It’s been 2 years in the making and it’s now done! I just received my final grade in my Capstone class for my MBA in Marketing from Regis University!

It was 12 classes and I took the Marketing concentration and I’m very happy to announce that I received 11 A’s and 1 B….the B was in Financial Decision Making which was the most boring and difficult class I could imagine because it was all financial spreadsheets and how to interpret them!

But at the age of 41 to pull off a 3.8 GPA is awesome considering a full-time job and Wife and 4 kiddos!

So now I am taking one last class as an Independent Study in Internet Marketing so that I have 18 hours in Marketing at the Graduate level. This is because many Universities require their Adjunct Professors to have this to be able to teach Marketing at the College level. My goal is to teach online at a few Universities in Business and Marketing as I thoroughly enjoyed the online learning environment and see this is the most reliable way for a College to grow in the future.

If there’s any Marketing Related issues or questions that I can ever help you with I’ll be happy to help!

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Whew! This one is done and boy was it a lot of work….but really fun!

The entire class was a Simulation where our Team set up a computer company
and made dozens of executive decisions each week regarding expanding
Internationally, hiring, Advertising, Sales and Marketing etc

My Team took 1st place!!

Now it’s off to my last class in my Marketing MBA!

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OK I realize it’s been a few months since I update my journey through my MBA in Marketing but here’s why…after the Consumer Behavior class I went right into Financial Decision Making and Market Research….not fun! In fact I am the guy who has the 30,000 foot vision for success. I can put together a marketing plan, I can strategize joint venture relationships to increase sales. I can create back-end marketing systems to increase revenues….but show me a Balance Sheet or Income Statement and I throw up a little in my mouth (sorry). So the last 2 classes were a bit dry, but I got an “A”  and a “B” in them (the only “B” in the entire MBA so far….oh well)

So now I have started “Product Management” and it really is looking like a lot of fun….a lot of work, but fun!

Here’s the overview from week 1:

This class is a bit different than the classes you have had so far in the program. The activities you will participate in will revolve primarily around playing a computer simulation of business – so most of the course content will involve the simulation in some way.

The main emphasis of this course is Product Management. Product Management is a function that requires a great deal of interaction between the different functional areas of the business. It is important that each functional area understand the impact their decisions have on the rest of the organization. The business simulation that you will participate in during this course does a good job of doing just that

So this entire class is a game simulation of starting a computer company and EVERY SINGLE decision needs to be made to start and run the company over 6 quarters. Finance,Advertising,Branding,Manufacturing,Sales etc….and we compete against other teams to see who has the best results. It actually allows us to draw on all the learning we have done up to this point and put into a real simulation of business application. Pretty cool. Looks like a lot of work because we have to spend 3-5 hours a week in the simulation program and hold a team conference call and also an Executive Board meeting with the Prof and turn in a 10 slide PowerPoint each week…

I’ll post updates throughout the rest of this course and then I begin the last class at the end of August and should complete my MBA in Marketing by November….Whew!!

Until next time

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In a recent assignment for my MBA in Marketing, we covered an interesting topic of Vicarious Learning Process which is:

The process where consumers learn from observing the consequences of what happens to other consumers is called vicarious learning. It is also called modeling. Viewers can empathize with certain characters in advertisements that experience positive results from using a product or service. In vicarious learning, when consumers observe other people engaging in a particular behavior (testing a new brand of soft drink at the supermarket) or set of behaviors (shopping for groceries), they also closely observe the consequences of those behaviors (brands purchased, amount of money spent, affective states produced, exposure to these environmental factors). Also, vicarious learning can have a positive effect on changing overt behavior, in terms of the cognitive processes of attention, comprehension, and integration.

So in the spirit of “Vicarious Learning” I thought you may liek to read the results of my survey to small business owners regarding marketing….I think you’ll see some of the very eye-opening information that I researched!

CLICK HERE

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This week in my MBA in Marketing through Regis University online, we continued to focus on the consumer’s decision making process.

The premise for both of these models is that variables such as: awareness, comprehension, interest, evaluation, conviction, etc  are a very important concern for marketers and the major indicators of behavior.

