Kelly Borter and her reflections on the Real Business Experience

This semester, I learned that a real business experience isn’t as easy as it may seem.  College Talk, my start-up company, hit several brick walls throughout our journey as a business following the RBE curriculum guidelines.  The best part of the business was that we really took advantage of contacting the community and gaining feedback from professionals in our industry.  These professionals, including faculty from Butler University’s admissions office, the Indiana Department of Education, and a former radio show host, helped shape what College Talk has become, a very well-critiqued and thought-out business.  Teamwork played a huge role in the overall completion of the project; I’ve learned that having a team that truly “clicks” with each other and communicates well makes all of the difference when attempting to sustain a semester-long business project.  Also, from teamwork, I’ve learned to not accept doing all of the work yourself.  As CEO, it was my responsibility to make sure that wasn’t happening in my group and doing so kept stress levels down, at least to a normal college student’s normal level.  I feel that the biggest lesson I learned, however, throughout RBE was that most of the time, things won’t work out, and you must have the confidence, stamina, and energy to get back up and try it all over again.  From gaining feedback, realizing we had to expand our target market, and eventually changing our entire business plan after our first proof of concept, College Talk has lived the true lesson that RBE wishes students would recognize as a key takeaway, and although I didn’t make a single penny, I would do the entire thing over again.