Blog #16

Okay, this was originally in my post before, but I thought this summed up internship pretty well. It shows the variety of things I did and the resources I used. One of the main things I remember from internship is, of course, the main project. It is right next to my laptop and part of it is on the left side of my screen. I remember this mostly because of all the calling I had to do to competition and I honestly felt a little nervous, hah. Even so, I was able to sound not-so-sketchy and get the information I wanted. I think attitude over the phone was a big impact on me too. There were some people that sounded irritated, some who were nice, some who were awesome, and others.. who had thick accents that made it hard to understand them. This taught me the lesson that Service jobs are mostly about customer service. Another highlight I had were the newsletters. One of them is shown on the right side of my screen. This was something that was sort of a side project after I finished my POL and main project, but it was still fun. I learned all these fun facts I didn't know before and I also got to do some designing when it came to where to put things (Sometimes the template looked okay but the font choice and color were horrible!). There are A LOT of other things I liked about internship, but it's much easier to just read my past posts. Some things you should look for is my interview with Christine. Her life experienced really fascinated me because it gave me some input on a life almost opposite of mine. You should also look in the previous post for the water cooler. That thing really just.. made my day being there.

Blog #15

1. Resources—Post a series of photos that show the technological resources, natural resources, economic resources and/or human resources that are connected to your internship.

Picture 1: This is a picture of the calendar on Christine's Desk. I thought it was a good desk ornament because the pictures were nice to look at. Some of the writing, eh, it's was okay. It was the overall structure of the calendar and the pictures that made me like it.


Picture 2: This is just a small area in a corner that has a lot of importance. This company is green so they use the both sides a paper. I thought scratch paper was an interesting resource because I don't think a lot of other companies really look into printing use for both sides of a paper who's information can be completely unrelated to one another.


Picture 3: This is my lovely laptop. There focus here was just to have it busy. The whole story was how I did my final project. It was first a pile of paperwork (Top) and then it turned into a digital document (Right) then it turned into a booklet of information which is funny because that is considered paperwork. I thought it was a cool reoccurring circle about how information went from print to laptop and back to print.


Picture 4: I don't think the effect I wanted for this picture came out right. I wanted the bottom to fade a little more in black and have that spark of light illuminate the water inside the water cooler. But anyway, this is probably the best resource in the office. At home, I always fill up 2-3 water bottles because I have this issue with drinking room temperature water. To have cold water available gave me a home feeling which made me feel like.. I wouljd always be hydrated. I must have a water cooler in my next job office.


Picture 5: Here are some basic supplies I used. I didn't use much paper clips but I didn't use the stapler a lot to put information together. The paperwork on the very top is what I found useful for doing my job so that was influential. I like how the pens were availble to me because sometimes, in this office, you just have to write some quick information anywhere with anything.

Blog #14

So, since I forgot my camera battery at home, I didn't have a chance to take a picture of Christine. Instead... a Googled an image. This one if from Arcsi.org. If I ever get a chance to meet Christine in person again, I will make sure to ask for a picture. But for now, this will have to suffice. Unless a picture I draw would fit well too O:

Name: Christine McDannell
Job: Owner
Company: Cleanology and Adopt a Christmas Tree
Location: 4682 Iowa St. Suite 107, San Diego, CA 92116
Highlights from mentor interview:
What was your educational background?
She was mostly a C average student junior high. By high school, her grades improved to a 3.7 (A's and B's). Her dad would've paid for college but Christine got into business as a kid. Her dad owns his own company so she had experience there. She was interested in real-estate and got her license at 18. For 5 years she was in property real-estate. She saw a ad for a cleaning company (By then, she wanted her own business) and went to 5 different banks to try to get a loan but no one give a 35 thousand dollar loan so at 23. She started earning money by cleaning and being a Realtor at the same time. Two employees taught her how to clean. After a while, she started her own company.

What is success to you?
"Do what I love everyday." She talked about how she wanted to have a comfortable living and enjoy life. She wanted to take mini vacations and not grow old without experiencing what the world has to offer. Many people work so hard towards retirement, but grow old and lead miserable lives. "Giving back to the community is definitely important. I think if every company contributed a little, it would really help." Sometimes, they had domestic workers clean cancer patient's houses for free. Giving back to a community was a big thing for her.

How do you delegation and communicate so all the jobs get done?
She talked about how different people do different jobs. "You may be able to do a job, but maybe someone who has spent more time in the field can do it better or faster. By letting them do it, you free up your time." She spoke about her experience with her first office manager and how she was watching her closely with everything she did. "You want to be working on your company not in it." She said having a good business relationships is important because you can look to them for connections or have them help you out as you have helped them. "I want to bring up the whole cleaning industry. I want my company to be big, but I want other cleaning companies to rise with ours."

