Week 14 Reading Reflection

One of the most surprising things in this weeks readings was the table 4.2 on chapter 4 where the author discuss the stages of social entrepreneurs behaviors. Here, one of the stages mentioned is philanthropy. I never had previously thought much about businesses donating to any philanthropic cause, and I never thought of it's connection to the entrepreneurial world. However, in this table the author points out its exact benefits and necessity to that of a growing entrepreneurial business.
The sustained corporate entrepreneurship layout was rather confusing to me. The makeup of businesses has always been something I've pondered about, especially that of large corporate companies. However, the larger the brand, the more confusing I truly find it. Though the graph 3.5 did help immensely, I wish each box had been a little more well-explained of what exactly each of those people did and their place in the company. Also, I don't know where I, an entrepreneur, would fit into it, especially that of my own company.
The author talks about the importance of preparing for failure as it's a very real possibility in any entrepreneurial venture and the idea of learning from failures has become common thinking. But besides stating these facts, the author doesn't really discuss how to deal with the actualities of the situation. I'm definitely one to promote learning from your mistakes, but either way, you still have failed in the present, and what can you do to move past this? You may have financial standings that are ruined, or idea that were stolen, or many other possibilities that you are left with in the rubble of your failure, what do you do next to get to that "now look back and learn from your mistake(s)" stage? Then, in chapter 4, the author discuss why unethical behavior remains, even with the knowledge of its misconceptions and clear mistaken choice. However, after listing the five reasons why this might be ignored, the author gives little reason to combat those reasons. The one that stuck out to me was greed, which I think many people view entrepreneurs as, which is then tied into their view that entrepreneurs are thus unethical. How can entrepreneurs move away from that mindset? Even those that actually are greedy, how would the author suggest teaching them that any unethical decisions are still not the right choices?
Under the section titled "Developing Individual Managers for Corporate Entrepreneurship," the author briefly talks about innovative thinking and states that it is foreign to traditional organizations and there are large misconceptions around this idea. However, I think that though it may still be foreign to some rather old-fashioned businesses, I believe many organizations have caught on to the importance of innovative thinking in today's fast-paced world that expects the newest and most open-mindedness in companies they support. An ignorance to such open thinking will only lead to the companies inevitable downfall as the world gravitates towards innovation more and more.

Google Gold

1. The best strategy to achieve SEO is to create a headline, or post title, using key words that people would regularly type into Google, something I learned from my public relations classes. However, since we did not choose the title for our posts in the class, I didn't really put much thought into SEO for my posts. Another good way to create web traffic to your site is to use hashtags to also be easily found on a good search. I didn't do this, the only hashtags I used were the ones we were suggested to use (the labels for each week). The only other way to get any views to your page, then, would have been to repeat key words throughout your post, which I did try to do. But this is the least valuable strategy of the three I've listed, so it wasn't all that successful in my Google search.
2. Key words that I used in every post included "dietary restrictions", "vegan", "sugar free" and "gluten free". These words were much too broad though, especially when only being used in the body of a post, and not the title.
3. I never posted my blog on any social media sites, except for canvas, so the only views I got from this were those that came to my blog to comment on posts. Though from other similar experiences to this, I have learned that social media can help, but not as much as people assume it does. I write for an online publication and my first article that I posted to my Facebook received a lot of attention and traffic to the site, however, the weeks to follow did not gain nearly as much attention as that first piece did. 
4. My post "viral" post was my "Celebrating Failure" article. With six views, this was the most attention any post received, with my next highest being five views on a couple of different posts.
5. I did not make it to the first page of my Google search, I couldn't find any remnants of blog until page 20, and even that took a couple of different searches to finally find.

Very Short Interview No. 2

From where I stand now at the end of this course, I still think that this initial interview was very helpful and beneficial to me. I think the entrepreneur gave me a lot of good tips and advice that I definitely saw come into play throughout this course. The only thing that the entrepreneur did mention, that was not really brought up in this class, was working together on a team. I'm sure this is important in the real-world of entrepreneurship, however this specific class just never had this piece within its assignments.

How have you dealt with any unpredictable changes that have occurred?
"Somebody saw an item, and wanted matching pieces, but I didn't have it because the stuff is all uniquely made. I always tell them sure I can do it, none of the pieces will be exactly the same, but I can get it for them."
How do you decide what you business's next step is?
"I always ask when I'm selling my merchandise, 'Is there anything that you would like that you don't see?'. Some of my best-selling products have come from that tactic."
Have you begun to think about your exit strategy? If so, what is it and why?
"No because I always want to continue doing it, at least as a hobby. But I have already slowed down marketing it as a business."

Reflection:
I felt much more comfortable talking to the entrepreneur this time in the interview than I did the first time. As seen above, I knew many more terms of the field as well as had a better understanding of what went into. Coming up with my own questions made me realize that I had a much better sense of entrepreneurship now, as my questions were much more broad in the first interview and much more detailed this time.
I definitely think my entrepreneur could tell my gain in knowledge talking to me this time as opposed to the first time. She were a little stunned after I used the term "exit strategy," I don't think she expected me to know this term, nor was she ready to be asked it! She also paused after the first question as she really had to think about unpredictable changes she's had to withstand, I think having thought of something so specific about parts of the job really showed her how I've grown and learned in entrepreneurship.