Final Reflection

The first couple of customer interviews were some of the most nerve-wrecking things I've done throughout this semester. But I know that just from those minor assignments, my entrepreneurial mindset had begun to flourish. The experience that will be most memorable for me, was the Free Money assignment. Giving away $5 to random strangers was definitely something that I had never thought I would do, but I understood the importance of the experience and learned from it. My most joyous experience as well as the one that I am most proud of accomplishing is probably this post. Looking back at everything that I have done throughout this semester and how far I have come is definitely something that will have a lasting impact on my mindset.
I feel like I most definitely do have an entrepreneurial mindset now, and it is 100% because of this class. It has helped me see the world differently and also see myself differently.
I would recommend new students in this class to really try and see the significance of each assignment before actually doing them, I learned a lot more from each assignment once I began doing so. I would also recommend that they take this entrepreneurial journey seriously, because you get out what you put in.

Week 15 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise I found throughout this reading was how the author worded how he switch target markets. He stated that he left because of religious tension, but in reality I think he was just looking for a more profitable market. The way the author described micro-financing was confusing the first time I read it, but after I reread it a couple of times I understood. I would ask the author, what is your exact definition of discrimination? And, do you think financial discrimination is morally correct? This chapter had many controversial issues, and I do disagree with any form of discrimination.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

I did not receive any feedback that I could use to improve my elevator pitch from the last comments I received. All of the comments simply stated that they liked my idea and wish it was implemented here at UF. I felt much more confident and felt like this elevator pitch flowed much more, and I feel like this is my best one yet.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

The need that my business idea will address is that some college students are forced to take online courses, and also take online exams. Most students who take these online exams feel extremely uncomfortable and dread taking them. If you're apartment complex does not have optimal wi-fi connection, that could cause many problems when attempting the exam. Taking an online exam with someone on your computer screen watching your every move can become extremely nerve-wrecking. College students who take online tests via ProctorU will be the targeted potential customers of my new service. This need is created because some courses at the University of Florida, as well as other large universities, have extremely large class sizes and not enough professors to handle the overwhelming number of students. So an online class allows one professor to teach as many students as needed. Most students I have spoken to would love an alternative to ProctorU, and feel like an alternative would allow them to do better on their exams. This “window of opportunity” would be open for as long as Universities are still partnered with ProctorU.

Innovation

The service that I would be offering is an alternative to ProctorU to take exams for online courses. Basically, this service would operate just like ProctorU in the booking aspect, students would go online and book an appointment with a nearby proctor, including date, time and place. Much like the SAT or ACT, there would be a set number of exam locations and times. Students could then meet up with their proctor and take a pen and paper exam, rather than an online exam, depending on whether or not there are other students in the same city, other students would be taking the exam as well in the same place. Designated proctoring sites would be either a college campus in that city, or maybe even a high school classroom. Students have been taking pen and paper exams for their entire lives, and it is what students feel most comfortable doing. Especially once a student gets to college, and the exam material is much more difficult, it is extremely important that a students feels comfortable while taking an exam. This company would make money by partnering with large universities that have unhappy students taking online exams. It would charge a base fee per year, which would most likely be a little more costly that a partnership with ProctorU, because of the amount of proctors there must be throughout the United States. But, I feel like universities should spare no expense to have students happy because of the high price of tuition. 

Venture Concept

Most students dislike taking online exams because it makes them feel extremely uncomfortable. Myself, and many other students that I have spoken to would be more than willing to take a pen and paper exam in its place. The hardest part of starting this company would be getting universities to partner with it rather than ProctorU. I’m sure universities have multi-year deals with ProctorU already in place, so it would take a couple years for universities to be able to partner with this company. ProctorU would be my biggest competitor, and it is extremely vulnerable because most students despise taking online exams. There would be many employees, but not many full-time employees. Teachers, TAs or even some professors would sign up to proctor a specific exam and be paid per exam session that they proctor. 

3 Minor Elements

My unfair advantage would be the tremendous amount of work ethic that I would put forth to get this company going and start on the right foot. There is not much innovation for a business idea like this, the only one that I could really think of is mainly to partner with exams like SAT or ACT and have our employees proctor those exams as well. In 5 years, once this company has taken off and made millions, I would sell it and pursue my ultimate goal which is to open my own stock brokerage firm.

