Entrepreneurial H*E*L*P

To help out with our business ventures, here is one link that may lead you to some data/material, if not only to broaden how you are looking at your proposal!

Here is one college's interesting website: North Dakota State's "Your Resource Guide to the Food Industry: Food Entrepreneur"

Again, to help inspire your final projects (as the one you're pitching to), here is some reading material that may or may not inspire, or even give you confidence, in your own ideas:

1) A Young Entrepreneur Makes Food, Not War

2) Uniting Around Food to Save an Ailing Town

3) QUICK BITE/Sea Cliff; Morning Coffee, Evening Sushi

4) A Southern-Fried Picnic, to Go

5) A New Era for Brooklyn's South Shore

PowerPoint Presentations*

Strategies for Success

*please print a copy of your presentation off, for professor, and in case of emergency

I. Of course, understand audience and purpose.

• In the final project, you are trying to persuade an investor by providing information of your restaurant concept, fully considering all business and cultural aspects of the proposal.
  

II. Organization / Development of Presentation

• The most important aspect of a presentation is the clarity, and ordering your information (from slide to slide) in a logical manner

• Remember Organizational Patterns, Chapter 7
  

• How are you starting the presentation? What information comes when?

• When do you discuss the economics? Do you include all of the money aspects at once, or spread throughout presentation?

• When do you discuss community and how your place fits in?

• Real estate – property value (rent, or buy?)

• Neighborhood?

• When do you discuss the food, the look of the restaurant, etc.?
  

III. Slide Rules

1. Each slide should be used effectively by having a smaller purpose that fits into the larger purpose of presentation.
2. Divide presentation into larger categories (see II. above) of information and break down each category with individual slides in individual sections for each category created.
3. Don’t spend too much time on one slide in presentation (30 seconds per slide).
4. Thinking of 1-3, each slide should be made reader-friendly. Don't stuff any individual slide with too much material. One slide=one purpose (like a paragraph!).
5. Use non-distracting graphics that fit within textual content. (Don't use offensive or controversial images, or random "cool" graphics just to get them in.) 
6. Balance out the text v. graphics in each slide.
7. Use backgrounds, fonts and other formatting techniques that will relate to your overall business concept. (Don't use neon colors for a "classy restaurant proposal"! But, if you're doing a retro-'80s place...gnarly.)

IV.  Content meets form: Re-hashed

• Legibility of font; appropriate font size
  
• A font that thematically fits presentation and restaurant
• Color of font and slide background to fit theme, too
  
• Graphics – variety of graphics; pictures or model of restaurant, including dining area, kitchen, outside look, and logo/sign; neighborhood shots
• Charts and Graphs: use to break down the budgetary concerns for at least the first year, and you may project the first five years!

V. Effective Language

• Short, uncluttered sentences
• Language that mimics the restaurant concept
• Language that is aware of its purpose within the PowerPoint (bullet points for numerous points, for example) 
• Verb choice appropriate to slide purpose
• Use of nouns over pronouns
• Support you main points with statistical/numerical data
• Reference your graphs and charts, and other graphics, in text. Don't just put in charts without prior interpretation of data...

In-Class Work, 5/20:

What economic factors play a role in determining a business' actions in dealing with another business? 

This important question will  drive your working on the economic proposal for BTS 3. In the economic proposal, you must outline both the direct economic considerations between two companies, but also outline the cultural-business impact through research and use of an economic research study. 

For in-class practice, let's read the following blog post from The Wall Street Journal and then answer the following (10-20 minutes):

"IBM wants to buy out Sun Microsystems because it believes the consumer market makes it a good move. First, why does IBM believe this?  Secondly, answer what some of the possible consumer factors IBM should research before going through with the deal."

Effective Sentences

Today, as we continue discussing Effective Language, we will focus on a few syntactical issues (sentence structure issues) we can work on polishing.

Let's go to the Owl Website, first to look at some of the suggestions and examples, and then to practice with the on-line worksheet.

Business Memo Link, 5/15

To help with writing our memos, click here, to get to another universities template and strategies for writing a memo. We will discuss and emphasize some of the same rhetorical considerations. 

Of course, our own memo has a different subject, audience, and purpose, but like with many technical documents, most memos have a standard flow and format.

Active Voice

To help us practice writing with an active voice, we have two writing activities for you to complete after briefly reviewing active and passive voice.


