Work I completed 12/22-12/23

My group has been making a lot of progress. We sold all of the socks which is a huge accomplishment for the first order. Everyone has basically been putting in all their effort that is necessary in order to do our best job. Sales, is a new member of the group has been very helpful. In class, he asks if there is anything that needs to be completed and is always willing to help out. Yesterday, he did the write up for part 6 with my assistance. Because there were only two days of class, there was not much work to be done. However, all storefront parts have been submitted with revisions. Today I proofread the write up from parts 4-6 and submitted the revisions. I hope to see substantially better comments. Without having any previous exposure to financial statements, everyone in my group did the best they could. Ms. Steven's comments were helpful, and hopefully pushed in the right direction. If necessary, we will revise again to meet all requirements.

The storefront is coming along and we have been doing all we can do to research all necessary items to open the Doggy Day care. So far, we have spoken to Mr. Gerber who explained the architecture and what the costs would be to knock down a wall. I have been adding suggestions and criticism to the ideas that my group members have. We all spent a lot of time and effort on Storefront parts 4-6 and everyone in the group, besides Jack did work on it. Jack focused on ordering the socks and selling them.

For the $200 project, we are going to order more socks and try to figure out a strategic way to sell them. I believe many people would buy them, considering the cool design the socks contain. Athletes or non athlete the socks are a cool way to show spirit.

I have been documenting all of the groups' work on Trello. I figured out how to use it efficiently, and it helps me. I have mostly been using the "To- Do List" function to check of completed assignments and keep to keep track of what is due in the near future.

Reflection: The Entrepreneur Mind

This book again, intrigues me with the different off beat strategies it contains about entrepreneurs. In this post, I will be reflecting on one different strategy Johnson touches upon. This strategy is not bound to be the key to success for everyone. It is designed to guide a struggling entrepreneur along the way who may need help in a specific area. 

The strategy is called, "Ignorance Can Be Bliss." When I read the title of this strategy, I was quite shocked how Johnson thought ignorance could be a good thing. He explains reasons and scenarios in which ignorance is beneficial, "perhaps your outside perspective enables you to see things in a fresh way, seizing dormant opportunities" (58). I will admit that sometimes your knowledge of something can get in the way. Often times, when a person thinks they know something they rarely do outside research. This can lead to errors in work and not a happy ending. I am sure this is the case with many entrepreneurs. Most of the time, entrepreneurs can be cocky and think they know everything about their field. They expect they will have to do little research about their business because they have so much knowledge about it. After realizing this, I now understand why ignorance can be good. If an entrepreneur is ignorant about the business they are willing to open, this forces them to take another step, to go deeper. Ignorance can force  someone out of their comfort zone. It requires an entrepreneur to do extensive research about a given service. An entrepreneur will continue to do research until they understand, because all they want in life is to be successful. For example, imagine an entrepreneur is starting a hair salon business. They have always been fascinated by hair salons and how they deal with customer service, and have regular customers who come in consistently. Amelia, the entrepreneur starting the business has little knowledge about hair salons. Because I have little knowledge about hair salons, I must do the extra work to understand the business. This forces me to learn everything there is to learn about hair salons. My ignorance just benefited me because, now I know exactly what is behind a hair salon business and what keeps it running. However, say if I thought I knew everything about hair salons, and therefore, did not conduct any research, that would in the end probably cause the business to be a failure. Since the Entrepreneur Mind, is about Entrepreneurs and businesses, ignorance is okay in these cases. Reflecting on Johnson's idea I do not think ignorance is okay in any other fields. I will tell you why. Senior year has a little bit of flexibility with course selection. There are many different math classes to choose from, and I thought why not try a new type of course. For the first few days of school, I was in a math class called "Perspectives of a Mathematical Mind" this class sounded like a good idea because there were few tests and we were mostly graded on homework assignments and projects. I went into this class completely ignorant having no knowledge about any of the math we were doing. I felt like a failure and my ignorance was not a good thing. I ended up switching to Statistics because it was a better fit for me. 

