Creating and Managing a Business Reflective Essay
My mom and I started our own cleaning business called Spotless Spaces Cleaning, and my goal for this project was to create a business plan, research what steps need to be taken in order to apply to be an Limited Liability Company (LLC) and then take those steps, and any other additional steps needed, to become an incorporated business. I also planned to research all the important components a business needs, such as employee policies, paperwork in regards to payroll, office organization and filing, documentation, etc. I read and took notes on a few different subject areas including how to be an effective leader in a business, business strategies, and marketing our business. I wanted this project to encompass all areas of a creating and maintaining a business, from making a plan to running the business to marketing our business to help it grow. The project was, and still is, meaningful to me because it will help to make the business my mom and I created successful and will also help me to learn the different aspects of a business and what goes into it.
What was most significant for me about this experience was the end (or still-in-progress) result—having a successful business that is legal and running smoothly. The experience met my expectations that there would be a lot of work and research involved. What I didn’t expect was that I wouldn’t be able to figure everything out on my own. I figured that with the large amount of books I planned to read, any questions that I had would be answered in at least one of them. In reality, I had to meet with people such as accountants and took a free three-part seminar class at the Public Library for small businesses to answer all the questions I had—but now I have even more that I am working on getting the answers to.
The three leadership learning outcomes I identified that I wanted to meet with this project were: having the ability to relate, communicate and work effectively with peers; developing a vision of the future that acknowledges the impact of decisions; and possessing knowledge of various leadership theories and identifying with the characteristics of leadership. Being the manager of the business requires me to communicate with others on various levels. I communicate with the owner of the business, Jean, who is my superior, as well as our employees and clients. I am basically a mediator between Jean and our clients and employees and need to make sure that she knows what is going on on our end, as well as making sure that her vision for the business is being accomplished. I also have to communicate with our employees about what needs to be accomplished, as well as making sure they know what we believe in and stand for as a company and what is expected of them on a daily basis. My job is also to make sure to avoid confusion as much as possible and if it arises, to make sure it is handled quickly and effectively. When I communicate with clients I am again making sure there is no confusion about what they expect from us or the services we have agreed to provide for them, along with any scheduling problems. My position gives me the unique ability to communicate with members of all levels of our company, which has helped me to learn to communicate effectively on each of the different levels. This is a skill that will definitely help me as I take on other jobs and work with other people. Another learning outcome I was working toward with this project was developing a vision and realizing the impact of decisions. Creating a business plan was a good way to keep track of the vision we had for our company, and has been great to refer back to so we can see if we are accomplishing what we set out to do. I also sat down with Jean and made a list of goals for one month, three months, six months, nine months, one year, two years, and five years. I then broke that down and made a plan of what we needed to do weekly to accomplish those goals. I am very excited that up to this point, we have been on track accomplishing the goals we set. We have had to make adjustments due to decisions we made or unforeseen circumstances that we didn’t account for, but those have helped me to understand how certain things affect different aspects of the business. By looking over and analyzing how we are succeeding as a company I am forced to see the actions of the decisions we make and what the results are. By reading a plethora of books on management, finances, and business, I gained a lot of useful knowledge that I was able to apply to running our business that I would not have otherwise had. I kept detailed notes of each of the books I read so I can continue to reference them as needed.
This experience really impacted me because I feel like if I get another job, I will be really well prepared for any position because I understand what it takes to run a business. Even if I have a lower position in the company, I will better understand what is expected of me and what I need to do to help the business run smoothly. While many of the books that I read contained a lot of useful information, the one that I felt I relied on the most were It’s Your Business: 183 Essential Tips that Will Transform Your Small Business by JJ Ramberg with Lisa Everson and Frank Silverstein. This book covered information from finding start up funding to leading your company to creating and managing your team to marketing and office work, and even more. It was a great resource because it had valuable information in an array of sections that were easy to understand and simple to employ. It was great to see that I already knew and was using some of the tips in the book, but many were new to me and totally invaluable. The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue by Shama Hyder Kabani and Spark & Hustle: Launch and Grow Your Small Business Now by Tory Johnson were two other really helpful books, the extensive notes on which I plan to post on my learning portfolio. Again, the information I learned from these books was so helpful and I am really glad that I had it. Run Your Own Corporation: How to Legally Operate and Properly Maintan your Company into the Future by Garrett Sutton was also a great reference for all the legal documents and actions we need to take, and I am considering purchasing a copy for us to keep in our office (I only borrowed the book from the library for my research for this experience).