Marketing’s responsibility is to change these variables and move consumers thru the consumer problem solving and decision making stages until they make a purchase. Of course there are a thousand and one ways that we see marketing efforts to accomplish this, but one very easy thing to keep in mind is…be genuine and helpful without being pushy! When you approach a prospect with helpful and educational material that in-and-of-itself will benefit them, you are perceived as someone adding value to their life and business!

Notice in the graphic above that the 1st block is “Attention”. This is critical because there’s so much marketing “noise” out there for our prospects to see that we must find ways to stand out above the crowd. This can involve being creative, this can involve doing the opposite of what your competition is doing….or it can be using such specific knowledge that you have learned from your target audience that your message really “hits home” with them!

Until next week!

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OK so I’m now beginning class 9 out of 12 in my MBA in Marketing….if all goes well, I’ll be done in November!

I spent the last 2 courses building out my Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy, the really neat thing is that we are allowed to choose an existing public business to focus on or one that we “create”. So I thought it would be fun to create the Marketing Huddle, a marketing coaching firm, and what you see on the home page, and “interview” page is my MBA project taking form!

There’s a few reasons why I am already picking up clients, since I have 18+ years of sales and marketing experience I can draw off of successes as well as failures, and also I see that business owners value the fact that I have a fresh perspective by being in a marketing MBA program.

Small business owners really are the backbone of the economy with over 90% of all new jobs being created by a small business! And what is very motivating is that there’s an enormous need thay have…and that is MARKETING!

OK, back to Consumer behavior, I’m just in the middle of week 2 but so far it’s highly interesting because it totally gets into WHY a customer buys a product or service. Until a company knows this they are driving blind….or at least not maximizing what they could be doing. After all, it’s all about the customer, right?! Ao why not discover why they buy, what their needs are, and then you can fine-tune what you offer??!

Sound simple, but it is often ignored because it takes work!

Here’s a concept from this week’s assignment:

It is called the “Wheel of Consumer Analysis,”* and is taken from a model created by the psychologist, Albert Bandura. Bandura revealed four factors that are important in the study of consumer analysis and he emphasized that all of these factors continually interact with one another as illustrated in the model below:

Each one of these spokes of the wheel on this model “touches” and can affect the other elements at any time within the consumer purchase experience. A truly effective marketing strategy affects all four spokes of the “Wheel of Consumer Analysis”. By researching all of these elements on the wheel and developing strategies based upon your results, you can better understand your current and future customers within your company.

Can You Help??

In week 5 I have to turn in a “Laddering Interview” which is a series of 10-15 questions I interview 10 different business owners on regarding their marketing needs…..would you be willing to let me ask you these questions? (If you’re like me, you HATE surveys, I know…)

But the good news is that you will learn a lot about yourself and your business and it will actually be a “free consultation”. Everyone who participates I will send the results at the end of the class so that you can see the responses from all the people I interviewed which will give a great perspective outside of your own! (Don’t worry I will not and cannot disclose names so it will be something like “Business Owner “A” etc.)

Please either e-mail me your desire to help at mike@marketinghuddle.com or “Tweet” me! @marketinghuddle

Thanks in advance!

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This week we covered Marketing Ethics which really brought up some interesting thoughts:

Marketing ethics involves principles and values that direct appropriate behavior in organizations. The toughest part of being an ethical marketer is matching the well being of both the business and the consumer or the business customer. On one hand, the company’s interests are preferred entirely at the expense of the consumer/business customer’s interests. This is where profit optimization is the company’s ultimate goal. The opposite extreme is that of totally favoring consumer interests at the expense of the firm’s profitability.

Somewhere in the middle is where most business codes of ethics reside. A good example of a professional association that addresses ethical behavior guidelines for marketing professionals is the American Marketing Association, which balances the interests of both businesses and consumers. Unethical behavior is frequently the outcome of careless thinking and planning, and not always the end result of employees who deliberately behave in an unethical manner.

