Week 15 Reading Reflection

I think that the most surprising thing in this weeks reading was that microfinance was so profitable, especially in lower income countries. The thing that I found confusing was the same thing that surprised me. I don't completely understand how they are so successful when their clients have no money.  If I could ask the author anything it would be 1) Do you think that providing small loans to the poor is ethical? 2) Does he see potential in other countries with similar markets? I don't think the author was wrong about anything this week. I think it was pretty straight forward in explaining the concept of this business.

Final Reflection

This semester was pretty hectic because of this class. That isn't to say it was a negative experience just that it was tough to balance a class that requires so much attention with other classes as well. I think the most memorable assignment I did was interviewing strangers about something they may need. It's just purely awkward to do something like that. I think what I was most proud of this semester wasn't specifically an assignment, but the ability to crank out assignments every week for this class and still finding time to study for important exams in other classes.

I honestly do not see myself as an entrepreneur because I haven't accomplished anything outside of a school setting. On the other hand, I definitely believe that I have developed an entrepreneurial mindset through all of the exercises we have done and through listening to the lectures. So even though I don't see myself as an entrepreneur yet, I believe that I possess all the tools needed in order to be successful when I do take that step.

If I were to make a suggestion to any future student going down this path in the future, I would tell them to stay motivated and enthusiastic towards this journey. It is important to stay on top of all your assignments because the points add up fast and the only way to do this is to keep a positive attitude and mindset every single week. This will not only help in this class, but in everything you attempt in life.

Venture Concept No. 2

1) Here is a link to my first venture concept so you don't have to figure out where it ends and this begins. http://blogforclass3191.blogspot.com/2016/03/venture-concept-no1.html

2) Provide a summary of the feedback you received from your previous venture concept description. 

The feedback I was received was minimally helpful unfortunately. You can tell by reading a lot of comments that the person who posted did not take time to read what I had written because most assume that I am inventing the product or building a knockoff version, when time and time again I have made it very clear in everything that I have written, that I only plan to distribute the existing product. As far as helpful feedback goes, it has been mentioned that I may have more competition than originally. This person had pointed out that my competition would extend further than people doing the same thing and would also incorporate other similar products. I will have to keep this in mind in the future. I was also told that people may not want the product I am selling, but is that not a risk associated with every one of our ventures?

3) Describe how you changed your venture concept, based on what you learned from the feedback.

There won't be much changed with my business venture as it is fairly simple and short term in nature. However, I will have to recognize that there may be more competition out there in the forms of product and other people attempting the same venture. I will also have to look into the legality of how this is done more, so that I can execute my plan and get out in a few years without any legal troubles. As far as my venture concept goes, it will remain the same but I will be mentally aware of more possible obstacles.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

The most surprising thing in the reading this week to me was the code of ethics for businesses. If it exists, then it makes you wonder why there are so many scandals in business today. I think that it would be easy to make the ethical choice for me, but I do understand the pressures that would make someone else do otherwise. Nothing was too confusing this week because it was based on material that is covered in a few other business courses. It was just a little more in depth than the other courses have gone. If I could ask any two questions, they would be 1) What does the author think is the largest factor in some businesses behaving ethically and others not behaving ethically? 2) How large of a role does ethics play in the different stages of an entrepreneur doing what he is trying to do? Also, I don't believe the author is wrong about anything in this reading because like I had stated earlier, the material matches up parallel to what I have read in other classes.

Google Gold

A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimization (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO?
At the beginning of this class I started to post assignments on a blog I had also created for this class. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process that shows the most relevant to a person's search. I wrote what I would consider quality assignment work in the hopes that it would be more appealing to other people to read. By doing this I was hoping that my blog would show up higher on search results.

What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?
In general I never really thought about the keywords that I was using. I followed the directions in creating a title for all of my posts and used label to keep track of which week I had done an assignment. I guess there were keywords throughout my writing that I unknowingly repeated, like entrepreneur and entrepreneurship. I never really consider changing my strategy throughout the entirety of the class.

How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What were your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?
I did not share my blog on my personal social media accounts. However, I did leave a link to my blog on every comment I posted to someone else's blog. If I had posted on my social media about my blog, I have a feeling that I would've been surprised by just how much more traffic it would have received. I can appreciate how using every aspect to expose your venture to the public can be beneficial, especially if it's a platform as large as social media.

What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?
My most viral post was my second elevator pitch. I think it was the most popular because it was executed fairly well and allowed people to see an example of a good elevator pitch. I dressed business casual and didn't read off a sheet of paper, instead I memorized my pitch. This caused it to come together nicely.

Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?
Unfortunately I did not make it to the first page using a keyword search. I was around page 7 I believe. BUT if I search Google for "blogs for ent3003" I am in fact on the first page!

Very Short Interview With Entrepreneur Part 2

When I did my first interview it was with Robert Norton. He is a friend and business acquaintance of my step father. Robert has owned and run his own business which does independent claims adjusting for over 10 years now.

The 3 questions that I asked him were:
                1) What does it mean to you to be an entrepreneur?
                2) What do you think that I should learn from my entrepreneurship course?
                3) What is something that you wish you had learned in school before setting out as an                                entrepreneur?

Looking back from where I stand now, that initial interview has some pretty good advice in it. In one way or another, he had covered a few key concepts from this class like creating a venture concept, identifying an opportunity and even social networking. I feel that after going through this class I understand the points he was trying to get across a lot better.

This time around

This time when I called Robert I asked three different questions.

1) What was your motivation for leaving the larger corporations to start your own independent service?
- It was a lot of things, I wanted independence to work on my time and I have a family so I'm always trying to do the absolute most for them. I realized there was an opportunity to do insurance referee work independently and the money was there so the rest is history.

2)What are some sacrifices you had to make to be successful?
- I had to spend a lot of time working well past when someone with a 9-5 would stop. For the first few years I worked till almost 9pm every night, even weekends cause I had to build clientele and a reputation, which meant taking more clients than I could handle most of the time. Even now when I have a large claim it requires more of my time than usual.

3) What would you like to see your business turn into?
- Well, right now it's just me and I do a lot of large claims with a couple other independent guys. The only thing that can change in a business like this is you level of clientele. I do claims on houses worth a few million dollars right now but there's still room to move up to higher end homes and hotels.

I don't know if he had a sense of me progressing in this journey but the interview was more comfortable and felt much more casual than the first time around. I feel like he wasn't trying to give me professional answers but just honest ones.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

The most interesting thing I found in the reading this week was just how much went in to the valuation of a business and how important it is even past buying one. I think overall this chapter was not very confusing but they didn't give a reason on how people try to avoid certain costs specific to a start-up. I think that I would ask the author if he had a favorite method of valuation and what are the most difficult parts of buying a business or selling a business. This chapter was pretty informative and I can't say that I disagree with anything the author said.