blog topic three

Highlight a failure from your past - How might your past failures help you as an entrepreneur?

During my first couple years in college, the biggest adjustment I had to make was time management. During high school, time basically managed itself. Go to school from 8:30 - 3:30, get home about 4. Do my homework, or go to my piano lessons if it was Thursday. Eat dinner. Do any more homework or practice some more piano.

In college, suddenly classes were sprawled out throughout the day. I had mandatory concerts to either be in, rehearse for, or attend. I had seminars I needed to go to, committees to keep up with (I lived at the residential college at the time), and plenty of other things to do, to. Suddenly I had to fit everything in, including time for eating and studying, and my schedule changed frequently. Over that first year and a half or so of college, I made promises to friends and my girlfriend that I ended up not being able to keep, all simply because I was not keeping a calendar, a very simple task that hadn't really been a part of my life before.

I started keeping a detailed calendar, filling in all the required events I had to attend as soon as I got the syllabus. It changed my life. I was able to feel 'grown-up' by saying, "let me check my calendar"...and I actually had one. I was able to keep appointments and decrease my stress level by a LOT. I was able to feel kind of like a businessman. It was a great feeling.

I've worked for hire with individuals wanting to work on video and music projects, and have been able to immediately let them know what days I can meet and follow up with them. I think these skills as an entrepreneur are absolutely vital. I don't think there's anyway your entrepreneurial venture can succeed without keeping your calendar up to date and organized. It was such a simple thing, and it really made the difference between failure and success.

blog topic two

[What is Social Entrepreneurship?]

Social Entrepreneurship is a sub-group of Entrepreneurship.

A social entrepreneur still has the characteristics of an entrepreneur, such as innovative and driven, but often has different motives.

I see a social entrepreneur as someone who is not necessarily in creating new markets, but interested in helping to reform existing markets.  This may be an innovative idea to help some sort of disadvantaged population.

An example which I thought of would be the (RED) campaign which helps to raise money for mothers+children who have contracted AIDS in Africa.  Their strategy for marketing in so many places (cellphones, clothing, coffee) was developed by an entrepreneur, but with the motive of helping a disadvantaged community (AIDS).

The idea of social entrepreneurship is really interesting to me.

blog topic one

[Describe the predominance of new ventures in the economy.  If you could create a venture for the new economy what would you create?]

New ventures in the economy are continually being taken.

Approximately 600,000 new businesses are established in the US each year.

Also, the number of businesses that exist grow by 2% each year.

The majority of businesses are small firms which employ less than 20 people.

This does not surprise me.  Many people are interested in taking entrepreneurial adventures and starting their own small businesses.  Also, people seem to be more aware at the fact that large businesses are taking over, and are encouraging more local, small businesses.

*statistics from Thomson/South-Western