Week 13

Week 13 was pretty interesting and I discovered the meaning of risk when selling a product or service. People might be unhappy about the product or service and demand refunds or maybe they just changed their mind and decided that they want to eat more fast food this week. Owning a business means risk so its a good thing to be prepared for it when it comes. This is why contracts are important instructions clear enough for a toddler to even read. There is always going to be someone that changes their mind and tries to shake things up a bit.

I had an idea this week to finish the semester strong. I figured out how to clean a bathtub in about 15 minutes. You have to spend a lot getting all the products ready, but it is possible to do any bathtub in a short amount of time. Because of this, I figured that it would be a good idea to go to different apartments near the end of the semester and offer to clean their tub for a small fee. Not only would this be a great donation to the KIVA Foundation, but it will help me get out there and make something happen. I’ll update next week and let you know how it went.

Week 12

This past week was actually pretty good. I was able to do a ton of pre-sales and I found out that my recipe is very popular. I didn’t even have to mention the fact that it was a donation to KIVA during the pitch to get people interested. Of course, I would tell them afterwards, but I like how popular my product became and I was able to reach my goal. 

Being an entrepreneur is harder than I imagined. There were times when I would second guess myself and even start to convince myself that what I was doing was a terrible idea or a mistake. Each time this happened, I would just stop myself and think “A man makes his own luck, A man makes his own destiny.” I want to push through anything to reach my goal of becoming the ultimate entrepreneur. It doesn’t matter what feelings of doubt creep in, I will never stop until I find success. As long as I keep telling myself that I make my own destiny, I will succeed. After going out and going door to door, I found a huge measure of success and only a handful of people said no. It’s amazing what you will find if you ignore the negativity and just get out there and work.

Week 11

This week was really awesome! I got to do some pre-sales to market a product for our class project. The assignment is that we have to sell at least 100 dollars of any product of our choosing and we only have one day to do the big sale day. If we fail to sell at least one hundred dollars of the product, we fail the assignment. All the proceeds go to the KIVA foundation to help less fortunate people set up their own businesses. 

So this week I went out and gave people a bunch of surveys. The survey just had a few questions and it was to see how many people are interested in donating or helping out with the project. Also, this was a big help for me to get out and go talk to strangers to see how successful we could be. And even if we decide to go with a different direction and sell another product, at least I know that the one I am soliciting is a popular sell in the future and I might be able to make a business out of in the future! The plan is after two weeks of pre-sales, I will be able to just go to every person that agreed to buy and do a quick exchange of product and money. There were some people that wanted it right away so I decided to get them one anyways regardless of whether I use it in my class project or not. And the coolest part about my product is that it is just a recipe! Next week I will have another update on how my pre-sales are going. So far I have gotten 16 “yes” answers and 4 “no” answers out of 30 people. The rest said “maybe” so we will see how many of that group will agree to buy. 

Week 10

This week I realized how important it is to reach your goals. Last week I failed to follow through with my idea of knocking on some doors and asking if I could wash windows. I failed because I was afraid to fail so I set out a goal this week that I would at least knock one door and see if they would accept my window washing service. As I was knocking, I made it my goal to have at least one person accept my invitation and lo and behold it happened!
I figured out that people have been telling me the wrong thing all my life. Mentors, teachers, coaches, and others have always told me to not be afraid to fail but I think this is the wrong way to put it. The right way to teach the principle of courage is "Be excited to fail!" Without failure, you cannot have success so be really excited to get out there and fail. Once I realized this little gem, I gained an entirely different perspective and was able to go knock doors no problem.
This week I have a few more ideas I want to try out. I want to try selling a product door to door this week and see how it goes. I will be sure to write and tell all about it next time for week 11!