Week 13 Reading Reflection

I thought this week's reading was pretty interesting. I think that knowing how to value a company is very important, because the entrepreneur should know their company's worth and potential investors will need to be able to figure out an appropriate amount to invest. I'm surprised that some people enter the "entrepreneurial area" at all by acquiring a venture. I would think that one would want some experience operating a business first before buying one from someone else. I was also somewhat surprised by the length of the due diligence evaluation, as I'm sure first-time entrepreneurs buying a business would not think of all of the topics listed. I would ask the author whether they think it would be good practice for people to just buy a business or whether it makes more sense for people to start their own venture first. I agreed with everything the author wrote in the reading.

Celebrating Failure

1. How I love to talk about my failures! Um, no, not really. But, let's get into it. My latest failure to date is brought to you from my fall 2015 semester. It was my first semester here at UF (I'm a transfer student) and the class was Financial Accounting and Reporting 1. I tried to keep up with the notes in class and listening to the professor talk a mile a minute, but I was definitely struggling. However, I thought I knew enough to feel okay about the first exam. Grades come out: boom. Failed it. Of course I feel like crap about myself and think "ugh, this sucks". So, I buckle down for the next test, because I know I have to do well on it to stay in the class. I spent 3 days in the library from noon to 1 am studying, and manage to pull out a 78 on the next test. I LIVED, I DIED, I LIVED AGAIN. After those 2 grades, I realized I had to pull out a B on the final to pass the class. After much deliberation, I decided to stay in the class, rather than dropping it, and try my absolute hardest to do well on the last test. Test comes and goes, grade comes out: boom. Failed it again. So I ended up technically failing the class, but my professor was kind enough to give me a D instead so that my Bright Futures remained intact. Unfortunately, since it was a 4 credit class, the D annihilated my GPA, despite the good grades I had gotten in my other classes.

Long story short: My failure was failing an accounting class, which ended up forcing me to switch majors to Finance.

2. Well, I learned that being an Accounting major was definitely not for me. While I did have the opportunity to take the class again to try and pass, I realized that I dreaded taking the class again. I did not enjoy waking up twice a week to go to it, I would constantly look at the clock waiting for class to be over, and while I enjoyed some of the concepts we discussed in class, I found a lot of the information to be tedious. As an accounting major, I probably shouldn't be feeling those ways in an accounting class. Failing (or almost failing) helped me realize that I wanted to be in a broader area of learning, where the things I learned could be applied to various industries so that I would have some wiggle room later on.

3. My thoughts on failure? It completely, totally sucks when it's happening. I, like many others I'm sure, hate to fail. I felt so bad about myself when I did so poorly in that accounting class, especially because it appeared that I was the only one struggling in it. (It also sucked because everyone in the class seemed absolutely certain that they wanted to be a CPA upon leaving UF, whereas I'm still exploring career options, but I digress). Now that I can look back on it, I'm proud of myself that I stuck it out in the class, even though the outcome was less then desirable. The hit my GPA took was a rough one, but I'm on track to pull it up this semester. I think that the whole experience helped me see that not all of my classes would be easy for me (as they were at my previous school), and that sometimes I'll fall down academically (another feeling I was not accustomed to). Overall: no one likes to fail. But looking back, it could help people realize things about themselves, and possibly put themselves into a better position going forward.

                               

My Exit Strategy

1. Ah, the exiting of the business. Like the assignment says, it comes at the very end of the entrepreneur's role in the venture, but in certain ways the way we grew the business itself was dependent on the exit strategy. For my business venture, MA, I would probably "lave the business" a couple of years after I graduated from UF. However, this would depend on whether UF would agree to add it either to their SNAP program or whether I would run the venture as a separate business. I would be much more likely to stay if I ran it as a separate business. On the other hand, the MA venture may last longer as a part of SNAP. I would like to pass on the business to my future children, who would possibly attend UF and see how the business positively impacts students lives.

2. I chose this exit strategy (if you can really call it that if it stays in the family) because I would want to still be able to oversee MA and its impact on the University of Florida community. Also, if MA were to become a staple of UF, I would want that honor to remain in my family.

3. My exit strategy would influence MA in that I would want it to be the best that it could be if I were to pass the business on to another family member. I don't think it would necessarily affect the methods of acquiring different resources or my growth intentions, but I would want MA to be run in a wholesome, honest way. Not only because I believe that is the best way to get repeat customers, but also because that is the kind of example I would want to set for my family.