Brian Forth

Brian Forth is CEO of SiteCrafting. Brian came to our class to talk to us about his experience with his entrepreneurship ideas and what he has done in his journey. He has a double major, which include Theology and Philosophy. He also has a minor in Education. His dream was to be a filmmaker, but while in school he played baseball, which later played for Gonzaga where he was awarded the Pac 10 Player of the Week. With the minor in Education he began to teach 5th grade. During teaching he worked with students building websites, which helped give him the idea to start SiteCrafting business that creates websites for companies. One thing that I was very impressed about was that he creates web pages for any school that wants his help for free. The other application that he and his group has created that is very interesting is the mobile wine tour that will map out wine tasting places. This application can be downloaded for a small fee to your smart phone. Other things that he discussed were secrets to be a good entrepreneur, which were to take the risk, invest yourself into the project, trust your team, deliver more, make and keep bigger promises, and leverage your experience and your connections. Brian also mentioned somethings to think about with the Mobile and Web and they were that they had easy entry points; real business with real problems to solve; multiple platforms to support; quick updates, fixes, and testing; and play in your own sandbox when developing because if something goes wrong then you are only affecting your own area.

Technology That Differentiates my Business from my Competitors

The business I choose at this time for class is my NetBooks online book rentals. This is different because at this time there are only rental and buying places to get books from online. The only other competition is local libraries that you actually have to physically go to in order to get a book or any other type of media. So, my purposed entrepreneurship is to start a online book rental store called NetBooks that will be similar to Netflix. This will be a business that memberships will be sold and the member can check out books and have them shipped to their house, they also can check out ebooks that are available to read from a kindle or a laptop. The other difference is that the membership will have allowed amount to be checked out at a time and no late fees attached. Then if something isn't returned they will not be able to check out anymore items until they pay for ones that are lost, or they return the items. Membership fee is to be determined later with other laws and regulations.

Meaning of Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business. Many people want to start their own business and think that it means to have freedom, more leizure time, and they can just hire anyone to do the job for them, but that isn't the case. It takes someone that is hard working, willing to work long hours, and willing to take risks with not afraid of failing to be an entrepreneur. After reading more about how to start an entrepreneurship in class and on my own time, I have learned new ways on how to start it from the beginning. The first step for starting an entrepreneurship is to have ideas on what you want the business to be and have a business plan to follow. The one thing to remember is that after picking the idea is sticking to the plan and finishing it.

Erik Hanberg

On April 2, 2012 Erik came to our class to discuss what it is like to be an entrepreneur. He explained to  us that to be an entrepreneur someone has to like to work not just come up with the ideas, that it isn't easy, and it in't just a 9 to 5 job.  After graduating from college he started a non-profit theater, Horatio, which later failed. After the theater closing, Erik decided to help his wife with her business Mary Holsten Design, while taking him being an author seriously. He has since written 3 books: The Marinara Murders, The Saints Go Dying, The Little Book of Gold: Fundraising for Small (and Very Small) Nonprofits. These books are still selling and every month his ebook sales are rising, but not as rapidly as needed for a big profit, that he has now taken a position as Metro Park's Commissioner, while continuing to write.
After reading and learning about Erik, it has me thinking about being an entrepreneur. In the past my husband has started many different entrepreneurships with some lasting a short time and some longer, but it has given me a scared feeling of stability, so I never thought I would ever do it.

NetBooks

Open an online book library similar to Netflix for movies. Have them pay a monthly fee to check out books. Library's aren't being used much anymore because people don't want to go there, so make it easier for people to check out library books, without overdue charges. Limit their checkouts, so they can't just check books out and steal them, but if lost then have them pay for replacement. Allow checkout to be online for ebooks, and then for ones that are only in soft and hard cover have them mailed. When the customer is done reading it then they can mail the readings back and get new ones to read.

*****Change name of Buisness to "NetlineBooks"********

E-Cooking with Recipe Exchanges

To create a business with exchanging recipes I have thought of some creative ways to do this. Since I love to bake, cook, eat, and talk, I have decided this would be a great way to get people together. But by getting people together I mean on the internet. For this business it is going to be to allow people to upload recipes with video on showing how to make their own recipes. Then have a cooking together day. Where we all sign in and have the ability to video with each other for free and show others how to make something or just share cooking ideas and recipes with each other live. To make a little money, I will have a way to for me to provide cooking classes through this video chat for a small fee. I will then do video chat to teach someone how to make something special in the convenience of their own home. This will come in handy for people that don’t cook and can’t afford to go take out of the home classes on cooking. If a special day is coming up and someone want to make someone special something for the occasion, but they can’t cook and they don’t want to pay a lot of money or they are embarrassed to admit it, this would be done in his/her home and will be confidential.

Elderly Equipment Library System

My first and main business is to help the elderly. I feel that there is no aid for elderly in need for equipment to help them in everyday activities, unless they are very rich or very poor. My business is a non-profit organization to allow any elderly to check-out everyday equipment that they need to make their lives easier and allow other individuals to donate equipment. This equipment could be anything from crutches, walkers or bathtub chairs to wheelchairs. I had a plan to make it a store to come in to and keep it local, but since this class is having me think of a way to us the computer/business ideas, I have decided to have it as an online check out system for anyone in the United States to use. My plan is to create a World Wide Library System online with equipment I have available for checkout and then elderly people could go online, create a membership, and search for their item and check the item out. I will be allowing them to check out the items on month to month bases, like a city book library system. Allowing members to go on-line to their account and donate, renew, change personal information, request more equipment, or request return, etc. Once they checkout the item I will send it to them for them to use, which still needs planning. After they are done with the item and want to return it, I will send them a box, with paid postage, to send the item back for other future check outs.