Week 15 Reading Reflection

Vikram Akula: Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid

Harvard Business Review

1. The part that was most surprising to me in this article was the way that SKS Microfinance was able to earn customers. Akula states, "Many companies say they protect the interests of their customers. Very few actually sit in the dirt with them, using stones, flowers, sticks, and chalk powder to figure out if they’ll be able to repay a $20 loan at $1 a month. With this approach, we’ve created our own loyal “gang” of over 2 million customers." Average customers don't see this type of company outreach very often, and I myself as a reader, was very impressed.
2. The confusing thing about this text was the initial topic of it. Microfinance is a subject that I'm not well aware about and the matter of how it can be an answer or solution to povery for people that operate on a very small-scale is still very not understandable for me.
3. I would want to ask the author these two questions:
• What was the initial experience or memory that was the biggest inspiration for microfinance?
• How were you able to get a good team of employees that would stay in touch with your customer-first philosophy?
• I would want to ask the author these questions as his personal stories and anecdotes would provide a lot of insight and personal touches. His perspective on the customer-first philopsophy and his approaches are unique and I would want his responses on them.
4. I do not think the author was wwrong about anything in this text.

Final Reflection

1. The highs of this blog experience would definitely be my venture concept. Health Bite (read more about it on my blog!), is something that I am truly passionate about and it was a pleasure writing about the app and coming up with ideas for it. The lows would definitely be the video interviews. Not many people wanted to be recorded and declined me, and I definitely didn't have fun going up to strangers requesting to interview them. The fun moments would definitely be interviewing the people closest to me, as they had an insightful take on what they thought I was like as a person and it was interesting to hear their comments.
2. The most formative experience was definitely my interviews with actual entreprenuers. They had very insightful and wise advice they provided me with, not only in terms of an entrepreneurial mindset, but just for success in life. I would also count this as an experience that I will remember years from now, just because the interviews and their answers really resonated with me. My most joyous experiene would definitely be seeing the postive feedback that was provided for my venture concept and various elevator pitches. It's good to have that level of support and constructive criticism. The experience that I'm most proud of accomplishing is my venture concept and coming up with the ideas behind Health Bite, because I truly am passionate about it.
3. To be completely honest, I still don't fully see myself as an entrepreneur. In order to be one, I think it's important to have a more hands-on experience with rigorous day-to-day tasks that only entrepreneurs would face. How I would react in those situations would definitely give me a much more knowledgeable perspective. Nonetheless, I do believe that I have moved closer in developing an entrepreneurial mindset.
4. My one recommendation to students who are going down this path in the future is to stay organized. Entrepreneurs, much like this class, have various tasks they need to fulfill, and it's the best to stay on top of things by having good organizational skills. In order to perform their best in this course, I would highly recommend a planner and to keep an open mind. In order to foster that mindset, just be understanding of everyone's blog posts.
   

Venture Concept 2

1. Venture Concept
Opportunity

Health Bite is an app that will not only provide healthy and clean-eating recipes for college students, but they can upload photos or videos of their creations to earn points. After reaching a certain number of points, students can redeem it at certain restaurants or cafes in Gainesville that mirror with the app’s values of healthy and well-balanced eating. The app will partner with these local eateries, such as Cymplify, The Daily Green, Karma Cream, Zoe’s Kitchen etc.

I am offering to students in college (University of Florida) to eat a more healthy and well-balanced diet for their day to day meals by creating an app that offers quick and easy food and snack recipes. They are healthy and power-packed for a more balanced diet for college students.

