My Business Plan

     My business plan is about providing high quality hair products to corporate America, government entities, schools, and to the end-user. I want to do this through the means of import and export. There are a lot of risks, liabilities, and losses that I could be taking on by entering into the beauty and hair industry.

Legal Liabilities

     I have a total of 3 different legal liability examples that I would like to touch base on. Legal liabilities associated with my business plan include the following:

1. Someone contradicting what we offer: We want to offer the best, most luxurious, perfect hair products that there is to offer. We want to offer this so bad, that it is even in our name. Having a customer contradict us could not only tarnish out name, but it could potential hit our pockets, and cause us to lose customers and a lot of revenue. We could even end up with a class action lawsuit just by someone simply saying that our products were not as great as we portrayed them to be.
2. Accidental misrepresentation in advertising: Being a startup, and not having an editor on a retainer, I’m sure that it is possible for us to have some grammatical errors or meanings that do not mean what someone could interpret what we are offering to mean. We could possibly be sued for false advertisement. This could also tarnish our name and or hit out pockets, and kill our business.
3. Unexpected postal delays: If we promise that a products would be delivered at a certain time and date, and that does not happen – for whatever reason, we could be held accountable for such. We could be sued for this. Even if we were sued, we still might have to come out of pocket and refund a customer for the shipping cost of the delay, which could hurt our pockets too. Customers also falsely claiming that they are either missing or received a damaged package could also hinder the growth of our business, and cause a legal liability, being that we exercise a no-refund policy.

Legal Controversies

     I have 3 legal controversies that I would like to touch base on. Recent legal controversies that impacted my industry include the following:

 1. Tami Roman lawsuit: Tami Roman of “Basketball Wives” asked her manager to contact a hair company to try out their hair. The owner of the hair company sent her out hair, for free. Then, once she sent Tami out the hair, Tami ended up wearing the hair on the advertising of a hair extension company that she was starting of her own. Tami was basically claiming that the hair given to her, was the hair that she received from suppliers, when it was the hair from another reputable company.

     My opinion: My opinion on the Tami Roman case is that it is frightening. It is scary that a self-proclaimed celebrity can contact you and ask to give you free advertising, you oblige, and then end up getting duped x2. It is even more scary that someone would cheat potential clients by giving them false hope that their hair could look as good as hers by using her products, when the products being advertised are not even from her branded line.

2.  Paris Hilton lawsuit: Paris Hilton was sued over having a contract to use hair extensions by a specific company and stay out of trouble from the law. She was arrested and failed to upkeep that part of the contract. She was also seen promoting other hair extension companies, by wearing their hair extensions, and did not hold up that end of the contract as well. The company sued her for a loss in revenue, due to her not keeping her part of the agreement.      
     My opinion: My opinion in the Pair Hilton case is that she got what was coming to her. I would have sued her too. I also would have asked for even more money due to all of the customers I would have lost by not having her endorsement fulfilled.
3.  Sarah Jane Ward lawsuit: The Sarah Jane lawsuit is about an Oregon resident who sued a hair salon over a bad hair extension installation, babysitting fees to get the hair installed, and the cost of hair extensions as a whole. Sarah explained that she was suing for a total of $50,000, due to hair loss and a bad bleach job. 
     My opinion: My opinion on the Sarah Jane Ward case is that she should have known better. She claimed that she had been dyeing her hair for over 25 years. But, she decided to use styling tools that required heat, shortly after dyeing her hair. I would not have granted her anything as well.

Interview: Marcia Goldstein

About: Marcia Goldstein

     Marcia Goldstein is a real estate brokerage assistant. She has worked with artists and investors within the entertainment industry. She is also a financial advisor. She is currently working as an assistant at Lauderdale By The Sea Realty. Lauderdale By The Sea Realty is located within South Florida. Marcia spends the majority of her days negotiating with others. Whether it is for the perfect price, or the perfect location, she gets the job done.

