Today we put our businesses to the test.  We tried to fulfill students and employee's need for transportation during the time of 9:00-11:00 AM.  We were somewhat successful in that we had 4 "takers" in our business.  Today was all about making money and learning what works and what doesn't work in the business world.  We learned some things about pricing, timing, and also advertising of our business.

Reflection: I think today was a good learning experience in the fact that we learned that some things work, and some things don't work.  Some things that work was e-mailing students and employees.  Some things we learned that didn't work was the timing.  Not many students need rides anywhere at 9 in the morning.  If we could have run the business at night, it would have been substantially more successful considering this is a college and it was a Friday night.  Today was important because we can learn from our mistakes and grow on the things we did well.  I believe I will be able to use the experiences we learned today later in life and hopefully later in a real business.

Today we learned about how to grow a business and what it means to grow a business. Some of the information includes franchising a business or licensing an idea.  These two can help your growing business.  We learned about some of the pros and cons about franchising a business. Of course the pros are that you can make a lot more money if you franchise the business.  Some of the cons are not being able to find properly trained employees, or finding a trustworthy franchisee.  We learned about harvesting a business, exiting the market, and also liquidating your company. In more depth about liquidating, we learned about how to value a business.  Some ways to value a business is book value, future-earnings, or market value.

Reflection: I think the information learned in today's class is important because if our businesses grow, we need to know and understand how to harvest them properly.  We also need to learn the flip-side which is exiting and liquidating our businesses. I believe this information will help our companies grow and hopefully be successful.  The Shark Tank episode was interesting today.  They man had a good idea but very unclear plans for his product.  The sharks did not know what he was trying to do and also proclaimed that the man had too many claims.  I thought the business would have been able to do well if he would have had prepared more and had less claims.

Today we learned about some of the ways to lead a team.  We learned the pros and cons about each individual way.  We also learned about salaries and dividends.  We also learned about recruitment.  These ways of recruitment you want to pursue is looking at the individuals personal attributes.  Ethics were also in the information learned today.  The other chapter learned today was more into detail about the inventory costs and managing inventory part of the business.  I also learned some things from sharktank.  The things I learned were even if you have a great idea, you need to have a very detailed business plan in order for it to get financed.  The two that we watched had good ideas but had awful preparation and execution of the business plan.

Reflection:  The information learned today is important because in starting a business, you need a team.  This means you have to be able to manage a team the right way that will exploit all of its resources.  Today's information helped me learn some ways to understand how to manage a team.  Another important part learned was the ethics side of a business.  It is always important to have very good business ethics.  I believe the information learned today will be used later on in the class because these things were all important to run a business. I will use this information later in the class when the EE starts the business on Friday.  We will have to run as a team and we will more than likely have some decisions regarding business ethics.  The shark tank episode helped me realize that a business plan is the absolute key to a great idea.  I feel strongly about the information today in that it will help me later in the class and if I have a business some day.

Today the information we learned was about financing and taxing.  These parts are important to the businesses.  We also learned about different kinds of businesses.  Some of these include sole proprietorship, partnerships, and corporations.  The majority of information learned today was through the EE groups.  We learned that we need to target specific people.  We actually changed our target market from students to the employees of the school.  We decided to do this because we thought that most students will not need a ride from 9-11 in the morning.  We also talked about pricing.  This is important because we want to make a profit on this business.  We came together on a price of one dollar per mile.

Reflection:  The information we learned today was important to me because it helps me be aware of the different kinds of businesses out there in the market.  The information was important to me because as an entrepreneur, I need to know about financing, taxing, and other kinds of business out in the market.  I will use this information later in class in the EE and when I start to make the business plan.  I feel strong about the information learned today.  It helps me feel more confident about the business we are starting on Friday.  As I become older, this information about taxing, and financing will be more important and useful.

The information learned today was more on the accounting side of the business.  We learned what goes into an income statement and balance sheet.  We also learned about owner's equity and liabilities.  The different kind of liabilities are current and long-term.  These types of subjects helps us understand what we need to do to keep the business afloat.  We also learned about liquidity, current ratios, and quick ration.  We also learned why businesses can have negative balances yet still show a positive income.  The cash flow statement can show where and when money will coming into the business.

Reflection:  I believe the information learned today will help all the students with the understanding of the accounting side of a business.  It has cleared up some questions about where the money is at in the business.  The accounting side of a business is important to an entrepreneur because he needs to know what is happening with his money and more importantly, why.  I feel strongly about the need for this information.  It will help me and the students of this class later in a business but also later in life.

The information learned today was more about the costs of starting a business.  Things like marginal cost, variable costs and fixed costs.  We looked at other units of measure such as economics of one unit.  We basically looked at what a business would cost.  We also talked about some of the most of the common fixed costs that are known as USAIIRD.  We learned about how much is needed to make to break even in a business.  We also learned about some basic accounting terms such as accrual method and auditing.

