On Friday, May 27th, the Business Innovation Program (BIP) summer interns met with entrepreneur David Riggs ’20. We started our day by discussing what it takes to operate and lead a successful business. Some of the main takeaways I learned from this section were to surround yourself with the right people, set your schedule, and business is risky (be smart and work hard). This part of the day was eye-opening because it showed us what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Later in the BIP, we learned other styles of the business world as well.
The next thing we did was talk about the six types of business. The six business groups created their innovative ideas and pitches. Doing this, we prepared ourselves for the rest of the summer, where we dove deeper into creating a real pitch deck. The business pitch needed our company’s story, convincing investors to make money, address the target market, and give a solution to a problem. Once our group put together all these parts, we put together a presentation for David and his team member. They both gave us constructive feedback on how we could make our company better.
Recapping the day, I found that marketing and sales are two of the most significant parts of the business. As David Riggs ’20 says, “landing clients is not easy.” Taking this quote, I found you need to allocate many resources to find your potential clients. After getting the potential clients on the phone, you will need an even better sales team to get the client secured. I thank David Riggs ’20, Cassie Hagan, Anthony Mendez ’20, and the CIBE Program for setting up the BIP for bringing in such great young and older alumni and guest presenters.
