Assignment 20A

Growing your Social Capital

Noah

1. Noah is a tutor for the SAT test. He went to the same high school as me and majored in musical theory in college

2. I am considering Noah to be my "domain expert". He helps high school students learn by tutoring them, so he seems to be in my industry.

3. I found this person because he was my SAT tutor when I was in high school. I contacted him by calling him.

4. The favor that he did for me was talking to me about my business idea. He offered me advice and sounded very interested. I do not believe that he wants something in return, because this was such a small favor.

5. Including Noah in my social network will better allow me to exploit my opportunity because he knows students that care about learning and that have parents that are willing to pay for it. These are the type of people that I am targeting with my service.

Daphne 

1. Daphne owns a small business. She grew up in a small town and went to a medium-sized college. 

2. I am considering Daphne to be my "market expert". Although we will not be targeting the same market, I am looking to get advice on how she thinks I should target my market.

3. I did not "find" this person. She is my aunt so I have known her all of my life. I contacted my Aunt Daphne by calling her.

4. I asked my aunt what she thought about my business idea, and how she targets her market. She said that she liked my idea, and she offered me some advice about how I should try to target my market. She mentioned that I could start by looking up tuition costs at private schools in the area. I thought this was a good idea, as it would allow me to find parents that are most willing to pay for their kids to learn more effectively. 

5. Although my Aunt was in my "social network" I believe that our relationship changed a bit because I contacted her about my idea. Talking to her about my idea will allow me to better target my specific market.

John

1. John grew up in the northeast part of the united states. He went to UCF and majored in business.

2.  I am considering John to be my "supplier". John works for a tutoring service in my town as the manager. This means that he is providing a service in the same industry as my business idea is in. 

3. I found John by visiting the tutoring company that he works for. I asked to speak to the manager, which led me to John.

4. John did me a favor of offering me advice. I talked to him about how he started working for the tutoring service, and how he finds customers. Although he most likely doesn't expect much in return because he knows that I was talking to him for a school assignment, I may offer him a favor in return.

5. Adding John to my social network might serve useful in the future if I have any other questions that he might be able to answer.

Reflection

This social networking was not much like social networking I had done in the past. This social networking seemed focused and objective-driven. This has its benefits, but it also seemed less natural. At times, it seemed like I was only talking to the person in order to get the information that I needed. I feel like this should change in the future so the conversations seem more natural.

Assignment 19A

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. You

I am a student at UF majoring in General Business. My talents are that I am a good problem solver, I am good at math, and I am good at helping other people solve their problems. My aspiration for this business idea of mine is for it to allow students to reach their goals in school more efficiently.

2. What are you offering?

My service is one that goes to elementary and high schools and helps teachers better understand and facilitate their students studying habits. I will talk to teachers and look at their lesson plans and then work with them to come up with the most effective way to study for their class. I will also offer test-taking advice, such as how to deal with test anxiety.

3. Who are you offering it to?

While any school would benefit from my service, my service is mainly being offered to private schools with below-average GPA's. This puts parents in my target market because the cost of my service will end up being paid by them. Parents that would want my service to be offered to their kids' schools value learning and success.

4. Why do they care?

These parents want my service because they want their kids to do well in school, but they are very busy. These parents want someone else to help their kids do well in school, and they want their kids to do well in school for the rest of their lives. My service will offer these benefits to them

5. What are your core competencies?
My core competencies are that I have had this problem myself and that I love helping other people solve their problems. These competencies will allow me to persevere with this business idea and beat out any competition that arises.

COHESIVENESS
I do believe that each of these five aspects of my business fit together, but something that might need tweaking is who I believe my target market is. Although parents will end up paying for my service, it might be useful to try to target principals. This alteration to my business model might allow me to reach more schools.

FEEDBACK
Most of the feedback that I received from my first idea napkin post was that they liked my idea. One commenter said that I should target schools with below-average GPA's, as they realize that they have this problem. Another commenter said that I should incorporate something to limit stress on exams. I thought that both of these ideas were important, so included both in this Idea Napkin.

Assignment 17A

Elevator Pitch No. 2

Link to the elevator pitch: https://youtu.be/x_TxRpRBu2Y


2.) Although I did not get much feedback on my last elevator pitch, the feedback that I did receive was helpful. One of the comments that was made was that I should change the camera angle when recording my pitch, which I thought was a good idea. Another comment that was made was that I should add a hook at the beginning of the hook, which is a good idea to grab the listeners attention

3.) I changed the camera angle to better represent an angle that might be realistic when talking to someone in person. I also added a hook at the beginning of my pitch, which I think added a nice touch and

