30A- Final Reflection

2) Experiences
The most formative experience I had this semester was attending lecture and learning about Ronnies wing shop experience when he was a guest speaker. The sequence of events is something I will never forget just how it all came about and something I will remember this class for. The experience I will remember years later are the elevator pitches. They are something I have saved and will be able to look back on, as well as growing as a person from something I dreaded doing. The most joyous experience was peer reviewing overall as a whole. Of course each week it may get repetitive, but looking back it was nice to see other peoples business ideas and how they would go about running it. I am most proud of the concept I came up with, it is something that I believe could really work in today's society and proud I came up with it.

3) Entrepreneur?
I definitely see myself as an entrepreneur after taking this class by the experiences I learned along the way and future business ideas I plan on pursuing post college. Now when I am out I see a lot of things that I believe could use improvement which is the mindset. I think I have already developed the entrepreneurial mindset and will continue to use it the rest of my life.

4) Recommendation 
One major thing I would recommend to a student going down this path is to choose a business idea that really interests you and something you would want to pursue in the real world. If you choose something you genuinely enjoy or want to work on, it makes the class much easier and the assignments somewhat fun. To perform best in the class, make sure to keep up with the assignments each week and do them days before the due date. Not only will this allow you to get all the points but it frees up your schedule for the other classes you are taking. To foster the mindset, again choose something you want to work on and the mindset will come along with working on it. If I could take this class again gaining another 4 credits I would certainly do it all over again.

Bluebird Wings- Ronnie

29A- Venture Concept No. 2

1) Venture Description 

Opportunity 
The opportunity when it comes target audience for my business is college students. In my previous venture concept I talked about University of Florida students alone, but now I believe the audience can be any college students since the issue is common. The nature of the need is critical due to how many students have to purchase textbooks each semester with not a lot of funds for it. The changes in the environment creating this opportunity are new classes each semester that the students are taking. In many cases, students are required to take new classes each semester that ties directly to their major. Demographically, the market falls under young adults and geographically across the United States at college campuses. Customers are currently satisfying the need by purchasing textbooks from the school bookstores or online in places such as Amazon. I would say they are not extremely loyal to whatever they use now because if a cheaper alternative is present for them most students would switch and go with that. This opportunity can be very large due to the significant amount of students across the United States and the need for textbooks. This window of opportunity will be open for as long as universities continue to operate which I believe will be for a significant amount of time.
Innovation
The innovation that I have come up with is a textbook service for students across the US at universities. My company will provide cheaper costs than the campus bookstore with textbooks and will have many options to obtain them. What I mean by this is having the option to purchase new, purchase used, or rent textbooks for just the time they are taking the class. Not only will the company be selling textbooks, a unique thing that it will have is a trade in service with previous owned textbooks that students have. Students can bring in old textbooks and trade them in for cash value or store credit that can go to whatever books they need next for their classes. For example, a student can bring in their calculus 1 textbook and trade it in for store credit with the value of  $100. This $100 can go to their calculus 2 textbook needed for the upcoming semester which costs $230 totaling out to only $130. This saves the student $100 dollars that can go to future textbooks like this one or they can take cash value for other activities they want to spend it on. The company will make money buy students purchasing textbooks and renting them out for each semester. Textbooks new will be cheaper than the bookstore prices and used books will be fairly priced for the students. Renting will be significantly cheaper than both new and used prices so students can save a lot of money.
Venture Concept
The innovation will solve and address students issues with textbooks across the United States at universities. There are many benefits to using this service for textbooks as it will save students a lot of money each semester and will be convenient for them. Customers would switch from purchasing at the bookstore to my company due to the lower prices and options of obtaining books my company would have. With the three options of getting their textbooks, the student has a choice rather than just the option of buying new at the bookstore. At first it will be difficult to get students to switch just due to the start up of the business. Once the company starts to succeed and people like using the service a positive reputation will go out and generate more business. The competitors would be the campus university bookstore and online sources such as amazon or bookstores online. The weaknesses of the bookstore are that they only offer new textbooks and have high costs with them. For online sources, the weaknesses are people have to wait on shipping or if they rent will have to ship the book back rather than just dropping it off at my business. The customer experience and price points play a major role in my business concept as it would strive for both to generate business. Employee staff would be around 10 members to run the business's day to day operations and marketing team. The roles would be front desk, marketing, and management.

2) Summary of Feedback 
The feedback that I received on my first concept post is to make sure I continue to distinguish my business from places such as Amazon and provide something that they cant, along with twisting the existing market and making it better. Also in my feedback is to focus more broadly rather than just UF students alone. I did not receive any feedback on my what's next post so all I have to talk about is the first venture post I had.

