Final Reflection

Out of my whole experience, the thing that sticks out to me is that you don't have to be the smartest or well connected person in the world to be an entrepreneur. Everyday people make their own businesses, and that you can still start your venture with a huge amount of risk. This class has taught me how to analyze a potential product and how I could possibly improve it, which takes apart the scariest part, actually knowing what you are doing. My most joyous experience was when I finally got the hang of how the class worked, because online classes are new to me and it was a bigger deal than it is now. I am most proud of being able to miss an entire week on vacation and still (somewhat) keep up with the class. At this moment in time I believe I have an entrepreneurial mindset just because I do well on the fly and I now have more confidence in myself and how I can handle any problem or obstacle. My best advice for someone taking this class is taking the exercises seriously, just because they can help you find out so much more about yourself than you think.

Venture Concept No.2

The next place the wireless charging system is heading is toward bigger businesses and offices. The wireless charging system started out with the goal to charge as many people's phones at a time as possible, and we want to continue that and be able to put out the best product with the newest technological capabilities.
I asked customers what we should be doing next and it  surprised me. Instead wanting charging on a larger scale, they wanted it to be smaller. They recommended that we start working on a device that will stick to your phone case that will wirelessly charge your phone. Another suggestion that falls into line with that direction is a portable charger sized device that s student could keep in their backpack while in class that would charge their individual phone while it is in their pocket, without the need for a charger cord. When I asked the customers about the system with the larger charging capabilities they said it would be useful, but they feel like they would personally get more use out of their own individual one.
The future path for growth inside the existing market lays in catering to the needs of our customers. I think the best way to do this  is to go smaller. That decision isn't permanent, we will most likely make larger models, but for now it seems like going for the personal wireless charging systems will be better.

After reflecting on my first venture the main thing I need to focus on is not making the product fit into a market, but I should try and design it to fit into a market. Another takeaway from the student feedback was that my personality will lead the way in my venture. I feel like I will ultimately make all of the decisions when it comes to the future of my venture. Some main feedback I got from the interviewees is that the specifications and capabilities are more important than anything. All of the people wanted to know the range, how much it cost, and how many phones it can charge, so I know I'm going to have to work with the numbers.

I have changed my concept to cater to families instead of businesses, and have been way more specific about my ideal customer.

Free Money

Free Money Exercise:

• For the exercise I went to Turlington because there is an ample amount of people, especially because they are walking and distracted.
• I'm going to approach people to are walking on the way to class.
• I'm going to start the conversation by saying "hey can I ask you a question real quick"
• My plan for the conversation is to say "can I ask you a question" and then tell them that I am a bagger at Publix and I took a dollar tip yesterday and I want to get rid of it because I feel bad for taking it.
• I think I will be able to give away all five of them.

Reflection: When people are doing their own thing, and you come into their space they get defensive and don't want to talk. I dressed like a student so I wasn't that intimidating and people were more reluctant to talk to me. However one person who seemed very concerted. She just didn't say that much, and said "no thank you I'm not interested". This made me realize how hard it is to sell people on something and how protective they are. She automatically thought something was up, and didn't even know that was trying to give her a dollar.

My Exit Strategy

1. My exit plan is to play it by ear. Most likely, since the wireless charging system will take a lot of capital to start up, so it will also take a lot of time to recuperate the initial investment. Once it gets to the point where the wireless charging system is making money I will probably hold onto the business for another 5 or so years and then sell it and cash in. Now if the business is doing exceptional, and I'm enjoying what I'm doing then I will hold onto it for as long as I can, but if it is just chugging along and doing okay and taking up my time then I will most likely sell it.
2. I selected this because it is pretty flexible, and it allows me to make the decision when I get to that time. Most likely a lot of things will be different then, and the business could potentially be worth a lot. It would be silly to plan for things that far in advance when they could be so different and all of that worrying and planning would be for nothing.
3. This decision mirrors how I plan on running my venture. I will ultimately have goals that I want to complete, but when it comes down to it I'll have to make the game time decisions during the game, and not in the locker-room before the game.

Reading Reflection No.3

The book that I haven't read that I'm choosing to do my reflection on is The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

1. The general theme of the book is that people's mindsets determine where they go an how successful they will be. If someone has a growth mindset, they will continue to grow, but if someone has a negative mindset, they will become stagnant.
2. This book enhanced what I have learned in Ent 3003 because it highlighted the importance of strong character, and how important it is to train your character to become successful.
3. If I had to design an exercise for this class it would require everyone to try the "growth mindset".  It would be a blog post in which the student has to explain 5 times in the last month they have used the growth mindset to better themselves.
4. My biggest 'aha' moment in this book was the teacher and coach section. When the author explained how the use of language when a person is learning can effect how they perceive themselves.

Celebrating Failure

1. In spring semester I took Precalculus and as expected it was pretty hard. Right as I got back from spring break I had a lot going on in school and in my life and I nearly failed the test when we got back. However, because of this bad test grade I was determined to get a good grade in the class. I showed up for lectures, studied more, and ended up getting B's on the next two exams and finished with a B+
2. What I learned from this is that I should have gotten more work done during spring break so I would have had more time to study for pre calc when I got back. I learned no matter how good you are at something(in my case I am good with time management) you can always get  better and improve.
3. This failure was pretty devastating. I had a speech and an interview that same week along with work. I was tremendously overwhelmed with all of this going on, and I didn't do good on the test or the interview. It was a pretty disappointing week and it was hard to rebound from it, but it was a good experience to learn from. I wouldn't want to take another risk like this, but after this class I would feel more comfortable in the high pressure situation. 

Whats Next?

Existing Market

The next place the wireless charging system is heading is toward bigger businesses and offices. The wireless charging system started out with the goal to charge as many people's phones at a time as possible, and we want to continue that and be able to put out the best product with the newest technological capabilities.

I asked customers what we should be doing next and it  surprised me. Instead wanting charging on a larger scale, they wanted it to be smaller. They recommended that we start working on a device that will stick to your phone case that will wirelessly charge your phone. Another suggestion that falls into line with that direction is a portable charger sized device that s student could keep in their backpack while in class that would charge their individual phone while it is in their pocket, without the need for a charger cord. When I asked the customers about the system with the larger charging capabilities they said it would be useful, but they feel like they would personally get more use out of their own individual one.

The future path for growth inside the existing market lays in catering to the needs of our customers. I think the best way to do this  is to go smaller. That decision isn't permanent, we will most likely make larger models, but for now it seems like going for the personal wireless charging systems will be better.

New Market

A Radically different market to enter into would be airlines. With wifi being present on planes in the coming years many people will end up needing to charge their phones on board the plane. Instead of setting up an entire electrical system on the plane with outlets they could install the wireless charging system on board.

I would create value in the market by reducing airlines costs, and making the customers on airlines more happy.

After the interviews it was clear that the charging capabilities would have to be way larger than the ambitious 25 people for the "large" version of my product. This means we would have to get some help from the airlines in creating this device, or wait a couple of years before we develop the technology.

The thing that I learned about this new market is that different markets need different needs. The airline market would require large wireless charging capabilities. This made me realize it is going to take time to enter these new markets, and that is okay. I would rather be able to sit back and know that we are developing a competent product that will be ready for new markets years from now than worry about releasing it now.

The new market doesn't seem to be as attractive as before, but it definitely will be lucrative in the future  I just need to be patient and get my technology up to standards before pursing this side market.I also learned to stay to the confines of the product and to not try and push to do things that the product is not capable of right now.