Half-way Reflection

Hello future ENT3003 student. You aren up for a challenge. A challenge of keeping up with dates and assignments that may seem pointless, but have shown me that I have come a long way.

1. In this course, I kept up with every single assignment and completed it before the 9pm deadline. How I did this you ask? I check canvas every day, no matter how hard I partied the night before or stayed up late studying for my Orgo exam.. I still checked to see what assignments I had to complete for ENT. I guess the behavior to stick with is consistency of checking canvas every day, and discipline of actually doing so. Those two are key behaviors to obtain and express in this course. 

2. For one assignment, it was due 2 days before one of my big Orgo exams. I needed to study and that was the day the "Free Money" assignment was due. I thought about not doing it, but my friend convinced me to do the assignment during my study break and I thought it was a great idea and completed the assignment. I was really happy that I decided to do the right thing and actually do the assignment. 

3. Three tips I would offer next semester for a student enrolled is: 1) find a buddy in the class to remind you about dates due for certain assignments and to do the recordings with. 2) Be persistent. No matter how many people deny you for interviews, don't stop. Find your 5 people to get full credit for the assignment. 3) Have a portable video camera or lots of space on your phone. You will be taking lots of videos of interviews and pitches.  

Week 8 Reading Reflection

This weeks reading was interesting because it was more focused on business and capital.

1. The biggest surprise to me in this chapter was how commercial banking worked and their slow decline in the economy. Currently there are only 7,000 commercial banks, and by the end of the decade there will be a predicted 4,000 left. Commercial banking give out a certain number of loans, and that includes to entrepreneurs.

2. One part of the reading that was confusing was crowdfunding. I have witnessed social lending between parents and stories told by my parents, but never heard of crowdfunding. In the book, crowdfunding is defined as banking 2.0. I had to google it after my reading of that section and then reread it after.

3. The first question I would ask the author is if he thinks social lending is a positive action for the economy, or does it affect the economy negatively? The second question I would ask if he had no other choice to debt finance, would he do it, or not? He jots down advantages and disadvantages in the book.

4. In the chapter. the author talks about equity financing, which is the process of the entrepreneur sharing the company with the person who funded his idea/service. The author describes the process as time consuming, difficult, and expensive. Now, with all of the adjectives listed, I agree with except, expensive for who? Not exactly the entrepreneur, but for the person lending and investing the money into the product. That is the only thing that I found that I would disagree with the author.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

1. My biggest surprise in this reading is the huge dedication and field built around researching consumer's buying patterns. I figured there would be another level of research in this type of field. For example, studying what the consumers NEED and making/creating products for that. The type of people researching the field of market segmentation just does not seem as essential as finding what consumers need. Then again, it is a "vulnerable technique".

2. The part that was extremely confusing to me was the part where it focuses on senior management. I have no idea what the difference is between senior management than management. Yes, we are in a society where we are very technology savvy, but is that what the author is referring to? Seniors as in the elderly or just management that is ranked higher than regular employees? This part confused me.

3. A question I would ask the author is which research field is most effective in finding what consumers will buy?  I would like to know what approach works best for researchers. Another question I have for the author is what type of advice would he give to a person starting a business? Just something I would like to know!

4. The part thatI do not think the author was wrong about, but I believe that the which attitudes matter to the buying decision is not as good as the reason I cam up with. Yes, it is easier to sell something to a person who is considered a push over or a recessive personality compared to a dominant personality, but I feel that, attitude does not have as much emphasize as much as mood coming into the store.

Free Money

For this assignment, I went to Turlington. A place where students are walking in and out of the library. Probably to go out to exercise or go out to eat. I approached students with earphones on, on their phones, and walking by me. To get the conversation started, I used 2 methods. Two of them I bluntly asked them if they wanted a $1. The other method that was way too long to compress the videos, I told them good luck on midterms and to take this dollar. That one worked way better to take my money than the first approach. Out of the five attempts, I gave away $2.

