Month: April 2016

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Work Life

The Top 4 Lessons I Learned From Sales Before I Was 10

Posted on by mckenzieleighc

Lesson 1: Don’t Take Short-cuts- Quality Matters

Age: 4

Product/Platform- Hot Chocolate Stand

When I was four years old, my parents helped me set up a hot chocolate stand in our front yard. It was late fall in Lynchberg, Virginia, so I was bundled up in layers and scarves but all the wool and cotton in the world could not contain my excitement every time a car would drive up, read the sign that said “$.25 for a cup of hot chocolate” and ask for one. My mom was very innovative and had made hot chocolate in our coffee machine and then attached about 7 different extension cords together so it reached all the way outside, so all I had to do was press a button and the hot chocolate would pour into the Styrofoam cup and then my mom would screw on the lid and I would walk it over to our customer’s car door and thank them for being a customer. Eventually, supplies at the stand started to run low and my mom was forced to go back inside and make a second batch of hot chocolate so I could collect my quarters. During this time, I was left alone at the hot chocolate stand to fend for myself, so when a customer pulled up and asked for a hot chocolate and I knew that we didn’t have any, I didn’t want to seem like a fraud, so I sneakily walked behind the stand, found a semi-deep puddle of liquidy-mud (it has just stormed), filled the cup up to the top, and marched it over to the customer with a proud smile on my face that I was able to figure out a solution all on my own. The man handed me his quarter and without hesitation took a relatively large drink from the cup and then proceed to spit it all over his car. I have never seen a man look at a four-year-old girl with so much contempt before he threw the cup onto the street and sped off. I learned then that if my sign says I’m giving someone hot chocolate, I better make sure that’s what they get because absolutely no one likes being scammed- even if it’s be an adorable four-year-old who thought she was being helpful.

Lesson 2: Smiling and Having a Positive Energy Can Go a Long Way

Age- 6

Product/Platform- rollie pollies/D2D

Shortly following the hot chocolate fiasco, my parents relocated my sister and I to the state of endless cornfields, sunflowers taller than my parents, and nice people who talked slow and treated everyone like their grandchild. Kansas. We moved into a much nicer neighborhood, with people who were always out in the lawn or at the park and everyone waved when you passed them. I knew my opportunities here were limitless. However, I was interested in trying out a different sales method entirely and, correspondingly, I figured out that a new product would be best as well. At first I considered my coin collection but my dad told me no. Then I was going to sell my sisters toys, but she noticed they were missing and I got grounded for a week which gave me the time I needed to come up with the product I was searching for- something that wouldn’t require me to give up anything, was already available in bulk, and would be easy to transport (I had decided that going door to door selling would be my new approach). It was then, during my week of grounding, when I was out sitting in the lawn that I noticed these tiny little adorable creatures that consumed our sidewalk. Rollie Pollies. I studied them and decided that they’d make an excellent product. I already had a ton of them and they were, in my eyes, very cute. I figured my neighbors could maybe treat them like mini pets or would just be impulsive enough to buy them based solely on how cute they were. So I collected two jars, filled the bottom with grass, and one by one place each rollie pollie inside so that I could go out and find them a new home. It never crossed my mind that every other yard in the neighborhood may already have rollie pollies too. Despite this, when I’d knock on the doors and greet my neighbors with a giant smile on my face and then launch into my pitch with all the excitement and enthusiasm in the world telling them about how great these rollie pollies were, I very rarely got turned down. Maybe it was because people don’t like saying no to a six year olds face. Maybe it was because they were only $.10 (Although I got a surprising amount of tips), but this venture was successful despite all the odds, data, and common sense against it. I learned that smiling a lot and being excited about my product can take me a very, very long way.

