Week 8 Reading Reflection

1. There actually wasn't anything that surprised me throughout the reading because I had already been exposed to almost all of the material in previous coursework, making this a very straightforward reading assignment. It was also easy to read because of the way that the author explained everything in depth. 

2. As I stated above, the reading was pretty straightforward. There wasn't anything that I found particularly confusing.

3. When it came to the figures presented regarding informal risk, do those statistics apply to everyone? I would also ask why exactly the term "Angels" is used when referring to investors. 

4. There wasn't anything that I disagreed about in the reading. For the most part, it simply presented factual information as opposed to trying to sway my opinion. 

Half-way Reflection

1. When it comes to the behaviors that I have had to use to keep up with this course, the biggest one by far is responsibility. Although there are no quizes or exams, this class has around 100 assignments spaced out over the course of the semester, which breaks down to almost an assignment per day. I have never had a class like this before so it was a learning curve for me. I had to check canvas on a daily basis to make sure that there wasn't an assignment that was due because I missed quite a few when the class first began. I also had to get use to the assignments being due at 9pm as opposed to midnight. Most of my classes will  make their assignments due at midnight so this was different and threw me off a little bit at first.

2. So far, I have not actually gotten to the point of feeling like "giving up". This class is very different in its nature, but still very straightforward. The assignments are not difficult, although they can sometimes be a bit time consuming. As long as you can be responsible and keep up with your assignments, you will never experience that "giving up" feeling.

3. One thing that I do now to make sure that I do not miss any assignments is to make sure that I write down all of my due dates in a smaller planner that I carry around. When I set the due date, I write the date two days in ahead of when it is actually due. For example, if something is due on a Friday, I would set the due date for that assignment on a Wednesday to make sure that I get it done in a timely manner.

Another thing that would help is to watch the lectures the day that they are made available to you. Once you get behind, it is hard to catch up and watch many lectures at once because you have to set a large amount of time to the side for that. This is something that helped me keep up with the course as well.

Lastly, accept the fact that this class is going to force you to do things that are out of your comfort zone. You will need to walk up to random people and explain to them what your goal is on a fairly regular basis as a result of this class. Your grade literally depends on it. It teaches you how to effectively and professionally present yourself to others which is a vital skill for every entrepreneur.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

1. His entire idea of essentially categorizing people based on their shopping patterns as opposed to demographics stood out to me. I does not seem like a feasible thing to do. Although it may have a good yield, in terms of its results, it just seems far more difficult and costly to do to monitor individuals based on what they buy instead of a few keys factors like age, sex and economic status. The only way that I would see it potentially working is if customers have an "account" of some sort set up to track everything they buy when they buy it. Even then, however, that would mean customizing marketing techniques for every individual person. It seems very time consuming and would raise marketing expenses significantly.

2. One part that was confusing to me is how exactly a business how go about customizing advertisements to each individual. It seems too difficult to go through.

3. I would ask the author two questions: 1. Could this custom advertising be feasible for small businesses? And 2. If you could track shopping trends, wouldn't it be a good idea to include both demographics and shopping patterns instead of just shopping patterns?

4. I disagree when it comes to using shopping patterns in place of demographics. As I explained in my response to the first part, it would be very costly in comparison to tracking demographics. Secondly, demographics tells marketers the stage of life a person is in, what the general interests and trends are in that generation and the things that the majority of the population of that demographic are going through. For example, at this point, most of the baby boomers are going through retirement which tells marketers a lot about what they would be interested, or uninterested, in buying.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

This is my second elevator pitch and it was one that I actually gave to a group of pre-dental students (Im pre-dental). Of course, I rerecorded it, but said the same things. I am a member of the American Student Dental Association (ASDA) and went to a meeting of pre-dental students to try recruiting them to our organization. In order to do that, they have to pay for a membership, which is $95 between national and local dues. I did not mention that in the elevator pitch, however, because I did not want them to lose interest. I focused far more heavily on the benefits that they would receive out of a membership with us instead.