3) How I changed Concept 
I changed my venture concept to more of a general focus rather than specific at UF based off the feedback. In my feedback I learned to focus on distinguishing my business from places such as Amazon or the bookstore and do things to make mine special. For this post I focused on staying to all college students and multiple universities rather than just focusing on UF students and UF.

28A- Your Exit Strategy

1) Exit Strategy I plan to make 

If my business was to take off and be a success I do not believe I would sell it in 5 years for a major return. Stated in previous posts, I would want to expand to other universities and continue to do if there is success with hopefully creating a brand well known across the country. I would plan to stay with the business for several decades and later in life pass it down to children or sell it depending on what is best for me at that stage in life. 

2) Why have you selected this particular exit?

I selected this exit of keeping my business for decades and deciding to sell or pass down to family later on in life due to how it will be for my children. At that point in my life I would want to do what is best meaning to set myself up for a great retirement and also leaving things behind for my children that they can either continue or appreciate for the rest of their lives. 

3) Exit strategy influencing other decisions in concept 

I think my exit strategy has made a tremendous impact on the decisions I have made throughout this concept. My goal with the concept would be to keep expanding and that would take time relating to decades later deciding what I would do with the business. It has influenced how I identify an opportunity with the mindset of creating something that I can franchise and continue to grow across regions of the United States. It also has influenced how I plan to acquire and use resources by  maintaining positive relationships which can only benefit me in the future. What I mean by this is if people like me or my company it will only lead to positive things down the road than if they didn't like me or what I was doing with the company. 

27A- Reading Reflection No. 3

Book: Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

1) About Steve Jobs 
What surprised me the most when reading about Steve Jobs was how he became a billionaire. I always believed like most people that Apple was how he became so rich which is not true. Steve Jobs became a billionaire from Pixar's IPO. He purchased a major share of the company 80% for $5 million in 1986 and invested another $5 million. Steve returned 20x the amount on investment making him so rich and most people do not know that. I most admire about Jobs his involvement with stocks and being involved in companies. That is something one day I look forward getting into is the stock market and purchasing shares of companies. There really is not much to say about what I least admire with him due to how successful he is and what he has done to the technology world. I would say overall Jobs encountered adversity throughout his career and what he did about it was put his own time and money into it working hard to make it successful. This is shown in his Pixar investment and what he did with Apple.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 
His mind when it comes to the stock market and work ethic would be the two major competencies I noticed about him. Steve Jobs was very active with the stock market and purchasing shares in companies. With Pixar, NeXT, and what he did with Apple are all examples of this. Along with his decision making is is work ethic. Jobs changed companies by working hard and being innovative unlike anyone else. It is why he had so much success and will forever be a legend in society for what he has accomplished.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
One part of the reading that was confusing to me was how the name "Apple" came to be. The book does a good job of explaining Jobs's come up but for some reason the naming of the company was confusing for me. It is due to Jobs's diet and what he kept trying out along with always being on an apple farm.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
If I could ask two questions to Steve Jobs they would be:

• How would you recommend to someone the steps of getting involved with the stock market with little knowledge of it? 
• If you could go back and change one thing in the past with your career would you? 

I would ask the first question because I am really interested in starting to invest in the stock market but have no knowledge of what to really do. I do not know where to go or how to get involved which is why I would want to hear his response. 

With the second question, it would be interesting to hear what he would say since it would be about a mistake in his life. Everyone has a moment they wish they could go back in time and change which greatly will allow people to learn more about them.

5) What do you think the entrepreneur's opinion of hard work was? Do you share the same opinion?

I believe Jobs's opinion of hard work is to think outside of the box and attack it with all you got to see if it succeeds. This is shown with the major breakthroughs he created in the technology world and all of the success he had. I hesitantly share the same opinion as him because I believe people should set their mind to something and work hard for it but not many people are as intelligent and creative as Steve Jobs was. 

26A- Celebrating Failure

1) Time this semester I failed- Elevator pitches 
-I would say over the course of the three elevator pitches we did I must have messed up over 20 times. From right of the start, or even to the last 10 seconds I messed up forcing me to re do them. The bloopers are actually quite funny as a few cuss words might have slipped out in frustration when messing up. One example would be in my elevator pitch number one when stating facts about textbook costs and average spending of college students. I must have messed this up 5 times due to the facts being one after another in the pitch and having to do them over again. This was very frustrating as it took me like 30 mins to finally not mess up for each pitch.

