Karolina's study blog

Our last trigger dealt with Slush, the biggest networking event. Such networking events can be extremely useful for  start-ups and small companies to gain attention, investors and raise the customer base. When coming up with the learning objectives, we focused on these main advantages of networking events and we decided to study the following: 1. The importance of networking  2. How to pitch your start-up to investors  3. Important marketing tools and how to use them 1. The importance of networking While studying at Haaga-Helia, I've heard multiple times how important it is to network effectively for our future working life and the quote 'your network is your net worth' has become widely used. For start-ups this is true even more. Dreamstake says the following about why to even bother with networking: ' You are an entrepreneur and you have an idea that you think will change the world. However, at this stage no-one knows you. They listen t...

In the past, the business had only one objective- to achieve its strategic goals and to generate profit. Nowadays, the businesses are required to respect the environment in which it operates. Since a business enjoys a variety of benefits provided by the society, the business is also expected to 'give back to the society'. The consumers especially in the developed world pay increasingly high attention to how and where products are made and are ready to 'punish' unethical behavior.  Every company has a set of stakeholders (individuals or groups that have some interest on the way the company operates). Every company's objective should be to satisfy a wide range of stakeholders in order to sustain growth and remain competitive. Porter highlights the specifics of today's world, naming awareness as an important factor. He claims that often businesses are perceived as the problem (creating pollution), which is true only for some businesses and large portion of busi...

Our first PBL trigger told a story of a an uncle won 5 million euros and wants to invest it, so there is a potential chance to start a business. Now the problem is what and how to do to persuade the uncle to invest in out business and if we even want to start a business. We agreed, that our main problem will be: Steps to starting a business and the learning objectives: What makes a good business idea Choosing the right business format and its pros and cons How to maintain finance? Why to become an entrepreneur?  1. What makes a good business idea I think that there are actually many of people in the world, who have a good business idea but don't have a clue, how and where to start. On the other hand, there are also people with good knowledge of business but they don't have the right idea.  Many great businesses come from a very random idea. Either the owner lacks something himself and believes that he is not alone in it, or he sees opportunity in the place,...