Blog 23: 2014 interview

1.  Who did you interview and what house are they in?
Madisyn Delgado, East House

2.  What ideas do you have for your senior project and why?

Madisyn had the idea that maybe she could find a mentor in animation. She says it has always been a big interest of hers and would love to be able to focus on that during the year. Another idea She was thinking about for her project topic would be studying the Culinary arts. She say's that thanks to previous knowledge from Would help her learn from her possible mentor much smoother. She even thought of the type of foo she would like to pursure individually and when I asked her what about the culinary arts she said that she wanted to bee better at making delicious Chinese food 

3.  What do you plan to do for your summer 10 hour mentorship experience?
FOr her mentorship, Madisyn has an aunt that is a chef in a restaraunt and
or possibly a cooking camp.  What do you hope to see or expect to see in watching the 2013 2-hour presentations?

5.  What questions do you have that I can answer about senior year or senior project (or what additional information did you tell them about senior year or senior project)?

All she really wanted to know is how to do not fall behind and i just told her to make sure you are upt to date with what is due.

Blog 12: Interview Questions #3

1.      What is the best way to sustain a profitable bike shop?

answer: "Having a continuous profit and reliable clientele."

2.      Where does most of the income of the shop come from? 

answer: "Depending on your shop, but I know for mine it usually comes from our repairs we do."

3.       How did this shop get started? 

"I opened this shop back when I was trying to go to school. My father had owned his own bike shop prior to this one and had me work there. I figured knowing how to run a shop it would be my best shot at making more for college. Then after a while I just decided it was easier to stay here."

    4.       How big of a role do aesthetics play when a person is buying a bike?

    answer: "Well they matter as much as when people buy anything now a days, people want to buy something they'll want to be seen with.

    5.       How does this compare to the performance of the bike?

    answer: "Usually the customer will look at which bike they like and then pick how it looks after."

    6.      What can you tell me about credibility? How big of a deal is it that you have regulars who keep bringing in their bikes for repair? what did you do to attract 

business?

   answer: "It's always a big help in keeping this shop running with making sure I'm able to have a reliable cash flow going through this store. I get a lot of advertisement when we have guys riding for us in the local races."

    7.      How long did it take for the shop to start making a substantial amount of money after opening?

    answer: "A year and a half maybe, once the shop is settled people would start to come in more often."

   8.      What makes some bikes more popular than others?

   answer: "Usually huge bike buffs like to follow the bigger manufactures and the names like trek and bontrager, so usually its just the name recognition."

   9.      What is the demographic of your most common customers? 

How do you use that information to make the shop successful?

   answer: "Usually middle aged men. I wouldn't say that I really use that information as much as you would think, a customer is a customer. It doesn't matter what they look like."

  10.  What would you tell someone who is looking to open a bike shop?

   answer: "Be careful where you set up your shop and make sure to do research on everything you plan on selling."

Blog 6: Second Interview Questions

Background Questions for my mentor:

1. How do you qualify an expert in this sort of field? Based on experience or on textbook knowledge?
2. What first got you on the road to making this a profession?
3. Is there any sort of certification for bike mechanics? Or can anybody just open a shop and start working on other peoples bikes? If there is how do I go about getting certified?
4. If there isn't a licensing system do you think there should be and if you think so then how would you go about setting up that system?
5. How long has this shop been around?
6. What kind of requirements do you usually ask for when hiring a new mechanic to work in the shop?

Blog 3: Interview Preparation

Interview Info

I plan on interviewing my mentor Rich Roth. He is the owner of the shop and the most experienced out of everyone after working on all the bikes for year he knows tons of tricks for way to less complicated fix. He is the closest to an expert that i can find with all the high end bikes he works on and sells.

1. How often do you find new problems to deal with?
2. What is the hardest problem you've ever had to deal with on a bike?
3. What is the best way to solve a problem you are having trouble with?
4. When a customer is not cooperating how do you still get them to come to a solution?
5. Do you think there are some people who are not meant for this job?