Week 14

 Week 14

• If you had one final lecture to share with a group of students on what you have learned from this course, what would you share?

If I had one final lecture to share and it was from what I learned in this class is to do my best to focus on what matters most in life.  Money is fun and can open a lot of doors, but it's not the main focus.  Having a happy healthy family, creating solid relationships with others and seeking those who need my help is what I will strive to do from now on.

• What would be your last bit of advice to someone wanting to begin the entrepreneur journey?

Just start.  It's not going to be perfect, you're going to make mistakes but just start.  Don't give up the first 2-3 months.  After that you'll start to see things really happenings.  We almost gave up on our business 3 months in.  After we kept going we have done almost $500,000 in sales.

• What words of advice, direction, or caution would you give him or her if you had only one chance to give your own last lecture?

Love everyone around you.  Ask for help and advice from others but mainly listen to what the spirit tells you to listen to.  Spend time with God everyday and your mind will be much more at ease.  Trust people to do their job and praise them when they do.

Week 13

 What a crazy week and how perfect it was that the weeks focus was on gratitude.  I learned a lot this week about being happy and grateful for where I am at.  We moved to Arizona yesterday and left behind our first ever home.  It was very hard to leave and sad to leave everything we built there.  But I am so grateful for the chance we had to be there and the impact we were able to make with those around us.  I know that God has a plan for our little family and that plan right now is being in Surprise Arizona teaching the youth here.

Our business has actually picked up a little bit as well since we've moved so that is fun as well to get some extra income that why as we still haven't sold our house. 

This has been an awesome semester and I am sad for it to be over next week.  Excited to keep this journey going and see what I am able to build with the help from the Lord. 

W11

W11

Can't believe we are already on week 11 of this semester!  Where has the time come?!  It was fun this week to reflect on the costs of where I spend my time.  I have had a lot of time on my hand but at the same time (haha) little time at all.  Last week my wife and I traveled to Arizona for seminary trainings and meeting with people looking for a house (We found one) and this week we are still trying to sell our home (Stressed out of my mind haha). The market is shifting like crazy and even though we bought really cheap 3 years ago, our profit is slowly going down by $10,000 each week it sits on the market as we lower our price.  

It's been fun to reflect on my coaching lifestyle with the mini case studies we did.  I've been coaching for 7 years and have spent 1,000's of hours doing it.  I've won 2 state championships in that time and with us moving, my coaching career is taking a backseat.  I think it'll be wonderful for my marriage and for my kids as I can now devote those 1,000's of hours to my wife and kids and seminary kids.  I am excited to attend my new students events to show them that I care, that they are seen and loved.  It'll be fun to involve my family as well so they can support my students as well. 

I look forward to finishing off this semester strong.  I know had I kinda an off week last week so I am excited to revisit where I am spending my time and make sure I am giving enough time to school so I don't mess up getting my degree in December 2023.  Until next week!  Excited to see what it brings (Hopefully a sold house)

W09

 W09

What a special week I had this week.  What I had going on in my personal life lined up perfectly with this weeks study.  I was at a week long inservice for my career in Seminary and was able to learn so much about leadership, giving your life to Christ and so much more.  As I sit down to ponder now about business and this week of learning everything I think of what kind of leader can I be in the business I currently have and the businesses I will create in the future and start in the future.  I know God has a plan for my family in helping others.  I feel it and I am so excited to see where we end up.

We are moving in the next few weeks and were on the path for buying a house.  As we went down that path to buy the house things went smoothly but just felt off the whole time.  When we walked through the house it just felt yucky and off.  We walked around the neighborhood and it just didn't feel like home.  We kept moving forward because we felt buying was the right thing to do but as we got more and more into it, we realized we'd have to have almost $200,000 in cash to sell our house, fix our roof and a couple other things, and then close on the house and put 25% down, pay points to get the interest rate down and so much more.  Wow.  What a crazy life we have.  So now we are looking into renting and investing our money in a high-yield savings account and see what happens. 

We feel renting is the right way to go now.  We just need to keep moving forward with selling our house and get that done so we can move on into the next chapter of our lives. 

W08

 This was a fun week and a big leap of faith and adventure for me.  A challenge we are currently facing is making cash consistently and building up that money over time.  Our business used to do $10,000-$12,000 in monthly revenue back in 2019 and the first part of 2020 but now it's slowed to about $1,000 in monthly revenue.  I had a seminary student who is very business minded (who I am going to interview for our assignment coming up) who buys really luxury cars for as cheap as he can and then resells them for what they are worth or fixes them a little bit and then resells them.  I asked him if he started with low ticket items and he said totally!  He said you gotta be the first to see the listing and offer low and get it fast so they are willing to move forward with you.  I tired that this week.

