30A – Final Reflection

1)

Reading through all my blog posted ended up being very enjoyable!  I had totally forgotten about a lot of them, and it was neat to go back a read through each blog.  When reading a few of them, I remember how sometimes I felt a little stuck, but being able to say I accomplished it is something that I am proud of.  Also reflecting on all my interviews was very interesting.  I remember talking to all these people and now looking back on it, they were the ones that shaped my product/service.  I really saw my initial thoughts turn into something that had potential.  It was neat to see the growth throughout the blog process.

2)

The posts that stick out to me as the most formative experiences were all three elevator pitches. Watching my first one was interesting, but I was able to whiteness myself improve throughout the semester.

3)

I definitely am able to see the meaning behind an entrepreneurial mindset.  In the beginning, I was not sure if I could accomplish that, but I believe this course has given me the confidence to.  

4)

One thing I would recommend to other students that will be taking this class in the future would be to start out with confidence in yourself.  Being confident is key not only in school assignment, but life! I can say that I was able to grow in confidence in my ideas through this course.

The picture that I am including is a start/finish line image.  I love that the picture includes two little girls.  Imagine the creativity that goes on in their young minds as do ours!

28A - Your Exit Strategy

 For my exit strategy, I plan to sell my business/product within the next year or two.  Ideally for me personally, it is not something that I would want to continue on pursuing myself, but rather would sell it in hopes that someone would continue the service.  I think that the idea is a great concept that can be very useful for many cities.

I have selected this particular exit strategy, because I am leaving the Gainesville area, and as of right now this service is just being provided to this target market. 

I think that in building up this product/service I had in mind that I would theoretically eventually sell the business and that definitely influenced the way I identified my opportunities.

27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

1)    What was the general theme or argument of the book?

After reading this book, I found that the general overall theme is to take a step back and look at the big picture of things.  Avoiding the small parts of problems and focusing on how every time one fails, they are getting closer to the goal.  The author explains how he failed at a lot, but kept going forward.

2)    How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I just finished the last assignment about failure and had been able to reflect on my own this semester.  When writing that particular assignment, I thought about this book a lot and how it related to my personal failures.

3)    If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

I would design something similar to the last assignment we just had, but add a little bit more to it.  The assignment would ask about a failure when they were young (in elementary school) and then present day and compare the two.

4)    What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

The biggest ‘aha’ moment for me was reading about how successful people never wish to be successful, they put forth the effort in pursuing it and the price is what you’re willing to pay.  Overall, I thought this was a great read, especially since I am a senior and graduating college this May going out into the real world. 

26A - Celebrating Failure

When thinking about a time when I failed happened in February this past semester.  I had been preparing all week for a really important exam in a class that had been quite a challenge for me.  The method of studying I used for the first exam did not work too well and I was very unhappy with my results.  The second time around I tried studying a little differently, but did not see any huge results.  Finally, after the third attempt of studying a completely different way, the studying paid off.  I learned from this that sometimes my brain works differently for different material/classes, and that its okay to have to change up the usual method or process. In conclusion of this failure, after trying different studying methods it worked. This reminds me of the Thomas Edison example mentioned in this assignment. He discovered a way that didn’t work and came up with a new method, in my case of studying for a particular class.

I try to handle failure with a positive mind set, but that is definitely not the case all the time. From taking this class, I have learned that there are going to be many times when one fails at something, whether that’s a product, service or just in different areas of life. But the key take away that I have learned is to push through and keep going.

25A - What's Next?

Existing Market:

I think that what’s next in terms of my product is providing the packaged service such as providing all restaurants with both a paper version and an eco-friendly plastic version.  With creating a company that sells both options, the market would be more interested. Providing for the needs of everyone in the situation at hand is important, and I think this solution will do just that.  In terms of growing my market, becoming well known in the Gainesville community as a resource that provides bundle packages of eco-friendly and paper straws for restaurants and having a recognizable brand will help bring awareness and reputation.

New Market:

The new market that I would target would be another city like Gainesville. These people may not be aware of the different options, and by introducing the product to them could be successful.  My new market area that I would pick next would be the Tampa area. It’s bigger than Gainesville, but I think that with the new and up and coming city its becoming, the audience would like the product.  Lots of people in the area are advocates for being sustainable, and this option would benefit the city.

23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1.     Location:

The area targeted for the product/service is Gainesville, which has been impacted by an order of no plastic straws at any restaurant.  This is a unique situation since I am just targeting to this market at the moment for the product and the ban having occurred recently.  I think through targeting just this location at first will produce a better outcome, which will hopefully lead to a lot of other cities doing the same.

2.     Network – eco-friendly companies:

Through providing packages of both paper and eco-friendly straws sold together, partnering with these local restaurants in the Gainesville area will hopefully inspire others to do the same. 

