Entrepreneurial Selling - First Trade

Ok.  After 5 years, I've finally found a reason to blog.

Fast forward from 2009, and I'm currently on classes 14 and 15 of 20 at Chicago Booth (fingers crossed for a June 2015 graduation).  First is Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity.  In this class, I will be dissecting the balance sheets, income statements, and cash flows of start ups and learning how to draft PE deals.  Pretty cool, if you geek out at Accounting and Finance, but it's going to kick my ass.  My second class is Entrepreneurial Selling.  This class puts you in the position as the founder of a start up and forces you to get out there and do what entrepreneurs need to do to get a business off the ground... sell the great shit that they just invented.  While the discounted cash flows and deal sheets of EFPE will undoubtedly be tricky, I'm going to have to push myself to work outside my comfort zone with ES.

I have a few assignments to do this week for ES.  The first is a cold-calling assignment, which I may explain another time.  The more interesting assignment starts this week and lasts for the whole quarter (10 weeks)... The Barter assignment.

Here's an excerpt of the Barter assignment:

Each student will be given a pen during the first session of Entrepreneurial Selling. Your assignment is to barter that pen for something of greater value, and continue to barter your goods for goods or services of greater value throughout the quarter. Your goal is to end the quarter with something of much greater value than the pen (approximate starting value is 25 cents).

There are some ground rules.  I can't barter with anyone I know.  I cannot use money as part of the exchange.  I can only barter for products.  I have to make at least one trade a week.

So, I was given a blue BIC pen at the end of the first day of class.  I take the L to work and back every day, so I have endless opportunities to try to barter with complete strangers, but folks on the morning and afternoon commute typically like to be left alone.  On Tuesday's commute, I forced myself to look up from Facebook to see if I might be able spot someone who would find a BIC pen valuable.  "Nope.", I convinced myself, and looked back down at my phone.  Leave them all alone.  Keep your head down and get to work.

After a group meeting for class, I took the typical L ride north.  I convinced myself that I would barter this fucking pen.  Below is a recount of the first trade.  I'll try to document each trade shortly after I make it for two reasons.  First, I think it's an interesting exercise, and second, I have to write a report at the end of the quarter, so if I'm going to log the transactions, I might as well do it here so I can (mostly) copy and paste later.

Trade 1

When: Wednesday. June 25 @ 8:30pm (after EFPE meeting)
Where: Brown line, between Paulina and Iriving Park
Who: Two unsuspecting young ladies who sat in front of me
What: $0.25 blue BIC pen for $1 KitKat

Play by Play

I got on the Red Line at Grand, and I was going to ask a lady who sat next to me, but she was writing an email, and I was concerned that I wouldn't have time to pitch my pen in time to make a trade before Belmont.  Total cop out.

I got off the train at Belmont to wait for the Brown, and I noticed an approachable-looking lady standing nearby on the platform.  I debated internally for a couple minutes whether I should ask her, but I'm pretty sure I gave her the creeps, because she walked to the end of the platform.

I got the train when it arrived and went a few stops.  Luckily, two young ladies got on the train at Paulina and sat in front of me.  Undeterred, I made my pitch.  I inquired whether I could ask a strange question.  They looked at me pretty much just like all those girls at the bars did 12 years ago.  To put them at some sort of ease, I showed them my student ID and explained the assignment.  Luckily, one of them had heard of the bartering assignment before and offered me a brand new KitKat. I accepted the trade and swapped my blue BIC pen ($0.25) for a tasty KitKat ($1.00).  It was quite a relief and actually pretty energizing.  As I was walking home, I thought of randomly offering my new KitKat to a passerby.  Baby steps, I suppose...

For my next target market?  Is it too skeevy to try to trade a candy bar at the playground (while pushing my son on the swing)?  Hey... I look legit, right?