30A Final Reflection

1. There were a lot of highs and lows in this class for me personally. The high for me were some of the more fun assignments where I got to be creative and have fun with it. I also enjoyed the assignments where I was able to interview people and talk to them about my idea and hear what they thought of it and any feedback that they could give for it. The lows for me in this class were the assignments that I just did not feel like doing or completely forgot to do. These were some of the more tedious assignments and repetitive ones. With these assignments I simply was just not having fun and dreaded doing them.

2. I think the experiences that will really stick with me and will be the most memorable are definitely the ones that I enjoyed the most and had the most fun with. I think these will definitely be the ones where I was able to interview my friends. The reason for this is because it was not just another assignment where I had to sit at my desk and grind it out. It was one were I could go out and talk to my friends and have with it. I think those kinda of interviews will stick with me for a while simply because I enjoyed them and they were fun.

3. I think I definitely have developed an entrepreneurial mindset over the course of this semester due to this class. The reason for that is now I look at many things in ways I never have before. I look at things now and wonder how I can exploit them and make opportunities out of them. I had never looked at things like this until now.

4. The thing I would recommend the most to students who are about to take this class is do not procrastinate. Read through the assignment directions days before it is due and really think about it. I have many times waited until the morning of the assignments due date to even start thinking about the assignment and it makes it so much harder and it is not fun. The last piece of advice that I will want to give them is to have fun with the assignments. It will make this class a lot more enjoyable and memorable.

29A Venture Concept No. 2

1. The good thing about this product that I want to offer is that almost everyone can have this need and it can be used by anyone, as long as they are willing to go to the gym which most people are. This market is not defined by any geography or demographic. It can used anywhere and by anyone as long as there is a gym. Customers are currently not satisfying this need because they are all still just  going to the gym in a regular matter and nothing has changed for them. This opportunity can be very big because I want this eventually to be a part of every gym across the country and there are so many of them.

The product that I want to offer is one I have described many times during these assignments and it has changed a little bit as time has gone on. I want my product to be an app on your phone that you use every time that you go to the gym. The first thing this app will do is it will be linked with your gym and it will give you a live number of people at they gym as you will have to sign in and out with the app once you get there and leave. This will be able to tell people how busy the gym is during all hours of the day. The next thing the app will do is hopefully speed up the waiting process on certain machines and equipment while you are working out. Each piece of workout equipment will also be equipped with a little device that you will be able to scan your app at when you start using it and also finish using it. The reason for this is so you can check in and out with the machine. The whole point of this is to be able to reserve the machine for yourself. While you are working out and you see someone using the machine you want to use next. You can reserve to use it next with the app and it will start up a queue for that machine. Once you start using it you will check in with it and once you're done you will check out with it so others will know it is available to use.

I think customers will want to switch to this product because I believe that it will make their gym going experience better. It will also be very easy for them to switch over because it will be included in their monthly gym subscription. The only competitors right now would be anyone with a similar idea to mine. I think it would be very easy for gyms to support my product because they will not have to really change much. They will just incorporate the product with their gym subscription and it will be a very easy change for everyone involved.

My most important resource is the app itself. I have not seen anyone do anything like this before so I think it is original and that is why it is the most important.

I think what's next for the product is first getting a couple of gyms to start using it and when I do that I want to eventually expand it to countrywide.

In the next five years with this product, I want to still be involved with and trying to expand it as much as possible and make as much money as possible from it.

2. I received a lot of feedback on all of my posts and all of the people that interviewed and it was all very helpful. Most of the people thought my idea was very good and they liked, but some people also said that this product is not for everyone and it may not be as successful as I would like which I understand and I know that know that now. I changed my product a little bit based on some of the feed back that I received too. For example, when I first started this idea I thought it would be a good idea to have live videos of the gym so people would be able to see how crowded it was. But I received feedback on how a lot of people may not like that so I changed it to just a live number of people at the gym.

3. My venture concept really did not change much from the last one to this one. The only thing I really changed is what I mentioned above. Everything else stayed pretty much the same or at least very similar.

4. 

28A Your Exit Strategy

1. What I intend to do with my business strategy I think is very situational. In general though, if the business is very profitable I would like to hold onto it for as long as I can and continue to make money off of it. But, if someone offers me an amount of money that I simply cannot refuse I would gladly sell. If I do sell for a large amount of money, this will give me time and resources to come up with potentially a new business idea that could be more lucrative.

2. The reasoning for this two options is because the entire reason why I would want to get behind starting up my own business and coming up with ideas that I think could be successful would be to make money. I think these are two outcomes that happen the most with new businesses. Either someone is set on keeping the company and working to better it as much as possible or someone gets an offer for their company and sells it for a large amount of money. Either way I would be happy with both decisions as long as I was making money and enjoying myself while doing it.

3. I think it definitely has influenced my decision making with this business idea. I would want this business idea to be as lucrative as possible, so that would mean that I would want it to appeal to the masses. This may mean that some ideas that I have that I would enjoy a lot may not be something that the general population would enjoy. I would try to make my business idea something that the general population would enjoy as a whole. I think that this would be the best way to make money off of it.

27A Reading Reflection No. 3

1. The book that I chose for this assignment was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams, so I will be following the assignment directions of Reading Reflection No. 2. From the title of this book, you can very easily guess what the general theme is of the book. Adams talks a lot about his personal experiences with failures in his life, how he seemed to fail over and over again, and how he still managed to learn from them and succeed. He goes over possible failures that can happen in our everyday lives with multiple different scenarios. He tells us what we can expect from these situations and also the best way to learn from them.

