30A – Final Reflection

Final moments in this class is bitter sweet. I’ve had a lot of good moments and a lot of dread on different assignments, Mostly good moments though. A few that I can recall is the first assignment when we had to write about 20 things in our life that annoy us and we can’t change through easy means. It allowed me my first taste at an entrepreneurial mindset. I remeber just walking around the house thinking of things I didn’t like that I could try and make better in my everyday life. It was actually pretty fun. My low I felt like was all the interviews. I really felt like I was pushed to get random people or people I know to help participate in my assignments. Which I understand now as an entreprenuer you need to have people you can throw your ideas with but for me then I felt like it was such an inconvenience for them. 


I think the most formative experience for me was doing all the elevator pitches. I had to do one previously for another class and I remember it being awful. I wasn’t great at it and I was very awkward in front of the camera but after doing it and rehearsing it a thousand times I felt pretty comfortable doing my pitch and even did it in less than 3 takes at one point. I feel pretty proud of that experience and I look forward to giving more now that I feel more comfortable at it. 

When I first heard that I’d develop an entrepreneurial mindset I didn’t believe the proffessor but now as I am nearing the end of the class I do feel like I’ve had a change of thinking. I definitely look for opportunities more than I used to. It amazes me that I have thought up my own ideas into businesses and that through working them them through each process I can see them being successful. I do not think I can call myself an entrepreneur yet. I think there a few things I’ll need to work on as well as actually starting a business before I truly feel like an entrepreneur but I can resolutely say I have gained the mindset.

If I could recommend to students in the future to do well in this course I would say buckle down and get ready to do a ton of work. It isn’t hard work but it requires a good bit of thinking before attacking each assignment. Therefore, take a bit of time each week preferably before the last day you turn in your assignment to prepare and not have to rush to get your assignments. I’ve seen plenty of good assignments and plenty of rushed assignments (I am guilty of the rushed assignments too.)  and taking the proper amount of time to complete makes your blog look a lot cleaner. I also recomend on your blogs to make them look as clean as possible and having your paragraphs spaced out because nobody wants to read huge blocks of text like this assignment.  I enjoyed taking this class and getting to know everybody in my discussion group, good luck to everybody in future classes! 

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Quick Bite - Venture Concept

My business venture that I would like to jump into would be to answer one of the biggest questions couples and friends might ask each other. That question would be “What should we get to eat?”

Opportunity:
   1. Who has the need?
I think the need is for people that may want to grab something super quick because they are on break at work or for people that are traveling to find out what’s close to them and for the highest quality food.
   2. Nature of the need
  People will always have the need to eat but I think this will help up the competitiveness of restaurants making whoever the fastest and most high quality restaurant more prevalent in the market. This wouldn’t be a need that could be satisfied once and could build a good following with “foodies”  
   3. Forces to create this opportunity
I think a major force in my community is that there are a lot of places that are newly being built. So the options for food is growing rapidly and it’s getting harder to weed out what is good and what is not. Making my app a good place to go to and easily accessible on your phone when you want to see what kind of food is around you. 

   4. How is this market defined geographically and demographically?
I don’t expect this app to blow up with older people I would say my average user would be a college student in a new place with a plethora of options and no idea what to eat. Also, just because technologically younger people are more likely to trend set up and coming apps to see if it is any good. Geographically it would be more for cities and areas with high populations to weed out all the places that are packed and wait times being in the extreme.

   5. What are my consumers alternatives?
Consumers of my app could use the app called “Around me” which is fine! I use it all the time to know what’s available in my area. But, My app offers the alternative of ranking whats around you and making it more personalized to fit your criteria of satisfaction. People I know like me are very loyal to the “Around Me” app because it is provided by Apple.

   6. How big is the opportunity and how long is the window of it?
Technically the window has always been there and it is slowly closing. There are many people who have had the idea of mobile ordering but I don’t think they have ever considered having places rated. This opportunity could be huge due to the sheer mass of people who have smartphones

Innovation:
My Product would be an app that offers full functionality allowing access to see food in genres. By clicking on a genre of food it will go in detail and show you what is offered around you in a 20 mile radius and rate each place in a system that will tell you what is the best place to eat at due to quality of food, cleanliness, how fast the wait time is, and service in general. It will also include reviews along with graphs of their busy hours and price points compared to other places. For it to be fully functional you will have to make an account with our app that is a one time login on your phone. By making an account you will be able to personalize that account by saying what you like food wise and ask you a series of questions that could help us personalize the rankings of restaurants to you. Our app will not be taking money to endorse about certain food places to get it higher rankings. Instead we will be offering our service to members for a $5 monthly fee and for free members of our service we won’t be using personalized services and just give general rankings. All members of this service will be able to place orders online and be able to see rankings around them. Subscribed members will be allowed to use this service to set where they plan to go like for example Atlanta allowing them to plan out what kind of food is in that area along with graphs of wait time and other personalized features. Adding onto this feature through personalization you will have the ability to limit the amount of time on the app through quick actions you can click on when starting the app. 

Venture Concept:
My app would be beneficial for businesses that have high quality goods but are having a hard time getting off the ground. This would allow them a bit of spotlight if they make the rating list. Consumers would potentially buy into this app because of the ability to use one app to do all for their food concerns. Right now people only have access to apps like “around me” that just tell you very general details. It might be hard to get people into this app at first because around me tells you not just about food but this will be the essential app you would need to have as a traveling person or newcomer in town trying to figure what’s good without locals telling you.  Like I have been saying there are competitors but with the growing trend of subscription based content and personalized service this could go into the vulnerabilities of other apps giving only general details and not a fully detailed list of rated restaurants. If I were to organize this as a business I would have a building of 30-40 people that splits into different teams. I would have 4 different roles for the group of employees. customer service branch, marketing, research and development, and a App quality group. Each playing into making sure the app has the most functionality while maintaining high quality standards.

My unfair advantage:
My skills are that I fully understand how to market to consumers and through having a mentor to help with my ideas and by using clever twitter following builders and getting up recognition of the brand I can bring people to the app.

