Last Lecture

It’s hard to believe this is my last journal entry for the semester. I have learned so much over the last few months about entrepreneurship, particularly as it pertains to start-ups and small business. If I were to give advice to someone wanting to take the entrepreneur’s journey, I would tell them first to start reading. I really loved the book “The E Myth” by Michael Gerber. In he talks about a couple perspectives that we may have as we are considering going into business for ourselves. He talked specifically about the technician’s perspective. This is the person who works for someone else and is probably pretty good at their job. Because they do well with their technical work they feel that they are qualified to run a full business themselves. Gerber points out that being good at your job doesn’t qualify you to run a business and more often than not this perspective can put someone in a situation where they are in over their heads. This is valuable advice, to consider the technician’s perspective in comparison to your own, before starting a business. I would also advise upcoming entrepreneurs to find a mentor. We had several assignments in which we were to interview existing business owners. They each brought up things about running a business that I would never have thought about. Like how the hardest thing about keeping a business going is hiring the right people, or how purchasing company vehicles rather than pocketing extra cash would be a good tax benefit. It pays to find someone who already knows what they are doing. They can help you avoid pitfalls that would otherwise get the best of you. Last but certainly not least I would advise to always go to your Heavenly Father in prayer when considering a start-up or any other type of business venture. He will be there to guide you as you make such big life decisions. This course has been a good experience for me and I look forward to/dread what will be coming next in B383!

A Safe Place to Admit Failure

As I read “Strategies For Learning From Failure” I was fascinated by the idea of creating an environment that is safe to admit failure. According to the article it takes “strong leadership” to create such an environment. I thought about my time in the corporate world (10+ years) and I would not say that we had this type of culture. As difficult as it was I still always admitted my mistakes, I found that if I came forward and admitted to failure the consequences were less severe and in some cases even positive. One of the results was that I became a trusted member of my team because people knew that if I failed I would not try to hide it or blame anyone else but I would own up to it and try to do better next time. Money can’t buy the kind of trust honesty can bring. I think as subordinates we can do our part by admitting our mistakes but I agree with what the article states, “Only leaders can create and reinforce a culture that counteracts the blame game and makes people feel both comfortable with and responsible for surfacing and learning from failures,” This actually made me think about myself as a leader in my household. Am I creating an environment where it is safe to admit failure? I am so glad to have read this article. I am going to discuss this with my husband and find things that we can do to make sure our kids feel safe in admitting their mistakes and where we can help them learn from those failures.

Regarding my $100 project, I thought it was very beneficial to put together a narrated presentation and then get feedback from the class. I received some very helpful comments from my classmates. I really liked the question, “What would you do if you had more time?” That really helped me ponder and think through what I would do with my project if I truly intended to make it a large successful business. I signed up for B383 next semester and if I have a similar assignment, I think I will try to take this business to the next level.

Succession Plans

This week I really enjoyed the assignment “You be the Consultant”. We read a case study about a man with a family business. He was in the process of trying to come up with a viable succession plan. He had three children, each with different ideas about how they would change the business if they were in charge. Our assignment was to give the man advice on how he should proceed. This assignment really made me think about what being the owner of a business entails, especially for a second-generation entrepreneur. As I thought through what I would do in his place, I also thought about the long-term employees at his shop. How would naming his successor impact them? Is there one that they like more than the others or one that they feel is more qualified? Ultimately the man should choose the one he deems the most capable to run the business, but it is important to consider what impact his decision will have on his current employees. What would I do? I know I would want to pass my business on to my children. But I would want to make sure that my business was in qualified hands for my self and for the security of my employees. You need good leadership and good employees to make a company successful and I wouldn’t want any of my good loyal people leaving because I made the wrong choice for my successor.

Regarding the $100 challenge, I have started working on my presentation for the class that is due next week. I’m glad we have the opportunity to share what we would do with the business if we had more time. I have learned so much and I believe I could be at least somewhat successful if I had more time to produce, market and sell my product.

An Honest Living

This week I really enjoyed reading, “Making a Living and a Life” by Elder Lynn G. Robbins. In his talk Robbins warns us of pride just as the last couple of talks we read had done. I don’t think you can read enough about how awful pride is and how important it is to stay grounded and not give in to that sin. One of the points Robbins made in his talk that really stood out to me was in the section, “motives in the workplace”. He talks about the fact that we are not only learning how to make a living while going school at BYUI, but also that we are learning to make an honest living. Robbins said that our focus should be on what is most important to our Heavenly Father:

-       Building the kingdom, including strong and valiant families

-       Being honest in our dealings and using our God-given talents in the service of our fellow men.

