Week 15 Reading Reflection

I thought it was very surprising that Akula was able to take the principle of microfinance and use it to form a profitable model. Despite reading the article it's still somewhat confusing to me how they manage to act against their short term interests and still manage to make profits, although at razor thin margins. If I could ask the author two questions, I would ask which part of his 3-tier model for BOP is the most important. Moreover, I'd ask what his most effective tool in gaining volume for his business is. Due to the author's success, there's not really anything I disagree with him on in this article.

Final Reflection

I thought creating my Venture Concept post was the most formative experience because it forced me to really sit down and think out my venture concept and some of the other important details that would go into making it a reality. I had fun doing the Free Money exercise and I am most proud of myself for completing the Very Short Interview with an Entrepreneur.

While I still consider myself an aspiring Business Analyst, I think I have definitely moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset with all the things I've learned from this class.

To students taking this course, the advice I would give them would be to get things done early. Assignments are due at 9 so you can't wait until the last minute and some assignments, such as interviewing an entrepreneur can take time so it's important to start assignments before their due date. I would also tell students to have open minds and to have fun with the assignments. The more open-minded students are, the more easily they'll develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

The feedback I received was pretty positive. In this pitch I tried to pause instead of using verbal crutches, like "um" and tried to relate to students who would probably really like to use my app as finals approach, stress levels rise, and the libraries become more crowded.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

My group of customers with unmet or under-met needs is UF students who are pursuing a business or accounting major, or a business minor. Over time, depending how successful my business idea is, I’d like to expand my opportunity to include other UF students pursuing different majors in the other colleges. The market is somewhat undefined geographically, and typically defined demographically by students aged 18-22. While most users would be located in Gainesville during the fall and spring semesters, there are students that go abroad or take classes online over the summer from other locations.

My market’s needs are both unmet and under-met, depending on how much coursework a student has completed. Students enrolled in prerequisite courses, such as Principles of Marketing, Principles of Management, and Intro to Financial Accounting have their needs under-met, while students taking major courses, such as Equity and Capital Markets or Consumer Behavior have unmet needs. Study Edge and Smokin’ Notes are good for learning the material, but Study Edge focuses more on the mathematical portions of the classes they offer. The conceptual portion of the curriculum that is still tested on isn’t touched on very much during the review sessions, leaving opportunity to better meet this need. Moreover, Smokin’ Notes are useful for understanding the material since they present it in laymen’s terms. However, they’re very lengthy and therefore not as useful for memorizing key terms and concepts because of the time it takes to find a particular term or topic amongst their 90+ pages. Although students are loyal to these programs, not all of their classes are offered by them, leaving a huge opportunity to fulfill a completely unmet need.

Innovation

I am providing a service in the form of an application where students can play various study games, single-player or with their classmates, with content specific to their professors’ curriculums. These games include trivia (similar to the format of QuizUp), Jeopardy, mix & match games (rearranging things to put them in the right place; good for accounting, equations/ratios, graphs/charts, and pneumonics), and crossword puzzles. Students can play against their friends by sending each other special links to their games, or they can be matched up randomly with another student using the app.

The app will be free to download, but access to the app’s content will be available for a $9.99 annual fee. This fee will include 25 free tokens. Moreover the app will feature in-app purchases, namely tokens. Single-player games and random match-ups will cost 5 tokens each, but not games against friends. When students play these games, they’ll earn tokens for the questions they get right, which can then be used to purchase single-player or random match-up rounds. Because students would most likely want to avoid using up tokens, they might invite their friends to play first, who would have to pay the $9.99 fee. Moreover, when tokens are used up students will be willing to pay for more because they’ll be inexpensive, and students may really need the extra review.

Venture Concept

My innovation will address the opportunity identified by providing students with quick, fun study games to promote memorization of key terms and concepts, equations, charts and graphs, etc. This service alone isn’t provided to students through Study Edge or Smokin’ Notes. Moreover, my service will provide material for all UF business courses, rather than just the ones with large enrollments. Customers will purchase this because it’s affordable, compared to the $200+ other resources cost per semester. This is especially important for students that are paying their way through school or have to worry about various other expenses, like rent, and can’t afford Study Edge or Tutoring Zone memberships. Moreover, it’s a great and entertaining way to review and help process information after learning a hefty amount of material, and it promotes memorization.

My competitors are technically the popular study resources, like Study Edge, Tutoring Zone, and Smokin’ Notes. Their biggest vulnerability is that they only offer review material for the very large classes. However, my intention isn’t necessarily for students to cancel their Study Edge/TZ memberships and to stop buying Smokin’ Notes; my service is supposed to be a supplement to these resources. The reason being, that these services teach students the material, and my service helps them apply what they were taught so it sinks in better.

My venture would require a team with the IT skills to create an app and be able to update and make changes regularly. Moreover, I’d need around 15 employees (subject to change) to and take notes on professors’ lecture slides and the class textbook(s), and be able to update them regularly; keeping in mind each employee could be responsible for more than one class.

Three Minor Elements

1.    I have a large market with a potentially high level of demand, very competitive pricing, and the networking capabilities to spread the word.

2.    The next step for my venture would be to expand to the courses of the other majors and colleges, and perhaps even move on to graduate-level courses.

3.    In all honesty, in the future I could see this as maybe being a side-gig since I’m in school to study finance, and information systems and operations management. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t really coincide with my vision, which is having a desk job and job security (riveting, I know).

