Final Reflection (Assignment 30A)

1. This semester and specifically this class is one to remember. This was the first class I ever took that we did activities and things that really took you outside of the classroom and made you really interact with society, at the very least. It was so fun to interview all the people we had to and really get a sense of what problems there are in the world, and more importantly, how to have the mindset to see and approach these problems in the first place. However, there were some long, tedious assignments that were not very enjoyable, specifically the one where we had to record and upload interviews. The interviewing part wasn't even bad, it was just the fact that we had to use YouTube and, at least for me, I had so many problems and the assignment just became a hassle after a while.

2. One of the most memorable experiences I had for this class was the Bug List activity. For some reason, when I think of this class, I immediately think of that assignment and how interesting it was to really analyze problems the way we had to. It really made me listen to complaints and find problems from them and then solutions to them, in any situation I was in. I really think that that experience will stick with me forever and is one that I will use in the future for sure. The assignment I was most proud of this semester was the one that we had to interview people in our industry and related to our industry to make connections with. That really got me into the market of my business idea and from it, I truly made some really cool and beneficial relationships that I will definitely utilize in the future for one way or another.

3. As mentioned above, I definitely think that some of the assignments I did in this class changed my mindset on society and really made me think like an entrepreneur. As I live day-to-day, I am constantly on the lookout for problems I see people having, or ones that I have and think of something that could possibly be made to allow that given task to be easier. I am now always trying to talk to people that I think are skilled in an area that I will be involved in in the future, as I really realized how important networking is for business from this class. There were many other assignments I know were beneficial as well but I can't seem to think of them now.

4. For students coming into this class in future semesters, I would definitely make sure they were planning to keep a calendar of all the given assignments. Because this class is all online, staying on track was something that I definitely struggled with at the beginning of this semester. I would forget that there were assignments due and would forget how long they took individually. As the semester progressed, I learned to plan my time better and really take advantage of the assignments rather than just try and do them really fast.

Venture Concept No. 2 (assignment 29A)

     1.  Let me begin by first explaining the scenario in which I realized my opportunity and how and why it could be utilized. My dad flips houses and after being all over the US using his model, he kept telling me how hard it was and how many people told him how hard it was to find plumbers and or electricians that were skilled and professional. He would have to pay crazy prices for half-ass work and when he found a professional, they were booked solid for weeks. This brought me to realize the dying service industry in this aspect and I, therefore, decided to go ahead and think about creating a company that hires, trains, and runs skilled, professional plumbers and electricians to do work for the upper-class community specifically. My dad flipped mostly houses in and around 1 million dollars so that is where he realized this real need, therefore, that is where I want to start as I know there is a majority of these people that have this need. Specifically, these people will be newcomers to a wealthy community, and therefore, they will be looking for connections and people to work on their house when needed. It will be in wealthier, probably coastal areas of the U.S, in order to get the most wealthy customers. Our work will be done as it is needed, for example, for new stereo systems, surround sound, sink and toilet problems, sewage issues, etc. Also, I will try to be partners with construction companies so that I can do the plumbing and electrician work as the houses are being built to ensure constant business.

       As far as my innovation, there isn't much, being that I am taking advantage of a dying but important industry. What will be different than what people may be used to today is the fact that my service will have extremely professional and skilled workers that will be able to fix and help you with almost any problem you are facing in your situation. They will be well-dressed, well-spoken, and will be people who you can trust in your home. This is necessary as many people in the upper class are willing to pay extra for stellar work and to have people that they feel comfortable within your house. 

       The Venture Concept for this business is the fact that I am taking advantage of a dying industry, that I am coming into this industry at the perfect time being that other competitors are falling out and that I am targeting the best market for this opportunity. Being that the income of people nowadays is rising dramatically and that more and more technology is being made, this opens huge opportunities for me to advance this service and utilize all these new things in order to be the best and have a huge client base all over the US. I will be able to start clean and have an innovative system of working that my competitors that are still using old tactics will not be able to stand up to. 

       The thing that will be especially unique to my company will have to probably be the fact that my employees will be highly skilled, knowledgeable, and extremely polite when doing business with our customers. They will be trained to perfection and we will have the highest degree of customer satisfaction possible. 

       Hopefully, this idea and business take off and in 5 years I hope to see it thriving in a specific area of the US, and for the plans to spread across the country to be in the making. I want this business to become highly successful and for it to be successful enough for me to provide for myself and my employees with.

2. I was amazed at how many comments I got on this assignment for part 1 so it took a while to read them all. What was even weirder was the fact that I did not get one negative comment, literally not one. Everyone told me how great my idea was and how I covered all the aspects that seemed necessary for this assignment. People were telling me that the market I was going after would be hard but that my business concept made sense in their eyes, and could succeed. I was very pleased to read all this and know that people believed in my idea.