I saw 9 guitar hero guitars for sale for $100.  I bought all of them and saw on eBay they were selling for around $30 so I could make $270 in revenue and $170 in profit.  Well, I have already sold 5.  4 were lower model ones that I sold for $60.  The other one was a rare one I ended up selling for $100.  I am now already in profit with $160 in revenue and still have 4 left to sell.  I am excited to grow this new adventure and see where it takes us. 

It'll be fun to reinvest the money each time until we can buy bigger ticket items like my student/friend and make bigger profits all at once.  I will keep you posted on how the progress is going.  Excited to have this interview as well to gain more and more insights on how to make that $10,000 - $12,000 a month again.  That was a pretty fun life :) 

W07

 This week was an amazing one.  We went to Surprise Arizona where we will be living for seminary.  Looked at the house we are buying and talked about the things we'd like to do to make it our "home".  It'll take about $11,000 of investing time and resources for the backyard (which is all dirt) and the paint and trim and carpet.  I love the talk from Guy this week that money isn't all that we think it is.  Yes we need it for life but if we have more of it, the nice car, etc it doesn't mean we've made it.  I think buying this house and putting a little bit of money into it we will be able to have more joy rather than just sitting on the money and saving it.  I've been thinking about money a lot lately with selling our current home.  I grew up having no money and very poor.  Now that we are doing okay and life is cozy it's hard for me to think that you can use your money to make more money but also to make more memories and enjoy life.  I have been thinking about what I enjoy doing and what I can do with my time to make the money we'll need to survive and have a good life.  I am excited for the thoughts that are going through my mind about the future plans we have and what we can do with our lives in Arizona.

This week taught me that family is the most important thing to be.  To spend time with them and have a career that will be supportive of a family life.  Be in a spot that I can be there for my kids and wife when needed.  Let me wife have a life outside of being a mom.  Just have a happy life :) 

W06

 This week was one to remember forever.  It's been a big week with learning more of who I truly am, what our lives will look like in the future, and what God's plan is for us moving forward.  Having our business was the biggest blessing we've seen so far.  It allowed us to buy our home, make a lot of money on it, and today it went up for sale and will hopefully sell fast so we can move to Arizona for our new seminary teaching position.  I have most of the summer off and I plan on using that time to rebuild/rebrand our business to help us pay for the home we are going to be moving into in Arizona.  I have some plans to pivot what we are currently doing and hopefully we work less but make a little more than what we are making now.

This week's focus taught me I love being an entrepreneur.  I thrive for that feeling of creating something and seeing it succeed.  Figuring out how to problem solve issues and problems within our business to help it grow and do better.

The biggest thing I want to do with my life and time is help impact the youth of this world.  Yes I will have a big impact with seminary but outside of that I want to create something that will bless their lives even more.  A product business that will push them to be better and grown and spark the fire in their lives.  

Giving everything to God is hard.  It's scary at times.  Trusting His timing and His will isn't always fun but in the long run and in His timing man life is so beautiful.  Always put God first.  Trust Him.  Turn to Him often and seek His will daily. 

W05

This week was full of so much emotion.  We are planning our move to Arizona and looking at buying houses and selling our house.  The business side of skill, luck, or character had a big role in our lives these last few months with seminary.  We've been blessed to be in a place of luck when it comes to being in the right places at the right time.  We've been blessed with skills like people skills to ask the right questions at the right time and with character to be the right fit for the job.

Selling our house will give us a good amount of money that we can use to pay off debt and maybe even revamp our business again.  It would be so fun to pivot our business with the money to grow into a bigger business like we talked about with the case study.  We were just very small so if we could get some money to really push some more product and marketing we might be able to revive our business. 

This week was fun to reflect on what we did wrong and what we did right.  I think I need to now surround myself with better people who are in the places I want to be.  People who will push me to be better than I am now.  I have been around a lot of good people in my life but I know I can get around even better ones.  I think that would help me in a lot of aspects of my life.  From business to parenting and being a better husband and person all around. 

Looking forward to seeing what the world brings us in Arizona and with seminary.  Things feel good and right but also scary and unsure about the home and living situation. 

