Week 14 - Last Post

This is the last journal entry that I will be making for this class. It has been a fantastic class, full of information. As I go back and review this semester, what are something I would like others to know and walk away with? The first thing is an article I read today. This article is called, "Rich's Last Words from Bootstrap Business:" In the article, Rich talks about the three critical attributes to succeed, which are, Unalterable Determination, An Undeviating Support System, and A Great Purpose. By following these three things, you will become very successful. You need to want to achieve your goal so bad that you would do almost anything for it. Make sure your friends and family are supportive. You have to know what you are doing is right, and you have to have a great purpose in doing what you are doing. Making money or having more time off is not going to keep you going in your business. You have to have a real purpose in doing what you are doing. Do you want your own business so you can give some of the revenue you make to charity? Is there a worthy cause on why you are creating your company? Have a real purpose. Make sure you have a business plan drawn up and check out everything, permits, laws, codes, etc. before you even begin.

There are so many things to learn about owning your own business, yet I have to say out of everything I have learned, Rich's three critical attributes are perfect for me. With them, you can do anything.

Week 13

We are now towards the end of the semester. A time to test our willpower as most of us can't wait to start our summer. This week we worked on our PowerPoint presentation for our $100.00 challenge. I enjoyed going through and watching everyone's presentations. Learning about what product or service they sold and what they did to promote their product/service was interesting. I was able to learn a lot from others and what they learned during this challenge.

For my $100.00 challenge this week I needed to finish up my orders. There were a couple I had to deliver in the Valley, thirty minutes away. Everyone who bought my Hot Fudge seemed to like it. If I had more time and was doing this as a real business, I would have obtained the right permits, got the product tested, made labels instead of tags and sold them in stores, put up a web page and sell them over the internet and have gone to events. I feel I would have been able to make a decent amount yet there would be a lot of hard work also involved. I am just excited that $282.00 will be going to Kiva and helping those who need it obtain a loan. I am so glad I was not only able to learn about small businesses but also help others achieve their goals.

Week 12

Entrepreneur Journal – Week 12

This week has been extremely hard. Between work and school, I have been only getting two hours of sleep and this week I have noticed it in my studies. My brain doesn't want to do anything but sleep. Last night I was able to get four hours of sleep, and I feel so much better and can concentrate more today.

This week we have been talking about family businesses. Do I think it's good to go into business with a family member? It all depends, as some families make it work and some do not. I would have to say; most family businesses do not make it as most families treat the business personal and not as a real business. Does everyone know their job titles and what they are supposed to be doing? Do you have a policy within the company? What is to happen if a family member does not pull their weight? Just because Billy Bob's son cannot find a job because he is lazy does not mean you are to hire him.

I run an in-home daycare, and my step-daughter needed daycare for her daughter. I let her know that I would be treating her as a client and not a family member. She had to sign the contract and pay the same amount as my other families. When she was late on a payment, she received notice and was charged extra for being late. If we want to succeed in business, we have to treat the industry as a business whether they are family or not.

This is our last week for purchasing Hot Unicorn Fudge. I have been struggling with sales as I did not have time to get my fudge tested and all the permits I need for selling to the public. I did mention on Facebook how this was the last week for sales and then I decided to guilt people into buying the fudge. I let them know that I had helped their children when they were having fundraisers, now it's my turn for them to help me. I don't care about the grade or extra credit. I want to sell so I can have money to help others accomplish their goals. Oh, I must say, after I guilted everyone on Facebook, I did pick up eleven new orders.

Week 11

This week we learned more about franchises. We read an article called, How Franchising Work. The chapters in this article are:

·         The Rules: Fees

o   Restrictive Covenants

o   Trade Secrets

·         Selecting the Right Franchise

·         The Franchising Process

·         Creating a Plan

·         The Legal Aspects

·         At the End of the Road;

You can find the article at; https://money.howstuffworks.com/franchising.htm

This article was very informative about the subject.

We also read about Steve Jobs. I have never found interest in Steve Jobs, until now. What an impressive man, who gives excellent advice from all of his experiences. There are so many beautiful examples and life lessons that he gives us all. 

First off, I love how he tells us, ask yourself if you are going to die tomorrow is this what you want to be doing? After a couple of days if the answer is still not happy, then it's time for a change. This advice can be applied to both life and work. It makes you think, are you pleased with what you are doing?

"People with passion can change the world for the better." Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, "I'd get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was passionate about." That's how much it meant to him. Passion is everything. Am I passionate about what I am doing right now?