Summary of Feedback

I received a lot of positive feedback on my first Venture Concept post. People really seemed to like how it's available in app form which makes it very accessible and doesn't require the motivation to grab all your study gear and forage for a spot at the library, especially now. The feedback I received also indicated that they really liked how my service is tailor-made for my customers' courses they're currently enrolled in. I did not receive any negative feedback.

Because I received 100% positive feedback, I don't think there are areas of my venture concept that need changing. If anything, I could include that I would be open to partnering with one of the big tutoring resources, such as Smokin' Notes, when I go on to sell my business. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

I thought the most interesting part of the reading came from the section on P&G's innovation unit, FutureWorks. It was surprising to read about because I didn't know that they had their own innovation unit so it stood out from the reading to learn about how their strategy is as successful as it is. I was somewhat confused by intracapital. If I could ask the author two things, I'd ask for examples of intracapital. Moreover, I would ask the author for his opinions on the importance of ecopreneurship and ecovision. I disagree with part of the reading that was about 3M's key rules. The first rule was to never kill a project, yet the second was to tolerate failure. I disagree because sometimes it's no longer worth it to use resources on a failing project.

Going for Google Gold

1.) In completing my assignments I wasn't entirely conscious of SEO and therefore did not incorporate methods to optimize it. If anything I was repetitive in my vocabulary. What I could have done was tag my posts with things other than the week number they corresponded to.

2.) I did not really have any unique key words since my titles were those stated in the assignment description. The only key word may be my name and ENT3003.

3.) I did not use social media to promote my blog. Since I only see my blog as a class assignment I didn't want to flood my friends' news feeds with something they'd consider uninteresting.

4.) Venture Concept No. 1 was my most "viral" post, with 5 comments. I think this is so because it was probably the most detailed post about my venture concept.

5.) By Googling "Hayley Milam ENT3003" I was the first result that popped up.

Very Short Interview With an Entrepreneur, Pt. 2

Initially I interviewed Mitch Nelson, a graduate from Florida State University that started his own business, DivvyUp socks, from participating in an entrepreneurship program. My impression of the initial interview remains somewhat similar, however I can better understand how his business came to be from taking this course. 

Due to location differences, I could not meet face-to-face with Mr. Nelson.
I asked him the following questions.

1. Why do you think your product has been so successful?
"I think my product has been successful because it feeds a person's need to do good for the community while providing them with a useful product. Our product being socks helped grow our business because we noticed, at least on our campus, the growing trend in cool, unique socks among males and females, and this trend aligned with the needs of the homeless we're seeking to address."

2. What business move played the largest role in growing your business?
"Starting this idea on a college campus made networking easier as well as getting our business idea across to students, faculty, and eventually other Tallahassee residents. I would also say moving our business online played a huge role in DivvyUp's development by expanding the amount of consumers we could reach."

3. If you could have done anything different, what would you have done and why?
"I'm very happy with the story and success of DivvyUp, so to change the way we developed our business could mean a different current standing. If anything, I wish we would have brought our business online earlier since we did take some time to make that happen, despite tons of positive feedback and suggestions pertaining to the idea of a website."

After taking this class and having a better understanding of the requirements of turning a venture concept into a successful business, I was more comfortable talking about entrepreneurship. The interview was definitely less awkward this time, but I did emphasize the purpose of this assignment was for a class that I was taking for elective credit. 

Week 13 Reading Reflection

I found the biggest surprise in the part of the reading titled "The Valuation of Facebook: Real or Fantasy." Although,  I remember when Facebook suddenly became popular amongst people my age, I was not aware of the facts surrounding its growth as a company, specifically its IPO. I wish the author touched more on the concept of goodwill, since it still sort of confuses me. If I could ask the author two questions, I'd ask what the best valuation method would be, in his opinion. Moreover, I'd ask the reasoning behind "insufficient controls." I did not disagree with the author necessarily on anything regarding the material presented in this chapter.

Celebrating Failure

This past semester, I've failed to complete a few assignments for this class, namely the ones that required recording and interviewing other people, especially professionals. I'm very shy so the requirements of these assignments is a big step out of my comfort zone. In my head I think, "these people have better things to do."

Regrettably, I haven't learned much from these failures, as far as being better on the next assignments. I have learned that I do not want to be an entrepreneur (even though that wasn't really my plan to begin with). I'm happy with a typical desk job, where I'd still collaborate with my coworkers; where'd I'd feel comfortable.

Failure is hard. It's hard because it's frustrating, especially because hindsight is 20/20. It's also difficult because it forces us to reflect upon our actions and take responsibility for the outcome; it's shoving aside blame and admitting a potential weakness within us. But this is why failure is important: it helps us fix our flaws and improve ourselves. Therefore, as frustrating as facing failure can be, I do not let it discourage me. I embrace failure and adapt to better my current standing.

For most things, I handle failure well. If I fail a test, I study extra hard for the next one. If I make a careless mistake, I'm sure to be conscientious of it the next time around. However, I can also be very stubborn, which has definitely caused some of my failures and this very stubbornness prevents me from learning my lesson.

I'd say, given my stubbornness, and the reason why I took this class (elective credit) I still view failure about the same and I'm probably no more likely to go take risks.

My Exit Strategy

1. I would intend to sell my business in the next 5 years for a large return

2. I chose this exit strategy because in that amount of time I will have graduated from college and would hopefully be pursuing a career in business/data analysis and perhaps investment banking. Moreover, after graduating and leaving Gainesville, I wouldn't be near my target market and my ability to assess their growing and changing needs would be very limited and I would no longer have a personal stake in my venture concept. Therefore, by selling my business I would be able to put all of my focus into my career and leave my venture to people who could better satisfy the needs of my former customers.