2. I think the book connected extremely well with what we are leaning in this class, especially since assignment 26 was all about failures from this past year of our lives and how we've learned from them. This book went further into the learning aspect of failures and really tried to instill in the reader's mind that failures are normal, and you can fail at almost everything you do but as long as you are learning from each failure you can still succeed in life greatly.

3. If I had to make an assignment after reading this book, it would be very similar to assignment 26 that we just did. I would want the students to come up with a couple different failures that they have experienced that relate directly to some of the failures that Adams talks about in the book. After they come up with them I would ask if they learned from the experience how Adams described to learn from it in his book. I would also ask how that learning experience from the failures may have been different if they had read this book beforehand.

4. I think the most surprising thing that I learned from reading this book was some of the failures that happen in my everyday life that I don't even think twice about. Some of the things that he discussed I had not really ever thought about before as a learning experience. I had previously just brushed them off as nothing, but now I know I can learn from it.

26A Celebrating Failure

1. One type of failure that I experienced this past year that I think all of us have experienced at least once in school was me failing a physics 2 exam. This exam was extremely difficult and, so I was not very surprised when I found out my grade and I learned that I had failed. I knew that rest of the semester would be hard in the class since I failed the first exam, but I knew that I could make up for it and still pass the class.

2. The reason that I failed this specific exam is very simple: I did not study enough. Since it was the first exam and I had taken physics 1 the previous semester I thought that I knew the general amount of time that I needed to study for an exam and do well, but I was wrong. This class was much harder and the questions are a lot more tricky than any class that I have ever taken before. Now, I knew that I needed to study a lot more and put a lot more time in this class if I wanted to do well in it, which I ended up doing.

3. After taking an exam, all of your friends ask you how you did and you have to embarrassingly tell them that you did not do well. This is all a part of failure though and will help you do well in the future. This class has taught me a a lot about failure in life and how it is normal and eventually will help you in the future. A lot of the business ideas that you have may not work out and that's okay you just need to learn from them to do better in the future.

25A What's Next?

Existing Market

The market that I want to start this product in would be one that is similar to the market here in Gainesville. That is, it is a college town with a lot of college students and very cheap gyms. I think that these types of gyms are usually the busiest, so my product would work very well here. After interviewing three people I got the general same answer from all three people. First, they thought that the product was  a good idea and said that they would definitely use it. After that, they said that they don't know what else they would really add because they thought that I had covered pretty much everything that I wanted to, and I would agree.
The path that would make the most sense would be to hire employees and get everything started. With the employees the first thing that we would have to do is get the product finalized make sure everything is working with it exactly how we want it to. Once that is complete, the next step would be to reach out to as many gyms in the area to get the product out there and get everything started. Once we have a base of a couple places using the product we can try to expand and get even more places to start using it.

New Market
After getting everything sorted out in the college town market, and getting the product to the point where I think it needs to be I will want to try and expand by trying to add it to a new market. That new market would be maybe a richer part of society where the gyms are more expensive than the college town ones. After interviewing the two people form this market they both again gave me very similar answers. They thought it was a good idea as well and agreed that it doesn't matter if it's a cheap gym or not. All successful gyms get busy which results in people waiting to use certain machines or equipment.
In order to get my product started in this new market, I would need to do very similar things that I would do in the current market. I would have to reach out to gyms and try to get them ti adopt my product. I would tell them about my success I've had in my current market and why it would be a good idea for them to adopt it in this new market.
My expectations seemed to be correct. I think that this new market could use this product just as much as the current market. It could also be just as lucrative because as I've mentioned before it doesn't matter what gym it is; as long as it is successful it will get busy and I think they could make good use of the product I want to offer.

24A Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity
There is a great opportunity for the product that I want to get into market (which I will describe the product in depth in the innovation section). Since my product has to do with going to the gym and working out, the need can be met by anyone. Every person in this country has the ability to go to the gym, unless of course they are physically handicapped and physically can't go. Everyone that has gone to the gym has experienced the problem that I want to exploit and could make use of the product that I want to offer. The market is defined geographically by how many gyms are currently in that area of the country, the more gyms the better. Customers are currently not satisfying themselves with this need because of what I know now there isn't currently and product out there that will help them with this. This opportunity is huge considering how many gyms there are across the country and how much potential money could be made.

Innovation
The product that I want to offer deals with the time you spend waiting for a certain machine or bench at a gym to open up. This all has to deal with how popular and busy a gym is, and if the gym is successful we can assume that majority of the time it will be busy. Everyone that has gone and worked has been in the situation where you are in the middle of a workout, and are forced to briefly stop because you are waiting on someone to finish with the equipment that you want to use. This can really ruin your workout because it forces you to stop and wait. My goal with my product is try and cut that waiting time down, and I would do that with an app that would be included in your gym membership. The app would allow you to reserve certain machines when you know you're going to use them. If you are about to finish with one machine and see the machine you want next, you can reserve it place yourself next in line to use it. This will hopefully limit the waiting  time and reduce people fighting for equipment to us. The app would also provide a live number of people currently at the gym as you would have to scan it when you arrive and leave. This will also help tell people how many people are currently at the gym and if it's busy or not.

Venture Concept
My product will easily help solve the problem that I identified as it should shorten the waiting time for machines. I think customers will want to switch to this product because it is only helpful to them and it will be very easy to switch to because it will be included in their gym membership. All they will have to do is download the app and start using it. The competitors could just be other gyms and possible weaknesses could be gyms not wanted to adopt the product that I want them to. In order to make this happen I would need employees to help me create the product and get it out there to as many places as possible.

