Final Reflection

1.) Recall

2.) To me, the most formative experience of this class has to be all the interviews we had to do with potential customers in our segment. Honestly, I lost count of how many people I actually talked to for this, and I know without a doubt I’ve gotten a lot comfortable going up to people and asking their opinions on things (i.e. new business ideas). As for the most joyous experience and the one I’ll remember years later, I really loved the “What’s Your Secret Sauce?” assignment where we had to interview 5 people close to us and record what they said our particular human capital is. It was just a really memorable experience in my mind. I’m probably most proud of myself for just coming up with a business venture and fleshing it out and refining it week after week with the assignments. Typically, if I have a cool idea, I just say it out loud, acknowledge that it’s cool, and then drop it there. So to stick with this for a number of weeks made me proud of myself.

3.) Now that we’re at the end of the semester, I still don’t quite see myself as an entrepreneur, but I do see myself as someone with the potential to become one. Currently, I have a lot of moving parts in my life and my plate is already really full as it is, but after this class I now feel like I have the tools where if I wanted to later on down the road, I could definitely get something going on the entrepreneurial field. As a result of this class though I think my mindset has evolved from a little bit naive about business in general and has in fact, moved towards a more entrepreneurial approach. 

4.) One recommendation I’d give to students going down this road in the future is to dream big and think outside of the box. Many of the really cool ideas I’ve come across this semester I never would have even thought about if I hadn’t take two seconds to get out of my own bubble and just to think “what if”. To perform best in this course, the only thing I can really say is to plan ahead. Because if you don’t, it will ABSOLUTELY come back to haunt you. And finally, to foster good mindsets for this class, share ideas. Understand that not much is off the table. And realize that if you want it to, this class can absolutely take you places. 

Venture Concept No. 2

1.) Revised venture concept:

Opportunity:

The new venture I'm discussing is a matching service for people and their ideal cleaning products. I'm using the information I found from interviews from previous assignments. 

-Who has the need? The need for this service extends to pretty much everyone who lives on their own or is responsible for some of the cleaning duties of their household. This service is mostly needed by busy, middle-class individuals who are conscious of the price spent on cleaning products and restricted by a busy schedule.

-Nature of the need? This is a consumer need. It will be a program that has reviews, different price points, and matching systems to match the ideal cleaning product with each consumer, all in the reach of the customer at the touch of a button and as quickly as possible. 

Forces in the environment creating this opportunity is the constant invention and updating of cleaning products, leading to a larger and larger market of things to choose from. An example of this would be vacuums. Just from a simple Google search of "Dyson vacuums," there are at least ten different models that come up and even though there are some immediately noticeable differences, many are variations of the same model. This market is slightly different geographically due to the type of environment outside. For example, If someone lives in Oklahoma, they will need cleaning products able to deal with the red clay or the region while if you're living in New York City, this would't be a problem. Customers are currently satisfying their need by online searching for product reviews and by word of mouth. Sometimes, specialized stores give demonstrations of the product, but there is nowhere currently that offers all of these services in one place. I feel as if this opportunity is relatively large, strictly because as long as people have their own living spaces, there will always be a need to clean them up. Also, the window of opportunity here isn't really something to worry about either because of the previous reason. I do feel like this is something to be capitalized on soon though, just because there may be more markets to break into than I initially thought. 

Innovation:

The product here is a matching service for consumers and cleaning supplies/ tools. Ideally, this would be some sort of app or online website. There would be a questionnaire when a new member signs up, which would have questions about their location, lifestyle, amount of pets and children, type of flooring and appliances in their house, etc. Then, based on these answers, there would be different categories the customer could choose from to look through. Some of the categories would be Vacuums, Kitchen, Outdoor Maintenance, etc. Under each of the tabs would be a list of ranked supplies or products that we believe the consumer would benefit from, with the highest match listed first and then lower matches listed in descending order. Under each individual product, there would be customer reviews, other linked products maybe used with the product, and videos of the tool in use. There would also be a set up in the app for online ordering for anything listed. This is part of where revenue comes in, I would arrange a commission from the actual companies selling the product off of everything sold, as well as getting a cut from product advertisements. I want this process to be as fast as possible for the members, and I want to be able to make the different categories extremely easily available in store and on the app. This idea is focused on saving time and effort by having someone else compile information about products a customer may need before they even really need them. So I want that to be reflected and if there are ways for the questionnaire process to be more streamlined, perhaps with different prompts based on answers to previous questions, that’s the direction I want to move in. 

Venture Concept:

I feel as if customers would want to buy this innovation because it's a time-saver, and it's personalized so as to eliminate the need for having to return defective products or buyer dissatisfaction. I think customers would switch to this service because it would be approved by the seller companies rather that being a new brand altogether, and it brings all aspects of household shopping to one place. Because of this, I think there would be a relatively low level of difficulty in getting customers to switch. And after listening to feedback, I have almost no doubt at all that the shortened process of not only shopping but finding something to fit a particular need of an individual, would cause people to switch to my app very easily. As far as competitors go, by having ads from the seller companies on my app I would hope to eliminate competition from that front. The only other competition I feel would be any in-person appliance stores. My layout of my app would play a big role in the overall success of the product. The design would have to be very bright and clean, as well as overall being user friendly and not hard to operate or to get help with (tutorials, help buttons, etc.). I want the app to maybe have predictor setting as well, to help guide the users towards products like what they’ve been searching for, and I’d also like to have various autofill features to save time. In order to support the "business," I would need to have product researchers and testers, as well as demographic/geographic surveyors working pretty regularly in order to keep up with customer needs and with the release of new products from the seller companies. Ideally, I feel as if a team of maybe ten employees were to work together, all of this and more could easily be accomplished. They would each get a cut from the overall app profits.

