It's My Enterprise

Reminder : Extra Class Day

2009-12-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

Don't Forget:

We have a production meeting at my house Friday December 11th at 1pm. This class is a long one but we are holding it so that we can catch up on our missed rain day.

Where : Deva's House (directions to follow via email)

When: Friday, Dec 11th, 1-3PM

Class Update/Catch Up - Plan for 12/1

2009-11-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

Hello Business Students!

I'm out of town for the next two weeks and your substitute is Ms. Jen, she will be aiding you as you decide as a team the direction you are going as a group for your final day project.

For class on 12/1, you need to have your proposals complete. Please bring in a sample of the product or a very detailed write up of the service you plan to offer HsOBX. It would only benefit the class to also include a variety of names of your proposed business and even a sample advertisement.

Your proposal should include:

Product/Service Idea

Supplies Needed

Estimated Price List of supplies

Why This would work for HSobx

Target Market - specific ages?

Why do you love this idea?

This week your main goal as a group is to decide all together on a business. During this class you will also be selecting a Project Manager, Finance Manger, Marketing Manger, and a Creativity/Production Crew. Please make sure you get to these during this class period, Ms. Jen has a list of the responsibilities each of these positions hold.

After the class decides on the positions the Project Manger (PM) will take the floor and give all other managers a list of responsibilities. The PM must make it very clear what each member is to bring to the class room the following week (12/8), the goal for the week during that class is to make signage and work on the production of your product. During this week you will also be able to do a mock set up of your table downstairs. Please be prepared to bring in materials to produce print advertising, are you handing out small business cards, making large posters? These are the things you will need supplies for. 12/8 is also the week where you can work on production as a group.

Most important, relax and have fun! You guys have shown you are motivated and smart, I look forward to seeing you at my house on Friday Dec 11th at 1!

Young Entrepreneurs

2009-10-13T18:35:00.001-07:00

Don't let your age limit you, you are all amazing young people. I fully expect to see your name on one of these lists!

Here is link to BusinessWeek's special report on young entrepreneurs. There are a lot of articles, but during the week if you can find some time to explore it I think you will find some inspiration.

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/special_reports/20091009americas_young_entrepreneurs.htm

Full class write and blog post to follow later this week!

Marketing, Marketing, and Promotion - Week 4

2009-10-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay, Entrepreneurs.

We started off class with a discussion of marketing in print media. We explored and discussed common issues with print media, and Lydia brought in a great example of sponsorship as a form of inexpensive marketing. Katherine led a discussion using the new Classico pasta sauce print ad which lead to a discussion on the current trends in the marketplace.

Questions were raised about truth in media, do advertisements always tell the truth? What is our role as a consumer? What is the impact on business if they lie? From there we decided we need to look into Classico more. Their advertisement made it seem like they only had 5-6 all natural ingredients in their jarred sauce, is this true?

Last week we focused on advertising and marketing. We split into groups and made commericals for fictitious products. The challenge of the assignment was making sure you covered these questions:
- Why do you care about this product?
- Why does the market need your product? Why should we, your potential customers, buy your product?
- How did you become an expert on your product?

You were also asked to think about the "Marketing Mix - The 4 P's"

1. Product: The product or service you are selling. This includes not only the actual object but also the package, brand, and company image.

2. Price: Price is determined by demand for the goods and the cost of the goods.

3. Place: Where can we find this product

4. Promotion: Different elements that help increase the sale of the product, such as advertising and sales.

Too bad you guys wouldn't let me film you. However you all agreed to be filmed next week so bring yourself to class camera ready!

Other class discussion, what type of business do we want to run as a class? Product or service based?
Some ideas discussed:
Baby sitting/Child Watch
Toy Production
Food based

Key Terms of the Week:
Advertising - The promotion of a product or service.
Marketing - The means by which a product or service is made know and sold to customers.
Marketing Mix - The 4 P's, listed above
Target Market - The customers who are most likely to buy the product, also called target audience.

The Teen Scene - Lesson 2

2009-09-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Entrepreneurs!

This week we got a start on planning and designing our own Teen Clubs. There were lots of great ideas being thrown around for making an amazing Teen Club during the brainstorming session, but we had to make sure that we were keeping in mind our 'BIG 4'. The design of the room took a bit longer than planned, but that is okay since we collectively decided to spend a bit more time on it and we will continue working on it next week.