Three Minor Elements
1. I think the most important thing that I have is educational resources. This is because I have done much research on the product and interviewed many people about it. Because of this I think I know what will work and how to get it done.

2. What's next for my venture is getting the ball rolling and getting the product out there and trying to get it to as many places as possible.

3. In the next five years, I would want this product to have covered a majority of the country and have had a lot of gyms adopt this new product from me. In the next decade, I would want to continue with entrepreneurial ways and would hopefully have invented something new that can take advantage of another opportunity or problem that I have identified.

23A Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Financial Resources
This is one of the most important resources you can have when trying to start a business. You need the money to be able start your business up. This is something I currently don't really have because I'm in college, but it is necessary to actually have before trying to start.

2. Human Resources
This is also a very important resource when you are first considering starting up a business. Most of the time you're not going to want to start up the business completely on your own. You are going to want employees to help you think of idea and get the important things done in your business.

3. Physical Resources
This is what you will need in order to keep your business alive. This means all the appropriate work space you need, working telephone, and effective marketing strategies. This is one thing that I have now and it is arguably one of the most important. 

4. Educational Resources
This is something you will need before starting your business up, and it is gaining all the education about the market you are about to get in to. This means knowing your product well and how others might want it or use it. I have a good handle on this one because of all the interviews that I've done.

5. Emotional Resources
This is also very important. Starting up a new business will be very stressful and you will need a way to relax and calm yourself and not stress to much about it. This could really be anything as long as it is something that will calm you down. For me, it would be something like going fishing.

6. Organization
When trying to start up a new business, it is very important that you be as organized as you can. A lot of stuff will be going on, and you will be doing a lot of different things so it is extremely important that all of your information is organized and easily accessible. This is something I am very good at.

7. Workplace Culture
In order to have people to want to work for you, you need to have good workplace culture. This is one of the things that is most important for people when they are looking for a new job. Obviously I don't have this right now, but it is something I would have if I tried to start this up.

8. Connections
Most people need to have connections to get everything rolling and to make everything easier when they first start up. This is something I definitely have whether it be people from my high school or people from here at UF.

9. The Product Itself
This is very important because it is what you will be selling to everyone. And if you create the proper patents, copyrights and things like that for it, it will be very hard to copy by anyone else.

10. Lawyers
This is something that will make the whole process easier for when you want to put the proper patent or copyright on your product. It will also help if you ever come into any legal trouble on the way to starting the business up.

I think that the most important resource here is the educational resource. This is because you can never be too educated about the field or market you want to join, and all the information that you possess about it is only going to help.

22A Elevator Pitch No. 3

1. https://youtu.be/ummMQznEfYA

2. I did not do the two previous elevator pitch assignments so I do not have feedback on them, but my idea of this product has changed some based on feedback that I've received in previous posts. Because of that what I say in this video is different than what I would have said when I first came up with the idea.

3. Again I did not do the two previous elevator pitch assignments so I cannot answer this part of the assignment based on personal experience. I can, however, see how it would be much easier to do after doing it two previous times than it was to do for the first time. I can also see how it would be almost memorized at this point if I had done it two previous times.

21A Reading Reflection No. 2

1. For this assignment I chose to read Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. The general theme of this book was describing two different types of mindsets and how they affect your success in life. The two types of mindsets were a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset believes that you have predetermined abilities talents. A growth mindset on the other hand believes that these are not fixed and you can grow and better them. Fixed mindsets tend to avoid any new challenges and are also very easy to give up if they fail at something. Growth mindsets tend to be very persistent with things and does not give up easily. The book goes on to describe how these mindsets impact the our ways of thinking that eventually will lead to our future success or failure.

2. I think the book connected very well with what we are learning in this class. I think this class is trying to teach us to have the growth mindset that this book is talking about. I also believe that after reading this book, it is very important for us to strive to have that growth mindset if we want to be successful at all with these new business ideas that we come up with in this class. These ideas will be very hard to get going and eventually become successful so we have to persistent and can't give up when it becomes hard.

3. The exercise that I would design for this class based on this book would involve the two mindsets. I would ask the students of this class which mindset they think they've grown up with, and which mindset they think this class is trying to teach them. I also would ask why they think this class is trying ti teach them that specific mindset and why it may be helpful in their future career.

4. When reading this book, I really did not know what it was going to be about because I had never heard of it or thought about reading a book like this before. So, my biggest aha moment was when I reading it and learning what the two mindsets were. I kind of realized what she was talking about and thought to myself that it makes a lot of sense.

20A Growing Your Social Capital

1. The first person that I talked to was for the domain expert category of the assignment. I could not find anyone that I could talk to that actually owned a gym, but I did, however, talk to someone that works at a gym and has been for a long time. I had them look at my idea napkin and asked them what their thoughts were on the idea. The return that I got from this person was them telling what they thought about it and any advice that they may give me. Including this person in my network is extremely valuable to me because they have worked at a gym for a while and seen how it works. he's seen people argue over whether they were using the machine or not. Basically he is able to tell me more about first hand experience in dealing with the problem. 

2. The next person that I interviewed is for the market expert category. This person does not market to gyms, but instead works for the same company that my dad works for which is a big electronics distribution company. Any type of electronics you can think of they distribute to other companies in the southeastern part of the US to sell, so he knows a lot about bringing in new customers for his company. I think this was a perfect person to talk to because he has first hand experience with doing research on smaller companies that they could sell to and benefit from. 

