Last Lecture

The entrepreneurial journey is indeed a "Hero's Journey". I appreciate how this course was designed to have the book by Jeff Sandefer and Reverend Robert Sirico be the capstone of this course experience. This book like the course take you through a discovery process of the key elements that you will need in order to start your own hero's journey. Robert D Hales said "To find gifts we have been given, we must pray and fast...I urge you each to discover your gifts and to seek after those that will bring direction to your life's work and that will further the work of heaven." This course has taught me to infuse the gospel of Christ into my entrepreneurial journey. Starting a business with the focus of using our God given talents to make people's lives better and prosper financial in order to be able to have the financial means to further the work of the Lord is an approach that will not be taught in any other business school.
I have realized the extent in which this journey will continually provide me with different types of trials. This course has provided me with lots of examples of how to preserver and endure those trials by being prepared for them. One of our biggest challenges will be to seek the path of self mastery. Elder Tanner stated "There are two important elements in self-mastery. The first is to determine your course or set the sails, so to speak, of moral standards; the other is the willpower, or the wind in the sails carrying one forward, As I said before, character is determined by the extent to which we can master ourselves toward good ends." By diligently working through the inspired assignments in this course you will be able to think ahead and set moral guidelines to keep you on the correct path.
I have learned just as much about business from the General Authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as I did from the business books and readings. On spiritual notion to keep in mind as you decided to start down a path towards mastery is that there is one out there that doesn't want you to succeed. He has made it his mission to cause you to fail. "Brigham Young also said, "We never began to build [any] temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring"" Don't let him succeed, this course will help you learn how to slay your dragons. 

Gratitude

Receiving an education from a church based organization is a different experience than a state or private institution. I have enjoyed starting the reading assignments with a talk from a General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Learning how to incorporate our gospel standards into our jobs or our future businesses will be of benefit to all. Having an attitude of gratitude will bless our customers, our partners, our communities and ourselves. Learning to be grateful at all times of our lives, up or down, is key to overcoming the trials that are sure to come. Being able to seek spiritual guidance when making decisions will help us avoid costly mistakes. One mistake that is made often is choosing the wrong job. It is hard to decide on a path and then once something presents its self we make the decision based on financial needs and might not take future goals into consideration. Having the for thought to seek spiritual guidance when making life plans and goals will help in keeping us on the right path for us. As we prepare ourselves we will then learn to recognize and take advantage of the right opportunities that might show up. If we are learning and growing along the way we will be prepared for those opportunities.

Rank

It is great to have the amount of tools that are out there to be able to monitor what happens on your site so that you can make informed decisions on changes to the site. Woorank is amazing. And I only tried the free information. It helps you decide where to focus your efforts on enhancing your site. Their site also has lots of great actionable content. Useful information that you can implement to increase the search ability of your site. Part of the ranking process is getting people to link back to your site. This shows google that you have something that people are willing to share and talk about. However, getting these link backs is a difficult task. It requires a plan and a strategy just like an other aspect of your business. Another great tool to see what is happening on your site is Google Analytics. We had used it earlier in the semester but working with the program more in depth really shows it capabilities.

Consecration

The law of consecration has always been of interest to me. The thought of being taken care and taking care of others as brothers and sisters in Christ brings a feeling of peace to my heart. I have been blessed with many opportunities to experience it in a small degree. I have either had to live with other families for a time or have had families live in my home for a time. Everyone working together to live the best we can at the time. The natural man does eventually creep in and it becomes time to move on. But just because we can't seem to manage to level to the full extent of the law does not excuse of from being required to do all that we can for the poor and the needy.

There were a few thoughts that stood out to me while I listed to the talk from Elder Gay Entrepreneurship and Consecration. "An Entrepreneur uses adversity as a path to accomplishment ...they break with traditional patterns of thoughts and deeds to create new beginnings." Throughout this course it has been ingrained in us that the entrepreneurial journey is not an easy one and Elder Gay agrees. "Just because the world does not factor in the power and mind of heaven into business does not mean it does not matter....Successful pioneers are only inward focused as well as outward driven...Our aim must be to do his will..." 