3. Because my feedback was so positive, I really did not know what to change as I was not told to change anything by my peers. I went through and re-read what I wrote and changed a few grammatical errors and sentences that were slightly rough, but overall, I felt confident with my work.

Your Exit Strategy (assignment 28A)

1. I haven't thought much about the exit strategy I plan to take, however, I will explain what makes the most sense to me. After growing the company to its fullest potential, and in the event that I see the market dying or the business not doing well anymore, I would most likely end up selling the business and trying to secure some sort of equity in it as I was the owner. I believe that with the equity, I can still be attached and earn from it, but then I can move on and start something else if I see a better opportunity down the line. I believe that this time will most likely come sooner than I expect as technology is really taking over these jobs and, maybe in the future, this market is completely taken over by technology. 

2. I selected this strategy as there really isn't another option as far as my business goes. Of course I can shut down, or pass it down to my kids, however, I don't see this business being one that can be handed down, and it wouldn't be smart for me to just shut down a business and stay with it till the end. 

3. I think that with thinking about this exit strategy, I have mentally made some decisions that reflect the way I feel. For instance, I have not made any plans to invest huge amounts of capital into this business to make it something I cannot give up, and I don't dedicate my entire life to it as I know the market can be taken over at any time. Other than that, I haven't really thought too deep into my exit strategy, therefore, I am not aware of the decisions I made from thinking of it.

Reading Reflection No. 3 (Assignment 27A)

For this assignment, I read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. In this book, Adams goes over the process that comes with success, touching on the fact that it takes many, many failures before one becomes wise and successful. He says that to get to the point you want to be at, you have to learn all the steps under it, and with that, many failures will occur. This book really relates to this class as with being an entrepreneur, failure is a very common occurrence. This book really teaches you the importance of failing and the fact that its a part of every success, therefore, you should capitalize from it as much as you can. This is really important to understand as an entrepreneur because it will help you learn a lot in your business making process. As far as an assignment that can be created relating to this book, I think having students write about and reflect on a time when they failed and maybe give a response as to what they would change now, knowing how that situation went before. An aha moment that I had while reading this book was when Adams explained the amount of formula's and systems he has to accomplish his tasks instead of setting goals or schedules like most people. I thought to be successful, setting goals was essential, and it can be, but Adams focused on the point that setting goals leads to many more failures and that having a formula to answer something is much safer, easier, and helpful compared to setting goals.

Celebrating Failure (assignment 26A)

The most recent failure I had was last night in the Math test I had. I had a presentation and a test yesterday and because I am a stronger test taker than presenter, I did not use my time wisely and barely got the chance to study for the math test. Therefore, I did very poorly on the test and now I have to work very hard to get the grade I need in that class, all based off of the final exam. From this experience, I definitely learned a few things. For one, I learned that I need to manage my time much better and learn to study and plan things days in advance. Also, I learned that I need to set a better schedule when I have many things going on at the same time so that I can prepare equally for all the things I have coming. 

Failure is something that I am very familiar with it and I have my own way of dealing with it. At first, it always sucks and its always embarrassing to do something wrong and to know that I am performing under my potential. However, after listening to many mentors and wiser people in my life, I have learned that they all learned the most in their life, in times of failure. They all agree that when someone fails, it is ingrained in your head so much more than when you do well on something, therefore, you are much more likely to never make that mistake again. Also, you learn a lot about yourself and how you act under pressure, which is always great to know. Overall, failure is a very important part of life, regardless of how much it sucks.

What's Next? (assignment 25A)

Existing Market
Step 1- In the future, I would like to see my business move across the U.S perfecting its model and  making it a household name. I would like the business to become a brand and have a well-known logo and increase the company to have over 100 employees.

Step 2- After talking to some neighbors in my neighborhood, the information they told me was pretty interesting. One of them told me the next logical step would be to go into similar services related to plumbing and electricity work, like construction, flood cleaning, etc. She said that to do something like monopolizing that service area and make your company someone that "everyone knows like Stanley Steemer." The other two said things like spread across the U.S making your name huge, and or franchising it to make the spreading easier. After talking about what I had in mind for the future, they all said that it was a good idea and what they would've eventually got to, and that it was a good goal, but to keep my mind open for other things as well.