3. My exit strategy has influenced some of my decisions I've made in my concept because I knew, going in, that my venture would not be a long-term pursuit. Therefore, I limited the opportunity I identified to just UF students. This is because expanding my market to include students at other schools would require lots more resources, such as employees to write material for courses at the other universities my venture would serve. Therefore, if I had planned to stay with this business for decades before retiring or passing it down to my children, I would have identified a much larger, broader opportunity and hoped to acquire the necessary resources to be able to successfully grow my business to that level and accommodate the demands of such a scale.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

My group of customers with unmet or under-met needs is UF students who are pursuing a business or accounting major, or a business minor. Over time, depending how successful my business idea is, I’d like to expand my opportunity to include other UF students pursuing different majors in the other colleges. The market is somewhat undefined geographically, and typically defined demographically by students aged 18-22. While most users would be located in Gainesville during the fall and spring semesters, there are students that go abroad or take classes online over the summer from other locations.

My market’s needs are both unmet and under-met, depending on how much coursework a student has completed. Students enrolled in prerequisite courses, such as Principles of Marketing, Principles of Management, and Intro to Financial Accounting have their needs under-met, while students taking major courses, such as Equity and Capital Markets or Consumer Behavior have unmet needs. Study Edge and Smokin’ Notes are good for learning the material, but Study Edge focuses more on the mathematical portions of the classes they offer. The conceptual portion of the curriculum that is still tested on isn’t touched on very much during the review sessions, leaving opportunity to better meet this need. Moreover, Smokin’ Notes are useful for understanding the material since they present it in laymen’s terms. However, they’re very lengthy and therefore not as useful for memorizing key terms and concepts because of the time it takes to find a particular term or topic amongst their 90+ pages. Although students are loyal to these programs, not all of their classes are offered by them, leaving a huge opportunity to fulfill a completely unmet need.

Innovation

I am providing a service in the form of an application where students can play various study games, single-player or with their classmates, with content specific to their professors’ curriculums. These games include trivia (similar to the format of QuizUp), Jeopardy, mix & match games (rearranging things to put them in the right place; good for accounting, equations/ratios, graphs/charts, and pneumonics), and crossword puzzles. Students can play against their friends by sending each other special links to their games, or they can be matched up randomly with another student using the app.

The app will be free to download, but access to the app’s content will be available for a $9.99 annual fee. This fee will include 25 free tokens. Moreover the app will feature in-app purchases, namely tokens. Single-player games and random match-ups will cost 5 tokens each, but not games against friends. When students play these games, they’ll earn tokens for the questions they get right, which can then be used to purchase single-player or random match-up rounds. Because students would most likely want to avoid using up tokens, they might invite their friends to play first, who would have to pay the $9.99 fee. Moreover, when tokens are used up students will be willing to pay for more because they’ll be inexpensive, and students may really need the extra review.

Venture Concept

My innovation will address the opportunity identified by providing students with quick, fun study games to promote memorization of key terms and concepts, equations, charts and graphs, etc. This service alone isn’t provided to students through Study Edge or Smokin’ Notes. Moreover, my service will provide material for all UF business courses, rather than just the ones with large enrollments. Customers will purchase this because it’s affordable, compared to the $200+ other resources cost per semester. This is especially important for students that are paying their way through school or have to worry about various other expenses, like rent, and can’t afford Study Edge or Tutoring Zone memberships. Moreover, it’s a great and entertaining way to review and help process information after learning a hefty amount of material, and it promotes memorization.

My competitors are technically the popular study resources, like Study Edge, Tutoring Zone, and Smokin’ Notes. Their biggest vulnerability is that they only offer review material for the very large classes. However, my intention isn’t necessarily for students to cancel their Study Edge/TZ memberships and to stop buying Smokin’ Notes; my service is supposed to be a supplement to these resources. The reason being, that these services teach students the material, and my service helps them apply what they were taught so it sinks in better.

My venture would require a team with the IT skills to create an app and be able to update and make changes regularly. Moreover, I’d need around 15 employees (subject to change) to and take notes on professors’ lecture slides and the class textbook(s), and be able to update them regularly; keeping in mind each employee could be responsible for more than one class.

Three Minor Elements

1.    I have a large market with a potentially high level of demand, very competitive pricing, and the networking capabilities to spread the word.

2.    The next step for my venture would be to expand to the courses of the other majors and colleges, and perhaps even move on to graduate-level courses.

3.    In all honesty, in the future I could see this as maybe being a side-gig since I’m in school to study finance, and information systems and operations management. Being an entrepreneur doesn’t really coincide with my vision, which is having a desk job and job security (riveting, I know).

Week 11 Reading Reflection

What I found interesting from the article was the idea of business model innovation. While it seems very logical and important, it's not typically what most people think of when they hear "innovation." To me, innovation was something like adding sensors to your car to let you know when another vehicle is in your blind spot. I'm not entirely sure why "centralizing R&D" is a good strategy or how it led to Corning's success. If I could ask the author two things I'd ask if centralizing R&D would be a smart move for most companies, despite the need for company-tailored innovation strategies. I would also ask, if invested in properly, which type of innovation could yield the best results. The author states only senior leaders can make choices that are best for the whole company because each function will naturally want to serve its own interests. While I agree big decisions should be left to senior staff, and acknowledge they're at the top of the company for a reason, I disagree with the reasoning for this belief. I'd think that the functions would want to work with synergy and make the company as profitable as possible, not out-perform another function at the expense of the company's overall success.