-       Filling our lives with good works that positively impact our community and the world.

I know that I can keep myself in check and on the right path by regularly asking myself if I am doing these things.

Update on the $100 challenge: At this point I finally have a good pattern for a bean bag that I really like. I was going to knit seasonal bean bags but I couldn’t get my egg pattern just right and I wasn’t going to copy someone else’s. I had better luck coming up with my own unique pattern for a regular bean bag. Attached are some pictures. I really like how they turned out. Now the question is, will anyone else like them enough to make a purchase?

Inconspicuous Consumerism

This week we read, “United in Building the Kingdom of God” by L. Tom Perry. It had a similar message to the article we read last week by Elder Wirthlin. Elder Perry talked about riches and how easily one can give in to pride when they have material wealth. I thought about myself and wondered how I would keep myself grounded if we came into large sums of money. Right now we live fairly conservatively. I personally believe that we should not be flashy with our money and focus on buying the big brands and what is “in”. I wrote a paper about inconspicuous consumerism last year. I really believe that life is so much easier for many different reasons if you do not advertise the fact that you have a lot more than you really need to survive. For example, as I did my research for the paper I wrote I found a dissertation that included an interview with a few people who had gone to jail for robbing others. When asked how they chose their victims, the inmates consistently answered that it was all in the appearance of the person. They said you could look at someone and tell quite easily if they had money.  We send a message to others whether we intend to or not with what we are wearing, driving and living in. I also think we start to send a message to ourselves when we spend our money on the vain things of the world. We tell ourselves that we are better, that we deserve what we have and that those who do not must be lazy or doing something wrong. That is why it is so important to be comely and not vain. We can and should use our excess fund to help others on this journey we call life.

As far as an update on the $100 challenge, I have been learning that it is so very difficult to launch even the smallest of businesses with everything else that is going on in my life. I am so impressed with the successful entrepreneurs that I have gotten to know. It is an undertaking to carve out time from family, church, work and school to run a business. I have been knitting up my product and now have a little inventory and was going to go with it but I don’t completely love the pattern I have created. I am looking at my product with much more scrutiny than I would normally because I intend to sell these to customers outside my family and I want to put out something that an unbiased customer would be happy with. I am redoing my pattern and adding just a basic square or round bean bag in addition to the egg. I will post pictures next week.

Higher Ground

I enjoyed this week’s reading. Something that I thought was particularly appropriate was Elder Wirthlin’s talk, “Journey to Higher Ground”. In it he talks about pride and how no matter how successful we get we need to rise above it and stay humble. The quote below stood out to me as I read:

“There is something about prosperity that brings out the worst in some people. In the book of Helaman, we learn of one group of Nephites who experienced great loss and slaughter. Of them we read, “And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, it was because of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the hungry, withholding their clothing from the naked, and smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of that which was sacred, [and] denying the spirit of prophecy and of revelation.”

I thought this went right in line with everything that we have been learning in this class about how to be successful entrepreneurs. It is so important to stay humble and remember what this life is really about. I can see how easy it would be to be prideful about the success in our lives but I know how wrong that is. If we are blessed with more than what we need to sustain ourselves, it is our obligation to help others. I think it’s as simple as that.

Regarding my business for the $100 challenge, I am working on marketing. So far word of mouth has been the easiest thing to do. I read on one of the blogs that I am following that it is smart to start advertising with the group of people that you know and with whom trust is already established. That has proven to be true.

Leadership

This week the lesson material was on leadership. Something that stood out to me as was “Leadership with a Small L” by Kim B. Clark. He described this as:

“…the kind of leadership that builds and lifts and inspires through kindness and love and unselfish devotion to the Lord and His work.  It is the kind of leadership that we need at every level of every kind of organization in the world and in every ward and stake in the Church.  It is the kind of leadership you will need to build an eternal family.”

I am a mother; this is by far the toughest leadership position I have ever had. I feel the obligation I have to raise my children in righteousness and to work with my husband to lead them as President Clark describes above, with kindness and love. I want to always be found leading by a good example, with a vision and leading with love. We read this article in Pathway last year but I was grateful to be able to read it again. It was a good reminder of the kind of leader my children need me to be.

Speaking of children, I have a newborn who just turned 6 weeks old. My life has changed as I am now a mother of two instead of one. I am currently a week behind my goals of inventory and launch of my business for the $100 challenge. The clock is ticking. My new more realistic goals are to complete these tasks by Wednesday of next week.