28A- The Exit Strategy

The exit strategy I plan to take is the large return. One of my good family friends sold his computer program company for millions of dollars and it was taken over by Microsoft. I plan to sell College Concierge to the highest bidder. It is more of a concept than a business so I do not have an emotional attachment to it.

I selected this strategy because the high return gives me the opportunity to put money away early for my family. This way it can gain interest in a mutual, trust or other funds and accounts.

I definitely think it has influenced my business decisions. I look at this company as a quick buck. A cash cow to keep me thriving and thinking. That is where this whole idea came from, from me working hard, while so many of my friends were lazy.

27A- reading reflection no.3

Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, Chris Anderson

The general them of the book is about how there is a new industrial revolution. This is the age of digital manufacturing and everything else that goes along with it. We design on computers, build with atoms, and have machines doing the work, Capital for manufacturing has shifted and it now about the personal mind and not necessarily about the corporate world.

This book connected with ENT3003 because its about new thinking. thus class is about finding new ways to solve problems and to get your idea out there. In Makers, Anderson describes how we can do anything we set our mind too because of the new abilities we have, like crowd sourcing.

an class assignment would be to see how much potential money we could raise for our entrepreneurship ideas. We would do a fake crowd sourcing of 5 people. We would see the potential of the money we could raise from these 5 people. depending on the amount "given" it would be the possible success of the concept.

I learned that in reality i can become part of this group. I can learn to design my self and build my self. If it came to it i can raise money myself without investors by having hundreds to thousands of people donate for my venture concept.

26A- Celebrating failure

1. Here at UF I am in the Navy ROTC program as i have mention before. at the end of the semester you have to take a fitness test that assesses your ability to be fit enough for the navy. This is called the Physical Readiness Test(PRT). In this test you segment is the 1.5 mile run. In order to pass you need to run it in or under 11:30. While i always pass I have issues of making it past a threshold. Depending on your score, you get ranked among your class mates, the faster you run, the higher you rank. My best speed is 11:05. for the whole semester i have been trying to improve my time to 10:30 but I have failed every single time. The beginning of the semester i was running it in 11:29. At the end i ran it in 11:05. Although I practice my running i have failed every time to make it past 10:30, I have always been a slow guy but that is not an excuse.

2. I learned that training is everything, that I need to just train harder and harder and I will get it. More effort is needed.

3. I do not think this class changed my view. I have always been a oh well, type of person. I have always taken risks in school, girls, and even navy. While this class is great to learn about risks, it has not changed my perspective.

25A- Whats next

What is next for College Concierge is a revamping our locations. Instead of just being in the Gainesville area, to other big college towns or cities. To do this I will have to hire, regional managers or some other management figures to run said city. Also, if it gets bigger then each of those regional managers will have branch managers and so on.

       I talked to a couple of freshman girls, out of state girls and other wealthy students. I asked them is there other services or idea they think that College Concierge can come up with? After some explanations the best thing I was told was to include categories of each service. Instead of having to type out a request, someone has already done, you can select previous ones. Mainly ideas about how to make my app and website better. Also, to include ratings and reviews on worker profiles.

       My path for the future currently involves expanding the company and bettering the app. Our expansion into different cities and college town is dependent on how successful we are here. If we are successful and word gets around, then the process can be sent to another area. The great thing is that there is no physical store it is just the manager, employees and customers. If it fails, then there is no real collateral damage.

       Our app and website can be improved by making easier categories and drop-down menus. Everything that is more intuitive and simple makes users happier to use it, and more encouraged to. I hate craigslist because it is so ugly, But eBay looks great.

Since my target market is more on the wealthy side, I decided to go on the poorer side like suggested. This market would be instate students male or female of all ages.

I think for people in my new market they are no incompetent. They are hardworking and the previous service of being to lazy or not being able to do the service doesn’t apply. This would be more of an assistance-based service. They are going to be at work all day and they need their laundry done. Or someone to fix the sprinkler when they cannot. This the value College Concierge can bring.

I interviewed two of my friends who have no help financially from home and work full time at restaurants while also going to school. When I asked what I could do for them they did not see anything at first. When I explained that it’s a price negotiations service however, they said they would possible employ them for simple things like laundry and painting that they cannot do themselves. The catch is that it needs to be cheap for them or else they would never use my service. However, when I asked them if they use uber or food delivery they laughed.

I had no real surprises. I assumed people with financial struggles would not want to use my service. People like this are already independent. They do not need to spend money on things they can do themselves for free. My dad always made me do all the maintenance work around the house or we would do it together. He said why pay for it when we can do it ourselves.

This new market is not attractive as the current market. In my current market there is just enough money to go around. My current market doesn’t really spend their own money, Its “daddy’s” money. While this is sad, it is still the group that I target in order to have College Concierge make money.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Venture Concept

The opportunity here are mainly freshman females. They are from out of state, and their families are wealthy or in the upper middle class. Also included in this demographic are other girls and boys that are from upper middle class or wealthy families. There are two natures of the need, one is the nature of laziness and not wanting to do things themselves, and the second is they cannot do the need themselves. Either they weren’t taught it, or it was done for them their whole lives. The changes that caused this demographic is the stipulation for richer people to leave their home states and “get away” to other prestigious colleges like UF. This market is mainly in the Gainesville area, or any college campus with this demographic. Currently they do things themselves, have friends do it, or use delivery services for like uber, or EZlaundry. Currently they are not loyal and would love to find new companies or products that can do more for them. This opportunity is big with thousands of out of state and or rich students coming to UF. This window will be open as long as someone else is paying their bills.

