30A – Final Reflection

2. The most memorable and formative experience I had in this class was getting to interview industry professionals. At that point, I felt like I was actually an entrepreneur in the industry. Whether my venture works or not, I will always remember speaking with people I thought so high and mighty of but yet was able to have such a direct and simple conversation with. It was truly a surreal experience.

3. I do think I have more of an entrepreneurial mindset. Every time I walk around town I have a third eye for opportunity. When I see an office building for lease I always take a picture of the phone number in case I or anyone I know beings a search for office locations. Whenever I have a problem, I always think why hasn't someone found a solution for it, and more importantly, why am I not making the solution for it. I definitely think more like an entrepreneur.

4. I recommend students who take this course to actually focus and put effort into the material. This class definitely requires a lot of work and time but it all feels worth it if you enjoy the material. As long as students who join this class stay invested, it is not only an easy A, but one of the most knowledgeable classes in the business school.

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

As I start locally, my potential customers will be anyone living in Gainesville that would like to feel more safe and protected during Hurricanes. This would only include those who do not evacuate before a Hurricane. My main market segment will be college students because college students have parents that have a min concern of safety when it comes to natural disasters. This would eliminate a lot of the elasticity that comes with college students and their lackluster wallets.

The nature of the need is simple. In fact, this need is the base on the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs: safety. Everyone wants to feel safe and in a secure campus like UF, it isn't that hard. However, natural disasters are unstoppable, unpredictable, and can't be detained by UFPD. This causes a frenzy every time a Hurricane is potentially coming our way, with people lining up outside of Publix for water and working through the day to install shutters. Because of that, the need for my product will never go away, as Hurricane season arrives every year.

Without the HSK, customers now use a lot of time and money traveling to different stores to collect various emergency items that they may not use and never need until the next storm. This is how the HSK fits the niche. The HSK has everything one can possibly need for a storm, allowing customers to save time, money, and worrying. This opportunity, if it picks up in popularity, is tremendous.

Innovation

Right now there is a secret hole in the market for preventative supplies. Of course, emergency supplies are always offered individually at many different individual stores. However, not only is the process of obtaining them costly, but it also requires a lot of knowledge about Hurricanes, and it prevents discounts from buying all of the supplies in bulk at once. On the other hand, there are Hurricane Survival Kits for sale online, but those are ridiculous as well. Some kits go for upwards of thousands of dollars and contain things like a mobile AED and a month's supply of food. Who would ever wake up and decide to spend $4,000 on an AED? The Hurricane Survival Kit fits right in the middle of those two extremes.

The HSK will contain every basic but essential item to get anyone through a one-week storm. The kit will sell for a ballpark estimate of $40 and will contain emergency food, emergency supplies, emergency power, and physical discounts for local generators and shutter companies. It is expected that once one kit is used, another one will be purchased. The kits are personal pouches too, meaning a family of 4 should spend around $160 for four kits in order to ensure everyone will be fully prepared for a one-week storm.

The canned food and emergency supplies will all be bought in bulk at wholesale. They will then proceed to be split up into 'servings' and placed into each HSK. The discounts for local businesses will be a deal to exchange a small fee and free promotion for the ability to secure these discounts. These discounts will be given out on physical coupon cards that are packed away within the HSK. Starting costs will obviously be higher, but overall a profit of about $10-$15 will be made on each HSK. If bought online, the customer will pay for shipping.

Venture Concept

The innovation I have will be successful because it is better than the alternatives. Both alternatives to the HSK provide the same feeling of safety, but at a much higher cost, and perhaps a little bit more work involved. The HSK will allow customers to satisfy their need of safety while also satisfying secondary needs, like financial needs or convenience needs.

It will not be too difficult to get customers to switch to my product. The product is a great alternative, so the only issue with a potential blunder of sales is that customers are not informed or fully-informed about the product and its ability.

The only competitors I have are those who sell all-inclusive Hurricane Survival Kits online. They do a great job of making their customers feel safe in times of need, but by far their greatest weakness is the price of the product. The HSK trumps all competitors with its price, creating a value that is unmatched.

