After a year of hard work, I can finally say that I have reached the finish line. However, as I finish one race, another will soon begin and I will be on my way again. I successfully gave my final presentation to my audience members and I told them about everything I had done or learned throughout the year. I was amazed as I was looking back towards everything I have accomplished because of truly how much I have grown and learned. I stepped outside my comfort zone and did things I never thought I would be doing at my age all because of Independent Study and Mentorship. This class and my mentor have given me guidance and direction in all aspects of life and I am very appreciative of this amazing opportunity I was presented with. Through creating a business, I have gained even more experience than I previously had and will know what to do in the future when I decide to start another company. I am ahead of other individuals of my age and will continue to expand my knowledge and experience with entrepreneurship.
I look forward to next year as I will be in ISM 2 and will have another year to put myself out in the business world. I will either continue with my mentor or find another. Either way, I will be learning and doing what I love every single day. This class has solidified my career choice as I love everything about entrepreneurship. I want to be able to create jobs for other individuals and work for myself for the rest of my life.
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This past week in Independent Study and Mentorship has been eventful as I submitted my product and can now say that I am finally done. There will always be more in terms of adding to the business but I have completely essentially everything ISM related. This entire year has been leading up to this one night and it is right around the corner now. I need to practice and prepare for my speech I will be giving to my guests that show up to Final Presentation Night. They will be hearing about everything I have done in ISM the entire year and all of my accomplishments. I am ready to compile my learning and experiences and share them with the audience so they can see just how far I have gotten. It seems as if everything has gone by so quickly but I know how many hours and how much effort I have put into the business and the class as a whole. Everything I have done in this class has helped me towards my future and I will take these experiences with me on the next step in life. I believe that I want to continue being an entrepreneur and was able to get first hand experience because of Independent Study and Mentorship.
This week in Independent Study and Mentorship has felt accomplishing as I have reached the finish line and am finally done with my product. The Frisco Public Library sent me an email saying that my 3D design has been printed and is ready to be picked up. I went to go pick it up and I realized that the prototype will need some more work before it is ready to be taken to manufacturers. It was not all that I was hoping it would be but it accurately represents my phone case idea and will be enough to show the people who show up to Final Presentation Night. I have learned a lot throughout this entire year and I can finally say that I know how to create a product for a company. In the future, if I ever need to create a prototype, I will know exactly what to do and all the steps to take. ISM has given me experience that I would not have gotten elsewhere or it would have been in much later life. I feel as if I have an advantage over other students as I already have been through the process and know how to start a business. I learned that one can never truly know the challenges of doing something until he/she does it themselves.
This week in Independent Study and Mentorship, I have met with my designer and made the final changes to the 3D design of the phone case. I am very satisfied with how it turned out and hope that the printed prototype will be just as good. My main concern is hoping that the prototype will function correctly and be an optimal representation of my final product for ISM. My designer has emailed me the files of the phone case and I dropped them off at the Frisco Public Library to get them printed. They said that they will send me an email when it finishes printing but I should expect to wait for about a week before they get done. I am very excited to be at the finish line but I know that I still have a very long way to go. My goal is to get some pre-orders done within the next few weeks so I can be able to say that the business is up and running by the time Final Presentation night comes around. A couple of weeks ago, I did not believe that I would finish the product in time for FPN but I was able to push through and I feel as if everything worked out in my favor. I was able to find the perfect designer which was one I could actually meet with in person. I am excited to see what the future holds and continue my business throughout the summer.
This week in Independent Study and Mentorship, I spoke with my designer and saw pictures of the progress she has made on the phone case. I will be doing the final revisions on the design this week and then send it to the Frisco Public Library to get printed. I am very happy with how the phone case looks because it is essentially exactly how I pictured it would be. I need to make a few minor changes such as sizing and small details on how it looks overall. I believe I will have a prototype of the phone case in time for Final Presentation Night in ISM which is good as I will be meeting my deadline. I want to try and get some pre-orders for the phone case before that time so I can show that I have done above and beyond. I want to show that the business is making progress to the people who attend the event. Also, by explaining more about the phone case, I could possibly get more people to pre-order which would be optimal for the business as a whole. I also need to contact a new company I have found that can print 3D designs with many different materials and see if they would be willing to become my manufacturer (if the prices are reasonable).
