Constructing A Business Plan

This unit in Social Entrepreneurship, we learned about entrepreneurship and what it means to be a social entrepreneur. An entrepreneur comes from the French word entre and pendre, the words together mean to "put on your plate" An entrepreneur is someone who and undertakes endeavors, a social entrepreneur goes out and does things that are good for society. During this course, we spoke and went out to a variety of companies and businesses to understand the process of creating a business and what goes into that creation. One Field Experience that I really enjoyed going on, was 826Chicago. 826Chicago is a non-profit organization that offers tutoring and educational workshops for the youth, they fund these programs by having a spy-themed shop that brings in 17% of their revenue. The purpose of this Action Project is to create a business and describe the elements of your company in a business plan. This was one of my favorite Action Projects that I've done here at GCE because I plan to create my own business in the future and this helped me understand the process and logistics of creating it.

Below is my Business Plan, enjoy!

Laylah's Survival Guide

In the previous units of Endurance, we learned about mental and physical endurance, as well as people who had endured a challenge in their life. We looked at people who faced a mental/physical challenge and discussed how they endured it. We then started to focus on our own mission and dreams and explored what each of us individually wanted to accomplish in our lives. During the journey to completing my dream/mission, I will have to face many challenges that I will have to endure to achieve my ultimate goal. The purpose of this action project is to create a survival manual to help you survive the accomplishment of your mission and dreams. The survival manual will guide us along our journey and will provide a summary of our mission, quotes to inspire us, planning for our mission, etc. Creating my survival guide made me think about my future and made me put my mission into a reality. I enjoyed making the guide, and one day my future self will look back at the guide and reflect on my life. Below is my survival manual, enjoy!

You Have 12 Hours to Create A Business... GO!

This unit in Endurance, we learned about mental and physical endurance as well as people who had endured a challenge in their life. Mental endurance is having perseverance through a challenge that affects the brain, or how you think. Physical endurance is having perseverance through a challenge that affects the body. We found our personal mission and thought about how we will achieve that mission. During the journey to completing that mission, I will have to face many challenges that I will have to endure to achieve my ultimate goal. In class, we learned about multiple people who went on to complete a personal goal and had to endure a physical/and or mental challenge. Laura Dekker is a perfect example of a person who undergoes a mission and encounters troubles that she must endure. Laura Dekker was the youngest person to circumnavigate the world alone at the age of 14. During Laura's journey, she faced many battles within herself as well with the oceans. One physical challenge she faced was after a strong storm passed through and destroyed certain parts of her boat. She had to take a break and fix her sailboat to continue her mission. The purpose of this action project is to taste what your mission feels like by working on it for at least 12 hours. If you are passionate about your mission, it's time to dive in and be held accountable for achieving your dreams. For this Action Project, I decided to focus on creating a freelance business for myself so I can ultimately professionalize my art for potential clients. During the 12 hours of creating my business, I first started with creating a business card and professionalizing my Instagram and create a website on Wix. Surprisingly, my aunt had an event she wanted me to film a promotional video for her organization that weekend. I had to prepare by picking up tripods and microphones and preparing questions for interviews. The day of the event was extremely tiring in the best way. I woke up early to go to the place the event was held, I set up the cameras for b-roll and interviews and was ready. During the event, I met a lot of small business owners and exchanged business cards with them in hopes of creating connections. Throughout the challenge, I was constantly reminded of Elie from the book Night. Although Elie, had to face a much bigger challenge that was forced on him and his family, I was reminded that one must have perseverance during a challenge. After the third day of the challenge, I had lost my interest and passion for creating the business, but I knew I had to keep going.   The 12-hour challenge was a bit difficult, but I definitely achieved my goal and I have already gotten in contact with potential clients! Below is my Vlog and Vlog planner for the 12-hour challenge enjoy!

