Don't Be the Paranoid Entrepreneur Who Talks to His Dog

At the end of Chapter One, The Art of Starting, I really appreciated that the author addressed fear and paranoia. One thing I always thought was that if you have a good idea, then you should keep it to yourself until it's so far along that it'd be too late for anyone else to steal it. The author said that sharing your ideas offers room for them to improve though. He said, "There is much more to gain - feedback, connections, opened doors - by freely discussing your idea than there is to lose." This is something that I'll need to remember if I want to actually start a business and make something happen. People always say that two heads are better are one but I guess I only applied that to people who are actually working on a project with you. I've always been scared about asking other people for advice or help if I thought that maybe they would steal my idea. Obviously I'm not afraid of asking my parents or my friends, but I've never reached out to others who would be able to actually put my plan into action for themselves.

One of the questions in the back of the chapter that the author answers is "How far along should I be before I start talking to people about what I'm doing?" and he says that you should start right away. This is another example of something that I don't do. I keep the idea to myself until I actually get started on it. That why I seem to know more about what I want to do and it gives me a feeling of security that someone won't steal my idea. For example, today was the NH Media Makers meeting that John Herman told us about. I had it written on my calendar and I wanted to go, but then I decided not to. I felt that my idea wasn't solid enough yet and I didn't have enough of a plan. I thought that the people would think that I was wasting their time by not having a solid enough plan. In this chapter though, the author said that it's ok to do that because people will give you ideas and help you make yours stronger. He said, "The more people you talk to, the richer your thoughts will be." Maybe if I had gone to the meeting, people would have helped me develop my ideas and I could have a solid plan. Now I have to wait until the next meeting and in the next month I'll have my own ideas, but that's all they'll be. They'll only be mine. They won't have influence from others. Now I realize that the influence of others is a good thing and that I should be seeking this out. I'm glad I read this article because not only has it given me a new perspective on how to grow my ideas, it's given me the confidence to do so.

A Site Designed to Help Entrepreneurs

The other day I was reading the Boston Globe when I came across an article called "Hang Up a Shingle 21st Century Style." It was about this website called Kickstarter which allows new businesses and start ups to ask for donations in order to help get themselves started. The article I read focused on new restaurants in the Boston area that were using the site to Kickstarter to raise money so they could start their business. The site is for anyone though, not just those in the food industry. Anyone with a creative idea or a business plan can sign up to "start a project." Then people on the site can see your plan and if they like it, then they donate money to you. One of the perks of donating is that whoever donates gets a small benefit from the person whose plan they donated to. In the Boston Globe article, a benefit that one restaurant was doing was that if you donated, then you got your name put on a big mural in the restaurant. Other things I've seen on the site are perks such as a one-time discount if you buy from the company once it's up and running or if it's something like a book or CD then the donator would get a copy before it went on sale.

I think that this site could be great for anyone in our class if they actually wanted to follow through with their project and make it into a real business. I know that most college students don't have a lot of money which is why this site would be so helpful. I actually thought of Corinne first because she said that Etsy was too expensive for her and she didn't want to sell her knitting things on it. A site like Kickstarter could really help though or it could help her so much that she wouldn't even need Etsy. She could just have her own site. Overall I think the site is just a great idea and it seems as if they've had a lot of success come from it.

Joe Burke's Visit

Joe Burke's visit was a lot more intense than I thought it was going to be. I know that we were kind of warned, but it still took me by surprise. I think it might have been a little too intense though. I think he may have overestimated how much we would be able to grasp. I would have preferred to go cover less material but in more detail. It was just a lot to take in, especially for a class where most of us are not good with math or numbers. Half the time I had no idea what he was talking about at all. I know that we all read the homework on the accounting website, but this was a little over my head. By the end of it I decided that one day when I do have enough money to be a successful person, I'm going to be hiring someone to do all of the math and spreadsheets for me.

On the other hand though, I think Joe was very smart and knew so much about business, accounting, and numbers. It was very impressive to hear him talk. I wish I had been able to follow him though. It was clear that he knew exactly what he was talking about the whole time and that he obviously knows so much more as well. I just wish that he had been able to communicate the information to us in a simpler way. I know that's not his fault though because it's probably not how he's used to talking about it. It just would have been nice if he had broken it down a little or gone a little slower.

