30A-Final Reflection

30A- Final Reflection

1. Read through your posts from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you've had a long the way -- the highs, the lows -- the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.

2. 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?
What was most formative to me was my peer reviews, they have made such a big impact on me and the way I have constructed my business idea over the course of this class. I will always remember the assignment “Growing Your Social Capital” because I interviewed experts who have changed my perspective forever. Contacting these people and talking about my business idea really made me want to pursue it sometime in the future. My most joyous experience was also the same experience I am most proud of myself for accomplishing and that was submitting Venture Concept #1 because I felt really confident that I had finally perfected my business idea.

3. At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?
Now at the end of this semester, I do see myself as having more of an entrepreneurial mindset than I did before. Over the time I’ve spent in this course, I’ve realized that no matter how good you think your business might be, it will always have its downfalls and sometimes the business will fail and there’s not much you can do about. Yet, there is so many opportunities out there to better yourself and your business and I have started to see these opportunities from being in this class. You can always change your business idea and make it better and I believe that is something that also ties in to life itself. There will always be challenges to overcome in life, but it’s your perspective on these challenges that make or break you.

4. 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?
One recommendation I would share with students who are going to journey down this path in the future would be to never give up. There was multiple times throughout this semester that I contemplated dropping this course, and I am so happy I didn’t. I feel as though I’ve learned so much about entrepreneurship, myself, and even life. I have overcome many obstacles and every time I felt stuck and was unsure how to make my business concept a more successful idea, my classmates were there to help. The peer reviews have helped me construct my business in a way that I would have never thought of and they also gave me the confidence to pursue my idea. I would recommend that future students perform their best in this class and I hope they get the same learning experience and confidence that I have gained from being in this course. I would most definitely recommend that they foster the same entrepreneurial mindset that I have fostered over this course, even if they do not want to become an entrepreneur in the future, they should develop the mindset because it helps you see situations in a different way than you did before.

5. Illustration: 

29A-Venture Concept No.2

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity:

1. Who has the need?
I believe everyone living in the United States has the need for this opportunity. Gun violence and mass shootings are growing every year and we need to do something to stop it. Yes, these issues occur in other countries, but our country blows them out of the water.

The potential customers for my opportunity are everyone who has been affected by gun violence and mass shootings, also people who do not want to see it happen in their area. Parents are afraid to have children for these reasons so I believe as a country we need to step up and let the people know how strongly we feel about restricting gun control laws.

2. The nature of the need:
People are afraid to leave their houses, even to go to work or school, let alone malls, concerts, amusement parks, and festivals. I believe everyone, especially children, should not be scared to leave their houses due to the abuse of guns.

The main force that created this opportunity is the government not taking action to stop innocent people from dying due to the people abusing the use of guns. I believe this market can be defined geographically to the citizens of the United States and demographically it is affecting people of all ages, but the people who would be willing to back the need for stricter gun laws would be people ranging from ages 13-50. Gun abuse has only become worse over the years, I believe people under the age of 13 are just too young to understand it and people over the age of 50 may not care because they are getting old, have other things to worry about, and their kids are already grown so they may not feel as affected by this.

Customer needs of this business opportunity aren't being met because the government has done nothing to stop it, but I believe it all starts with us. If we voice our opinion loud enough, I believe the government will have no choice but to listen. This opportunity is huge and can save the lives of so many people, it can also save people from grieving over loved ones who have been taken too soon due to someone in an unhealthy state of mind owning or operating a gun. I believe this window of opportunity will be open for at least the next decade.

Innovation:
My innovations are to raise awareness of gun violence, attain stricter gun control laws, and run more extensive background checks on gun owners to stop innocent lives from being taken too soon.

I plan to start by raising awareness in my community about the abuse of guns by hosting an event once or twice a year to speak about this issue and how it is only becoming more of a problem for our generation. I then plan to extend it from my community to state-wide, then hopefully nation-wide to gain recognition from the government. Once it reaches government attention I plan to start a go-fund-me (that will be non-profit to me) all proceeds will go to the government so they can implement a law and have money to create more extensive background checks and hopefully stricter gun control.

Venture Concept:
My innovation solves the opportunity I have presented because it will save the lives of countless people in the future. I will start by raising awareness in my community over the abuse of guns by hosting an event every six months to speak about this issue, unfortunately there has been several instances in my community where young innocent lives have been taken because of someone in the wrong state of mind operating a gun, so I believe people will be willing to attend my events. After that I plan to extend my events or even create a webpage to gain awareness over this subject state-wide and hopefully nation-wide.

