best deal until after I've already spent money.

Week Eight

I'm finding some decent tie selling success. It has been rough this past week though. We decided to head down to California for a week to help my mother in law because she just had shoulder surgery and can't do much around the house and then before we go back to Rexburg we are planning to visit family in Washington. My family decided to visit my grandparents and cousins in Washington and didn't tell us until very recently. So these plans formed very last minute and on the drive down we got into a huge car accident and our car got totaled. Thankfully my wife and I are both safe and healthy, but it is safe to say that our plans got a little turned upside down. Now that the scary part is behind me, I'm hoping to try and sell some ties out here as well and in Washington.

A lot of what I have been learning this week and not only in this class has been about customers. They often cause you to find a product that needs to be made or introduced, but not always do they know exactly what they want. Risks are often rewarded, but not always is the risky thing to do the correct one. You have to listen to those you are trying to help. They often know what their problems are. Not always do they know the perfect solution, but they know what they don't like. They also need to be paid attention to. We have to focus on them and how we are helping them and that the problem we think we are solving is actually a problem and that our solution is a real solution.