                                                 Vlog Planner, (LD), 2019, Issuu                                                        Vlog, (LD), 2018, Wevideo

Days of My Life

This unit in Endurance, we learned about mental and physical endurance. Endurance is being able to have the perseverance to an action or challenge. Mental endurance is having perseverance through a challenge that affects the brain, or how you think. Physical endurance is having perseverance through a challenge that affects the body. An example of physical endurance would be someone who has put in jail for no actual reason, like Martin Luther King Jr. An example of mental endurance is someone who was placed in Auschwitz during the Holocaust; they would have to mentally assure themselves for a better tomorrow. In class, we read Night by Elie Wiesel; we had discussions where we took quotes from each section of Night and led a discussion about mental and physical endurance. The purpose of this Action Project is to write a chapter in our autobiography in 30 years. In the chapter, we should discuss our mission in life and how our past experiences have to lead us to achieve our mission/goal. I enjoyed working on my autobiography chapter, it made me think about my future and what I will accomplish on this earth. Below is my chapter for my autobiography, enjoy!

Young Laylah Flexing, LD, 2018

                                                          Chapter 1:  Days of My Life

My mom was out picking up my sisters up from school while I was home waiting for something to do. My dad snored loudly while laying on the couch in the front room. I snuck into my parents' room, grabbed my mother’s black heels and took them to my room that I shared with my three sisters. I began to throw clothes left and right and out of the drawers, trying to coordinate the most fashionable and colorful outfit to walk the runway. Finally. I picked out the golden outfit. I strutted down the hallway as if it were my runway with my oldest sister’s skirt and jacket on, my mother’s heels and with my favorite Children’s Place tights on. I looked in the mirror down the hall, admiring myself and the outfit I assembled. Suddenly, I heard keys jangling, the doorknob twisting, and there were my mom and sisters. They caught me red-handed! I ran back to the room changed as quickly as possible and hoped they didn’t realize I had been wearing their clothing. Phew… nobody had seen me, or so I thought. 

First, my sister yelled at me, then it was my mother who realized her shoes were gone. At the time, I didn’t care if they’d yelled at me, I just wanted to create cute outfits to wear. This routine would happen almost every day while being homeschooled by mom. When I was in middle school, I would take hours choosing what outfit and pieces to wear together, it made me feel like a model and a designer at the very same time. Soon enough, I began to cut up t-shirts I found weren’t as fashionable and started to cut patches and glue them onto my pants and jackets. To this day, my mom and sisters criticize me for wearing their clothes and for being so indecisive choosing what to wear. But to me, it isn’t about the clothes at all; it was about creation and design.

When I was young, my dad used to take my sisters and me to Salvation Army whenever it was back to school time. I had always felt self-conscious about going because it meant that we didn’t have enough money to go shopping at regular retail shops. A struggle that I faced during my younger years was I went thrift shopping for clothes. Whenever people at my all white private middle school would ask me where I would get a certain article of clothing, I would respond, “Thrift store” and they would give me a certain face that communicated, “Are you poor or something?” But as soon as, thrifting became a hip thing to do things began to change. Thrifting meant you were edgy, had a cool style, maybe poor, but either way cool, but I digress. In high school, I began to dress in different styles and frequently went to thrift stores with my friends and family. Thrift stores were a cheap and accessible way to try a variety of fashion trends. Through my clothing, I was expressing my creativity. 

During high school, I started to explore more artistic mediums. Junior year, my close friend Genesis and I went to a program that was provided by Chicago Public Library called Youmedia. At Youmedia, I began to learn about cameras, camera equipment, film and online design programs. The first month there, I made a short film where we asked people if they were fulfilled; this allowed me to get more comfortable with camera lenses and lighting. Shortly, I began to take pictures of high schoolers who attended Youmedia and began to shoot people for their shows. I gained a lot of experience from working with other young artists, instructors, and filmmakers. 

