Final Reflection

This course has been a hell of a ride. At the start, I came in guns a-blazin', unaware of the road ahead of me but confident that it'd be a smooth ride: just a few blog posts a week, right?

Wrong.

Interviews? Five of them? Reading reflections? Elevator pitches? Product development? Customer and market research? Due at the end of the week? HELP.

We can all agree that our schedules (or lack thereof) at one point in time, got the best of us in this course. We all had days of dread, days where we said, "You know what? Screw it, this assignment just isn't getting done today." We've had days where we have said, "No, these assignments are easy, I can do it, and I will have it done ahead of time and get my points in for this week." We learned by practice how to be tenacious students.

Yeah, it might have been a little overwhelming here and there, but there were certainly times where this was the only class I WAS looking forward to doing work for. As the class went on and we dove deeper into our venture concepts, I became so passionate about my project and my research. I was striving to do so much more, to learn, to expand my network and my idea, to actually DO something with my idea rather than just ponder.

I will always remember the assignment we did midway through the course, My Secret Sauce, was also my most joyous experience. Having to take a step back from my project and interview others about myself was eye opening. It truly amazed me what people saw in me, and the faith that others had in my character and drive. This was a turning point in this class for me, and I found so much more motivation to pursue my venture concept.

I'm most proud of myself for formulating the venture concepts. They were very long assignments that demanded a large amount of insight and organization, but I successfully outlined my idea and was able to procure a finished summary that I could use to share with others. The foundation was finally laid out, which means I had reached the first major milestone in my business venture, who would have known!

I had not thought I would reach the point of being an entrepreneur. Now that I am one, in the smallest sense, I feel as though that these assignments have instilled the pillars of entrepreneurship within me. The exercises and lessons I have learned in this class are practices that I will take with me and refer to throughout my college career and professional endeavors. No joke - I actually will be keeping this on my resume and using this as employment leverage, because I genuinely believe that this course and this concept development has helped me grow my perspective, communication skills, and talents in project research and development.

One recommendation I would make to students of semesters to come, is to accept the challenge, and take it head on with a firey passion. As long as you stay motivated and passionate about your project, you will make the most out of this class, and the assignments will come and go with a breeze. If you want to perform well in this class, you have to commit, just GET IT DONE! DO IT! DO THE ASSIGNMENTS! Prepare a week ahead, look at the assignments and know what you have to do over the next week to finish on time. You cant do an entire reading assignment, 5 interviews, and an elevator pitch all in one day, good luck and bless your soul if you get to that point. To foster the mindset of tenacity, seek mentorship! Connect with your teaching assistants and ask them how they got through this course, and what it takes to be successful in ENT3003, read through old posts (like this one!) and see what advice others have had to give to others after they have completed the course. Finally, keep on blogging.

Venture Concept No. 2

Following is a compilation of: a summary of feedback from the posts Venture Concept No. 1 and What's Next, a venture concept revisited and re-vamped, and what I've learned from the feedback.


Some of my feedback consisted of excitement for my newest venture concept "What's the Move", a social media platform for locals in the area to see what's happening out on the town that night. Others commented on their interest in having half of their membership purchase go toward housing scholarships for students in need and the great leverage that charity would give my concept over other similar business ventures. I also received comments which contributed their subleasing experiences and how they have a great unmet need for a service such as mine to help combat their financial obligations.

Most of my feedback was procured from my "What's Next App". The most practical insight was that concerning the addition of a timeline or news feed consisting of the newest posts in the area. This individual stressed that he was already so comfortable using that platform and would be intimidated and frustrated to have to become accustomed to a new platform that he doesn't trust just yet. People have to believe it works and believe in the platform in order to deem it worthy of possession of their time and energy. This one I had to jot down, it was an obvious obstacle I hadn't even considered due to my enthusiasm for the cutting edge platform.

Through my interviews conducted in my "What's Next" post, I tried to do as much as I could to re-vamp and re-brand the entire idea of my original application, and almost make it a completely new application and expanding to a whole new target audience. I want to tune in on the "connection" factor that my leasing service currently provides, and help others connect directly to services they need within the local area. This spawned from feedback I received from a customer which encouraged me to create a new application for bands and for venues seeking live music: a band manager app that manages your band for you, finds local gigs and notifies you of the opportunities, connects you to individuals in need of live entertainment for the genre of music that you provide, and has features which facilitate communication between the band and the party of interest, and allows all payments to be made through the application. We felt like we minimized our target audience from the last one which could be a good and bad thing, we have found a very specific set of individuals: party goers and noise makers, allowing us to more specifically define our audience, but then again we have reduced the market which could buy into the application and use it sufficiently.

