The SEQUEY HORN CASE free essay sample

Eugene Decker hung up his office telephone and scowled. As part proprietor of the Squeaky Horn, an instrument auto shop, Decker was liable for setting the charges for different kinds of fixes. A potential client had quite recently called to ask about the expense to fix the extension on her cello. After Decker provided an expected cost estimate for the activity, the lady had commented, â€Å"Thank you for the statement, yet I’ll be going to Best Instrument Repair. I’ve heard they give great help, and their costs are lower than yours.† Unfortunately, Decker had heard comparative explanations commonly during the previous barely any months. Since the time Best Instrument Repair had opened across town, Decker and his accomplices had wound up going after business like never before previously. To pull in fix employments and stay away from cutbacks, Decker and his accomplices had brought down costs for minor fixes without precedent for a long time. We will compose a custom article test on The SEQUEY HORN CASE or on the other hand any comparative theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Decker took a gander at the planned versus genuine working benefit articulation around his work area (Exhibit 1). How might he determine what part of the company’s lost benefits was because of the value diminishes and what amount was identified with different components? Foundation The Squeaky Horn was an instrument auto shop that had practical experience in the fix and rebuilding of band and symphonic instruments. The shop was possessed and overseen by Decker and two accomplices, who were all very much respected for their demanding fix work and scrupulousness. Proficient artists from everywhere throughout the nation sent their instruments to the Squeaky Horn for minor modifications or significant updates. Requesting show and itineraries set extraordinary weight on the sensitive pieces of instruments, and expert performers were mindful so as to keep their instruments in top condition. Administration Lines As of now, the Squeaky Horn offered four principle administrations: major and minor fixes and rebuilding efforts of band instruments, for example, saxophones and French horns, and major and minor This case was set up by Kristy Lilly (MBA ’03) and Liz Smith (MBA ’04), under the oversight of Professor Mark Haskins. It was composed as a reason for class conversation as opposed to represent viable or inadequate treatment of a managerial circumstance. Copyright ï £ © 2003 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights saved. To arrange duplicates, send an email to [emailprotected] No piece of this distribution might be replicated, put away in a recovery framework, utilized in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any structure or by any meansâ€electronic, mechanical, copying, recording, or otherwiseâ€without the consent of the Darden School Foundation. ââ€"Å  Approved for utilize just in the course BU607 at Wilfrid Laurier University instructed by Chima Mbagwu from Sep 01, 2013 to Dec 30, 2013. Use outside these boundaries is a copyright infringement. THE SQUEAKY HORN UVA-C-2183 fixes and rebuilding efforts of symphonic instruments, for example, violins and cellos. Generally, minor fixes were charged at a pace of $35.00 an hour for band instruments and $32.50 an hour for symphonic instruments. Significant fixes and rebuilding efforts were performed under individual level expense courses of action that were cited to clients dependent on the kind of work required for each instrument. The Squeaky Horn’s three proprietors played out every significant fix and reclamations in the shop. Minor fixes of band instruments were performed by hourly workers, and minor fixes of symphonic instruments were performed by three full-time salaried representatives. Also, surge employments for minor fixes were sporadically performed for neighborhood clients as it were. These occupations were subcontracted to a resigned representative of the Squeaky Horn, who played out the fixes for $25 60 minutes. Surge employments were charged under level expense courses of action that fo und the middle value of $150 per work. The normal surge work took three hours to finish. The Annual Operating Plan Toward the start of the current year, Decker’s CPA had arranged the yearly working arrangement for the Squeaky Horn (Exhibit 1). The Squeaky Horn’s business was little and generally clear, which empowered the CPA to build up the company’s working spending utilizing explicit volume and income information for every product offering. The accompanying data was utilized in setting up the yearly arrangement: 1. In view of earlier years’ work arranges, the shop was relied upon to play out the accompanying number of occupations in the coming year: 390 significant band fixes, 1,830 minor band fixes, 540 significant symphonic fixes, 1,560 minor instrumental fixes, and 50 surge employments. Normal significant fixes were cited at $400 and $300 for band and symphonic occupations, individually. The normal minor band fix took two hours to finish, though the normal minor symphonic fix took four hours to finish. 2. Each of the three accomplices drew yearly base compensations of $60,000 in addition to rewards of 5 percent of deals income. 3. The hourly representatives were paid $20 an hour for work performed. 4. The salaried representatives were paid yearly base pay rates of $38,000. To the degree that the quantity of minor instrumental fixes surpassed 1,560, the symphonic repairers were paid a level pace of $80 per employment to finish those fixes. 5. New parts and different supplies were planned at $50 for each significant activity and $10 for every minor activity (counting surge occupations), in light of understanding. 6. Around 35 percent of the instruments that the Squeaky Horn took a shot at were delivered to the shop from away. The organization expected to acquire normal delivery charges of $30 per bundle to transport the instruments back to their proprietors. 7. Promoting, deterioration, office lease, and incidental costs were planned as fixed costs. Approved for utilize just in the course BU607 at Wilfrid Laurier University instructed by Chima Mbagwu from Sep 01, 2013 to Dec 30, 2013. Use outside these boundaries is a copyright infringement.