Blog #12 + 13

Alright! I will have to do my pictures tomorrow, but I will be writing my captions for them. I know exactly what I want to take pictures of and I can get those by tomorrow. This is for the "perspective" shots and the "collaboration" shots because I'll have to take picture of certain paperwork for this. Also, I will be making this blog a little lengthy since I forgot to do the blog on Monday. (Oops!)

Post three pictures that show a specific "perspective" of your internship.

Picture 1: This is a picture of Christine's desk. As the owner of a business, there will always be work done here. Perhaps not so much paperwork, but plenty of networking on her computer. Sometimes, she has two computers going at once. When one was going slow, she would turn to the other one and tap away to schedule time to go to meetings, updating the company's information, emailing contacts, etc. This place can also be empty, especially since Christine runs out a lot to go to prior commitments, contact businesses, and speak with other connections. Even so, no matter where she is, the phone will ring just as it always does. Even though she is the owner, she politely answers it, having many people mistake her for the secretary. Most of the calls actually go through Israel. In the perspective of the owner, getting your company out there is definitely important.

Picture 2: This is a picture of Israel's desk. There is always papers on these desks, mostly for notes when a client calls. Israel is the General Manager and takes care of most of the booking. Whenever a client calls, he is patient and thorough with the details of what the company provides and makes sure to listen and accommodate their exact needs. As a service company customer service, as Christine has said before, it key. If a client calls, they want something from the company but they aren't going to pull nails to get it. Being a General Manager, as I have observed, takes patience. Client may call angry, it can be difficult to hide frustration. Clients may call to cancel, it can be tricky to hide disappointment. Even so, the people who answers the calls must display an environment of understanding and let the person know that their company cares. In the perspective of the General Manager, being able to fix a problem with a client is probably an event that takes time.

Picture 3: At last, here is a picture of what a client might be doing when they call. I was actually a prank client for a while when I was calling different companies to see what their rates were. There were times I went, "I just need the information, you talk A LOT." There were many companies I called that didn't even answer the phones, three time even! I made a list of information I wanted to get from each company and carefully put them in a script so it looked a little less sketchy then it really was. I'm sure a real client wouldn't have to worry about that, they probably would be free to say, "Oh yes, my house is on this street... yes, this apartment number." while I found myself being the one to say, "O-Oh well.. my husband has the paperwork for the house we plan to move-in to." Anyways, to get to the point, a client's job is supposed to be made easy. I did feel a little frustrated when no one picked up the phone at certain companies. I was a little shocked when some companies actually called back (It was more like.. unprepared to be honest). Even so, the biggest thing I was looking for when I was calling the competition is customer service. After seeing how difficult it can be to get information from some companies, I realized how hard it was for Christine and Israel to handle some clients. But from what I've seen, they do it VERY well because they don't talk up a storm, they listen to their client. They ask what areas had priority which no other company did (I spoke to 17 of them out of 24). So in the perspective of a client, I would expect great customer service.

Collaboration in the office:

In the course of one typical workday, how many different people do you directly work with? How many people are indirectly affected by your work.
I work with Israel and Christine a decent amount. They sort of take turns telling me what needs to get done in the company or how I should do something. I'm pretty good about asking for clarification and finishing my work in a timely manner. There are little things I do that may influence people. I mean, when I ask people to hold on the phone, it's better then no one picking it up and them going away saying, "Oh my gosh I can't contact anyone!" I also called a lot of other cleaning companies, some sounding really confident or some sounding intimidated. Some people that may also be effected by my work is the sponge company. Christine really likes the little sponges but after doing the marketing plan, we realized that sponges just weren't in the budget at all. Also, domestic workers can be affected because I organized their files and paperwork. Many of them were missing a lot of stuff or they weren't up to date on paperwork so that could've indirectly affected them.

Describe your direct collaboration with others—how does it go & how does it influence the work?

One of the things I like about my internship is the collaboration, whether it is important or trivial. Something that I found sort of cool, and you may think I'm weird for saying this, but putting people on hold and having someone else pick up. It made me feel like, "Oh, I'm letting people know that someone is actually here." and therefore, Israel can be at ease when talking to a client because the other client that called was put on hold. Some collaboration I also had with Christine was for the marketing plan. She knew about the past marketing strategies the company has tried and I learned a lot about how paper-investments didn't work as well as online investments. Little things like that influenced the overall outcome positively. It was nice to be able to get some feedback from her when it came to layout or spot checking wording.

Describe your indirect impact on others through your work—there are probably many people you never actually see who are affected by your work. How does this happen? How does this influence your work?
I think I've already went over this? I suppose some people who would be mostly influenced is advertising companies because Cleanology may have wanted to continue to use their advertising but after the market analysis, perhaps they weren't bringing in as much money as they were dishing out. Perhaps the intern here for next year will find my work helpful too because I know I found the intern's work from last year to be helpful. It sort of gave me a template. Also, I was organizing a business list for Israel that will be helpful to him when he goes Downtown, maybe he can get through meeting companies faster.