Here was our discussion question: “Ethics in Promotion,”

http://legalethicsforum.typepad.com/blog/2005/04/andrew_perlman__1.html 

The article I found was an interesting twist: It takes on the ethics of promotional “bait and switch”….involving a law school! Interestingly when we talk about the legality and ethics in marketing promotion, the article cites a few examples of a law school violating just that

One law school’s promotional literature cites a report showing that its graduates claim to have among the best job prospects in the country, when in fact the law school’s own employment data doesn’t support the claim. Many law schools frequently talk about the

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This week in my MBA coursework we covered many different marketing strategies geared to create or solidify your position in the market. One is the “Leapfrog Strategy” which is defined as:

“A challenger stands the best chance of attracting repeat or replacement purchases from a competitor’s current customers when it can offer a product that is attractively differentiated from the competitor’s offerings. The odds of success might be great if the challenger can offer a far superior product based on advanced technology or a more sophisticated design. A leapfrog strategy is not viable for all challengers. To be successful, the challenger must have technology superior to that of established competitors as well as the product and process engineering capabilities to turn that technology into an appealing product.”

Now….you could plan to spend large money and attack the competition head-on but you really need to be prepared that you will most likely fail because this “Confrontation Strategy” is going up against an established competitor who can afford to spend more than you!

An probably the very best way in my opinion is the “Niche Strategy” which is to laser-target your services to a specific group of potential buyers and create such a content-rich experience that they become “raving fans” of your product or service!

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OK if you’re like most people, you assume that marketing learning in an MBA program is pretty dry and out-dated….am I right? (no mention of Web 2.0, RSS feeds, email marketing)

But this week’s reading assignment in my Marketing Management class this perception was shattered! See what you think:

“The long term prospects for doing business in the new economy are still enormous. Today’s well-educated business students can bring these insights, as well as new-economy expertise to the companies they join”.

They continued on to say that one of the fastest growing segments in the new-media marketing economy is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ….basically this is where the small business owner or sales professional can drive local internet traffic to their products and services. SEO is actually a very complex field and if you need a referral to someone that can help you with this, just let me know.

OK now comes the really interesting part….in “Marketing Management” by Mullins, Walker, Boyd which is our textbook for the class, they continue this thought by moving to email marketing to say:

“Email marketing is on the rise, many companies communicate with their customer database periodically through email newsletters which can be targeted to customers much the same way as direct mail. One way to use this is opt-in email, where consumers allow companies they are interested in, to send them email with new promotions. According to Seth Godin, such “permission marketing” offers the potential for companies to create trust, build long term relationships with customers, and greatly improve their chances for making the sale.”

How’s that for relevant and current?!

I encourage you to implement a systematic, automated email marketing system in your business!

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This week we covered Marketing Mix which is the combination of controllable marketing variables that a manager uses to carry out the marketing strategy process in pursuit of the firm’s objectives in a given target market. Once marketers find this relevance, they need to verify the customer needs and integrate the specific self relevance of these needs within their actual marketing mix.

*In layman’s terms…..the marketing tools you choose to use to get your message to your target market!

Tools like email autoresponders, video postcards, teleseminars etc.  (see tools I recommend on the sidebars)

The four components of the Marketing Mix include:

• Product strategy – what needs (product attributes and benefits) will the customer identify with
• Pricing strategy – what price will they find meets their value criteria
• Promotion campaigns – what promotional and advertising materials demonstrate these needs including the communication of these promotions
• Place or Distribution strategy – where are the best places for the customer to find this product to best meet their needs

This process is also illustrated in the model below:

As you can see customer needs are at the center of the marketing mix depicted above. Market-oriented and customer driven firms are those companies that proactively plan and coordinate company activities for all divisions around the primary goal of satisfying customer needs. These types of market-oriented and customer driven firms have a higher likelihood of outperforming other firms on a variety of factors; including sales growth, return on assets, and new product success.

This is just a small bit if what one part of our learning this week was in my Marketing MBA through Regis University 

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In week 3 of my Marketing Management class we covered Positioning Strategy.

A positioning strategy takes the marketing mix components and translates them
into corresponding actions intended to accomplish all of the positioning
objectives. Creating a positioning strategy involves deciding upon the
activities and results for each marketing mix factor of product, place, price
and promotion and selecting the overall budget and specific marketing mix
dollars to spend.

