26A- Celebrating Failure

A time that I failed during this last semester was during my professional speaking course. I completely failed to organize and deliver my speech on the due date, and ultimately had to drop the course. I personally have so much anxiety when it comes to public speaking and I took the course to help with that fear. I don’t have a fear of speaking in front of an audience but rather a fear of remembering every detail and point in my speech. When I dropped the class, I was extremely hard on myself emotionally. I contemplated that I didn’t work hard enough to prepare for it and execute it, and that I could’ve done a better job at practicing my speech so I would be readily prepared. It took me a few weeks to get over the guilt from having to drop the course.

What I learned from this, is that first of all, I did the best that I could at the time. Second, I think that the fact that I’m graded on my speech and it has certain guidelines creates a lot of pressure for myself as a student and that I am not bad at public speaking, but rather bad at being held accountable for it; which is still something I need to work on because accountability is important. Third, that it’s okay to fail. Maybe dropping the course gives me an opportunity to take another course where I can actually learn more and grow from. Fourth, at least I gave the course a try and took a risk at failing, instead of shying away from the opportunity in the beginning. And Fifth, I learned that I’m better at other aspects of public speaking rather than a formatted version that was given in the class.

This class has given me the perspective that taking a risk if worth it; though not everyone is fit for certain things, and to instead, take a risk that’s more fitting to who you are and what your interests are in. Some risks I think are completely irrational decisions, and from this course, I learned that even with the entrepreneurial process every source of information is essential to succeed in the business. I think that’s relatable to taking risks in life. I need to have as much information as possible to then be able to perform a rational risk.

25A- What's Next?

Existing Market:

What makes the most sense for my venture in terms of growing my existing market, would be a strategy of market penetration. This would involve me targeting it’s market segment in specific geographical locations, and individually targeting specific demographics. As a small company with no competitors in the market, it is important for me to grow my market with my existing product/service, therefore the more people that purchase it, the higher rate of success. The goal would be to ultimately increase market share before competitors enter the market. Once I am able to attain a large market share, this will give any future competitor little avenues to market their company as we would have similar initial marketing segments already targeted and covered.

Also, relating to the purchasing-decision of consumers, considering my product is a once in a life-time purchase,that will leave competitors with no room to sway consumers to do an alternative search, repurchase from a competitor, or switch services. And with my company attaining most of the market share, my product/service will hold high credibility in the perception of future customers due to current customers post-evaluation of the product. Being that my product/service is the only one in the market consumers will have little regret about the purchasing decision considering there is no other company in the market with the same service.

My product is a prestige product due to it’s high technology and specialties, therefore lowering the price for it during future penetration would harm the credibility of it. I want to keep it as a specialty product in the eyes of consumers to create more value of the product/service.

As well as another approach for my current target market- when I attain profits I could target towards the homeless community. This would be a non-profit approach, and ultimately increase brand awareness and social responsibility for my company. This strategy would overall contribute to the safety of the homeless population and help my company build its’ brand perception of being an ethical and socially responsible product/service.

New Market:

My product/service has a direct geographic and demographic market segment in which I target. When it comes to targeting a new market, I would use the strategy of market expansion. This strategy would entail of finding consumers in separate geo-graphics and demographics than my current target segment.

From a completely opposite approach of my original strategy I could target consumers that have other needs for my product/service. This would entail of me switching the use of my product in the eyes of consumers and I could market to those specific demographics all over the nation that don’t feel human-trafficking is a threat to them. Such as, considering other threats of abduction of kids I could create a whole new marketing segment of just demographics; targeting a market segment of mothers and fathers. This would eliminate my geographic boundary as there are families all over the world, introducing a whole new avenue for my product/service. My product/service can be used for anything or any threat when it comes to ultimately finding the location of a person, and I could market value in that to the eyes of consumers.

Instead of going to a manufacturer to create the microchip, I could eventually with enough capital, be able to build a team of engineers and be able to make the microchip in my own facility. This would ultimately lower costs of B2B purchasing and would give me the ability to go directly B2C. I don’t know if this would be the most efficient way of attaining profits as I may have more overall expenses in the beginning, but it is something to be considered in terms of new strategies.