However, what served as the catalyst for Venture Concept number two was the rarely asked question: Does that already exist?

Think about it.

There are so many applications and services being developed right underneath our noses. There are so many up and coming, brand new business ventures that Gators right here on our campus in this very community are trying to get off of the ground and expose to the Gainesville. Why not create an application that connects you to these ventures? If you have needs regarding:

Housing
Scholarships
Entertainment/Live Events
Tutoring
Transportation Service/Repair
Parking
Costumes
Fresh Markets
Vegan Options

Why don't you go local and contribute to the community right here at home. There are hundreds of services, ventures, and mobile applications that are developing right here on campus. My next venture is to create an application which serves to connect the local community with student ventures, helping the community to flourish while also funneling customers into student concepts and giving Gator entrepreneurs the chance to develop a serious and sustaining market. The application will not be limited to the University of Florida, and it will serve as a main platform for all university student ventures to advertise in and personally connect with their local communities. In efforts to help get student ventures off the ground and running, the application will be free for users to search through the categories of ventures that students are producing. To connect with those ventures through our application, the application will prompt that the user pay a small one time $2.00 fee, a portion of which will be donated to the student business or organization. As an incentive for students to use our application and encourage users to locate them through our app, the portion donated will begin at 50%, and increase by 1% for every customer that connects with their organization through our app. This will help generate funding for the student ventures as well as increase traffic within and awareness of our application.

The business backing this concept and online service will consist of the following teams: • Tech – programming, mobile application development, and website development
• Marketing – developing strategies and materials to reach our target audience
• Promoting – active advertisement of the business through tabling efforts, material distribution, and sustaining an active media presence
• Customer service – ensuring that members receive aid by answering emails as well as sending emails to receive feedback, welcome members, and update them on news such as local listings if they subscribe
• Management – overseeing the company flow, project flow, team development, and tracking progress to continually enhance the application and marketing strategies.
• Campus outreach - company ambassadors at each university who develop marketing teams to help promote this application and encourage student businesses and organizations to join, allocating student emails at tabling opportunities and creating a campus wide network

Venture on, ENT3003 C/O Summer 16.

Reading Reflection No. 3

The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick


This guide provides you with 120 tips, tricks, and tools to promote your image across multiple online platforms for viral virtual visibility. From perfecting your avatar and crafting your mantra to utilizing RSS feeds and having effective Twitter chats, Guy and Peg ensure your image and presence is resounding in the digital world. In relation to ENT 3003, this book serves as the perfect reference for building a successful blog. With concise guides for general maintenance, housekeeping, connecting all of your media platforms, facilitating inbound marketing, and responding to comments, The Art to Social Media serves as a playbook for successful blogging in ENT3003.

If I had to design an exercise for this class based on the book I read, I would have students read a chapter out of this book called "How to Feed the Content Monster" foremost. Following, I would have them create an editorial calendar for all of the assignments for the first three weeks of class in a platform of their choice in order to manage their blog posts and accompany a social media component in their blog. I would have students create a social media account to visually catalog their journey and progress in their ventures to give them a true sense of "Feeding the Content Monster" and equip them with the knowledge of integrating social media with their blogs to enhance their virtual visibility and relations in the entrepreneurial community.

What truly hit me like a brick wall when reading this book were two recurring factors: reach and consistency. You have to keep up with all forms of media in order to truly expose your posts, shares, and image to a considerable network, sharing the same post throughout all of your pages and sites to reach all of your followers. One quote that stuck out was, "If you’re not pissing people off on social media, you’re not using it aggressively enough". Furthermore, in order to truly brand yourself and relay the sense of who you are or what your company stands for, your media needs to have consistent visuals: use the same avatar, relevant cover photos, share the same images on your platform; create a sense of unity across all of your platforms. Seems simple enough but these were two things that I believe often go overlooked.