Research suggests that a business is likely to achieve
superior revenue growth, market share, and profitability when there is a good
fit (positioning strategy) between its competitive strategy and the strategic
marketing programs of its various product or service offerings. Clear and
distinctive positioning that differentiates a product from others with which it
competes is usually essential for developing a winning marketing strategy.

So what can we distill this down to in a brief summary?

• Define your product/service
• Define your target market
• Determine the needs they have that your product/service meet
• Position your product/service in that target so that you have visibility

So what do you think?

Comment in the section below and let’s discuss your ideas!

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In this week’s Marketing Management class for my MBA we explored:
Target Market Segmentation…basically “don’t be all things to all people”.
That is the recipe for sure failure!

We must choose a specific niche target market and research the demographic statistical data that will help us to form our marketing strategy…..

This is a big concept that can be broken down as simply:
Figure out a specific group to target your services to….figure out what their hot button are and what makes them tick….and then position your product or service as the solution to meet those needs by completely making your sales messages “speak” to those needs!

Sounds pretty obvious, but unfortunately most business owners and sales professionals do not even get close to doing this!

Now it’s your turn!
Let me know what you think about this by posting your thoughts in the comments section below!

Make it a great day!

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Marketing is fun!! strategic planning, marketing plans, marketing vision…..so I’m really looking forward to my 7th class in my Marketing MBA!

After the 1st 6 classes of Statistics, Accounting, Economics, Business Law etc….pretty boring stuff, but now the next 5 classes focus on Marketing. By blogging about my journey through my Marketing MBA you will see what it’s like as well as to learn from the concepts I’ll discuss.

The great thing about this timing is that as I launch my Marketing Coaching firm, I will be able to take fresh MBA-level strategy to implement into my Marketing Coaching business to help Small Business Owners and Sales Professionals increase their marketing effectiveness!

Week 1 of this class, Marketing Management covered Marketing Strategy and SWOT and PEST Analysist. This analyzes your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and also the exernal factors like Political, Economic, Sociocultural, and Technological factors.

Looking at a business in this light helps you to see what to prepare for in the future.

If you’d like to read my Marketing Mix paper I wrote for this week for the Marketing Huddle just CLICK HERE

Now It’s Your Turn! I’d like to hear your thoughts on this post

Do you agree that analyzing a business in this much detail is needed?

• Have you done this for your business whether you’re a small business owner or sales professional?

• If you had an analysis done like this, would you act on it?

Post your thoughts in the comment section below!

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OK….so getting an MBA requires a lot of writing!!

Pretty much for the last 6 months I’ve written a 7-9 page paper each week, and you know that these are all specific types of papers with APA formatting.

It’s been SOOOO many years since I have been in college I totally don’t even remember APA and I hate reading things like this in a book, so I found the solution!!

I kept getting advice from people “Go to the bookstore and buy this certain book or that certain book on APA styles….but who wants to be flipping through pages all the time?? We ARE in the computer/internet age right??!!

Click Here to check out this software  I found!  (using this link will give you a 5% discount too!)

You’ll be shocked at how cool it is!

It’s a very inexpensive program and loads as a toolbar over your Word program so that as you are writing your paper and need to cite a reference, you fill in the blanks on the citing window and the program inserts the in-text citation as well as the full reference at the bottom of the page!!

Also, it formats the paper from the very start, you check off the boxes for the type of paper you are writing and it immediately loads the template in Word for you  complete with table of contents, body, references….Can you say “this thing does all the thinking FOR me?!!”

Anyway, check it out, I thought it may help!

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No rest for the weary!

My family and I went on vacation over the week of the 4th to our family’s cabin in the mountains….totally secluded, no phone, no internet, just peacful nature! The problem with online MBA learning in this case was my new class started the 1st day of vacay….and with no internet connection I was at a loss. So we went in to Breckenridge one day and I popped into a hotel and asked if I can borrow their computer in the lobby to get online , they said “15 minutes” so I had enough time to print off the reading assignment and the details of the case study. Then when I got back Sunday evening, I wrote up the case study and posted it at 9:30 pm (deadline was midnight)

Thought you may like to see this week’s forum discussion topic:

Please discuss the Future of Globalziation and its Impact on International Business.

