Lesson 11 Franchising

I am working on my $ 100.00 challenge. I continue to place the ads on the OLX site to sell second hand articles. This week I made two sales.

L12 Activity 05 Acton Hero Erick Slaubaugh

When he was 19 years old, Erick Slabaugh did wanted to go to college but joined his father's business in a time of need after losing a major client.

Erick Slabaugh is the second generation of entrepreneurs in the family, as he said: “Entrepreneurship can be an adventure, but it also carries with it responsibility.”

At the beginning of his business, Erick had to work weekdays and weekends, and the profit from his work did not pay off as much as what his friends made and still had time to enjoy the weekend. But as he said, today the situation has reversed itself. There were times when he did not find himself a lucky one, especially when his friends had fun and he had to work.

He mentionated that:  to start a business, it takes courage. When he was a young entrepreneur, he did not asked questions so he would not frown on his salespeople, but he said that the older he is, the more mentors he has, and he recognizes how much would have been wise if he had recognized value of mentorship when he was young.

The steps for a “Succession planning”

The steps outlined below provide a roadmap for larger organizations interested in developing succession plans. Different organizations will implement these activities differently. While there is no right or wrong way to develop a succession plan, the following provides important components that need to be considered.

Step 1

Identify key positions for your organization. These include the executive director, senior management and other staff members who would, for their specialized skills or level of experience, be hard to replace. Ask yourself which positions would need to be filled almost immediately to ensure your organization continues to function effectively.

Step 2

Review and list your current and emerging needs. This will involve examining your strategic and operational plans to clearly articulate priorities.

Step 3

Prepare a chart that identifies the key positions and individuals in the organization. The positions might include those listed in step 1 and/or others that are pertinent to your organization, such as volunteers.

Step 4

Identify and list the gaps by asking questions such as:

·         Which individuals are slated to or likely to leave (through retirement, project completion, etc.) and when?

·         Which new positions will be required to support the strategic plan?

·         Which positions have become or will become obsolete (for example, those related to a program that has been terminated)?

·         What skills and knowledge will need to be developed (for example, to support a new program)?

Step 5

Evaluate/assess all staff members with the goal of identifying those who have the skills and knowledge or the potential along with the desire to be promoted to existing and new positions.

·         The evaluation can be formal or informal and can include, but is not limited to, performance reviews, 360 degree assessments and informal conversations with the individuals under consideration.

·         The executive director may be aware that an employee has aspirations to and the capacity to move up. This may be an opportunity to recognize this goal and support it.

·         Take this opportunity to give younger workers a chance. Many young people enthusiastically enter the sector and then, finding few opportunities for advancement, leave. Younger workers can remain engaged if you help to match their interests to opportunities provided through effective succession planning.”

(http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/planning-succession.cfm)

Lesson 10 production, operation and location

I am still working on my $ 100.00 challenge. I continue to place the ads on the OLX site to sell second hand articles. This week I made one sale.

Google co-founder Larry Page provides several tips for entrepreneurs. (Mai 1, 2002)

 Tip 1: Just don't settle.  Especially with employees, it is very important to find great people you are compatible with.

Tip 2: There is a benefit from being real experts.  Experience pays off.

 Tip 3: Have a healthy disregard for the impossible.  Stretch your goals.

Tip 4: It is OK to solve a hard problem. Solving hard problems is where you will get the biggest leverage.

Tip 5: Don't pay attention to the VC bandwagon. Don't start a company just because you can.  Instead, have a really good idea that is good regardless of the funding situation.

Acton Hero - Catherine Rohr

Catherine Rohr is a woman who has never rejected a challenge. She likes to turn a no into a yes. She found that has great persuasive power and can use its persuasive skills to influence society for good than to use them for her own agenda.

This woman went from being a successful Wall Street financial analyst to “the founder and CEO of Prison Entrepreneurship Program, a program that connects senior business executives with inmates to connect them with values-based entrepreneurial training enabling them to productively re-enter society”.

Catherine had no idea that her real journey would begin in a visit to a prison. After this visit Catherine felt that God had shown him something else, she had seen something unexpected in these men and in the process she discovered something within herself, too. She said she:"I saw a tremendous opportunity in these men to leverage their strength, to build them up to be leaders in their community." 

lesson 9 - Finding Great People

I am continuing working in my $100.00 challenge. I am still working on my $ 100.00 challenge. I continue to place the ads on the OLX site to sell the second hand articles. This week I made two more sales.

