Week 10 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me the most was how much investors know about your business plan and can predict certain things that will happen.

The thing that confused me the most was the cash-flow budget. I found this pretty confusing and would need it to be explained in more detail.

My first question would be for the author to go in more detail of the cash flow budget.

My second question would be if the author took a financial class or gained this information through other means.

I have no disagreements with the author.

Growing My Social Capital

The first person I networked with is Mr. Sean Martin.  Mr. Martin is in charge of vending machine distribution for Nabisco in Florida. This person is an expert in the domain that correlates with my product. While the product he is in charge of is different than mine, the service he provides relates to my product, as my product will be placed strictly in vending machines. I found this person by emailing my old boss from my job back home, and asked him how we got the vending machine for our store, as well as who he contacted and or who contacted him to get the vending machine. He explained that the vending machine was separate than the distributor, and that the distributor actually contacted him to get Nabisco snacks in the vending machine, as opposed to others. My old boss gave me his email and said he would let him know I would be contacting him in regards to an assignment I have for my entrepreneurship in college. I emailed him and explained to him the assignment, and my product. The favor he did for me was giving me some good advice and knowledge about how to get your company’s product in vending machines. His advice he gave me when it comes to getting your product in vending machines is that you have to give good reasoning and evidence that your product will produce a positive benefit by being in the vending machine, and that the profits will benefit which ever company you are trying to land a contract with to keep your products in their vending machines at their organization.  Including this person in my networking enhances my opportunity by having a contact that has access to contacts of organizations that have vending machine products.

The second person I networked is my cousin Jon’s coworker, Bradley Ogden.  I actually got the chance to talk to him in person earlier this week when I went home Bradley is a graduate of Duke University, where he majored in marketing, which is the “slot” he fills for this assignment. He currently has a job with a small electronic company back in Clearwater called Loft technology, where he markets their computer and other electronic products. He targets a similar audience and age group mine does, which is why I used him as a contact. The favor he did for me was give me advice on marketing a product, as well as saying that if I select marketing as my career path when I declare a major in the business school, that I have the possibility of an internship, pending my grades and involvement during school.  His return expectation is that I do well in school and actually try and take my product to market.  This contact has enhanced my opportunity by the possibility of an internship as well as marketing information and lessons.

The final person I networked with was one of my fraternity brothers parents, Gerard Zubka. Mr. Zubka works for Bose, and serves as the supplier of their headphones and other products to stores such as Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and smaller electronic organizations.   This contact was by far the best one I networked with because he is working the exact same product that I plan on putting in my vending machines.  I was able to talk to Mr. Zubka on the phone and we had a pretty solid discussion. He told me that if my product ever took off and branched into other gym’s and areas where higher quality headphones have the potential to be purchased, he would get Bose headphones in the machines.  This would most likely take many years to achieve however, but this possibility gave me a very big drive to pursue my product.   This contact enhances my opportunity by having someone familiar with my product and is interested in potentially working together.

This experience showed me that there are many people out there that you can network with, all you have to do is reach out and give yourself the chance to find the opportunity.  All these people I found were through people I already knew, and I had no idea that any of them existed before this other than my friend’s father. There is a chance that I could just be lucky and happen to know the right people with the right connections, but I personally believe anyone has the same access to people to network with that can benefit them, all you have to do is reach out and make that initial contact with someone.

Elevator Pitch 3

From the feedback I received last time, I learned that my pitch needed to sell my product more.  I also learned I needed to sell the product more, and talk about it more in detail.  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 discussed my product more, and really got into the pitch this time.  I also changed the contact to match my altered product idea, and believe I did a better job of selling it to customers.

My Secret Sauce

1.     The first and biggest way I believe I have human capital is that I am very good at multitasking.  I have ADHD, which most people consider a disadvantage when it comes to academics.  However, having this allows me to focus on me different things at once.  For example, I am doing web assign while writing this assignment. 

2.     Another thing that makes me unique is my sleep schedule.  A typical day for me starts at 7am-8am, and ends anywhere from 2 am to 5 am. In order to do this, I will take a few short naps throughout the day if needed. I always want to be doing something, and being awake extra time allows me to get my academics done while still maintaining friendships and focusing on my personal passions.

3.     The third thing I believe makes me unique is that I have a photographic memory.  This helps me learn a lot of stuff in a short amount of time, but I have to learn things through watching them be performed as opposed to listening or reading instructions on how to complete a certain task. 

