Assignment 30A- Final Reflection

• What sticks out to you as the most formative experience?
• To me the most formative experience was making the bug list because it helped me realize how difficult it is to find an issue that people may have. I had a hard time figuring out issues that I had. It helped me to truly appreciate how hard it is to find a potential opportunity that we can use.
• The experience that you'll remember years later?
• The thing I will remember the most is when I had to turn my personal connections with my mothers coworkers into professional ones. This helped to open up many different options for my future endeavors and other possible connections through these connections.
• What was your most joyous experience?
• My most joyous experience was being able to conduct interviews and receive real feedback about an idea that I came up with. This makes me really happy because it makes me feel like I have helped people and they help me and themselves in return by helping me to polish up my ideas.
• What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing? 
• I am most proud of the elevator pitches that I did. I usually have issues with speaking of any kind and the fact that I was able to do those pitches just shows how far I was pushed out of my comfort zone. Leaving my comfort zone helped me to see things in a new perspective that helped me to grow.
• Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur?
•  I honestly don't believe that I am an entrepreneur right now. I do think that I am on the road to becoming one. I don't think that I can consider myself an entrepreneur until I have started and got a product up and running. I do believe that this class has started me on the path that I need to follow and develop.
• Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?
• I do believe that I have moved closer to an entrepreneurial mindset. It has constantly made me think in different ways that have helped me to look for things I never would have looked for before taking this class.
• What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future?
• I would recommend to take each assignment as a new opportunity and go at it with everything you have. This is because each assignment gives you something new to develop and use on your journey to starting up your business.
• What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course?
• I would suggest to them to work ahead and make a solid plan on how you are going to complete the assignments. This will save you a lot of time and effort throughout the duration of the class as a whole.
• What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?
• I recommend that they have an open mind to each assignment even if it requires them to do some things that are outside of their comfort zone. Doing everything that is asked of you to the fullest extent helps to train your brain to recognize things that it normally wouldn't. This is the best advice I could give to an incoming student into this class.

Assignment 29A- Venture Concept 2

•        Opportunity

o   Many people want to move into an apartment, but many times don’t have the time to go to every single possible living space by themselves. Many then turn to online resources for a quick and convenient solution. However, many of these websites have outdated or completely inaccurate information. This can cause a lot of frustration and wasted time.

o   The ones who could use my product are people trying to move into apartments that don’t want waste their time searching for the perfect place and is advertised as it is sold.

o   The forces that create this opportunity is the simple nature of the apartment market. It is ever changing with multiple different kinds of markets within the overall market of apartments. This opportunity will continue to be available until the apartment market becomes non-existent or new regulations are put in place to stop the fluctuating prices. Seeing as neither of these things will happen this opportunity will remain for a very long time.

o   Customers currently use websites and personal visits as their means to satisfy this need. However, both methods can be time consuming and frustrating especially since much if the information received from the current products online is inaccurate.

•        Innovation

o   My product is not anything new or radical because of the fact that it exists already. It is a website online that provides information on apartments and helps potential customers of the apartments to save time and patience. What makes my product different is the fact that it updates day to day and always has the most accurate information possible. This keeps people from having to spend an entire day searching for accurate information on one possible place to live. I am attempting to sell what every other similar product tries promising but falls short on. The way I am selling this is it will be a membership-based system that is five dollars a month. With it being a website, I could also sell advertisement space, which I will sell for 30 dollars per week originally.

•        Venture Concept

o   People will want but my product because of the convenience and the amount of time it will save them. My product will solve the issue of wasted time and misinformation being spread around by other services that claim they have the information that they promise. This is something that people would be more than willing to switch over to because of the fact that they are fed up with receiving information that is not reliable and makes you double check all of your research.

o   My competitors would be any place that one can receive information on apartments at. Even if they are dispensing inaccurate information, they take away potential customers and can also cause distrust towards products like mine. Their primary weakness is the fact that the information they provide is not accurate. This causes people to get angry with them even if it may not be their fault for the information being inaccurate in the first place.

o   For my business I would need quite a few employees. Starting out I would say about 20 or so employees. There are several roles that these employees would need to fill. At least three of these would be programmers to create my website, update it, and maintain it. Another position that will need to be filled is individuals to go out and collect the information on the apartments. I would think that I would designate about ten people to this task. It is the life line of the company and therefore it needs to be as efficient and accurate as possible. I would also need individuals to work in the customer support area. This is to ensure that customers can call and ask questions that they have in order to make their experience as quick and enjoyable as possible.

