What's Next?

Existing Market

   1. The next step for my company involves detailing the interior and exterior of cars for a small fee. Nobody likes to have a dirty car, but many people are just too lazy to go to a car wash and have to spend that type of money and time. Therefore, I am going to bring the service to the people for an affordable price and offer quality service. I am hoping that once people see the quality of work when their cars are detailed, that they will then turn to me for help when servicing their car and other small tasks associated with cars. 

2. To be uploaded

3. Based on my own expectations and feedback, I have a feeling that this service is going to be a good idea to help grow my business idea from the start. I obviously have some of the finer details to figure out, but I think the idea is going to be a hit and has the potential to spread around Gainesville. As far as the specifics of my idea go, I like the feedback of potentially offering free car washes for the first couple of weeks to people that use the car service portion of my business. I want to be a mobile car service first, with the potential of detailing cars on the side. 

  I think it is important that I offer a couple of free car washes at first because people will see the good job I do and then they will be willing to pay for a detail at another time later on. I am planning on using the free washes to attract customers and then I will hook them on for a long time with great quality service. But I cannot stress it enough that I want to be a service technician business first and then detailing cars second. I think it is a key to my success to make sure I understand where the money is originally coming from. 

New Market

   1. Instead of targeting the college crowd in Gainesville, it would be radically different for me to start offering my service to maybe retirement communities or just older residential areas. Although these two areas are polar opposites, I think the market is somewhat the same. Most older citizens either do not want to drive to a body shop or are not capable of going through all of the different tasks in that process. I think an elderly couple would love for somebody to come to their house and change their oil for a small fee just because it is so convenient for them. 

2. I think there is value in this new market because it is so convenient for people to not have to leave their own homes. Some elderly people are also not able to get out and wash their own cars on there on so that is a service they would be interested in I think. As far as money goes, I think this new market will be willing to pay a little bit more since they're not on the constraints like a college student in Gainesville. People in this new market will value my service for its convenience and quality work.  

3. To be uploaded 

4. As far as the new market goes, I learned that anything convenient is going to work. People in the elderly community want services that are easy to come by and provide good quality work. My expectation was that there is a market for this service and I was correct after hearing the feedback from people in the community. I will do the same strategy with the Gainesville market where I will offer some free detailing for people that want my business from the service aspect of things. Hopefully after they see how well I do on their cars detailing, I can get on a normal routine and maybe even monthly washes. 

   

  On second thought, I see this market to be almost as good as the college market in Gainesville. I think both markets include people with time or other constraints. I just will need to market differently to the people in the older communities who do not have social media. I could go with more classic outputs like posting flyers or even going door to door to have some face to face conversations to tell people what service I have to offer. 

   

Week 12 Reading Reflection

In this weeks reading of chapter 13 in the text, one of the biggest surprises for me was all of the different steps that go into making an entrepreneurial decision. All of the different stages are unique and separate, but they all contribute to the final decision that the people in charge must make. Another surprise for me was reading that planning must switch from informal, to formal conversations and vice versa. This is important because it is important to have informal conversations to try and see what the people truly want, but it is also important to have formal conversations about specific logistics as well. The one part of the reading that was confusing to me was the entrepreneurial strategy matrix with independent variables. I understand how to read the chart and what the different boxes entail, but I think it is hard to judge exactly how hard a "risk" is in terms of a chart. A risk is a risk because you truly don't know the result and you're taking a chance. I think they could have maybe defined risk a little bit better in the text. The first question I would ask the author would be, "What is the most important step in the strategic planning of a new entrepreneurial idea?" I would ask this because I want to know what to focus the most amount of my time on. I would also ask, "Which stage involves the most research to be done to obtain the results you're looking for?" Research is so important for innovations so I want to make sure I am on the right track and have as much prior knowledge as possible. I did not see anything wrong in the chapter, but I do agree with everything about how important the growth stage in the process.

Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity 

     As a whole, this class has provided me with an opportunity to think outside of the box and escape my comfort zone. When I was thinking about an unmet need in the Gainesville area, I thought back to problems I had in the past. I remembered that my car battery had died one day and most of my friends were busy and I was kind of out of luck for a couple of hours. I saw an opportunity for a mobile car service company in the Gainesville area to help out in situations like the one I was faced with on this day when my battery died. The amount of cars flying around Gainesville is crazy and I know that most of them have small fixes that students are either too lazy to go fix, or they just don't have time to go to an auto shop and wait for their car to be fixed. The other good thing about this opportunity is that cars are always going to be around, and they are always going to need to be serviced on a daily basis. I believe the opportunity in the Gainesville area is huge because there is no service like the kind I am promoting and I really think there is a whole in the market for it. There is an opportunity for this service to be very successful and used by a lot of the more than 50,000 students and faculty in the area. I need to make good, smart business decisions to make sure I am able to take advantage of this opportunity. 

Innovation

   The innovation I am bringing to the market is a mobile car service for the students and faculty at the University of Florida. I will have an app and online process where customers can put in a request to have their car fixed at their home by one of my certified car technicians. The jobs I will be able to do include: battery changes, light replacement, oil changes, wiper blade changes, gas fill-ups, minor dent repairs, car washes and some more minor car service jobs. Once the customer puts in the request, the technician will come to them and fix whatever the problem is for the price of the labor and then a small fee for the service I am providing. For example, if a customer's car battery died, I will come to their house with a new battery and replace the existing one for them. The customer will then pay me for the battery and then will pay a fee for the service. The fees will vary on how long the job takes, and the skill that is necessary to complete the request. I am hoping to keep the fee relatively small though because I want to target the college crowd and most students need to stay inside their budgets. Because this is more of a convenience for most people, I want the service to be quick and efficient so people can continue on with their everyday lives. 

Venture Concept

    My innovation will solve a hole in the market for a student-run mobile car service in Gainesville. People will be interested in my innovation because it is the first of its kind in the area and it will make a lot of people lives a lot easier if they do not have to go through the hassle of car dealerships or body shops. I really do not think it will be hard for people to switch to my service because nobody really enjoys going out of their ways to get their cars fixed, so I will bring the service to them. Another good thing about my idea is that there are no other businesses in the area that cater to the needs of students like I am planning on doing. As far as my business concept goes, I want the customer experience to be the best in the area and the customer service to be great every single time. If one customer has a positive experience, they are more likely to go tell their friends and this is how I can expand my clientele through word of mouth. As far as employees go, I plan on handling the business and logical aspect of things, and then I will have a couple of certified service technicians on hand to do the actual work on the cars. For my business to be successful, I need to have a lot of customers and be able to do a bunch of cars every day to help cover the expenses and pay my employees. I see a market that has a lot of potential and I am looking forward to entering the market and making some money in the process. 

Three Minor Elements

• My most important resource is definitely going to be getting return customers because of good quality service the first time I am able to fix their cars. I am a big believer in doing things right all of the time, and I think people will love the experience they receive when they do business through my company. I want return customers and I want my business to spread from word of mouth and social media. I also think that it is important that I have a lot of connections here at UF with Greek life, club sports and people I have met in all of my classes through the years here at UF. 
• The next part to my idea is going to be a mobile car detailing service that comes to you and will clean the inside and outside of your car for a small fee. Everyone likes having a clean car, but nobody likes going through the hassle of going to a wash or running their car through a gas station machine to have it do a mediocre job. My detailing would be second to none and offered for a relatively cheap price. 
• This is a tough question. For now, I see this business idea as something I would just be doing here while I am in school in Gainesville. As far as the future goes, I want to own my own car dealership in Tampa, but maybe I can also provide a mobile car service through the dealership in Tampa. Time will tell, but I know I want to be in the car business when I am older!

Amazon Whisperer

1. The main revenue driver for my mobile car service company comes straight for the fee that I charge for my service. This fee includes the service, experience, convenience and knowledge that I offer my customers when I work on their car. The fee is not going to be a large number because I want the service to be affordable for college students and I am hoping to make my money mostly from having a high number of customers on a daily basis and not from just charging a high fee to a few customers.