Three minor elements:

1- The most important aspect of this product is its personalization to the customers and the ability to save so much time in shopping and advertising.

2- The next thing for this venture would be the actual launching of an app. A possible next app revolving around the same general idea as this one would maybe be with healthcare products. The difficulty in this idea would come with working with healthcare providers, and some of the materials would not be able to be sold by a third-party seller, so there might be more planning hangups with that idea.

3- What's next for me after this venture is possibly more work into research. All of the research and interviews that have gone into this idea was really fun and eye opening for me. While I may not be a huge entrepreneur in the future on my own, I would maybe choose to opt for being a part of the research department for other budding ideas that I decide to be a part of.

Three minor elements:

1- The most important aspect of this product is its personalization to the customers and the ability to save so much time in shopping and advertising.

2- The next thing for this venture would be the actual launching of an app. A possible next app revolving around the same general idea as this one would maybe be with healthcare products. The difficulty in this idea would come with working with healthcare providers, and some of the materials would not be able to be sold by a third-party seller, so there might be more planning hangups with that idea.

3- What's next for me after this venture is possibly more work into research. All of the research and interviews that have gone into this idea was really fun and eye opening for me. While I may not be a huge entrepreneur in the future on my own, I would maybe choose to opt for being a part of the research department for other budding ideas that I decide to be a part of.

Three minor elements:

1- The most important aspect of this product is its personalization to the customers and the ability to save so much time in shopping and advertising.

2- The next thing for this venture would be the actual launching of an app. A possible next app revolving around the same general idea as this one would maybe be with healthcare products. The difficulty in this idea would come with working with healthcare providers, and some of the materials would not be able to be sold by a third-party seller, so there might be more planning hangups with that idea.

3- What's next for me after this venture is possibly more work into research. All of the research and interviews that have gone into this idea was really fun and eye opening for me. While I may not be a huge entrepreneur in the future on my own, I would maybe choose to opt for being a part of the research department for other budding ideas that I decide to be a part of.

Three minor elements:

1- The most important aspect of this product is still in its personalization to the customers and the ability to save so much time in shopping and advertising.

2- The next thing for this venture would be the actual launching of an app. A possible next app revolving around the same general idea as this one would maybe be with healthcare products. The difficulty in this idea would come with working with healthcare providers, and some of the materials would not be able to be sold by a third-party seller, so there might be more planning hangups with that idea. With this app however, I would want to just branch out into other sectors of cleaning, for example maybe pool cleaning equipment. 

3- What's next for me after this venture is  research. All of the research and interviews that have gone into this idea was really fun and eye opening for me. While I may not be a huge entrepreneur in the future on my own, I would maybe choose to opt for being a part of the research department for other budding ideas that I decide to be a part of.

2.) Feedback:

So for this assignment the first time around, my feedback was pretty positive and didn’t include many suggestions about what to possibly improve upon or where to move in a different direction. However, I believe there is absolutely always room for improvement. My comment I did get was about this idea would save a lot of time, so when I got to thinking about it I decided to go in that route when changing my first venture concept post. 

3.) How you changed the concept:

I didn’t change the concept too much, because a lot of it was explaining about my product in general. My changes are mostly additions. I chose to focus more on streamlining the experience a user has on my app. I want to try and find the fastest and most accurate way to get from Point A to Point B, so to speak. 

4.) Picture:

An oldie but a goodie...as far as illustrating a streamlined process and design.

Your Exit Strategy

1.) The exit strategy that I plan to make is along the lines of keeping with my venture for maybe the next 5-10 years, and then either sell it for profit, or turn it over to the people I’ve selected for my team. As a long term goal for my life, I’m planning on working in the medical field and in 5-10 years, I’d be at a point in my life and career where I’d need to focus more on that area and I feel like I wouldn’t be able to single-handedly give the venture as much effort as it deserves. 

2.) I’ve selected this particular strategy because I feel as if it would be fair to try and turn over the program to the people that I would’ve chosen to help me bring it to life and the help grow it even more. Also, I feel like if I went down the sale route, I could use the basic app principle and sell that to a variety of areas for a great profit.

3.) As far as the other ideas concerning my concept, I think the exit strategy I came up with is keeping in mind the assignment from a few weeks ago where we had to look at a completely different demographic to sell our product to. In that assignment, I really got to thinking about the different uses of the app infrastructure rather than just the cleaning matching service. I think by thinking of a potential exit strategy, I see a lot more room for growth and versatility in the app/ service ideas than I ever did before. 

Celebrating Failure

1.) One of my biggest failures this semester was involving sleep, and making it to class on time. I took a pretty big course load this semester, and needless to say I spent a lot of late nights up working on things, only to turn back around and be out at the bus stop by 7:45 every morning. One of the most memorable moments (and not in a good way) was one particular day that I had a project to present starting at 8:30 and I woke up in a state of complete panic at about 8:55, still having to shower and catch the bus. Safe to say I failed in a pretty big way that day. Most days though, I’d just wake up closer and closer to when I needed to leave, and I’ve pretty much been living on coffee the past few weeks. 

2.) What I learned from this? Definitely to try and be better with my time management and procrastination. I also learned how to get really good at taking 20 minute naps, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, so take that however you will. I also learned to always, ALWAYS put your phone, with the alarms set and volume on, on the other side of the room or at least out of arm’s reach so you can’t grab the phone from bed and shut the alarm off to go back to sleep. I’m not someone who needs a full eight hours of sleep to function, but when I started averaging five hours a night, having a reliable wake up plan was something I really needed to get serious about. 

