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!