week 7

I actually really enjoyed about thinking about different improvements that could be made to the store. It gave me a chance to think about what I might do differently if I was the person in power. When thinking about ways to improve, I found myself thinking about things that other, bigger retail stores already incorporate into their business. One big thing that our store has a problem with is theft. We already take some measures to reduce the amount of theft in the store, but there are other things that we can do to help. The biggest place that I feel that costumers are hiding away clothes is in the dressing rooms. Right now we don't have any system that allows us to know what is being brought into the rooms. I think that it would be in the our best interest to start making the costumers check in with an employee to show how many items are being brought in as well as checking the number of items on the way out. Many clothing stores do this to prevent theft but I also understand that this is more difficult with a small business. We have less resources as a larger company and cannot devote one person to just watch the dressing rooms. Something that should work in our case would be to move the register close to the dressing rooms so that the person working the front desk can also run the dressing rooms. Another problem that we run into at the store is people purchasing big furniture items for pickup at a later date and then don't come for pickup until a week or sometimes later. This creates a problem in that once an item is sold, it has no value to us on the selling floor. We end up moving these pieces into a storage unit that runs out of room quickly when there are multiple pieces for pick up. As of now we do not charge for the use of this storage unit and I believe that this could help. If we charged for storage after an initial allotted amount of time, this would allow for a couple of things to happen. First, most people don't want to spend extra money if they don't have to so more people would be inclined to pick up furniture more quickly. Second, if consumers do have to use our storage, we will make money off of them to pay for a larger or second unit for storage. We wouldn't have to worry about when someone will be picking up their furniture anymore. These were just a couple of ideas that I had that I would most likely implement if I was the one in charge.

Week 6

The person who I decided to shadow was my mentor. The reason why I decided to shadow this person was because they have the most responsibility at the company and have control over all the day to day operations. When I get to work, my boss has already been there for at least an hour working away. Before I arrive, my mentor has all of the resisters ready for the day, a list of things that needs to be done for the day and is ready to put us to work. Over the few days that I shadowed my mentor, they were in charge of scheduling furniture pickups from consigners and made sure that the trailer was ready for moving. On most pickups, my mentor went along to inspect potential items and decided on which pieces would be taken for resale. They also gave us instructions on how to tend furniture items that needed attention before we sold them and decided how to present each piece in a way that would be pleasing to consumers. My mentor also dealt with consigners who brought items to the store. Looking through and deciding on which items will sell and which items to pass on. They also deal directly with these costumers, explaining how the store works and the procedures that go along with consigning at the store. The store that I am working for is also currently looking into expanding, so I was able to watch my mentor search for different locations and think of different strategies for expansion. Over the few days I shadowed, I was able to witness the purchase of another store next to my place of work that they are going to incorporate into the store. My mentor had to figure out the best way to combine the stores through making layouts that showed how each restructuring would benefit the store. At the end of each day, my boss handles all the money and views reports to see how that day went. By viewing these reports, my mentor sees how the store is doing compared to the months before and can find trends that might effect the business. I feel lucky that I was able to witness the expansion process and cant wait to see how everything turns out.

Week 8

Looking back at my internship, I can say that I really enjoyed my time and learned many new things. I had never worked in retail before and had not thought of retail as something that I would be interested in the future, but I really enjoyed working at the store. I have been looking for a new job in order to start a career and have been taking jobs in retail into account more than I was before my internship.What I personally found to be the best part about my internship was being able to work along side the owner of the business and take from them what they had learned during their process of starting their own store. I was able to see the day to day duties performed by the owner and saw how much relied on what they did. I realize how important it is for a person who wants to own their own business to have extensive knowledge on how a business runs and all the aspects of business that have made other companies fail. I was also able to learn the different aspects of a retail store and what needs to be done in order for a store to run smoothly. The company that I have been working for has only been in business for a year and is about to expand for its second time. I find my self fortunate that I was able to work for a company that is doing so well in our current economic state and it gives me hope that I will be able to start a business venture of my own. Overall I found my experience at my internship to be a positive one. I never ran into any problems with my mentor and everything went rather smoothly. I feel that I have gained much needed experience from my time working and that I am better prepared for what ever my next business venture is. I have taken a job where I interned for now and am looking for a new job out of state. Without a doubt in my mind, my experiences through my internship will be beneficial to my next endeavors.

Week 4 Sunday

Bret Menicke's Catalog of Transferable Skills

I have successfully held leadership positions in the Boy Scouts of America as well as on my high school and college lacrosse teams

I am a hard worker who is self-motivated and sets personal goals that I try to improve on.

