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.