During this experience, my role as a leader was mainly to lead our team of employees. The other jobs that come along with being the manager are mostly communication and organization based jobs. My most important goal in my role of manager for this experience was to create a staff handbook for all of our employees and make sure that all staff members understood and continued to follow the policies. This was important to me because I feel a staff handbook is an important step in making a business “official”, I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page, and I also wanted to have a written document to refer to in case there were any disputes or confusion between the staff. Creating and distributing this handbook was a milestone for us to reach and I felt like I really accomplished something when I handed it out to everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, we decided to hold monthly meetings between all of the staff members which take place on the third or fourth Wednesday of each month. I create an agenda for each meeting and we also go over the following month’s schedule. The agendas cover good news (compliments we have gotten, new bids we have coming up, etc.), policies (ones that we feel need reviewing), clients (current and new), schedule (changes for the current month and going over the following month’s schedule, which we give a paper copy of to each employee at the meeting), problems or other items to be discussed, and then we have time for any questions they might have. On weeks where we don’t have an meeting in person, I send out an e-mail on Tuesday evening for everyone to read and respond to before work on Thursday morning covering the same areas we would discuss in a meeting. The purpose of this is so we can go over things as they happen, instead of potentially waiting a month to discuss something and risking that we or the staff may have forgotten the details of the day. We also do this to try and cut down on how much we have to talk about at each meeting. On a day to day basis we communicate through texts; employees clock in and out for each job through texts and if they have questions or need to otherwise communicate with a supervisor we do that through text as well.
For anyone who is going to do a similar experience, I would suggest researching the books they are planning to read more first. I read the cover summaries and chose books that I thought would be useful, but when I actually began reading a lot of them I realized they didn’t necessarily pertain to our kind of business. I think if I had looked them up or read some reviews about the books first I would have been able to weed out a lot of the ones that weren’t so helpful.
This experience has made me appreciate those who run the businesses of the other jobs I have because I understand better all of the effort that goes into it. It also makes me appreciate the people who run the businesses that I use every day, like the different stores that I frequent or the services I need. I think continuing to run our business and through trial and error I will continue to become a more improved leader. I will also reference the notes I took often to make sure that I am staying on track and implementing all of the ideas I felt would help us be successful.
Through this experience I have learned how to improve my communication skills and how to communicate with people on various levels—whether they be my superior or someone I am supervising myself. Improved communication has helped me in my other jobs as a wedding coordinator and wedding photographer, as well as in my day to day life because I can more effectively get across my points or ideas. I am especially able to better articulate and communicate my ideas in classes to both my classmates and my professors. My organizational skills have also improved since I have many documents and other information to keep track of in our office, which has helped me to become more organized with my schoolwork as well. I have learned to better manage my time, which also spills over to my school life.
The big way that I disseminated the work I did in this experience was in putting out the employee handbook. It was a culmination of a lot of the research I did on how to effectively manage and lead a team, as well as a test of how well I communicated that information on paper to the staff. I also plan on putting all the notes I took onto my learning portfolio so that others can benefit from my research. Through sharing this information in our staff handbook and talking with our employees about it, I was able to see how effective my communication skills were. This is important because it let me know what I did well and what aspects I need to work on for the future. In a broader sense, our current and potential future clients are the audience of my work because all the research I did was to better our company, which is a result that our clients will see.
