Week 15 Reading Reflection

1. The biggest surprise to me in this reading would be that ten dollars a day in India is considering the lower middle class. This does not seem like much money at all, so it was surprising that so little money would be considering the middle class. I would think that that income would be under the poverty line. 
2. The emotional bias was confusing for me. I do not see how someone who owns and started up their own business could forget what their own objective was. I guess I can kind of see how views can get swayed and distorted, but it is still confusing how they can just forget.
3. What are major distinctions between the four areas of innovation? Are you going to spread out to other countries and not just India? Also, why India?
4. I did not disagree with anything that the author had to say. The Innovation Academy has done a great job at UF of instilling in us students how important and valuable innovation is, so I totally agreed with everything the author had to say. 

Final Reflection

1. For me, this course has had so many highs and lows. There have been so many different experiences. Now that I look back at all of my blog posts, it reminds me of certain assignments that I forgot I even did. The highs for me were the elevator pitches. They were my strong points. I felt that all the work I had put in and researched was coming together in each of my pitches, so they were definitely my high points. My low points were the interviewing assignments. I am not very sociable, so it was kind of hard for me to approach people that I did not know and just make conversation. 
2. The most formative experience for me was interviewing an entrepreneur. I felt that I got the most out of these interviews because I got to actually speak with someone who had been through it all before and knew what they were talking about. I will always remember the experience I had with trying to hand out dollar bills to strangers. I thought it was very interesting that nobody wanted to take my free money that I was giving away. I am most proud of myself for getting into contact with business owners in the markets that I would be dealing with once Beauty To Go started up. That took a lot of time and effort, so I am very proud of that. The most joyous experience was interviewing people that I knew and hearing all the good things that they had to say about me. It was very humbling. 
3. I would not say that I am an an actual entrepreneur now, but I do think that I am much closer to it now than I was before. I feel that throughout this course, I have acquired much needed information and knowledge to get myself on the right track. I don't think that I have it all down, but I do know now that I am capable of doing anything I want. There are so many resources all around us and so many people willing to help me if need be. This course really showed me that. 
4. For any future students taking this course, I would recommend you to take advantage of all of the opportunities you have! Your professor, fellow class members, entrepreneurs all around, etc. They are all willing to help you and are incredible resources. Don't forget that! They will totally ensure that you do well in this course. I would just have a good relationship with your professor and get to know your class mates. Doing all of this will help you to have a good mind set for this course and do the best that you possibly can. 
   

Elevator Pitch No. 4

The feedback I received was all extremely helpful in getting me to where I am with my business concept today. Many individuals asked where we would be providing these services, so I made sure to clarify that. I also added in my "What's Next?" idea because I thought that it would be a great way to bring in additional revenue. I also thought that the addition of eyebrow waxing would be very profitable, so I added that in there. I felt that after all of the feedback, I have become much more confident in my pitch and can better explain what I see in our future.

Venture Concept No 2

1. Opportunity: Beauty To Go has an opportunity with pretty much every person in society. We are offering a mobile salon business that comes to you for all of your beauty needs. Who wouldn’t want to salon to come to them? But more specifically, our target audience will be the elderly, parents, and college students. Most elderly and college students do not have transportation, so our services will make things a lot more convenient for our clients and save them money. Parents will especially benefit from our services because they will not have to bring their children to a salon where things can get hectic. Salons are always have great opportunities because everyone needs a haircut, plus women always need waxing, nails, makeup, etc. We are just adding a huge convenience factor to our company - we come to you!
               Cars are so expensive these days that most college students cannot afford their own ride. The elderly start losing their motor skills and are not able to operate a vehicle anymore, so most do not have their own transportation. Parents usually have busy schedules and crazy lives, so it makes it hard to make time to get to a salon. All of these are forces in our environment that are providing us with this opportunity. There are elderly, colleges, and parents everywhere in the world, so we have a market everywhere. There should be no shortage of clients. We have no defined geographic market because we can service people everywhere. Any race, age, ethnicity, religion, etc.
               As a woman myself, I know that women usually find a hairdresser and nail artist that they like and stick with them for a long time. I have been going to my hairstylist for ten years. People nowadays satisfy their needs by going to the salon because they have no other option. I am confident that we will be able to form a loyal customer base once we get established. People will love how convenient we are and want to keep coming back for more. This opportunity is colossal! We have such a huge client base that its unending. We may have a target audience, but we really offer to anyone. This window of opportunity will continue to be open, until somebody else comes up with this idea. That’s why Beauty To Go needs to be the first one to it. We need to get the ball rolling before this window of opportunity closes.
   Innovation: Beauty To Go’s innovation will be a mobile salon located inside of a van. Our vans will be fully equipped for all house calls. Our services will include haircuts, hair dying, hair styling, manicures, pedicures, acrylic nail application, gel nail polish application, airbrush makeup application, mineral makeup application, and eyebrow waxing. Our prices will be the same as other salons. We will be able to keep our prices low by saving money on a lease. We will have portable manicure and pedicure chairs, as well as portable hair chairs where clients can sit to get their hair done. We will still accept tips. There will be no traveling fee, as we will be saving money on a lease. But our artists will still have to pay a fee to keep their spot on our team, just as they would if they worked at a regular salon. We will charge per service, not by hour. Our services with also include complementary drinks and short massages.These services can be completed inside of our fully equipped vans or in the client's home - whichever they prefer.
   Venture Concept: Our innovation will help to provide everyone’s beauty needs and come to them. This will solve problems for the elderly and college students who usually do not have their own transportation. It will also solve problems for parents, who do not want to hassle with bringing their children into a hectic salon. We can bring our services to them, where they are comfortable in their own homes. Most customers will buy our services because of their convenience. Beauty To Go makes everyone’s lives easier and saves a lot of time.  Everyone that I have spoken with has said that they would love a salon that came to them. Convenience is very important to others. We will also be providing clients with ALL of their beauty needs, so they do not have to go from place to place to get their nails done there and their hair done there, etc. I do not think it will be hard to get people to switch to our services, mainly because of the convenience we provide.
               Our competitors are other salons, but they aren’t really much competition because they aren’t mobile. Any salon can cut your hair or do your nails, but not any salon brings all of that to you. That is what makes us different. Our only weakness at this point is that nobody knows us. So that may make people hesitant to trust us and try us out. People normally go to somewhere that they are referred to. So we just have to get our name known and then we should get clients in with no problem. Our customer experience and business location really defines our business concept. What makes us so great is we don’t have a business location – it’s located in your home! We also aim to make our customers comfortable and happy with our services so that we leave them completely satisfied with everything. We want them to feel beautiful when we’re done with them. Our business would start out small with only one artist per specialty that we provide. There would only be one hair artist, one nail artist, and one makeup artist. This way we can get on our feet and get our client base and give everyone a taste of what we’re all about.We will continue to grow and add more vans as our clientele expands.
   Our most important resource is our mobility. We can go where ever we want and where ever we are needed. This way we are always where the market is. This is something that others salons don’t have and will be hard to copy. The next opportunity that we would like to tackle is a new and unique brand of beauty products that we will use at our appointments and sell to clients. This will add to our uniqueness and generate more revenue for the company. In five years, I see Beauty To Go having many locations all over the U.S. with more than ten working vans in every city we are in. I want to keep increasing our vans so that we can service more clients. In the next decade, I see myself as the boss overseeing the company. I would have different people in charge of each location. I want to be able to pass the power down to someone else, so that I can continue my work in nursing. This venture will give me the groundwork to learn what it takes to run a company and be a great leader. 
    
   2. The main focus of the feedback I received was about whether or not the business would be located in the van or we bring the supplies inside. I wanted to clarify in this venture concept that we can do either. I intended on going inside of the homes of our clients so that they were comfortable with all of the supplies needed for the service. But in the case of say a college student who lives in a dorm with not much space- we can easily do everything in our van because it will be fully equipped with chairs, foot spas, tables, etc. It also was suggested that as the business continues to grow, we can add more and more vans. I think it is a great idea. We will continue to expand so that we can service as many individuals as possible. 
    
   3. For this post, I tried to clarify the versatility of Beauty To Go a little better, so that the readers were able to understand that we are able to complete our services inside of our vans or outside in the client's home. I also added that we will be planning on adding more vans as time goes on so that we can service more people in our area and around the Florida area. 

Very Short Interview, Part 2

Now that I have looked back on the past interview that I did with Molly, it has really showed me how little I knew about entrepreneurship and what goes into starting a business. I asked her such vague questions like "What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?" and "What do you think that I should learn in this course?" It makes me laugh to know that I had access to someone with real experience and I asked questions like that. I am no expert now, but I know that I would ask much more detailed questions. I know that what I asked was what we were told to ask, but I should have asked more than just what was required.

Unfortunately, Molly was out of town this week, so I had to communicate with her through email. She was kind enough to answer my questions for me. Here are the three questions I asked:

1. What do you think of a mobile beauty salon in the Gainesville area?
That sounds awesome! I would definitely use this! I travel so much and a lot of time, I am in a hotel in a city that I don't know places to get my nails or hair done. But if the salon came to me? That would be totally awesome! There are so many tourists in the Gainesville area because of the college, so I think it would be really awesome for that reason. And most people don't have their own cars there because of the little parking, so you guys coming to them is totally convenient. I think its a great idea!

2. Do you think that it could be profitable?
Totally. When people are on vacation, they want to get pampered. And when they are visiting their kids in town, they usually spoil them. So I think you would get a lot of business just from people out of town. But also from all of the college students that don't have cars. This would be very popular in Gainesville. As long as it isn't too expensive. We all know that people will pay for convenience. 

3. What would you suggest to include in my business concept?
I would say maybe include massaging as one of your services. If you want it to be a well rounded salon that offers all of the ways to pamper yourself, then you should definitely include massages. That is one of my favorite things to do. It will bring in more customers. I would also say offer a line of products, just like other salons. That will bring in more money for the company. Also, its a good marketing strategy. It will help get your name out there.

This time around, I was much more comfortable talking with Molly. Before, I did not even know how to approach the situation. But throughout the course, I have spoken with so many people about my business concept and it has made me much more confident. I know exactly what I want from this concept. This time around, I knew that I wanted to talk about my concept specifically. I am really confident in Beauty To Go and I truly believe that it could be very successful in Gainesville, so that makes it a lot easier to talk about. She told me that she could definitely tell that I have grown very much and was glad that I have been able to develop my own idea and learn so much about entrepreneurship.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

1. I was surprised by due diligence evaluation. 
2. I was confused when the author started talking about adjustable tangible book value. I have never heard of it before and all of the different parts to it made it confusing to understand. 
3. Which of the factors that influences a business's value is most important? Where do you get your knowledge and expertise from? Have you ever dealt with bias before?
4. There was nothing that I did not agree with. The author is the expert and I am not. I learned a lot from this chapter. 

Celebrating Failure

1. This semester I failed one of my Microbiology exam. It was a huge exam and worth a big portion of my grade. I knew about it well ahead of time. I just procrastinated for way too long and did not start studying until the day before the exam was scheduled. Long story short - my attempts at studying were not enough and I failed the exam. 
2. I learned that procrastinating is not worth it! My bad judgement led to me not doing well on my exam and now my grade has suffered. I have learned that I need to do things ahead of time and just get things done. My failure has made me more proactive for the remainder of this semester. I am not glad that I failed, but it has made me a better student. 
3. In my opinion, failure is a necessary evil. It is not fun and it is not pretty, but it is sometimes necessary to make ourselves stronger and smarter. We learn from the consequences of our mistakes. I do not handle failure well at all because I am not used to failing. I have always done well in school and been pretty smart, so when I failed my exam, I was very upset. But I overcame my problem and it made me a better student. I learned from it. So in a way, our failures can sometimes be the best thing for us. That is what this course has taught me. To embrace my failures. 

