Final Reflection

• After going back and reading all of my blog posts from this summer, I have realized how far I have come. One of the experiences that I know I will remember years to come is the interview process. Admittedly, I dreaded each interview. However, going back and listening to them I can hear the progress I make on how to conduct an interview that gives me the most information. My most joyous experience was creating an avatar of my prototypical customer. I thought this was a fun way to see what a average consumer may look like, and I loved creating their backstory. The experience I am most proud of was the final elevator pitch. Being recorded, and especially having people I don't know watch, is one of my biggest fears. I did not complete the first two pitches, but was proud when I did do that final pitch and it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. 

• I don't know if I necessarily see myself as an entrepreneur yet, however I am much more close to feeling this was than before I started this class. I do believe though that I have developed the mindset of an entrepreneur. I can now easily catch myself thinking "Oh, thats a problem, why hasn't something been created to solve this?".

• My advice would be to not treat this course as just submitting assignments for a grade. Treat this class seriously and you will not only enjoy the assignment more, but it can truly help you develop a new mindset that you will use on a daily basis. 
  

Making it Real

Below is the link to my resume:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwe7Kdqsl7VqQ3Y5Uk8tYmFRYU0/view?usp=sharing

My Exit Strategy

My exit strategy will be as follows:

1) I plan to continue with my business until I feel it has reached the "question mark" phase of its life cycle. At this point, I would attempt to sell the business.

2) I have chosen this strategy because I would like to stick with the business as long as possible. I think there is so much valuable information to be learned from your first venture. All of the information I gather from this venture will allow me to have the experience to embark on new ventures down the road.

3) I believe that my exit strategy has made me realize that this is my first business venture, and that there is no way to make everything perfect. Treating this venture as also a learning experience allows me to stop and think about different roads I could have taken and what their results would be.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: 

     My product idea was created because I saw a need to prevent the staleness of chips. Who possesses this need can really be anyone who finds themselves buying chip bags. I see the major customer group being large families and college students. The changes in environment that prompt this need is when chips are exposed to air they will become stale. This consumer target group is defined demographically. Currently, consumers will invest in chip clips or will just roll the bag of chips. From interviews, consumer's have no loyalty to their current method. This is a big opportunity because of how many people consume chips daily. I believe the window of opportunity will always be there until someone comes along and executes a product like mine.

Innovation:

     My Innovation is an adhesive seal that will be added to large party bags of chips which allows them to instantly be sealed. This seal will prevent air from getting into the bag and will therefore help prevent staleness and prolong the 'life' of the chips. This seal works by using upper end adhesive glue to form a seal that consumers can simply just press down and instantly seal their bag after eating. I am selling the resources I used to create this seal to chip companies to add to their manufacturer for .40 cents. 

Venture Concept:

     This innovation will prevent staleness by offering consumers an instant way to effectively seal their bag of chips. I believe it will be easy to get consumers to switch their method of closing chip bags and purchase my innovation. Since I am targeting chip companies that are already established to add it to their already existing product, the company already has established and consumer base and has brand loyalty. Consumers will trust and buy my seal because they trust the brand of chips that it is on. The competitors of my innovation are producers of chip clips. The weakness with chip clips is that it is a seperate purchase that many don't want to make. They are not an instant option as a seal would be. As stated before, packaging, my price points, distribution, customer support, and the customer experience is everything when it comes to this product. My product is unique because I am targeting brands that already have the loyalty and packaging worked out. The actual business organization would have a production unit starting with about 20 employees to run and sort the equipment. I would need the roles of outreach (reaching out to different chip companies), production, distribution, etc. 

What I believe to be my most important resource is my preexisting contacts when people that work in the upper levels of big chip companies. 

What I think will be next for my venture is possibly targeting the individual size bags of chips instead of just the party bag size. 

Assuming that I do launch, in the future I would like to become an entrepreneur of bigger things than just chips. I would really like to do something with technology, and my background with this venture will help with the process. 

Celebrating Failure

Failure in life is unavoidable. I have learned the lesson of failure many times, including during this semester. This semester, I experienced failure in time management. For the first time, I not only had classes with UF to manage, but I also had a full time job to manage as well. I would come home from a long shift and feel that I deserved to lay back and watch Netflix for the rest of the night. I thought that I could stuff all of my classes into the weekend. Well the weekend would roll around, and I quickly realized that this was not possible. My failure to see the load my classes and work schedule would be, and my failure to manage them resulted in high stressed and even missed assignments. Despite the failure, I needed to realize that the classes weren't over. I couldn't just sulk about my failure. I needed to sit down and dedicate time to learn from this failure. I developed a schedule that still allowed time to relax after work, but also required at least an hour of studying. I also invested in a planner to make sure this new schedule could be implemented. Since then, I have done much better with keeping up with my classes and now have less stress in my life too.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiO18fC7VZc&feature=youtu.be

Above is the link to my elevator pitch

REFLECTION:

This is actually the first elevator pitch I have done for this class. I strongly dislike recording myself so I have been trying to avoid making one. Since it is my first pitch for the course, it may not be at the level as others so I would love to hear feedback! Finally doing the pitch was much more easier than dreading it and I think it will help me with that fear in the future.

