Derek Young (THE DUDE FROM EXIT 133)

Derek Young is the man behind the hyper local blog Exit 133. I found his speech very interesting! I never knew there was so much work developing a blog and when he says he has put 20- 30 thousand into it i was a little shocked. I think the way Derek makes his living is awesome. I want to have many little business projects bringing in income like he does so I do not get tired with one job. The way he lives his life gives him open opportunities in and allows him to follow whatever path my come his way.

One thing that confused me was how his seasonal view project worked. I got very confused and did not know exactly what its function was. I saw that it helped other companies with their communication without the entire company. The idea of being able to work from anywhere in the world seemed pretty cool, I think it’s great how they have specialists that are in other states doing work for them. It would be awesome working for someone else in another state and having a paycheck come in the mail. But whatever it was it seemed innovative and successful.

When it comes to asking the guest speakers questions I have asked 4 mainly because I knew you were watching for it. This is honestly the first class i have ever taken where you have to put effort into getting your question answered. This could be because these speakers are so interesting people actually have questions they want answered.

John Dimmer

Now that I have my business plan I am all ready to find some funding! This is what John Dimmer from Firs management came to help us with. John went over the different steps to find funding and let us know the challenges we are going to face and how to overcome them. He included 4 main steps of financial support.

Funding sources:

1. Yourself (This one isnt going to do me to much good since im broke) (As much as you can)

2. Friends and family (Now we're talking)(25k-150k)

3. Angel Investors (Growing even bigger)(150k-2.5m)

4.Venture capitalist (4m-Unlimited)

Angel capitalists want more back in return around 10x while venture who used less rick wants 5x back. More risk the more you are going to have to pay them

One thing John let us know is that when he is deciding who to fund he wants to know if they have skin in the game or weather they can just quite really easy if it gets tough for them "which it is going to do many times"!

Another thing I learned is to listen and get as much advise from others in the same game as you because they might sound to be extremely smart but most likely it is because they have been down the same path and already had to deal with the problem....so why not let them make the mistakes and you can just use their advice.

John Goodman

I got a new favorite quote from John Goodman who came to our school this past week. “If you steal from one its plagiarism, If you steal from many its research” This became my facebook status during our first break.

I don’t know too much about what john has done in her life and what she has accomplished but just hearing her talk tells you that she has experienced and lived some serious business in her life. She knows she can do practically anything she wants.

She talked a lot about what you should do before submitting your plans for a new company. Market research is very important so you do not waste your time or the people you are pitching it to. She said to question a small group of people in advanced to see what negative things those people have to say so you can make changes before being denied, DO THOSE INTERVIEWS!

I liked how she talked about needing to know where you want your business to go as you are starting it up so you can set up its legal rights off the bat because it’s usually hard to change. The things to look at are weather your objective is: sell before you die, to sell, to give to kids, to take to public.

The final thing was that most restraints do not sell food they are selling the experience. She pointed out how this is true not only for the fancy restaurant, but also for the fast food joints. This is something to defiantly look into and never forget if opening a restaurant.

I pretty much took everything in that she said because i knew she was rich and had accomplished a lot.

Strength and weaknesses

When deciding who is going to be part of your company and what role they are going to play it is important to look at their strengths and weaknesses. I determined mine in class and these will help me pair up with someone who can look at things differently and help me achieve more than a like minded partner. Coming up with these words will also help me out in an interview since it is a heavily asked question, I will have some thought about strengths as well as weaknesses so now I will not have to use “ My weakness is that I always have to work so hard”

Strengths:

Talking to people, convincing people of things, coming up with way to solve problems, good electronic/ technical skills, patience with dealing with slow/rude people, extreme sports, managing money, spreading the word about things (marketing), designing or working with things to make it work.

Weaknesses:

Needs good directions/ end expectations known, managing my time, lack of long term interest, sometimes unorganized, gets stressed a fair amount (not always bad) worries a lot, procrastinator.

After looking over my list with someone else in just a group of three I found someone who could fill in my problem areas and I could be able to fill in his making him an ideal business partner by using this criteria.

1st Guest Speaker!

Over the years I have sat through many guest speakers almost all of which have only studied their topic and not lived it. My criteria for taking a guest speaker seriously is if you can google them and come back with more than just a facebook profile as their result. Ron Kornfeld turned out to be the real deal.

Ron turned the business plan from a "required element" into something which actually seemed to have some value and worth putting time into. I got a lot of my questions plus more answered by all the questions brought up. The part that I found most helpful is what your plan needs to include and look like to be taken seriously. His input actually made an impact because he has actually been the one denying and giving opportunities through the use of the business plan.

There were three things which must be watched throughout the paper

1. Uniform Depth

2. Internal Consistency

3. Editorial perfection

Something I am going to be aware of is uniform depth since a shorter section of my business plan may show a weakness and lack of knowledge I am going to need to make sure every section of my business plan is completely researched and to make sure I don’t go into too much detail on the aspects I am more familiar with such as marketing.

My paper is also going to need to be consistent and make sure there are no conflicting statements which will make me look less credible.

The editorial perfection is going to be one of the hardest aspects for me especially since it is going to be such a long document. I am going to need to have many people read over my final copy before submitting it either to the professor or prospect employer.

IDEAS!

Sooo I have come up with a few ideas for starting up my own business. They do involve new technology of some sort but I hope my final product I will choose will have to do with the computer industry.

My first idea was due to my girlfriend spending hundreds of dollars trying to alter her skin color at the tanning salon. Since she is a fan of spray tans which cost (25-60) dollars. WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!! So my invention involves a device which can be used in your shower and will use a high pressure CO2 canister which includes the tanning solution. This canister will lock into a tube system which will spay the user with many holes. This device can be monitored by a electronic device which can time and direct the user.

My next idea is a computer data base/retriever for canned foods. This unit can be installed in your pantry closet and makes it easy for you to find your canned food since it is almost impossible to see what you have when they are all stacked together. By entering the type of canned good you want it will use belts to bring it forward. It can also let you know what you are running low or out of when going shopping.

I have been working at Sprinker Recreation center for 6 years and have been playing hockey for a lot longer. We use a Zamboni which cleans the ice. Why not create a zamboni or addition to one which cleans the ice something like the robotic vacuum cleaners.

I also wakeboard a lot and sometimes my friends don’t have time to tow me. I want to create a device which can attach to your Sea Doo or even boat which allows you to steer and accelerate from your handle while riding behind the boat.

Entrepreneurship

When a majority of people think about becoming an entrepreneur they think about the notion of money which is thought to be involved with becoming an "entrepreneur". They forget all of the possibilities of failure and loss of money involved with the process. The desire to become the next Bill Gates makes a lot of people want to become one without really knowing what is involved.

The truth is that you must have a love and desire to make your product work. Without this you have nothing. I liked how the article stated that you must have three things. You must first be on the cutting edge, build long term value, and have freedom. The article states "If achieving these three objectives is not of basic interest, then the very thought of becoming an entrepreneur should be extinguished." I like how it directly tells you exactly what you must have to be successful this will save people a lot of time.

Courage is also something mentioned that an entrepreneur most have which is very true. It takes a lot of it to risk your money, future, and reputation on something you do not have any control over how other people like your product. I think it would be great to be able to come up with an idea and develop it until it is desired but a lot of people. It would be an amazing accomplishment to create something which is found in many people’s homes which would drive me to work hard on my project.