This week in our CEO class we started it off with beginning our presentations for the final two days of class in CEO when we present them to the board. It is insane that we are finishing up this year of CEO when it feels as if yesterday we had problems trying to just get a badge made and had no idea the difficulty that laid ahead for us. The badge project was useful for us to get a dry run on getting sponsors and helping us learn how to work with each other.

On Tuesday we met with Brent Emmerich who told us about the importance of companies having a website and explaining to us how these companies can advertise on the Internet and the best ways to do that. I found it really interesting on how google adwords work and that they only charge the advertiser when someone clicks on the ad which I think is an awesome idea. He also talked to us about the price of designing website and I was astounded how much money it was but he explained that people should wait until they can afford for 10% of the revenue from last year invested in. He also said the most effective way to get customers is by being helpful and involved in the community.

On Friday our class met with Greg Bach at Gaslight Vinyl. The company does professional wrappings on cars and basically anything else and he showed us through the process of it. I thought it was really awesome that these guys are already looking to expand and that they can basically wrap anything like their phones or an xbox one. They are in that stage most entrepreneurs know when they are eating ramen noodles every night and working till 12 or 2 in the morning because they need to hustle hard to stay afloat. It was amazing listening to him talk about being in this stage of his business.

05/07/2017

This week in our CEO class we started out by meeting Roger Wigginton, owner of Don Rodgers Clothing. It was quite interesting listening to him talk about the crazy and difficult industry and how to accommodate the customers that shop at his business. He also talked about how much the clothing industry has changed since the advent of online shopping and how he has still achieved a competitive advantage against online shopping. I think it's awesome that this guy is an alderman and gives his time to the community so it can be improved. I agree with him saying the most important part of anything is a strong community.

On Wednesday we met with Josh McDermott and listened to some of the ways he finds himself successful with his business. I thought it was really cool that when he was talking of ways to advertise, he asked us for ways of doing it on social media and how to be most effective and cheap. That was an interesting conversation, as most of the people we meet don't ask for our advice or an opinion on a matter. It felt really awesome that he asked and trusted what we said.

On Thursday we met with Gary Peck who owns a bunch of the McDonalds in the area and I got to give him props for when he is talking about his McDonald's. He was very persuasive about how amazing his McDonalds are... Gary also talked about how important it is for whatever business I would start, I need to have passion about it for my business to be successful.

04/21/2017

This week in CEO our class on Monday met with Padgett Construction. The story of how the business started and failed the first time was quite interesting because it showed us an example of how to run a business, people need the financial side and the people side of things. I also really enjoyed hearing the different ways that someone can buy into a business and the reasons why for each. I would never think that legally someone could have so many problems and have to consider all possibilities before buying into said company.

On Tuesday our class met with Patrick McKeehan and we all practiced our elevator pitch with him and he would tell us what we would do right and what we could improve on. I love doing this elevator pitch type things and even though I was really nervous. This type of thing gets me really excited and I'm happy that our class got to participate in one.

On Wednesday our class met with Kurt Artinger and he also judged our pitch and gave us some business. He talked a bit about our business being customer responsive and how important it is. At the end we listened to his elevator pitch and that blew me away. I could not believe how ready he was to go at any time and was able to hit all the points he told us to focus on.

On Thursday we had our pitch competition and it was quite nerve racking. As we all waited outside the room not knowing who would go next, everyone got extremely nervous. You could look around and tell and I have never had a big problem with public speaking but I still had that feeling anyway. Once I got in there all those feelings and worries that were holding me back disappeared. When it comes down to it, I was ready to look these business professionals in the eye and convince them that my business was one to invest in or hire.  Sadly I got second place but congratulations to Carson for first and Kaitlynn for third. Carson was the only person to type up a page of notes on what to go over and for that little extra work he got first.

