Blog 15: Independent Component 2 approval

(1) Write a description of what you plan on doing for your independent study component.
www.saylor.org/majors/business-administration is an online class that teaches people to be ready for the business industry. It is is designed to give students a range of general knowledge of business common to all business career paths.
(2) Describe in detail how you think your plan will meet the 30 hours work requirement.
This is a very large course of different lessons that should take me a the amount of time needed to complete the hours needed. Having to go through each lesson and really taking the knowledge away from it is a time consuming matter.
(3) How does your independent study component relate to your working EQ?
My working EQ is "What is the best way to sustain a profitable bike shop?" and the core of this question boils down to what economic ideas do I need to know in order to run a bike shop successfully? This course will give me the economic background to really get a better answer out of my research to answer my EQ.

independent component 1

• LITERAL(a)“I, Alex Madrigal affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
  (b) Rich Roth was a great help being my mentor and owner of Covina Valley Cyclery.
  (c)

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkbZdttFlLO2dGVlaFhtUHRyZjM0NXhKNFR6N2VxMVE&usp=sharing
• APPLIED
  By giving me the resources to be able to talk with an actual owner and founder of a bike shop giving me the ability to pick at his brain for what he thinks is the best way to sustain a profitable bikes shop.

Lesson Plan.

This is a link to my lesson plan. YAAAAY!

This is my plan

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."

Science Fair Proposal

1: My topic is Bicycling Repair and Creation

2: Cyclists with more money to spend on their bikes are doing better in racing overeall because they have money to buy better bike than that of their competition.
 Darryl. "Does a More Expensive Bike Make a Better Cyclist?" Lovingthebike.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2012. <http://lovingthebike.com/uncategorized/does-a-better-bike-make-a-better-cyclist>.

3. Hypothesis: If the price of a cyclists bicycle is of the highest out of all the cyclists in a race, then they will place amongst the highest.

4: I would then research races in my general area so that I can attend them. Then once their I would take notes of the results of the race. Find out who came in the top three, and who came in the bottom 3. After knowing the results of the race I would attempt to find them in order to study and find out the bike model they have. After obtaining enough information about the bike I would then use that information to research the total cost of the entire set up and compare the prices to the cost of other racers bikes in the same races. After collecting enough date I would then study this information and find out how the price of a races bike corresponds to the place of the rider.

5:Engineering Research & Applications

4:

Working EQ and Possible Answers

(1) What was the working EQ you used during your presentation?
What components go into making an efficient bicycle?

(2) not changing my eq

(3) What are possible answers to your current working EQ? 

1. A proper frame set up for the required situation.
2. Friction-less parts.
3. Aerodynamic designs.