Amazon Whisperer

1. Revenue drivers are the flat annual fee of $9.99 per student. Students can earn points playing against their friends, and those points can be used to play single-player, or against other "random" students in their class. If a student doesn't have enough points, they can be purchased. For students in online classes where they don't know other students in the class, this could be a huge revenue driver. Moreover, given the size of these classes, the rate of $9.99 is reasonable, especially since it's a relatively small annual fee (compared to CourseHero at $100/year).

2. Since I'm starting with business classes, the next thing students would want would be classes outside of the business schools. Current customers would want this for their gen-eds or for their other major courses if they're pursuing the business minor. If my business were to grow enough, we could even expand to some graduate-level courses. Moreover, the app could introduce an algorithm to pinpoint what students' collective weaknesses are and alert our team to provide more material and trivia questions on those topics.

3. This will enhance the service I'm offering by appealing to even more students. It will improve users' experiences by giving them a thorough, entertaining study service for as many of their classes as possible. As a result it might give them more for the annual fee they pay and foster customer loyalty. Moreover, by identifying collective weaknesses, the app's content will pander to the needs of the majority of its users and improve overall student performance in their courses.

4. Amazon has an app called StudyStack that allows students to make their own flashcards and the app creates games like crossword puzzles, hangman, etc. out of the information they provided.

5. There's only one customer review. The customer liked that it provided different games to study with, but did not like the app's look. 

6. I'd change this product by making it more aesthetically appealing, with better graphics and smoother transitions. My app doesn't make the student put in their own information, but I'd like to include a feature where students could create their own flashcards for their personal use and submit them for approval to be used app-wide.

7. I think this product would make a good addition to my current service offering because of its ability to take submitted material and convert it into different study games instead of just presenting it as digital flashcards. 

My Unfair Advantage

1. Attention to details
Valuable: it contributes to the quality of the app's content
Rare: most people rely on pre-made outlines and don't pay as close attention to their book/lectures
Inimitable: it would be time consuming for others to copy
Non-substitutable: While Smokin' Notes provides this, their medium is much more time consuming and boring

2. Knowledge of general business courses
Valuable: contributes to the quality of content
Rare: some people just take classes to pass, not to understand content in depth
Inimitable: it would require the amount of work I put into my classes to copy
Non-substitutable: Smokin' Notes does a great job of giving students an understanding of key concepts, but is inconvenient for brushing up or studying quickly

3. Location
Valuable: being on a college campus where these classes take place makes it more relevant
Rare: Not super rare, but I'm better off than someone stationed in a different college town
Inimitable: Only another UF student with this idea could imitate this
Non-substitutable: you can't really substitute the location for somewhere else

4. Accessibility
Valuable: easy access makes it more available and appealing
Rare: there are tons of apps, but none like this one
Inimitable: Study Edge or Smokin' Notes could release an app like this (but they haven't)
Non-substitutable: while local tutoring services usually require frequent visits to their locations, this app doesn't confine users to a location

5. Widespread demand
Valuable: tons of students in the business school would like this app
Rare: --
Inimitable: --
Non-substitutable: --
**not a resource that can be "supplied" or "copied"

6. Networking opportunities (sorority, student groups)
Valuable: helps get the word out
Rare: not rare, but it doesn't need to be
Inimitable: --
Non-substitutable: --
**In this case, the more "available" this resource is, the better my networking opportunities

7. Notes to convert into the app's content
Valuable: Already have some means towards making my app real
Rare: while there are outlines out there, my notes are more succinct
Inimitable: pretty imitable
Non-substitutable: pretty substitutable

8. Specificity
Valuable: differentiates me from things like Quizlet
Rare: pretty rare; things like CourseHero and StudyBlue are somewhat unorganized and can be expensive
Inimitable: somewhat imitable
Non-substitutable: Smokin' Notes or Study Edge could provide this

9. My cousin's an app developer
Valuable: vital in making my app real
Rare: most people don't have family members with these skills
Inimitable: very hard to imitate
Non-substitutable: other resources could provide this service, but probably for a high cost

10. Ability to finance
Valuable: important to making my app real
Rare: not rare
Inimitable: very imitable
Non-substitutable: very substitutable

I think accessibility is my best resource, because it differentiates my idea from things like Smokin' Notes, which aren't available on a phone or other device. Moreover, it makes networking easier (people can easily just download a free app).

Week 10 Reading Reflection

I thought it was surprising that start-up companies have issues with delays in their accounts receivables, especially when large companies usually offer discounts for early payments, such as 2/10/n30. Despite being a finance major, I still tend to get confused between the different types of activities (investment, financing, operating), though the author explained them well. If I could ask the author two questions, I would ask for a special way to remember which activities are which. Moreover, I would ask how much liabilities tend to be compared to stockholders' equity as a portion of a start-up company's assets. I did very well in my basic accounting and finance courses, and given the nature of this chapter there's nothing I really disagree with the author on here.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

The feedback I received was predominantly positive, the students commenting really seemed to like my idea and how I clarified how it is different from another popular site, Quizlet.

This time I tried to have the camera in a better place than last time so the video quality (or lack thereof) wasn't distracting. I also tried to be more fluent in my speech and sound less nervous. Moreover, I tried to show students what it would be like to use StuddyBuddy, rather than just tell them what it's about.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

I was surprised by the fact that entrepreneurs tend to not use marketing research due to cost and the notion that data could be mostly irrelevant. I could understand the costliness of conducting such research, but was also surprised to read that it can be inexpensive. I was a little confused by the explanation of the visible nature of pricing. If I could ask the author two questions, I'd ask why many ventures do not adopt a a consumer-driven orientation, despite its effectiveness. I would also ask which type of innovative market research tactic yields the best results. Of the survey research techniques, I find it hard to believe that door-to-door personal interviews with customers are the most costly, especially being compared to other methods that could require more money to fund, such as Internet surveys.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I'm a finance major, hoping to pursue a career in business analysis. I have exceptional organizational and note-taking skills. I'm good at knowing what's important from what's more tedious and I'm good at listening and interpreting what I read. This business would play a huge role in my life, since I would also greatly benefit from it.