04/07/2017

This week in our CEO class we started it out by visiting Lindenwood. While we were there we got a tour of the place that is soon to be the location of our trade show in a few weeks. Then we talked to some of the staff about enrollment at Lindenwood and basic info that is really impressive with their college. We then went down to their newsroom and faked three scenarios where one of the CEO students had to act as the CEO of Uber and spin a bad story good. It was really interesting as it gave us some media training for if the real thing happens and your company ends up in hot water.

I really enjoyed having a banker come in and look at our financials. I felt really good with it and his tips on what to edit and what I can add were extremely useful. There is so much useful knowledge I have gotten from this class and especially went it comes down to having bankers come in and help us with our business plans. It just feels really good knowing how to do all of this and much more.

On Wednesday we turned in our final business plans into Mrs. Siebers and then we did some elevator pitches. I went and really enjoyed it but two minutes felt kind of weird to me as I thought it would be shorter. I am actually really excited about doing the elevator pitch and am ready for the competition. I am a bit confused on if it is just our class competing for the money or something else.

On Thursday our class met with the owners of Sips n Splatters who are David and Chris Brandt. I always thought their idea and business was an interesting idea and I think it is pretty awesome how they started it and how they have dealt with their business taking off. I also liked their interest in digital products and how and why they are such an easy and cheap money maker.

           

03/31/2017

This week in CEO our class on Monday met with the Dunnigans at Trinity Financial Group. I was extremely glad and thankful of the Dunnigans and all the help they did with the chocolate fountain at the Trade show but I never really knew who they were or what they did. Over the last year, I have really pondered if I should start an investment fund in the stock market through one of the investment firms in the area.  I have no idea if I would be taken serious. If I had money they probably would or how I could even trust the people I would be handing thousands of dollars over to. I never got the chance to ask this but I wondered why people would choose Trinity Financial over some place like Fidelity or one of the other investment fund management places out there. If I start a portfolio at Trinity Financial Group, it would be hard to manage my account if I live in California.  I would like to talk to a representative in person, so what makes their group better than places like Fidelity?

On Tuesday we met with Mike Wenzel. He gave us some insight into CPA’s and all that they do. Every time we meet with another accountant I always think what more could I learn from these accountants and every time I leave class knowing useful tips and ways to get the most out of a consulting CPA. These people have given me incredible amounts of information on how to start a business with solid financials, how to do the financials, and basic common sense accounting things that most people would not even take into consider when running a business.  If I had not taken this class then there is no doubt in my mind that I would be utterly lost when I would have started my first business.  It could even be a great idea and worked well but I know I would have still failed.

03/24/2017

This week in the CEO class we started off the week by meeting with Jo-Ann Dimaggio and her reviewing our business plans while everyone else was making self edits and in just catching up on some of the other things we had to do. It is kind of weird that people say your business model might change or pivot at some point and mine did pretty early on with the business changing from in school selling to out of school concessions business.

On Wednesday we met with Philip Hickman of the Associated Bank in Fairview Heights. Our class has met with multiple different banks and bankers but somehow each time our class learns something new. The type of information and common financial sense when it comes to banking is extremely smart and seems like everyone should learn this type of stuff. There should be a required class in the public school curriculum that teaches this type of stuff, not CEO exactly but one where it teaches about keeping track of finances and financial do’s and dont’s. I also never even knew of these like super banks that give loans to banks and what to show a banker when you need a loan for a business. I also enjoyed hearing a bankers perspective on the financial crisis back in 2008 and what caused it and that the banks aren’t the only ones to blame.

On Thursday our class met with Patrick McKeehan and we talked to him about our personal businesses in like an elevator pitch type of way. I found it really interesting and useful on how he described the way in which I could get clients for my business. The way I would do it would be by making sure to give the coaches no headaches, making them completely focus on the game instead of working the concessions strand or have to get parents to volunteer and work it. They also get a cut of the profit for letting me sell there, so instead of working a stand, getting all the products, and staffing it, the coaches can now just get a cut of my revenue and not have to do anything.

