How a technological tools class helped me with my online apparel store and dealing with COVID-19´s social distancing
Who would have known that an entrepreneurship course at the University of Calgary was preparing me for the COVID-19 pandemic? I got enrolled in ENTI 407, a technological tools course, because I was starting an online apparel store. Now that I am at the end of the semester, I realized this course not just helped me in my startup, but it also helped me deal with everyday problems like the ones we are facing now due to the COVID-19´s social distancing regulations. This blog will consider Borton´s Development Framework from 1970 to analyze the course, which tries to explain the description and self-awareness through the “What?”, the analysis through the “So What?”, and the synthesis through the “Now What?” (“Reflection Framework and Prompts, 2018).
What?
The overall outcome of the course was positive and useful, which included a multifaceted structure filled with lectures, labs, hands-on assignments, and external interviews. As I am mainly a kinesthetic learner, I felt most engaged in the assignments and labs, as they were hands-on activities. For example, I particularly enjoyed the hands-on learning portion with the consulting project, as my group and I implemented all the technological tools we learned throughout the semester to help a nonprofit organization become more friendly with technology. Furthermore, I enjoyed having the 3 labs on Monday classes as they were useful for my apparel store (e.g. Google Sheets, Zapier, and marketplaces).
What surprised me the most about this course was the high degree of usefulness it connected to my life. Throughout the course, many times I smiled knowing that that specific assignment, lecture, or lab was going to be useful for my online store expansion and implementation. And now, I smile more knowing that I can use all the learning outcomes to find solutions to social distancing problems faced due to COVID-19´s social regulations which will be expanded at the end of this blog. Getting back to the usefulness of the course related to my online store, I am particularly thankful for the interview report that I chose to do for the individual assignment, as I interviewed an existing Calgary-based online apparel store which their insights were extremely helpful for my online store. Additionally, I was surprised when I realized that Dylan Stack, the merchant success manager of Shopify, was going to be interviewed in one of the lectures. This is because not only he was going to talk about Shopify, the most renowned marketplace in present times, but because he was also going to possibly talk about his own clothing store business, “ThankYou”. The interview was very useful for me as I realized that a marketplace like Shopify wasn´t necessary for me now, considering a cost-benefit analysis. As well, at the end of the presentation, Dylan answered some of the questions I had about my apparel store!
So what?
So, as mentioned before, this course helped me deal with COVID-19´s social distancing regulations. Many other people were panicking about how their university progress will be impacted by the isolation required by COVID-19; however, I was already with a technology-solution mindset. Thanks to the presentations of different technological platforms researched by my classmates, I know how to use technological tools to my advantage. Specifically, using online meeting platforms to virtually meet with my groups (e.g. Zoom), or use online solutions for document integration (like Google docs). Additionally, I can take all the abilities learned from this course to use technological tools for my online apparel store in the future, which I now know how to implement email and social media tools that are essential for an apparel store once it grows. Thereupon, I think that the best thing I can take from this course is that technology can be my best friend when finding solutions for my businesses and everyday problems.
To finalize, I am happy to say that I met all my goals for this course, although I am still waiting on the final grade to be sure I got A+. My main goal was to implement my learnings into my online apparel store, which I did by creating a website on Wix, implementing social media management tools, and taking notes for some technological tools that might be useful once my apparel store grows (e.g. CRM tools).
Now what?
Thanks to this course I´ll be able to identify tools that support small businesses, be it for my own benefit or for a consulting job I do. Especially, I´ll improve the organization´s efficiency by making them more friendly with tools, or I´ll be able to recommend them on better tools if they already use one, which I will consider many factors like pricing. Finally, this course helped me with working effectively by myself and with groups on interviews and reports, so this will be helpful for my future business courses and work-related projects. Finally, this course improved my communication and presentation skills, which are essential for a good salesperson which I intend to be!
References
Reflection Framework and Prompts. (2018, May 30). Retrieved from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/resources/reflection-framework-and-prompts