What’s next for me and my venture?
Eventually I want my app to be able to become compatible with major food industries allowing the access to place orders with say pizza places instead of having to go through their own website. That way you don’t have to enter information in a ton of different websites and you can just use your phone to place those orders. This app would help me start of the venture of trying out other ideas. Through subscription based content I can have a steady flow of money that could allow me to try new Ideas with my team and eventually tackle owning my own International foods store that could receive quality goods from all over.

Feedback:
I received wonderful feedback from both my whats next and responses from my original venture concept post. I pushed in more easy accessibility from what others are saying through the use of icons to make locating different categories easier to find and even a mile radius icon so that you can easily have a radius of places to go to in your area. I think accessibility is important and I appreciate that there is the ability to incorporate it into my business.

28A – Your Exit Strategy

Every person should eventually be thinking about their exit strategy in any place in their career or at any job. it's a lot tougher to think of an exit strategy when it is considering your own business. If I were to think of an exit strategy for my food service app I would genuinely think about selling it off when it got a big following.

I decided this because it would kick me off for my next venture with a hefty check and it would allow the employees under me to either join me for my next venture or stay with the company I sold to. I love the idea of having a family bond and staying with something til I retire but I fear I would get bored at some point and want to try something different. Apps are an ever changing thing and sometimes it's better to let other people take over and try something new with your ideas.

This exit strategy actually came up in my prior thoughts for making an app. I thought about how other apps are made like for example a mobile scanning service app that got bought by Snapchat for 54 million. I thought like that thinking about how my app could eventually be bought out by Apple or any big name company and be integrated with their systems like that one app. This definitely could go into the category of how I identified an opportunity because I wondered why something like that wasn't already made. I want this app to grow through Facebook or word of mouth so that eventually I could attract the attention of big competitors.

26A – Celebrating Failure

We all hate failure. Failure can sting, it can damage our pride, failure isn't something many people want to talk about.

Ever since I was a kid I always watched people create content on Youtube. I would say that is my one of my big addictions is to just get lost on Youtube. So one day I decided to try my hand at making Youtube videos when I was younger. It was an ongoing battle for a year where I would make one video and get discouraged because I wouldn't get very many views even if I pushed it out to all my friends and on my social media.

 Here recently during the spring and fall semester I did album reviews on my channel where I wouldn't leave my room all night when an artist that I liked put out an album and I would take notes. I really liked doing that type of content just because of how much I love music and have my own personal opinions about everything. Again throughout the semester I never got any views. It was very discouraging but looking back I got really good at using video editing software and I really enjoyed sitting in the library working on content or just brainstorming and making scripts on what to say in the video. Although I got discouraged and haven't made anything this summer this class has really made me rethink getting back into it just because it's something I love to do and even if I fail I should just keep trying and changing up my formula until I succeed. Failure can really hurt. I spent a lot of sleepless nights just coming up with crazy ideas of how to succeed on Youtube and a lot of nights doubting if I could do it. I think the biggest thing about being an entrepreneur is just trying. You have to put yourself out there on what you want to do because if you don't you might ask the question what if later on in life and I definitely don't want that to be me.

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market:

What is potentially next in my service is allowing you to be able to set reservations at restaraunts through the use of the rate foods app. This would allow you to see what is at the top of the list and book throug the app.

I interviewed three different people all in my ideal customer market. My first interviewee was a college girl at my work who frequently looks for new places to eat with friends. Second was my neighbor who has said he likes to frequently tries new foods. Lastly was my brother who orders take out on a weekly basis.

Suprisingly, my idea for the ability to set reservations wasn't in high demand. Because all of my interviwees were younger as in just getting out of college or still in high school many of them didn't see when they would use that feature very often with the app. Even though what I assumed was important ended up not being held in high regard, I recieved very awesome feedback instead.

One of the major ideas that someone offered was allowing the abilty to see coupons and potential specialty days of fast food like for example Chickfila's Cow Appreciation days so they know to attend. I like this idea a lot because it can kind of show what's going on in the community and allow you to get free or discounted food depending on the event. This was totally out of what I was thinking about and extermly valuable to me.


New Market:

I decided with my new market to dive into a different demographic. My ideal demographic has always been younger college students looking to experience new foods but now I will be diving more into expanding my usage for married couples and older less active people with technology.

I interviewed two different people. A married mom and my grandma.

After getting through my pitch and my concept of my app I was extremely suprised at their answers. I was feeling purely against my idea of making reservations at restaruants because of lack of support but the married mother was totally into the idea of setting up reservations for a date night with her husband and the access of seeing what kind of fancy highly rated restaraunt was appealing to her because of the usage of the app. My grandma too said she would use the app because of the abilty to travel and see what is around her. She frequently is in new areas and having the ability to order food before getting to where she wants to go makes her fast paced lifestyle much easier.

I was overwhelmed that people I had said where out of my demographic showing interest in my app. Also it shows a lot about making personalization very important with the app because younger people wanted more of the ability to see fast food and cheap places to eat whereas my mom interviewee wanted more of the abilty to plan out date nights with her husband. This suprisingly makes this market more appealing as well. I think there could be a lot to improve on and even though I thought I had lost it with my exisitng market due to them disagreeing with my idea my new market found it to be very useful. Because of what was said in New markets I think it is important to focus on your exisiting market because you want them to stay with you and loyal but also branching out will be a secondary point for the service. 

24A – Venture Concept No. 1 - Quick Bite

Quick Bite - Venture Concept

My new business venture that I would like to get into would be to answer one of the biggest questions couples and friends might ask each other. That question would be “What should we get to eat?”

Opportunity:
   1. Who has the need?
I think the need is very big for people that may want to grab something super quick because they are on break at work or for people that are traveling to find out what’s close to them and for the highest quality food.
   2. Nature of the need
  People will always have the need to eat but I think this will help up the competitiveness of restaurants making whoever the fastest and most high quality restaurant more prevalent in the market. This wouldn’t be a need that could be satisfied once and could build a good following with “foodies” 
   3. Forces to create this opportunity
I think a major force in my community is that there are a lot of places that are newly being built. So the options for food is growing rapidly and it’s getting harder to weed out what is good and what is not. Making my app a good place to go to and easily accessible on your phone when you want to see what kind of food is around you.

