ENTI 407 — Individual Self-Reflection
When I first signed up for this class, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, this class has deeply impacted me and has led to me starting my blog (more on that later). This class has introduced me to the world of entrepreneurship tools and as an entrepreneur, I am excited to use the tools I have acquired. I have learned so much in this class.
My favourite part of this class was the interview project. I was able to meet with Dustin Paisley, one of the co-founders of Local Laundry. This was a great opportunity as I am a big fan of the company. Additionally, it is a social enterprise which is what I am passionate about. While talking with Dustin, he asked me what I was passionate about and I told him about how much I enjoyed telling people about cool social enterprises. I was even hoping to one day start a company around it. Dustin then told me that in his opinion I should start now. I should use all the tools I have learned about and use them to start a blog. So, I have! I have started a Medium blog about social enterprise (Zachary Friesen) and am currently building a website as well. I have this class to thank for inspiring and equipping me to start this blog!
My favourite activity in this class was the first Lab. I enjoyed getting hands-on experience with interesting tools like Zapier. As I build my website, I hope to eventually integrate Zapier so I am very glad I have some hands-on experience with it. In contrast, I didn’t enjoy Lab 3. This was mainly due to the sites lagging while we tried to work with them. Also, I found those tools much more confusing to use than Zapier. However, that experience did teach me how important picking the right tools is. Picking the right or the wrong tool can change an experience from fun and interesting to just straight frustrating.
I also just generally enjoyed learning about all of the amazing tools that exist. The top three most innovative tools I learned about were Zapier, Slack, Medium and Visme. I was blown away by how integrative Zapier was in connecting different apps. It amazes me how it can seemingly seamlessly connect different apps to automate workflow. It was especially cool to listen to Dustin talk about Zapier and give a first-hand account of how much time Zapier had saved him. Slack was also a cool tool to learn about. It is very innovative in its approach to communication, and a lot more practical. My dad’s work uses Slack and it has made team communication a lot easier. I am also so happy that I have learned about Medium. I enjoy reading and ever since learning about it, I have visited Medium at least twice a week as I love reading all of the different opinions posted on the platform. Like I mentioned before I also started my social enterprise blog on Medium. Finally, I was blown away by how great the templates are from Visme. Even the free templates were stunning, and I wish I had known about the tool sooner. I wish I could have used it to create my school presentation slides. Additionally, I somehow only just learned about Grammarly from a friend in this class. I wish I had known about all of these different tools at the start of my university experience as they would have been very helpful! Still, I am so glad to have learned about all these tools as I can now incorporate them into my life to make my day to day life a lot more effective and efficient.
At the start of this course, my goal was to learn more about tools that could help me as an entrepreneur. This class has surpassed my expectations. I now have several tools that I can use as I go forward into the workplace. Even better, this class has inspired me to start my blog and has given me practical tools to accomplish this dream. I feel much more equipped both as an entrepreneur but also just as a person. I’m happy even just knowing that my next presentation will look amazing thanks to learning about Visme. My eyes have been opened to the amazing world that is entrepreneurship tools. I look forward to using them for the rest of my life.
