Week 14 Reading Reflection

1. The biggest surprise to me in the reading was actually something that I found kind of confusing in Chapter 3 about the nature of corporate entrepreneurship. "In recent year, the subject of corporate entrepreneurship/innovation has become quite popular, though very few people thoroughly understand the concept." I think it's interesting how usually the biggest conversations happen on subjects people usually really have no clue the definition or history of.

2. Chapter 4 was pretty confusing to me because of the whole discussion on ethics and managerial rationalizations. There is no definitive line when it comes to ethics because it varies on the person and what they believe is morally correct or not and this is usually based on the culture they are brought up on so it's hard to really say something isn't rational because if you grow up believing something it becomes rational to you.

3. Which is more (primarily) important in the success of a business: profits, jobs and efficiency, or personal and social respect, honesty and integrity? I'm curious as to which one is the foundation of a successful business.

4. This is not necessarily something the author states as a fact but he does mention that laws are supposed to be a collective judgment of society and that inherent problems arise when people believe the laws represent morality and I don't completely agree with that because in some societies the laws are created by those in higher positions who have different moral standards.

Google Gold

My SEO approach throughout the blog posts was mostly on keeping the titles of my posts very simple and straight to the point. I've learned that for SEO its best to make have a short title that says what your post is about.

I haven't chosen any keywords in the past blog posts, I wasn't aware we had to include keywords or share our blog via social media. I solely created it for this class. I however have used social media to promote my personal food blog because its my own project and its on something I'd like to someday pursue somehow into my career in working in the food industry. Sharing posts on social media is the best way to attract traffic to a website or blog because people are always on their phones checking their news feed nowadays. I've also learned in my experience that posts that include some type of visual such as images or video get people's attention.

My most viral posts were a tie between my idea napkins and my first elevator pitch. I think these posts had the most page views because others in the class probably had to go back to them to understand what my venture was about in order to get background information to comment on some posts explaining my exit strategies and such.

The only way I am on the first google page is if I type in my name and the title of one of my most viewed blog posts.

Very Short Interview Pt.2

I didn't get to post up my first interview with an entrepreneur although I was able to speak to one sometime during the beginning of this course. I was speaking to my old boss who started a skincare company in Sweden, Cicamed, and is now expanding to the U.S. and I mentioned I was taking this class. He didn't go to business school because he was actually a doctor and he owned a clinic where they conducted surgeries such as plastic surgery and did botox as well and this made him then want to develop his own skincare line.

To him however, being an entrepreneur meant seeking a solution to a problem everyone faces and being knowledgeable and passionate about this to the point where you can stick with and manage a company on this solution and profit from it.

Now toward the end of the class, I understand what he means because there is a lot that goes into the process of creating a business or product and sticking to it.

He mentioned that something important I should learn in an entrepreneurship course is finding a gap in a market rather than just a great idea. Looking back I now understand that it can be simple to come up with great ideas, but there needs to be a market for these ideas to be sold to. If there isn't a need for this then your business can fail because after a while people can lose interest in things that aren't necessary to their everyday lives.

Before setting out on his path to become an entrepreneur he wishes he had been taught more on the power of social media to market a product because he still isn't quite sure what people are talking about when it comes to trends on social media. He just hires people to do that but he really wishes he could understand it better himself so he could have more insight on the ideas they pitch.

Because of distance I didn't interview this person directly face to face so I couldn't record it. I interviewed him via email and these were the questions I came up with and his responses.

1. Have you had a time where you’ve felt you’ve made a mistake along the way of carrying out your business and how do you recommend to act in these circumstances?

I don't think anyone has started up a company without making any mistakes along the way. For us, one of them was that the packaging of our product was actually ruining it because it was allowing oxygen into the bottle of our collagen boost masks so a lot of customers complained that when they pumped the product out of the bottle it came out really watery rather than as a cream which is supposed to be how it works. We had to apologize and send them a new bottle of course free of charge because this was our fault in production. Even years after running a company you can make mistakes, the best way to handle them is to just accept it and find a way to do better from it.

2.What do you think is the best marketing strategy nowadays that we live in a digital world to get word of a business out there?

Social media. I wish I knew more about it but I can barely get my daughters to get off their Instagram and Twitter pages long enough to show me. I just know it's what everyone is plugged into today, especially our target audience which starts from the age of  16 who use our acne products.

3. What are some life lessons you have learned along the way of becoming an entrepreneur that can’t be taught in a classroom?