In addition, some least developed countries (LDCs) and underdeveloped countries (UDCs) may not have the resources (i.e., knowledge and capital) to fully participate in the “Globalization game”

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Whew! Finished up last week and got the grade back….”A”… Sweet!

I really did enjoy the class because of the way it gave us a case each week to write up a Legal and Ethical case study on, it really taught me to think critically as I read these cases. To not only read for the facts of the case, but also to be thinking “What is the Legal issue here”….”What is the Ethical issue here”.

Nice class and even nice to Ace it…..1st 4 MBA classes down and all “A’s”. Not too shabby for a 40 yr old with Wife and 4 kids and a full time job

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I thought you may like to take a mini tour inside how the online MBA at Regis looks!

Enjoy!

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…so after 6 weeks of detailed case studies and case analysis….we head into the last 2 weeks of the class with a combined written assignment….and check out how easy the topic is!!

The Weeks 7 and 8 Final Paper, which consists of a seven (7) to nine (9) page essay, will be on the topic entitled: “Professionalism To Me: Legal and Ethical Considerations.”

This final paper is intended to be a thorough and persuasive presentation of who you are and what you intend to be as you move forward in your professional career. This essay is intended to embody your best thinking on the themes of law, professionalism, and business ethics. Any reasonable position and ethical theory can be taken, but must reasonably be defended.

This assignment is intended to personalize each of the ethical theories and legal issues that you have studied and analyzed over the course of the semester.

In completing this paper, please include the following topical areas:

Professionalism To Me: Legal and Ethical Considerations

1. “Introduce” yourself. That is, provide a brief background of your experiences; state your current position; and, set forth the goals that you are hoping to accomplish over the course of your professional career.
2. Address the following question: “After all that I have studied, what is my ‘ethical theory?’ That is, when I look in a mirror, who and what do I see in terms of an ethical person?” Be sure to identify and then fully explain and analyze your ethical theory, based upon research that you have completed and insights that you have gained throughout this course, including insights you may have gained from reading your colleagues’ discussion questions and critiques of either your work or your colleagues’ work.
3. What are the “competencies” that I must embody in my profession? That is, what are the legal and ethical principles to which I must adhere if I am to be successful in my chosen profession?
4. Who are the “constituents” to whom I must answer? Beyond my superiors, colleagues, subordinates, and customers, are there other “outside” groups to whom I must be responsible and accountable, including not only public and private sector groups and individuals, but also my family and friends?
5. How do I embody the virtues of Integrity (Kant), Justice (Mill and Rawls), and Courage (Virtue) into my ethical theory and my profession?
6. What do I intend to make of myself in my professional career, i.e., what is my “dream?”
7. For what do I wish to be known at the end of my professional career? That is, what do I want people to see in me and learn from me in their interactions with me; what kind of “role model” do I want to be; how do I want people to think about me or remember me when my professional career ends; and, what legacy will I leave behind when all is said and done and my life is over? When people think of me, what will be the main thing that they will remember about me and say about me?

The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to “reflect” on yourself as both a legal and an ethical human being who will be responsible not only for following the law but also for shaping the law and ethics and their application in your workplace, your profession, and your personal life.

Please keep in mind that this assignment encompasses a serious inward look and critical self-assessment of you as a person. It is clearly a very challenging assignment and one that many people are reluctant to undertake. However, tremendous rewards can be had in assuming this challenge. It serves to define who you are as a professional person; renews your confidence in how you will address both legal and ethical challenges; and, reinforces what you have learned about law and ethics, not only in this course but also in other courses you may have taken combined with your professional and personal life experiences.

Also, please keep in mind Regis University’s professional assurances to you of your confidentiality in submitting such a paper to your evaluating faculty member. This paper is your work product and your work alone. It is not shared or discussed with anyone.

Finally, please keep in mind that while this is an introspective analysis, be sure to properly footnote and provide bibliographic sources of outside research that you performed in order to develop your ethical theory in this final paper

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OK, here’s the update:

This class is turning out to be a bit easier than I thought….(hope this doesn’t jinx me!)