3.) In general, I think failure is helpful-to a degree. Failure can be something as simple as dropping an egg on the floor while cooking breakfast, to something more impactful, like getting fired from your dream job because of something you failed to do. I think failures are necessary though because they teach you that nothing is ever guaranteed and in order to accomplish the things you want to, you have to practice and work through several obstacles. Personally, I feel like I have a pretty good relationship with failure. I grew up with parents who were always very real about things and matter-of-fact when it came to realizing your shortcomings and learning from them. So little daily failures, I tend to let roll off my back with minimal stress. But when something bigger comes up, I do tend to get really distracted as far as other aspects of my life goes and I become centered on the certain thing for a while until I can kind of snap out of it and come up with a plan to either fix it if I can, or come up with my new route of approach. As weird as it may sound, my usual best place for thinking through things like this and clearing my head is on a long run usually late at night. Finally, this class has changed my perspective of failure by making it seem a little less monumental. Knowing what I know now about all the failings entrepreneurs have to deal with every step of the way, it makes it a little more comforting to see that ordinary people do hit a wall just as much as famous and successful ones do. I feel like compared to a few months ago, I would be less afraid to take a risk. I would still be skeptical because I am a realist, but knowing others are going through struggles too make it easier to take a chance and jump on a leap of faith without as much fear of failure because sometimes, you have to fail before you can fly. 

What's Next?

Existing Market:
Step 1: In terms of products and services for my venture, I think launching the cleaning matching app would be next. For new products and services, there could maybe be regional sections with local stores that would be specific to only a few cities that have specific local retailers. 
Step 2: In my next three interviews, two of the three said that they would love for the app to be launched. The third person was probably mid fifties, and said that the idea sounded neat but they personally wouldn’t use it because it seemed a little too technologically advanced for them to use on a regular basis. I described to them all how my app would be a product guide, matching service, and a step in the purchasing for household cleaning products and tools. When asked about what I should be doing with the app, one of the interviewees, a male, mentioned to maybe extend to make an automotive or outdoor activity section with things like grill cleaners or rust removers for bike and motorcycle chains. This is kind of related to the part about what customers might want next, but in my interviews I also was told that the only way this product would not only work but grow in popularity is if it stayed up to date with all the new product releases. I agree with this completely, so that would be something to stay on top of. 
Step 3: For this venture, What makes the most sense in moving forward would be a lunch for the app, and then the hire and collaboration with several different people with specified skillets to help further the venture even more. For example, I don’t have a lot of experience with fixing app interfaces, so I may want to get the help of a tech person to fix any bugs that might happen immediately after the app’s launch and then again as new products are added. A customer reviews section would have to be sorted through, and then possible interviews with existing customers would have to happen, so a HR person or team would have to come into the mix. As far as the other roles, I would just have to work on butting together a cohesive and very specified team to help the venture become successful. 

In addition to this, A next step would be to work on sponsorships and relations with the seller companies. In order to decrease competition and get a good commission off of sales, I would probably have to negotiate with each individual company and adjust the app accordingly. Also, in order to grow this market, I would maybe need to also look into higher-end products for other customers such as large cleaning companies or hotels that would mass buy a product. 

New Market:
Step 1: A radically different market than one I am targeting would probably be the very wealthy upper class with much higher average incomes than the average middle class that I’ve been targeting so far. 
Step 2: For this new market, I don’t think this product would initially be very valuable to them. However, the software itself might be. For example, if a person in this new market was some sort of a swimsuit or jewelry designer, they might be able to benefit from the personalization aspect of finding out what a specific customer will want to buy. To be honest, I think the new market would only find value in this venture if they adjusted it to fit their needs as sellers, or if I changed the entire product set to something very high end, like luxury cars or fancy vacation packages for example. 
Step 3: For the interviews of two people in this new market, I had to get a little creative. I have a part-time job delivering groceries and one of the interviewees was a resident of a very wealthy neighborhood. This woman actually was hosting a clothing trunk show when I walked in, so when I explained a little bit about the product, she immediately saw its value to her being more on the selling side where she could further her clothing boutique. As far as meeting other people in this customer range, she said with her social circle and circles even more elite, most of the advertising is passed around by word of mouth, and tried and true results. In other words, I would have to make absolute sure that the service is up and running well before even circulating the idea for use to a higher income clientele. 
Step 4:

This new market was kind of surprising to me because I really knew nothing about it before this interview portion. The second person I interviewed was a sort of local celebrity friend of a friend who comes from a family with old money. The woman is a singer, so she travels a lot making different guest appearances at music events. My original expectations were correct in the fact that the people I talked to in this market had little to no need for cleaning products themselves, as most of them either used cleaning service or preferred much higher end products than the people my app would usually target. 

As far as this market in general, I feel like they still would’t be the best choice for my original idea about the app regarding cleaning products. However, I am interested in the idea that the app itself could be made very versatile with higher end clientele. What I mentioned before about the woman with the clothing trunk show was intriguing, because it got me thinking about what other sorts of products or services the app and personalization targeting could be used for. Obviously, some aspects like the ads and tutorials might not be the same or even applicable anymore, but the general idea behind the app itself could be used. Personally, I feel as if sticking with the original idea and market would be preferable though simply because it is a wider market, that I feel has more areas to branch off of and expand. 

