Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Quick update
I'm not dead, just busy. Expect an update tomorrow. I've had a lot going on, and this has taken a back burner. I'm in class right now, but I felt the need to inform everyone of what's up.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Taking Effective Product Photos
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Back to the regular grind. I will be finished with my semester in about 2 weeks of classes, including my finals. This may be my last post for a couple of weeks as I prepare for, and take my finals.
I have gotten my Wine Making Kit online, as well as the required Wine Making Kit Refill
If you have any sort of web store, or are selling any items on the internet, or anywhere, for that matter, you will need to take enticing product photos. I will try to provide a short description of a technique for taking simple, effective product photos.
1. You will need a place to take the photos.
I fashioned a simple "photo studio" which serves my purpose. You may, if you wish, purchase a "home product studio" from several retailers. These are more professional, and have everything you need, but you will pay for it.
This is effective, and will serve your purpose if you have the cash. You can find this studio at first street, among other places. If you have $60 to spare on your business, go ahead. I do not, however. If you will be taking TONS of photos, this is worth it, I, however, do not have enough turnover to make it worth my while.
I fashioned my own studio which works very effectively. I simply used 4 different pieces of computer paper to fashion my own little studio. I just took a little time, and some tape, and formed exactly what I needed, add a light to the picture (it's a pun, get it?) and voila!
To make these:
I have gotten my Wine Making Kit online, as well as the required Wine Making Kit Refill
If you have any sort of web store, or are selling any items on the internet, or anywhere, for that matter, you will need to take enticing product photos. I will try to provide a short description of a technique for taking simple, effective product photos.
1. You will need a place to take the photos.
I fashioned a simple "photo studio" which serves my purpose. You may, if you wish, purchase a "home product studio" from several retailers. These are more professional, and have everything you need, but you will pay for it.
This is effective, and will serve your purpose if you have the cash. You can find this studio at first street, among other places. If you have $60 to spare on your business, go ahead. I do not, however. If you will be taking TONS of photos, this is worth it, I, however, do not have enough turnover to make it worth my while.I fashioned my own studio which works very effectively. I simply used 4 different pieces of computer paper to fashion my own little studio. I just took a little time, and some tape, and formed exactly what I needed, add a light to the picture (it's a pun, get it?) and voila!
- I folded the side pieces, so, when laid on top of the other piece of paper, they would reach the end.
- Tape them to the back piece of paper.
- Tape the bottom piece of paper to the walls.
- You are finished making it.
I turned off the lights in the room, shined my light straight up, reflected the light back down on the product, and got a result as follows:
A little quick photo editing yielded me:
This was as simple as pie. Well, it sounds simple as pie, but how exactly did I do it?
2. Get a decent camera
I used the Panasonic Lumix FZ28, which I just got, and think is an INCREDIBLE camera. You do NOT need a super complicated camera. Certainly, the nicer the camera, the nicer the photos, but you will not get bad photos from a less than stellar camera. Ideally, you will want some manual settings. I set my shutter to 8 seconds, at and ISO of 100, and got great results.
You do not need to be perfect, but here are the settings I used:
Shutter priority
ISO 100
Shutter time of 8 seconds (Also tried with 6, and 4 seconds with good results)
NO FLASH
You will likely need a tripod, or some sort of stable place to put your camera. With these long shutter times, it is very easy to get a blurry image. You can get a cheap tripod on e-Bay. While not necessary, make sure you at least have a way to keep the camera very steady.
If you can set these settings, try them out. The important thing is to try to work out what settings are needed for your own camera. These worked for me, but may be terrible for your settings, only time will tell.
3. Edit the photo
At the very least, you can put your photo up without any editing, but you will benefit from some editing. If you have adobe Photoshop, and you know how to use it well, you are pretty much done with anything I could tell you.
You will want to do some cropping, which can be done in very simple programs, even windows picture editor can crop. If you want to do a little more work, try GIMP. It is a toned down photo editor like Photoshop, which is completely free. I have used GIMP do do some very nice effects, and though I don't like it as much as Photoshop, it works well. I used a clone stamp tool to fill in some areas which were not what I wanted them to look like. For example:
This was the original photo, taken with only the little photo studio I fashioned.