3.     Personal Connection/Leadership skills:

These two skills are very important and valuable in creating a business particularly in connecting with the restaurants to switch options.  It can’t be substituted. 

4.     Creative skills for content:

Being creative in not only design but packaging, labeling and selling is important too.  Creativity is different in a lot of aspects and a lot of creative content is different, therefore it is not substitutable. 

5.     Written skills:

Written skills is something that is very valuable to operating any business to explain the product and company thoroughly.  It cannot be substituted because it would be original work. 

6.     Marketing Skills:

Marketing is valuable here because offering a combination package of eco-friendly plastic and paper straws, to my knowledge and research, has not been done.   Spreading the word about it is important and necessary.  It could be substitutable in doing research and seeking advice from outside sources in this field.

7.     Working Hard:

This is valuable because providing the right resources for the customers and meeting their expectations is key. It takes a lot of effort to attain a hard-working environment. 

8.     Timeliness:

Timelines is valuable because of the recent occurrence of the ban.  Acting in a fast-efficient way is crucial. This is non-substitutable. 

9.     Problem-solving skills:

This type of skill is valuable, but it changes between different types of people that encompass different strengths. It is not substitutable.

10.  Uniqueness of product/service:

Being set apart from other products is valuable and what makes the product/service unique.  Since there might be some resources out there that provide similar products, this substitutable.

My top resource is location because of the recent ban of where I am, this product/service will benefit those affected by it.  Restaurants will be more willing to purchase the product because of the what they would be providing to the customer would be satisfaction. 

22A - Elevator Pitch No. 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj3hx3RoTFE

1)    I didn’t receive any critiques on my last pitch.  The comments said that I put myself in the customers shoes and seemed more confident.

2)    I didn’t change much, other than just trying to keep up the energy to keep the audience engaged!

21A - Reading Reflection #2

Book: The Art of Social Media

1)    What was the general theme or argument of the book?

I had read this book back when I took a social media management course here at UF and decided to give it another read since I remember enjoying and learning a lot from it. The book is written by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick and they both teamed up to create a book that brings education about the time, effort and money that goes into social media.  The books theme is very much informal and walks the reader step by step of important tips for different media platforms.   

2)    How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

The fifth chapter of this book titled “How to Integrate Social Media and Blogging.”  Through reading this chapter in the book, I learned that these two tools used to be considered separate, but now it is considered that they both complement each other.  The tip that they suggest is to “use a blog to enrich your social media with long-form posts and to use social media to promote your blog.”  I think that reading this chapter made me appreciate how we use a blog in this class. 

3)    If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

If I had to create an exercise for this class as an assignment, I would have it include reading this chapter of the book and then thinking about ways to incorporate social media into our own personal blog posts that we have in this class. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I had a lot of ‘aha’ moments while re-reading this book.  They give a lot of great tips on how to use social media and explained everything very well.  One that stuck out to me particularly was that the “good stuff” on social media is being valuable, and this comes in fours forms.

1)    Information

2)    Analysis

3)    Assistance

4)    Entertainment

The book is a great read, and I would highly recommend anyone reading it if you are interested in learning how to work social media and why it functions the way it does. 

20A - Growing Your Social Capital

1)

The first person a talked to as my domain expert was one of the owners of Cilantro Tacos in Gainesville, Nataly Meth.  I had met Nataly through my roommate and decided to talk to her about the paper straw issue since she operates a restaurant here in Gainesville. She thinks that with already being in the industry and being an environmentally friendly supporter herself, that her branch has considered using corn starch or biopolymers instead of plastic.  The catch that she said is that most business can only afford paper straws.  She also said that this symbolizes a time of change.  Overall, I think having Nataly in my network is important from her input on producing ecofriendly solutions.

2) 

My expert contact was a barista at a coffee shop, who is a friend of mine, Mat Bar. He said that when people come into the store and order an ice drink, they would much rather sip on a plastic straw than a paper one because of how it can get so flimsy over a time period.  He said that if there were to be a push for all companies to strictly use eco-friendly straws, the outcome of customer satisfaction would increase. I think this is valuable information from Mat since he can see that customers would be more satisfied as a whole without having paper straws.

3)

I was not able to get in contact with a supplier, but I did ask my friend Shannon who works at another coffee shop and says that her supplier for their coffee is very sustainable in their efforts to produce the products that they sell to their customers. 

Reflection:

After talking with all three of these people, I think that this really helped shape and prove that there is a need that still is needing to be met.  I think with these ecofriendly plastic straws, there could be a change in the restaurant/coffee shop business in the area.  One thing that really stuck out to me is how Nataly says that she had been already looking at alternative options and how it could help the situation.