Credit Agricole and BP Free Essays

History - Rwanda Genocide Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

History - Rwanda Genocide - Research Paper Example Despite the fact that endeavors are done, those damages do at present occur in controlled settings. Common comprehension among countries and individuals may have diminished the events of contentions and savagery. Clashes and savagery may happen whenever and anyplace which means individuals must know about their environmental factors at unsurpassed. No one knows when it might occur however there are a few different ways that individuals particularly the administration organizations can anticipate the events of viciousness through examples they get from the information of past occasions. One of the countries that accomplished a huge brutality and strife is Rwanda. That nation is situated in the eastern piece of Africa close to Tanzania and Congo. The geography of the place that is known for Rwanda is made out of mountains and valleys. Rwanda at that point has the most noteworthy top at 4,324 meters which is the highest point of a fountain of liquid magma called Mount Karisimbi (King 20 07, p. 7). The individuals then that live the mountains and valleys are for the most part called Rwandans and made out of the ethnic gatherings Pygmy, Hamitic and Bantu. The populace generally speaking of the Rwandans is roughly 11 million and the size of populace is credited to high death rate. Many bite the dust as a result of maladies due to poor sanitation and significant sicknesses like the feared Autoimmune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS. They are for the most part poor as just 19 percent of them are in the urban zones. They likewise need consumable water to provide food the necessities of everybody. As far as religion, Rwandans are for the most part Christians with lion's share of them are Catholic. With regards to essential training, the greater part of them realize how to peruse and compose by 15 years of age or more (Streissguth 2007, p. 36). The legislature of Rwanda at that point turned into a parliament as of late and its laws are designed after France and Belgium. The con stitution of Rwanda was then approved in 2003. The said constitution promises to secure the privileges of the Rwandans, to give harmony among bunches there and to forestall ideological group developments dependent on culture and race. The administration at that point is separated into legal, authoritative and official simply like in the administration structure found in Europe and USA. The individuals permitted to cast a ballot must be at any rate 18 years of age. When the political race is done, the president at that point has been chosen and he is the one answerable to select the PM and the bureau who will help him in driving the nation (King 2007, p. 43). Before the administration of Rwanda has been designed after the Western countries, the nation began as a land wandered by Pygmy bunch called Twa yet the said ethnic gathering is just a single percent of the present populace. It was known in the past that Twa had associations and interrelationships with the other ethnic gathering s like Tutsi and Hutu. The two gatherings were fundamentally the same as in conventions yet they are separated for their wellspring of work as Tutsi are dairy cattle producers while Hutu are crop cultivators. It was then in 1933 when Belgian individuals controlled Rwanda and instructed the Rwandans to wear ID cards to unmistakably isolate them by races (Kalayjian and Paloutzian 2009, p. 73). Most likely that choice of the Belgians had reproduced further clashes and viciousness among the ethnic gatherings which got pervasive since the freedom of Rwanda. Rwanda got involved by Germany previously. At the point when the First World War came, Belgium took over Rwanda as the Belgians grabbed it from the Germans. After the war, it turned into a joint-state with Burundi which was likewise a settlement of Belgium. It was then under the guardianship of United Nations which likewise assumed a major job in giving those

Police Encounters with Suspects and Evidence free essay sample

Examination and application: police experiences with suspects and evidence| CJ227-08 Criminal procedure| Unit 2: investigation and application: police experiences with suspects and evidence| 1. Officered Smith have sensible doubt to make the underlying stop of this vehicle?Officer Smith had sensible doubt which depends on the totality of the conditions as comprehended by those versed in the field of law implementation; it is ordinarily portrayed as something in excess of a hunch however not exactly reasonable justification. (test law) The appropriate response is truly, Officer Smith had sensible doubt to make the underlying stop of the vehicle. Since the taillight seemed, by all accounts, to be overstepped which is a transit regulation violation.Also official Smith recollected a vehicle that coordinated the general portrayal of the vehicle that he halted. This vehicle fit the portrayal of the vehicle that was associated in an ongoing side of the road murdering with another cop. 2. Was the â€Å"pat-down† of the driver legitimate? An official may arrange a driver out of a vehicle to guarantee the officer’s wellbeing. We will compose a custom article test on Police Encounters with Suspects and Evidence or then again any comparative subject explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page (test law) The cop may lead a search to guarantee there are no weapons. test law) The â€Å"pat-down† is a speedy inquiry of a person’s being so as to decide whether any weapons are available. Official Smith’s search was legitimate in light of the fact that it was important to guarantee his wellbeing. Rather than giving her permit and enrollment, the driver dashes away which brought about a rapid pursue. This is a situation that would make a sensible individual accept that section (or other important brief activity) was important to forestall physical mischief to the officials or different people. (The lectric law library,1995-2011) This circumstance falls under critical condition in light of the fact that there is unavoidable risk, obliteration, and the suspect is attempting to get away. (test law) 4. Was the weapon in â€Å"plain view† and legitimately obtained?Plain-see teaching the standard allowing a police officer’s warrantless seizure and use as proof of a thing saw on display from a legal position or during a lawful inquiry when the thing is proof of a wrongdoing. To decide whether the plain view tenet applies, police must consider various approvals one is because of urgent conditions, which Officer Smith’s finding the firearm falls under. (test law) Plain view applied to Officer Smith finding the firearm in the open glove compartment and is lawful.The we apon was found coincidentally, Officer Smith had legal access to the spot from which the firearm could be evidently observed. Coincidental revelation a law-implementation officer’s startling finding of implicating proof on display. 5. Will the maryjane baggie be allowable proof? At the point when an individual can't give agree because of obviousness, the official can look through the satchel or wallet of the suspect to get their I. D. , it’s called suggested consent.The lady gave Officer Smith reasonable justification to direct a full hunt when she fled from Officer Smith when he pulled her over for the taillight. Official Smith will have the option to utilize the pot baggie as proof. While searching for the oblivious woman’s I. D. , Officer Smith found a baggie of weed in her handbag. Since the lady fled and destroyed the vehicle Officer Smith has reasonable justification and the weed baggie can utilized as proof.

Hr Policies free essay sample

