WHAT a GIRLPRENEUR!!!

This is our classmate, HeatherJean, who posted here but has a FANTASTIC new blog set up to mark the birth of Proxy - her company. YAY HEATHERJEAN!!!!

All that WORK!

d'oh! We found out last night in class that, despite all that work on our business plans, no one reads them anymore. It's all about how you pitch your business and the Powerpoint presentation you present. Before she told us this last night (our business plans were due the night before by 12pm midnight) our professor said she was glad we didn't have any tomatoes to throw at her...and then she shared that little bit of reality with us. 27 pages and a few Excel spreadsheets later, it's kind of hard to know how to process that....

business planning gets personal

So, creating a business is obviously a deeply personal endeavor . . . but I didn't realize how personal writing a business plan would feel. It's a dry and boring document on its face, but really putting your personal vision for the world you want to create - through a business or a social venture - is an emotional experience I think I wasn't quite aware of. It's funny how all of the coursework in business school tends to be dry and boring, and an entrepreneurial venture is built  on all of that accounting, finance, operations, etc. knowledge . . . but as soon as you add your personal passion to it the numbers and the plans gain an emotional weight they never quite had before. This process makes me really appreciate what my dad and mom's dad went through early on in their careers when they developed businesses on which their whole work lives have since been based.  There's some intense courage that goes into this whole process. 

A dime a dozen

Why is it that everyone I talk to about my plan has a business concept of their own - and wants me to give them feedback? And I suspect investors are probably all frustrated entrepreneurs and mostly have a hard time backing off and letting the founder run with it.

But I probably won't have that problem - so far, most people seem a little baffled and can't see how I'm going to make money. Maybe I should be writing a book, not a business plan!
-Jen

When does the torture end

On Saturday I was so excited!! 'Finaly, its all coming together,' I thought. I finally understand my target market and yes I am ready to do my demo project in Second Life and get everyone to sign up and go along on the roller coaster. Boy was I wrong, understanding your target market is the first nightmare because you see instantly when they will hate something.

I finally signed up on Second Life and guess wat? It took forever and you need email confirmation and then you need to download software and then you need a tutorial on how to use SL. Its got great stuff going on in the art world and people can tour Estonia from their living rooms but guess wat? After all that hassle I sill dont know how to use Second Life and downloading the free software is great but not if your target audience is using internet cafes to log on in different parts of the globe. And not if it takes you 30 minutes (they are paying by the hour in internet cafes) to finally get into SL with an avatar and also not allow you to keep your name. Then it stops being cool and you have to question if this is your smartest move. I mean if my target market is logging onto the internet via internet cafes and paying by the hour do they really want to waste 30 minutes logging into SL? Even if they own laptops would they rather go to facebook and youtube that are easy to use and require no tutorials? If they cant download the software onto the computer that means they cant log onto SL for the events and then my demo is pointless. I am worried about the time it takes to get all set up on SL cos my audience is busy and I am worried about the need to download software on SL.

The other option is to try and find out if maybe I do have a portion of my target market already on SL and go with that or target the consumers in other parts of the world that have access to laptops and see if they would be willing to sign onto Second Life for the demo.

Aargh!!! Or I could go back to the drawing board and use whatever brain cells, my 15 page strategy paper has not killed, to find an alternate demo that would still make me money. Or I could educate my target market about Second Life before hand?? Some ideas are brilliant and its the execution that fails them and that is what I am faced with today. Execution is the killer of great ideas. Why does reality always bite?

I am now just praying to meet a genius web developer who wants a challenging project and does not care much about the money side. If wishes came true....

girlpreneurs expands!

After a fantastic food and wine filled business plan writing party that included six of our classmates, we've decided to open up the girlpreneur blogspace to include even more Simmons SOM entrepreneurs in the process of birthing their respective businesses. Welcome, ladies! Blog away!

"Meet the Antipreneurs"

So, I think I've found my philosophical home as an entrepreneur. I stumbled on this article in Business Week "Small Business" magazine that highlighted mission-driven, for profit companies for whom their products' sustainable sourcing is the proud core of their respective businesses. These companies included "Moo Shoes", a vegan shoe company started by two sisters that is based in Manhattan; Radioparadise.com, a radio station that shuns corporate advertising influence on radio content; and No Sweat Apparel (nosweatapparel.com), a company that markets apparel made only in unionized factories. A quote from the CEO of No Sweat Apparel, Adam Nieman, sums up the philosophy that these "antipreneurs" espouse: 

"What appeals to people about us is that this is a positive vision of how the marketplace can and should work."

See the article and a video of interviews with the featured antipreneurs at:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_66/s0806032873701.htm