Virtue and integrity are vital in business without it we see the deterioration of world markets. "...organization serves its own interests when it protects the overzealous from themselves." The business should exist to serve a need and provide for as many as possible. The time and talents of individuals should be valued as much as the money from investors. A business should develop a culture of community and service. 

Social Networking

Social media is constantly changing. It can be an overwhelming task to create a Social Media plan for a business if you are completely new to social media. It is normal for those that grew up sharing every detail of their lives on some kind of social platform. There are many social platforms and a few have come and gone. There are even social media monitoring and influence ranking sites. The most famous Klout just called it quits a few months back.
With all of the things that we don't know about Social Media, we need to pick a site or two to learn and develop a plan to share our business on the internet. Social Media takes word of mouth to a whole new level. Any and all businesses should at least be searching the internet to find what people are saying about them, to make sure they are fairly represented. A couple of negative comments on any of the sites can create thousands of impressions than just regular word of mouth.
I think that the hardest thing to do is create social content, the attention span of someone scrolling through a social site must be less than seconds. You literally have a few seconds to capture the attention of potential customers. Pictures need to be of the highest quality, captions need to be within the readable limits - odds are that they will not click on the more button to see what the end of your sentence reads. It will take time but just one semi viral post or picture could bring you more exposure than you ever dreamed.

words not just words

As authors of content we try to express our own voice. As we develop that voice it might evolve with different characteristics but as we write content that will need to be search by a web browser in order to be found we need to keep SEO in mind. Moz has put together a great guideline and detailed example of how best to do that. A few of the key concepts that I knew that I need to change immediatly on my website were first: Keyword- Targeted content. Things as simple as having the keyword in the URL and having the keyword in the first words of the title element. Second: add unique value (this may be a duh) but in the world where everything has already been done at least a couple of times, you need to really think about the unique value you give to the subject. One of the sentences reads "Searchers who visit would be unlikely to go "back" from the page to choose a different result." To keep that in mind, did I provide my visitor with exactly what they were looking for to the point that they stopped looking. Implementing these and many more suggestions that were given in this article will bring my content to a new level.

Money

Everyone whether entrepreneur or not needs to find a work/life balance. This is when it is important to seek guidance from those that have already been there and done that. Plenty of good advice can be found from religious and scholarly texts. In the formula for success President Monson advises us to first fill our mind with truth; second fill our life with service and third fill our heart with love. As we use this as a foundation for the principles from which to prioritize our life we can find some balance. Balance can mean different things at different times.
In the Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness it cautions against going on a fool's errand. It recommends thought provoking tasks that will help frame your thought process of the journey you are seeking to take. Task One: Understanding the difference between happiness, satisfaction and fulfillment. Task two: losing yourself in a hero's journey. Task Three: getting started on your quest. This article is a great precursor to the book: A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey. The article and book a full of great advice on how to set yourself up for a good work/life balance.
Then there is the big looming subject of money. In the Attitude on Money by Stephen W. Gibson he helps you think through some of the preconceived notions that you might have about money. Helps you think through changing the filters about money that may harm your path on the Hero's Journey. My overall attitude about money is respect. I respect it in the sense that I learn as much as I can about it and how to best use it. I respect the fact that I have it and can earn more. Our view on money can affect the way we live. If we don't understand it then we might get into trouble making unwise decisions about money. If we fear money we may never have sufficient for our needs or gain more than what we need in order to help others. In the article Gibson gives 6 rules that are recommended for prospering: Rule 1: Seek the Lord and have hope in him. Rule 2: Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and fast offerings. Rule 3: Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant. Rule 4: Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as President Hinckley has taught us, is the Key to Opportunity. Rule 5: Learn the laws upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated. Rule 6: Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.