Week 15 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me the most in this week's reading was how the author put his experience switching target markets. He stated that he switched due to religious tension, but I actually think he was just trying to find a more profitable market. The part of the reading where the author described micro-financing was extremely confusing to me at first, but I reread it a couple of times and was able to develop some understanding on the topic. Given the chance, I would ask the author his exact definition of discrimination, and I would also ask if he thinks financial discrimination is morally correct. This chapter covered some controversial topics and I have to say that I disagree with any form of discrimination regardless of the outcomes for myself. 

My Final Reflection

The task that I completed in this class that is going to be the most useful for me in the future is definitely the elevator pitches because they make you an efficient communicator and force you to be confident in what you are presenting. The elevator pitches don't even have to be about a product either, they can be about yourself, so learning how to give an elevator pitch and being able to develop techniques to improve them is only going to help in the future. I'm not sure if I see myself as an entrepreneur yet but I've come a long way and have learned a lot more about what it means and how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. The one thing that I would say to a future student in this class is to make sure you stay on top of this class and don't miss an assignment because you forgot or ran out of time. These assignments will sneak up on you and it can hurt you in the long run.  

Elevator Pitch No. 4

The only feedback from my last video that could help this elevator pitch was to not wear my hat which I agree looks unprofessional and wouldn't work in the real world. Other than that I just tried to use the same confidence and enthusiasm I used in my previous pitches.

Venture Concept No. 2

1)

Opportunity

The need that my business idea will address is that a lot of students forget their keys for their dorm. This problem adds to the level of stress that students feel during school and it’s a problem that can be fixed easily. This need is created because a lot of students are unorganized and always in a hurry to get place-to-place. Thus they are unable to find their keys or they forget them which is embarrassing and stressful. The window of opportunity to fulfill this need is small but very achievable because some of this technology is already in use but not for universities. This opportunity is large too because many universities will follow suit of other schools when they discover how useful the product is.

Innovation

The product that I’m creating is an app and scanner that will utilize the Bluetooth capabilities of smartphones as a key to dorm houses and rooms. The majority of college students always have their phone on their person which simplifies the process of accessing dorms. The Bluetooth from each phone will be registered to the specific scanner that is outside of each room which will only allow the occupants of each room to gain access to the room. The app will be free and the scanners will be sold for $50 a piece. The main way to make money from this idea is the maintenance and installation fees that will accompany the scanners. There will always be technical issues that arise at times because they are unavoidable, which means that we’ll be able to make money off of the maintenance of our systems.

Venture Concept

The innovation that I’ve created will solve the issue of college students forgetting or misplacing the keys to their dorms. College students are constantly on their phones and phones have essentially become an extension of our person which means students will always have them to be able to gain access to their rooms. I think it will be difficult to get universities to switch to this system but if I’m able to convince one school and have a positive impact on their campus, then it will be easy to gain access to other universities. Competitors are key companies and the companies that created the scanner that is attachable to key chains. These companies however, don’t offer the simplicity of using the phone and you still need to find your keys. The business surrounding the product would be built simply with departments in charge of certain aspects of the business to allow efficiency. There will be departments for the app, sales, the scanners, as well as maintenance teams that would be able to go out and fix any scanners that malfunction.

Three minor elements

1.     The most important resource that I have is my work ethic and my dedication to succeed when I set my mind to something. This will allow me to push through hard times and also continue to strive for more when I start to see success.

2.     The next innovation for my product is to not only gain access to rooms but to make this a universal key that can give you access to all things that previously required keys.

If I launched my ideal place in five years would be on a beach or golf course somewhere because I sold the company for a large sum of money and I was able to invest the money successfully so I could retire and enjoy the rest of my life.





 Unfortunately I didn't do the last venture concept assignment so I can't give any feedback or provide any details on how I changed my venture concept because I didn't receive any comments. However, I did receive feedback on my What's Next and the feedback was positive and everyone expressed how they thought my next ideas were solid if they could be done in the right amount of time which is something that I'm not sure of 
either.  


Unfortunately I didn't do the previous venture concept assignment so I can't provide a summary of any feedback because I didn't receive any. I think my concept is pretty simple and straightforward though so I hope it's good enough. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

What really stood out to me was the importance of morals and ethics in entrepreneurship because I always thought it as something that comes naturally and not something that is discussed and explained like other theories and tactics. The discussion about three types of managers was confusing at first but I was able to eventually figure it out. Given the chance, I would ask the author which type of management works best in his opinion. I would also ask him what the difference is between ethics and morals. I don't disagree with anything the author wrote this week. 

Google Gold

1. I didn't have a strategy for search engine optimization. I honestly didn't think about it because I was more focused on getting the assignments turned in on time. I don't really know how one would improve their search engine optimization but I definitely didn't spend any time trying to brainstorm ideas.
2. I guess if I had a couple keywords they would have been something like "students" and "bluetooth" because those are pretty big components of my business idea.
3. Social media didn't accept or ignore my blog because I didn't even post it to my social media accounts.
4. My most viral post is my bug list which got 26 views and 5 comments. I think it's the most viral because I threw some sarcasm in there so maybe people liked that.
5. I didn't make it to the first page of the google results with my keywords which really disappoints me but nevertheless they are pretty common things to look up.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

Unfortunately I didn't do the first part to this assignment so I can't really reflect on the previous part. So this time I was able to contact an entrepreneur, Dominick Lucarelli, in time, however I couldn't record it because he lives in Naples which is a little far. So I'll just summarize the answers that he gave to my questions.

1. Did you ever think about closing down at any point?
There have been many times, especially at the beginning, but the toughest was during the housing market crash because as a plaster company houses need to be built for us to get contracted and be successful. I'm happy I didn't but the amount of stress during hard times is incredible and it's something you can't prepare for until you experience it.

2. What's your proudest accomplishment as an entrepreneur?
Being able to build a company that can employ members of my family and being able to provide for my kids.

3.  What'y your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Never second guess yourself and your abilities. Find a support system that will support you and know you can become successful, that's what really pushed me to the point that I'm at today.

I think from this class that I have become much more comfortable talking about entrepreneurship because I've gained a lot of respect for people who actually go out and form their own businesses. Although I didn't do the first part, Dom was impressed with my understanding of entrepreneurship and how professionally I was able to speak with him about my business idea with him.