Here are the videos of the first approach:
1. https://youtu.be/EzwGp7N3pxw
2. https://youtu.be/1wAvroNEZBU

Elevator Pitch No. 2

1. https://youtu.be/QFNhLO8rR9E

2. What stands out to me that is very important in a pitch is getting the potential's customer attention. Thats why in the beginning of my pitches, I always ask the customer a question that will lead to a yes and target the specific kind of audience I want to intrigue. At the time of comments, my video for some reason was not working so I did not receive any silly comments about my first pitch video. But I did receive positive feedback about my idea!

3. What I changed was: the scenery and made it a lot of shorter, but still contained the same amount of information that I used in my first video.

Interviewing Customers No. 3

Before I state my interview strategy, my product again is a water bottle that a had a detachable bottom compartment has a mold that fits smartphones, IDs, keys, and credit cards. This water bottle weighs 7.5 pounds with 12 ounces of water it it, as well. My interview strategy is to get people to realize that having an item that carries all your valuables in one place is a necessity and worth carrying the weight. 

I asked again, random people in different places. 

2. 
https://youtu.be/4TJHp12wKUc
https://youtu.be/ikIEmLC8umU
https://youtu.be/gCgAkXepUPohttps://youtu.be/wtNo-I5rERg
https://youtu.be/70KWV05dpik

3. From this interview, I learned that when you change the strategy for questions to get people to realize what they need, the answers become exactly what you need to hear. I expected people to realize that even though the water bottle weighs, they still can benefit from having all of their valuables in one place. 

Week 6 Reading Reflection

In this weeks reading reflection, we were assigned to read an article in the Harvard Business Journal. I had to access the UF Library which has many sources to other articles and journals on the site.

1. The most surprising line I read in this article is "Powerful customers- flip side of powerful suppliers - can capture more value by forcing down prices, demanding better quality or more service (thereby driving up costs), and generally playing industry participants off against one another, all at the expense of industry profitability". This was surprising due to the bluntness from the author. As a regular consumer, you would not think the customer had that much power over how a business changes their goals and plans. I always thought the business accomplishes what they want to do according to their own rules, not act like a public servant.

2. The most confusing part of the reading for me was trying to understand the paragraph of price sensitivity with buyer groups. "The product it purchases from the industry represents a significant fraction of its cost structure". I understand that customers will bargain for the lower costs, but I still do not get how this relates to the price being categorized as sensitive. Sensitive to the customer finding bargain deals or that the price changes easily when customers do not but it at its "set" price?

3. The first question I would ask the author of the journal is what does he think the number one drive of competition is for an industry, besides the industry structure. The reason for this is his statement of the industry structure is too vague. The second question I would address him with is why does he think security brokers and dealers are the most profitable U.S. industries? I know my own answer, I would just like to compare it against his. The brokers and dealers of the country really do handle the direction of where the economy is driven towards: positive or negative.

4. In the article, the author states that the five forces differ by industry, and to a certain extent I want to argue this. I feel that every industry ever discovered or ran in this country has one goal: making profit. With that being said, I feel that all of the five forces defined in this journal all are comparable to each industry ran in America. So, I do not think they differ by industry, just different goals would make the forces different.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. Hello again, I am Katherine. My talents consist of anything musical. I have played the violin since I was in the 2nd grade. Just something that calms my mind and makes me feel in control of my fingers. I have quite a lot of skills. I am proficient in English and Spanish. I also am CPR certified and SCUBA certified. I also have worked as a counselor and at a restaurant. My aspirations is to be happy and travel around the world. With this water bottle, I know I could carry everything I need in one hand. 

2. To my customers: I am offering a 2 in 1. A wallet and water bottle essential in the palm of your (strong) hand. For customers who go to the gym and lose their personal belongings, my water bottle is the solution. 