2. I'm offering an app that lets students study with their their classmates through the availability of trivia games. With the ability to partner up with an outside organization that provides high-quality notes for a variety of classes, the material will be specific to classes, instead of broad subjects. This makes studying easier, and more fun. It can also be used to just brush up on some key concepts before class or while waiting for the bus, etc.

3. I'm offering this to UF students enrolled in the courses for which content is offered.

4. Studying, especially terms and concepts, can be very monotonous and without the material provided through the app, students may not have thorough enough notes to study from. With StuddyBuddy, students can study with each other, have a better time studying, and have better, more thorough material to study from.

5. What sets me apart from others is my patience, diligence, and attention to detail, along with my strong work ethic that allows me to work for long periods of time.

I think these aspects all work together nicely. Without my work ethic, I wouldn't be able to help develop my idea and make it a reality. Moreover, I'm offering something that not only benefits me, but would also benefit many other fellow students. Because I'm appealing to a somewhat homogeneous audience, it'll be easier to meet most of their demands.

5 Points of Feedback
1. Could take a few semesters to develop
2. Would have to reach out to professional note-taker
3. Would be difficult to cover every class offered at UF
4. Students might be willing to pay a per-semester or lifetime membership fee
5. Start with a small group of classes

Because of the time it would take to develop and the scope of course material, it would probably be best to start small, with only business classes, since I could provide some of my own notes to help get that started. Depending on how it goes, I could reach out to more skilled notetakers, and perhaps collaborate with a company such as Smokin' Notes to have higher quality material for a greater range of courses. Because of this, and because of the feedback expressing a students' willingness to pay, I could charge a small fee to cover the cost of outside help.

Week 8 Reading Reflection

I thought it was surprising that obtaining VC funding is difficult and VC firms expect very high returns, yet aren't interested in controlling the business or having say in day to day decisions. The most confusing part of the reading was in regard to "equity debentures." I'm not exactly clear on what an unsecured loan is. Although this isn't the focus of the class, I would still like clarification to better understand equity financing. If I could ask the author two questions, I would ask what the most popular type of equity financing is. Moreover, I would ask for more differences between accredited purchasers and sophisticated investors. I disagree that debt financing is not a choice, since debt securities can have less risk on average than equity investments, due to equity investments' volatility with the market.

Half-Way Reflection

1. To keep up with this course, I've had to step outside my comfort zone, something that was inevitable with the real world approaching. Moreover, I've had to work on getting assignments done earlier than I've been used to. I'm somewhat of a night owl, but since the assignments are due at the slightly inconvenient time of 9 PM, I've had to adapt my schedule.

2. The only times I've ever felt like giving up were directly related to stress imposed on me by my other classes. As a finance major, I tend to focus a little bit more of my attention on my major courses. Although the content of this course is very useful and interesting, my other upper level finance courses are geared more towards where I see myself after graduation and are a bit more rigorous. However, I've come to realize that the stress I face now is minimal compared to the stress I'll face when I start my career, and having the interpersonal skills, among others, that this class will teach me will help me to be better off and potentially ameliorate some stress down the road.

3. 3 tips I would give next semester's students would be:
    1. Get organized and put all of your assignment due dates on an iCloud calendar; this way you'll be         reminded on all devices of upcoming deadlines.
    2. Take advantage of your surroundings; if you're on campus and happen to be walking through               Turlington and have a customer interview-type assignment due, go ahead and get it done.
    3. Don't be afraid. People don't bite and awkward interviews will become easier with time.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

The most surprising part of this article was how unpredictable consumer behavior has become over the years, with regard to segmentation based on demographics. I was confused by the author's stance on phychographics because it seems like they work in some ways but still provide little useful information. I would ask the author what the best kind of segmentation is since he didn't seem to make it clear. If demographics and psychographics aren't good enough, then should marketers only explicitly look to behavior? I would also ask if he believes there is any potential bias in consumers' behaviors if they were in a simulation, being aware that they are in said simulation. I disagree that psychographics don't shed light on consumers' behavior because some behavior could be impulsive or anomalous whereas attitudes are maintained over a persons' life and shape how individuals make decisions.

Free Money

1. I will be going on and around campus.
2. I will be approaching students.
3. I cut right to the chase and offered them the free dollar.
4. Since we're offering "free money" with no strings attached, I will offer the dollar and the conversation will go based on how they react.
5. I saw something similar to this on the show Brain Games where they put a box of money in a booth and used hidden cameras to record bystanders' reactions. The recordings showed people being overly skeptical and reluctant with nearly all of them walking away empty-handed. Because of this, I don't think I'll give away all $5, but since I'll be approaching students who could typically use some extra cash I think I'll be able to give away $3 out of the $5.