They care because due to the different levels of stress that incoming freshmen are placed into, such as being away from home and new, scary experiences of college classes and exams, students find it easy to stuff our faces by stress-eating. It doesn’t help that the dining hall is basically an all-you-can-eat buffet. Students can find themselves eating badly because it’s convenient to cook up something that’s fast or just simply eat out. A lot of college students become unhealthy eaters, consuming meals that are high in calories and sodium, and also a diet that consist of mostly carbs. My app, called Health Bite, will be a resolve to change eating habits and diet by encouraging students to cook meals, snacks, smoothies, desserts, that are balanced and made of up good ingredients. They are quite easy to make, does not create a lot of dishes, and satisfying to eat. My goal is that other students will replicate my recipes and eat healthily as well. Then they will become accustomed to cooking good, nutritious and yummy meals at home.

I think this is a big window of opportunity because as students become more aware of the "healthy movement" and the many discoveries behind the bad products that the dining hall offers, students also want to make a conscious effort and decision into eating healthier and making better choices.

Innovation

For the app, Health Bite, the revenue drivers would most primarily be the advertising that local Gainesville eateries would do on the app. We would make sure the ads solicited would be restaurants and eateries that shared the same values as the app, in providing healthy and nutritional meals for students. These places would include, for example, the Daily Green, Zoe's Kitchen, Cymplify Cafe, Civilization, and more.

The next product offering that my customers would want from the app, would be to include promotions and discount codes to these local Gainesville eateries, that aligned with the app's healthy values. With the promotion and discount codes, college students can take a break from creating the healthy recipes and cooking, but they can still be incentivized to go to a place offering healthy dishes when eating out.

It will improve the user experience of being on the app because they can still eat healthy and delicious meals while eating out, so that they don't feel obligated to cook all the time from the recipes provided on the app. It also fosters customer loyalty, because who doesn't like discount codes to some of the best restaurants?

Venture Concept

I will utilize my core competencies would be my personality traits that can connect to the target market for this app. As an outgoing and extroverted person, it's easy for me to meet new people, talk to them, get a sense of what they want and need, and have effective communication to obtain information. Another is that I thrive in challenging, fast-paced environments as it motivates to pursue a project and see to its end. It also ensures that I have strong time management and organizational skills.In evaluation of these elements, I definitely believe that all of these factors effectively fit together. I do not think that there are any critical weaknesses in my business model, as my communication skills will effectively enable me to gage what my target market may need and want from my app. In addition, I truly am passionate and enthusiastic behind the core ideas for my app.

My target market, which are college students, will definitely want to get on board with the revolutionary idea of providing simple and easy meals that are healthy and nutritious. The app's partnership with the various local, healthy eateries will also help and incentivize students to use the app for discount and promo codes, but also pick better locations for eating.

I would create the app to be aesthetically pleasing. It would have to provide comfortability in user experience as well as offering high-resolution pictures. I will take inspiration from many popular food accounts on Instagram for visual cues, as well as Buzzfeed's Tasty videos.

2. Feedback

The feedback that I received was very positive. One comment described how much he liked the idea as he and his family try to eat as healthy as possible, and that it would be a great lesson for his kids to start getting hands-on experience with cooking and using fresh ingredients. That way, you're more aware and conscious of what you are putting into your body. Another feedback described the love for the idea and she left a comment on how she actually needs an app like this to motivate herself.

3. Changes

I did not make any changes to the idea because the feedback that I received were generally very positive and good.

4.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

Kuratko: Chapter 3 and 4

1. In this week's reading, I was surprised by the statement in Chapter 4 where it said, "First, codes of conduct are becoming more prevalent in this industry." I had always thought that there was an established code of conduct and guidelines to follow and that they had always been written up.
2. There were no parts of this reading that I was confused about as the chapters were very straight-forward and thorough in explanation.
3. I would want to ask the author these two questions:
• What is the most important ethical responsibility?
• What are the ethical considerations in a corporate entrepreneurship?
• I would want to ask the author these questions in order to gage his insight and perspective on the subject matter.
4. I do not think the author was wrong about anything in this chapter of the text.

