1) What was the biggest surprise for
you in the reading?
I was surprised to see an influx of new IPOS from 2006 to 2007. I would think taking a company public would not be something many companies would want to pursue.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
Figure 8-2 was confusing as I do not understand the system used to read the chart.
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
What would you do if you could not find investors as a new entrepreneur?
What is your greatest piece of advice on investing in new companies?
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
I am not very versed on finances and the author seems to be credible on the topic. Therefore I did not find anything that I disagreed with.
1) Tenaciousness is a skill. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? I have been able to develop organizational and time management skills to ensure I keep up with assignments and due dates. I also believe I have learned to be more courageous and expanded people skills. 2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk
about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you
through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during
the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to
this? I almost gave up giving out free money, because it was a hard concept for me to grasp and going up to random people. I was worried that people would think I thought of them as a charity case giving them free money and think I was crazy. Although I decided to go ahead and do the assignment. I brought a friend to help record and they helped me approach strangers. 3) Three tips. What
are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1)
fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the
'tenacious mindset' ? I would say do not be afraid to put yourself out there. Find friends in the class and discuss what strategies they may have and talk about your experiences. I was surprised to see I was not the only one struggling to do certain assignments and I found better ways to do others through their advice. My last tip is keep up with assignments and keep going even if the motivation in the beginning is just for the grade. Do not let this be the class you fail or slack on.
1) Find a business owner and talk to them about their customers. The business owner I talked to was a restaurant owner and they asked that I did not record them. Who do they think their target customers are? They believed their target customers to be local shoppers as they are located in a mall's food court. The business owner went as specific to say teenagers that regularly hang out at the mall and older adults looking for quality food as one part of their market. What are their customers' unmet needs? Their customers unmet needs are quality fast food in the mall food court. Where do they find their customers? They do not have to do much marketing as their location does the selling for them. What are their customer's demographics? Customer demographics range, but typically focus around females with the young children. 2) Next, go and talk to 3 'target customers' -- using the demographics/psychographics the entrepreneur described. The questions I asked are as follows.
What is your name? How frequently do you go to the mall? What are you looking for in food court options? What is your age, if you do not mind me asking? What is your favorite type of food? Since my business owner seemed to have a very diverse group of customers. I decided to interview a variety of potential customers ranging from 3-40.
I recorded their interviews as audio, but I was having a hard time uploading the sound. If someone has a suggestion on how to upload that would be greatly appreciated.
Here a transcript of what their answers looked like?
Interview 1:
What is your name?Leah How frequently do you go to the mall? 2-3 a week What are you looking for in food court options? Healthy and clean options What is your age, if you do not mind me asking? 40 What is your favorite type of food? Italian
Interview 2:
What is your name?Kaitlyn How frequently do you go to the mall? 2 days ( I believe she meant two times a month after talking to her mom) What are you looking for in food court options? Yummy food What is your age, if you do not mind me asking? 3 What is your favorite type of food? Pizza Interview 3:
What is your name?Payton How frequently do you go to the mall? 4 times a month What are you looking for in food court options? healthy and unique options What is your age, if you do not mind me asking? 13 What is your favorite type of food? Italian/ Pizza 3) Reflect. Does the
entrepreneur adequately understand their customers' problems? I do not think my entrepreneur understood their market as it was very diverse. But they do have a great understanding of what their customers wanted and how they could best target customers with the quality of food they offer. I feel the customers wanted healthier and faster options then the business owner expected.
I went in front of Rawling's Subway/ Pod Market for my recordings.
What kind of people will you approach?
I ended up approaching all girls that were not listening to music and seemed to be happy or smiling.
What will you say to get the conversation started?
Would you like a free dollar?
What is your plan for the conversation?
I expected the individuals I approached to ask me why I would be giving out free
money in which they did. My plan was to tell them I was giving back and trying to
make others have a better day. Although I ran into an issue when recording. Many told
told me to delete the recording or did not give me permission to use the recording.