My goal is to eventually gain government recognition over this opportunity because it seems they are doing nothing to stop gun abuse and mass shootings in our country. I plan to start a go-fund-me to raise money for the government so they are able to afford more extensive background checks on gun owners, to make sure guns do not end up in the hands of someone who is willing to hurt themselves or others.

I believe customers will be very willing to attend events and donate money to save innocent lives. Customer support will be vital to my business opportunity because there is no way we can make this happen without them. My competitors will be people who do not want stricter gun laws because they believe it will take away their right to own and operate a gun, but that is not what I am getting at with this opportunity. I believe people should still be able to buy them if it is for the right reasons, I just think there is absolutely no reason for innocent people to be dying over the abuse of guns.

Three minor elements:
1. My most important resource is having the advantage of getting in touch with the experts I spoke to when doing assignment 20A - growing your social capital. These people are willing to speak with me about my business opportunity at any time, I believe this to be a huge competitive advantage over any competitor that tries to copy my success because they will not have the same resources that I now have.

2. The next venture would be to attain government recognition over this subject and pray that they will do something or implement new laws or regulations to stop gun abuse and mass shootings.

3. Five years from now, I hope that my efforts would be known and recognized by our country. In ten years from now, I hope the government implements new laws and regulations to stop the gun issue in our country. This first venture would achieve my vision of saving innocent lives.

Feedback: 
The feedback I received from venture concept number 1, was really positive. It made me feel really good about my business concept, my fellow classmates mentioned that I have done a great job explaining my business idea and that it is very organized, they also said that I have made great improvements for my business over the course of the class. They agree that there needs to be more regulation on guns to save the lives of innocent people, they also said that I should go through with this business sometime in the future. One thing they mentioned was that I could even change the age group down to age 14 because younger kids are starting to understand the dangers of guns.

The feedback I received from my “What’s Next” assignment was also very positive. My fellow classmates think it was a great idea to start with my community, then go on to state wide, and then nationwide. That is my most important idea for right now, but there was also the idea of extending my concept to being world-wide. The feedback I received about making it a worldwide business was negative, I am not surprised by this because even my interviewees for that assignment said it may not be the best idea or that my concept just might not work in other countries.

How I changed my venture concept: I changed the age group I am targeting due to the feedback I received, and I also tweaked a little bit about how I want to grow my business. Majority of my venture concept is still the same because my classmates said I did a great job with it and I also believe I did a good job explaining my business idea.

4. Illustration:

28A - Your Exit Strategy

1. Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?
   I plan to eventually sell the business in a few years or just let it pan out until our government fixes the gun violence problem in this country. Once the gun violence is reduced by restricting gun laws or allowing more extensive background checks so guns do not end up in the hands of the wrong person, I will feel accomplished. For me, it's not about the money, I just want to save the lives of innocent people. No one deserves to die because of someone who is mentally ill operating a gun, and I just want the government to realize that there needs to be more attention on this problem we have in our country.

2. Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?
    I selected this strategy because like I mentioned previously, it's not about the money for me. I just want our government to implement new laws or regulations to save the lives of innocent people from gun violence. In the future, yeah it would be great to sell my business and make a little money from it but I would rather just see a change in our country than gain anything from this business. I would be willing to sell it or just let it die out after changes have been implemented in our government.

3. How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?
   I don't think my exit strategy really influenced any of the other decisions I've made for my business concept. It has not influenced how I have identified an opportunity because for me it was never really about making my business a huge success, it was about gaining recognition about the gun violence issue in our country. My exit strategy has not influenced my growth intentions or any plans for resources that I had. I just want to see a change in our country and for people to feel safe leaving their homes.

27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

I read The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson.

1. What was the general theme or argument of the book?
The long tail is related to supply and demand. There are thousands of products out there that have not been purchased by a huge market, so they make up a "long tail" of items. This book was mainly about how selling things has changed so much over the last few decades due to all the technology advances. Nowadays, it makes more sense to sell a lot of products to reach a variety of different markets to make more income instead of just focusing on one product and trying to make it perfect so a lot of people will buy it. Anderson says in the book how easy it is nowadays for anyone to sell products because of the access to the internet and technological advances. 

2. How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT3003?
This book connects with this class because it talks a lot about the best way to make more sales and as an entrepreneur that is the goal. Having a variety of products that reach different markets will make you more money these days, so that could be a good point to think about when becoming an entrepreneur. It also points out how much technology has changed over the past decades, and I can't even imagine how much it will continue to change in the future, so that is also something to consider when becoming an entrepreneur or even when writing about your business opportunity 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?
I would design an exercise that had to do with a blog post about your opportunity that you chose to write about for this class. You would have to include how your business might be affected by technological advances and also how you would design your business to incorporate multiple different products to reach maximum sales.