24A- Venture Concept No.1

Business Name: Micro Market.

My selected opportunity is human trafficking in Gainesville, Florida. Human trafficking in Gainesville is now marked as a green zone, which means that it’s on the human trafficking map of locations for Florida. My product/service that I could sell to customers to provide a solution this epidemic is the creation of a navigation chip that could be surgically placed under the skin of an individuals’ body. My product wouldn’t directly stop the existence of human trafficking, this  product/service would provide a large solution to where a missing individual is and where other victims of human trafficking are located. This chip would be able to give the exact location of that individual at any given time in the case of an emergency via an online website. Each chip would be given a pin to enter onto the website to track the location according to the chips pin. I could price the procedure at a low cost so that any family could be able to afford it, and also retain a percentage of the profits to donate this procedure to the local homeless community and have online representatives given the information of the homeless populations pin numbers and names in the case that one is reported missing.

My market segment can be defined as both geographical and demographic. Demographically, this problem directly affects woman, children, teenagers, and the homeless population, as well as certain races. My customers all have in common that are they are the normal target of predators due to their sex being female, and age. People under 18 such as teenagers and children are more vulnerable compared to an adult and females are more vulnerable in comparison to a stronger and larger male. I believe that customers will use my product because it can be applied to a widespread of concerns, not only concerning human trafficking. My product will offer the safety and peace of mind of knowing where a person is when needed. For a demographic that is directly affected by human trafficking, my product would be the best option to ensure someone’s safety and direct location if any concern would arise. My product is priceless when it comes to purchasing it. Any family would choose to spend the price of the product to ensure the safety of their loved one or themselves. Geographically, my market segment could target certain locations in the world where human trafficking is known to exist and pose a threat. There are many statistics online that show exactly where human trafficking cases have occurred. I could narrow down my target segment using the statistics and apply my marketing strategy directly to the states and counties that are posed the highest threats. I could also use a percentage of the funds retained to create a separate team of employees to be able to give this product/service to the homeless population because they are a major target of human trafficking as well. My team would responsible for the pins given to each individual, and if any concerns involving their location were to be questioned my team would be able to search their location and coordinate with the proper channels to ensure their safety.

My product would be new to the market. There has never been a tracking chip company that places an electronic chip in people to acquire their location for the assurance of someone’s safety. My potential customers have nothing in the market related to my product/service. The only viable relation that can be somewhat similar is the existence of “sharing your location” on an IPhone. But even this technology fails in location accuracy and can easily be dismissed by turning off the cellular device, which would no longer show that individuals location. My product/service is nothing compared to that technology; it is a new, reliable innovation to the market. Something that cannot be replicated would be that if my electronic chip is patented to be undetectable to any system or scanner. So, when the company becomes more exposed with more users, sex traffickers will also be aware that their victim could have my chip placed and try to scan the body of the victim for it; though, my chip is undetectable and cannot be found on the body through any scanner or electronic system once it is placed. This would give me a further advantage from my future competitors, because I would be the only undetectable chip with my patent.

To first launch my product/service, my distribution channel will consist of manufacturer to my facility, and my facility and team of employees will give the product/service to consumers, the end-users.  I will need to open a facility connected to a main office, where the manufacturer could ship my product directly to the facility and therefore, will be ready to be given to the main office where clients would come in to get the product and procedure done. The total price would be at $799.00 with a life-time warranty. To begin, I would have 3 surgeons on my team, 1 lawyer, 2 cleaning staff members, 4 marketers, and 2 supervisors with 4 employees coordinating and running the main facility and myself as CEO working at the office and facility. Since there are no current competitors in the market, my marketing strategy would be to sell as much of this product/service as I can and rely on word-of-mouth to market itself. As well, have my marketers spread awareness of my product to every geographic and demographic listed on my target segment. I would go full-force into marketing my product/service and hopefully be able to produce more locations once awareness and demand is increased and spread.