HR POLICIES OF MARRIOTT HOTELS Marriott Hotels Pvt. Ltd. invests wholeheartedly in its unmistakable HR rehearses that make the organization a powerful work environment, learn and develop. It has been granted the fourth position by the Economic Times as the best work environment at. It has won 13 renowned honors for its kin rehearses over the most recent couple of years. The soul to serve is viewed as a lifestyle for Marriott partners. This, truth be told, is Marriotts inheritance of administration and structures a piece of the ethos of the association. The HR rehearses comes from reality that it is just a glad representative who can fulfill the client, which will guarantee that business follows. Straightforwardness and transparency are values that are discussed as well as incorporated in the everyday working. †¢ Two-route Communication: For new participants, there is an occasion called Koffee with the GM to cooperate with the GM and offer their perspectives over some espresso. We will compose a custom paper test on Hr Policies or on the other hand any comparable theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page †¢ Defined Span-of-Leadership: There is a Leadership Performance Process Management System which characterizes nine abilities which a Marriott partner ought to have and create. Assurance of Fair Treatment (GFT): It perceives that partners reserve the privilege to voice work environment concerns and to have those worries settled. †¢ Integrity Hotline: If anybody has concerns in regards to an uprightness or business misuse circumstance these can be shared by calling the Business Integrity Line and giving the administrator data without uncovering ones name. †¢ Access to data: The organization advocates a straightforward culture and subsequently all data identified with the business can be gotten to by each partner. Open entryway approach: Open correspondence is supported at all levels and partners can voice their feeling/proposals/thoughts/concerns which are esteemed and followed up on. †¢ Knowledge Initiatives: Every Marriott Hotel has a learning place that has an assortment of books and recordings, alongside a web association. †¢ Focus on CSR: To repeat its duty to the prosperity of the lesser special individuals from the general public, the organization has occupied with comprehensive CSR activities. Actually, JW Marriott Mumbai was granted the NCP EDP Shell Helen Keller Award in 2004 for their commitment towards Spirit To Serve. †¢ Reward System: There are two sorts of grants for people or gatherings to perceive exceptional execution. Each Marriott Hotel in India has its own honors. These are scarcely any extraordinary HR strategies which makes Marriott Hotels unmistakable from its partners. Put together by: Soumik Saha (2010H149256P) Anish Arvindakshan (2010H149245P Veena Rani (2010H149224P) Shweta Garg (2010H149218P)

CP16 Podcast with Trace Anderson from CFB Strategies about Data Management for Political Campaigns

CP16 Podcast with Trace Anderson from CFB Strategies about Data Management for Political Campaigns INTRODUCTIONMartin: Today we’re having a very interesting guest who is somehow involved in the presidential campaign of 2016. Hi Trace! Who are you and what type of company are you running?Trace: Hi Martin! I’m doing great. Our company is called CFB Strategies and we are an ISP partner of Salesforce.com. And what ISP means: it stands for Independent Software Vendor and what we do is, I’ll explain in the most basic level, we have repurposed the Salesforce platform for political campaigns and for non-profits and we basically set up their data infrastructure and managed the data for those campaigns.Martin: Okay, cool. What does your entrepreneurial journey look like? What did you do before you started this company? How did you come up with the business idea?Trace: Well, I had a background in economics and law. I studied Economics in college and then made a detour to law school. And during that time I had done several internships in DC in the political world and sort of decided tha t during that period I wanted to work in politics.After law school, I moved to Washington DC, I worked in several different positions: one as a legislative aid on capitol hill, and then as an attorney, and lobbyist. During that time, had worked on several political campaigns, that’s sort of the nature of working in politics. The campaign season comes up at minimum every two years and I had some opportunities to work on some campaigns during that time. And in 2006, I got the opportunity to run a campaign in New York City and after we ran that race, I came back here and I’ve been in New York ever since and out of that experience is what prompted our entrepreneurial vision and sort of a vision for the company to provide a data platform for campaigns.Martin: So Trace, tell me, what is the difference between real politics and House of Cards?Trace: That’s a great question. Well, there’s not quite as much â€" well, I shouldn’t say there’s not quite as much drama because there i s just as much drama in real politics as there is House of Cards. It’s sort of the plotline for House of Cards where they’re killing people and getting rid of people that are in their wayâ€"that’s a little bit on the ridiculous side but all the rest of it, there’s some definite analogous story lines that go into, sort of, the everyday aspects of campaigning and building coalitions minus â€" not to say that it never happens anywayâ€"but minus the criminal aspect of getting rid of people that are in your way.Martin: So, when you came from Capitol Hill to New York, at want point in time did you think about: “Okay, I want to start this kind of company” and how did you go about starting it all up?Trace: So this is back in 2006 and I was working on a state senate race that encompassed pretty much the entirety of Staten Island, which is one of the five burrows of New York City. And during that time, this was really before sort of technology had, kind of, immersed itself in the political world and so based on my experience during that campaign, we found ourselves constantly looking for different lists. I needed a voter list for this, or we needed a volunteer list for that or we needed a call list to track down and we needed to organize some volunteers to go out and do a block walk, sort of, all those things that are very basic components of the campaign. We felt like they’ve never been managed on Excel spreadsheets.And there was an immediate recognition that this is not an efficient way to operate. There should be a way utilizing data, utilizing technology, and the internet to provide a sort of platform or cockpit, so to speak, to run all of your operations from one central place so that people can access it and work more efficiently and that’s really how the idea was born.And back then, there wasn’t really anything like that that competed to / that worked in the political space. So that was sort of our idea and we recognized it. And shortly thereaft er in 2007, we formed the company and we originally built out our own proprietary database that was based on Google Earth. So we had shaped files that would mimic the outline of the district and all the individual â€" in New York there’re called the election districts and you know, elsewhere around the country they’re commonly referred to as precincts. And so we sort of had a visual component that we could color-code based upon data results and then also you could drill down into those individual districts or the district as a whole and manage the data, target the voters, and work with the data that way. So, that’s how it started and then there’s been several products, redefinitions and different products built since then.Martin: Cool and how did you acquire your first customer? I suppose this was in New York City.Trace: It was. After the 2006 campaign, I had stayed on and I went to work as the Chief of Staff of the Senator that we got elected, his name is Andrew Lanza and I was his Chief of Staff. And my business partner, Bob Vaillancourt, he at that time was working for the local Congressman and that’sâ€"the two of usâ€"that’s how we got together. We had the idea and built the product out and then grew our work in New York in working with other campaigns and just general networking and meeting people in the same political space and then around campaigns in the New York area, that’s how we started and we got several races in the 2008 campaign cycle.Martin: And what made you think that a) you are the right person and b) it’s the right time for working on such an idea?Trace: Well, there was justâ€"at the time, in 2006 and 2008, there wasn’t anything that was really very good technologically in campaign politics. To be honest with you readers, we sort of, saw the market and knew that we can design a product â€" we felt at the time that we had designed a product that addressed all the needs that we were seeking to accomplish. And during that fir st cycle â€" 2008 cycle, we had quite a bit of a success but shortly after that, we recognized that the way that we had built our database, how we had structured it, how it was being sold to other potential clients that to scale that was going to be really, really difficult to do. And that is how we stumbled upon Salesforce â€" not stumbled upon but we were introduced to Salesforce. And we quickly recognized that Salesforce, kind of, gave us the infrastructure and all the dynamic reporting capabilities and allowed us to develop and code on top of their platform and so that’s how we were able to partner with them and to be able to scale our businessâ€" to meet the demands of the marketplace.BUSINESS MODEL OF CFB STRATEGIESMartin: Cool. Trace, let’s talk briefly about the business model of CFB Strategies. What type of business model did you start out with? What made you change some of those elements and how does the business model look like now?Trace: Well, I think there’s â€" we’re still â€"some aspects of our original business model that is currently built in into what we do. As I mentioned before, originally it was just our own proprietary database and we went out and sold it to people on a monthly basis and it was anywhere from like a six to eight month contract depending