Recellular- Hello Again
I recently read an article about a man named Chuck Newman and his company Recellular in the Jewish News. Chuck quickly turned into my new role model and I gained great respect for his company. ReCellular is the world’s foremost collector, reseller and recycler of used wireless phones and accessories. They are in charge of the collection of the phones and recycle them in a responsible way if they can’t resell them.About half of the rebuilt phones go to resellers in the U.S. and the other half are sold to developing countries in Asia, Africa, and
South America. The phones are then sold to people who otherwise might not have been able to afford cell phones. It’s a brilliant business concept and intrigues my level of interest immensely. After reading about his business I got very interested in the “Green” business industry in general and have been reading a lot about it. To be environmentally friendly, preserve our earth, and making a large chunk of change is a win-win-win for everyone.
Outside of work Chuck is extremely involved with the community, philanthropy events, and multiple charities. When I am a business owner I plan on being the exact same way. It’s nice to see someone so successful remain grounded to his core beliefs and not let all the money get to his head. For our leadership class, our assignment is to interview an Entrepreneur that we admire and that is in industry that we want to get involved in. I emailed Chuck a request (not knowing if I would even get a response considering I have never met him), and within 24 hours I got a phone call. Not only did he agree to meet with me, he welcomed me to his business with open arms. Recelluar is based out of Dexter Michigan employing 250 people. He also has offices in Hong King, Brazil, and
Texas. I look forward to meeting with him and seeing his operations.
The Gilbert Grill
Last Friday our Bizdom class experienced the “Gilbert Grill” with Dan Gilbert and his posse. His power posse was very intelligent and extremely wealthy. It was quite an experience having people of such power and admirable professions come in and talk with us. It turns out that what I was expecting the Grill to be like was completely false. I imagined Dan G coming in and talking to us about the program, what we have learned, and going deep on some of those matters. Instead it was all of us having a discussion about REITS, L.L.C’s, and the reasoning behind the different types of protection for your company (S-Corp, C-Corp etc).
One thing that Dan stresses all the time is the concept of being empathetic. He always says to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and think about what they need before you pitch your product or service. I liked how he brought that up again to us and talked about the importance of it. Truth be told about the Grill is that it seemed to me like five buddies/business partners were in a room talking about business concepts and the importance of them. I would have liked it to have a little bit more structure and have more opportunity to talk more with Dan.
Overall I did get a lot of knowledge out of the grill and got the opportunity to meet some incredible people and network with them which is priceless. I can learn an enormous amount from every single person in that room and it was very interesting to hear them talk. It was also interesting that they all grew up within a square mile of each other. Dan said that there might have been something wrong with the land that there houses were on resulting in them being so weird today. Doesn’t seem to have worked out too bad for them either way.
Kwame Kilpatrick- State of The City
Bizdom U has truly opened my eyes to many things that otherwise I wouldn’t pay attention to (sad to say, I know). Before enrolling in this program I can say with confidence that I wouldn’t sit down and watch Kwame Kilpatrick, Mayor Detroit, give his State of The City to the people of
Detroit and Metro Detroit. I think that Kilpatrick is an extremely powerful speaker and is very well spoken.
I don’t have much of a benchmark to compare this speech with others, but what he was saying in this State of
The City sounded very good and that he was serious. In recent years
Detroit has been notorious for pointing fingers and blaming others for the problems that are occurring in the city. To some extent this is true, but Kilpatrick admitted fault and is ready to take action:
“I truly understand, I have studied the history of African American people in this country. But we’ve come to the point where this is not an outsider conspiracy doing this to us. This is mostly African Americans killing African Americans, some family member of mine or yours killing some family member of yours or mine. And we, as a community, have to stop it now. Nobody’s coming to save us. The heroes we are looking for are already here. We have to stand up for ourselves.”
He touched on issues such as law enforcement calling his program “take back the streets” by cracking down on the law and increasing level of awareness with everyone in the community. Kilpatrick said “We need an aroused, engaged and mobilized community”. He also has appointed a new Detroit Public Schools superintendent who he strongly believes will do a phenomenal job and will make a big difference for the better.
