Final Reflection

What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

• The most formative experience for me was definitely the two interviews with the entrepreneurs. This was a good experience because it allowed me to pick the brains of people that had been in my shoes, but were successful in their business idea that they developed. It is always important to take notes from people that have been in your own situation before. The experience that I will remember years later is definitely how dumb I felt after my first elevator pitch video. I did not think it went well and it seemed awkward and not very informative the first time I watched it. Much to my surprise though, I received some good feedback and was able to learn from this experience. The most joyous experience for me was the comments I received on all of my videos. All of the comments were very positive and kept me going even when I did not think my video was necessarily great. I am most proud of myself for my unfair advantage assignment. I really thought this assignment was interesting because you had to really think of what gives you an advantage against everybody else out there. 

At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And we repeated the mantra -- I am an entrepreneur. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

• I would not consider myself a "complete entrepreneur" at this point in time, but I have definitely made huge strides in getting there. The final step in my process is going to be finding some success in the business world with one of my ideas in the future. I would definitely say that I have developed an entrepreneurs mindset though throughout this semester. I often find myself looking at situations or problems, but trying to find an opportunity where other people would not necessarily see one. I think this is an important step in becoming an entrepreneur in this day and age. 

What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

• For the students that are going to be in this class in the future, I would tell them to not be discouraged by failure. This class is all about improving throughout the semester and making changes to your original ideas. It is amazing how much better my blog has gotten from the beginning of the semester and it is definitely because I did not get discouraged and kept on persevering. To help with their mindset, I think they need to interview an entrepreneur as one of the first assignments of the semester. This will help get their mindset on the right page from the start. 

Week 15 Reading Reflection

      In this Harvard Business Review article, Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid, there were a lot of different elements that I did not necessarily expect to read about. The biggest surprise for me in the reading was that SKS deals with customers who almost have no money. Some of their customers earned only around $1 per day, which is shocking from the point of view here in the United States. I do think that it is awesome though that this company offers loans to people who truly do need them in hopes of a brighter future for them and their families. The one part of the reading that was confusing to me was how Microfinance firms are not more successful in this day and age. I am surprised that not more companies try this method, but I guess it is because it is very risky and doesn't always workout in the long run. My first question for the author would be, "What is the most interesting experience you have been involved in working in this area of the world?" I feel like this would be a good story and provide some useful information. My second question would be, "Is this more of a service oriented idea or a business idea?" I feel like there are two aspects of this business and I would like to get the authors opinion. I did not think the author was wrong about anything, but I did think this was a very entertaining article to read and it was something that I really had not heard of until now.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

This is my 4th and final elevator pitch for my mobile car service in Gainesville. I have used the feedback from the first few pitches to adjust the context of this final assignment. 

In this final video, I have tried to include all of the elements of my business idea for the Gainesville community and specifically for the students at the University of Florida. I am hoping that people will understand my business from this video and be interested in the service that could potentially be coming to Gainesville. 

Venture Concept No. 2

For this assignment, I have used the same outline and basic structure for my venture concept, but I have modified the context based on the feedback I have received. 

Opportunity 

     I see an opportunity to help students with a convenient way to service their cars on and around the campus at the University of Florida. As a whole, this class has provided me with an opportunity to think outside of the box and escape my comfort zone. This is important because all good ideas are not necessarily right in front of you, sometimes you have to dig a little deeper and find an opportunity. 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 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. Cars have been around for over 100 years and it is safe to say that they are not going anywhere. 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. With this opportunity, I cannot be afraid of failure because I know that there will be some surprises along the way. This is a different service than AAA because it will be a local, student-run group that provides the services and not a corporate chain. Because of this, I will be able to make better connections with my customers and provide a better customer service. I will also not go out into traffic and what not to help people, my service will be for parked cars that need work either at home or work etc. 

Innovation

(This section has mostly stayed the same because my innovation idea has not changed throughout the process)

   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. Convenience and affordability are the two keys for my business to be successful.

Venture Concept

    My innovation will solve a hole in the market for a student-run mobile car service in Gainesville. This "hole" presents itself as an opportunity for success. 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 cannot communicate how important convenience is for my business idea. 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. No matter what happens with the business, I plan to continue to make customer service my first priority to help expand my business. 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. Luckily, I have a good friend who is a technician and my sister can help me out from the marketing aspect of things. 

Feedback : I only received one comment on my first venture concept, and the person was not exactly sure what my business provided. Because of this feedback, I tried to make my business plan more clear and how I plan to run my business. The comments on my "what's next?" post were a lot more positive and told me that I was on the right page as far as going further. Both people agreed that Gainesville for a great market for this and really any college market for that matter. The only thing I really needed to change was describing my business idea better to make it easier to understand for people reading my blog. 