My Exit Strategy

1. My intentions for Beauty To Go are to sell it in a few years after its initial take off and success. 
2. I am currently trying to get into nursing school and plan to continue on and become a Nurse Practitioner. So, Beauty To Go is not apart of my life plan. Not only will I be incredibly busy with my job, but I also want to have a family and get married. I will not have time to be running a business plus my family life and working at the hospital. It will be a great way to get some leadership experience and help bring in money to pay off my student loans. But once I am done with school and have a real big girl job, I plan to sell it and get a good return. 
3. I do not think that my exit strategy has influenced any of the decisions I have made for my concept. I still want it to be successful and look for more opportunities for the salon even after I am gone. I simply just won't have time for it after I have completed my schooling. Even with my exit strategy, I have looked at all opportunities and growth potentials. So I don't think that it has influenced anything.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

1. I was surprised to read that growth was the most important stage in a venture. I can understand why that is very important. I just thought that stabilization would be more important.
2. The fatal visions on strategic planning were confusing to me. It was hard for me to understand everything fully.
3. Why do you think that it is more important to provide rewards for success and not punishment for failures? Also, where do you get your knowledge from? How do you know all of this?
4. I agreed with pretty much everything other than the author saying that it is not important to give punishment after we fail. I think punishment can make us work harder for we want so we get it right the first time around.

Venture Concept No 1

Opportunity: Beauty To Go has an opportunity with pretty much every person in society. We are offering a mobile salon business that comes to you for all of your beauty needs. Who wouldn’t want to salon to come to them? But more specifically, our target audience will be the elderly, parents, and college students. Most elderly and college students do not have transportation, so our services will make things a lot more convenient for our clients and save them money. Parents will especially benefit from our services because they will not have to bring their children to a salon where things can get hectic. Salons are always have great opportunities because everyone needs a haircut, plus women always need waxing, nails, makeup, etc. We are just adding a huge convenience factor to our company - we come to you!

            Cars are so expensive these days that most college students cannot afford their own ride. The elderly start losing their motor skills and are not able to operate a vehicle anymore, so most do not have their own transportation. Parents usually have busy schedules and crazy lives, so it makes it hard to make time to get to a salon. All of these are forces in our environment that are providing us with this opportunity. There are elderly, colleges, and parents everywhere in the world, so we have a market everywhere. There should be no shortage of clients. We have no defined geographic market because we can service people everywhere. Any race, age, ethnicity, religion, etc.

            As a woman myself, I know that women usually find a hairdresser and nail artist that they like and stick with them for a long time. I have been going to my hairstylist for ten years. People nowadays satisfy their needs by going to the salon because they have no other option. I am confident that we will be able to form a loyal customer base once we get established. People will love how convenient we are and want to keep coming back for more. This opportunity is colossal! We have such a huge client base that its unending. We may have a target audience, but we really offer to anyone. This window of opportunity will continue to be open, until somebody else comes up with this idea. That’s why Beauty To Go needs to be the first one to it. We need to get the ball rolling before this window of opportunity closes.

Innovation: Beauty To Go’s innovation will be a mobile salon located inside of a van. Our vans will be fully equipped for all house calls. Our services will include haircuts, hair dying, hair styling, manicures, pedicures, acrylic nail application, gel nail polish application, airbrush makeup application, mineral makeup application, and eyebrow waxing. Our prices will be the same as other salons. We will be able to keep our prices low by saving money on a lease. We will have portable manicure and pedicure chairs, as well as portable hair chairs where clients can sit to get their hair done. We will still accept tips. There will be no travelling fee, as we will be saving money on a lease. But our artists will still have to pay a fee to keep their spot on our team, just as they would if they worked at a regular salon. We will charge per service, not by hour. Our services with also include complementary drinks and short massages.

Venture Concept: Our innovation will help to provide everyone’s beauty needs and come to them. This will solve problems for the elderly and college students who usually do not have their own transportation. It will also solve problems for parents, who do not want to hassle with bringing their children into a hectic salon. We can bring our services to them, where they are comfortable in their own homes. Most customers will buy our services because of their convenience. Beauty To Go makes everyone’s lives easier and saves a lot of time.  Everyone that I have spoken with has said that they would love a salon that came to them. Convenience is very important to others. We will also be providing clients with ALL of their beauty needs, so they do not have to go from place to place to get their nails done there and their hair done there, etc. I do not think it will be hard to get people to switch to our services, mainly because of the convenience we provide.

            Our competitors are other salons, but they aren’t really much competition because they aren’t mobile. Any salon can cut your hair or do your nails, but not any salon brings all of that to you. That is what makes us different. Our only weakness at this point is that nobody knows us. So that may make people hesitant to trust us and try us out. People normally go to somewhere that they are referred to. So we just have to get our name known and then we should get clients in with no problem. Our customer experience and business location really defines our business concept. What makes us so great is we don’t have a business location – it’s located in your home! We also aim to make our customers comfortable and happy with our services so that we leave them completely satisfied with everything. We want them to feel beautiful when we’re done with them. Our business would start out small with only one artist per specialty that we provide. There would only be one hair artist, one nail artist, and one makeup artist. This way we can get on our feet and get our client base and give everyone a taste of what we’re all about.

Our most important resource is our mobility. We can go where ever we want and where ever we are needed. This way we are always where the market is. This is something that others salons don’t have and will be hard to copy. The next opportunity that we would like to tackle is a new and unique brand of beauty products that we will use at our appointments and sell to clients. This will add to our uniqueness and generate more revenue for the company. In five years, I see Beauty To Go having many locations all over the U.S. with more than ten working vans in every city we are in. I want to keep increasing our vans so that we can service more clients. In the next decade, I see myself as the boss overseeing the company. I would have different people in charge of each location. I want to be able to pass the power down to someone else, so that I can continue my work in nursing. This venture will give me the groundwork to learn what it takes to run a company and be a great leader. 

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1. I was surprised by how much businesses emphasize their goals and strategies. I just thought that they boast about these things, but they actually include that in every aspect of their companies. It was very interesting to learn how much they devote themselves to their goal.
2. The section about trade-offs was confusing for me to understand. I did not completely understand it.
3. How does business model innovation relate to technology based innovation? Also, which form of innovation do you think is the most successful?
4. I did not disagree with anything in the reading. I think that it was pretty straight forward and easy to understand and agree with.