I gave away $4 out of the $5. Giving a dollar away proved to be easier than I imagined. While a few people seemed skeptical, they didn't question it as much as I thought, and accepted the dollar rather quickly. The only person that did not accept the dollar was a student whose phone conversation I interrupted. They were much more interested in their conversation and annoyed that they had been interrupted to entertain the idea of free money. I assumed most students would accept the dollar because what college student would turn down free money? Moreover, I think being approached by a fellow student made things more comfortable. I think giving away free money would have been more difficult had I approached an older crowd, such as college graduates with a job/income because they would be more inclined to question why a stranger is offering them a dollar they don't necessarily "need" relative to the typical college student. Moreover, if I appeared older and more professional and approached the same students, I think I would have gotten more skeptical responses.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

One important piece of feedback I received was that it's not as comprehensive as other outside study resources. While I'm not saying StudyBuddy could replace them, I learned through my interviews that a big reason why people weren't currently using them was because their classes weren't offered. I also received feedback that it's too similar to Quizlet. However, although Quizlet offers flash cards, they can become outdated as different professors teach different semesters, and sometimes they come from the same class, but at a different university. Because of this, I made the change that StudyBuddy's subjects will be each course's code. For example, instead of "Finance" there will be resources for FIN4243 and FIN4504. This makes it so that those in introductory-level courses won't be bothered with more complicated material from upper-level courses and vice versa.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

The thing I found most interesting from the reading was that a fast-growing industry is not necessarily very profitable because normally, the fast-growing industries are the most popular to investors, which implies profitability. One thing I found confusing was the bargaining away of value through the power of suppliers. If I could ask Michael Porter two questions, I'd ask which of the five competitive forces is most influential in determining a company's long-run profitability. I'd also ask him to give more information on his classic work of strategy formation. I don't agree that eliminating competition through mergers/acquisitions can reduce profit potential because, in one given industry, the loss of competition would be absorbed as increased market share and therefore more profit.

Interviewing Customers No. 3

For my interviewing strategy, I interviewed younger, potentially  tech-savvy individuals. I asked the following questions:

1. Are you a student at UF?

2. Do you use outside study resources, like study edge or tutoring zone?

3. Do you like playing games with your friends on apps, like QuizUp?

4. If there were similar games that focused on your class's content do you think that would help you study better for exams?

5. Do you think other people would find this useful?

I asked these questions because I want to create an app that has various types of trivia games, single and multiplayer, that help students with their specific course material. What differentiates this from an app like QuizUp is that while QuizUp has general categories like "science" the categories featured on my app will be the course code of a given class, so it's that much more specific and more helpful for each individual student. 

 

What I learned is that this wouldn't be applicable to a lot of classes, such as the hands-on architecture and graphic design classes, but would be better suited for content/vocabulary heavy classes. However, for the people who could use this, it seems like something they'd definitely be interested in at least trying. After conducting these interviews, I'd like to brainstorm a way to make at least some type of study game applicable to other majors, such as architecture and graphic design. 

Idea Napkin No. 1

I'm Hayley Milam and I'm great at keeping things organized and taking notes. For nearly all of my classes, I spent so much time writing study packets, making flashcards, etc. I'd frequently share all these with my friends and peers to help them prepare for exams. I could see this business playing a role in my life because it involves sharing study materials with as many people as possible. I am offering to customers an app that has games specifically centered around their courses' content. For example, students could play trivia games against each other to help them learn vocabulary terms or other important information. This information will come from pre-existing, accessible test banks, or information that is provided by people who track and take notes on classes. This app would be free, but could have some low-cost in-app purchases. I'm offering this to UF students, especially those in larger classes, such as critical tracking courses for each school. I believe customers would be willing to pay for this service because it's a fun and easy way to study, or brush up on some topics on the bus before class. I have the focus to stay on task and take very thorough notes on various subjects and can summarize complicated concepts well.

I believe these elements fit well together, but this would not be something I'd be able to accomplish alone. I may be able to help other finance majors, but I would have to expand my pool of study materials to other majors/colleges.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

The most interesting thing from the reading was about S Corporations, since that's what type of corporate structure my family's business embodies. It was cool to learn what the provisions and qualifications for S Corporation status are. The reasons for the Bankruptcy Act were slightly confusing to me. If I could ask the author something, I'd ask what corporate structure he thinks is the best and why. I would also like to know a couple examples of B-Corporations. I don't think lack of continuity is a real disadvantage of partnerships due to the options to allow for continuous operation if one of the partners dies or leaves the partnership for another reason.

Week 4 Reading Reflection

The most surprising part of the reading, in my opinion, came from the "Entrepreneurship in Practice" box titled "Terrorism Ignites Innovation." While a terrorist attack is an extreme instance for opportunity identification, what surprised me was that the government solicited ideas from its citizens. Moreover, in the wake of the attack, they received 12,500 proposals in one month which is 1389% higher than the average volume of proposals received in a year. I was slightly confused by the explanation of process needs as a source of innovative ideas. I would ask Kuratko what differentiates process needs from the general term, since no context clues allude to a difference. Also, expanding on my first question, I would ask what role venture capitalists play in addressing those needs as opposed to entrepreneurs. This textbook might be slightly old, but I don't necessarily agree that, as an economic trend, people have more disposable income. Although peoples' gross incomes have risen, the shrinking middle class and the increased cost of living are trends that offset this increase in disposable income.

Top 5 World Problems

Top 5 Most Serious World Problems
1. Crime
2. Trouble Seeing a Doctor
3. Carbon Emissions
4. Second-Hand Smoke
5. Childhood Obesity

Top 5 Most Implementable Solutions
1. Solution to second-hand smoke: reduce the amount of indoor spaces, such as bars, where smoking cigarettes is permitted while making it known that e-cigarettes are okay for indoor use
2. Solution to crime: set up text alerts for crime by zip-code, like UF Alerts, and make alert systems, like the blue lights on campus, in areas where crime rates are high.
3. Solution to childhood obesity: create more exercise-inducing video games that appeal to a wider audience.
4. Solution to trouble seeing a doctor: making a personal, virtual experience widely available, such as one provided by IBM's Watson (not WebMD).
5. Solution to carbon emissions: making energy efficient cars more affordable and aesthetically appealing.

