Final Post!!!!

Woah! I can’t believe how quickly the past eleven weeks (of Project #1) have flew by. It is really remarkable to see how much my entrepreneurial idea has developed. When I first began developing my idea, I really didn’t know quite what I wanted. I just knew that I wanted a thrift store. I love fashion and thrift stores have always been a personal favorite of mine. Being from Maryland, there are not many thrift store options so my idea was to create an online thrift store in order to make thrift store clothing more accessible to avid thrifters online.

The competitive analysis blog post really made me reevaluate how I planned on setting myself apart from the masses. In my competitive analysis blog post, I analyzed stores such as The Kissing Tree Vintage and ModCloth. From the Kissing Tree Vintage, I learned the importance of having a niche. For example, the Kissing Tree Vintage “niche” is thrifted items from the 80s and 90s. Modcloth, on the other hand, is vintage-inspired and has a very large demographic ranging from the college student to the working woman. What I like about ModCloth is they sell regular retail clothing, but they also include a ‘thrift’ store component to their store. What ModCloth also showed me is the importance of Internet marketing. Yup, even I got schooled in social media!

Social Media is such an important part of marketing today. It really is here to stay and to quote my favorite cartoon Bugz Bunny, “If you can’t beat em’, join ‘em!” I’ve never been big on using social media for personal use, but it is something I plan to take advantage of with my online store. Little things like creating a Facebook “like” page for your brand or a twitter can help increase connectivity between you and your consumers. I believe customer service is essential to the success of a brand. Consumers want to feel wanted. They want to feel important. It is important to address their needs and concerns in order to show that you care. The more customers you satisfy, the more likely they will share your brand with others.

Who says appearance isn’t important? The lecture on Photoshop really helped me to understand the importance of design within my idea. If my web store is well… ugly, then not only will people not buy, but they also may not even take a chance to browse. I personally do not hesitate to click out of web sites if they are untidy and disorganized.

Believe it or not, I actually do plan on making my idea a reality. This summer, I plan on taking the steps necessary to start up my own business centered around my long time interest in fashion. What I realized over the course of this project is that I still need to do more research about vintage fashion. I may not start off with thrifted clothing, but with hand made accessories instead. Depending on how well I do, I plan on expanding to clothing. One of the tips I learned from ModCloth is to start small and then grow. I already have a growing checklist of things I would need to do. For example, I would need to do create a domain, create a layout (or hire someone) for my web store, take quality pictures of the items I am selling, implement an e-commerce system, etc. The list of things to do is long, but I am excited about my potential business. I really had fun developing my idea over the course of this blog. It will be interesting to see my idea come to life.

Best of luck to my fellow entrepreneurs!

Catch you later~ 

Lecture Post: Security

My Idea: 
Hi there! My idea for the entrepreneurship project is to create an online thrift/vintage store. The store would be updated on a weekly basis and would hopefully be an effective means to shop inexpensively. I hope to target college women with my thrift store. This blog will follow my planning of the store as I learn more about technology & entrepreneurship through lecture.


On Security:
Whoa! What an interesting week of lectures, huh guys? This week we learned a lot about computer security. It honestly can be pretty terrifying knowing that someone can gain access to your computer at any time. The viruses, trojan horses, botnets, etc... yeah! Not cool. My entrepreneurial idea is to create an online web store. That means everything I do will be conducted over the web and thus I need, computers... and lots of them. Since I am using computers, I need to make sure the devices I use are secure. There are several methods I plan to use and take advantage of. Without further ado, let's talk security!


Every computer needs a firewall. A firewall will prevent unauthorized users from accessing networks. In addition, it can "restrict employees' access to sensitive data such as payroll or personnel records" (Shelly 564). I think a firewall is important for my business because it will be able to protect the sensitive information on my work computers. I will be handling a lot of personal information - email addresses, credit card numbers, etc., and it is important that I do my part as a businesswoman in ensuring that my customers information cannot be accessed by unauthorized users. In addition, I would like to build a trustworthy company culture. I definitely think a firewall is important because employees should not be able to view payrolls or other personal information about each other. Confidentiality is key in situations like this.


I plan on incorporating a written acceptable use policy (AUP) for my company. An AUP outlines "computer activities for which the computer and network may and may not be used" (565). I plan to specifically outline computer use policy for my employees. Personally, I do not think it is appropriate to check personal email accounts (or engage in any other sort of personal affairs) at work. It is called personal for a reason, and such things should be done in the privacy of one's home. 


Moreover, every employee will have a user name and password to log onto computers. I will either encourage passwords to be up to 14 characters or make use of the passphrase in order to ensure that only members of the company can get into the system. In the event that personal information must be sent over the net, I plan on using encryption. I believe this is an effective method of protecting data because encrypted documents can only be opened by decryption.  Lastly, in order to increase my consumer's trust in my company, I would like to ensure Secure HTTP. It is important that consumers feel safe especially when delivering personal information across the internet. 

Lecture Post: Operating Systems

My Idea: 
Hi there! My idea for the entrepreneurship project is to create an online thrift/vintage store. The store would be updated on a weekly basis and would hopefully be an effective means to shop inexpensively. I hope to target college women with my thrift store. This blog will follow my planning of the store as I learn more about technology & entrepreneurship through lecture.


On Operating Systems:
This week in lecture, we learned about operating systems. An operating system is essential to computers because they contain the instructions necessary to coordinate the "activities among the computer's hardware resources." Since my thrift store will be operated online, I know I will need computers in order to manage and maintain my web site. 


I would like the operating system on my computers to be the Mac OS X. I love that this operating system is a stand-alone because that tells me the Mac OS X will work on desktop, notebook, or mobile device. This means I really will be able to work on my web site anywhere at anytime. The Mac OS X also has other features that are worth noting. For example, the backup utility Time Machine will be essential to my buisness. I believe backing up your files is just as important as creating them! Computers are wonderful, but you never know what will happen so by using Time Machine, I will be able to efficiently (and easily) back my files up. 


In addition, the Mac OS X has 3-D personal video and audio conferencing. Communication will be essential amongst my employers and I. The Mac OS X will ensure that I will be able to effectively communicate with my employers through their conference call options. Lastly, I think  I would prefer using the Mac OS X operating system because everything I have is pretty much Apple. I really have grown to trust and love this brand. Like we learned in class, Apple has its flaws (I'm sure), however their products are really well made and most importantly, it's simple and fairly easy to use once you get the hang of it. 


Go Mac OS X! Catch you next week (: