Assignment 30

After reading through all of my posts, I feel like the most formative assignments that I completed this semester were the ones where I had to interview people and talk to other people to get their opinion on a topic that I needed to know more about. Practicing this allowed me to develop my communication skills while also trying to learn from the conversation. This skill of talking to people in a normal way while trying to learn something from this is very difficult, and I am glad I got some practice with it in this class. Additionally, I think these assignments are the ones that I am most proud of. They pushed me outside my comfort zone, which is not somewhere I ever go.

I do think I have developed an entrepreneur's mindset. I find myself looking around the world, and trying to find areas of my life that could be improved in some way. I believe that this is the most important part of the entrepreneur's mindset, and I feel I have fully adopted this way of thinking.

For others taking this class next semester, or at another time in the future, I would try to tell them to do more than the assignments. If you truly want to learn a lot in this class, it is possible. You could also learn the bare minimum, and not get much out of the class.

Assignment 28A

Your Exit Strategy

1. What is my exit strategy?

To be honest, this is an immensely difficult question to answer, as all hypothetical questions seem to be. The hardest part of this question is the uncertainty of the future. In order to answer this question, I will assume that my goals do not change. If this is so, I believe that I would work at this business for as long as I can, and eventually pass it on to someone who I believe has good intentions.

2. Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

 I believe that this is what I would do because of my purpose for starting this business. I would start this business in order to help students become more efficient at learning and studying. I don't believe that this is a need that can be fulfilled. It is perpetual, and will probably always be relevant. 

3. How do I think my exit strategy has influenced other parts of my business?

I believe that my exit strategy has most influenced my lack of growth. If I were to start this business, I would not be worried about growing quickly. I would try to grow as slowly as possible so that I can be assured that my business is still providing quality service. This is because my exit strategy is not to sell my company to a bigger business, but to pass my business onto someone else to continue my work.

Assignment 27A

Reading Reflection No. 3

I read Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.

1. What surprised me most about Elon? What about him did I most admire? What about him did I least admire? Did he encounter adversity? What did he do about it?
What surprised me most about Elon is that he was a co-founder of Paypal. I have used this app on my smartphone for a while, but I had no idea that Elon Musk had anything to do with this company. What I admire most about Elon is his confidence. He always seems to believe in himself in anything that he takes on. What I least admire about Musk is his impulsiveness. He seemed to make decisions randomly at times. Musk encountered lots of adversity. When he was trying to start SpaceX and Tesla, he almost went completely broke. By believing in himself an working hard, he made both of these companies successful.

2. What competencies did you notice that the Elon exhibited?
Musk's greatest competencies are his confidence and his work ethic. Musk always seems to dream big and work as hard as he can to achieve his dreams. When faced with hardship, he never lacks belief in himself. 

3. What was one part of the reading that was confusing to me?
One part of the reading that was confusing to me was when the book talked about how Musk's goals and how he works towards these. To me, it seems that the "goals" of his that are described don't really line up with what he does with his companies.

4. If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
If I were to ask Mr. Musk two questions, I would ask him how he has so much confidence and what he plans on doing in the future with Tesla. The first question would be one that helps me out in my life and the second question is one that I am curious about.

5. What do I think Elon's version of hard work is?
I think that Elon believes that hard work is doing whatever it takes to achieve your goals. Even if this means going broke or spending all your time doing something. To be honest, I feel the same about hard work. 

Assignment 26A

Celebrating Failure

1. What is something that I have failed at this semester?

Something that I failed at this semester was avoiding procrastination. I have been procrastinating in school (in everything, to be exact) for as long as I can remember. This semester was my first semester at the University of Florida, so I decided to (try to) lose this bad habit. I started off the semester, as I always do, teeming with motivation. Unsurprisingly, I lost sight of my goals for the semester and I eventually reverted back to my default habits. 

2. What have I learned from this?

 I have learned from this semester that I need better reasons for why I want to achieve something. I need something that a can cling to in times of hardship throughout the semester. A reason that will weather the storm, not "because I wanna". My purpose needs to be impenetrable. This will allow me to succeed in my endeavors, instead of falling short. I have also learned to be okay with progress. This semester I procrastinated much less than I usually would, and I am grateful for that. I have learned that not achieving what you desire is not the same thing as complacency. All of this that I have learned this semester will support me in my future ventures. 

3. What do I think about failure?

I have a horrible relationship with failure. I am terrified by it so I do everything in my power to avoid it. At times this is possible. When we do meet, I am sent spiraling into a dark place for a few days. I understand that I should look at failure differently. I am becoming better at understanding failure and using it to better myself. For me, I feel that this fear of failure comes from my unrealistic desire for perfection. When I avoid failure, I feel that I have done well. When I fail, I have to admit to myself that I am not perfect. I understand that there are better ways to deal with failure, I just have not gotten there yet. 

Assignment 25A

What's Next?

Existing Market

I think that for my service, the next logical step is to add individual tutoring. This will supplement my original service well because it will allow me to see how my market is utilizing my original service. This will allow me to not only refine the original aspect of my business, but it will also create another revenue driver. Additionally, I believe that this service is necessary for my market to be able to solve their problem. With my original service (creating study plans for individual classes by collaborating with teachers), I will tell students how they should be studying for a specific class. With the tutoring service that I could add, I could help students understand how they should be implementing my study plans, and how they should be learning material while in class.

If I were to interview three people within my market, I believe that they would ask for exactly what I am proposing. While most parents would graciously accept my original service if offered to their children's classes, I believe that parents would be ecstatic if their child were to get one-on-one treatment. In other words, parents like it for their kids to learn better in school, but they would rather only their kids receive help with school. Parents want their kids to get better grades relative to other students, and one-on-one tutoring would offer exactly that. I believe if I told interviewees about this proposal, they would be willing to buy it for their students. Parents with the means to get their children a better education will almost always take the opportunity to. 

The logical step to grow within my existing market is to ask the teachers with whom I will be collaborating with which students in their classes are struggling the most. This will allow me to hone my market for my one-on-one tutoring service to only the students that might need additional help. In order to reach these students' parents, I will ask the school if I could meet their parents in order to discuss my tutoring opportunity. I will describe to the parents how I am already providing study plans, and how I could enhance their education through one-on-one tutoring. I would be willing to provide these services directly after regular school hours and directly before school hours. If students could not make these hours, I would offer times during the weekends. I believe this would allow me to grow within my existing market by creating an additional revenue driver that nicely complements my initial revenue driver. 

New Market

My initial market was targeting private school students that are in middle school and high school, so the next step in order to help students of all socioeconomic statuses would be to help public school students with their studying techniques. 

I believe that I could create the same value for this market that I aim to create with my initial market: studying techniques that are effective and efficient for individual classes. I would achieve this through collaboration with teachers. 

If I were to interview individuals from this market, I believe that they would embrace this idea. Students from all schools need help with their studying techniques, so I believe that public school students would benefit in the same way that private school kids would. Parents of this market would not bear the economic expense of my service because public schools are funded primarily through local governments. Another way a public school could pay for my service is through a fundraiser. I believe that parents of public school students would be willing to pitch in to a fundraiser that would support my service. I believe that if I were to ask them in an interview if they would pay a small fee towards a fundraiser, many parents would be willing to.

I believe that if I were to interview parents of public school students, they would say something similar to what private school parents would. One thing that I might be incorrect about is how much they are willing to contribute to a fundraiser in order to provide for my service. These parents might expect local governments to pitch in in order to keep public school free, as it should be. I feel like this market is equally as attractive as my original market, if not more attractive. 

