14A–Halfway Reflection

14A–Halfway Reflection: Tenacity & Paying it Forward

Tenacity is a competency: 

In order to keep up with the requirements of this course, one behavior I have had to develop is a schedule. There is a lot of work that comes with this class. The work is not difficult, but it does take time to complete. Therefore, in order to succeed you do not want to leave everything for one day. To keep up with this course, I have had to develop a schedule of when to complete assignments, that way each week I can consistently meet deadlines and not worry about having to do it all on one day.

Tenacity is also about attitude:

There have definitely been moments when I have felt like giving up. Before I had a set schedule for this course, I would sometimes forget to complete assignments and would have to complete them all in a short amount of time. With the interviews and work beforehand that come with certain assignments, these situations were not ideal and I would feel like giving up. However, knowing the reward that would come with completing the assignment and the good grade I would be able to achieve in this class pulled me through. I do feel like I have developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months; I have always been a committed person, but especially in this course I can see how this is a critical characteristic of an entrepreneur.

Three Tips:

1. Make sure to set a schedule and stay organized to set yourself up for success.

2. Put your full effort into every assignment; they are designed to help you learn, and are really enjoyable if you try your best on each one.

3. When hard times come, remember the end goal and the reward that comes with persevering.

13A–Reading Reflection No. 1

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

What surprised you the most? What surprised me the most after reading is book was the amount of scrutiny the Wright brothers received. They were watched and discouraged by the military, the press, etc. Prior to reading this book, I had no idea that their invention was controversial.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? I most admire the tenacity of the Wright brothers. They had to push through a great deal of setbacks, and risked a lot to see their invention succeed (even their own lives). It takes a large level of dedication to not give up after so many failures and judgment, and I really admire that about the Wright brothers.

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? There is not much I least admire about the Wright brothers. They are exceptional entrepreneurs, and I did not notice any traits in their story that I disliked while reading the book.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? The Wright brothers faced a great deal of adversity and failure. The community often times thought their flights were a joke and did not believe them we they succeeded; additionally, they had many failures and crashes before they were able to finally succeed. Whenever they faced adversity and/or failure, they always persevered through and were able to find a solution to their problem with hard work and focus.

What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? The Wright brothers exhibited hard work, focus, and tenacity. They had an idea, and were able to see their idea come to life by pushing through every obstacle and not quitting until they found a solution.

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was when the book discussed how the press would not give the Wright brothers the attention they deserved. I feel like this was a huge invention that no matter what the size should receive press, but the book explained the press was not impressed, which was very surprising.

If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I would ask the Wright brothers why they did not stop after they were able to fly the first time. The brothers kept on working to make their invention go longer, fly higher, and overall be better. I find this interesting, and wonder if they had a set goal where once that was achieved they were willing to stop experimenting.

For fun: What do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I believe the Wright brothers saw hard work as persevering through all obstacles and achieving a successful end goal, no matter what the cost. I do agree with this, but maybe would limit the physical aspect of hard work as I do not see achieving a goal always as a justifiable reason to risk your life.

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Figuring out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: The segment I chose to interview are college students who have an existing online service as their primary way to stay organized and keep track of deadlines.

Interview #1: The first person I interviewed was a freshman in her second semester at UF. When I asked her how effective Canvas was in organizing her deadlines, she responded with not effective at all. When I asked her why she continued to use Canvas, she said she had no better alternative. In reality, she uses Canvas as a general guideline but just tries to remember when everything is happening instead. This clearly wasn't working for her, as she frequently misses deadlines for assignments. She became only ware of the need of a different organizational platform during our conversation. To find a solution, she said she would Google "planner" or "college organizer" and also ask her friends what they use to stay organized.

Interview #2: The second person I interviewed was a junior in her seventh semester at UF. She uses Google Calendar as her primary way of staying organized. When I asked her how effective this was, she said it was great and works well for her.  As a very involved student, she likes having her club meetings and her school work on the same platform. However, she did say it was very tedious having to manually add every deadline onto her calendar, and she would greatly like if there was a service that inputted it all into a calendar for her. In the end, she said she did not have a need for my service, but if it was available she would consider switching over to my platform.

Interview #3: The third person I interviewed was a sophomore in his fifth semester at UF. He uses Egenda, a phone application to keep track of all his deadlines. When I asked him how effective this platform was at helping him not miss deadlines, he said it helps a lot in the beginning of the semester but not so much later in the semester. When I asked him why, he said it was too hard to manually input dates throughout the entire semester. During syllabus week, it is easy to enter in the given deadlines, but as they change throughout the semester it is too hard to keep up and add it all into the app. He does have a need for the platform I am offering, and said if he were to search for a new platform he would ask his friends for what they use and also look in the App Store by searching "planner".

Summary: I would cater my platform to younger students who need to find a way to stay organized as they transition to college. Additionally, I would make sure my product is searchable by the terms "planner" and "organization".