3. If we are getting into specifics, I am targeting muscle heads who carry their protein shakes with them in their hands. I would consider a person as dedicated to their fitness somewhere around the age of 26-37. For women, it would be a little younger, from 24-34. I know this because I used to work in a facility where there would be older men and women working out around those ages. 

4. I care about this product because it is a solution to a careless act to one self. If you pay a lot of money for a well made water bottle that is carrying your wallet, keys, and phone... there is a very low percentage of actually misplacing or loosing this water bottle. On top of that, there is a 4 digit code for you to access your belongings. So if your water bottle is misplaced, no one can have access to your belongings without knowing your code. 

5. This water bottle sets mine apart from every other water bottle because it actually has a separate compartment made for person values. No other water bottle on the market has the separate entity. 

All these elements tie into together. But for other ideas and innovations, they don't have to tie into together. As long as you believe in your product and can sell it to people, there should be success down the road for that entrepreneur. 

Interviewing Customers No. 2

The following links are 5 people my brother was doing a group project with. I do not personally know them, but they were people my ages and could relate to the project I had to complete.

1. https://youtu.be/1oPX0ax78AI

2. https://youtu.be/ctlp59beEzg

3. https://youtu.be/8xMRjSXJW4A

4. https://youtu.be/2d4d-KHS-as
5. https://youtu.be/EWmg0hoeCJ0

Three tips I would tell people about interviewing:

1. Have your questions prepared for the person. You want to do this quickly and efficiently. 

2. Know your product very well and how to sell it.

3. Have the people take your questions seriously. I could not use some videos of people I interviewed because they did not take my assignment seriously. 

What I think about this assignment that was different from my other one, was that environment settings affect the behavior and answers people will give. Especially if they are pulled away or doing the interview in front of friends. Since these people were friends of my brothers, they were more open then the previous people I interviewed at my yoga class. 

Week 5 Reading Reflection

For this week's chapter, it was on the Assessment of Entrepreneurial Opportunities. There were many surprising facts and stories I did not know about in this chapter than the other previous chapters I have been assigned to read.

1. The most surprising thing I read in this chapter was the most recent study on ventures that have been successful. The problems most of them faced was that at the start-up level was the order to systematically sort their ideals into a schematic. This surprises me because when it comes to running a business, I thought businesses would encounter more than just 10 listable problems (found on page 266).

2. The most confusing part of this chapter was the Table 9.4 on page 269. I have not taken any micro or macro class here at UF and when it came to reading words like net sales, rate of annual growth, logarithmic net sales, etc. this sounds like gibberish to me. This was very difficult for me to understand and relate to.

3.  One question I would ask the author is if he actually encountered any of the problems mentioned on page 266. This intrigues me because I want to know how he went about to overcome the problem.
Another question I would ask him is which approach he likes best: feasibility criteria approach or the comprehensive feasibility approach? I would like to know his opinion on his favorite approach and why.

4. A statement that the author states that bothers me is "a new venture should be unique". I do not fully agree with his statement. When I think of the word unique, I think complicated and something that has not been thought of. He later defines it and says "the product should show special characteristics". Some of the most unique products ever invented have the been the most simplest creations and do not have any special characteristics.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

Do you like to work out? Do you hate loosing your stuff at the gym? The all in one water bottle is your solution. The water bottle carries not only your H2O, but also has a removable/screwable bottom that is specially designed to hold your smart phone, ID, keys, and credit/debit cards. Its name is Ένας, the greek word for one, because this water bottle is all in one, and the only one for you. No more forgetting any one of your valuables at the gym anymore. With the removable bottom, you can safely detach your valuables, place the bottom in a locker, and enjoy your workout with a peaceful mind, knowing that your valuables can not get lost. On top of that, your water is still with you during your journey at the gym. This water bottle is also great as a weight, too, since it has so many compartments to it. According to the model I scaled, the bottle weighs 7.5 pounds, including 12 ounces of water in it. So, the next time you buy a water bottle, ask yourself, is it made for you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvPAZ3v44Z8