   4. How is this market defined geographically and demographically?
I don’t expect this app to blow up with older people I would say my average user would be a college student in a new place with a plethora of options and no idea what to eat. Also, just because technologically younger people are more likely to trend set up and coming apps to see if it is any good. Geographically it would be more for cities and areas with high populations to weed out all the places that are packed and wait times being in the extreme.

   5. What are my consumers alternatives?
Consumers of my app could use the app called “Around me” which is fine! I use it all the time to know what’s available in my area. But, My app offers the alternative of ranking whats around you and making it more personalized to fit your criteria of satisfaction. People I know like me are very loyal to the “Around Me” app because it is provided by Apple.

   6. How big is the opportunity and how long is the window of it?
Technically the window has always been there and it is slowly closing. There are many people who have had the idea of mobile ordering but I don’t think they have ever considered having places rated. This opportunity could be huge due to the sheer mass of people who have smartphones

Innovation:
My Product would be an app that offers full functionality allowing access to see food in genres. By clicking on a genre of food it will go in detail and show you what is offered around you in a 20 mile radius and rate each place in a system that will tell you what is the best place to eat at due to quality of food, cleanliness, how fast the wait time is, and service in general. It will also include reviews along with graphs of their busy hours and price points compared to other places. For it to be fully functional you will have to make an account with our app that is a one time login on your phone. By making an account you will be able to personalize that account by saying what you like food wise and ask you a series of questions that could help us personalize the rankings of restaurants to you. Our app will not be taking money to endorse about certain food places to get it higher rankings. Instead we will be offering our service to members for a $5 monthly fee and for free members of our service we won’t be using personalized services and just give general rankings. All members of this service will be able to place orders online and be able to see rankings around them. Subscribed members will be allowed to use this service to set where they plan to go like for example Atlanta allowing them to plan out what kind of food is in that area along with graphs of wait time and other personalized features.

Venture Concept:
My app would be beneficial for businesses that have high quality goods but are having a hard time getting off the ground. This would allow them a bit of spotlight if they make the rating list. Consumers would potentially buy into this app because of the ability to use one app to do all for their food concerns. Right now people only have access to apps like “around me” that just tell you very general details. It might be hard to get people into this app at first because around me tells you not just about food but this will be the essential app you would need to have as a traveling person or newcomer in town trying to figure what’s good without locals telling you.  Like I have been saying there are competitors but with the growing trend of subscription based content and personalized service this could go into the vulnerabilities of other apps giving only general details and not a fully detailed list of rated restaurants. If I were to organize this as a business I would have a building of 30-40 people that splits into different teams. I would have 4 different roles for the group of employees. customer service branch, marketing, research and development, and a App quality group. Each playing into making sure the app has the most functionality while maintaining high quality standards.


My unfair advantage:
My skills are that I fully understand how to market to consumers and through having a mentor to help with my ideas and by using clever twitter following builders and getting up recognition of the brand I can bring people to the app.

What’s next for me and my venture?
Eventually I want my app to be able to become compatible with major food industries allowing the access to place orders with say pizza places instead of having to go through their own website. That way you don’t have to enter information in a ton of different websites and you can just use your phone to place those orders. This app would help me start of the venture of trying out other ideas. Through subscription based content I can have a steady flow of money that could allow me to try new Ideas with my team and eventually tackle owning my own International foods store that could receive quality goods from all over.

 

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. I am technologically proficient.

• I gained this skill when I built my first computer when I was 15 and learned photoshop and premiere. I don't think this skill is super rare in this day and age since everyone uses their phones for everything. It's a very valuable resource none the less. Anybody can learn how to become tech savvy if they took classes or used a computer often. 

2. Innovative Website along with Server Maintenance team

• I know Adrian is replaceable but I find his ability to make a website and maintain the servers and problems on the internet side of the company making him very valuable. There are plenty of web designers out there. 

3. Marketing Consultant

•  Janelle Dennis's advice is very valuable to me and the on going processes of starting a business. I think it is very rare to have someone know so much and know how to resolve problems before they become problems like her. I could potentially replace her if I needed to but her advice and ideas are a genuine asset to the growth of the business. 

4. Supply chain for overseas

• Having a supply and person to ship to you is very important. Luckily through my connections with Mrs. Dennis I was able to find Derick. I don't think he is irreplaceable as I could just find someone with better rates eventually. I think it is rare to find someone that could get everything to you. None the less his help is very valuable. 

5. Innovative Ideas

• Personally I find my brain overactive. I think of the stupidest things sometimes but then sometimes it just clicks and I think why hasn't that been made yet. This is something I find rare. Not everyone has a creative mind and I think to be entreprenaurs in this class you have to be able to come up with ideas.  It's valuable to be able to come up with new ways to do something ro improve a service. Not something you are able to copy. 

6. Family enviroment

• What I really want is for people who join in on my business venture to feel at home. To be able to come talk to me about their concerns or if anything is going on. This isn't something I have now but this is something I will push for in my company. Too many companies get lost in the money aspect and forget about their employees. 

7. Excellent communications skills

• Being able to communicate well with others is most certainly valuable. This however is a skill that many people have so I don't see it as extremely rare. Many people can potentially copy this skill.    

8. Financial Capital and Investors

• Finding people to invest into your product is not impossible. It is rare to find people that give fully into your ideas and through well practiced elevator pitches and napkin ideas we could potentially find a handful. It can be easily copied by others but being financially able to run a company is a must. 

9. I am very motivated when I am invested in something

• Motivation isn't something you can fake you have to be all in something or nothing. I am huge about being motivated and for a company I can find that to be a very valuable thing. It is rare for someone to want to work at something even when he should be relaxing. This can be attempted to copy but hard to master. 

10. I have a large network of friends

• I have made a lot of friends in college, everyone I have met has been ultra talented and they themselves have a web of friends. Through their networks and my network there isn't really anyone I couldn't potentially find. This is very valuable but could be copied if someone to have social skills. 

My unfair advantage would definitely have to be my motivation. It truly is valued over all else because even if I fail I can just find the motivation to try something else. Everything that I have listed is very valuable and needed but having the motivation to run a business and push yourself towards success is truly special.

