Week 13

Acton Hero: Tom Nall

Tom teaches us that we can’t be afraid to fail! We need to be ourselves and can’t be afraid to be different. It is OK to be scared of taking risks, but don’t let that stop you from taking them. As entrepreneurs we need to be very optimistic, or else we won’t be successful. We will end up giving up and not getting far in anything we want to do. This doesn’t only apply to business. If we went to a theme park but were too scared to go on the rides, we would end up with a wasted trip to the theme park. Just like if we started a business and give up at the first sign of a challenge, what was the point in starting the business to begin with. Everyone is unique and different and we need to use our uniqueness and our special talents and abilities to our advantages as business owners.

Things I learned this week from the readings and videos:
- Failure isn't bad! Failure is how you learn! You can grow from failure
- Leaders must make it safe for their employees to speak up to help spot existing and pending failures. So they can try to correct these failures and can learn from their mistakes. If all the leaders do when they hear about a failure is yell at their staff, the staff won't go to their leader for help, they will feel ashamed of their failure and keep it hidden. People who tell their boss/leader about bad news, have questions, concerns or mistakes should be rewarded, not shot down. If they are shot down they won't come to their leaders/boss' for help and they won't learn from their mistakes or questions.
- "the faster we fail, the faster we will succeed" - from the article Strategies for Learning from Failure
- You succeed because of all your failures
- If you never fail, you have never lived. Everyone in their life has had a failure of some sort. It can be anything from something minuscule to something huge.
- treat life like an experiment!

Things I learned/liked from President Monson's Talk in this weeks readings:
- avoid the detours that deprive you of the celestial reward
- we do not run alone in this great race of life! We just need to do the work to keep him present in our lives. Attend church regularly and faithfully (with the intent of learning) , read our scriptures and say our prayers regularly. and faithfully (with the intent of learning) By doing these things we will feel Heavenly Father in our lives, helping us through our struggles and answering our questions.

$100 Challenge Update: 
On Sunday I posted my final presentation on the discussion board and this week I learned about other people's business ideas and how they did in their business this semester. I participated in the discussion board for the presentations. I didn't babysit this week. I was away during the week checking out the BYUI campus.

Week 12

Acton Hero: Erik Slaubaugh; 

Erik talks about having to make risks and sacrifices when starting a business. When I started my business at the age of 12, I spent many hours making product and going out selling door to door. Sometimes I was successful, other times I wasn't. I also spent every Saturday all summer a couple summers in a row selling at a local craft sale but rarely made a profit because of what I was paying for the table to sell there. Sometimes it isn't easy but if you keep at it, it should get better!
He also talked about not being afraid to ask for help. I don't usually have the problem of asking for help, but I tend to ask for help too much when I should try to figure it out myself first. In those situations you should problem solve before asking others for help. This also applies to starting a business. If you ask for help over every little thing, a) you will not learn as much and b) people may get frustrated with you for asking for help so often. 

Things I Learned this Week: 
- this week I learned that when you are starting up a business you need to be careful and do all your research. Know what you are getting yourself into. Is it a successful/popular industry? Is the area a good area in regard to cost of upkeep and other expenses. Are you in an area where people will want to pay for your product or service?
- If you do into a family business make sure you are all on the same page and you create an equitable ownership plan so that generations down the line will know your goals and your values.

$100 Challenge Update: 
This week I started and worked on my final presentation about my business. I took my knowledge from my Intro to Excel class I am doing to create a pie chart showing my expenses versus my income and how much profit I get.
Also I babysat Wednesday for 3 hours and made $40 and I babysat Thursday for 4 hours and got $60.

Week 11

Acton Hero: Nicole Donnelly
One thing I took out of this video is that we need to face our fears. This is something we should do in our personal lives and in our business lives. We need to take risks. Growing up I was always told to face my fear. My four brothers were not scared of much but I was always hesitant to try new things with a fear of hurting myself. My parents never catered to my fear, they put me in situations that made me have to do it anyway. A couple examples include; telling me I didn’t have to ride the tower of terror because I was scared to, but then at the last minute grabbing me and putting me on the ride, or pretending to catch me when I jumped in the pool but moving out of the way. Anytime I would try to be scared of doing something and refused to do it they would tell me I was being silly and just needed to do it.
I spend a lot of time around children and since I moved to Alberta two and a half years ago I have noticed that a lot of children these days have parents who caudal and cater to their fear. The children I work for can’t watch Disney movies because they are too scary. One of the kids did one time and was up for several nights because he continued to be scared of it. This concept still doesn’t make sense in my mind because:  a) Disney movies are meant for children, and b) I wasn’t aloud to be scared of things growing up (even though I was).
The parents of the children I work for very strongly cater to their children’s fear. Parents need to expose their children to things in the world. Various children’s movies, allowing them to climb and explore outside and giving them some independence. Parents also need to let the child know there is nothing to be afraid of when they show signs of being scared. Instead of instantly removing the thing that is scaring them, or not letting them be adventurous in fear of them hurting themselves or being scared of what they are doing.  By doing these things the children will not be as scared of things and will grow up to know how to handle life in the world better.