03/17/2017

This week in our CEO class we started it off by moving to Artigen Replacement Services and talking to Kurt Artinger, the CEO and owner of the business. It was weird looking at the room where our CEO class would meet for the last quarter. The class has gone by so quick and I have learned so much in this short amount of time. This class was a truly life changing experience and I’m happy that I am now a bit more prepared for when I enter the business world. From basic financial sense to intricate tax laws, I have learned essentials to creating my success in the future.

On Monday we toured our new home base and talked to Kurt Artinger about his business and took a tour of his building. Kurt’s story of his life was awesome and I have noticed a pattern with most of the people we talk to. They work hard their entire life to create the success they now enjoy and that it is not easy at all, that being an entrepreneur and opening a business is a bumpy ride that has no end in sight, some are even for years. The craziest part is that these factors would and do deter most people away from opening their own businesses or even taking risks in everyday life, but the thing is that all these stories telling of hard times and all the work someone has to put in just to easily instead of succeed they end up failing. All of that makes me want to do open a business and try it on my own in the world, I do not know why but those hard times are exactly what I want because from the difficulty comes greatness, some crazy idea that nobody will believe but that I will and only I can create it, that's what I want out of the CEO class, to have that spirit and the class has fanned that fire.

03/10/2017

This week in the CEO class we started off by returning to the Scottish Rites and cleaning up from our event last Tuesday. As we were cleaning up it was weird looking at the place and thinking how much work went into making this event a money maker and it definitely paid off with us making around seven thousand dollars from it.

On Tuesday we had a workday at Precision Practice Management and read over everyone's questionnaires which included questions about the event and what we did to get it going and what money we brought in for it. During the workday we also had to fill out a survey regarding the other students and what they did as well in our eyes. This is what I did not like to do. The main problem is since there are 15 of us, there is no way we could see all that was going on with the event and how much work each person did individually unless you are one of the CEO’s. Also a lot of us in the class did work after school and not during our workdays. Sure we can look at what sponsors, silent auction, and ticket sales someone got for us but I have no idea how many businesses someone hit and how many people came to our event by word of mouth.

On Wednesday we went over the complete financials from our event and talked about the logistics of being a sponsor for the CEO program and yeah, while that would be cool, we still have five thousand something dollars after all of our 250 and I feel like there might be better ways to spend it.

So with the 250 dollar check in hand I have already started by business again and plan to aggressively expand this time. One of the most useful things I have learned from the CEO class is persistence and many of the people we have met with sell some type of product or service and have given great advice on how to make the sale.

02/17/2017

Starting this week in the CEO class was a work day discussing where we would be going on Wednesday. Kelly brought in the decorations for the class business and this reminded me about how every little thing has to be covered for the class business. It takes a lot of time to discuss every little detail and that takes a lot of time. A good amount of this discussion and decision making has been streamlined by our CEO’s. They helped expedite the process by meeting with all the students individually and clarifying what their job was for the class business and what they could accomplish by the time the class business is upon us. While the CEO’s met with people discussing jobs coming up to the final days before the event, the rest of us were discussing how to get tickets sold. Some of us have talked to teachers and some have put posters up all around town but not many tickets have been sold so far. This has been stressing me out that the event will look like a failure if we are not able to get enough people to come and it ends up being a bust. One of the hardest things about being in the CEO program of a new location is that nobody knows about it. Belleville is huge but word barely got around last year and slowly more people are finding out. It will be a struggle to get tickets sold but I hope we are able to get a few hundred people to go to the event.

On Wednesday our class spent an entire day going around and talking to businesses about sponsoring or doing booths. The entire day I went to many food places talking to them about why they should spend the money and what are event and class is. Many of them asked for my phone number and said they would think about it and call me back. The day was definitely hectic but worth it as we did a lot of work and got donations, sponsorships, and booths from places I would never expect to get it from.

