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.