2) What I learned from it
The biggest thing I learned from messing up on the pitches is to try and minimize frustration when failure is present. Getting frustrated only led me to messing up more and seemed like an ongoing issue causing more mistakes. I learned to try and keep my cool and to focus on the next try which helped me a lot. By the third elevator pitch I was able to keep my cool and finish it much quicker than the previous two.

3) What I think about failure
I believe failure will always be present in every humans life. I think it is very tough and something that everyone will go through constantly over the course of their lifetime. I handle failure in a way of competition. Of course when it happens I may be sad or upset and that is natural for most people. But the way I handle it is to want to be better or beat the person next time who just beat me say in a sport. I am a great competitor that doesn't like to lose and carry that when dealing with failure. Behaviorally I may seem to get upset at the time and emotionally frustrated as well. This class has defintelty helped with failure for me and I would take a risk after this class. One main thing I learned from Professor Pryor in lecture is most entrepreneurs fail in life, but the ones who keep taking risks are the ones who can succeed.

25A- What's Next?

Existing Market 
Step 1:
The existing market is the UF bookstore, and online websites where students can purchase textbooks from. There are many places students can purchase textbooks, but in Gainsville outside of the UF bookstore there is not much.
Step 2:
Customer 1: Joshua Cruz, Sophomore Finance Major
What do you believe is next for a textbook company?
     -To keep expanding to other areas or universities across the country.
What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?
     -Incorporate fun activities that come along with buying the textbooks.
How do you feel about customers wanting a free tutoring service with purchasing books or a trade in method? 
     -He thinks that is a great idea ans something he would do is trade old books in to go to the new ones.

Customer 2: Aleena Ruscella, Junior Bio Major
What do you believe is next for a textbook company?
     -She believes there really is not much next for the company. Once settled it would be hard to come up with something new or next.
What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?
     -Host events with food that bring people in.
How do you feel about customers wanting a free tutoring service with purchasing books or a trade in method? 
     -The tutoring service would be nice and something useful for students who are struggling.

Customer 3: David Combs, Senior Marketing Major
What do you believe is next for a textbook company?
     -Open several locations around the area, branch out to high schools.
What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?
     -Have more discounts for students to bring more revenue in.
How do you feel about customers wanting a free tutoring service with purchasing books or a trade in method? 
     -He feels that is a great idea and a decision maker for him. The tutoring would be useful and he can save money each semester by trading in.

Step 3:
What makes the most sense for growing with the existing market is to branch out to other universities. After settling at University of Florida and having success, the company could branch to schools like FSU or USF and continue to grow if it keeps succeeding. I have conducted interviews throughout the semester for students from other schools who all showed interest in the service.

Another good way to grow would be target high school students and the textbooks they may need for school. High school can be difficult due to most textbooks being issued to students, but there are some cases the students have to go buy books such as ACT or SAT where my company could come in. This can be a way to grow and branch out further as a whole.

New Market
Step 1:
The new market my company could target could be toddler books and kids books. .

Step 2: 
The service could be a renting service where parents can rent books out and return them along with games/toys for the children. Parents could come in and select books that the children can read that come with toys specifically to the books. Examples of this could be cat in the hat or dinosaur books. Parents can rent out the books which come with a cat in the hat plush or toys that have a bunch of dinosaurs.

Step 3: 
Interview 1: Amy Jackson, Mother of a 4 year old son in Tampa
How will my business relate to customers like you?
     -She thinks there is potential in the idea and something she would use for her son. The concept of having toys related to books is what she really likes.
What should I change to make the service better?
     -Keep up the culture trends or mainstream shows as children tend to love the popular stuff. One example would be fortnite.

Interview 2: Jonathon Luther, Father of a 5 year old son
How will my business relate to customers like you?
     -This is a great idea as it is simple and easy to buy. He stated its like an all in one service for his children to entertain them and the idea to rent is perfect.
What should I change to make the service better?
     -Talk to parents more to see what the children want in terms of books or toys.

Step 4:
What surprised me the most is how parents were so accepting to the idea and agreed. They said its an all in one service that makes entertaining their child easier and something they would have interest in. My assumption that was correct is how kids would like to have a book and toys that are related to each other. This allows them to read the book then play with toys that are what they read.

The new market would be tough to attack so no it is not that attractive to me in terms of entering. I think I would have a lot more success with textbooks for college students as the demand is just so much more in a span of 3-4 months. The renting service would be more active generating more funds for the company.

