30A- Final Reflection

What sticks out to me the most was completing the Whats next exercise. I was really interesting being able to look at my venture concept from different views in time and being able to brainstorm ideas on what to do as far as my future with the company. I also liked the ability to be able to see what other markets I could be in and what other situations I could help with in peoples lives. I think I am most proud of the first venture concept. It was the first time I was able to really put my whole concept and business together and explain how I plan for everything to work. As far as an experience I will always remember, I would say coming up with this business idea overall is an experience I will never forget. It's something I am actually really proud of and perhaps something I may actually try to create one day if I can.

I can definitely see myself as an entrepreneur, or at least more of one now than I was prior to this class. It taught me to really open up my mind more and consider all variables as well as think outside the box way more than I ever have. I have definitely moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

For future students, I would recommend that they stay on top of their work and do not wait until the last minute. To adopt the same mindset, they need to not be afraid to open up and think about the impossible. The class is actually very fun if you allow yourself to be creative and put the effort in to make it work. Also,  you'll learn it in the class but try to understand that there is so much more to being an entrepreneur than people think. In saying that, you actually understand what an entrepreneur is defined as and there are so many more of them out there than you think.

29A- Venture Concept No.2

Opportunity 

        Millions of students all over the world every year leave their homes and head for college for at least the next four years of their lives. For most of them, they go from being under the roof of their family and having most of the main responsibilities taken care of to being completely on their own away from their homes in a whole new environment. High school didn't help much in prepping them for college outside of classes, so students find themselves completely lost on how to take care of themselves regarding responsibilities such as proper scheduling, budgeting/financing, cleaning, cooking, etc. This can become a much bigger problem than people think as it can lead to students blowing through all their money, eating unhealthy diets, living in unsanitary areas, and not having enough time to focus on their academics. This market is all over the country in all college towns such as Gainesville, Orlando, and Tallahassee for examples in Florida. The market mainly consists of 18-22-year-old college students but more specifically those 18-19-year-old freshman who are on their own for the first time. Right now, these students are struggling to find answers for this solution. They can find help for these problems individually through internet sources or just going back to their parents assistance but those are not efficient and consistent ways of solving their problems and many students hate having to bother their parents all the time for more money or food or doing their laundry for them. This opportunity is huge as there were over 20 million students enrolled in college in 2017 according to the US college enrollment statistics. As of now, the window for this opportunity is not closing anytime in the near future because more and more students have been attending college over the years, however, because of factors like the ones I described above, there are many kids who are struggling to much in college to be able to finish school which hinders the numbers a lot in the long run.

 Innovation

       To solve this problem, I have created an idea for an app that covers all the bases in one hit. This application is like a college survival guide to help college students be able to take care of themselves and get tips on how to make the transition from home to college much easier. You would initially purchase this app for $1.99, in return you get the basic run down which actually has all the essentials. Also, there is a possibility for a monthly charge or fee for additional information and tools to further assist in the college efforts so students can be even more educated about taking care of themselves. This app will help you budget yourself by breaking down how much you should be spending and saving daily, weekly, monthly based on how much you have and also give you tips like how to fill out a check, how to apply for a credit card, how to use a credit card, etc. Also, as far as shopping for groceries, supplies or anything really, the app will search for coupons available at nearby stores and send them to you to use at your convenience. For scheduling you put in your work and class schedule as well as all the daily things you need to do throughout the week and it will generate a weekly schedule for you with everything you have to do spaced out in time slots that can evenly allow you to do everything you need to do without cramming. Many students also aren't very well prepared on how to cook by themselves when they get to school so for cooking, the app has pre-loaded hundreds of recipes for easy to make meals that provide proper nutrients as well for students since their diets aren't always top on the list of priorities. All of these things also come with tips, reminders, alerts and instructions on how to do them as well so students can eventually learn to do it if they do not have the app accessible to them or near them or even if they just do not have the app anymore. I am selling the rock that will be holding down everything going on in the student’s life while they are focusing on getting an education. This app also has long term benefits as it does not just teach students these things now but also teaches them how to take care of themselves post degree while they are starting their new lives in the real world which is much more stressful. 

 Venture Concept

         As stated in the Innovation section, the app will solve the need by showing and teaching the students how to take care of themselves as well as assisting in their day to day responsibilities. Customers will switch to this new product because it puts everything in one instead of solving things individually. It will be so easy to switch too because you are just simply downloading an app and putting in your info. There are not too many specific competitors out there since this is one of the first ones of this product. There are some individual like coupon apps and cooking apps but none of them can combine everything. Packaging, location, and distribution don't play the biggest role since this is available on the app store and you just need a smartphone. Behind the scenes, we would have a marketing team, a software and IT team, a customer support team, a finances team, and an executive team to oversee it all and make the larger company decisions. Additionally, going forward there may be an expansion as far as including seminars and brief classes held at many high schools throughout the nation to give high school students a background of the basics of being able to tackle those tough adult responsibilities that they are not prepared for. This will also help marketing wise as many more students will be aware of my app and services ahead of time and can get a head start!

 Minor Elements

        My most important resource would be my ability to be one of the first of this product to enter the market because it stops mass competition and is new to everyone, so they are curious to try it. The next opportunity I may want to try is the same type of app but for newly formed families like for couples having their first child and how to get through it. In the next 5 years we would want to be downloaded in about 20-30% of the some of the top colleges in at least 30 states.

Feedback Summary

As far as feedback goes, I received generally positive feedback from my first venture concept and my whats next exercise. However on the whats next exercise, I mentioned doing high school seminars to help prepare high schoolers for college but raised my own concerns regarding how it would just lose money for my business. One of the comments said that they actually believed it would help my company in the aspect of marketing and consumer prospecting so I decided to consider it much more heavily and put it into this venture concept as well. Of course that does not mean mine is perfect, so I referred it to my roommates for more feedback. One of them did say how I should charge something like a monthly fee for additional packages and tools for the app since a one time payment of 1.99 may not give me sufficient or consistent revenue. I did strongly take that into consideration and thought they may be right so I put it as an option, however, I feel since every year millions of more students come to college, there still should be consistent income as long as people are still making good use of the app. 

28A- Your Exit Strategy

1) In the next five years, I plan to stay with my business and expand it as much as I can to help more and more people. I want to be with my business for decades, if possible, and eventually retire by selling the business or finding someone to take over.

2) I chose this exit strategy because my business as of right now is an app and if it continues to be a business all about tech and apps then it does not really feel like much of a family business. I also want to help more and more people and make sure they do not have to struggle as much during college as many have had to do. If I can keep expanding that and also create different apps for similar situations in peoples lives than I will definitely want to keep going.

3) I always knew that if I were to ever own a business of my own I would stay with it long term and keep making it bigger and better to help more people. Because of that, my concept was for the most part already set on that so it was influenced a lot by the exit strategy. I even made sure that this app could help people long term in their lives because I want the business to be with the consumers throughout their lives. In saying that, I would have to start really planning long term as far as partners, suppliers, and my segment because I do plan to hit different segments that have different types of situations.

27A- Reading Reflection No.3

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

The theme of this book was to help explain to people the true science behind human error and problem solving and how there are two parts to your brain that fight over control during those situations. 

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

 It kind of brings together the creative and open minded thinking of entrepreneurship but also brings the science behind it all and actually explains why and how we make the decisions that we do. This has a lot to do with our business decisions with our company's and how we go about making these decisions and even though they may be so simple to us at times, there is actually so much going on in our brain for those small decisions and we don't even know it. Overall, it really just helped give me a whole other perspective of how I make our decisions and also help us make better ones now that I know some more about it. 

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

I would try an exercise like the bat and the ball example he uses where you ask someone a question that is worded specifically to confuse the two parts of your brain and cause you to make an error. We can make a bunch of the those problems and try to work on seeing the words more clear and training our brains to not make that mistake as much. We can also put in normal problems so we can identify which ones are which and eventually students can be able to process all problems correctly and come up with the correct answer no matter how confusing it may be. 

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?

When Kahneman talked about leaving your emotions at home, he had some points like the one with the ball and the bat where I was so surprised on how he knew every choice I was going to make in certain situations and told me exactly why I chose that and he was right. When you let your emotions even creep into the picture when it comes to money (which is obviously so easy to do) then odds are you are going to lose. I was not expecting to be read that easily throughout the whole book to be completely honest. He almost made me feel stupid at times and not in a bad way because I learned so much about how vulnerable I am to these situations just because two parts of my brain representing two completely different things are fighting over control and end up causing me to make a wrong decision and in the moment there is nothing I can do about it. 