I chose crime as the number one problem because I believe it is the most universally-shared problem. Not everyone has trouble seeing a doctor, or is regularly in an environment where second-hand smoke is prevalent, and not every child struggles with obesity. While carbon emissions are a huge problem felt worldwide, its effects are very gradual, and therefore not felt extremely personally on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, I placed the problem of carbon emissions below trouble seeing a doctor because its short-run implications aren't as large.

I ranked the solution to second-hand smoke as the most feasible because it doesn't require the development or implementation of new technology; it's simply a matter of changing what's permitted in relevant locations. Moreover, anti-cigarette campaigns have informed the public of the health implications of second-hand smoke, and e-cigarette use is on the rise. Although the solution to crime also doesn't require the development of "new" technology, these systems could take a long time to implement and be costly. However, seeing these systems in working condition on campus everyday is why I ranked it second. The last three solutions all require a great deal of technological innovation which can involve lots of obstacles and take a great deal of time, making them less feasible than the first two solutions I ranked.

Week 3 Reading Reflection

The thing I found most interesting from the reading was the rise of female entrepreneurs and feminist ideas, such as caring. The idea that caring can lead to a more "genuinely moral climate" is particularly intriguing because it could foster closer relationships, and help relieve the problem of loneliness common among entrepreneurs. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the distinction between role distortion and role assertion. The examples provided weren't specific to either type of act. If I could ask Kuratko two things, I would first ask him to clarify and provide examples specific to role assertion and role distortion. Second, I would ask him for his opinion on whether or not moral acts tend to be more "against the firm" or "on behalf of the firm." Although I can understand the reasoning behind why entrepreneurs feel lonely, I still somewhat disagree. I'd argue that the personality of an entrepreneur is more extroverted, allowing them to make many friends. Someone with that kind of personality, despite investing most of their time of work, would most likely have close relationships with at least a few people that they could confide in.

Identifying Local Opportunities

1. Value-conscious, healthy meals
"To adapt to rivals, giants of fast food slowly evolve - With a premium now on healthier fare, chains change"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A88E9A1C4C1C30?p=AWNB
While major fast food chains, like McDonalds and Burger King have been offering more value deals. For example, Burger King now offers a five piece meal for $4. Despite the increase in deals among major fast food companies, "fast-casual" restaurants, like Panera Bread and Chipotle, are beginning to overtake marketshare in the fast food market. This is because people believe their ingredients are fresher and healthier. The biggest problem here is finding a happy medium between high quality ingredients and value. This problem falls on both the consumer and major fast food chains. Consumers are forced to choose between the more economical option and the healthier one. This is also a problem for fast food companies as they must adapt to the changing consumer tastes (literally). 

2. Increased availability of rented housing 
"Apartment demand proves costly"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9366D47EFAD60?p=AWNB
The demand for homeownership has declined over the years, reflected by a homeownership rate at its lowest since 1967. Consequently, demand for apartments has been on the rise, making them more costly. Higher rents are increasingly becoming more difficult to pay, as 52% of renters are considered "cost-burdened," spending at least 30% of their income on housing. The problem is a combination of higher, demand-driven rent prices with only moderate increases in income. Prospective renters bear the burden of this problem as they are more likely to become cost-burdened.

3. On-demand packing and shipping for older, and/or Spanish-speaking consumers
"Shyp ships out of Miami"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A8E3CB04D9FD38?p=AWNB
Shyp is an on-demand packing and shipping service that just had to pull out of its Miami location. Initially, the Miami market seemed attractive, and Shyp received a lot of business during the Holiday season. However, due to their failure to provide a version of their app in Spanish, they had trouble meeting the demands of a large portion of Miami's consumer base. Moreover, Miami did not have enough tech-savvy consumers to sustain Shyp's success. Their other two locations, New York and San Francisco, probably have similar consumer bases, but Miami is a bit of a different story. While Shyp provided a good service, they did not adapt to the market they were in, resulting in their underperformance. This illustrates a problem for companies that do not adapt to the varying needs of consumers among different locations. This is also a problem for the consumers that would've benefitted from Shyp's services but could not because the means of attaining the service was unavailable to them.

4. High-energy pet toys, treat rationer 
"Is your dog a couch potato? Pet obesity is on the rise"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A72A27C8FD8768?p=AWNB
Pet obesity in the US has been on the rise in the last five years. This upward trend in weight-gain has many negative health implications for pets. The health complications caused by obesity, such as diabetes and heart failure, decrease life expectancy and can be very costly to treat. Therefore, this is also a very real problem for pet owners. Two ways to curb the rise in obesity among pets is to keep them active and to be mindful of how much food they're being given. 

5. Special stream-only TV channels, more streaming devices (e.g. Apple TV)
"Other options to cord cutting - Antennas bring additional channels to viewers' sets"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9366D4D81A828?p=AWNB
The amount of people paying for monthly cable, satellite, etc. has declined. Although the decline was small, there is also a growing trend, especially among millennials, toward "cutting the cord" and paying only for certain streaming services, like Hulu. The problem here, is TV watchers don't want to pay the high cost of their monthly TV bill because they don't watch all of the hundreds of channels their subscriptions provide them with. As a result, they've been switching to antennas, which provide roughly between 65 and 95 channel options, or to streaming services. Devices that access these services, like Apple TV, is a growing market with lots of opportunities for innovation. 