01/27/2017

On Wednesday we talked to Jo-Ann Dimaggio-May and a member of the SCORE team. SCORE is a team of nonprofit people who help small business get off the ground, grow, and achieve success. The member of SCORE that was with us that day talked to two of our students, Devin and Jaylen. She first talked to Jaylen about his business and he told us on our next workday which was Friday about what happened. Apparently she was really excited about his whole business idea but completely tore his business plan apart. After that she started getting really excited and wanted to get investors and help supply Jaylen with money for more equipment. While Jaylen was working with the SCORE team member, the rest of the class was working with Jo-Ann Dimaggio-May on the business plan for the CEO class business by editing the document and combing through our different projections for the class business.

On Thursday our CEO class visited The Edge in Belleville and met with the owners. As we walked through the renovated Vespers I was amazed. The place looks amazing and they obviously went all out to make the place a real sports bar. We then went into one of the bistro movie theaters and then had a bit of a lecture and Q&A while eating some delicious bagels. The line that really stuck out to me was where they said “If your business is not growing, then it is dying.” They talked a lot about what their growth for the future is and these two people have really thought out and planned the future of the Edge. They also realize how prevalent in society technology is and show this off in their sports bar. The one other thing I noticed was that they constantly mentioned the hurdles and hassles of having to deal with all the government regulations of starting and maintaining a business and definitely brought up the expenses of taxes.

01/20/2017

Our class started off this week in CEO by having a work day and discussing the problems we are encountering as we near the day of the class business. Everyone has been a bit stressed since we lack people and booths for the event and those are probably the two most important factors for the event to actually work out.

We met with Renae Eichholz this week and I find it really interesting that she is a founder and co-owner of this huge company and she does not even have a college degree. She started by going to secretarial school which I had no idea was a thing and then after that worked in a doctor's office for a few years. It is really interesting that she saw what could be done and she did it. Imagine taking out a loan with two kids at the house and no savings, that is some real dedication for a business idea. She talked about how she had to really work to get the business off the ground and how she never regretted letting other people partner and becoming involved in the company.

We met with Mayor Eckert on Wednesday and talked to him about the challenges of Belleville, what he is doing to make sure Belleville thrives, and what his daily life as mayor is like. Mayor Eckert started off by describing why he is mayor and how he saw public office. He said “I do not like being called a politician, I am a public servant, I serve the people.” That was great to hear and I have always thought of running for office and if I ever do Mayor Eckert is the type of mindset I want to have if I would win. I thought it was also awesome that it seems like his kids kind of have that same thought process as I believe one of his kids is in the Middle East as a trauma surgeon for the Army. It was also interesting to learn about the future plans of Belleville and it is good to know it is in safe hands.

01/13/2017

This week in CEO was a short one but all three days were jam packed with a tour of our new location, meeting some of the old CEO students, and making our business plan with Jo-Ann Dimaggio. Getting a tour of the new CEO location was really interesting. It seems like most places we visit look really small on the outside but once we get inside there the building feels huge and seems to have many twist and turns to it. I think it's really awesome that Renae, the owner of Precision Practice Management, started by working as a secretary at a doctor's office and then left to start a business that has grown into one of the biggest in the industry. I also noticed that there were barely any men there but apparently most men don’t apply for jobs there and that seemed a bit weird.

On the second day back we got to hear from some of the students of last year and what advice they wanted to give us. They gave input on our class business and talked about their struggles of doing their class business as well. Ticket sales seem to be a big thing to them and emphasized that we got to get out there and sell some tickets. They also gave some input on our personal business ideas and what to do and what not to do.

The third day Jo-Ann Dimaggio came to our class and we got to work on the business plan. Jaylen had been heading this up and had done a good job but Jo-Ann Dimaggio stopped by to polish it up.  When someone starts a business,  it's easy to forget all the work that goes into starting it. One part of that is the business plan. I forgot how detailed someone needs to be with this plan and all the work put into it but it really is beneficial for keeping that person and their business in the track.

01/06/2017

As the first semester of CEO came and went I have learned many things from basic financial advice to how use a credit card. These ideas may seem like basic knowledge to most adults but to us kids currently becoming adults in this world it is very easy to make a mistake and end up with mountains of debt and a low credit score. These mistakes will follow you for years and have to learn the lesson the hard way. I will never have these worries because I have learned more useful in helpful info in my CEO class then I have in past classes at school.

