Sunday, August 21, 2011
Last Post
During this 200 hours of mentorship I have learned a lot. My posts may not reflect that as much, but that is because of how different my mentorship really was. As of this moment I have not received my evaluation, but am hoping it comes back great. This mentorship gave me the tools to do what I ultimately want to do. I have already been apart of a successful fantasy sports website and expanding it into fundraising and stuff of that nature is my next plan. Whatever I do I want to enjoy it and I believe that is the key to life.
Monday, August 8, 2011
Fifth Post
So since I had to interview someone who failed as a business owner my mentor thought it would be wise to interview somebody who had succeeded as a business owner. I chose a friend of the family whose name is Sinthya Penn.
Sinthya Penn started a business from nothing and it is a prettty unique business. She sells insects to farmers for biological control. This really means that good bugs eat the bad bugs without using pesticides.
I found out that she never even wrote a business plan, but she just had an idea in her head and went with it. Luckily she had investors lined up who believed in her and the concept. She has taken on many other ventures in her life including owning a race horse, farming, and many more.
Her main piece of advice for me was " the product you chose to sell does not have to be orginal. but the ideas behind the concept has to be original. So make your marketing new and you will do fine"
Sinthya Penn started a business from nothing and it is a prettty unique business. She sells insects to farmers for biological control. This really means that good bugs eat the bad bugs without using pesticides.
I found out that she never even wrote a business plan, but she just had an idea in her head and went with it. Luckily she had investors lined up who believed in her and the concept. She has taken on many other ventures in her life including owning a race horse, farming, and many more.
Her main piece of advice for me was " the product you chose to sell does not have to be orginal. but the ideas behind the concept has to be original. So make your marketing new and you will do fine"
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Fourth Post
Sorry guys, I have been busy moving across the country and I know live in California. The weather is so much nicer here than in South Dakota. Like I have been saying my internship is a little different than most of yours.
Dr. Millar had me interview a person who has had success in opening their own business and a person who has not had any success since opening their business. I actually had a couple friends that fulfilled both of these requests.
Matthew Pauley started his buisness in 2007 and its name was Pauley's Productions. His business was located in Canada because he was able to receive grants from the Canadian Government because he was a citizen.
Matt's idea was to do production type of business tools for companys. His biggest hit was making videos of golf courses and uploading it to their websites so people could actually see the golf course before they went. Also, it allowed for expert "advice" to come through the GPS that was located on the golf carts. He also ended up doing video handbooks for companys that wanted to take their teachings into a new era.
I asked a series of questions and found out that the part the really got him in trouble was not doing enough market research before he got into the business. He said he did some but not a lot. The market was not ready to pay him for these kinds of projects and eventually he sold his company to one of his friends who just wanted the design of the website. It was a learning experience, but he said he would not have traded it for anything else in the world.
After talking to him I learned that either do a product that everyone needs or do enough market research to really make a difference.
Dr. Millar had me interview a person who has had success in opening their own business and a person who has not had any success since opening their business. I actually had a couple friends that fulfilled both of these requests.
Matthew Pauley started his buisness in 2007 and its name was Pauley's Productions. His business was located in Canada because he was able to receive grants from the Canadian Government because he was a citizen.
Matt's idea was to do production type of business tools for companys. His biggest hit was making videos of golf courses and uploading it to their websites so people could actually see the golf course before they went. Also, it allowed for expert "advice" to come through the GPS that was located on the golf carts. He also ended up doing video handbooks for companys that wanted to take their teachings into a new era.
I asked a series of questions and found out that the part the really got him in trouble was not doing enough market research before he got into the business. He said he did some but not a lot. The market was not ready to pay him for these kinds of projects and eventually he sold his company to one of his friends who just wanted the design of the website. It was a learning experience, but he said he would not have traded it for anything else in the world.
After talking to him I learned that either do a product that everyone needs or do enough market research to really make a difference.
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