Things I Learned This Week:
- I learned how starting a franchise works and decided I still would rather open my own business and have full control instead of having to follow rules made by someone else.

Key Lessons I learned from the readings and videos about Steve Jobs: 
- Get an education in something that you are passionate about and want to learn.
- Don't give up on what you love to do.
- Everything happens for a reason. "Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick, don't loose faith"
- If you love what your doing it will help you to keep going and keep pushing forward
- Don't settle, keep looking if you haven't found it yet.
- It keeps getting better as the years go on.
- If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am doing right now. If the answer is no to many days in a row we need to fix that problem.
- Don't loose sight of the big vision.
- Don't live in a bubble
- Connect ideas from different fields
- Be constantly prepared to defend your ideas
- Dream bigger
- Changing your mind is a sign of Intelligence - its ok to change our minds. It means we are growing and learning new ways of doing things or getting new ideas that can work out better than what we were doing before.
- Value is different than price - for example apple products are very popular but not cheap. People buy them for their quality not their price.
- You need to have great people around you :)

$100 Challenge Update:
This week I babysat Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. Wednesday night I babysat for 3.25 hours and got $40. Thursday night I babysat for 3 hours and made $36. Friday night I babysat for 4.75 hours and got $60. Saturday night I babysat for 4 hours and got $40.

Week 10

Acton Hero: Catherine Rohr
     As an entrepreneur we need to learn to turn a no into a yes. If you have challenges and roadblocks, don't give up. You can make it through and when you do you will feel accomplished for making it over that roadblock. Until the next one comes along, but you have to keep pushing through until you get where you want to go! If you as an entrepreneur just gave up as soon as there was an obstacle in the way, your fulfilling of your vision for your business would die pretty fast. You need to remember you need to be faithful to your vision to help it be fulfilled.
     Being a successful entrepreneur you need to try to jump back up after being knocked down.
You need to do your research and ask for help so that they can help you when you have challenges along the way. Seek for counsel from people who are entrepreneurs themselves and have most likely had their fair share of challenges as well.

From my Entrepreneur Interview I learned: 
- remembering to take more out for start-up costs than I think I need in case I run into additional unanticipated costs
- hire staff who can keep the business at the standard I expect (including great customer service and cleanliness)
- have a detailed business plan
- make sure I have good credit and anything else that will make it easier to get money from the bank
- be involved.

From the Franchise Preview Assignment I learned:

- I would make sure to get input from the people I hire, instead of being the only one to make the decisions and suggestions. That way we will feel more like a team and the business will probably run more smoothly
- I would want to hire people with passion and willingness to learn, but not necessarily the ones with the most experience
- I would treat the customers with respect and let them believe they are right even when they are not.

Entrepreneur Tips
- Don't Settle
- Healthy disregard for the impossible- not fear of failure
- Don't be afraid to solve the whole hard problem

The Burt's Bees Case Study taught me that you don't have to go into debt to start a business!!

Process Improvement Notes:

Process Consists of: - Input
- Activity
- Output

Informal VS Formal
- Informal- giving a customer a discount because they asked for one for purchasing a certain amount of stuff. but there wasn't a rule in place about this discount before.
- Formal- call center. you and your team has come up with documented set of procedures for answering customers questions and solving their problems. therefore formal in handling their concerns.

Business Process Improvement (BPI)- a set of disciplined approaches and tools that managers use to enhance their companys performance.