Reading Reflection No. 2

Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah discussed methodologies and strategies that steer business owners away from traditional information-pushing type of advertising onto customers. Rather than paper pushing and email blasting, Inbound Marketing instead implores entrepreneurs to create a company atmosphere that peaks interest and draws potential customers in conjunction with making routine use of analytical tools to investigate the behavior of their customers. The book truly enhanced my learning in ENT3003 by widening my perspective on the back ends of product development and marketing. The authors specify the necessary steps to enhance company visibility through the manipulation of social media, google, and blogs. I hadn't understood the impact that blogging behavior and content could have on a company's transcendence to the top of the search engine results, or the pull on customers to the page. Additionally, you want to connect with other relevant pages by subscribing to authoritative blogs relative to your product or business and contribute to their comment section. Not only does the author of that blog notice you, but when other users who are reading that relevant blog read your comment, that creates an opportunity for them to view your blog, which brings me to my next point. A crucial component of creating visibility of your company and traffic on your website is creating a network of links that direct users to you and your page. This was my biggest "aha" moment, when I truly understood the definition of "inbound marketing": directing users to you, roping them in not only by peaking their interest and creating a brand that people remember, but by utilizing digital tools to literally direct them to your pages. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on Inbound Marketing, I would have students log their behavior when they conduct searches and use social media, specifying where they started, every link they clicked along the way, things that caught their attention (such as ads) and other links that were provided on that page which were "relevant" to their search, and finally where they ended up and what the results of their search were. Did they find the answer or product they were looking for? Did they stumble upon a new company or concept? How many links did it take to resolve your search? How many pages of the results provided by the search engine did you go through? Did you utilize multiple platforms (twitter, facebook, mobile applications) to find your product, service, or ideal company? I believe that creating an awareness of your own buyer/customer behavior will help students understand inbound marketing and how to utilize it to their advantage for their own entrepreneurial endeavors.

Exit Strategy

My exit strategy: having developed a large database of listings and partnerships with local investors, real estate agencies, and apartment complexes, I intend to sell my business in the next 5 years for a large return, as it will have accumulated great value but certainly lived a long life as a mobile application. I do expect the application to have plateaued in regard to acquiring interest from the target audience after 5 years of being on the market. Selling the data will benefit logistic services and other companies with the same target market, while also serving as a financial provision for my future entrepreneurial endeavors. I know that this venture will be relatively short lived - it will not be used 25 years from now and will likely only be successful for a short duration of time (5 years approximately), which has certainly influenced other decisions I've made in my concept. I know that in order for this service to be successful, it has to hit the ground running with guns a-blazing, and I've conducted thorough research and customer analysis in order to most efficiently and effectively develop this idea so that we are receiving constructive feedback from customers to grow rather than negative feedback about the flaws of the application (with heavy R&D the bugs will be worked out and the application will be tested prior to release). With a user friendly application that services the customers with excellence and ease, the marketing strategies will be easy to pursue and the app will flourish, becoming largely visible and widely used in college areas across the nation.

Making it Real

It's resume official!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9XCvjV9Hw-ET0t6OUVzSEsxNVE/view?usp=sharing

What's next

Existing Market

Step 1: It's rather hard to identify a relevant "next move" after a subleasing application. Maybe, we could take the platform to the next level to include a greater target audience, such as home buyers. It is also a possibility to use this same format of connecting individuals to leases and shift the focus: connect animals in need of homes to loving homes seeking animals. I had a difficult time procuring ideas, and therefore went on to conduct my interviews, as they always open my eyes to new or overlooked opportunities.

Step 2: Unfortunately I have been deprived of a recording device over the weekend when I began this assignment and was unable to record my interviews, but I shall describe them in detail.

Customer 1: Customer one had a difficult time identifying what may be the next step after launching this application. I did not prime them with my ideas before asking theirs, so as to procure their own genuine ideas and see what their mind would develop, hoping I might hear a brand new avenue to pursue. We ended up in a conversation about existing platforms that are being used to find housing such as Facebook groups, Craigslist, RadPad (a new one I haven't heard of), and Air B&B. We discussed what each of them had to offer and what made my application different than all of the previously stated options for housing research. This customer came to the same conclusion I had initially, before I had introduced my ideas, which would be to expand my application to a larger audience by encouraging home owners and real estate companies to post their listings.

Customer 2: With this customer I tried to focus the conversation on the idea of what we should be doing, what would be wrong with the application that needs development, rather than brainstorm a new idea or venture concept. Essentially, this customer encouraged me to add a timeline to my application. This threw me off a bit because I wasn't quite keen of the idea of mimicking Facebook, the platform currently being used by my target audience to find subleases. Despite my skepticism I continued to listen to their justifications and logic behind their argument. Customer 2 stressed that he was already so comfortable using that platform and would be intimidated and frustrated to have to become accustomed to a new platform that he doesn't trust just yet. People have to believe it works and believe in the platform in order to deem it worthy of possession of their time and energy. This one I had to jot down, it was an obvious obstacle I hadn't even considered due to my enthusiasm for the cutting edge platform.

Customer 3: With customer three I solely brainstormed ideas for what could possibly be next, but instead primed them with my ideas (which were very few and listed prior in step 1). This customer was certain that I could expand my application to include home buyers AND pets needing homes (pets have housing needs too), and decided to change the conversation to completely radical ideas that weren't necessarily related to my current application. We focused solely on the "connection" factor that my leasing service currently provides, and the ideas we came up with were pretty interesting. One of them was connecting bands and DJs to gig opportunities, making a band manager app that manages your band for you, finds local gigs and notifies you of the opportunities, connects you to individuals in need of live entertainment for the genre of music that you provide, and has features which facilitate communication between the band and the party of interest, and allows all payments to be made through the application. We felt like we minimized our target audience from the last one which could be a good and bad thing, we have found a very specific set of individuals: party goers and noise makers, allowing us to more specifically define our audience, but then again we have reduced the market which could buy into the application and use it sufficiently.

