Week 15 Reading Reflection

Surprises

I honeslty never even knew that there was such a thing as microfinance. The most simmilar thing
I'd ever experienced were small payday loans.

Confusion

I don't understand exactly why the company was targeted in the first place by those making threats towards them.

Questions

Why were extortionists after the company?

Are there any microfinancing firms within the United States?

Disagreements

I have no disagreements with the author.

Final Reflection

After reading through all of my previous posts, I'd say there have been several experiences that stick out to me. My elevator pitch was something that really took a lot for me to get started. Even though I had taken a public speaking class already beforehand, it was difficult for me to be able to record myself trying to sell my idea. It allowed me to experience how I sound to others by recording myself, and analyze me own posture as well.

I'll definitely remember going through the "Free Money" exercise, simply because of how surprised I was by how many people declined my offer. Even seeing just how many people immediately walked away after seeing a camera pointed at them was pretty shocking. It made me wonder what makes people so afraid of being recorded in a seemingly innocent situation. 

I can say at this point, that I see myself as more of an entrepreneur than I was before. I don't think I'm the full package yet however, there are still a few concepts of entrepreneurship that I don't feel comfortable with. 

As far as advice for suture ENT3003 students, they really need to be open minded about how to complete the assignments and posts for the course. Some things will definitely require more effort than others, and prioritizing these assignments is a huge part of he class.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

The opportunity presented is the opportunity to help young car owners to be better able to know when to have maintenance done on their cars. This opportunity comes from the fact that most new car owners don't know what type of service needs to be regularly done or when. This need is currently being satisfied by relying on maintenance shops to remind them of when to schedule regular service and to read engine codes from check engine lights. This is a huge opportunity within the United States, and will be available for as long as it takes someone else to realize it exists.

Innovation

The innovation needed to take advantage of this opportunity would have to be able to read engine codes through a wireless transmitter, similar to Progressive's used for reading mileage. This would have to be attached to a database of car models and years, in order to determine the problem. Both of these would also have to be connected to a scheduling application for the user's local maintenance shops, including ratings and prices.

Venture Concept

This innovation would be a mobile application that uses a wireless transmitter to read a car's engine codes, notifying the user what problems are occurring within the car. This app would include a full database of vehicles and workshops that a user could take a car in for maintenance work, as well as a scheduling function for the user's local maintenance shops. The target audience would be willing to use this because of the convenience it would provide for car servicing, with no obvious competition. Business location would play a large part as far as which maintenance shops the user is directed to in the scheduling portion of the app, and employees would be needed in order to fix software bugs and add on new information to the databases of vehicles and shops. This would need at least 50 employees at start up, as it would begin locally and spread as the application gained traction. 

The Three Minor Elements

My most important resource would be deep knowledge of both the vehicle industry and the maintenance industry. Both of these combined allow for a better understanding of how the two work together in the modern world in terms of revenue and customer attraction.

Feedback Summary

All of the feedback I received said that it was a great venture concept that would greatly help the intended market. 

Changes

I didn't really change anything with the concept because I didn't receive any feedback on what could be changed with the concept.

Google Gold

SEO

My general approach for search engine optimization was to simply type what I wanted to say. This wan't something that I had made a huge priority in all honesty

Keywords

Again I didn't really make SEO my goal. I'm not even sure what  in my posts would have even been considered as keywords. 

Social Media

The most social media I used as far as this was to contact people for the content of the posts.

Viral Post

My most popular post was my Free Money post. I'm pretty sure this one received the most traffic because I know that many people didn't complete this post. This meant that more people had to find a blog post to comment on to get credit for the comments, but there were also lest posts to chooses from because of this.

First Page Result?

Definitely no. I'm not even sure what page I even popped up on because I gave up after page 15.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

Suprises

I was surprises by how much the chapter went into detail about due diligence. I din't initially expect the author to go into such set-by-step detail about the process.

Confusion

The checklist for analyzing a business was somewhat confusing at first. The segment was just a barrage of questions and statements with no real obvious explanation as to their importance.

Questions

I did not have any questions for the author for this chapter.

Disagreements

I had no disagreements with the author for this chapter.

Celebrating Failure (A Lot)

When it comes to failure, there'e one thing that stand out in my mind: MAC1147; the wonderful headache that is precalculus with trig. Now I failed this course twice and dropped it the third time, but it wasn't for nothing. For whatever reason, I could never pass the quizzes (much less the exams) even though I always seemed to do well in the homework. Now this was part due to me not studying and part due to dealing with being away from home for the first time.

I figured out several things from this lovely experience. I realized first of all, that I needed to run away from engineering as fast as I possibly could. I also came to terms with the fact that I needed to figure out a new way to study coursework, and that I needed to make more time in general to do so. I found out I had anxiety too, which turned into a very fun few moths of playing guess who with medications.

I'd say that this failure was actually very necessary for me to go through, I needed to understand that college was going to be ten times harder than what I was doing in high school, and that I would have to learn how to live on my own. Failing this class in particular, and dealing with engineering advising, helped me to really find out what major I actually wanted to pursue; this major being business management. I leveled my self out emotionally and academically into finding a flow to follow with how I plan out my days. In the end, I'm now passing all of my courses this semester and I'm on my way to becoming on track for my degree plan.

I don't feel like I'm more likely to take risks than I was before. However, I do know how to asses situations much better. I can understand what I need to do to make the best of any given situation, and that I can handle failures more as learning experiences now. Failure is something everyone should go through at some point in their life, and it makes dealing with anything easier than if you had never failed in the past.

My Exit Strategy

For my exit strategy for this venture, I plan on possibly staying with the company until I retire. I would most likely then pass this business down to family or friends, whichever is more interested in owning the company and who I believe to be the best match.

I have selected this exit strategy for the purpose of not trying to overwhelm myself in the future by moving in and out of various companies. It makes more sense for me to stick with something I am more familiar with, and have more of an attachment to, than to jump into something else. 

The only way my exit strategy has affected my venture is in how I would acquire resources. Because I don't plan on leaving this venture any time soon, I feel less rushed to seek the resources I need to make it become reality. This is also because I understand how long it takes to get something like this up and running, and my exit strategy allows me to keep an eye on the company throughout its growth.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

Surprises

I was definitely surprised about the section on transitioning to a managerial mindset from an entrepreneurial mindset. It was interesting to see the pitfalls that can occur from not being able to transition well, and what things lead to having to make the transition.

Confusion

Nothing in this reading was really confusing to me.

Questions

I would've liked to know what companies would be examples of failing to adjust to the managerial mindset. I feel like that would've driven the point a little bit more, and would show how people fail to transition.

Disagreements

I didn't have any disagreements with the author.