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? 
To be honest when i first read the title of the book I thought it was going to be about how to sell less things and make more money, but I clearly read it wrong! I was very happy when I started reading this book because it seemed like valuable information I can take with me after this class and even when I start my career. I think everyone should read this book because it really explains how to have a competitive advantage over others when selling products.

26A - Celebrating Failure

1.  In the past semester I failed because of the amount of times I have procrastinated. I am not failing any of my classes, but I procrastinated my work and I am not going to receive the grades I wanted this semester. It is my first semester at UF and I have never been a fully online student until now, but that is no excuse for my procrastination. I know the amount of time and work I should put in to my school work but I tend to cram everything in last minute to just get by. I said to myself many times through out the semester that I need to be more on top of my school work every day but I never actually did it.

2.  I learned that I am never going to reach the level of success I desire if I keep procrastinating, so it's time to make a major change. I am trying something new to stop procrastinating because I know if I put in the effort I could earn straight A's. I have been making a list every week of everything I need to get done each day, and I think it is helping a lot. When I am done with an assignment I cross it off and go on to the next. I think what I learned the most is that the person I am right now is not the person I want to be, so it is time to make changes.

3.  Failure is hard and can be very embarrassing. I tend to handle failure pretty dramatically at first because it really upsets me, but then I realize we all fail and make mistakes sometimes. It is not the end of the world to fail, because I truly believe that failure is a lesson and creates a pathway to success. I think in order to reach your full potential, failure is necessary. When you fail you learn, you gain experience, and knowledge of what not to do in order to realize what it is you need to do. I think this class has changed my perspective on failure because being an entrepreneur you encounter so much of it, that in the end it helps you be more successful. I feel as if I would be more willing to take risks now than I was a few months ago.

25A - What's Next?

Existing Market:

Step 1. What's next in terms of products and services?
I want to expand my services and events of raising awareness on gun abuse to be nation-wide so we can gain government recognition and they can implement laws and/or regulations on gun laws.

Step 2. Interviewees:

Female age 21, she said that she loves my idea of starting to raise awareness on gun abuse in my own community and then expanding it to state-wide and then nation-wide. She believes we can make a difference in our country but it is going to come down to if we can get the government on our side to actually implement regulations on gun owners and limit gun control laws.

Male age 57, he believes I should start with events in my community to raise awareness on gun abuse and it could be very successful but he pointed out something to me I never thought of before. He says to get more people's support on this issue I need to make it known that I am not trying to banish citizens from owning guns. Some people might take my business idea the wrong way-thinking that I want to take away their right to own and operate a gun but that is not the case. Overall he supports my idea and believes it can save countless innocent lives in the future.

Male age 23, he said he believes my business idea could take off rapidly and successfully if I go about it in the right way. He agreed with starting with events in my community, then starting events state-wide and eventually nation-wide to gain the support of the country. After that, he said that I should get the experts I interviewed for the assignment 20A - growing your social capital, to back me up and then get the governments attention to show them how strongly Americans feel towards this issue.

Step 3. After my interviews, I have decided that it would be best for me to start raising awareness in my community about gun abuse and in my campaign I will include that I am not trying to get rid of our right as citizens to own a gun, just trying to have regulations over gun control laws to stop innocent people from dying due to gun violence and mass shootings.
After I raise awareness in my community, I will make it a state-wide event and hold it in different cities, then eventually nation-wide and start a go-fund-me to raise money to give to our government so they can afford to have more extensive background checks and pay for gun control regulations. My main goal, in terms of growing my existing market, is to gain recognition from our government so they will do something to stop gun abuse and mass shootings.

New Market:

Step 1.  A new market I could target for my business idea would be to not only focus on the gun problems in America, but the gun problems in every country. This would be a huge stretch but I believe it could happen, it would make the world a better safer place.

Step 2. My venture concept could create value for the people in other countries because it would make them safer. Even though some countries in Europe already has stricter gun laws than the US, there is still gun violence.

Step 3. Interviews:

Female age 50, my friend was born in brazil and her parents grew up there but she moved here at age 5. I was able to speak with her mother about my business opportunity. She supports my idea and believes it could work in our country. She said as nice as it would be to have more gun control in Brazil and other countries around the world, it would be an extremely hard task to accomplish. She told me to dream big, and to pursue my existing market and then hopefully other countries will see how well America is doing and will want to adopt the same regulations on guns.