Experience With Different Negotiation Techniques

     Me: “Can you tell me about your experience with negotiating with others?“

     Marcia: “On a daily basis, I not only have to debate with general contractors and others on pricing, quality of installations, building areas, and zoning, but, I also have to debate with the sellers/buyers and agents/brokers on our firm’s commission. There are times when some people feel as if they deserve the whole “piece of the pie”, when our firm was the one who literally provided them the “food”. You have to know when to share and withhold information. You have to know how to make a certain things sound exciting, even when it might not be as exciting as it seems. You also need to know when to walk away from a deal, and how you should make your first offer. The negotiation should be beneficial on both ends.”

Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)

     Me: “Do you have any experience with finding the BATNA?”

     Marcia: “Yes. Right now, we are contracted with Movoto. I spend a lot of time, at our real estate firm, finding the best options for our clients”. Being an assistant for brokers and agents, feels just like being a mediator sometimes.

Dirty Tricks

     Me: “Have you ever used “dirty” or “unscrupulous” tricks while negotiating with others?”

     Marcia: “No. But, I have witnessed dirty tricks and unprofessional tactics used against me and our firm.”

     Me: “When?”

Marcia: “We had a million dollar real estate deal on the line. We had three partners, and we had an agreement to split the money between the four corporations. Because, there wasn’t anything in writing, and we did not seek legal representation, they ended up stealing the money.”

Separating the People From The Problem

     Me: “How do you separate the people from the problem when you are negotiating?”

     Marcia: “ Basically, I don’t see the people, I just see the deal. People have different personalities. I can’t deal with all of that. Therefore, I just see the deal. And, when I look at the deal, I see the bigger picture, and not the person. The bigger picture is closing the deal.”

     Me: “What tips do you have for new negotiators who are trying to do this?”

     Marcia: “Whenever you are negotiating a deal, you need to keep calm. Remember, some people are just not professional. Quite frankly, some are just evil. So, you have to look over all of that, and keep your eyes on the prize, which is closing.”

My Chosen and Desired Career Field Paths

I currently have 5 chosen career paths:

Customer Service Industry

I have started my own customer service company. It has been in effect for over a year now. We are contracted with a long list of fortune 500 companies. Our company focuses on allowing for people to work from home, as independent contractors, and still generate revenue. Our customer service representatives can make anywhere from $8 to $16 an hour, depending on their performance. Our main focus is to allow for students, like myself, to work from school, home, or while traveling (within the US), and still be able to have money in their pocket. We even have military members and their families working for our company. I started working as a customer service representative one week after my 18^th birthday. I was working 50 to 80 hours a week, and became a supervisor within 9 months of becoming employed. But, I realized that the leading customer service company that I was working for, did not value my time or opinion as an employee. I spent a lot of time correcting written procedures, and proofreading documents that my manager wrote, and I was only making $3 per every commissioned sell. Even though I was making $4,000 a month, the time that I put in was crazy. That was when I realized that I wanted to leave the customer service industry, as a customer service representative. I decided to form my own business and allow for people to work on their own time, and whenever they feel like working. I decided to base pay off of schedule adherence and performance, and not on the tenure of that said representative. Anyone has the opportunity to make more than the average customer service representative would within a brick and mortar company. 

Beauty Retail and Supply Industry

I started a beauty retail and supply store. We have been doing business under the name since 2012. We decided completely end the brick-and-mortar store, and going e-commerce. We supply 100% Virgin and Virgin Remy human hair extensions that range between the inches of 12 and 26. The origins available are Brazilian Peruvian, Malaysian, Chinese, and Indian. The reason why I started this company was because I realized that my retailer was cheating me for over 3 years. I would by the hair, and they would cheat me out of 30 grams. I didn’t realize it until I actually weighed the items.

Law Industry

Even though my major is currently Entertainment Business, I plan to end my career as a Supreme Court Justice. After I gain my masters in May, I am going to enroll in law school at Emory University. I want to be a real estate attorney, entertainment attorney, and criminal justice attorney. My mother is a paralegal and has been one for over 30 years. I used to spend most of my days, as a child, down at the Broward county courthouse. I have met a lot of “big name” attorneys, who have become family friends over the years. I used to sit in on the court sessions and was so intrigued by what was happening before my eyes.

