Looking back on my entrepreneurial internship
Looking back on my entrepreneurial internship this summer, I could not have been happier with my involvement and progress. I truly felt like I was a part of the Fulton & Roark team, which is not just a team, but a family. I had an incredible opportunity to wrap up my internship experience at the trade show in Charlotte this past weekend. The chance to be out in the field, displaying and marketing products, engaging with retailers, other vendors, and even hotel staff and guests, was very new to me. It was very unique and insightful for someone that was unfamiliar with the true definition and purpose of a trade show.
Over the course of this summer, I have learned a lot about the value of patience. I am an efficient worker and because of this, I sometimes become an impatient individual. I try to get my work and tasks done correctly in the best and most efficient way possible. As a perfectionist, I pay close attention to detail, which has been extremely beneficial in the entrepreneurial workplace. Combining these attributes, I have found that some things are out of my control, such as multiple delays with processes within the Amazon project. I have learned that I can only control so much and sometimes, one just needs to take a step back and focus on the tasks they can take charge of at the moment.
As I had anticipated, even before I began my internship, my Entrepreneurial Marketing course with Dr. Bennett was the most helpful and applicable entrepreneurship course I have taken so far. Given that I served as a marketing intern, this would make sense. The overall knowledge, concepts, vocabulary, and practice that I gained from that class helped make the learning curve and transition very smooth. I did learn a lot about e-commerce, sales, sponsored advertisement campaigns, all most specifically to Amazon. Although a chunk of the Amazon project I was assigned was a massive challenge, with many delays and moving parts in getting the solid colognes approved, I learned so much from the process. I truly believe that the more difficult the task at hand, the more rewarding and influential the success is. I gained so many skills and an excess of information through researching and teaching myself while performing the techniques that I had read about and learned.
I feel very blessed to share that I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as an intern. I find that in today’s world, a lot of people are working jobs that they do not like or are working for people or companies that they do not like. To me, this is absolutely unfathomable. This experience only solidified my interest in working in the field of entrepreneurship and startups. The question now is, do I continue what I have been doing and pursue positions working for startups? Do I find new startups in new locations, or do I stick to what I already know? Or, do I embark on one of my own business ideas and craft that concept into an entrepreneurial success? Just like a lot of things in the field of entrepreneurship, these decisions are up to me.
As of right now, I have been given the opportunity to continue working at Fulton & Roark and I could not be more excited. Even though I was able to accomplish a lot this summer, I am eager to go even further and make even more progress with the solid fragrance trailblazer. I feel that there is so much for me to do, as if it is a never-ending project, but in the best ways!
Written by Zack Schutt, #WakeEntrepreneurÂ