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

My third elevator pitch is unlisted on Youtube right here: https://youtu.be/OWD2AJD58mU

I went back through and reviewed my old elevator pitches and the comments and kind of fine tuned this video into what I liked from both. In my last elevator pitch someone recommended going through the benefits for consumers and businesses so I made sure to address that and I consciously watched my use of saying "uh" I still need to work on it but this third time I only used it like three times as a place holder and eventually it will be totally eliminated. I found anything that someone stated I should change or work on as impactful because it's things that I had not seen at first but know it will improve my future elevator pitches that I do.

I found by this third time I didn't have to retry my elevator pitch an absurd number of times. I really only had to film it three times because I had most everything memorized. I stumbled once just to regain my thoughts but I eventually finished out strong. I felt way more comfortable as well because I have done it a few more times and honestly wouldn't mind doing it again for the class.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

I read, How to Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams and I found it surprising how much I connected with it and how inspiring it was to pursue my own projects. I found that the general theme of this book was a lot about time management. You have to look after yourself, your things you own and your family before pursuing another dream. You can't let one thing fall out of whack or you could crumble due to losing drive and low energy. The book really drives the point of  success just doesn't happen you have to pursue it. Sometimes fail, maybe fail a lot but eventually you can succeed. Just like in our class all of our assignments prove that in our head ideas may be good but when asking other people we develop other ideas and fine tune our own. It proves even if you think you are a genius and your product would have to be successful you still need to have help from others like in interviews or you could still fail potentially.

If I had to create an exercise for this class from this book I would probably make a fun assignment that basically focuses on ourselves. It would revolve around not eating fast food once the whole week and to write yourself up a agenda. Do shopping for foods early on in the week and have a list of healthy foods for yourself throughout the week. It would also include exercising and going to sleep for solid a solid 8-9 hours. At the end of the week write up if you feel better about yourself or feel with more energy. I feel like it would be genuinely a good assignment because I have a hard time making my own schedule and working on myself and it would kind of force me to reset myself. I think it could be surprising because some people might like how they feel so much or be so good that they can create new ideas.

My biggest surprise was that he states quantity over quality is important when it comes to skills. Holding a ton of eggs in your basket is better than having a golden egg which made me rethink a ton of things. Even if I keep practicing editing over and over and I get really good at it I still need to know how to produce write and even market my ideas. He said getting good at something is important but being decent at a lot of things is better. It's an interesting concept that I hope to explore more.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

I really wanted to do well this assignment so I looked a lot for potential people to add to my social capital, I met three awesome influences who could potentially give great advice to get my company off the ground and to get successful on International foods in a giant domain.

Adrian Jackson, He works at the Omni Resorts where I am working at for the summer and is a IT guy that we had come in and work on our computers that we use to handle excel and a few other marketing spreadsheets. I was talking to him about website building and processes to make sure internet servers could handle traffic and he said that he is very adapt at creating websites and apps through getting a degree as a programmer with a minor in graphic design. He even knows how to maintain servers because of his job as an IT guy. He would be a great domain expert since I could bounce off questions on building my own website and how to create traffic. I talked to him a lot about my idea and even went through my elevator pitch to get him on board and he totally bought it when he realized that the US is a mixing pot and that tons of people would want to get goods from their home country.

Janelle Dennis, I work in the marketing branch at my work and luckily my boss is one of the coolest ladies with a ton of experience in chain stores and marketing said stores. She has been apart of marketing teams for Sams club and how to conduct customer research and build interest through the results into products. I contacted her early on in the course when I was first coming up with an idea of how I would make a business and asked her opinion on whether it would be manageable and she helped fine tune my ideas because of all of her experience at running other stores and even owning a few coffee shops. She just in return asks that I focus hard at work while I work on this idea. Including Mrs. Dennis will be important because she has boundless knowledge on the subject of how stores are run and building your own business.

Derick Thomas, I struggled a lot with finding a supplier who has connections overseas and could potentially get goods over for a cheap rate. So I went through asking Mrs. Dennis if she knew anybody like that and she talked about Derick because when she owned a coffee shop he could always send her coffee beans from other countries. I reached out to him over twitter DM giving him first my elevator pitch for my idea and asking him if that's something that him and his group could handle. Mr. Thomas was very big into finding out if I was serious about what I wanted to do but after talking to him for a few hours he finally agreed and he even has other suppliers who he could reach out to so I could have more options. I just had to agree to let him into my processes when I get started and use him for the first few months.

This experience of reaching out to people really got me out of my zone. I was used to giving off my ideas online and asking people questions in public but this was different because I had to give off my ideas and see if I could bring someone into my fold. This differed a lot from past networking because these people all had genuine experience in these fields the rest of my networking was with other UF students and a few News station managers that I had worked with. None had a ton of experience in their fields unlike these guys. 

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

My link to my very fun elevator pitch..

https://youtu.be/y2POilE3-lM

The feedback I got last time really helped me fine craft this speech. I still think there is a lot to improve and also this was filmed after working for 12 hours so I was feeling a bit delirious. One thing I really took hard from my last elevator pitch was the amount of Uh's I said in my speech. It felt awkward watching back so I tried to consciously not use that word at all. It may have slipped out once or twice but a definite improvement. I think it was just used as a replacement because I was trying to gather my thoughts for that next sentence and I don't want it to be a complete pause. So you fill that void with a word like "alright" or in my case "uh". I look forward to seeing the feedback for this video even though I never feel comfortable about posting anything about myself online! Anyways enjoy.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

I will admit I am not usually the greatest at taking feedback. I find it hard to get my head around my own stubborn thoughts of being able to do it myself and not needing help. With all that being said I got really great feedback on my last idea napkin and I will do my best to work it into this one.

Like in my last idea napkin, I stated how I am a telecommunications major and have been in management at my first ever job. I talked a lot about how I had my hands in all things like dabbling in marketing and managing a business. But in the feedback I got they stated it's okay to outsource and get help from others like in making a website which I have little experience in how to do. This got me into thinking about trusting others and maybe bringing in a small team to help me with my idea.

