Week 15 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading?

I was surprised to read that a business could have such high growth even though its prospective customers are relatively poor.


2) Identify one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Initially, I was uncertain about what exactly microfinancing is. It wasn't until later in the article that the author described it in depth enough for me to get a better understanding.


3) If you were able to ask the author two questions, what would you ask? Why?

Why is microfinancing not a more popular business activity around the world?

How much of an impact do cultural barriers have on business at the bottom of the pyramid?


4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about?

Other than the confusion about microfinancing, I felt the author's piece was very informative and entertaining. I am relatively uninformed on the topic but I appreciate the great read overall.

Final Reflection

1) Reading through my blog posts  from throughout the semester made me appreciate the body of work that I've accomplished in this class.

2) What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

The most formative experience for me has to be the Interviewing Customers assignments. Interestingly enough, this is because I was unable to do any of them by their respective due dates. This helped me grow as a student in this class because, after getting my act together, I became more able to prioritize assignments and complete them on time for this class after the first few weeks. I hope to carry these habits over into other classes. This assignment also helped me get outside of my comfort zone and approach other students around campus. My most memorable experience from this class would definitely be the "Free Money" assignment. It was my favorite because it incorporated entrepreneurial ideas while also making me laugh along the way. My most joyous experience of the semester would be finally being able to record an Elevator Pitch all the way through without hesitating or messing up. It took me a solid hour or two the first time to be able to get this done. Finally, I will be most proud if I am still able to earn an A in this class after starting off the course fairly poorly.

3) At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And we repeated the mantra -- I am an entrepreneur. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

When it comes to my involvement with BLUE, I would definitely categorize myself as an entrepreneur. However, from a broader perspective, I am still primarily a student studying to eventually become my own private business owner (entrepreneur). Nonetheless, I have acquired many entrepreneurial skills and developed a consistent entrepreneurial mindset in my everyday thinking. I think that having an entrepreneurial mindset can help make you a more successful person.

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

My best piece of advice for future students is to look ahead at upcoming assignments so that you are aware which assignments will require more time to complete. I made the mistake of procrastinating and not being able to complete some of the lengthier assignments at the beginning of the semester and this initially put my grade in the class in jeopardy. I have since been able to complete almost all of my assignments and have significantly raised my grade. Staying on pace with the class is a major key to success. My best advice for future students to foster an entrepreneurial mindset is to step out of your comfort zone, meet people, be prepared, and have passion.

Venture Concept No. 2

1) Venture Concept Description

Opportunity:

BLUE at UF will target college students as customers. Young adults (college students) are generally some of the more healthy, fit, and adventurous people in America when compared to other age groups. There is also no generation better suited to learn about the lack of potable water around the world because, after all, college students are the future of the world and are the ones that will make an impact over the next several decades. These qualities are all extremely helpful on BLUE service trips and in working towards our ultimate goal of clean water for all.

College students are at a time in their lives where traveling is extremely popular. BLUE trips to the Dominican Republic have been like vacations for me in the past so I aim to convey this aspect of the trip to fulfill yet another of my customer’s needs. BLUE trips are memorable cultural immersion experiences that assimilate you into the native culture for a week while completing a great service to the community along the way. I believe college students have an appeal for cultural experiences similar to this such as studying abroad or medical missions.

The market is not defined in any way demographically. The geographic limitations are that BLUE is based out of Miami, FL and our chapter will be based out of UF. My opportunity is pretty big in the long term because if I can get the organization going at UF, it will potentially continue growing for years to come. I do not see the “window of opportunity” closing at all because the majority of UF students have a strong unmet need for new experiences, travel, campus involvement, and helping those in need.

Innovation:

BLUE at UF will coordinate a weeklong service trip to a rural mountain community in the Dominican Republic for a group of UF students. BLUE will be able to compete for UF students as customers because it is a much cheaper option than studying abroad. It is also a more broad social experience with the locals than a medical mission. We all know that college is competitive so another need that I can help fulfill for my customers is campus involvement because BLUE is soon to be a club at UF that will offer involvement opportunities such as participating in BLUE at UF trips or even earning executive board positions in the UF chapter of the organization.

Our mission is to build a concrete aqueduct and PVC pipe system that will deliver water from the source directly to the home faucets in the community. The locals will be extremely involved and do most of the hard work. We will be working side by side with them all week to complete the project; making friendships, memories and progress on the project every step of the way. Our team will also have an organized layout for the project long before we arrive.

