An App'd Business

Brian Forth I saw as another example of a person who can unexpectedly make it as an entrepreneur. Given his sports and theology background, I would have not expected him to create a business that would work with a large amount of technology. The nature of his business Sitecrafting was fascinating to me. Working with mobile apps I saw as an intelligent way to break into the market and solve many problems at the same time. It also allowed for a type of creative process to still take place. Overall, I felt that maintaining the business, while probably more difficult seems like an experience that does not get boring. This applies to his employees as well.

What I also saw as a smart move was to avoid his business from becoming too big to handle. The sense of family that Forth described with and the pictures I saw made his business seem like a very attractive place to work.  From what I can assume, keeping a small, personal business along with his mobile app company seems like a good way to maintain a manageable company that does not get boring with an open exit strategy. From my perspective, Brian Forth seems to have found a good balance between the two. 

Quality over Quantity

The technology that differentiates my business from my competitors would be my use in video streaming quality. As opposed to our major competitors, Netflix and Hulu, which simply provide media that is generally unchanged, our business requires that each of our pieces of media to be translated and subtitled to accommodate for our international audience. Because of this, our TV programming and movies must be taken with the upmost care.

Also as opposed to Netflix and Hulu, which provides there media generally passively, our media will be constantly on the clock. We plan to stream our media simultaneously with its native country to allow die-hard fans to watch their shows right when they come out. If this is to be one of our draws, it is important we provide high-quality and easy to understand subtitles. Not only this, but we must also have the ability to toggle on and off subtitles to for native speakers or those who already understand the language. This simple but effective option would allow for people away from their country to still enjoy their native programming.

Overall, our company aims to differentiate ourselves from our major competitors by offering quality streaming and varied options. We hope to differentiate ourselves from Netflix and Hulu, who have already perfected their technology as much as possible to create a new and innovative service.  

Freedom's Lifestyle

An entrepreneur really seems to be in a league of their own. While it doesn’t require any proper training or background to be an entrepreneur, it requires almost every personal and professional aspect of someone’s life to be utilized correctly. As such, it’s not too far to say that entrepreneurship is a lifestyle; a lifestyle that many people are not ready to risk their current lives on. 

If I were to guess the feeling of entrepreneurship it would be “freedom”. At first glance, it seems like a fulfilling and glamorous venture, which for the most part it is. Being able to create an idea, build on it and manage it is, at least in my opinion, seems like a much better way to spend my time than, simply working at a steady income job. When you are an entrepreneur, you are your own motivator.  Whether or not your business venture succeeds is primarily up to how much the person puts in.

This is where many people might be turned off by the idea. Having all the responsibility turned on you is not what many people desire, especially when there are other things at stake for them (such as a spouse or children). Having a steady income job seems like a much safer bet, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is also the process and sustainment of becoming an entrepreneur. For every entrepreneur, there is always some kind of level of stress that one has. There are always things that an entrepreneur doesn’t have complete control over. 

Becoming an entrepreneur is very much a gamble and all a person can really do is try to tip the scales in their favor. But if one is willing to take the risk, it might very well be worth the chance.  

Erik Hanberg's Giraffe

The idea of waking up on a Tuesday afternoon to go to work really seems like my kind of work.

There were a lot of new ideas and perspectives that I learned when listening to Erik Hanberg’s presentation. What I found most interesting was the graph he showed of his total income during the past few years. It really put into perspective how exactly an entrepreneur lives in comparison to someone who works with a steady income. Seeing how quickly and suddenly his income would change not only for himself, but his wife as well was both fascinating and somewhat frightening at the same time. It taught me that to be an entrepreneur; there is a certain level of mental preparedness that one needs to go through. This was especially surprising given that Hanberg came from an English major background with assumingly little knowledge of business.

What I also found interesting was the concept of passive income. While it may not be the largest amount of income, the idea of slowly gaining a return for working on something like a book did help me see a different perspective as to how one can take on the entrepreneur role.  This not only applies for the books that Hanberg has written, but also for the entire entrepreneur process as well. The stress of making money seems to be unavoidable no matter what kind of entrepreneur process one takes. Although, using Erik Hanberg as an example, success seems to come to those who are patient.