My service that I would offer is a store that deals in international goods. Almost like a Sams club or Costco but instead dealing with different countries in each sector. This would meet unmet needs because there aren't places like that besides the foreign foods aisles in grocery stores but they don't cover nearly as much stock as I would have. Along with this store I would like to have a online website that deals in similar goods that can be shipped to peoples houses.

My customers would be people with different ethnic backgrounds. They might find it hard to ship goods from other countries so having a location that they can go to and potentially have goods shipped to in a steady supply would be beneficial. This could also help foreign companies get more publicity in the states with the potential to compete with our own markets. Another type of consumer is people want to just try different stuff out.

People would pay money here because a lot of people I have interviewed find it hard to have their families ship goods to them without insane trade costs. We not only would buy it in wholesale bulk but could have a steady source for customers to reliably come back to through membership deals with us.

As stated in feedback as a telecommunications major we have a head start in having the ability to market our products. I have the skills to produce videos and build my own social media sites so being able to bring that into the business world would be very beneficial.

 I believe with that being able to get goods at the start will be weak. Time will help build relationships with companies and being able to settle on a teamwork with companies that want to get their foods overseas will drive competitiveness with other businesses. I think my background works well with this field because it will allow me to use my managing skills to help steer my team. I just think it will be very pricey in the beginning. I used feedback into two ways, using the ideas of sourcing my ideas to get a grander picture and to help make my website and the second by rethinking how I would get the goods shipped to my Sams club esque store. I think with more feedback on my ideas will help me further fine tune my company into what I want.   

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

When thinking of what my prototypical customer would look like I'd have to place him as an international traveler. It's interesting thinking in depth about someone you've never met. It's very easy to think of a product that you would like to be made so it's very easy to just make yourself the customer of your own product but making someone else as your customer is a bit different. If he were an international traveler he would have backpacked in Norway, given up a year of his life to dive into other cultures and live spontaneously and always on the move. He would have lived with different people from all over having experiences that some people dream of. Not afraid to try something new. My customer likes soccer and has been to a world cup. They prefer to read in a cafe rather then read at home. They always take up their friends requests to do a road trip. My customer has a tattoo on his arm that he got through a dare from his friends. He likes to go hiking and takes up the opportunity every spring to go into the Appalachian mountains for a week traveling from one peak on foot to the next. He dabbles in photography and only takes shots of what he likes when he's out and about and collects them all into a collage that he hangs up in his room. He drives an all terrain Jeep that he takes out onto the beach then lights campfires with his friends. This person doesn't watch very much TV they don't like to be inside much. This person dreams to make a difference in the world but doesn't know where to start so they keep traveling to find inspiration. He has a good paying job but it doesn't allow him along with his traveling habits to lock down a relationship or start a family. His favorite color is green because it reminds him of being relaxed and the color of leaves. He's in his mid 20's and he continually keeps in contact with his friends from overseas consistently asking when he can come back to visit. He feels like a toddler sometimes due to not knowing what he wants to do and never being able to stay locked up in one place. His favorite book is a Sci Fi Novel called Consider Phelbas because of how in detail other planets could be in the future with space travel and the thought of how their could be even more out there that he doesn't know. He isn't very patient that's why he prefers to go to my store to get goods from overseas rather than ordering them off online websites and waiting for them to ship.

I don't have a lot in common with this person. I have lived in other countries but traveling is something I've always wanted to do. I really don't have many things in common with this customer besides reading. Who this customer is, is basically an outline of who I want to be in the future. Being spontaneous and carefree. I think this is a perfect outlook on being obsessed with your customer because this customer is someone I aspire to be and through taking care of his needs with international goods and a place for him to shop is a step to getting to know him.

16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

Things that make me different:

1.) I matured fast when I was young. I didn't always have the ability to rely on parents when I was young and often had to work hard to get things I wanted like a car.

2.) I always try to be optimistic about opportunities. Go into each day with a fresh mindset.

3.) I am pretty creative and try to complete things differently from others. Often attacking a situation thinking it through.

4.) I find myself pretty caring always looking out for my friends and what they are up to.

5.) I am reliable. I can be called into work and will show up 9 times out of 10 or my friends know that if they call I will answer.

The first person I sat down with and interviewed was my Mom. She basically stated that I "am a sweet boy who can achieve anything I wanted as long as I am not lazy and get suck in my room." I disagree with being stuck in my room but to each their own.

Secondly was my sister, I was surprised she said genuinely nice things because we tend to bicker but she said "you are helpful whenever I ask for help and that you always make me laugh when I don't want to"

My next interview was with my close friend Pradit. He talked about the time we went camping and how he was impressed with how I filmed the whole thing and made it into a movie. "It was cool how you turned an event that most of us forgot into a heartfelt good time with the boys" I just wanted something for us to post on twitter but it went a long way with my friends.

Ryan is one of my best friends from high school, He went into detail about how I was one of the most determined players on the soccer team we were on together. "You always wanted to go out to practice even when we didn't have practice because you didn't want to be benched for the next game" Being benched was a big fear of mine so working hard was my only way of making sure I didn't have that happen.

Lastly was my Coworker, Courtney. She stated that I catch onto things quickly because I was able to learn the computer systems quickly. By the first week she was pretty confident on me being able to hold my own with customers and understanding their policies.

There is definitely a lot of things I don't want to list about myself in the beginning of this assignment because I don't want to sound boastful but it was nice to hear friends and family state things about me that they see even if some of them call me hard headed because I know its out of love. I think there are differences on how I view myself because I know what I am like when I'm alone and how I can tend to be unmotivated and I am very critical on myself but I think being able to recognize stuff i need to work on can make you a better person. I think the people who I interviewed are more correct about me than I am about myself because how others view you is important. I would make corrections to being creative and adding that I like to make videos or take pictures because it impresses my friends and I like how it makes me feel accomplished to make any type of content. 

15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.2

In my last assignment I ventured into how my consumers picked places to eat. I wanted to see how they would choose where to eat, who to ask and where to look for food. So after my last assignment I've decided to interview three more people who actively look for places to eat and how they evaluate their alternatives.

