E Commerce Solutions For Small Businesses example essay topic

I have always had an entrepreneurial sprit. A couple of years ago a friend of mine and I decided to start a small part-time consulting enterprise. We envisioned a potential market in small companies that were unable to afford a large consulting firm. After some deliberations we agreed to begin with a pilot project and targeted a couple of local car dealers as well as the Town Hall of Tres Arroyos, my hometown. I was specially interested in the Town Hall because a new mayor had been elected and his campaign had been based on a platform of extensive change. I was convinced that participating in this change process would be an excellent opportunity for us to build up credentials.

Consequently, I took the responsibility to develop a strong relationship with this potential client. I had a couple of meetings with the newly elected mayor where he appeared very interested in our offerings and agreed to move forward with the project. My friend and I began to develop a proposal with an action plan to improve the Town Hall's purchasing and supplier management processes. During this period I had little contact with the mayor and his team. Most of our work was based on our knowledge of the processes in place at that time and my previous talks with the mayor. After the first engagement we received no further feedback and I started to loose contact.

I was so enthusiastic working on the new improvements that I forgot my main objective of building and maintaining client relations. I had overlooked important aspects such as client communication and involvement. As a result, in the end, the initiative failed. Later in my professional life I faced a similar client engagement. This time, however, I capitalized on the failure of the Town Hall project and gave client interaction top priority.

I had learned to delegate some technical aspects of the job and I could devote my time to manage the relationship with the client. This was not the only opportunity I had to start a business. Last year through a friend of mine, I was offered a partnership to run the Argentine operations for a small multinational e-commerce company based in Oregon. The company strategy was to grow delivering low cost e-commerce solutions for small businesses. To achieve low costs, the company was developing the technical solutions in India, where the internet experts resided. As with the decision to study in Bariloche at the Instituto Balseiro, this too was a difficult decision regarding my future.

As before, I decided to follow my original goal in this case to continue with a formal business education. Consequently, I had to turn down the offer to pursue an MBA education, even though I was tempted by my entrepreneurial inclination. These two entrepreneurial experiences were extremely valuable in helping me clarify my long term goals. Besides the long term goals I have mentioned, it is my intent to continue developing my teaching and coaching skills.

I would like to contribute actively to the development of the Argentine society by transferring my business knowledge and professional experiences to young business students.