My mom and I started our own cleaning business called Spotless Spaces Cleaning, and my goal for this project was to create a business plan, research what steps need to be taken in order to apply to be an Limited Liability Company (LLC) and then take those steps, and any other additional steps needed, to become an incorporated business. I also planned to research all the important components a business needs, such as employee policies, paperwork in regards to payroll, office organization and filing, documentation, etc. I read and took notes on a few different subject areas including how to be an effective leader in a business, business strategies, and marketing our business. I wanted this project to encompass all areas of a creating and maintaining a business, from making a plan to running the business to marketing our business to help it grow. The project was, and still is, meaningful to me because it will help to make the business my mom and I created successful and will also help me to learn the different aspects of a business and what goes into it.
What was most significant for me about this experience was the end (or still-in-progress) result—having a successful business that is legal and running smoothly. The experience met my expectations that there would be a lot of work and research involved. What I didn’t expect was that I wouldn’t be able to figure everything out on my own. I figured that with the large amount of books I planned to read, any questions that I had would be answered in at least one of them. In reality, I had to meet with people such as accountants and took a free three-part seminar class at the Public Library for small businesses to answer all the questions I had—but now I have even more that I am working on getting the answers to.
The three leadership learning outcomes I identified that I wanted to meet with this project were: having the ability to relate, communicate and work effectively with peers; developing a vision of the future that acknowledges the impact of decisions; and possessing knowledge of various leadership theories and identifying with the characteristics of leadership. Being the manager of the business requires me to communicate with others on various levels. I communicate with the owner of the business, Jean, who is my superior, as well as our employees and clients. I am basically a mediator between Jean and our clients and employees and need to make sure that she knows what is going on on our end, as well as making sure that her vision for the business is being accomplished. I also have to communicate with our employees about what needs to be accomplished, as well as making sure they know what we believe in and stand for as a company and what is expected of them on a daily basis. My job is also to make sure to avoid confusion as much as possible and if it arises, to make sure it is handled quickly and effectively. When I communicate with clients I am again making sure there is no confusion about what they expect from us or the services we have agreed to provide for them, along with any scheduling problems. My position gives me the unique ability to communicate with members of all levels of our company, which has helped me to learn to communicate effectively on each of the different levels. This is a skill that will definitely help me as I take on other jobs and work with other people. Another learning outcome I was working toward with this project was developing a vision and realizing the impact of decisions. Creating a business plan was a good way to keep track of the vision we had for our company, and has been great to refer back to so we can see if we are accomplishing what we set out to do. I also sat down with Jean and made a list of goals for one month, three months, six months, nine months, one year, two years, and five years. I then broke that down and made a plan of what we needed to do weekly to accomplish those goals. I am very excited that up to this point, we have been on track accomplishing the goals we set. We have had to make adjustments due to decisions we made or unforeseen circumstances that we didn’t account for, but those have helped me to understand how certain things affect different aspects of the business. By looking over and analyzing how we are succeeding as a company I am forced to see the actions of the decisions we make and what the results are. By reading a plethora of books on management, finances, and business, I gained a lot of useful knowledge that I was able to apply to running our business that I would not have otherwise had. I kept detailed notes of each of the books I read so I can continue to reference them as needed.
This experience really impacted me because I feel like if I get another job, I will be really well prepared for any position because I understand what it takes to run a business. Even if I have a lower position in the company, I will better understand what is expected of me and what I need to do to help the business run smoothly. While many of the books that I read contained a lot of useful information, the one that I felt I relied on the most were It’s Your Business: 183 Essential Tips that Will Transform Your Small Business by JJ Ramberg with Lisa Everson and Frank Silverstein. This book covered information from finding start up funding to leading your company to creating and managing your team to marketing and office work, and even more. It was a great resource because it had valuable information in an array of sections that were easy to understand and simple to employ. It was great to see that I already knew and was using some of the tips in the book, but many were new to me and totally invaluable. The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue by Shama Hyder Kabani and Spark & Hustle: Launch and Grow Your Small Business Now by Tory Johnson were two other really helpful books, the extensive notes on which I plan to post on my learning portfolio. Again, the information I learned from these books was so helpful and I am really glad that I had it. Run Your Own Corporation: How to Legally Operate and Properly Maintan your Company into the Future by Garrett Sutton was also a great reference for all the legal documents and actions we need to take, and I am considering purchasing a copy for us to keep in our office (I only borrowed the book from the library for my research for this experience).