W04

 This week was an amazing week.  I learned a lot not only with school but with myself.  I got a call on Thursday that I have been hired full time for seminary and we will be moving from St George UT to Arizona!  What a crazy adventure we are about to embark on!  This made it for a very interesting work/school week only really focused on moving and starting a new career path.  The book really helped a lot this week.  It was so awesome to see how much he put God first and how that changed his life.  Like Steven (in the book) got fired and had to pivot we too have to pivot and find a new life in Arizona where we don't know anyone.  We'll have to rethink our business  and see how we can make that work in AZ and I already have some fun ideas that I am excited to work on there.

How will I measure my life?  Well, these last 6+ years I've measured my life by how many sales we go, and how good my runners got.  Now, with this new life we are about to start i'll have to shift the way I measure my life.  What will people say at my funeral?  Who would come?  What legacy will I leave behind?  I pray that not only will I be an impact on those in this world but I'll also be a father to my kids that will leave a happy memory for them forever.  That they will grow and know who Jesus Christ is because of their dad.  I can't think of a better way to measure my life then by trying to be like Christ and help my kids see that in their dad.  This week will be one to remember. 

W03

 Honesty and Business Ethics 

    This week was a really enjoyable one.  I was able to look inside myself a lot this week and see why things have happened the way they have.  Owning our business I stopped pushing myself after we started to have big results.  As we are making the most money we've ever made I stopped trying and just rode the money wave.  Well after a year that money wave got a lot smaller and we were very behind when it came to getting back onto the next wave.  Others came into the market that pushed us out and we had to do something and nothing was working.  We will have our business but I learned that you can't ever feel like you "got it" because that is when you'll lose it all.
    This led us to seminary which I am so grateful for but it's also stretching me and helping me grow again.  I am learning so much about not just going half way but being truly honest in my work.  I could get away with some things with our business but not with this new position in life.  I need to be all in on so many levels and I love that.

    I really enjoyed the read "formula for happiness"  I love the steps and I really like the get up early step.  I personally love mornings and find a lot of joy being up before everyone else.  I tend to run first thing if I am up early and I love coming back from a run and the house is still quite and still.  Second he says to work hard.  Like explained above when I stopped working hard things fell apart.  I pray I can work hard with seminary and learn all I can to help these students have meaningful powerful experiences in the classroom.  Find your oil.  I think  I have found it but I know there is much much more God has in store for my little family and I.

W02 Reflection

 This week was a big week of learning. I actually shared a lot of what I learned with my runners whom I coach track and field to at Snow Canyon high school.  I loved that I was able to reflect on my life and who helps me stay in line and what my big vision is for my life.  What I really want to do with my life.  What I feel my "stars" are in my life and how I can get there.  I feel like from the "Last Lecture" I learned that the moments in life where I didn't get what I wanted were the best moments for me.  I have had a business for 6+ years and it has gone very well for that time until this year.  Not getting sales or what I want has led me to change.  Change has been hard but has led me to where I needed to be which is in seminary.  With the youth.  Whom I love so much with all my heart.  It seems I am moving soon and I am very sad to leave my athletes and students.  If I was given one more time to share to those people here like in the video we watched I would share this.

"I love you all.  This time coaching has changed my life.  Each one of you have changed me in some way for the better.  I am so grateful for all of you.  Keep running.  Keep cheering on others.  Keep believing in yourself.  Never compare yourself to others.  That is the thief of joy.  Inspire others with your love for them."

I might share more but that is what was on my heart tonight.  I am grateful for the roles I am right now but I know God has better and bigger goals for me in the near future. 

W01 Entrepreneurial Journal Blog

 Here we are!  So excited to start this semester and grow my business so much as I can and learn as much as I can along the way with this class.  This week was a fun first week.  The videos got me excited to learn as much as I could to better our engagement with our customers.  I really enjoyed president Hinkley's video.  Excited to make an impact on the world and leave a better life for my kids.

Our business right now is selling pregnancy announcements through Etsy and Amazon.  We've been in business for over six years and the middle years were our best years.  We started slow with $200 of our own money and have grown that $200 into almost $400,000 in revenue.  Our profit margin has been around 60% but our business has slowed down a lot and needs some love. 

I hope this class helps ignite some ideas on what we can do to better our sales, traffic, and maybe even pivot from this business model and see if there is another route we need/should take.  Some things I hope to learn from this class is how to take risks with little cash flow.  How to use what you have without having to spend a ton of money on Facebook ads or others ads for that matter.  We have ran ads in the past which have helped but I think they mainly just brought people to our store without buying.

Another business model I'm interested in is repeat customers.  We get them once every time they have a baby which can't happen that often haha.  So building a business model around getting a customer to keep coming back and wanting/needing to come back. 

I am excited for this class and to keep track of everything I learn on this blog.  Onward and upward we go!