Tuesday, January 7th

Today in class we learned about creating a business plan and all of the different components that make it up. Business plans are very useful and important when starting your own business. They give you a general outline to follow that we keep you on track and help save time and money in the long run. Also, business plans should give potential investors all of the information they need in order to make educated decision on whether or not to invest in your business. Learning how to make a good business paln could be the difference in the success of your business. 

My business idea is to create a traveling team basketball program. I would like to start out smaller with maybe only a few teams at different grade levels . Then gradually over time as more people hear about and are interested in the program, I can expand the amount of teams. This, in turn, will lead to more expenses like; uniforms, coaches, and tournament costs. However it should lead to more revenue due to the increased amount of players joining the program. Also, I would like to over time be able to own my own facility where the teams can practice and tournaments can be held to bring in more revenue. 

My goal is to have a competitive advantage in the quality of my program. The players will be able to get a lot of individual attention and become well rounded players, as well as, people. They will enjoy playing and spending time with their teammates. I believe quality will be a big factor for parents and the players. Also, I feel like I could be competive on price. There are a lot of programs that charge a very high price to be on their team. These teams usually play year-round or close to it. I want to be competitive in price by having less tournaments at a lower price for the players that play other sports and maybe don't want to play basketball year-round.  

Monday, January 6th

Today in class we learned about the characteristics of entrepreneurs. They have to be able to see opportunities and be willing to take risks in order to be successful. Also I learned that money is not the only motivation for people trying to start a business. Most entrepreneurs have the goal of seeing their business idea becoming successful, and that is one of the biggest motivators for them. 

From what we learned in class today I found out what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.  In order to be successful you always have to be looking for business opportunities. Which requires you to be knowledgable about different markets and the changing economy. I feel like I have some of the traits of an entrepreneur. I am never content and I'm usually thinking of different ways something could work better or be more efficient. Nevertheless, I feel that being knowledgable in what's going on in the buissness world locally and around the world is one of the most important traits in being successful. 

Also in class today we watched an episode of Shark Tank. I had never watched this show before but I did find it pretty interesting. The first pitch was a mango preservative that apparently was very tasty. None of the sharks invested in this idea for numerous reasons. I, personally, would not invest in this product because I am not knowledgable about the market for mangos. The next pitch was a phone app that found your blood alcohol level by blowing in it. All of the sharks invested in this idea. This is something I am a little for familiar with and I would feel comfortable investing in this idea. I found it to be fairly simple but a very useful technology. 

 

Community Event

On Saturday December 10^th, I attended the men’s varsity basketball game against Hastings College.  The game was at home, in the Flanagan Center, at 4p.m.  I sat in the student section, about 4 or 5 rows from the top of the bleachers.  It was one of the only spots open.  When I arrived, I sat down with Jake Buelt and as the game went on some of my JV basketball teammates sat behind me.  This was a pretty big game for the team, especially since it was a home game.  Hastings College is a pretty good team.  I believe their record is at least .500.  There were quite a number of people attending this game.  Mostly, the fans were from Briar Cliff considering Hastings is about 4 hours away.  It was a close game.  Both teams going back and forth and every player was fighting for each basket.  When I watch basketball games, it is usually different from how everyone else watches games.  Being a basketball player myself, I tend to notice things that the normal fan doesn’t.  For example, when someone doesn’t play help-side defense or when a play was run to perfection.  Also, I know all of the players personally and I know what their strengths and weaknesses are.  Whereas other fans, like Mark Petersen, tend to just enjoy yelling ridiculous things at the referees and opposing players.  I enjoyed discussing different plays and players with my fellow JV teammates sitting with me.  We congratulate a fellow teammate on the floor for making a good shot, grabbing a tough rebound, or hitting a big 3-point shot. 

The Briar Cliff men’s basketball team was leading Hastings College by around 5 at halftime as both teams went into their locker rooms.  During this halftime, Jake Buelt and I went down onto the court to join in a game of knock out with other students and kids.  I, of course, got out on my first shot.  It must have been a boy’s scout night because there were tons of them everywhere and they had their own game of knock-out on the other basket.  The Boy Scouts also, had a foot race during one of the timeouts.

At the start of the second half, both teams were still going at it.  No one team was giving each other an advantage.  I don’t think the lead for either team got over about 6 or 7.  As I said, both teams were going back and forth but Briar Cliff seemed to be taking control, holding the lead for a good amount of the second half.  Yet, number 33 on Hastings College was keeping his team in it.  He had almost half his team’s points it seemed like and was pretty much the only player doing anything.  I thought our team had the win but Hastings pulled away at the end and won by around 7.  This was one of the better basketball games I have watched, but it all came down to who wanted it most and I guess that team was not us. 

The last one

I, myself am not catholic so I had a first hand experience. This class is not going to convert me but it does give me a new perspective of religion and of life. I think I learned more about the ideals of francis by doing service, donating, and being involved in the community.

Event Reflection

On Sunday, November 6 the Doyle scholars took about 2 hours out of their day to collect items from areas around Briar Cliff to put into the food drive.  At first I really didn’t want to go to the event.   It was from two to four, which is in the middle of the day and I felt like this was time that I could have put to better use.  I just had no motivation to do anything on a Sunday afternoon.  Nevertheless, I went.  Everyone was put into around 15 groups and each group was given a map of the area in which they were supposed to collect food items.  My group was pretty large, with around 8 or 10 people, so we split our group in half in order to get to every house as quickly as possible.  In my group were myself, Taylor Craig, Brittney Walsh, and Sydney Moran.  I nominated to drive everyone to our selected neighborhood with my car.  I really did not want to go to this, but when we arrived in the neighborhood the three girls told me that I could just stay in my car and follow them while they went door to door and collected food items.  Of course I agreed.  I mean why would I want to walk when I can drive.  This definitely helped my morale some.   I drove for a good hour, just following the girls as they collected food and putting it in my trunk, which was slowly filling up.  My trunk was filling up more than I had anticipated.  Almost everyone that answered the door donated food and some people even left food out ahead of time for us to collect.  It was then that I realized what we were really out collecting this food for.  These two hours that I was giving up was helping give food to people less fortunate than the people donating and less fortunate than myself.  I realized the importance of my time spent in order to help get people food. 

            So after we had been going at it for about an hour, or halfway, I let Taylor (my girlfriend) drive my car while I went from house to house.  My feelings toward this event had changed and now I was perfectly fine with walking from house to house, asking people to donate for the food drive, and carry many bags of food.  We finished in a little less than an hour.  My trunk was completely full.  It a good thing it was empty beforehand, because we ended up having to pile bags on top of each other.  Seeing this only increased my feeling of the good that we were doing in collecting food for the needy and also the goodness of the many people who donated for the food drive.  

Community Event

1. Food Drive for

Arab spring questions

What were the protests like? Were they peaceful or violent? Did you use social networking more during this time.