Week 15 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 
This article was interesting because it talked about businesses among the poor and how they shouldn't be different. The article said that businesses should listen to customers, standardize processes, and don't be afraid to make a profit. It is also important to scale up customer loyalty and leverage the SKS brand. 

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
I did not find any of the reading to be confusing. I thought it was written for anyone to understand.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
If I were able to ask two questions to the author I would ask him what gave him the desire to write this article and what research did he put into it. 

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
There was no part of the reason that I disagreed with. This was an interesting read and prior to this, I had not read anything like it.

Final Reflection

1) Read through your blog from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you've had a long the way -- the highs, the lows -- the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.
This was a class unlike any I have ever taken at the University of Florida. There were so many moments where I would look at the assignment and know that I was not going to like doing it but had to force myself to. I thought it was fun that the class was set up so differently and it was nice to not have exams to study for. I feel like you really can't learn entrepreneurship from a book and the best way is through experience. 

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?
I am really proud of myself for completing any of the assignments where we were asked to go out of our comfort zone and either record ourselves or talk to people that we did not know. I will forever remember recording my elevator pitches and conducting customer interviews. Those helped me to get over talking to new people and being less camera shy.  

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?
I definitely think I have learned a lot since the beginning of the semester. I now know how hard it is to start a venture and that there will be many hard times but in the end it can lead to great success.

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?
I would recommend that students take this as seriously as they can and not wait until the very last minute to complete the assignments. 

Elevator Pitch No. 4

1) The pitch. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNSOPF_MavI

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. 
The feedback I received was all relatively positive and I was not given anything to change for this final one. I thought it was nice that one of the comments said I presented myself in a professional way and did a better job at keeping my eyes on the camera. 

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

I did not really change anything based on the feedback I was given because it was all positive. So, this pitch is a lot like my third one. 

Venture Concept No. 2

Venture Concept

Opportunity:

I do believe there is a need for my product. I created a camelbak water bottle made with a thin layer of cork outside the bottle. This thin layering of cork will prevent condensation on the outside of the bottle when there is a cold beverage inside.  I think that anyone could have a need for this product. But, when coming up with a product, I thought about college students specifically since I am able to relate to that demographic the most. There are products on the market that can prevent condensation like covers for the camelback or the bottles made from metal. But my product is unique and there is nothing out there like it so I think it will appeal to consumers. I think college students are pretty loyal to the products that they use so if they found that they liked my product, I think they would stick to it. New products and inventions are constantly being created so the window of opportunity for this product is probably not that big. I think it would be a matter of time before someone came up with a product similar to mine.

Innovation:

This product is not meant to be very expensive. Because I wanted to cater more to college students, I am pricing my product around $14.99.  This is a camelbak that is unique because the outer part is made of cork, which is cheap to buy when making these products. It will work like any regular water bottle but will prevent condensation from forming on the outside.   

Venture:

 I think customers will like that the product is different and that there is nothing like it. I hope that because of its uniqueness, people will be curious to try it. I think the switch will be easy once customers see that it is a good investment and that it works. My competitors will be any companies that sell camelbaks or bottles you can fill drinks with. Their possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities could be the price they charge or the fact that it does not prevent condensation. I want price point to be a big part of my business concept. Usually camelbaks are more expensive than what I would charge and I want consumers to take note of that. I want to start my business of very small to determine if I would make a profit or not. If I found that people liked the product and that it was growing, I would expand to two or three employees and take it from there. I would definitely need someone to help me handle the finances and then someone else to assist me in getting suppliers to make the product as well as carrying out the whole process.

Feedback: I did not complete the first venture concept so I did not receive any feedback.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

Ch 3&4

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

Chapter 3 discussed the Entrepreneurial Mind-Set in Organizations, also known as Corporate Entrepreneurship. Corporate Entrepreneurship is the process of profitably creating innovation within an organizational setting. Companies follow five characteristics when creating an in-house entrepreneurship. They include explicit goals, a system of feedback and positive reinforcement, an emphasis on individual responsibility, rewards based on results, and do not punish failures. Specific strategies entail vision and innovation. Chapter 4 is about Social Entrepreneurship and the Global Environment for Entrepreneurship. Social enterprise makes up obligations it has to society. Social entrepreneurs bring about change. They create change with pattern breaking ideas and find the root causes to problems. More and more, entrepreneurs are partaking in business globally. The NAFTA, the EU, and the WTO are economic forces that creating opportunities for entrepreneurs. To enter the international marketplace, an entrepreneur must conduct research, prepare a feasibility study, secure adequate financing, file the proper documents, and draw up and implement the plan. 

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

I did not think any part of these chapters was confusing. The author writes these chapter in a way that is easy for the reading to understand and grasp the concepts. 

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

Two questions I would ask the author are what made you choose all the topics you chose when writing this book and what was the organizational strategy behind it.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
I don't disagree with anything the author said in these chapters nor do I think there was anything he was wrong about. 

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? 
I think doing my elevator pitches helped in a way for me to pursue SEO. When people watch my elevator pitches, they see the progression of how I want my product to be viewed and then they can decide if it is something they are interested in or not. My hope, of course, is that people watch it and are curious about knowing more so that they then search it in Google. 

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

Keywords would be entrepreneurship and business. As I created my product, I continually used the word cork and condensation. I used those words because cork stood out with my product and my purpose of this was to prevent condensation on my product. 

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 did not use social media to enhance my SEO efforts. Because this product was for a class, I did not feel it was necessary to create different forms of social media to use. 

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

My most viral post was my Idea Napkin No 1. I would like to think people were interested in my idea of the product but I am sure it is because some people did not complete that assignment and needed to make comments. 

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?

I did make it to the first page of Google results when I typed in "Entrepreneurship blog" and included the words cork and condensation. 

Very Short Interview, Part 2

1) In my initial interview I asked an entrepreneur these three questions:  What does it mean to be an Entrepreneur? What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur? What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?
The answers I was given from the entrepreneur were very insightful and I reflected on them while taking this class. My impression of this initial interview is that it definitely takes a lot to be an entrepreneur and you must have the drive and put in the effort. You also have to be ready to fail and then learn from your mistakes each time as well as evaluate what you can do better.

2) I was unable to record the interview because I was asked not to. The three questions are I asked are as follows:
 1: How do you advertise your business?
Because we are a small company, it is too expensive to do television commercials so we mostly advertise with pamphlets and at trade shows. A lot of it is going to different stores and advertising by word of mouth.
 2: To what do you attribute your success?
I attribute my success to hard work and the unwavering support I have from my family. There is not a day that goes by that I slack off. You must put 100% into your company and in time, there will be a good outcome.
 3: Do you work locally or nationally?
My company is based out of Fort Lauderdale and I go as far as Tampa. However, my products are shipped in from Sweden.

3) I have really learned a lot since the start of this class. Yes, some of the assignments were annoying and put me out of my comfort zone. But, because of those assignments, I am now more educated in what it takes to be an entrepreneur. From my initial interview to now, I can say I definitely agree with the responses the entrepreneur I interviewed gave me. I was much more comfortable talking with him about entrepreneurship because I now I have a better sense of what it entails and what it takes. I think he could tell that I know much more now than I did and having a conversation with him was much easier than it was initially.