Brian Forth was our guest speaker for January 30th who was the CEO of Site Crafting, a web design company for the most part. Some of the important topics he taught about where not burning bridges, find mentors, and don't assume people know what you know.
Not burning bridges or what Brian called it is to not dismiss anyone, to me these are pretty similar in terms of thinking. He talked about how when he started working with parents at the school he worked at and starting making websites for them and it became to the point where he could quit and start a business. What made him successful is that he built up this catalog of work that was available for anyone to see and a huge client base already. This makes it easy to get work by showing people that he had a track record of good work and that he also was able to get people to spread word about his work. This philosophy he kept in his current company right now as they have no sales people, its all mostly done by word of mouth and their quality of work. I found this interesting since I always thought this was the most important thing to focus on when doing work or building a product.
Finding mentors was a really good piece of advice he offered, because he struggled without it before. When Brian started his business he did it mostly by himself and didn't have some kind of support network or person to call when he got in trouble. By finding people who have already done the work that you are currently doing you get more advice and guidance on how to run and create your business more effectively. This also builds up your network of people that you can contact for help, work, or anything else you might need. So I found this piece of advice really good for anyone starting a business with little or no experience.
Assuming people know what you know is something I know a lot of people struggle with. I have worked with people who are usually pretty good at that and know that they have to educate people on how it works and not just assume things. I think that I sometimes as well do that too, where I might just assume someone knows what I am thinking or know, but never fully commit to asking them if they actually know.
Those where the three main things I took from the guest speaker this morning and thought where important to keep in mind when starting a business.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Rob Conne Reflection
Rob Conne was the CEO and co-founder of Scouts Military Discounts, which is an app that gives veterans and active duty military a place to find discounts for retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. What I liked most about his presentation was that it was focused heavily on his app and how he made it for the user and not try and blow it up into something that was super huge.
Rob talked about how when they first started the company how they had planned to go national and try and get as many downloads as possible. What ended up happening to them was that all the people who downloaded it found out that the deals were on big company brands and it didn't really change all that much. This meant they could download the app, get the information, and delete, which is not good for business as they can't make money off of one time users. So Rob decided to shift from national to small focused areas with a high concentration of veterans for better app retention. So they move to Tacoma because of how many veterans live here. They then cataloged all the shops and small retailers in Tacoma in their app, making it a lot harder to memorize what all the deals where and to not want to delete the app after a one time use.
The shift for the app worked, and they saw continuous growth in their app and more retention. So they could do more with marketing and advertisements. I found this interesting as one of my apps has a banner ad in it, and it hasn't done very well. Mostly because I don't care to much for it as it was just a fun project to learn some stuff. However, listening to how Rob was able to get more money out of it made me realize how much ad revenue could be made if you understand your user database and change the way apps are monetized. I never would have thought of doing something like, it seemed to be a great move for them and gets me thinking on how my app for the business idea could also do something similar like that and make more revenue.
One last thing I found interesting about the speaker was the way they got their database for discounts. Because Rob said he hired some friends to call every place in Tacoma about discounts for the military and catalog all the information they got into their app. I thought they would have a more sophisticated way of doing this but it seemed to work. Shows that sometimes you just got to brute force things in order to get them working and going.
Rob talked about how when they first started the company how they had planned to go national and try and get as many downloads as possible. What ended up happening to them was that all the people who downloaded it found out that the deals were on big company brands and it didn't really change all that much. This meant they could download the app, get the information, and delete, which is not good for business as they can't make money off of one time users. So Rob decided to shift from national to small focused areas with a high concentration of veterans for better app retention. So they move to Tacoma because of how many veterans live here. They then cataloged all the shops and small retailers in Tacoma in their app, making it a lot harder to memorize what all the deals where and to not want to delete the app after a one time use.
The shift for the app worked, and they saw continuous growth in their app and more retention. So they could do more with marketing and advertisements. I found this interesting as one of my apps has a banner ad in it, and it hasn't done very well. Mostly because I don't care to much for it as it was just a fun project to learn some stuff. However, listening to how Rob was able to get more money out of it made me realize how much ad revenue could be made if you understand your user database and change the way apps are monetized. I never would have thought of doing something like, it seemed to be a great move for them and gets me thinking on how my app for the business idea could also do something similar like that and make more revenue.
One last thing I found interesting about the speaker was the way they got their database for discounts. Because Rob said he hired some friends to call every place in Tacoma about discounts for the military and catalog all the information they got into their app. I thought they would have a more sophisticated way of doing this but it seemed to work. Shows that sometimes you just got to brute force things in order to get them working and going.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Erik Hanberg Reflection
I found the guest speaker Erik Hanberg to be very interesting and insightful. Some of the topics that he covered where, the entrepreneur mind set, it is both luck and skill, and how he started his own.
