Last Week - Last Lecture

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 XIII

This week was interesting. Preparing for the presentation while also having to prepare for the exact same sort of presentation in another class was helpful. 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 12

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.

My $100 business is going well. We have gotten good reviews from those we were able to babysit for, and they have told others that they recommend us. I feel bad making them pay us when others in the ward are doing it for free. Their only benefits in choosing me are supporting the nonprofits in Ghana and helping me with my class assignment. They still pay and it is nice to help others in such a cheap way.

Lesson 10

Babysitting on Friday was interesting. I had a water polo game and could only go for the first 2 and a half hours of babysitting and my wife stayed for the rest of the time needed. Then they went over time by almost 40 minutes. We had even been talking about maybe if I would even show up at all for that appointment. It got me thinking that maybe if we needed to, my wife and I could split up and do two appointments at the same time if the need arises. We are both certainly capable.

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. 

Lesson 9

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.

This week was tough for the $100 challenge. I had another project for another class that took up a lot of my time. We were doing a mock-run of a consignment store to happen in Rexburg. It went very well. We were able to sell over $350 worth of clothes. We did have someone on our ward facebook group reach out to us for babysitting, so that was a nice switch for us. That appointment is to happen this week. Maybe I should have combined my ideas from the other class with that business to the one for this class. It went so well that maybe I should have done that.

Lesson Eight

I'm finding a little more success in talking to people about helping me support my non-profit organization. They are paying me more to support the non-profit than actually paying me for the babysitting. I was kind of counting on this, but it still surprises me how little people expect to pay for the care of their own offspring. I would think they would be willing to pay so much more for their children to be taken care of.

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.

Lesson Seven

There were a lot of good things this week. We watched a bio of Bud Brigham. He is very into finding your purpose in life as that will guide a lot of decisions you make. He mentioned how he found this for himself was reading and studying philosophy. He also says it is important to surround yourself with similar values and beliefs. We also read some things about the importance of dedicated employees. There are a lot of ways that employees help the company. They can be detrimental to growth if they aren't dedicated and feel good about what they are doing. And a video we watched about Zappos and how they value their employees. They offer their employees money to quit. They pursue a higher quality of environment for their workplace and committed employees is how they accomplish that. those that take the money are those who were working for a paycheck. And then those that don't take the money are then more committed to the company because they had to make a decision to stay.

Progress continues with babysitting. Offers are not as plentiful as I had first expected. We continue pushing in our ward facebook group and seeking opportunities. I am still wondering how I can find more opportunities outside my ward.