Assignment 18A

Create a Customer Avatar

Customer Avatar

My customer avatar would most likely be parents that have a few kids and want their kids to learn better in school. This desire for them to learn more may come from many things, such as a dream for their kids to be successful. Because I am targeting parents for my service, I am assuming that their kids go to private schools. This is because my service will increase the tuition that parents have to pay. Many affluent parents with multiple kids use tutoring services, which would be a substitute for my service, so the parents that I would target either have had no luck with tutoring, or there is not a viable tutoring service within the area of them. These parents want their kids to do well in school, so they most likely were held to the same standard by their parents. I would assume that these parents have substantial incomes as a result of doing well in school when they were younger. These parents won’t have many hobbies since they have their hands full with multiple children. They are in their thirties or late twenties because this seems to be the age that parents have young children. These parents have a car that can hold many people and lots of stuff, such as an SUV or a minivan. At least one of these parents works full time, in order to finance their large family. One of the parents either only works part-time or does not work at all in order to have time to take care of their kids. 

What do I have in common?

I don’t have much in common other than that I also value learning and I don’t have much time. I don’t think this is a coincidence that I have these in common with my customer avatar, as this is the need that I have experienced that I am filling with my service.

Assignment 16A

Human Capital

Five distinct aspects of my "human capital"

1. Hard-working

Although this might sound cliche, I don't believe that I am hard working in the same sense that most people say that they are. When I truly have a passion for something, I tend to work at it until I am completely satisfied. This means that I set everything else aside and focus on this one goal of mine.

2. Perseverance

When I want to achieve something, especially some goal that brings about many difficulties, I always persevere through these hardships. I tend to "keep my eye on the prize" and focus on why I want to achieve this goal. This allows me to transcend the hurdles that I face on my path to what I desire to achieve.

3. Quantitative skills

For as long as I can remember, I have always been well above average in all of my math classes. I tend to grasp quantitative concepts more readily than most people, and I also tend to apply theoretical math concepts to realistic situations with ease.

4. Ability to empathize 

I believe that I have the ability to empathize with other people and understand their problems better than most people. Especially related to my service, I feel that I can empathize with struggling students. I have been in this situation many times, and I feel that I have the expertise to and capacity to help these people because of my relatability.

5. Desire to help others

I have always had an inner drive to help others achieve their goals. This drive is ratcheted up when I, myself have struggled in a similar way. I believe that my desire to help other people will allow me to hurdle hardship and failure that other people would fall to.

Five Interviews

1. https://soundcloud.com/user-367443133/sofia-interview/s-bbYbh
2. https://soundcloud.com/user-367443133/img-6510-online-audio-convertercom/s-I7TJy
3. https://soundcloud.com/user-367443133/new-recording/s-c4bgt
4. https://soundcloud.com/user-367443133/nw-13th-st/s-Ei0I7
5. https://soundcloud.com/user-367443133/img-0080-online-audio-convertercom/s-sddGl

Disparity

- While there were many similarities between my self-perception and other's perception of me, there were some notable differences that were surprising and inspiring. One commonality between the interviews was highlighting my ability to focus. While this wasn't something I specifically mentioned about myself, I did allude to it. I thought it was interesting how some of the interviewees saw this as a major aspect of my human capital. I think I didn't necessarily see this in myself because it is all I have ever known and don't see it as unusual.

Assignment 15A

Buyer Behavior No. 2

My service is one that helps teachers better understand their students and how they learn, and then facilitate their students to achieve their goals in the classroom. I would specifically focus on quantitative subjects like math and some sciences. The segment that I would like to target is parents of students, as they would inevitably be paying for my service in the cost of tuition. I talked to three parents of students that I know.

Alternative Evaluation

• After these interviews, it was clear to me that personal tutoring services are the main alternative to my service. One of the parents that I talked to said that she regularly takes her kids to tutors so that they can do better in school. After I asked her how she decided to use this particular tutoring service, she told me that she had heard about it from another parent. This revealed to me that there wasn’t much alternative evaluation going on with this purchase. The tutoring service was used, and because it worked, there wasn’t a need to change it. 

How/Where do they buy

• This tutoring that was mentioned by my interviewee is an in-person tutoring service, so it is paid for in person after the service has been completed. This is always paid for in cash because it is not a big purchase.

Post-Purchase Evaluation

• The post-purchase evaluation is the most pertinent aspect of the buyer behavior process to my service. This is because the primary alternative, tutoring, is evaluated heavily after the purchase has been made because it’s effectiveness can only be determined after-the-fact. Each of the parents that I talked to said that they evaluated their respective tutoring services based on how well they thought their kids were doing in school. If their children seemed to do better, they were satisfied with the tutoring service and continued to be customers. One of the parents that I interviewed said that a tutoring service that she tried did not seem to be helping her kids. She switched to a different tutor and saw better results. These interviews revealed invaluable information about the post-purchase evaluation.

In conclusion, these interviews revealed two major aspects of my segment and how they buy: the alternative to my service is tutoring, and the post-purchase evaluation is the only way this particular segment decides whether to continue using a particular tutoring service.