Brian Forth - Employees Are Your Family

Brian Forth, technology business founder and owner of consistence growing company, gave us a different example of entrepreneurship.  He jumped into his field with the vision of web developing technology at the right time in late 90s.  Even though web and application development are compliantly different from his education background, with his vision, courage and help form others, he started a successful web design company.  Which once again proof the importance of acquiring help and using people well.  Then he continue growing his company and stay in the market through .com bust and economic recession.  The 2 most important key points I learn from him are Service Oriented and Company Culture.  I believe these two key points played important roll of staying alive through difficult time and continue growing.  A simple " We will answer your call" as a advertising title says it all.  Offering a great product is one thing, without good customer service and support, customer will not stay.  In his company, everyone is sales and customer service representative.  Everybody is involve with company's growth.  This quality not only attract customers, it also creates a great moment of market developing for company's growth.  Company Culture is also an unique and important quality of his management concept.  Company takes care of employee and employee takes care of company.  Like one big family, everyone doing his part to make sure family stays strong.  This kind of company culture really creates a bound between employee and organization.  Although, I am not sure if I will totally agree with his open book policy.  Even within family, money seems to always be the toughest subject to deal with. When money issue is involved, it could still tear a family a part.  He also gave us a couple of advice from examples of the mistake they made in the past.  " Don't see star in your eyes" and "Stay focus with what you know".  Over confident could really lead to a painful price.  Good advice.                             

Ron Kornfeld - Need money to make more money

Our second guess speaker Ron Kornfeld gave us a first taste about what the business plan about.  I narrow it down to 3 categories from his presentation.  1. How to create your business idea.  2. How to make plans for your business idea.  3.  How to sale your idea.  About creating a business idea, he mentioned that people need to be a little crazy.  The word "crazy" refer to creativity, thinking out side of the box with lots of courage.  It is true that many things we have nowadays people used to believe that it is impossible.  He also present great guidelines of how to make a business plan and using many different techniques such as 5 steps program to create a business proposal.  Then he used many examples to describe pros and cons on how to sale your idea and plan to potential investors.  With strong marketing and business developing background, Ron is all about business.  For any entrepreneur, unless you are already very wealthy, before you can sale your products or services, you will need to give what it takes to sale your business plan first, because you will need money to make more money.

5 Business Ideas

1. IT consulting and computer repair.  I do this everyday.
2. Online sales on eBay and Craigslist.  Turning garbage into gold.  Example: refurbished furniture, computers.
3. Wedding photographer and video.  Create my own website for advertising.
4. Roof and gutter cleaning business.  It's a pain for most people.  I will do it for you.
5. Senior citizen service.  Include grocery delivery, transportation, house care and pet care.

Erik Hanborg - Good Example for Beginner

Erik Hanborg is a great example for people who want to become an entrepreneur.  As he described, he didn't start as an entrepreneur in his career.  In fact, he taught himself to become an entrepreneur through his earlier career in Grand Cinema.  Although, he had to pay for some painful price, and once again, he proved that being your own boss in technology world is not an easy task, he then learned from mistakes and become a successful entrepreneur doing things he enjoy to do.  This is a good motivation for me especially after reading the Entrepreneur Guide Book about the successful rate and its price to be an entrepreneur.  In his speech, he presented many great key points as definitions and guide lines for becoming an entrepreneur, such as, be a starter, enjoy the work, making connections, acquiring help and always be a student.  These key points, really doesn't sounds too complicate or hard to do.  However, for many people include me, while in pursuing goals, we just don't realize these key points, or simply just forget to do it.  Over all, I think the most important message I got from Erik's speech is that no matter what you like to do and how you want to do for your career, just do it.               

 

Entrepreneurship

After reading the first paragraph about the five failure facts, my first impression about entrepreneurship is like someone who walks into a casino with only a few changes in the pocket, and expecting to walk out there with big bags of cash in a very short time.  You know the odds are against you, and resource is very limited.  To me, as a non gambler, it just doesn’t seem to be logical.  However, I missed a big point.  The first sentence in the article, “Entrepreneurship is a way of life” says it all.  Becoming an entrepreneur requires certain personalities and believes which makes it unique from ordinary business owner and gives them a bigger advantage to achieve greater success.  Every business has risks, sometimes great success comes with greater responsibilities and bigger risk.  As author described, the outcome is important, however, being an entrepreneur is not just about the results.  The process of achieving gals is what’s defining Entrepreneurship.  This process reminds me one of my former employers, a crab boat captain on Bering Sea once told me that “People knows fish taste good, but not everyone can be a fishing man.  A true fishing man calls his boat “Home”.  It is not just a job; it is a way of life”.  Of course, I am not talking about how to be a fishing man.  The important point is that his attitude and believe makes him a successful person in his career.  In my humble opinion, I think this is a same kind of attitude and believe we should carry to learn how to become a true entrepreneur.                

Expectation from TINST 475

After being in the IT industry for a little over 3 years, experience has taught me that information technology is crucial to the majority of business.  Almost all companies use IT to some extent.  Employers rely on IT to make their business more effective and profitable. Most job functions require employees know the basics of IT.  In my opinion, as long as business is competitive there will be a need for IT. With that thought, I am hoping to learn the fundamental concepts of the relationship between information technology and the business market, and gain skills in creating IT business opportunities.  Hopefully in the near future, I can apply the knowledge I learn from TINST 475 to the real business world and create my own IT company.