You can see the difference that can be made upon a photo with just some simple editing tricks.
4. Publish the Photo
You'll want to make sure you save the photo in the proper settings for your personal sales website. My main requirement is that I save in a square. Beyond that, it can be in any size, and it will be fixed by ecrater.
I hope that helps out, it's a simple process, and it can be repeated for any products. Picture here were my Wine Making kit, and Wine Making Refill Kit.
If you have read this post on facebook, the complete blog is available at www.dormroombiz.com
A little quick photo editing yielded me:
This was as simple as pie. Well, it sounds simple as pie, but how exactly did I do it?2. Get a decent camera
I used the Panasonic Lumix FZ28, which I just got, and think is an INCREDIBLE camera. You do NOT need a super complicated camera. Certainly, the nicer the camera, the nicer the photos, but you will not get bad photos from a less than stellar camera. Ideally, you will want some manual settings. I set my shutter to 8 seconds, at and ISO of 100, and got great results.
You do not need to be perfect, but here are the settings I used:
Shutter priority
ISO 100
Shutter time of 8 seconds (Also tried with 6, and 4 seconds with good results)
NO FLASH
You will likely need a tripod, or some sort of stable place to put your camera. With these long shutter times, it is very easy to get a blurry image. You can get a cheap tripod on e-Bay. While not necessary, make sure you at least have a way to keep the camera very steady.
If you can set these settings, try them out. The important thing is to try to work out what settings are needed for your own camera. These worked for me, but may be terrible for your settings, only time will tell.
3. Edit the photo
At the very least, you can put your photo up without any editing, but you will benefit from some editing. If you have adobe Photoshop, and you know how to use it well, you are pretty much done with anything I could tell you.
You will want to do some cropping, which can be done in very simple programs, even windows picture editor can crop. If you want to do a little more work, try GIMP. It is a toned down photo editor like Photoshop, which is completely free. I have used GIMP do do some very nice effects, and though I don't like it as much as Photoshop, it works well. I used a clone stamp tool to fill in some areas which were not what I wanted them to look like. For example:
This was the original photo, taken with only the little photo studio I fashioned.
You can see the difference that can be made upon a photo with just some simple editing tricks.
4. Publish the Photo
You'll want to make sure you save the photo in the proper settings for your personal sales website. My main requirement is that I save in a square. Beyond that, it can be in any size, and it will be fixed by ecrater.
I hope that helps out, it's a simple process, and it can be repeated for any products. Picture here were my Wine Making kit, and Wine Making Refill Kit.
- Make a simple studio
- Get a simple camera
- Take some photos
- Do some editing
- Sell some products
If you have read this post on facebook, the complete blog is available at www.dormroombiz.com
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Basic Sourcing Information
As my readers will know by now, I have been putting together a wine making kit to sell on my store. I have been working on this for a while now, at least a month, I'm not positive how long (I should probably pay attention in the future) but I have met a couple of delays. These delays could have been lessened if I had developed a better sourcing strategy.
A sourcing strategy sounds like a big term, meant for bigger businesses, or eat least larger small businesses, not a dorm room business. A dorm room business is just purchasing, right? Buy products and then sell them. Well how are you going to choose what to buy? How do you choose where to buy from, or how many you'll buy? That's a sourcing strategy; it doesn't have to be the incredibly complicated procurement systems some companies use.
I needed a few products for my kit, and my ultimate goal was to find the most cost effective products that would still provide quality for my customers. If my customers purchase products that are of low quality because I decided to only go for cheap products, that reflects poorly on me. No one cares if I tell them "oh, my supplier messed up" because to them, I messed up. Think about it, if your supplier got the product from someone else, you don't care, if your product fails, you have issue with your supplier.