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:
The new venture I'm discussing is a matching service for people and their ideal cleaning products. I'm using the information I found from interviews from previous assignments. Before this assignment, six different interviews had taken place with six different people chosen at random.
-Who has the need? The need for this service extends to pretty much everyone who lives on their own or is responsible for some of the cleaning duties of their household. However, this service is mostly needed by busy, middle-class individuals who are conscious of the price spent on cleaning products and restricted by a busy schedule.
-Nature of the need? This is a consumer need. It will be a program the has reviews, different price points, and matching systems to match the ideal cleaning product with each consumer.
Forces in the environment creating this opportunity is the constant invention and updating of cleaning products, leading to a larger and larger market of things to choose from. An example of this would be vacuums. Just from a simple Google search of "Dyson vacuums," there are at least ten different models that come up and even though there are some immediately noticeable differences, many are variations of the same model. This market is slightly different geographically due to the type of environment outside. For example, If someone lives in Oklahoma, they will need cleaning products able to deal with the red clay or the region while if you're living in New York City, this would't be a problem. Customers are currently satisfying their need by Online searching for product reviews and by word of mouth. Sometimes, specialized stores give demonstrations of the product, but there is nowhere currently that offers all of these services in one place. I feel as if this opportunity is relatively large, strictly because as long as people have their own living spaces, there will always be a need to clean them up. Also, the window of opportunity here isn't really something to worry about either because of the previous reason.
Innovation:
The product here is a matching service for consumers and cleaning supplies/ tools. Ideally, this would be some sort of app or online website. There would be a questionnaire when a new member signs up, which would have questions about their location, lifestyle, amount of pets and children, type of flooring and appliances in their house, etc. Then, based on these answers, there would be different categories the customer could choose from to look through. Some of the categories would be Vacuums, Kitchen, Outdoor Maintenance, etc. Under each of the tabs would be t=a list of ranked supplies or products that we believe the consumer would benefit from, with the highest match listed first and then lower matches listed in descending order. Under each individual product, there would be customer reviews, other linked products maybe used with the product, and videos of the tool in use. There would also be a set up in the app for online ordering for anything listed. This is part of where revenue comes in, I would arrange a commission from the actual companies selling the product off of everything sold, as well as getting a cut from product advertisements.
Venture Concept:
I feel as if customers would want to buy this innovation because it's a time-saver, and it's personalized so as to eliminate the need for having to return defective products or buyer dissatisfaction. I think customers would switch to this service because it would be approved by the seller companies rather that being a new brand altogether, and it brings all aspects of household shopping to one place. Because of this, I think there would be a relatively low level of difficulty in getting customers to switch. As far as competitors go, by having ads from the seller companies on my app I would hope to eliminate competition from that front. The only other competition I feel would be any in person appliance stores, for example, a Maytag store selling refrigerator filters and things like that. My layout of my app would play a big role in the overall success of the product. The design would have to be very bright and clean, as well as overall being user friendly and not hard to operate or to get help with (tutorials, help buttons, etc.). In order to support the "business," I would need to have product researchers and testers, as well as demographic/geographic surveyors working pretty regularly in order to keep up with customer needs and with the release of new products from the seller companies. Ideally, I feel as if a team of maybe ten employees were to work together, all of this and more could easily be accomplished. They would each get a cut from the overall app profits.
Three minor elements:
1- The most important aspect of this product is its personalization to the customers and the ability to save so much time in shopping and advertising.
2- The next thing for this venture would be the actual launching of an app. A possible next app revolving around the same general idea as this one would maybe be with healthcare products. The difficulty in this idea would come with working with healthcare providers, and some of the materials would not be able to be sold by a third-party seller, so there might be more planning hangups with that idea.
3- What's next for me after this venture is possibly more work into research. All of the research and interviews that have gone into this idea was really fun and eye opening for me. While I may not be a huge entrepreneur in the future on my own, I would maybe choose to opt for being a part of the research department for other budding ideas that I decide to be a part of.

Customer avatar

For my customer avatar, I created a pretty average-looking person. Because that’s the majority of people that hold my segment together! Many of the people I interviewed are family people, so as far as a car they’d drive, I’m thinking definitely an SUV or something life that. With dark colored interior show spills from kids don’t show up. Probably grey or another dark color for the outside too so if they get super busy with other aspects of their life, you can’t tell if it’s been a little bit since they washed the car. For hobbies, it’s probably something that can be done at night, after kids have gone to sleep or something relaxing from their day jobs, like reading, playing puzzles, or maybe a musical instrument. Also, my avatar is super likely to have a pet, and love it like it’s a member of the family and not just an animal. As mentioned, most people in the segment do have kids, but the ones that don’t are typically focusing on their career and have either pets, or large friend groups to keep them busy and occupied when they’re not working. They’re from all over the country and even the world, and have backgrounds ranging from only child to adopted and living with friends out of cars while road tripping across the country. The live a fast-paced life, but still need to fit in time for decompression and fun. The biggest thing about this segment is they are everyday people like you and me, and are every bit as unique as well.

Myself and the customer avatar have a very busy lifestyle in common. I have school and work and care a lot about helping out friends and travel most weekends, so I lead a very busy life like many of these family oriented people. Because of having this in common, I understood and shared a lot of their points of view and criteria for selecting and using a product that we discussed in earlier interviews. I don’t really think this is a coincidence, because most college kids ARE super busy, and need something quick and cheap that can fit their needs but still work well. 

What's your secret sauce?

