Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

Content: 

(1) What is your essential question?  What is the best answer to your question and why?

• My essential question is “What is the best way to sustain a profitable skate shop?” and my best answer is having a good marketing plan. This is my best answer because by having a good marketing plan, your business will become most profitable and be stable. It tells you the strengths and weakness your shop has, giving you the opportunity to improve it. Also, you will have the kind of marketing strategies you will have, which is very important in a skate shop because you want to attract customers. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• The process I took to come up with my answer was at Covert Board Shop, I was just evaluating what was going on at the shop when some days the shop would be busy and other days the shop felt like a ghost town. I asked Kurtis Beckstorm and he said the best thing you can do is have good marketing plan. This will include marketing strategies that can help you gain customers from all different parts of areas if they are really good. The marketing plan is key in making your shop run according to Beckstorm.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• The problem I faced was at the beginning of the year, I could not find a mentorship to get my hours at a skate shop. I only had one week to find a mentorship because if I did not I would have had to find a different topic for my senior project. I really did not want to change my topic, so I looked up “skate shops” on Google and a bunch of locations appeared on the screen. I wrote down all the skate shop’s addressees and went to every single on personally to see if I would be able to get my hours there. Luckily, Covert Board Shop was the only one that said yes, which I’m very grateful for.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• One of my most significant source would have to be what I did for my second independent component. I took a free online course, at saylor.org, called BUS305 Small Business Management. In this course I had to do read a lot of articles about entrepreneurs, building a team for your business, business plan, marketing plans, and financing. The book Principles of Marketing by Saylor, really helped me understand my third answer. This course helped me gain knowledge on the business side if a skate shop.
• Another significant source has to be Kurtis Beckstorm, founder of Covert Board Shoppe. I really got see how a skate shop is most profitable and what it takes to run one. I have learned a lot from Beckstorm when it comes down to business and just personally level in creating a good atmosphere. 

(5) What is your product and why?

While at doing my mentorship at Covert, I really did not have an expectation how involved the business was going to be with the community. Now I have an expectation that a business should be more involved with the community. Covert has many events that involves getting the community together to have a good time. These events are sticker exchange, skating contests, and live music. It was really cool seeing some of the same faces showing up to these events and just having a blast. I feel like by having the business be more involved with the community it showed me how really important the customers were.