Lesson 3: Location Matters

Age: 10

Product/Platform- Neighborhood Snow Cone Stand

When I was ten, my family up and moved to Missouri in the middle of the summer and I decided to give entrepreneurship another shot. I didn’t know anyone in Missouri, so when I saw a lot of the local kids setting up lemonade stands in their front yards, I immediately started evaluating them as my competition. I saw that some kids had started adding a twist with pink lemonade or offering koolaid instead. Some kids had fancy stands their parents probably spent a good amount of money on. I had a 4/4 table, a cooler, and a safe. Initially, I thought I’d set myself apart by selling snowcones instead of lemonade. I thought this was an absolute stroke of genius. I had an excellent snowcone machine- it was fast, I could load the ice in myself, and I could offer my customers up to five different flavors. I thought for sure that I was about to monopolize the entire neighborhood. That’s not what happened. Instead, I received the same amount of traffic because there’s only a certain amount of people that drive past my front yard everyday, but I was able to make more money because people were willing to pay more for my product since it was significantly better than the competitions. Two of the neighborhood rivals, an eight year old boy and an twelve year old girl, eventually left their own stands and asked if they could work at mine with me. I didn’t like the idea of profit-sharing and they could sense my hesitation, and it was then that Cheryl Sommers, the eight year old, offered me something that I had never even considered before. A prime spot at the gazebo of her neighborhood which, although it was only two streets over, had houses valued at twice the amount of mine and a corresponding amount of stay at home moms and nannies- every single one who would know actually have to drive past our stand and say yes or no to us if they wanted to enter their own neighborhood. Business SKYROCKETED. Once the car lines started backing up, people began parking their cars and coming up to the gazebo to wait in line. My mom brought a boom box (yes, that was relevant then) and would chit chat with our new neighbors as I hustled around, barking out orders for more ice and new cups and for Evan (my new boy business partner) to stop eating all of the snow cone syrup. We put every lemonade stand on that street out of business- mostly because they decided that they’d rather walk over to our nice shaded gazebo and get a snow cone for themselves as well. Cheryl and that Gazebo taught me the incredible importanance of location when selling- and it’s a lesson that I still utilize on a weekly basis.

Lesson 4: People Like To Buy Things That Make Them Feel Good About Themselves

Age- 10

Product/Placement- Neighboor Bake Sale in the Gazebo (for Charity)

When fall approached, the demand for snow cones went down but there was no way I was giving up my prime Gazebo location, so one day we went to Cheryl’s to brainstorm how we could combat the lurking cooler weather. Cheryl’s mother, the elementary school librarian, overheard our conversation and asked her what we were doing with the money we were raising. I told her I had just bought the Sims game but other than that, the money stayed in my safe because I didn’t really know what to do with it- I just liked the challenge of getting it. Cheryl’s mom’s eyes lit up when she heard this (her own daughter hid all of her money and secretly spent it on trips to Walmart and the mall with her dad), and then she casually asked if I wanted to taste the brownies she was making. I was ten so of course I agreed, and they tasted like heaven. I remember saying “Mrs.Sommers, you have to let me sell these! They’ll make us millionaires and you can have every book in the library!” and she smiled and presented my very first negotiation- she would provide a plethora of bake sale items every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Brownies, Cake, every cookie imaginable- she could bake it all- and then, the real curveball, she’d give them to us for FREE to sell! The only catch was the we had to donate half of the proceeds towards getting back the school districts fourth grade camp that they had recently eliminated due to budget cuts. I didn’t care at all about the money, I was excited to sell such an awesome product, so I excitedly agreed and we set up shop two days later. Mrs. Sommers went above and beyond. She posted flyers about our bake sale and the cause behind it. She upgraded me to a six foot table and decorated it with delicacies and pamphlets about the camp behind our “fundraiser”, as she was now insisting on calling it. If I thought business was busy before, this was busy on steroids. Apparently, when it comes to baked goods, there’s a good amount of people who like to buy in bulk. There’s also a lot of parents who had kids who wanted the camp back. And then Mrs. Sommers made her final play- she called the local new station and let them know that a seven and an eight year old were dedicating every second of their weekends to raise money so they can go to a camp one day that every child would have gotten to go to for free a year beforehand. An entire news team showed up at our Gazebo. They didn’t ask any questions about our brownies, but they asked a lot of questions about why I wanted to go to camp (I had literally never thought about it until the microphone was in front of my face) and how much of an inspiration we were. We made the front-page news. A month later, the school districts reinstated that all four graders get to go to camp. We became neighborhood heroes. I have no idea how much we donated- it wasn’t nearly enough to have a financial impact- but people were far more influenced by the heart and the passion they saw behind those two young girls in the Gazebo who they assumed just really wanted to go to camp, but really we just liked selling stuff.

Posted in Entrepreneurship, Work Life

If Opportunity Looks Like Work, What Does Success Look Like?

