Final Reflection: PEACE OUT ENT3003

     I am not going to lie and say that ENT3003 was my favorite class. Because it wasn't. That doesn't mean it was a bad class it just wasn't for me. I took the class because it was required by my minor in innovation but it is not a class I would have chosen of my own accord. Having said that I believe that people who are planning on building their own businesses and starting these big ventures will greatly benefit from these lessons.
     Going back through my blog was a weird experience, similar to reading letters you'd written to yourself in the third grade. Trying to highlight the experiences in this blog is not an easy task. There were alot of personal low points for me, i dreaded doing alot of the assignments especially interviewing random people. Re-watching the videos I realized how shaky my voice was when I spoke from the nerves. I also dreaded the venture concept purely because I dread any essay, but it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. Now that I have told you about all the low points let me assure you that it wasn't all bad. I enjoyed the secret sauce assignment, not only because it was nice to hear my friends and family talk about me with such pride but because I got the chance to talk about several of my friends. It is an amazing feeling to be surrounded by such loving people and to give back and thank them for it is undeniably great.
     For me the most formative experience was the elevator pitch assignments. My first elevator pitch was short, scattered, and left out alot of key information. Having to do it several more times taught me how to gather my thoughts into a concise one minute pitch. It was evident in each take that I was more confident, even just how my voice sounds, more professional instead of shaky and quivering. I will remember these skills that I learnt for many years and I know that they will come in handy again and again in the future. As I said before my most joyous experience was the secret sauce assignment for no other reason than it made me happy to talk about how great my friends are. I am most proud of my first set of random customer interviews. They weren't anything special, in fact they were quite terrible. But I overcame my fear and dread of doing them and just went for it. I am proud of myself for trying something  new even if it wasn't entirely successful.
     As I said in the beginning of this assignment I was honest and said that this class was not my favorite. I don't really see myself as an entrepreneur but I do see myself on the track to becoming one. The mantra was often a far thought but at least it was a thought that I kept in mind. I think I am starting to see the world more as what it could be and how to make it that way versus just waiting around for other people to change it for me.
     The one thing I would recommend to future students would be to do the work early. Get as much done as soon as possible. There is nothing worse than having technical issues an hour before the assignment is due and then watching all your hardwork go down the drain. I would also recommend that you take the assignments seriously and to not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, we cant live in a bubble forever. And above all else keep an open mind, you might enter this class believing you are not an entrepreneur and will never be one, that will effect how you perform in each assignment and how you dread or look forward to each one. Have fun and enjoy the class!!

Reading Reflection Week 15

    For our final reading reflection we were required to read "Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid" an article in the Harvard Business Review by Vikram Akula. It was an interesting article which displays how the global business starts with the little people. As humans we tend to focus on the big picture but when that big picture is broken up it tells the lives of alot of people who sacrificed everything they had for  the ones they loved. The author does a great job of using real life stories to describe the basic finances of life. It is hard to disagree with a persons stories so I don't disagree with anything the author says, but I did find quite a few things confusing including the simple business plan discussed in the beginning of the article. I find it difficult to believe that this business plan relies on pressuring friends and family. I would like to ask the author the success rate of this business plan. I would also like to ask the author how this will work on a macro level. He spends alot of time discussing the microeconomics but not so much of the macro level.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

Venture Concept No. 2

Feedback: Contrary to the instructions I only received positive feedback for my last venture concept. Every comment just really said that the app would be successful. So I asked a few friends to comment on my blog for me. They suggested different ways of advertising the app and how to make it better. I added these ideas into my initial venture concept and this is what I came up with:

Putting it All Together

For this week’s assignment we are supposed to create a venture concept write-up. A venture concept write-up is a description of a possible product or service. It contains a description of the opportunity present, the innovation of a new idea, and the overall venture concept incorporating the other aspects. Until now we have been working backwards. We first came up with a venture concept and then settled the details later. This time around we are going in an order that makes sense. So here is my attempt at putting things in the right order again.

The first step is defining an opportunity. Unlike the name suggests, an opportunity is a group of customers with unmet or under met needs. I have chosen to target a customer base that I am a part of; Young adults with little and time and big appetites. I feel that by choosing an opportunity with a common connection with myself will allow me to service the venture to my best ability. The nature of the need of this opportunity is predominantly personal and a luxury. This venture is not necessary for life but it does increase the ease of life. Knowing the wait time at restaurants is a helpful tool and for some people it is a dire need. With recent improvements in the economy, people are beginning to eat out again. With this increase in restaurant patrons comes a proportional increase in wait times and lines. Currently this market is focused on college towns and busy cities. This is because there is the highest concentration of restaurants and people who eat out in these areas. College students tend to eat out with friends, on the run, or when they don’t feel like cooking. Families with small children like to get in and out of a restaurant as soon as possible. Waiting for food is not a simple task for hungry small children.  Currently customers are not satisfying this need; they are merely dealing with the problem. Any new information would be welcomed with open arms by all foodies alike. This opportunity is huge. Food is any important part of everyday life, as is time. Both are important aspects of life. People will always need food and they will always need to save time. The only reason the “window of opportunity” would close would be because someone else swopped in and created their own product with the same end goal.