Therefore for the last two I told them it was for a class, so they would be more
sympathetic and allow me to use the recording.
Out of five attempts, how many dollar bills do you think you will be able to give away.
I was able to give away three dollar bills. A few of the individuals I went up to gave them back because they didn't want me using the recording and felt bad taking the dollar. Others just ignored me and acted like I was a flyer in Turlington.
Reflection: Giving away dollars was easier than I thought. I believe this to be because college students love the word free. Although I ran into issues when approaching people, I always was cautious in who to approach because I didn't want to offend anyone or waste their time. Despite being nervous and having someone with me to record I feel it went smoothly compared to my expectations. I wish I didn't have to record the interactions as they were more forced and robotic interactions. It was also hard for people to allow me to record them. If I have the opportunity to do this assignment again I might position myself somewhere where people typically wouldn't be rushing off to class or studying or meetings, etc. to ensure a better reaction. I also would ask them if they would allow me to record them as one of my first questions. instead of last.
1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In
other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your
expectations?
The biggest surprise for me was that even if you successfully
catch the attention of its market such as the Miller Lite Ad, there was not an
increase in sales.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was
confusing to you.
The stake holding chart is confusing to me as it is very
overwhelming with the amplitude of information it possesses.
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what
would you ask? Why?
What is the greatest risk you have taken? Did it pay off?
What is your leadership philosophy and why?
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about?
Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
The part about customized cat food was intriguing. But have
to disagree in different situation customization does raise cost, but many would
be more than willing to pay the upcharge in order to customize.
2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch.
I appreciated hearing that my pitch was enthusiastic and intriguing. I also loved hearing people say they would actually participate in my program and were excited to save money. I also liked seeing others pitches to see how i can improve my own and get to see their business ventures.
3) What did you change, based on the feedback?
I changed my approach and attempted to focus more on my concept instead of just the numbers I used in my first one. I wanted to make sure the audience was engaged so I put them in the situation more and pulled them into my situations.
Target college age students and understand if this opportunity can be successful.
Questions:
What is your year and major/college?
Have you ever been tempted to not buy a recommended book and just use supplements like Smokin Notes due to price of textbooks?
How much do you spend on textbooks each semester?
Would you rather use e-texts or physical textbooks?
Would you be willing to participate in a give a book get a book program
2) Conduct the interviews.
3) Reflect on what you learned.
I will admit it felt very unnatural and almost infomercial like to film my interviews. During some interviews I ended up having to rerecord the interview due to laughter between myself and the interviewee. Although at the end of the five interviews I was excited to see a positive response to my give a book get a book program. I was scared many of the students were going to say no they do not use physical textbooks anymore and just prefer to use e-texts or supplements like Smokin Notes, but I was pleasantly surprised that a majority of the interviewees would rather use a physical textbook which would make my program a success. Students are spending thousands to get an education and all seem to have a similar interest in saving as much money as possible. The average student spends anywhere from $300 to $500 on textbooks and supplements each semester and with my program I hope to drastically change that number. I also learned that I am going to be challenged by competition such as rental textbook companies and people not participating due to the need to have access codes still. Although I plan to make my program successful through organization and engaging advertisements.
1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?
The most surprising fact was that a fast-growing industry is not always a profitable one.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
The most confusing part wasn't the reading, but how to access to the article. I wish I had a better and faster way to get to the article.
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
What is your personal philosophy for life?
How do you deal with failure?
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
No I agree with the author.