Blog #11 and Interview

Please post a summary of your week at internship. What were the highlights? What were the challenges? What was memorable and why?
Hmm, what happened this week.. I think one of the things that bothered me this week the most was the weather. It was difficult get out of bed and be greeted by the cold air since we have no heater. That brought me to work with a "gosh I'm so tired" feeling. I actually couldn't stop yawning. One of the things that causes yawning is oxygen deficiency. When I'm tired, I tend not to take deep breaths which is why I yawn. I thought it'd be a little offensive to Christine and Israel so I tried to hide it, which didn't work well. IN REALITY, I was having fun with what I was doing. I wasn't yawning because I was bored or anything, which is a common misconception. I just get so caught up in work that I sometimes forget to breath. Hah, you may think that's crazy but it's something I noticed about myself when I'm tired. Aside from my always tired personality, I think this week went by great. I'm almost done with my final project, I just have to call competitors now (Eek, I'm no good on the phone). Though, like I said in my previous post, Christine brought me to a social networking lunch (I liked the food, the dessert looked the best. But it did seem like that were overly preparing it) where a speaker was talking about "how to get more done with less stress". I thought that was great because I love listening to speakers. A lot of the points she made were something I found useful. Those were most of the highlights from my week.

Interview:
What was your educational background?
- C average student Junior High
- High school 3.7 (A's and B's)
- Dad would've paid any college
- Business as a kid (Candy and lemonade)
- Her dad owned his own company
- Business english and communications class in college (It was great)
- Senior in high school, dad's girlfriend got into property management (Leasing at 17)
- Real-estate licenses at 18
- For 5 years property real-estate
- 23 she wanted to own her own business (No money saved up)
- Saw ad for cleaning company (35 thousand dollars no load) (Went to 5 different banks)
- 2 employees (Taught her how to clean)
- Went to clean (Cleaned for a year and a half) (Do paperwork while cleaning) (Had cellphone on hand)
- Dec started cleaning company
- Put supplies on credit cards (Initial investment was 1k dollars)
- She read books about business (She's a sponge :D She was winging it)

What is successful?:
- "Do what I love everyday"
- Comfortable living
- Able to give back
- Live life (Take vacations)
- People work for retirement (Doesn't travel, too old, Christine takes mini retirements)

Delegation:
- You have people do different jobs (You can be good, but someone may be better)
- When she hired her first office manager, she was watching her like a hawk
- Delegation is important (Frees up your time)
- Working on the company and not in your company
- Talk once a month out of the office (Works as a team versus boss/person)
- Good business relationship
- If someone was shrinking, she would try and refer people if she has too many jobs booked

Second Part of the Interview:

Blog #10

First, post a picture that sums up your day (make sure you get permission for the pic!). What new questions has your internship inspired you to ask about our world? What has it made you wonder about? What are you moved to go out and do or learn about on your own time?

Well, this is just my work desk. I'm constantly moving around doing things so it's not something I can easily photograph. Actually, a question I have is how much time to people actually spend doing what they love or something productive. I know I go home, watch anime, and draw all day. Somehow, I had found that productive before. That was until Christine brought me to this social networking meeting about "How to get more done with less stress". I never saw it as "less stress", I saw it as "I'm doing something I love and it's convenient". But then I started to look around and see what else I could do that may be more productive but doesn't take that much more work. Instead of full on watching anime and drawing all day, I eventually started to watch TED online because I am interested in opinions. A small switch like this didn't take that much work, but I'm estimating that it would extend my creative thinking because of all these different speakers talking about the world. My next step is to actually move forward on what I want to do. I wanted to draw a comic for the longest time. People always told me, "You've said that, but when are you going to actually DO it?" This made me see that up til' now, I've felt like I have all the time in the world. As college nears, and even in being a junior in highschool, I see that my time is slowly being occupied with more things. Hence, the extra time I have left should be spent on doing something, having a product ot show. Sounds like a big lesson, but after thinking about it for a while, I actually told Nikki (My friend), "Nikki, I want to be successful and do something."

Here are NEW questions I can ask for the SECOND interview:
- What sort of things did you want to offer to clients?
- Did you research the location of your company?
- Where did you cover to make sure there wasn't a huge competition out there?
- How did you actively get into social networking?
- How do you accept disappointment from slow days or other people saying no to your company?
- Do you have a goal and direction in how your company will grow?
- Did you ever make a plan for your company? Did your company growth follow that plan?
- What was the worse thing that has happened throughout the struggle to make a new company?

Blog #9

I actually had my interview already. Do I need to keep these in structured notes? I just wrote a lot of little things, if that's alright. If you want it in paragraphs, leave a comment. I like it scattered around more because I look at it as things aren't taught or learned in order. Here were some of the categories we covered in the first interview.

