Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

    I am most proud of the overall outcome of my presentation, I feel as though all those months of mentorship and research really prepared me for that one moment where I went up and taught everyone what it was that I learned in those nine months.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?

What worked for me in my senior project was really my mentorship, I learn better when I experience things hands on and that's exactly what I did there, and it furthered my knowledge on business and what it takes to run something successfully.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

What didn't work was my overall activity, I wish I had given myself more time to work on it, instead of preparing everything the day before because since my printer broke it wasn't easy coming up with a whole new activity in less than 24 hours.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.

The senior project has helped me with my future endeavors by helping me understand exactly what it takes to run a retail business and get a better understanding of what my degree will actually mean. I do plan on furthering this topic throughout college and seeing if there's a chance for me to work my way up in a company to corporate. 

Blog 22: Mentorship

Content:

LIA Response to blog:

    Literal

·     See blog for hours and description 

·    Amy Mariani and Vans

    Interpretive

The most important thing I gained from this experience is just how much it really takes to run a store successfully, I learned this all through my mentor Amy, who showed me some of the ropes and duties that are required to run a store successfully.

   Applied

This has helped me answer my EQ because I was able to find out exactly what is essential for becoming a successful retail franchise owner. It really taught me everything that is needed in order for me to run  a retail business and how to make sure that I maintain the success of that business as well.

Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?  What is your best answer and why?

• My EQ is: What is Essential for becoming a Successful Retail Franchise Owner? My three answers are: (1) Every retail business person should know their ideal customer's wants and needs, (2) All retail business people should know who their biggest competitor is, and (3) In order to keep the success in a retail store a business person must always have sales and promotions within their store.
• My best answer would have to be my first answer, because I feel like this is the most important part in any business. Whether it be retail or not you have to know who your target audience is and what you can do to please them.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• The process I took to arrive at that answer was me thinking about opening my own retail store. I thought about what I would sell, but most importantly who would I sell to. I started thinking about who was I going to sell to and how could I make them happen. And then as if nothing that's how I arrived at my answer to know the ideal customer's wants and needs.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• Some problems that I faced with my senior project was that I had issues getting my mentor as well as finding specific research. I overcame that by doing mentorship at the place that I work with the actual store manager and as far as research I started digging deeper and started reading books and viewing lectures that further expanded my knowledge.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• The two most specific source that I had for my project was my mentor Amy Mariani and the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. My mentor helped me a lot with my project because she really gave me a first look into the retail world and how it all works. As far as the book, it showed me how to turn a business that is already doing well to do even greater. 

Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) Include this statement: “I, Rebecca Barberi, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 36 hours of work.”
(b,d)  For my sources I used my lab projects because each individual project taught me how to use a PC but more specifically Microsoft. I learned that in the busniess world everyone uses microsoft so by me taking this class I expanded my knowledge on computers and how to set up excel sheets as well as use Access. 
INTERPRETIVE 

(See picture above.)

APPLIED
This component helped me answer my EQ because it showed me more steps on how to obtain the success in my EQ, (What is essential for becoming a Successful Retail Franchise Owner?). By taking this class it taught me the fundamentals of the business world and how everything is shown. All presntations, or payroll sheets, in the business world,  are done using Microsoft 2013. 

Friends and Family Discount

Friends and family discount was something that was given to the employees to hand out to whoever they chose to basically come in the store and use our discount. Our customers received a 30% off their total purchase which really made them happy because we had purchases of $120 go down to about $83. It was a really busy weekend for us with everyone coming in and using that coupons. This helped me with my topic though because it helped with proving that sales and promotions really do work, in bringing in more customers.

Blog 17: Answer 3

• EQ 
• What is essential for becoming a successful retail franchise owner?
• Answer #3 (Write in a complete sentence like a thesis statement)*
• In order to keep the success of your company you must always have sales and promotions.
• 3 details to support the answer (a detail is a fact and an example)
• it keeps the customers satisfied to save a couple of dollars
• at vans we always have bogo 50% on shoes, socks and sometimes apparel
• if you do bogo free you are guaranteed to get a lot of customers
• The research source (s) to support your details and answer
• http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/customer-care/selling-more-to-existing-customers/sales-promotions-faqs
• Concluding Sentence
• I've learned this through my mentorship and helping customers, when asked what makes them keep coming back they tell me it's cause of the sales and promotions that we have.

Nerd day

Nerd day at vans! I came in to work a couple of weeks ago and as a joke we made one of our managers dress as a nerd in all vans clothes to help promote the store, it actually worked people laughed so hard they started buying the products he was wearing just to make others laugh. This was just another way to show how much fun business can be!