Each week we need to post up 3-4 posts in the class discussion forum and do the reading and the written assignment is to take the case study we have been assigned and write a Legal and Ethical Case Study.

A “Case Study” is a specific type of a paper in a certain format, and since this class is both Business Law as well as Ethics, the Case Study is a dual paper. The 1st part is the Legal analysis and the 2nd part is the Ethical Analysis.

It’s been pretty interesting because the class teaches “Critical Thinking” which means we have to look at a case through the eyes of both Legal issues that are going on as well as Ethical issues.

We’ve covered case studies from Enron, Microsoft, and other cases that cover issues like gender discrimination at work etc.

Really neat class so far….keeping an “A” average in this class (as well as the other 3 so far in my MBA)

Until next time….

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So starting Business Law this week, and I’m a bit nervous for two reasons:

1) A lady at my church just finished her Business Law class for her Undergraduate program and she got a “C” and said it was the hardest class she had!

2) I just found out that the Professor is a Judge!!

Yikes, a JUDGE!!!

Oh well, I’ll take it a day and a week at a time and see how it goes!

I’m torn in how to plan to approach this class, how detailed will this Prof need us to be? Will he want EXTREME research like I was a Law Student??

We’ll see…stay tuned!

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Just posted up the week 8 written paper and am done! This class consisted of reading, LOTS and LOTS of posts in the class forum, and a 4-6 page paper EVERY WEEK! But it was no big deal really it was actually pretty fun.

Going into the class I really though it would be B.O.R.I.N.G!!! But it turned out to be very relevant on issues that we are reading about every day like the decline of the dollar, inflation, China import/export Personal savings etc.

All-in-all this really was a fun class!

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At the end of Week 3 in Managerial Econ I’m pretty pleased that it’s not the typical type of class where it focuses on the numbers, graphs and statistics side of Econ!

The discussion forums are really vibrant and allow us to discuss differing views on the class topics. And the last 2 weeks I’ve particularly enjoyed the Simulations we’ve done. This is where you go through a multimedia case-study and make decisions all along the way to a final conclusion. This week we covered Monolpoly, Oligopoly, Duopoly, Perfect Competition etc….pretty dull, huh??!!

But Check out the link to one of the simulations and see how cool it is! (I hope it works for you!)

http://tinyurl.com/6kc98l

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OK…so in College I got a “D” in Econ!
I had to take it over in a Summer Module….which in fact was awesome because I got an “A” ….but also, you go to class 8 hrs one day and the next day start off taking a test on what you learned the previous day…how much could you really forget??!!

So MBA-Level Econ what not really something I was totally looking forward to!
But one of the textbooks is one of the easiest-reading books on the subject I’ve ever seen!!
Naked Economics

It really brings alive a really potentially boring subject.

The 1st two weeks in this class have been on Micro economics and how price and demand and supply interract. It’s really interesting when you drill down deep on a topic to look past what you typically would to see the various market and demand drivers in action!

Plus the Regis University discussion forum that is part of the required weekly activity is so vibrant that you can really get a deeper understanding of topics from your classmates input! 

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So you need to write a short…or long paper, or article and need research??

Check out what I found, this just shortened my research time in HALF!
Instant Article Wizard is a tool that helps you find the research needed to write….
it does NOT write it for you ……..but gives you the tools to find the info you need!

Click on the link and see if it will help you too.
(the demo and info talks about creating articles for the internet, but you’ll also see that it’s perfect for research papers on ANY topic.

The really cool thing is it’s like Google on steroids!

Not only does it search out a topic and help you build the content, but it also gives you the reference links to where the research info came from so you can cite it properly!

Quite a find! 

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….So on to the 3rd class! The Economics of Management.

1st off I really didn’t like (or do well) in Econ. in College, but like last class I didn’t like Financial Accounting either….but I just found out today that I got an A- in the class!

So right off the bat Econ is a bit dry, but interestingly enough the 2nd day into the course I was having breakfast with a business associate and found myseld weaving into the conversation a point about Price Floor and Price ceiling…and it made sense!!