BLUE Service trip payments collected from trip participants cover food, water, flight costs and transportation, as well as relevant supplies to complete the projects. Past trips have cost $899-$999. Current estimates also put the price of our upcoming service trips at under $1000. BLUE is a non-profit so we make money from trip payments as well as annual fundraisers and, increasingly, social media fundraisers.

Venture Concept:

BLUE is a great option for UF students looking to get involved. It is a great organization that does not require a lot of commitment outside of the service trip itself and a handful of informational meetings. Our service trip will be extremely affordable compared to other international opportunities that UF offers. This is very attractive for college students and families on a budget. BLUE will also provide an international experience, campus involvement, and lasting memories for UF students.

There will be little difficulty for customers to switch to our organization because there are no costs or conflicts associated with it other than the service trip itself. However, our competition is other service trips, study abroad programs, medical missions, and even spring break and summer vacations. Study abroad programs can be time-consuming and very expensive while college vacations may not be as fulfilling as a service trip.

Customer support, the customer experience, and business location all play a huge role in defining my business concept. BLUE relies heavily on past trip participants to continue spreading the word to friends. I have personally already recruited dozens of family and friends to go on trips. We also have a pretty big group of “BLUE alumni” that are current UF students. I will be working with them to spread the word about our organization around campus in the coming months. Our BLUE at UF chapter will need a group of students to start the club so that we could meet, discuss, and elect an executive board. Back in Miami and the Dominican Republic BLUE has a team of workers, engineers, and dedicated volunteers that will be able to support our organization.

Minor Elements:

Important resources are human interaction and manual labor. These are not exactly tangible but our success will depend greatly on the work that we put in with the locals to complete the project. Supplies such as PVC pipe and shovels are also necessary and will be provided.

The next step for my venture is to spread the word to the UF community about my organization. It is best that we have plenty of time to recruit as many students as possible. I plan on using social media and tabling at Turlington plaza to spread the word about BLUE.

I hope to be involved with BLUE for the rest of my life because of the impact it has had on me and because of the people that I’ve met through the organization. In five years I hope to still be recruiting family and friends to go on at least one service trip with BLUE. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, I hope to have my own private medical practice in the next decade and I hope to use the entrepreneurial skills I’ve gathered to be a better professional.

2) Provide a summary of the feedback you received from your previous venture concept description. You certainly want to include the student feedback, but you may also include the feedback you received from others during the "What's Next" exercise. You want to summarize all of the feedback, but be sure to place an emphasis on what people recommended you change about your idea. (In other words, don't just describe the positive feedback.)

Most of my feedback praised how I aim to appeal to the pleasure side of customers while also appealing to their moral side. However, some comments aimed to help me make my idea better. Two out of my four peer comments requested that I add the approximate spending budget of the service trip. I have been waiting until my service is fully developed in order to approximate how much it would cost students and I am finally ready to do so. I also received feedback to try to include how my venture will produce a profit for business. Finally, one peer thought it would be a good idea to add an option to go longer than a week.

3) Describe how you changed your venture concept, based on what you learned from the feedback. 

I wanted to make sure that I added in the approximate price of $999 for each of the 7-10 day summer trips. This price is all-inclusive for food, shelter, and transportation. My venture is a non profit organization, Therefore, we will not need to earn a profit for the business. As long as we are able to efficiently fundraise and receive trip payments from volunteers, we will be able to sustain our organization and continue pursuing our organizational goals. At this point our focus is providing the best 7-10 day international service experience possible for college students. I am interested in pursuing longer trips in the future as requested but that is not something that is possible for next year given our current resources and investment of time. 

4) Include a picture (for illustration!) 

This picture is from my first BLUE trip. You can see the genuine appreciation and happiness in the faces of both the volunteer and the young children once the project was completed.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading?

The biggest surprise for me in the reading was the amount that companies financially invest in innovation. I kind of overthought this and assumed that the innovative process primarily depended on initial innovative ideas. However, I see that it is important to continually improve your business with entrepreneurial ideas in order to maintain your level of success.


2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I thought that the part of the reading about the I-team or Innovation team was pretty confusing. I feel like it is a bit difficult to quantify innovation or monitor an innovation team's progress. Innovation is an artistic and spontaneous process and I do not think that the section Developing I-Teams was descriptive enough with examples of I-teams and how they can be effective or ineffective.


3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Do you think that a new business can be successful without a designated I-Team?

Do you believe that ethics and environmental awareness override entrepreneurial success when starting a new entrepreneurial venture?