Going for Google Gold

1. For each blog post, I made sure to follow our professor's directions to label as what week's assignments were being posted. Other than that, I don't think I've done much for search engine optimization.
2. My key words were just what the professor told us to label for titles and put in as labels in the assignments. I did not change or refine any keywords.
3. I did not use social media to enhance my SEO efforts. 
4. My most viral post would be the video post that I made, regarding my venture concept. I think it obtained the most traffic because there was a YouTube video attached to it.
5. I did not make it to the front page of Google for my key words, since I don't think I made too good of a use for them. I made it to page 3.

Very Short Interview Part 2 (Week 14)

Here is the link to my first interview:
http://jaryprinent.blogspot.com/2016/01/very-short-interview-number-1.html

• In review of my initial interview with Joseph Palermo, owner of a very successful farmer's market in Delray Beach, Florida, I would say that everything he said was correct and I would agree with his words. His answers to the inital three questions provided a lot of insight in maintaining good relations with the people you encounter in business, having the ability to recognize opportunity, and calculating risks. It's also important to remain confident and have heart. 
• I was not able to record the interview with Mr. Palermo, as he is very busy running his business in Delray Beach, while I am currently working on this assignment in Gainesville. I was however, able to reach him by email, and these were his responses to the three questions that I asked him next.  
• "Were there any big life-changing events that happened where you had to let go of an opportunity?"
• "You see, people often have this misconception that once you lose an opportunity or you let that opportunity go, it's gone for good and you'll have this huge regret and you'll always wonder, what if? Maybe that's true for other things in life, but not in business. You can't think that way in business about opportunities because that's too black and white. Thinking like that will definitely cause you to miss out on other opportunities. Opportunities are endless, and it's definitely a cycle. When you miss it once, you have to keep going and it's what you make of it, so that you're better prepared or it's better timing because they do come around again, even if it's not in the same form. Timing is everything."
• "What has been the most rewarding thus far?"
• "Having my entire family, my "boys" become a part of it and seeing them grow a passion for business too. It's a good environment, and it's rewarding to see my sons become adept businessmen too, but it's great to support family in that sense."
• "Would you have done anything differently?"
• "(Chuckles) Yea I would have actually! I would have built this farmer's market a whole lot bigger. Too much produce and fruits and way too many damn customers. There's no space!"
• (The Boy's Farmer's Market is hugely successful and crowded almost everyday. It's impossible to not have to wait in a huge line to check out and be unable to move within the farmer market because of the huge throngs of people is to be expected."
• I definitely became a lot more comfortable with discussing the concept of entrepreneurship. In this week's assignment, I wanted to gain a more personal perspective on the business of entrepreneurship, which can be seen as reflected in my questions.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

Kuratko Chapter 14: Valuation of Entrepreneurial Ventures

1. In this week's reading, I was surprised by the importance of valuation and due diligence. It did not occur to me that every entrepreneur should be able to calculate the value of his or her business and also should be able to determine the value of a competitor's operation. Some aspects that I thought were interesting in certain situations are: determining inheritance tax liability (potential estate tax liability); and raising growth capital through stock warrants or convertible loans. 
2. There were no parts of this reading that I was confused about, as it was an excellent and detailed coverage in determining the valuation of entrepreneurial ventures.
3. I would want to ask the author these two questions:
• As an entrepreneur, how would you steer clear of emotional bias, especially when it is challenging to stay objective about your own enterprise?
• What would be the best out of the three principal methods currently used in business valuations?
• I would want to ask the author these two questions as he may provide valuable insight and perspective.
4. I do not think the author was wrong about anything in this chapter of the text.