The entrepreneur mind set he talked about was that you have to think about not making a salary and to to be limitless in terms of you growth. When working at a job with a salary there is only a set amount of money you can make, since you can work only so many hours. When you have your own business you can make as much as possible because you get payed by the amount you sell and not necessary on the amount you work. Therefore you can make as much as possible. This is one part to the mind set of an entrepreneur because although it is an attractive thought it can also be freighting. Since you could go months without being paid or hardly make anything for a certain amount of time. It involves having this aspect of getting over fear and jumping into the business rather than letting fear consume you.
Being a successful entrepreneur involves both luck and skill. Skill is needed in order to get it going and to get noticed, but to be a world sensation you need to have some kind of luck on your side so that you can reach that point. Erik gave the example of Bill Gates in one of the books he read where it talked about the skill and luck of Bill Gates life. Gates Skill came from the fact that he learned a lot about system design and tinkered with the new technologies in high school. He also had access to locations where he could get more information like at the University of Washington. The luck came from the fact that he was born into a well off family so he could focus on higher education, and his parents taught him that he could do whatever he wanted to do and had the power to do it. Also raised at an important time in order to launch the technology. All these factors is what made him a successful entrepreneur, and the message being that with hard work, and a little luck, anyone can become successful.
Erik started his own business, or his wife did with Side x Side. Where she was a graphic designer who got enough business on her own that she could start her own business and use that as income. This inspired Erik to start his own, his first being his own publishing website for his books. Erik started with a gag website with a pun of "Lefties for Obama" and it took off. So it then gave him the idea to publish through a his own website for his books if their was enough interest. He got that interest very quickly with an email list and eventually published his book and made money off of it. He then used that experience to help other authors publish their books and makes a living off that as well.
Overall I thought Erik had a lot of good things to say about being an entrepreneur and what obstacles one has to face on the road to become an entrepreneur. I especially found it interesting on how he marketed his products, as some people asked in class; as I have published apps before an was unsure if online advertising was worth it or not.
The entrepreneur mind set he talked about was that you have to think about not making a salary and to to be limitless in terms of you growth. When working at a job with a salary there is only a set amount of money you can make, since you can work only so many hours. When you have your own business you can make as much as possible because you get payed by the amount you sell and not necessary on the amount you work. Therefore you can make as much as possible. This is one part to the mind set of an entrepreneur because although it is an attractive thought it can also be freighting. Since you could go months without being paid or hardly make anything for a certain amount of time. It involves having this aspect of getting over fear and jumping into the business rather than letting fear consume you.
Being a successful entrepreneur involves both luck and skill. Skill is needed in order to get it going and to get noticed, but to be a world sensation you need to have some kind of luck on your side so that you can reach that point. Erik gave the example of Bill Gates in one of the books he read where it talked about the skill and luck of Bill Gates life. Gates Skill came from the fact that he learned a lot about system design and tinkered with the new technologies in high school. He also had access to locations where he could get more information like at the University of Washington. The luck came from the fact that he was born into a well off family so he could focus on higher education, and his parents taught him that he could do whatever he wanted to do and had the power to do it. Also raised at an important time in order to launch the technology. All these factors is what made him a successful entrepreneur, and the message being that with hard work, and a little luck, anyone can become successful.
Erik started his own business, or his wife did with Side x Side. Where she was a graphic designer who got enough business on her own that she could start her own business and use that as income. This inspired Erik to start his own, his first being his own publishing website for his books. Erik started with a gag website with a pun of "Lefties for Obama" and it took off. So it then gave him the idea to publish through a his own website for his books if their was enough interest. He got that interest very quickly with an email list and eventually published his book and made money off of it. He then used that experience to help other authors publish their books and makes a living off that as well.
Overall I thought Erik had a lot of good things to say about being an entrepreneur and what obstacles one has to face on the road to become an entrepreneur. I especially found it interesting on how he marketed his products, as some people asked in class; as I have published apps before an was unsure if online advertising was worth it or not.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Three Business Ideas
As an individual that likes to exercise, play games, and a CSS major, I often think about how I can incorporate technology into my work outs or games and find new ways to make it a more enjoyable experience. My three ideas would be a new tech gym, money 8's service, and tournaments 2 go
The tech gym solves the problem of not having a way for members to easily track their progress. When you work out at a gym you can either track or don't track your progress, but for many people they like to track their progress, like wise for the gym so they can show members that they're making good on their promise to get the person in shape. The problem is that you could write on paper for your maxes and so forth but you won't be able to organize, graph, or share that information easily. You could also use an app, but you still have to open and close the app constantly when going from equipment to equipment, which drains the phone battery and becomes annoying. The last option is to hire a personal trainer to help you keep track of your progress and store your information for later. However, this requires the gym to pay personal trainers and takes a lot of time to fill out. My gym would be different in that it would solve these issues by using NFC and smart phones. Each lifting machine would have a NFC connector on it where the member would tap it with their smart phone and download the gym app. And basically all the equipment in the gm would track their progress from time spent in the gym, reps, sets, maxes, gains, and all other types of data. The app could display their progress and would make tracking members progress as easy as typing in their name into a computer and looking at their results. Solving the issue of recording data during the gym and wasting personal trainers time.