Amazon Whisperer

• Describe the revenue drivers you currently include in your business concept for this class. Revenue drivers are the different ways you make money. 

Servicing all your common beauty needs such as hair dressing, nails, and waxing. We also make money through our mobility feature and being able to travel to wherever the best business is. We are also saving money on paying a lease, so we are making extra money that way. Beauty To Go also makes money by being able to go where the market is.

• Describe what kind of product offering you believe should be next. What's the next thing your customers want?

I think the next best thing for us is to offer a unique line of our own hair care, nails, and makeup products. This way we are able to generate more revenue by using and selling our own products.

• Describe how this "next" thing will enhance your existing product/service offering. Does it improve the user experience, does it increase customer switching costs, does it foster customer loyalty, etc.?

Our "next" thing will definitely foster a lot of customer loyalty. Our clients will want to keep coming back for our products and our service. We will also make money by only using our own products and by selling them to our clients. Our own products will definitely add to our uniqueness factor. They will only be able to get our products from us and that will encourage them to keep coming back to us. It will also improve their experience with us because we will have the best hair care products and everything else you can think of!

• Go to Amazon and try to find a product that is similar to the one you want to offer next. Describe the product. Include a picture of the product.

Here we can a combo pack of Nexxus Salon hair care shampoo and conditioner. It is specifically Color Assure, which products colored hair from fading and discoloring. This is something similar to what we would be selling at Beauty To Go. It is salon care quality and protects colored hair, which we will be dealing with a lot because hair dying is one of our services. I also would like to do combo packs like this to help keep prices low and get our clients to buy more for their money.

• What are the customer reviews for the product? What, exactly, do customers not like about the product? What do they like about it?

For the most part, this product has mainly positive reviews. Several different people said that it is the best shampoo and conditioner that they have ever used. They also said that it makes your hair smell amazing. But the few that did not like the product said that it was not good for people with thin hair because it weighs it down a lot and makes it look flat.

• Describe what design/usability changes you'd make to the product. 

I would make the product applicable for all different types of hair, instead of just for colored hair. I would also lighten the consistency so that it isn't such a heavy product and washes out easily.

• Describe why you think this product would make a good addition to your current product/service offering.

I think that all of our clients would appreciate a unique and awesome new formula for hair care especially. It will set us apart from our competition. It will also drive revenue and bring back loyal customers.

My Unfair Advantage

1. Our mobility: Beauty To Go's mobility is what sets us apart from other salons. We go where our client's need us. Also, we can go to wherever the market is. We can travel from state to state, go to different events, and find where we can get business. The mobility of my company is going to keep us in business.
2. Convenience factor: Going where our client's need us is incredibly convenient for everyone. There won't be any more hassles with bringing your children to a salon or finding a ride or anything like that because we come to you! The convenience of our services is a huge unique factor in our business.
3. No lease:  A large portion of salon's incomes go towards renting out their location. We will be saving the money we would spend on a lease since we are mobile. All we will have to pay for is gas and insurance for our van- which is much cheaper than renting out a place. With this savings, we will be able to do a lot more with our business.
4. Low prices: The savings from a lease is going to enable us to keep our prices just as low as any regular salon. So customers don't have to worry about our services being too expensive. We will be able to provide the same services as others, while also coming to you!!
5. Top notch artists: A lot of salons will just hire anybody who comes in with a license. Our employees will be high quality, experienced, and the best of the best. This is going to set us above other salons. Our clients will know that they are getting the best quality of service when they come to us.
6. Range of services: Many salons only do a varied amount of beauty services, such as only hair or only nails. Beauty To Go is going to provide a large range of basic beauty needs- anywhere from nails to make up to hair to waxing. We are going to do it all! That way our clients can call on us for anything they may need.
7. Our target audience: We are targeting EVERYONE for business. There isn't one person that we aren't trying to service! Man, woman, young, old. You name it, we're here for you. This is going to expand our client base and help add to our uniqueness. Come one, come all!
8.  Safety: Our customer's are going to feel comfortable and safe with allowing us to come to their homes because all of our employees will have thorough background checks and extensive references to ensure they are experienced and good people. We will make sure that our customers are happy and satisfied with us.
9. Wine: Who doesn't love wine?! Beauty To Go will provide and full panel of reds and whites, so our customer's can have a good selection. The wine will help add to our relaxation vibe that we will hope to bring to every home. This is something that have no seen in other salons.
10. Our changeability: The fact that we offer so many different services gives us the freedom to keep changing. We can add services, get rid of some stuff that doesn't work, etc. The changeability of Beauty To Go is going to give a lot of leg room to expand and develop into the company that we want to be without losing clients.

I think our top resource is our mobility. This is something that no salon has, particularly in the Gainesville area. Our mobility is what is going to draw in people and get us a great client base. With this resource, we will be able to go where we are needed, whether that be locally or from state to state. That's the beauty of mobility- we can pack up our stuff and go where the business is! This way we can keep busy and bring in the profit, while also getting to bring our services to clients all around the states. This will also help us with networking. The more people we know, the more business we are going to get. The mobility is definitely going to be what really sets us apart from everywhere else and get us the business that we need.  

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1. Knowing when to walk away was surprising to me. It makes sense, I was just surprised. That point where you know you need to stop is difficult to see but very important. You must stop before you go to far. I never thought of it that way.
2. The proforma statements were confusing to me. I don't really understand their concept or the beneficial factors.
3.  How can I understand financing activities and operating cash flows without knowing economic jargon? Is there a range to be in in the cash flow budget?
4. I didn't think that the author was wrong about anything, as I don't have any experience or knowledge in this area. Therefore, I have nothing to disagree with. I think the author did an awesome job of explaining things.

