Business in a Blog

Unfortunately I didn't make it to class for this speaker, and judging by my classmates blog posts I definitely missed a good one. From what I've gathered in the readings, Brian has a very unique outlook on how to go about running his business. He is the founder and CEO of a web design company named SiteCrafting, who's vision statement is posted on their website as "Thriving employees, organizations, and communities creating impact through technology". He seems to have found his calling in web design while teaching elementary school students, deciding there was a market for a web design business after being approached by parents and friends now and then to help design them websites. Web design wasn't nearly as easy back then as it is now, and plenty of people were looking for somebody that had the expertise required to do it. Brian's business grew through word of mouth, and still does to this day as he's skipped marketing altogether and relied on the pr...

I was excited right out of the gate when I heard our second speaker and entrepreneur, Robert Coons, was involved in the creation of a mobile app. There were a number of really great points brought up in the talk, but certainly my most enlightening was the idea of being valued for a database. I understand the concept of accumulated information being worth a pretty penny to a company that needs it, but I had never really even considered the fact that there were still demographics here in the U.S. that are largely untapped. I suppose growing in the world today it's easy to just assume everything that can be known about the modern consumer is largely already studied. You can't throw a ball without hitting an article espousing how closely we are all being monitored, and it's hard to ignore the truth in that. Nonetheless, Robert and the company he is a part of, Scout, tapped into the veteran market in a way that appears to be worth more than I would have imagined. I think it'...

Our first quest speaker was Erik Hanberg, a published author and entrepreneur. There was a lot to like about Erik's story, most notably the way he clearly and intellectually walked through his experience transitioning from the mindset of an employee to an employer. I genuinely connected with the way he was explaining the early frustrations and curiosities of taking that risk to step out on your own and put your time and energy into starting a business for yourself. Some of the things I found surprising about what he was saying was how many ventures he was a part of simultaneously, and how many books he had already written. IT was eye-opening the way he walked through the differences in revenue production between audio books, paperbacks, etc. Erik's story about pretending to write a book in order to gauge the public interest was fascinating, and I think it's exactly that kind of creativity that would lead somebody down the entrepreneurial path. I had never really considered ...

    My business idea is very simple, to build an entertainment app company that focuses primarily on mobile games. As a child I spent the majority of my time living in the middle of nowhere in Iowa with 2 of my brothers (out of 7 siblings total) and a father that worked from the time we got home from school to the time we were leaving for it. We had to find ways to entertain ourselves, and the way we did that most was by coming up with games to play. I was fortunate enough to have an older brother that was a talented artist and naturally creative person in general. We would hand draw our own cards, make up our own rules, and play the games we had created ourselves. These memories shaped who I am in an important way, and became a catalyst for business aspirations I have to this day.     My intentions are initially to develop a sort of flagship game using the skills I've learned in developing alongside my older brothers talents for design. Some of the things I consid...

    I took this class because the idea of starting my own business has always been fascinating. Entrepreneurship, from the outside, appears to be the sort of opportunity that allows you to test yourself creatively in ways you can't as an average employee. I've had a dozen job titles over the last 10 years; Tour Guide, Carpenter, Janitor, Metal Plater, Commercial Fisherman, etc. No matter where I worked I couldn't help but fantasize about the things I would do differently, how processes could be made more effective or efficient, the management styles I did or did not respect. The idea of creating something and having as much control as is possible in a free market, to test those ideas first hand, and to be involved in shaping something people enjoy, is an alluring one. I have no delusions about the weaknesses and bad habits I certainly have to work on, but I hope this class can give me a solid enough understanding of how to take that first step into creating a business ...