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Last Lecture

Welcome to entrepreneurship! It’s a crazy, wild ride with the best and the worst times. Here are some of my biggest tips. Number one: Don’t feel bad when you struggle to enjoy every aspect of the business. Most of us get into something because we like one or two parts of it. For me, I love the creation process as well as the custom design process and then the profit at the end and seeing the statistics on how my business is growing. Some of my products I can’t wait to make and others I wake up in the morning dreading having to do the order for it that day. In a bigger company, you could hire and train someone to do the parts you really hate, but for me, in a business where I am the one and only, it’s all on me and that can be really stressful sometimes. I’d also say that it’s okay for you to not enjoy every moment of business ownership or entrepreneurship. I promise that even if you’re excited about it during the day, being up at 2am night after night trying to keep everything togethe...
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Week 12

The highlight of this week’s class was the motivational video that the presenting group showed as part of their project. It mentioned that in order to be an entrepreneur, you have to do the things that other people aren’t going to want to do or aren’t going to be motivated to keep doing. Only some of the people who want to be entrepreneurs actually have what it takes. As an entrepreneur you have to be willing to work when others play, never be satisfied, you have to be able to take criticism, to be humble, and be willing to sacrifice your time right now so that you can enjoy and reap the benefits later. It reminded me of the quote “to get what you’ve never gotten, you have to be willing to do what you’ve never done”. It also talked about how failing can be a really important part of the process, and that it’s just finding another way NOT to do something. The main thing I was thinking about during the video was not just my businesses and the ones I plan in the future, but my health and ...
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Week 11

Yesterday in class we analyzed a budget and monthly income sheet for an example business, and it took a lot of work to get everyone on the same page. It made me realize how careful you need to be with business finances and especially when categorizing funds and expenses. I was not good at that while running my last business and it ended up causing a lot of anxiety and fear because I never got things sorted out. When it came time to report income and expenses for taxes, it was a big stress and could have been alleviated by taking some time each month to figure things out. We also talked about our biggest fears as entrepreneurs and as usual, I labeled mine as time management and fear of burnout. I was kind of in denial, but I was super burned out with MMT and it took a disaster to make me close because I felt like I had to prove it to myself (or others…) that I could keep a successful business running. With my next venture, I will need to set up my schedule and priorities a lot better so...
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Week 10

  This week is Thanksgiving and so my schedule is a little off. The topic this week was "Becoming Peak Performers and Dreaming Big". I liked the readings that talked about how there is not one way to be a successful entrepreneur, and that most people don't even have a well written business plan when they start. There are lots of ways and lots of qualities that allow people to be great entreprenuers. Some are good at selling, some are good at online marketing, some are good at designing products, some are good at customer relations. The other areas are either things you eventually get the hang of, hire someone else to take care of or that you just struggle in. Also, I learned that most people get the ideas for their products from something from their previous jobs that they thought they could add improvements to. For me, that has not been the case but I've seen it with others. One particularly was how grandpa's friend Jim Jinard created Oakley sunglasses because he...
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Week 9

I really enjoyed learning about the case study this weekend. It made me think about the choices I've made with each of my businesses and how I would do it if I were in the shoes of the woman in the case study. The theme of the class was fail cheaply and often, and I think that's so important. You need to be willing to fail and then change things within a business so that you eventually end up as successful as possible, If you have little failures while the business is small and the consequences are cheap, you will save yourself lots of headaches when the business is bigger and the consequences are heavier. We also talked about how the ability to execute without slowing down the process with logistics and dumb questions is highly coveted. Not many people are able and willing to do that. We read an article following an army officer who was told by the President of the United States to go find a guy in Cuba that had been lost, as in no one was sure exactly where he was. The office...
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Week 8

Last week on Thursday we did the sell anything challenge, which was something I was not looking forward to. We had to make $100 in a day, and the places that would have made it easy like on campus were off limits. We ended up selling at a local grocery store for 3 hours each. It was 35 degrees outside and a miserable winter day (It was November 1st, but that's about accurate for Rexburg to be so freezing in fall). We split into teams of two and did a fundraiser for a woman named Razia in Pakistan who needed help feeding her buffalo so that it will produce milk to feed her family. Since we had to provide a product as well, we sold pencils. But really, it was a fundraiser because that is what made people support us. Nathan and I raised $46 during our shift and Emma and Halla raised $69. I was nervous about making the required amount because we'd be outside in the cold on a random Thursday and uh... selling pencils for a Pakistanian buffalo. And Rexburg isn't the most philanth...
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Week 7

We had a guest speaker in class yesterday and it was so amazing. I've been really having a rough time envisioning another business because MMT just ended and closing was pretty traumatic to my self-esteem and identity. I've had a business since I was 12 and for the first time in my life since then, I don't. Even with all these assignments to make specific plans in class and everything, I'm pretty confused at what I see myself doing. Probably because I had envisioned myself having that business for years to come. It's been 6 months since I officially closed and the dreams are slowly starting to come back, though. I know I want to open a supply shop and also some sort of training for young entrepreneurs (under 21), so I thought I could do something like a discount for those in high school and college. Anyways, the guest speaker we had was Brother Wasden's father in law and he was so awesome! He's in his 80's and has multiple businesses, lives on only 2% ...
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