I went through the process of interviewing three different people. A recently married man, a college student, and a recently graduated High school student. Each had different ways of processing where to eat through alternatives. The high school student held cheap places to eat as a major factor due to their low income whereas the recently married man wanted quality because of places to bring their wife. My college student interviewee looks more for places to be quick like fast food because of their busy schedule. I found it interesting that they all had a different alternative that was important to them. Instead of how and where do they buy I dived more into if they preferred to eat in at a restaurant or to get it to go. One thing that surprised me was that  the college student would actually pay for and order their food before even going into a restaurant so they don't have to wait for their food and get it as soon as they walk in. The others were normal with just going in and paying and ordering like normal and the married man typically would stay in and eat with wife so they could just take a break and talk because they weren't in a rush. The interviewees always seemed to qualify that they made a good purchase if first the food was fulfilling and if the food tasted good. They would qualify if the food was a bad purchase if they ordered something and they got the wrong thing and or if the food made them sick. I think from these you could qualify satisfaction as the rightness of the purchase.

The interviews kind of went how I had thought they would go. I do wonder if paying for food and ordering online before going into stores is going to get more popular. I think this could potentially mix really well with my app idea because with the recommending of a place to eat you could have a link to click on to easily order and go pick up. Through conversing with my people the talks of rightness of purchase really influences my idea of including food reviews as an important piece on my app because with the recommendation you can see other people who either agree on you going and even whats the best to order. There is a mix of alternatives people use when evaluating where to go eat. People generally use cash to purchase their foods with the occasional online buyer. I look forward to thinking more about what kind of features to add to my app to provide more functionality than just recommending popular places to eat in your local area.

14A – Halfway Reflection

This class definitely was not what I expected I was excited going into the class because I was going to be able to dive deeper into my ideas and business ventures with classmates advice and peer reviews. There were moments where I did want to give up for sure. Getting through the first week was a nightmare because I completed all my assignments but did not turn them in correctly so I got no credit and which genuinely made me upset especially when the professor stood fast in the no mess ups rule for the first week of an assignment class. What pushed me even further to wanting to give up was when he replied with a smiley face emoji saying "sorry". Even though it was a bad start I am not a quitter and I stayed determined to keep going. I stayed tenacious and no matter what I am not getting another bad grade because I don't want to make a B in a class where I get teased with smiley faces.

I have always had a hard working spirit. This class has fine tuned me into getting stuff done which can foster into tenaciousness. You have to be patient and make sure to set a lot of time to complete tasks. Getting your schoolwork done early is not a bad idea for this course either.

Tip one, set time twice a week to look over this class and do assignments. You can't do it all in one night. Tip two, don't be afraid to dive deep in your head if you think any small thing is wrong with society go into it and come up with ways to make something better whether it be through a service or a product that could be made. Tip three, get a good group to discuss your ideas with to help develop further your ideas outside of class. There is nothing wrong with brainstorming with others. These tips will help you be successful in this class and further attribute to your tenacious mindset.

McDonald's: The Franchise That Changed The World

Ray Kroc

Surprised me most:

I think one of the big things that surprised me most was Ray Kroc wasn’t successful until he
reached an older age. He was a multi mixer seller into his 50’s and became McDonald franchise
agent when he was 52. This was a serious rags to riches story where a man who saw an opportunity
took it and showed it all over the world.

What I admired:

I admired Ray Kroc’s vision, he always looked at ways to make that company better whether it be
bringing his own multi mixer product in or new formula of ice cream to even buying the real estate
through making a real estate business that the franchise was being built on.

What I least admired:

Since this book was an autobiography the book did not go into detail on the darker side of Ray and
how his alcoholism that was stated on many interviews with other franchise owners and even the
McDonald brothers pushed people away that could have helped make the business better.

Adversity and Failure:

I think the whole story of Ray Kroc was bleaked with adversity and failure, the McDonald's brothers
didn’t see Ray’s ideal of the future for their franchise and they knew what they had was good just didn’t
know they could replicate it across america. Ray failed over and over his whole life so when he had his
one big success with McDonald's it easily washes away all his other failures to that point.

2) Ray Kroc had a good bit of competencies, one major one that I have stated a few times was vision.
He understood how valuable quick service and uniform routines was considering at the time most was
drive in services where he would have to wait to get waited on and they wouldn't give him food in
wrapping and in a bag for the on the go routine he was used to. Another major competency was his
ability to never stop working he worked for McDonald's until the day he died coming up with many
different ways to improve his franchise and build a literal food empire.

3) I think what confused me most was nearing the end of the book where he went into detail about
owning a baseball team and all the intricacies that came with that. I think that was just him losing
steam near the end and wanting to delve into other fields but I found it weird to be placed in a book
about him and McDonald.

4) I think if I were to ask him questions on his life I would ask if he regrets not giving more royalties
and credits to the McDonald's brothers and why it took him so long to say that they existed. He
basically said he made McDonald and called it that because it was “American sounding” when
that wasn’t the truth at all.

5) I think Ray Kroc’s definition of hard work was giving it all you had. He gave up his family
and wife for the beginning of the business he even sold his own home to start this journey
which was a huge gamble and looking at it myself I do not know if I would have the guts to sell
everything I held dear to me or destroy relationships that i had built like with the brothers.

12A- Knowing Food and Your Own Needs

The segment I wanted to go into for interviews was on local foods and where people wanted to eat.

I interviewed three different people that fit in my criteria as mostly going out to eat and do not often cook at home. One of my interviewees was a college student from my hometown, another was a graduate student home for the summer and the last was a single parent of two children.

The whole point of my product was people wanting to know where they should go to eat and it really helped that all three of my interviews showed that they had the problem of not knowing where to eat. For the home college student he has trouble finding a good place for him and his friends to get a quick bite to eat without having to go to a fast food place to get food in less than 10 minutes. My graduate student friend after getting off work also has trouble finding a quick and good place to eat at during his break so he doesn't have to be late for work. My single parent interviewee has trouble keeping his kids together so finding a place around her that can take care of her needs and let her take care of her young kids is a must. Their needs seem to be most salient during normal food hours like lunch and dinner. Their needs also stem from when their friends want to go out to eat or when they are in a rush. My app would offer them the best coverage on what was the most reviewed food place and best rated place in their local area along with their wait times and how fast their food production usually is.

