Last Bit of Advice

Last Bit of Advice

                

            This post is meant for anything that wants to start their own business and become an entrepreneur.   Just starting your own business does not make you an entrepreneur.  Becoming an entrepreneur is a process that takes time and dedication.  We all have a little of it in us to start with but you must cultivate that desire and help it to grow into something more.  I have met a lot of people that start a business to make a quick buck and what I have learned from this class is that people like that will fail.  Being an entrepreneur means a lot of hard and sacrifice, and taking a huge amount of risk.  It doesn't mean that you need to take unnecessary risk, but there is a significant amount of risk involved or else everyone would do it!

If you want to be an entrepreneur, you must be doing what you love to do.  If you do not love what you are doing then stop!  Life is too short to waste your time in something that you do feel passionately about.  Find something that you are excited to do every for the rest of your life and figure out how to make money from it.  If it doesn't pay enough to support the life you want, then pick something else.

Lastly, being an entrepreneur is not enough. You must also be a manager and a technician at the same time.  I would highly recommend that you read a book called “E-Myth Revisited” if you want to learn what those three roles are. Good luck with your life and remember to thank daily, He that gave us everything we have in our lives, our Father in Heaven. 

Failure, Success and Finished

Failure, Success and Finished

The time has finally come to wrap up and finish this semester.  It was great learning and running my own business in the $100 dollar business challenge.  I didn't make as much money as I had hoped in the business but I was busy working full time in a new job and I was called to be on an executive board for my daughter's school so I think I did pretty good given my schedule. 

I enjoyed the readings and videos this week and what really stood out to me was the focus on failure.  The world teaches us that to fail is wrong when in fact to fail is to live.  My opinion is that a person only truly fails if they stop trying.  It is important though that we figure out what we can learn from our failures.  People assume that successful people have always had it easy and just stumbled upon success.  People that are successful are those that never give up and learn from their failures.  

I am excited for what the last few semesters I have left here and BYU Idaho have in store for me and I hope that all of the classes teach me as much as I have learned in this class. 

Wrapping Up!

Wrapping Up!

We are now coming to the end of the quarter and while I have enjoyed the $100 project, let's just say that I won't miss baking bars. :)  I was able to sell 26 bars this week! That puts me now at a total of money made at $124! It is good that I made more than the $100 at my costs of making the bars are .37 cents each and so I needed to be over $120 to make the minimum of $100 in net profit. 

This week has also been a fun one in reading about starting a family business and also business succession planning.  I think that most business owners fail to realize how complicated it is to transition a business to a child.  The sad part is that only a small number of businesses make to the 3rd and 4th generations! If properly planned though with a business succession plan, it gives the business a much longer life span.  

What I have realized in all of this studying about businesses, is that, you must be love whatever you do or it is not worth it.  Life is to short to play it "safe." We must not be stupid, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't take calculated risks that can improve our lives and the lives around us.