Half-way Reflection

    Entering this class, I didn't know what to expect. I had heard several things about how the class was and had often seen people studying smoking notes for the exams. But this semesters entrepreneurship was not like I had been told to expect. I think that is in part to the restructuring of the class. For the past two months each student has kept a blog, updating it every week with new assignments, videos, interviews, and responses based on the information from lecture and our readings.

   The class is very hands on and you have to be willing to break outside of your comfort zone. At first the interviews seem taunting and every time you see a new assignment requiring a video upload you curse under your breath, or out loud, or you just scream a little. But then you do it and you move on with your life. In a month you wont even remember that time you went up to random people in which-wich and asked them if they  mind being interviewed. Some people are going to say no to you and that;s ok, except it and move on. Push through it, push through all the assignments, and know that its not actually that bad.
    If you are planning on taking this class in the future I recommend three things to you:

1. Its not as bad as you think its going to be, so dont not take it just because your friend says "it sucks."
2. Keep up to date with the assignments, even better do them in advance. There is nothing worse than running around at the last minute trying to find someone to interview.
3. Stick with it! And don't just BS the assignments as much as you want to, its not worth it.

Reading Reflection: Week 7

    For ENT this week we had to read an article published in the February 2006 edition of the Harvard Business Review titled Rediscovering Market Segregation by Yankelovich & Meer. The main focus of this article was on the clarification and distinction between classes based on criteria other than age,race, sex, and income, this technique is known as non demographic segregation. The author also discusses demographic segregation and spends a portion of the article comparing and contrasting the two. Nothing in this article was particularly confusing once the difference between non demographic and demographic segregation was clarified. I did find it pretty surprising that nondeomgraphic was primarily used for advertising. I thought that advertisement companies would use specific classifications and groups to target. If I had to ask the author two questions I would ask them about their experience using segregation techniques in advertisement as well as what they think of new and upcoming groups that advertisements choose to target.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

   From my last post I recieved mainly positive feedback, but one person did mention that I should go into a bit more detail about how the information will be shared between restaurant and customer. I tried to improve on that this time around. I hope you like it!

Customer Interview No. 3

Although this is the last set of interviews assigned I know it wont be the last time I have to go out and do something I am uncomfortable with for this class! So with that being said heres the last set of interviews!

For this weeks interviews I hit the place where I could find the most people eating at once. The Food Court! I typed up a summary of my idea and gave it to each of the people I interviewed prior to starting the interview, then asked them questions about their thoughts and possible comments . Overall I found this interview easier because it was easier to get my point across when I wasnt the one explaining it. It made it easier to write it out and let people read it themselves. 

Reading Reflection: Week 6

Our assignment for this weeks reading reflection was to read Michael Porters:The Five Forces that Shape Competitive Strategy from the January 2008 Harvard Business Review. This article discusses the different strategies toward building a business. Porter emphasizes the use of strategic competition to help build a business. Their are five forces discussed in this article and I found one of the most confusing parts of the reading was finding the balance between them all. After reading this article I did a bit more research into the subject and found subsequent explanations on the matter, including youtube videos, and more articles by Porter. I would like to ask Porter why he didnt expand on this information in his initial article. The one thing above all else that I agreed with the author about was the fact that competition pushes us to be our best. I have always found that I do better when I am trying to beating something/someone even if its competition with myself. I would also ask Porter if he experienced competition within himself when he first began? Or was it the push of other people also excelling that made him want to be the best?

Idea Napkin No.1

    Its hard to staple a napkin to the internet so here is my metaphorical idea napkin:

Me: On several earlier posts on this blog, I told you about myself. For those of you who don't spend hours checking my blog to see what the newest and hottest is, first of all shame on you, and second of all here is a quick summary. My name is Niamh Clancy, I am an IA sophomore at the University of Florida studying Biology on the pre-med track. I aspire to one day be a pediatrician and have since I was three years old. I am stubborn, hardworking, suturing (to the point of nagging my friends), I like mom jokes and dad jokes, and I am not a quitter. As a future doctor I predict that I will have a busy schedule and no time to wait for long restaurant ques, similar to many other professions.

The offer: The Waiter, an app that tells you the current waiting time at your favorite restaurants. The app will also give the customer and option to call ahead to order their food to go, in case all the lines are long.

Who: Everyone who likes to eat! Which if the world was like me would be EVERYONE! People are busy, restaurants are busy, this app will at least solve for one of those problems.

Why does it matter: If you don't like food than this app doesn't matter to you, at all. But for the rest of the population eating out is a part of our culture. At the same time however we are a community based off of instant gratification. Waiting in lines does not fit into the equation of our lifestyles. With the Waiter people will know where they can get there food as soon as possible while still enjoying the process of going out to eat.

Core competencies: I have already told you about me, my skills, and why I think this app will be a success. But alot of people can say they are hard workers that don't quit. This difference in me is that I am passionate about this idea, because food is a good portion of my life. When something directly affects you people are more likely to do something about, make a move, change in some way. For me the fact that I am a busy college student, and hopefully one day a busy med student means that this app will become a sort of life line for me.

Success is putting the puzzle pieces together, so the real question than becomes do I think that these parts of my idea mesh together to form one cohesive concept. And the answer is complicated. I do think that these specific components are a good start to completing this idea but there are definatley pieces missing. For instance my lack of computer skills and financial planning abilites hinders me in the programming and funding of the app. I can compensate with my people skills but I will have to outsource some of the work to other people with different skill sets.

Reading Reflection: Week 5

    This weeks readings focused on the legal side  of entrepreneurship, patents, liability, and contracts. This is the first chapter that I feel like I have learnt something completely new. I have no experience with anything legal documents or anything legal. I would like to ask the author for his personal experience with legalities in his entrepreneur ventures. As well as how you resolved any issues he had with gaining patents. There were alot of charts in this chapter and I found that while they tried to simplify the information they didn't really add anything to the content of the chapter. Some of the charts even made the information more confusing. What I found most surprising  was the extent to the seriousness of the legal prosecutions and consequences of the patents, contracts, and liability issues.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

     If my pitch didn't sell you then here is a bit more information about my idea:

          Opportunity: People are tired of waiting for long lines at their favorite resteraunts.
          Solution: An app that allows you to see the current wait time at your favorite resteraunts.
          Name: The Waiter Gator