Week 15 Reading Reflection

1. I was surprised by the pyramid the author describe; the fact that a business in the poor section of society (base of the pyramid) could be just as profitable as the highest tier really changed my perspective on where opportunities lie.

2. Quite honestly I thought this was the easiest section to understand all semester. It seemed to me the author intentionally wanted to make this section clearer.

3. It's hard to believe we've come to an end with this book, but I guess what I'd ask the author is this: which sector does he see the most growth in his pyramid example of society, and going off that, which industry in that sector does he recommend exploring?

4. I think I've said this once or twice about other chapters, but I agreed with this chapter. I don't think the author was necessarily wrong about anything, but I wished they would've given more case-examples.

Final Reflection

1. Honestly, the funnest moments of this class were the elevator speeches! It was a creative way to express my venture and to get valuable feedback from its practical application. I hated having to turn so many activities in each week (as I'm absolutely terrible with time management). I dreaded having to do the interviews, but in the end it was a growing experience for us as adults.

2. I would say that the first interviews we did with potential customers will likely stick in my mind. It's something that made us leave our comfort zones, made us look past what we thought we were capable of. As far as the more proud assignment? I think it was actually the Venture Concept 1 because it was at that moment I realized that this idea/venture could actually become a real business!

3. It's actually crazy to think about what I've learned this semester. I look back and want to say, "Yeah, all I did was a lot of posts and work that were meant to keep us busy..." After reflecting, the reality is so far from that though. I know how to approach total strangers. I know how to obtain research and feedback in a certain industry. I know how to start the procedure I'd follow to look for opportunities and explore them!

4. Definitely for the student to MANAGE YOUR TIME AND WORK AHEAD. It's easily the most difficult thing about this course. I wasn't able to complete some assignments on time because I thought I'd only need an hour or two; boy was I wrong. They need to look at the assignments days in advance so they can plan out when they can schedule interviews and manage how long it'll take them to read the chapters.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

Video:
1. https://youtu.be/4YARjt3Khys (FYI, I posted the wrong link, this is the correct link now! Sorry)


What did they say?
2. Just like the responses from my last elevator speech, this one was entirely positive! People Told me to set the camera at an angle to view my head and torso better (as if interacting with my viewer more). Also, a couple comments told me to lose the ceiling fan in the background (as it's very distracting). With these tips I decided to focus more so on the quality of the video, and not change the message/content too much.

Reflection.
3. I angled the camera better, wore nicer clothes, and tried to make my pitch more convincing overall! I'm also keeping what people said about my last video in mind as well.

Venture Concept No. 2

My concept hasn’t changed because there was so much positive feedback, but after the venture concept please read what I wrote about the responses to my first Venture Concept post.

Opportunity:

               The unmet need I observed from customers was an easily accessible event provider/planner; one that could be accessed from their phone or computer. The customers I initially realized needed this service were students around my own university, which led me to conclude that students at others universities likely had a similar need. This opportunity seems to have been created by the growth of technology, and the fact that our younger generation wants just about EVERY service in the world, to be in the palm of their hand. It sounds like the major resource students obtain the information this service could provide is by flyers, local promotions, researching the specific events website, and word-of-mouth.

Thus, the need for this service realistically spreads across (at least) the entire nation, or at least in cities that have colleges and universities. Personally, I see this as a global opportunity because people around the world (whether or not it just relates to university cities) will eventually find themselves in a situation where they want/need to know what event are happening around their area. I’d say this window of opportunity won’t last long, in fact based off the research I did from the “Amazon Whisperer” assignment, it seems people are trying to purse creating such a service (unsuccessfully, I might add).

Innovation:

               My innovation idea is combining a person’s personal planner with that of publically scheduled events into an app that can be accessed via their phone or on a computer (much like Facebook/Groupme). The app will have to main tabs in the home screen: My Schedule and My Local Area.

Under the My Local Area tab there will be another list of tabs that range from the following: Most Recent, Featured, Categories, and Public Schedule.

The Most Recent tab will be in a “newsfeed” format, that way users can see what the most up to date events are in their area. An event will appear on the Most Recent tab as it is added on to the calendar in the Public Schedule tab. In the Most Recent tab the user will have the ability to click on the event for more information regarding the event, and even “like” the event if they so choose.

Like the Most Recent tab, the Featured tab will also be in a “newsfeed” format. The order of events under this tab will be directly related to two things: Endorsement and Popularity. If an owner of an event wants the event to be in the public’s face and remain relevant for a while, then they may pay a mall fee for their event to remain among the top in the Featured tab. Contrary to this, is ranking by popularity: events will be listed (after endorsed events) by the amount of “likes” they’ve received. These rankings were designed to both persuade local businesses to “buy” Featured slots, and to give the public a good idea which events would be the most popular to attend.

The Categories tab would pull up a list of tabs of different type of events (i.e Movies, Sports, Nightlife, etc…). These tabs would have events that were organized by type, and are added to that type when previously added in the Public Schedule’s calendar screen.

In the Public Schedule tab there will be an interactive calendar where students/local businesses can add their own event (whether the event is an Art Fair downtown, a promotion at a local restaurant, or even a Career seminar at the Reitz). The days on the calendar will be broken down into timeslots (i.e. 4:00 pm-5:00 pm); any one timeslot can have a maximum of 5 events scheduled for it (that max number of available spaces may raise according to popularity and need). The public will have the ability to “like” an event, just to gauge the event’s interest in the area. There will not be a commenting feature for events, at least in the initial launch. When a user adds an event to the calendar, they will be prompted on what type of event it is (which will automatically add the event into one of the Categories sub-tab).

