Stevenson University hosted an Entrepreneurship Career Panel, which consisted of successful entrepreneurs who shared their experiences and advice. To start the panel, John Dinkel from Dinkel Business Development, LLC., shared with the audience that the main reason he started his business was that after he experienced a close death in the family, he realized that life is just too short not to pursue your dreams. Elizabeth Trimm, Branch Manager for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, described that others will always have opinions of you as you are pursuing your goals, but not to let anyone get in your way because it is up to you as an individual to choose whether to limit yourself or not. Andy Brown, founder and CEO of Eat Pizza, gave great advice about how he found a CEO’s email of a big company so he could contact him to ask whether he would be interested in selling Eat Pizza at the CEO’s grocery store. Weeks later, he found himself in front of this CEO and serving him his pizza. Garrett Pfeifer, from Maryland Brand Management, told the audience that we must learn sales to sell our product successfully, and the entire panel agreed with this advice. Andrew Murphy, partner and owner of Flying Frog Publishing, stated that we should always have two streams of income in case one of the streams of income is unable to make enough money. Lastly, Chris Daley, Founder and Principal of Whirlaway, LLC., advised the audience to build your network and foster those relationships. For example, Mr. Daley stated that Linkedin is a great way to connect with people that you meet and occasionally follow up with them down the road because you do not know whether you may need their help.
The Entrepreneurship Career Panel was extremely helpful because it allowed me to realize that, no matter your age or where you come from, you always can become an entrepreneur. I never gave much thought to owning my own business, but each of the panelists reiterated that you could achieve anything as long as you work hard and put the time and energy into your business. This event connects to digital publishing because, to have a successful business, you must market and brand yourself to sell your product and make a name for yourself. Digital publishing can create your brand and allows others to learn what your business is all about. The more time and energy you put into branding yourself through digital publishing, especially when putting your business out on a website, others will see how dedicated and credible your company comes across. My career goals are to work in the public interest and nonprofit sector, possibly even working with interests groups who are involved with public policy. While I am still unsure of where my career will take me, I believe that I could successfully open my own business if I apply the same hard work and dedication as these panelists. I could open my own business that works in serving the public, which I am greatly interested in exploring in the future.