Company:
She didn't start as a green company (Products didn't work though and they were expensive)
2-3 years into the company, she slowly fading out products (Switching them)
Christine's Cleaning Service (She wanted a professional name)
Cleaning industry (She saw the need for a good cleaning company)
She was in property management (Previous cleaning companies had no website and bad customer service)
House cleaning had bad image
She wanted to better the image
Costed 5 gran (For branding and website) (Had to take loan)
She's competitive (But she wants to bring everyone up for the industry)

Christine!:
Christine is bad with money xD!
Dad would blow money on stuff
"She'll cross that bridge when she comes to it"
Business owners don't budget most of the time
You always want to delegate things you don't like doing/ don't have time to do
Lots of teamwork

Business Issues:
Big problem, didn't collect people money (Nov 2007) (Company was half the size people owed 16k)
2k isn't that bad, it's current money owed
AR is account receivables AP account payable

Trouble with clients not paying:
6 years she sent 5 people to collections (3 months or more late) (Mails and invoices)
Three out of 5 paid (Can put on their credit report)

Client get angry:
Had to make a manual
40 thousand dollar engagement ring (Was "stolen" and client was angry. Turned out husband got to get it cleaned)
They have to listen (99.9% the client finds it. Client is in denial. I'm not suprsied about this one.)

Businesses:
Business is stressful
Business owners want to spend money on Lawyer, CPA (They are doing your accounting, saving you from the IRS. Saves money on taxes), Bookkeeper.
Called Business coach first (Needed to call her attorney, but got reassurance)
Call clients immediately if they break something
Problem solving is fast (The problem will become a crisis if you don't)
Consult with other business owners and mentors (They may have gone through the same thing)

Retirement:
- Inflation is about 2-4% a year
- Christine wants about 3.5mil for retirement

Awards Christine had been nominated for or got:
- Woman entrepreneur
- Young entrepreneur
- Small business person of the year
- A small business is defined as a business that makes less then 50million a year

Blog #8

Since, I admit, I completely forgot to do this blog entry yesterday, I will answer both of them :D

What characteristics and qualities do you see in the people at your internship that you'd like to develop in yourself?
There were a lot of qualities I liked that I've seen before. One of the things I would like to practice is risk-taking, for sure. After listening to Christine's story about success, it makes me think life does have it's risks and opportunities. I will probably go to college since.. I'm honestly chicken and wonder what will happen to my life then, but I think my life will have it's own challenges and risks I will have to take. One of them may be being laid off at a job I enjoy. Israel, the other person in the office in charge of the phones and booking, was actually laid off from a job he had. I think for anyone, there is always risk and what makes it a worthy experience is knowing how to deal with it properly and not do something like, "Well, a job will eventually come to me. For now, I have unemployment."

Another thing I would like to develop is social skills. I have a hard time with people who are too serious or solid about something. I know I am a productive worker and I can get things done, but environment is definitely something that affects me. If I'm in too much of a serious environment, I can't concentrate and it leads to to being unproductive. Being able to talk to different people is a quality that both Christine and Israel shared that I think is amazing because to be honest, if a client were to call me about something ridiculous I would be like, "Look, we didn't take anything. You lost it. That's it." I suppose it's because I have this pet peeve about blame and how people never like to take blame. Going on a tangent, I know. Nevertheless, the ability to communicate, whether it be with someone who is angry or someone speaking a completely different language, is a quality that I would love to develop and learn more about.

What new appreciations (for who? of what?) have you gained through internship that you did not have before? How did you develop these appreciations?
Ah, I actually did gain new appreciations for the cleaning business. I remember people like RANDY SCHERER kept making sarcastic remarks to me about my internship and I would hold my head going, "Oh gosh, this'll be a long month." Turns out, the cleaning business is definitely something to be proud of. Like how Christine survived the recession even though people told her her company would go out of business since "cleaning companies were the first to go". I admire her motivation to want to start her own business even if it comes with it's own risks. I think this takes risks to a whole nother' level. I do hope to learn more about how she handles the pressure and anxiety of being a small business owner.

Believe it or not, I have actually started to un-appreciate some things. The internet. Yes, I know what you're thinking, Audrey the all-the-time computer lover under appreciating the internet. I agree, it's more efficient then researching through books, but somehow, I feel a little bit more lazy. It's also bringing print out of business which must be disastrous. Luckily, I will be printing designs and T-Shirts in the future, hopefully that'll work out. By that time, I hope they don't start making hologram clothes or invisible coffee mugs because, I mean, who can compete with that? Anyway, I do hope that everyone starts getting on their computer. With everyone being on the computer so much, I highly doubt anyone would be called "Four-Eyes" anymore because of everyone that would be wearing glasses. I am going to love the future. Just a little, unless this economic downpour squishes me before I can make my national appearance.

Blog #7

Internship site: Cleanology

Department: Service?