The My Schedule tab will be a generic personal planner that users can add events to from the public calendar in the Public Schedule tab. In this main tab, user can make reminders and even post an event they’re attending to other forms of social media (Facebook/Twitter). Currently I’m excluding a “friending” feature to my app; I haven’t gauged interest in that form of expression for an app that is more a more utility-based.

Venture Concept:

I think students will find that my app is an easy adjustment to the current norm, mostly because it's a user friendly/highly accessible form of both social media and personal planning. I think they'd switch because it offers a quick, central location for them to find out just what events are going on around their area. Although this app is catered to a students local area, I'd consider making it so that a user could view other location's events (such as a user in Gainesville viewing events in Miami).  

What I've Learned

As far as the responses I received go, I learned a few interesting ideas. The most valuable actually being a negative response! One comment was blatantly honest with me and told me that Apple has already created an app very similar to my idea. That since people prefer physical planners they wouldn’t even consider my app.


Now I actually 100% with this person, physical planners are more widely used that app planners. That being said, my app isn’t necessarily for planning one’s life. The point of the app is actually to be more informed about events around your local college town. As discussed in the venture concept, the app will be divided into tabs (i.e. Most Recent and Featured); these tabs will be in a “newsfeed” format so that customers can easily navigate through all the events. The format and ease of use of my app is one of its bests strengths. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1. I thought Ecopreneurship was an interesting concept. Obviously we all want to limit as much of out carbon footprint as possible, but I wouldn't have thought of any of it falling under "entrepreneurship" until I read that section.

2. I almost don't see the need for the term "diaspora". I think I get what it is and means. However, it seems the advantages of them are primarily non-physical sub-sectors of common (if not obvious) business practices.

3. Which corporation would the author consider more sustainable: an Benefit corporation or a B corporation? Which international threat do you consider the more dangerous?

4. I don't think he was really "wrong" about anything, but I'd like him to go into more detail (maybe use a case study) that defined the difference between strategic entrepreneurship and corporate venturing.

Google Gold

1. If I'm being entirely honest, I didn't put much effort at all into this form of advertising; it just didn't occur to me that it was such an important aspect to business... However if I was seriously approaching my venture, I'd have added a beginning my service's name at the front of each blog post (i.e. E4U: Google Gold). This strategy would've significantly reduced the number of searches Google would find, maybe further customize my blog by ending each post with a tag line.

2. As I mentioned, Including E4U in the subject of each post would've been the keyword. Also, including "app-based service" within each post (maybe a sub-filter or sorts) would've helped secure more SEO. First, I chose E4U because that's the name of the service/venture; the main search my customers would be making. Second, including "app-based service" (or something roughly similar to that) would help narrow the search to the industry my client is trying to find me on.

3. I didn't think to use social media for my blog, but it is a fundamental to my venture overall! Since the product I'm providing is an event scheduling/finding app, having cross-app advertising on social media is only natural. Being able to download my app, say from Facebook, could only quicken the app's growth and popularity.

4. Surprisingly, my first and second elevator pitches had the most (and same) number of views. I think this has less to do with the content, and more to do with the assignment itself. Everyone is looking for the best was to portray they're idea/service/product, so it's only natural that when having to make a video of YOURSELF selling the service, you;d check to see how others did it first. Based on the comments and number of hits I got on mine, I'd assume I did a reasonably good job.

5. Unfortunately, I didn't make it to Google's first page. In fact, I didn't even make it into the fist 10 pages... Like I mentioned before, I didn't even think to consider my posts' SEO (aka Googl-ability). I'd this is a lesson for my future venture to consider the accessibility of my service/product to help customers easily find it on the web.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

1. As I stated in the first Very Short Interview post, my interview was with Marla H., a professor of mine who started her own consulting business after a few years of real-world experience. Looking back at my post/questions from the initial interview makes me that the Tyson of only 3 months ago was very uninformed about all the complexities of starting and running a business. I asked a lot of questions that pertained to "why" and "how" she started her business, but none that touched on how she's been successful on maintaining it; how she's been able to expand it to keep up-to-date against competition. The impression I get of myself is of someone who doesn't really know what they're getting themselves into, the questions I asked almost seem to "test the waters" of entrepreneurship.


2. I wasn't able to record this interview because Marla was very stressed for time due to it being so close to the end of the semester:

How has your business changed since you've started?

It was a slow start, but it's grown from the clients I've picked up. The more clients you work with the more your name and reputation spreads in the industry, so naturally as did more work load. I've had to pick up a part-time partner to help with all the estimating projects on our plate right now, but I'd rather be struggling to manage all the business than struggling to find it.


What's your end game? What's all of this work you've put in leading to?

Well right now while teaching your class, running this business, and taking my own classes pursuing a Doctorate degree. The "end game" I would say is to open an even larger firm, one that involves more than just a cost analysis focus. I might partner up with a friend I've graduated with and started a Design Build firm in south Florida; I doubt I'll stay in education for much longer, but that's also a possibility.

What would you ask your clients?

Why me? *chuckles* There are plenty of other estimating firms out there, ones much more reputable than mine. I think it's because they know I'm small and that I'll need more business, thus I can't afford screw their project up...

3. I feel much more confident approaching people about their ventures now than I did at the beginning of the semester. I don't know if Marla would have noticed this change, she didn't comment on it if she had, but I'd say from the questions I asked this time around it's clear I've given the entire process of managing a business/starting a venture a great deal of thought.