Lesson From HTWIP Part 4

Part four of How to Win Friends and Influence People taught many important lessons about how to be a good leader. One principle that I personally employed was "ask questions instead of giving direct orders." I am currently working on a group project for my management class. There are two main parts to the assignment:
1.) Interview a manager about their experiences
2.) Talk about how these experiences relate to the course material we have covered.
One of my group members, Adam is in a circle of friends that I sometimes hang out with. We had planned on doing the interview Friday evening when our manager was done with work. There was also a large party planned for Friday night that I knew Adam planned to attend. On Thursday afternoon he asked me if I were going to the party and asked if I wanted to go to a movie with some friends before. It was evident that he had forgotten about the interview which was worth half our grade. Instead of yelling at him for his carelessness and ordering him to forget the movie I asked if there would be time between the interview and the party. The look on his face confirmed that he had forgotten, but he saved face and his pride wasn't hurt. He tried to play it off by saying "not sure how long the movie is, ill check it out and let you know." Later that night he text me and said there would not be enough time...duh!

Revised First Year Budget 3/30/09

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Two Sources of Financing

In an effort to seek funding I would first turn to angel investors to avoid debt. My business is in Niagara Falls, NY and it is more probable to get funding from a local financier. The HSBC Plaza is only 45 minutes from my location. Information about the Rochester Angel Network is found below:

Option One: Rochester Angel Network
Address:
Rochester Angel Network
100 Chestnut Street
HSBC Plaza - Suite 1910
Rochester, NY 14604

Contact Person:
James Senall
Director of Rochester Angel Network
Phone: 585-546-8477
Email:Takes Place Through Website

I understand however that acquiring this financing from RAN is highly improbable because their previous clients were mostly technology based companies. I therefore found two other sources to borrow the money through loans. Friends and family would not provide the necessary start-up capital.

Option Two: Bank of America:

Address:
1263 Military Rd
Niagara Falls, NY 14304

Contact Person:
Frank G. Giogas
Assistant Banking Center Manager
Telephone: 716-283-8783
Fax- 716-283-6462

Information about small business loans was found on the Bank of America Website. Bank of America is my personal bank and Frank manages my current account. I called and talked to him and he said that he would be responsible for the initial phases of getting a loan.

Option Three: First Niagara Financial Group:
Address:
7350 Niagara Falls Blvd
Niagara Falls, NY 14304

Contact Person:
Angela Robinson
Loan Officer
Telephone: 716) 283-0749

In order to attain this information I had to call the bank and personally ask who I would contact.

Updated Enterprise Value 3/30/09

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Social Interaction

After our games on Sunday two of my room mates and I went to Friendly's. In previous trips to this restaurant the service has been extremely poor. When we were seated I smiled at the waitress, and while using her name, said hello. Throughout the greeting I asked her how she was and she responded with the typical "im okay how are you?" I said that I was hungry and asked what entree was her personal preference. I took her advice and while waiting for a friend to make up her mind I asked "don't you hate it when people take forever to order?" She laughed and said it was no problem. This is slightly dissimilar from the secret of Socrates, but I think the humor eased the silence. Later in the meal she brought out the food and she served me the wrong entree. I asked her if this were the entree that she recommended and she said there must have been a mistake in the kitchen. Instead of taking the food and correcting the mistake she gave it to our table to eat. This was a nice gesture and unnecessary because I have been in similar situations where I had to wait another twenty minutes for food. The service that night was very good and I think it was partly due to Dale Carnegie and the book How To Win Friends and Influence People.

Journalist Interaction

The reporter who I contacted a few weeks ago was Andrea Thomson. I still have yet to meet her in person because she is not often on campus. She is very busy with the news section of the paper and during spring break the campus is shut down. She recently wrote an article regarding the opportunities offered by the shriver center. There are many internships and part time jobs offered over the summer. I really liked the way the article addressed the financial struggles of students. I contacted Andrea on AIM and found out that she is writing a new piece about construction on campus. I talked about her article and told her that the career fair on campus is how I acquired my summer internship. We had another positive conversation and then she had to go to a dentist appointment. I have not heard from her recently but I feel our conversations are going well.

Secret of Socrates

This week I used the secret of Socrates in an interaction with my boyfriend Ryan. We played five softball games this weekend and I was pretty tired. On Saturday we played two games at 12pm and 2pm. We were outside in 40 degree weather for about seven hours (we warm up for about 2 hours before games.) Needless to say I was tired, hungry and slightly irritated. Ryan wanted to go out for a nice dinner following the game. I on the other hand wanted to just relax and have a quiet night. I asked him questions like: Don't you want to just relax? Do you really feel like getting all dressed up? Wouldn't the time it takes to get ready prolong eating for another couple hours, aren't you hungry now? It turned out that Ryan decided to make me a nice pasta dinner. I was very pleased that he converted to my way of thinking.