Packaging and customer service may play a big role. I am pretty good at digital design, so I would be able to make a reeling design on the package. Customer support will be a challenge at first if I am the sole proprietor. However, I believe my experience in customer service will aid my ability to provide it until the venture at least accrues enough money to bring in new Customer Service Representatives.

At first, I can literally buy and sell all of the materials online. However, for the local population, it would be imperative for me to have a brick-and-mortar too. That may be somewhere down the line, along with additional employees. As long as I don't top 10 sales a day (average), I don't see much of an issue.

Three Minor Elements

The most important resource I have is digital design. Especially in an industry that primarily focuses on safety and effectiveness, design is not nearly a top priority. However, the online marketplace and packaging will create an overall brand for the company, something that gives life to the organization and allows customers to easily identify it.

Next, in addition to college students, I will try to target a different target market. In the future, I will begin to target the elderly. I will do this by marketing this product as a once-in-a-lifetime breakthrough. Many elderly people have lived through many, many hurricanes and have family members all around them to help them out in a time of need. Many elderly people also have a lot of disposable income from retirement. So, I will market the product as something so new and innovative, something that would keep them so safe that even friends and family support would not be a proper substitution for its safety. That way, many elderly people would take a look at the low price and buy it without asking questions. Students and the elderly are two of the most looked-after and protected units of the family model. This will allow the market to be widened, as middle-aged customers may purchase the HSK as a gift for their child or their parent.

Lastly, the end-all be-all of this company will be to open a brick-and-mortar along with the online marketplace, and start operating nationally for different disasters. Right now HSK is limited to eastern coastal areas. But an earthquake survival kit and a flood survival kit could sell really well in the mid-west and western United States.

Feedback

The feedback I received encouraged my idea to venture out to a different market. However, the feedback I received also questioned how I would make the push to the elderly segment. It asked why elderly people would purchase my product if they have most likely lived through many hurricanes. I decided to do some research and update my venture concept accordingly.

How I Changed My Concept

I decided to put more information about how I will attract the elderly population. I will do this by marketing the HSK as a once-in-a-lifetime innovation. That way, most elderly people with a disposable retirement income will feel inclined to make the decision on the spot.

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

The Book I read was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams.

1. The general argument of the book was simply how to successfully succeed in a world where failure is so prevalent. Adams did this by diagnosing the idea of goals and why we need to be more lenient with ourselves and our visions of our future lives. Adams says that being discouraged by goals is one reason why others stop fulfilling their passion. Adams advises business owners to work at full capacity at any time they work and to look for marginal success instead of chipping away at an end goal.

2. This book connected with me because I had the same exact thoughts Adams did about my venture when I first started. Waking up one day and saying that you want to construct a company from the ground up is very challenging. This class actually employs the same design that Adams said would work. Instead of having one assignment in the class where the objective is to make a company, we have nearly 100 different assignments that are all separate grades and all contribute to the overall success of our companies. This instant gratification per assignment is how we should be graded for our final company, instead of looking at the company as a whole.

3. The exercise I would design for this book would be dissecting a large goal. Adams said goals were bad for two reasons: one is that they were in the future and not now, and two is that they are too specific and can be disappointing if not exactly obtained. My exercise would be to take a 5-year goal and dissect it into multiple accomplishments you need to receive in order to get close to your goal. That way, a business owner can gauge their success by how many of these 'checkpoint' goals are passed, instead of judging how well they are on their way to some unattainable goal.

4. The 'aha' moment in this book is where I realized I need more patience with my career. I tend to look at where I am and even now wonder if I am falling behind and if I will be able to get a goof job going forward. However, Adams would want me to slow down and take it one step at a time. Adams mentions many famous stars and entrepreneurs who did not make it until much later in their life. Sometimes, success takes a lot of time. I need to be more patient with how quick I am on my way to success.

28A – Your Exit Strategy

For the business, I plan on protecting it as an asset and passing it down to someone I am close with. This company is not something that requires a lot of attention or time until it is used or purchased from. For the most part, this can be a source of secondary income during hurricane season.

