This month I had the opportunity to interview my mentor for my third interview. I'm glad I was able to use her for this interview, because she did a great job of throughoughly answering all my questions with honesty. The interview with her allowed me to think more deeply into my second answer for my EQ and how I can properly answer it. My first answer was using social media, and for my second answer I was going to say a website is what helps expand business. During the interview though, she mentioned how important customer service was in order to keep and gain more customers. I am stuck between using customer service for my second answer, or keeping that in the back of my mind for my third answer.
Luckily I have been learning a lot from Amy just from observing what she does around the store and how she approaches customers. Amy told me how appreciative she is of me to help around the store, but she would like to help me in the same way by knowing what is is I want to find out more about managing businesses. There are so many aspects of business management, and so much I want to find out about; I defintely have to do my research as to what can help me the most.
Besides that, I continue to help out at the store weekly, and gain more information to further my knowledge of business management.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Answer 2
1. What is your EQ?What is the best way to maximize profits for a small retail business?
2. What is your first answer? If you get your business known through social media, then profits will increase due to popularity.
3. What is your second answer?If you create and maintain a visually striking, yet organized website, then more customers will be drawn to your business, thus increasing profit.
4. List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.
6. What other source supports your answer?
7. Tie this together with a concluding thought.
Websites not only get your business known through customers that haven't visited your store, but those who HAVE visited your store can get more out of an online business that may provide more than that of in-store.
2. What is your first answer? If you get your business known through social media, then profits will increase due to popularity.
3. What is your second answer?If you create and maintain a visually striking, yet organized website, then more customers will be drawn to your business, thus increasing profit.
4. List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.
- Draws attention- It only takes a couple seconds for a first impression. A website that is appealing, yet well established speaks loads about what your business is like.
- Makes you stand out- Plenty small businesses such as boutiques don't have websites; offering an online business makes you different then the rest.
- Offers your merchandise online- Selling both in-store and online gives the opportunity to expand your customers, and more customers means more profit.
6. What other source supports your answer?
- Barr, Corbett. "Top 10 Mistakes in Starting an Online Business." Fizzle Top 10 Mistakes in Starting an Online Business Comments. Fizzle, 09 July 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2015. <http://fizzle.co/sparkline/top-10-mistakes-in-starting-an-online-business>.
- Zlotnick, Milton. "Steps to Starting an Online Business - Bplans Blog." Bplans Blog Steps to Starting an Online Business Comments. Palo Alto Software, 13 Dec. 2007. Web. 09 Jan. 2015.
- Moon, Allen. "How to Start a Business Online." Entrepreneur. Entrepreneur, n.d. Web. 09 Jan. 2015.
Smale, Thomas. "4 Reasons Why an Online Business Is the Best Investment You Will Ever Make." Entrepreneur. Entreprenuer, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2015. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241759>.
7. Tie this together with a concluding thought.
Websites not only get your business known through customers that haven't visited your store, but those who HAVE visited your store can get more out of an online business that may provide more than that of in-store.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
1. I plan on taking a class up at Cal Poly through Young Scholars. Most likely it'll be a pyscology class because in business it is ideal to know people and how they work. Taking a class will allow me to figure out how the human mind works; and let me build better communication skills.
2. Evidence will be shown through pictures of my notes, tests, and even recordings of lectures.
3. As explained earlier, physiology will allow me to expand my knowledge on how people take things differently. When I did my first interview, my mentor at the time told me hat working in business management forces you to work will all types of different people. People from different backgrounds and such, communicate differently than one might. When you understand how the mind works, it can give you a better understanding of why people are they way they are. This will lead to you managing your business better since you have more knowledge as to why people act the way they do.
2. Evidence will be shown through pictures of my notes, tests, and even recordings of lectures.
3. As explained earlier, physiology will allow me to expand my knowledge on how people take things differently. When I did my first interview, my mentor at the time told me hat working in business management forces you to work will all types of different people. People from different backgrounds and such, communicate differently than one might. When you understand how the mind works, it can give you a better understanding of why people are they way they are. This will lead to you managing your business better since you have more knowledge as to why people act the way they do.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Independent Component 1
LITERAL
(a) I, Yuritzi Mora, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b) James, Geoffrey. Business without the Bullsh*t: 49 Secrets and Shortcuts You Need to Know. N.p.: Grand Central, 2014. Print.
(c) Refer to Senior Project Hours
(d) For my Independent Component 1 I completed an extra 30 hours with my mentor.