•        Unfair Advantage:

o   My biggest advantage compared to other competitors is my vast amount of connections into the market of apartments. My mother has worked in the market for over 20 years and is now one of the heads of a prominent company in the market. This rare opportunity has helped me to foster connections to high up individuals in multiple companies involved with apartments and management of apartments. This in turn gives me a unique perspective on the market as a whole as I have grown up with it being a part of my life.

o   These connections also provide me with a place to receive help and guidance in times of stress and difficulty. This is something that not many people have in their corner and can often times need.

•        What’s next for the venture:

o   Something I have wanted to do with this innovation but haven’t worked out quite yet is using it to shop renter’s insurance. This is also a very important part of moving into an apartment. This is also a very long and tedious process just like looking for an apartment to move into. This market has many of the same issues as the apartment market as well. It can change very rapidly and unexpectedly, making it difficult to keep track of. This aspect could also help to bring more people to either product because of their needs and the timing of them using the product.

•        What’s next for me:

o   If I was to launch this product, I would hope to still be working closely with it in the future. By the time a few years have passed I hope to have expanded my employee base and will have expanded the area in which my product will be available. I hope that this business will serve as my base that helps to push me into other ventures and markets so that I can continue to expand my opportunities for profit that can go back into all of my businesses.

Summary of feedback and changes

     The feedback that I received had many good things to say. They thought that my selling advertisement space was a good idea and that knowing my edge against the competition was important. I did shift some of my numbers in my employees due to them pointing out that having one person to take care of the entire website wasn't going to work well. They also saw my connections into the market as a huge bonus for my product. I also changed my price for advertisement slots to thirty dollars because it seemed like the feedback thought if I was going to leave the subscription low I would need all the money I could get from advertisement space.

Assignment 28A- Your exit strategy

• Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?
• My plan on how to exit this business is to stay with it for a couple decades, while branching out into other areas, and then eventually retiring. When I do retire I plan on selling the company to either a company I have created strong ties with or an individual I fully trust to run it the way I would run it.
• Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?
• I decided on this strategy because I want to continue to help and watch this business grow and develop into the business I imagined it to be. I also decided on this because the thought of some faceless and money hungry individual or group of individuals controlling the company makes me uneasy. In order to make sure this doesn't happen I plan on staying for a long time.
• How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?   
• I think the biggest influence it made on my decisions is the in the way I set up my business. I planned on it to be a starting point that helps to grow other ventures and for it to be a constant in my business plans. I never thought I would sell the business after a few years or when it became really popular. I always thought of it as a personal experience that I should be a part of and this lead me to handle the details and structure of the business in different ways than I would have handled it had I even thought about selling it before I retired.
• In the end the main reason I picked this strategy is that I don't trust anyone else to run the business the way I would want it to be run. For this reason I feel the need to stay involved in the company for many years until I can find someone that can and will run the company the way I would want it to be run.  

Assignment 27A- Reading Reflection 3

•  What was the general theme or argument of the book?
• The general theme of the book Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky is that we have so much free time today but we don't utilize it properly and instead waste it on pointless and unfulfilling actions. One of the largest ways that Shirky says we "use" this time is by indulging in broadcast media. He then proceeds to offer suggestions on how to retake our free time and use it more productively.
• How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?  
• I believe one of the main ways this book connects back to what we are learning is the idea of not wasting an opportunity. This book points out that we simply pass up on potential opportunities by wasting our spare time with pointless actions such as watching television. This class helps us to focus on situations where we can exploit opportunities and this book does much of the same. It helps individuals look at their life and figure out where they can improve themselves and their use of their time.  
• If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
• The experiment I would design is to have individuals keep track of their free time and the amount of time doing anything productive. After they have done this I would have them begin to start doing activities or exercises of some kind during their free time instead of what they were originally doing. I would have this go on for a couple weeks and at the end of these couple of weeks I would ask them a set of questions that measure how they feel these changes have affected them. I would also try and gauge how they think their lives have improved after starting to use their free time more productively.
• 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?
• My biggest surprise from this book was the part where it talks about new mindsets. One example of this was the part where Shirky talks about how there are times when we would rather have something done by people other than professionals in that area. I had never stopped to think about how accurate this actually is. One example that is given is restaurant reviews. I would put more stock in a review from a friend than a professional restaurant reviewer. I never stopped to think this over but it is very accurate.  