Reflection: The information learned today helps me understand how to look at the number side of a business.  I will need to look at how much the costs are and make sure my pricing on my business will cover the business' costs.  This information is important to what I will be doing in my business.  It is important because I will need to know some of the basics of costs, and spending of my business.  I think the information will help me because it makes me look at the costs side of the business.  After today, I will look more into depth of my business costs and make sure the price of my products will cover those costs.  I feel very confident about a business after the first week of class.

Today's information we learned about how to properly conduct a sales call.  Some of these things were what questions to ask for, and how to get your customer to keep coming back.  Ask the right questions, listen to their problems so you can figure out a product that can fix the problem.  Do not offer products until later in the call.  Make the sales call quick.  The focus of the sales call is to get repeat customers not to just sell the product.  We also learned about the logo and name of a business.  Keep the name and logo simple yet easy to remember.  We also learned that location is a big part of your business.  Having a good location can help make your business succeed.  Advertising via internet and media is a great way to get your business out on the market.

Reflection:  The information we learned today was important to me in the fact that it makes me think about what the name of my business will be.  It also makes me think about what my logo should look like. The advertising information was important because advertising is an extremely important phase of a business.  I will use the information later in life when I need to advertise my business and research what groups to focus on.  I feel that this information is helping me understand entrepreneurship more thoroughly and incorporating this information will help my business succeed.

Today's information was about searching for facts on your business.  These things will include searching for how much each household makes each year, how much they spend on your product, and how much they spend on your product each time they are in the store.  Researching this information is called secondary research.  I learned some ways to perform primary research also.  These things include interviews, focus groups, and observation.  We use this information to make our marketing part of our business plan. There are different ways to distinguish your business from other businesses.  These things include geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral.

Reflection: The information I learned today can help me make my business more successful.  Using the research credentials learned today will help my business learn more about what is on the market.  This can help the business narrow down on what customers we should pursue.  I feel more confident now that I know how to research and more importantly what to research.  This is going to help me later in this class in the way that I will be more efficient in making my market plan.

Today we learned about the factors that will help separate your business from other businesses.  These things include competitive strategy, advantage, and having a well-constructed business plan.  Before all of these are taking into consideration, you will need to figure out if the business is feasible.  This basically means that you are eliminating the business ideas that are unrealistic.  I have learned that making a business plan is a necessity if you wish to save time and make money.  Some important parts of the business plan consists of the executive summary, mission vision and culture, and the appendices.  These parts will include what you plan for your business to achieve and why.  Another important thing learned today was where to place your business.  Looking at competitors and substitutes around the area are things that need to be considered in finding a place to settle your business.

Reflection: Today's information helped me understand the business plan into more depth.  I understand what needs to go into it but now I understand what elements I need to help make the company flourish.  The information today was important in that it will help us students to look at other parts of the business (other business around the area, population, competitive advantages and strategy).  These things can make a strong be the deciding factors of a successful or unsuccessful business.  I can use the information learned today down the road to make key decisions such as placement of my business.  My confidence to make a strong business has made a big jump in one day.  After the last couple of days, I have not only learned how to make a business plan, but I have also learned how to differentiate my business from others.  

One of the things I have learned is that to have a chance at building a business, you have to disregard the problems you may face.  Acknowledging the problems is acceptable, but failing to attempt the business due to the problems is not.  Understanding what the real definition of an opportunity is another concept I have more thoroughly understood.  Opportunity isn't just an idea, it also needs to satisfy the customer's needs along with a reasonable price for both the customer and owner.  Shumpter's five ways of using different sources to enable the business to produce more efficiently helps me understand what I would need to look for in building a business.  The gist of the information learned today was dealing with what ways opportunities come about, how to look at the opportunity, what ways you can enhance the productivity of the idea, some specific things to recognize like opportunity cost, and cost/benefit analysis.  We also learned what is needed for in an opportunity to succeed.  These include Timmon's Idea plus 4: Attract customers, will work in business environment, can be completed within a feasible guidelines, and resources and skills to make the business are available to the entrepreneur.

Reflection

The information today was important beginning to understand how or what to look for in pursuing an opportunity.  Things like not looking at the "cautions" of an idea, or looking at the cost/benefit analysis to see if it worth while.  It has given me an outline to what, and how to approach an opportunity later in life.  By the end of this class I am hoping to be able to have a more clear understanding of how to start a business if I wanted.  This guideline will help me later in that it will allow me to eliminate unfeasible ideas and help carry out the real opportunities.  It has helped clarify how to start a business and what goes on behind the scenes of a new upcoming business.