on the election cycle.Now, although we still have those same cyclical events that we face in the political world whether it’s an off-year election and â€" what I mean by off-year election: is one held in an odd year so 2011, 2013, 2015 and those typically are city or municipal races. Some states have races on those years but the typical election cycle is the one we’re currently in in 2016 and that’s the even year election cycle. So we have those, sort of, built in cyclical effects and we still sell the database but there’s two out of three components now to our business model.So, first, there’s the set-up and the architecture and actually capturing the data from our clien ts and there’s a set-up in architecting piece that in involved in setting up every client and loading and structuring the database according to their needs. Not every client is the same and they’re going to want to see different things. So there’s a little bit of tinkering at the outset   to identify what those needs are and determine how we’re going to architect and set-up the database to begin with. And the point I will say in that is we’re data diagnostics so we talk to our clients and everybody kind of has a different data source that they may be familiar working with, we don’t really care what that is, we allow our clients to bring their data to us, and then we take that data and we structure it and tailor it to their needs.The second component of the business model is, sort of, the product. So, the product consists of the user licenses, the data storage, the API calls, sort of, the all the nuts and bolts of what we are selling our client. So, now we sell things by user license. So large campaigns may have fifty to a hundred users, smaller campaigns may have four or five, it just depends on the complexity of the race. And then there’s data storage costs for hosting all these information in the cloud as well as API calls when different snap-on tools and we’re transferring data to different places depending on the clients’ needs. And then on top of that, we add-on things like phones or fund raising component, or maybe an email component or possibly like a GO spacial, and other applications. And all of those things are available on the Salesforce App Exchange. So that’s another great thing about being a partner of Salesforce is that: our application is listed on the App Exchange. And then we, in turn, we make a sale to a client, we can then offer them other products or applications that they can snap-in to their Salesforce systems, so in a way we kind of view ourselves asâ€" think about it in terms of like the Apple store, right? And ther e’s the base component of everything that’s there and what their client wants and then with the Salesforce App Exchange that allows us to do is just go in and add other products that they might need during the course of the campaign, so all of those things are treated as add-ons.And then the third part of the business model is, sort of, our consulting / implementation partner side. Where this comes in is that both, my business partner Bob and I have, we have a unique or imminent understanding of politics and how campaigns run, but then it’s our job to implement the data, hierarchy and structure and work with the different members of the campaign that we are working for to make sure that they’re getting the most out of that product. So whether it is running reports, building dashboards, or setting up different hierarchies or internal divisions of the campaign it’s sort of that hands-on “Okay, how do I apply what I know of politics but also how to I apply what I know as a data manager and make these things work for the campaign.”Martin: One thing that I’ve heard from one episode of John Oliver, the comedian, maybe you’ve heard of him. He said in one of his series that: most politicians are spending like 50-60% of their time on calling people just for raising money. And if this is true, is your service only focusing on helping politicians raise money or is there also another relationship management component involved?Trace: Although there’s a portion of our business that’s focused on fund raising, we are really more of the data infrastructure of the campaign. So in any given campaign, there’s specialist vendors that may conduct fund raising phone calls. We as a company, personally don’t do that, but what we do, do is host that data when it comes back from that vendors that’s conducting those calls, all that data comes into us so then as a campaign, we can parse that data and then work with it going forward for possibly more fundraisin g calls, maybe that’s get up vote calls, maybe it’s just identifying who the supporters are.Our platform is the infrastructure / data infrastructure for the campaigns we work with. So, one vendor may be doing fundraising phone calls, another may be doing email solicitingâ€" fundraising solicitations, another may be doing voter outreach directly based on certain issues so there’s a myriad of things and issues both in fundraising and in policy that the campaign conducts and we are the place where that data comes to live.Martin: So, when I look at the political industry, let’s call it like that, I see that the political elections on a local, on a regional and on a national level. And there’s some type of seasonality involved because on the national level, maybe only every four or five years or so there’s an election. How do you manage this kind of seasonality and can you give us some kind of hints or glimpse on how big the market for such a product is?Trace: Yes, so the sea sonality can be a tricky thing. For smaller campaigns they don’t have the same data needs at a larger campaign does. So for a lot of clients, they may come on for 8-9 months and work with us during their election cycle and, sort of, going into hibernation mode for the next year and then come back.So what we try to do in such relations like that is we’re working very intensely with them during the election cycles so that may be anywhere from 8-10 months. And then the off-year, there isn’t as much work required so, instead of completely shutting down their data organization; we will offer them reduced rate to sort of keep that data in the cloud and in that storage and in that, we call each campaign’s data organization their “org”, we’ll keep their org live, alive in the cloud so that when they want to turn it back on in the next year, it’s ready to go. And of course, during that hibernation mode there’s not as much cost involved on either side so it’s at a reduced rate for that off-season year and then once it comes back on the grid, those rates are adjusted accordingly.The larger organizations and, you know, any state-wide campaign or even the national campaign, there’s a lot of work obviously goes in to building that data and these kinds of organizations have ongoing demand regardless of what year it is. So clearly there’s a lot of activity on the campaign year but even on the off-season year, fundraising is always an ongoing demand and, reaching out to voters, finding out what people are thinking and how they feel about certain issues those sort of data needs to constantly go on for larger organizations.So we find ourselves we have a mixture of both types of clients and it’s a matter of adjusting to what that particular client needs.Martin: Great, and can you give us some insights on how big is the market for such kind of product?Trace: The market is â€" it keeps growing, and growing, and growing every year. In a typical campaign e lection cycle, in 2012, the Obama campaign spent over a billion dollars. So you know that’s one campaign spending over a billion dollars and then of that billions dollars approximately 10% was set aside for technological infrastructure and innovation.So if you’re thinking that the Obama campaign in 2012, about a hundred million dollars was set aside for technology and all of that hundred million anywhere from 10-15% was set aside for infrastructure and data needs, and that’s just one campaign.So the other unique thing about this market space is that it’s a relatively new market space in politics. I don’t even think that the cap on it is potentially, possibly realized yet because there’s a lot of innovation going on, there’s a lot of things that are in campaigns that are doing otherwise now that they haven’t done before. And as you know technology constantly changes.So what I have found is that: the political world typically is about 6-7 years technology wise behind t he business world. And although we seen that sort of catch up lately I think there’s a tremendous amount of potential in where data in going and how campaigns utilize and manage their data and that’s largerly why we got into the business that we did.Martin: Great. Trace, when I’m thinking about businesses and really how to manage and control them, I’m looking at business matrix. For me the interesting things is what type of business matrix are you looking at in order to manage your business and can you give us some