Project Title: 2010 Market/Budget Plan

General Description: The project is basically a marketing plan for 2010. I will be observing all the information from 2009 and write/design a new marketing plan for this year based on statistics, budgeting, etc. This will include a lot of information about people, possible clients, what advertisements make money, what competitors charge, etc. I'm just copying and pasting this.

Learning Objectives: I want to learn a few things. One thing is budgeting in a business. I think budgeting is an important aspect when you're working in business because you want to know how much money you have for what. You also want to see what money you're wasting and how you can save money and make more profit. Another thing I want to learn is how companies project ideas for the future. I want to know how to effectively use charts and predict or set a probable and possible goal for the future.

Organization/Company Objectives & Benefits: This is a packet they will follow when it comes to marketing. They want to make sure to stick to an advertising plan because we observed what worked. What didn't work actually costed them quite a bit of money so it's sort of like looking to see where mistakes could be improved. I think this could possibly save them a lot of money and organize their plans for 2010.

Schedule: Basically, there are 9 days left of internship and in those 9 days, there will mostly be data collecting and financial decisions. For the first few days, we will be listing competitive businesses and collecting their information by calling them. There will be lots to do on the side so this may take round 1-3 days. Then there is the matter of looking at last years budget and pulling out all the paper work for last year. This may take a while because there are a lot of aspects of the budget that range from buying equipment to buying advertisement. There is also the matter of gas and other expenses like supplies. This is what I know for now, we didn't have time to go over the whole thing. I'm actually doing this right now. I'm looking at all of the budget usage over the past few years. I pick up the trends that work and make profit and then the trends that don't work so well and makes no profit at all. I finished writing the statistics on the population and how much the company could make as a whole on Friday.

Academic Skills: This helps me learn about how keeping track of paperwork can help people in the long run. This also helps me understand how the world is changing. For example, one of the things on the advertising list for the past years was post cards and those worked really well. Over time, post cards made less and less money. The reason for that is because a lot of people are switching to internet and they don't really need post cards through the mail. I think trends like these can just show me the history of advertising and how it has evolved the past few years.

Technical Skills: This tests my skills on organization and calculation. There are a lot of numbers I have to work with, some being statistics from years or maybe just from a few months. This helps me practice the skill of putting together information and researching. And not just that, I have to design something that can project my research easily and efficiently.

Collaboration—Skills and Opportunities: I've actually talked to my mentor a lot already. Nobody knows the advertising budget as well as she does. On Friday, she sat down with me and talked about the different statistics I was looking at. She pointed out possible trends and told me things I should consider when looking at how to advertise. As for collaboration, I think Christine is going to teach me a lot about to read numbers and patterns and tell me about what could be an investment.

Exhibition Plans: I can probably just have the packet up on the screen. If I have time, I can possibly make a slide show displaying the different aspects of the packet I looked up. Maybe some paperwork I had to compare?

Schedule & Timelines: Wasn't this already a question? Urm.. I think this may take all of next week. I'm not sure if I'm going to be working anymore then that. I do take a while when I do research though, because I like being thorough. I'm overestimating the time I will be using so I don't run out when the end of internship is nearing. Most of the work is just busy work and with 6 hours a day, I'm sure I can accomplish it in no time.

Summary of my week: Oh, I should have written this on Friday since experienced were fresh at hand. There was a lot of paperwork. I would have assumed that everything was structured out on a single piece of paper and it was all this information in 10 point font. In reality, it was a huge mass of papers with different years, some even depicting months. What was surprising was how difficult it was to understand the budget. It wasn't just, "This month is this month" because months cut into each other, some advertisers wanted pre-payment, other advertises still worked even though they were years old (Like post cards, people still looked at post cards from years ago). I would describe my first week as... quick. I actually didn't even know the week passed, it sort of flew by. You just immerse yourself in work and next thing you know, your work week is already done. One of the good qualities Christine said I had was that I was able to stay focus even when I had a lot of things to do. I think this is something I am actually good at because my mind is confused easily. I always need things in part and if I start two things at once, I can't estimate how much time it may take or if I can even finish both tasks. I think doing things one by one is something I'm good at and I realized this at my first week of internship.

Blog #6

We are planning to have the interview tomorrow on Friday 1/14/10 at 7am to 8am. There are a lot of things I want to ask my mentor. I'll list down a few of the ideas:

- Her educational background:
Robert told me that she was one of the few exceptions for a mentor that had no bachelor degree. I found this odd because my family has been all about college, good grades, and structured education like that. I, personally, do everything I do with the utmost effort, but grades do have a great impact on me just because colleges tend to judge you positively when you have good grades which.. good grades isn't hard to do and it's really just convenient. I'd really love to learn her story on how she became so successful without that bachelors degree. I know it's completely possible, but it just sounds like such an unknown route. What decisions did she make? How did she come to this decision? Why didn't she go to college to get her degree? Where did she start off at?