There are a handful of issues that need to be resolved in order for the city to revitalize and become great once again. I STRONGLY believe that all of us are going to contribute to bringing the city back and that people in general are going to start to do their share as well. The City is holding itself accountable for issues such as crime, poverty, and education and they are taking strides to improve all of them. I look forward to the future of
Detroit and to saying that I was a contributing cause to revitalizing it. I also look forward to becoming the Mayor one day, so Kwame, if you have any advice feel free to share!
Just hit send and poof it’s there right? WRONG!
Last week Jason Shaw from Quicken Loans came to our class to talk about E-Mail and how it works. This was another one of those sessions where I felt like a complete moron because of my lack of interest and competency with technology talk. Jason did a great job explaining it to us, and I got the basics down and feel like I now know a lot more than I did before which is good.
I never would’ve thought that there was so much an e-mail has to do to go from the sender to the receiver. Considering that it takes about a second sometimes to receive an e-mail from someone. Jason told us about all the different routes an e-mail has to go through before reaching its end user and it was mind boggling.
As a Business owner it’s not necessary that I we know all the logistics about exactly what happens in the e-mail process. However, it is important for us to know the basics so when we have employees we can ask knowledgeable questions and at least sound like we know what we are doing!
Pangborn Design
Dominic Pangborn of Pangborn Design is an Entrepreneurial inspiration on many levels. Starting at the young age of ten, Pangborn has made decsisve decisions and has been successful ever since. At the age of ten Pangborn decided to leave Korea for a better life in
America. The tough part about this decision was that he had to leave his Mother behind. That was a pretty tough decision for a ten year old boy to make; nonetheless he made it with confidence.
One of the first things that Dominic said to us was “I’m not a traditionalist”. I liked that he said that because I agree that Entrepreneurs are not traditionalist. We take chances, we don’t take the traditional 9-5 workday, and we take chances. He said multiple times that his thought process when he would make a decision or risk was “what’s the worst that can happen?” In my opinion, the most impressive trait about Pangborn is his innate ability to continue to grow, and always find a better way.
Instead of looking at Detroit as a bad place to conduct business, he looks at it in a positive way that what he does mainly takes place in L.A. and
New York. He managed to capitalize in a market that his industry was pretty much non existent in the city. He loves what he does and in turn that makes him the best at it. Regarding his work habits he said to us “People call me a work-a-holic and that I am crazy for working eighteen hour days. In response I say to them that I can’t remember a day that I went to work”. That type of attitude and passion for work is something that I look forward to very much in my business. Dominic is the poster child of rags to riches and I would love to be as successful as him one day.
Moosejaw- Doing Big Things
It’s always good to see a
Michigan based company do well. Moosejaw Inc. recently was acquired by Dallas based private equity firm Parallel Investment Partners according to Crain’s
Detroit. For those of you that don’t know what Moosejaw is, they sell outdoor gear and apparel. They can be compared to an R.E.I. or Eastern Mountain Sports but on a much smaller scale.
The reason that this particular article interested me is because of the attachment that I have towards the company, and how much I love their business model. Growing up I always went to sleepover camp (Tamarack to be specific) and as the years went on I progressed to working there. After working at the camp itself I began taking trips all over the country with campers i.e.
Alaska and West Coast trip. The point I am getting at is that I always did my shopping and preparation for camp at Moosejaw. I loved the feeling of going into their stores knowing that I was going in there for to get gear to go out and live on of my passions which is the outdoors. It was always a great experience to shop there because of the friendliness of the employees and atmosphere that they have. It started as a very small
Madison Heights based company, and now there are 6 stores and they generated $12.4 Million dollars in sales in 2003. The purchase price was not disclosed. Moosejaw…I solute you.
www.moosejaw.com (Check it out).
Bill Parker- Sir Dork Alot
Bill Parker from Quicken Loans spoke to us on the history of the Internet. He opened by pretty much saying that he is the ultimate dork and that he loves it which I thought was pretty funny. I would be lying to you all if I was to say that what he was actually saying I had any interest in. I would also be lying if I said that I understood one thing he was talking about regarding computer jargon. But what I can say with complete sincerity is that Parker was so enthusiastic about what he does and the internet, that he truly is happy and successful. The way he would get excited when talking about the internet and new and exciting things was truly inspirational.