Amazon Whisperer

• Describe the revenue drivers you currently include in your business concept for this class. Revenue drivers are the different ways you make money. 

- I think I can generate most of the money for this business concept by a website like "kickstarter". I believe that most people empathize with a young college student wanting to become a entrepreneur. 

• Describe what kind of product offering you believe should be next. What's the next thing your customers want?

- Currently, I want to focus on large party bags of chips. I believe once the seal is well established and known to be on those large bag, consumers will want them on the smaller bags

• Describe how this "next" thing will enhance your existing product/service offering. Does it improve the user experience, does it increase customer switching costs, does it foster customer loyalty, etc.?

- This "next" thing of adding my seal to different sizes of bags will allow consumers to have more options. The additional options can cater to any size family which will foster customer loyalty. 

• Go to Amazon and try to find a product that is similar to the one you want to offer next. Describe the product. Include a picture of the product

- This product is one that will accomplish the same thing as my chip seals. 

• What are the customer reviews for the product? What, exactly, do customers not like about the product? What do they like about it?

- The bag re-sealer from Amazon has a 3.5 star rating from 377 reviews. Consumers like the product when it does work as it has been helping the longevity of the product they are sealing. Many reviews complained about the price and how the product simply did not work, 

• Describe what design/usability changes you'd make to the product. 

- This sealer from Amazon is an external one. One that can easily be lost and is a fairly big price to pay up front. My seal will be featured on the bag and the minimal price for it will already be included in the price of the chips so consumers do have cognitive dissonance for spending a lot of money.

• Describe why you think this product would make a good addition to your current product/service offering.

- One could argue that this product would be a good addition to my current business concept. It gives the consumer more options and could potentially save them money if they frequently are buying chips. 

My Unfair Advantage

1) My contacts

V: Having a contact that actually worked in a major chip company is extremely valuable source of information.
R: She is the only person that I have ever known that has worked in a chip company
I: Her unique experience in the company is not able to be replicated by anyone
N:  Other resources can be beneficial but can not replace her potential value to me


2) Practical product

V: My product idea is actually practical. It will easily click in the consumers mind of how this will be beneficial.
R: It is often hard to find a product that you don't have spend resources to explain to a consumer group.
I: Practicality is hard to copy. Your product has it or it does not.
N: There are similar products that can have the same effect of preventing staleness, but mine is the most practical because it is right on the bag.

3) Supplier options

V: My products has many options for its supplier. I can focus on supplying the adhesive to manufacturers of various bag company or I can target specific chip companies.
R: Having options is a rare thing
I: Nobody can copy the specific options that I have for suppliers
N: Supplier options are non-substitutable

4) Easy implementation
V: My product would be very simple to implement. Instead of creating a whole new invention, I am simply adding something to an already well established product- a chip bag. This will make the implementation phase go much quicker.
R: So many products require so much time to design and implement
I: Simplicity is hard to copy. It is either there or it is not
N: If someone tried to force their product to be easily implemented- they would likely be cutting corners and may end up with a worse product.

5) Social acceptance
V: My product goes right along with a new shift towards reusable and green products. I can gear marketing toward this
R: Social acceptance is a hard thing and usually require much brand trust.
I: You cannot simply make your product appear to be environmentally friendly if it is not. The public will find out and drive your brand to the ground.
N: There are no other options to "sort of" being enviromentally friendly.

6) Me
V: My product has myself behind it. I believe my drive and abilities will allow this product to find success.
R: There is only one of me
I: Nobody is able to copy my mentality
N: Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses that are unique.

7) Trust
V: My product is an adhesive seal that will be put onto already trusted brands like "Lays" . Consumers will trust the seal because they trust these well established brands.
R: It is rare to be able to take a different product's consumer trust
I: You cannot fabricate trust. Especially with social media nowadays, everything will be online.
N: There is no substitute for loyalty. Consumers tend to stick with their trusted brands for years.

8) Low cost
V: The cost of the adhesive seal will be pennies to create. This will allow me to allocate my resources to more things
R: Low creation cost is not a common thing.
I: Attempting to make something cheap that is not cheap will result in a poor product.
N: My product's low cost is genuine- not forced, which is not substitutable.

9) Quality
V: Because adhesive is low cost, it will allow me to use the best products to create it.
R: Having options to choose the better version is rare.
I: Most products that choose to use better quality resources will be making a big money commitment.
N: Allocating resources is a non substitutable activity. Once you allocate money to one thing, you can't allocate the same money to another thing.