3. The last person that I talked to is for the supplier and he works at the same company that mentioned in the previous paragraph. This person however is in charge of getting all the electronics and shipping them out the companies that they are selling them to. This person would also be a great addition to my network because he has been doing for many years and would be able to tell me exactly how it works and the best way to go about doing it. 

This was definitely a great networking experience even though 2 out of the 3 people I talked to did not work or sell to the industry that my idea deals with. I had never really done anything like this before though and it was a great experience to talk to two people strictly about business and what they do that works and what they have done in the past that has not worked. I think this will really help me in my future career. 

19A Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am currently a senior here at UF studying Construction Management. I have many skills like I am good at drawing, fishing, and I am a good people person. If I was to start my business idea I feel like it would play a big role in my life because I would put all I have into it to make sure it would be as successful and profitable as possible. Once I started it I would only want it to grow more so it would play a very important role in my life.

2. The product that I want to offer as I have described before in my previous post is an app for the gym. It would include a live number of people at the gym, so you can see how busy it is before you go as you would have to check in and out with the app before going into the gym in a way that is similar to how you check into UF's gyms. It would also include a way to to reserve a machine or spot in line for a certain machine. You would go up to the machine and scan your app with the machine to check in. You would also check out with the machine once you finish your sets. This would hopefully reduce the amount of wait time for machines.

3. The product can be offered to literally anyone who goes to the gym or wants to go to the gym. Obviously it would apply more to the people that go to the gym very often, but anyone and everyone would be able to use it.

4. The customers should care because this product will hopefully make their time at the gym more enjoyable because they will not have so much down time in between exercises waiting for a certain machine or bench. This product would also be included in their gym memberships, so they would still be paying those same monthly payments that they always pay except it might be a few extra dollars each month now.

5. I believe that my product will set gyms apart from most other gyms because I do not know of any gyms that offer a product that is similar at all to the one that I want to offer. Most gyms have all the same equipment, but this product will really set gyms apart.

I believe that all of these elements fit pretty well together. The only thing that is weak about this business idea is that simply some people would not want the service at all, but that comes with every product that is ever made. Some people just like the way that going to the gym is now and wouldn't want to change it.

Two Main Points from Feedback
The first is that I originally said there would be live feeds of the gym to see how busy it is, but some people said that they would not like other people being able to watch them workout on a live feed which is completely understandable. So I took that away and instead made it so you have to check into the gym when you walk in (like UF's gyms) so you can see a live number of people currently at the gym to see how busy it is.

The second thing I took away from feedback is a couple people simply said that they would not like to use my product and just want the gym to stay the way that it is now, which I also understand but there's really nothing I can do about that.

18A Create A Customer Avatar

The great thing about my product that I want to offer is that it can be available to anyone, and it doesn't have to be a certain type of person. But everyone has a stereotype of a person that they think of when they think of someone who goes to the gym a lot. That stereotype is usually a college aged guy who is in very good shape. Although anyone could be the customer of what I want to offer I think this is a very good representation of the type of person that people see in the gym most often and therefore would be my pro typical customer. Another reason why I thought that a college aged guy who is in very good shape would be my pro typical customer is because almost everyone that I interviewed about my product to find out their thoughts fit into this description. This type of person is usually a poor college kid, so I would think that it would be best to try and make my product not very expensive. They also are normally very busy with school, but they find time to go to the gym anyways so it shouldn't affect them wanting to buy my product. Even though this is my pro typical customer, anyone and everyone can go to the gym so my product would be available to a lot of different type of people.

I have a lot in common with the type of person I have just described. I am a college aged guy who does go to the gym a lot, and I do not think it was a coincidence. I think the reason why I thought of this product is because it is something that I do a lot and think about a lot because I fit into the categories for that pro typical customer. 

15A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Interview #1
This person specifically stated that price matters the most to him when he considers a gym membership and if my idea of a system that allows you to hold a spot in line for a machine costs more money then he doesn't want it. I tried to reason with him and said that this system may cost a little extra a month and it comes with a lot of advantages, but he still wasn't sold. We then talked a little more about how this system should just be included in the base price of the gym membership and I agreed.

Interview #2
This person emphasized how much quality mattered to him over anything else. He didn't really care if this potential new feature would cost extra as long as the quality of the product was there. This was a very simple interview and it was very easy to convince him to buy this product if it ever came out because I guaranteed that the quality of the product would be there.

Interview #3
This person said that everything mattered to him. Quality of the product, price, ease of purchase, etc. We talked about how when you go to sign your gym membership that this product should be included depending on the gym. We also talked about how it would be billed monthly like your normal gym membership is. He liked how there wasn't really much of a change to the process except that you got a new product and maybe had to pay a little more.

Conclusion:
I learned a lot from these interviews and I learned that everyone is different in what they want when it comes to these types of things. But I think to get the best product you have to focus on people like the third person that interviewed who care about every aspect of the product. When you do this you end up making the best product you can possibly have and that is what will give you the best outcome.

13A Reading Reflection no. 1

1. For this assignment, I chose to read Shoe Dog which is the autobiography of Phil Knight because I have always been interested in Nike's story and knew I would enjoy reading this. The thing about reading this that surprised me the most was that he spent the first couple years simply just selling shoes out of his car. The thing I most admired about Phil Knight was that he had an idea when he was young about something that he loved and he went for it. He saw the business potential in his idea, so he decided he wasn't going to be held back by the possibility of failure. He also recommends that to all of us especially when we are young. While I was reading this there really was not anything that I did not like about him. Phil Knight did in fact encounter a lot of adversity especially in the beginning. For example, the reading said that it took over a year for him to get his first order of shoes to him so that he could sell them. It also said that his first year of doing this he only made about $8,000. He didn't let these things stop him though.

