I knew what entrepreneurship was prior to taking this class, but I didn’t really know what it would entail to get started. After this class, I realize that I hadn’t the first clue what all went into creating and marketing a product or a service.

I had heard the start-up stories of Facebook and other successful apps, and basically thought that start-up stemmed from somebody having an idea and they worked until they got it made, and then it either became popular or not over a period of time.

Prior to this class, I had never thought about these things being created because there was a need for them or them being a solution to a problem. After going through the steps of developing a pitch and then developing a service, as well as watching other people do the same these products or services are often solutions to problems that a lot of people have but they don’t think about until a solution is presented.

I learned that entrepreneurship is a combination of coming up with a solution to a problem, finding out a way to create this solution/ make it marketable, and adapt it to fit what the consumers want. When you hear the success stories it doesn’t come across as difficult as it really is, having this experience over the last 16 weeks made me realize that entrepreneurship is one of the hardest things/professions you can get into.

It is one of those things like journalism that you have to get into it for the right reasons. You are going to have a lot of failures, you are not in it for the money; obviously you want this to be a business so it needs to make money, but large amounts of money like the worth of Facebook shouldn’t be your goal, if large amounts of money come that’s great but that’s not what drives you, you have to believe in what you are doing and ultimately you have to know if it is time to walk away.

Even if you ultimately end up succeeding you are going to experience such highs and lows throughout this process you are going to feel like quitting, that is when you really have to evaluate what you are doing and why you think it will work

Entrepreneurship is definitely something I would like to explore further. I have so many ideas for different things, and I think the process of getting ready to create a product or service allows you to harness the ideas you have in your head, focus on one or a few at a time and really breakdown if/how it would work. This process allows you to constantly be creative in your thinking, not only in designing but if the product gets made how will you adapt it to keep it current. It also allows you to get a feel for what problems people within different demographics are having and how they would like those problems to be solved.

I think being a part of a start-up team is better than going at it alone. Maybe not a super large team because the more people you have the more opinions and ideas you have, which can be a positive and a negative. You have people to help you through the process, but also in times of stress, you have people you may become upset with. If you have different people with different skills but the group has the same end goal it will be an easier process than creating a start-up by yourself. If you start with the team it is easier because at the start you aren’t going to have money to pay people to work for you, so if you can find people who are willing to create with you the start will hopefully be easier.

The funding aspects of these start-up businesses are very interesting to me because this seems to be the direction media is headed. There are things such as Kick Starter and also getting support from other companies if you gain a small following. Everything seems to be word of mouth and getting innovators to be interested in your product as well as other forms of media advertising on your product.

Ultimately this class was very informational and hands-on and we really got to look at and hear from many people that are going through the process of being start-up entrepreneurs. We got a taste of it with our projects as well and I learned so much. I feel motivated and hopeful about pursuing my own ideas in the future.