I did quite a bit of searching on the Internet. First, however, I developed a list of products that make home wine making easy, and then a list of items that are required for home wine making. These required products are the ones I chose for my kit. Some products make things easier, but they are not required, and thus would be stuff my customer does not need. So, my product development strategy was to develop a bare essentials product that was quality, but cost effective. I had a target price in mind, $10 for the kit, so I knew about what I could pay for the different parts of the kit.
So, on to sourcing; I knew what I needed to get, so I found the lowest cost suppliers I could find. I had it narrowed down to about 4 different suppliers for the least expensive products. I then eliminated those suppliers that did not have everything I needed, even if the products were not lowest cost. Something to remember is that with low volumes, shipping cost can be a major deal breaker. I had thus narrowed it down to 2 suppliers, which I was ok with; 2 suppliers to put together these kits. I was fine with it until I got a shipping quote at $18, on about $40 worth of products. Back to the drawing board.
I did a cost analysis (adding together my costs per kit) of using just the one other supplier, and it wasn't great, but I thought I might have to do that. Then, a few more Internet searches, and I finally found a company that had EVERYTHING I needed, and at the lowest prices. I have no idea how they were able to do this, but everything was a quality brand, so I purchased everything from them.
I did not think it all through, however, because I ordered 30 1 oz. doses of a liquid sanitizer (BTF Iodophor) which is required, and I received 7 4 oz. doses, and 2 1 oz. bottles. That did not work, so I talked to them, and they told me to send them back, and they would re-bottle them for me. I sent them all back (except the 2 1 oz. bottles) and got 28 1 oz. bottles back. The problem...the bottles they use leak. Iodine stains, and is nasty stuff, so I decided to change my product. It cost me more, and I COULD use the Iodophor, but I decided my customers would not like products that could leak all over everything.
I knew there was one supplier (Mr. Beer) that sells affordable, one-step powdered sanitizer. I bought 25 of those packets, and it comes out, with shipping, to about the same price as I was paying, so I'm ok. I'm currently waiting for the products to show up, but I think I'm going to put up the wine kits on the store once I get a shipment confirmation from Mr. Beer, so I can start advertising.
That was a long story just to make a few points, so I'll try to bullet-point the important stuff.
I hope those are some helpful points. If you have any questions about this process, PLEASE feel free to contact me using the contact button on the right.
Also, remember, if you would like to submit a guest post, I am still accepting them. I love to get other points of view out there.
If you are reading this on facebook, you can find the complete blog at: dormroombiz.com
A sourcing strategy sounds like a big term, meant for bigger businesses, or eat least larger small businesses, not a dorm room business. A dorm room business is just purchasing, right? Buy products and then sell them. Well how are you going to choose what to buy? How do you choose where to buy from, or how many you'll buy? That's a sourcing strategy; it doesn't have to be the incredibly complicated procurement systems some companies use.
I needed a few products for my kit, and my ultimate goal was to find the most cost effective products that would still provide quality for my customers. If my customers purchase products that are of low quality because I decided to only go for cheap products, that reflects poorly on me. No one cares if I tell them "oh, my supplier messed up" because to them, I messed up. Think about it, if your supplier got the product from someone else, you don't care, if your product fails, you have issue with your supplier.
I did quite a bit of searching on the Internet. First, however, I developed a list of products that make home wine making easy, and then a list of items that are required for home wine making. These required products are the ones I chose for my kit. Some products make things easier, but they are not required, and thus would be stuff my customer does not need. So, my product development strategy was to develop a bare essentials product that was quality, but cost effective. I had a target price in mind, $10 for the kit, so I knew about what I could pay for the different parts of the kit.
So, on to sourcing; I knew what I needed to get, so I found the lowest cost suppliers I could find. I had it narrowed down to about 4 different suppliers for the least expensive products. I then eliminated those suppliers that did not have everything I needed, even if the products were not lowest cost. Something to remember is that with low volumes, shipping cost can be a major deal breaker. I had thus narrowed it down to 2 suppliers, which I was ok with; 2 suppliers to put together these kits. I was fine with it until I got a shipping quote at $18, on about $40 worth of products. Back to the drawing board.