2. The main thing that I noticed the entrepreneur had was tenacity. He had this idea in college and loved it and he wasn't going to let anything stop him from making it a reality. This is also something that he recommends to all of us. If it's a good idea and we put in the work it will pay off.

3. There wasn't really any part of the reading that was confusing to me as I understood everything that it was saying, but there was one part that kind of annoyed me. He stresses that we need to be able to find a partner that we can rely upon with everything if we want something like this to work. He called his mentor and his mentor offered to be his partner. Usually I don't think it is always this easy for someone to find such a partner so quickly. This wasn't something that ruined the reading for me, but it just annoyed me a little.

4. The first question I would ask is did you think when you first started your company that it would be as big as Nike is now? The second I would ask is how do you manage and keep everything together over such a large company?

5. I think that his opinion is that hard  work pays off and if you work for something hard enough a good outcome will come out of it. Yes, I do agree with that.

14A Halfway Reflection

1. I have used many different types of behaviors to keep up with the assignments for this course, but the thing that I have used the most is my thoughts. What I mean by this is I've never taken a course that has required me to think so much before giving an answer. Most of my other classes are there's a question that is asked and there is an immediate answer that can be calculated. For a lot of the assignments for this course, I had to really think about what was going on in my day to day life and come up with an answer.

2. There were a couple moments during these past two months were I felt like just giving up on one of the assignments. It normally was because the assignment was taking me too long to think of something that I could write down or I just didn't feel like doing it because I didn't like what the assignment was asking me to do. After wondering for a little while if the assignment was worth it I ultimate decided that it was and pushed through and finished even though I wasn't a huge fan of doing it. I think this class has made me more tenacious simply because of things like this that I have just described.

3. The first tip I would offer future students is to not wait until the morning of the assignments due date; look at it a few days prior so you can think about it for a little while. The second tip I would offer them is to watch the lectures because they are very helpful. The last tip I would offer them is to have fun with it because there are many fun and creative ideas that you can come up with during the course of this class if you put the time in.

12A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

For this exercise, I am picking people that I know go to the gym a lot and are around the same age as me and would use the service. I think college aged kids are a good group to interview for this because I think they are the most likely to use it. 

The first person I interviewed is a friend of mine that also goes to UF and I go to the gym with a lot. He has the unmet need of the gym being too crowded and not being able to do anything about it. He said that he has noticed this problem after all of his years of going to the gym and would really enjoy a service like the idea that I had. 

The second person I interviewed is also someone I know that goes to the gym a lot, but I personally don't go with all of the time. This person told me he is very annoyed by crowded gyms and always thought it was just part of going to the gym and that he would not be able to do anything about it. Once he heard my idea, he thought it was a great idea and said he would use it every time he goes to the gym if it was available. 

The last person I interviewed was someone that I used to go to high school with, but he doesn't go to UF. This person used to play football so I knew that he used to workout all time and I had a feeling that he still would be. I was correct as he still does. He told me that he hated the crowded gyms so much that he ended up buying his own workout equipment so that he could just workout at his house and not have to deal with the crowds. He said if a service like mine was available he would consider going back to a normal gym because there are more exercises he can do there instead of just being limited now to what he bought for his house. 

I learned a lot of things from these interviews and that is everyone has a different way of dealing with the problem of crowded gyms. Some people look for new gyms, some stop going  to the gym, and some buy their own equipment as to not deal with it anymore. With the service that I thought of I think all of these problems could be solved and it would be everyone's way of solving the problem, instead of having to change gyms or buy their own equipment. 

11A Idea Napkin No. 1

1. Who are you? My name is Nick Decker and I am a current student at the University of Florida, and I am currently studying Construction Management. I am a very kind and approachable person and have no problems talking to anyone. I am also not a lazy person and once I get my mind set on doing something, I do it. I am also a very outdoorsy person and love to fish.

2. What are you offering to your customers? The product that I am offering is a way to make sure you never have to wait a very long time for a machine or bench to open up at the gym as this is something that normally completely ruins your workout. It will be a service that offers a continuous live feed of the gym, so you can tell if it is busy or not. It will also offer a way to reserve a spot for a certain machine or bench, so you don't have to constantly be waiting.

3. Who are you offering it to? This service can be offered to anyone even if they don't currently go to the gym all the time at the moment. But, the people that will benefit the most from this are the people that go to the gym a lot.

4. Why do they care? They will care because if they are like anyone who works out a lot they will know how annoying it can be to wait in line for a machine or bench in the middle of a really good workout. They would be interested in having a way to solve/help fix this problem.

5. What are your core competencies? I believe what sets me apart from everyone else is that simply has tried to put this idea into practice. I also am someone who goes to the gym a lot and have thought about this almost every time I am in a crowded gym and have thought a lot about the logistics of  it.

I believe that all of these elements fit well together and all make sense with each other. The product makes sense with the people who will benefit from it and have an unmet need for it. I think that the only weak part of my service is that there are some people out there who have this problem but simply do not care and don't mind it. But, I think this is also the case for almost all services.

