Capstone Journal Entry

Go for it!

Now is the time to begin working on your dreams.  Take the time that you need to find a business that fits you, and fits your strengths.  Make sure that you have enough of the business fundamentals that will help you feel confident in your abilities.  Entrepreneurship is a risk, but we must be sure and make calculated risks.  We must have the wherewithal to mitigate risks as much as possible.  You will read many articles and watch many videos of the amazing success of entrepreneurs but don’t forget that dumb luck was not the secret ingredient.  Hard work and preparation are the ingredients to entrepreneurial success. 

Don’t be afraid of failure!  Have a firm understanding of the risks that will be taken but have faith in your preparation and in yourself.  Have faith.  Make sure and stay close to the Lord in your business decisions.  He will lead, guide, and direct you for good. 

Be passionate.  Whatever it is that you want to do, be passionate about it.  The hard work will seem easier.  Your problems will feel more manageable.  You will gain more satisfaction out of your efforts.

Remember why you are pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams.  Speaking for myself, I want to provide for my family, not only the necessities of life, but for long term financial stability.  There will be stressful times but remember to always treat your family and loved ones with respect and with love.  Don’t let your family fall apart if your business fails.

Last but not least, always keep learning.  The BYU-Idaho learning model teaches us to be lifelong learners.  This will help us to increase in our discipleship of the Master.  Learning encourages us to be humble because we have to accept the fact that we don’t know everything.  Go forward with faith, work hard, and be humble.

Lesson 12: Failing Forward

The lesson this week struck my right in the heart.  I know that I’m very afraid to fail.  I’ve failed at small things but I’m afraid to fail big.  What I mean by that is that I have a fear of leaving my full time job to strike it out on my own.  I have a lovely wife and 5 children that I need to provide for.  Tom Nall, the Acton Hero that I learned about this week said that while entrepreneurs are risk takers, it is important to remember that they take calculated risks.  There’s a lot of work that goes into Entrepreneurship.  Just because I might have a good idea, doesn’t mean that it really is.  I’m mitigating my risks by going back to school and getting more business basics that will help me in my entrepreneurial journey.  One time I make a $500.00 order of artglass from Sweden.  My goal was to either sell it via retail or wholesale it.  That business didn’t go anywhere even though the product was great.  I didn’t do the hard work beforehand to make my risk more calculated.  If I were to do this business again in the future, I would now have the added benefit of a web business creation class and this class to my experience.  I would know how to build a website and how to market the product with different SEO capabilities.  The other thing I would do is to make sure that I started the venture well-funded.  We always hear about those rare cases where people started with very little money and turned their business into a multi-million dollar empire.  Proper planning prevents poor performance!

My $100.00 business challenge update.  I’ve now ended with two clients.  Truthfully, I’m not sure if I could’ve handled anymore with my busy schedule.  Next week for finals week I’ll be in Salt Lake City from Monday until Friday.  I saw some great presentations from other students and was amazed at how great they all did.  During the discussion boards I had great feedback on items I had not considered before.  I was so focused on selling a web page buildout that I wasn’t thinking about the needs of these clients in the long term.  How would I charge them afterwards?  This has been a very enlightening week and I’m so grateful!

Lesson 11: Buyouts and family businesses

I’ve always had a romanticized idea about how family business are.  I’ve dreamed of having my own business that I could pass down to my kids.  This lesson really made me think twice about something that I’ve wanted to do for so long.  As a matter of fact, I’m not so sure it is even a good idea anymore!  So many problems can arise from passing the business on from generation to generation.  The important things I’ve learned however is that some of those pitfalls can be avoided if a proactive approach is taken such as devising a succession plan.  Another nugget of knowledge that I took from this lesson was the importance of having your kids work outside of your own business, perhaps in a different industry for more real world experience.  This never really occurred to me at all.

$100.00 business challenge update:  Great news, I’ve got my second sale!  I finally was able to connect with an assisted living facility that had said they were interested in me building a website for them.  Not only was I able to connect, I was emailed a lot of pictures and content that will make the buildout a snap.  My goal is to complete their website next week.  I don’t have a ton of time left!  I had a good conversation with the owner of the landscape and supply company whom I’ve already built a website for and he said he would pay me next week.  I’m actually really excited to donate the money that I’ve made so far.  If I think I feel good now, I just want wait to experience the joy that I’ll feel after I’ve transferred the money!

Lesson 10: Franchising

I’ve been fortunate enough to work with several franchises throughout my professional sales career.  My first franchise was HobbyTown USA and my second was RC Hobbies.  I liked how a brand name was build up and licensed.  Not only did that help the franchisees but the franchisor made money too.  As a provider of wholesale r/c helicopters and r/c car accessories I saw first-hand the buying power that a franchise had.  Instead of buying toy helicopters at $19.00 they purchased a half shipping container full at $13.49.  Plus we rebranded under their own private label!  It was a great deal for them!  In order for the different franchise stores to have continuity, they liked to carry products that other franchisees carried.  This is where our battery packs really began to sell like hotcakes! 