Why this project? This project is a hands on way to understand our 'BIG 4'. The 'BIG 4' are the 4 things we must do and understand be be a successful entrepreneur.

The BIG 4

The 'Big 4', as an entrepreneur you must:

1. Fill A Need: know what is needed in your area and know your potential competitors
2. Research: Know your customer and your product (or service). Have expert knowledge of both the customer and the product.
3. Be Creative and Innovative: think outside the box, look for new and different solutions to needs that have been identified
4. Believe in Yourself and Love what you do: Know your likes and passions, skills/abilities, and work to improve them.

Class Chat:

We reviewed our 'BIG 4', this will be talked about so much in this class you will be chanting the list in your dreams. Last week we went over the the 'BIG 4' but this week we went even deeper with understanding why this works and how to apply it to a business, in this case the Teen Club.

Acquiring skills was another point of discussion during this class. How do we get more skill and why is this important? Some of our skills are self taught . We might need to seek out an apprenticeship with an expert, and part of being a great entrepreneur is knowing when you need to improve.

We put brainstorming into action to generate our Teen Club business ideas, it was a great way to make sure all ideas were considered before designing the final Teen Club. You guys were so great and respectful to your class members, I'm so impressed with you all. No idea was looked down upon and you really made sure that if something didn't fit the 'Big 4' the other class member understood why.

The rest of the class was spent on designing the Teen Club, some amazing questions were discussed, such as:

Will we put an age limit on the club? How will that impact the Teen Club?
What setting is our teen club in? Rural, city, urban?
How will we fund our club?
How will we split the income between the owners?
Is the scale correct?
What will we have to cut out due to space limitations?
How can we make sure we are reaching the widest range of teens?

Key Terms of the Week: The words and terms we discussed as a group

Market : A collection of current and/or prospective customers
Apprentice : A person who studies with experts to learn more in a specific field
Market Research: Gathering and evaluating data regarding customers' preferences for products and services
Brainstorming: A method to generate ideas

Additional Work: None!

I Am an Entrepreneur - Lesson 1

2009-09-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs, young entrepreneur started his own company at age 21. Today he is CEO of Apple, Inc.

Class Review, Day 1

What is an entrepreneur?

An entrepreneur is a person who starts his or her own business in hope of earning a profit. Profit is income earned after all your expenses are paid. An entrepreneur is able to recognize customer wants and provide a product or service for this want.

The 'Big 4', as an entrepreneur you must:

1. Fill A Need: know what is needed in your area and know your potential competitors
2. Research: Know your customer and your product (or service). Have expert knowledge of both the customer and the product.
3. Be Creative and Innovative: think outside the box, look for new and different solutions to needs that have been identified
4. Believe in Yourself and Love what you do: Know your likes and passions, skills/abilities, and work to improve them.

Vocabulary Review

Business: A company or organization that buys or sells products or product services

Customer: A person who purchases a product or service

Entrepreneur: A person who starts his or her own business in hope of earning a profit

Innovative: To create something new, original, or groundbreaking

Product: An item created for sale, like cookies or computers.

Service: Providing something useful, like babysitting or animal care.

Profit: Income earned after all expenses are paid

Class Chat: Today we played a quiz game and learned about famous entrepreneurs and how they got their start. We talked about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jennifer Lopez, Oprah Winfrey, and Madame CJ Walker, some entrepreneurs were very young when they started their businesses. All of these entrepreneurs decided to pursue their passions and make money doing what they loved the most.

But let's not forget not all business owners are entrepreneurs, remember the Ray Kroc example? Ray Kroc purchased McDonald's, a well established business, expanded on it and took the risks to make it a huge thriving business.

Homework, please have the answers to these questions ready for our next class:
Next week we will start file folders to collect our work and business plans

Writing Work:
How am I like the entrepreneurs I learned about?

What types of marketing set them apart from others in their speciality? (Example, Ben and Jerry's have funny names for flavors)

What are my specials skills and areas of expertise?

Start brainstorming and listing what type of business you will be opening
What type of business do I want to run?
How will I fund my venture? Bank money, personal money, shareholder

Additional Work:
Collect examples of businesses showing entrepreneurial risk taking - sales advertisements with sayings such as "The best in town", 'Lowest Prices Around", etc. If you are able to please clip or print out these examples so we can share them with the class.