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.