10) First time product for me
V: While this being my first venture may sound like a con, I believe there are more pros associated. I will show perseverance with this product, and will analyze each option.
R: Every entrepreneur only gets to call something their 'first venture' once.
I: The first time is something that is simply not copiable.
N: There are so many things that go into your first venture that are not substitutable. Largely, it is the mentality and passion that may weaken as time goes on.


The resource I believe to be my "top resource" is that my product is low cost. I believe this is the most important is because I will be saving money on the actual product, I will be able to have more money to improve all other aspects.

Reading Reflection No. 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

-The general theme in the book was all about the methods of finding success that are found through failure. The book has so many tips that are not obvious. One of my favorites was that goals do nothing. Adams extends on this with the example that the goal of losing ten pounds does nothing without implementing the system of eating healthy.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

-The book is about how failure stems success. Throughout this class I have learned that entrepreneurship involves so much failure. Learning from failure and continuing is the biggest commonality between this book and this course. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

-My exercise would be to first blindly name the first ten tips for success you are able to think of. Before I read this book, I would have named something like dress for success. Then compare your list to the hundreds of tips in the book. Many of them will not overlap because of how different these tips are- but they make sense! 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

-I was surprised at how funny Scott Adams was. He talks about a fairly stale or serious topic but his personal experiences add a lot of humor to the book and make it an easy read. Like I mentioned above, I was very surprised by almost all of the tips. They were so different from all of the ones I have heard before. For example, Adams says that every new skill you require in essence doubles your chance of success. Once you learn one thing, it will be so much easier to learn the next. I have trouble with this in school as I will look at summaries or the syllabus for the class and get extremley overwhelmed. I need to realize that with everything you learn, you grow, and things will become easier. 

Growing my Social Capital

CONTACT 1

1) Who they are and what their background is.

-Gregory Bonds works for economic development for the Porch Creek Indian tribe. 

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

- Domain expert. Gregory has worked in the financial field all of his career life. Gregory knows the ins and outs of getting investors, purchasing, and what makes a product stand out.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

-Gregory has been a friend of the family years and I was fortunate enough to meet him in person to talk.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

- Gregory gave me a ton of valuable information on his field. He told me the typical steps a product like mine would go through to attract a buyer. 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

- Gregory has worked in the financial field for over 20 years. He has gained many networking contacts himself over this time which I could potentially be referred to. This could help me attract the attention of a potential investor for my product.

CONTACT 2

1) Who they are and what their background is.

-Stella Holland has previously worked for the Lays chip company

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

- Market expert- Stella worked for the Lays chip company for 4 years which makes her a very valuable network connection for my product.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

- My dad went to college with Stella and I was able to have a conversation with her over the phone.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

- In the phone conversation I had with Stella Holland, I was fortunate enough to receive a lot of specific advice to my product. Since my product is a chip seal, she did say that Lays had experimented with the idea before.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

- Stella Holland is a great person to network with. She worked for years in the market I am targeting and has many connections that could help introduce my idea to a major chip brand.

CONTACT 3

1) Who they are and what their background is.

-Kevin Simmons is currently a manager at the Publix near my apartment in Orlando FL.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

-Supplier- I would need a place to get my resealable chip bags on the shelf and Publix is a company that could do it.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

- I actually just went to the nearest Publix and asked if I could speak to the manager.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

- I was able to talk with Mr. Simmons face to face and he told me how hard it was to get shelf space at Publix. It won't be an easy battle, but with the right connections it is possible. 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

- Having Mr. Simmons in my network gives me an 'in' to a major grocery store. Grocery stores are the main place that sell chip bags and making connections with Publix could eventually get me there. 

REFLECTION: 

At first, I was extremley intimidating to speak to professionals about my idea that is literally just that- a concept. However, everyone I spoke to was more than kind and helpful and offered so much valuable advice. The main thing I am taking away from this assignment is that I need to get over my fear of reaching out to new people. Networking with the right people can be a complete game changer and avoiding doing it is not an option if you want to be successful. 

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. You. I am a college student at the University of Florida. This course is the first thing to introduce me to the entrepreneurial route, but I have had key personality factors my whole life that allow me have potential to be a successful entrepreneur. I am extremely goal oriented, I like to set big goals for myself. Once I have a well defined goal, I usually will get a bit obsessive over it. Making sure I do everything in my power to achieve that goal, so far most of my goals I do achieve. I also am very empathetic, which allows me to relate to consumers more and realize how they really feel about a problem or a product. Lastly, I am motivated. I believe that motivation is one of the biggest factors in many lines of work, especially entrepreneurship.