Growing My Social Capital

1. Domain Expert- I spoke with Wendy Pham for this section of the assignment. Wendy has owned many different salons in Jacksonville, FL over the last ten years, ranging from in her little apartment to full scale salon space with up to ten employees. So she has much experience in the salon business. A family friend of mine suggested her, so I contacted her over the phone. I did my elevator pitch and she really liked it! Her only suggestion was to maybe slim down on all of our provided services, as this may make things a little complicated when preparing for our appointments. She also said to maybe charge a mandatory traveling fee to pay for gas. Her expertise was very helpful and I promised to come and get my nails done soon. I know that I can call her and ask her anything from now on.
2. Market Expert- I think spoke with Pam, who has much experience in the food truck business over the past 10 years in Jacksonville, FL. Food trucks are mobile and move around all of the time, which is very similar to my mobile salon. A mutual friend connected us through email and she was really helpful. I gave her my elevator pitch and she had pretty much all positive things to say. She suggested that in addition to doing house calls, we also set up at festivals and rallies around town. This would probably get us a lot of additional business. Pam also confirmed that gas won't cost nearly as much as a lease. So her expertise was extremely helpful and I now have more confidence in Beauty To Go.
3. Supplier Expert- Lastly, I went to Victoria Nail and Beauty Supply and spoke with the manager, Jessica. It is one of the largest nail and beauty supply stores in Jacksonville right now. Jessica was pretty helpful. She suggested buying everything online, as it saves you the time and gas of coming all the way out there. She also suggested buying in bulk because it will save me money. Jessica was helpful in informing me on how the buying process would go and around how much everything would cost. This gave me a good idea in my head of how things would go. 

Reflect- This networking exercise was very different, in my opinion. I actually had to actively look for salon experts and try to get them to listen and give me advice. It was actually pretty hard. A lot of people didn't answer or didn't want to help. But it helped me to kind of figure out a way to approach people with the topic and ease into it. All of these networking assignments are making me much more confident in talking to others and getting advice along the way.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1. I felt that this reading was very straightforward and easy to understand, so I don't think that there was much surprising or confusing. The main thing that surprised me was how long a business plan could be. I've wrote a ten page paper before and I thought that was the end of the world, but 50 pages?! That just seemed a little much to me. But I've also never wrote a business plan before, so I guess can't relate.
2. I was confused when reading about environmental insight and the section about living in fear of being preempted in the market.
3. What is the difference between marking segmentation and complexity? I felt that this was not clarified very well in the reading. Also, how would an entrepreneur go about writing a business plan without much knowledge on what goes into making a business? 
4. There wasn't anything in this chapter that I disagreed with. I don't know much about marketing as is, so I don't really have any knowledge that I could use to disagree with the author. They made everything easy to read and understand.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am a 20 year old female. I get my nails and hair done religiously. I'm not personally good at doing hair and nails- that's why I go to the salon. But I do know how much of a hassle it is to always make sure I have time to make it to the salon and a way to get there. That's why I think the mobile salon would be a great idea. As a Nursing major, I don't plan on being one of the stylist for my business since I have no expertise in the beauty field. But I would oversee all of the everyday operations and continually expanding the business. I see it spreading and going to many different states. It would be more of a side business for me, not taking up a lot of my time, as I plan on being a full time nurse practitioner. My associates will be background checked and trustworthy people so our customer's will be comfortable with us coming to their homes. 
2. The service Beauty To Go would be providing are a range of beauty needs that come to you. Some of the beauty needs would be hairdressing, nails, professional makeup, waxing, and many more. More specifically, this would include hair dying, hair cutting, hair styling, manicures, pedicures, brazillian waxes, eyebrow waxing, airbrush makeup application, etc. Instead of the customers having to drive to the salon, we would come to them in our fully equipped vans. This is going to be very convenient for mothers, students without transportation, and the elderly. All they have to do is schedule an appointment by through a quick phone call and we'll be there! I decided against an app because not all people have smart phones, so I figured phone calls would be easier and more convenient. 
3. We are offering our services to everyone- men and women! But our target audience will be mothers, students, and the elderly. All have a hard time getting to the salon. Students and the elderly usually don't have transportation, so the mobile salon will be very convenient for them. Mothers have a lot on their plates and it is a hassle to bring children into a salon, especially young children. So the mobile salon will be convenient for them because their children will be comfortable and entertained at home. We will be able to keep our prices low at Beauty To Go by saving on the expense of a lease, so our prices will be the same as any other salon. We will be convenient and cheap.
4. Beauty To Go would be incredibly convenient for all and that's why I think they will care. People will pay to have services be brought to them. That's why food deliveries, online shopping, and grocery deliveries are so profitable. Beauty needs are important to everyone and sometimes we just don't have enough time to go to the mall and get our nails done or go across town to see our hair stylist. Not only will it be convenient, but it will also be cheap! There's nothing better! My business will eradicate so many hassles and struggles when it comes to beauty care. I think it is a great innovation that many people, especially women, will appreciate.   
5. I am a woman, so I know what women want. I know all of the little details that will draw women in. Wine will set us apart from other salons. We will always be fully equipped with wine for all of our appointments. And who doesn't love some wine and gossip while getting their nails and hair done? We will also have top notch stylists and artists that other salons won't have. Not to mention, we're coming to your house. Plus our cheap prices! What's better than that? 

I think that all five elements fit together really well. I also believe that my business plan is really strong and has the possibility to be very successful. The only aspect that I think is a little weak is what sets us apart from everyone else and what do we have that nobody else does. I'm still contemplating on what those aspects could be while keeping our services affordable. I think the wine and awesome stylists are great for what sets us apart, but I do think they are a little weak. We need something more to really set us apart. I'm working on figuring that out.

1. I never thought about how customer's would feel about safety, but after getting feedback, I realized that would be a huge issue.
2. After getting the feedback, I learned that customer's would be wanting to know how our prices would compare to other salons, so I included that info in this one. 
3. The feedback also brought it to my attention that I needed to figure out how customers would contact us and I decided on phone call appointments only because not everyone has a smart phone. Plus phone appointments are clearer and less likely to generate mistakes. 
4. I realized that men would also enjoy our services, so I included them in our target audience this time around to broaden our customer base.
5. I decided to include eyebrow waxing because that is a huge beauty need for men and women. 

I incorporated each of these points that I got from my feedback into my idea napkin. They are spread out throughout the questions.   

