Monday, May 11, 2009

INDS 430 final evaluation:

I believe I deserve and “A” in INDS 430 for numerous reasons. First and foremost, I attended every class and completed, with vast effort, every assignment given. Every assignment was completed on time and then I made positive corrections when I was advised to do so. Additionally, when appropriate, I participated in class discussions and always volunteered myself to talk about assignments or my business proposal. I feel that I had a positive take on the business proposals and contributed immensely to the team proposals, even though I was not picked as CEO. I also feel that I should acknowledge how much my technical skill set for excel and Google docs. has grown since the start of the semester. Here is a list of assignment to validate the “A” I feel I deserve:

Being a Leader Interactions

Revised Financing Options

Extra Credit Speaker Series

One Year Budget

Applying secret of Socrates

SEO

Business Plan Powerpoint

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Be a Leader Interactions

How to be a leader:
1. Principle 3: Talk about your own mistakes first:
The first of the principles I applied was with a new co-worker. At the store I work at, we buy sporting equipment from people. Over this past weekend, a new employee, who’s only been with us for a few weeks, tried to buy some old lacrosse gloves from a neighbor of his. After the buy was complete, I was helping my co-worker hang up the equipment when I noticed a large hole in the palm of the glove, which meant we couldn’t buy the glove. To be honest, I wanted to directly draw attention to his mistake because this was an easy thing to avoid if he had been more careful. Instead I decided to use the principle from HTMFAIP and talked with my co-worker about a similar mistake I made when I was new. I used myself as an example to show him that it’s okay to be wrong sometimes. As embarrassing as it was to call myself out like that, it was worth it because it created a learning opportunity for my co-worker. I could tell he appreciated that I took the time to talk with him calmly, rather than harshly scolding him.
2. Principle 1: If you must find fault, this is the way to begin:
The second principle I applied was a few days ago at a local convenient store. I often go to a 7-11 on my way to work to get a bottle of water. I usually go to the same store, which has allowed me to become acquaintances with the cashier. Well, on this particular day, I noticed the water I usually got was on sale; buy 2 for $5. I picked up two bottles and got in line to check out. When I got to the front, the cashier charged me the regular price, which was more expensive than the special. Immediately, I wanted to give him attitude for the mistake, partially because I was already having a bad day, but instead I consciously applied the principles. I started by using his name and saying how polite he is and that I know customers appreciate small gestures like that. After I gave him the compliment, I corrected him on his mistake. To my delight, he didn’t get an attitude with me for correcting him, but instead thanked me for pointing it out and that he didn’t realize the water was on sale. This interaction is clear evidence that the principles from HTWFAIP are working.

Revised Financing Options as of 4/5/09

1. Local Bank:
My first source of financing for my daycare center was my local bank, Tower Federal Credit Union. My bank offers an “EZ loan.” Using this type of loan you can request up to $20,000. According to TFCU. Org, “A personal line of credit, EZLine lets you borrow money for any purpose. With low, variable rates, credit limits range from $1,000 to $20,000. Interest is only charged on the funds you use and as you repay the principal, that money becomes available to you again.”
I viewed the application for the EZ loan and learned that it was a few pages in length and made up of simple to answer questions, like date of birth, insurance questions, etc. Also, I found the contact information of the Columbia Bank Manager; the Columbia branch is one of the main locations in Maryland.
Columbia Location:
Andrew Fitzgerald
Branch Manager
Mailing Address
Snowden Square
9021 Snowden Square Drive
Columbia, MD 21046
Phone 301-497-700
Fax 410-872-04670

2. Small Business Administration:
My second source of financing will come from the SBA. The SBA offers a type of loan called a Micro-Loan. The Microloan Program provides very small loans to start-up, newly established, or growing small business concerns. With this loan, you can barrow a maximum of $35,000. The applications for the Micro-loans are submitted to the intermediary lender and all credit decisions are made on the local level. The intermediary lender closest to my desired location is:


Maryland Capital Enterprises, Inc.

P.O. Box 1844
Salisbury, MD 21802
Executive Director: Hayley Gallagher
Microlending:
Phone: 410-546-1900
Fax: 410-546-9718
Phone:
Email:hgallagher@marylandcapital.org

Revised one year Budget as of 4/5/09

Updated Enterprise Values as of 4/5/09

Monday, March 30, 2009

Extra Credit Speaker Series

Today, March 30th, I attended the speaker series in the University Center. The woman who spoke was Jeannie Howe. She is an entreprenuer who focuses primarily on non-profit organizations. She started her own business as a private consultant, who's main client is "Every Man's Theater." Throughout her presentation, she spoke a great deal about the importance of networking and creating strong relations between people, whether they are clients or friends. She used these relationships later down the road as angle investors for her consulting business. Ms. Howe also stressed how significant it is to have a strong webpage. She said that having a webpage is important because it's a primary source clients use to research her. Another topic she addressed was having a solid business plan and in that plan she needed to know the fundamentals like how many clients one should have and how much to charge each client, etc. Overall, Jeannie Howe was a great speaker to hear from, especially if you were thinking of persueing a career in the non-profit sector.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Being a Leader