2. What are you offering to customers? I am offering to customers a resealable option on chip bags. I will be targeting large party bag size of chips. My product will be a full adhesive seal that extends the entire length of the chip bag. The seal will be strong, yet resealable as well. This will solve consumer needs by offering an option to instantly reseal a chip bag, preventing staleness before you have a chance to finish the bag. Currently, consumers have to rely on chip clips (which easily break or are lost) or just rolling the bag up. I also received feedback that I could potentially add this resealable option on smaller to medium sized bags as well. 

3. Who are you offering it to? Currently I am debating on whether or not to focus the target on the manufacturers of chip bags. If I go this route, I have several decisions to make. I can form a partnership with one manufacturer that maybe does one brand of chip, or I can open it up to several types of brands. My target customer has the commonality that they all manufacture bags for chips, bags that do not have a resealable option. I have not received feedback on this aspect yet but I still think this is a solid plan that I still believe in. 

4. Why do they care? Chip companies care because a resealable option gives them leverage over a company that does not have one. It also gives the image of higher end (well the most higher end you can get for a chip market). Customers will respect the product/company more and associate them with quality. This means profits have the potential to increase. Manufacturers care because that can bargain higher prices for adding in the seal, and it will be very easily to physically implement with todays technology.

5. What are your core competencies? Physically, what I have that no other has is an option to instantly reseal chip bags. I also have the advantage of being a college student where college students are a large percentage of the consumer makeup. I also have the motivation and drive to actually make it happen.


I believe that my 5 points on the idea napkin assignment do work well together. The only aspect that I believe is a weak point in the design currently, is meshing out who I will be exactly targeting in terms of manufacturer/supplier/company.


Feedback memo: 1) I can target more than just large bags of chips- I can do smaller to medium as well. 2) Not everyone is going to like this idea and thats okay 3) there is a large enough market that will see this feature as useful 4) There are other option available so I need to make it known why my option is the better method 5) Possibly adding in research to back up a claim that my seal will prevent staleness the longest

My Customer's Avatar

Above is the avatar I created of my prototypical customer. While my product has a large target segment which many types of people fall into- for this exercise I chose to focus on the customer that is a mom of five children. This mother is an extremley busy woman, in addition to raising her 5 children ages 6-18 she also works full time in sales. To fit all of her children and their busy schedules, she drives a grey van that even includes a fold out table. This van allows her to drive all of her children to soccer practice where she is a part time volunteer coach. Her children are extremley active and at some times she can feel overwhelmed. Her children keep her young at heart, and she loves to host parties for her children and her friends at their two story house.

Growing up the oldest in a family with five children, I relate to the chaos that becomes a daily expectation. I don't think it is a coincidence as I tried to create an avatar that represented large families which I did grow up in. These families, including mine, probably buy the large party bags of chips to feed all of the children which my product is based on.

Waottle

Waottle: A plastic bottle used to contain water to drink.

When I first introduced my 'new word' to my family- I did so discretely. Instead of saying "Hey, pass the water bottle" I would say "Hey pass the waottle". Of course, I knew from the beginning of this assignment that this wouldn't go so smooth with my family. At first they did a double take, and then laughed at my seemingly mispronunciation of 'water bottle'. However, as I kept using the word for the next two weeks, it quickly became something that was completley ignored. While I did continue to use the word, my family definitely did not adopt it into their own personal dictionary.

Halfway Reflection

1) Over the course of the class so far, I have used several behavior traits to get through. I use planning a lot, we have many assignments in this class and if I did not plan, I would likely be missing many of them. I also enact time management skills- this is not my only summer class and I need to set apart time periods to give this class individual attention.

2) So far, this class has proved to be difficult for me, not so much for content but for with time management. Like I mentioned above, I am also in FIN 3403 which demands great amounts of time to study. I have really struggled, and at times just all out mentally broke down, because of the stress of balancing these two very different classes. On top of that, I also have been moving down to Orlando to start a job with Disney. The moving process required a large chunk of my time, and now that I have full time hours it is inly going to get more difficult fro m here. Its important to not look at a list of things due on the same day and get overwhelmed. What pulls me through is knowing that soon I will have a degree from the best school, and I will not remember those little moments that seemed like I would not ever get though the stress.

3) The three tips I would suggest to upcoming students are as follows: 1. Work ahead. This is a class where you have the gift of creating your own schedule, do not wait until the less second or you will have a bad time. 2. Once you begin, it gets much easier. I could stare at the list of assignments for hours- dreading them. However, once I finally begin, it is so much easier to knock them all out. 3. Develop time management skills. As I said before, you are able to create your own schedule. Determine what works best for you and allocate your time wisely.