11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. You: I am a second-year Business Administration student. I am very organized, and use multiple platforms to ensure I have both my school and work deadlines listed so they are never missed. I understand what it is like to miss a deadline and have that negatively affect your performance in a class, so therefore I am very passionate about my service. Additionally, I have tried just about every organization platform so I have an extensive knowledge about this opportunity. If I were to start this opportunity, it would take up a huge part of my life; however, I am not pursing this opportunity.
2. What: I am offering an organization platform for students, so they can have all of their school deadlines consolidated onto one platform. Professors would submit all class deadlines onto the platform, and students can log onto the website every semester, select their classes, and have all their deadlines all in one place.
3. Who: My customers are students at the University of Florida. They all share a common unmet need of not having found a successful way to organize their deadlines.
4. Why: Customers will want to buy my service because it will solve their problem of not being able to stay organized. They will be able to have all their deadlines consolidated onto one platform, and have it updated by their professors. They will save time by not having to do this themselves, and will have higher grades as they will miss less deadlines.
5. Core Competencies: There is no other platform that is catered specifically to the University of Florida and is updated by professors. Therefore, my platform offers a unique service that no other does. It allows for students to get their deadlines straight from the University, so there is no doubt they are accurate.

I believe these aspects of my business do fit together. I think to make my business concept more competitive and all-inclusive, I should add student organizations to this platform as well. If I added organizations such as Dance Marathon, Student Government, etc. and gave their executive boards access to add their meetings to the platform, students would be more incentivized to use my service. Additionally, I could also give students the opportunity to add their own meetings to the platform. I believe more students would be willing to use my service if I implement these points as then the calendar and to-do list will be more inclusive of all aspects of their schedule. 

10A – Elevator Pitch No. 1

Elevator Pitch No. 1

Follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DhhJJNjP5o&feature=youtu.be

9A–Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

9A–Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: There are definitely some people that share a lot in common with the people in my opportunity, yet they still fall outside the boundary. There are students who have a lot of assignments and have trouble remembering deadlines. However, they still fall outside of my opportunity boundaries. Some of these people believe my opportunity is too similar to Canvas, and therefore do not have a need for my software. Others simply do not want to depend on technology and believe traditional methods such as a planner are more efficient. Another person I interviewed did not think professors would cooperate. Overall, they shared many similarities with people in my opportunity, but still fell outside the boundary.

What: At some point, the need to be organized many differ between customers. Some may need to see a physical layout of their week, such as a calendar to plan effectively for their week; others prefer a daily list format. Different people may not want a physical layout, but instead reminders sent to their phones when a deadline is approaching. The need varies between wanting to plan ahead or instead wanting to have a reminder when deadlines are close.

Why: The underlying cause of outsider's need is different than those inside the boundary. Those outside the boundary may need some form of organization, but they already have an established system that works for them. People inside my boundary, however, typically would use this resource as their primary method of organization. Their why is a form of organization, while others outside the boundary do not see it as a sufficient second form of organization to utilize.

Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
People who need a primary form of organization	People who need a secondary form of organization
A way to consolidate all deadlines onto one platform	A secondary way for students to double check their deadlines
Students are missing deadlines and need a way to stay organized	They do not see a need for an entire secondary platform for organization

8A – Solving The Problem

Solving the Problem

Opportunity: College students have difficulty organizing and keeping up with all of their assignment due dates, whether that be on a calendar or a list.

I believe a solution to my problem would be a website where all professors are required to submit their assignment deadlines, project due dates, exam dates and times—anything students need to submit. Students would then be able to log into the site and click the classes they are enrolled in, and the assignments would auto populate onto a calendar and a to-do list in chronological order. The students would then be able to see everything due and when for all of their classes. Additionally, if any due date changes, the professors would be required to go into the system and change the date, which would automatically update the calendar and to-do list. Students would also be able to add their own personal assignments that may not be assigned, such as readings or study times. That way, everything for classes is consolidated onto one platform that is updated by their professors.

7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1. Opportunity: College students have difficulty organizing and keeping up with all of their assignment due dates, whether that be on a calendar or a list.

2. 

Who: Students at UF.

What: Students are unable to keep up with their many assignment due dates.

Why: Each professor distributes dates differently, whether it is in a syllabus the Canvas calendar, or by email. Additionally, when these dates change they may only change on one platform and not update onto others.

3. I believe this opportunities exists for all students at UF; every student in some way must find a way to organize their assignment due dates in order to succeed. There are boundaries to my hypothesis; every student is different, and not all may prefer the platform I create. Additionally, it will take cooperation from professors to provide me with their assignment dates and any changes to them, which may be difficult to coordinate. There are many why's for my hypothesis. I believe the 'why' I have identified holds true to everyone; everyone needs to stay organized in some way.

4. 

Interview 1:

I first interviewed a freshman at UF. When I told her about my idea, she immediately agreed. Transitioning to college, she found extreme difficulty in organizing all of her assignment deadlines and exam dates. Her first semester, she found herself missing assignments simply because she either recorded them wrong off Canvas or a due date changed and she missed the announcement. She never had this issue in high school, yet the increased workload and decreased support for college students is he  reasoning as to why this is occurring. 

