Final Reflection

The most memorable experience was conducting the interviews. I usually don’t ask strangers for interviews, but to my surprise they didn’t mind helping me out. I am proud that I was able to put myself out there and take more risks than I usually would have. As of right now, I feel that I am closer to being an entrepreneur than I was in the beginning of the course. Now I start to see daily dilemmas as potential business ideas. The one suggestion that I would make to the students going down this journey is don’t be afraid to learn from your mistakes and learn from other people experiences. Also, keep an open mind you never know where opportunity could be hiding.

Week 15 Reading Reflection

The reading that stood out the most was just how many things you have to consider when you are doing business in a different location. This article was a very eye opening experience and really changes my views on the struggles within a business. There was nothing really confusing to me in the reading. It is amazing how microfinance has benefitted the families and how it was able to remove some financial burdens they suffered from. If I could ask the author two questions I would ask “What motivated you to create this business?” and “What are some tactics you have used to ensure that this market was efficiently targeted?” I agree with the article and I think what the author is doing is great things for the lower class. This was a very inspirational article.

Venture Concept No. 2

Venture Concept Write-Up

Opportunity

The opportunity started mostly from an overlooked market, which can be under the label of college students. However, as I further developed the idea it seems that many consumers residing in urban areas are also interested in a similar service/ product. This is a great opportunity to delve into because of the growing number of pet owners and pet related products.

So the main people who have the needs are:

1. City pet owners
2. College student pet owners
3. Local pet owners

The nature of the need is that these pet owners want to have a place that is close location wise to allow their pets to play outside and also a place that they can bring to their pets to be taken care of temporarily. However, most of the time they need to go to locations that may not have everything that they need and may be far away.

Things to take into account

Changes in the environment creating this opportunity?

The changes that I have noticed is the increase of pet owners especially within the UF college campus. This increase in pet owners grow larger especially during the holidays as pets are a common gift. It is also becoming increasingly common to have more than one pet, then it has been in the past.

How is this market defined geographically and demographically?

As I said previously most of my market will be pet owners, probably from suburban areas. However there has been some demand in urban areas. Below are some charts showing dog and cat owners and their distribution within America. From what I can see, there are more cat owners in the northern states and more dog owners in the southern states.

How are customers currently satisfying this need and how loyal are they to whatever they use now?

·         Using their backyard as an area for their pet

·         Other local pet parks

·         Using a pet sitting service that is separate from the park

The loyal that these consumers may have to the local pet parks and pet sitting service might be strong, however if given the opportunity to make their trip to easier they would most likely chose it.Another thing to note is that most houses in crowded urban areas do not have backyards so they do not have the first option.

How big is this opportunity?

It really depends on the whether this trend of increasing pet owners will continue, however I think it has the opportunity to be a good opportunity to invest in. Especially with my newly developed concept of an indoor pet park.

Duration of window of opportunity?

The duration of the opportunity is not very long, because this idea can be easily imitated and also many companies have already tried to appeal to pet owners as a potential market.

Innovation

The service that I am introducing is opening local dog parks with differentiating amenities such as a pet sitting service and a toy rental store. This will be placed strategically so that it will target the intended market. The thing that I’m selling is the experience of visiting this dog park. If this is accomplished then both the owner and pet will enjoy the park and visit. The way I intend to make money is to through the toy rental, pet sitting, and potential donations,

1.    Toy rental: This will give owners a chance to borrow toys temporarily for their stay at the park. The price depends on the type of toy.

a.       Simple toys like a tennis balls will be inexpensive. For example two tennis balls will be 1.00 for two.

b.      More complex toys will range from 5-10 dollars.

c.       Owners also have the potential buy new toys within our inventory to keep

2.     Pet sitting: Will give owners a place to leave their pet if they need pet sitting service.

a.       This will also be dependent on the type of pet and how long they intend to stay. The range would be 10$-50$ per day and can be reduced if they stay longer than a certain amount of time.

b.      It will be a little  more costly for small increments of time and discounted for longer periods of time

c.       Overnight stays will be around 40-50 dollars

d.      Package deals could be made.

3.       Donations

a.       Donations will be collected in a box at the front desk

b.      Some incentive to donate would be pet perks such as getting discounts for pet sitting or pet products.

c.       Partnering up with potential businesses, which can provide us products.

4. Parking Fees/Entrance Fees

        a. Costs depends on where you live and how much space is available

        b. Entrance fees may only apply to indoor pet parks

Venture

Consumers are willing to buy my innovation because of the convenience and the experience that it could provide them. They can now get multiple services at one location, which makes the pet owner’s lives easier. This convenience is a big part of why customers would want to switch to my park. Potential competitors will not have all the amenities that I will provide and they lack unique qualities that could differentiate them from the other dog parks. The biggest thing that I would like to concentrate on is the customer experience and business location. This is because they play an important role in building and supporting my business concept.

Ways to continue the ongoing product of my service?

·         Constantly innovate and update service to match consumer needs

·         Generate good word of mouth to have free marketing people trust.

·         Great customer service with around 5-15 employees depending on the day

·         Event planning that correlates and complements the environment of the park

·         Initiating community based involvement and activities to form a close relationship with the consumers

·         Continue developing my idea for an indoor pet park suitable for both cats and dogs.

