Week 8 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? 

Answer: Well, a big part of this chapter was on bankruptcy and to be honest I've never really thought about bankruptcy at all. I assumed that once you lost all your money in your business that you just lose the business and that was the end of it. Instead, I realized that there was a lot more thought and processes that go into talking about bankruptcy and the whole legal side behind it as well.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Answer: One part of the reading that was confusing to me was definitely the part on Bankruptcy in the legal challenges for entrepreneurial ventures. This was pretty confusing to me since I've never run a business before so some of the terms were pretty confusing to me. I've never heard of the word "Liquidation" before reading this chapter so that confused me a lot. I had to grab a dictionary and look up a few of these words in this chapter which in turn, ended up confusing me more.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Answer: I would ask him if he has ever had to litigate any disputes or ever had any legal services? If so how did they go? I've yet to ever use a lawyer so I would just be wondering how his experiences with lawyers was. Also this question is kind of out there but I was just wondering if he had ever gotten close to being bankrupt himself? and also what he did to get out of that hole!

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Answer: Honestly there was not anything in this chapter that I disagreed on. A big portion of it was confusing to me but I did not read anything that I didn't agree on. Most of it was pretty straight forward and nothing really caught my attention of being wrong. I really did enjoy reading this chapter regardless.

Half-way Reflection

In these past two months I've learned a copious amount about entrepreneurship. Being tenacious is absolutely a necessary skill to be a successful entrepreneur. Keeping up with the requirements of this course has been hard but I have done it flawlessly. I make sure and keep a calendar on my wall with all the due dates for all the assignments and I make sure to leave enough time to make sure that I'll finish everything on time. There were times where I thought I didn't have enough time to finish an assignment and instead of just letting the assignment pass and losing the 1 point, I would sit down and make sure I got it done in time. As long as you put your mind to something, you can get it done. Some tips to give about being tenacious would be to focus all your time and energy into finishing whatever assignment you have to do. Also in this class there are a lot of times where you will be forced out of your comfort zone and you just have to do it. You can't live your life in fear. You have to blossom like a flower and grow to your full potential. Also another tip to developing the tenacious mindset would have to be that you just have to know that whatever you do in life, no matter what it is, you are going to fail and even have bad days, but you just have to man up and get through them no matter what. If you get through the bad days you will for sure have good days just around the corner!

Being tenacious is a MAJOR key to success.

The Twenty Percent

I decided to interview Subway for my business to check and see who they think their 20 % are!
I asked the general manager of Subway a series of questions and then I waited outside to ask the same questions to 3 of the customers that just got subway for dinner. The questions I asked were: Who do you think Subway's target customers are? What are Subway's customers unmet needs? Where does Subway find their customers? and What are the demographics of Subway's customers?
The general manager answered these questions pretty basically. I expected all of his responses, but the customers varied with their responses. A common theme from these customers was that they kept saying Subway doesn't really go out of their way to get customers and also that they think Subway caters towards poor people. This was definitely an eye opening assignment that I will definitely think a lot about once I am running my own business.

Week 7 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? 

Answer: There was a part in the reading that explained "If 1 percent of those entrepreneurs' wealth were available for venture financing, the pool of funds would amount to $4.4 billion!" That's so insane to wrap my mind around. 4.4 billion dollars is so much money. Also it goes on to say that "If the typical venture deal took $200k there would be the potential of 27,500 deals!" I'm surprised that that isn't done more in the world!

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Answer: The only part of the text that was even a little confusing to me was the picture of the financing continuum. It depicts the typical financing for start-up companies yet to me the picture doesn't really make any sense. It starts saying owner's money of 10-100k goes to family and friends which goes to angles and then the prices of the money go up and then go down and then go back up to 5 million at the end. It was just a very confusing picture that I think could've been done better.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Answer:I would ask him if he ever had a problem with debt financing or with equity financing? This would help me figure out which one was better and also help validate the textbook. I would also ask him if he had ever gotten money from an angel investor of any sort and what he put that money towards! 