INTERPRETIVE
The reason I decided to do an extra 30 hours is because my mentor has so much experience and knowledge with business, that I figured the more time spent mentoring with her, the more information I could gather. Amy is the owner and manager of Maple Boutique, which of course, correlates to my topic; Business Management. The fact that I have perspective from a business owner/ business manager allows me to gain more insight from both sides. When I go into her store to mentor, she teaches me about how to work in college to prepare for beginning of my business career once I graduate, and what it takes to get there. 90% of the time when I go into her store, my job is to open any delivered packages and stock inventory with what we received. At times it can be mundane, but during those times she explains to me how to order the clothes, where to order them, how often to order them, and why she orders the things she does.
Another thing I do at mentorship is run a lot of trips to the UPS store, or post office. Since Amy also runs a website for her boutique, items are constantly needed to be shipped out and delivered to the customers. The first time I went was super embarrassing. Amy gave me a bag of clothes and asked me to put them in the package the post office provides. Well the thing is, the post office has like 10 different packaging options, and I didn't want to call her again since I had already gotten lost on the way there and had to ring her. I ended up going with a cardboard package that didn't seem to have enough room for all the clothes she handed me, but I was going to make it fit one way or another. When I finally finished shoving everything in the package it looked like a 2 year old tried wrapping a present, and didn't succeed so they just put tape everywhere to cover it up. I handed the post lady the package and she just looked at me and said, "You know they have these plastic packaging that is much roomier and easier to to fit what you need to fit in there right?". Yeah, of course I knew. That's why I spent 10 minutes sweating, trying to make everything fit in the package without ripping, and attempting to keeping it semi-presentable.
One of the things I really enjoyed was when she taught me how to read and input invoices. I had previously heard what they were, but I never knew exactly, so it was a true learning experience for me. To be honest, everything during mentorship is a learning experience. At times its nerve-wrecking because I don't quite understand what she wants me to do, and I don't want to ask again or else I'll feel dumb. Then again, that's a part of learning, and once I finally master the task it becomes easier for me to do it the next time.
I also attended a few in-store events which she hosts every couple weeks to interact with customers and get the business more known from any visitors who happen to come by. She offers goody bags, or some snacks and always has cute and crafty ideas for her and her customers to bond over. I can tell she puts a lot of effort into these events, and not only does she enjoy them, but so do the customers; which I have learned is the most important thing in maintaining a business. Below are a few pictures of my mentoring experience. Most of the pictures are of clothes and the store, because like I said before, my job is mostly to
take inventory, dress mannequins, and set the store up.
(I apologize for the weird picture display. I took pictures with a square, vertical, and landscape format, so they're spaced out really awkwardly)
APPLIED
I touched on this in the Interpretive section, but during my 30 extra hours, I realized that aside from all the managing part of the business, customers are what MAKES your business. Everything Amy does is to please her customers. She changes her window displays every so often to make her store visually appealing to customers, and keep them interested. She orders new merchandise 3 to 4 times a week to keep her store constantly changing and keep the variety for her customers. In-store events are to mingle with customers and keep them updated with anything new and upcoming. Without the customers, you merely have a store with clothes and price tags on them. Keeping your customers happy and satisfied is what helps your business grow and reach its full potential. That's not to say there aren't plenty other factors in having your business succeed, but customers are your consumers and if your consumers don't like what you offer then there will be no business.
When the time came around to start planning my answer for my 30 minute presentation I had no idea what to do. After mentoring so much with Amy, I realized every time I went into her store she was always updating something to Instagram for the business. That's when the answer the my essential question hit me. Amy was kind enough to further help me develop my answer, and explain what examples I could use for my presentation. She gave me several examples about how social media helps businesses expand to become bigger than they already are, and why is it easier then anything else she does to promote her boutique.
I can genuinely say one of the reasons I presented so well was because over the last weeks Amy has granted me so much information about managing a business, that I had no knowledge of prior to mentoring with her. These extra 30 hours I completed with her allowed me to develop a better relationship with Amy and I am now a lot more comfortable asking questions about the business, or calling in when she's not expecting me, to ask if she needs any extra help around the store. I'm glad she has agreed to have me interview her for my 3rd interview, especially since I highly value her wisdom of the business industry.
(a) I, Yuritzi Mora, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
(b) James, Geoffrey. Business without the Bullsh*t: 49 Secrets and Shortcuts You Need to Know. N.p.: Grand Central, 2014. Print.