Photograph of Grace, LD, Camera

After high school, I attended Parsons School of Design in New York. I wasn’t expecting to attend an art school for college; I had heard so many negative comments about art schools. But once I had gotten accepted into one of the top design schools in the country, I knew I was destined to go. I had planned to go in for Strategic Design and Management but figured out that I didn’t want to focus on the strategic aspect of design. I was more passionate and interested in the process aspect of design. I switched majors sophomore and junior year to Product Design. I went in only knowing a few 3D design programs, but by the end of senior year, I had already created numerous products such as lamps, chairs, cups, etc. During my time at Parsons, I had the opportunity to intern at Google, Apple, CannonDesign and 3D World Renderings. 

After graduating, I wanted to start my own business. I wanted to create a business based in New York with my closest friends and acquaintances. Our design firm would be partnered with the top design companies and stores, creating a variety of design products. The only problem was, I had no idea where to start; I didn’t have the physical money to start my business up. I was struggling with aligning my passion with my career and how to start my business. I knew had to talk with my dad who created his IT business from the ground up with a few friends. I wanted to know where to begin and how I could start getting funding. He gave me great advice; he said to start local and start telling people who are interested in design and innovation who might be willing to be apart of the business. Later that day, I had called and texted some people whom I met at Parsons and from internships, asking if they’d like to help fund my business. I started to post and asking if people were willing to help, donate anything and people began donating money to kickstart my business. Years and years passed and finally, I had begun monetizing my business and creating partnerships with stores.

Art/Design, LD, 2018

It took my blood, sweat, and tears to get people to believe in my idea and new innovative ideas of design, but nothing good ever comes easy. That's something my dad has always told me, he had struggled with the exact same issues I encountered like getting people to pay me, trust me, and believe in my company. I remember when I was younger, my dad would come home yelling about one of his client not paying on time and having to hold his composure in a meeting because of how disrespectful people treated someone who was an African- American male. I knew that one day, I would have to endure the same struggle as he did. Once my business was flourishing, I felt that I accomplished one of my biggest dreams: becoming a designer. 

When I was younger, I was passionate about aesthetic, colors and crafting something that I could show off to others. It was until I saw the opportunities, creation and life design could create when I realized I wanted to take that love and not only implement my creativity into what I wore, but through everyday items. Items people use on a day to day basis may seem minuscule, but it’s about creating a world one product at a time that is more economical, innovative and aesthetically pleasing. I care about the world and more so for the things that live in this universe; through design we can recreate what was has been destroyed and damaged due to carelessness.

Community Service Hours: Open House

GCE Lab School, (LD), 2018

This year, I've been to 2 open house events for GCE. The first time, I helped pack folders with information about GCE and I presented one of my favorite APs to the family's that came in. I had a lot of fun talking about my AP and answering questions about the school because I got to have a more personal connection to each family. The second time I went to an open house event, I was a tour guide and I showed families around the school and asnwered any questions they had. I learned how to public speak and how to present myself in a professional way while presenting my AP. I made a difference for others by showing the families that GCE is an option for their children and that GCE is a one in a life time opportuntiy for your kids to be challenged in school. This expeirence has impacted future volunteer work because I now know how to present myself at a open house event. I plan to share my experience with others through my blog.

Community Service Hours: Youmedia

Community Service Hours: Barry's Bootcamp

Barry's Bootcamp, (LD), 2018, Google

The Health and Wellness Instructor invited the class to attend the bootcamp event for Barry's Bootcamp. I decided to go because I wanted to help Alison bring aware to CPS as well as get a good workout in. There, I passed out towels to everyone that was there and I brought a guest in to help. It was a very fun and exhausting event and I was sore for almost a week. I learned that when working out, you have to take your time and follow your own pace instead of focusing on what the next person is doing. I made a difference for others because I was there for CPS and to bring awareness that many schools don't and can't afford a gym instructor. This has impacted my future for volunteer work becuase I know I can attend an event to help others. I plan to share my experience by uploading this onto my blog so everyone can see what I did.