Extra Post: September

Initially, I was having a hard time trying to think of different fields that go into my senior topic since its so broad but in all honesty, I'm quite satisfied with this book being one of my starting points into going more in depth with my senior topic.

Coaching in the Family Owned Business: A Path to Growth by Manfusa Shamns and David A. Lane was a very easy read with a lot of information that I didn't give much thought into when picking my senior topic. This book allowed me to understand that in a Family Business although family is suppose to make work seem a lot easier, in some cases they can create additional dilemmas within the business. There's a lot of things that can go wrong in a family business and this book mostly talks about ways to coach/go about resolving some of those family disputes as well as what those disputes are and how they make your business less successful. What I found most interesting about this book is that it not only gave me research and data but in some chapters it also gave me real life scenarios, allowing some of their topics to make sense realistically speaking.  I felt like over all, this would be a great book to refer back to furthering my senior topic research as well a very great source of information.

Blog 6: Second Interview Preparation

Interviews

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?

•      My mentor is Wilder Gonzalez and he works at his own store called El Duende Party Supply.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

•      What made you go into the family business world and what can you say is one one of the most difficult things about being the owner?
•       In what ways would you consider your business successful and productive?
•       Do you have any goals to expand your current business in the future or do you think maintaining a small business is better in your case?
•     How would you say owning a family business or a business overall has shaped you into the type of person you are today?
•    Have you always been interested in owning a business and what would you say is one of your most memorable experiences about owning your store?

Blog 5: Mentorship Reflection

Research

1. Mentorship question: Describe your experience in how you found your mentorship?

-I had a hard time looking for a mentor at first because people are not as willing to understand that someone is wanting to learn from them and their levels of expertise as well as work/help out around their business for free. I gave up and then soon realized that what I was looking for was closer than I thought and then gave my uncle a call. He was very open-minded about it and glad to help me out. Although it's going great with my uncle I am now looking for a second mentor with a family-business  that has multiple chains to help me more and give me more of a clear understanding into how one small family business can grow out to be and the management it takes to run them.

2. Research question: What has been your most important article you have read so far and why?

- The most important article I have read so far is, "How to Teach Your Kids to Take over the Family Business," by Issie Lapowsky because not only does it tell you to start teaching your children at a young age about the business and the different aspects that go into running the business but it also gives you an understanding about all the different contracts that go into handing your business to your kids and being on the same page in order for your business to continue being successful. I found this very interesting because one of the questions in the article was, "What if you have more than one kid that wants to take over your business?"  and Issie talks about how making a business plan can make it less problematic and then she somewhat goes into business law and the lawyer/accountant/attorney or financial planner aspect for a bit which can also be a branch to my topic and now, thanks to her, I'm somewhat interested into looking a little further into that to see if that can be helpful for my working EQ as well as my senior topic or just take another route.  

Extra Post: August

 Library Experience

- For me going to the library was very beneficial since my topic, Family Owned Businesses, is very broad and therefore need a lot of resources to rely on. There, I was able to find a lot of really interesting books that contain great information about my topic like:

                               

-Also I was able to find up-to-date journal articles that are well credited by professionals like:

• Family Owned Business: Journal Entry

Now, I'm more confident on my senior topic and willing to research more in depth on it.



Blog 4: Interview Preparation

 1. Who do you plan to interview? Why?

• I plan to interview my mentor, Wilder, to start getting more of and outlook as to why he decided to own a business and all the things that come behind running it. 

  2. You have to ask 5 questions. What additional questions do you plan to ask? Ask open-ended questions.

• What made you pursue owning a party supply store out of all the other businesses out there?
• What made you stick to the store's original name?
• What would you say is the most difficult aspect of running a family owned business?

Blog 3: Topic Choice and Working EQ

Research

  

   1.  List your topic here: Family Owned Businesses 

                            

   2.  Write a question that helps to focus your research this month

• What is the most effective way to run a successful Family Owned Business?

   3.  WB Link: Working Bibliography

Blog 2: Summer Mentorship Component

Mentorship

 Literal 

  1. Summer Mentorship Log

  2.  El Duende Party Supply

        +1(909)629-5342

  3. Questions Raised:

• If it includes your same senior topic, is it okay to change mentors?
• Do we have a specific schedule when we have to meet up with our mentor or is that according to us?
• Is it okay to have multiple mentors about our senior topic?
• How in depth do we need to get about our senior topic?
• Do we also have a certain amount of hours we need to complete with our mentor during the school year or no?

  Interpretive

 4. The most important thing that I gained from this experience was not only hanging out and working with my own family a little more but also being able to see what it takes to accomplish and or own something that I've always wanted to do.

    Applied

 5. Ever since I've known that Ipoly requires you to have a senior presentation in order to graduate I knew my topic would have to be about something dealing with businesses. I previously wanted it to be about business and advertising cause that's what I see myself doing in the future but since finding a mentor within that area wasn't possible for me I decided to change it up a bit. My uncle, who's now my mentor, has been owning his business since I was about 6. I've seen him accomplish a lot through the process and I thought that maybe, possibly, owning a family owned business wouldn't be so bad and perhaps I can learn a lot more about the field through the process. Since we do live in the same city and don't see each other often, I decided to make Family Owned Businesses my topic and hope to enjoy my family's company and guidance through my last year of high school.