  From the speech “Journey to Higher ground” by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin the quotes that stood out this week were:

“But those who journey to higher ground and keep the commandments of God “are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.”^…” Those who journey to higher ground love the Lord with all their hearts. We see in their lives manifestations of that love. They seek their God in prayer and plead for His Holy Spirit. They humble themselves and open their hearts to the teachings of the prophets. They magnify their callings and seek to serve rather than be served. They stand as witnesses of God. They obey His commandments and grow strong in their testimony of the truth.

They also love Heavenly Father’s children, and their lives manifest that love. They care for their brothers and sisters. They nurture, serve, and sustain their spouses and children. In the spirit of love and kindness, they build up those around them. They give freely of their substance to others. They mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort.

This journey to higher ground is the pathway of discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a journey that will ultimately lead us to exaltation with our families in the presence of the Father and the Son. Consequently, our journey to higher ground must include the house of the Lord. As we come unto Christ and journey to higher ground, we will desire to spend more time in His temples, because the temples represent higher ground, sacred ground.”

From the Acton Hero about  Matt Stewart, Stewart diverged from a career in the legal profession. He started over 13 companies, 52 corporations, and 6 different industries all the country of United States. He sold business, had successes and failures along the way but the ones he failed were the one he tried to make money on it and the ones he succeeded, that have generated revenue for him were successful because they were focus on their mission.

It was when he lost his job while in college that he started his painting company. He started hiring paintings, managing paintings, selling to customers, and was in that time that he learned integrity, where he learned his value system changing his life.

One think that he pointed was a employee that was killed on the job, e apesar da luta interna, ele tirou do incidente uma lição e aproveitou para fazer melhorias na industria em que estavam inseridos.

His mission is to be the greatest professional learning experience that any of his team members ever have in their entire life. As he said “Entrepreneur is it a great way to leverage who you are, or who I am and turn it to something that other people can latch on to. To drive my personal values into my business values, into my employees. That is the power of entrepreneurship, and that it what caries to our success”.

Lesson 8

I keep working on my $ 100 project "Fabulous Exchanges". I have continued to promote my products on OLX website and have managed to sell a few.

So far I could already sell 5 items.

One thing that stood out for me was the Leadership Style Survey, in my survey I wrote:

 One of the principles that most characterizes me is being a good listener. Even in leadership positions I like to listen to all stakeholders, reflect and then, and among all make the best decision. However, in my circle of action, the culture is very important and it pains me to see someone who does not fit in the culture, even after being taught again and again. For me it is important the union team which I belong, because that makes us strong, communication becomes better and the projects progress more smoothly.

I think that although we have a kind of leadership marked as Delegative Style or as Participative Style, there are times when we have to use the Authoritarian Style. We do not want it to be nothing dominant, because it is not the more assertive style, and  what we want is that everyone has the opportunity to grow with the leadership style we use.

The two features that stood out were the participative and the Delegative, so I think my kind of leadership is developing in order to be a Delegative leader. As a person I am determined, I like to achieve the goals I set to  myself and I like to feel the team spirit when we are working together and see the results of this team effort. Fortune magazine's quote on leadership says, “Great business leaders ought to reveal all the traits of a great lover-passion, commitment, ferocity. Nothing less will do.”

I think my kind of leadership still has a lot to improve if I want to be more like Christ, and to see people with the potential that Christ sees them.

Christ exercised his leadership with wisdom, patient, pleading, and love. He ministered to others beyond the call of duty and he cared about the freedom of his followers to choose (with the responsibility that that choice brings), and he lead by example.

As Vince Lombardi, stated  “Leadership is based on a spiritual quality, the power to inspire, the power to inspire others to follow.” It is a good virtue, the power to inspire, and the power to inspire others to follow something “important”.

I think this quote tell us a lot about leadership , as it says that leadership is “the power to inspire others to follow something “important”.

I want to be that kind of leader. The leader that Leo C. Rosten wrote about  “I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” The gospel teaches is that we are special and we have attributes divine to develop in this earth. It is a process during this life and the next life to become like our leader, our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.”

About the Acton Hero: Ken Solot, I toke some notes “One of the values ​​that he brought from his childhood, he was transmitted by his parents taught him that all people are special and responsible. He took this lesson to his adult life and his professional career.

Ken Kolot spoke about the importance of realizing that, as a business that owner you are, you are working with special people, who have their own qualities and assets, and that they comes with these assets to you.

The biggest question that this entrepreneur does in every business, and which I can take advantage for my future professional life, is to ask "Who cares?", "Why?" or "Who are these people?" in all every new or existing enterprise business to be done. You have to ask yourself what is the problem you are solving for your customer.

One of the things Ken emphasized is that it is important to have empathy to understand the needs of the clients and then offer means to improve the life of that client or the client's community.”