kind of insights on how those matrix look currently?Trace: Sure, so from a hard call stand point, as I mentioned earlier we’re an ISP partner of Salesforce. So every license we sell and every bit of data storage that we sell, we have a bottom line and we have a cost that goes along with that. And then on top of that is just how much time management and involvement is going to take to work through, managing that client and making sure that their implementation ne eds are met. So a lot of what we do we found that comes in on the consulting and implementation partner side because from a product standpoint, we have a set cost and as long as we meet those costs we’re fine from a product standpoint.Where the harder analysis and time analysis comes in is sort of on that consulting and implementation side. And a large part of our business is working with our client and managing their expectations, and most importantly finding out what they need and what they want, and then estimating accordingly: Okay, how much involvement is this going to take from our end form the human capital standpoint? And what’s a fair amount to charge for these consulting services? Because the truth is a lot of the clients we work with may never have worked with data before. So it’s a large learning curve for them so it’s, kind of, a unique dance of the client on definitely understanding that they need it, but shepherding them into, sort of, the data ecosystem and h ow to most efficiently get the most out of the services we’re providing.Martin: And Trace, is your revenue coming mainly from the consulting side or from the product side?Trace: From both, I say it’s about close to 50-50 maybe 60-40.PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 2016Martin: Okay, cool. So now I’ve very interested on learning from you because this year, in the U.S, we will have the presidential campaign. How did you help Ted Cruz with your products in terms of fundraising and winning votes?Trace: Well, we’re still helping Ted Cruz in fact today is New York Primary Day and we have been fortunate enough to work for the Senator back since 2012 before he was elected to Senate. And we worked with them for over 4 years. Back then it was originally in his race of 2012 Senate race in Texas, we set up his database and managed his grass-roots efforts and get up the vote efforts and targeting voters and all that stuff.During the presidential cycle this time, we were tasked with setting up the i nfrastructure for his finance needs and his grass-roots needs. As anybody will tell you that the presidential campaign is such a large, mammoth organization, the best analogy I can give to it it’s like building up and tearing down a Fortune 500 company by 18 months. There’s a tremendous amount of money that goes in to building the infrastructure and the organization. So, we were tasked with setting up a data infrastructure for his financial team andâ€" by his financial team I mean the fundraising team on the campaign that works with him calling donors, raising money from last dollar checks and small dollar checks. So what goes into that is what we call bundlers where typically bundlers raise large dollar donations. So typically $2700 is the current federal limit in this election cycle. So any one individual can get $2700 for the primary and $2700 for the general elections, for a total of $5400.So. we built a system whereby the finance team and go out and work with those large d onors and then in turns the donors can work with their network of friends, for people that might be supporting the senator. In addition to that, all of the online and the fundraising solicitations as I mentioned early, you may have an email, there’s a vendor that’s specifically focused on soliciting email contributions and that’s the portion of the campaign they handle. So, they go out and does that task and the day later or the same day or the next day, the data comes back to us, the same thing with phone calls.And then one other component that we provided this year is as I mentioned that we had the bundling application. I had thought all along that this has an applicability towards not just large contributions but small contributions as well and why not open this up to, sort of, the grass-roots arm of the campaign and let any individual, if they want to raise money, sign up and solicit or â€" not solicit but go to their network of friends and encourage them to join the campa ign whether as a volunteer or as a fundraiser. And we launched a product called CruzCrowd in October and its, sort of, like a crowd funding application for politics and we’re the first ones to do it that I’m aware of and then it’s entirely built on the Salesforce application.So, what it does is allows people to go in an sign up for CruzCrowd and from that they get a unique URL and then can go and share that unique URL on Facebook or Twitter and encourage their friends to sign up and join the campaign. They don’t have to make a contribution, a lot of it is just spreading the word and make use for the people are hearing about the campaign and signing up for volunteer, or they want to donate money. A lot of it comes in the form of small contributions. in fact the average contribution that’s been raised on CruzCrowd has been under $21.And then on the final point on the CruzCrowd is sort of the grass-roots infrastructure, all of the volunteers and the coalitions and the people that sign up online. So when a person goes and signs up on tedcruz.org, the website and they want to volunteer, they enter that information and what state they live in and then that data flows into our database. Then in turn, we can allow the campaign staff to reach out to them in certain states or counties when the campaign has something going on and they need to mobilize the grass-roots.ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVICE FROM TRACE ANDERSONMartin: Cool. Trace, let’s talk about your learning from your entrepreneur journey. So what type of tips can you give other people who are starting their first company?Trace: The best advice I can give is if you really believe in what you’re doingâ€" and you have to as an entrepreneur, just go for it. If you see the potential for whatever you’re doing, you got to make the decision to go for it 100% and just dive in. There’s going to be a lot of people saying: You can’t do this, you can’t do that. You can’t listen to those people, you just got to dedicate yourself to it and jump in feet first. And every day is an adventure as I’m sure every a lot of entrepreneurs has told you, you’re not sure what’s going to pop up but it’s all about attitude in my experience. There are going to be hardships and there’s going to be good times but you got to be unwavering in your dedication to it.Martin: And what is the most valuable thing for you personally in terms of being an entrepreneur?Trace: The most valuable for me as an entrepreneur is:one: I enjoy working for myself and to see a problem and to not be constrained by, sort of, bureaucracy or red tape. To be able to see a problem and to be able to work with others for my team and approach it and find a solution for it. And that’s what we try to constantly do for our clients. We try to solve problems and utilize data to solve those problems. We found that we might not have a solution immediately that’s going to fix those need or issues that arise but if you got a good m ix of creativity and approach it with a group mindset and everybody has an idea and just working together to solve that, that to me is the most rewarding thing.Martin: Cool. Trace, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your knowledge!Trace: Thanks, Martin!THANKS FOR LISTENING! Welcome to the 16th episode of our podcast!You can download the podcast to your computer or listen to it here on the blog. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. INTRODUCTIONMartin: Today we’re having a very interesting guest who is somehow involved in the presidential campaign of 2016. Hi Trace! Who are you and what type of company are you running?Trace: Hi Martin! I’m doing great. Our company is called CFB Strategies and we are an ISP partner of Salesforce.com. And what ISP means: it stands for Independent Software Vendor and what we do is, I’ll explain in the most basic level, we have repurposed the Salesforce platform for political campaigns and for non-profits and we basically set up their data infrastructure and managed the data for those campaigns.Martin: Okay, cool. What does your entrepreneurial journey look like? What did you do before you started this company? How did you come up with the business idea?Trace: Well, I had a background in economics and law. I studied Economics in college and then made a detour to law school. And during that time I had done several internships in DC in the political world and sort of decided tha t during that period I wanted to work in politics.After law school, I moved to Washington DC, I worked in several different positions: one as a legislative aid on capitol hill, and then as an attorney, and lobbyist. During that time, had worked on several political campaigns, that’s sort of the nature of working in politics. The campaign season comes up at minimum every two years and I had some opportunities to work on some campaigns during that time. And in 2006, I got the opportunity to run a campaign in New York City and after we ran that race, I came back here and I’ve been in New York ever since and out of that experience is what prompted our entrepreneurial vision and sort of a vision for the company to provide a data platform for campaigns.Martin: So Trace, tell me, what is the difference between real politics and House of Cards?Trace: That’s a great question. Well, there’s not quite as much â€" well, I shouldn’t say there’s not quite as much drama because there i s just as much drama in real politics as there is House of Cards. It’s sort of the plotline for House of Cards where they’re killing people and getting rid of people that are in their wayâ€"that’s a little bit on the ridiculous side but all the rest of it, there’s some definite analogous story lines that go into, sort of, the everyday aspects of campaigning and building coalitions minus â€" not to say that it never happens anywayâ€"but minus the criminal aspect of getting rid of people that are in your way.Martin: So, when you came from Capitol Hill to New York, at want point in time did you think about: “Okay, I want to start this kind of company” and how did you go about starting it all up?Trace: So this is back in 2006 and I was working on a state senate race that encompassed pretty much the entirety of Staten Island, which is one of the five burrows of New York City. And during that time, this was really before sort of technology had, kind of, immersed itself in the political world and so based on my experience during that campaign, we found ourselves constantly looking for different lists. I needed a voter list for this, or we needed a volunteer list for that or we needed a call list to track down and we needed to organize some volunteers to go out and do a block walk, sort of, all those things that are very basic components of the campaign. We felt like they’ve never been managed on Excel spreadsheets.And there was an immediate recognition that this is not an efficient way to operate. There should be a way utilizing data, utilizing technology, and the internet to provide a sort of platform or cockpit, so to speak, to run all of your operations from one central place so that people can access it and work more efficiently and that’s really how the idea was born.And back then, there wasn’t really anything like that that competed to / that worked in the political space. So that was sort of our idea and we recognized it. And shortly thereaft er in 2007, we formed the company and we originally built out our own proprietary database that was based on Google Earth. So we had shaped files that would mimic the outline of the district and all the individual â€" in New York there’re called the election districts and you know, elsewhere around the country they’re commonly referred to as precincts. And so we sort of had a visual component that we could color-code based upon data results and then also you could drill down into those individual districts or the district as a whole and manage the data, target the voters, and work with the data that way. So, that’s how it started and then there’s been several products, redefinitions and different products built since then.Martin: Cool and how did you acquire your first customer? I suppose this was in New York City.Trace: It was. After the 2006 campaign, I had stayed on and I went to work as the Chief of Staff of the Senator that we got elected, his name is Andrew Lanza and I was his Chief of Staff. And my business partner, Bob Vaillancourt, he at that time was working for the local Congressman and that’sâ€"the two of usâ€"that’s how we got together. We had the idea and built the product out and then grew our work in New York in working with other campaigns and just general networking and meeting people in the same political space and then around campaigns in the New York area, that’s how we started and we got several races in the 2008 campaign cycle.Martin: And what made you think that a) you are the right person and b) it’s the right time for working on such an idea?Trace: Well, there was justâ€"at the time, in 2006 and 2008, there wasn’t anything that was really very good technologically in campaign politics. To be honest with you readers, we sort of, saw the market and knew that we can design a product â€" we felt at the time that we had designed a product that addressed all the needs that we were seeking to accomplish. And during that fir st cycle â€" 2008 cycle, we had quite a bit of a success but shortly after that, we recognized that the way that we had built our database, how we had structured it, how it was being sold to other potential clients that to scale that was going to be really, really difficult to do. And that is how we stumbled upon Salesforce â€" not stumbled upon but we were introduced to Salesforce. And we quickly recognized that Salesforce, kind of, gave us the infrastructure and all the dynamic reporting capabilities and allowed us to develop and code on top of their platform and so that’s how we were able to partner with them and to be able to scale our businessâ€" to meet the demands of the marketplace.BUSINESS MODEL OF CFB STRATEGIESMartin: Cool. Trace, let’s talk briefly about the business model of CFB Strategies. What type of business model did you start out with? What made you change some of those elements and how does the business model look like now?Trace: Well, I think there’s â€" we’re still â€"some aspects of our original business model that is currently built in into what we do. As I mentioned before, originally it was just our own proprietary database and we went out and sold it to people on a monthly basis and it was anywhere from like a six to eight month contract depending on the election cycle.Now, although we still have those same cyclical events that we face in the political world whether it’s an off-year election and â€" what I mean by off-year election: is one held in an odd year so 2011, 2013, 2015 and those typically are city or municipal races. Some states have races on those years but the typical election cycle is the one we’re currently in in 2016 and that’s the even year election cycle. So we have those, sort of, built in cyclical effects and we still sell the database but there’s two out of three components now to our business model.So, first, there’s the set-up and the architecture and actually capturing the data from our clien ts and there’s a set-up in architecting piece that in involved in setting up every client and loading and structuring the database according to their needs. Not every client is the same and they’re going to want to see different things. So there’s a little bit of tinkering at the outset   to identify what those needs are and determine how we’re going to architect and set-up the database to begin with. And the point I will say in that is we’re data diagnostics so we talk to our clients and everybody kind of has a different data source that they may be familiar working with, we don’t really care what that is, we allow our clients to bring their data to us, and then we take that data and we structure it and tailor it to their needs.The second component of the business model is, sort of, the product. So, the product consists of the user licenses, the data storage, the API calls, sort of, the all the nuts and bolts of what we are selling our client. So, now we sell things by user license. So large campaigns may have fifty to a hundred users, smaller campaigns may have four or five, it just depends on the complexity of the race. And then there’s data storage costs for hosting all these information in the cloud as well as API calls when different snap-on tools and we’re transferring data to different places depending on the clients’ needs. And then on top of that, we add-on things like phones or fund raising component, or maybe an email component or possibly like a GO spacial, and other applications. And all of those things are available on the Salesforce App Exchange. So that’s another great thing about being a partner of Salesforce is that: our application is listed on the App Exchange. And then we, in turn, we make a sale to a client, we can then offer them other products or applications that they can snap-in to their Salesforce systems, so in a way we kind of view ourselves asâ€" think about it in terms of like the Apple store, right? And ther e’s the base component of everything that’s there and what their client wants and then with the Salesforce App Exchange that allows us to do is just go in and add other products that they might need during the course of the campaign, so all of those things are treated as add-ons.And then the third part of the business model is, sort of, our