Assignment 24A- Studyright

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

The opportunity that I have recognized involves a problem that everyone has faced. This opportunity can mostly be seen, and will mostly be useful for high school and middle school students. The problem that they face is that their teachers don't teach them how they should study and learn their material. These students usually employ study tactics that are the easiest and the most fun. If their parents suggest a way to study, they might try this. The problem that these students face is that they will usually employ one method for all of their classes. While this might seem logical, there is usually one way that will work best for each class. Although middle school students and high school students have this problem, they are not the entities that an opportunity could be marketed towards, as they do not have the ability to pay for my service. The people that would be able to pay for my service are their parents. The parents that would be most willing to pay for this service are private school parents. They would end up paying for my service through tuition. The parents would pay for my service would be parents that believe that their kids are struggling in school, or parents that just want their kids to do better in school. These parents are people that value education, as they are willing to pay for their kids to become more effective studiers. I believe that parents are currently satisfying this need on an individual basis. If a parent sees that their kid needs to do better in school, many times they look for a tutor. I believe that parents will only continue to go to a tutor as long as their kids are succeeding In school. I believe that this is a big opportunity, as it seems that it is an aspect of schooling that is completely overlooked universally. I believe that this opportunity will remain open until all parents are completely satisfied with their kids' grades.

Innovation

A service that could solve this problem is one that collaborated with teachers and writes up study plans for students. This would not take much time, or be difficult. It would take a person that is committed to understanding what a teacher desires to teach their students and an understanding of how students are studying. I would meet with each teacher at a school and go over their lesson plans for a class. I would understand how the teacher is formatting their classes, and how the teachers will test the students. I will then formulate a plan for each class on what the best way to study for that particular class is. This will take the guesswork out of studying, which is what every student wants. I will be selling my service to schools for two hundred dollars per class. I will not force a school into buying my service for all classes, as I understand that there are classes that almost no students struggle with. I will allow the schools to choose which classes they would like my collaboration for. 

Venture Concept

I believe that my service will help students by taking the guesswork out of studying. They won't have to wonder whether their studying will help them with their tests. This will allow students to focus all of their educational time on learning the material. This service will also cut down on the amount of time studying students will have to engage in. This will also make my service advantageous for all students, not just the ones that are struggling. With less time studying, students will free up time to use however they please. I do not believe that parents will mind paying extra intuition for my service. As long as they know that their kids will be achieving better grades in school, I believe a majority of parents will be delighted to pay a premium for their child's enhanced education. Competitors of my service are tutors. One primary weakness of tutors is that they are very expensive. A good tutor will charge on a per session basis, and might not even address a student's studying habits. My venture is a service, so packaging and distribution will not be relevant. Customer support and customer experience will be vital for my service. I will have to be willing to have a support line even after I have completed my service with a teacher. This will not only make the customer experience much better, but it will also allow me to refine my business. Although my business might grow quickly, I believe the best way to keep the quality of my service as high as I can would be to not outsource work to employees. I believe this will be beneficial in developing relationships with schools and individual teachers.

Three Minor Elements

1. My most important resource is that I love helping other people solve their problems. I believe that this will allow me to persevere through hardships in my entrepreneurial venture. I believe that this resource is valuable and very rare in our society.

2. I believe that I could supplement my service by adding additional tutoring to provide students that would want extra help in school. I understand that knowing how to study is only part of the educational process, and I could address this by offering individual tutoring.

3. I believe that this venture will be very satisfying and will only leave me wanting to help the world out more. I could see this business growing and potentially becoming an online service that schools have access to from anywhere in the world. After this venture is completed, I will examine our world and see where I can offer assistance to those in need.

Assignment 23A

Your venture’s unfair advantage

My business is one that goes to high schools and middle schools and collaborates with teachers and students in order to formulate study plans and learning strategies for specific classes.

1. My first resource could be considered apart of my social capital. I know a tutor in my area that has an extensive list of clients that are in my target market. 

Valuable: I consider this source valuable, as I could potentially reach out to this individual in order to find students and parents that are willing to pay a premium for a good education. 