When my people I interviewed became aware that they were hungry they would usually go to the app around me and look for whatever place is closest and what they were filling at that time. They also would go online and google search "Fast Food" which would give all the places in their area. They also get recommendations from their friends on where they should go.

Through my interviews I learned a few valuable lessons, my app seemed to get all my interviewees interested in what would be the best places to stop by around them. I also learned that even though it could give the best advice certain people will have a craving for a certain thing like burgers and fries so this makes me want to go into my app and make categories that will take in all the different types of food places and rate them between each other. I think my segment goes very well into need awareness and information search. In fact my app proposes the idea of taking away information search entirely by being the platform people will look on.

Idea Napkin

In this assignment I will be going into detail on fleshing out the "bigger picture" of my online website that will provide the service of foods and goods from around the globe convientently on my website.

My name is Christian Highfill, I am a third year telecommunications student who has traveled all over Europe when I was living with my parents on base in England. My talents specialize in Management I started at the bottom at my first job when I was in high school and eventually helped manage the store within my first three years at the business. I saw the first ever 1 million dollars in profits in my first year as a manager. I left for college to pursue video editing and marketing. I aspire to one day be on a marketing team and make promotional videos for corportations. The business that I want to start would be ideal to get my hands on concepts of running a business and be able to market it myself and watch it grow.

What sets me apart from everyone else is I lived overseas with family I remember experiencing unique foods from all over and when coming back home not being able to find certain foods from England like their choclates or even Jaffa Cakes a pastry that is very popular there. I understand the want of certain goods that you can't easily aquire so I will try and provide that central place that people can look for goods in. I am offering products that are imports from overseas at a lower rate then ordering from independent importers due to having employees building relationships with those businesses and buying in wholesale. I would be offering my goods to idelaly consumers who want to experience new foods or goods that they may not have ever tried before because they were not able to go overseas to experience for themselves. Also this service would help relive nostalgia for foreign born citizens that want to acquire items from back home. People from my interviews showed to value this service because many people did not know where to look nor wanted to pay all the expensive fees to get a food or soda from overseas. This service would help ease looking around instead of popping into random stores around town in confusion and instead would be able to be able to look it up in a much quicker manner and be able to get what you want and how much that you want of it.

I think my idea of the business is strong but there are a lot of discrepancies that could be weak. I don't have a lot of experience on building a website and we would have to have a huge internet presence if we wanted to push out that it was available. I think my video production abilities could come into play for marketing. Also managing over multiple employees would be a strong suit of mine because of my work experience. I think it would be very pricey in the beginning due to building inventory and growing the website but I still think it is a genuinely good idea.

A Quick Bite to Eat - Elevator Pitch 1

Pretty cringy but let me know what I should change.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDZtH0h8Wd8

Testing My Boundaries

My Opportunity that I wanted to dive into was starting a Online platform that distributes directly to consumers or grocery stores that want international products or regionally exclusive products at a lower rate than independent importers. I decided from the last assignment to include having a store that holds a mass of international items separated by countries in aisles with a layout like the size of Sam's Club. In this assignment I will be diving further into the boundaries of who, what, and why, my service could be successful and determining areas that may lie outside my boundaries.

I went through the process of interviewing five more people who could potentially be the prototypical consumers of my service but instead did not have the need for it and included their information in my chart alongside with people who wanted the service from the last set of interviews.

Who: Although they fit the criteria as being knowledgeable on international goods, they did not see themselves using my services because they are content with the goods local grocery stores offer and would rather look for a cheaper alternative than foreign imported goods.  

What: Having access to a good from a different country does not make you cultural meaning just because someone US born buys foreign goods does not make them culturally aware because they may have not visited or are really supporting that country.   

Why: The outsiders need for the item may be nonexistent because of family being able to send them the good or because they are content with the goods they can access at a store or provider.

INSIDE THE BOUNDARY                                  OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARY

Who is In- People that want to explore different products from other countries and consumers that want access to goods that they know about but might not have had access to otherwise.	Who is not- Consumers who are content with their own local goods or not being aware that there are goods that are different in other places.
What the need is- Accessing products from other countries that they cannot find from local grocery stores or online at an inexpensive shipping rate.	What the need is not- Buying goods from the store or webspace while making you appear more cultured by having goods from all over will not actually make you aware of more about other cultures.
Why the need exists- Grocery stores often try to find items to stock their shelves with that are interesting enough to attract attention and with the improvement of international trade the use of our service could make it easier to stock shelves with popular international goods. Also many consumers order online goods from other countries but because the goods come from importers they tend to only ship in large quantities or a higher shipping rate making it very expensive to get your home countries popular soda.	Alternative Explanations- Some people do not want the service because they have family in that area to supply them at a cheaper cost. Also some did not want the products offered because they are good with their local goods or where consumers could be unknowledgeable about such an opportunity could exist

From all of my interviews and the table I made it put in perspective all the different boundaries that it would take to get someone interested in my store. This exercise also helped with figuring out what I would need to do to potentially reach the people outside of my boundaries and even with them as a barrier now, I still think this could potentially be an opportunity.

Solving The Quick Bite To Eat Problem

The Problem:
  The problem that I propose is that whenever somebody wants to go to a restaurant nobody likes waiting for a table to sit down and eat. In this day and age a lot of people are on the go and have enough time to get food before they might have to clock back into work. But, they want to maximize their time to eat and get their food as fast as possible. Upon going to a fast food place it has slow service or to a sit down place like a local burger place and it has long lines so you have to wait. Causing less time to eat before having to rush off.

The Solution:
 I propose starting an app from the opportunity of growing technology that centralizes on telling their users how long lines are at restaurants and averaging the time food takes to get table. This solution can be sold as a scanner that restaurants and fast food can install to their front doors that uses occupancy of a restaurant to help give accurate depictions of how busy they are. Along with the scanner, we would include a software into the order manager that takes the average of how fast food can go out and will tell the user what is the best spot to eat at for the day. Although people can make reservations at restaurants this is for the average consumer who might want to get lunch or a late impromptu dinner with friends. This app could be made profitable as businesses want to use this app to gain attention due to their fast services and basic advertising as being the top place to eat at from the apps top ranking board.