consulting / implementation partner side. Where this comes in is that both, my business partner Bob and I have, we have a unique or imminent understanding of politics and how campaigns run, but then it’s our job to implement the data, hierarchy and structure and work with the different members of the campaign that we are working for to make sure that they’re getting the most out of that product. So whether it is running reports, building dashboards, or setting up different hierarchies or internal divisions of the campaign it’s sort of that hands-on “Okay, how do I apply what I know of politics but also how to I apply what I know as a data manager and make these things work for the campaign.”Martin: One thing that I’ve heard from one episode of John Oliver, the comedian, maybe you’ve heard of him. He said in one of his series that: most politicians are spending like 50-60% of their time on calling people just for raising money. And if this is true, is your service only focusing on helping politicians raise money or is there also another relationship management component involved?Trace: Although there’s a portion of our business that’s focused on fund raising, we are really more of the data infrastructure of the campaign. So in any given campaign, there’s specialist vendors that may conduct fund raising phone calls. We as a company, personally don’t do that, but what we do, do is host that data when it comes back from that vendors that’s conducting those calls, all that data comes into us so then as a campaign, we can parse that data and then work with it going forward for possibly more fundraisin g calls, maybe that’s get up vote calls, maybe it’s just identifying who the supporters are.Our platform is the infrastructure / data infrastructure for the campaigns we work with. So, one vendor may be doing fundraising phone calls, another may be doing email solicitingâ€" fundraising solicitations, another may be doing voter outreach directly based on certain issues so there’s a myriad of things and issues both in fundraising and in policy that the campaign conducts and we are the place where that data comes to live.Martin: So, when I look at the political industry, let’s call it like that, I see that the political elections on a local, on a regional and on a national level. And there’s some type of seasonality involved because on the national level, maybe only every four or five years or so there’s an election. How do you manage this kind of seasonality and can you give us some kind of hints or glimpse on how big the market for such a product is?Trace: Yes, so the sea sonality can be a tricky thing. For smaller campaigns they don’t have the same data needs at a larger campaign does. So for a lot of clients, they may come on for 8-9 months and work with us during their election cycle and, sort of, going into hibernation mode for the next year and then come back.So what we try to do in such relations like that is we’re working very intensely with them during the election cycles so that may be anywhere from 8-10 months. And then the off-year, there isn’t as much work required so, instead of completely shutting down their data organization; we will offer them reduced rate to sort of keep that data in the cloud and in that storage and in that, we call each campaign’s data organization their “org”, we’ll keep their org live, alive in the cloud so that when they want to turn it back on in the next year, it’s ready to go. And of course, during that hibernation mode there’s not as much cost involved on either side so it’s at a reduced rate for that off-season year and then once it comes back on the grid, those rates are adjusted accordingly.The larger organizations and, you know, any state-wide campaign or even the national campaign, there’s a lot of work obviously goes in to building that data and these kinds of organizations have ongoing demand regardless of what year it is. So clearly there’s a lot of activity on the campaign year but even on the off-season year, fundraising is always an ongoing demand and, reaching out to voters, finding out what people are thinking and how they feel about certain issues those sort of data needs to constantly go on for larger organizations.So we find ourselves we have a mixture of both types of clients and it’s a matter of adjusting to what that particular client needs.Martin: Great, and can you give us some insights on how big is the market for such kind of product?Trace: The market is â€" it keeps growing, and growing, and growing every year. In a typical campaign e lection cycle, in 2012, the Obama campaign spent over a billion dollars. So you know that’s one campaign spending over a billion dollars and then of that billions dollars approximately 10% was set aside for technological infrastructure and innovation.So if you’re thinking that the Obama campaign in 2012, about a hundred million dollars was set aside for technology and all of that hundred million anywhere from 10-15% was set aside for infrastructure and data needs, and that’s just one campaign.So the other unique thing about this market space is that it’s a relatively new market space in politics. I don’t even think that the cap on it is potentially, possibly realized yet because there’s a lot of innovation going on, there’s a lot of things that are in campaigns that are doing otherwise now that they haven’t done before. And as you know technology constantly changes.So what I have found is that: the political world typically is about 6-7 years technology wise behind t he business world. And although we seen that sort of catch up lately I think there’s a tremendous amount of potential in where data in going and how campaigns utilize and manage their data and that’s largerly why we got into the business that we did.Martin: Great. Trace, when I’m thinking about businesses and really how to manage and control them, I’m looking at business matrix. For me the interesting things is what type of business matrix are you looking at in order to manage your business and can you give us some kind of insights on how those matrix look currently?Trace: Sure, so from a hard call stand point, as I mentioned earlier we’re an ISP partner of Salesforce. So every license we sell and every bit of data storage that we sell, we have a bottom line and we have a cost that goes along with that. And then on top of that is just how much time management and involvement is going to take to work through, managing that client and making sure that their implementation ne eds are met. So a lot of what we do we found that comes in on the consulting and implementation partner side because from a product standpoint, we have a set cost and as long as we meet those costs we’re fine from a product standpoint.Where the harder analysis and time analysis comes in is sort of on that consulting and implementation side. And a large part of our business is working with our client and managing their expectations, and most importantly finding out what they need and what they want, and then estimating accordingly: Okay, how much involvement is this going to take from our end form the human capital standpoint? And what’s a fair amount to charge for these consulting services? Because the truth is a lot of the clients we work with may never have worked with data before. So it’s a large learning curve for them so it’s, kind of, a unique dance of the client on definitely understanding that they need it, but shepherding them into, sort of, the data ecosystem and h ow to most efficiently get the most out of the services we’re providing.Martin: And Trace, is your revenue coming mainly from the consulting side or from the product side?Trace: From both, I say it’s about close to 50-50 maybe 60-40.PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 2016Martin: Okay, cool. So now I’ve very interested on learning from you because this year, in the U.S, we will have the presidential campaign. How did you help Ted Cruz with your products in terms of fundraising and winning votes?Trace: Well, we’re still helping Ted Cruz in fact today is New York Primary Day and we have been fortunate enough to work for the Senator back since 2012 before he was elected to Senate. And we worked with them for over 4 years. Back then it was originally in his race of 2012 Senate race in Texas, we set up his database and managed his grass-roots efforts and get up the vote efforts and targeting voters and all that stuff.During the presidential cycle this time, we were tasked with setting up the i nfrastructure for his finance needs and his grass-roots needs. As anybody will tell you that the presidential campaign is such a large, mammoth organization, the best analogy I can give to it it’s like building up and tearing down a Fortune 500 company by 18 months. There’s a tremendous amount of money that goes in to building the infrastructure and the organization. So, we were tasked with setting up a data infrastructure for his financial team andâ€" by his financial team I mean the fundraising team on the campaign