4.     Something else that separates me from most people is my organization. To most, I appear disorganized.  In reality, I appear disorganized but through all the disorganization in my room and backpack, I know where all my stuff is, I just have a different way of keeping track of my things than most people.

5.     The last thing that makes me unique is my personality.  My personality allows me to make friends quickly with people and maintain good relationships with the majority of people I meet.  I make a strong effort to keep good connections with people I meet and know, and believe this networking skill could benefit me in the future.

What I got out of my first interview is that I am a pretty outgoing person and a hardworking individual.  This goes along with my last point I wrote about myself, and made me realize that I am more hard working than I thought.

My second interview showed me that I am more organized than I thought.  This is a great confidence boost knowing I am not as messy as I previously thought I was.

My third interview showed me that I am helpful and always there for others.  I did not realize this about myself at all until it was told to me during this interview.

The fourth interview also made me realize that others see me as hardworking and always on top of my work.  I previously was under the impression people thought that I was lazy and not hard working.

The final interview I did made me realize that I have leveled out personality, which most people see as a good trait.  I am glad that I have this and think it can take me along way in the future.

My reflection from this is that people see me a little more positively than I previously saw myself, but also that a lot of the things I said about myself are accurate.  I don’t think I would really change anything after the interviews, but would probably add more things like hardworking, and that I am level headed.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

The thing that I found the most surprising and interesting was the section about Consumer Behavior. I found it really cool how you can predict consumer behavior from so many characteristics like income and class, as well as age and gender.  This is a useful tip for anyone trying to market his or her products.

The part most confusing to me was pricing strategies.  Some of the concepts in this section did not make sense to me, and would like to have more information on it.

The first Question I would ask would be for the author to describe pricing strategies more.

The second question I would ask would be wear he got his key components for marketing research.

I do not disagree with anything the author said.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I'm a business administration major here at the University of Florida. I'm also a member of the Innovation Academy, which has given me many useful skills and knowledge I can take into the business world. Personally, I hope to run my own medical practice sometime in the future. This idea could potentially give me a start into owning my own business and give me the experience I need to be a successful entrepreneur.

2. I'm offering customers an easy way to get headphone at the gym, and at the library for an affordable price.

3. Currently I'm offering this product to gym goers, as well as students in libraries. The headphones will be in a vending machine so that if for some reason you don't have your headphones with you or you simply don't want to waste your good headphones at the gym, you have an alternative. For the library, the same vending machine will be available for affordable priced headphones for those who wish to use them to watch lectures or listen to music while studying. I plan on the price at the gyms and libraries being about $1-3 depending on the location and relevance. The headphones will not be long lasting or high quality, but will be able to work for your workout or study session, in order to keep them at a low price.  Have also considered the idea of headphones in commercial gyms of higher quality for a higher price of around $5-15. If you go to the gym and listen to music, and are a student who utilizes the library, your part of the demographic.

4. Countless times, people have been at the gym with the miserable reality of having nothing to listen too, or worse have to listen to the horrific music the gym plays. It's proven that music is an excellent motivator at the gym, without headphone you lack the proper motivation to get a good workout.  This also happens when students go to the library.  Headphones are essential at the library to watch lectures and review videos, and many students like listening to music when doing homework. 

5. There isn't any existing market similar to this in America, hopefully I can take advantage of that and doing something no one else has. Best buy has done something similar in airports and it seems to be working well for them.

I think all the factors above plus my customer interviews prove that this is a viable business model. One thing I am concerned about is repeat business. For example, how many times will someone forget their headphones and buy new ones before they always remember headphones. Also, headphones are normally a product you by once and don't buy again until you need new ones. Based on my feedback, I have found that the economically priced headphones could become popular.

5 main points I got from my feedback are

1.     My product is a utilizable idea that many students seem to have expressed interest in.

2.     I need to demonstrate the price of my product in order to give people a better feel of what they would be spending.

3.     I needed to discuss my product more in detail about the quality of headphones.

4.     I can possibly branch this idea to commercial gyms such as LA fitness, and provide higher quality headphones at a higher price.

5.     I can also provide vending machines at the gym that contain other items such as snacks in water. For this idea I believe this is already happening in commercial gyms, but UF currently does not do this.

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