Real Estate Industry

My parents have been licensed real estate brokers for over 30 years each. My mother has been licensed in Florida, Georgia, and in Alabama. My father has been licensed in Florida and the Caribbean. I have also grown up knowing real estate and investment terms that most 30-year-old adults couldn’t even understand. I want to have a career within the real estate industry, as a licensed real estate broker. I also want to be a real estate agent.

I cannot pursue my law career until after I have finished gaining my masters. I also have to get three letters of recommendation (not a problem), and pass the LSAT in December. I have set up an account to start practicing online via benchprep.com.

Please wish me blessings through my journey to success!

TED Talk: Jarrett Krosoczka

The TED Talk speech that I decided to watch was titled, “Why Lunch Ladies Are Heroes”. It was a speech given by author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka. The speech was about how Jarrett went back to his elementary school one day, and saw that the same lunch lady (Genie) he had before was still working there. The lunch lady had obviously been working there for some decades because when he asked if she remembered him, she got him confused with his uncle. He pointed out that his uncle was 20 years older than he was.

She started discussing her family with him, and he admitted that he never thought about lunch ladies ever having a life outside of the cafeteria. He talked about how that inspired him to write his book about how the lunch ladies save the day. All of the lunch ladies thanked him for making a hero out of their likeness. They explained that lunch ladies are not always treated the best.

A significant event for the speaker would be when Genie passed away. When Genie passed away, in her honor, he got together with the school boards and created a day called “School Lunch Hero Day”, where children made projects for their lunch staff in appreciation for the work that they do on a daily basis. He partnered with the School Nutrition Association and they explained that over 30,000000 children participate in school lunch programs everyday. 

The speaker relayed heart-warming instances by telling the audience about the lunch ladies in Kentucky. He explained that they said 67% of students relied on the lunches everyday, and that they were going without food over the summer. The Kentucky lunch ladies redesigned a school bus to create a feeding unit in an effort to travel around neighborhoods, during the summer, to feed over 500 kids. He didn’t share this information to make people feel bad, he shared it to inform us and encourage us to do better. Some lunch ladies felt unappreciated and unnoticed before the holiday was created.

He explained that a “thank you” could change a life. He inspired his audience to be courteous through his speech. He built trust through his speech by truly coming off as being genuine. One statement he made, that really hit close to home, was when he said, “Before a child can learn, their belly needs to be full. Women and men are working on the frontlines to create an educated society”. The speech helped me develop a deeper understanding of the topic because I myself have always felt like a servant to others.

I feel like my family, as a whole, has always played the servant role in one-way or another. My grandmother was a nurse and a seamstress and my other grandmother was a cook. My grandfather was a preacher, and my other grandfather owned a restaurant. My mother was a lieutenant in the Army and my father was an officer in the Navy. Both of them are also licensed real estate brokers, and my mother is also a pro bono paralegal.

I was always told to serve others before you serve yourself, whether it is at the dinner table, at work, or at school. I am glad that Jarrett is encouraging others to do the same exact thing that my family and I have been striving to do for centuries now. I hope the audience doesn’t just take this into consideration when it comes to the lunch ladies, and uses appreciation in every facet of life.

My Business Ventures!

This week, I focused on developing my website for the hair that I will be selling. I have decided to sell on my website and on Amazon.com, Ebay.com, and Etsy.com. All of these sites will allow for direct contact between my company, my consumers and me. Having other portals to sell my products on will also allow for me to gain new consumers who may not have stumbled upon my website otherwise.

I think that anyone who is actively within an industry should find other ways to reach their target audience. For example, authors, produces, and filmmakers can go to Createspace.com in order to distribute their books, films, and music. Creatspace.com is owned by Amazon, and Amazon will sync your work to its website in order to make sells. Createspace will also mail out hardcopies of your work if requested.  