International Foods Inc.

I would like to create a business that distributes foods from other cultures all around the US in an online platform or through distribution from grocery stores. Many unmet needs have been stated by my friends and even on online pages that I frequent who have to order from online vendors at ridiculous rates.
The original who, what and why
The Who: Grocery Stores who want access to more international goods and regular consumers who may want foods they can't get locally

 The What: Foods from all over in a central place or website platform which will make acquiring sought after items easier to get

The Why: Challenges happen when trying to find a certain international item which causes consumers to give up and not get it.

I interviewed five people with different cultural backgrounds, genders and all differed in age. My control group was a man from the US who hadn't traveled. A frequent traveler from the US and I interviewed one person who was originally from Thailand. One with a Honduran background and lastly one person from a Japanese background.

The Who: Upon asking my interviewees they responded that they would want foods from other places all around the globe. It seemed that even the person from my basic control group that was from the US and had not traveled even replied that he would want goods from other places just to experience them since he wouldn't normally be able to get them from stores he frequents.

The What: Asking what kind of items they would want got very many mixed answers. There were things that people wanted to obtain all over some didn't even have to do with foods. Items ranged from cosmetics and cigars to candies and different types of soda. Interesting enough I had expected for them to want items from their home countries like Thailand's specialty coffee brews or seaweed snacks but instead it was a Haitian Soda even though they weren't Haitian. In my interviews with the two from the US they even talked about items that weren't actually in another country but were just only relatively popular in certain regions of the US like for example a soda called Cherwine that is only really available in states like North Carolina and Virginia.

The Why: Asking why their needs aren't met are simple enough. Not many people may know about certain goods so stores wouldn't hold them because the demand isn't super high. Some people would go to buy certain items online but purchasing from overseas may have special rates or it would take a extremely long time to have sent or even have a minimum shipping requirement so they couldn't have individual items delivered. Other people didn't even know if goods were available at certain locations so they wouldn't go out of their way to look around for it.

There are a lot of factors that detract this business from starting like the fact that there isn't enough knowledge about goods from around the world and it would be very pricey to have goods sent from all over. Another could be forming relations with international businesses to have those goods be available. One of the things I discovered was that people don't just want foods from other places they could even be specialty items like colognes from France or that some people wanted things from within the US that they aren't able to buy from grocery stores which could open opportunities for intercontinental trade and not even leaving the states. I still believe that the opportunity to start a business like this is here we would just have to find cost efficient ways to receive the goods and get the awareness or marketing about popular items from around the world out.

Economic and Regulatory Opportunities

1)Two opportunities I found in economic trends were that technology is reaching record new highs and oil and gas prices are predicted to stay on the rise until 2050. Also in accordance to finding two economic trends I found two regulatory changes that may hold opportunities. One being that around the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic are opening back up their shrimp fisheries. and that grocery stores in America are starting to ban foods with additives.

2)Tech 
https://www.investopedia.com/news/tech-stocks-seen-rising-new-record-highs/
  The tech industry is reaching new heights which I think is fundamental in growing as a society. I found this off of Investopedia which was in Google finance which basically talked up about how Tech has a strong momentum and companies like Nvidia are shining. A opportunity might lie in this because unemployment is at numbers so low that have not been seen since 1969 which can hold more chances for people willing to spend money on leisure like on a home computer or games. Companies like Google or Amazon might love this because it allows them to push out more subscription based services like YouTube Red or Amazon prime. This opportunity would not be very hard to get into but difficult to conquer because there is so many other types of competitors out there.

Oil & gas potential alternatives 
https://www.thebalance.com/us-economic-outlook-3305669
Oil has always been a huge factor on everyones mind because gas is such a huge stress on the average Americans lifestyle with cars. I found this on a website that bases itself at economic outlooks and what to expect in the future. Basically I believe there is a opportunity in this because crude oil is only going to become more expensive because it is a natural resource and it will eventually run out. Easy sources for oil will have ran out by 2050 and prices will jump to dizzying heights of more than double what we pay now in gas as making crude oil will be more expensive. I believe the biggest customer that might pay for this is trucking companies or even airline companies charging ridiculous fees just to break even to have a flight. This opportunity might be difficult to exploit because we would have to find a way to have cars maybe use other forms of energy instead of gas to run.

Shrimp regulations 
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=NOAA-NMFS-2015-0125-0074
 A regulatory change that surprises me is that fisheries are being reopened for the catching of shrimp. The information off regulations.gov led me to believe that this will maximize harvest benefits and potentially boost that market. This would be a major opportunity in my hometown because we have a local shrimp festival where we buy a ton of shrimp for different meals all week. A major consumer would be all seafood restaurant chains because of their mass purchases on seafood. Would not be hard to exploit because of relatively cheaper purchases and will boost profits in my hometown.

Grocery store bans equals new opportunities
 https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=FDA-2015-F-3663-0014
Banning foods with additives is an important step to becoming a healthier nation like how other countries have stricter health and safety rules. This opportunity was found from the regulations board on regulations.gov where they explained that  food additives are no longer safe to consumers. An opportunity could exist because this might allow farmers that don't have additives or GMO implants to become higher in demand with grocery stores which wouldn't be difficult to exploit if you could meet the demand.

3) Technology has always been a huge part of my day to day I have always used devices to make my life "easier" so when I see that technology is on the rise in stocks I picture that companies with big track records for online services could potentially gain new customers. Like I said earlier gas is such a big deal to us as consumers but with cars like the Tesla being in such high demand the idea of an electric car doesn't seem as far out of reach and I would assume companies will be looking at other ways of transporting their products instead of heavily relying on gas. Shrimp Fest is huge in my small town everyone eventually participates in it and people from out of the county will make long treks just to get some of our food so seeing shrimp become more abundant in the marketplace was a instant opportunity that I could immediately latch onto. My values as watching what I eat have always led me to buy some maybe pricey items because I don't want to buy items that could be potentially harmful so opportunities that might allow farmers or grocery stores to acquire healthier goods makes me believe prices might go down now that they won't have as much competition and it'll be more sought after.