reading assignment: http://www.effectuation.org/?page_id=207 Your task is to understand effectuation and causation as well as principles associated with effectuation. You will find this information w

Entrepreneurial Website: Branding, Evaluation and Virtual Sales

reading assignment: http://www.effectuation.org/?page_id=207 

Your task is to understand effectuation and causation as well as principles associated with effectuation. You will find this information while visiting the main site of the Effectuation Society. Read thoroughly on the following topics:

• Bird in Hand Principle
• Affordable Loss Principle
• Lemonade Principle
• Crazy-Quilt Principle, and
• What is the effectual cycle?

When reading you should be assessing how well you are using the effectual principles in developing your ideas and running your business.  

• Are you following any of the listed above principles? How?

This should be visible in your website.  Your website should look like a website of an Entrepreneur. Remember, you want visitors of your website to understand very quickly that you are an entrepreneur and not just another sales person. You want to ensure that your product or service will get the limelight it deserves and will be presented in a way that highlights you as original and daring and yet effective and localized.

The simplest way to achieve this is to make your website look creative, modern, collaborative and inviting. If your product or service is creative, original and modern you do not have a lot of work to do to cover this requirement. If it is not there yet, you need to make it shine through a modern looking website. This is where effectual thinking can help you.

2. Research the internet to find a job description that resembles your present position within your company. Your job is find at least two examples and compile your own job description taking into account your tasks as well as the necessary knowledge required in your present position. Monster.com has sample job descriptions that you may want to review first: https://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/job-descriptions.aspx 

Look for positions that are most similar to yours--but do not forget that you are an Entrepreneur. Pay attention to how the jobs are described.  Do additional research. 

• Briefly describe the knowledge one needs to have to do your job well.
• Follow up with a list of tasks that you do.
• Use active verbs.
• Be brief. Imagine that you are leaving for a couple of weeks and need to transfer your knowledge to your replacement. What would you need them to know? What would you need them to do in your absence? Do additional research, as necessary.

3. Finalize your job description. Ensure that it will have a list of tasks as well as state what knowledge is needed in your position. You will need to submit your job description later this week (week 5) as well as will need it in week 6 to complete your website.

Yes, knowing what is needed when managing your company is really important in branding and marketing your business. You are the soul and the center of your company. Moreover, to brand your product well you need to become neutral about your company--be able to see it how others might see it. This part sometimes presents a problem to entrepreneurs who might tend to think that their company is part of their family, so to speak. That everyone understands and sees what they see and understands their vision. To describe your own position is a good start in becoming neutral--step away from what is so very yours in order to prepare a true and effective branding and marketing proposition.

4. Read about branding and market valuation. You will need branding knowledge to make your website stand out in an original and individual way. You will need market valuation knowledge to make rough estimations to assess your own business and ensure that this assessment is visible in your website. You will also need to understand market valuation when assessing other websites while choosing the ones that appeal to your business sense.  To understand branding please read: 

• Small Business Marketing: https://businessadvising.org/small-business-marketing-branding-basics/
• The Power of Branding: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/power-branding

After reading this information, you should be able to answer the following questions prior to moving onto another task:

• What is your big idea - what lies at the heart of your company?
• Explain your values behind your product - what do you believe in?
• What is your vision - where are you going with your product? What is its purpose? What do you hope to achieve with it?
• Your professional personality - how do you want to be viewed vis-a-vis your product?

 5. Next, read about market valuation: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/66442

Please note that there are several Business Valuation approaches and Methods and there are three fundamental ways to measure the value of a business or professional practice:

• Asset approach
• Market approach
• Income approach.

 The article covers a mixture of all these methods in a very approachable way. You need to have a sense of what your business might be worth. You also need to be able to construct a rough assessment of similar businesses-and their websites. In order to do your business valuation you need to be able to become neutral about your business. 

 When you were writing your job description you were asked to imagine that you needed to leave your company for a couple of weeks and to find a replacement and describe to this person what needed to be understood, as well as what needed to be done. Now imagine that you are meeting a potential client who is interested in buying your business. This person asks you: “how much your company is worth?”

Remember, this is a potential business deal that might allow you to do something new and exciting, perhaps follow another dream or reach a new goal in your life.

• What rough number could you- would you give?
• How would you arrive at this number?
• Is the number reflective of calculating your assets, is it based on a market approach or is it based on what income your business is able to generate, or something else?