1) We will do the activity found here ....by clicking this link.

2) We'll do a re-write of today's homework:

• Open up a new Word document file and begin to revise "from scratch," making conscientious choice to eradicate the passive voice when it is wordy or switches focus to a different subject. It is always easier to read work that doesn't have unnecessary words! Try to keep it to a verb, as discussed below.
  
  
• It is also easier to make sure the subject of the writing is the subject of most of the sentences. Therefore, go through your writing and make sure that the subject (the noun that does the verb!) is the focus of the sentence.

One Verb Considerations:

• Look for -ing verbs that you can make put into present or past tense. For example: "Jason has been working here since 2008" can be said more concisely, "Jason has worked here since 2008." The second sentence is more concise, or says same thing with less words, here.


• Look for hidden subjects of a sentence; sentences that turn the focus around on the wrong noun. For instance, "The dog was walked by Catalina" is passive, and Catalina becomes the object! This is wrong. She is the one in charge. An actice, quicker way to make this statment: "Catalina walked the dog."

Resume Revisions:

Here are two major considerations when revising your resume, as stated on p. 372 of our textbook:

1) "The resume must provide clear, specific information, without generalization or self-congratulation" and

2) "The resume must be completely free of errors"

To help achieve this, we will do a few activities in class today:

1. Look over some example resumes and discuss the language and aesthetics in the documents, and how this affects the reader...
2. Then work on the re-vision strategies below to help discuss the language within your own resume.
3. Finally, we will open up a blank Word Document, find its Word 1003 resume templates, and at minimum look at which one looks appropriate for our content and then how to insert own information into the relevant sections.

Re-vision Strategies:

Active Language includes specific tasks, actions, tools/programs (like Microsoft Excel/ C++/Quark/ tow motor operator/ etc.) in the appropriate categories.

Here are two easy rhetorical exercises you can do alone, or with a considerate reader, to help you make your resume stronger:

1. Look for Generic Content:

• Read over the resume and look for standalone generalizations. Phrases like "intelligent leader", "strong communicator", "great secretarial skills" and "well-practiced in field" are not as effective as we'd think, and really don't provide much insight into the kind of talent and experience you can bring to job. These phrases can be effective when when part of a longer description that includes specifics, but when left on their own, leave a lot of questions (in other words, alone these phrases are weak and empty).
  
  -Underline/circle/highlight standalone generalizations...
  
  -Then, ask yourself the question, "What made me write that I am /have . . . _____(ex. "hard-working")?"
  
  -Record the answers to the above question for each standalone generalization. Use these answers to revise by addition!

2. Effective and Dynamic Language: Read over the the resume again, looking at your verbs and your adjectives. After doing the above content-revision, you want to go through and make sure the language sticks out -- in a good way -- from all of the other applications.
-In this exercise you want to do to two things:

• Reconsider your verbs. Go through this list here (Columbia College's list of strong action verbs) and see if you can replace generic verbs describing you and the work you've done with a word or phrase inspired by the list.
  
  For example: instead of writing "worked at a publishing house," use a verb that describes the kind of work done, such as: "edited at a publishing house" or "developed new material at a publishing house."

• Add specific tasks: Don't just use verbs, but use language that will allow reader to visualize your skills: look at the first exercise we discussed, about standalone generalizations. Use not only more accurate verbs, but attach those verbs to specific skills, duties, tools, courses, etc.
  
  
  

School Career Center Resume Help

Putting together a resume is daunting if you've never done so before. I know, since I've had six years of practice, starting with graduate school!

What goes on the darn thing, how long should it be, what kind of paper should I use? What is the purpose of this thing? God, gods, goddesses, please make sure there are no grammatical errors that kill my chances!

Where should I go for examples, for advice, besides this class? Once I am outside these walls?

1. Microsoft Word 2008 has a great template. All versions of Word have templates. If nothing else, search for templates in the help screen of your home word-processing program.

2. Academic Institution websites! If you're like me and are a bit independent and like to figure things out simply by looking at examples, or don't have time to make multiple visits to your school Career Services office, look at their website.

I suggest, though, consulting a few school websites, simply because each Institution has their own thought process and might give extra insights not seen on another. Also, you'll be able to get a sense of what things are most valuable by seeing repeated formats, etc. Click on these links, read and imitate!

Columiba College's Resume Helper

Northwestern University's Resume and Cover Letter Helper