Benefits of BPI
- Understand how effectively your team is meeting the needs of customers and other departments in your company.
- Revise your hiring strategies to improve skill levels and expertise in your team.
- Save time and money by simplifying overly complex and expensive processes.
- Identify entirely new processes that enable your firm to provide top-notch customer service while reducing costs


Don't just improve productivity, improving quality is equally important

6 phases of BPI-
- plan
- analyze
- redesign- envisioning a better process, testing your teams ideas, considering the implications of a potential redesign, documenting your redesign, gathering feedback from stakeholders and refining the redesigned process
- aquire resources
- implemant
- continually improve


Selecting which process to improve first-
- create a process selection matrix- you rate each process according to criteria such as how easily it might be changed and how problematic it may be for customers


Customer satisfaction
quality
costs
cycle time - reduce cycle time

revise your metrics and targets as needed

$100 Challenge Update:
This week I babysat on Wednesday and made $40 and I was there for just under 3 hours. I babysat Saturday afternoon and Saturday Evening. Saturday afternoon the family I babysat for has 4 kids. Usually I have them in the evenings and the older 3 are in bed while the youngest is awake and crying because he wants his brother and parents. But today because it was the afternoon the brother cared for the baby so he only cried a couple times when the brother left the room briefly. That's the secret weapon, the 10 year old brother! For my afternoon job I babysat for 4 hours and I made about $60. Saturday evening I watched 3 kids for 4 hours and I made $60.

Week 9

Acton Hero: Matt Stewart

Acton Hero Matt Stewart teaches us a few great lessons in his video. He teaches us that we need to not focus on trying to make money but instead focus on the mission. If we only focus on making money our business will not likely succeed. Focusing more on doing it for the benefit of others and with the mission in mind will help us succeed. We need to not only make our business succeed but also help our employees succeed as well.

When you run your own business you need to exercise integrity, and set consistent values. We need to be careful of the "inner marketer" in us. It can make us think of the money aspect of things which can get us in trouble. It can convince us to enter into businesses that we never should have entered into in the first place. We need to find new ways to make and keep our business fun and exciting instead of moving onto another new business opportunity (something that may look bigger and better).

We can be successful when we are helping people learn and grow. If we focus on things other than making a profit than that is when we will make a profit.

Things I learned/want to remember this week:

• We need to be a hedgehog company, not a fox company. Hedgehog thinks of one big thing while foxes think of multiple little thing
• We need to ask ourselves these 3 questions
• What can we be the best in the world at (and equally important - what can we not be the best at) ?
• What is the economic denominator that best drives our economic engine (profit or cash flow per x) ?
• What are our fore people deeply passionate about?

                                