24A- Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity
The group of customers that my business would target is college students that attend the University of Florida. Their unmet needs consist of textbooks issues with both price and alternatives for options outside of the bookstore when purchasing books. The people who have the need are college students aging from 18-23 years old that attend UF. The potential customers in this case are of course the students, but majority of the time it is their parents. A lot of students on campus pay their own textbook costs but most are either paid through bright futures or from their parents. The nature of the need is consistent each semester as students are taking 3-4 classes on average every four months. With the great amount of students at UF, the nature of the need remains constant. The changes in the environment for this need is new semesters at UF. It forces students to buy approximately 8 textbooks a school year just due to their schedules. The market is defined demographically by young adults which falls under college students. This opportunity is very big as the demand for textbooks is constant in Gainsville and will continue to be open as long as the University goes on. Customer's are currently satisfying this need by going to the UF bookstore on campus purchasing textbooks new. I would say they are not extremely loyal as it is basically the only option for them to get the textbooks with ease.
Innovation
The innovation that I have come up with is a textbook service in Gainsville for University of Florida students. My company will provide cheaper costs than the campus bookstore with textbooks and will have many options to obtain them. What I mean by this is having the option to purchase new, purchase used, or rent textbooks for just the time they are taking the class. Not only will the company be selling textbooks, a unique thing that it will have is a trade in service with previous owned textbooks that students have. Students can bring in old textbooks and trade them in for cash value or store credit that can go to whatever books they need next for their classes. For example, a student can bring in their calculus 1 textbook and trade it in for store credit with the value of  $100. This $100 can go to their calculus 2 textbook needed for the upcoming semester which costs $230 totaling out to only $130. This saves the student $100 dollars that can go to future textbooks like this one or they can take cash value for other activities they want to spend it on. The company will make money buy students purchasing textbooks and renting them out for each semester. Textbooks new will be cheaper than the UF bookstore prices and used books will be fairly priced for the students. Renting will be significantly cheaper than both new and used prices so students can save a lot of money.
Venture Concept
The innovation will solve and address students issues with textbooks in the Gainsville area specifically UF students. There are many benefits to using this service for textbooks as it will save students a lot of money each semester and will be convenient for them. Customers would switch from purchasing at the bookstore to my company due to the lower prices and options of obtaining books my company would have. With the three options of getting their textbooks, the student has a choice rather than just the option of buying new at the bookstore. At first it will be difficult to get students to switch just due to the start up of the business. Once the company starts to succeed and people like using the service a positive reputation will go out and generate more business. The competitors would be the UF bookstore and online sources such as amazon or bookstores online. The weaknesses of the bookstore are that they only offer new textbooks and have high costs with them. For online sources, the weaknesses are people have to wait on shipping or if they rent will have to ship the book back rather than just dropping it off at my business. The customer experience and price points play a major role in my business concept as it would strive for both to generate business. Employee staff would be around 10 members to run the business's day to day operations and marketing team. The roles would be front desk, marketing, and management.
Minor Elements
The most important resource I have is being a UF student and part of the demographic I would be targeting. This allows me to promote and market directly to what students like as I am one of them myself. The next thing I would like to tackle with the business is maybe incorporate a tutoring service that is included with purchasing a textbooks. I believe this would generate more business and motivate people to use the service even more. In the next five years after launch I would like to expand to other college campuses and have the same business structure but focused to the specific universities. Eventually down the road I would want to continue to create and manage more businesses.

23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources in venture:
1. A UF student myself, know the habits of the target audience 
-This is valuable due to my knowledge and personal experiences with purchasing textbooks and finding where to get them. This is rare because most businesses do not directly represent the audience they are targeting in terms of age and demographic. This is something that can not be copied.

2. In Greek life, have a big community to target for my business
-This is valuable due to being able to easily promote my business and having a community that will support it. Greek life is connected very well and support each other in most situations. It is rare due to not as many people being involved with Greek life as a whole in the student population.

3. Within fraternity alumni could raise start up money easily
-Having a network like this is valuable because it is not common in most businesses. The brotherhood supports each other both present and past members in the fraternity.

4. Trade in service for textbooks 
-No other textbook company has this which makes my service unique and valuable with the trade in. It is rare for a company to have all the options mine would.

5. My father is a lawyer, good resource to have for the business 
-By having this resource, it will be a free cost of lawyer fees if any issue was to arise. My father would not charge to deal with legal issues.

6. Direct friends and people who would use my service in my network at school
-Personally with the interviews I have conducted would already have customers interested in using my service on the start up. Many people liked the idea of my company and said they would use it for sure.

7. Location, I would find a spot easily accessible by students 
-The location would be geared to students easily being able to reach it and interact with. Right off of campus where they could go in and out at any point in their day.

8. Exclusive promotions to UF students that motivates them in purchasing
-By providing a gator 1 when purchasing, offers such as free textbooks for the semester or gift card raffles will be used to get more students to use the service.

