Very Short Interview Part 2

     In my first interview, I spent time asking Cathy Vick several questions on entrepreneurship. For a quick recap; Cathy Vick is a owner of a small company which sells HP products. She and her partner have owned Integtech for ten years. She is the proud mother of two beautiful daughters and lives on the west coast of Florida. Our interview consisted of me asking her three main questions:

1. What does it mean to you be an entrepreneur?

2.  Do you have any advice for me as I continue my education to become a better entrepreneur?

3. Why did you become an entrepreneur?

     In the same order she answered:

1. I think many people have different definitions of what it means to be an entrepreneur. To me being an entrepreneur is part of how I define myself. I am a mother, wife, worker, and I consider all of the positions to better me as an entrepreneur.

2. Make it something you are passionate about. For me I wanted to work in education because I wanted to improve the minds of children. I feel like i can make a difference through the selling of HP products. And make goals for yourself, it can be hard being an entrepreneur, you are your own boss and you really have to motivate yourself.

3. For me it was primarily a financial decision. When the market turned I lost my job and it forced me to change my lifestyle. I went into business for myself and it was the best decision I every made. Instead of traveling for work I got to see my girls grow up and spend time with them everyday. I love my job and I love my family.

    During this initial interview I was still focused on finding out what an entrepreneur was. I believe that talking to Mrs. Vick really gave me a basis of how to orientate myself as an entrepreneur. Her advice to pick something that I was passionate about for my venture really payed off. It made it less of a task to do the assignments and more of an enjoyable experience.

   After a lovely first interview I looked forward to interviewing Mrs. Vick again. This interview was shorter than the last as Mrs. Vick was very busy but I am still very thankful for her time and effort. 

Here is how the interview went:

Niamh: Hello again Mrs. Vick. I wanted to start off by thanking you for taking the time to speak to me once again. You're help last time has greatly improved my skills as an entrepreneur.

Mrs.Vick: You're welcome sweetheart. I am sorry I cannot talk for longer.

N: That is OK I just have a few quick questions for you.

MV: Sounds good!

N: Since we spoke last time have you had any new developments in your venture?

MV: We are always working on making our company better, even if its just through simple changes like finding new contacts, changing our advertising, etc. Nothing big comes to mind but all the little things add up to something big.

N: If you're always changing do you have an idea of an exit strategy?

MV: I began this business due to need, I wasn't planning for the end. But now that we have had success I have started thinking about what to do next. I want to be able to spend more time with my husband and the rest of our family. 

N:But no exact plans yet?

MV: No! (She laughed) like I said everything id always changing and therefore my plans are always changing.

N: Ok. Just one last question. Looking back is their anything you would have done differently in your business had you known you'd be where you are today?

MV: Its corny but I wouldn't change a thing. I love where I am with my business, my family, and in ,y life in general.

N: Well that's all from me. Thankyou so much Mrs.Vick!

MV: As always you are welcome sweetie.

This interview was very similar to my last one with Mrs. Vick but I felt more comfortable this time around. Whether that is because I now know Mrs. Vick better now or because I am more confident with myself as an entrepreneur I am not sure. Either way speaking to Mrs.Vick has helped me throughout this class and it turned out to be one of my favorite assignments this semester. As I said in the beginning of this blog post this interview gave me a basis of the entrepreneur that I wanted to be.