April- 27 Evaluating Financial Performance BUS 3620

Cash vs Accrual. Which is best? For a very small business or self employment, cash accounting is best. The accrual view point is usable for small business by analyzing what accounts receivable and payable are coming. When I was self employed doing remodeling, I used the cash accounting for my books for years. However to measure performance of sales and forecasting, I switched my accounting reports to accrual. With the accrual method I could analyze sales and accounts receivable much more accurately even though getting paid was sporadic. Then I could compare the A/R to accounts payable A/P and hopefully the difference was better than previous months or years.

April- 20 Managing Risk BUS 3620

How necessary is insurance in business? Many companies don’t get to it, then the storm hits. I certainly don’t believe in over insuring because it can cost so much. However, a company must carry the basics by law.

April 13 Carbon County Chamber of Commerce BUS 3620

Carbon County Chamber of Commerce
Some really good comments were made from our guest speakers.

Ann Evans- Coordinator 1st speaker
"People to People" is best to create relationships. I have found this to be true in my past and current profession. "Facebook and Twitter won’t replace a handshake."
“Meet the candidates Night” is how her chamber gets involved. How will each candidate benefit the community? In my older age this is making more sense to me.

Errol Holt, Past President 2nd speaker
Businesses that get involved with the community are appreciated by the community.
His primary purpose for being a member was he felt he owed it to the community. “Get rid of the me perspective” and get involved with the community. How you want to be perceived in the community is important.

Back to the selfless concepts of life.
You think?

Mar-30 Joseph’s Cookies BUS 3620

I really liked the video today about Joseph's Cookies. I am always impressed how some people make a decision to start a business at an early age like Joseph, age 13.
At that age I took initiative to work in the fields over the summer, de-tasseling or topping corn which is a common process for the cross pollination of seed corn. I worked in the fields every summer but one, after 5th grade to the summer after12th grade. 7 summers in all from 1 to 3 months of work in the fields. The summers before my 9-11th grade, I also worked thinning fruit and hoeing weeds. The summer after my 11th grade, I worked in Vernal, UT as a laborer on a new HUD apartment housing project for Dorsey Construction, my father’s and Gary Carpenter’s commercial construction company. Dorsey Wood Products started by my Grandpa Dorsey in the 50s was renamed when my father and his partner took over. For 3 months including the 1st week of my Senior year I saved almost $4000, which included ½ of my weekly substance check of about $60 for food etc.

Mar-23 Julianne’s Upholstery BUS 3620

In 2004, Julianne bought an existing business from her former employer located at the existing commercial location by strategy then eventually moved to her home because she has children. She bought it with a credit card for about $10k. I have thought of using a credit card to purchase business materials, but I was always deterred by the high interest.

She did some radio advertising and internet advertising and now pays for everything up front, not too much on credit then works out in her favor.
Finding customers- inherited all the old customers who called in to find a new owner. Commercial customers is growing and a good supply of steady income.
Pricing- custom car seats will pay top dollar i.e. while other items, people just won’t pay much for. So she didn’t change the pricing much from the original owner.

I really like the freedom Julianne’s business gives her doing upholstery. I kept thinking of ways to expand her business. However she commented a few times she wasn’t looking to expand.

Mar-2 Loveless Vacuum Presentation BUS 3620

I really enjoyed the presentation of the Vacuum entrepreneur Colleen. Hard work paid off over time and now their company probably has sales likely in the millions. Having a culture of hard work, patience, and not being greedy seemed to be the key principles she talked about leading to their success. I also think that a culture of fun has kept their employees happy and has probably saved them 100s of thousands from turn over and made them 100s of thousands because of more productive workers. I can relate to the hard work they did. Not that I have had their level of success but, I ran my own home remodeling and repair business as a self employed artisan. After about 15 years of conservative success, I had to make the decision to expand my business into to a larger scale business or going off to start a new type of self employed business. Since I was comfortable with being self employed I choose that route again. So I don't have a lot of experience being under capitalized because I haven't run that type of business, as a “real business” I call it now.

Feb-23 “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” BUS 3620

I am excited to Steven Covey joining the Huntsman School of Business. I read his book several years ago, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and get excited about the principles he teaches. I have thought about them over the years.
He talks about Habits 1-7, which are:
Be Proactive- Respond rather than react.
Begin with the end in Mind- Create a mission statement
Put First Things First-
Think Win/Win-
Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Synergize
Sharpen the Saw

Principle centered leadership is intriguing to me because it makes you think about how you are doing. There is always room for improvement.

Feb-9 Obtaining Financing, Talk by Ethan Migliori BUS 3620

The presentation by Ethan was fairly familiar to me having been involved with down payment assistance, business lines of credit, and mortgage loans for a while. I am most intrigued with having the right business plan. I ran my own remodeling business and did conservatively well. I just went out and worked hard and made good artisan choices. However I was pretty much winging it for the business plan. I think I would have done better by having a focus for my company if I had written a progressive business plan.

Feb-2 “Moment of Power” BUS 3620

I really enjoyed the video by Robert Cialdini where he talked about the “Moment of Power” evolving from the “Law of Reciprocation”. It is human nature in all cultures to give back in return for something given first to you. If another business or person says, “Thank you” for a favor, the receiver of the communication can respond by say, “It was nothing.” This short circuits the “Law of Reciprocation.” A better response would be, “Glad to help; I’m sure you would do the same for me.”

Jan-26 BUS 3620 Dev Entre Comps

I am intrigued by the 5 qualities we talked about in class, measuring myself like the entrepreneur competency test for last week. I have some strengths and some weaknesses.

1. Desire- I have desire, but I dream too much.
2. Positivity- I am positive at the start of something new, but need improvement sticking with it.
3. Commitment- Same as positivity.
4. Patience- I am not real patient, but I am doing good at returning to college patiently moving forward.
5. Persistence- I am persistent.

I think if you would mix these qualities in a mixing bowl the main ingredient missing for me is discipline.

Things to work on.

Jan-19 BUS 3620 Dev Entre Comps

I looked at the reasons people want to be entrepreneurs on page 9. Why do people want to be entrepreneurs? It can be a lot of work. I was self employed for about 15 years. I ran my own home remodeling and repair business for about 10 years and did conservatively well. I also was an independent marketing rep for a non-profit facilitating down payment assistance for about 5 years. I did moderately well until the government changed the mortgage regulations which closed down our industry. Now I am back in school to sharpen my mind and open the doors of opportunity.

I like the idea of higher Profit, Independence and, Freedom which is in the back of my mind every day at work. That is OK. I will sacrifice for 1 more year then I will go for it again.

Jan-12 BUS 3620 Dev Entre Comps

I learned what social networking tools we are going to be using which is exciting to me. I am particularly interested in Blogging and Linked-In for business purposes.