I can coordinate service projects to help the community

I can put together group trips, from transportation to food to housing

I can coach and am currently a high school lacrosse coach

I am able to manage my time in an affective manner

I can handle complaints and seek for the highest level of customer satisfaction

I have the ability to teach others

I am able to use computer software programs:
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft PowerPoint
Final Cut Pro (and most other editing programs)
Adobe Photoshop
Garage Band

I am able to do research and prepare materials

I am a quick learner and can adapt to situations

I can communicate effectively and actively listen

I have the ability to compile statistics and compare data

I can collect and handle money

I am a keen observer and pay attention to details

I can work quickly while producing precision work

I am creative and can promote/market

I know there is always room to improve

I know how to take inventory

I can monitor progress and can converse with others about our progress

I have a ‘can do’ attitude

I have the ability to follow directions

I am understanding of others

I am able to work with a team

I can entertain others

I can thrive in all different social settings

I am athletic and have good hand eye coordination

I am able to do heavy lifting

I have the ability to install ceiling fans, light switches, outlets

I am able to build skateboarding obstacles (Mini half pipes, launch ramps, boxes) as well as sheds, indoor walls, outdoor bars and benches

I have good survival skills

Week 4

Although I do not see myself staying at my internship as a career, it has opened my eyes to new information. As I have stated in previous posts, I want to ultimately work towards being my own boss and starting a business of my own. I know that this is not something that is easily done and to be successful is even that much harder. At my internship I have the opportunity to work directly with the owner on a day to day basis and get to see what is necessary to run the business. Until now, I have only really worked with children as an assistant teacher during summers or as a kid’s club counselor. Going into my internship I had no knowledge about working at a business involved with retail. I have been able to learn about the different computer programs that are used for running the business as well as gaining experience in using them. Learning the technology that is used will be helpful if I want to consider working in retail in the future. I have also had the opportunity to interact one on one with customers which has helped me understand what goes into making a sale. Also with working directly with customers I have had to deal with people who are dissatisfied by our service. This has shown me that you have to be able to make adjustments on the fly and work with people to make sure they are satisfied with our business and to make sure we keep theirs. Another thing that I have seen while working at my internship is how much time and effort the owner has to put in to make the business work and it has showed me how much is involved in running even a small business. Although I see my boss working harder and longer than anyone else, I also see the enjoyment of being your own boss. The only real downside to my internship is that there isn’t a way I could move up in the company, at least not at this time. Although this is a downside, I am enjoying my time and will be able to take the skills that I have learned where ever I go next in life.

week 2

Multidisciplinary is when people of different backgrounds and different specialties come together to solve a common goal. Each person has a specific job that corresponds with their knowledge and they don't vary away from that one form of thinking. They are there to provide a certain insight. For example, a communication major would bring to the group the communication point of view while a economics major would provide the economic point of view. With interdisciplinary, people combine ways of thinking to produce their outcome. The interdisciplinary field has no boundaries across concentrations or schools of thought. The goal is to combine different ways of thinking to provide an answer that involves more than one way of thinking. I feel as if my organization I work for runs in more of a interdisciplinary manner. I work for a small business and everything is done with few employees and we are responsible to be able to do any of the various tasks that are needed to run the business. No one really has a set position, except for the boss, but works where they are needed. The structure of this organization is a hierarchy in the sense that the owner is on top and delegates the work to the employees of the store.

Week 1

My name is Bret Menicke and I am a senior at Arizona State. I have chosen the concentrations of business and communication for my degree. I chose these two concentrations because I felt that they went together perfectly. I wanted to learn about the many aspects of business and in most business professions, you need to be able to communicate properly and effectively which is why I chose communication as well as business. These concentrations are reflective to my identity because I want to start my own business later in life and I also enjoy interacting with different people. By having business as a concentration I was able to learn about what goes into businesses that will help me start a company of my own one day. Having communication as my second concentration allowed me to understand how to connect with people more so than I did before entering this program.

This summer I am interning at Smarty Pants Consignment which is located in Phoenix. I chose to do my internship here because it is a fairly new business and I am hoping to learn from the owner how he went about starting his business. My goal is to start my own business down the line so being able to intern under an entrepreneur is exciting for me. My responsibilities so far have included helping costumers, taking inventory, floor modeling as well as starting to make marketing fliers to hand out. I have used information that I have studied by working on my communication skills through customer interaction and by using what I’ve learned from marketing class to produce an effective advertisement flier. The main reason for taking this internship is to be able to gain information about how my mentor started his business and to learn, by experience, about all the jobs that need to be done to run his business successfully.

I really am not sure what I am going to do after graduation, which is coming up fast. I have a few options on where I can go but my ultimate goal down the road is to start my own business. As of now my plan is just to apply to jobs everywhere and to hopefully start making some money. I am trying to find a job outside of Arizona for a change of scenery but if an opportunity comes up that is appealing, I won’t pass it up. It is very nerve wrecking not knowing where I am going to be and what I will be doing in a few months, but it is also exciting to be starting another chapter of my life.