1. Why do entrepreneurs get in trouble with the law?

The biggest reason is that they commit fraud or unethical practices in the company. For example, some crypto companies have insiders who trade and manipulate crypto to make money and then sell before they lose value on their investments. Another example is that some companies subject their employees to horrible working conditions. Amazon has been very exposed about its delivery and manufacturing conditions. Luckily, the company has started trying to lower the stress and physical labor of their jobs. Sometimes, the entrepreneurs do not anticipate the troubles that can result from their business. For example, some entrepreneurs sell food products, until they get notice that there must be government approval before selling the food. Even drugs must be properly tested before they can go on the market, although, the Covid-19 vaccine still got approved even with some bad side effects because of how severe the cases were in the world.

2. What does psychology have to do with marketing?

Psychology is everything in marketing. Basically, how we feel and perceive a product is super important in whether we will buy something. For example, many products have multiple colors to appeal to our choices and personal preferences with color. For example, I might think that blue is sick on a shirt, but other people might like just white on their shirt. Also, the fear of missing out is a valuable tool for marketing. This is where companies put pre-registration, waitlists, and remaining stock to see how much customers want to pay for an item. For example, if a ticket registration service says one ticket is left, people will start selling their tickets for higher price because they know that there is not enough tickets for everyone to get into the concert. This is how the psychology can lead to inflated marketing by leveraging the supply and demand on top of customer demand.

3. What types of marketing sway my decisions?

The best types of marketing are advertising and social media. These two types are usually the ones that have the largest reach in the digital world. One example of advertising is watching YouTube videos. It may have an advertisement pop up to buy a service or product. Also, for many large events like the Super Bowl, advertising to a large population of people can drive sales and interest new customers. Used with social media, advertising can be shown in Twitter posts. My example of getting persuaded is when I saw an advertisement to download a game on my phone. I wanted to try other games, and support the developers who spent lots of time to make the storyline and graphics.

4. How can I pitch my ideas better?

I can pitch my ideas better by providing the background, showing how they differentiate from other companies, and displaying traction of the ideas. For example, I might talk about an idea that is related to a new kitchen knife. My background can be talking about using many different brands of kitchen knives, but they were not designed to be portable or had a long-lasting edge without going through multiple sharpening cycles. Now, to differentiate myself from other companies, I can use different metals to preserve its edge and make it more foldable to be carried around without adding lots of weight. For traction, I can have different ways of showing that the idea is working. I can do surveys to see if people would want to buy the product. I can open a website to see how much people have signed up on the waiting list. I can also have reputable people who can testify for the quality of the product and add more credibility to the product.

5. What are my strengths and weaknesses in pitching?

My strengths in pitching is being able to tell a story about an idea and talking about the customer value proposition about the company. When talking about a story, I can use my experiences to convince investors that I am the right person to work on the idea. Moreover, the CVP will also give them a simple explanation of how my business is different from existing models. I can also do market research to see if the idea is widely common or restricted to a certain niche. My weaknesses in pitching is shortening my pitch length and having a small network. Making the pitch shorter is a hard task because I am tempted to put all of the information into the pitch deck. However, the benefit of shortening the pitch deck is that investors pay more attention and have a better impression by knowing enough of the business. Also, I have a small network, so finding investors to pitch will be difficult for me. I will have to explore investors that are in the same industry to get the right people who can help me expand partnerships and provide mentorship from people that do have experience in my industry.