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How? 

Answer: In the section called "The search for capital" it starts by saying every entrepreneur planning a new venture confronts the same dilemma: where to find start-up capital." I disagree with this because I know many entrepreneurs that since they were born into a rich family, their parents would just give them money to start their start up with. Or there are also times where someone starts a start-up company that blows up and they never need any money since their company is producing so much revenue.

Free Money

STRATEGY FOR THIS EXERCISE: I walked around my neighborhood and approached 5 random people and gave them each a dollar. To start the conversation I just went up to them with a dollar bill and told them to take it. My plan for the conversation was to just give them the dollar and if they refuse it I would just say "Its to make you happy!" I'm pretty sure i'll give out all 5 dollars.

After completing this exercise I did successfully give out all five of my dollars. I actually really liked this exercise because it made everyone happy that I gave my dollars to! It was actually alot easier to give out my dollar to strangers. Some people responded with "Why??" and "Umm what?" but after I said "Its cause its a happy sunday!" or "I just want to make you happy!" then they took the money! My predictions were in fact correct! I think that I assumed that people would just be too
weirded" out and not take my dollar but after I said it was to make them happy they took it right away! This was a really fun exercise I'm really glad I did it!

Elevator Pitch No. 2

This is my 2nd elevator pitch! Hope you like it and let me know what you think!

Customer Interviews No. 3

So this is what I had on my note-card just so you guys can read it too if you want. "Alright so here is my idea, an app that you use while driving that shows you all available parking spots in an area. By keeping your "gps" on this app will tack your car and once you get in a spot it will turn red on the app. This will notify all other users of the app that that certain spot has been taken. All available spots are marked with a green square to show you which spots are open around you. Also there will be tow away zones clearly marked so you never get "accidentally" towed. All parking garages will be clearly shown and their capacity will be noted. This will allow you to find your spot as easily as possible. 

I asked a little more in-depth questions that I didn't add to last assignment. I learned a lot though these interviews though. I decided to just write it out on a notecard and give it to them and just ask their opinion on my updated idea! They all gave good honest feedback and yet again I got all positive reactions from these people. It also got me actually thinking about how I can implement the whole "mark every parking spot in gainesville" aspect of it. I think the key is to use satellites and cameras as well as getting people to help me map out certain places in a town! I'm going to keep doing extensive research on this because I know this is still not a real app that has been made yet and i'd love to actually create this.

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? 

Answer: When I came upon the part of the reading talking about analyzing the current physical condition of a business to figure out why it is being sold actually really surprised me. When I first read this title I thought that this was just going to be about the actual physical structure of a building and I was surprised when it wasn't. I learned that new owners should know that permanent additions to property stay with the property so you could always use this to your advantage.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Answer: There was a part in the "Why is my business getting sold" section it talks about the legal restraint of trade or the "non-compete agreement." This part sort of confused me because it seems kind of crazy to me that people would actually sell their business and then take a 5 year break just to "not take their customers." I think the customers should have their own choices of what they want to buy regardless of who's business it is.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Answer: I would ask him if he has ever bought an already running/successful business. I would ask him this because it seems like there are tons of advantages to doing this so I wonder if he would take his own advice on this! The second question I would ask would be since there are both many advantages and disadvantages to franchising a company, would the author think that it would be more profitable to franchise or to rather put that money into a better use? I would ask him this because I'd like to have some input from someone who has probably done this before and that will help me with my future career. 