- The aspects of her work:
Owning a business must be a lot of hard work. I want to know how she could do everything. Most of the time, if you have a boss above you, you sometimes wouldn't suffer THAT much if the company was going down because overall, the top boss would be the one saying, "Oh gosh, we lost a thousand on this, what do we do.." What sort of anxiety does she go through? What happens when it comes into close call? How does she get over the fear of closing the company?

- Her ability to solve problems:
Currently, there is this ridiculous situation towards Cleanology and it was the first one Christine and her company experienced. Even so, she was on that case so quickly. Before I knew it, I walked into work the next day and heard about the response sent to the other investigator from the investigator that Christine contacted like.. overnight. Also, a lot of the domestic workers speak Spanish and she doesn't fully know the language. How does she get past the language barrior? How does a person find time to accomplish unexpected things on a tight schedule? How does she handle the situations when other clients are involved? What would she do if her company were to decline?

- Her motivation:
Brandon showed us a very interesting video about the motivation of people. I hadn't thought of the whole bribery way of motivation. Christine is someone I see as self driven and confidently faces the things that scare her or make her nervous. What motivates her? How does she keep on going? What does she hope to accomplish in the long run?

Blog #5

Project title: 2010 Cleanology Marketing Plan

Project description: The project is basically a marketing plan for 2010. I will be observing all the information from 2009 and write/design a new marketing plan for this year based on statistics, budgeting, etc. This will include a lot of information about people, possible clients, what advertisements make money, what competitors charge, etc. This will be a large packet of useful information all in one place!

Project schedule: I'm probably going to edit this tomorrow because we are discussing the scheduling of this tomorrow. Basically, there are 11 days left of internship and in those 11 days, there will mostly be data collecting and financial decisions. For the first few days, we will be listing competitive businesses and collecting their information by calling them. There will be lots to do on the side so this may take round 1-3 days. Then I have to research statistics like the population, what part of population does house cleaning, how many people are in the households, etc. This will probably take 1-2 days, depending on how fast I can find the information and do all the calculations to match the company. Then there is the matter of looking at last years budget and pulling out all the paper work for last year. This may take a while because there are a lot of aspects of the budget that range from buying equipment to buying advertisement. There is also the matter of gas and other expenses like supplies. This is what I know for now, we didn't have time to go over the whole thing. There are still a lot of details in the example packet I saw though. There is a lot of information that needs to be collected.

Materials & Equipment needed: This one is easy. All we need is a computer, internet, paper, printer, and other past files. There will be a lot of data collecting and organizing of information. Oh, and we may need a phone too, to call all the other competing businesses and ask what their pricing is or what they offer.

Project documentation: How will you keep track of your work? How will others know about it? What will you have to show when internship is over? What I will basically have to show is a document filled with information and research. That may not seem a lot on my end, but when I looked at the example, it looked like there was a lot of statistical and financial information that wasn't well known facts. If we have blogs everyday like we do already, I keep them pretty updated so if there are any questions, I can pretty much answer them in a blog. I can also write little side notes on my blog about what I accomplished that day and what the plans are for the next day.

Blog #4

1. What academic skills could you use on the job?
This one was a question I had to think about since academics is really what I do best. If school was a hobby, which is how I look at it as, I can definitely do it well. I think the basic skills I possess can help here and there in my work place. One thing that I've brought it hard work. Whatever job I am given, I try my best to do it well and efficiently. This is a busy company that is always moving and I think being available to help is a good aspect of working. I think being productive as a person in a skill I brought to my internship.

2. What forms of collaboration could you use in a project?
Collaboration as in.. with the people at my internship? If so, then I could tell you not that there will be collaboration. One of the things that Cleanology does is focus on communication, hence why they don't have contracts. I think that's the sort of collaboration I have with them, even now. When I was working on updating the site with Israel, there was a lot of emailed back and forth, trial and error, etc. I think that was a successful collaboration. As for my final project, I may be spending more time with Christine since we are making a business place for this year for her company. She has more knowledge about past work and what we could expect for this year. I could contribute ideas or suggest investments, pretty much add onto ideas of making things more beneficial or efficient.

3. What technical skills can you use at your internship?
There are many technical skilled I'm using now. A lot of the stuff I'm doing right now requires my laptop. I was helping a little with Flash, since both of us kind of didn't know it. I did work out some of the problems with the website though, like some of the animaitons, I thought that was cool. If they need me, I can work with Excel, Word, Photoshop, Illlustrator, and InDesign pretty efficiently. Right now I'm learning mostly about what's on the internet, different details fo social networking and what you can do to get yourself out there.

