The Entrepreneur’s Reflection

Featured Image: “Millenium bridge across the Liffey” by binarydreams is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Skills Showcased

This piece is showcasing my critical thinking skills. It shows use the things I’ve learned from my business major to reflect on myself. The piece also showcases my knowledge of business. 

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I want to become an entrepreneur and writer. I want to one day start my own restaurant and other businesses around the world. Additionally, I want to write and translate books that people have never read before. The course also gives me credit for my major. Thus, it made sane to why I would take this class. It would be easy with nothing I haven’t heard before, but I was wrong. I learned a lot during my term. It made me reflect on myself and what I want out of life and my career. Parts of the course that did this the most were International Business, Project Management, Marketing, and the trip to Turner. These experiences changed the way I look at the business. I’ve learned a lot from these sessions and reflected on them, Thus, I want to share them with you. I came to Agnes Scott College wanting Student Design Major in International Business. I was very interested in how business relates to the global world. I was not able to, so I became a Business Management and Creative Writing. However, I’m still captivated by International Business.

I like International Business because I one day was to travel around the world and do business. Thus, I learned a lot from the class. There were two things that I learned from International Business. It was how culture affects business and how different governments affect business. Culture is a system of values and norms shared by a group of people. Culture is vital to learn. As people around the world don’t go by the same rule as you do because of that you have to learn concepts of culture. Folkway is one of those concepts. Folkways are ways of people. Individualism and collectivism are those ways. The U.S is individualism meaning they value the individual while Japan which is collectivism values the group. Social Mobility is the movement of the social ladder. Social levels can affect communication, thus making it hard or easy to move up or down the social ladder. Non-verbal communication is communication that doesn’t come with speaking. It can be different for different countries. Power Distance Index is the level of challenging authority. Masculinity is trait that can be seen as male and female. Uncertainty Avoidance Index is the level of taking a risk. Long term Orientation is when you are focused on the future. Time is the value of a fixed schedule. Don’t apply your culture to another culture. Tariffs are taxes levied on imports. Tariffs are placed to protect domestic production from foreign competition by raising the price of imported goods. Tariffs are also used to raise revenue for governments- until the income tax was imposed. Subsidies are government payments to domestic producers. It’s sometimes used a way to protect a new industry or industry. An import quota is a direct restriction on the quantity of some good that may be imported into a country. International Business has always been an interest of mine. I wanted to do more with it, but it did not know-how. The session really opened my eyes to International Business and opened my eyes to the countless possibles that I have in my hand. International Business is broad meaning I can go in different directions, What direction can I go in with International Business? One of them is project management. Project Management was a session that I knew nothing about. I didn’t even know what project management was. However, I learned quickly what it was and I became interested. A project is a temporary undertaking. Projects have a beginning and an end. It has a unique purpose. Projects are not done for just anything. Thus, having a specific goal. Resources are used to do the project. Activities and Schedules are coordinated and managed. Lastly, the project has risks. Good project managers talk to the employees about the goals of the project before doing the work as people come in with different goals. They help their employees is the scope of the project. The scope is the goal/ what needs to accomplish. The schedule gives the idea of what timeframe the project needs to complete. Although, it should be taken into account what the cost is for the project.

They are integrated in the triple constraint and is a fundamental principle. After the project management session, I became interested in becoming a project manager in the future. This was also the same as Marketing. I’ve been interested in Marketing for a while. Marketing has always been a creative field of business for me, so I’ve thought about going into it. Although, I did still learned a lot from this session. Marketing is to create and sell a product that people want. Five C’s is one-way Marketing to people. Five C’s are Company, Collaborators, Customers, Competitors, and Context. The four P’s are also another way. Four P’s are Price, Product, Place, and Promotion. Price is important. It’s a combination of Pricing objectives, Competition, Geographic Pricing Terms, Discounts and Allowances, Price over the life cycle, and Price Flexibility. Your target audience is determined by your Product, Place, Promotion, and Price. Economic Needs, Psychological Variables, Social Influence help people make decisions. Purchase Situations can also affect the process. As Marketers, you try to appeal to the broadest audience. There is no right answer. Buyer’s journey is the path of the buyer, It starts with Discovery. Discovery is loosening of status and committing the change. Then, it’s a consideration. Consideration is exploring possible solutions and committing to the solution. Lastly, it’s the Decision, justifying it and making the selection. Segmentation is the process of splitting people into groups. To do this you can use targeting. Targeting is focusing on a segment. Positioning is another. Positioning is differentiating yourself from the competition. The power of emotion is essential to marketing as it is thought that people can’t make decisions fast without emotions. Marketing is a combination of creativity, business, and psychology. Three things that I love and want to understand more. I’m hoping to use this in career. Possibly, for my career at Turner. Monday, August 20, the class went to Turner. At first, we did a tour. The tour was interesting as it showed me that there are more people that are running a show. It’s just a group, but a team of people from different departments, After the tour, we had a meeting with Stacey Rivers. She talked to us about Turner and corporate culture in general. Stacey Rivers taught the class B.R.A.V.E. B.R.A.V.E means be ready for various experiences. She also taught us P.I.E. P.I.E means Performance, Image, Exposure. Performance is understanding the business, develop your skills, be open to change-understand how the business will change, and know your role. Image is dressing appropriately, speak clearly, project a positive attitude, be mindful of your activities on social media-have private and professional pages, and dress for the job you want no the job you have. Exposure is raise your hand for assignment-do extra jobs you like and sometimes do jobs you don’t like, volunteer to broaden your reach-job club group and non-job club groups, eat lunch with someone new, and always use discretion-be cautious. I took those things away from the business, but also took a few big things away from the meeting such as have mentors, Face your fears, and create your own brand. Big and small things are important in business. These are things that never thought about. These are the things that I need if I want to be in the business and be successful. Overall, I feel a lot more confident about my place in the workforce.

My dream when I dream when graduate from Agnes Scott College is a jumping-off point for starting my own business. The business will start off as a small business and become other small businesses that will spend around the world. These businesses will eventually be encompassed in a corporation. Therefore, I have chosen the path of a double major in Business Management and English Literature-Creative Writing. These long-term goals are the reasons why I saw Bridge to Business as a great opportunity. Bridge the Business gave me three whole weeks to look at different fields of business. Fields that I like the most was International Business, Project Management, and Marketing. International Business is the field that hopes my career goes into one day. To do this I have to understand the culture, free trade, and foreign trade which I did learn during the session. Project Management is a field that I knew little about. Project Management is the managing of projects. I like projects; creating and running. Thus, the field seemed perfect for me as it is somewhat similar to being an entrepreneur. Marketing was a field that was already interested as it is a combination of psychology and business. The program also helped me network and educate me by professors who have been in the field for years. I met employees at Turner that taught me about the workforce. They gave me an educational perspective on how business works first hand. This program put me in a whole new environment at Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech was a new environment with new concepts that I helped me learn and explore. Overall this program, helped me develop my skills to become the best entrepreneur that I can in the future.