Based on the feedback I received after my first elevator pitch, I seemed a little stiff and utilized few hand motions so I tried to incorporate a bit more hand motions and lighten up some to come off as a more comfortable and confident person. Overall, I thought that the feedback I received last time was pretty spot on and helped me to improve this time around. Although I know I still have some work to do, it is certainly an improvement from the first time.

Customer Interviews No. 3

My business idea has to do with a free third-party delivery service. Most delivery services, like Doorstep Delivery for example, charge a $3.99 delivery fee which serves as a barrier to many customers. The way that this company would make money is by charging the businesses a slightly higher fee to use our services than the other companies. Typically, these delivery services will charge the restaurants 20-30% of the order total. This idea would likely charge them a fee upwards of 30%, but would give customers, including those who are not currently customers of these restaurants, an incentive to order from them, serving as both sales and advertisement. Below are the customer interviews I took. Unfortunately, my phone died during the last interview so I will find someone tomorrow to interview and upload it to this post afterwards.

I learned that using this technique of handing all of the interviewees the same piece of paper with the business idea written on it was a better way to go about conducting the actual interviews. Because they were all exposed to the same idea using the same verbiage on the paper, it made the interviews a little more standardized. It also showed me that this is an idea that may actually have some sort of potential. If I was not a student right now, it is a business idea that could be well worth persuing.There wasn't anything in particular about the interviews that surprised me though. 

Week 6 Reading Reflection

1. The thing that stuck out the most to me was the way that these five forces are generalized to all businesses and industries. Although they can be applied most everywhere, I'm sure there are businesses out there where one or two of these forces do not apply.

2. It was a very straight forward reading. I was already exposed to Porter's five forces in the Management course so it was a little review.

3. If I could ask the author two questions, they would be 1. What sparked your interest to write this article on Porter's five forces? And do you think these five forces can be generalized to all business?

4. I don't think the author was wrong about anything. They were simply summarizing what Porter said about business.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. I am currently a 3rd year pre-dental student with a major in Business Management. Needless to say, I aspire to become a dentist; however, I'd like to own and manage my own practice, which is where the business management comes in. Obviously, I could not open a dental practice at the moment because I lack the skill set to. I had a different idea. It is one that would require an incredible amount of dedication and time, but that is typically how opening a business goes!

2. The service I would be offering is a third party delivery service for many different restaurants that do not actually deliver; however, to beat out the competition like Doorstep Delivery or Go Waiter, I would be offering free delivery. The large delivery fee usually tagged onto the price by these delivery service is a huge reason why they are not as popular as they could be. The way that this company would make money, is by taking a percentage of the order that is being delivered (25-30% for example). Our free delivery service and convenience would beat that of the competition and would serve as a huge incentive to try our service instead.

3. This service would be offered to the customers of the restaurants that do not deliver. Take Bagels and Noodles as an example.

4. As aforementioned, customers of these restaurants would have a huge incentive to order from us because, instead of actually going to the restaurant, they can order from their homes or work and have the food conveniently delivered to them for free.

5. The difference between my competitors and I is my pricing. Every other company charges ~$3.99 for their delivery whereas mine will be free.

I think this is an idea that has a ton of potential. Most students  do not use these third party delivery services because it makes the food at least $4 more expensive. In a college town like Gainesville, it would thrive. The market does not just stop at students, though. It can easily reach everyone within a 2-3 mile radius, including families. Aside from that, there is no other delivery service that gives free delivery. From the restaurants' point of view, they would be able to access markets that they previously were not able to, not to mention their name would be included in all of our advertising, giving them, essentially, a free marketing campaign. 

Elevator Pitch No.1

This was an actual Elevator pitch that I gave to a recruiter during Heavener Career Week. The company that I was pitching to was Heartland Dental. Because I'm a pre-dental student, this was a company that I was actually interested in working for over the summer. I let the recruiter know that I was going to record what I say for the sake of an assignment and he declined to be in the video. I actually ended up getting an interview for a summer internship with them and they later extended an offer to me, which I accepted. The opportunity here stemmed from Heartland Dental needing employees for this upcoming summer, as they were shorthanded in staff. The solution was to attend Heavener Career Week to recruit students for those summer positions, like me.