Very Short Interview No. 1

Very Short Interview With An Entrepreneur

I interviewed an entrepreneur named, John, who is an Optician. John is my friends father. He went to school for optometry and worked at Optical Illusions for years. As an Optician, John performs custom orders or receives prescriptions. This entails cutting the lenses, and fitting them into the frames. Since Optical Illusions is a retail store, John encountered many vendors. This helped him network and create relationships with these vendors. He decided to go into business for himself since he would make a lot more money that way. Now, all of the vendors clients, including Optical Illusions, are his clients. He created a private business for fifteen years, and makes six figures. 

Interview questions:

1) What does being an entrepreneur mean to you?

• It means hard work, action, and leadership. It's hard work to start your own business. You have to make sure you have all the equipment you need to be able to do your job. You have to make well thought out plans to keep track of vendor orders. Action makes your vision come to life. Without action, you'll fall behind on things. Organization and planning are key factors. Leadership means taking control. I took leadership in starting my own business and I also control every aspect of my business as well.

2) When I hear the word, entrepreneur, I think of risk. Was there a lot of risk involved starting your own business? 

• There is always some type of risk associated with any business starting out, even in general. What if a piece of equipment that cost thousands of dollars breaks down? What if you run out of funds to get your business started? Risk should be replaced with planning. The better you plan, the less risk there will be. Such as, planning to keep an emergency fund. I didn't have much planning to do. It was already put in place for me. I had already built relationships with a lot of clients. I just cut out the middle man (company) and had the clients go directly to me. 

3) What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?

• There are a lot of great things you can learn from and entrepreneurship course. Skill sets you should learn are organization, planning, persistence, reflection and leadership. These are skills I use every day. 

Reflection:

I really enjoyed talking to John about being an entrepreneur. I thought it was awesome how I'm already applying the skills he told me he uses everyday. This class is definitely helping me reflect for a more open mind. Persistence is also another one. I'm staying on top of all my assignments and time managing. It also made a lot more sense when he told me, "the more you plan the less risk there will be". John is definitely right about that. Planning makes perfect!