Franchising

This week’s assignments were all about learning about how franchising works.  I found this week’s learning to be really exciting.  I have often thought that entrepreneurs have to find a new idea and solve all the problems around building the operations and sales of a business.  Realizing that an entrepreneur can buy into a business model that already solves many of the problems that a new company faces (training, advertising, supply chain, etc.) was eye-opening.  So many small businesses fail within their first few years of operation that it can seem very intimidating. Who would really want to take those risks?  At the very least, any reasonable way to mitigate the common business failure risks seems worth investigating.  Purchasing a franchise is such a proven model that I am surprised that more people don’t do it!  I observed this week that many people who own at least one franchise go on to own additional franchises.  They are lucrative enough to be desirable, and the work is perfect for someone who wants to be an entrepreneur but who also doesn’t want to go through the process of “reinventing the wheel.”  Raising the initial capital can be tough, but some people get around the challenges of fundraising by partnering with co-investors or borrowing money from friends and family.

$100 Challenge Update

This week was a really big week for my business! I was able to meet my goal of selling 28 bags of Carolyn's Cocoa Cups hot chocolate mix, which means that I made a $100 profit! I was not feeling very optimistic about my chances of reaching this goal last week, but I had some big orders come in at the beginning of the week that helped me reach my goal! 

Interview With An Entrepreneur

In this week’s lesson we were asked to write a paper giving a summary of the interview I had with an entrepreneur. The follow are the five key takeaways that I got from that interview:

Success is defined in different ways for different people.  According to the entrepreneur I interviewed, he defined success based on three different criteria – is the reaction positive, what is the level of adoption, and does the action lead to revenue. Every entrepreneur should take the time to determine how they define success for their business.

Set out to solve a problem. More times than not, if you are able to accurately identify a problem and come up with a solution for it, people will get on board and your company will be successful.  

Relationships and connection are essential, but don’t put too much trust in them. One of the biggest struggles that the entrepreneur I interviewed has had to deal with is that his contacts and connections have generally overstated their ability to be of assistance.

Learn from your mistakes. The entrepreneur I interviewed said that if he had to do it all over again he would follow his instincts more, avoid distractions, and focus on tangible results. Throughout your entrepreneurial journey, take time to sit down and evaluate how well you have done, and make course corrections if needed.

Being an entrepreneur takes hard work. It may take years for a company to really take off, and those long years require a lot of hard work, dedication, and perseverance. 

$100 Challenge Update

Things are continuing to go well for my business, Carolyn’s Cocoa Cups. So far I have made $75 in revenue with about $42 of that being my profit. I am not very confident that I will be able to reach the goal of making a $100 profit, but I am going to continue to try my best to keep pushing and sell as much of my product as I can!

Here are some pictures of my product:

The Flywheel Effect

As part of this week’s lesson, we were asked to read an overview of the concepts discussed in the book Good to Great, by Jim Collins.  Good to Great is a book that talks about the characteristics that can be found in companies that went from being good to great. In the book, it mentions that the companies that go from good to great don’t do so by implementing some sort of radical change program, but instead by using pragmatic programs that were based on three elements: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. 

One idea that was introduced to me through reading the overview this week is the idea of the flywheel. A flywheel is a heavy, metal disk that sits horizontally on an axle. The amount of effort it takes to get the wheel to make one rotation is immense, and so is the amount of effort it takes to get the wheel to make two, three, and four rotations. However, after consistent pushing to turn the wheel, the wheel begins to use it’s own momentum to propel it around. The individual pushing the wheel doesn’t have to push any harder than before, but the wheel is beginning to pick up speed.  This idea of a flywheel teaches that continued and sustained efforts will produce positive results, and will allow a company to gain momentum. I think a lot of the successful businesses out there are successful because they don’t try to take any shortcuts, but instead put in the hard work that it takes to be a great company and they keep pushing and pushing until things start to really take off on their own. This concept is one that I plan on implementing in my own start-up business someday.

$100 Challenge Update

This week I introduced a new line in my product offering. Before, I was just offering bags of chocolate hot cocoa mix. However, after seeing that most people only purchased one bag, I decided to add another bag of cocoa mix that was a variety pack. My reasoning in doing this is that I anticipated that I could bring up the average number of bags sold through each transaction by adding more variety, and thus increasing my revenue. In these new variety mix bags are a serving of chocolate, peppermint, and marshmallow hot chocolate mixes. I am optimistic that this will increase my revenue and help me achieve my goal of making a $100 profit. 

Qualities of Great Leaders

The main theme of this week’s lesson was leaders, and what makes great leaders. We discussed how the Savior is the perfect leader, and how emotional intelligence is what distinguishes great leaders from good leaders. As part of our preparation for the week, we were also asked to read a talk given by Hugh Nibley titled Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift. In this talk, Nibley used the example of Moroni as an example of a great leader. Moroni was focused on equality and didn’t try to control those whom he was superior to. He never focused on gaining power, but rather to create an environment of peace where all individuals worked together to achieve a common goal. I think this strategy is one that would be beneficially applied to all aspects of my life, particularly in callings at church and my future career. I hope to be able to apply the characteristics of all the great leaders we learned about in this week’s lesson to my entrepreneurial career and personal life.

$100 Challenge Update

This week was the first week that I started actively trying to sell my product, and it has been much harder than I had anticipated. I was initially hoping that I would get a lot of repeat customers, and that was going to be how I would get a lot of revenue from selling my product. However, I am not very confident at this point that that will be the case. I am starting to think that the best way to increase my revenue is to try to sell a higher quantity with each sale.  In order to do this, I think I am going to have to introduce different flavors of hot cocoa mix and offer a deal to individuals that purchase more than one bag of mix. I had toyed with this idea before starting to sell my product, and now that I am actively trying to sell my product I think it’s something I am going to have to work on in the coming week.