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