Once you have defined an opportunity, you must create an innovation to address these customer’s needs. In response to the peoples need to get food fast and efficiently I have created The Waiter.  The Waiter is 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. It is a simple app that can be downloaded through the app store. Restaurants report the wait time in 15 minute intervals directly to the app, in turn the app relays the information to consumers. The app will also offer other information such as delivery services, phone number, ratings, reviews, etc.  The revenue from my venture is purely based off of app sales and advertisements. Like most apps I will offer two versions of my app.  A free version, with advertisements and a paid version which allows people to view the app without extra ads. These advertisements will come from the restaurants that are already partnered with the app.

The third and final step is two combine these two aspects. A venture concept is the application of a specific innovation to address a specific opportunity. In this case I will show how The Waiter benefits the target market, college students and other families. Since there are no other products on the market like this I don’t believe it will be difficult to get people to start using this app. It might take a bit of time to gain popularity but I believe that after one successful use the word will spread like wild fire and people all over will be using The Waiter. Companies such as Yelp and a few other apps are similar to the Waiter but do not combine all the components that make The Waiter successful. The weakness of these other companies are all different, it is the fact that each of them lacks what the other has that makes them vulnerable. Because The Waiter is an app packaging does not play an important role in its success. However the way the app is presented could make a big difference. The first thing consumers notice about an app or product is the way it looks. A simple design for the logo that is still eye catching is the best route to go. There are several other aspects that define my business concept. These include price points, distribution, customer support, and the customer experience. In sales reports it would be interesting to see how customers prefer the free version with ads or the paid version without ads. From those results it might be beneficial to change the way the app is priced.

Apart from having a unique product there are several other resources that will make my venture succeeded my greatest resource is my ability to communicate my message. This skill will help me communicate my venture idea with potential investors, clients, and connections. This is more important than all my other resources because it leads to success with the other resources. 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.

In the future I hope to build off this app. One day building a restaurant that guarantees no wait, no lines, and good food. Another idea would be to target the same customer base with other things college students need. For myself the future holds a lot of things hopefully, including medical school, a successful career as a pediatrician, travel, volunteering, family, and thousands of happy memories to come.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

This week we were required to read two chapters for entrepreneurship. The first chapter was "The Entrepreneurial Mind-Set in Organizations: Corporate Entrepreneurship" and it was based on what its like to be an entrepreneur. I found this chapter interesting because it encompassed the mindset that we were trying to learn for the past few months. There wasn't anything particularly confusing or anything that I could disagree with in this chapter or the other one for that matter. The other chapter was called "Social Entrepreneurship and the Global Environment for Entrepreneurship"  and discussed the entrepreneurial effects of ventures in the global workforce. I would have preferred to read these chapters in the beginning of the semester to give us an overview of entrepreneurship but can understand why they were at the end of the course. If I had to ask the author two questions I would ask him his experience in the global market and for any advice he would give us now that we are entrepreneurs.

Google Gold

     In complete honesty I haven't done anything to pursue SEO. Other than share my blog posts with other students via the share assignments I really haven't spread the word of my blog. That makes it difficult to complete this assignment accurately. So instead I have decided to tell you what I would have done if I was aware that I should have been working toward going for gold.
   First off I would have shared my blog link with more people than just the ones I was required to share it with. I would have accomplished this through facebook and other social media outlets. I have had a blog before and received eight times the amount of views for half the work. I also would have requested that my friends and family spread the word as well. I also would have used hashtags on my social media posts, these allow people using the same hashtags to easily locate my post. Therefore bringing together people with the same ideas and common interests.
   These hashtags would be very similar to using keywords through google. I would use words such as entrepreneur, innovation, food, app, waiter, college, UF, and other words that contribute to my blog. I could even use ENT3003 as one of my keywords because there are so many people taking the course. I would have waited to see the success of these words and if they weren't working well I would change them to either be more specific or go in the opposite direction and be more broad,making bigger generalizations.
  Without advertising my blog, all my posts gained mainly the same traffic. If I had to guess if I had advertised more I believe that my worlds biggest problems post would go the most viral. I believe it is a post that a lot of people can relate too.
   Unfortunately I will not be accepting my gold medal in Rio this summer but hey there is always next time! And until then always listen to Bey:

