Progress

Thus far I have made significant progress on my senior project.  I have began looking at sample business proposals to see how I will begin my own.  I have also been continuing with my own car washing business and it has continued to be better than a minimum wage job.  I have also been speaking to my mentor on where to go from here.  Do I want to expand?  Do I want to hire another employee? Increase prices?  Decrease?
I also began to do a monthly advertising.  Basically I go around the community handing out flyers, I give them to my customers as they leave and I set them up at other non-competing businesses.

Reflection

Adolfo Nieto showed us that we did not have to conform to the norm; he showed us that with dedication a dream could become reality.

Looking back on my progress of this semester, I realized that I could do more than I thought.  Thanks to my senior project I realized that I could do so much more for my self than I ever thought.  Through my research I began to answer my own question and asking more, deepening my research.  I now have a very valuable skill: research.  Instead of always looking for someone to answer my questions, I learned that I could do so on my own.  Also, I never saw myself as someone who was interested in helping others out.  However, my project says other wise.  In fact, the whole point of my project is to get young people to realize that they can do better for themselves than the status quo.  The feeling I have been getting this year knowing what I am doing is indescribable.  It has made me realize that my interests are not so much making money and improving myself as they are helping others out.  This has been the most valuable part of Senior Seminar and my Senior Project—realizing that I am not a selfish person and do, in fact, care about others and helping them improve.

New Light

As I am making progress on my project, several things have come to mind.  I have always classified people in two groups: those who want to help others and make a difference and those who want to make money and get rich.  I have always put myself down with the latter.  Even my project, entrepreneurship, confirms this.  However, as I think about it more in depth, I realize that I am actually helping others and helping them make a difference in their own lives.  This has been an eye opening experience for me and an enjoyable one too.  This project has made me realize that I would like to be involved more in helping others better themselves.  After working on my project for a while, I now classify myself as one of those who wants to help others and make a difference.

Shaffi Mather

This a video of Shaffi Mather, an entrepreneur.  He was inspired and determined to bring emergency care to his country, ambulances in particular.  I admire the idea of being an entrepreneur and doing a good deed simultaneously.  Opening a car wash is not doing much good to a society.  However, I see it as my gateway to gaining the experience I will need in the future.  It will help facilitate the process for me if I ever wanted to someday open a business that is good for society.  That is, solves, helps solve, or prevents a particular problem in a society.  In doing this project I hope to find an idea of some sort that will help me help society in the near future.

Entrepreneurship Project

For a long period of time, youth has had to settle for minimum-wage jobs. Our intelligence is usually undermined and people tend to think we are not cable of more complex jobs that would earn us more money.

I would like to show adults that they are wrong about our aptitude and that we are very capable of doing more. More importantly, I want the youth to realize that we are capable of doing more than what we have been suppressed to do. I plan on researching how to become a successful entrepreneur, how to get noticed, how to advertise the service provided and how to calculate profit and loss.

I have experience as an entrepreneur. Having worked at a minimum wage job I noticed that I was not making much money for the time I was putting in at work. I thought of several ways to increase my income: mowing grass, landscaping, or even a second job. Finally, I thought carwash. I began my business on May 27 the day right after school was out. In preparation, I had to contact the city for a list of requirements and I had to acquire all my supplies (soaps, armor all, sponges, ladders, etc.). Luckily, my sister owns her own business and she has her own lot. She let me use part of it for my business at no cost. Having some experience, I feel that I will be able to give young people a more realistic view of this and show them that though it is not easy; it is possible.

To accomplish my goals, I will write a business plan. I have acquired a sample business proposal from a company that helps people write business plan. The sample will serve as a starting point for my business. I also have my mentor, a current graduate student at Rice University, who will also be helping me with my business proposal.

Once completed, my business plan and how much of it I have fulfilled will be what my project success will be based on.

Let's Do it Big

Now that I know what I am doing, I want to do it big. One aspect of my project will be writing a formal business proposal and proposals to other businesses asking to be sponsored. The other aspect of my project will deal with marketing. I want my business to expand and become popular. I have tried fliers already, and with my line of services (Car Detailing) they were not the greatest, though they did work. My objective, planned to be achieved by advertising, is to create a greater clientele of two kind: regulars and "drop ins". To create and establish a successful clientele of regulars I must first lure the clients in and then provide services of satisfaction. I have made fliers for this purpose and have some clients that come regularly; however, the fliers weren't very effective in bringing in much clients. To increase "drop ins" I will have to 1) have the business in presentable condition and 2) have signs visible to traffic. I have several signs and they have increased the number clients however my signs do not look very professional and that is what decreases possible customer to some extent.

Basically, my goals to bringing in more business are 1) more professional signs to bring in customers and 2) other, greater methods of promoting my business beyond the people passing by.

I Need a Compass

I have finally decided for certain that I will do my project on entrepreneurship. Accomplishing that alone was like walking with a chain and ball. Now that I know what I want to do it should be easier to get through my project; however, that is not the case. I know what I want to do but I have no sense of how I am going to get to my destination. I want this project to give hope and make people dream big. I know it's hard to run a successful business, but I am ready for the challenge. I have already started car wash this past summer. Though it wasn't the greatest success or as I wanted, it was and still is a source of greater income than working at a minimum wage job. The reasons for the lack of great success was 1) lack of experience, 2) lack of planning and preparation, and 3) self doubt. Now that I have some experience I want to go for a second round, a more polished round. I am in search of someone with business experience that is willing to give me guidance.