4. What new things can you learn while working at your site?
More things I want to learn is how the use of advertisement helps the company. I remember looking at the sheet of how people heard about this company and I was sort of surprised at some of the results. I would like to learn the best ways of advertising with the least amount of money. I could also learn about how people talk to clients. As it is, there is a little problem that is actually having an interesting development. I think I can learn about how companies deal with these tough situations and how communication and research can make or break an event.

5. How can you exhibit, showcase or otherwise share your work?
This one is probably a tough question. So far, I've done little tid bits here and there but it's mostly sorting out paperwork, data entry, and organization. Even so, those little tid bits like editing the website can be shown through the website. Or I can show the different levels or work and all the research I did to discover one little detail. In the end, my final project is probably going to be a budget portfolio of paperwork showing the plan for this year.

6. How can your work or your skills & abilities help your company or organization?
I'm pretty much availible to them as they need me. I'm content with doing different work then what I actually want to do, it just gives me experience to different things people do. I'm sort of new still so of course I get the easy-to-accomplish work. As the internship goes on, I hope to prove overall useful to the company, whether it's helping them with little jobs or organizing a system for them to use in the future. Even in small things, I'm still able to design, which is something I like to do. For example, I'm organizing some messy information and typing them out. I made some basic tables to add to a template and designed it to make it easy to read and aesthetically pleasing.

Blog #3

1. What skills would you like to develop at your site?

There are many skills I'm looking to develop. I've been working a little on flash to update the company website. I think this is definitely something I would like to try playing with a little more. Perhaps, make the website a little bit more convenient for them to edit it? I'd also like to work with numbers since I'm a huge math wiz. I'm pretty much open for anything since the main reason I wanted to work here is work experience, social networking, and learning about different work environments.

2. What interests do you have regarding the work done at your site?
Like I said before, doing the flash for the website was definitely something new. I've never really had to utilize all the aspects of making a website. I feel really inspired to make a flash website and working with the current company's website is actually really useful. I learned a few things about how animation works in flash websites and what I could do when I make my own. I'm also interested in the customer service they give and, perhaps, maybe be able to talk to clients or learn about the whole process.

3. What needs can you address (needs your mentor has, your company has, etc.) based on your skills and interests?
I'm quite content with my work now, actually. I think all the things I want to learn is pretty much set out in front of me. I get to work with numbers on the marketing plan for my final project, I got to work on the flash website that gave me some insight on how companies organize their advertising, etc. I do think one thing that would be great is a chance to look at all the HTML that went into the website. I think that's what it all boils down to, website design. It's a profession that I'm highly looking into if I ever go into the realm of graphic design which I'm pretty sure I will.

Blog #2

What have you actively done to start off on the right note?

I don't know, I think you'll have to ask my mentor about this one. I think I'm pretty active and I accomplish another that they need me to do. So far, I've filed some paperwork, organized a supply cabinet, sent out a newsletter and inputted business cards into a data base. The thing is, I don't mind doing things like that. When it comes to me, I really just want to do work that they can use for the future. I'm up for anything that is time consuming or things that don't want to be done but need to be done. I've also started out the internship with a positive attitude and an intent to learn.

What have you actively done to create interesting opportunities for yourself?
I'm not quite sure about interesting opportunities. I mean, define interesting. I like having some exposure to other programs like Outlook because it gives me a variety of things that are out there. I also enjoyed sending out a newsletter and posting things on craigslist because I haven't explored that aspect of the internet yet. I know I'm going to be getting more into the social networking of the internet which I'm excited. I'm using this experience to see what sort of work you do on a typical workday. As in actively working for interesting opportunities, I've been occupied so I don't have time to think of others things to do.

What have you actively done to advance the interests of your mentor and/or site?
This sounds like it's worded a little bit funny. Advcaned interests of my mentor or site? Does that mean... how do I keep myself motivated and interested in what I'm doing? I suppose it's the will to accomplish something. I haven't had any work experience at all so I'm sort of testing the ropes to see how I feel being placed at a site that really isn't in my interest zone. I remember Randy telling me that just because a place has "Animator" as a job, doesn't mean I have to go to it. Well, that's the short version of what he said. The point was, I selected an internship based on the environment. One of the things I want to thoroughly avoid is a super serious environment because it wasn't something I wanted to deal with on a daily basis. I want to be in a more laid back environment that is efficient and productive, but it's focused more on people who want to self accomplish and Christine and Isreal are people like that. I'm already interested in what I'm doing because I want to know how far I can reach with this self-ran motivation on tasks that people may seem tedious and can't accomplish.

What can you do in the immediate future to improve yourself and your experience in the above areas?
Hm, improve myself. I think right now, I'm testing how I react to a working environment. To be honest, I was happy to get sort of a short workday. But in the end, after I started working, I really enjoyed coming here. One of the things I focused on improving is learning the ways of social networking. Christine is a very happy and social person, I hope to pick up the confidence she has to be able to talk to people even in tough situations. I also like expriencing business which is going to be in my final project. We'll be making a marketing plan for 2010 and I think planning financial things is important. I hope to experience how it is to budget or what things may take a lot of money or how much things actually cost. I'm not the sort of person to spend money so I'm still trying to understand the saying, "You gotta spend money to make money."