Need Awareness and Information Search

INTERVIEWS:

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/need-awareness-1

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/new-recording-10


https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/need-awareness-3



SUMMARY:
Overall, all three of the people I interviewed had need awareness over the opportunity for resealable chip bags. All three of the interviewees preferred sources from the average person versus experts. The websites that they like to do they source search for are: Youtube, Reddit, Yahoo Answers, and blogs. What I found interesting is that all three said that family and friends is not a source that they use often. With living in a technological world, it is now easier to just do a 3 second search on Google whereas twenty years ago family and friends would have been a more frequently used source.

Reading Reflection No. 1 ...Week 7 Reading Reflection

The book I chose to read for the autobiography/biography portion of this class was Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. 

1.

• What surprised you the most? Having never really researched or listened to much about Steve Jobs, I was really surprised to read about his early life. I never knew that Steve was put up for adoption because of the parents of his biological mother not approving of his biological father. However, what I think is most interesting about this is that his new adoptive parents are probably the earliest driving factor of how he became so successful. His father was an engineer and introduced Steve to engineering design and mechanics at an early age.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I found that I actually admired Steve Jobs' entrepreneurial spirit and motivation the most. When Steve and his partner, Steve Wozniak, creating the idea for the combination of a computer, keyboard, and screen all in one- Wozniak wanted to give the idea away for free, yet the entrepreneur in Steve pressed that they could make money off of it -and they did. 

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? What I least admire about Steve Jobs was his selfishness. Of course it a good to be a little selfish, like in the admiration I wrote above- it made him money and started one of the most successful companies, but there is a fine line to cross. When the girl that Steve Jobs was dating on and off got pregnant, he refused to recognize it as his own. I think this was a signal that he was getting to caught up in chasing his dreams that he wanted absolutely nothing to get in the way. He also continued to display selfishness, when he first was seeing success in profit- Jobs refused to give away any stocks to employees while his parter, Wozniak gave away most of his. He also berated employees for being stupid because he saw the world in black and white- people were either smart or they were idiots. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? I found so many example of Steve Jobs overcoming adversity and failure in the book. His abandonment in early life, having ideas stolen from him at gunpoint, his betrayal by Bill Gates, competition from IBM and Microsoft- and so much more. Steve Jobs powered through them all, he just kept going. I think it was his obsession with perfectionism that allowed him to pursue his goals relentlessly despite adversity and failure.

2. 

•  What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? I think the biggest competency that Steve Jobs had was his actual mind. Steve Jobs was a visionary, and had the ability to see, create, and pursue like few others have ever had in the history of entrepreneurship.  

3. 

• Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.  While reading the biography, I was quite confused on why Steve Jobs kept hiring people above him. The book says that he felt he was too immature to run a company well, but that is so contradictory to the behavior of him. Jobs not only had more maturity above his years, but like I said before- he was selfish. I'm confused as to how a man so selfish and success driven was able to swallow the pride to hire somebody above him.

4. 

• If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would they be? If I was able to, I would ask Steve Jobs at what point, if there was a point, did he realize he was meant to fully invest himself in entrepreneurship? I would also ask him if he thinks the entrepreneurial drive and motivation he had could be taught? I would ask these questions because with failure practically being a synonym to entrepreneur, I find it interesting to see what point you just decide you are going to go for it, and never stop when failure comes. I also would be interested in knowing if the characteristics of an entrepreneur could be taught, because so many people, myself included, could benefit from this.

5

• What do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I think Steve Jobs is one of the best examples of hard work, and therefore I believe that he would be a total advocate for working your hardest. However, I think Steve Jobs would hold the opinion that you should only work hard where you think it matters, hence him dropping out of college despite his extreme intelligence. I agree with the first part, hard work will lead you to success, but I have an obsession with perfectionism and competition that does not allow me to pick and choose where I work hard. 

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. You. I am a college student at the University of Florida. This course is the first thing to introduce me to the entrepreneurial route, but I have had key personality factors my whole life that allow me have potential to be a successful entrepreneur. I am extremely goal oriented, I like to set big goals for myself. Once I have a well defined goal, I usually will get a bit obsessive over it. Making sure I do everything in my power to achieve that goal, so far most of my goals I do achieve. I also am very empathetic, which allows me to relate to consumers more and realize how they really feel about a problem or a product. Lastly, I am motivated. I believe that motivation is one of the biggest factors in many lines of work, especially entrepreneurship.

2. What are you offering to customers? I am offering to customers a resealable option on chip bags. I will be targeting large party bag size of chips. My product will be a full adhesive seal that extends the entire length of the chip bag. The seal will be strong, yet resealable as well. This will solve consumer needs by offering an option to instantly reseal a chip bag, preventing staleness before you have a chance to finish the bag. Currently, consumers have to rely on chip clips (which easily break or are lost) or just rolling the bag up.

3. Who are you offering it to? Currently I am debating on whether or not to focus the target on the manufacturers of chip bags. If I go this route, I have several decisions to make. I can form a partnership with one manufacturer that maybe does one brand of chip, or I can open it up to several types of brands. My target customer has the commonality that they all manufacture bags for chips, bags that do not have a resealable option.