9. Referral program, if people refer others who use service they get rewards 
-Along with the previous one, this will motivate people to share my company and spread across Gainsville for textbooks.

10. All UF staff, people who attend or have attended UF
-This will create a unique culture that no other company will have. The UF community is strong and a culture unlike any other and I would want the same for my business.

My top resource is the first one which is being a UF student myself which is the target audience for my company. This is more important compared to all the others because I can directly market to people like me and know what most students like. No other resource is as valuable when it comes to the success of the business.

22A- Elevator Pitch No. 3

1) https://youtu.be/iPwdU4CVxWE

2) The feedback that surprised me the most was how much of a jump I made from the first elevator pitch in terms of confidence. The first elevator pitch seemed to me shaky with the way I delivered my information and definitely improved in the second one. There was a silly feedback that I should time by self better but the assignment was for 90 seconds and my pitch was 92 seconds.

3) What I changed with this third elevator pitch is including a new idea that most students would want to obtain. This is getting free smoking notes for the semester in whatever textbook you purchase for the semester. It creates incentive to purchase with my company and save the student even more money throughout the semester.

21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

Book I selected: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

1) The general theme of the book is that there will be many losses in life that happens along the way but if you take care of yourself winning big will come along. Scott shares how he took care of himself through many losses until everything worked out for him.

2) I think the book did a great job with connecting and enhancing what I am learning in ENT3003. Along the way of this course, challenges and issues occurred with the business concept I selected and I would say they are minor losses. I had to keep thinking and coming up with new ways to make my business distinct to overcomes the challenges. I am taking care of myself in this course by trying my best with every assignment and pushing through to gain as much as I can out of it.

3) The exercise would involve writing things in the past you have done that seemed to fail. After coming up with a list, write things you plan or wish to pursue in the future. After having both of the lists a timeline is created briefly to show that jobs or things come and go in life and that there is always another opportunity in front of you that you can achieve. It would motivate to keep pushing through and success will come eventually.

4) What I learned that was eye opening to me was how Scott's message is to build your life around systems, not goals. This was an aha moment as throughout my life have been taught to set goals and pursue them but the way Scott demonstrated this concept it really clicked. He stated an issue with goals is that it is in the future at an unknown date and they are specific. Systems leave room to adjust your plans and maximize the situation you are currently in.

20A- Growing Your Social Capitol

Brain Greenberg, CEO of an insurance agency in Tampa, FL
1) Brian is the owner and operator of an insurance agency in Tampa named Alera Group Company. He went to the University of Florida and worked his way up in an agency and eventually branched out creating his own. He now currently merged with another insurance company and that is where he stands today.
2) Domain expert in the industry
3) I was looking up CEO's in Tampa and came across him on LinkedIn. I emailed him introducing myself and my elevator pitch asking for feedback.
4) The favor he did for me was evaluate my elevator pitch and told me the strengths and weaknesses of it. There is no return expectation other than him happy to help and for reaching out to him.
5) Including him in my network gives me the ability to exploit an opportunity due to maybe one day working for him. Coming out of college he will certainly remember me and could offer a job.

Ryan Griffin, Insurance Agent 
1) Ryan is an insurance agent that specializes in medicare and life insurance. He is starting as an agent and plans on working his way up to a manger role in the future. He sells insurance for a living so is an expert in insurance and the ways about it.
2)Market expert
3) I found Ryan by researching through LinkedIn and contacting him through that. I wanted to stay within the insurance agency setting since that is who the domain expert was and found him. I joined his network of connections and emailed him.
4) I asked about my elevator pitch and any feedback he had for me. His response was positive stating all the good things I did in my pitch and what he liked about it.
5) He is a good reference to have if I have any questions about his experiences or what to do at some point out of college.

Cindy Schobert, Insurance purchaser
 1) Cindy is an elderly lady who has recently purchased insurance in the medicare period. She would be the "supplier" in this case since she is the one purchasing the insurance.
2) Supplier
3) I found Cindy and contacted her through Facebook messenger. She is the grandma to my girlfriend who I have never met before and reached out to her on Facebook.
4) I asked her about the insurance process and what it was like on her end. The favor she did for me was giving good information on what it is like on the customer side of the insurance agency and her experiences.
5) This enhances an opportunity by gaining knowledge on what it is like on both sides of the spectrum. What I mean by this is I saw the ways from both the company perspective and the customer.

Reflect
This will shape how I participate in future networking events by encouraging me to meet and connect with as many people as I can. Building connections can only be a positive thing for myself and this post helped me realize that. It did differ from the past due to reaching them via online rather than person. It is a more challenging way to per personable with people but an effective way of communicating.