Blog #1

So today (Recap):
I got up at around 6:30am, then later learned that we were leaving at 8:15am so I went back to sleep. I didn't have any breakfast, but sort of ate a granola bar while I was there. My mom took me, she called in that she was going to be at work later and drove me to 4672 Iowa Street 92116 which was where my internship was. The company is called Cleanology and it's actually a pretty quaint building that gives a comfortable feel. My mentor's name is Christine McDannell, but I call her Christine (Which is so convenient, many people don't understand how much more comfortable it is to call people by their first name). There is another person who is here often and his name is Isreal he's a pretty laid back person and seems patient when I ask questions. It's actually lunch time right now and I haven't eaten any lunch yet. I've been so caught up in busy work. Believe it or not, the day went by awfully quickly. I did feel like I was productive though. One of the things that really surprised me was when Christine asked me to pick up the phone and I was thinking, "Oh gosh, I don't know how to pick up the phone here." Turns out, I did just fine. She told me what to say and what to do and picking up the phone, in the end, really wasn't that bad. I see myself doing a lot of filing and organizing in the future, which is something I'd be happy to do. The big project they told me I would be working on is a market plan which is really exciting. Hopefully, I can help devise an efficient market plan that would help in the future. I don't feel nervous at all. As a matter of fact, I really love the environment here because it's peaceful and calm. When I need help, Christine is there to explain and when she isn't, Isreal is there to. I have yet to get home, but honestly, time passed by so quickly. It's 1:30pm exactly right now and I've already learned about the components employees needed when applying, how to post things to craigslist, how to send out a newsletter, what the supplies cabinet looks like, and how things are ran here. I think I will enjoy my time here.

Economic Questions:
How does recession effect the company?
"It did for a while, but it started getting passive. In the beginning it was hard. We were losing a lot of clients and we didn't get enough clients to balance. We spent more money on marketing and were able to get more clients then usual. "

What is the largest thing that you focus on?
"It's mainly getting jobs well and correct. What we like is to call people and ask how the cleaning went, we want customer satisfaction." The main thing that they focus on is customers. This is a service business and customer satisfaction is key. With good service, they get more clients and their names gets out there more.

How have you cut back on spending because of the recession?
"Right now, we've been spending the same. Since we're a small company, there isn't much to worry about. We are resourceful like print on both sides of the paper, recycle folders, etc. We've gone more to web marketing instead of paper advertisements. It's more of a shift to better technology, not so much as spending money more."

Photos from my first day of internship:

Workspace (i.e, computer, lab, classroom, outdoors)

My workspace is sort of basic. The room is sort of small so I have my quaint little desk near the front. I really love the space though, the space is great. One of the things that becomes inefficient is that something always needs to be unplugged so I can plug in my laptop. The plug under my desk doesn't work and I sort of have to reach my charger across the door. I've never seen the desk completely clean, something is always going on, which I think is the best use for a desk.

Dress (Typical)

The dressing here is more lay back and basic. I don't have very professional clothes all the time. Isreal was wearing jeans though, so I thought I'd wear some nice jeans tomorrow. I think I can be more relaxed with dressing here. I wore my mom's boots instead of the tennis shoes I usually wear but these boots are actually insanely comfortable. But, back on topic, Christine dresses sharp and nice. Isreal does too, but I was only focused on the jeans because I was like, "Hm, this was on the not-to-wear list. I hope I'm allowed to wear jeans."

Your work (Example of it)

This is just what I did today. On the side somewhere, I will be working on a similar marketing plan, but that was the one for last year. All of these folders is what I organized today. I was making new folders for the employees because they were updating all the information and needed the employees to fill out a new application. It took some time, but I separated all the papers that were needed versus the ones that were old, put them in a new labeled folder, and wrote on a post-it not what they were missing.

Something that struck you

Yes, this is a water cooler. This was something that struck me because in a small place like this there is still a water cooler? I think that is awesome and such a convenience. I know I didn't bring a water bottle and having ice cold water available to you is just such a treat. I think the plant also gave this green feel to the whole room. the room does have plants scattered in different places which made the smell fresh.

Interesting experience

I wasn't sure what to put for this one, but organizing the supplies cabinet was actually interesting to me. When I was organizing it, I found so many weird things. Like, I actually saw medicine in there and a few pain killers. Made me think, "Woah, work must be so intense here!" I also saw a lot of different things that I wasn't sure the use for. One was a lock, I didn't know why locks were needed. When I was organizing some tabs, I was surprised at how many there were! They were spilling over the box and I had to stuff them in a bag. I think it was actually cool that they were prepared for anything, I would love a supplies cabinet like this.