Entrepreneur Journal - Entry 6 (B283)

I really enjoyed the reading and video material this week. It was all focused on providing customer satisfaction. I was amazed at Zappos’ dedication to their company culture of high customer service. Their hiring process is unique in that they give incentives for the potential employees to quit. They know that if the employees do quit, they are not the type of employees that would be dedicated to the culture of the company and therefore are not suited to work for Zappos. I also like how everyone hired at the company, no matter what level in the organization they’ll be working, are all given the same training. This provides them experience at every level which I believe gives them a greater appreciation for what goes on in the company and what it takes to make it work successfully.

I also really enjoyed watching the videos on JetBlue. The CEO was quite funny and had a great attitude about how his company was dedicated to investing in what really mattered. He knew hat airline food was often complained about, so they omitted it in a fun and humorous way. Instead he invested in TVs for the “customers” (he doesn’t call them passengers, and his employees are referred to as crew members.) Each seat is equipped with a TV that the customer is in control of. He saved so much money by investing in what the customer would value as opposed to what the industry norm is.

My $100 Challenge is still going strong. I’ve sold many products, taken requests for new products (which I am now producing), reinvested quite a bit of my revenue into new equipment which makes my products so much easier to create and with exceptional quality. One thing I’ve learned is that individual request are fun, but definitely not cost or time effective. I make so much more money when I produce in bulk and the time element is so much better too. Of course, that’s probably a “no-brainer” concept, but it was interesting to actually experience it. I need to remind myself that I need to take my passion for what I’m making and turn even the individual orders into mass producing orders. Anything beyond what I sell to the individual can easily be sold to others, so I might as well use my time and money more efficiently. I started selling my products over four weeks ago so I think my assignment is done, but I keep selling and producing in hopes of gaining experience through this assignment that will help me when I start my actual business. So far it’s been really fun and gratifying.