Week 8 Reading Reflection

Week 8: Kuratko

The biggest surprise for me in the reading was the number of possibilities that entrepreneurs have for funding. Before reading this chapter, I thought funding was just borrowing money from the bank. One part of the reading that I wish they elaborated on more was the angel investors mostly because I thought it was interesting. Two questions I would ask the author are “How does the type of business affect the type of loans they should take?” and “Which criteria of evaluating a new-venture proposal has the most influence?” I would ask these questions mostly to know more about the potential differences between different types of business and also if there is a certain criteria that venture capitalist place the higher than the others. I don’t know much about sources of capital for entrepreneurs until now so there is not much I disagree with in terms of what the author said.

Half-way Reflection

What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?

One behavior that helped me keep up with the requirements of the class is self-motivation. When you are given so many assignments with strict deadlines it is essential that you are self-motivated. You need to push yourself most of the time to do task that might be outside of your comfort zone. Another behavior that helped me in this course is perseverance because there will be many times where you are rejected, but in order to complete the assignment you have to continue on.

Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

To be honest, there have been many moments where I felt like I didn’t have the time to dedicate to these assignments.  However, I managed to pull through most of the time. I feel like I’m still developing the tenacious attitude, but I have made great improvements. I think the experience of trying new things and working with different media really contributed to the development of a tenacious characteristic.

Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the tenacious mindset?

1. The results are not always perfect, but remember to continue moving forward and learn from your mistakes.
2.  Make sure you are ahead of the work and put effort into them
3. Reflect back on your actions and assignments

Free Money

1. Where will you go? I mostly stayed in the Reitz

2. What kind of people will you approach? Mostly college students walking around the Reitz

3. What is your plan for the conversation? First I will start them off with a greeting and then I will tell them that I’m making a video about giving back to the community.

4. Estimate? I estimate that I might give away 3 of the five dollars.

Links to Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN-2wvh9aYQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcnmeQEooC8

Results: All five of the people took the money. It was harder than I imagine, mostly because I got really nervous talking to strangers. At first, the participants were very skeptical but in the end they all took the money. My predictions were incorrect mostly because I assumed people wouldn’t trust a random person giving out money, but they did. I assumed some people would just ignore me but my assumption was wrong and they all stopped to listen to what I had to say

Week 7 Reading Reflection

Week 7 Reading: Rediscovering Market Segmentation by Daniel Yankelovich and David Meer

The biggest surprise for me was how complex the act of segmentation has become and also how it has evolved over time. It was interesting to see how advertisement industry has shifted its focus from the product to the consumer in order to adapt with increasing competition. Reading this article really made me reevaluate my thoughts on modern day segmentation. However, one part of the reading that could have been explained more in-depth was the topic of psychographic segmentation. My question for the author would be, “How accurate are lab replications compared to real situations?” and “What are some common mistakes that companies do when performing marketing segmentation?” All in all, I agree with much of what the author was saying and I also found much of the information to be very insightful. 

Elevator Pitch No. 2

I apologize for the poor video editing and any shakiness that is in the video. I'll try to get my life together in the next post.

Reflection: I got some feedback about speaking up during the elevator pitch and also doing more research on how I want to fund my idea. So far, I’ve worked on both of these issues in this second elevator pitch. This time I used a better camera so it picks up my voice and I spoke louder. I also thought of a way to fund the park, which involve profits made from the pet sitting service and potential donations. 

Customer Interviews No. 3

Here are the questions I asked:

1. Do you have a pet near campus?
2. Are there sufficient opportunities for you as a pet owner near UF?
3. If a pet park were to open near campus would you bring your pet there?
4. What would you suggest for the pet park that would really make it different from the other pet parks?
5. How often do you think you would use this pet park?

The Interview Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKqHqeR6Hic&feature=youtu.be

I learned that conducting interviews is harder than I expected. A lot of people don’t want to be interview so finding five people to interview every week was quite difficult. From now on, if anyone ask me for an interview I will always try to find time for them. I hope eventually with fifteen interviews under my belt I will no long feel awkward about giving interviews to random people. 

Week 6 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise for me was how detailed the article was in describing each competitive force. This article takes concepts that I’ve learned from my economic classes such as barriers to entry and customer switching costs in relation to a bigger concept. The thing that I found the most confusing was the wording of the article. Even though most of the article was easy to understand there were parts where the article didn’t flow well. I also thought the section on exploiting industry changes could have been made clearer. Two questions I would ask the author are, “Has there been a time where supplier and buyer power changed drastically?” and “What are some actions the government takes to regulate competition between small and large businesses?” In this article I don’t think that the author said anything that I particularly disagreed with because most of the information stated correlated well with the economics courses that I have taken.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. You. Right now, I am not sure of what my talents are. Maybe as I continued with my idea I will start to see my strengths and weaknesses that could affect the project. If I were to start this business, I feel that it will be a big influence on how I will pursue my future endeavors.
2. What are you offering to customers? What I am offering to the customers is the experience and an area in which they allow their pets to have fun. This pet park will be different from the others because it will have more than a regular dog park. This pet park will have big events like local dog shows and pet training classes. It’ll also include small perks like having coin machines for dog treats or a dog toy rental.
3. Who are you offering it to? I am hoping to offer it to all pet owners. However, I still have to find a way to expand it to the smaller pets like cats, gerbils, and bunnies.
4. Why do they care? Many pet owners care about their pet and want to have an open space to play with them. Once they are able to experience the difference that Pup’s Park provides they will continue coming back.
5. What are your core competencies? The core competencies of Pup’s Park are the many opportunities and activities listed above and a potential pet sitting service.

These elements are all beneficial to the concept, however I’ll try not to go overboard on the activities. Eventually I’ll limit the activities that Pup’s Park will offer, because I don’t want the core concept to be spread thin. I’ll continue to research how I will be able to fund this project because that may be a big thing to consider especially with the types of services Pup’s Park wants to offer.

Interviewing Customers No. 2

Now, into the second round I was able to fine tune many aspects of the interview. For the idea, I thought about opening a dog park near campus. At first, I interviewed people on campus. However, it was made clear to me that there were more pet owners off campus. So eventually this led to the change of targeted consumers. This specific group of people is better represented in this interview. I tweaked the questions a bit by making the questions more interactive and specific towards the idea that I have. After improving various aspects of the interview, I can get more feedback from the targeted consumers and how to improve my future interviews.

Three tips that I would have in interviewing customers is

1.       Keep the customers engaged

2.       Ask for feedback

3.       Be specific with your questions

 

 

Week 5 Reading Reflection

Week 5 Chapter 9 Kuratko

In this chapter, it addressed the many situations that entrepreneurs have to face such as legal issues, patent protection, and partnerships. The thing that took me by surprise was the amount of time and effort required to get a patent. At first, I did not really understand how copyright protection works. However, after reading this chapter more details were made clear. For example, this chapter explained how long the copyright lasted and what the owner of the copyright can do. Some questions I would ask the author is, “Do all types of creative material get treated the same under a copyright?”, “How has trademarks and copyrights been affected by the internet industry?” For the most part, I agree with the author and I really felt like this is an important topic to cover in entrepreneurship.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

The company is called Pup’s Park and the opportunity that I decided to address is the growing number of pet owners, especially near the UF campus. The idea I hope to implement is a nearby area for pet owners to play with their companions. This will provide a free area for pet owners to let their dogs roam free and interact with other pets.