Assignment 30A

2) After reading through all of my posts I have been able to come up with conclusions about my experiences within this course. I believe that my most informative experience has been doing all of the elevator pitch assignments because they helped me develop a lot professionally. I will always remember the assignment where we had to reach out to others and develop our social capital. My favorite experience has just been learning about entrepreneurship in general. I am most proud of the fact that I have made it to the end of this course.

3) I think I have definitely moved closer to an entrepreneurial mindset. At the beginning of the semester I would think "I wish there was something to solve this problem", but now whenever I am faced with a problem I think "How can I come up with an effective and marketable solution to this problem?"  Now I definitely see myself as an entrepreneur.

4) My biggest recommendation is don't fall behind on assignments/get ahead on assignments. Getting ahead on assignments really helped me in this course. When there were weeks that I knew I was going to be busy in my others classes, I always made sure to get the ENT3003 assignments for those weeks done early so I could spend more time for my other classes. In order to foster this kind of mindset, I recommend either buying a planner, or constantly checking canvas in order to remember/notice when you will have busy weeks coming up so you can get ahead on assignments.

 

Assignment 29A

1)
Opportunity:

My opportunity is targeted at those who drink alcohol and experience hangovers and the nature of the need arises from the fact that those who drink alcohol usually experience hangovers, and they don't like experiencing hangovers so my product will get rid of those hangovers. The force that creates this environment is the fact that people drink alcohol. Some customers satisfy this need by drinking a lot of water, Pedialyte, or not drinking on an empty stomach. This window of opportunity will be open until the day people stop drinking alcohol.

Innovation:

My original idea for innovation was somehow creating a compound that reacts with the toxins in alcohol that make you feel bad and counter those toxins out, thus leaving you still feeling the positive effects but not the negative ones. This is a dynamic form of innovation, but I was informed that this might not be possible, and even if it were, it would be very costly to try and figure out how to create a product like that. Part of my original plan was to create a "hangover pack" that included that compound, so now I can still create my "hangover pack" but I can just not include the compound pill. The pack would include snacks that are known to absorb alcohol (like crackers/bread/carbs), lots of water, a drink high in electrolytes, and some type of pain/headache reliever. This is definitely a much lower level of innovation.

Venture Concept:

My hangover pack will definitely aid in solving the problem of being hungover. It is full of ingredients that all reduce the effects of a hangover. Customers will switch to buying the hangover pack because it makes things easier. Instead of having to buy all those things separately, you can buy one item that has all of them. Also, you could buy one before going out, instead of waiting til you are already hungover to try and solve your problem. My competitors would be any producer of the objects that are in my hangover packs. To organize my business, I would buy in bulk all of the ingredients to my packs, have them shipped to my packaging center, hire workers to assemble the packs, and then sell them commercially at liquor stores, convenience stores, grocery stores, and gas stations.

2) I would say for the most part I got good feedback about my opportunity. Everyone I have talked to said they would be interested in a product that cures hangovers. I got some good points that I didn't think of that were brought up to me in my feedback. One of those points is that my idea of creating a compound that interacts with alcohol to counteract the toxins might not be possible. If this is true I'd have to change my form of innovation. I was also told even if it were, then it would still be very costly to figure out how to develop it.

3) I changed my venture concept by adapting my hangover packs. I originally was gonna have hangover packs that included this compound, but now I am just going to have the regular hangover packs.

4)

Assignment 28A

 For my exit strategy I think I would want to sell my product for a large sum of money. One, I think any patent I get wouldn't last my lifetime and competitors could come on the market afterwards which would lower my market share and profit. So if I sell beforehand, I can reap a big reward. Also owning a business seems like a lot of work so one day I would like just to get a regular job. I don't think anyone in my family would like to carry on this business so I definitely wouldn't keep it as a family venture. My product isn't really a sentimental or out of this world technology, so I don't see any extremely important reason not to sell my start up.
I honestly don't think my exit strategy has really influenced any of my other decisions that I have made for my opportunity so far. I don't really see how a decision on how to end my business is going to significantly impact my decisions on how to grow or run my business.

Assignment 27A

For this assignment I read Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc

1) What surprised me most is that Ray Kroc didn't come up with franchising until he was 52. What I admire most is that he didn't let his age stop him from pursuing a new opportunity. What I least admired about him was that he was a salesman, I think salesmen for the most part are sleazy. He definitely encountered adversity and failure, and he overcame that by never giving up.

2) I noticed that the entrepreneur exhibited tenacity, perseverance, dedication, analytical skills, persuasion skills, and charisma.

3) One part of the reading that confused me was that I don't understand how Kroc's paper cup company was able to take 60 percent of his business just because he used to be and employee for that company.

4) My two questions would be: How did you train yourself to look at opportunities at every corner? and: Did you ever feel like giving up?

5) I think Ray Kroc definitely believes that hard work is a key ingredient for success.

Assignment 26A

One example of a time when I failed this semester is when I lost a charity basketball tournament that I was playing in. The name of the tournament is called Alpha Delta Pi Lionshare. While this tournament only occurs once a year, it is something that I have participated in and failed the past three years. My team made a good run in the tournament we made it to the top eight out of over 50 teams, but I would consider myself a pretty good basketball player, and I hate losing, so I would consider it a failure. Especially considering that my first year in the tournament we made it to the final four. What I learned from this failure, is that if I really want to succeed at something, I need to make sure my teammates/team members are also on the same level of commitment as me. I also learned that if you really want to succeed at that thing, it requires time and dedication. You can't just show up with a good plan, you have to prepare mentally and physically weeks beforehand.

In general, I hate failure. That's why usually when I commit to do/attempt something, I always give my very best to try and succeed. While I hate failure, at the same time I am thankful for it. Since I hate it so much, it pushes me to be the best version of myself that I can be. It also is a great teacher, failure helps you learn a lot about yourself and the type of person you decide to be, as in if you are someone who doesn't give up or someone who does. I handle failure pretty well I would say. At first I will be upset for a minute, but then I get motivated to try even harder the next time I face a challenge. After taking this course, I would say that I am more likely to take a risk compared to before I took this course.