9A Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

In this post, I will be continuing with the idea of having live cameras going in the gym so you can see how busy it is and the use of an app that links with each machine enabling you to secure your turn with each machine. After conducting five more interviews I learned a lot about my idea. These five interviews were all conducted with people that I know go to the gym all the time. Three out of the five people that I interviewed agreed with me that extremely crowded gyms are very annoying and having to wait too long for a machine messes up their workout entirely. However, the other two people that interviewed said that they don't really mind either of those things at all, and it is just part of going to the gym that they got used to. After these interviews I learned that even though there are some people that like my idea, there are also some people that go to the gym that wouldn't benefit from it at all.

Who: Yes, there are certain people that fall outside the boundaries even though they share a lot in common in the opportunity. There are multiple people just like the two that interviewed that wouldn't benefit at all from my idea or use it. This is simply because they don't mind super crowded gyms at all or waiting for machines.

What: The point at which the need I identified differs from another need is really just when you leave the gym. The need I identified only happens in the gym.

Why: The people who are outside the boundary are there simply because they have no problems with crowded gyms or they just don't go to the gym.

Inside the Boundary                                                 Outside the Boundary

Anyone that goes to the gym who does not             Anyone that doesn't go to the gym or anyone that
like when it is crowded or waiting on certain          goes, but doesn't mid it being crowded
machines

The need is for something to be able to tell             People will not have a need for anything like this
them if the gym is busy or a way to reserve a          if they don't go to the gym or don't care if it is
certain machine to not have to wait for it                 crowded

The need exists because people get annoyed           There really is no alternative explanation. You
when things like this happen                                    either get annoyed by this or you don't

Solving the Problem

1. In my previous post, I talked about an opportunity that is available due to the wait time on machines at the gym and overall how crowded every gym gets. Everyone who has experienced this problem and hates it, as it is one of the worst things that can happen in the middle of a very good workout. I believe that there is service that can help fix this problem.

2. In my last post, I talked about a service that was very basic and simple and now that I have had more time to think about this opportunity I would like to expand on the service. The first part that I mentioned about the service in my previous post I would like to stay the same. That was that the gym set up general cameras around the gym and broadcast a live feed from those cameras to their website or app, so that people can see how crowded the gym is before they go and if it is a good time to go. The second part of my service that I discussed in the previous post I would like to change a little bit. I said that each gym should have their own app which tells you if the machine you want is open or not. This is a good idea, but I would like to expand on it. I think in addition to this, in the app there should be a way to reserve certain machines through the apps and once you get to the machine you can start your reservation. This way if someone is already using it then they have it reserved. You can reserve it while they are on it, that way a queue can start on the machine and you have a spot in line. You can do this while you are using a different machine so your time in the queue won't be too long. But you can't reserve every machine in the gym for yourself. There will be a system that once your reservation starts you will have two minutes to get to the machine and start it or your reservation will be cancelled. Then the machine will either open or the next person in the queue can now use this machine.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1. The opportunity that I would like to pursue comes from a problem that I'm sure a lot of people, like me, encounter almost every day of their lives. That is when the gym is too busy and you either have to wait for a certain machine or bench to open up or when that certain machine has so many people waiting for it that you just decide to change your entire workout for the day, so you don't have to wait to do certain exercises. The opportunity would be simple, but it could be used in every gym in the country. There's two things that can be done. The first would just be to set up a couple general cameras in the gym and the live feed could be broadcasted on the gym's website, so people can see when the gym is busy or not in real time. The second is each gym can release their own app that tells every if a machine is open or not.

2. Who: anyone who goes to the gym or might want to start going to the gym
What: Machines and benches end up having a wait time with them
Why: This happens because there is either not enough of a certain type of machine or there are way too many people in the gym at the same time

3. Testing the who: I think everyone who has gone to the gym has encountered this problem and knows that when you are in the middle of a workout and have to stop to wait on a machine it is not enjoyable. Not everyone goes to the gym so not everyone has this problem.
Testing the what: Not all machines get crowded, so this opportunity would be used most effectively on some machines over others
Testing the why: Not every single gym has this problem because some gyms are massive and have so many of each machine that they don't need to worry about this problem. It seems though that a majority of gyms do have this problem and the opportunity could be useful in a lot of them.

4. I interviewed 5 people and I made sure to interview someone who never goes to the gym so that this information could be relevant to everyone. Out of all the people that I interviewed that go to the gym regularly all of them said that they have had at least one of their workouts completely ruined due to just sitting around waiting for a machine to open. They said that this stall in their workout really hinders what they were trying to accomplish in the workout and they hate it. They all agreed that if some system could be made where you could find out easily if a machine was open or if the gym was crowded it would be very helpful. The person who never goes to the gym said that all of this stuff really wasn't relevant to him and didn't affect him at all. But I did ask him if he ever plans on going to the gym any time in the future, and he said that he probably will eventually. So the information will still be relevant to him even if it is not right now.

5. I now know that almost everyone who goes to the gym has this problem and hates it as much as I do. I think there is a real opportunity here to help with the inconvenience.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

1. The first opportunity that I found came from the Wall Street Journal and it was about the coronavirus affecting all of the factories that produce goods for manufacturers around the world. There is an opportunity here if someone were to try and manufacture these goods in a different country where the coronavirus isn't as much of a problem. The customer for this opportunity would be really any manufacturer that is experiencing halts in manufacturing because of the problem. This opportunity would be pretty difficult to exploit because it would require a lot of money and a lot of time.

I noticed this opportunity because I was scrolling through articles and I noticed that this was causing problems for manufacturers around the world, and when something like this happens there is potential for an opportunity.