4. Why do they care? Chip companies care because a resealable option gives them leverage over a company that does not have one. It also gives the image of higher end (well the most higher end you can get for a chip market). Customers will respect the product/company more and associate them with quality. This means profits have the potential to increase. Manufacturers care because that can bargain higher prices for adding in the seal, and it will be very easily to physically implement with todays technology.

5. What are your core competencies? Physically, what I have that no other has is an option to instantly reseal chip bags. I also have the advantage of being a college student where college students are a large percentage of the consumer makeup. I also have the motivation and drive to actually make it happen.


I believe that my 5 points on the idea napkin assignment do work well together. The only aspect that I believe is a weak point in the design currently, is meshing out who I will be exactly targeting in terms of manufacturer/supplier/company.

Tweaking the Innovation

My opportunity that I chose to extend on for the 'Tweaking the Innovation" is a resealable chip bag.

TWEAKING THE INNOVATION:

Sketch out the product/service mix:
The product is creating a chip bag with a resealable option. This product can be diversified as I can target multiple brands of chips or form a partnership with one brand.


The Benefit:
The benefit of creating the product of a resealable chip bag is offering consumers an immediate way to preserve their chip purchases from going stale. This benefits the consumer also because they would no longer need to purchase chip clips. Chip clips easily break and are easy to lose. The resealable option on the bag would also be much more effective than a chip clip as the adhesive seal would extend the entire lip of the bag- not like a chip clip would clip onto just the middle portion. It also is more effective than simply rolling the bag.

The Tangible:
A creating of a new chip bag for larger 'party' size chip bags. The bag would feature a resealable adhesive seal that extends the entire opening of the bag.

The Augmented:
If chip companies chose to buy the new design- they are offering customers a more compelling reason to chose their chip brand. If consumers chose to buy the bag, they are preventing their product from becoming stale and potentially saving money by no longer have to buy chip clips. They of course also save time as the seal is an immediate solution.



The tangible can be altered in terms of size of the seal used or even size of the bag used. The augmented can be altered by partnering with serval chip companies or just one.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

The opportunity I chose to extend on for the elevator pitch assignment was resealable chip bags. Currently the only options are chips clips (easily breakable and easy to lose) or rolling up the bag (ineffective).

My solution is to create an option for manufactures of large 'party' chip bags so consumers may immediately reseal the bag.

For now, I have been calling my company Chip Seals.


Below is the link to my elevator pitch. I am in the process of buying a new phone, so I did not have the ability to record video but will be able to for the next assignment.

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/elevator-pitch1

Testing the Hypothesis - Part 1

For this assignment I have chosen to tackle the opportunity of the limited parking availability at the University of Florida.

Who: Students at UF
What: lack of parking spaces available
Why: UF does not dedicate enough spaces for students

WHO/WHAT/WHY revisited after interviews:


WHO: The lack of parking at the University of Florida affects more people than one may originally think. For starters, it affects students on campus and off campus that have cars and have trouble finding parking spaces. It also affects students who have chose not to get a car due to the parking chaos. It also affects staff because students who grow frustrated with looking for parking often give in and just park in  staff spot which of course affects staff trying to find parking.

WHAT: As a result of the limited parking spaces available to students, students are forced to be late for class/meetings/clubs because of time time dedicated to find a parking spot. Students are also put into insecure situations due to having to park miles away and walk back to campus alone, especially at night. This was something that I haven't even thought of until students mentioned it while interviewing them. While UF does provide back up option like busses and the SNAP service, students have found these to be unreliable and often even more time consuming.

WHY: The why is due to a large amount of students and a small amount of parking spaces. There also seems to be an unbalance due to an excess amount of staff spots available and the amount of students unable to find proper student parking. This problem is also worsened when events like football games occur.


SUMMARY: The interviews I conducted for this opportunity were extremley informative. My brain was stuck in the direct consequence mode and I was unable to see the ripple effect of the lack of parking until interviewees pointed it out. Interviewees also introduced the compelling reason for this opportunity to be safety. Students should not be put in uncomfortable situations because of UF's lack of available parking. Handicapped persons should also not be put in situations where they have to walk unreasonable amounts due to inability to find reasonable parking.

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/testing-the-hypothesis-interview-1

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/testing-the-hypothesis-interview-2

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/testing-the-hypothesis-interview-3

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/testing-the-hypothesis-interview-4

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/testing-the-hypothesis-interview-5

My Solution

The solution that I think best fits the lack of parking at the University of Florida is as follows. First the easiest think, and probably a short-term fix, would be to redetermine the proportion of faculty to students at UF and apply this to the available parking spots. A commonality in my interviews is that students would spend hours looking for student parking but would pass by hundreds of available staff parking. Converting some staff spots into student parking could be a short-term solution. A bigger solution, and one that would obviously require more resources is to build another parking garage for students only.