1. Unique human capital?
1. I have no fear of living in a new place- I grew up a military brat and so for me, I have absolutely no hesitations in packing up and moving to a completely new place. I feel like this speaks to my general flexibility with situations and that I would have no issues making a move for a career or opportunity that some people would hold themselves back on. 
2. My conversational abilities- I genuinely enjoy getting to talk to and connect with people. I am the person who will go up to random strangers with no reason at all and strike up a conversation. This is actually how I met a few of my best friends. Putting yourself out there in front of people might feel scary at first, but you just have to remind yourself that at the end of the day, they’re a person just like you. 
3. I’m empathetic and can identify with people- My whole life, I’ve always felt empathy towards those who were struggling, as many people do. However, when it comes to my friends or family members, that empathy often translates into discussions about problematic situations. I’ve always been good about being able to put myself in someone else’s shoes and see both sides to a story, and this has helped me a lot in my major life decisions and personal relationships, even to the point where out of my friend group, I’m usually the one that gets called first to be asked for advice. 
4. Growing up an older sibling by a so many year gap- I have two younger siblings that are much younger than I am. Because of this, I often was another mom of sorts to them. This experience taught me so much responsibility, patience for dealing with people (young children are often hard to have patience with at times), and about how to nurture another person. People need care and love in order to develop their personalities and grow in general, and being the big sister helped me to understand that, and being so much older gave me the opportunity to really see how true that is and be able to apply it to my adult life. 
5. Having grandparents who are farmers- Even though I’ve moved around my whole life, I’m originally from western Kansas and my grandparents still live there and operate a farm that has been in the family for six generations. Most summers growing up and now on most school breaks, I go back and spend time at the farm helping out. This aspect of my life has taught me so much about the importance of hard work in all areas of your life. It’s taught me that even when things get rough, you still have to push through and do your best because something is always depending on you to do your job. It has taught me to be genuine, and to appreciate everyone because even if they’re not a CEO and you can see their work in the news, everyone has a role and no matter how behind-the-scenes it is, it plays a significant part. 
2. Interviews
1. I think the biggest thing I got from this interview was about my overall positivity and my willingness to help others. My flexibility was also mentioned here about how I don’t sweat the little things and don’t let the struggles get me down.https://sites.google.com/site/bloglinkpage/linking-it-up/For%20Chloe.m4a?attredirects=0&d=1
2. Intelligence is something an emphasis is put on here. She makes a nod to my book smarts as well as street smarts. Being a farm girl is something she brought up too, as well as my military background and ability to do things for myself. She even likened me to a female MacGyver, which I’m taking as a great compliment. https://sites.google.com/site/bloglinkpage/linking-it-up/Chloes%20Human%20Capital.m4a?attredirects=0&d=1
3. For this interview, my honesty is something that was really appreciated. With this particular friend especially, I'm always extremely honest in my advice and it's good to know that he sees that at face value and appreciated it.https://sites.google.com/site/bloglinkpage/linking-it-up/Things%20About%20Chloe.m4a?attredirects=0&d=1
4. In this interview, my willingness to go the extra mile and help out is something that she mentioned. Being hardworking but also being able to have fun is something that I try to strive for, so it's nice to hear that someone else sees.https://sites.google.com/site/bloglinkpage/linking-it-up/Chloe%20Interview.m4a?attredirects=0&d=1
5. This last interview was funny because my sister talked about how she's glad I don't rub it in her face when I know something she doesn't. Especially with my sister, I've always tried to be able to be a person she can count on and cheer her up, so for her to mention that in the recording makes me feel like a good sister. https://sites.google.com/site/bloglinkpage/linking-it-up/Chloes%20Recording.m4a?attredirects=0&d=1

1. Reflection on Differences

For the comparison on these interviews, a lot of the things I noticed about myself were mentioned, which I find to be very comforting. I strive to be a very authentic person in all aspects of my life, and I'm glad to know that why I try to be is carrying past just who I am when I'm alone. One aspect that got brought up that I didn't think too much about myself is intelligence. I'm going to chalk this up to the fact that a lot of college kids often feel discouraged by classes and don't feel overly intelligent at times, so it was definitely a good reminder to take notice of my smarts both inside and out of the classroom. I have really great friends and family who are amazing people, so a lot of the things said about me in the interviews I owe to having them in my life.

Figuring out buyer behavior no. 2

For the second portion of this exercise, in my interviews I focused on the alternatives people evaluate when looking at a product and what is ultimately the factor that leads to their final decision. The segment I chose from last week and the one I am still writing on this week focuses on people and the cleaning supplies/appliances that they buy for their homes. Last week all three of my interviewees were female, so this week I interviewed one female and two males. My first interview was with a woman named Mary-Ann, and when asked about the factors that she takes into consideration when buying her supplies, she listed about five things off the top of her head. As a mother of three, she said that she wants a product that is kid-friendly, and not too difficult to use so when they get older, she can teach the kids about chores and household cleaning. And example she gave when I asked her about the simple design was about a vacuum cleaner she just purchased that had one button for on and off, and was lightweight and easy to change directions when operating. Price was the second thing Mary-Ann listed, because she said that with children, always assume the product will end up breaking and you’ll need to buy a replacement. For my second interview, I spoke with a man named James. After talking with him for a while about his buying habits, he told me that his longtime girlfriend-turned fiancee usually did the picking out of their cleaning things because she has a particular style, and she wanted everything to go together. James mentioned that if he were picking anything out on his own, he might do a Google search for about ten minutes and then pick the cheapest thing with a rating of around three stars. For my final interview, I talked to a store worker named Marcus, who included many of the same reasons as the first two for what they look for in buying his products. 

For actually buying the items, all three of the people Interviewed said they are more likely to buy products online, because it’s easier to look up customer reviews and things like that. For my first two interviewees, they said they typically budget a purchase into their finances, while Marcus said he doesn’t plan that sort of thing too much. All three replied that people involved in the purchasing decision were either only themselves or their immediate family. When I asked Mary-Ann about how she gauged her purchase after the fact, she said as long at is works for a good while cleaning up after the kids, it was a good buy. The men gave replies along the lines of if a product works well for a period of time past what they think it should, then they’re happy that they got their money’s worth and don’t really care how it operates after that. As far as bad purchases go, the three said a purchase was bad if it broke, or if it wasn’t really as helpful as described to be (an example here given was about a dust collector to help clean blinds that actually ended up breaking the blinds rather than cleaning them). 