2/3. The next thing I want to bring to my customers involves the service of detailing the inside and outside of their cars for a small fee. I want to be able to offer a quality cleaning service for cars that does great work on the interior and exteriors of any type of car. This will be much more convenient than having to drive to a gas station and get a mediocre car wash only on the outside of your car. I believe that this next step in my business will be successful because I can even discount the wash when they make an appointment online for another type of service request. I am hoping to make it an "add on" service that is more of a luxury than necessity for most people. I also hope to get some people on a rotating schedule where I come and clean there cars maybe once a month or whenever it is easiest for them. Everybody loves getting into a clean car, both on the inside and out, so I want to offer this service to my customers!

4. Because my idea is more of a service generated idea, it was not easy to find a product online.

That being said, this full service car care kit would be perfect for my business. I would buy this kit and it would have everything that I need to clean a car besides water. This would make my life a lot easier and I could simply just purchase the package on amazon and have it at my front door in two business days! This package include wax, shampoo, conditioner, towels, foam and plenty of other extras that will help me enhance my service. 

5. As far as customer reviews go for this product, everything is extremely positive. This includes a 4.6 star rating out of 5. This ensures me that it is a quality product and it is trusted by people all across the United States. Some of the reviews thought the product was a little bit too expensive and offered some products that are not a necessity when washing a car. But the majority of the reviews were very pleased with their purchase and would do it again in a heartbeat. The main thing people liked the most was that the products last awhile since you only have to apply a little bit to the car in order for it to work. 

6. I really would not make any changes to the product, but I would maybe include a small little workbook that says how each product works and maybe even which order to use the products in for maximum success. 

7. This product would make a good addition to my service because it would allow me to do better work for a smaller amount of money. Because these products last for so long, I will be able to offer the service for a low fee which is key to my success! Overall, nothing but good things will come from purchasing this product. 

Week 11 Reading Reflection

In this weeks reading "You Need an Innovation Strategy" by Gary Pisano, I was interested in the topic of innovation because it can be so easily applied to almost everything in this day and age. The biggest surprise for me was the part about having a plan and strategy at all times. I knew that companies have plans and what not, but it was surprising to see how all of the decisions are truly made. For Corning to be in business after 160 years, they have had to adapt and change their products to fit the different needs that the consumer demands. The only part of the reading that was confusing to me was how risky a long-term investment on innovation can be. It does make sense that a certain innovation can cost a company a lot of money, but I didnt really realize that it could truly put them out of business so easily. My first question to the author would be, "What was the first company to truly invest in innovation and the changing times in our country?" I want to know who was the ring leader in the movement towards innovation. I would also ask the author, "How much prior research has to be done before committing so much money to innovation?" Being in marketing this semester as well, I know it sometimes takes years of information for a company to make a decision like this. I really do not think the author made any mistakes since everything seemed accurate and it was from a reliable source!

My Unfair Advantage

VRIN scale on 1-10

1. Experience in the car business

• Started by my grandfather in 1969, my family has been in the car business in Tampa ever since. I think over the years I have accumulated the knowledge and skills necessary to run a successful car service business. 
• V- 8
• R-5
• I-6
• N-7

2. Connection to service parts straight from General Motors

• Through the dealership in Tampa, I will be able to order all of the service parts for a discounted price. This will help me not only make a profit, but I will have access to almost every part for cars imaginable and that will be of great convenience to my customers. 
• V- 10
• R- 8
• I-7
• N-3

3. Accountant on hand

• Brian Lee Patterson, my best friend since I was 5 years old, is an accountant right out of college right now and he would be perfect managing all of my books and money. I can trust him and focus on the service part of the business because I know he will have all of the financials handled. 
• V-8
• R-3
• I-4
• N-6

4. Free marketing with the help of my sister 

• My main source of advertising is going to be through social media and word of mouth. Lucky for me, my sister is a PR major at the University of Georgia. She is great at graphic design and would really promote my service in a positive way on all forms of social media. I can also trust her so I will not have to worry about this aspect of the business. 
• V-7
• R-7
• I-5
• N-6

5. Already a solid client base that would be willing to use my services 

• Since talking about my idea for a couple of weeks, I have had a countless amount of friends ask me if I could make these minor fixes to their car if I go through starting the business. It has been enough people that I would have a solid starting point. I would do very quality work on their cars and hopefully they will tell all their friends to give me a call. 
• V-5
• R-6
• I-7
• N-3

