Today I presented my final for my Entrepreneurship class. The final was a Business Plan and a presentation of a fictitious business. I chose "Deep South Divers Charter Services" a charter business spawned from the idea of DSD NDI Charter. In our area there is a definite need for a good charter service. And, with the success that DSD NDI has seen, I created a concept of commingling the two and the website DSD.org to grow a charter service.
We went in teams and were graded by the Professor and another team. The plan asked for $50,000 toward financing and outfitting a used boat to start the charter. It also accommodated for $40,000 capital investment by the owners.
The grading team denied my funding based on the fact that they feel I stole the concept, the NDI charter "already in existence" and the website and tried to pass it off as my own idea. I was beside myself. Once I passed the concept that they said and insinuated that I did not have anything to do with Deep South Divers NDI or that I stole that idea, I took a moment to consider that maybe they didn't understand. I tried to speak to the other team and they didn't believe that I helped create the local scuba club or NDI - anything. They said I lied about the NDI and that they think I took the plan from Deep South Divers and added my name to it. These are classmates who are angry that they completed a business plan and think that I didn't because mine was "too professional" and that the NDI already existed so it had to be stolen. And that I couldn't know that much about diving in the area and they didn't feel that I had the contacts through the Scubaboard that I mentioned. I was pissed because I was concerned as to how my grade would be affected by these comments. I went to the professor and mentioned to him about their comments and told him to feel free to check the information out for himself but that I was concerned about these accusations. I didn't steal anything.
How disappointing when you work really hard at something and do a good job and then people discredit you because you did "too good" of a job. I had a commercial that I made, I had the website, I had the Scubaboard to demo, stationary, B-cards, and "THE PLAN." A very professional presentation. Wore a suit, one of only four in the class and one of those belonged to my teammate. How else do you present a business plan???? In blue jeans and a t-shirt? How frustrating. All that hard work and for peers to shoot it down like that.
My head hurts now. I have to go take something. R
We went in teams and were graded by the Professor and another team. The plan asked for $50,000 toward financing and outfitting a used boat to start the charter. It also accommodated for $40,000 capital investment by the owners.
The grading team denied my funding based on the fact that they feel I stole the concept, the NDI charter "already in existence" and the website and tried to pass it off as my own idea. I was beside myself. Once I passed the concept that they said and insinuated that I did not have anything to do with Deep South Divers NDI or that I stole that idea, I took a moment to consider that maybe they didn't understand. I tried to speak to the other team and they didn't believe that I helped create the local scuba club or NDI - anything. They said I lied about the NDI and that they think I took the plan from Deep South Divers and added my name to it. These are classmates who are angry that they completed a business plan and think that I didn't because mine was "too professional" and that the NDI already existed so it had to be stolen. And that I couldn't know that much about diving in the area and they didn't feel that I had the contacts through the Scubaboard that I mentioned. I was pissed because I was concerned as to how my grade would be affected by these comments. I went to the professor and mentioned to him about their comments and told him to feel free to check the information out for himself but that I was concerned about these accusations. I didn't steal anything.
How disappointing when you work really hard at something and do a good job and then people discredit you because you did "too good" of a job. I had a commercial that I made, I had the website, I had the Scubaboard to demo, stationary, B-cards, and "THE PLAN." A very professional presentation. Wore a suit, one of only four in the class and one of those belonged to my teammate. How else do you present a business plan???? In blue jeans and a t-shirt? How frustrating. All that hard work and for peers to shoot it down like that.
My head hurts now. I have to go take something. R