Money 8's service is a way for competitive gamers to compete against each other for money with relative ease. Money 8's is when you play a team game usually 4 vs 4 (although not all games are 4 vs 4 but it doesn't matter the team size) and you bet a certain amount of money with an opponent on the other team and if you win you get their money for the game or series. The biggest issue with this is that sometimes people don't pay up, and cause a dispute, my service would solve this problem. It would be a website that users sign up with and connect their gamer tags too and join lobbies of other players trying to find matches. Win the match is over all players report which team won, if their was a dispute a admin would come in and correct the issue. If nothing can be solved then a fine or something happens to them, a negative action that would make them not want to do it again. This would make running money 8's much easier and more official.
Tournaments 2 Go is a service company where we create broadcasted LAN tournaments for up coming games and leagues so they can have high quality streams for viewers. Some competitive games that are new or older games that people don't play all that much have a hard time streaming tournaments because they don't have the capital or viewership necessary to stream. They would call us and we would get all the cameras, audio, computers, and lights set up. Also running the bracket and organization would be key to success.
The tech gym solves the problem of not having a way for members to easily track their progress. When you work out at a gym you can either track or don't track your progress, but for many people they like to track their progress, like wise for the gym so they can show members that they're making good on their promise to get the person in shape. The problem is that you could write on paper for your maxes and so forth but you won't be able to organize, graph, or share that information easily. You could also use an app, but you still have to open and close the app constantly when going from equipment to equipment, which drains the phone battery and becomes annoying. The last option is to hire a personal trainer to help you keep track of your progress and store your information for later. However, this requires the gym to pay personal trainers and takes a lot of time to fill out. My gym would be different in that it would solve these issues by using NFC and smart phones. Each lifting machine would have a NFC connector on it where the member would tap it with their smart phone and download the gym app. And basically all the equipment in the gm would track their progress from time spent in the gym, reps, sets, maxes, gains, and all other types of data. The app could display their progress and would make tracking members progress as easy as typing in their name into a computer and looking at their results. Solving the issue of recording data during the gym and wasting personal trainers time.
Money 8's service is a way for competitive gamers to compete against each other for money with relative ease. Money 8's is when you play a team game usually 4 vs 4 (although not all games are 4 vs 4 but it doesn't matter the team size) and you bet a certain amount of money with an opponent on the other team and if you win you get their money for the game or series. The biggest issue with this is that sometimes people don't pay up, and cause a dispute, my service would solve this problem. It would be a website that users sign up with and connect their gamer tags too and join lobbies of other players trying to find matches. Win the match is over all players report which team won, if their was a dispute a admin would come in and correct the issue. If nothing can be solved then a fine or something happens to them, a negative action that would make them not want to do it again. This would make running money 8's much easier and more official.
Tournaments 2 Go is a service company where we create broadcasted LAN tournaments for up coming games and leagues so they can have high quality streams for viewers. Some competitive games that are new or older games that people don't play all that much have a hard time streaming tournaments because they don't have the capital or viewership necessary to stream. They would call us and we would get all the cameras, audio, computers, and lights set up. Also running the bracket and organization would be key to success.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
What I want out of this class
One of the reasons I took this class was because the rest of the classes were full and I wanted to take a CSS course. However, I was intrigued with the idea of starting my own business and how I would do it. I have had ideas for businesses in the past, the problem is that I have no idea whether or not it would be successful and if I would want to pursue it. Taking this course I am hoping would help me get a better idea of what I would have to do to start my own business and maybe flesh out the idea a little bit more. I also have no idea of how finances, tax, stock, funding, etc work. So learning more about these subjects would also go along way in helping me with a start up.
Another thing I want out of this class is to get new ideas for a business or other projects. Since the main subject of the class is technology it means will get to hear a lot of neat and new ideas from people that I may not hear anywhere else, which I find exciting. It could help me think of new ideas for the business and maybe even other stuff like mobile apps or websites, which don't require a business but could certainly become one. Also, with the guest speakers coming in they can maybe elaborate on how they came up with their ideas and how they were able to realize it into reality.
My last thing I want out of this class is to get a little bit better understanding of how the business world works and how things are run. I don't know much about running a business and what a lot of the terms mean when they' re talked about. Understanding those ideas and concepts would give me a lot more knowledge on how I would even begin to start a business.
Another thing I want out of this class is to get new ideas for a business or other projects. Since the main subject of the class is technology it means will get to hear a lot of neat and new ideas from people that I may not hear anywhere else, which I find exciting. It could help me think of new ideas for the business and maybe even other stuff like mobile apps or websites, which don't require a business but could certainly become one. Also, with the guest speakers coming in they can maybe elaborate on how they came up with their ideas and how they were able to realize it into reality.
My last thing I want out of this class is to get a little bit better understanding of how the business world works and how things are run. I don't know much about running a business and what a lot of the terms mean when they' re talked about. Understanding those ideas and concepts would give me a lot more knowledge on how I would even begin to start a business.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
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