Matthew Morrow's blog

Certainly the primary role of any entrepreneur is to firstly generate an idea. Recently, a movie called “the Social Network” was released, whose plot was based upon Facebook, an enormous social media engine today, which was founded based upon a simple idea. Specifically when Mark Zuckerberg, found of this multi-national company, began devising his plan, he simply wished to take the college social experience and put it online. While entrepreneurial business’s can be considerably risky, Facebook exploded on the college scene, encompassing users from numerous colleges worldwide and eventually expanded to any particular user. Much like any company, Facebook began with personal investments from is founders, enabling the project to get off the ground. However as it expanded these small funds could not support the website due to its growing popularity. As a result, Facebook found investors who issued and angel investment, establishing the company as a legitimate organization. After viewing this movie I certainly bettered my understanding of entrepreneurial businesses, additionally allowing myself to view the correlations between Facebook and the concepts which we learned in our entrepreneurial lecture.

Although when we began to look into the accounting side of business in comm. 101 it was described as dull and boring, I quite enjoyed the lectures, particularly class 12’s discussion. Specifically the various issues regarding new business ventures that were presented to us particularly caught my interest. Before this class I had simply looked at such ventures without realizing the costly effects of bringing specific projects underway. Undoubtedly each start-up venture has relevant costs to consider when commencing a project. Let’s consider electric vehicles. While the expansion of this market is a prospective one, it is not necessarily worth the limiting relevant costs. Firstly we must consider the costs of new technology behind this particular product. Obviously engineering would defiantly be relevant. Additionally manufacturers must consider the costs of producing this type of product in pre-existing, and fixed-sized plants. Most importantly companies looking to pursue this venture must also consider the availability of power stations for these specific vehicles, and possibly the costs of setting up their own stations. While these are just a few examples of relevant costs, they highlight the importance of managerial accounting when considering new business ventures.

Class 16’s lesson was very interesting. Particularly after having learned a fir amount of supply and demand in economics, it was quite interesting to view its real world applications. Additionally the overview of production, specifically for Zara was one which thoroughly represented an efficient business, who accurately forecasts consumer demand. While the lecture was highly intriguing, it additionally allowed me to apply concepts to a company that I worked for over the summer. This company is called Kayotics skimboards who is also my sponsor. My duties included the handling of shipping orders, online and to retailers as well as picking up inventory. While this employment was just only for a few months I noticed several flaws in our distribution and ordering process. Firstly, we underestimated the demand for our ‘”tractics” series of boards, resulting in unfilled orders. Additionally by the end of the skim season we had numerous boards which were leftover, and ended up in stockpiles. However this was the least of our issues. Undoubtedly the inefficient communication between myself and sales staff was the most dominant, which resulted in several misplaced orders. Certainly through forecasting and efficient communication these issues will be resolved for the upcoming skim season.

Kayotics Skimboards is a company with which I have strong ties to and is clearly an entrepreneurial company. Established in 2001 by both rider and president, John Minns developed a back yard hobby into a full fledged company, which is now a leader in the skimboard industry. Through taking a simple design and concept Kayotics skimboards has perfected the art of crafting rideable boards, much like skateboard companies of the past. Specifically his production evolved from creating boards in his backyard, to a complex manufacturing system, allowing for perfected products and mass production of these products. Now Kayotics Skimboards are in stores globally. Additionally each year the company looks to be innovative by developing new products that also advance the sport. Through developing professionally made boards, John contributed in forming the present skimboard industry, taking it from a simple activity to an extreme sport. However because the industry is so small the accumulation of wealth has yet to reach the millions. While this is a characteristic of an entrepreneurial company, Kayotics skimboards exhibit’s other traits, such as innovation, new products, entrance into a new market and new production methods which clearly distinguishes Kayotics Skimboards as an entrepreneurial company.