Week 14 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise to me in this chapter is that there is so much focus and content into the social entrepreneurship and ethical challenges of entrepreneurship. I previously was pretty certain that there were little ethical challenges and dilemmas when compared to jobs that can be just as stressing. I found out I was pretty wrong too, as a company often faces challenges on a daily basis, much more than i thought.
One thing I would ask the author is if there is any way that these 2 chapters tie together, as I want to be able to visualize social entrepreneurship when it is compared and contrasted with the corporate some of entrepreneurship. I also would ask if there is similar growth and advances in both areas? Or which one seems predominantly the right one.
I did not have any confusing material that I countered while reading the chapters and also I seem to agree with the authors on both of these chapters and what they entailed.

Google Gold

Search Engine Optimization is a term that many throw around and often times try to define yet there are really few who truly understand the meaning and the power and importance behind it. A few of the things I tried to do in my blog in order to increase hits in search engines is to use regular, every day words that people will oftentimes search for on the internet, this will increase the likelihood of one of their hits being my blog. Also, I tried to keep the language relatively simple as opposed to super complicated so that my blog could really be understood by a majority who may not be such an expert in a certain field. Lastly, I simply tried to keep things interesting, this blog wasn't so much a requirement for the class but rather a means through which I can tell of my accomplishments and failures and experiences in it.
My key words were things that could relate to the topic I was talking about, and I don't just mean entrepreneurship in general but rather pets, finding lost pets and mobile applications. This I believe will target a certain audience that will be more likely to be interested in my blog and future plans than your average person on the internet. While my key words at first started with pet related cases, it evolved as my venture evolved and once I had a more complete idea of what I wanted, my key words reflected that change as well.
To be honest, there must have once only one instance in which I can recall I used social media when referring to my blog, and that must have been a complaint about all the upcoming assignments I had to do, which was quite sarcastically worded on Twitter. It got a couple of likes though.
My most viral post was my Elevator Pitch No.1, I believe this was the case due to this being my introduction to my main idea and the concept that I would be working towards for the rest of the semester. Thus I feel it is important that people first understand my idea in order to fully grasp any other of my subsequent posts.
I did not make it to the first page of google, as it seems that there are quite other websites out there that talk about pets, pet finding services and application development services in general. I could not find my own blog as it must have been buried very deeply in there somewhere (I looked up to page 8, then gave up and grabbed a beer).

Very Short Interview Part 2

When I look back at my original interview with my choice entrepreneur, I think that I covered only the very basics and the essential foundation of what it really means to be an entrepreneur. Now that I have progressed in this class, I realize that there is a lot more depth to the matter and a lot more meaningful questions I could gave asked.

The following is a translated transcript of a Skype call:

Q: Thank you for taking the time to talk with me again, I am basically following up with my last interview now that I have learned and experienced a greater deal of the field of entrepreneurship. Looking back again to your beginning years as an entrepreneur, was there any time in which you thought you had utterly failed? What was that like and how did you deal with it?

A: Im glad you got back to me, it is always a pleasure to talk with future entrepreneurs. Yes, there were actually a few failures before my initial success; I often thought the work I was doing wasn't worth it as I constantly had to start over quite a few times. When it comes to how I dealt with it...I mean, it was rough, you know? Losing everything you work for not once but multiple times. Yet I kept trying because what else was I gonna do? Give up after all this? No way.

Q: How did you go about raising capital for your business? How did you get the gears moving?

A: I was lucky to have been blessed with an affluent family who helped me a lot when it came to funds. Nevertheless that was just start up costs, what really got us going were government contracts. You have to understand that in a country such as Ecuador, a lot of wealth circulates around government and any close ties to it, so naturally I aimed at where the money was.

Q: What have you learned about this entrepreneurial journey as a whole that you can say you are able to widely apply it to your everyday life? What stuck with you?

A: To be perfectly honest, it was failure. I learned from it like a mistress teachings you things, you know? Haha. I learned to fail and I learned not to fail in the same way twice, that way I can say I am always moving forward, and that is something I think you can apply to life in general.

Q: Thank You so much Nelson, you have been a huge help for me in this class and in counsel for my venture.

A: Anytime! Tell your dad I say hi, will you?

During this interview, I fell a lot more comfortable not only with myself and the entrepreneur but also  with the subject at hand. I felt I was able to ask much more meaningful questions that probed deep into the essence of the entrepreneurial journey as opposed to my first interview where I feel I only skimmed the very surface. I could tell that the entrepreneur thought of me in a different way, maybe it was the fact that I seemed more knowledgeable on the subject.