Very Short Interview Part 2

     In my first interview, I spent time asking Cathy Vick several questions on entrepreneurship. For a quick recap; Cathy Vick is a owner of a small company which sells HP products. She and her partner have owned Integtech for ten years. She is the proud mother of two beautiful daughters and lives on the west coast of Florida. Our interview consisted of me asking her three main questions:

1. What does it mean to you be an entrepreneur?

2.  Do you have any advice for me as I continue my education to become a better entrepreneur?

3. Why did you become an entrepreneur?

     In the same order she answered:

1. I think many people have different definitions of what it means to be an entrepreneur. To me being an entrepreneur is part of how I define myself. I am a mother, wife, worker, and I consider all of the positions to better me as an entrepreneur.

2. Make it something you are passionate about. For me I wanted to work in education because I wanted to improve the minds of children. I feel like i can make a difference through the selling of HP products. And make goals for yourself, it can be hard being an entrepreneur, you are your own boss and you really have to motivate yourself.

3. For me it was primarily a financial decision. When the market turned I lost my job and it forced me to change my lifestyle. I went into business for myself and it was the best decision I every made. Instead of traveling for work I got to see my girls grow up and spend time with them everyday. I love my job and I love my family.

    During this initial interview I was still focused on finding out what an entrepreneur was. I believe that talking to Mrs. Vick really gave me a basis of how to orientate myself as an entrepreneur. Her advice to pick something that I was passionate about for my venture really payed off. It made it less of a task to do the assignments and more of an enjoyable experience.

   After a lovely first interview I looked forward to interviewing Mrs. Vick again. This interview was shorter than the last as Mrs. Vick was very busy but I am still very thankful for her time and effort. 

Here is how the interview went:

Niamh: Hello again Mrs. Vick. I wanted to start off by thanking you for taking the time to speak to me once again. You're help last time has greatly improved my skills as an entrepreneur.

Mrs.Vick: You're welcome sweetheart. I am sorry I cannot talk for longer.

N: That is OK I just have a few quick questions for you.

MV: Sounds good!

N: Since we spoke last time have you had any new developments in your venture?

MV: We are always working on making our company better, even if its just through simple changes like finding new contacts, changing our advertising, etc. Nothing big comes to mind but all the little things add up to something big.

N: If you're always changing do you have an idea of an exit strategy?

MV: I began this business due to need, I wasn't planning for the end. But now that we have had success I have started thinking about what to do next. I want to be able to spend more time with my husband and the rest of our family. 

N:But no exact plans yet?

MV: No! (She laughed) like I said everything id always changing and therefore my plans are always changing.

N: Ok. Just one last question. Looking back is their anything you would have done differently in your business had you known you'd be where you are today?

MV: Its corny but I wouldn't change a thing. I love where I am with my business, my family, and in ,y life in general.

N: Well that's all from me. Thankyou so much Mrs.Vick!

MV: As always you are welcome sweetie.

This interview was very similar to my last one with Mrs. Vick but I felt more comfortable this time around. Whether that is because I now know Mrs. Vick better now or because I am more confident with myself as an entrepreneur I am not sure. Either way speaking to Mrs.Vick has helped me throughout this class and it turned out to be one of my favorite assignments this semester. As I said in the beginning of this blog post this interview gave me a basis of the entrepreneur that I wanted to be. 

Week 13 Reading Reflection

    It is important to take a step back and evaluate of entrepreneurial ventures. That is what we learnt in our assigned reading this week. But how is a textbook able to tell us what something is worth. There is more that goes into a business then the money. Entrepreneurs put their heart and soul into these ventures. So to truly define the value of the venture you have to take more than the finances into consideration, also consider the impact, love, commitment, and loyalty. I believe that this is what the author missed out in this chapter. I do agree with him that you need good finances to be successful and money is a big key to building a business as well as time. Nothing about this chapter really confused me, the material presented was very straightforward. If I had to ask the author two questions I would ask him to value my venture and then compare it to my evaluation.

Celebrating Failure

   I have been afraid of failure most of my life. I don't want to fail because I don't want to disappoint the people I care about. Whether it is in school, sports, or life I try my best and when I fail I take it as a sign that my best isn't good enough. It is a hard realization that we cant be perfect at everything, especially for perfectionists like me. But it is a lesson we all have to learn at some point. For me this realization came this semester in a small way. My personal failure this semester was my failure at reaching my fitness goals. Every new years eve for as long as I can remember I have told myself that this is my year to get fit (and hopefully lose some weight). This year I both failed and completed my goal. I started taking more classes at the gym and running and this past March I completed my first 10k. I finished in just over an hour and 10 minutes but to me that was a failure. Silly I know since I should have been happy just to cross the finish line, but I didn't think it was good enough. I initially took the wrong approach to this failure. I stopped working out, I let school overtake my life, and I lost some of what I had worked so hard for to gain. It wasn't until my mom told me how proud she was of me for simply finishing the race that I realized I hadn't actually failed anyone but myself. My real failure was stopping working out. From this I learnt another lesson that I have been taught time and time again, don't give up. This is true in all aspects of life and especially business and entrepreneurship. I also learnt to not put the weight of the world on my shoulders because the world is full of people willing to help you carry it. 