I applied the second Principle of being a leader from How to Win Friends and Influence People this past week on my younger brother.
Before I left for class in the morning, I cleaned all the dishes in the sink and made sure the kitchen was clean from everyone's breakfast (since I'm the last to leave in the morning). When I come home from school early that afternoon, I was greated with a mountain of dishes and crums all over the counter. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. When my brother, who I knew was the culprit, passed throught the kitchen I asked him, in a non-threatening tone, "were these dishes in the sink when you woke up?" He replied with "No" and I could tell he was confessing to his mistake. By using this the tactic of calling attention to mistakes indirectly, it helped my brother realize the mistake without me having to scold or penalize him for his actions.
I then went on to use the rule of the two "yes's" by asking, "You know mom would be mad if she came home to a sink full of dirty dishes, right?" I followed up that question with, "don't you think she would appreciate it if she knew you helped keep the kitched clean for her?"
How to Win friends and Influence People is possitivly helping me to realize the way I interact and speak with people. Overall, the outcomes have been more positive than negative.

Start-Up Financing Options

I started my search start-up finances by looking into my local bank. I know that getting a bank loan to finance a start-up business is a long shot because I haven’t been in business for at least two years, but It’s worth a try anyway. I’m withholding the name of the bank I researched for personal privacy, but I did find out who to contact with a loan application:
Loan applications:

Valarie Samuels
Head of loan department
(*Bank name Withheld*)
P.O. Box 123
Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0123
301-497-7062 or
800-787-8328, ext. 7062

Secondly, I figured that since my Daycare Center centered on healthy activities for children, that Howard County Recs. and parks would be a strong Angle investor/sponsor for my locations in Howard County. After some research I found that Raymond Wacks is who I should contact in the Budget Office for HCRP. All the budget plans get reviewed by the County Executive who submits the proposals to the County Council each period.

Raymond S. Wacks,
Administrator
rwacks@howardcountymd.gov
Howard County Budget Office
3430 Court House Drive
Ellicott City, MD 21043
(410) 313-2077 (voice)
(410) 313-3390 (fax)

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Applying "Secret of Socrates"

I applied the Secret of Socrates method of "How to Win Friends and Influence People" this past Saturday at work. I'm the type of person who really tries to eat healthy, yet all the guys at my work place eat very poorly and everytime we get food, it always ends up being food that's really bad for you. Well, this past weekend I persuaded one of my coworkers to get a salad with me instead of jumping of the fast food badwagon. I persuaded him by asking him simple questions like, "aren't you trying to be on a diet?" and "wouldn't you feel better about yourself if you ate a salad instead of a fast food bacon cheeseburger?" In the end, I won him to my way of thinking and he was actually thankful to me for getting him to eat better food.

Enterprise Values

12 mo. Budget

Monday, March 9, 2009

Reporter Interaction

For this assignment, I spoke with a writter, of "The Retriever Weekly", named Gaby Arevalo. I saw Gaby's article on the fire in the engineer building and was entertained by her story. After I finished the article, I sought Gaby out on Facebook and sent her a message saying how much I enjoyed her story and tried to express genuine interest in her writtings. I used her name at the start of every message and complimented her writting style many times. In her responses to the messages, Gaby was genuinly appreciative of my words and I could tell that she really appriciated my compliments.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Updated Power Point

Marketing Budget can be found here

Enterprise Value

Apple: 890,553,729 x $78.20=6.96 per share

Microsoft: Enterprise Value= 32,000,000 x 3.00=$96,000,000
Outstanding Shares= 10,800,000 x 305.7=$3,301,560,000

Sunday, March 1, 2009

SEO

To optimize traffic into my blog site, I decided the best way would be to create a link from my facebook site to my INDS 430 blog. I felt like this would be a good marketing tool for my blog because facebook is so highly viewed and creates unlimited networking opportunities for both friendships and business.

Social Interactions

After further practice using the ten principles of How to Win Friends and Influence People, I’ve learned that people truly to respond to a friendly face and genuine interest. I used the principles this week, the majority of them on Thursday during my time donating blood for the Red Cross. Over a two hour time period, I managed to be acquainted with various people. Most of the people I spoke with were donors, like me. The first guy, named James, was seated on the bed to my left; I introduced myself and after brief introductions, he went on to tell me about his numerous donation stories. Next, Steve, another donor, told me all about his family and his younger brother’s college plans. After more conversation, I learned that Steve and I had a mutual friend. I also talked with a guy on a bed across from me about a previous class we had together and how the rest of his classes were going. Dinisha, my nurse, was who I spoke with about her cell phone. She was texting on her iphone, which is the same phone I use, so I asked her how she liked her phone and the positive and negative attributes it has.
Over the weekend, I used the principles of a few other people, some of which were at work, and some were other retail employees. I used the principles further on my coworkers to try to get to know them better. For example, I learned that one of the coworker’s family owns a pub in Owings Mills. He told me all about the restaurant, including the menu options and stories about some of the regulars. I tried to use the principles for almost every interaction I could. I came to notice that people really do respond positively to friendliness and to someone who takes a sincere interest in them. Taking a few minutes to listen to someone does make them feel good and can strongly enhance networking ties.