During this experience, my role as a leader was mainly to lead our team of employees. The other jobs that come along with being the manager are mostly communication and organization based jobs. My most important goal in my role of manager for this experience was to create a staff handbook for all of our employees and make sure that all staff members understood and continued to follow the policies. This was important to me because I feel a staff handbook is an important step in making a business “official”, I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page, and I also wanted to have a written document to refer to in case there were any disputes or confusion between the staff. Creating and distributing this handbook was a milestone for us to reach and I felt like I really accomplished something when I handed it out to everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, we decided to hold monthly meetings between all of the staff members which take place on the third or fourth Wednesday of each month. I create an agenda for each meeting and we also go over the following month’s schedule. The agendas cover good news (compliments we have gotten, new bids we have coming up, etc.), policies (ones that we feel need reviewing), clients (current and new), schedule (changes for the current month and going over the following month’s schedule, which we give a paper copy of to each employee at the meeting), problems or other items to be discussed, and then we have time for any questions they might have. On weeks where we don’t have an meeting in person, I send out an e-mail on Tuesday evening for everyone to read and respond to before work on Thursday morning covering the same areas we would discuss in a meeting. The purpose of this is so we can go over things as they happen, instead of potentially waiting a month to discuss something and risking that we or the staff may have forgotten the details of the day. We also do this to try and cut down on how much we have to talk about at each meeting. On a day to day basis we communicate through texts; employees clock in and out for each job through texts and if they have questions or need to otherwise communicate with a supervisor we do that through text as well.
For anyone who is going to do a similar experience, I would suggest researching the books they are planning to read more first. I read the cover summaries and chose books that I thought would be useful, but when I actually began reading a lot of them I realized they didn’t necessarily pertain to our kind of business. I think if I had looked them up or read some reviews about the books first I would have been able to weed out a lot of the ones that weren’t so helpful.
This experience has made me appreciate those who run the businesses of the other jobs I have because I understand better all of the effort that goes into it. It also makes me appreciate the people who run the businesses that I use every day, like the different stores that I frequent or the services I need. I think continuing to run our business and through trial and error I will continue to become a more improved leader. I will also reference the notes I took often to make sure that I am staying on track and implementing all of the ideas I felt would help us be successful.
Through this experience I have learned how to improve my communication skills and how to communicate with people on various levels—whether they be my superior or someone I am supervising myself. Improved communication has helped me in my other jobs as a wedding coordinator and wedding photographer, as well as in my day to day life because I can more effectively get across my points or ideas. I am especially able to better articulate and communicate my ideas in classes to both my classmates and my professors. My organizational skills have also improved since I have many documents and other information to keep track of in our office, which has helped me to become more organized with my schoolwork as well. I have learned to better manage my time, which also spills over to my school life.
The big way that I disseminated the work I did in this experience was in putting out the employee handbook. It was a culmination of a lot of the research I did on how to effectively manage and lead a team, as well as a test of how well I communicated that information on paper to the staff. I also plan on putting all the notes I took onto my learning portfolio so that others can benefit from my research. Through sharing this information in our staff handbook and talking with our employees about it, I was able to see how effective my communication skills were. This is important because it let me know what I did well and what aspects I need to work on for the future. In a broader sense, our current and potential future clients are the audience of my work because all the research I did was to better our company, which is a result that our clients will see.