Elevator Pitch No 2

Beauty To Go

Reflection:
It was surprising to me how little feedback I received on my first pitch. I appreciated all of positive comments, but I did not receive much critique. One of my peers did say that I probably should include the specific services and our prices, so that was helpful. But other than that, I didn't have much to change. I felt that the critique that I did get was useful and important, so I am glad that I got it. I also noticed that the guys were the ones that didn't provide much or any critique because they noticed they were not in my "target audience." I adjusted this to expand our customer base and so men will more likely provide feedback.
What did I change?
First and foremost, I realized that men would benefit from this idea as well, so I included them in my target audience this time around. I also included Beauty To Go's specific services and how our prices will not be affected because we are mobile.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 
 I was surprised to learn that suppliers have bargaining power when it comes to competition. This may be because I have no knowledge in this area, but it was surprising to me and stuck out in the reading.
2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.
 The differences in industry profitability was a difficult concept for me to understand. I didn't quite get the range of capital. It could go into the negatives or be up to 50%. I still don't really get this. 

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?
 Can these five forces be generalized to encompass all businesses? How do you eliminate your competitors through mergers and acquisitions specifically?
4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?
I felt that the author was very knowledgeable and knew what he was talking about. I personally don't really know anything about industry, so I don't really have anything to disagree with. It was a very informative article and has given me much insight into this sector of business. 

Interviewing Customers No. 1

1) Describe your interviewing strategy. What questions do you intend on asking? Who are you going to ask? And so on.
I intend on asking more open ended questions. A couple I plan to ask are: What do you think a mobile salon needs? Do you think a mobile salon is a good idea? What are some weaknesses that you think the business has? Those are just a couple of the ones I want to ask. I plan on interviewing three people for each gender of varying ages. Preferably young, middle aged, and elderly. That way I get a well rounded sample and everyone's opinions. 
2) Conduct the interviews. As always, 5 interviews, video recorded. 
3) Reflect on what you learned. What did you learn from the interviews? What surprised you the most? What do you expect to change as an outcome of these interviews?
I learned that getting customer feedback is actually really helpful for up and coming businesses. It really gives you a great outlook on how well your company can potentially be, as well as give you lots of helpful information to make it the best that it can be. It surprised me how many people actually liked my business idea. I thought a lot of people would think it was pointless or something, but I got a lot of positive feedback on the idea. So that's awesome. Makes me believe even more that it could be very successful. I definitely plan on changing my target audience from just women to both women and men. It was very popular with the men, so now I know that I can expand my concept to encompass more people. I also plan to add facial hair trimming and styling for the men because they all said that they would like to have that included. 

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?
I am a 20 year old female. I get my nails and hair done religiously. I'm not personally good at doing hair and nails- that's why I go to the salon. But I do know how much of a hassle it is to always make sure I have time to make it to the salon and a way to get there. That's why I think the mobile salon would be a great idea. As a Nursing major, I don't plan on being one of the stylist for my business since I have no expertise in the beauty field. But I would oversee all of the everyday operations and continually expanding the business. I see it spreading and going to many different states. It would be more of a side business for me, not taking up a lot of my time, as I plan on being a full time nurse practitioner.
2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 
The service Beauty To Go would be providing are a range of beauty needs that come to you. Some of the beauty needs would be hairdressing, nails, professional makeup, waxing, and many more. Instead of the customers having to drive to the salon, we would come to them in our fully equipped vans. This is going to be very convenient for mothers, students without transportation, and the elderly. All they have to do is schedule an appointment and we'll be there!
3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?
We are offering our services to everyone- men and women! But our target audience will be mothers, students, and the elderly. All have a hard time getting to the salon. Students and the elderly usually don't have transportation, so the mobile salon will be very convenient for them. Mothers have a lot on their plates and it is a hassle to bring children into a salon, especially young children. So the mobile salon will be convenient for them because their children will be comfortable and entertained at home. 
4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 
Beauty To Go would be incredibly convenient for all and that's why I think they will care. People will pay to have services be brought to them. That's why food deliveries, online shopping, and grocery deliveries are so profitable. Beauty needs are important to everyone and sometimes we just don't have enough time to go to the mall and get our nails done or go across town to see our hair stylist. My business will eradicate so many hassles and struggles when it comes to beauty care. I think it is a great innovation that many people, especially women, will appreciate. 
5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 
I am a woman, so I know what women want. I know all of the little details that will draw women in. Wine will set us apart from other salons. We will always be fully equipped with wine for all of our appointments. And who doesn't love some wine and gossip while getting their nails and hair done? We will also have top notch stylists and artists that other salons won't have. Not to mention, we're coming to your house. What's better than that?

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others. 
I think that all five elements fit together really well. I also believe that my business plan is really strong and has the possibility to be very successful. The only aspect that I think is a little weak is what sets us apart from everyone else and what do we have that nobody else does. I'm still contemplating on what those aspects could be while keeping our services affordable. I think the wine and awesome stylists are great for what sets us apart, but I do think they are a little weak. We need something more to really set us apart. I'm working on figuring that out.

Interviewing Customers No 2

1. Fine tune your opportunity. At first, I viewed by opportunity for a mobile salon to be only for women, but after the interviews, I think that it would also be great for me. A lot of mean love to get pedicures, they needs haircuts too, etc. So I need to widen my horizons. 
2.  Fine tune the "who." I just chose random people that were walking by to interview, but I realized I now needed to fine tune that. I interviewed one person from every target group- men and women of all different ages.
3. Tweaking your interview questions. Before, I just let the interviewees say whatever they wanted, without actually asking any main questions. This time, I had specific questions for what they would like the see and if they would like some ideas I have. And this way a got a lot more of open ended answers because I was asking more questions. 
4. Go talk to customers!
5. Tell us what you learned about the opportunity. After interviewing everyone, I think that the idea is stronger than I thought before. I got nothing but positive feedback from everyone. The idea of the salon coming to you is better than ever.
6. Tell us what you learned about interviewing customers. My three tips would be: be personal with the customers instead of being really formal and you will get better answers; have a long list of questions ready to ask so you're ready to get a full interview; and make sure you're interviewing your target audience for your opportunity. 