I did a cost analysis (adding together my costs per kit) of using just the one other supplier, and it wasn't great, but I thought I might have to do that. Then, a few more Internet searches, and I finally found a company that had EVERYTHING I needed, and at the lowest prices. I have no idea how they were able to do this, but everything was a quality brand, so I purchased everything from them.
I did not think it all through, however, because I ordered 30 1 oz. doses of a liquid sanitizer (BTF Iodophor) which is required, and I received 7 4 oz. doses, and 2 1 oz. bottles. That did not work, so I talked to them, and they told me to send them back, and they would re-bottle them for me. I sent them all back (except the 2 1 oz. bottles) and got 28 1 oz. bottles back. The problem...the bottles they use leak. Iodine stains, and is nasty stuff, so I decided to change my product. It cost me more, and I COULD use the Iodophor, but I decided my customers would not like products that could leak all over everything.
I knew there was one supplier (Mr. Beer) that sells affordable, one-step powdered sanitizer. I bought 25 of those packets, and it comes out, with shipping, to about the same price as I was paying, so I'm ok. I'm currently waiting for the products to show up, but I think I'm going to put up the wine kits on the store once I get a shipment confirmation from Mr. Beer, so I can start advertising.
That was a long story just to make a few points, so I'll try to bullet-point the important stuff.
- Develop a product plan
- Figure out exactly what you need for your store or product
- Develop a list of potential suppliers, google is your friend for this
- Look for overlap, where suppliers can supply a large portion of your store
- Do a total cost analysis (Cost of product, plus tax, shipping, etc.)
- Develop a list of 1-3 suppliers, and commit.
- Remember, you might save money on shipping per unit by buying in bulk, but don't forget about your personal storage abilities (ex: A dorm room cannot store large boxes of shirts)
- Make your purchase, and be excited to have stuff to sell
- Be ready to adapt in case something does not work out.
I hope those are some helpful points. If you have any questions about this process, PLEASE feel free to contact me using the contact button on the right.
Also, remember, if you would like to submit a guest post, I am still accepting them. I love to get other points of view out there.
If you are reading this on facebook, you can find the complete blog at: dormroombiz.com
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Legality
I'm going to talk a little bit today about legality. Unfortunately, a MAJOR aspect of any business, is the laws governing it. Whether you are a major corporation who is subject to millions of rules, from the SEC, down to local laws, or you are a small entrepreneur who is not subject to nearly as many laws, how can you figure out what laws apply to you? Breaking a law can not only be expensive, it can shut you down.
First of all, a few resources you can use
Business.gov
Small Business Guide at Business.gov
Findlaw.com - Link to the small business section of Findlaw
Small Business laws at findanswers.com
So there are some resources for small businesses to find some laws that might apply to you. This is, however, DORMroombiz. We are all about dorm room businesses, and there is another level of laws that apply to you. You should definitely read any material available to you about the rules in your particular dorm complex. Please be sure you read this information, there may be some rules that you don't think make sense which are strictly enforced. I thought I would be allowed to have a harmless toaster oven, but they are strictly forbidden. This is a non-business example, but you get the point.
My dorm life contract DOES specify that I may not sell items from my room. I have interpreted that to mean I may not turn my room into a store, which I would definitely not do. If you choose to break these rules, you may get away with it, but if you get caught, it can be severe. Some have even been kicked out of the dorms. Remember, if you get kicked out, you VERY likely do not get a refund.
First of all, a few resources you can use
Business.gov
Small Business Guide at Business.gov
Findlaw.com - Link to the small business section of Findlaw
Small Business laws at findanswers.com
So there are some resources for small businesses to find some laws that might apply to you. This is, however, DORMroombiz. We are all about dorm room businesses, and there is another level of laws that apply to you. You should definitely read any material available to you about the rules in your particular dorm complex. Please be sure you read this information, there may be some rules that you don't think make sense which are strictly enforced. I thought I would be allowed to have a harmless toaster oven, but they are strictly forbidden. This is a non-business example, but you get the point.