Rare: This resource is very rare because that aren’t that many tutors in my area that have a large client list, as I live in a very small town.

Inimitable: I do not think this resource is very inimitable. There are other ways I could potentially find clients.

Non-substitutable: I think this resource is substitutable, as I could find other ways to find people that are willing to pay for my service

2. Another resource that I have is that I have recently been through high school, so I understand high school students and their problems.

Valuable: I do consider this resource valuable because having empathy for your target market is imperative in order to solve their problems

Rare: I do consider this source somewhat rare because I don’t believe there are many people in this business that have recently graduated high school.

Inimitable: This resource is very inimitable, as you can’t re-experience high school.

Non-substitutable: There are other ways to have empathy with my target market and their problems other than containing this resource, so this resource is substitutable.

3. A third resource I have is that I know students at many of the high schools and middle schools in my area.

Valuable: I don’t believe this resource is extremely valuable, as it is not difficult to acquire.

Rare: I don’t believe this resource is very rare, as most people in my town know individuals at many schools in the area.

Inimitable: I do believe this resource is quite inimitable because it is hard to befriend high schoolers and middle schoolers if you aren’t their age.

Non-substitutable: I do believe this resource is non-substitutable because there aren’t any other ways for me to understand my target market other than knowing them.

4. A fourth resource I have is that I understand topics from middle school and high school very well, especially math.

Valuable: I would consider this resource valuable, as most people have forgotten most of the stuff they learned in high school and middle school because it was so long ago. 

Rare: I would consider this resource rare because not many people fully understand and remember school material from high school classes, but I recently graduated high school so it is much easier for me.

Inimitable: This resource is imitable because anyone could go back and learn stuff from high school that they forgot.

Non-substitutable: This resource is non-substitutable because I must know the material that I am creating study plans for. There is no way around it.

5. My fifth resource is that I have the ability to focus on one thing in my life and not stop working at it until I am satisfied.

Valuable: This resource is necessary for any business venture. As I have learned from this class, perseverance is imperative for entrepreneurship 

Rare: I do believe this resource is very rare in our society. To me, it seems that most people are easily stopped in the face of hardships.

Inimitable: I do believe that this resource is inimitable. There is no way to fake perseverance. It comes from your motivation for doing something, and I don’t believe that you can imitate it.

Non-substitutable: This resource is non-substitutable. There is no other way to be so dedicated in your pursuits.

6. My sixth resource is that I love to help other people solve their problems

Valuable: I believe this is my most valuable resource. It is not something that you can buy or find. Caring for other people is the most important capability that I have.

Rare: I do believe that this resource is very rare. I feel that many people that start a business do so for the financial benefits, without realizing what is more important.

Inimitable: This resource is my most inimitable. There is no way to imitate this resource, either you have it or you don’t.

Non-substitutable: There is no substitute for this resource. If you don’t love to solve other people’s problems, you will not have a passion or drive to do so.

7. My seventh resource is that I have a large family, so finding contacts to schools and understanding parents and students will be very easy for me to access.

Valuable: I don’t believe this resource is very valuable, because there are other ways to understand parents and their kids’ educational struggles.

Rare: I don’t believe this resource is very rare because many people have large families with cousins that are in high school and middle school.

Inimitable: I do believe that this resource is inimitable. There is no way to force yourself to have more have family members.

Non-substitutable: This resource is non-substitutable. Others can go out and meet parents and students, but there will not be a bond of trust and care. I know many family member that could be considered apart of my target market, so they will be willing to talk honestly about their kids’ learning difficulties.

8. My eight resource is that I would have financial support from my family and friends, and would be willing to allocate much of my savings to it if I decided to pursue this venture.

Valuable: I do consider this resource valuable, because by definition, money will provide value to my business.

Rare: I do not consider this rare, as most entrepreneurs are willing to reach out to family and spend their own money on their entrepreneurial ventures.

Inimitable: This resource is inimitable. There is no other way to finance a business other than through money.

