Guest Speaker: Jim Kastama

Mr. Kastama seems like a very charismatics individual, quite formal and kind- seems to be a great figurehead as a politician. He didn't seem to goes in detail on any topic. However, I found the list of organizations that he is involve in is quite large, a common trend of guest speakers that are involve in entrepreneurship. His short joke was quite funny and some part true, most notably the part on how Italian describe car and how Washington DC is Hollywood.

Dot.com to Dot.bomb

The lecture remind me of documentary Startup.com, but on a macro standpoint. The fall of giant corporations seem quite scary for the economy. The timing is obviously terrible, because most giant corporation would probably get bailed out in better economic time. The Amazon story was very shocking, I assumed they always have done well.

I really like two part in during the lecture. The part about  people selling the book warning people about impending economic collapse. I don't blame people not believing in them, after all, greed is in human nature and the amount of money that are being estimated are enormous. The second part about the usage of dinosaurs as a representation of the corporation was entertaining and quite relevant to the topic. It is true that all business have a life cycle and most tend to die over time.

Guest Speaker: Graham Evans

Graham Evans is currently involve in a non-profit organization call Federal Way Coalition Against Human Trafficking (FWCAT). It is really interesting how much revenues and expenses are involve in a non profit organization. The existence of such organization so close to home is also quite surprising since the term human trafficking would be more relevant in third world countries.

The in-class exercise seem quite useful, although it might be difficult to applied. It would be quite difficult to developed the amount of ideas by one self. The amount topics he covered were also overwhelming. Although, it seems like a useful tool to developed the entire outline for the business plan.

Guest Speaker: John Dimmer

Mr. Dimmer seems like a person that all young entrepreneur aspire to be. I noticed all the guest speaker that is an entrepreneur seems to get a normal job after schools before starting their own business. It seems like it a better idea to start your own business later in life when you gain enough experience. When he stated, make sure you know a little bit of everything when starting a new business make me think, it isn't such a great idea to start a new business after school.

The fact that 9 out of 10 new businesses fail didn't help. Furthermore, he state only around 40% of the businesses he loans money to- actually repay. That stats doesn't seem great, since I am sure he pick very carefully who to lend to. In any case, his entrepreneurship journey seems too good to be true, I feel like he leaving out some bad time or challenges.

Guess Speaker: Amy Salin

Amy showed us one of the way to find start-up funding for a business. It involves winning a competition, which is quite hard. However, the process seems like a very useful tools for anyone planning to start their own business. The judges would provide great insight for the participants. If a group happens to reach the semi-final rounds, their business plan seems near ready for the next step. It's seems like a great place to find potential investors also.

Amy only talk for like five minutes so, I didn't find any other interesting facts. Entering and viewing the competition is free, which is great. However, I hope there will be a competition in Tacoma in the near future.

Guest Speaker: Erik Hanberg

Erik Hanberg is great at presentation, very clear voice and specific in details. However, the details of his work seem very time consuming and tiring. Without actual knowledge of his actual income, it comes across as-  entrepreneur required many different successful businesses’ venture to survive. This seems rather discouraging because it is already difficult to make one business to work.

It seems part of his work is a hobby which is great. I notice all of his ventures seem to uses the web to aid the distribution or promotion of his product and services. This is a very useful idea for anyone planning on starting a business. 

3 Business Ideas

Ideas below would implement creating a website to support the service- i.e. forums, using Google ads  to make additional revenue or main.

1. General computer, phone, electronic repairs/services

2. Tax preparer

3. Translator