In my interviews, I’d say that all three people are fairly logical and price-conscious when choosing a product, and mainly care about the quality of the product rather than outward appearance or name brand. In general, I would describe this segment to be pretty savvy in therms of alternate evaluation. Nowadays, it’s so easy to compare product reviews and customer feedback online and choose the best product for your particular need. For purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation, I feel like this segment focuses more on hoe the product works compared to how it is advertised. For example, if something says it will make your carpet 75% whiter and then the product doesn’t actually produce a visible change, that would affect future purchase decision and cause a negative post-purchase evaluation. 

Halfway Reflection

1.) In order to keep up with this course, you really have to be self-disciplines. You need to set aside more time than you think it will take to do an assignment (because you WILL stumble across at least one that takes way longer than expected). Also look ahead to see what the next assignments are, so you can plan accordingly with your other classes.s

2.) A few times I’ve felt like giving up so far in this semester were usually when I was getting overwhelmed in all of my classes and I was having a hard time focusing on working with a business mindset and going out to interview people. What pulled me together and kept me going on track was thinking about how I may be overwhelmed in a certain moment, but if I were to just blow off all assignments, I would really be disappointed in myself later and my grades would suffer. Also, I wouldn’t get the most possible out of the course. I feel like I’m starting to develop a tenacious attitude, ad a lot of it is because of the interview portions of the assignments. In order to get what I need to complete the assignments, I really need to find out what people are thinking and cut around small talk in order to really find the right information. 

3.) Three tips:

-Ask the question. When in doubt, always ask the question you’re unsure of because it’ll probably help you out a lot in the long run. 

-Don’t worry about looking dumb, because most people are either going to be very receptive towards you, or be wishing they could be more tenacious like you.

-Practice being more confident in your personal life, and it will eventually carry over to your professional life as well. And always keep track of dates-planners and calendars can really be your best friend. Nothing messes up your confidence like showing up late. 

Figuring out buyer behavior no. 1

Assignment 12A

1.) Pick a segment- The segment I choose is involving home cleaning supplies and those who purchase them. 

2.) For my three people in the segment, I went to the store and hung around the cleaning/ home improvement aisles until I found people willing to do a short interview with me. 

3.) The unmet need in this case that I found was with people not being satisfied with their product, or buying a product with some sort of function or lack of that doesn’t fully meet their needs. For example, one person purchasing a Roomba vacuum had complaints about how the circular vacuum wouldn’t accurately clean in corners. 

4.) In my interviews, I found that when someone noticed a problem in the quality or function of their cleaning supplies, they usually looked online at the product ratings for the product they had, and then began to look at comparable products. 

5.) In general, I learned in my interviews that people want devices to clean that will fit into smaller spaces. This can include longer handles, better joints that will move 360 degrees, and other things of that nature. The need was there a little more I noticed in people that had small children or people with pets that shed more than average. 

6.) Based on what I know about this segment and my interviews, I’d describe this segment as more particular and specific in their unmet needs. In my information search, it usually took a few minutes of talking and very specific questions to even get the customers to realize the type of complaints I wanted them to think about. This assignment actually reminded me a little bit of the bug list, specifically in the ways that you had to ask increasingly deeper and specific questions to reach the root of the unmet need. 

Idea Napkin

1.) I’m a very adaptable person I feel like. I grew up as a military kid and had to move a lot, so I enjoy talking with people and helping them out in whichever way I can. I’m very artsy, so being creative is a passion and a skill of mine that I can carry over to many different areas. There’s an old family farm in my family as well, so working and managing a farm is in my skill set as well. My business concept is involving getting younger people into the stock market and investing. Regarding this concept, I see this business as a good chunk of my lief, as I would like to take part in all of the workshops in the program. I’d like to help younger people in becoming more confident is business ventures, so I would like to try and be around the program and be a sort of metro and instructor. 

2.) I’m offering my customers a way to be more confident and possibly lucrative in the trading world of stocks. Many customers aren’t very knowledgable about hot the stock market works, and I want to be able to teach young people how it works and how to be smart with their money. I’d also like to teach my generation how to be aa little better at taking chances that may pay off in the end. 

3.) I’m offering this service to anyone ages 18-25. I feel like the first demographic I would reach would be more either college students of people in big cities, purely because of the amount of people. These customers are all living in a fast-paced life, and many are also looking for ways to make a little bit of money on the side too. 

4.) I’d like to think that the customers care about my opportunity because they can see how it will benefit them. They will gain confidence, experience, and possibly earn some money, all while learning a new skill set and a new aspect of the global economic community. 

5.) This is set apart from other just informational services because I will be offering a multiple-step process and entry into the world of trading. You can kind of experiment with the process, and then get into it deeper as almost a game, but still the possibility for financial gain is there. 

I do believe that these five elements fit together really well. In any business, there are aspects that initially aren’t thought of, and often I feel like these aspects are the tiniest details. I know in my own experience, when I’m trying to accomplish a major task or go on a trip or something similar to that, I always seem to miss one of the smallest details that tends to be very significant to the final product. I believe this applies to businesses as well. For example, a certain color choice might seem to be a small thing, but when the color is on the sign in front of a shop that customers see, it can make a big difference. All five of these elements are important in their own way and I really don’t think any one is more impactful than the others because they each cover a different topic and have their own weight in the final product. 