My dorm life contract DOES specify that I may not sell items from my room. I have interpreted that to mean I may not turn my room into a store, which I would definitely not do. If you choose to break these rules, you may get away with it, but if you get caught, it can be severe. Some have even been kicked out of the dorms. Remember, if you get kicked out, you VERY likely do not get a refund.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
I voted, have you?
This is just a friendly reminder that today is election day in America. If you are eligible to vote, YOU SHOULD! It doesn't matter if you vote for Obama, McCain, Nader, or simply write-in Mickey Mouse, it is your right, and duty to vote.
Remember, if you don't vote when you are allowed to, you have NO right to complain over the next four years if you don't like what happens with the president.
I just wanted to remind everyone that today is the election day (as if it's easy to forget) and that you should GET OUT AND VOTE!
Remember, if you don't vote when you are allowed to, you have NO right to complain over the next four years if you don't like what happens with the president.
I just wanted to remind everyone that today is the election day (as if it's easy to forget) and that you should GET OUT AND VOTE!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
I'm still alive
Hey everyone. I am not dead, just very busy. I still don't have time to post. My internet has been on the fritz lately, so a repair guy is coming out tomorrow hopefully. I have 2 exams tomorrow, and a huge paper due friday, plus a job offer that expires Friday.
This is pretty indicative of the past month...oh yeah, I also have to figure out housing for next year; I'm busy. So, I'm not dead, I have not given up on this blog, I'm just very busy right now.
Wine Kit Update: I am still awaiting one product to put into the kits, then I can begin selling them. Exciting!
This is pretty indicative of the past month...oh yeah, I also have to figure out housing for next year; I'm busy. So, I'm not dead, I have not given up on this blog, I'm just very busy right now.
Wine Kit Update: I am still awaiting one product to put into the kits, then I can begin selling them. Exciting!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Winemaking in the Dorms, and the Professional Development Symposium
Well, I've taken the plunge, and decided to buy the supplies to put together the kits. The order was quite large for some items, so I have to wait for this supplier to receive the extra product from their own suppliers, then I will have it shipped to me, and I will put together the kits. I hope these work. I know I would have loved a product like this when I first moved into the dorms.
Something not a lot of people know about wine...it will get a group inebriated much faster, and differently than regular beer or liquor. This is not proven to my knowledge, and this isn't a statement of fact, but from personal experience and first person accounts, wine gets people more "messed up" than other alcohols. Being a potential 18% alcohol by volume doesn't hurt either.
Topic over (Do not drink or manufacture or possess alcohol if you are below the legal age in your jurisdiction, or if doing so would violate any law, rule, statute, etc. that applies to you)
I just got back from a Professional Development Symposium put on by the Multi-Cultural Business Students at Michigan State University. It was a pretty helpful meeting; it consisted of 4 breakout sessions, and a very interesting keynote speaker during lunch. The meeting took place at a very nice Marriott, and we got plenty of free stuff :) When I left my room at 8 am, my roommate and suitemates were still up. Crazy! Here's a breakdown of the day.
8:30 - 9:00 am : Registration and Breakfast. We registered, got our $25 deposits back (we would not get them back if we did not attend, and this would pay for the food and services we were not using...financial incentive to show up) and then we received a free leather portfolio. I almost brought my own, but I read the e-mail at the last minute and found that we would receive our own new portfolios. I now have 3 portfolios, and I have a feeling that isn't the end of it.
Breakfast was a continental breakfast with coffee (thank you!) and pastries; I had a very tasty and moist blueberry muffin.
9:00 - 9:30 am: Introduction/Welcome - Speech explaining the day basically. I've been to enough of these that I was able to figure it out.
We then had to choose one of 4 breakout sessions to attend: Our options were.