Interview II:

The next student I interviewed was one of my peers in class. She is in her fourth semester here at UF. After telling her my idea, she also agreed that students need an organized, cohesive platform where all due dates are listed. However, her reasoning was different than my first interviewee. After being a student for so long, my peer had developed a system for recording her assignment due dates. Her system works, and she has never missed a deadline. However, she would like the resource I proposed as a way to crosscheck her lists with a different platform, as an added security.

Interview III:

The third student I interviewed was a senior at UF. When I proposed my idea to him, he agreed that this would be a great resource to students. Over his time at UF, he never found one way that served him best to stay organized. After trying physical planners, sticky notes, and the Canvas calendar, the best method he found to recording assignment deadlines was Google Calendar. However, he emphasized to me that Google Calendar has its flaws, including that you have to manually input everything. He concluded that an automatic system would be a great resource to students.

Interview IV:

The fourth student was another one of my classmates, who I noticed used a physical planner. When I proposed my idea to her, she did say the idea was interesting, yet automatically told me my idea would not benefit her. She believes she has the best system by recording everything by hand, and would not be willing to transfer to an automized system. She was not comfortable trusting it, and would rather create her own schedule and cross check her lists over multiple platforms rather than use an automated system that has the potential to mess up.

Interview V:

The last person I interviewed was another freshman who takes all online classes. When I proposed my idea to her, she was not very receptive to it. She said Canvas already has a calendar, so why create a new one? She said because she is in online classes, every assignment is submitted through Canvas and therefore is on the calendar based on programmed deadlines. She has no need for a different system, yet she did understand that traditional students are facing an issue that she does not because she is fully online.

5. After completing interviews, I realized that my system may not be useful to all students at UF like I thought. Some students have systems that work for them, and do not have an unmet need. However, I do believe my system could be a great resource to many students, and therefore the opportunity still exists.

6A – Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Economic Trends:

1. Coronavirus and jobs in the US

A. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51276323?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c1038wnxypvt/us-economy&link_location=live-reporting-story

B. Why this Opportunity Exists: This is an opportunity, because US companies have the opportunity to hire from the US workforce rather than outsourcing to China.

C. Who is the Prototypical Customer: The prototypical customer is any US worker.

D. Exploiting the Opportunity: This opportunity will be difficult to exploit, as the impact of this virus is unknown; it could be remedied soon or last very long and spread even into US. Because it is so unpredictable, it will be difficult to exploit this opportunity.

E. Why I saw this Opportunity: I saw this opportunity because I have been reading the news about the coronavirus, and have read about the impact this virus is having not just on people but also the economy.

2. Decrease of jobs in Retail

A. Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/05/booming-jobs-market-is-leaving-the-retail-industry-behind.html

B. Why this Opportunity Exists: I believe an opportunity exists because there are people without jobs (unmet need) that could be working in retail.

C. Who is the Prototypical Customer: The prototypical customer is anyone who needs a job, in particular who is comfortable working/looking for a job in retail.

D. Exploiting the Opportunity: I believe this opportunity is relatively hard to exploit, as jobs in retail are declining for a reason: because of the increase in online shopping. 

E. Why I saw this Opportunity: I saw this opportunity because both myself and many of my friends have experience working in retail; it was interesting to read that other young adults may not have that same opportunity in upcoming years.

Regulatory Changes:

1. Plastic Straw Ban in Gainesville

A. Source: https://mycbs4.com/news/local/gainesville-plastic-straw-ban-goes-into-effect-on-january-1

B. Why this Opportunity Exists: I believe the plastic straw ban in Gainesville is an opportunity because customers who are used to using plastic straws now have an unmet need.

C. Who is the Prototypical Customer: The prototypical customer for this opportunity is people who are used to using plastic straws.

D. Exploiting the Opportunity: I believe this opportunity is relatively easy to exploit, as this is a dramatic change taking place in the city of Gainesville, and people will be looking to see what the new normal is; there is an opportunity to influence the shift businesses take following the straw ban.

E: Why I saw this Opportunity: I believe I saw this opportunity because I am a plastic straw user; therefore, I see this as an opportunity because I am one of the customers with an unmet need now that I can no longer use plastic straws.

2. Legal Age to buy e-cigarettes and tobacco products rises to 21

A. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/health/cigarette-sales-age-21.html

B. Why this Opportunity Exists: I believe this is an opportunity because there is now a group (people who use tobacco products ages 18-20) who can no longer buy these products and therefore have an unmet need. 

C. Who is the Prototypical Customer: The prototypical customer for this opportunity are teen tobacco users.

D. Exploiting the Opportunity:I believe this opportunity is relatively easy to exploit because there are many teens who are more than willing to do whatever it takes to possess tobacco products.

E. Why I saw this Opportunity: I believe I saw this opportunity because many of my peers were affected by the legal age rising; they used to use e-cigarettes, and are trying to figure out what to do now that they can no longer legally buy these products anymore.