Changes I made: I tried to make the opportunity I was expressing easier to understand. I want the service I am providing to be clear and out front. I also had a comment asking if my service was similar to AAA services. Because of this, I added a difference in the opportunity paragraph to tell how my services would differ from this corporate chain. 

I chose this picture because it is one of the keys to my business idea. I believe that if my customers are satisfied with the services I provide, they will spread the word about my business and almost do all of the marketing for me. I am a strong believer that word of mouth is one of the most reliable forms of advertisement and future business opportunities. 

Google Gold

1. Search Engine Optimization is a key today in a businesses success. Search results matter and it can create traffic on your website or blog if it is done correctly. The way I was able to maximize the use of SEO was by putting titles and links in almost all of my blog posts. When people are searching for something online, my title will help make connections for whatever they're looking for. I also used my name a lot and I kept on repeating what services my business was going to offer. This is because if anybody is search for a mobile car service in Gainesville, I want my business to come up and be one of the first options on the search results page. I am going to continue to develop my SEO because it is one of the best ways to "advertise" and attract customers to any service or product

2. The key words I used for the most part were: "Gainesville" "mobile" "car" "service" "convenient" "reliable" "affordable". I used these words because if somebody is looking for a mobile car service in Gainesville, they're probably just simply going to search for that on the internet. Most people will put "affordable" or "cheap" before the search just to ensure they're getting the best deal out there. I did not necessarily refine these keywords throughout the semester, but I did see myself using them more as my blog developed because I knew it was important to attract web traffic.

3. I utilized Facebook to let people see my blog. Since it is not completed and still needs to be reviewed, I only shared the post with family and close friends so they could see all of the work I have put in this semester. Most of the people that I opened to viewing all checked the blog out and definitely created a lot more views than I had originally. By just sharing this with a few people, I can see the benefits of using social media to help get the word out. I would have gotten a ton of web traffic on my blog if I would have shared it with the 1,000 plus people that I am friends with on Facebook. I am definitely going to keep this in mind in the future when I need to promote or advertise a product or service. Social media is extremely effective and can be done for free in just a couple of minutes!

4. The post that went most "viral" for me was the first elevator pitch that I completed. I don't exactly know why it was the most viewed, but I think it definitely has something to with the YouTube video that was in that post. I have a feeling that most people were scrolling through the blog and saw a short video presentation and decided to take a minute and watch the video. I think this is interesting because it shows people want more than just written text and they're looking for something that jumps off the page to them. The video was clearly more attractive to people than just paragraphs of information.

5. I did not make it to the first page of google results for my blog, but I think that is because it is not open to the public yet so not everybody has access to what I post. I did find the blog on the 3rd page of results but it was just for one of the posts. I was surprised to see that the blog did not come up on the first page because I had been using the keywords a lot, but I definitely think it has something to do with privacy settings. Once I have completed the blog I am going to allow everyone to view it and see where that puts me as far as google results.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

Looking back on my first interview with Kim from Hip Pops, I really did not know anything about becoming an entrepreneur and everything was very new to me. I did not know what to expect from this class and I looked to her for some answers. I think I now have a better idea of what it takes to be successful as a entrepreneur and I hope to use that wherever the future takes me. 

I was not able to get in contact with Kim on the phone (her business is in Athens, Ga.), but she got back to me via email and answered the questions I had asked perfectly. She is very busy running her own business and taking care of three kids so I am very gracious that she got back to me. Here are the questions that I asked her and her responses. 

1) What was the hardest challenge you have faced up to this point in your entrepreneurial career?

• To be honest with you, starting Hip Pops was the hardest part for me. I did not know if the business idea was necessarily going to be successful in Athens and I had to invest a lot of my own money to help with the initial start up costs. If my idea was not successful, I would have lost a lot of money in the process and would have to move onto plan B (which I really did not have yet). Luckily, I had some great help from employees and support from family and friends and I was able to get the business off the ground and running from the start. 

2) If you could do anything different, what would it be and why?

• I really try not to look back because I cannot control the past, but if I had to pick something I would have waited a couple of years to start my business. All of my children are in elementary and middle school, and I wish I would have been able to participate a little more in their everyday lives. I am always home for breakfast and dinner, but the times in between is what I feel like I have missed out on. Lucky for me, my husband and children have been nothing but supportive through this entire process and now that the business is off the ground I can take some more time off and enjoy time with my family. 

3) What is one piece of advice you wish you had before starting your own business?

• The one piece of advice I wish I would have received is that speed bumps are part of the process. You cannot panic when something does not go exactly to the point, adjusting on the run is part of the job and some of your best decisions can come in a quick impulse without much thought process. Just keep your goals in mind and work hard and nothing can hold you back. 