• Hiring Inforformation- I like this topic because I have learned a bit about hiring from my roommate who works as a manager. So this week's information is teaching me more things and reminding me of things my roommate told me.
• Find someone who may not have as many years of experience doing one thing. Because if they have 10 years experience doing 1 thing. They may be doing that for the rest of their life and may not do other things. If you hire someone who has been doing it for less amount of time they would be more willing to do other things as well. Which is beneficial for the business.
• Things we need to do when hiring
• Define the job requirements: Before you start the search, it's critical that you understand what the job involves and the education, skills, experience, and personal characteristics that are needed to perform it.
• Recruit promising candidates: Once you know what the job requires, you need to find candidates who have the necessary qualifications. The best way to find qualified candidates is to get the word out using your professional connections and recruiting resources. *My roommate is big on recruiting. If we are somewhere and she encounters someone who she thinks has great sales skills shes trying to find a way to have them work for her, or saying she wishes they could work for her.
• Interview: Conduct interviews with the most promising candidates so you can learn more about their abilities and experience, as well as whether they will be a good fit with your organization. Interviews also provide you with an opportunity to "sell" the position and the company and give job candidates the information they need to make an informed decision.
• Evaluate the candidates: Once all candidates have been interviewed, the people involved in the hiring decision must conduct an objective evaluation of each candidate.
• Make a decision and offer: The last step of the hiring process is making the decision and extending a job offer. Always aim for the individual who can contribute the most to your organization's success.
• Determine the Ideal Fit
• Background characteristics, such as educational background and past experience
• Personal characteristics, such as creative abilities and decision-making style
• Organizational structure, such as hierarchy and management
• Culture
• Your job description should include the following:
• Job title, business unit, organization
• Summary of the job tasks, responsibilities, and objectives
• Hiring manager, reporting manager
• Compensation, hours, location
• Background (education, experience) required
• Personal characteristics required
• Type of Recruitment Channels- there are lots of different ways to post jobs. I know this because when I am looking for jobs there are LOTS of different websites and other ways to look for jobs
• Recruiting agencies
• Newspaper ads
• Referrals from colleagues
• Trade publications
• Professional associations
• Networking
• Colleges and universities
• The Internet (recruitment Web sites and your company's Web site)
• Job fairs
• The minute they become managers, they have to realize it's not about you, it's about your team and the success of your team.
• When reviewing résumés, be on the alert for warning signs that can indicate areas of weakness such as:
• Lengthy description of education (possibly not much job experience)
• Obvious gaps in background
• Too much personal information (possibly not much job experience)
• Descriptions of jobs and positions only, with no descriptions of results or accomplishments
• Typos and poor reproduction quality
• Interview Process:
• Create an interview team. Before you begin interviewing candidates, you may want to set up an interview team to help with the process. The interview team should comprise a select few people who are familiar with the job function or who will be interacting with person hired. The team may include a representative from HR, other managers, peers, and direct reports. Each team member brings different experience and perspective to the process, resulting in a broader view that is more likely to lead to a successful hiring decision.
• Telephone-screening interview. You or someone from a recruiting agency, the interview team, HR, or your department may conduct a telephone-screening interview. Its purpose is to confirm that the candidate meets the stated job qualifications. It is also a good opportunity to get some initial impressions of the candidate: Does he or she call you back at the specified time? Communicate well?
• Initial in-person interview. Try to narrow the field to four to seven candidates before holding an initial interview. This interview will probably last 30 to 60 minutes. For less demanding positions, you may find out everything you need to know about the candidate in this interview. In other cases, you will need to see the person again.
• Second interview. Be very selective about which candidates are asked back for a second interview. At this point, if you don't have an interview team, you might ask others with a stake in the process to meet the candidate. These may include direct reports, potential peers, or other managers. This interview often brings out more of the "real" person.
• Final interview. Schedule a final interview with each candidate during which time you and, if appropriate, your manager sell the job and organization. You may also want the candidates to meet with someone from HR to learn briefly about company policies and benefits.
• Make a decision and offer. The last step of the hiring process is making the decision and extending a job offer. Always aim for the individual who can contribute the most to your organization's success.
• Structured VS Unstructured Interviews
• In a structured interview, you ask all of the candidates the same questions so you can compare answers. The purpose of structured interviews is to be fair and objective, but this approach may not elicit as much information from candidates as unstructured interviews. Structured interviews are more appropriate for positions that don't require much judgment or creative thinking.
• Unstructured interviews are individual conversations that do not necessarily cover all the same questions with every candidate. You may learn more about each candidate, but it will be difficult to compare their responses. This type of interview is beneficial when you are filling a position that involves a fair amount of decision making, problem solving, and interaction with others. It opens the door to productive areas of inquiry that neither you nor your colleagues may have anticipated.
• In most cases, it's probably a good idea to steer a middle path between these two interview approaches. Be flexible in your line of inquiry, but be sure that all interviewees respond to a core set of questions.
• An interview guide contains:
• A summary of the job requirements as outlined in your job profile
• The candidate's relevant experience and accomplishments
• Questions to ask to determine if the candidate has the qualities you want; some questions should be general and asked of all candidates, while other questions should be customized for each candidate
• There are three phases to the interview.