Don't let one mistake or one word of criticism stop you from doing what you're passionate about. You have to learn to get back up and learn from it.

 I definitely felt more comfortable during this interview than the previous because I understood more about what Mikael was talking about when he mentioned profiting off a passion. It sounds fun to create something for others based on what you love but if you don't know enough about the industry and the product then it's easy to fail. I've come far enough in this class that I wasn't afraid to ask a successful entrepreneur about failure because I've learned that everyone comes across it at some point, no matter how successful they are now.

Week 13 Reading Refelction

1. What stood out most to me from the reading was how long of a process it actually is to valuate a business. There are so many forms, it requires so much more of a specific look into details from businesses to valuate them. After the first figure (Figure 4.1), I thought that was it but then examples of additional forms just kept coming page after page.

2. I was a bit confused in the shortcomings of closely held ventures, once again it mentions that lack of management depth is a common error made and I continue to wonder how business have managed to even stay together long enough to become established without proper management skills? It seems like way too big of risk to start off a venture with such a large problem.

3. If I could ask the author something it would be if newspaper advertising and mail announcements were still being held accounted for in the total amount needed to buy a business because today, most things are announced online via a more direct method such as email or online ads?

4. I don't agree that a pessimistic view is often taken when it comes to buyers because they are trying to determine the lowest possible price to pay. Sometimes, buyers are willing to spend more if they believe a business really has the potential to bring them a bigger share. I believe buyers look more of opportunity rather than to take advantage of the seller.

Celebrating Failure

1. As a journalism major we are required to take Reporting. This class is very notorious for its level of difficulty, so difficult that our professor has a powerpoint slide titled "How to get a C in Reporting" because a C is something to celebrate in these circumstances. Every week we are required to write a story, due at the beginning of class, with at least two sources. One week, I wrote about the presidential race because we were a day away from the first primaries. I interviewed an American politics professor and a business major since one of the republican runners happens to have a business background to get his take on him running for president. When I finished my story I was really proud of it because I felt that it localized the election and really said something about how students felt about it. However, when I got my paper back I got a 35/70....I was devastated. My biggest mistake, misspelling Hillary Clinton's name by simply forgetting to add another L (I spelled it with only one L). This error cost me 50 points. I had really messed this one up, worst of all I worked harder on this story than others where I had gotten a better grade.


2. This error taught me to always read with a critical eye and double check every single proper noun, even with a name as simple as Hillary. There are many ways to spell a name and sometimes even though spell check doesn't correct it, it doesn't mean its right.


3. I don't like failure, it's hard to admit and of course embarrassing, especially when you misspell something. I go through different phases when I face failure, first I feel down because I always put my all into things, then I start thinking about giving up, after I go back and forth between giving up and "well I've made it this far", I go into a "I can't give up on this, I have to keep pushing forward" phase and finally I pick myself back up and keep moving along. I learn from failure, I take it as a lesson on what not to do and build up from it. I believe its what makes us stronger. This class has changed my perspective on failure by showing me that it's ok to fail and that it's not the end of the world because even the most successful people go through it. In the Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium I attended, a lot of the women on the panel expressed that they made mistakes along the way but they still flourished in their business in the end because they learned from the risks they took. This inspired me to take more risks, something I would've been more afraid to do four months ago.

My Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

 I intend to sell my business in the next 5 years for a large return.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

 I believe this is a useful item that should continue to be sold, however, I don't see myself growing with this. It's not my particular area of interest and I would like to pursue other career goals. If I were to continue in the household item industry, I'd like to move more toward the kitchen item section because as someone who loves to cook I believe I can help create items that ease the process of some things.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

I think my exit strategy has influenced my growth intentions. I would like to grow more of an influence in the culinary industry because it is something I am slowly becoming more involved in. 

Week 12 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 
  For me, what stood out most was the section where the chapter said how research has shown a distinct lack of planning on the part of new ventures, especially where entrepreneurs had lack of expertise or skills. If I want to start a venture in a certain industry I would obviously want to know as much as possible about that industry.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
    I was confused in how the reading said that entrepreneurial ventures can prosper by occupying a position that a competitor once held but has ceded through years of imitation and straddling. If a competitor's position has been imitated before, why would someone want to occupy this competitor's position?

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
    I would ask, why have entrepreneurs shown in reports lacked so much strategic planning? Is it because it is something they are not taught to do or do they just focus on the end results of making money right away rather than the long-term of a business?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
   It's hard for me to disagree with what the author says because these aren't things I already knew about beforehand so I don't have anything to compare the information to.