1. Resume/Cover Letter Workshop - EATON Corp.
2. Dining Etiquette - Enterprise Rent-A-Car
3. Understanding Offer Letter Packages - Kevin Leonard, Multi-cultural Business Program
4. Personal Financial Management - MSU Federal Credit Union
I chose the Resume/Cover Letter Workshop, and Understanding Offer Letter Packages for my 2 morning sessions.
9:30 - 10:30 Resume/Cover Letter Workshop - This was a bit of a waste. I expected it to be more in depth information about resumes, but she even said the info on the slides was taken from an MSU website. Helpful, huh? I did learn some from them when the Q/A began, however. They seemed knowledgeable, and provided some good answers. I asked if my objective should be tailored to the company, and they said basically, no. I did not learn a whole lot from this, and would rather have attended dining etqiuette, but oh well, live and learn.
10:45-11:45 am Understanding Offer Letter Packages - This was much more helpful. Kevin Leonard is a very funny man, and he also has a wealth of knowledge. He began by walking us through the negoitaion process of job offers. The best tip we got was that we should not negotiate without other offers on the table. Also, if you know you are being offered a good salary, TAKE IT. If you are $6,000 over the industry high, they want you, and are making a generous offer.
We then went on to discuss the various aspects of the offer letter, and what to look for. Benefits, Travel, Insurance, etc. were all covered, and he said sometimes...many times, one needs to pry into HR to find the policies on Benefits. We talked briefly about the 401(k) (contribute maximum dollars that you can to it, especially early on) and overall, this was a very beneficial session.
Then Lunch
11:45 am - 12:45 pm - Lunch - Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ernest Betts, Assistant Dean for Multi-cultural Business Program (MBP) Dr. Betts was a highly skilled speaker; he spoke about the coming together of different cultures in business like has never before been seen. He discussed some common stereotypes about Americans, as well as some of the cultural aspects we should be aware of for other cultures. In Korea, if asked to hum a few lines of your favorite song, stand up, and belt it; singing is a passion in Korea. He said a client will overlook mutilation of the language, but not mutilation of the culture. If someone came to our country, and spoke very minimal english, we would get a translator, if someone came to our country and hit our children, we would be offended. Get it?
The food at Lunch was sub-par. When you are in a hotel dining room with people in tuxes serving you, you have certain expectations. The salad was good (simple salad, peppercorn ranch dressing) and tasty rolls. The entree, however, was sub-par. The chicken specifically was tough, with rubbery parts, the sauce tasted like it was from McDonalds, there were grains of rice that were crunchy, mixed in with cooked grains. The beans and carrots were good. Dessert was a very rich chocolate tart; incredibly rich. Imagine a pie slice of chocolate. Coffee was a little bitter too, unlike the coffee in the morning; the coffee in the morning was strong and delicious.
The afternoon sessions were all new, and we had 2 to select from those as well.
1. Dressing for Success - Whirlpool
2. Public Speaking - Robert Johnson
3. Graduate School: GMAT, GRE, LSAT - The Princeton Review
4. Networking/Career Fair Preparation - Target
1:00-2:00 pm Networking/Career Fair Preparation - I felt this was a very helpful session, given the fact that there is a career gallery only days away. We discussed how to open up the discussion, how to develop power stories to tell for different situations. They said that based on a trait that is brought up, we should have "power stories" that show us in a good light. It should be consise, 30-60 seconds, and we should finish with what we learned from the experience. That was basically all we learned, and it was a good skill to learn. I highly recommend everyone learn how to form and deliver a power story.
2:15 - 3:15 pm - Graduate School: GMAT, GRE, LSAT - This was interesting. I didn't really realize how expensive these tests are until today. $225 for the GMAT alone. Yikes. They are Computer Adaptive Tests, meaning based on whether you get the question right, the next one will be either harder or easier. Cool. We talked about some basic test taking strategies, and the guy was pretty funny. Process of Elimination was a good theme. Here is a sample question he gave us to demonstrate this concept. First, he asked us the capital of Malawi. Know it? No one else did either. Then, he gave us these answer choices:
A. London
B. Tokyo
C. Paris
D. Washington D.C.
E. Lilongwe
Know the answer? It's a good demonstration of the idea. He also said statistically guys score better than girls. It's because guys don't over-analyze. For example, a guy might think "Hmm, don't know the answer at all...I'll go with B" Girls might think "Hmm, I don't know this at all, but I think it might be that one, I don't really know, maybe it's this one, are they trying to trick me, maybe I've heard of that one, could it be C? I'm going to get this wrong, and I know I got the one 3 questions ago wrong, I'm going to fail completely"
4 seconds to like 4 minutes. Saves time for guys. This isn't a rule of course, just an idea to keep in mind, if you don't know the answer, you won't be able to analyze it out. I asked him about the 2+2 program at Harvard, and he is a HUGE fan of them. You get accepted to Grad School and a job simultaneously. Work 2 years, then MBA for 2 years. Cool system. I then answered a question correctly (how many points is the GMAT essay out of A:6) and got a book "The 109 best internships" which I REALLY wanted. Sweet.
I skipped the goodbye speech by accident. I didn't think it was going to happen. Anyway, I'm going to go play some sports. I was out for 8 hours, so I'm ready for some rec time.
Something not a lot of people know about wine...it will get a group inebriated much faster, and differently than regular beer or liquor. This is not proven to my knowledge, and this isn't a statement of fact, but from personal experience and first person accounts, wine gets people more "messed up" than other alcohols. Being a potential 18% alcohol by volume doesn't hurt either.
Topic over (Do not drink or manufacture or possess alcohol if you are below the legal age in your jurisdiction, or if doing so would violate any law, rule, statute, etc. that applies to you)
I just got back from a Professional Development Symposium put on by the Multi-Cultural Business Students at Michigan State University. It was a pretty helpful meeting; it consisted of 4 breakout sessions, and a very interesting keynote speaker during lunch. The meeting took place at a very nice Marriott, and we got plenty of free stuff :) When I left my room at 8 am, my roommate and suitemates were still up. Crazy! Here's a breakdown of the day.
8:30 - 9:00 am : Registration and Breakfast. We registered, got our $25 deposits back (we would not get them back if we did not attend, and this would pay for the food and services we were not using...financial incentive to show up) and then we received a free leather portfolio. I almost brought my own, but I read the e-mail at the last minute and found that we would receive our own new portfolios. I now have 3 portfolios, and I have a feeling that isn't the end of it.
Breakfast was a continental breakfast with coffee (thank you!) and pastries; I had a very tasty and moist blueberry muffin.
9:00 - 9:30 am: Introduction/Welcome - Speech explaining the day basically. I've been to enough of these that I was able to figure it out.
We then had to choose one of 4 breakout sessions to attend: Our options were.
1. Resume/Cover Letter Workshop - EATON Corp.
2. Dining Etiquette - Enterprise Rent-A-Car
3. Understanding Offer Letter Packages - Kevin Leonard, Multi-cultural Business Program
4. Personal Financial Management - MSU Federal Credit Union
I chose the Resume/Cover Letter Workshop, and Understanding Offer Letter Packages for my 2 morning sessions.
9:30 - 10:30 Resume/Cover Letter Workshop - This was a bit of a waste. I expected it to be more in depth information about resumes, but she even said the info on the slides was taken from an MSU website. Helpful, huh? I did learn some from them when the Q/A began, however. They seemed knowledgeable, and provided some good answers. I asked if my objective should be tailored to the company, and they said basically, no. I did not learn a whole lot from this, and would rather have attended dining etqiuette, but oh well, live and learn.
10:45-11:45 am Understanding Offer Letter Packages - This was much more helpful. Kevin Leonard is a very funny man, and he also has a wealth of knowledge. He began by walking us through the negoitaion process of job offers. The best tip we got was that we should not negotiate without other offers on the table. Also, if you know you are being offered a good salary, TAKE IT. If you are $6,000 over the industry high, they want you, and are making a generous offer.