26A- Celebrating Failure

1) The first time I failed this semester was on the first assignment of this class actually. I had done discussion posts before so I figured doing the blogs would be the exact same and therefore the submission would be relatively the same. I spent a good amount of time on my bug list assignment because I put a lot of thought in it and posted it on the blog as well as completed the declare submission, but I didn't read about the submission details enough and did not submit a URL link so i received zero points for the assignment and the peer reviews. There were reminders and it was my fault not to look further into detail but I failed on the first assignment which I almost thought was kind of funny as frustrated as I was at the time since each point is a percentage point to the grade.

2) I learned to definitely read directions more carefully and not to assume or underestimate when it comes to my academics because small mistakes like that can make a big difference. Ever since then I look very carefully at all the directions to all of my assignments even if I am pretty positive about what I have to do because things change a lot and it can really catch you.

3) Failure is definitely one of the biggest fear factors out there. Almost everyone is afraid to fail at one point or another and in some way or another. It makes you feel like something about you was not good enough to succeed and makes you have to change something about yourself that you may not even be comfortable doing but regardless the feeling is just terrible especially in bigger situations. I have learned over the years to handle failure as learned lessons and just as opportunities to improve. I accepted that failure is inevitable, and the best way to handle is to take the lessons you learn and use it for the next time so your chances at succeeding are higher every time. This class has taught me to maybe take some more risks because failure is always a possibility, and if you can handle it well enough, than why not take some more risks that may lead to even larger success?

25A-Whats Next?

Existing Market-
1). Moving forward I would like to provide some of these services as a class or lecture to high school students in order to prepare them for college. One of the main reasons students have these problems of taking care of themselves in college is because high school teaches them nothing. This would not be full classes but more quarterly or weekly seminars to get kids educated on the side.

2). After conducting my interviews, they said we should work on using that same type of method but with different types of situations outside of just college students like couples with new borns. Basically try to make a survival guide for other situations in life that are difficult and a lot of people are thrown into. They said while the idea I have for having classes during high school is great, they believe it may just be taking away business from the service I already have. They did say that they would use that service if it was provided to them in high school though and probably still get the app.

3) From what I saw with the feedback and from my own expectations. I would like to keep moving forward with the direction I am at now with helping those beginning college students be able to take care of themselves and prepare for the world after college. A new market area for different situations is definitely a direction I would like to take eventually but not in the short term period. I would still like to try the high school seminars/ classes to help kids prep for college and see where that goes because I believe they would still purchase the app since the app does so much more than just show or tell you what to do.

       Now, there are still problems I could face with that as far as drawing away customers from my current business now and could lose me some money but I want the high school version to just be a intro to what they will get on the app. Also, I would like to maybe focus on the college senior aspect and teach them for the real world. Some aspects of the real world and college are similar, but many are different. Thats why I believe there could be serious business here and I am also staying in a very similar market so I am not straying too far away. My main goal here is too help people be ready for the major parts of their lives because the majority of people are unprepared and I have been in similar positions and I know how stressful and scary it can be.

New Market-

1). A radically different market I could target would be 25-40 year old adults that are starting families.

2) I think by targeting people/ couples who are starting families, I could use the same app concept to develop a survival guide for raising a first child. Imagine bringing a new born home and having no idea what to do next. The app would basically do the same thing it does for college students as far as the concept but different tools, like what to feed him/her and when. What the proper supplies are to get and it can show you deals on things such as food, carriages, beds, etc. Reminders, alerts, tips, and scheduling as well would all contribute to help the couple have a more efficient and effective parenting process.

3) For this I interviewed two couples that I know personally and one couple is planning to start a family and the other has just had their first child. When asked about the potential concept, they were all for it saying that an app like that could be extremely helpful because although they are doing their research, they still have the "we have no idea what we are doing" mindset at all times. They said based off of the concept I have now, it could definitely be adapted to the new situation but would require a lot of different scenarios and tools. They did say however, that there are already some apps like that out there and the internet does have a lot of the answers a click away.

4) I learned from this new market that there is some opportunity here but no as big as the one I am in now. For one, while an app to help new families with their new borns is very helpful and useful, but there are already a decent amount out there and thousands of books and websites to facilitate. Now just like the market now, I do have a good advantage from being able to do it all as one in one application, but the question is will people think it is worth it to purchase. I wouldn't say this market is as attractive as my current market, but still has a lot of potential value in it and I could see my business venturing out to this market one day down the line.