This class can be stressful for the CEO students since we have to create a class business and pull it off without failing. We can’t fail because we have put our names on it and this would show that the CEO business class can’t succeed in Belleville and I want students years after I left the class to have the opportunity to be in this once in a lifetime experience. To relax and work on ways to get rid off our stress, the CEO class visited the King's House in Belleville with Geri Boyer to learn ways to meditate and relieve some of the stress in our life. I have never been one to get stressed out, most things do not determine how our life turns out. I have noticed that big monumental changes seem to happen in the ways we least expect it. College and my future do not stress me out since it does not determine exactly what  happens to us. I just make the most of everything and try not to stress out too much over something. The only thing that worries me right now is if we will be able to get enough booths.

12/16/2016

The start of our week in the CEO class was listening fro John Perles from Midland Institute talk to us about the how business operates and some of his sales tips. John  Perles only talked about it for a little bit but for the few minutes he talked about how to sell a product or service to someone really struck home with me. Last year I sold candy and other items in school and his advice would have really helped me. John said “make people believe what you believe” and it really does work. I still have some of my old inventory from last year and decided to give this business sales tip a try. I sold out all of my items that day by the end of 4th hour and made about 30 dollars of profit and 50 dollars in all. I did not expect that technique to work so well or maybe I just got lucky that day but it was probably a little bit of both.

The class business has been successful so far in getting sponsors but looking how many sponsors we want for each tier and the booths that we want is gonna be difficult to get. The booths are my main concern right now since we only have one booth and a significant amount of our time in the Around the Fountain Conference is dedicated to networking and talking to the booths. I also think it would be easier for businesses to just sponsor or donate something then get a booth. Since they only have to write a check for a sponsorship but actually come in and set up for a booth, most people will just write a check and be happy with that. I also do not know what type of businesses we should be targeting to get booths. I guess really any business and especially food but if I was a business owner I might just go with the sponsorship since it is easier to do and requires less effort on my end for me and my employees.

           

12/09/2016

One of the first things we heard about in CEO this week was that using credit cards are good as long as you learn how to responsibly use them and not overspend. I never have understood the point of a credit card. Why would I use a credit card when I can easily use my own debit card and never have to worry about overspending. The Bank of Edwardsville have some great pointers on why everyone should have a credit card from establishing credit for when you have to take out a loan to keeping a good credit report. I have spent the last 13 years of my life in school and for all those years I’ve never once known what a credit report is but from the commercials it has something to do with credit cards. I would never known without talking to an expert that you should only spend up to 50% of your maximum on your credit cards because that's the best way to establish great consistent credit. I do have my parents and especially my dad who has a background in finance so my parents would probably tell me all this info but if I didn't have them I would be clueless on these matters and probably make a stupid mistake which would cost me. These are the things that we learn in CEO that make me glad to be in the class. Learning just about credit reports made me remember that this class is different than any other class I will ever take in my life. I’ve always had in interest in business and considered going into the field in college but once I got into the CEO program I knew this is what I wanted to do. I know I will never be an accountant but I still find every talk with accounts interesting. I’ll never be in construction but meeting with Holland construction still peaked my interest and had me engaged the whole time.This program from day one has a spectacular class and essential to my success in the future. This class has taught me things I would have never known and has educated me on some of the business traps to not fall for and the ways the people we meet with have succeeded in this world.

11/04/2016

Our class kicked off the 10th week of CEO with us visiting Rauckman Utilities. I’ve noticed that a majority of the people we have visited have risked a lot when they attempt to kickstart their businesses usually putting everything on the line and also having kids at the house. I respect that these people have such strong confidence in their business and that they will do anything to get there. The thing that I really took away from Jim and Shirley Rauckman was their emphasis on branding. Jim talked about how branding can easily make or break a business and that nothing is more important than a good reputation. He also stressed that having a catchy or clever name for a business will ultimately make your business stand out compared to your competitors.