If everyone shared the passion that he has towards his job, we would all be very lucky people. I’m a very firm believer that if you truly love what you do, and feel a sense of gratification at the end of the day, then you have MUCH better odds of being very successful. If you wake up every single day dreading your life even though you make Boat Loads of money (in honor of Justin B), than you will not be successful. The point of Parker coming in was to educate us on the Internet and its history; I got something completely different out of it. Before my daydream was about to begin he truly captured my attention with his enthusiasm and I was intrigued and engaged the rest of the time.
Rod Hariston- Sir Yes Sir
Just when you start thinking you’re a tough guy, you meet a guy like Rod Hariston to remind you that you’re not. Rod Hariston is the CEO of a company called Envision U. He came to speak to our class regarding the topic of Identity and really know yourself and what your morals are etc. Hariston spent 11 years in the Navy and experienced things that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand from just hearing. He is extremely motivational and is great at what he does.
“Being a successful entrepreneur is harder than being a Navy Seal” is what Hariston told our class. He claims that being an entrepreneur is more difficult than undergoing enormous amounts of pain and suffrage. If there’s anyone that knows an enormous amount about both, it’s him. He kept stressing over and over again to always stay true to who you are; this is something that I feel very strongly about as well. He also said something else that I live and breathe by which is “there’s no such thing as falling”. Hariston is a strong minded Man that is sharp as can be. If what he says is true as far as being an entrepreneur is more difficult than being a Navy Seal, I have a very tough road ahead of me. My response to that is…Bring it on!!!
Guerrilla Marketing Basics- Entrepreneur Magazine
I got this article from Entrepreneur Magazine Online and thought I would share. It’s interesting.
First there’s marketing. Then you have direct marketing, consumer marketing, B2B marketing, buzz marketing, word-of-mouth marketing, online marketing . . . really, the list is endless. But one form often left out is guerrilla marketing. The term “guerrilla marketing” was first used by Jay Conrad Levinson in his popular 1984 book, Guerrilla Marketing. In it, he describes this method of marketing as nontraditional, low-cost or no-cost ways of marketing, promoting, advertising, publicizing, etc. Some have called it unconventional marketing; some have called it extreme marketing; still others have even used the term stealth marketing. And all of these apply in the sense that the tactics are nontraditional and low- or no-cost.
Guerrilla marketing has a major profit orientation and emphasis. Since guerrilla marketers don’t have unlimited funds, they must employ smarter rather than harder ways to work. This is done through the full use of time, energy, information, knowledge and, most of all, imagination. The guerrilla marketer must use all of his or her contacts to network, find creative publicity stories, angles and outlets, and generate ideas that’ll get noticed and talked about.
This type of marketing is primarily designed for small businesses and independent professionals. Other organizations such as nonprofits have also found it beneficial. It’s great for small business because it’s important for a guerrilla marketer to be flexible and agile to react to marketplace environments and influences– without layers of bureaucracy to go through, small businesses can change course as needed.
Here are some guerrilla marketing examples that you might have noticed, or maybe noticed but didn’t realize they were marketing of the guerrilla type:
- Chipotle’s offer of a free burrito to anyone dressed up like one of their football-size burritos on Halloween
- A business owner associating himself current event as an expert so he can get quoted in the media
- An entrepreneur nominating herself for an award and promoting her nomination and receipt of the award (if she gets it)
- Sonic DriveIn Restaurant’s magnetic cups that adhere to the trunk of a car as it drives off, making it appear as if the driver forgot to remove his drink from its temporary resting place. This marketing stunt really got talked about, and word-of-mouth marketing took over and helped spread the word about this restaurant.
Many of these guerrilla marketing ideas, principles and practices appear to be simply common sense. However, in reality, they’re not common practice. These examples are only a few of the many that businesses have used successfully. Your options are only limited by your imagination.
Visiting the African American history museum last week was an incredible experience for me. Being that February is Black History month, it was great to gain some knowledge about African American history in such a beautiful museum. The tour guide was filled to the brim with information, enthusiasm, and love towards the museum. At the young age of 18 he made the experience very entertaining while educating us. It’s good to be reminded about the history of people and about the struggle it took to get to where they are today. For a non-profit organization, the museum does an exceptional job with the aesthetics of the building and the staff. It is important to me to finish the tour so I am going to make sure that I go back there and see the rest of it. With a questionable doubt I highly recommend everyone to go there to learn about African American history, but also to see the remarkable beauty of the artwork etc.