Posted on by mckenzieleighc
Ashton Kutcher is well-known at this point for many things, but one of my favorites is his speech at the Teen’s Choice Awards where he gave an excellent speech on the foundation that “opportunity looks a lot like work”. He seemingly singled out millennials who want a quick route to success and cynics who attribute his fame to “getting lucky”. It was an excellent speech, and an excellent quote, but it’s easy for people to believe that Ashton Kutcher may have some kind of secret insight- look at his resume or IMBD page. However, despite how hard I am positive that Ashton Kutcher worked to establish his career, long hours and sleepless nights and weeks with skipped meals (and showers) are not what tends to come to mind when the “That 70’s Show” star walks on stage. Why? Because we didn’t see the work part. We weren’t there for the tedious jobs or the counting dollars to see if he’ll make it through the week. We were there to witness the success. And what does success look like? Put me in a room with 1 billionaire from old money, 1 millionaire who hates his job on Wall Street, and an entrepreneur who just launched his first start up and hasn’t seen a profit yet but can’t stop talking about his last meeting, and l’ll point to the entrepreneur every time. Why? Because success cannot be measured by materialistic means. It cannot be measured by social status or awards or achievements. Success is the way you feel about what it is that you’ve done and what it is that you are doing. Opportunity may look a lot like hard work, but success, to me, looks like passion. The kind that keeps you up, the kind that burns inside with a contagious intensity- the kind that drives you to be willing to do whatever amount of work it takes to reach your goal because it doesn’t FEEL like work. When effort is combined with passion, it doesn’t make you tired- the late nights and long meetings and failure after failure, challenge after challenge actually give you energy. You’re fulfilling intimate parts of your core self. It may not always be “fun”, but it’s almost always exciting and it’s a guarantee that you’re learning something every single day. So yes, I agree with Ashton that opportunity looks a lot like work. But once someone has earned that opportunity they’ve worked for, the passion that they extend to their endeavors is what creates the image (and often extent) of their success.

https://youtu.be/FNXwKGZHmDc

Posted in Uncategorized

5 Reasons Why I’m- As a Millennial CEO- Scared to Hire Millennials.  And 5 Reasons Why It’s Likely Still Worth It.

Posted on by mckenzieleighc

1. Not to generalize, but a large number of Millennials don’t care all that much about making money.  Whether they are straight out of college or still trying to figure out what adult-life is all about, they are much more focused on finding a job that gives them a sense of purpose and belonging.  They want to feel like they’re a part of something bigger.  They’re use to eating ramen noodles and crashing on their friends couches- and a lot of them still have their parents they can call if funds run low.  As a CEO, I want people in my business who will be profitable- and millennials simply are not the safest bet.  However, the value they add in energy and in their student mentality may prove to be more profitable in the long run if a sense of loyalty is established.

2. They’re used to participation trophies.  A lot of millennials will actually get offended when they read that, but it’s the truth.  In business, there are no participation trophies.  You either show up and get the job done and get paid for it, or you don’t and you get fired.  Millennials often struggle at first when they feel like they are putting forth their best effort in one area (ex. They’re the first to the office in the morning) but slacking in another (ex. They underperform) and don’t receive credit or praise for the part they did right.

3. Millennials are needy.  They are used to constant recognition on social media and, thanks to the way the education is set up, performing at a mediocre level in school, and are a lot less used to constructive criticism.  They require a “build, break, build” format for feedback.  Positively reinforce.  Suggest desired change.  Offer secondary positive reinforcement to rebuild confidence.

4. They are use to a life of instant-gratification.  This term is TERMINAL for a business.  Millennials want instant results.  It’s why so many rely on drugs like Adderall and Vyvanse instead of getting more sleep and eating healthier.  However, patience and discipline are certainly virtues that can be taught.

5. They need constant stimulation.  Blame it on the fact that they’re used to having 4-5 different social media platforms to entertain them at all times, the majority of which contain a large amount of extremely condensed content- but there is no denying that the attention span of Millennials is significantly less than the generations before.  There’s a ton of studies that prove this.  It’s not their fault, but it is their reality.

Reasons Why It’s Still Worth It:

1. Millennials keep you in touch with what’s current.  What’s trending, what new technology is out, what social media platforms are in- they will give your company a progressive edge.

2. They are investments.  Show them growth- personal and professional- and show them that you care, and they’ll respond with loyalty and a “whatever it takes” attitude.

3. They know how to have fun.  They add energy and competition to a workplace and will force current employees to step up to their level.

4. They can influence a company to be more democratic (in a good way).  Whether it’s from lecture halls to sports teams, they are used to being able exercise their voice and opinions and will likely encourage others to do the same.  If a CEO can learn to view these voiced opinions as feedback, they can use them to make their company better, and overall employee satisfaction will rise- with the results naturally following the trend.

5. They force the CEO to step up their game.  Coaching millennials is far different than any generation before.  They won’t respond nearly as well to black and white instructions or umbrella incentives and consequences.  They want a career that will invest in developing them as an individual- based on their learning style, on their values, on their goals, and on their strengths.  While this may be an adjustment for the CEO, I don’t know of any company that has gotten worse from upper management being more in touch with the needs and desires on their company.