Graham Evans

We got visited by Graham Evans today. He is a British man who moved to United States in 1996 but hasn’t lost is accent still. He is a great business person and an entrepreneur. He can also make you think in a way you will be amazed. He made us think in detail, to the skeleton of any business.

We started with introduction that went deep down and down every second. The introduction was name, hometown and something unusual about everybody in class. That little exercise showed us the diversity and talent in the room. Then came this quote from Mr. Graham

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson.

We discussed how relevant this is in present time. It used to be that if you have a good idea or product, money will follow it but now-a-days that snot the case. In present time, you have to showcase and sell your idea or product. The table below explains how idea, marketing, cost and income comes in play.

Idea/Product	Marketing	Cost	Income
Good	Bad	Low	None
Bad	Good	Low	Short term
Good	Good	High	Long term

This is how the initial cost and income structure works. Depending on your idea/product, you can choose any combination of cost of marketing, cost time and energy spent on idea/product vs. Income.  Furthermore, Mr. Graham talked about the business canvas. In which we painted the picture of a specific business idea. In which, we saw how feasible the idea was and what were the negatives and positives. It also made us think what we can focus on and what we should cut out. It basically helped us see a snapshot of the whole business. As we all know it’s easier to fail on paper then in reality. It was very helpful to put an idea in perspective.

Last few pointers were that the price of anything is five times the cost of the product due to all that goes into making of anything. Always know how you make your idea of business work. Knowing your idea inside out and having enough feedback from your segment is the only way to have a realistic view. 

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