In terms of growing my existing market, I will market the new application created (or addition to the current application) to the users of my Subleasing application, and when a large enough base develops, market my subleasing application to users of the new service i create. I hope that by making the email subscription for the subleasing application appealing I can also retain the market that I develop in these applications so that the recurring emails keep the applications in mind with the users, driving the word-of-mouth marketing to increase use of What's The Move? and sales of membership with the leasing service.


New Market

Step 1: I want to create another mobile application called “What’s the Move?” which will serve as a social forum for locals of all ages. This mobile application will also sync with your Facebook contacts to make finding your friends easy. Create groups and get notified when there's an open invite party in your area, drink specials downtown, or when a party gets busted. What’s the Move will show you what’s hot and happening (or not so happening) in your local area, and see what the Next Move is and where the party is headed.

Step 2: My venture concept will create values of local community and social networking. Individuals are able to get involved with their peers over beers in a bar that's happening and not getting busted down by cops, (or crazy college kids, if you're an older adult looking for a more laid back scene!). Get to know people in your area and where all the hot spots are in town when you decide tonight is the night to go out, and bring the party to you by checking in and posting pictures and videos in the timeline to let people know that this club is "The Move".

Step 3: Unfortunately I have been deprived of a recording device over the weekend when I began this assignment and was unable to record my interviews, but I shall describe them in detail.

Customer 1: My first customer was very intrigued by the mobile application at first, excited to hear about an innovative solution to the inevitable ever-changing plans which plague college student nightlife. I really had only just thought of the idea off hand and hand't completely dissected my idea, so speaking with this customer helped me get the ball rolling on what all What's The Move? (WTM) could be. We developed the application to include drink specials, a map that shows how many people are checked into bars in midtown and downtown, ratings of people's nights at certain locations that could potentially be a business partnership with yelp, having an anonymous timeline in the application so there could be a live feed of statuses and pictures from around the local area, ensuring alerts and notifications get sent when cops are reported in the area, or when there is a large influx of check ins at a certain bar.

Customer 2: While this customer was very receptive to all of the ideas I had gone over with the last customer, they did not have anything further to contribute to those features and were more concerned about the safety of users. My target audience includes that of University affiliated students so I understand that there is an evident concern for the safety of students. We talked about options that would allow us to assure users that they were unable to be targeted through the application. Foremost, linking your Facebook would not release your information to other users in the system. You would remain completely anonymous to the WTM? community as would all of your posts. Only the individuals you have released your location to (an app feature) would be able to see your name and profile image displayed on your posts and check ins in the timeline. Furthermore, there will be features allowing you to block someone, or revoke their viewing privilege by ending the sharing of your location with that individual.

Customer 3: Customer three was very excited to hear about all the features I had developed with the two previous customers, but actually brought something really intriguing to the table which I had been waiting to hear: "Wait, isn't there already an app for that?" It was brought to my attention that there is a very new mobile application being used in Gainesville called "FOMO". Turns out that this is an application that provides a weekly forecast of drink specials, "ladies nights", and other deals for restaurants, bars, and clubs in the midtown and downtown area. It targets the same exact market and has been running successfully for the past three months. FOMO also hosts their own events and offers drink specials to attendees. While my application is focused more on serving as a communication platform, it would be great to network with the creators of FOMO to either help develop my idea and ask for their mentorship, or integrate my ideas into their platform and become part of their existing team and business.

Step 4: Based on my feedback from customers, I definitely see this as a viable opportunity to exploit. Once again I need to get back to the drawing board. I have to outline the application, develop a team, organize a marketing strategy, figure out how to gather funding, and draft a working timeline for the project and its milestones. In pursuit of this endeavor I will use the format of this class and the blogging exercises to guide the development of my app, continually revising my idea and interviewing future customers and persons of resource in order to perfect the application before launch.
What surprised me the most was how much information I was able to gather from these six different perspectives and how much this mere idea of an application came to live just over the course of a couple days through conversation. This expanded market can be more attractive financially (since there are more people who may use this app and end up connecting with the leasing application, purchasing membership) but I do believe it is much harder to exploit because of that growth in numbers. I now have to market to a larger range of ages, audiences, preferences, tastes, and technological savvy, rather than a concentrated target market of undergraduate students who meet a specific criteria which I thoroughly understand as a student myself.