23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1.     No competitors in market

A.    Valuable- Allows me to penetrate the market and build a credible brand.

B.    Rare- There is usually always something in the market similar to a product/service.

C.     Inimitable- Depending on my patents, it can be imitable to an extent.

D.    Non-substitutable- There is nothing in the market of high technology relating to my service that can be substitutable.

2.     Media exposure on human trafficking

A.    Valuable- This can increase awareness for a need of my product

B.    Rare- Not really, it is increasing in exposure.

C.     Inimitable- Media can’t be imitated

D.    Non-substitutable- There can be other ways to expose human trafficking other than media based.

3.     Emotional Resource

A.    Valuable- gives me a passion for my business venture, and an emotional bond to it’s success gives me determination.

B.    Rare- It is rare to find a business venture that you’re extremely passionate about

C.     Inimitable- My emotional connection in relation to my concept cannot be imitated

D.    Non-substitutable- My other passions can be substituted for this one if they were deemed more viable

4.     Academic Resource

A.    Valuable- I am in the process of obtaining a degree in General Business with a minor in statistics. I have the proper education needed to pursue my venture.

B.    Rare- No, there are many Business majors.

C.     Inimitable- No, there are others that can imitate my academic resources.

D.    Non-substitutable- Academic education can’t be substituted, other than gaining a degree from other universities.

5.     Awareness/ Knowledge on the cause

A.    Valuable- This is extremely valuable when it comes to marketing and creating a business plan.

B.    Rare- Yes

C.     Inimitable- There are others who may have similar knowledge on the subject of human trafficking as I do.

D.    Non-substitutable- I think to be successful in my business venture, awareness and knowledge on the cause is essential so no it isn’t substitutable.

6.     Social Capital

A.    Valuable- Extremely, having the right connections to my venture is necessary.

B.    Rare- Partially, depending on who those connections are with.

C.     Inimitable- Social capital can be copied.

D.    Non-substitutable- No, social capital is essential.

7.     Human Capital

A.    Valuable- Extremely, I have the education, intelligence, health, and skills to create this venture.

B.    Rare- I think a lot of people have similar skills, but there is no one in the world that is exactly like me.

C.     Inimitable- Everyone is different, but overall in a general form it can be imitated.

D.    Non-substitutable- No. The appropriate human capital is essential to the growth of my business.

8.     Support Network

A.    Valuable- I have a ton of friends and family to be there for support when pursuing this venture.

B.    Rare- Not entirely, many people may have a great support network as well

C.     Inimitable- Anyone can have a support network, the only thing that is inimitable is if they’re not a student at UF and don’t have UF’s business schools resources.

D.    Non-substitutable- I think a support network is 100% needed to have a successful business so yes it can be substituted with other resources.

9.     Access to UF’s College of Warrington Academic Advisors/ Clubs

A.    Valuable- Definitely, the resources provided by the university could give me essential advice when creating my business plan and pursuing my business.

B.    Rare- If you don’t go to UF it is very rare

C.     Inimitable- You can use other advisory resources, but none can be exactly like UF’s.

D.    Non-substitutable- It can be substituted with other advising resources.

10.  Club Member of Woman in Business

A.    Valuable- Extremely, I have learned so much from this club and the overall organization could join me in my pursuit towards this venture.

B.    Rare- Yes, there’s only so many clubs of only Woman passionate about Business

C.     Inimitable- I don’t know how this could imitated other than creating a different club and a different name with the same focus.

D.    Non-substitutable- Yes there are other resources that can provide similar benefits.

Analysis:

After conducting my VRIN analysis, my top resource would be my first one; that there are no competitors in the market. It checked all the boxes for being valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. This resource creates the most benefits to my company once my product goes out to market. It would give me the opportunity to penetrate the market with a product/service that has never been seen before. This would immediately produce word-of-mouth by being a new innovation to the market. This directly will affect consumers buying behavior process, they only have one option and nothing to compare it to leading consumers to skip the alternative search step and lead to a purchase decision. This high penetration will allow my company to receive recognition and creditability so that once competitors do come to market, my company will have already penetrated most of it and received credibility as a proof of concept by current customers.

