Lesson 5

This week, I got my little business on the internet! It looks great and will hopefully make it easier for my recycling customers to get information about recycling days, fee's, unexpected recycling center closures, and general information about making the transition to a more green lifestyle.

I am thankful that this class has given me the opportunity to help my neighborhood and I truly hope they take me up on this offer. I plan to expand slowly outward from my street to adjoining streets until I have roughly 30-40 customers. This way, I will not become overwhelmed by the volumes of recyclable goods.

When I first put out flyers to use while going door to door in my neighborhood, I do not think I did a very good job. They were unprofessional, and probably hard to read. But I have now updated the look of them and plan on using the same format. It is a spin off of the theme on the businesses website. I did this so that there would be a solid visual link between the two so that perhaps they would feel more comfortable using the website. I sent those out this morning and am hoping to generate more prepayments using that.

Lesson 4

This week was good. I felt very rushed because I am visiting family that I haven't seen for over a year. I hate being away so long, which is part of the reason I want an internship with Southwest so badly... anyone who can guarantee me an inexpensive mode of seeing my family will have my loyalty forever... My family is everything to me, and we are all so spread out that it makes it difficult to see everyone. I miss them all the time.

Anyway, I worked on designing my site this week. I researched a few cool sites, but none were really selling the same thing as me, but were about the general topic. I am starting a recycling program for my neighborhood because we have terrible recycling center hours... three hours a week... yep thats right. three hours and its on a Saturday morning... no one wants to get up that early!!

Anyway, I enjoyed playing with the site features. I had some trouble with the social media part of the site because I accidentally turned it on and couldn't get it back off. It was wanting to basically have me make a tiny facebook out of my site!! NO WAY!!! Yikes!

Lesson 3

I watched another Action Hero video this week. This one was about a guy who is in the real estate business. He probably isn't an emotionally compelling as the previous ones I have watched. He did have trials like bankruptcy and divorce, but not quite as amazing as a man who moved into the dorm of his college to keep personal costs down with the intent to give more of his money away. Paul Robshaw, the action hero this week, was very driven and has had a lot of success and a lot of failure in his life. It is nice to be reminded that even if we lose everything monetarily, we can still recover and succeed in life.

I also read about some tips for starting a business. The article I read was a bit hard to follow because he would tell you to one thing but then tell you not to do it in the same breath. The underlying theme seemed to be to have mediation in all things. The writer seemed to want you to walk a fine line and know where it is at all times. This is probably why a lot of start ups fail.. there just is no way to see this line all of the time and constantly be on top of it. 

I think the case study I read this week about Heather Evans was interesting. She is a designer of womens professional apparel in New York City. Through the case study I learned about perseverance, and hope. Heather was very close to beginning her new business, but had not secured funding. She was nervous that things would not line up in time. I can't imagine putting out that much personal money with the great potential to lose it all so quickly.

Lesson 2

This week was difficult for me. I do not like to put out money until I know all the facts and know what I am getting myself into. I did not like that the drop shipping lists cost money. I hated that to even begin getting information I would have had to put out money, and not even be guaranteed that it was a valid site with up-to-date information!

I watched a video this week about the guy who founded Dominos pizza. He is incredibly inspiring and I hope that I can, one day, make a difference like he does. I just don't know if I have the commitment levels like he does. He gave up everything... I mean everything. He lives in a dorm to save money so that he can give more of the money he earns to the college he started.

http://www.actonhero.org/celebrating-heroes/stories-of-heroes/index.php?hero=tom-monaghan

I think learning about affiliates was really useful to me because I am hoping to do that stuff on my regular blog. In the past month I have gotten nearly 90 views, which is a big step up from the 5 I started with a year-ish ago!