2. The second opportunity comes from an article I was reading about in the Tampa Bay Times. It was about the Rays two city deal and how it can become actually implemented in 2020. The two city deal is when the first half of the season is played in St. Pete and the second half of the season is played in Montreal. I believe an opportunity exists because if this deal is actually implemented then someone has to build the stadium in Montreal, and there would also be an opportunity to sell merchandise like tshirts there too. The customer for this would be anyone in Montreal who is excited about this idea. The building of the stadium would be hard to exploit, but selling tshirts would not.

I noticed this opportunity because I am from Tampa and am a Rays fan and I love baseball. I've been following news about this deal ever since it came up.

3. The next opportunity I found came from an article in the The Alligator. It was about the tobacco and e cigarette age being changed to 21, and not as many people being able to buy these products from places like smoke shops or gas stations. There is an opportunity here for a new product that someone could come up with that the age would remain 18, and the product would give the same effect as tobacco or these e cigarettes. The customer would be anyone whose into those two products already or anyone who still is under 21 years old. This product would be hard to exploit as it would require inventing a new product.

I noticed this opportunity because a lot of my friends and fellow classmates are very addicted to nicotine and ever since the law changed the age to 21 a lot of them have been unable to buy it.

4. The last opportunity I found comes from the New York Times and the article was about how in the US added 225,000 jobs just in January and how the unemployment rate is at 3.6%. There is an opportunity here because some companies might be noticing that more and more jobs are being made in the United States, so they may realize it might in their better interest to provide some of the manufacturing jobs in the US rather than in places like China. A decent amount of the new jobs that were created came from manufacturing jobs. The customer would be anyone in the US who is still looking for a job. It would be relatively difficult to exploit because you would need to already own a manufacturing company or need to start one.

I noticed this opportunity because I have been following Trump and his efforts to create new jobs in the US which he has done. 

Identifying Local Opportunities

1. Lucky's Market Among Florida Stores to Close Feb. 12
https://www.gainesville.com/news/20200121/luckyrsquos-market-among-florida-stores-to-close-feb-12
This is article is basically stating that Lucky's will be closing on February 12th. Lucky's is a unique grocery store that is located a little north of UF's campus off of 13th street. Many Lucky's Markets all over the country will also be closing. The general manager of the company did not comment much as to why they were closing, but one can assume that it had to be that they were not making as many profits as they had hoped. Anyone who was involved with Lucky's at all is involved with this problem. Whether it was someone who was high up in the company, someone who was just a cashier, or someone who went to Lucky's often. It will no longer be there and a lot of people will be out of jobs.

2. New Food Market and Starbucks to Open in Norman Hall Monday
https://www.alligator.org/news/new-food-market-and-starbucks-to-open-in-norman-hall/article_34fe1914-43d9-11ea-a457-fb58aac8f509.html
This is very simple article to summarize because the summary is basically the title of the article. A new food market and Starbucks will be open in Norman Hall. This may not seem like a problem to anyone, but it definitely affects local food vendors or coffee shops that are not part of the UF campus as some of their customers may be taken away because of these. It will also make Norman Hall a lot busier so it may be a problem for students just trying to study in there.

3. UF's Sailing Team Equipment Damaged by High Winds
https://www.alligator.org/news/uf-sailing-team-s-equipment-damaged-by-high-winds/article_dbe2b252-42d6-11ea-ba7b-6741d053fad8.html
Lake Wauburg's north shore and most of the UF sailing team's equipment suffered damages from very high winds in December. It set the sailing team back quite a bit, but they raised money on a gofundme and are still hoping to do well and make sailing for this season of sailing. The problem is that a lot of their equipment was damaged and it is a lot harder to train now. This problem affects Lake Wauburg as some of its shored were damaged and it affects the UF sailing team as a lot of their equipment was damaged.

4. Local Vape Shops Lose Profits Due to Recent Tobacco Law
https://www.alligator.org/news/local-vape-shops-lose-profits-due-to-recent-tobacco-law/article_6033000a-42d4-11ea-bd9f-4f3ed2b963e4.html
The legal age to buy tobacco and electronic cigarettes was recently change from 18 to 21. Alachua County was one of the first to do this and it is hitting vape shops hard. The article says that before the law was made about 30% of their sales came from people who were 18-20 years old so they lost a lot of sales. The people who have the problem are the owners of the smoke shops because they cannot sell to certain people anymore and people who are 18-20 because they cannot buy tobacco or ecigs anymore.

5. GPD Continues Use of Highly-Criticized Facial Recognition Program
https://www.alligator.org/news/gpd-continues-use-of-highly-criticized-facial-recognition-program/article_fda52c94-424a-11ea-a379-5f6e784062d8.html
GPD is now using a system of facial recognition to try to help combat crime. They are receiving a lot of criticism because people belief it is infringing upon their privacy. The people who have the problem are GPD because they are receiving a lot of backlash and also criminals because the facial recognition will help identify them.

Forming an Opportunity Belief

I have noticed that one of the most frustrating things in Gainesville is the constant towing companies. Almost everyone that you talk to has had a bad experience of getting towed here in Gainesville. My opportunity belief is that we can, for the most part, get rid of the towing for Gainesville city parking and instead adopt a ticketing system like there is for the UF campus parking. It's very simple, if you are parked somewhere in Gainesville city parking where you shouldn't be you will get a ticket instead of getting towed. No one wants to ask a friend for a ride all the way down to Superior Towing to pay $100 to get their car back. Instead a ticket is much more reasonable and a lot easier to handle and take care of. I think that everyone that I interview will have heard of someone getting towed, but may not necessarily have been towed themselves.

