Small Business Startup

Pre-College Program - HMG 165 A

Production Management
 

I first heard about the FIT high school summer program from a couple of friends that took some courses last summer and found it really worthwhile. Having always had a strong interest in fashion, I was very intrigued with the courses available. Even though this was one of the only classes available at the time I signed up, it is a course that I am truly interested in and find will be very beneficial.

I'm not necessarily interested in starting up my own business, however, I feel that learning about the business world is a fundamental knowledge that everyone should learn no matter what type of work they end up doing. I would love to work in the business side of fashion. Whether that means opening a small store or working for a big department store, I am confident that this class will provide me with the skills I will need to succeed in the business world. 

This week was an exciting experience learning about everything there is to know about business. You would have never realized how much work there really is to starting and successfully running your own business. From finding the perfect location that will help keep your store in business to all the laws and details like insurance that will protect you from any unfortunate lawsuits. This week we learned that location is a tremendous factor to successfully running a store. You have to make sure the theme of your store matches the customs of the area your located. Also when looking for that perfect place, you have to keep in mind that there are several regulating laws to owning a building. For example if you’re intending on doing any construction it is mandatory that you are granted permission first. Once you’ve found the right place to start that dream store of yours you have to think about hiring employees.

I learned this week that finding helpful and trustworthy employees is not always an easy task. In order to make sure you have legitimate employees working for you, during your interviews make sure you ask direct and precise questions that will give you the answers you are looking for. However, another fact I learned this week, is that there are certain questions that you are not permitted to ask while conducting an interview. For example what their age is, what religion they practice, or any questions about their family. Some examples of good interviewing questions are how organized they are, how many hours they are willing to work, or what their main skills are. It is important to keep the people you interviewed updated so that you don’t get an unnecessary calls asking when they will hear back from you. When you have hired your employees it is extremely important that you write out exactly what their tasks are and their overall job. It may be a good idea to give their position a name so that there is no confusion. While all of this is important, writing out a business plan is one of the most important factors to starting up a business. It is crucial when running a business that you are extremely organized. You might want to think about getting an account to help you regulate and control your money. There are things such as balance sheets also know as pro- forma sheets that can help keep you organized.

In addition to learning the essentials to getting our business started, each day we had a creative hour that allowed us to start things such as our business cards. We first had to make a logo that would represent our business. Who knew creating a logo would be such a difficult task. Once we were happy with the logo we came up with for our business the next step was starting our business cards. Using our creative minds and incorporating our logos, we had to come up with unique business cards that would draw people into our store. In class today we began our opening day flyers and our letterheads. While making all of these creative projects, it was important to keep in mind that you are competing with the other business out there. You must make sure that your business sticks out to people and that means everything- logos, flyers, and business cards- pop out and stay in people’s minds. It amazed me this week how much there is to starting and keeping it running. However, it was definitely fun this week thinking about our business and what we need to do to make it truly successful.

Last week, we began by talking about the different types of security that needs to be taken when you are running your own business.  We learned that it is necessary that you protect yourself from things like armed robbery and embezzlement.  You must establish safeguards and policies to ensure awareness and honesty so you can establish a good business.  You also have to make sure that you have a good computer security program.  All of your passwords should be password protected with a high level of encryption.

We also talked about how your computer can keep you organized.  For example your computer can help you record your money and merchandise at the same time.  During the week we also had a chance to watch a quick movie about starting up your own business.  The movie talked about creating a business plan and how it is very normal to have two versions of your business plan.  One version is for internal use as a management tool and the other version is usually more detailed.  The movie also talked about components of a business plan such as the executive summary, the market strategy, the management team, etc.  I found this movie to be very helpful in making sense of all of the tools we have learned throughout these weeks in class.

During the lab periods of this week we had to make a brochure of our business to hand out to our customers.  Our brochure had to describe what kind of business your business is and how your business is going to help customers.  After we finished our brochures we had to start a webpage. We could have anything on our webpage such as pictures of the merchandise you want to sell in your store, description of your business, or even the brochures you made.  It was a lot of fun this week to actually make flyers and create a webpage for our own personal business.

During our last week of class we had a lot of finishing up to do.  We had to make sure all of our assignments like our websites, flyers, and brochures were all finished.  Our websites had to be well thought out and organized so that when our customers went online our websites interested them and gave them good information about our business.  We also had to make a One Day Sale flyer and a Clearance Sale flyer.  Until actually making the flyers I never knew how difficult it was to make an effective flyer that would catch everyone’s attention.

In addition to finishing up the creative details of our business we also took lots of notes during our lectures this week.  Professor Vega gave us a list of helpful websites that would be useful in the future.  We had to go on each website and examine it and learn about how it can help us with our business.  For example some of the websites were created for entrepreneurs and business enterprises to go online and get free, quick, and reliable answers to a broad range of business questions.  During this week we also talked about unsecured loan, how to obtain a personal loan, and what you need when you apply for a loan.  In addition we learned about what marketing involves.  We took notes on the four basic aspects of marketing, which are product, price, promote, and provide. With this being the last week of classes  there was a lot of work to finish up.

With the class coming to an end we were asked to print out all of our work and put it in an organized binder.  On the last day of class we were asked to present our business and our binder in five minutes.  Even under all this pressure we still had to make sure we explained our business and made it interesting and intriguing to the people listening.  On the last day of class we also received our certificate of completion for the course.  It is amazing how fast these three weeks flew by.  I am definitely going to miss coming to class every morning.  I loved doing this program and I highly recommend other students doing it in the future.

- Sarah Caspar