Assignment 26A- Celebrating Failure

• A time that I failed this past semester:
• The time I failed this past semester was in my Biology class and Spanish class. Both of my first exams did not go to my liking. It came as a shock to me because of the fact that I had devoted a few days to study for both exams. I did not take these grades with grace either. I was incredibly angry with myself and said that I needed to do better. I am still using these past failures as motivation in those classes to try and insure that it does not happen again. Unfortunately my other exams did not fair much better. They were better than the first ones but still not what I was expecting.
• I learned a lot from these failures. One thing that I learned and took to heart was that grades aren't everything. My entire life I have had one goal in life and that is to do well in school and almost nothing else. This lead to some areas in life to be severely lacking. After a few times of not doing as well as I wanted I realized that I need to take time to smell the roses and enjoy being who I am and do things that I want to do. This is a difficult mindset to adopt from the one that I had before but I am confident that I can.
• Reflection on Failure:
• Failure is always difficult to deal with no matter who you are. In many ways I do not handle failure well at all. I very often just get upset with myself and try to use anger as motivation to try and not fail again. This was not a healthy way to handle failures, especially when you have a few failures in a row without any real success. This class has helped me to realize that failure is not always something to hate or despise. It can be a great opportunity to improve not only yourself but the situation you are in. It helped me to think more about why it is I am failing and not focus on the fact that I did fail. I would say because of this I am more likely to take a risk and not be afraid to fail. 

Assignment 25A- Whats Next?

• What's next for me:
• I believe a good next step would be to take my product into the realm of renters insurance. This is not an unreasonable jump from shopping around for apartments. Many people who will have used my product for finding apartments will also need renters insurance while they live in the apartment. This search is a long and tedious one as well as you need to find the plan that best suits your needs but finding it can take time. My product should be able to help cut down that time and help people find the plan for them
• Existing Market:
• In my first interview with a floor mate in my dorm he stated that a good next step would be going into the market for houses. He stated that it is not a large leap to jump into that market and that it could be just as profitable. After I told him of my thoughts in going into renters insurance he said that he understood where I got that idea from.
• In my second interview with a friend of mine from high school she told me that she could see this business going into the job search market. I thought that this thought was interesting because of how different it is from my original market. She told me that I could use the same concept in this new market. She told me that in this market it is taking large amounts of information and making it accurate and more accessible.
• In my third interview with another floor mate of mine he told me that he could see a business like this also going into the housing market. He gave many of the same reasons as my other floor mate saying that it is a logical next step and that it would be an easy transition.
• Reflection 1:

Based on my feedback and my own plans I believe a good path to take would be to take my product into the housing market. I had originally thought about doing this but dismissed it earlier. With this round of feedback it has opened my eyes to the fact that I should have talked to people before dismissing the idea entirely.
My first and second interviews showed me that people would be interested in this product in the housing market. I do agree that moving into this market would probably be the best move for my product. Even though there are realtors within the market already many people still like doing their own research as was pointed out to me by my third interviewee. I believe that if I adapt my product for the housing market I could be very profitable for me.

• New Market:
• The new market I believe that would be best for me to go into the housing market. After receiving feedback that supports this idea I feel more comfortable pursuing this venture. Many people do their own research on houses and where they want to live before meeting with a realtor. This is where my product can come in and provide the information to them so they can be confident going into their dealings with a realtor. I believe that this is a very important step in the house buying process and many people need help with it.
• Interviews:
• The first person I interviewed was my friend who has moved around his entire life. I explained to him my product and then asked if he thought people like his family would ever use it. He told me that his family would definitely use the product if it delivered on what it promises. He did say that one way that would help the product adapt to the market would be to have it maybe partner with realtors so that you can insure the customers are not skeptical of what it is offering.
• In my second interview I talked to my father who recently moved. He did say that he would be hesitant to use a product like this for finding a house. He said that he would be hesitant because of the fact that realtors are still needed and they can do this job as well. He suggested that if I could make the product easier to use than having a realtor look for you that he would consider using it. He also agreed with my friends suggestion of finding a way to partner with realtors when I told him about it.
• Reflection 2:

What I learned from these interviews is that some people would be more than willing to use this product in the housing market. Another thing I learned is that some people would not take to it without me doing some serious reshaping of the product. One thing that surprised me was the fact that people are so reliant on realtors within this market. My assumption that people would use my product to simply "window shop" was actually correct for some of the market which actually surprised me.
I will say that this market is not as appealing as my current market. Many people who I interviewed in the existing market were more than happy to use a new product that could make their search much less difficult. However in the new market many people seem to put most of their faith into realtors. This concerns me because it leads me to believe that many people won't take to my product in this new market. It doesn't seem like a good idea for me to leave a market where I know people will use my product, for a market where I am unsure if people will take to my product.

