Coming back to CEO was great. The places we visited had a lot of information to give. Out of the three places we visited this week I personally really enjoyed visiting Sauk Valley Bank. I really learned a lot about how to create a business plan. The one page business plans we created for our class businesses were not as into depth as the example business plan of Papa Murphy’s. Taking a look at the example business plan looked very complicated. Right now that I am debating on what kind of business idea I should do. My first business plan was to make a landscaping business. But many people have told me that an idea will come when I least expect it and over break I was just watching a movie and I was about to fall asleep on the couch when I soon got an idea of making stir-fried ice cream or sometimes known as Thai style ice cream which is rolled up ice cream. Then I got up and started doing research. Around the Sauk Valley area there is no place which serves this kind of ice cream. A normal cup of stir-fried ice cream goes about five dollars. I did about two hours of research on how to make it. I have learned some techniques but I would have to buy a fried ice cream maker which are not really cheap a good machine goes for six hundred dollars. The ingredients do not cost a lot. I really like this idea but would really like some help with the idea from my facilitators and mentor. Making a business plan for it would definitely help find negatives and positives about my idea. Thinking ahead if I decided to do this I could probably bring in the machine into class time and create everybody some stir-fried ice cream to see what the class thinks about it.

01/14/2018

Sharing our business plans on Monday. I spoke to a couple of my classmates and I found out that I was not the only one that had a hard time making a business plan. I was a bit nervous presenting but after I started speaking I felt more confident. Some ideas such as all you can eat pancakes sounded like an amazing idea. Moving on meeting with all the mentors really helped me get their background. All the Mentors were really great. Nick Jakobs came into class on Thursday and took over the spot of a mentor that could not make it. Nick talked to us and told me to pick a mentor that is good at my weaknesses because if I pick a mentor that is great at what I am already then what would I use my mentor for. Picking a mentor that is good at my weaknesses will help me get better. After that I started to think of different question to ask the mentors. After we were done with meeting all the mentors we started to pick what class business we are going to do. I feel like the dodgeball tournament is going to be a great business because all the students enjoy playing dodgeball and being competitive. It will be pretty easy to set everything up for the dodgeball tournament. Now the dinner is going to take more time and more hands on deck to get everything done. Both businesses will bring in profit but the dinner will be more profitable. I enjoyed this week but now we're planning our businesses so our weeks will be becoming more hectic. One more thing making the little notes really makes a persons day. I saved all the ones I got for when I had free time. Today I had some free time while eating breakfast, I looked over them and it made my day. I felt so happy all day and I took out my family to eat and I made their day.

11/05/2017