After reading this chapter, I have come to the conclusion that ignorance can be good in some fields, and extremely harmful in others. I am excited to read this book over break and hope I find more strategies that I can reflect on and critique!

Work I have Completed:12/8-12/12

This past week I have completed substantial amounts of work to keep our projects up to date with deadlines. Last week, I wrote about how we were eager to order the socks and wanted to do so at the earliest convenience. However, we still have not ordered them. I have no problem waiting, but I know it would be best if we could order them as soon as possible. Some of my group members are a little bit stubborn and want them to look perfect. I have tried telling them we should just go ahead and order them, but they don’t seem to budge. I don’t think we should go ahead and order the socks without a group consensus. Other than that, my group is working well together and we are dividing up the work evenly.

The storefront project was originally only meant for Dan and Jack, but Samantha and I have started to help out as well. We have met every deadline for the Storefront Project, and have revised business parts 1-3 in order to make sure they are complete and satisfactory. I helped out with parts 4-6, and submitted it on Thursday night. It took a lot of group effort in order to complete this, but after reading Ms. Steven’s comments we will need to meet again to revise it. We worked well individually and everyone did their role. I know I am disappointed with the score we received for parts 4-6 and I am willing to revise my Profit and Loss statement and help out with part 4 and 5 which also need work.

I would like to get moving with $200 project. The socks have great potential and there is no use in waiting around. I strongly hope we order them by the end of this week. The design is set, finally. The original burden was that, Kyle the assistant athletic director had already ordered a similar pair of socks. His order finally came, and I believe we will decide in class tomorrow if it makes sense to go ahead and order another batch. Personally, I think either way we should still order the socks. I think a lot of people would buy them and it is a cool way to show school spirit. I am confident that once we have a set list of buyers the socks will be very successful.

I am also the HR representative and am using Trello to document the groups progress. I thought that I understood how to use it, but am struggling a bit. I plan to get help from Ms. Stevens one day after class this week. I want to make sure I evaluate my group members fairly, and I don’t leave out any details. I have no problem writing comments for each group member, but all of the checklists and other functions confuse me. My group for the most part has been good about updating Trello. I know that once I get help from Ms. Stevens it will be used effectively and efficiently.

2nd Blog Post The Entrepreneur Mind

As I read this chapter, I gained more insight into how a successful entrepreneur operates. Johnson continues to lure me into this book with his intricate stories and strategies of how a motivated and efficient businessman handles situations. All of the strategies are interesting ones, and deciding which two are the most important was not an easy choice. I narrowed this blog post down to two strategies that I believe are the most important. I can see myself using these strategies in the future to succeed.

One strategy is entitled, "Ask For Help." Underneath this title is a quote that reads, "Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it"- W. Clement Stone, businessman, philanthropist. When I read this strategy it had a great effect on me. I will tell you why. Before reading this passage, I thought it was embarrassing to ask for help, and that no one successful ever asked for help.  It seemed to me that, everyone who was successful knew how to do everything by themselves, and didn't need assistance. I thought that asking for help was a sign of weakness. My recent experiences have taught me that this is not the case at all. I have learned it is to my benefit to ask for help. There is no use suffering and remaining confused, when there is guidance at available at your side.  Johnson explains that one of the traits that makes entrepreneurs successful is that, they are not afraid to ask for help.  I always knew asking for help was essential, but until I read this chapter, I was a little embarrassed to do so. Johnson stresses that one can still be confident and ask for help, and there is no reason to complete a major task all by yourself. He ties this strategy of "asking for help" into a business where he basically says, if one can't ask for help how can they run a successful business? This made me think about how; the business world is all about networking and potential clients and how in order to network, one will need to seek help from those around them. Johnson’s strategy has inspired me to seek even more help from my peers. For example, math has always been a tough subject for me; I used to feel down on myself when I couldn't complete a problem by myself. However, I have learned to accept that asking for help is okay and will work to my benefit.

