The Final Chapter

The final chapter, here it is... it is time to say goodbye. Wow, what an adventure this has been. It has had it's ups and downs, more ups than down's. It  has been a great pleasure writing this blog with all of my sarcasm and bad humor mixed in. I am not the greatest blogger and I know it and I know that my grades show it. There are times of the year that I get way bogged down and too busy to think, and this is one of those times, and I haven't been able to keep up like I like to but I have tried. I would like to just tell you who may be reading this, which is probably no one... which is fine... I will type this for me. I think that the business idea that I had was a good one. I would recommend to anyone, make sure you know who you are wanting to capture as your customers. Please make sure that you know what your product is and how you are marketing it and what your "specialty" is. Please know that it won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Owning your own business and running it is such a great experience. Know your pricing, know your product. If you do that, then you will survive and be a great success. You have to know know know all of the ins and outs of your business. You need to also have a personality. You need to be able to communicate with others and have a confidence that you can do this. If you are not a people person, then owning your own business, may not be for you... it is a very time consuming thing. You will eat, sleep and breathe your business. No one can make it a success but you. You have to have the drive and desire to make this work. You can do it, it takes time and energy and I for one, believe in you. You have to believe in yourself, and you will go far. Good luck and go for it.

Processes

This week I have learned a lot about processes and what it takes to make things work. I have learned the if you have a process for making certain products and you think that you made need to work on those processes to change them for efficiency or reasons that you just feel are important, go ahead but make sure that you know where you are going with these processes, and that they are going to help you improve and not hinder your progress. It is very difficult to work through changes and ways of streamlining your business if you are not sure how things are going to work. You need to know exactly how the changes are going to affect your company and your employees.

Hiring

The hiring process... what it is, who to hire, how to do this. This is a lot of things that I have been working through this week. I have learned about how to start the process, where to look for people, how to conduct interviews and how to offer them the position. This is all a current thing for me because I am looking for a full time job, and so this was very beneficial to me to see what the interviewers go through to prepare for an interview. I have also been on the hiring side of the table when I was working for a temp agency and we were hiring for one of our biggest clients and I was responsible for the phone interview, and getting them on the schedule to the interview in the locations that we were working in. I would then travel to the locations conduct group interviews and make sure the hiring packets were ready to go and that my supervisor had everything she needed to do her job in the location. It was a very good time, but it ended as the work ended. I enjoy the hiring and interviewing of people. I love to talk with people and learn more about them and their dreams and desires. I like to know a little of their background before we begin, and then to get to know them more during the interview. It is a fun and exciting job. I don’t feel at this time, I need to hire any employees for the brownie company. It is such a small operation at this time, that there wouldn’t be room enough for more than one person. I think that when I am ready to expand and grow, I will look at the prospects and see what it will take for us to hire people.

Leadership

Leadership... it is what this lesson is all about... leadership and how to be a good one and how to improve on what you know. I think that the biggest thing I learned this week involved leadership and how to be one and be a good one. I had to do this leadership style survey and it came out with the results that I expected. I have been working in different positions over the last 20-25 years and I know that I am not the greatest leader in the world, but I don't think that I am one of the worst either...but who knows... (don't go ask my former employees) I think the truth would hurt...lol. I am in between a participative and delegative style. I have always tried to be fair and objective. I have made lots of mistakes and I will be the first to admit that. When I have had to be "in charge" I am.... when I have let the employees make the decisions and see how they like it, and how it works for them, then that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. I have always tried to ask their opinions and get their input. It is the way that I do things. I tried to do things differently than I was taught or shown how to manage because I don't agree with that. I don't think you have to be mean to be a good or great manager.

This week and what I learned.

This week has been an adventurous week. I have been working on getting the business up and running. I have been working on getting the secret ingredients decided on and getting them in the brownie mix and then taste testing to see if certain items are a good combination or not. I have discovered that not all items, that I thought would make a good "secret" ingredient did. Simple things like, m&m's do well in the baking and stay pretty much in tact when being put into the brownies, I expected that to go well. Things like, certain types of chocolate don't do so well in the baking process.
I have also been selling them in different situations, to see what a good price point would be, and one that would attract the market, and the best place I found to sell them is the local high schools. Kids love chocolate, and have been giving me great reviews and some not so great reviews. They will pay up to $2.00 per brownie, and as little as .50 cents per brownie... depending on what is in it. They have also suggested selling things like milk with them, and that is an idea that I hadn't even thought of.. the reason for this is that if you have a good chocolate brownie, then you need something that is going to help "wash" it down, and they all said milk is a good thing to sell. So there is another angle to help sell the brownies.
All in all, a good week.

What have I learned or not learned this week...

Let's see.. what have I learned this week... that is always the reason for these posts... but sometimes I like to write more than what have I learned this week... sometimes I like to write about the interesting things that have happened this week... I know I am supposed to be writing about both of these things... together.. so here we go... I might actually get this right this week... lol... we shall see.
I have definitely settled on the company name Black Market Brownies... I just love the name... mysterious and mystic... I had someone ask via class... what is the secret ingredient... I honestly don't have an answer for that... it could be anything you want it to be... it could be chunks of chocolate, it could be hershey's kisses, it could be m&m's (although I don't like that idea... ickkkkkk..) it will NOT  be marijuana, or ex-lax... as has been done in the past... that is just mean and wrong.... the customer tells me what they want the secret extra ingredient to be... it might be vanilla chips... who knows... I will make up a list of ingredients to choose from and you decide. I am going to ask lots of people what they would like in brownies and see what their opinions are and create the list. I have learned that marketing is very important to getting the products and or services off the ground. I have also learned that suggestive selling is a great tool to use for companies to make more money. I used to do this when I worked for McDonald's and Wal*Mart. You also need to have a good elevator pitch for your potential investors. They need to know what your product or service is and what it is all about. This week has been good for me and learning more about how to get a business going.

Budgeting hmmmm.

Budgeting has been the "theme" so to speak of for the week... and I will tell you, that this lesson was prepared for me. I have challenges at the moment trying to budget... how do you budget based on nothing? I have been working lately for only 8 hours and so then for that work that I do, I have to budget oh say NOTHING for something. Yeah right. When there is prosperous times, and then go to budgeting 101 and that is good because when you can budget it is a good thing to be able to do. You should have a full knowledge of what you have and you don't overspend, and then the ugly head of debt is rearing at your door and then you are panicking as to what to do to fix this or that problem. This week’s lesson really has been an eye opener. I have learned so much this week and enjoyed hearing and reading these articles and they have taught me that when I start my own business, I need to understand why I don’t want to go into debt and work to really stay out of debt for my business.