B283 Update

This week I was able to learn a lot about family businesses!  This was very interesting and informative for me since I have often thought about the possibility of opening a family business.  I learned about the important of developing equity plans and succession plans right from the beginning to avoid any confusion, tension, or other problems in the future.

I really enjoyed my $100 business challenge and I’ve been thinking about my final presentation for it.  It worked out perfectly for Juliet’s family as well as for my class with the timing and everything!  I probably would have continued watching Juliet even after the challenge if they needed me, but having her dad be at home with her now is also a good thing for them.  I’ll miss having her over as often, but she’ll still come over on occasion when they need a babysitter!

I also learned about an entrepreneur named Erick Slabaugh.   He seems like a great person!  Even at a young age, he was willing to give up a fun social life to help his family’s business.  He even invested in the business, buying out a partner’s equity for himself.  He worked long hours every day and even weekends without the nice paychecks that his friends were receiving.  But his hard work paid off – he was able to see great success with the company and he became the CEO.  He also learns from his mistakes and asks lots of questions.  He emphasized the importance of having a mentor and he wished he asked more questions when he was younger.  His insight encourages me to ask lots of questions and not try to know everything.

Business Funding!

This week I was able to fund my business for the $100.00 Challenge!  I decided to fund my business using personal capital.  I chose this because I have the sufficient funds to invest and I won’t need to pay anyone back or owe any interest.  I considered asking some family members to contribute $5/each with a promise to pay them back $8/each, but I figured that if I have my own $20 to use, I might as well and not have to worry about owing anyone!  So I have my $20 bill available to buy the supplies I need for my daycare business!  I will be using the $20 to buy snacks (Goldfish, fruit snacks, juice – $10), Clorox wipes to keep things sanitary ($5), and hand wipes to keep little hands clean ($5).

I arranged an interview with an entrepreneur as well as learned about a couple of entrepreneurs.  The entrepreneurs I learned about are Desh Deshpande and Ken Zolot.  Both of these entrepreneurs have wonderful lessons to share. They both had to overcome their own, personal challenges.   I was very impressed with Dr. Deshpande’s ability to become a successful entrepreneur after immigrating to the USA with only $8!  It shows that hard work, creativity, and the right attitude can overcome even the most difficult challenges or barriers.  I loved what Dr. Deshpande said about optimism – his positive outlook inspires me to be more optimistic in my own life.  My husband watched these videos with me, and he feels quite certain that luck was a part of Dr. Deshpande’s success.  He thinks that there are a lot of people who don’t have many resources who still work hard and use their creativity, but don’t experience success.  Perhaps Dr. Deshpande’s optimistic attitude attracted good luck?  Ken Zolot shared his experiences about how curiosity can feel like an asset as well as a hindrance at the same time.  But using one’s curiosity and creativity in meaningful ways can create wonderful innovation and success.  Zolot was able to show me that it’s ok to not conform to institutions – we need to be comfortable with ourselves and who we are.