On Wednesday we met with Neil Eilers who owns an online store and is the art teacher at Belleville East High School. I thought that it was really interesting that Mr. Eilers had been drawing on shoes with sharpies and markers when he was a kid and he turned that art hobby into a fully fledged business. The shoes are now made with some sorta press thing and they look really nice. I would describe in detail further how he makes the shoes but that whole process went over my head since I don’t know much about art. After looking at his website I’ve considered buying a pair of shoes because they look so amazing...

10/28/2016

This week in CEO our class started off with us moving to the our new location at Barcom Security. Moving to this new location felt like it was the true start of CEO. We had spent the last 2 months figuring out how the class works, getting to know each other, and starting to form business ideas. Now it was time for our class to run a business and I’m happy to say that we have got off to a good start. I never really realized all the planning that goes into just running one event. The discussion of what to do and all the small details that need to line up for it to work is a long and sometimes drawn out one. It will be a hard and long road to our class business but I truly believe that there is no better class of students that could pull this off other than us.

Our class met with Charles Fike on Tuesday and that was a very interesting presentation. I really took to heart him explaining the type of customers he has. He says the only way his business is passed around is by word of mouth and it guarantees that if he gets a new customer they have a similar reputation to the customer that referred them. It is impressive that he can have such a good reputation with his customers and that he doesn’t even have to advertise because his service speaks for itself. Another important thing I took away from his talk was him emphasizing on making good connections with your customers and to some extent having a personal relationship with them.  He also made sure to point out that in the business world you have to be outgoing and an introvert to be able to succeed.

On Wednesday we met with Hamilton Callison of Wirtz Beverage. He seemed to be more focus on the numbers side of business and even though I am not a big fan of spreadsheets I believe it is essential to any business to keep good records. He explained to us why we need to be careful when you sell a product to make sure who you are selling it to and if this market is a sustainable one to be selling your product in. I never thought about why someone wouldn’t supply a product to a big box chain but after listening to Mr. Callison I can see why. It is interesting to realize that if you sell to every business you could find your market dry up very quickly.

10/21/2016

Our class met with Brian Mentzer this week and the way he operates his businesses is very interesting and impressive and one example of this is that he does business with Amish craftsmen. Brian Mentzer has many different businesses running from barges on the Mississippi to a car wash in west Belleville. The barges grabbed my attention mainly because Brian Mentzer was in a 250 pool with these other barges and I thought that was really interesting since it reminded of businesses back in like the 1700s when they would all own a share of a fleet of trading ships. The barges also were interesting because he told us they were his kids college fund and that's pretty cool having his kids college fund be intertwined with a business.

On Wednesday we met with the people who operate the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce. These amazing people handle hundreds of clients ranging from Freeburg to St Louis and plan several events a month without even breaking a sweat. The Chambers main goal is to promote commerce in Belleville and they told us about one way they do this and it's a brilliant idea. Every year they get 200 new airmen from Scott Air force base and all buy them free food from Fischers. It may sound like a waste of money but in the process they get these new airmen from Scott to see part of Belleville and more likely than not they would come back to Belleville and buy stuff. The Chamber also runs all the big events at the square and I think everyone can agree that those are successes every year without fail. At some point I think our class should meet the group of people that made downtown nice again because it would be interesting to hear from those people and find out how they actually did it.

On Thursday we met with the people at Peer 151 and I thought Kurt Artinger is a real entrepreneur. We visited his business Peer 151 and this place was quite amazing, The whole concept is quite interesting business response to more people working from home. These coworking places are a good idea and if I ever work from home I might use one of those businesses.I thought it was a really good idea to have experts come in like an account and lawyer

10/14/2016

CEO did not seem to have a central theme this week. Instead it felt like there was a different mini lesson for each day. On Monday we went to Trepstart day in St. Louis and these kids who were younger than me had these crazy successful businesses and followed their entrepreneurial dream. What stuck out at the convention were how the kids would just walk around and talk to anybody. They had great people skills and communication is important with any business. I never really thought of communication being a big key component in being an entrepreneur but now that I think about it, I realize that communication is essential to any entrepreneur.