22A- Elevator Pitch No. 3

21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

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

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

The general theme of the book is correlated between making mistakes and learning from them. The book argues that making mistakes is inevitable when it comes to the path of becoming successful, and that these mistakes can be used as a stepping stone to learn from your decisions and grow as an individual. Overall, the book emphasized to not be afraid of making mistakes and failing at times, because they are necessary to inhibit growth and future success.

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

I can relate this book to ENT 3003, by relating it to attempting to complete these assignments. For some of the assignments listed they were pretty difficult to understand how to actually complete them and there were no assignment examples, so in the beginning of the course I just had to do my best to complete the assignment according to how I interpreted its tasks. Also, relating to a specific assignment the elevator pitch, we are given 3 separate assignments for each elevator pitch and the purpose of the assignments are to learn from our 1^st pitch, and that helped me do better for the 2^nd second pitch, and then I can apply the mistakes and critiques I got for my first two pitches, and apply that to my 3^rd elevator pitch to create the most successful elevator pitch possible.

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

For my exercise, I would have each individual write their top 3 mistakes/failures in their lifetime. And under each one, I would have them describe what they learned from that mistake and how that mistake/failure could be used to benefit their future.

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 most I can relate reading this book to an “aha” moment, is the fact that I spend a lot of time feeling dissatisfied when making a mistake, and even work overly hard on myself to prevent a mistake from happening. But as this book explains, mistakes are inevitable and they are the key stones to growth, so I realized that I shouldn’t be so hard on myself if I do make a mistake because that’s the only way I’m going to learn and grow as an individual.

20A Growing Your Social Capital

1)    One person must be a domain expert in your industry. This would be someone who's engaged in the same type of business activity as you would like to be. They may own the same kind of company that you would like to own, or they may be a technical expert who knows a lot about the kind of product or service that you would like to produce.

·      Who they are and what their background is.

After a ton of research I found a company in Wisconsin that does microchip implants in their 
employees. Patrick McMullan is the president of Three Square Market, a technology company 
that provides self-service mini-markets to hospitals, hotels, and company break rooms.

·      Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

Domain expert

·      A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I found them on google and emailed them.

·      The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

They haven’t responded to my email yet.

·      How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Well, this is the only person I found that is doing the exact thing my company would do so they would be a large impact to my network. They can give me information on how to create the product, how to service it, and contact information to a supplier.

2)    One person must be an expert on your market. This would be someone who is targeting your market with similar products services -- or knows a lot about conducting customer research in your area -- or represents a major piece of your market (this might be most applicable with B2B markets).

·      Who they are and what their background is.

I would have to use the same individual from my domain expert slot. Since he is the only individual in America doing anything similar to my company. Patrick McMullan is the president of Three Square Market, a technology company that provides self-service mini-markets to hospitals, hotels, and company break rooms.

·      Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

Market expert

·      A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I emailed them. And found them on google.

·      The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

I haven’t received a response back yet.

·      How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

They have actual experience when it comes to finding customers that are interested in this product/service. So, he would be able to help me narrow down my customer market and he could also share information on how he got customers to agree with this microchipping process even though it is invasive. That was one of my biggest concerns.

3)    One person must be an important supplier to your industry. This would be someone who is selling products and services to other organizations/firms in your industry. 

·      Who they are and what their background is.

I found a CEO named, Steve Sanghi, of a company online called Microchip Technology Incorporation. Microchip Technology Inc. is an American publicly-listed corporation that is a manufacturer of microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog and Flash-IP integrated circuits.

·      Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

Supplier

·      A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

I found this individual on google, and I emailed him and connected with him on LinkedIn.

·      The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

He hasn’t yet responded.

·      How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

This supplier would help me create an actual microchip product. He has experience in creating micro chips of “High-Accuracy Phase Measurement for 5G” with real-time response, high performance and high reliability. This is exactly what I need for my product.