Assets for My Business

After reading through the pieces and reading the word "asset" over and over, I began to wonder what assets my company would have. I wouldn't be selling anything because it's an online publication and would be free for people to read. I guess my writing skills would be an asset because that's what would get me traffic and page views. Good content would also be an asset I guess. One thing that I could have would be intangible assets, like a trademark or a logo. It's hard to think of tangible assets though. Also, would I have fixed assets? I guess my computer would be a fixed asset. Maybe my blogging platform would be a fixed asset as well.

While reading all of the pieces, assets made sense to me, but now as I try to apply it to my own project/company, I'm confused. Also, is advertising an asset? My company would use advertising on the site, but is it an asset? I wish there was a site which applied accounting to journalism. That would be a lot easier to understand.

An Entrepreneurial Idea...Maybe

As a big fan of Cosmo magazine, I really enjoy the lists that they post on their website. For example, a recent one they did was "Ten Things Women Should Know By 25" and it was just a list of things that women should have or be good at by the time they turn 25. They do a lot of lists like this and judging by the amount of likes and comments that they get, they seem to be really popular. One thing I noticed through reading the comments though is that people wanted more serious lists and less about men and drinking. I then decided to write a post on my blog about this and then I tweeted out the link. Well, the writer of those lists saw my tweet, read my blog post, and tweeted me back saying that she loved it and is going to write a more serious list for Cosmo. I love Cosmo and I freaked out and was extremely excited. I still can't believe that Cosmo is writing a story based off of my idea. Anyways, I got to thinking about the lists and their popularity. I love reading the lists, but I also love making lists. I started thinking about making my own website (or for now, just a blog) that featured only lists. I could do a wide variety of things and make one to two new posts a day. An example could be "Ten Things to Do  While in College" or "Ten Ways You Can Beat Senioritis" or anything like that which could relate to girls my age. I would make a list and then write a short description for everything on the list. I don't think I could do that idea for this class because it's not too journalistic, but I definitely want to do it on my own. I would call it something like, Kate's List or something like that. Just an idea.

Right Over My Head

When I was first looking at the glossary of all the accounting terms I might as well have been reading Latin or Japanese or Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was bad. The only words that I could easily understand were profit, loss, corporations, and asset. Every two minutes I had to ask my boyfriend (an accounting major) to explain to me what the words meant. It took me awhile to get through the whole list and then I was dreading reading all of the articles that followed it. Today when I finally started reading them though after staying away out of fear, I realized that they weren't so bad. I know it wasn't because I had read the glossary though. I think that just seeing the words used in sentences and applied to situations made a lot more sense to me than the straight definitions did. It kind of made me wish that I hadn't spent so much time on the definitions because just by reading through the sections I understood so much more than I did from reading the glossary. I guess the real test will come tomorrow though when I take the quiz and listen to the guest speaker.

Meeting John Herman

I really enjoyed John Herman's visit to class last Monday and I think it was really helpful and encouraging to hear his story. The whole time he was talking though I couldn't tell if he was inspiring because he showed that I could do the same thing, or if he was depressing because I realized that I will never be that successful. By the end I decided that he was inspiring. At the time it was very overwhelming though and I was just trying to take in everything he was saying.

I think that John shared a lot of really useful information with us that could be applied to anything that you wanted to do. He didn't really give advice or tips though, he just told his story of how he jumped from one thing to the next but that was advice in a way. It showed us through example how to be successful and make a name for yourself. I like that this type of advice can be applied to any type of business venture, whether it's a magazine like I wanted to do, or Allie's Asian culture site, or Catie's graphic novel. It could even be applied to something completely different, like a coffee shop or a delivery service. John said one thing about the way he works that I wrote down and I think that any business or person could use it to improve themselves. He said, "I take things people use, flip them, and give them back to them in unique ways."

Now, I need to think of how I can take a magazine, flip it, and give it back to people in a unique way. I know that the fact that it'll have more of a focus is a good thing, but I'll probably need more than that. I'm just not sure what that is yet though. I guess I'll just have to do as John does and just jump into things and see where it takes me.