Very Short Interview No. 1

Mitch Nelson is a graduate from Florida State University and participated in an entrepreneurship program. With the knowledge and skills he gained, he went on to start his own business called DivvyUp Socks. What makes DivvyUp unique is that for every pair of socks bought, another pair is donated to a Florida homeless shelter. I asked Mr. Nelson the following questions:

1. What inspired the idea for your business?
"I formed a group with other students in the entrepreneurship program with the intention of giving back to the community. My group and I visited a local homeless shelter and when we asked how we could help, the answer was simple: socks."

2. What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
"Being on a college campus at the time, we had a huge market we weren't necessarily prepared for. The idea was out and it was popular, but demand was pretty hard to meet. As a result, we finally decided taking our business online was the best way to reach and help the most amount of people."

3. What do you think I should take away from this course?
"Well, the most important thing I learned was how to identify opportunities. A common misconception people have is that entrepreneurs have to have completely original ideas or come up with "the next big thing," but really it's all about figuring out what people actually want and finding a way to give it to them in the best way."

Reflection:
I thought it was very interesting how this company arose out of a college entrepreneurship program. I was surprised that something as simple as asking what a homeless shelter needed could spur the development of a successful business.

World's Biggest Problems

1. Second-hand smoke. By now, we all know of the health risks of smoking cigarettes. Unfortunately, those risks, as well as the smell, are literally being passed onto non-smoking bystanders. A possible solution to this problem could be to decrease indoor areas where people can smoke cigarettes, such as inside bars, while simultaneously increasing marketing and approval of e-cigarettes. 
2. Spread of illnesses. In our busy, highly globalized society, travel is a a large part of the global economy in the forms of business and tourism. This not only brings people all over the world, but also the illnesses they may carry, increasing the risk of coming into contact with a virus. To impede the spread of these germs, more "hands-free" or automatic devices should be installed, especially in rest rooms. 
3. Carbon emissions. While the Toyota Prius may not be the most "popular" car, it has one of the highest MPGs. While most manufacturers may offer a hybrid option for a particular model, that option is usually much more expensive. By designing more fuel efficient cars that are more aesthetically appealing and more affordable, demand for these cars could increase, putting a dent in our carbon footprint. 
4. Elderly people driving. Driving is not an easy thing to give up, but eventually it becomes dangerous. As you get older, senses dull and reaction time slows. This creates dangers not only for elderly drivers, but others on the road, especially bikers. While this may seem radical, a possible solution would be to require those 80 and older to take another driving test. 
5. Forgetting where you parked. This a bigger problem for some than others, but can be a pretty big problem at large venues, for example. A possible solution for this would be to create a device that can attach to your vehicle and work with an app to give directions to that very spot. This would be more accurate and effective than "dropping a pin" on your smartphone's GPS app, as that only leads users to a general area that could be the size of the very lot their cars are located in.
6. Childhood obesity. Innovations in technology have been wonderful in many aspects, but has also made children very lazy, and possibly antisocial. While games for the Wii, like "Just Dance" are fun and give players a workout, it may not be a little boy's first choice. If kids aren't going to pick up a ball and go play outside, a more feasible solution is to create more active games that fit the needs and wants of children of all ages and attitudes. 
7. Getting sick from old/expired food. For foods we aren't very familiar with, it may be hard to determine whether it's expired until after we taste it. A possible solution to this problem is to create special storage containers that change color when the product has gone bad. For milk, the cap could change color. Or for storing other foods in your house, plastic bags with a special lining to detect mold or bacteria could be developed that change color in the presence of said mold or bacteria.   
8. Trouble seeing a doctor. Whether it be scheduling conflicts, or limited availability of appointments, getting an appointment with a doctor can be quite difficult. A possible solution is to create a virtual, interactive "doctor" that can be accessed from home, like IBM's Watson. Rather than Googling symptoms, only to read about the worst case scenarios of what their symptoms reflect, people can enjoy a more realistic and personalized experience, and stay healthy.
9. Identity theft. Now that chips are being put into credit and debit cards, identity theft is more difficult. But what happens if you lose that card? A stranger could just as easily swipe/insert your card into the card reader as you could. From personal experience, I am rarely asked to verify my identity, even less so since the introduction of the chip. A solution to this could be in biometrics, such a requiring a fingerprint. This way, if you lose your card, you don't need to worry about the dishonest stranger that could have picked it up.
10. Crime. Burglary, physical violence, and break-ins are a constant worry for citizen in areas where crime rates are particularly high. In these areas, it would be beneficial to install systems like the Blue Lights we have on campus. Also, alerts specific to a zip code, for example, sent out via text message can prompt those in potentially dangerous areas find safety. Both of these solutions could deter crime, as they make it more difficult for criminals to get away. 

Week 2 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise from the reading, in my opinion, was that entrepreneurial failure rates are misleading. I always thought failure was a big part of entrepreneurs' ventures, at least much more than was pointed out in the reading. I liked that Kuratko included statistics from Kirchhoff to back this up because it quantified how off my assumptions were. One thing I found confusing was that gazelles typically don't receive venture capital. Since venture capital firms find gazelles attractive, I don't understand why less than 2% of them receive funding from these firms. If I could ask Kuratko 2 questions, I would ask which point of view, macro or micro, is more important, and I would also ask which school of thought he finds the best within each view. Although I agree that entrepreneurs and small businesses are different, I think they are more similar than Kuratko describes. Entrepreneurs may take bigger risks, but these risks are still calculated. Moreover, small business owners may have taken great financial risks to start their business, with possible unique aspects that give them a competitive edge over other businesses in their industry.