Artists can also go to websites like tunecore.com and publish their work. Tunecore.com will sync all of your work to Spotify, AmazonMP3, Google Play, Xbox Music, Spinlet, Revibe, kkBox, Anghami, Guvera, BeatsMusic, Slacker, JB Hi-Fi Now Music, iTunes, Neurotic Media, Akazoo, Juke MyMusic, GraceNote, Shazam Music Unlimited, Wimp, eMusic, MuveMusic, Myspace, Nokia, iHeartRADIO, Rhapsody, Simfy, Deezer, Rdio, and many other companies. Doing this, will give you the upper hand in having your items in a broader view.

I have bought a lot of items, on websites like EBay and Amazon that I did not intend on buying when I initially visited the website. People go places to buy something with a mindset that they are going to leave out with that one thing, and be done with that errand… they then end up leaving with the whole store. That is why manufactures try so hard to get their items in various stores. I would recommend you doing the same exact thing for your business with whatever industry you might be in.

Real Estate Venture

I have three chosen career fields. My main focus is law, but I won’t be diving into that career until I finish law school (in 2020, hopefully). Due to still needing income while on my mastery journey, I am also interested in real estate, hair, and owning a customer service company. Both of my parents are licensed real estate brokers and have been in real estate for over 25 years each.

I know the basic terms and am slowly learning about how to invest. I found a property that I wanted to purchase to house downtrodden people, there were 166 units and the sale price was $4,400,000. I thought this was a reasonable price, being that it was a subdivision whose owner went bankrupt. When I contacted the agent, I had basic questions and requests:

I said, “Please send me additional information about this property. You can reach me at (000) 000-0000 (my number). What is the asking price? I already have a broker. What is the commission rate as well?”

The reason why I asked about the commission was because my mother would obviously put that towards my down payment.

He said,  “You will need to pay your broker on this deal. Sudeep please send buyer questionnaire.”

I’ve never heard of an agent telling a buyer that they would have to pay their broker for the deal, and still not attach any information on the property,

I replied with, “Are you saying that I will need to pay my broker in order to get more information on the property?”

He said, “It's very uncommon for a buyer to ask for info and then ask for a split. I'm already seeing red flags. I'm not willing to pay you to buy a deal and educate a broker that may not have any experience in working in this asset class.”

I have never been so offended in my life. For an agent to approach a potential buyer like this is not only unprofessional, but its bad business as well.

You will need to fill out my buyer questionnaire sheet before I release any info

I said, “I think there may be some miscommunication. I am a buyer. I turn 20 this month and am interested in investing in real estate. My parents are licensed real estate brokers and have been doing business for over 20 years each in South Florida. I asked for the commission because my mother would be my broker. That's why I told you that I already had a broker - because I do (two actually). If you don't want to provide me with the information then you don't have to. I'll look for another property that interests me. Paranoia is going to hinder your cash flow. God bless you.”

He said, “Name, I have attached a Buyer's Criteria Questionnaire along with this mail. Once you fill it up and send it back to me, I will be able to release the marketing package of the Suburban Woods MHP.”

Then, when I didn’t reply, he sent another message saying, “That's fine, however I need you to fill out the buyer questionnaire form Sudeep will send you momentarily. Thanks for your interest.”

I never replied again because I was so offended by his statements and actions. He was too greedy to want to make the sale and share his commission with a qualified and experienced broker. Not only did he accuse me of wanting to steal his sale, but he also insulted my brokers experience and intelligence by saying that I would have to teach them the ropes.

This is how one loses business opportunities and business relationships. If this deal had gone the way I wanted it to, I probably would have bought more offers through him. Instead, he has called me twice and emailed me twice as well. According to Fannie Mae, the real estate market is down, and he will be sitting on that property for months or years to come due to his bad attitude.

He obviously never practiced professionalism in real estate, and is too cocky for his own good. In real estate, it doesn’t matter who the buyer is, as long as they have the money and are not purchasing properties for illegal reasons. He had no grounds to ask me to fill out a questionnaire when I already had the desired property in mind. His loss.