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Answer: As I was reading this chapter I came to the part where it talks about "Why is the business being sold?" In my honest opinion I was confused at how much the author rambled on about a hypothetical business. He could've just said," look into it and make sure it's nothing sketchy. Instead he rambles on massively by going on about the physical condition of it, the condition of the inventory, the state of the countries assets and so on. He could've probably found 200 other things to write about in this section so I just feel like it was pointless rambling.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) Hi, my name is Jason Horecky. I'm a 20 year old sophomore that is majoring in business management! I am extremely talented at producing music, playing tennis, sleeping and making people happy! I interned at shands hospital last semester and I worked with doctors on a more efficient and safe cure for dysentery. My aspirations are to work as hard as possible in whatever life throws at me and to become as successful as possible. I also want to run my own business at some point in the future. Specifically regarding the business concept, I can see this business blowing up around the world and making me a lot of money!

2) My app shows all available parking spots around your area and clearly marks them to save time from driving around everywhere. There are also more features to this app which include showing capacities for parking garages as well as showing tow away zones to make sure you know you wont get towed!

3) I'm offering it for FREE to all people who have a car. Which is a large percentage of people! I first thought about only offering it to UF students, but if this app gets actually created i'd want it to get as global as possible! Currently there are over 1.2 billion cars in the world so that seems like a large enough market to me!

4) Like I stated before, I want this app to be free. So if it helps people in just the slightest amount to find a parking spot easier especially on crowded days, then people should in theory download it! I'll get money off of ad revenue regardless.

5) Currently I don't see an app on the app store that is like anything I've explained or else I'd have it already! So it seems like that sets me apart already!

I think that these five elements do fit together very well. I think that I have a very good idea that I should implement as soon as I can so that someone doesn't come up with it before me!! But I do think that with time i'll add more features that people want in the app. I will read all the feedback that I receive from the app and make it exactly what people want it to be! I think it would be a big hit.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

Week 5 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? 

Answer: One of the biggest surprises of mine was in the section of the pitfalls in selecting new ventures. One of the pitfalls was not having real insight to the market. This was surprising to me because I guess before reading this chapter I never really thought about this because I haven't had a chance to "get into the market" yet in my life. 

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

Answer:There was a point in this chapter where it said "It should be understood that new-venture assessment begins with the idea and venture stage" but then goes on to say, "How ever most studies of new venture development deal with established start-up business." I was just confused on this because I don't get why it has to be an established start-up business, why can't I just be an entrepreneur and start a business out of anywhere.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Answer: The first question I would ask him would be if he preferred Lean start-up methodology over the design methodology? I am just curious to see as a renowned entrepreneur which one he would choose! The second question I would ask would be If he had ever had poor financial understanding since I saw that that was one of the pitfalls in selecting new ventures.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

Answer: No, This chapter was pretty straight forward in the definitions and explanations. There was nothing I disagreed on, I actually learned a lot from this chapter. It was a very clear and easy read.

Interviewing Customers No. 2

I interviewed people walking by infinity hall this time! Everyone loved it on the first round and on the second round it seemed like everyone liked it as well! 

Answers to Questions:

1.)I honestly think that I'm going to go through with making something like this because I would use it all the time. It's gotten amazing feedback and it seems like everyone would get it.

2.) Yes, everyone I talked to I made sure that they had a car before I even started interviewing them because if they didn't have a car they wouldn't see the true potential of this app! This time I asked different questions to get more detailed feedback from these customers. I didn't have to adjust my conceptualization since I just needed to interview people who have cars.

3.) I asked more in depth questions which included asking them about parking garages as well as tow away zones which are extra "perks" that I didn't include in my first version.

4.) Everyone seems to think that my opportunity is very helpful and that I need to make it a real thing ASAP.

Three tips to give to students about interviewing for next semester:

1.) Don't be nervous, odds are that you will never see these people again.

2.) Make sure you are prepared with what you are about to say so you don't mess up or waste more time.

3.) Make sure to speak up and be loud so they hear exactly what you say!

Elevator Pitch No. 1

1.) The opportunity is that there are so many people that drive, yet have so much trouble finding parking around here.

2.) The solution is this app called iDrive. This app shows all available parking spots around your area so you can find a parking spot with ease. It also includes other functions which I explain in my elevator pitch.