Looking for Opportunity

• The first economic opportunity I chose for this assignment may be bit of a stretch, but I believe it interesting enough to look into. 
• (A)     http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/24/479327382/for-first-time-in-130-years-more-young-adults-live-with-parents-than-partners  According to this article, Americans ages 18-34 are more likely to live with their parents than any other option. Researchers have found that the biggest commonality between those that choose to live with their parents is that they are less educated (did not attend college, high school drop out, etc). 
• (B) After reading this article, I believe an opportunity exists to offer young adults an incentive to move out an pursue a higher education. There a many factors that go into the choice to stay at home, for example student loans, lack of economic deflation, and a poor employment market.
• (C) I believe the prototypical customer for this opportunity is young people who are struggling to make the transition out of living with parents. 
• (D) I believe this opportunity may be difficult to exploit. Young americans who live with their parents probably enjoy and are dependent on the comforts of living at home.
• WHY did I see this opportunity? I believe that I saw this opportunity because as a student myself in the same age bracket as what this article is discussing, I see so many of my colleagues in the same situation. Its hard to see friends plateau and choose an easy route of dependency rather than growing and becoming independent. 
• The second economic opportunity I chose for this assignment actually relates directly to entrepreneurship.
• (A) http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-rural-start-up-decline-20160522-story.html       According to this article, Americans that live in small towns or rural areas are much less likely to start up a business than Americans living in big cities. All the factors that contribute to this decrease (start up costs, big brands like Walmart, etc) are said to play a major role in endangering the future of rural economics. 
• (B) After reading this article, I believe an opportunity exists to motivate americans living in rural areas to create start up businesses. New businesses are said to be the key to innovation and growth for our entire economy, so there is much potential to provide these Americans incentives.  
• (C) I believe the prototypical customer for this opportunity is Americans living in small cities or rural areas that have a desire to become an entrepreneur. 
• (D) I believe this opportunity may be difficult to exploit. It will probably take a lot for the average person to pursue the countless risks of starting a new business. 
• WHY did I see this opportunity? I saw this opportunity because I have grown up in smaller cities my whole life. I have definitely noticed a decrease in local places being added to the town. It is especially important to me when I know the people who have tried to start a businesses and have given up due to bigger threats likes Walmart that they just cannot compete with. 
• The first regulatory change that I chose is one that has been causing great controversy is the transgender bathroom policy. 
• (A) http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/us/states-texas-sue-obama-administration-over-transgender-bathroom-policy.html?_r=0  This article I found discusses the new policies that the Obama administration is trying to approve in order to ensure equal rights to transgenders. The policy hints that schools that defy the policy will receive funding cuts. 
• (B) After reading this article, I believe an opportunity exists for schools to provide transgenders with equal opportunities. Not only will adopting the policy be greatly beneficial to the transgender students, but also beneficial to the schools in terms of receiving funding. 
• (C) The prototypical customer is schools across American that are on the fence about adopting the new policies changes for transgender students. 
• (D) This opportunity will not be an easy one. This issue has been causing great controversy nation wide and changes will not come easy. 
• WHY did I see this opportunity? One of my closest friends is transgender. I feel personally tied to this issue, as should everyone who cares for basic human rights. 
• The second regulatory change I chose is of the medical marijuana that was approved in Ohio.
• (A) http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/05/28/will-ohios-medical-marijuana-law-get-stiff-armed-b.aspx  According to this article, the use of medical marijuana was approved by Ohio's senate but still may be overturned by governor John Kasich's veto. 
• (B) After reading this article, there is a lot of opportunity that comes with medical marijuana being approved. Not only to the americans that could be benefited from the drug medically, but the institutions that would be supplying it financially. 
• (C) The prototypical customer would be any person from Ohio that is in need of the drug for medical reasons and the hospitals that would supply it.
• (D) I think this opportunity will be on the easier side to exploit. Since it is already approved by the senate, unless it is vetoed, it can be used very soon. 
• WHY did I see this opportunity? This is an opportunity that most everyone can now recognize due to it constantly being in the news. 

Forming an Opportunity Belief

STEP 1. My beginning point:
The belief I have is that there is a need in the chip industry for resealable bags.

STEP 2: Describe my belief:
Currently, chip bags do not have a resealable option built into the bag. Customers are forced to buy seperate clips to seal their bags or roll the bag by hand. Any consumer of chips has potentially faced the problem of chips going stale due to lack of seal. This need it not new, however new addition to the market that utilize resealable packages (oreos, crackers, etc) bring it into light and had me wondering why chip companies have not adopted this method. Personally, I'd give this a 30% on a scale of importance of problems. The reason I do give it a 30%, is because other options exist- even is they are not the most effective or convenient.

