Reflective Summary

Everyone has an idea, some passion to pursue as an entrepreneur. However, not everyone gets the chance to go through a rigorous process to test the feasibility of implementing their concept.  This class afforded me the opportunity to brainstorm a concept, one that had been lingering with my wife and I, but without the structure to realize it.  Her passion and strengths reside with interior design and I have been interested in real estate for years and when I thought about the best idea to pitch for the class, I came up with Storied by Design.  The concept here is about helping people to improve the design within their spaces or at events and working with real estate professionals to stage their listings to get the highest sales price.  We wanted to start with an untapped market and we selected Brooklyn given the borough’s booming real estate economy.  The premise behind Brooklyn is that it is becoming the new Manhattan, where residents will be more likely to invest in interior design services.  Once upon a time many people considered interior design services as being only for the wealthy but with the popularity of dramatic home transformations on interior design shows, more and more people are recognizing that interior design can also be for the typical person.  The business plan template was helpful in providing the structure to help realize the Storied by Design concept.

After going through the research process to complete the business plan, it made me realize that lots of work still has to be done beyond coming up with a idea that allows entrepreneurs to pursue their passion.  Industry research was pretty straight forward as one can find really helpful information in databases such as IBISWorld and Business Source Premier.  However, when it came to market research, especially the local market, it became a little more challenging to find and synthesize the information from various sources.  The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce had published an interesting report on the economic activity in Brooklyn that provided important information about the real estate trends in Brooklyn that helped us to make the case for interior design services in Brooklyn.  I started to feel more confident about the business plan once I had conducted research validating many of the assumptions I was making about marketing interior design services to Brooklyn residents.

The other aspect of the business planning process that was a reality check involved the financials.  Once I started to input estimates into the spreadsheet template, I realized that I would need to charge more for the three tiers of services, interior design consulting and implementation, special events planning, and staging services.  After one factors in all of the fixed and variable costs associated with launching and running a business a business, it becomes clear that it takes time to become break even and become profitable.  The process also forces one to try to find ways to keep costs down as another way to become profitable.  Of course, the most important lesson learned was to ensure that all the estimates and projections were as realistic as possible up front to ensure all of the calculations completed by the form would be achievable. 

Running the business through the Institute for Virtual Enterprise (IVE) was another milestone that provided some insights into operating a business.  I like the emphasis the platform places on e-commerce, the ability for your shop to be open 24/7/365 to accept orders.  Setting up the site and an accompanying website underscored the importance of being clear in describing services to potential customers.  As in earlier parts of the business planning process such as the initial concept pitch, pitching was a major part of the IVE experience that further emphasized the importance of being persuasive in a short amount of time to a specific audience.  The sales presentation is important in that it goes beyond being a commercial.  It asks the customer to take action and visit the site to make a purchase.  Another pitch coming out of the IVE experience was the IPO presentation and pitch and this demonstrated the improvement of my presentation and pitching abilities as I became more comfortable with timed presentations and with talking about Storied by Design itself.

In addition, ensuring that all the social media channels were live and pointing to a virtual site was also important.  A key lesson when it came to social media was the importance of maintaining the various accounts to keep content fresh and to keep customers engaged.  It takes a lot of time to monitor the social media channel even it one is using platforms such as Hootsuite.   Sometime social media sounds like it is all automatic and seamless but behind those posts, tweets, instagrams, are hours of manpower capturing and responding to the chatter.

An oftentimes forgotten part of the business planning process is the selection of strategic partners.  The case study really helped to highlight the importance of thinking about the value a partner can bring to a startup.  With little resources and an unrecognized brand, a newcomer has to leverage the strengths of a partner in order to make progress with an industry.  Storied by Design’s selection of Duralee as a partner was based on its short term and long term goal to gain more prominence in the field.  Duralee has been an industry leader for over 60 years and has an international presence as well as an earth friendly collection that would allow Storied by Design to meet the needs of those with tastes for international merchandise as well as green designs and sustainable fabrics.

One thing I appreciated about the course is its emphasis on encouraging students to think globally.  Of course this can mean different things to different businesses, but many of the helpful resources that were shared such as the World Bank’s Doing Business website as well as the Michigan State University’s Global Edge website demonstrated that there was research available for anyone interested in doing business with various countries.  And while with Storied by Design we opted to look for a partner with international connections, the idea of linking with a business in another country directly seems more possible now that before taking the course.  Because the sourcing of fabrics, furniture, and household accessories can be cheaper and more desirable when it comes a different country especially an exotic location known for fine craftsmanship.  This would be an area Storied by Design would want to continue to explore as it matures. 