My innovation is College Concierge. It is an all-encompassing service for college students and other locals to find quick jobs to do or get quick jobs done for them. It works by using the college concierge app or website. Essentially a customer will put in a request either to an individual or to the workers in a total together. Let’s say that someone needs their laundry done. They will submit a request “Laundry, full load of whites, one full load of colors, folded”. This will be sent to every worker in the area and the first one to except it will negotiate a price with the customer and get the job done, or deny the request, Lets say this customer loves the job that an individual college concierge does on their laundry, they can specifically ask only them to do it, without interference from other employees of concierge. The way I and the customers make money is an 80/20 split. When they negotiate or have a set price for a service, they will keep 80% and I will be given 20%. The justification is am giving them an easy forum and way of ordering and contact between worker and customer.

The opportunity I identified is solved because this demographic of people are needy and do not and or cannot do services themselves. Customers will buy it because they are lazy or do not know how to unclog the toilet, do laundry, make dinner, etc. In reality the only difficulty I see is people trusting my employees to maybe come to their house. However, to counteract this everyone must go through background check and some type of interview with me, or as the company expands regional managers and other management types. The only competitors are delivery services, but these cover such a small niche when my company covers many making it smarter to us College Concierge than others. While I don’t have packaging an aesthetic logo, and an easy to navigate and good looking app/website is very important, and customer support will be handled with the management, specific worker, and the customer if there are any issues. As said before the more it expands the more management types will have to be hired on a hourly, or salary basis as they will not have time themselves to go out and do the jobs.

The most important resource I have are my mentors and original people who help build up, and support College concierge and myself. As of right now there is no where this company to go as this product can expand indefinitely and people will always need random, or consistent services done. If College Concierge becomes successful I would love to be a mentor, and investor for other entrepreneurs who need help starting up their businesses.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. I have the demographic that would most likely use this product: freshmen girls from out of state

Other people do not have the access to this demographic for a service like mine, the only thing close enough to is are food delivery services

2. I have someone ready to make the app.

My friend Zack is very good at app building and said he would be on board for either a small fee or for stake in the company. however i could always hire someone else to create it.

3. I have my Social capital.

The people from my social capital post are irreplaceable and are people o look to as mentors.

4. I already have three workers ready including my self for the launch of my app

Many other companies do not know who will be working even before hand, I have this advantage. Some other companies are family run so they have workers as well as loyal people.

5.  While i would hate to spend all the money i have saved in my life so far i could take enough out to start the business.

My business is relatively cheap and the employees figure out the price for you. I may have more money and a cheaper company than others

6.  My company is ever adapting and constantly expanding.

You can create a new employee for anything as long as there is a demand, also my employees can do multiple jobs. When that demand leaves so will my employees if they are only good at one thing.

7. Customers get to choose what we "serve".

No other company does this, customers ask what they need and we respond with a service. Sometimes however people do not know what they need.

8. I am an electronics based business.

Nothings needs to be done in person except the actual job. Some people may feel like this is impersonal.

9. My employees and customers decide how much they are paying and how much they are receiving.

This makes me almost impenetrable to strikes and issues with both customers and employees, unless there is a demand for the payment percentage to change.

10.  people get to work on their own time.

This is great and makes people happy, but people are inherently lazy and may not work making my profits decrease.

I believe the people in my social capital are the most valuable source because they will help me even if I fail and will be mentors and motivators if i choose to start this business.

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

Feedback

After being completely  "constructively criticized" by Pryor I got a lot of feedback. essentially he told me that my whole pitch was wrong. This included my pronunciation, hook, and who I should be marketing to. Why I thought that everything he said was silly and he did not explain that he would be presenting these in front of the whole class and criticizing them I changed everything about my presentation taking all of his advice because he is the professor and I need a good grade.

Change

I changed everything. I rewrote my pitch. Instead of directing it at customers, I made it towards possible employees interested in this type of work. first off I made sure to pronounce concierge correctly. I changed the hook so that it caught the attention of some looking to make money on the side. I also included how the pricing would work for someone using the college concierge app.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

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

The general them of the book was that things will not always go your way. You need to adapt and overcome in order to be successful and it may take seem time. Changing how you think and how you work will be the best and do not stress about things you cannot control.

Hit connected me to ENT3003 because it showed me that not every entrepreneurship story is perfect. There is always failure and one it takes time to get your perfect idea to work. As an entrepreneur Adams failed many times and he did not make it big until Dilbert when he was well into his life. Like we learn in the class, you have to revise and keep on trying.

An assignment I would create is a goals to systems activity. Where the student takes three goals of theirs and converts them to systems. Like he explains goals will most likely be disappointing, but systems give you room to be successful.

My aha moment was how he changed the idea that making yourself uncomfortable is the best way to learn and expand. Rather he explains that fund yourself a comfortable place to be in order to become comfortable and take risks.