I have selected this exit strategy because I feel like this company will be undervalued in the eyes of other business owners. Many people don't realize the demand for hurricane protection supplies and equipment until an actual hurricane comes around. It is a great opportunity to earn a passive income while I focus on my career.

Because I plan on keeping the company for a while, I have set my goals for the long-term and am taking it slow with growth and investment. By doing so, I am able to have enough time to analyze each business situation and take the right steps to preserve the authenticity of the company moving forward.

26A – Celebrating Failure

There was a moment a few weeks ago that I failed miserably. One cold afternoon, I was riding home from work on my scooter when I realized my kickstand fell off while I was mid-ride. The kickstand acts as a kill switch so my scooter was unable to start after I turned it off. My plan was to leave my scooter in the parking lot overnight and to walk my scooter to the repair shop in the morning. However, when I went to go retrieve my scooter, it had been towed. This caused me to become very frustrated as it made it harder for me to get to and from work without my scooter. Also, I knew the repair might be expensive, and I was in no place financially to spend many hundreds of dollars on my scooter. I ended up having to catch a bus to the towing company, paying for it to be given back, and then walking it 3.5 miles to the repair shop.

I learned from this experience, believe it or not. One thing I learned is to always remain calm and never become frustrated. Getting angry and upset only made the situation worse for me at the time. Also, I learned to always keep an emergency fund for vehicles. There is too many things that can go wrong with a scooter and having a solid fund for any repairs will help to alleviate stress during those times.

When I fail, I try to handle the situation as rationally as possible and with as much positivity as possible. Looking at each failure as an opportunity to learn and grow helps to internally fight of the embarrassment of failing. Owning up to your failures and using it as an opportunity to learn makes us feel better about failing. With this relatively new outlook on failure, I would be willing to take more risks going forward. There's nothing to be afraid of when the only two options are success and growth.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1 (Hurricane Survival Kit - HSK)

Opportunity

As I start locally, my potential customers will be anyone living in Gainesville that would like to feel more safe and protected during Hurricanes. This would only include those who do not evacuate before a Hurricane. My main market segment will be college students because college students have parents that have a min concern of safety when it comes to natural disasters. This would eliminate a lot of the elasticity that comes with college students and their lackluster wallets.

The nature of the need is simple. In fact, this need is the base on the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs: safety. Everyone wants to feel safe and in a secure campus like UF, it isn't that hard. However, natural disasters are unstoppable, unpredictable, and can't be detained by UFPD. This causes a frenzy every time a Hurricane is potentially coming our way, with people lining up outside of Publix for water and working through the day to install shutters. Because of that, the need for my product will never go away, as Hurricane season arrives every year.

Without the HSK, customers now use a lot of time and money traveling to different stores to collect various emergency items that they may not use and never need until the next storm. This is how the HSK fits the niche. The HSK has everything one can possibly need for a storm, allowing customers to save time, money, and worrying. This opportunity, if it picks up in popularity, is tremendous.

Innovation

Right now there is a secret hole in the market for preventative supplies. Of course, emergency supplies are always offered individually at many different individual stores. However, not only is the process of obtaining them costly, but it also requires a lot of knowledge about Hurricanes, and it prevents discounts from buying all of the supplies in bulk at once. On the other hand, there are Hurricane Survival Kits for sale online, but those are ridiculous as well. Some kits go for upwards of thousands of dollars and contain things like a mobile AED and a month's supply of food. Who would ever wake up and decide to spend $4,000 on an AED? The Hurricane Survival Kit fits right in the middle of those two extremes.

The HSK will contain every basic but essential item to get anyone through a one-week storm. The kit will sell for a ballpark estimate of $40 and will contain emergency food, emergency supplies, emergency power, and physical discounts for local generators and shutter companies. It is expected that once one kit is used, another one will be purchased. The kits are personal pouches too, meaning a family of 4 should spend around $160 for four kits in order to ensure everyone will be fully prepared for a one-week storm.