6.  Start doing research to find at least three websites or blogs that present similar product or service. Use the knowledge from points 1-4.

Valuate and evaluate what you see to choose the best possible examples. Do not take the first three you see. Go deeper.

7.  Decide on your platform.You may use any of the indicated below websites or you may find a different one that seems more suitable and effective for your particular taste, beliefs and product.

There are many free websites to choose. The purpose here is to help you create a website content without spending any money. You might want to do a quick search to find something you can use -- either a free blog or a free website that looks appealing to you.  You will end up having a ready content that might help you in your future entrepreneurial endeavors.  

Please visit:

• Top 10 free web hosting sites:  http://www.prchecker.info/web-hosting/top-10-free-web-hosting-sites/
• Talkspot Basic:  http://www.talkspot.com/_pdfs/Documents/Talkspot-Basic.pdf

Part 1

During Unit 5, please submit your job description for preschool teacher in Grenada west indies. Make sure that it has a minimum of 150 words.

Part 2

Your assignment is to build a website, a blog or a wiki (your choice) featuring your product smart watches.  This website will be assessed by your peers and your professor by a 10 point scale.

You will need to submit the address of your website of blog as your regular assignment. Make sure it is functional. Should you encounter any problems, please contact your professor early. Last minute inquiries will not constitute a valid reason to not submit this assignment and will be marked a 0.

In creating your website or blog please observe the following steps and guidelines:

According to Michael Hyatt in Platform Get Noticed in a Noisy World A Step-by-Step Guide for Anyone with Something to Say or Sell (Thomas Nelson, 2012, page 83-84), a successful blog outline includes the following five components:

1. Lead paragraph

2. Relevant image

3. Personal experience

4. Main body

5. Discussion question

Since you will be required to use this formula as a framework for developing your website or blog, please familiarize yourself with what each point entails (details underneath). Please note that your final product will be marked based on how well you translate these points into the chosen shell of your website or blog or a wiki.

Below is the detailed list of the five components that you will need to include in your website.

1. Lead paragraph.

This is an equivalent to a headline. This is where you will indicate your product combined with the most relevant couple of words that have one purpose: catch the reader’s attention while disambiguating your product from the rest. You will need to extend your research to places where this is done well-as described in the Reading section of this module. Then you will need to come up with your own original lead paragraph. This paragraph will disclose your branding.

2. Relevant image

You can either insert your original picture or describe it. This part should be longer than part 1 and provide enough details to allow anyone to understand what your product or service is all about. Remember: a picture tells a thousand words, but if you have problems getting or inserting a good picture, just describe it using your own original idea and your own words.

3. Personal experience

This is where you introduce self as an entrepreneur. Your job description submitted in week 5 will provide you a good base—just make it shorter. You also need to add a testimonial—a description from someone else using the product or service you are advertising. In real life this part would include at least three, and often more personal experiences with the product-called testimonials. In order to make your website effective and also, get a good mark from this assignment you need to include a minimum of one testimonial. Make this testimonial reflect the true and original value of your product or service. Avoid general statements like: wonderful product, great service as they do not disclose the necessary details that could make your readers into your potential clients.

4. Main body

This will include your product information. Provide a long version of your product and include technical specifications, or details, including available formats or versions. A minimum of 100 words is required in this part.

You could start with a catchy line that states what your product is all about versus its utility, and continue to situate the product in the reality and field it is in.

You also need to include your coordinates so that interested clients would be able to contact you. Your valuation skills will be visible here.

5. Discussion question

Just inviting potential clients does not seem to be enough in order to attract clients and create a sales buzz. Posing a discussion question to engage your readers is a potent way to spread the news about your product or service and elicit true interest. You already have entrepreneurial experience eliciting engagement from your peers. Use this knowledge and this time go a little further and pose a question that will be interesting to your readers and will get a lot of responses.

Please note that the remaining points will be assigned on your applied entrepreneurial creativeness, inclusion of effectuation, branding knowledge, good writing skills and an overall effort. Please familiarize yourself with the scale that will be used for scoring. You will need to know it well also to be able to provide constructive feedback to others.

If you still have questions on how a good entrepreneurial website should look, please visit http://michaelhyatt.com/platform

Part 3

What have you learned about your product  in this unit?  How did you learn it? What went well and what would you want to improve in the future? How did you give and receive feedback?