STEP 3 & 4. Prototypical customer: 3 different age groups. Older, college, and youth.

Below are the conversations I had about this opportunity:

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/ent3003-rawls-opportunity-belief-1

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/ent3003-rawls-opportunity-belief-2

https://soundcloud.com/user-384275903/ent3003-rawls-opportunity-belief-3


STEP 5. Reflection:

The biggest thing I have learned about my opportunity through talking to prototypical customers is that the problem exists and is seen in all age groups. Whether is was a father, a college student, or a high schooler, everyone I spoke too agreed that this was an opportunity that had potential. I was also surprised that when I brought up the their individual importance for eco-friendly products- the youngest was most concerned while the older customers had no concern. I think this goes along with the recent shift in consumer attitudes towards environmentally ethical products that has not reached older generations yet.

STEP 7. Summarize:

Overall, all three customers agreed that while they definitely recognize that this opportunity exists- it is not the biggest issue on their minds. I believe that from these interviews, if I was to continue with this opportunity- I would only target it toward big party chip bags.

Personally, I think entrepreneur should adapt their ideas 90% to customer needs. An entrepreneur that ignores the needs of customers is arrogant and will likely struggle. Customers know what they will buy and this is the most valuable source of information. I leave 10% for the entrepreneur to stick firm too because they most likely know more about their opportunity than the average customer.

Identifying Local Opportunities

1.  "What Should Quality Child Care Look Like?"
http://www.pnj.com/story/news/2016/05/15/quality-childcare-look-like/84358806/

This story from the Pensacola News Journal is about the struggle for parents and guardians to find quality child care providers. The article discusses the many factors that go into finding a provider. It first discusses the importance of actually going to child care facilities to visualize how they run their business. It them brings up the sub points that it is not always that easy to find the time to do so. The article also mentions that the average wage for a child care provider is $9.50 an hour. Only $20,000 a year may not attract some of the best candidate out there to watch children in the most influential times of their lives.

The problem represented in this news story is finding quality child care providers. Not only does it take time and patience to go out and see for yourself how child care is run, but it is not always an accurate representation. There is also the point that low income for providers could have the industry missing out on some of the best providers.

Who has the problem is the guardians of young children, especially those who work full time and lack the excess time to spend on searching for a provider.

2. "There is a Better Way to Manage Navarre Beach"
http://www.pnj.com/story/news/2016/05/16/viewpoint-better-way-manage-navarre-beach/84436084/

This story from the Pensacola News Journal is about the way we manage our beaches not for the sake of the environment, but for the sake of the tourists.  A type of sand that helps stabilize the beach and is the home for many critters, is scraped off each year because of its lack of aesthetic appeal for tourists.

The problem represented in the news story is one of mismanagement. The management of Navarre needs to be fixed so that is promotes the longevity of the beach and the life it is home to, instead of focusing on short term tourist needs.

Who has the problem is not only the sea life harmed by the sand removal but long term tourists as the type of sand play a big role in stabilizing the beach.

3. "Grocery Shopping by Bus? Take Ice Cream Off the List"
http://www.gatehouseprojects.com/project/over-the-bridge/chapter/4?site=gainesville.com&tc=cr

This story from the Gainesville Sun is about a problem in Gavinesville represented by a man who is having to walk for hours just to bring groceries to his family. Gainesville does not have a bus running on Sunday, so when low income families with no form of transportation need groceries, they are forced to walk long hours in the heat.

The problem is there is a lack of transportation on Sunday in Gainesville.

Who has the problem is low income residents who lack their own form of transportation.

4. "If it's a 360 World, How Long Will Photos be Flat?"
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20160516/COLUMNISTS/160519788/1182?p=2&tc=pg

This story is from the Gainesville Sun and it is about the speculation that 360 photographs will be the next big step for the photography industry.

The problem is that there is a segment in the photography industry that has not been claimed, that is for 360 photos at a lower end price.

Who has the problem is consumers that do want to welcome 360 photography but cannot dish out the money for some of the higher investment models.

5. "Fully Consider Impact of Mine"
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20160512/OPINION01/160519982/1076/opinion?p=2&tc=pg

This story is from the Gainesville Sun and is about a proposed mine. The mine was proposed in Bradford and Union counties and they are promoting the project as something that could be done with a minimal environmental cost. The mine would would bring huge threats to the environment, but those threats are not being communicated to citizens.

The problem represented in this new story is that the mine coming to Bradford and Union counties is going to impose the average person much more than what is being reported. This environmental threats, like water pollution in the Santa Fe are not being communicated to citizens and the average citizen is not taking the time to search out the information themselves.

Who has the problem is the citizens of local counties that this mine will impose on.