Assignment 24A- Venture Concept 1-Seek and you shall find

Business name: Seek and you shall find

·       Opportunity

o   Many people want to move into an apartment, but many times don’t have the time to go to every single possible living space by themselves. Many then turn to online resources for a quick and convenient solution. However, many of these websites have outdated or completely inaccurate information. This can cause a lot of frustration and wasted time.

o   The ones who could use my product are people trying to move into apartments that don’t want waste their time searching for the perfect place and is advertised as it is sold.

o   The forces that create this opportunity is the simple nature of the apartment market. It is ever changing with multiple different kinds of markets within the overall market of apartments. This opportunity will continue to be available until the apartment market becomes non-existent or new regulations are put in place to stop the fluctuating prices. Seeing as neither of these things will happen this opportunity will remain for a very long time.

o   Customers currently use websites and personal visits as their means to satisfy this need. However, both methods can be time consuming and frustrating especially since much if the information received from the current products online is inaccurate.

·       Innovation

o   My product is not anything new or radical because of the fact that it exists already. It is a website online that provides information on apartments and helps potential customers of the apartments to save time and patience. What makes my product different is the fact that it updates day to day and always has the most accurate information possible. This keeps people from having to spend an entire day searching for accurate information on one possible place to live. I am attempting to sell what every other similar product tries promising but falls short on. The way I am selling this is it will be a membership-based system that is five dollars a month. With it being a website, I could also sell advertisement space, which I will sell for 20 dollars per week originally.

·       Venture Concept

o   People will want but my product because of the convenience and the amount of time it will save them. My product will solve the issue of wasted time and misinformation being spread around by other services that claim they have the information that they promise. This is something that people would be more than willing to switch over to because of the fact that they are fed up with receiving information that is not reliable and makes you double check all of your research.

o   My competitors would be any place that one can receive information on apartments at. Even if they are dispensing inaccurate information, they take away potential customers and can also cause distrust towards products like mine. Their primary weakness is the fact that the information they provide is not accurate. This causes people to get angry with them even if it may not be their fault for the information being inaccurate in the first place.

o   For my business I would need quite a few employees. Starting out I would say about 20 or so employees. There are several roles that these employees would need to fill. One of these would be a programmer to create my website, update it, and maintain it. Another position that will need to be filled is individuals to go out and collect the information on the apartments. I would think that I would designate about ten people to this task. It is the life line of the company and therefore it needs to be as efficient and accurate as possible. I would also need individuals to work in the customer support area. This is to ensure that customers can call and ask questions that they have in order to make their experience as quick and enjoyable as possible.

·       Unfair Advantage:

o   My biggest advantage compared to other competitors is my vast amount of connections into the market of apartments. My mother has worked in the market for over 20 years and is now one of the heads of a prominent company in the market. This rare opportunity has helped me to foster connections to high up individuals in multiple companies involved with apartments and management of apartments. This in turn gives me a unique perspective on the market as a whole as I have grown up with it being a part of my life.

o   These connections also provide me with a place to receive help and guidance in times of stress and difficulty. This is something that not many people have in their corner and can often times need.

·       What’s next for the venture:

o   Something I have wanted to do with this innovation but haven’t worked out quite yet is using it to shop renter’s insurance. This is also a very important part of moving into an apartment. This is also a very long and tedious process just like looking for an apartment to move into. This market has many of the same issues as the apartment market as well. It can change very rapidly and unexpectedly, making it difficult to keep track of.

·       What’s next for me:

o   If I was to launch this product, I would hope to still be working closely with it in the future. By the time a few years have passed I hope to have expanded my employee base and will have expanded the area in which my product will be available. I hope that this business will serve as my base that helps to push me into other ventures and markets so that I can continue to expand my opportunities for profit that can go back into all of my businesses. I hope that I can say that my products helped people live a better life and that I can feel proud of the things that I will have accomplished in my years as an entrepreneur.