• Opening. 10% of the allotted time. Your goal is to make the candidate feel comfortable and to set expectations about the structure of the interview.
• Body. 80% of the allotted time. During this phase, you gather the information you will need to evaluate the candidate. You also "sell" your organization.
• Close. 10% of the allotted time. This phase is when you answer any remaining questions the candidate may have, explain the next steps in the hiring process, and thank the candidate for coming
• There are several things you can do to set the right tone at the beginning of the interview.
• Greet the candidate. To put the candidate at ease, be warm and friendly. Introduce yourself. Smile, make eye contact, and shake hands. Include the candidate's name in your greeting. If you are not sure how to pronounce it, ask. Be aware of cultural nuances.
• Select a quiet, private meeting space that will not be conducive to interruptions. Activate your voice mail or redirect your phone calls; do not take any calls during the interview.
• Make sure the candidate is physically comfortable. In the interview space, show the candidate where to put his or her coat and where to sit. Offer the candidate a beverage.
• Introduce yourself. Explain your role in the organization and how it relates to the open position.
• Explain the structure of the interview. For example, you might say:
• "I'm going to ask you about your experience."
• "I'm interested in finding out about you as an individual."
• "We're interested in finding out whether there is a good fit between your interests and abilities and our organizational needs."
• "I will tell you about our organization."
• "I'll be glad to take your questions at the end of the interview."
• Establish rapport with the candidate. There are several approaches you can use:
• Acknowledge some of the difficulties or awkwardness related to being interviewed, such as meeting a lot of new people or being tired at the end of the day.
• If you are the first to interview the candidate, ask how his or her commute was or how the directions to the building were.
• Complement the candidate on some aspect of the experience displayed in his or her résumé.
• Acknowledge that you have something in common, such as attending the same college or sharing an outside interest.
• The key to maintaining control is to ask most of the questions and do most of the listening. You should be listening 80% of the time.
• Follow logical lines of inquiry and return to them if the candidate asks a question.
• Avoid having the candidate ask questions until the end of the interview.
• If the candidate gets off track in answering a question, gently steer him or her back to your topic. Use phrases such as, "You were saying earlier..." or "tell me more about..."
• Actively listen. Focus on what the person is saying and withhold judgment.
• Regularly summarize what you hear to: confirm what has been said; make transitions between topics; and limit the comments of a wordy candidate. An example of such a summary would be, "Are you saying that there was a six-month period when you were supervising 20 people in two different departments? That must have been difficult. How did you stay organized and on top of what was happening?"
• Encourage the candidate to talk by smiling, nodding, and leaving pauses before you jump in with a comment or another question.
• Ask follow-up questions that lead to more elaboration and specific examples of key information about the candidate.
• Use the candidate's response in your follow-up questions.
• Use open-ended questions that incorporate terms such as "how," "why," "can you describe," and "tell me about."
• An effective question:
• Has a purpose
• Is tied to your decision-making criteria
• Opens communication
• Is job-related
• Is not "leading"
• Is nonthreatening
• Effective questions reflect favorably on you and demonstrate your interest. The candidate will sense that you took time to develop thoughtful questions.
• Inappropriate Question Topics:
• Age/date of birth
• Religion
• Race
• Citizenship
• Physical attributes
• Sexual orientation
• National origin
• Marital status
• Children
• Day care arrangements
• Arrests
• Place of residence; own or rent
• Previous worker's compensation claims
• Disabilities/physical ailments
• Specific promise of salary expectations
• Try to avoid:
• Being overly impressed with maturity or experience, or overly dismayed by youth and immaturity
• Mistaking a quiet, reserved, or calm demeanor for lack of motivation
• Mistaking the person's ability to play "the interview game," or his or her ability to talk easily, for intelligence or competence
• Allowing personal biases to influence your assessment; you might be tempted to judge the candidate harshly or discredit the opinions of your team members because the candidate reminds you of someone you dislike
• Looking for a friend or for a reflection of yourself in the candidate
• Assuming that graduates of certain institutions or former employees of certain organizations are automatically better qualified
• Giving too much weight to familiarity with the jargon of your business
• Focusing only on one or two key strengths and overlooking the absence of other key characteristics
• Failing to value motivation to get ahead
• Ignoring feedback from team members and looking at the candidate from your perspective only
• Weighing the impact this person will have on your position, such as improvements to processes that may impact your job
• Recruit Talent not Experience!
• When checking references:
• Take a little time to build rapport with the reference
• Briefly describe the job that the candidate is applying for
• Beware of the legal ramifications of asking and answering inappropriate questions
• Ask about the candidate's style, character, strengths, and weaknesses
• Ask tough questions and follow up with detailed probes
• Job offers are usually made in person or by telephone. Be sure to:
• Make the offer with enthusiasm.
• Make the offer personal by referring to something positive that you recall about the interview.
• Continue to gather information from the candidate regarding his or her concerns, the timing of the decision, and other organizations he or she may be considering.
• Provide a time frame for the offer so that the candidate knows how much time he or she has to respond.
• Include important facts in the hiring letter, such as:
• Starting date
• Job title
• Expected responsibilities
• Compensation
• Benefits summary
• Time limit for accepting the offer
• Journey to Higher Ground talk. Things I want to remember
• each choice has a consequence and each consequence, a destination

$100 Challenge Update:
This week I babysat lots! I babysat Wednesday night for 3.75 hours and I got $13ish an hour. I babysat Thursday night for 3 hours and got $15 an hour. I babysat Friday night for 4.5-4.75 hours and got $13ish an hour. I babysat Saturday night for 2.5 hours and got $16ish an hour. On saturday the weather changed and was stormy so I had to remind myself to leave earlier then usual to give myself extra time to get to work on time. On Friday I ended up leaving a little later then planned to babysit and then I got stuck in traffic. I need to account for time I may have traffic that will make things take longer