Celebrating Failure

1. I failed the first time this past semester, outside of this class. I wouldn't call it exactly a failure, but rather just incompletion, which felt like failure at the time. I had a deadline to meet for an internship and with time constraints and stress, I couldn't make that final deadline. It was a marketing brochure project that I was in charge of, but due to several computer crashes regarding photoshop, I was unable to meet the deadline. It felt like failure because it did not reflect well on me professionally and I felt like I had messed up in the "real-world", where mistakes are not as easily forgiven.
2. I learned that everyone makes mistakes and they can be used as great learning experiences. I was also thankful for the sincere and forgiving learning environment of my internship, where they understood my situation and helped me through it. Although I was mortified at the poor professional reflection, I was reminded that internships are positions where you learn from your mistakes to better prepare for future full-time employment, where hopefully these mistakes will not be repeated twice.
3. In general, I think failure is a very stressful and anxiety-inducing situation. Failure is hard, but it's only challenging to our minds because of the constant worry and gloomy state our minds are in, as we think over and over about the past mistakes. Emotionally, I try to keep is together, but I tend to overanalyze and think too hard about these situations for a couple of days. Behaviorally, I tend to act very listlessly and gloomily. I don't know how this class has changed my perspective on failure just yet, but I know myself well-enough that, I don't take big leaps when there are great risks involved. If I'm passionate enough about it, maybe. But I am also a very rational person who behaved where only the minimal or no risks will be involved in the future. 
   

My Exit Strategy (Week 13)

1. I intend to sell my business in the next 5 years, if it is successful enough, for a large profit. Since my business is an app, I would sell the technology side to more successful tech companies (i.e. YouTube sold to Google). However, I would retain a share within the company and a large degree of control on creative matters.
2. I selected this particular exit strategy mostly because I would want to move on to something else within my life. If my app is successful enough, it would make sense for me to exit, as I have described above, because more capable tech-teams would code the app to be better and ensure its long-run success. I definitely have professional and personal goals, besides this app, that I would want to be able to fulfill in life.
3. I don't think my exit strategy influenced the opportunities that I have been able to see in the business. In the stages of developing, creating, and introducing an app, you have to focus on the present and make sure that things are going well in the present, before you attempt to think about the future. That's why after you've established some level of success, you can plan for the future. How I acquire and use certain resources would all have to be focused on the current track they are in.
   

What's Next (Week 12)

Existing Market

• The next product offering that my customers would want from the app, would be to include promotions and discount codes to these local Gainesville eateries, that aligned with the app's healthy values. With the promotion and discount codes, college students can take a break from creating the healthy recipes and cooking, but they can still be incentivized to go to a place offering healthy dishes when eating out.
• Interviews
• I used the index card technique and did audio interviews on UF students.
• In terms of growing my existing market, I think that my future goals would be to quickly reach out to these local eateries to obtain partnership deals with them. Everyone that I interviewed seemed to be on board with the idea to get promos and discount codes to their favorite local healthy eateries in Gainesville.
  It's attractive to students because of the fact that they can save money by getting points to get discount codes. It also incentivizes them to go eat out at a place that serves healthier options, rather than going to a fast-food joint.
  It's attractive to these restaurants because it promotes and advertises their place.

New Market

• A radically different market that I would target would be high school students.
• They would start to learn how to cook and prepare meals ahead of college, so that they're more aware once they enter the college. It would be similar to practice for them, as well as a good learning experience.
• Interviews
• I once again used the index card technique and interviewed at the Oaks Mall. They were reluctant to be interviewed, so I used the audio method.
For some reason, my sixth interview is heaving difficulty uploading onto YouTube. It does not finish processinig and will not finish the uploading. I am contacting customer service, but feel free to message me and I can send the footage over to you through iMessage or Facebook. Hopefully the interviews I have so far gives a good enough background though,

Reflection

In the new market, I was nicely surprised by how well the idea went with these high school students. I expected that high school students would be less accepting of the idea to learn how to cook and prepare these healthy meals, as most of them are still in an environment where a parental figure cooks their meals. However, a lot of them seemed to be excited for this prospect and equally enjoyed the idea of the partnerships with local cafes and healthy eateries in Gainesville. They are not as attractive as my existing market, just because they don't have the same background incentive, but they would be strong contenders for growing my target audience once the app starts to grow and expand