This week we had to read an article that was quite interesting: http://mwhodges.home.att.net/summary.htm
It pointed out all the MESS the Country is in with respect to 5 specific areas and how the generations before us really screwed it up….and obviously if the points incite us to anger enough….we should begin to do something about it.
See what you think!

Laters

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Whew!
I just uploaded the final week’s assignment tonight!
Looking back on the last 8 weeks of the class, it was definitely harder than the 1st course….mainly because it was almost ALL Accounting and Financial statements. This may not be a big issue for many of you but for me it was tough to get my mind thinking in the right direction.
Here’s an interesting “Factoid” I learned (not that it’ll be of any help at all in the work-force)
You know in accounting there’s “Debit’s” and “Credit’s”?
The Latin root for Debit is….are you ready ….”Left”!!
I means the left side of the T-Account.
Weird, huh! You would have thought it was going to be some deep Latin-esque-type derivation!
The neat thing is that the final assignment was to submit our completed Business Plan we had been working on all 16 weeks (over both of these classes)
It was really great to learn how to go deep in analyzing our chosen Company we created. To really think about the Mission Statement, target audience, your own strengths and weaknesses, your competition etc. I really learned a lot and now can apply this depth of thinking to any new business venture or project that I start in the future.

OK I’m done ….tomorrow starts the next class Managerial Economics….I’ll let you know how it goes!

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Like I said previously….I just am NOT a detail-oriented….number-crunching type of person!

Give me a Small-Business owner or Sales Professional who wants to increase sales….and I shine!
(in fact starting my own Marketing Consulting Firm is why I decided on getting my Marketing MBA)
As I brainstorm with Sales Professionals the topic always comes around to “making my marketing message stand out from the competitors” and so I began working on www.TotalMarketingToolbox.com which is geared to choosing the right marketing tool integrated in the right sequence in a business to generate measurable increases in sales.

….anyway, back to today’s post.
I just finished this week’s assignment and here’s the Overview from the Course Summary this week:

During some time in our lives we may find it necessary to borrow money – many companies find themselves in the same position. We often read about bonds but may not completely understand what that term means. This is an opportunity to study them. Companies also issue stock to raise funds for a variety of business needs. This week we will learn what is involved with such transactions and better understand the business section of the newspaper. The Income Statement, as well as the Statement of Cash Flows, answers many important questions about how well a company is doing. By studying the topics in this week and in this course, when these subjects come up in conversation or in the workplace you’ll understand what is being said and be in a position to provide your own insights.

This week we cover both Current and Non-Current Liabilities including debt, the Owners’ Equity section of the Balance Sheet including stock, dividends, and retained earnings, and conduct comprehensive reviews of the Income Statement from Revenues through Net Income and the Statement of Cash Flows.

Pretty heavy stuff….but as I worked through the assignments and reading I found myself understanding a bit more how to analyze a company’s financial data!

My passion is Marketing and I see Financial Statement analysis relating to marketing because there will be many times that you’ll need to decide if the last marketing project resulted in enough sales to warrant another round of the same techniques….or tweak it a bit. ….this is classic ROI (Return on Investment)

I hope you’re enjoying reading through my journey to obtain my Marketing MBA, post up a comment, ask me a question and let me know how I can help you.

Until next time….

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Yesterday I started part 2 of the Essentials of Business Development, and it covers mostly Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting etc.

Not really my strong suit and I’m not sure that it’ll be something I wake up in the morning jazzed to dive into!

But…it’s part of the curriculum, and I do feel that even though I really want the Marketing part of the MBA program….the financial/statistics/economics course -work is all a part of the process of learning.

I’ll keep you posted

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So after 8 weeks, I’ve finished my 1st course….with an “A” no less!!

Looking back on it I noticed:
1) It did not totally disrupt my life!
2) It was so convenient to be able to log in at anytime to view the lectures and participate in the discussion forums
3) It actually had relevance in my work already!

The 1st course was 1 week of introduction, 3 weeks of Statistics 2 weeks of Marketing and 2 weeks of Economics
The project for the course was to create a Business Plan….and this is not just an outline of what you’d maybe-possibly like to accomplish  on a topic….it’s a 30 page MBA-Level Business Plan!