Because Storied by Design was grounded in industry and market research, if I had started a similar business in the “real world,” I’m confident it would be viable and profitable eventually.  When a business is addressing an unmet need in the market especially when it is offering a value proposition that is hard to ignore, it will attract customers and build a clientele that would eventually result in profits.  A definite strength to the success of my firm would have been our emphasis on offering unparallelled concepts, experiences, and spaces.  This is based on actual feedback that my wife has received from a number of real clients (those who paid for services).  It wasn’t just the end product that they commented about, it was about the customer experience and involvement.  Another strength to the success of my firm would have been our use of technology whether information tools or design tools to ensure our clients are completely satisfied.  A weakness would’ve been our lack of visibility and how hard it would be to become a recognizable brand especially with so much noise in social media.  An opportunity to the success of the firm would be to open a storefront in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood to capitalize on new residents while attracting both residents and agents who might want to spruce up their place for renting or selling.  Another opportunity would be around finding ways to leverage college interns who are social media savvy to boost the manpower need to launch and monitor our social media presence.  Though there would be many threats to a newcomer to the block, the firm would face the threat of instant rivals who might want to join the party.  Because so many untrained people think of themselves as interior designers and because the barrier to entry is low, I can see others wanting to compete in the space once the business is up and running.  Another real threat is the fact that if the business doesn’t attract clients on a regular basis we would encounter a serious cash flow problem because many of our projections were based on a steady stream of work which in reality might not be the case for a variety of factors.

There were some road bumps that made me stumble after the course first started.  In addition to becoming familiar with the expectations of the course as well as the workload, I had to contend with some issues outside the course that shifted my focus.  Unfortunately my collision with those obstacles coincided with the submission timeline for the first parts of the business plan.  I over promised on what I could deliver for the business plan but wanted to show how much research went into the plan.  Because the information was presented in a rough format meaning the information was included and credited but wasn’t synthesized and integrated into the plan’s narrative, it did not receive a grade at all.  Once I regained my balance, my progress was evident in my grades and the professor’s comments which ranged from “well done” to “excellent.”  I participated in all calls and tried to engage with classmates regularly through thoughtful comments and feedback.  I completed assignments and did really well when it came to the virtual store, social media, and the IPO preparation and presentation.  I also completed the extra credit assignment which helped me to further polish my presentation and pitching skills because I made two presentations, one for investors (based on a misunderstanding of the assignment) and one for customers.  I’m confident as is evident in my e-Portfolio that I’ve demonstrated a full grasp of the course contents and assignments including the business plan.

I was fully committed to my Storied by Design because my wife and I had talked about it before the course and throughout the course.  We will continue to hone the contents and get feedback from others like SCORE counselors before possibly entering a business plan competition to win seed funding.    Again, the local research and the estimates to inform the plan were difficult but worthwhile to make the business plan as realistic as possible.  I think I performed above what was expected of me after my stumble.  I usually set higher expectations for myself and was trying to reach goals I set for myself and I think I did during the second half of this course.  I’m always interested in doing better as was evident in my request for extra credit.  I like to learn and I also enjoy challenges because I find I grow during and as a result of adversity.  I think had I not stumbled, I would’ve enjoyed the course even more. 

As mentioned, as an entrepreneur I learned the importance of the research process to address assumptions and to get the best estimates to ensure the plan is realistic.  I’ve realized that my process usually involves gathering as much information upfront as possible and then going through it to extract those items that will help me make an argument or a case.  Looking back at the first couple of weeks of blog entries makes me realize that though I would want everything to be grounded in research, sometimes starting with the inspiration creates more momentum.  What I mean is that I got bogged down trying to find information instead of taking time to really flesh out the vision and the ideal and then going back to get the research to address my assumptions.  I was looking at sample business plan to get a sense of the level of details as well as looking at industry research in databases such as Gale Business Insights.  Also, and I mentioned this in my blog, results matter, not effort.  Lastly, I definitely learned some social emotional lessons from reflections in this course and I think the blogging and even this reflection paper are important aspects of the learning process that is often neglected.

I think the most rewarding experiences came at the end once I started to work within IVE and the e-Portfolio to see how much was learned and completed to build Storied by Design.  When one is grinding it is hard to notice growth but once there are opportunities for compilation and reflection, one sees the body of work created and can feel a definite sense of accomplishment.  The really tight turnarounds were frustrating and sometimes I wished I had samples to give me a sense of expectations.  I don’t necessarily think samples limit especially if context and parameters are well defined around their use.  I learned about the importance of delivering results and if I can’t to let others know as soon as possible instead of trying to work things out on my own as I’ve been conditioned to do in life.

I think I might have wanted to actually go out and interview business operating in the interior design field in Brooklyn to get a sense of the actual day to day management.  I think that type of primary research would’ve benefited Storied by Design’s business plan and potential to succeed.  Because I haven’t run a business, I wanted more insights beyond what the template offered through its questions.

On a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the highest I would give myself a 8.9 for my work and performance this semester.  My stumble wasn’t a reflection of my work as is evident now looking back on my grades after that period.  What matters is not how one starts but how one finishes and my e-Portfolio is the best indicator of how much I’ve grown this semester.