Week 8 Reading Reflection

The thing I found most interesting in this weeks reading was the concept of Private Offerings.  I was unaware of this type of investment until reading this chapter, and found the whole concept of private investment really cool.

The thing that confused me the most was debit and Equity financing.  This could be because I am not very fluent in the language of finance, but I believe this concept would be confusing either way.

My first question I would ask the author would be what would he believe to be the best method of obtaining money to start a business in his opinion.

My Second question for the author would be what he thinks is the biggest financial obstacle when starting a business.

I do not disagree with anything the author said

The 20 Percent

The person I interviewed is Tristan Zullo, who is an entrepreneur who started his own custom headlight company called “American Retrofits”.  Tristan declined to be filmed. Tristan said that he prefers not to say that he targets specific covers because he likes to have a product that stands out so that people want to find and contact him, but if he had to pick a target, it would be men 18-65 years old. 

The customers unmet needs are custom headlights at a reasonable price and delivered in a reasonable time.  Tristan meets this unmet need by researching build time and prices of competitors, and make sure he gets it done quicker, for less money, and with higher quality work performed.

Tristan finds his customers by using many platforms of social media, such as twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  He finds customers that are following many trucking and off road-based pages, which is the demographic of customers he services. 

After receiving these interview answers, I went out and asked 3 target customers the same questions.  The three people I interviewed all refused to be filmed, because most strangers do not wish to have their privacy invaded and be put on a college student’s public blog for the world to see for his class.  When I asked the customers these questions, I received mixed answers.  I asked one man who seemed a little elderly, as Tristan said that his company appeals to men up to 65 years old.  The older man stated that he is in fact not interested in Tristan’s product, and finds it more for the younger generation of truck drivers.  I also asked a college aged kid, who thought that only kids his age were into custom headlights.  The third person I asked was a young adult male, approximately late 20’s or early 30’s, who stated that he sees the entire demographic being appealed to by this product. 

I believe that Tristan understands his customers problems pretty well, but may have his demographic off by some.

Half Way Reflection

Behaviors I have developed to keep up with the requirements of this course are to work ahead and plan ahead.  Working and planning in this class is key, as most of the interactive assignments may take more than one day to complete.  Doing this takes a lot of stress off this class, and makes it easier to keep with the amount of assignments this 4-credit class has. 

A moment I felt like giving up during this course was doing my 3^rd round of interviews for my product.  By then I was getting kind of sick of approaching strangers, and on this particular slow day, I had trouble finding people willing to take the time out of their day to be interviewed for my product.  However, I stuck it out and pulled through, and ended up getting some great feedback on my product that gave me a bunch of great ideas on ways to improve it.  If I had given up, I would have never gotten this feedback and would have missed out on a great opportunity.  I do feel like I have developed a slightly more tenacious attitude in the past 2 months, and nothing in particular has contributed to this, but going through this class as a whole has led to this attitude.

The three tips I would give to foster the skills that support tenacity and to develop a tenacious mindset are to:

 1. Keep working even when it gets hard

 2. Just because you don’t notice improvements right away doesn’t mean that nothing is happening and

3.  Trying something and failing really isn’t a failure, because you learned that that way just doesn’t work. 

Free Money

Where I went is the kangaroo gas station right by my apartment.   I approached homeless people because if I’m going to have to give away my money it might as well be to homeless people who actually need it.  They way I intended to start the conversation is by going up to them and asking if it is alright for me to give them a dollar. I believe I will be able to give all of the dollar bills away. 

I found giving away a single dollar not that hard.  However, I found it a little harder to give each dollar away the more I did it and by the 5^th dollar, I was pretty disappointed that I just gave away 5 bucks that I could have probably spent on a dough religion pizza of the day.  I was right in assuming all 5 dollars would be taken, as I would probably take a free dollar given to me.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

Something that surprised me in the readings was “The Gravity of Decision Spectrum”. This concept was very interesting and I find it fascinating that there are techniques this detailed when trying to sell to customers. 

The section that was confusing was the “Drift into Nebulousness”.  I found this whole section difficult to understand, and was not aware of the point the author was trying to get across.

If I could ask two questions, the first would be for the author to explain the “Drift into Nebulousness”.  My second question would be where he obtained all of this information and if some of these concepts are from his mind.

I did not disagree with anything the author said.

Elevator Pitch. No. 2

From the feedback I received last time, I learned that my pitch needed to sell my product more.  I also learned that it needed to be longer.  No feedback surprised me, and I respected all of my peers opinions, and did not find anything silly.

I changed the length, and delivery of my pitch.  I also changed the contact to match my altered product idea, and believe I did a better job of selling it to customers.

Customers Interview No.3

For my third interview, I am going to be much more specific with my questions and gear them more toward using headphones in other locations than the gym.  From doing my interviews, I have discovered that my idea of a vending machine for portable headphones could be used in other locations such as campus libraries, and bus stops.  Having headphones is almost necessary in the library when watching lectures, and many students like to listen to music when they study.  People also sometimes like to listen to music on the bus.

The questions I intend to ask now are

1.     Do you listen to music when you workout, if you workout?

a.     Do you ever forget you headphones when you go to the gym?

2.     Do you use headphones when watching lectures at the library?

3.     Do you listen to music when you study?

a.     Do you ever forget your headphones at the library?

4.     How often do you ride the bus?

a.     Do you like to have headphones when you ride the bus?

                                               i.     If so, do you ever forget them and wish you had them?

5.     Can you see a vending machine with disposable headphones that would be sold for $1-$2 being utilized in any of these locations?

6.     Which location do you think this product would be most successful?

7.     Would you personally purchase cheap headphones at one of these locations if you forgot your headphones?

The first person I interviewed was another person I saw walking in the hall at my apartment and asked if I could interview him.  The rest of the people I interviewed I flagged down in the parking lot next to my apartment and asked them my interview questions.  By this week of interviews, it has become a lot easier to approach strangers and ask them questions without feeling that awkward about it.

What I learned from my interviews is that my product idea would be most implementable in the Library, and then the gym.  Based on the 5 people I interviewed, most of them do not use the bus that often.  This could be because I live directly across from campus and personally do not need the bus, so the people around here might be the same.