Summary of Feedback

I did not receive any critical feedback of my venture concept. All the comments I received agreed with my idea and stated that they would love this service as an alternative to ProctorU. One student did mention a point that I had not thought of though, she said that when she is taking online tests, sometimes her internet connection goes bad and causes problems with the test. I included that in my venture concept. The comments on my What's Next post were very similar, and liked how I wanted to eventually sell this business and pursue my dreams. 

Overall, the feedback I received did not give me anything that I could improve on in my venture concept. It just gave me more information to include on the cons of online ProctorU exams. 

Google Gold

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimiation (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

Outside of what was asked for each assignment, I honestly did not even consider including anything else that could enhance my blog's SEO. I did use certain words like failure and entrepreneur in almost all of my posts though, and told my friends and family to check out my posts. 

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

The keywords I mainly used were entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and failure. They all have a common theme, but I did not include those words in every post. 

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I did not really use social media, but I do know how powerful it is and how helpful it can be when starting a business. 

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

My most viral post was probably the post about celebrating failure. I think it was the most viral because it is such a foreign concept to so many people, they usually despise failure, so someone saying to celebrate it would catch someone's eye. 

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

I looked and scrolled through many pages but could not find my blog using any of my key words. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

What surprised me the most about this week's reading was how important having a social-support system is when creating a business. Failure is a common occurrence when you are an entrepreneur, and having a system that would help you overcome failure is extremely important. I didn't really find anything in this reading that I didn't understand. I would ask the author: what are some way to avoid making unethical decisions? I would also ask, how do you recover from making an unethical decision? I did not disagree with anything.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

Looking back at my first very short interview with an entrepreneur, I actually still really like the three questions that I chose to ask him. I don't think I would change them if I had to do it all over again. I learned quite a bit about entrepreneurship and also about myself.

I could not record this interview because the entrepreneur, Juan Fernandez de Castro, lives in Miami and I did not have a chance to go down and meet up with him for this assignment. So I called him and I summarized the questions and answers.

1. What was the biggest failure that you had to overcome when starting your business?
When I first started out in my business (the business of selling shoes, especially boots), I tried to sell my shoes in big ticket retailers like Macy's and Dillards, after a while I found out the hard way that I had to sell the shoes on my own for a while and show the retailers that these shoes could actually turn a profit.

2. What has been your biggest accomplishment to date, regarding your entrepreneurial self?
Being able to make enough money to send my children off to college debt free.

3. What is your advice to a person who plans to become an entrepreneur in the future?
Learn how to weather the storm, through the ups and the downs, and just stay confident in yourself.

I felt more prepared and confident when asking the entrepreneur these questions. I felt like I could better understand the message he was trying to convey, and I think it'll have a lasting impact on my life.

Celebrating Failure

I was on an intramural basketball team this semester in the competitive league, where that are some really good teams. My team had some really good players and skill-wise, we could definitely compete with most of the teams. We started the season 0-5, and were playing horribly. Each game we tried a new offense and a new defense but could not get anything going and the scoreboard really showed it. During our 6th game, we finally found a good system, and implemented it in our games. We finally won a game, and after that game regained our confidence and won the next 6 in a row. Instead of just giving up on our season, we put our heads together and finally found something that worked. This class has taught me to really learn from my mistakes, grow, and keep persevering in the face of failure. I am definitely more inclined to take a risk now than I was in the beginning of this semester.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise to me, was that Facebook managed to raise $16 billion it its IPO! I really enjoy learning about the stock market, and I had no idea that Facebook was able to raise to much during its IPO, I think that's incredible. One thing that I found really confusing was the concept of "rollups", even after reading that section a couple of times, I still can't fully grasp the concept. I would ask the author what his most effective way to value a firm is. I would also ask him if he bought stock in Facebook during its IPO. There is nothing I really thought the author was wrong about.

My Exit Strategy

After multiple years of profitability, and once my company becomes valuable enough, I plan to sell it, and use the proceeds to open my own investment banking firm or stock brokerage firm. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to become an investment banker and I feel like once I have accumulated enough capital, I'll be able to open my own firm, and with my finance degree from UF, have the knowledge it takes to make it successful. I love the entire industry of investment banking, and I feel like I would really thrive in that industry. It is one of my passions. I think that my exit strategy would definitely affect the way I conducted business while I owned this venture. I would be so caught up with adding as much value to the firm as possible, in order to sell it for the most amount of money. 

Week 12 Reading Reflection

One thing that surprised me about the reading was the amount of work and planning that goes into venture ideas. Nothing really confused me about this reading. I would ask the author, what is the most effective way to create a venture. I would also ask, if there is a way to become more creative. I do not disagree with anything that the author wrote.