Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures of Dekalb & Crescent I am dedicated to Dekalb & Crescent’s success. After studying Marc Benioff’s Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures (V2MOM), I knew creating my own V2MOM was the next step I needed to take to reach that success. This process gave me the tools to focus my energy and to be crystal clear on where I am headed. Below you will see an outline of my V2MOM, and further down, an expanded explanation of each step of my V2MOM: Vision: what do you want?

● To quickly create a successful e-cCommerce company in the mid-to-high-end smartphone accessories marketfield.

Values: what’s important about it? ● Solid Foundation ● Product Execution ● Website and Product Functionality ● Website Functionality

Methods: how do you get it? ● Simplification ● Learn it all ● Keep it moving ● Simplicity ● Hire the right team

Obstacles: what might stand in the way? ● Sales ● Inventory management ● Lack of experience in the market

Measures: how will you know when you have it? ● Reaching 10k a month in revenue ● Featured in magazines such as Inc.,for ex Esquire, and eand GGQsquire/gq for product ● Featured on 25 different blogs

Synopsis: I started Dekalb & Crescent to learn everything there is to know about starting and running a successful online business, with the ultimate goal being for Dekalb & Crescent to be a profitable how to start and run an online business. The goal is to create a successful ecommercee-commerce company in the mid-to-high- end smartphone accessories market. To achieve this goal, I must have the right companybuild the company on a solid foundation, as well as create my products through the fastest and best means possible.s combined with the best and fastest means to product execution. Solid Ffoundations must be put in place to insure guarantee that steady progress is consistently achieved from product design to product sale. Unfortunately, and also fortunately, As we all know, in the process of progress, there will be bumps on in the road. Both mistakes and successes will occur in this process. However, having a long-term vision, and clear goals that I am pursuing, will shift my lens from one of seeing failure, to seeing the lessons that can be learned from these mistakes. This lens puts me in a position to learn

Comment [A1]: Quickly sounds negative to me. Like you are willing to cut corners.

and grow from these mistakes.Mishaps will be made but it is through these same mistakes where I can put myself in position to learn and to eventually grow. I need to will analyze the mistakes madethem and put proper rules and actionssafeguards in place to avoid making these mistakes again. However, I won’t solely focus on the wrongsmistakes aren’t the only opportunity for a lesson to be learned,; I will give attention to the wins as well, small and big. I need to usewill collect and analyze data to see what methods are working, why and how they worked, and what can I can scale and delegate to do more a turn a more profitable rate. I hope the above can lead me to the vision that I have.These actions and lens shifts will lead me to the vision that I have. Vision: Quickly To create an successful e-ccommerce company in the mid-to-high high-end smartphone accessories market. I do not wantI do not envision Dekalb & Crescent being a side business or a hobby of mine. I want to have a business that can be rapidly scaled up from scratch. To do just thatthis, I need to have the proper contacts and networks, and I want to have the equipment, the material, and the labor necessary in place. Using an efficient product design to sale process, I will work to make the my products different and better than what’s out in the market. using an efficient product design to sale process. Values: Solid fFoundations, Product Functionality, Product Execution, Website Functionality To fulfill my vision, I must have the rightstart with a solid foundations. Creating my V2MOM is a part of Dekalb & Crescent’s solid foundation. In addition, product functionality being of utmost importance, and collecting and analyzing customer, manufacturer and vendor feedback, also contribute to Dekalb & Crescent’s solid foundation. With the right These foundations I will be ableallow me to put the proper means and measures in place to achieve a high rate of success and efficiency from product design to product sale. From the beginning of the design process, product functionality is important. I have tried to makedesigned my first product, the Atlantic Wallet, the first product, on these foundations in order to make it the best product that I can make it. With customer feedback, I will be able to improve upon the existing product and make it better. On top of thisAdditionally, I will use recommendations and feedback from manufacturers and material vendors to improve product executionmy products. It took about 6 months to complete the current process that I used to go from design to sale for the Atlantic Wallet took around 6 months. For the my next product, that will not be acceptable; I must do better if I want to be at the forefront of what is popular in the market! . BaubleBar can go from design to sale in 4 weeks! That’s impressive. Even if I I can have the best product on the market, but if no one is able to get their hands on it, I will be losing. In addition to an efficient design to sale process, I must also have excellent website functionality to guarantee my customers the smoothest shopping experience. In order for the customer to get their hands on the product, I must have excellent website functionality. I am currently using Shopify, and it has given me a great start. However, I in order to consistently improve, I will be monitoring my

