Week 9

This week I learned how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. My wife brought to my attention that she feels a little bit of stress now that she is the only one working to support both of us while I am in school. She graduated last semester and has been working since then to support us while I am in school. This is a bit stressful for my wife so I decided that I need to have some sort of income myself to help out. I couldn’t really think of anything so I came to the idea that I would go door to door asking if I could wash some windows. As I was driving around looking for a good street to knock, my mind kept playing through different scenarios of me failing. I saw people outside working, busy, and the idea of going up to them to disturb them was impossible. Would me going up and asking them if I could wash their windows ruin their day? And what if their kid answered the door, what would I say? All these thoughts kept coming to me deterring me from my objective. It took quite a bit of driving until I decided that it just wasn’t my day.

I know that this was the wrong choice, however it taught me something. This whole entrepreneur thing is harder than I thought and not all that I thought it would be. Now I have a goal and am determined to reach it. Before next week is out, I will have knocked one door and asked them if I can wash their windows. This is my goal and I will report next week.

Week 8

What I learned from about entrepreneurship this week has to do with balancing time spent with family with time spent doing work. This class has inspired me to begin a new business and that has required some start-up. Start up takes quite a bit of time and is really new and exciting. When I think about working now, I get so excited and cannot wait to try something new. I love the idea of bootstrapping everyday and being creative. But I have found out that this takes a lot of energy and time. My wife can feel a bit neglected at times when I get too excited about work and lose all sense of time. Not only do I lose track of time, my brain doesn’t care to eat, sleep, or do anything that is naturally healthy. I tend to lose myself in work and I forget to care about other things that need caring. This is why I have decided to start early on in my career and devote a set amount of time to family and free time.

Each time I start to get really caught up in what I am doing, I take a minute to analyze what I need to do that is important before I get into a project. Sometimes I will just get up from my computer and go jump over the back of the couch to surprise my wife and watch a movie with her. This is a small gesture, but I know it means a lot to her and it also means a lot to me. I wouldn’t get that same pleasure if I were to always be working because I forget what matters most. I am thankful for a great wife that supports me and glad I didn’t start my business before I was married because I probably wouldn’t have had time to get married otherwise.

Week 7

This week I really learned the lesson of being innovative no matter where you are and making the best of your situation. Throughout my life working in various industries, I have always come up with ways to make a company better or more productive. In a fast food Mexican restaurant, I was originally trained to be a cashier. The idea of the restaurant is for people to walk up to the front, order and then wait for their name to be called to come get their order. After they were done eating, they would get up and throw their tray away and just leave. I found this to be a bit dissatisfying for the customer and also me as a worker so I started to do things a little different. I started bringing the food to the customer where they sat. Near the end of their meal, I would walk out and see if they were going to have dessert or if they would need any to-go boxes. On top of that, I would always take their trash for them and tray so they did not have to stare at their mess while trying to talk with each other. I also came up with ways to clean faster and more effectively by focusing on areas that needed the cleaning. I tried my best to be innovative and come up with new ways to help the customer for a more satisfying experience and I was only being paid minimum wage! But it wouldn’t matter whether I was making $100 dollars and hour or $7, leaving a business better than you found it is what is important.

I want to take my innovation to my entrepreneurial life and keep making my business better everyday. Just like we learned in class, if any company in the world decides to make a better decision each day, it can become the most successful company in the world.

Week 6

This week I learned about the power of influence in entrepreneurship. Influence is a powerful key because without it, you won’t be very successful. Each time you go meet a client, you need influence, and each time you even use a power point, you will use influence.

The best form of influence in the entrepreneur world is a first impression. A first impression is something that you can never get back. One experience I have of this is dealing with a ward mission leader one time. The first time I saw him at church, he had a suit on but he was wearing short white socks! Every time this good man would sit down, all you could see is his very white leg and his ankle socks. I cannot think of this man in a different light because when I first met him, this is what I saw. The memory is never erased easily.

An entrepreneur never knows when his first impression will be crucial so he must always be on his guard. An entrepreneur must keep the appearance of attractive. Men should be dressed nice with at least some jeans and a collared shirt. The women should be dressed nice also, but modest in my opinion. I would rather do business with a modest woman rather than someone who craves the attention of men.

I believe this is why BYUI has some sort of a dress code because it wants to teach students to give a good impression. First impressions are everything so make sure to treat each meet and greet as if it were your last!