Week 5 Reading Reflection

1. It was really surprising to me that a lot of start up businesses don't have a straight forward objective/service. I thought that every business had to have a certain mission and specific criteria that they want to fulfill, but that is not the case. As I saw in this chapter, a lot of businesses figure that out as they go.
2. All of the different risks in starting a business was confusing for me. It makes me wonder how it is even possible for anyone to start a business with all of the many risks listed. The long list was confusing and some seemed mundane.
3. How do you know what exactly caused the downfall of a business with all of the associated risks? What is the hardest part of starting a business?
4. I disagreed on what the author had to say about product design.

Elevator Pitch No 1

Beauty To Go -- The Mobile Salon For You!

How convenient would it be to have the beauty salon come to you? I saw an opportunity for a mobile salon in Gainesville. My solution is this: Beauty To Go is proposing a mobile salon. Including hairdressing, nails, and makeup. It would essentially be a work van fully equipped for all house calls. Beauty To Go will save you to expense of a lease, gives the luxury of deciding when and where you want to work, you are able to go where the market is, and you’re giving customer’s all of their beauty needs in the comfort of their own homes. It’s perfect for mothers who don’t want the stress of taking their children to the salon with them, college students who don’t have vehicles or any transportation, and the elderly.

Top 5 World Problems

Problems

1. Global Warming
2. Terrorism
3. World Hunger
4. Access to Clean Water
5. Racial Discrimination

Solutions

1. Every individual reducing their carbon emissions by riding your bike instead of driving, recycling, go solar, etc. 
2. Educate the world on the every day agenda of our governments to help weed out the extreme radicals that aim for destruction and bloodshed.
3. Implement a worldwide program that provides food and shelter for the needy in all major cities all over the world.
4. Set up water posts every 50 square miles on every continent, so that clean water or filtration systems are accessible to everyone. 
5. Make stricter laws and harsher punishment for racial discrimination, so that people will be less likely to commit this crime. 

In my opinion, global warming is our biggest problem today. All of the other problems in the world are mundane if we destroy our atmosphere and can't survive on this planet anymore. So first, we need to make our Earth healthy again, so that we can move on to other major problems. Terrorism is next because so many people are dying and so much is being destroyed, so that's why I put it before hunger and water. And although I feel eradicating racial discrimination is extremely important, I felt that world hunger and water accessibility trumped it.
I think my number one solution is the most implementable because it doesn't call for major laws to be written and passed or anything, it just wants every single person in the world to make a little change in their daily routines. If each and every person can make even one of these small changes, I believe that it will greatly decrease world wide carbon emissions and help heal our atmosphere.

Week 3 Reading Reflection

1. I was very surprised that there was a dark side to entrepreneurship. I know that there are always failures and setbacks, but I never really looked at it as the dark side of the spectrum. The author did a great job on explaining what this dark side is. You don't really realize how much the risks you take are going to affect you in the long run. And pretty much all business decisions have their risks. So this section of the chapter really made me see that we have to take care of our businesses, but also ourselves. Think out every decision carefully, so you know all of the risks before its too late and you can't come back from the decisions you make. 
2. The one thing that confused me in this chapter was the table that shows the correlation in the risk taking activities entrepreneurs make (page 38). It was hard for me to read and correlate all of the activities with the motives and such. I kept having to go back to the definitions and see how they related to one another and it made things more complicated for me. It was easier to read that section in the book, than to understand that table. But I'm also not much of a visual learner, so that's probably why.
3. Why was tolerance for ambiguity included in the table of characteristics of an entrepreneur? It just doesn't really make sense to me why an entrepreneur would have to tolerate indecisiveness. I would also ask do all entrepreneurs really have an overbearing need for control? It just seems like a little bit of an exaggeration to me, so I would like to ask the author about that section in the book.
4. Is having a high energy level necessary to be an entrepreneur? They can always just hire someone to do the work for them.. I can see why it would be a good characteristic to have but I don't think it's completely necessary. I also don't agree that eating healthy and sleeping well go into being an entrepreneur. Most of them actually barely eat or sleep because they're so busy.

Identifying Local Opportunities

For this assignment, I decided to look through the local newspaper, The Gainesville Sun, to find local opportunities. Here is what I found:

1. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9388BC0BA7E30?p=AWNB  "More than 300 march to say: Hands off our parks" by Cindy Swirko                              This article talked about protesting that has been going on over by national park, Payne's Prairie. Governor Scott and Jon Steverson proposed a new idea of maybe privatizing parks so that recreational hunting, cattle grazing, etc. are allowed in such places. And a lot of locals are not happy about this. They claim that it would ruin the park and ruin the reason for national parks- to protect and preserve what's in them. If hunting and such were allowed, people would not be able to sight see or hike or anything, which is what the site is best known for. The locals felt that no one was hearing their cries, so they chose to protest. The locals are the ones that truly care about Gainesville's natural beauty and all that Payne's Prairie has to offer to such a small town. They don't want it to be ruined. 
2. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A88EA836BB0068?p=AWNB "Nathan Crabbe: Promoting lawmaking over fundraising"                                                This article was basically about a new proposal to ban Congress from asking people for money for their campaign's. So many law officials talked about how they spent over half of their times campaigning for money contributions, rather than actually working. The problem is that their are so many rules on how candidate's can fund raise, so they need more laws in place so that they can decentralize all of the work. It's not only a problem for the candidate's who have to do the fundraising, but also for all of their constituents because they have to spend so much time raising money, instead of working and doing all of the things that they told their constituents they would do.
3. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A7E65B509B4FF0?p=AWNB "UF union presidents: Campus gun bill is a recipe for tragedy"                                        This article was about banning guns on campus here at UF. Many people believe that allowing guns on campus is very dangerous and that something bad will eventually happen if we don't ban them. They compared it to not letting guns into courthouses and places like that- just as they are banned there, then they should be banned on school campuses as well. The problem for them is they are dangerous. Specifically, its the University of Florida chapters of Graduate Assistants United and the United Faculty of Florida that are presenting this problem and wanting it to be addressed.
4. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A7E65B137F9B90?p=AWNB "Bill would tighten rules for some abortion clinics"                                                            This article discusses the new bill that is being proposed in Florida that would require abortion clinics to be subject to the same standards as surgical clinics. It talks about both sides of the bill- the pro side says that it just holds clinics to a higher standard and protects patients, while the con side says that it is just unnecessary fees and statutes that they will have to face and just a reason to close down many of their clinics. The problem is that this new bill will cost a lot of money for many abortion clinics because they will have to renovate a lot and things like that, which will probably cause them to have to close down many of their clinics because of lack of money. The problem is faced by all against this bill, especially Planned Parenthood, because it will really dwindle down Florida's abortion clinics.
5. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A791D9AF335FC0?p=AWNB "Larry Reimer: Use pause to reconsider capital punishment"                                          This article discusses a Pastor's problem with capital punishment  and how much he supports Florida's Supreme Court's ruling to ban it. He talks about all of cons to the death penalty like innocents dying, the high costs of execution, not enough punishment, etc. His problem was that he believes that capital punishment is wrong and unjust. He believes that the ultimate price for committing such bad crimes is life in prison without parole, not the death sentence. Larry Reimer and all others against capital punishment are who have the problem.