      One concern though is I wouldn't consider going to this market until way further down the line, but by then who knows what products or services would have already beaten me to it. What surprised me was how clueless some couples still feel even months and months after the baby has been born, but this is actually good for my business because they means they are still prospective customers for my market. I do believe I will have much more issues with competition in this market and that is what also surprised me when talking to the couples because they were telling me how many other services or products they see lately about starting a family and raising a new born child. Overall, I feel this is still a market I could hit, even though it isn't as opportunistic as the one I am in now.

24A- Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity 

Millions of students all over the world every year leave their homes and head for college for at least the next four years of their lives. For most of them, they go from being under the roof of their family and having most of the main responsibilities taken care of to being completely on their own away from their homes in a whole new environment. High school didn't help much in prepping them for college outside of classes, so students find themselves completely lost on how to take care of themselves regarding responsibilities such as proper scheduling, budgeting/financing, cleaning, cooking, etc. This can become a much bigger problem than people think as it can lead to students blowing through all their money, eating unhealthy diets, living in unsanitary areas, and not having enough time to focus on their academics. This market is all over the country in all college towns such as Gainesville, Orlando, and Tallahassee for examples in Florida. The market mainly consists of 18-22-year-old college students but more specifically those 18-19-year-old freshman who are on their own for the first time. Right now, these students are struggling to find answers for this solution. They can find help for these problems individually through internet sources or just going back to their parents assistance but those are not efficient and consistent ways of solving their problems and many students hate having to bother their parents all the time for more money or food or doing their laundry for them. This opportunity is huge as there were over 20 million students enrolled in college in 2017 according to the US college enrollment statistics. As of now, the window for this opportunity is not closing anytime in the near future because more and more students have been attending college over the years, however, because of factors like the ones I described above, there are many kids who are struggling to much in college to be able to finish school which hinders the numbers a lot in the long run.

 Innovation

       To solve this problem, I have created an idea for an app that covers all the bases in one hit. This application is like a college survival guide to help college students be able to take care of themselves and get tips on how to make the transition from home to college much easier. You would initially purchase this app for $1.99, in return you get the basic run down which actually has all the essentials. This app will help you budget yourself by breaking down how much you should be spending and saving daily, weekly, monthly based on how much you have and also give you tips like how to fill out a check, how to apply for a credit card, how to use a credit card, etc. Also, as far as shopping for groceries, supplies or anything really, the app will search for coupons available at nearby stores and send them to you to use at your convenience. For scheduling you put in your work and class schedule as well as all the daily things you need to do throughout the week and it will generate a weekly schedule for you with everything you have to do spaced out in time slots that can evenly allow you to do everything you need to do without cramming. Many students also aren't very well prepared on how to cook by themselves when they get to school so for cooking, the app has pre-loaded hundreds of recipes for easy to make meals that provide proper nutrients as well for students since their diets aren't always top on the list of priorities. All of these things also come with tips, reminders, alerts and instructions on how to do them as well so students can eventually learn to do it if they do not have the app accessible to them or near them or even if they just do not have the app anymore. I am selling the rock that will be holding down everything going on in the student’s life while they are focusing on getting an education. This app also has long term benefits as it does not just teach students these things now but also teaches them how to take care of themselves post degree while they are starting their new lives in the real world which is much more stressful. 

 Venture Concept

         As stated in the Innovation section, the app will solve the need by showing and teaching the students how to take care of themselves as well as assisting in their day to day responsibilities. Customers will switch to this new product because it puts everything in one instead of solving things individually. It will be so easy to switch too because you are just simply downloading an app and putting in your info. There are not too many specific competitors out there since this is one of the first ones of this product. There are some individual like coupon apps and cooking apps but none of them can combine everything. Packaging, location, and distribution don't play the biggest role since this is available on the app store and you just need a smartphone. Behind the scenes, we would have a marketing team, a software and IT team, a customer support team, a finances team, and an executive team to oversee it all and make the larger company decisions. 

 Minor Elements

        My most important resource would be my ability to be one of the first of this product to enter the market because it stops mass competition and is new to everyone, so they are curious to try it. The next opportunity I may want to try is the same type of app but for newly formed families like for couples having their first child and how to get through it. In the next 5 years we would want to be downloaded in about 20-30% of the some of the top colleges in at least 30 states.