Step 3- Based off of all this feedback, I still believe that what I initially said makes the most sense and is still what I feel to be the best attack for the future. I think that maybe trying to incorporate some of the ideas regarding other aspects of the industry like steaming and construction could be a possible partnership to increase social capital and profits. They told me that in order to meet their needs the best, it needs to be a very transparent service, being that once their information is put into my system, their work should be taken care of as it is needed by scheduled check-ups and for when confrontation happens, the people need to be clean and professionally spoken.
         I definitely had these things in place in my business plan as they are things that people I have already spoken to told me. They said all the same things that these three people said and because of that I was prepared for their suggestions and had most of the answers to their questions and suggestions.

New Market
Step1- A very different market from the one that I am targeting is the part of the population that is in the cycle of hereditary poverty and falling in the lowest income level and living in a very old, well-acquainted neighborhood.

Step 2- To create value for people in this part of the population there are two potential options. For one, they are people that I could potentially train and have as an employee of my company. They most likely possess the basic knowledge of how plumbing and or electricity work are done and they may be interested in working for me. The second option is to have my company create a service plan that is made for low income individuals, using methods like financing and loans to get paid for the work that needs to get done.

Step 3- I went and did my best to talk to lower income individuals here in Gainesville and from the two people I talked to, they told me that hiring people to train is something that will definitely attract people and many people will be willing to work for me. They went on to say that other than that, they don't think many people would be interested in my work unless I could be the local competitors who were friends around the neighborhood charging extremely low rates. They explained that they rented their house, therefore their landlord took care of those problems, but they knew people around that would help them with smaller stuff for little to no charge. Therefore, I was not given many suggestions and would have to think harder to find a way to target this market.

Step 4- This new market was surprisingly similar to how I thought it was going to be. I was aware that most people in the lower income part of society usually are quite handy or know people that are, and therefore take care of plumbing or electrical work themselves. Also, they seemed to be in need for real jobs as during our conversation, they told me people in the neighborhood they lived would love to work for me but I told them I wasn't up and running yet, but got their information for the future.
       This really interested and shocked me as it shows how much of a struggle it is for many people in society to even get a job, when they have such a hear to work. I don't want to get ahead of myself and say that I know they are hard workers and capable people who will understand and act as needed for the job, but the way the people I interviewed acted, they seemed like good candidates. In the end, this market was not even close to an attractive market compared to my desired market; it is on the opposite side of the spectrum for my service and I'm not too confident it would work in that market.

Venture Concept No. 1 (Assignment 24A)

       Let me begin by first explaining the scenario in which I realized my opportunity and how and why it could be utilized. My dad flips houses and after being all over the US using his model, he kept telling me how hard it was and how many people told him how hard it was to find plumbers and or electricians that were skilled and professional. He would have to pay crazy prices for half-ass work and when he found a professional, they were booked solid for weeks. This brought me to realize the dying service industry in this aspect and I therefore decided to go ahead and think about creating a company that hires, trains, and runs skilled, professional plumbers and electricians to do work for the upper class community specifically. My dad flipped mostly houses in and around 1 million dollars so that is where he realized this real need, therefore, that is where I want to start as I know there is a majority of these people that have this need. Specifically, these people will be newcomers to a wealthy community, and therefore, they will be looking for connections and people to work on their house when needed. It will be in wealthier, probably coastal areas of the U.S, in order to get the most wealthy customers. Our work will be done as it is needed, for example, for new stereo systems, surround sound, sink and toilet problems, sewage issues, etc. Also, I will try to be partners with construction companies so that I can do the plumbing and electrician work as the houses are being built to ensure constant business.

       As far as my innovation, there isn't much, being that I am taking advantage of a dying but important industry. What will be different that what people may be used to today is the fact that my service will have extremely professional and skilled workers that will be able to fix and help you with almost any problem you are facing in your situation. They will be well-dressed, well-spoken, and will be people who you can trust in your home. This is necessary as many people in the upper class are willing to pay extra for stellar work, and to have people that they feel comfortable with in your house. 

       The Venture Concept for this business is the fact that I am taking advantage of a dying industry, that I am coming into this industry at the perfect time being that other competitors are falling out, and that I am targeting the best market for this opportunity. Being that the income of people nowadays is rising dramatically, and that more and more technology is being made, this opens huge opportunities for me to advance this service and utilize all these new things in order to be the best and have a huge client base all over the US. I will be able to start clean and have an innovative system of working that my competitors that are still using old tactics will not be able to stand up to. 

       The thing that will be especially unique to my company will have to probably be the fact that my employees will be highly skilled, knowledgeable, and extremely polite when doing business with our customers. They will be trained to perfection and we will have the highest degree of customer satisfaction possible. 

       Hopefully, this idea and business takes off and in 5 years I hope to see it thriving in a specific area of the US, and for the plans to spread across the country to be in the making. I want this business to become highly successful and for it to be successful enough for me to provide for myself and my employees with.