Later on in the email, Kim said she could tell by the questions that I was asking that I had come a long way since January and that she wanted to know more about my business idea that I have developed. I am looking forward to telling her about my idea and seeing her opinion. I am also going to continue to pick her brain because she has experienced the ups and downs of becoming an entrepreneur. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

In this weeks reading, chapter 3 and 4 from the text was filled with information about the entrepreneurial world. The part of the reading that I found most interesting was the section on encouraging innovation. Innovation is key to future success for any company or service. If you can offer a service that is new for most people and at a relatively low price then people will bounce on it. The only part of the reading that was confusing to me was the section on economic trade-offs. I do agree that trade offs are a necessity to running any business, but I think you must specifically chose what you want to trade-off with and to make sure that you don't lose any valuable assets in your business. The first question I would ask the author would be, "What impact does running an ethically sound business have on consumers?" I want to know how much consumers value an ethical business and how it effects their spending while shopping for goods or services. The second question I would ask would be, "What step is the government taking to ensure green capitalism?" I want to know what regulations are in place from the government to help promote environmental awareness. The only part of the reading that I did not necessarily agree with was the section on radical innovation. I do not think "radical" is the right word because it can have a negative connotation. I think a better term would have been "unique" innovation.

Celebrating Failure

1. This semester I failed in my attempt to take Intermediate Microeconomics. I am a transfer student from Ole Miss into the Economics department and this was my first higher level course at the University of Florida. It happened to be my teachers first course at the University as well. It is safe to say that I did not respond well to his teaching and I had to drop the class early in the semester. After the first class of the semester, I knew I was already behind because I did not learn some of the math that they were using in class. Despite attempts at office hours and extra hours of practice, I was not able to teach myself the math and therefore I was at a disadvantage for the class. I was either going to fail the class or drop it so I chose the ladder and signed up for the math class that I needed.

2. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from this experience. First of off, I learned that the education at the University of Florida is at a way higher level than Ole Miss. I had the required pre-requisites for this course, but the material at Ole Miss did not correspond with the material at Florida. I learned that I was going to have to adapt to the environment here and truly earn my degree with hard work and staying committed to my education. I also learned that Economics was a lot more math and not as many concepts that I anticipated from my research and prior coursework. All of these lessons that I learned have prepared me to be more successful in pursuing my degree in the near future.

3. Failure is hard. There is no doubt about that, but it is also an important aspect of life. Almost no people are successful with everything they do, so it is important to respond to failure correctly in hopes of making improvements in the future. I believe that all failures can have some positive impact in the long-run. As long as you learn from the failures and use the information to benefit yourself in the future, failures can be a blessing in disguise. I also think that people should not let failures effect them on an emotional level like most people do. It is important to bounce back from failure as quick as possible to not let any lingering effects creep back in. This class has changed my perspective on failure because I have been able to adapt and succeed in this course. After going back and reading my first couple of blog posts, they were not very good at all. They lacked creativity and were the bare minimum. Looking back on this now, I used these examples to improve my work in the future and I think that is what failure is all about.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

In chapter 14, valuation of entrepreneurial ventures, I learned a lot of new things that stuck out to me. The biggest surprise for me in the text was the part about price/earnings ratio method. I did not know that the stock of a private company is not publicly traded. It is also surprising that the stated net income of a private company might not truly reflect its actual earnings. The only part of the reading that was confusing to me was the discounted earnings method. I feel like a lot of the information is estimated so I do not see how it can be completely accurate and a good source of information. The first question I would ask the author would be, "What is the most important asset to evaluate when looking at a corporations value?" I want to know what it is the most important and what I should focus the majority of my time on. My next question would be, "What evaluation can predict future success the best?" I want to know how I am going to make the most money possible. I did not think the author was wrong about anything, but I don't think too many people rely on emotional bias to evaluation a venture!

My Exit Strategy

    This is really the first time I have thought of an exit strategy or really the next move for my business as a whole. As far as my business in Gainesville goes, I will probably be selling the entire company to a friend of mine that I can trust. I would like to sell it to somebody that I know so I can continue to check up on the business and make sure they're still providing quality work to the people in Gainesville. Once I sell the business to a friend, I am going to focus all of my time onto the family car dealerships in Tampa which is where my true passion lies. The good thing about my mobile car service business is that I can use different aspects of the business model and combine them with the day to day activities that go on at a car dealership. I could even have the dealership setup their own mobile car service department for easy fixes that do not involve driving to the store.

   The reason I have chose this strategy is because I see the business in Gainesville somewhat reaching a peak and not being able to take huge steps forward after that moment. On the other hand, I see owning a car dealership as a great opportunity to expand and serve thousands of people. The decisions that I am making today and have made in the past have not really effected my exit strategy because I want to pass down the company in Gainesville to a friend so I want it to be successful. I might even keep a percentage of the ownership so I still have some say in the decision making process.

   Here is a picture of our family car dealership in Tampa. It has so much potential and it is the main reason I am looking to see my business in Gainesville within the next three to five years!