On Tuesday we met with Mrs. DiMaggio and she explained to us what a business plan was and why it was extremely useful to create and make one. What scared me about this was that we would be presenting to bankers a business plan and I have no idea how to write one. Mrs. DiMaggio helped in explaining a lot of what a business plan is and it seems like a smart idea to have one. It would mainly help with keeping a business on track and seeing if changes need to be made to your original plan...

10/07/2016

This week seemed to be more focused around the class business. We first started the process of voting our leaders for the class business and I liked the argument Tim and Stephen made about the two heads. From the past few weeks I have seen that especially in the business world it’s better for more than one head making all the decisions.  …I was still really impressed with the ideas our small group of sixteen kids can think up.

Even though I think our class is making the right decisions Geri Boyer poked holes in our plan for about the 30 minutes we talked to her about the class business.  This really helped us out and it shows that a fresh pair of eyes can always help look over a business plan and show errors that nobody before noticed.

The mentoring program was really interesting because we got to learn about what these people do and how they ended up succeeding in life. I thought it was great that everyone including myself asked their opinion about what we should do for the class business. I was really liked because it just showed that everyone was business first and concerned about the best way we can put on our class business. All the ideas we got from these potential mentors were phenomenal and many of them we will probably implement at our business. I can see the usefulness for a mentor especially once we start our personal businesses because then they will definitely come in handy as a useful source of knowledge and what direction our business should head in.

09/30/2016

Being part of and helping the community is what I took away as being a must for any successful business. As we walked and talked with the kids at Union school I saw business owners who were there talking with the kids and I realized that this was an amazing way to give back to the community. These business leaders helped these kids get a good role model and their parents also hear all about these business leaders and now are probably more inclined to buy that businesses product or service. It is hard to fathom that Union school in every way has the odds put against its students but time and time again performs at the top level. When Brian Mentzer told us that the teachers are at school about an hour early and stay about an hour late it showed me another example of that hard work ethic. These teachers probably aren’t getting paid for those extra hours but they come anyway and work hard to see their students succeed. I admire anybody with a hard work ethic and Union school kids a place that works hard and benefits our community in so many ways. Talking about the class business this week showed the difficulty of choosing an idea that could make us money. It is already hard enough to come up with these ideas yet when we do have ideas we constantly disagree on if that's what we should do and how we should execute this idea. I never realized how many varying opinions there would be on each tiny little topic and it is really easy to get loss in the discussion and not actually make any progress on the class business. The most difficult part of the project is working together and somehow being able to put all these opinions into an idea that works for everyone and also actually makes money. I can see now why having a CEO for the class business is in heading the discussion and keeping everyone on track.

09/23/2016

The theme that I noticed in CEO this week was teamwork. We CEO students have to work together to accomplish everything and an example of this was when Tim handed out thank you cards and everyone had to take one. This mundane action spoke volumes to me because no one complained and everyone gladly started deciding who they would write a thank you note to. I believe as our class visits businesses, we see that teamwork is an essential part of any business and we use that idea in operating the CEO class. It’s not always easy working together easily and the badge project is an example of this. We discussed the details and made decisions on how to fund it and started to work together to bring the money in. The class really came together when we found out that we only had about a week to get the sponsors before we had to have the badges so everyone kicked it into high gear and set out to get the funds. It was really cool seeing in the group chat about who to ask and how to get the sponsor. I loved seeing everyone come together as a team and help people get prepared for their meeting with potential sponsors. I really took to heart what MIke Marchal said at Holland construction regarding people working together. “It's amazing what can be accomplished when no one wants to take the credit.” This quote really stuck with me because he’s completely right. When we are working at Allsup on the badge project or the class business no one is trying to undercut each other or shove someone out of the discussion. We work together as a class and in that way we accomplish more than any other group of random teenagers thrown together who don’t know each other and really anything about the business world. A badge project isn’t that hard to accomplish or manage but I believe if our CEO class didn’t work as a team we wouldn’t even be able to function much less make a badge.

