Entrepreneur Final Reflection

Before I begin I would like to say that I believe that this class has provided tools, experiences, and information that should provide almost anyone with the necessary understanding to consider an entrepreneurial activity. Perhaps enabling someone to experience a bright new experience and crossing new bridges that they may never have thought that they would ever cross.

Probably the high points during the semester were the reading reflections. I found the readings interesting and they did not involve going out and talking to people. The lows were the assignments that I was unable to accomplish and the ones that did not get submitted correctly. The moments of fun was the interview with the entrepreneur. I wasn't sure wht the answers would be, however, I thought that the interviews went well. The moments of drudgery was doing the elevator pitches. And, the moments of dread was when we had to go out and find people to interview.

The most formative experience is going to be to put all of the experiences from this class to produce an entrepreneurial experience. The experience that I will remember through the years will be developing an elevator pith to use when needed. M most joyous experience was completing assignments properly. The experience that I most proud of accomplishing is successfully completing this class and the valuable knowledge and experience that I will take from it.

I do see myself as an entrepreneur. This class has definitely helped me to improve my entrepreneurial mindset.

For students who are going to journey down this path in the future I would recommend to keep an open mind and to use failures as a learning experience. Don't give up. In order to perform your best in this course be up to date on technology and take on the challenges that you are given. To foster the entrepreneurial mindset be willing to take risks and to accept and use failure to your benefit.

Entrepreneur Week 15 Reading Reflection

Once again I could not log into the EBSCO Host link that you provided to access the required reading. However, I did locate an article here https://hbr.org/2008/06/business-basics-at-the-base-of-the-pyramid/ar/1 that appears to be the same article. Once again it is extremely short. This is what I will write my week 15 reading reflection on.

I found it amazing that microfinance could be a profitable business. However, given the volume of the business the numbers work out. I was also impressed that you were able to bypass the corruption in the local finical system to benefit your customers and to make your business a success, And, that SKS has found that women are more likely to repay their loans than men.

I did not find any part of the reading to be confusing.

One question that I would like to ask the author is do you think that microfinance would be of benefit in the United States to help people escape poverty? Second, if the program was implemented in the United States would women still be the target customers?

I have no basis to find anything that the authors were wrong about. I cannot disagree with anything that the authors said. Your project seems to be working where it has been implemented.

Entrepreneur Venture Concept No. 2

The opportunity that I have identified is to make leaving your home here to spend time someplace else. To achieve that I would like to provide a service that would offer the convenience to the homeowner of only having to contact one person to have their property completely maintained and monitored while they are away. My potential customers would consist of those residents of my community that own property here and do not reside here for the entire year. The unmet need that my company “Don't Worry About It” would provide would be the convenience to the customer to only have to contact one person to for the complete management of their property while they are away.

The forces and changes in the environment that are creating this opportunity is that there are more and more people moving to my community that only reside here for part of the year.

The market is defined geographically as far as I would like to take it. I could manage properties almost anywhere in Florida or, if I would choose, I could also manage my customers other properties that are located in another state. At this time, I do not think that I am going to peruse this option, the logistics would be a big challenge, however, the opportunity does exist. Demographically, the market primarily consists of people that have retired and moved to this community to spend the winter. In the summer they return to their other home, usually located in another state.

Customers are currently satisfying this need by having to do business with many different companies to manage each different aspect of the maintenance and security of their property.

I believe that this opportunity has unlimited potential.

I also believe that this “window of opportunity” will be open for quite some time.

The Innovation of this business is to provide the property owner the convenience of only having to contact one person for the maintenance and security of their property while they are away. I would be the local contact for any security issues. I would also provide any other maintenance that they would require, including maintaining the grounds and pool plus any other projects that the property owner might want such as painting, cleaning, etc. I would offer a basic package for grounds and pool maintenance and security. Optional services would be offered at an additional cost. Discounts could be offered for customers located within close proximity to each other.

My Venture Concept would offer the customer the convenience of managing all of their property maintenance and security through one contact, freeing up their time and making things more simple. The customers would switch for the convenience and the quality of the service. It would not be hard to get the customers to switch. As far as I know there is not much competition for this type of service. The weakness would be the complexity of the types of services that they might want. There is no packaging involved in my business. My price points, distribution, customer support, customer experience and business location all play a defining role in my business concept. In the beginning I would be the only employee. As the business grows I would add employees as needed. The roles in this venture would be expanded to accommodate the needs of the business.

Of the three minor elements my most important resource would be my customers and myself. As the business grows the employees would be an important resource. Included in that would also be the innovation from the employees and myself to adapt to the demands of the customers and to provide them a quality service. My advantage over my competitors will be the willingness to deal with the complexities of the services that I am offering and to expand my services and accommodate new customer demands.

Second, I am going to more or less let my customers influence the direction of the business through the requests that they have for the services that they would like to have done.

Third, I would expand the services provided by the business to accommodate the demands of the customers. In five years I would expect to have several employees and have an expanded service area. In the next decade I would like to have competent employees that would carry out the day to day to day tasks of the business freeing me to spend more time on marketing and administrative aspects of the business.

Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch No. 4

Most of the feedback that I received from my previous elevator pitch video was positive. The only negative feedback that I received was that the background was distracting, which I agreed with.

Based on the feedback, I did try to find a background that was less distracting. Otherwise, I just tried to make the pitch more attractive to the recipient.

Entrepreneur Week 14 Reading Reflection

I didn't really find anything surprising, however what stood out is the need for large corporation to create a working environment that will promote innovation in order to compete in today's markets. There is also a need for large corporations to develop social entrepreneurship in order to insure their long term success.
I did not find any of the reading to be confusing.
One question that I would like to ask the authors is do they believe that businesses today are making adequate progress in addressing the social issues that are facing us today that they are in a position to have an effect on? My concern is whether the corporate society is going to make the needed adaptions to resolve issues that need to be addresses that are within their control. I cannot think of a second question.
I did not find anything that I thought that the author was wrong about.

Entrepreneur Google Gold

My general approach and strategy for my search engine optimization (SEO) was a big failure. I decided to add “Entrepreneur” in the title of each of my posts. I did not do any other activities for each of my posts.

The keywords that I selected was “Entrepreneur”. I selected that keyword because I thought that it might produce search results. I was wrong. Based on my search results this was a big failure. I did not refine my keywords during the semester because I did not want the change to affect any of my assignments.

I did not use social media to enhance my SEO efforts. Since I did not use social media to improve my blog's profile I had no surprises or general impression of using social media to improve my SEO. Since I did not use social media to promote my blog I do not know whether or not social media was receptive of my blog, or was it get ignored.

In my perspective I did have some posts that went viral. I do not have an explanation as to how or why. I have had from 19 to 56 page views depending on the page. For an obscure blog like mine, I find some of these numbers to be high. My post celebrating failure received 56 hits as of 04/15/2016 at 8:17pm. To me, given the obscurity of my blog, I consider that to be viral. I have no idea how this happened.

I did not make it to the first page in Google. I searched the first twenty pages of Google and did not not make any of them. My SEO strategy was a failure. However, I do believe that I have learned what it might take to improve my Google presence.

Entrepreneur Very Short Interview, Part 2

Once again the entrepreneur that I interviewed was a previous employer of mine who has been in business for more than twenty years.

Revisiting my Very Short Interview, Part 1 from back in January, my impressions of the first interview were very positive. Based on what we have learned during this class, I believe that the entrepreneur that I interviewed had a good understanding of what it means to be an entrepreneur. We need to be willing to take on risks, enter an unknown environment, take on new challenges and remain optimistic.

His perception of what I should learn from a class in entrepreneurship was in line with with what we learned in this class. To maintain a broad perspective, be willing to change in order to adapt, and seek out your own opportunities.

What he wished that he had been taught in school has been addressed in this class. Think creatively and use logic in decision making.

For this interview I chose some questions that pertain to different phases of an entrepreneurial endeavor.

The first question was a two part question.

A. What motivated you to start your own business? Tired of working for other people and reacting to their Mos. Thought that I could do better and the time was right.

B. How did you choose the particular business that you opened? It fit the goals that I had set for my own business. The business had the opportunity to grow. Temporary Insanity?

The next question was : During the time that you operated your business, what would you say was your biggest challenge? When I first acquired the business it only produced one product and that was a seasonal product. My biggest challenge was to diversify the products produced by the business to provide a stable source of income throughout the year.

My third question was: Did you have a plan for when you wanted to retire from the business? My first option was to offer the business to any family members that might want it. Then I would offer it to any employees that wanted to take it over. If neither of those options were taken I would put the business up for sale.

I felt comfortable talking to the entrepreneur that I interviewed the first time, although, I did not know what to expect from this class, I did have some perceptions of what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Those perceptions were addressed in this class, however, they were greatly expanded upon. I was also presented with new concepts that I had not associated with entrepreneurship. I was more comfortable talking with the entrepreneur for the second interview. The entrepreneur that I interviewed did not convey a sense that they thought I had progressed in my journey. However, they did express interest in the final grade that I would receive in the class.

Entrepreneur Week 13 Reading Reflection

I had not expected the perspective of the reading. I am familiar with the many of the various valuation methods for determining the value of a business that was presented in this reading, but this is the first time that they have been presented in this way One thing in this reading that stood out that I did not expect is is the complexity of establishing a firm's value. There are many more aspects to be considered than I would have anticipated.. However, they all appear to be appropriate to establish a firm's value.

I did not find any of the reading to be confusing.

One question that I might ask the author is why are there so many different aspects to determining a firm's value? Don't some of them overlap? And, would it be feasible for a small investor be to explore all of these different aspects.

I did not find anything that I thought that the author was wrong about. I also had no disagreement on anything that the author said.

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Celebrating Failure

I did experience failure this semester. Some were in this class. For one, not having the resources available to me to complete some of the assignments. I do not have the video or audio equipment to complete some of the assignments. I also do not have places to do interviews with random individuals.