Non-substitutable: This resource is non-substitutable because there is no way to finance a business other than with money.

9. My ninth resource is that I have a fundamental understanding of how people learn and the best ways to study for different types of classes.

Valuable: I do consider this resource very valuable, as it will allow me to solve my customer’s problems.

Rare: I do consider this resource rare. From my experience, most people don’t understand how to study effectively. 

Inimitable: This resource is not inimitable. Anyone can educate themselves about this subject If they wanted to.

Non-substitutable: This resource is non-substitutable. There is no other way to operate my business without this resource. It is what will allow me to solve students’ studying struggles.

10. My tenth resource is that by the time I could pursue this venture, I will have a degree in business. (And at the moment, I have taken many business-related courses)

Valuable: I do consider this resource valuable, as I will be running a business myself. Understanding the complexities of how businesses run will allow me to refine my own business. 

Rare: I do not consider this resource rare. Many people that pursue entrepreneurship have degrees in business.

Inimitable: I do not consider this resource inimitable. There are other ways to learn about business other than having a degree in business.

Non-substitutable: This resource is substitutable. There are other ways that I could learn about businesses other than having a degree.

Best Overall?

I truly believe that my best resource is my drive to help other people solve their problems. I believe that this resource satisfies all of the requirements of VRIN, with its most important aspect being that it is inimitable. There are no ways to acquire this resource. You either want to help others, or you are only trying to help yourself. I believe that this resource will allow me to succeed if I were to pursue this entrepreneurial venture.

Assignment 22A

Elevator Pitch No 3

Here is the link to my elevator pitch
https://youtu.be/UcZDb3mfZa8

2. Some of the feedback that I got from the last pitch said that I should try to include less content, and move at a slower pace. Other feedback that I got on my last elevator pitch said that I chose a good angle and the lighting was good. Another commenter on my last elevator pitch said that I did a good job of getting my ideas across clearly

3. I did not change much based on the feedback that I got. I tried to retain all of the good aspects that were mentioned about my last elevator pitch, and I feel that I did that well. I also tried to slow down with this pitch. I feel that this made this pitch easier to understand. I also feel that this made this pitch more enjoyable to listen to.

Assignment 21A

Reading Reflection No. 2

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 

1. The general theme of the book is that humans think using two systems. The first system, Kahneman calls “System 1” is the system that informs how we think about things at first glance. This system does not do much work and bases our judgments off of what we know already. Decisions and judgments that come from this system are impulsive and not thought out. The second system, called “System 2” is the system that people think they always use, but they don’t. Most people think they are rational and logical, but this type of thinking is usually only produced when we use “System 2”. Kahneman explains how this system is not employed as often as we would like because of its energy-wasting nature. Kahneman explains how thinking hard actually uses more glucose, which would not be favorable from an evolutionary perspective. Kahneman continuously disproves the adage “humans are rational beings” and he seems to achieve this throughout the book by citing studies showing how humans aren’t quite as logical as we think we are.

2. This book enhanced my learning for ENT3003 by changing how I think about people. I used to think that people were logical and rational, generally. This book constantly reminded me that this is not the case. Entrepreneurship seems to contain many problems regarding human behavior, and this book has deepened my knowledge of how humans think and make decisions.

3. If I had to design an exercise for this class that is related to this book I would use some of the word problems that were mentioned in the book. The book had several simple math word problems that were attempting to show how humans are impulsive and irrational. For the assignment, I would have the students complete these word problems and reflect on how they thought about these problems. 

4. One of the biggest surprise moments or “aha” moments I had while reading this book was when I read about priming. Kahneman mentions many experiments that show how “priming” affects people’s decision-making ability. One experiment showed people money without them realizing, and then asked them to help other people. The people that were subconsciously shown money were much less likely to pick up a pencil for another person. Similar experiments to this regarding money were explained. This showed me how humans are affected by what they have seen, heard, and thought about recently.