The canned food and emergency supplies will all be bought in bulk at wholesale. They will then proceed to be split up into 'servings' and placed into each HSK. The discounts for local businesses will be a deal to exchange a small fee and free promotion for the ability to secure these discounts. These discounts will be given out on physical coupon cards that are packed away within the HSK. Starting costs will obviously be higher, but overall a profit of about $10-$15 will be made on each HSK. If bought online, the customer will pay for shipping.

Venture Concept

The innovation I have will be successful because it is better than the alternatives. Both alternatives to the HSK provide the same feeling of safety, but at a much higher cost, and perhaps a little bit more work involved. The HSK will allow customers to satisfy their need of safety while also satisfying secondary needs, like financial needs or convenience needs.

It will not be too difficult to get customers to switch to my product. The product is a great alternative, so the only issue with a potential blunder of sales is that customers are not informed or fully-informed about the product and its ability.

The only competitors I have are those who sell all-inclusive Hurricane Survival Kits online. They do a great job of making their customers feel safe in times of need, but by far their greatest weakness is the price of the product. The HSK trumps all competitors with its price, creating a value that is unmatched.

Packaging and customer service may play a big role. I am pretty good at digital design, so I would be able to make a reeling design on the package. Customer support will be a challenge at first if I am the sole proprietor. However, I believe my experience in customer service will aid my ability to provide it until the venture at least accrues enough money to bring in new Customer Service Representatives.

At first, I can literally buy and sell all of the materials online. However, for the local population, it would be imperative for me to have a brick-and-mortar too. That may be somewhere down the line, along with additional employees. As long as I don't top 10 sales a day (average), I don't see much of an issue.

Three Minor Elements

The most important resource I have is digital design. Especially in an industry that primarily focuses on safety and effectiveness, design is not nearly a top priority. However, the online marketplace and packaging will create an overall brand for the company, something that gives life to the organization and allows customers to easily identify it.

Next, in addition to college students, I will try to target a different target market. In the future, I will begin to target the elderly. Students and the elderly are two of the most looked-after and protected units of the family model. This will allow the market to be widened, as middle-aged customers may purchase the HSK as a gift for their child or their parent.

Lastly, the end-all be-all of this company will be to open a brick-and-mortar along with the online marketplace, and start operating nationally for different disasters. Right now HSK is limited to eastern coastal areas. But an earthquake survival kit and a flood survival kit could sell really weel in the mid-west and western United States.

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market

For my venture, the only thing to do going forward is to maximize the outreach for the product. Based on my interviews, I have deducted that the biggest gap in customers appears when comparing customers who have thought about buying the product and customers who actually purchase the product. This means that, going forward, I must focus on getting customers to actually purchase the product. I would shift my focus to informing customers about the marginal benefit of my product instead of imply letting them know it exists.

I will do this by using more detail in my explanations or in potential elevator pitches. When communicating with the customer, I will emphasize the product's ability to provide consumers with their biggest need. In this case, the biggest need for the consumer is safety. Going forward, I will deal with the college student market segment by giving them a brief on how the HSK saves student from potential harm or life-threatening events.

New Market

The new market I will target will be elderly residents, who may understand the devastation of Hurricanes, or the safety of the product, but will have a major need in the convenience category.

In order to target the elderly, I would need to create a super simple interface when users try to purchase the product. It needs to be as easy as any other online-shopping outlet. Elderly people are not the best with technology and the only way I can sell to anyone elderly who is not local is through an online marketplace. In addition to changing the user interface, I would have to shift my focus of marketing.

This time around, I would need to sell how convenient the product is. Before, with the college student market segment, I would push things like how reliable the batteries and emergency supplies are, and how much those supplies would come in handy during an emergency. However, for the elderly, I would need to focus on how much time it saves them. Through interviews with some elderly folk, I learned that it takes a lot for them to get up and drive to the store. With my marketing, I would push things like how easy it is to purchase the HSK, or how they would never need to leave their home to install shutters or buy canned goods. Overall, if I can pull this off, the elderly market segment may reach a potential of sales near the number of my main market segment.