1) You. My name is Domenica DeYoung. I am first year management major. I tend to be a very passionate, driven, and dedicated individual. Whenever I participate in an organization, event, etc I put my whole heart and soul into everything I do and never miss an opportunity to help others out. I have experience with many different leadership positions. Most of my positions have revolved around ensuring there is constructive communication within the organization and outside of the organization such as communicating with Alumni. I aspire to be successful and learn as much as I can through all my experiences. I can see Gator Book Exchange consuming a large portion of my life, but it aligns with my values of service and passion. 2) What are you offering to customers? College students around the world spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks that they only use for a semester. Many of those textbooks sit around and go unused. I want to change this and hopefully reduce the amount spent on textbooks with a give a book get a book program. The Gator Book Exchange program would occur at the end of each semester when students are registering for new classes and finishing up old ones. Each participant will donate old books and receive books for their next semester in exchange. Let's work together to cut down the cost of college! 3) Who are you offering it to? I am specifically targeting returning University of Florida students across all majors and minors. In order to ensure success I might start on smaller scale and with college I know best. Therefore I would start out with a business student Gator Book Exchange and then learn from my mistakes there and bring it to a larger target being the entire campus. 4) Why do they care? As I college student I understand the cost of textbooks and how loans are not fun to take out. I also understand that majority of college students no longer are focusing more on supplements instead of textbooks and I want to change that mentality. 5) What are your core competencies? My passion and drive sets me a part from others. I am not one to quit when times get hard, I persevere. Being a college student myself I am able to connect with my peers and know how to bring their attention to my program through social media and word of mouth. I believe that a great leader is someone that knows when to ask for help and knows how to utilize a diverse set of strengths. I love to organizing events, but there are still logistics and kinks that others may have creative solutions for. For that reason I believe it important to find others that have a similar passion with different perspectives that could ensure a stable program.With that being said I feel like my core competencies and my passion for this program with make sure my business opportunity is successful and has an impact on UFs campus.
1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading?
I was surprised to see a pitfall being ignorance of legal issues as I figured legal issues to be on every persons mind when going into business ventures.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
Implementation of the formulas on page 269 were confusing to me as they just seem to be jarring all on one page and sort of random facts.
3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
One of the pitfalls in selecting new ventures is poor financial understanding, What is the best way to combat this downfall?
What ideas would you import from USA to countries or continents lacking the idea? (Example: Moonlights from Importing Good Ideas)
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
I did not find anything particularly wrong with the authors stances this chapter. Although I think it is important to add Uniqueness to pitfalls because sometimes things are trendy and not versatile and die with the trends. It is important to have a uniqueness factor, but also some traditional long standing trends to supplement ones business when a trend such as cupcakes dies down such as having a cake business along side the cupcakes specialties.
College students around the world spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks that they only use for a semester. Many of those textbooks sit around and go unused. I want to change this and hopefully reduce the amount spent on textbooks with a give a book get a book program. The program would occur at the end of each semester when students are registering for new classes and finishing up old ones. Each participant will donate old books and receive books for their next semester in exchange.
2) Fine tune the "who." Last time I did talk to the right customers as they were all UF students, but I wanted to expand my market by talking to diverse years the second time around. I also wanted to interview an even amount of men and women to see if based on gender there would be a change in preference.
3) Tweaking your interview questions. I asked the same questions as they seemed to be effective and get the point across. The only question I did not use in every interview this time around was my question on whether they were tempted to buy supplements instead of textbook due to textbook's high expense. Because it seemed to wordy and would lose the customers attention.
4) Go talk to customers!
5) Tell us what you learned about the opportunity. So far 9/10 potential consumers I interviewed seemed to be intrigued by Gator Book Exchange. Although I can see a few flaws that I would need to attack early on. One major problem is the rise in reliance on online textbooks and rental textbooks which would result in a less engaged backing.
6) Tell us what you learned about interviewing customers.
1.) How to respectfully interact with a potential customer after they say they wouldn't want to participate in my program.
2.) It might be important to interview a variety of majors to ensure the entire campus would participate.
3.) The book exchange can be a success, but I need participation and it may be hard to rally and ensure widespread support.
College students around the world spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks that they only use for a semester. Many of those textbooks sit around and go unused. I want to change this and hopefully reduce the amount spent on textbooks with a give a book get a book program. The Gator Book Exchange program would occur at the end of each semester when students are registering for new classes and finishing up old ones. Each participant will donate old books and receive books for their next semester in exchange. Let's work together to cut down the cost of college!
