On the final day of class we conducted our entrepreneurial experience. We also discussed in class, other groups experiences. For my group we made and served Mexican food to students and staff. This taught me a slight bit about the food industry, which I learned is much harder than I had previously believed. You must have a very good idea do how many guests you will serve, as your thawing out meat which means the meat must be cooked soon or it will spoil which would waste your money. Knowing how much of what to use is the most difficult part. We spent to much on some items and to enough on others. This ultimately had us running out of some things before we would run out of others. Then some items we had a large amount of leftovers. The cooking process also isn't easy, especially seeing as this was one of maybe ten times I have truly cooked for other people. I have made plenty of simple meals for myself, but not a ton that take to much preparation. I learned from this that there is a lot more to a buisness than what it will ever sound like when it is just a concept. Bringing something to life takes lots of time and effort, but if its what you wanna do it can be very rewarding in the end.

In class today we discussed franchising and the importance of building a good brand. We talked about how franchising and licensing works. I found that rather interesting as you tend to have to pay a high amount just to get a known brands company name for the company you plan to run. For instance you can't just start a burger joint called McDonalds due to the brand and image they have built around that name, as well as their trademark. It cost $1,000,000+ just to get the franchise tag from McDonalds, plus the cost you must then put into the restaurant. Another topic we discussed was image and building a good brand. We talked about how our reputation is all we have so we should really try not to taint it especially when dealing in the business world, because poor mistakes tend to follow you around for quite some time in the world of business. This has shown me that I should definitely be careful about my decisions, as well as try to present yourself as well as possible at all times because your appearance has a lot to do with your image.

Today we discussed a handful of topics, the ones I felt were most relevant and I got the most out of we're styles and techniques of management, as well as location of your buisness. Both of these are major factors into how successful your operation will be. For example we discussed how having a strong solid management team can make everything or break everything in a sense. If your management team is weak or unmotivated  the rest of your workforce will likely follow suit. You need to be careful when hiring people, especially management as they need to reflect your views on where they think the company is going. Location is a major component of your buisness as well. You need a workforce that lives relatively close, you can't have a buisness in the middle of nowhere or none will apply to work for you. As well it helps certain businesses to be in certain areas due to an areas size, location to resources, or ability to attract customers. This is important to keep in mind when thinking of they type of buisness you would like to operate.

Today in class our main topic of discussion was ways you can get funds to startup a buisness. We discussed the many forms of loans, investments, and grants that you may receive when starting a buisness. Clearly the bet way to start a buisness was if you had your own capital to invest, as you would then maintain complete ownership. You can through other forms of financing, still be able to obtain complete ownership in your company, but you may have to payback investors first. This matters to me a lot because when I go to start a buisness of my own I will need to find a way to finance it, and seeing as I personally am not rich I will most likely be looking to get a loan or for investors. The methods we discussed of how to go about finding investors for specific projects, or certain businesses will prove very helpful in locating the necessary people for those investments. Sometimes certain investments take certain people, who can see the same dream and image that you have you just have to find them and present it to them.

Today we discussed how we plan to advertise for our entrepreneaurial experience. This showed several ways of advertisement that not only may I apply to this project but to any buisness I choose to pursue in life. We talked about the importance of advertisement and getting your brand out. People tend to go with what they know so if you get people to "know" your brand you will build a relatively long lasting and loyal customer base. Another hot topic today was that of income statements, cash flows, and balance sheets. These are al paperwork forms of buisness that layout all the essentials you need for running a company. It also helps you to read these documents to determine if a company is successful or not based off of those documents. This is interesting to me as I would have to make sure all of this was done properly as a buisness owner, as well I would want to know how things were looking if I had invested into a company, and I could use this for that as well which makes it rather helpful.

Entrepreneurship day 5

Today in class we learned more in depth about all of the cost associated with starting and operating a business. There are two categories n which costs fall under, variable and fixed. They both work differently but both effect your overall COGS. As well we learned about start up cost and what is associated with that, along with critical cost (the most important costs in your business). I was glad to learn about today's topic as it gave us a better understanding of how much you have to really invest yourself into your business if you really want it to succeed. It makes you realize there are cost with business you may not have thought of initially, and really makes you debate what corners are worth cutting if trying to start/continue a successful business. It also makes you think about how you can innovate to lower your variable/fixed costs in order to maximize your overall profit.

Today we discussed a few things, one of key importance is that of the four P's within your buisness.  Pric, place, promotion, and product. These are all essential to building a successful buisness no matter the field you enter. I took from this that building a good reliable brand may be the best way to make your buisness last. We discussed how people tend to buy what they know, so if you can do something to set your brand apart and make people hear about it chances are they will purchase your product over other similar products. Place and price have a close relationship due to the economics of an area affecting the price people are willing to pay for certaing things. In some area people are more apt to allocate their money towards one resource or another. As well a good solid product is a keystone to any buisness operation. For without a product people will like, you will probably not make it to far in the world of buisness.