6. Have a lot of free time on my hands 

• Besides one class on Tuesday and Thursday, I am somewhat free most of the week and I would be able to focus a lot of attention on my business. This is even more important when I am first getting started to make sure I hit the ground running and put myself in the best position for success. 
• V-3
• R-5
• I-6
• N-3

7. Certified service technician I know that is willing to work for me

• One of my good friends from high school has been working in a body shop for almost 4 years now and I am nothing but confident that he can fix anything and everything. This is huge because there will not be a project I have to turn down because I cannot do it. 
• V-10
• R-10
• I-8
• N-9

8. Ability to think outside of the box 

• If not all things are going as planned, I have the ability to change the course of action and make moves. I think this quality comes from holding leadership positions throughout my life. 
• V-8
• R-5
• I-7
• N-6

9. Time management 

• Growing up playing multiple sports at the same time and still balancing school has always been my life since I can remember. This will help me when I have a lot of things on my plate and I will be able to avoid stress because I have been in this position before. 
• V-7
• R-6
• I-4
• N- 5

10. Competitiveness 

• I think this might be my greatest resource because it is my willingness to do whatever it takes to be successful. I want to do well in everything I do and the business world is nothing new. 
• V-7
• R-8
• I-8
• N-6

The top resource for me is definitely my friend that is a certified technician and is willing to work for me. He can literally do everything that I need him to do and then some. This will be perfect for my clients that want efficient and quality work. 

Growing My Social Capital

Domain Expert

Guy Denig - Service Manager of Century GMC in Tampa

Guy works as the service manager in a large car dealership in the middle of Tampa. He has worked in the service industry for cars for over 30 years and knows everything there is about the service side of the car business. I found Guy because he works at my family dealership, so I contacted him simply with a phone call. I believe that contacting him gave me a lot of information on servicing a car that I did not know. I had never thought about the insurance or warranty aspect of a service fix until I talked to him on the phone. He gave me some advice that will definitely help me be more successful in the future. He told me that the key to my business is doing really minor fixes and making sure I do them quickly and with quality work. This is going to enhance my company because he is experienced in this field and I can trust his advice.

Expert on my market

Tim Moore - Tim's Maintenance Repair Gainesville, Fl

Tim has been in the mobile service business in Gainesville from 2006 and has run a successful business for a long time. Tim does more major repairs and over a variety of different motor vehicles. I was able to get Tim's number off his website and take a couple minutes out of his day to talk to me about my business idea. His advice to me was to make sure I focus on the college students that do not necessarily have time to go out and get their car fixed. He thinks that convenient, quick work is going to be the key to my success.

Advanced Auto Parts - University Ave

I called Advanced Auto Parts and was able to speak to the manager of the store on University. He did not give me any information on his background in the parts industry, but he did say that his store will offer discounts for orders in bulk. This would be beneficial to me because I could buy a lot of wiper blades, or car batteries for a discounted price and then install them and make a profit off of the item. This is good news because I truly did not know the best place for me to get the parts I need in order to run my service business.

Reflection: I enjoyed this assignment because it really made me sit down and think about how I need to network with and who can give me the best advice to be successful. From all three of my phone calls, I realized that every aspect on my company must be organized and efficient if I want to be successful. In future networking events, I will do the same process as I did this time and sit down and really pick out a target audience and then go from there.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

I was interested in this weeks reading because it finally talked about the financials involved with entrepreneurial ventures. In the reading, I was surprised to of the detail that went into the chapter involving all of the ins and outs of accounting. I took financial accounting a couple of semesters ago and it was all the same information I learned in the whole semester. I was also surprised that the book did not talk about having an accountant on staff that usually presents the owner with all of this information to help make decisions for the future. None of the reading was confusing to me because of my history in accounting, but the concept of the cash-flow budget has always been hard to understand. My first question to the author would be, "Why did you include all of the information about financials, but not much text on what all the information means?" I feel like the author could have made it a little less technical. My second question would be, "How does this upcoming election effect the financial situation for a business owner? I would just be interested to see if the election is going to have a large impact on the economy. I did not find any mistakes in the chapter, but once again I wish it contained less accounting information and more practical information.