Male age 45, another one of my close friends is from the Philippines and her father still lives over there. I was able to contact him by phone yesterday and explain to him my business idea. He said that he thinks it would be great for America and has the potential to be very successful, but he is not sure how we could get other countries to adopt the same idea. He said to me that he hopes after this class I actually start this business idea because he thinks our country could use young voices of this generation to change our country for the better.

Step 4. From speaking with my interviewees from the new market, nothing really surprised me and my expectations and assumptions about this new market were correct. I believe it would be really hard to get other countries around the world to adopt my business idea, but it could be worth a shot. My main goal is to make our country and the world a safer place.
This new market does not seem to be as attractive as my existing market. My best bet for this idea is to focus on my existing market and try to make that a success before even thinking about expanding to a new market.

24A - Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity:

1. Who has the need?
I believe everyone living in the United States has the need for this opportunity. Gun violence and mass shootings are growing every year and we need to do something to stop it. Yes these issues occur in other countries, but our country blows them out of the water.

The potential customers for my opportunity are everyone who has been affected by gun violence and mass shootings, also people who do not want to see it happen in their area. Parents are afraid to have children for these reasons so I believe as a country we need to step up and let the people know how strongly we feel about restricting gun control laws.

2. The nature of the need:
People are afraid to leave their houses, even to go to work or school, let alone malls, concerts, amusement parks, and festivals. I believe everyone, especially children, should not be scared to leave their houses due to the abuse of guns.

The main force that created this opportunity is the government not taking action to stop innocent people from dying due to the people abusing the use of guns. I believe this market can be defined geographically to the citizens of the United States and demographically it is affecting people of all ages, but the people who would be willing to back the need for stricter gun laws would be people ranging from ages 15-50. Gun abuse has only become worse over the years, I believe people under the age of 15 are just too young to understand it and people over the age of 50 may not care because they are getting old, have other things to worry about, and their kids are already grown so they may not feel as affected by this.

Customer needs of this business opportunity aren't being met because the government has done nothing to stop it, but I believe it all starts with us. If we voice our opinion loud enough I believe the government will have no choice but to listen. This opportunity is huge and can save the lives of so many people, it can also save people from grieving over loved ones who have been taken too soon due to someone in an unhealthy state of mind owning or operating a gun. I believe this window of opportunity will be open for at least the next decade.

Innovation:
My innovations are to raise awareness of gun violence, attain stricter gun control laws, and run more extensive background checks on gun owners to stop innocent lives from being taken too soon.

I plan to start by raising awareness in my community about the abuse of guns by hosting an event once or twice a year to speak about this issue and how it is only becoming more of a problem for our generation. I then plan to extend it from my community to state-wide, then hopefully nation-wide to gain recognition from the government. Once it reaches government attention I plan to start a go-fund-me (that will be non-profit to me) all proceeds will go to the government so they can implement a law and have money to create more extensive background checks and hopefully stricter gun control.

Venture Concept:
My innovation solves the opportunity I have presented because it will save the lives of countless people in the future. I will start by raising awareness in my community over the abuse of guns by hosting an event every six months to speak about this issue, unfortunately there has been several instances in my community where young innocent lives have been taken because of someone in the wrong state of mind operating a gun, so I believe people will be willing to attend my events. After that I plan to extend my events or even create a webpage to gain awareness over this subject state-wide and hopefully nation-wide.

My goal is to eventually gain government recognition over this opportunity because it seems they are doing nothing to stop gun abuse and mass shootings in our country. I plan to start a go-fund-me to raise money for the government so they are able to afford more extensive background checks on gun owners, to make sure guns do not end up in the hands of someone who is willing to hurt themselves or others.

I believe customers will be very willing to attend events and donate money to save innocent lives. Customer support will be vital to my business opportunity because there is no way we can make this happen without them. My competitors will be people who do not want stricter gun laws because they believe it will take away their right to own and operate a gun, but that is not what I am getting at with this opportunity. I believe people should still be able to buy them if it is for the right reasons, I just think there is absolutely no reason for innocent people to be dying over the abuse of guns.

Three minor elements:
1. My most important resource is having the advantage of getting in touch with the experts I spoke to when doing assignment 20A - growing your social capital. These people are willing to speak with me about my business opportunity at any time, I believe this to be a huge competitive advantage over any competitor that tries to copy my success because they will not have the same resources that I now have.

2. The next venture would be to attain government recognition over this subject and pray that they will do something or implement new laws or regulations to stop gun abuse and mass shootings.

3. Five years from now, I hope that my efforts would be known and recognized by our country. In ten years from now, I hope the government implements new laws and regulations to stop the gun issue in our country. This first venture would achieve my vision of saving innocent lives.