4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How? 

I completely agree with the text in chapter four about the ethical challenges of entrepreneurship. It is paramount for new startups to be ethical in their decision making. Consequently, I am more unfamiliar with corporate entrepreneurship so I do not glaringly disagree with anything as most of the information is new to me. However, I feel like some of the sections such as Developing I-Teams should have been longer and used more descriptive examples.

Google Gold

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimization (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

Search engine optimization is a pivotal part of any successful blog or website. I tried to consistently update my blog with new, captivating posts about my venture. I feel like the steady flow of blog posts is beneficial in attracting viewers to your blog. I also wanted to make my posts as clear and informative as possible because nowadays the internet is very streamlined so I want to give my viewers as easy of a blog viewing experience as possible. The most important aspect of search engine optimization for me was definitely trying to use keywords and the name of my organization as much as possible.

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

My biggest keyword was definitely BLUE since that is the name of my organization. I also referred to UF often in many of my posts since that is my target customer base for my venture. The word "college" is also very common on my blog because I want to be sure I convey the message that I am targeting college students. Finally, "service" is another prevalent word in my blog because I frequently describe BLUE as a service organization or refer to our trips as service trips. I did not really change my keywords throughout the semester but I did make sure to use them more frequently and strategically as the semester went on. I wanted to frequently use keywords that are common and relevant to my venture idea.

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I have used social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and even our BLUE website to enhance SEO efforts for our organization and,consequently, my blog. Social media is a widely effective platform to spread the word about a new business venture. In my case, social media has been even more surprisingly effective since my target customers are high school and college students who conveniently use social media very often. My blog, specifically, has not gotten incredibly noticeable attention from my social media efforts but at BLUE we've been able to capitalize on social media as a way to spread awareness and spread information to our customer base and supporters.

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

My most viral post on my blog for ENT was my Venture Concept No. 1 post. This was definitely one of my longer and more informative posts so I think that contributed to the heavy amount of views on this post. This assignment also required 4 comments from peers, I believe, so that also contributed to the increased number of views for this post. I am glad that this post was my most viral because I put a lot of time into describing my venture concept and I feel like it is one of my better blog posts for this class.

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

The keyword service trip BLUE generated our BLUE website on the first page of google results. Keywords such as UF and college were not as efficient in getting us to the top pages of Google results because I think they are a little too vague to generate good search results. My search for good keywords is still ongoing and I am always looking for new ways to promote my organization as a whole and on Google results. I think this is a huge part of becoming successful and well known as an organization.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

My first interview was very insightful. However, I find it interesting that I only asked Mr. Wolf questions about himself. Now, I am inclined to ask some questions that offer advice or perspective for myself as an entrepreneur.

Me: "How has your business been doing over the past three months?"

Mr. Wolf: "Business at the restaurant has been great as it has been the past few years. We are able to be open 7 days per week because we have been so busy since the new year."


Me: "What advice do you have for an up and coming entrepreneur?"

Mr. Wolf: "You must find something that you truly love or something that makes you a lot of money. If you don't have either of these things, you need to find yourself a new entrepreneurial venture. Luckily, I love my restaurant and I have been very successful in recent years so I have no complaints with my business.


Me: "What do you think is an increasingly important aspect of your business?"

Mr. Wolf: "The use of the internet is definitely something that I have tried to incorporate into my restaurant. We do online orders for delivery and I have been looking into a Focaccia Village Pizzeria app so customers can see deals and place orders on their smartphone."


Mr. Wolf did not specifically say that he noticed any differences over the past three months but I could tell that I was more confident in asking Mr. Wolf this round of questions. I would not say that I was nervous for the first interview but I think getting advice in this second interview as opposed to simply asking Mr. Wolf about his business will be more beneficial for me. I've come a long way in my interview skills and communication since three months ago and especially before this course.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

1) The biggest surprise for me in the reading was probably the pricing formula. A lot more variables go into it than I had previously expected. I was able to understand the text but there was definitely some major differences from my expectations. 


2) The section about valuation methods was very confusing to me because I haven't really taken any high level finance or business classes yet so I am not very familiar with this concept. 

3) Ask the author two questions:
What is the main difference between adjusted tangible venture valuation and liquidation venture valuation?
Which of these two aproaches to venture valuation do you think is most effective?

4) As opposed to some other chapters, there was nothing I disagreed with the author on. I am slightly uninformed on the concepts in this chapter and it was also pretty straightforward so that is why I don't have any disagreements.