Another important strategy that Johnson discusses is “The Business Plan Is Overrated”. He explains that he used to put together detailed documents with graphs, charts, in-depth market research and detailed financial statements. Through experience, Johnson has learned that creating a business plan is one of the last things one should do as an entrepreneur. He says there are three crucial steps one must complete, before executing a final business plan. Here they are in my own words:

Number one: Examine the competitive landscape. Johnson says to research what other types of business are around you, what do they are offer? How can your business be better? I was excited when I read this because that is exactly what my group did when researching other Doggie Day Cares in Brookline. When I read this it made me feel that I was on the road to almost becoming a businesswoman.

Number two: discuss your business idea with potential customers. This way, one can see if their idea would even be put to good use. One should ask questions: Would the service I am providing be helpful to you? What could I do to make my service better?

Number three: Develop a sketch or basic prototype of the product. Johnson explains that one should gather all the ideas for a business and map out all the vital steps. 

I will always remember these three strategies and I will use them in the future when I am a businesswoman trying to execute a plan.

Work I have completed

This quarter I am completing work that is different than what I did last quarter.  What I am doing now feels more entrepreneurial in nature. In my group I volunteered to take on the role of a human resources representative.  As the representative in HR, I have learned how to use the Trello program to make our group more organized and efficient. I am working on the $200 project with Samantha.  My colleagues Dan and Jack are in charge of the Store Front project. In my current assignment I am ordering socks for the school Basketball Team.  We explored several different options for how to put the $200 towards a good cause, and ultimately chose to purchase the socks. When we were in the process of coming up with ideas, I remembered, as an entrepreneur must go through many failed attempts before they are successful.

I enjoyed researching and finding businesses to design socks for us. Once we order the socks, we plan to have the basketball team wear them at games to show support for the $200 project and our English class.

Working with a bigger team as opposed to only working with three people makes it easier to assign work. It also feels very different than being project manager. When I was project manager, I felt I was in charge and had to check up on people. I liked being the project manager, but it’s nice to have a different role with new responsibilities.

I am excited to see where the $200 project goes and if we can expand our socks idea beyond the basketball team, and to other sports teams.

The Entrepreneur Mind- First Blog Post

“Martin Luther King Jr.… could have settled for being just a preacher in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. He never would have set out to accomplish his dream, a vision that changed our world forever. People with the ability and the audacity to think big carve the path to greatness” (20). This is how Kevin D. Johnson, author of The Entrepreneur Mind, closes his number 1 strategy called “Think Big.” This is one of the most important traits of being an entrepreneur. Johnson explains, one does not dream for success, one has to go out and find it. I completely agree with this philosophy. “Many entrepreneurs lack the motivation to pursue big ideas… or have become accustomed to going for low-hanging fruit” (17).  Many entrepreneurs want to take the easy way out, and don't think big. They don’t realize that a small decision can impact their business significantly. Johnson also explains thinking big in a way I have not thought of. He explains, thinking big is in the present moment. I have always seen thinking big as something to reach for, something to work for, but it is also all in the present moment.

Another important idea that Johnson mentions is, people don't have the ability to think big, to see the future because they are too comfortable in their environment, or limited by their surroundings. This makes perfect sense to me.  Entrepreneurs may want to think big but they lack certain qualities or don't see themselves working at a large corporation.  If entrepreneurs don’t see themselves successful in the present moment it may hold them back. Johnson explains it is important to take small steps in order for one to feel successful and confident. By taking small steps, one achieves a little of their goal everyday, and eventually they will find themselves achieving the goal they wish to accomplish. I am excited to continue reading this book, and hope to learn more about how a successful entrepreneur operates.

This book already inspires me, and I will take these strategies into account when trying to be a successful entrepreneur at C4E.