I also had a failure outside of this class. I am not doing well in one of my other classes. Other than failing at each segment in the class, those were my failures for this semester.

I learned that, at times, you are expected to have resources that may not be available to you. Also, I learned that I need to be more productive with the time that I am using.

I may have more experience at failure than many of the other students in this class. And, therefore, I have had some experience in coping with failures. Perhaps one of my personal flaws is that I do not like to fail. And, If I do fail at something I usually don't like to give up and will learn from my mistakes and try again until I succeed. Once again, I have had many failures in my past that I have had to deal with. This class has shown me that failure is not something unique to me. It does happen to other people as well. Did it change my perspective on failure. Probability not. I still do not like to fail and will continue to learn from my failures and try to apply those experiences to future endeavors in order to make them a success. Am I more likely now to take a risk than I was four months ago? Probably not. I tend to make educated decisions, if the facts are there to make the venture appear to be a reasonable endeavor to enter into, I would give it my best shot.

Entrepreneur My Exit Strategy

My first exit strategy would be to leave my business to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to my children. However, this may not always be an option. As, children can often choose to peruse their own interests that do not include my current business. In that case I would choose to stay with with the business until I retired. At that point I would have decide if the business was suitable for sale, or to be dissolved.
I have chosen this exit strategy because I believe that it would provide the best result deepening on the circumstances that exist at the time that I choose to cease being involved in the business.
I do not believe that my exit strategy would have a negative impact on the planning for the business for the future. Regardless of the direction that would be chosen to exit the business, I would continue to grow the business, look for new opportunities wherever they can be found and would continue to grow the business using resources to acquire more resources. Therefore, it would not matter which direction I went at my exit. If I passed the business to family the business would be in a good position to continue in a positive direction. Should I be in a position to dispose of the business, it should be in a good position to be sold as opposed to liquidation.

Entrepreneur What's Next

For my existing market the Amazon Whisperer exercise does not apply to my current chosen entrepreneurial endeavor. However, my next step in “Don't worry About it” would be to attract local residents that are here year round that could benefit from my services that I have to offer. I believe that I could provide many of those services at a better quality and at a price that they would be willing to pay.

I still do not have a video or audio recorder that I can operate for this assignment. The assortment of available devices is amazing. Shopping is not, at this time, my number one priority. I am working on it. I also do not live on campus and am extremely limited as to where I can interview people and this limits me to the diversity of the people that I can interview. Among the people that I did get get to interview, the consensus among them was that they would be willing to pay for services that would be convent to them and free up their time at a price that they would be willing to pay.

Based on my exceptions and the feedback that I received from prospective customers, I could offer a more extensive maintenance package for the maintenance of the exterior and interior of the structure.

My prospective customers would like for me to maintain their lawn and landscaping. This would not only include maintaining the lawn but, also, maintaining all of the plants and gardens on the property.

Another thing that they would like for me to do is their spring cleaning. That would include a through cleaning of all of the nooks and crannys inside the structure. Also, including cleaning behind furniture and cleaning the inside of the windows. Along with removing cobwebs from the interior wherever they may appear.

On the outside of the structure they would require me to remove all mold and mildew from the outside of the structure. They would also like for me to clean the outside of the windows.

For my new market I would target residents that live here year round but would like someone to preform some or all of the services that I have to offer for them.

There are many people in my current market area that would be willing and able to use some or all of my services. There are people wiling to pay to have many of these services preformed for them so that they do not have to do them themselves. These services would have to be performed so that the consumer is satisfied with the service.

Once again, no video or audio recordings due to a lack of an operable device (working on it).

The services requested by my three interviews varied, however, they all required that the services that were performed were done at a quality and cost that they would be willing to pay for. To be successful, I should be able offer the consumer only the services that they would like to have done for them.

I learned that were opportunities in this new market. What surprised me about this new market is that there are some people willing to pay for some or all of the services that I have to offer. My exceptions were that some people that are year round residents would be interested in at least some of the services that I had to offer. The new market does not offer the opportunities that the original market offers, however, it does offer some potential for profit in the off season.

Entrepreneur Week 12 Reading Reflection

One thing that stood out for me in the reading was the SWOT analysis. This is a new concept to me and I could see how it could prove to be useful for the entrepreneur. Another thing that stood out for me was the concept of the entrepreneurial strategy matrix. This could be very useful to many new entrepreneurs to determine it their business is worth perusing.
I found no parts of the reading to be confusing to me.
One concept that I disagreed with was the concept of transitioning from entrepreneur to manager. I believe that the entrepreneur must be a manager from the start in order to bring together all of the needed resources to get the business going. Also, why is it that the management tasks may shift after the business is up and running but, it took management skills to get the business to that point? Why shouldn't an entrepreneur that is starting a business not have an administrative concept of that business? By the time an entrepreneur reaches the point of actually opening a business, they should have already had to to experience the administrative aspect of the business.
I thought that the author may be wrong in that, by the time an entrepreneur has reached the point of actually opening and operating a business, they should have some idea of the administrative responsibilities that they are going to have after the business is up and running.