3A - Your Entrepreneurship Story

I have been exposed to entrepreneurship my whole life because my dad is an entrepreneur, so I grew up hearing about the day to day life of a business owner. My dad owns a driveway sealer manufacturing company called Surface Logix. When I was very young, I remember stuffing envelopes with invoices at the end of every month with my dad in exchange for my allowance. Also, I remember staying late at the retail store with my family so my parents could close everything up and finish checking all the inventory. As I got older though, my dad told me more details about what it’s like to be a business owner. We have discussed dealing with difficult customers, betrayals from employees, and the hard work and dedication it takes to be your own boss. One of the things I noticed about my dad though is that he is a very thoughtful and generous boss. He always sets goals for his employees and sales teams to meet, and if they reach it, my dad takes the entire staff out for a fancy dinner, and so much more. Moreover, my dad has taught me how to be a perfect balance of a friend, and a boss for his employees. One of the perks about growing up with an entrepreneur as your dad is that he never missed anything when I was a child, and he always made it home in time for family dinner. It wasn’t always that way. Hard work and dedication is crucial for a successful business, however, once he reached a certain point in his business, he now has a very flexible schedule. Since I grew up with this background, I decided to have a minor in entrepreneurship and take this class so I could learn more about entrepreneurship and possibly follow in my dads’ footsteps and be a business owner one day. 

This is a picture of my dad, brother, and I on the right), when I was younger and we were advertising a paint sale at the retail store. 

2A Bug List

1.

Lack of parking on sorority row


a. Why it exists: There aren’t enough red 1 parking spots compared to the amount of underclassman in that area. Perhaps, to create more parking we can even out the number of red spots to orange.


2. Bad Service at a restaurant


a. Why it exists: There might not be proper management in place that values customer service. This may be a problem because waiters need a reminder of the expectations for service besides the initial training, so to solve this problem, the restaurants can have trainings to teach good customer service every 6 months as a reminder.


3. When people don’t tip at restaurants


a. Why it exists: people may not realize that waiters depend on tips to make money. To solve this problem, there can be a note by the suggested tip on the bill that expresses the importance of tipping waiters for good service.


4. When cars don’t stop at the crosswalk to let pedestrians cross


a. WHY It exists: Drivers may be in a hurry and not see a cop around, so they don’t stop at crosswalks. To solve this problem, we could put more flashing lights near the crosswalks to draw attention to the crosswalk.


5. When there is hair all over the shower in dorms


a. WHY It exists: People may think its unsanitary to clean it up, so they just avoid it. To solve this problem, we can make cleaning the bathrooms a top priority or get the hair collectors to put in the drain to make cleanup easy.


6. When people leave their laundry in the washer for hours


a. Why it exists: Students doing their laundry in the communal laundry room may get preoccupied with class and other chores they need to do that day. To solve this problem, we could create a text alert system to notify students to pick up their laundry when it is done.


7. When makeup causes breakouts


a. Why it exists: wearing makeup blocks skin pores which as a result can cause breakouts. To solve this problem, we could create a product that fights acne while also providing skin coverage like makeup.


8. Bad traffic during rush hour


a. Why it exists: Too many people are trying to travel through the same area, specifically during hours when people come and go from work.


9. When people drive under the speed limit


a. Why it exists: People may be distracted while driving and may not be focused on maintaining the speed limit. This problem may be difficult to solve.


10. When people drive more than 20-30 miles over the speed limit


a. Why it exists: Drivers may be late to an event or in a hurry, so they do not prioritize following the speed limit. However, driving that fast over the speed limit can endanger others and the driver.


11. When drivers park their car on the line or diagonal in the parking spot


a. Why it exists: This bug is hard to find an explanation for, however drivers may be in a hurry and not have time to fix their parking, or they may think that they will not be parked for very long and will not think their parking affects other people.


12. Leaving the toilet seat up


a. Why it exists: Men put the toilet seat up when using the bathroom and may not want to touch it after to put it down for the next person.


13. When waiters don’t give customers enough parmesan cheese on their food at a restaurant


a. Why it exists: Fancy restaurants put the cheese on the customers food for them, however it becomes a problem if the customer wants more cheese after they eat some of their food. To solve this problem, waiters can leave some fresh parmesan on the table for the customers to use at their convenience.


14. Uber does not allow drivers to pick up customers in midtown


a. Why it exists: Uber was trying to create less congestion and traffic in midtown at night by only allowing the drivers to pick up customers from certain areas. However, it creates more confusion for the customer and oftentimes it takes longer to find the driver than usual.


15. Uber charging high fees for spilling a drink or throwing up in the uber


a. Why it exists: Uber charges extra fees for spilling or throwing up in the uber so the driver can get it cleaned. However, the fees are more expensive than the actual cost to get it cleaned.


16. Lack of wifi in my room in the sorority house


a. Why it exists: The campus wifi signal does not reach all areas of the house so it becomes problematic for the few people in those dead areas.


17. When not everyone helps out in group projects


a. Why it exists: Since group projects are a group grade, some people do not feel the need to participate as much as others since they will get a good grade regardless of their participation.


18. Repetitive homework assignments of the same concept, specifically in math classes


a. Why it exists: The professors want to make sure the students fully understand the math concepts, however, sometimes the homework becomes way too time consuming and students do not have enough time for their other classes.


19. Customers at a fast food restaurant take long to order and they hold up the line


a. Why it exists: Customers may not know what they want to order when they get to the cashier. Also, they may not realize that usually people at a fast food restaurant are in a rush.


20. When teachers randomly call on students for the answer in class


a. Why it exists: teachers want to make sure everyone is paying attention in class, so they randomly call on students to participate. However, it is embarrassing for students if they do not know the answer.






Reflection:


This assignment was somewhat challenging for me because I usually do not think of many things that “bug” me, or the reasoning behind it. However, this assignment challenged me to go outside my comfort zone and think about the world from a different perspective. It was easy to think of the first couple “bugs” for the list, but as I got farther down the list it became more difficult to find “bugs” I encounter in my everyday life. Overall, I enjoyed this assignment and it was interesting and fun to think like an entrepreneur.