We then went on to discuss the various aspects of the offer letter, and what to look for. Benefits, Travel, Insurance, etc. were all covered, and he said sometimes...many times, one needs to pry into HR to find the policies on Benefits. We talked briefly about the 401(k) (contribute maximum dollars that you can to it, especially early on) and overall, this was a very beneficial session.
Then Lunch
11:45 am - 12:45 pm - Lunch - Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ernest Betts, Assistant Dean for Multi-cultural Business Program (MBP) Dr. Betts was a highly skilled speaker; he spoke about the coming together of different cultures in business like has never before been seen. He discussed some common stereotypes about Americans, as well as some of the cultural aspects we should be aware of for other cultures. In Korea, if asked to hum a few lines of your favorite song, stand up, and belt it; singing is a passion in Korea. He said a client will overlook mutilation of the language, but not mutilation of the culture. If someone came to our country, and spoke very minimal english, we would get a translator, if someone came to our country and hit our children, we would be offended. Get it?
The food at Lunch was sub-par. When you are in a hotel dining room with people in tuxes serving you, you have certain expectations. The salad was good (simple salad, peppercorn ranch dressing) and tasty rolls. The entree, however, was sub-par. The chicken specifically was tough, with rubbery parts, the sauce tasted like it was from McDonalds, there were grains of rice that were crunchy, mixed in with cooked grains. The beans and carrots were good. Dessert was a very rich chocolate tart; incredibly rich. Imagine a pie slice of chocolate. Coffee was a little bitter too, unlike the coffee in the morning; the coffee in the morning was strong and delicious.
The afternoon sessions were all new, and we had 2 to select from those as well.
1. Dressing for Success - Whirlpool
2. Public Speaking - Robert Johnson
3. Graduate School: GMAT, GRE, LSAT - The Princeton Review
4. Networking/Career Fair Preparation - Target
1:00-2:00 pm Networking/Career Fair Preparation - I felt this was a very helpful session, given the fact that there is a career gallery only days away. We discussed how to open up the discussion, how to develop power stories to tell for different situations. They said that based on a trait that is brought up, we should have "power stories" that show us in a good light. It should be consise, 30-60 seconds, and we should finish with what we learned from the experience. That was basically all we learned, and it was a good skill to learn. I highly recommend everyone learn how to form and deliver a power story.
2:15 - 3:15 pm - Graduate School: GMAT, GRE, LSAT - This was interesting. I didn't really realize how expensive these tests are until today. $225 for the GMAT alone. Yikes. They are Computer Adaptive Tests, meaning based on whether you get the question right, the next one will be either harder or easier. Cool. We talked about some basic test taking strategies, and the guy was pretty funny. Process of Elimination was a good theme. Here is a sample question he gave us to demonstrate this concept. First, he asked us the capital of Malawi. Know it? No one else did either. Then, he gave us these answer choices:
A. London
B. Tokyo
C. Paris
D. Washington D.C.
E. Lilongwe
Know the answer? It's a good demonstration of the idea. He also said statistically guys score better than girls. It's because guys don't over-analyze. For example, a guy might think "Hmm, don't know the answer at all...I'll go with B" Girls might think "Hmm, I don't know this at all, but I think it might be that one, I don't really know, maybe it's this one, are they trying to trick me, maybe I've heard of that one, could it be C? I'm going to get this wrong, and I know I got the one 3 questions ago wrong, I'm going to fail completely"
4 seconds to like 4 minutes. Saves time for guys. This isn't a rule of course, just an idea to keep in mind, if you don't know the answer, you won't be able to analyze it out. I asked him about the 2+2 program at Harvard, and he is a HUGE fan of them. You get accepted to Grad School and a job simultaneously. Work 2 years, then MBA for 2 years. Cool system. I then answered a question correctly (how many points is the GMAT essay out of A:6) and got a book "The 109 best internships" which I REALLY wanted. Sweet.
I skipped the goodbye speech by accident. I didn't think it was going to happen. Anyway, I'm going to go play some sports. I was out for 8 hours, so I'm ready for some rec time.
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