that works with him calling donors, raising money from last dollar checks and small dollar checks. So what goes into that is what we call bundlers where typically bundlers raise large dollar donations. So typically $2700 is the current federal limit in this election cycle. So any one individual can get $2700 for the primary and $2700 for the general elections, for a total of $5400.So. we built a system whereby the finance team and go out and work with those large d onors and then in turns the donors can work with their network of friends, for people that might be supporting the senator. In addition to that, all of the online and the fundraising solicitations as I mentioned early, you may have an email, there’s a vendor that’s specifically focused on soliciting email contributions and that’s the portion of the campaign they handle. So, they go out and does that task and the day later or the same day or the next day, the data comes back to us, the same thing with phone calls.And then one other component that we provided this year is as I mentioned that we had the bundling application. I had thought all along that this has an applicability towards not just large contributions but small contributions as well and why not open this up to, sort of, the grass-roots arm of the campaign and let any individual, if they want to raise money, sign up and solicit or â€" not solicit but go to their network of friends and encourage them to join the campa ign whether as a volunteer or as a fundraiser. And we launched a product called CruzCrowd in October and its, sort of, like a crowd funding application for politics and we’re the first ones to do it that I’m aware of and then it’s entirely built on the Salesforce application.So, what it does is allows people to go in an sign up for CruzCrowd and from that they get a unique URL and then can go and share that unique URL on Facebook or Twitter and encourage their friends to sign up and join the campaign. They don’t have to make a contribution, a lot of it is just spreading the word and make use for the people are hearing about the campaign and signing up for volunteer, or they want to donate money. A lot of it comes in the form of small contributions. in fact the average contribution that’s been raised on CruzCrowd has been under $21.And then on the final point on the CruzCrowd is sort of the grass-roots infrastructure, all of the volunteers and the coalitions and the people that sign up online. So when a person goes and signs up on tedcruz.org, the website and they want to volunteer, they enter that information and what state they live in and then that data flows into our database. Then in turn, we can allow the campaign staff to reach out to them in certain states or counties when the campaign has something going on and they need to mobilize the grass-roots.ENTREPRENEURIAL ADVICE FROM TRACE ANDERSONMartin: Cool. Trace, let’s talk about your learning from your entrepreneur journey. So what type of tips can you give other people who are starting their first company?Trace: The best advice I can give is if you really believe in what you’re doingâ€" and you have to as an entrepreneur, just go for it. If you see the potential for whatever you’re doing, you got to make the decision to go for it 100% and just dive in. There’s going to be a lot of people saying: You can’t do this, you can’t do that. You can’t listen to those people, you just got to dedicate yourself to it and jump in feet first. And every day is an adventure as I’m sure every a lot of entrepreneurs has told you, you’re not sure what’s going to pop up but it’s all about attitude in my experience. There are going to be hardships and there’s going to be good times but you got to be unwavering in your dedication to it.Martin: And what is the most valuable thing for you personally in terms of being an entrepreneur?Trace: The most valuable for me as an entrepreneur is:one: I enjoy working for myself and to see a problem and to not be constrained by, sort of, bureaucracy or red tape. To be able to see a problem and to be able to work with others for my team and approach it and find a solution for it. And that’s what we try to constantly do for our clients. We try to solve problems and utilize data to solve those problems. We found that we might not have a solution immediately that’s going to fix those need or issues that arise but if you got a good m ix of creativity and approach it with a group mindset and everybody has an idea and just working together to solve that, that to me is the most rewarding thing.Martin: Cool. Trace, thank you so much for your time and for sharing your knowledge!Trace: Thanks, Martin!THANKS FOR LISTENING!Thanks so much for joining our 16th podcast episode!Have some feedback you’d like to share?  Leave  a note in the comment section below! If you enjoyed this episode, please  share  it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post.Also,  please leave an honest review for The Cleverism Podcast on iTunes or on SoundCloud. Ratings and reviews  are  extremely  helpful  and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.Special thanks  to Trace for joining me this week. Until  next time!

I Want to Be An Auror

Every child is asked the question, â€Å"What do you want to be when you grow up?† Children often respond with universally popular answers: doctor, lawyer, teacher, maybe even a princess here and there. A very select group of children (myself included) would choose the unique profession of an auror. Outside the world of â€Å"Harry Potter,† this is a fictitious occupation, but for me, it exists in a very real place. It took me a while to warm up to the world of Harry Potter. Growing up, my parents read to me before bed each night, instilling in me the value of reading. Still, I was hesitant to  ­accept the concepts of magic and wizardry that dominate the series. But by the time I finished the first book, I had embraced them wholeheartedly. When I finished the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I was a red-faced, puffy-eyed, runny-nosed mess. As difficult as I found it to initially connect, it was even more difficult for me to  ­accept that it had com e to an end. In middle school, I was fortunate to find two friends who shared my beliefs that an auror was the most logical career choice for Harry, that Slytherin was the worst house into which to be sorted, and that the Muggle (wizard lingo for â€Å"human†) world would be better off with Quidditch as a real sport. These childhood friendships, formed on a shared love of an imaginary world, eventually developed into long-lasting, concrete attachments that now help me face the real world. Beyond expanding my social circle, I can trace parallels between the people in my world to those seemingly â€Å"real† characters in J.K. Rowling's novels. Hermione is the classic pragmatist, the strong, capable, and intelligent female. I loved Ron for the humor he consistently brings to the story, even in the face of adversity. As for Harry, I admire him for his ability to fervently love his family even though they were not always with him. I can see Hermione in Caitlin, my oldest sister; she has taught me the importance of succeeding in school. Following her example, I challenged myself with difficult courses and by pursuing elected  ­positions in the Student Council and National Honor Society. Molly, my other sister, displays the characteristic wit and humor of Ron. She has  ­always inspired me to be an individual and I look to her for support in my own dark moments. In the final book, Rowling describes an etching on a gravestone that reads â€Å"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.† As I read and  ­enjoyed these books, I  ­understood that that same quote holds true in my life. In the adventures of Harry, Hermione and Ron, I recognized the same love and camaraderie that is shared by my sisters and me. Like Harry with Ron and Hermione, I will always be grateful for my sisters' guidance. While we did not face three-headed dogs nor duel against evil wizards, they have been my constant companions and are always there to help me overcome personal challenges. The conclusion of the Harry Potter series arrived at an auspicious point in my life as I looked toward my future after high school. Just as Harry stood on Platform 9 3/4 and began a major life transition, so too will I pack up our minivan, preferably without owls or cloaks, and begin my own journey,  ­although not in the direction of Hogwarts. The stories of Harry Potter have become synonymous with my childhood and have gently entwined themselves in my family and friendships. I am fortunate to have had a childhood touched by magic and filled with meaningful relationships. In letting go and growing beyond this part of my life, I feel better prepared to face the world that awaits me. While this implies an impending focus on the realities of an adult life, I have learned that you do not need a wand to see the magic in things: just an open mind and the ability to believe.