The Three Minor Elements

Most Important Resource	What’s Next	Future
·         Constant improvement that my service is willing to perform for my consumers. ·         Good Word of Mouth ·         Direct contact with the consumer and taking suggestions.	·         I would like to have a small convenient store so that owners will be able to purchase basic items for their pets. ·         Maybe expand to other locations with a large amount of pet owners. ·         Expand into more urban areas by implementing the idea of indoor pet parks to account for majority of the cat owners in the North.	·         I hope to be able to say that I have made my venture last successfully for five years ·         This first venture will help me achieve my future ventures by giving me experience in entrepreneur ship. ·         In the next decade I hope to make my mark on the music industry.

Additional information:

So far, the feedback was really helpful. Most of the comments were concerned about how I was going to get the land in the urban area for a pet park. My solution for that would be to establish indoor pet parks for the areas that don't have an open area to build a pet park on. I think this will be a great solution for the people that live in big cities.They also asked if I was going to have entrance fees, however I am not to sure as of right now. Perhaps I will have entrance fees  for the indoor pet parks and parking fees. I also had positive feedback on the format of the venture concept so I maintain most of the format.

Google Gold

1. A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimization (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO?

The general approach and strategy to SEO was using general terms and key words such as “entrepreneurship”, “entrepreneur”, and “venture”. Some activities that I did for the activities is add labels and pictures for my post. I also marketed my blog when I commented on other people’s blogs. This advertising causes more views and more internet traffic.

2.What were your keywords? How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

As I stated, I used keywords like “entrepreneurship”, “entrepreneur”, and “venture”. I generally try to use more positive wording. Throughout the semester I did little changes to my keywords by adding more keywords to increase the likeliness that someone will stumble on my blog.

3. How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I used to social media in my SEO efforts by marketing my blog and blog post to other people’s blog in the form of a comment. I try to tie my blog post to theirs and state what is similar and different so they would be more curious and visit my blog. I think that this use of social media really did help. It generated more page views then if I had not used it. I believe the results was generally receptive.

4. What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

I think the most viral post that I had was Elevator Pitch two, based on the blog statistics. I think this is because many people at one point had to develop an Elevator pitch and so it is a common search on Google. Another reason, is that it was an assignment that involved other students to comment on it.

5. Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

I went in incognito mode to make that the results were accurate and I search entrepreneurship. Needless to say, I did not make it to the first page of Google results. It was pretty far back so I am not sure what page result I would be.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

Week 14 Reading Reflection: Kuratko Chapter 3 and Chapter 4

The biggest surprise for me was learning more about the different forms of social entrepreneurship. I also thought that learning about radical and incremental innovation was interesting. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was diaspora networks. I wish that there was more detail about this particular topic because I wanted to know more about the role that they played. Two questions I would ask the author would be, “What are some examples of partnerships between Resource-rich countries and Market-Rich countries?” and “What is the best way to prep and recover from failure?” So far, I really liked both chapters and have nothing that I particularly disagree with.

Celebrating Failure

Celebrating Failure

1.)Tell us a time this past semester that you failed?

I initially had a goal to try new things and to be more involved around campus, it was working really well at first. However, eventually everything fell back to normal and I was in the same rut of going to class and going home. I try to do this every semester, however for the most part it falls flat. This semester was when I put in the most effort into making this work.

2.)Tell us what you learned from it?

To be honest, learning from my failures is a difficult thing for me to do. I know that failure is a big part of learning, however I can never get past how embarrassing it felt to fail. I hope to improve this situation by being more reflective on my failures.

3.)How do you handle failure and has this class changed your perspective on failure? Are you willing to take more risks than you were four months ago?

I usually dwell on it for a couple of days. Then, I try to make improvements to make sure the same mistake doesn’t happen twice. So far, this class has not changed my perspective on failure. I think that for the most part it will be up to me to decide on how I to perceive failure. This semester I have taken on more risks, but it was mostly to achieve my goal of trying new things.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

Week 13 Reading: Kuratko Chapter 14

The biggest surprise for me in this chapter was just how important it was to have an accurate value of the business that is free from emotional bias. I knew that business valuation had to be done when you have or want a business, however I never really thought about how big of a role it played. Part of the reading that was confusing to me was the adjusted tangible book value. Two questions I would ask the author would be, “How can a company get an accurate life expectancy of the business, when there are so many variables to consider?” and “Are there shortcomings to larger enterprises?” So far, most of the concepts in this chapter is new to me so I don’t really know if there is anything to disagree with for right now.

My Exit Strategy

1.)    The exit strategy that I plan to make is to sell the business in the next 5 years. This venture was created mostly to obtain experience in owning my own business. Hopefully, afterwards I can start a business that will be a longer investment.

2.)    I selected this exit strategy because it is always good to move on to better things and new challenges than stay stagnant. Having this type of venture will give me enough experience to start another business. I am hoping to own my own record label  some in the future.

3.)    The exit strategy has really influenced me in my decisions for the concept. For the most part, if it is a short investment more risks can be taken. It also made me think of how to market my company so that it may be desirable to other companies or people.