Solving the Problem

1.) My selected opportunity is one of the economic opportunities I wrote about in the 6A assignment. The particular opportunity I found was after watching a news report on the upswing of the stock market and the amount of people commonly investing in each age demographic. This got me to thinking about how out of all the people I know, or my friends know in the early 20s age range, almost none of them have invested very much, if ever, in stocks. So my opportunity is a bit of an untapped or uninformed market, possibly a bit of both. 

2.) For the product/service, I took a little inspiration from my high school economics teacher. He used to put us in groups and make us run fake businesses with a computer system that would actually test our decisions and see how the business would actually do in a real world situation. My idea kind of reflects this, mixed with a class aspect. I think a program set up for 18-25 year olds could be held in a public place, such as a library or a college campus, and it could teach all about the stock market and how it works. The program would be set up with a low buy-in, of about $5 or so. Then after the participant enters, they can enter into test markets, which would be computer simulations like the one I mentioned above. Once the participants get comfortable and start understanding the process, then they can play with their $5 and invest in a second set of simulations, that mimic the real stock market. Then whoever does best, gets a percentage of the buy-in pool. The pool would be used to operate the business and to also keep customers coming back with the reward system. The customers would not only be receiving useful information about the inner workings of the stock market, but could also have a chance to test their knowledge and possibly earn some money while they’re at it. 

Identifying Opportunities

IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES 

Opportunities:

      Economic-

1. Stock market is booming and has hit highs unimaginable for this time as short as two years ago. PART A- I grew up in a family that watched the news daily, so I’m in the habit of checking news a lot. On this particular day, I was watching Fox News and the reporter was doing a segment to compare stock market prices now and every year for the last five years. PART B- I’d think that an opportunity exists here because a fair amount of young people don’t usually deal with the stock market because of the crash in 2008, and the trends the reporter was showing might tend to make people more optimistic. PART C- The customer for this opportunity is probably younger people (early to mid-twenties). PART D- I feel like this opportunity would be relatively easy to exploit, perhaps through classes a person could sign up for or a seminar.      I saw this opportunity because recently I’ve been talking with my grandparents more about the stock markets. They’ve been investing heavily in the stock market for years and have just started teaching me about how it works. Because of this, my interest lately has been centered around stock market news articles. 
2. Baby Boomers aren’t retiring, or are only partially retiring.  PART A- I found an article on a news site called “The Balance” that has to do with trends in the economy that are happening, regardless of politics. PART B- I think this suggests an opportunity might exist here because the Baby Boomers make up such a large population  of the older demographic in the US. PART C- I feel like the people most likely to be customers for an opportunity would be the Baby Boomers themselves, or their children. PART D- I feel like an opportunity here might be slightly harder, just because older people tend to be mores stuck in their ways and less open to trying new ideas, but ultimately I feel like an arrangement that is popular in general with this crowd could be reached.    I saw this opportunity because I have a grandmother who lately has been retired, gone back to work, and then retired again several times, so this is a particular topic of interest to me. 

    Regulatory Changes-

1. Medical devices are going to start being hooked up to internet monitoring systems now. Examples include heart pacemaker monitoring centers. PART A- I found this opportunity while listening to two hospital workers on the bus. PART B- I think this opportunity exists because there are so many hospitals that are understaffed, and any sort of technology to help in speeding up routine check-ins would be a good market. PART C- I think the most likely customer for this opportunity would be hospitals themselves, or other private clinics dealing with post-surgery patients. PART D- I feel like this opportunity would be very easy to exploit due to the sheer amount of medical facilities.     I saw this opportunity because I take a bus that goes by a hospital every day, and I am also planning on pursuing a career in medicine dealing with patients, so I’d like to be informed about as many opportunities as possible. 
2. In May 2017, regulations regarding In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) came into play with many clinics. PART A- I look a lot on medical journals, so I came across this new regulation and there were a lot of reviews on the topic. PART B- I definitely think there are opportunities that exist here because In Vitro certainly caters to a certain market of people that have tried everything else, and this is their last stop. PART C- I think the most likely customers for this would be any couples that are having issues in their reproductive lives. PART D- Opportunities here would be kind of difficult to exploit, only because this market is slightly touchy on a personal standpoint, so there might be some lines to tiptoe around.    I saw this opportunity because several of my family members have used this service, and it has always been a debate at family get togethers, so I tend to try and be more informed on the subject. 

My Entrepreneurship Story

I know many people have different takes on the whole "entrepreneurship" thing, but my personal favorite also happens to be my first experience with the word. Rewind to the summer I turned seven and you would've seen a fabulous lemonade stand on a neighborhood corner. I had seen a movie that had a girl selling lemonade in it, so I took the initiative to round up some neighbor kids and all of the instant lemonade I could possibly find. I organized who would do what, who would hand out the cups, and who would get more quarters for change, all the while making a huge neon sign straight out of an 80's movie. Thinking back, even though we probably only made fifteen dollars the whole day, it was a great experience. Since then, I've been comfortable in leadership and organizational roles, which has helped me immensely not only in group projects, but also in my personal life and creative ideas.
I enrolled in this course for two reasons. The first reason is because it's a part of my minor and I'd heard great things about it from friends who had previously enrolled, but the second reason was more about curiosity and challenging myself. I've recently made friends who have side construction businesses or Etsy shops where they sell their hobby products, and they're not even 25. I had always thought being an entrepreneur was something for fancy executives in big cities, but I'd like to hopefully see ways to apply the mindset into my everyday life. I'm excited for this class and to see all that it brings!

Thinking back now, this would've been a much better marketing tactic than some cardboard sign. And what seven year old wouldn't want to be inside of a giant lemon for a day? I know I would've been pumped. 

The Bug List

The Bug List:

-1. When trying to leave the apartment in the morning and the lock sticks, causing you to have to kick the door and turn the lock at least three times.