Jobs was as proud of what Apple chose not to do as he was of what Apple did. When he returned to Apple in 1997, he took a company with 350 products and reduced them to 10 products in a two-year period. Why? So, he could put the "A-Team" on each product. What are you saying "no" to?   I love the idea of taking just a few things and making it your best than taking hundreds and making them mediocre.

On my $100.00 challenge, I feel I am struggling and am frustrated. With my Facebook friends here in Alaska, I have asked for help in purchasing my Hot Unicorn Fudge, yet I have not had too many buyers. Because of the law and no time to obtain permits and testing, I can only sell to my friends here in Alaska. I have let them know what I am doing and why. I don't care about the extra credit. All I care about is raising enough money, plus whatever l else I can get for those people on the Kiva page to get them the help they need. I have already helped secure a loan for six women, and I don't know how the loan works. Personally, I don't want my money back. I know what it's like to struggle, of course not as much as they do, yet I want to give as much help as I can to them. I wish my Friends could help me in this endeavor.

Lesson 10

Entrepreneur Journal – Week 10

The semester is almost over. There have been many things I have learned from this course. Some of them I would like to remember and I decided to keep those assignments in here. One this week was our Acton Hero named Catherine Rohr. What a woman she is. I am just going to paste my assignment here as I want to make sure I remember what I wrote.

Another fantastic woman we hear about, so amazing I had to look her up online and find out more about the story. Here we have a Wall Street investor who decided to start a prison entrepreneur program, even though at the time she felt those behind bars were animals and not human. Catherine was invited to go to the Texas prison, and while there she saw something she did not expect, and that was real humans. She soon realized that many of those men had the same qualities as those who become entrepreneurs. Catherine decided to start a program called Prison Entrepreneurship program. She would commute from New York to Texas every weekend for six weeks. After six weeks of travel her and her husband decided to use all their money and move to Texas. While in Texas the U-Haul that they had everything in was broken into and they took everything. All they had left was the clothes on their back. Catherine said she became a professional beggar. She raised money for the program, and within a week she earned $40.000, the first year she raised $230,000, the second year $680,000 and the third year was $1.7 million. Catherine overcame a lot of hurdles to get this program started. She has seen men wearing a cap and gown for the first time. Again, what a fantastic woman to take these men who did wrong, sometimes very terrible things and gave them a new lease on life. Catherine is my hero.

See what I mean? Catherine is amazing.

For my $100 challenge this week I made up fliers and gave them to my friends and posted it up on Facebook. Here is what I came up with.

Lesson 9

This week was another hard week. I think it's just going to keep getting harder as my life schedule is making it this way. As I have mentioned before, I run a small in-home daycare. For a while my number of children was low, about 4 per day, because of this I was able to do school during the day. For me, studying was always hard as it took me longer than the average person to study. In the past, I would have to study during the daytime and then after work and family time, which would be around 10p I would start and go to be by 2a. I would then get up at 5a. every morning for seminary. I now have 7-10 kids per day from 2 years down to 3 months. With this number of children, it gives me no time to do my work in the daytime and only at night. I still get 3 hours of sleep a night. Trying to read the E-Myth book was very challenging for me as I would always fall asleep as soon as I would start to read it. I was able to finally get the book report done as on Friday nights I stay up until 5 or 6a on Saturday getting my work completed for the week.  I did find the press release assignment also challenging yet that too was accomplished.

On my $100.00 challenge, I am having a hard time. As I mentioned last week, I can only sell to my friends and family. I decided to post it on my Facebook page. I explained what I was doing and how all the proceeds were being donated to a worthy cause, telling them what it was. I expected a lot of my friends to purchase nothing yet. I was saddened as when their child is selling something for school, etc. I support them by buying what they are selling, whether I needed that item or not. I just hurt knowing I don't have the support of my friends to help me help a great cause.

Week 8

This week was a hard week. We had lots of reading assignments for both my classes. One of my significant challenges in this class is trying to stay awake when I read. With work, school and what little family life I have, I only get three hours of sleep a night. When I open a book or try to read an article online my brain tells my body it's time to shut down and I pass out without even knowing it. There have been times when I would be typing a report and all of a sudden; I would notice a whole page of "K" s on my paper. I guess I past out with my finger on the K key again.

For the $100 challenge this week I went to a Ward function and was able to sell some of my Hot Unicorn Fudge there. Because I decided to go with a food product, I learned to sell it I would have to get the food tested and then get a permit to sell it. To get it proved would take a month. I knew I didn't have that long to wait. It was told to me that because it was a school project and I was donating the proceeds that I would be able to sell it to family and friends. I would not be able to sell it outside of Alaska since I had no permit. Hopefully, my friends will come through for me, and I do have to say this Hot Unicorn Fudge is outstanding.