    Failing sucks. That's the flat out truth of it. No one likes to fail. Trust me if you are reading this and think you are alone you are not! Sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on. The important part is that you try your best. It sounds corny but its true. Never give up and never stop believing. Our failures are stepping stones for the next big stage in our lives. So celebrate them. Because every failure means you are closer to success. This class taught me that. With every failed idea, interview, and pitch we were forced to keep moving on. To take the criticism and put it towards making the next one better. So as long as you aren't failing this class go out and celebrate your other failures!!

My Exit Strategy

    Just as the introduction post says, all good things come to an end. You get to the center of the tootsie pop, your juicy fruit gum looses it flavor, you eat that last piece of birthday cake that means the official end to your birthday. And just as these happy memories came to an end so does the end of our venture.
    Each one of us a will choose to leave our venture at different points. I plan on leaving my business venture with grace and beauty. After working hard for 5 years to build up my app I plan on selling it to a bigger company, who can take it to the next level with resources that I don't have. As part of the sales contract I would requires a small share of royalties and shares of the company. Its only fair after all :)
    I chose this strategy because I believe that with my current resources and skills their is only a certain distance I can take this venture. Better to hand the ball off to the pros and take the glory along with the team. I believe I always knew this would be my exit strategy. Therefore a chose a venture that I knew I could build up only so far.

So just like the great queen herself would do, I'm peacing out like a boss.

What's Next?

Existing Market

   During the Amazon Whisperer assignment I found it difficult to think of a future product to offer. Since then I have come up with a couple of ideas. These include a partnering app that allows you to know the wait times at other entertainment ventures including theme parks, movie theaters, etc. Another idea is to apply the same concept to bathroom lines. As a women I strongly relate to this idea, waiting in lines in bathrooms is a pain in the butt. 

Interviews:

Out of all the people I interviewed all preferred to be audio recorded. 

    For these interviews I happened to interview three women, all of which loved my business idea. When i mentioned other possible ideas they were all on board for the bathroom wait time app (I guess I am not the only one with a small bladder who hates waiting in lines). One of the best suggestions I received was to limit the data use and size of the app. One woman said that while she is sure she would use the app, if it were too big or took up too much data it would be the first to go when the storage full message popped up. 

   My future and the future of this venture has many different paths. Ideally after a successful income from this app the next step would be to develop others like it. According to the feedback I recieved from my interviews I could see the bathroom app being successful especially when applied in sports events, plays, and musical venues. 

New Market

   Currently I am targeting college kids and families, to target the complete opposite would be to look at the elderly or children. For this assignment I am going to focus on children because I believe that would be more fun! Having children wait in line is not the easiest of tasks. I believe that I could help this process by combining games with the wait time app. For instance each level corresponds with the time at which they have to wait. Or it could even have an informational basis. Each minute wait helps them learn about a new number or letter or fun fact.

Interveiews:

For the privacy of the children and respect for the parents I only used voice recordings for this assignment.

   This was my favorite part of the assignment. Children are the most creative and entertaining interviewees. Their input was helpful however. The kids loved the idea of a fun game. They didn't want to wait in line anymore than adults do. While interviewing the children I also had a chance to speak to their parents. They recommended adding videos to the app for the kids to watch. 

  Other recommendations included coloring activities and an online menu so the kids could have a drink waiting for them at the table after they so patiently waited. This would also speed up with eating process as people would already know what they wanted to order before they even sat down.

Reading Reflection Week 12

 This past week we were required to write up our own venture concept. It might have been helpful to read this chapter before posting our venture concepts but ohh well, it'll be helpful for the next one. This weeks reading contained information on how to maintain an entrepreneurial perspective while writing a venture concept.
I did not disagree with the author on any points but I did find several facts surprising and wish I had known them before writing a venture concept of my own. For instance I found it surprising that there were five key concepts to building a venture concept, in the prior article we read it only listed three. the chapter also broke down the process into several stages including the growth stage and the importance of expansion and growth in a venture. If I had to ask the author two questions I would ask him for an example of a venture concept that he had written himself as well as tips to writing a successful one.