Why? When the door was painted, some of the paint got into the lock, which makes it really hard to turn they key.

-2. When your phone gets down to 10%, but dies immediately instead of going all the way down to 1% and then turning off.

Why? This one probably has a lot to do with the fact that the phone is old, and the software updates have caused it to frequently glitch. 

-3. That Gainesville has a 23rd Drive, immediately followed by a 23rd Terrace. This is both confusing and makes it hard for drivers who aren't 100% sure where they're going.

Why? Probably because the roads are so close together and are the only two crossroads to Archer road for a while, so engineers went with the same theme in naming them.

-4. If you try to go to Panera on Archer road anytime during the day really, it's almost impossible to find a parking spot anywhere close without going out of the plaza to another business.

Why? This is a popular place to study for students, and the little plaza is in a popular area, with other popular restaurants and sort of make a recipe for disaster, or in this case a recipe for no parking.

-5. Going to go donate blood, and the person taking your blood both misses the vein at first, put also wiggles the needle painfully on your other arm on the second attempt.

Why? This could be because the person drawing blood didn't have much experience, was nervous, or some other personal reason.

-6. In Turlington plaza, skateboarders that come out of nowhere and run into other people walking.

Why? In my personal experience, whenever I've seen this happen, it was because the skateboarder was on their phone and had headphones in, so they weren't fully aware of their surroundings. 

-7. If you're a commuter student (like me) and the bus runs either late or early, but it isn't recorded on the app tracker, so you either miss the bus or show up thinking that you already have.

Why? GPS is never totally accurate, and trying to track a moving thing in real time in traffic is kind of hard, especially for an app that could have technical issues. 

-8. Anywhere on campus, the wifi takes a very long time to wirelessly connect to your device, and often caused problems in whatever page you're trying to reach.

Why? When I've had this problem, I've been in the library or crowded lecture halls so probably, the sheer amount of other devices trying to used the internet at once is overwhelming the system for a little bit.

-9. In the Butler Plaza Walmart, if you try and go into the self checkout line at seemingly any hour in the evening, you will have to wait behind at least 15 other customers.

Why? This Walmart is used a lot by students, and in the evenings is when a lot of students can go grocery shopping, leading to the influx of people in line. Also, many students only buy a few items at a time, which is a big cause for the self checkout line to be so long. 

-10. Left turning lanes getting so full of cars that they spill over and block the other lanes.

Why? Left turning lanes usually have the shortest lights, so not many cars can get through, causing a line of buildup at the light.

-11. Several apartment complexes I've been to in the last few weeks have speed bumps so bad that no matter how slow you go over them, they will always scrape the bottom of your car terribly.

Why? People in apartment complexes are often in a rush, and hit bumps much faster than intended, so some pieces can chip away, making the bumps even worse and more uneven over time. 

-12. If you ride the bus or drive a car on campus in the mornings, traffic is always terrible because people walk across the street frequently without waiting for the crosswalk sign to change, making all the cars have to stop.

Why? This one is either because people are running late trying to get to class, on their phones and not paying attention, or simply because they just don't care about holding other people up. 

-13. Getting run into by someone else on a regular basis on campus.

Why? Because the person was looking down at their phone and didn't look up at all to see what was in their path.

-14. Either in class or on the bus or some other close-contact area, when people trip over other's things or step on feet to get across.

Why? This is because some people try and rush, and then forget to look down at where they're going, or just aren't aware of their surroundings. 

-15. Getting locked out of your account even when you try and reset the password multiple times. 

Why? I honestly have no idea why this happens, only that it's very irritating. Maybe because the password gets hidden while you're typing it so there's more room for error in pushing a wrong key?

-16. Going to the movie theater and the projector is too high so the top bit of the movie isn't on the screen and gets cut off.

Why? Something probably bumped the projector or something happened in the film room that no one noticed or corrected. 

-17. Cracks showing up out of nowhere across your windshield. 

Why? This usually happens when a rock hits it while you're driving, and then if it gets too cold outside the crack spreads at a ridiculously fast rate. 

-18. Stop signs being hidden by trees, so that you only see them at the last second and have to slam on your brakes.

Why? Either just really bad planning, or the bushes and trees haven't been trimmed anytime recently and are growing past where they were intended to stay.

-19. Not making a stoplight because a car in front of you stays stopped and isn't paying attention. 

Why? Almost every single time I've seen this happen, it's because the driver at the front of the line is on their phone and doesn't look up in time for the light. Some other times I've seen it happen though is when a person tries to change lanes at the last second and is blocking two lanes at once and the light they need hasn't yet changed. 

-20. When the main door to buildings are locked and you have to go around forever looking for a side door or something like that to be unlocked. (The only one unlocked always seems to be in the most inconvenient spot too).

Why? Ive found out this is because a lot of doors have tricky locks, and a lot of the time if a latch isn't turned properly, from the inside it can look like the door is unlocked on the outside. One time this happened to me though and it turns out one person just wanted to mess with people and locked all the doors to the building except a back maintenance entrance.

Reflections after the fact:

I actually had a hard time initially with this list. I'm the kind of person that usually tries to leave room for error and let things roll off my back, so it was kind of hard to think about all of the little things that bother me. I could come up with probably seven things right away, but then I hit a blank. For the rest of the things on my list, it really helped to just go about my regular day and look around more than I usually do and to actually let myself get annoyed with trivial things. I also found it kind of funny that a lot of the things on my list have a common thing or were all noticed within a few minutes of each other, such as with a lot of the driving or commuting examples.

Starting it off...

Testing, testing...Here's my first blog post, so hopefully all is going well! Interesting things coming soon.