It was pretty neat how the course was set up because each week the topic related back to the Business Plan and we’d complete a section of the Business Plan until the end and it was done. It was a great feeling to look at a complete Business Plan and know that it is so complete that you could go to a bank to submit for business financing if you’d like!

*I found a really impressive tool that helped me in this assignment too, it’s a software program that walked me through step-by-step each section with examples of how to complete the section of a Business Plan and gave 500 sample Business Plans for me to refer to so I could see how other people did there’s etc. If you’d like to do a Business Plan for your business, whether you’re in an MBA program or not it’s an awesome tool!

One last observation on this 1st course is that it’s so totally different going to school in 2007 than when I went to College in 1989 (duh!)….but what I mean is that whenever I was doing a problem or assignment and wondered how to do it, I’d Google the topic (isn’t it crazy that “Google” is a verb!).
But I’d research “How to use Excel to solve Binomial Distribution” for my Stats section…..and up pops page after page of sites that discuss that or showed me screen-shots of how to do it…..!! (too bad I couldn’t just type in the problem and up pops the answer! But then I wouldn’t learn how to do it on my own!)

I was talking to someone last night in the College and Career Sunday School class I teach who was telling me how he and his friends in High School would do just the minimum amount of work to pass a class so they could goof off!
I was thinking how different this mentality is from what I’m experiencing….I’m paying a pretty large chunck of change for this program…..MY MONEY….MY TIME….! And I want to learn it to apply to my Career and future! 

So do I do just the minimum to pass so I can goof off….UH, NO!
 
One of the reasons I’m getting this Marketing MBA is to start a Marketing Consulting firm, and I started building a website of Marketing Tools that I’ll focus all the consulting around….let’s face it, Sales Professionals, Realtors, Mortgage Lenders, Insurance Agents etc are typically not savvy on cutting-edge marketing tools!

Until next time….

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So I enroll in the Regis University Marketing MBA Online program….after much research, I decided on this one because I knew that I definitely wanted a Marketing MBA….not a Management MBA. Regis offered a nice program, with courses I really liked the look of (I wish they had a couple on e-commerce but I’ll bet I could add that in later as an elective)

The 1st course is:

Essentials of Business Development 520 part I.

YIKES! a 500-level course right off the bat…..

It’s been 18 years since graduating College and remembering Statistics class I knew it was NOT my best subject…..my Dad said there would definitely be Stats in the MBA program.

As luck would have it, the 1st class was….you guessed it….Stats!!!
The 1st week was all on how to use Excel in Stats….all the functions, formulas etc.
***NOTE***
If you’re looking into any MBA program, definitely get an Excel Stats book or online course and learn it before you start so you can get a bit ahead!

The really cool part about Online learning is….it’s ONLINE! And the video lectures you have to watch are all on the website to be viewed anytime you want 24 hrs a day! You log into the system and go to Week 1 and view your reading assignment, written work, and the video lectures and all loaded right in the Week 1 folder. By Sunday at Midnight you need to post up the assignment to the Homework Drop-Box, and then the Prof. grades it by Tuesday the next week.

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OK….so I enrolled in an Executive Online Marketing MBA program….no big deal right?

But it was a tough decision since I have a Wife, 4 kids (all under the age of 10) and a career in Mortgage Banking!

At age 40 I wondered if I could study at this level…..but with the encouragement of my wonderful Wife, and the fact that my Dad completed his PHD in International Business at age 62….I took the plunge! (he even had to go back in to take Undergrad courses to even enroll in his MBA….then after he got done with his MBA, and PHD….he took another 12 hours of Doctoral level Marketing courses!)

As I was looking aroung the Internet to decide IF I wanted to do the MBA at all…..I was serching for someone’s experience….to see what it’s like….to see if I could hack it…..but found NOTHING OF THE SORT!

And since summarizing something helps to reinforce the subject in your mind, I thought that blogging about my experience from start to finish will help me solidify my learning as well as to provide readers with a resource to help them see what an MBA program is really like!

So here we go!

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