Fast forward 8 years and I was selling x-ray interpretation services and I happened to learn about an Urgent Care franchise that was growing rapidly.  Our radiologists would provide professional x-ray over-read interpretations.  Once I was able to navigate the preferred provider program, we were not only converting existing customer business but we were adding on every new franchise as well.  It was great!

The dream company that I will someday own will not only be able to help me provide for my family, it will help me to fill a spiritual craving to have a positive impact on the lives of other people.  It seems that I have business ideas all of the time but one that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is a neuropathy treatment center.  Mostly I think about this because of my dad.  He’s diabetic and he has diabetic neuropathy and this causes his feet to hurt all of the time.  It’s a challenge to even sleep.  I’d like to be able to help people enjoy a higher quality of life, especially my dad!

This week I was finally able to get more content help for the Shoshone Nursery and Landscape Supply website.  I also got a verbal from the assisted living facility owner this week that he would still like for me to put together a website for him.  I’ve already started researching designs that I think they will like.  Still working on getting paid for the Nursery website but I know that I’ll get there!

Lesson 9: Production, Operation, and Logistics

This week was fascinating.  I loved the case study about Burt's Bees.  Roxanne was a rockstar with what she was able to accomplish.  A fellow student mentioned that there was a video on Netflix that was a documentary on Burt.  I was interested to see what his views were on things especially since learning in the case study that he didn't last very long after they moved operations down to NC.  Roxanne believed whole heartedly in the company and in their potential and nothing was going to change her mind.  I think this helped her to make the tougher choices of up and moving the whole company.  Another takeaway I got was her ability to hire on people with more experience than herself.  She got top talent in NC and by giving them a piece of the company, she was able to help hook them and bring them on board.  I would also venture to say that those high value employees were more productive when they had skin in the game too.

$100 business challenge update:  I'm not going to lie.  This was a depressing week.  I've been trying to get info for the "About Us" page for the nursury and landscaping supply company but they just aren't getting back to me.  I know it's their busy season.  Plus I'm trying to get them to pay me.  I can't get paid if they aren't giving me what I need to finish the site!  Although I've been in sales my whole life, this is a new experience of doing all of the work and not getting paid!  Building websites can be very time intensive and part of me doesn't want to sell a lot more because this has been such a hassle.  Maybe I did it too cheap.  Maybe people would take me more seriously if I charged more.  It's been a great learning experience and I wouldn't change it for the world, even though it's frustrating and hard!

Lesson 8: Finding good people

First, I want to do a quick update on my $100 business challenge.  I’ve prospected another possible client.  I found out on Facebook that an old high school friend has started a small company selling canned goods.  They are selling their products at a local retail store in the town that I graduated high school from.  At the present time they do not have a website but they want one and would like to sell products from there as well.  As for the current client, Shoshone Nursery, it’s been challenging to hear back from the owner over there.  He also owns a landscaping company and this week was riddled with broken lawnmowers and trucks.  I’m waiting on him to get me the text that I need to write up the “About Us” page for his website.  The other client that I’ve been working on hasn’t been getting back to me either about the website.  This is the assisted living facility.  We did talk briefly about possibly branding ideas yesterday at an old car cruise.  We’ll see where that leads to but for now I want to keep him focused on the website!

As far as lessons learned this week.  Finding the right people is so important.  One of the things I learned in an Entrepreneurial Hero’s video was that even though we might not be able to hire 100% highly motivated individuals, it only takes a handful to make things happen.  When hiring, we shouldn’t hire for only the current pressing needs, we should look further down the road and hire strategically for future needs.  I know that I have personal aspirations and I don’t want to be a sales manager forever; therefore when I’m hiring sales reps, I’m looking for people that want to advance their careers and move into management. 

In the Jet Blue case study I was reminded of the need to make sure a venture is capitalized good enough.  Not only “just” good enough, but plenty good!  While there are those people who are great at shoe-stringing a budget to successfully launch a new business venture, they are few and far between.  Knowing how much to budget for takes a lot of work and a lot of planning to make happen.

Lesson 9: Management and Leadership

I’ve had a lot of time this week to reflect on my leadership and management style.  I’ve found great similarities with how it is following gospel principles and other areas where I can definitely improve.  The best person to look up to is our elder brother, Jesus Christ.  He was never wishy washy, he was ever vigilant and decisive.  He led by example.  He was kind.  His style was to ask questions to help his disciples and other followers better comprehend his message.  He was persuasive.  Even though he had the truth on his side, this doesn’t mean that people will follow.  He inspired them!  I want to have these types of attributes and I’ve thought a lot about how I lead my family.  Consistency is challenging for me.  I’m a high energy person, I get cranky when I’m stressed and in general I know I need to be more calm and collected.  I want to set a good example for my kids.

                As for my $100 business challenge idea, I’m making good progress.  I took time one evening to go over to the property that is being turned into a nursery.  Although the website is technically up, I feel there needs to be more personable content.  This week they received a truck load of bark and a load of topsoil.  These will be great items to showcase on the website.  This week the owner has had a lot of fires to put out so we were not able to meet.  With multiple trucks and lawnmowers breaking down, it just wasn’t in the cards to have an in person meeting.  I’m also waiting on the owner to get me info on his “about us” page so I can get all that put up.