(c) Refer to Senior Project Hours
(d) For my Independent Component 1 I completed an extra 30 hours with my mentor.
INTERPRETIVE
The reason I decided to do an extra 30 hours is because my mentor has so much experience and knowledge with business, that I figured the more time spent mentoring with her, the more information I could gather. Amy is the owner and manager of Maple Boutique, which of course, correlates to my topic; Business Management. The fact that I have perspective from a business owner/ business manager allows me to gain more insight from both sides. When I go into her store to mentor, she teaches me about how to work in college to prepare for beginning of my business career once I graduate, and what it takes to get there. 90% of the time when I go into her store, my job is to open any delivered packages and stock inventory with what we received. At times it can be mundane, but during those times she explains to me how to order the clothes, where to order them, how often to order them, and why she orders the things she does.
Another thing I do at mentorship is run a lot of trips to the UPS store, or post office. Since Amy also runs a website for her boutique, items are constantly needed to be shipped out and delivered to the customers. The first time I went was super embarrassing. Amy gave me a bag of clothes and asked me to put them in the package the post office provides. Well the thing is, the post office has like 10 different packaging options, and I didn't want to call her again since I had already gotten lost on the way there and had to ring her. I ended up going with a cardboard package that didn't seem to have enough room for all the clothes she handed me, but I was going to make it fit one way or another. When I finally finished shoving everything in the package it looked like a 2 year old tried wrapping a present, and didn't succeed so they just put tape everywhere to cover it up. I handed the post lady the package and she just looked at me and said, "You know they have these plastic packaging that is much roomier and easier to to fit what you need to fit in there right?". Yeah, of course I knew. That's why I spent 10 minutes sweating, trying to make everything fit in the package without ripping, and attempting to keeping it semi-presentable.
One of the things I really enjoyed was when she taught me how to read and input invoices. I had previously heard what they were, but I never knew exactly, so it was a true learning experience for me. To be honest, everything during mentorship is a learning experience. At times its nerve-wrecking because I don't quite understand what she wants me to do, and I don't want to ask again or else I'll feel dumb. Then again, that's a part of learning, and once I finally master the task it becomes easier for me to do it the next time.
I also attended a few in-store events which she hosts every couple weeks to interact with customers and get the business more known from any visitors who happen to come by. She offers goody bags, or some snacks and always has cute and crafty ideas for her and her customers to bond over. I can tell she puts a lot of effort into these events, and not only does she enjoy them, but so do the customers; which I have learned is the most important thing in maintaining a business. Below are a few pictures of my mentoring experience. Most of the pictures are of clothes and the store, because like I said before, my job is mostly to
take inventory, dress mannequins, and set the store up.
(I apologize for the weird picture display. I took pictures with a square, vertical, and landscape format, so they're spaced out really awkwardly)
APPLIED
I touched on this in the Interpretive section, but during my 30 extra hours, I realized that aside from all the managing part of the business, customers are what MAKES your business. Everything Amy does is to please her customers. She changes her window displays every so often to make her store visually appealing to customers, and keep them interested. She orders new merchandise 3 to 4 times a week to keep her store constantly changing and keep the variety for her customers. In-store events are to mingle with customers and keep them updated with anything new and upcoming. Without the customers, you merely have a store with clothes and price tags on them. Keeping your customers happy and satisfied is what helps your business grow and reach its full potential. That's not to say there aren't plenty other factors in having your business succeed, but customers are your consumers and if your consumers don't like what you offer then there will be no business.
When the time came around to start planning my answer for my 30 minute presentation I had no idea what to do. After mentoring so much with Amy, I realized every time I went into her store she was always updating something to Instagram for the business. That's when the answer the my essential question hit me. Amy was kind enough to further help me develop my answer, and explain what examples I could use for my presentation. She gave me several examples about how social media helps businesses expand to become bigger than they already are, and why is it easier then anything else she does to promote her boutique.
I can genuinely say one of the reasons I presented so well was because over the last weeks Amy has granted me so much information about managing a business, that I had no knowledge of prior to mentoring with her. These extra 30 hours I completed with her allowed me to develop a better relationship with Amy and I am now a lot more comfortable asking questions about the business, or calling in when she's not expecting me, to ask if she needs any extra help around the store. I'm glad she has agreed to have me interview her for my 3rd interview, especially since I highly value her wisdom of the business industry.
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