Jeff Goodwin

Last week Jeff Goodwin came and talked to our Entrepreneurship class, sadly due to a stomach flu I was unable to attend his lecture. I have had the opportunity to read up on some of my classmates' blog post concerning Jeff Goodwin. The one point that Jeff talked about was it is possible to start a business your self with very little capital, to be exact Jeff did it twice with only $5000 starting investment. He also talked about to be successful you must find the perfect balance between getting too emotionally attached to your company and not getting attached enough. He also touched on a topic that I have taken to heart, you must get close to your customers. As with marketing you must build strong relationships with your clients to not only ensure a sale, but a returning customer later down the road.

How my company has a Technology Differentiation

My company idea has changed a little bit from the beginning, but in essence is very much the same, just with a more broad scope as to create a larger market. The company will be called Industrial System Labs (ISL)and will focus on creating excellent software systems for companies with already great mechanically sound products that contain limiting software. This idea came from my working experience in the logistics fields through FedEx and UPS. Both this huge companies have great hand held devices for their couriers and other employees, but despite all the hardware features these devices contain the software does not take advantage of them. For example the FedEx powerPads contain GPS and touchscreens, but the GPS system is not used at all and the touchscreens are extremely limited. With the proper software these devices could help couriers for example in many different ways, from using the GPS to map the route most efficiently and to ensure the likely hood of missed deliveries or late deliveries are eliminated. Another example is Watts Technologies industrial pipe cutting machine. The machine does its job mechanically great, but due out of date software the users of the machine often are unable to get the proper cuts on their pipes despite the machine being very capable of doing them. My company will take the Technological strong points of other companies (our clients) and make them flourish with the use of specialized and innovative software. So our Technology Differentiation is that of quality software that is not made to fit many different models, but made just for the one product.

Lynnette Claire

Today Lynnette Claire from UPS and founder of Tacoma Entrepreneurship Network came to class to day to talk about networks and their importance in the entrepreneurship world. Before her talk I had a vague understanding of the importance of networks, but didn't fully understand their purpose and true importance. I thought of networks as pure networking and just knowing the right people to get the most out of a project and company. That is just the tip of the iceberg though for entrepreneurship networking. As Lynnette explained entrepreneurship networking provides you with ideas of others, support, connections, leads, and cooperation in a community. The Tacoma Entrepreneurship Network is a great example of why an network is needed to make a entrepreneurship community strive. The network is needed to help the community know what is needed and how to deliver the product or service in a way to will help the community flourish and in turn help the economy of the area stay strong. At the end of her talk Lynnette had us take a survey and prioritize some keys to entrepreneurship and networking. The prioritizing really let me see what I find most useful out of a network if I was to ever create my own business, I was surprised to see that my top three features where actually the same as most of the class.

Startup.com

We watched the documentary film StartUp.com today in class. This film did a great job at showing the rise and downfall of a business. Getting to see something happen in the real world every step of the way really gave me a taste of what to expect if i am ever to start a company of my own. The film also showed the personal aspect of creating a company. The toil of the hardships of the company had a friendly fire feel about it on the friendships that started the company govWorks.com. Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman had the opportunity to take a great idea and break into an undiscovered marketplace, but as the film shown they did a few things wrong and combined with the dot com bubble pop, saw their company go bankrupt and fail. This film showed the importance of have a stable and very clear management hierarchy and business plan. Constantly in the film confusion was seen in employees and investors because Tom and Kaleil never really separated their positions in the company and appeared as co CEOs and each seemed to be on separate ideas on the direction of the company. I really enjoyed this film and wished more information was provided throughout the film and even the lives of the two founders after, such as did Tom ever get any kind of settlement after he was let go?

John Dimmer

Today's guest speaker was John Dimmer. John is the kinda of entrepreneur that I would love to strive for. That being an entrepreneur who has reached a level where he is simply involved in business because he wants something to do not cause of something he needs to do to live. A good portion of his talk was discussing how he got to where he is today. The cool thing about John is that he races formula one classic race cars, which is something i would love to do (with motorcycles) and shows what kinda of personality you need to succeed as an entrepreneur. John also talked about financing a company, which cleared up a lot of question i have about investors. John discussed at what stages of your company to you got after certain type of investors and how to get them to invest. John's talk really helped me clear the finance portion of my my business plan.