Very Short Interview No 1

For this assignment, I chose to interview a friend of a friend. I met Molly at a small gathering at a friend's house a couple of years ago. Molly started her graphic design company in 2004 out of her apartment bedroom when she was 20 years old. She decided that she did not want to work for anybody else and ventured out as an independent designer. Her company has skyrocketed and she now has about fifty employees and an office in Chicago. She worked tirelessly by herself for years to get where she is today. She is the definition of an entrepreneur. Anyways, for the interview, I asked her the following questions:

1. What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? "Being an entrepreneur means being a fighter. Every day, I wake up to a new challenge. There's always something going wrong or something I have to fix and it's very overwhelming at times. But I'm a fighter and I don't give up. We work through our problems as a team and take everything one day at a time. Life is nothing without it's challenges. So, to me, it means being a fighter."
2. What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course? "Perseverance, business propaganda, how to make connections and network, leadership abilities. There are just so many things you should learn, but a lot of them you have to learn on your own. But those are just a few of the things that I would think would be very useful in your class."
3. What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur? "How to run a business. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I first started. There was so much that I didn't know. I mean, I didn't even know how to interview someone. Like what questions are you supposed to ask? Or how to take loans out at the bank or how to get permits for my building. There's so much. So I wish there would've been a course that taught me all of the things that go into opening and running a business."

 In conclusion, I learned a lot from this interview. It surprised me that you have to have permits for your building and business. I had no idea that that was even a thing. I thought you only needed those if you sell alcohol. I also learned a lot about all of the things that go into starting up a company. It doesn't just take money, it takes experience, someone with connections, etc. to get a company up and going. And even after you do all of that, you still have to keep going and keep bringing in clients. There's so much work that goes into it, but it definitely has it's rewards at the end of the day. It takes a special person to be a true entrepreneur. 

My Entrepreneurship Story

As an Innovation Academy student, I have to take certain courses to receive the Innovation minor. Last Summer, I was taking a creativity course in order to fulfill my minor. The class was very informal and laid back. The basic concept was to form a group of four people and come up with a new invention. It could be anything you want. And the entire semester was spent on researching and building your invention with your group. It was pretty cool. My group researched certain seeds (I forgot what they were called) that have compounds in them that can purify dirty water. So basically, we made a water bottle with different compartments with the crushed seeds and filters that in turn ended with pure drinking water. The seeds were very cheap and can be grown almost anywhere. Our target audience was third world countries where they don't have clean drinking water. Anyways, what I'm getting at is we got to take charge and make anything we wanted. We had little guidance. We had to research everything, contact people, go through trial and error with building everything- much like an entrepreneur. Many people actually got approached by business men looking to invest in their products. It was a huge learning experience and really showed me what it takes to be an entrepreneur and expand on my creativity.
As I stated above, I am taking Principles of Entrepreneurship because I need it for my minor. The Innovation Academy requires you to minor in Innovation, which includes creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship courses. I hope to expand on my creativity in this course and become an entrepreneur in all aspects of life. Here's to a great semester!

Introduction

Hello! Welcome to my blog! My name is Summer and I am a Junior at the University of Florida. I am studying to be a nurse. I am in the Innovation Academy here at UF, which is why I am taking Principles of Entrepreneurship. Anyways, as far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to work with babies. I thought about teaching, but to be honest, there is no way I could do that. Then, I thought about being a doctor. Too much school and money to not be able to work closely enough with babies. So I figured nursing would be the perfect fit. I get to have a close relationship with children and nurse them back to health. Right now, I am just focusing on getting into a nursing program and getting my Bachelor's. I want to keep going though. I would like to get my Master's and be a Nurse Practitioner in a NICU. So that's where I see myself in ten years.
I am originally from Jacksonville, Florida, but I did live in Charlotte, North Carolina for about 7 years growing up. Then we ended up coming back to Jacksonville and here I am now in Gainesville. My whole family has always been Gator fans. Two of my older sisters graduated from UF, so naturally, I was expected to follow in their footsteps. I have a HUGE family with three sisters and two brothers. I probably have about 30 first cousins. We are all very close too. Family is what is most important to me and always has been. I am home in Jacksonville about two weekends out of every month, so pretty much all of the time. One of the perks of only living an hour and a half from home!
I also have a dog who is my baby. I see him as my son (don't laugh at me). He is a Bull Mastiff mix and about 80 pounds. I rescued him from the Alachua County Humane Society about 10 months ago and it was one of the best things I ever did. I love that sweet boy so much. And so does my entire family..my sister wants to take him from him.
I spend my free time volunteering with the Nursing College here at UF, reading in my hammock in my back yard, spending time with friends, watching Netflix, and hiking. I would LOVE to be traveling the world, but unfortunately I haven't been able to because of lack of funds. I actually have never been on a plane before..I know, crazy right?! But I hope to start traveling the world in the near future. I want to go everywhere and see everything!
I'm excited to see what this course has to offer and teach me. Thanks for reading! :)

The Entrepreneur's Mantra

Test

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