Week 13 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me the most right away in reading this chapter was all the reasons for acquisition, which is an important reason as to why an entrepreneur should value their existing business. I thought the only reason why you would need to know the value of your company would be if you were looking to sell it, either to a patent label, larger corporation or different small-business owner. But rather, according to the book, you should know the value of your business for more reasons than just an exit strategy, but possibly even a growth strategy. The textbook lists many reasons as to why you should price the value of your business, many of the reasons include expanding on your current venture.
The price/earning section was the most confusing part. I actually remember doing this in math at some point in my life, I can't remember when, but I was very confused by it then and I think I only ever slightly understood it. The formula always seemed confusing to me, as did the values used (I didn't understand what net income and stock price, etc. were). I also don't really understand what this formula answers for a business owner. Maybe I would have understood this more if the formula was given more in a linear, note form as opposed to the word, horizontally-written form. This way it would have been easier to follow and possibly understand.
How do you choose with method for venture valuations is best? They all seemed to have their own usefulness, as well as draw-backs, so how do you choose one as opposed to the other? And if you should do all of them exactly for this reason that they each have their own problems, how do you compare one method to the other to find the most accurate value of your company?
I didn't necessarily think the author was wrong here, but I thought his 14.2 table was way too long and confusing. How do you keep track of all of these answers to compare them to find a fair value of your firm? I also disagreed that the discounted earnings method couldn't be the most real value of your firm since this method uses projection values, thus also having it's own fall-back due to error with estimations.

Celebrating Failure

This past semester I took Multimedia Writing. In this class we had lab once a week where we would write some type of news story, feature story or press release. Time and time again I couldn't get much higher than somewhere in the 80s on each week's assignment. On the rare occasion, I did score a 90 or so, but this wasn't too common. I think my most common mistake was with my headlines, I never knew how hard coming up with those short headlines you see every day in magazines or newspapers really was! It's hard to capture a whole story that could catch the attention of your audience in only 8 to 10 words.
The biggest thing I learned in this class was the difference between essay-style writing and news writing. We're trained to be masters at the 5-paragraph essays with a thesis statement, introduction paragraph, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. So much so, that it's almost impossible to not automatically write like this anymore. Always told to have at least 5 sentences in each paragraph really messes with your brain when all of a sudden a paragraph is usually only one sentence and no more than 35 words. Though this was difficult, I think I finally started to improve, at least with news releases, which is more important since this is more of what I'll be dealing with as a public relations major.
Failure is definitely scary. Even as we get older and learn of its importance, it's still our first, initial reaction as humans. Growing up, my mom always encouraged my failures, she never was hard on me or disappointed in me every time I made a mistake, I actually was my hardest critic. No, she always would cheer me up by telling me to look at what I learned from my failures and what I would do next time to make it better. Though I still shy away from failure, I think this type of parenting has allowed me to be more of a courageous and adventurous person than most. I don't know if this class has really changed my perspective on failure, being that this class was virtually all on a blog, it's wasn't as real as other failures I've experienced. I think the best failures that I've learned the most from are those that happen in person and have the largest loss or gain on my life. The things that hold the most value are always the scariest to loose and the most likely to learn from.

My Exit Strategy

I plan to stay with my business until I retire. I think the fact that it's owned by a person, and the brand has a friendly and familiar face, is the drawing point to many customers, as opposed to franchises. If I were to sell, I think a lot of customers would be disappointed and stop coming. The whole idea behind the company is to bring authentic and high-quality food to those that care about what they put into their bodies, or teach others that don't already. If I were to sell, I think a big-industry company would not care at all about the food itself, and without someone with the passion for the food and a personal connection to the different dietary restraints, I think the product would really change for the worse. A big-company might not care much to keep trying recipe after recipe until they find one that tastes good, they might just go with the easiest or cheapest option. I think this exit strategy has influenced the brand's mission and growth intentions I plan to ensure the ultimate customer satisfaction by being such a hands-on owner, which is why I wouldn't leave the company until I was ready to retire. I want to make sure every design made is for the benefit(s) of our customers, and then financially makes sense, too. I think this strong work ethic is what makes the business so successful because it would show in high customer interest and pay-off.