This week in Independent Study and Mentorship, I have met with the person who will be designing the phone case for my company. I was successfully able to explain exactly how it works to her which was very important in the design. Previously, I had tried to explain my idea to some people but they did not understand. I believe I have improved as a person as I have learned better ways to explain things to people. This time I brought along examples of what I was talking about and tried to show the person visually which made a tremendous difference. I hope the phone case will be designed within the next week so I can go and get it printed at the Frisco Public Library as soon as possible. The problem of getting the phone case designed is now over and I believe I have found the best person for the job in terms of cost and accessibility. If I need to make any changes, I will be able to tell the individual face-to-face which I would not have been able to do using fiverr.com. This ensures that everything will be done to my specifications and I can make any changes I want with rapid speed.
This week in Independent Study and Mentorship has gone really well for me. I have found the perfect designer to make my 3D design of the phone case. I will not be using fiverr.com anymore as I have found a better option as the designer I have found will be able to meet with me in person. I asked around my school for anyone who did 3D designing and my ISM teacher referred me to one of her students. I talked to her and she said she would be willing to make the 3D design for me and I will be compensating her for her services as I will be taking time out of her day. This is optimal as I will be able to be right next to the designer while creating the phone case and I will be able to make any changes I want. Furthermore, she has 3D printed a product for her original work so she has experience in printing as well. She told me that I should expect it to take about a week to finish 3D printing so I must leave myself enough time for potential conflicts that occur. Also, I will know exactly what programs to use that are compatible with the 3D printer as the designer I have chosen has printed from the area before.
This week in my Independent Study and Mentorship class, I have been planning my time and doing a lot of thinking towards completing the product. I need to make sure that I will finish the prototype in time for the final presentation in ISM. So far, my designer has asked for more detailed sketches and I will be getting him those within the next week. After that, I must wait for him to complete the 3D design of the phone case and then refine the design he has created. I need to make sure that the design fits my specifications and I will need to do this in as little time as possible. I must then go to the 3D printer and get my product printed. I have to complete all of these things very quickly or else I have will extensive problems along the road. It is always good to start early so that there can be room for error and time to fix those problems. I also need to think of a back up plan on the off chance that I will not have a 3D printed prototype in time. Some things that I could do would be to make the prototype myself out of some materials such as clay or cardboard. These options would look unprofessional but I must make sure I have a visible demonstration of the phone case so people would have a general understanding of it.
This week in Independent Study and Mentorship, I have been completely focused on obtaining detailed sketches of the product I will be creating in my business. The phone case is very unique and complicated to draw so I decided to think outside of the box for ways I could get this drawn. My partner and I thought of the art teacher at our school and so we decided to ask her if she would be able to do this for us. Luckily, she has said yes and we will have a detailed sketch of the product to show the designer on fiverr.com, who is already waiting for me to send sketches. The designer I have chosen has received many positive reviews from others in the past and has extensive experience in the 3D designing industry. I chose him so that I could receive a high quality design from someone with lots of credibility. Once I obtain the sketches and show them to the designer, I must look towards 3D printers so I can get a prototype made. I may need to reserve a 3D printer ahead of time to ensure that my product will be printed in time for final presentation night in ISM.
This week in Independent Study and Mentorship, I have had spring break to work on improving my business and researching ways to help it grow very quickly. I have continued to work with 3D designers on designing the phone case and I must get this done in order to move forward. The designer that I currently had making my prototype cancelled the order so I must look into other people to help me complete this. I will be looking on fiverr.com for any other skilled designers I believe can take on this task. Outside of focusing on the prototype, I have looked through many websites on how to expand my business quickly. I could consider using social media as a platform to spark a fad or quick boom in sales in the future as people all across the country would be viewing my product. Similarly, through getting featured on popular websites or technology based YouTube channels, I could bring in an influx of sales and kick start the business. I will continue to find other ways to expand my business when it reaches that phase so I will have many options when the time comes. Throughout this week, I will work on completing the prototype so I can move forward with the business.
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