The first interview that I conducted was with a 22 year old female who is now a Senior in her graduating semester here at UF. She said that she agrees that towing is ridiculous and needs to be toned down. She said that she has only been towed once and it was a wrongful towing. She was parked in a spot that she was allowed to be parked in, but was towed regardless. The company didn't make her pay for it, but she said it still ruined her day having to drive all the way over there and get her car back. She also agreed with my solution that a ticketing system would be much easier to deal with.

The second person I interviewed is also a Senior here, but is doing a 5th year. He told me that he had been towed once from where he used to work. This time he actually was in a spot that he wasn't allowed to be in, but had parked there because he had to be somewhere right after work and took the chance. Obviously his car got towed and he had to call a friend to quickly go get his car, so that he could try to be where he needed to be not too late. He said the ticketing system would be a great idea and would have gladly taken a ticket over getting his car towed.

The last person I interviewed is a 24 year old male who is now graduated from UF, but was visiting for a couple days. He told me immediately that he hates the towing here with a passion because he has been towed 6 times while being at UF, and he said all of them were wrongful towing. The places that he parked were where his apartment complex told him to park, but he got towed multiple times anyway. He said he would have to go down there, pay to get his car back, and then his apartment complex would pay him back. He said it was such a hassle and would love to get rid of towing.

Reflection
I learned a lot from this assignment. The main thing was that almost everyone here at UF has had problems with towing, and some people have had multiple encounters with this problem. Everyone seemed to like my idea of making it a ticketing system instead of towing system.

Summary
I don't think my opportunity belief has really changed from the beginning of this assignment until now. The problem still is there and a great way to solve it would be tone down on the towing of all the cars and instead implement a ticketing system.

My Entrepreneurship Story

My entrepreneurship story comes from dad's cousin who started his own company years ago and it is now the company that my dad is a lawyer for. This is also a company that I have worked at before during summers. The company is now a multi million dollar company and it is a big electronics distributor and it is currently the main Dish Network distributor for the entire Southeastern part of the United States. Knowing the guy who started the company, hearing stories about work from my dad, and even working there myself have taught me a lot about entrepreneurship and how a big company like that is run. It takes a lot of time and hard work. For example, my dad's cousin is always there on almost every weekend. So sometimes coming up with a great idea like his takes up almost all of your life. He makes a lot of money, but it is a huge time investment. The picture at the bottom is the company's logo.

The honest main reason why I took this class is because it counts as an upper division elective for my major and I've heard that it is not very hard. I didn't really know anything about this class until I started taking it, but I can see now that this class teaches very valuable life lessons and it will be nice having knowledge gained from this class for my future life. Some of the assignments so far have been tedious but they have been a good experience. I look forward to what else this class has to offer.

UF 20 Bugs Post

1. The traffic on i75 usually gets worse around the Ocala exits.
This seems to be because there are more people on the road and it takes them too long to get off on the exits.

2. Everyone trying to get me to join groups/clubs in Turlington really bugs me.
They must think this is the best/most efficient way to talk to as many people as possible about their club.

3. Not really being able to park a car in most places on the UF campus.
This is from lack of spots with a decal that a normal student can get.

4. Very cramped scooter parking everywhere on campus.
Like cars there seems to be a lack of space for scooters and the spaces that are there get filled too fast.

5. My house constantly being very cold during these colder months to try and save money on utilities.
This is from the cost of warming your house being so expensive, and possibly bad insulation.

6. Ads that come up on my phone for a certain things after I'm talking about it with someone in person.
This is from your phone constantly listening to you while you talk.

7. When I forget to take the trash out and miss garbage day.
This is caused by simply me forgetting what day it is or to take the trash out.

8. When the hot water runs out in the shower.
This happens from all the hot water in the house being used up.

9. The lines at midtown being extremely long very early in the night.
This is from people thinking they need to go out really early to beat the lines.

10. When my phone's battery life seems to go by way too quickly.
It's from either the phone having not a great battery or an app that's running and draining the battery.

11. When there are long lines at amusement parks.
This is from there being so many people in the park and so few rides.

12. It really bugs me when I want Chickfila and then I realize that it is Sunday.
They are closed every Sunday for religious purposes.

13. It bugs me a lot when I am sitting in class and it is so hot that I'm sweating through the whole class.
This seems to be because there's so many people in each room and the AC is not set that low.

14. It bugs me when restaurants that aren't that nice serve food that is so expensive.
This is from them being able to charge what price they want knowing that people will pay.

15. It bugs me when people post every part of their lives on social media like facebook.
They do this because they want to let everyone know everything that is going on in their lives even though other people may not care.

16. It bothers me how everything is overpriced at movie theaters. It ends up leading to people sneaking in their own food.
This is because the movie theater has complete control over what is sold there and put whatever price they want for it.

17. I work in a kitchen as a busboy and the small amount of space in the kitchen bugs me.
This is from there being so many things crammed into a small kitchen.

18. The traffic on Archer throughout almost the whole day is very bad.
This is from so many people trying to drive on the road and there not being the best traffic light cycles.

19. The parking lot I park at for work is way too tight.
This is from the parking spots being too small for normal cars and trying to fit as many people as possible into the parking lot.

20. The traffic on Bruce B Downs in Tampa, FL every morning.
This is from the road being under constant construction for about 10 years and causing horrible traffic.

This assignment was pretty challenging in my opinion. The most challenging part was coming up  with the last ten bugs. It was very challenging, but it made me really think which I liked.

Test Blog

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