Ron Kornfeld

Today Ron Kornfeld spoke for our class. So far the topics discussed by Ron I have found to be the most interesting of all the guest speakers topics. His opinion of using disruptive strategy was extremely interesting to me. This strategy is choosing a product or service that cannot be taken advantage of by other companies because it will cut into the profits of their already existing products or services. The example used by Ron was Apple IPads and how HP was able to make a solid tablet, but couldn't because it would have cut into their successful laptop sales. This strategy applies to my company in that I will be making software for various types of hardware that is more unique for that piece of hardware then the generic software loaded by the manufactures. For example the software loaded on the Motorola powerpads used by fedex is just a simple windows shell that doesn't take advantage of the bluetooth, wifi, and touch screen features of the hardware where my software will.

Bruce Kendall

Bruce Kendall came as a guest speaker for our class. He proved to be a very though provoking speaker. I found it especially interesting the topic of the importance of a location for a business. Not only do you need to consider the tax's, cost and rental of the location, but also the availability of good dependable employees to hire. In reference to Tacoma the ladder has been a major downfall were Seattle with the university of Washington has had much success in the department. With the introduction of UWT this has changed and made the Tacoma area a much more competitive market for new businesses to look into.

Brian Forth

Last Wednesday Brian Forth came to class as a guest speaker unfortunately I was forced to go home earlier that day due to some kinda of stomach illness. From talking to some classmates and reading a few of the current blog post I have a small understanding of what he talked about. Brain talked about how mobile technology is huge and has a many entrance points. You would have to be living under a rock for the past few years to not see how huge the marked is for mobile technologies. Just look at how the IPad has taken over the market and created a huge demand for portable tablets. Businesses are always looking for new and innovated ways to run their companies, advances in mobile technologies are creating endless new possibilities for companies. Even with my business idea of creating more efficient software for logistic companies already up to date hardware. Mobile technology is huge in this industry and is needed to keep the companies as a efficient as possible and get this companies closer to the common goal of never over looking a package.

what is a entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is any person that is not afraid to take a opportunity and create a lasting value and business freedom from the said opportunity. An entrepreneur is not a individual who is fearful to the extent of not being able to perform activities that are needed to produce connections. Entrepreneurship is not for the lazy, but is intended for the go getters. There are many positives and also many negatives. Entrepreneurship creates a freedom and a unique lifestyle for those who choice to follow a entrepreneur path.

Erik Hanberg

Recently we where visited by Erick Hanberg. The interesting thing about Erick that changed my view on what exactly being an entrepreneur. Before the talk with Erick I viewed being a entrepreneur as a person who creates a business and makes massive amounts of cash from the business. Erick on the other hand is a a lifestyle entrepreneur. Meaning he does what he needs to survive and live the way he wants too (like sleeping in in Tuesdays). One way he is achieving this lifestyle is by putting books that he has written and published online to be downloaded as e-books. By selling his books in this manner he is creating an income that he doesn't have to work for in the same sense of other incomes, the e-books are self sustained. I found Erick's take on entrepreneurship very interesting and eye opening.

TINST 475 First Blog

I currently work at FedEx to pay for tuition and living cost. As a logistics company the key to their success is being fast and efficient. Currently both FedEx and UPS use similar handheld devices, that contain all the current technologies such GPS and high quality touch screens, but the software on these devices is extremely out of date. My first idea for a business is to create a software company that focuses on creating software for these logistic companies and the portable devices used by them.

Another idea for a business is by using interactive technology over the web or through mobile apps to create a paint/automotive customization shop. Where customers can select their vehicle and preform any customization to the vehicle and see not only what it would look like, but the cost for parts and labor.

A third idea would be to take advantage of the possible shift from gas to electric cars and create a business that offers recharge stations at various parking locations. For example have charge stations in the parking garages for major companies, so when employees come to work they can park in one of the designated spaces and plug their electrics cars in to charge for the work day.

These business ideas are all very broad and just focus on the basic products/services that I would be interested in following up on.