Methods

Methods

            When it comes to learning more about business negotiations I decided to take a few approaches of research.  I decided to start off with interviews with business owners of both small and large companies.  I started an interview with small business owner Kim Frazier, who owns her own restaurant.  Her input was very insightful when it came to small business etiquette.  I then decided to interview a close friend John Burelson who owns a water bottling company.  His experience helped me understand how negotiations are handled in a big business environment as well as abroad.  I kept track of these interviews with transcripts that I had written down and also with some basic notes to go along with them.  These interviews gave me viewpoints of different businesses and their approach to their business negotiations. 

            I also had sit-ins on negotiations with the same people as I mentioned before.  This gave me firsthand experience on how they handled negotiations.  Of course with the interviews I was able to see how a general negotiation would be handled.  However, every negotiation varies with its own twists and turns.  These sit-ins gave me insight how owners reacted or dealt with certain problems that came up in the negotiation process.  I could tell that some things required more care and thinking than others.  I was also able to see the planning process before these negotiations which showed me how they prepared for negotiations within the company.

            Another method that I found useful was making general surveys.  Knowing that I couldn’t sit in or interview owners with every company, I decided that surveys would be the best to find out information.  I created a list of ten questions, all concerning with the environment of the company and the different approaches they used for negotiations.  With this I found that all companies used different kinds of methods.  Also, this allowed me to analyze these answers in a different way.  I could see a large amount of answers in a short amount of time.  These surveys helped me get a larger research target.

            I found that all of these types of research really helped me gain knowledge about businesses and how they handle negotiations.  This research allowed me to go inside and find information from business owners themselves about the importance of negotiations.  I found that the importance of negotiations differed for every company but for most it was extremely important.  With these three kinds of research I was able to find enough information for my paper and allowed me to finish it.