website traffic and talking with customers to make sure my website is the best that it can be.do not want to remain at the beginning. As such, I need to consistently get better. Methods: Simplification, Learn it all, Keep it moving, hiring Hire the right team In order to implement The the values stated above, I must follow proper methods; will be accomplished using proper me Simplification simplification is being the key method. I mean Ssimplification in terms of product selection, product execution, product functionality, website functionality, and the manufacturing process. Simplification is the reason I started with just one product. To begin my I would rather dDesigning and producing produce one exceptional product at a time, than quickly put out a collection of mediocre is easier to handle than a collection of items. This notion of designing one product exceptionally is backed by the CEO of Bonobos, Besides, if Andy Dunn, someone whose business I greatly admire. Additionally, too many products, with different styles, materials, and colors, would make it tough for medifficult to learn the wallet manufacturing process, a process that I want to know the ins and outs of as it is vital to the success of Dekalb & Crescent. After the wallet is manufactured and bought,Once I have a solid customer base and am selling my products, I need to question analyze the means by which the customer found the my product, the experience the customer had on the my website, and how the product is treating the customerthe customer’s reaction to my product after owning it for some time. In other words, I want and need to learn anything and everything and I need to learn it all. when it comes to my customers’ experiences with my products. While I will spend time analyzing the data I collect, and will use this feedback to improveI will use these lessons to improve the product and my customer’s the experience. However, , I can’t let Dekalb & Crescent stall,stall; I need to ‘keep it moving.’ As in Eric Ries’ the lean startup methodology, I need to build, measure, learn, and repeat the process. I need to learn from the ups and downslessons of previous products and use that information to bring about create the best for future products in the future. Dekalb & Crescent has to get bettercontinually improve as we grow! Eventually, I would like to will hire or contract the appropriate team members and personnel in order to delegate and scale the tasks accordingly. A growing, successful business is too much to handle on my own. Creating a team that holds my vision and values will guarantee continued success for Dekalb & Crescent. The objective of these methods is that following them will allow me to win and to win big. I am not starting a business to have it fail a few years down the road. I am mindfully taking every step as I grow Dekalb & Crescent. My V2MOM is one important step in this process. Winning big is an attainable goal but it will come with bumps in the road. I shouldn't think of these bumps as losses, rather as obstacles that will allow me to learn more about the business. Obstacles: Sales, Inventory and iInventory management, Lack of experience in the market

Comment [O2]: This seems repetitive.

The big ticket item , along within any other e-commerce company, is sales. Sales won't come overnight. I recognize this, and am willing to do the groundwork to open up the proper channels of commerce. Inventory management is another issue. Not including leather, thread, and other miscellaneous items, I would like to manage my inventory so that I keep little to none in storage. This is called zero inventory, which I will write a blog post on later. have zero inventory. However, in the mean timemeantime, I will need to have a set number of pieces available to meet demand. Once Dekalb & Crescent is off the ground and I am able to track trends, it will be easier to follow a zero inventory system. (I will write another blog post on zero inventory.) Last but not least, I know that my lack of experience in the smartphone accessories market may cause some concern to certain folks. However, with the solid foundations I am laying for Dekalb & Crescent, and my drive to learn the ins and outs of the market, these concerns do not hold weight. They it shouldn't, and it won't, stop me from growing as an individual or as a business. Measures: Reaching 10k a month in revenue, Featured on in magazines such as Inc. for execution and , eEsquire/gq, and GQ for product, Featured on 25 Blogs As in sport, business also has its Ws and Ls. My Ws will be measured by 3 things: reaching 10k a month in revenue, magazines such as Inc., Esquire, and GQ covering the my product design and execution process and product, and Deklab & Crescent being featured on 25 blogs. In my eyes, these These are ambitious goals are ambitious and ones I plan to work hard for in order to achieveand goals that I am willing to work hard for. I know that Hhaving this V2MOM chart doesn’t mean that Dekalb & Crescent will be an instant success. I plan to continue to work hard and put in the hours for More than likely, Dekalb & Crescent to become a successful business. However, I also know there are high odds that it could failwill be a failure. According to the SBA [citation needed], 50% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years. But I don’t see this as reason to not try. I accept the challenge of becoming one of those 50% of small business that succeed. Actually, I plan to not only succeed, but to scale up and grow beyond a small business. I have a good chance of failing. I’m ok with that and I accept the challenge. Then again, I don’t want to be a small business. I want to scale this puppy up! There are several factors that lead to product and company success such as pricing, design, functionality, marketing, and user friendliness, among other items. I must be prepared for things that come my way knowing full well that a curveball may be thrown from time to time. I can only hope I have the hand-eye coordination and bat speed to hit Dekalb & Crescent out of the park. Thank you for reading this post about my vision for Dekalb & Crescent and where I want to go with the company. Stay tuned for further insight and updates as we grow.