09/16/2016

Hard work and being able to adapt are the ideas I took away from the guest speakers the CEO class visited. When we visited Empire Comfort Systems the top executives explained to us how they have to constantly change what they are selling and the design of their products.They talked about how it's a constant challenge to adapt to the market and how products become out of date very quickly. Some examples they gave were wood heaters, the box heaters that stuck out of a house's wall, or floor heaters. Always having to come up with new ideas and constantly adapting their products just to stay as a competitor in their market corner sounds difficult and that it takes a lot of hard work.

The second idea that really stuck with me this week during CEO was hard work. When our class visited the law firm Greensfelder the lawyers talked a lot about all the work that it takes to just become a lawyer. 3 extra years in college and the field is very competitive once a student graduates. The payoff sounds extremely well but the lawyers repeatedly told us that being a lawyer is a mountain of work. They said sometimes they'll be up at 4:30 in the morning doing work or up till midnight working on a case.They also described the different types of lawyers and different practices and the pros and cons of all of them. I’ve always in the back of my mind had the idea of being a lawyer and them talking about the profession just makes me more confused on deciding if I should pursue law after college. At Greenfelder they also talked about how lawyers constantly have to change and adapt because laws are constantly getting passed by our state and federal government and that the introduction of the internet has really changed the legal world significantly.

09/09/2016

Some people never think how much work goes into designing the new library at school or the new office building they work in. The amount of chairs alone that people can choose to sit in is astonishing. Day to day basic office supplies and furniture is what Egyptian Stationary does. They are a unique business because even though the giants like Staples are putting smaller office supplies businesses out of business, Egyptian Stationary has been able to adapt and provide a better service then the giants can. Being able to adapt seems to be an important skill to have when running a business.

Many of the guest speakers talked about how they did things differently and how they made sure to be more attractive to the consumer than their competitors were. I’ve noticed in all the speakers we have heard from there seemed to be one reason why their business was extremely successful. It was either because their business did something different than anybody else and provided and unique service or product or it was because they ran their business the best way it could be run, making sure that all of their competitors looked worse then them.

One guest speaker in particular, Ed Hoering, gave some sound advice on what to do to help anybody on the path to success in the business world. He told us to make sure to take an accounting class at some point during our education. His reason behind this was that you have to know how to fill out business forms, tax forms and how to make a business plan. To run a successful business, you need to be a well rounded individual who knows the basics of a business plan to being able to get the product or service out to the consumer, you need to know how to adapt to any change in the market, and you need to make sure to run your business as efficient as possible.

09/02/2016

Be Bold. Those are the two words that stuck with me from this last week out of any other saying or rule from our guest speakers. As I thought of those two words I remembered what my old math teacher used to say, no guts, no glory. He was right because from all the guest speakers I heard this week, they all had a moment where they talked about risking it all, sometimes doing this several times and that would be the moment where  their success began. I’ve always thought that there must be people out there who risked it all and now have nothing because not everyone can be a success so I think it would be interesting to hear from someone who experienced failure and never came back but I don’t think they would be to keen on talking about what happened.  The major thing I learned this week was that you gotta risk it for the biscuit especially if you have the entrepreneurial mindset.

One important detail to being an entrepreneur was that failure is inevitable. Mr. Lowery especially knew about this and even gave us some good tips on how to take failure as a good thing. He said out of 100 good leads 10 will eventually become clients. This means that a salesman or saleswoman have to go through a lot of denial and failure to get to the Golden Goose. Sucess doesn’t easily come to most, it seems like we have to struggle first, accept failure for what it is and use it as a tool to help us succeed next time for when we put it all on the line or decide to go into business with a partner.

08/26/2016