My Secret Sauce

- 5 ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique 

1) Ability to lead in a group setting. I have always been the one to step forward either during a group project or team event. I have found over the years that I would much rather help make decisions on certain things instead of just being told what the decision is and how to act. 

2) Ability to stay calm in almost all situations. "Whose self control is equal to all emergencies" is a good quote because everyone usually freaks out in emergency situations, but I have always been able to stay calm in stressful situations. 

3) Stay true to what I believe. Throughout my life, I have been able to stay true to most of my religious beliefs that I learned at an early age in school. I think this is a good quality because it is always important to stay grounded and humble at all times. 

4) Help lighten up a room. My friends have told me over the years that I am good at cheering them up when they are down or in a funk. I hate seeing people I care about upset so that is probably why I am good at this. 

5) Generosity. I have found myself to be very generous over the years because I am a true believer in good karma and that everything will work out in the long run. 

Interview the 5 people I know the best

   - To complete this part of the assignment, I wanted to interview my parents, sister, best friend and cousin. None of these people live in Gainesville so I had to call them to ask them questions about what makes me different as a person. My dad quickly answered my question saying that my competitiveness has always made me different throughout my life. He said that it was either in the driveway playing basketball, or on my chemistry test I always wanted to do the best and set high standards for myself. I think this is a good attribute because it makes me continue to strive to be the best in whatever I do. My mom told me that my laid back attitude has made me different from my peers over the years. I do a good job in general of never getting too high or too low in all situations. My sister told me it was my positive attitude that has helped her get through a lot of tough situations in life. My best friend who goes to school in Tallahassee, said it was my ability to balance my time while staying busy with a lot of different things. Last but not least, my cousin said it was my humor and ability to make people laugh. 

I found this assignment very interesting because I had to really reflect on myself as a person and then compare that to the responses of my family and closest friends. I found it a little bit difficult to see what truly makes me different as a person, but now I see what sets me apart from most people. The only difference is the competitive quality that my dad discussed. I would include this in my list of 5 if I could do it again because I think it is important. I always want to compare myself against the best and I think this is a key to success in any industry. 

Week 9 Reading Reflection

In this weeks reading, the biggest surprise for me involved the section on marketing philosophy. I was surprised to read that the production-driven philosophy is based on the belief "produce efficiently and worry about sales later." I always thought that sales were the most important and the first objective when making and distributing a product. I was somewhat that were so many different inhibitors to marketing research. These include cost, complexity, strategic decisions and irrelevancy. This is confusing because I thought most companies just hire their own researchers to do the work for them. If I could ask a question to the author, I would ask "What is the biggest challenge and most complex challenge that entrepreneurs face on a daily basis?" I would ask this question so I could be prepared in the future. I would also ask, "What is the best way to reach customers on the internet?" I want to know the answer to this, because so many people use computers everyday and it is a great way to reach millions of people quickly. I do not disagree with anything the author said. Everything seems up to date and very accurate information wise.

Idea Napkin No. 2

A couple of quick things about me: I am from Tampa, Florida and am the third generation Ghioto to be involved in the owning of a Buick, GMC and Kia car dealership in the Tampa Bay area. I have grown up around the car business and have seen what peoples needs are on an everyday basis. This is why I have come up with my idea to provide a mobile car service company that will come to you to fix minor issues. Instead of making an appointment and waiting at a body shop, my employees will come to you at a scheduled time and make minor repairs such as battery replacements, light replacements and even gas fill ups for a small fee. I hope to spread this idea by word of mouth at first and then different outlets with social media to help reach as many college students as possible. I believe what sets me apart is the experience I have in the car business and how I can use that to present a better service to my customers. 

As far as feedback goes, most of the original comments were pretty positive so I tried to keep the majority of my idea the same. I agree that I need to fine tune some things, but this is just the general idea that I am presenting to the public. Some of the best feedback I received came from the last comment on my first idea napkin, the comment asked how I was going to promote my idea. This question got me thinking and I came to the conclusion that social media would be not only the most effective, but it would be free to me. Because of this feedback, I included my marketing plan in this idea napkin. I also need to keep in mind from the feedback that convenience is the main service I am bringing to my customers and I need to make sure my work is quick and efficient.