ENVP_Discussions&Responses **michael smith**

New Venture Planning Discussion

Learning Activity/Discussion #1: "Entrepreneurs Find Ways to Give Back" 

Community involvement and social responsibility, resulting in a positive reputation and "goodwill" as discussed in the beginning of the curriculum, are often critical to the success and long-term sustainability of a business enterprise.

The following article, "Despite Obstacles, Entrepreneurs Find Ways to Give Back", 
appeared in the September 15, 2010 "The New York Times".

The link is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/business/smallbusiness/16sbiz.html?emc=eta1&page

Response 1:

Being a productive member of society and giving back to the community, in any capacity, makes a business successful and keeps it running for a longer period. There are different ways businesses can give to the community. Witkin (2010) reveals that entrepreneurs always find a way to give, even in tough times, and talks about businesses offering their expertise, products, services, and employees time instead of monetary donations, or they establish partnerships with other firms to help in any way possible. My company, Dream Home Realty, can foster goodwill in different ways. One of them is to establish a school donation drive so school supplies can be collected for children in unfavorable environments. Another initiative is to organize a quarterly volunteer drive consisting of the company employees, their families, and myself. Each quarter, one of the following organizations can be helped by giving our time and resources to help with their needs or organize fundraisers: Guam’s Animals In Need (GAIN) shelter – takes care and finds homes for abandoned animals; Sanctuary Incorporated of Guam - helps the abused, neglected, runaway, homeless, and at-risk youth; Big Brothers Big Sister of Guam – helps children develop to their full potential through mentoring; and private organizations from Andersen AFB that support the military through morale, welfare, and professional development events. Lastly, other ways to care for the community is through monetary donations when possible and promoting community involvement to the professional organizations the company is involved with.

Learning Activity/Discussion #1: Ethics and Social Responsibility:

In reference to this week's Module and scheduled readings, please describe and explain a business' ethical and social responsibilities regarding employees, clients, investors, and the community at large, and consider how these factors would be incorporated to the Executive Summary of your Business Plan term projects. Post your responses in Week 1 "Learning Activities" herein.

Response 1:

A business ethical and social responsibility that I want to focus on for the community, employees, clients, investors, etc is moral standards and cultural diversity to my executive summary.  Those are the important things that I want my business to focus on because that is what will bring my customers in and that is what will bring customers into my business.  Having cultural diversity will mean that my clients can be themselves and can feel welcomed.  My company will be used to provide outreach to the community and to appeal to everyone in the community so that they will be able to provide outreach and support to the community as well.  These factors will show how my business is going to be used not just to be something that I am passionate about and something that I've wanted to do for a long time but also to show how I can also make a change in the community.

Response 2:

As a business, there has to be ethical and social responsibilities established. In order for the business to be effective, a manager has to set forth company policies in order to uphold employees to certain standards. For example, a manager would have to establish the company's morals and values. Once that is done, then you have to make sure that employees understand these morals and values completely. Afterwards, you have to establish some guidelines that the employees must follow and also set a sense of punishment if they break the guidelines. These factors would be incorporated into the Executive Summary because in that section, you want to focus on where you plan for the business to go. You want to make sure that you establish company guidelines so that you can plan for the success of your business in the future.

Learning Activity/Discussion #2: "Immigration and Entrepreneurship" 

Please refer to the two reference articles, "A Small Business Barometer in Queens"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/nyregion/09astoria.html?pagewanted=all

and "Big Thoughts Early On",

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/jobs/hearsay-socials-chief-on-thinking-big-at-a-young-age.html

Response 1:

I was very glad to see an article about Astoria, before I came to live In Virginia I immigrate to Astoria from Costa Rica and I lived there for about 5 years, a couple of blocks from the area the article mentions, It is a very nice neighborhood and it is in constant change and it has a high diversity of people and restaurants as well as other businesses, you can find about every type of food in the neighborhood. As Fernanda Santos (2010), mentions the turn-over of mom-and-pops stores is high in the neighborhood, I think it mainly depends on the type of business they open (paragraph 11). There were about 3 different businesses that I saw opening as different businesses mainly restaurants which there is a lot of competition in the area and quality and price makes the difference in succeeding. I think this is one of the main obstacles for new businesses, there is as well some businesses that went to the neighborhood and make changes on their places and can with new concepts and even though they have competition even next door they found the way to appeal to costumers. I also think that as Santos mentions the high movement of different people Italians, Greeks, Czechs, and Brazilians as well as other Latin American people makes it a little difficult for some businesses to keep a strong base of clients. Though I can say the people in the neighborhood love to embrace new businesses and give everyone a try (paragraph 12). As Sarah Shih (2013), parents many of the people in this businesses are immigrants that now are doing something totally different from what they did in their country of origin (paragraph 2).

Response 2:

When immigrants decide to move, they are led by the mindset of a greater promise, or a better future, leaving everything familiar behind and moving to a totally new country with a promise of mastering their own destiny, taking charge. Both are also mindsets of an entrepreneur. "In the pursuit of profit under the capitalist system, the entrepreneur must have strong motivation, willpower (tempered with reason), and the need for and belief in success." Immigrants are the perfect example of that need to succeed. Per the articles, mom and pop stores or entrepreneurship is the back bone of the capitalist industry even though not all businesses survive. All examples show ethically conscious entrepreneurs who strive on success. Mr. Lau and Ms. Addeo for example burnt through their savings, maxed out their credit cards and are still working towards opening the restaurant the legal and ethical way rather than cut corners due to lack of funding. They still strive and see problems as challenges, which stands to represent what an entrepreneur is.