Final Reflection

1)
While it may be surprising I think the most formative part of this class was the bug list. Being the first assignment of the semester I truly think that it helped change my mindset to be more critical in my thinking and aware of my feelings as well as others. Building on this my favorite assignment of the class was What's Your Secret Sauce? since it not only forced me to take a step back and evaluate myself, but also to hear what my friends thought about me which was very interesting to hear. My proudest moment from the semester is when I actually began to take steps to start my business and be some sort of successful.

2)
I would definitely say that I have developed more of an entrepreneurial mindset this year than in the past. Even in day to day activities such as watching TV I find myself analyzing commercials to see who they are targeting and how they are trying to do that, after all commercials are professionally made and what better way to learn than real-life professional examples.

3)
One recommendation I would give to a student who is going to take this class is be proactive. One of the tricky parts about this class was the fact that the assignment deadline is at 12 pm which is just an unusual time for me. To fix this all you have to do is do your work in as far in advance as possible, but if it isn't fixed it will cost you. Overall, its a great class that taught me a lot about how to look at opportunities in the world.

(Some Tallwood shirts)

Venture Concept No. 2

Venture Concept
Opportunity

The clothing market has been alive since before America was founded, however, since clothes are considered in today’s culture to be a necessity there will therefore always be a niche in the market for clothing lines. The question then becomes not who will buy clothes, because anyone can potentially sell a jacket or a vintage hand-me-down, but what kind of clothes will they buy. At this point a lot of the opportunity exists, of course, on the designs and quality of the shirts, as well as the marketing on social media and on campus (until we gain popularity, then we will move to a larger market). That being said we still have a specific target audience in mind, youth between the ages of middle school (13-14) - college and even out of college (26-27). This is because the youth of every generation are the most receptive to change. The reason for this is our style is inherently rooted in being different and unique. In middle school and high school everyone is either a trend setter or a trend follower, making these ages essential to target because all it takes is the right person to pick up the trend for the whole school to follow. These kids will then either take the style with them to college, introducing it to more people, or pick it up on their own since they are more likely to be independent in their fashion styles. In terms of location are target is Florida, specifically Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Tallahassee since we are all from Jacksonville and go to either FSU or UF. As we progress in the amount of shirts we are making as well as the amount of consumers we will expand accordingly in response to media analytics showing where our brand is being worn the most. Currently members of our target audience are buying clothes based mainly on celebrities, however social media is contributing to a rise of shopping being done on platforms such as Instagram and Twitter where there is an increasing amount of ads that allow you to purchase an item with a press of the finger, or mouse. Therefore, consumers are beginning to turn to social media to satisfy their clothing needs, which is exactly what we want. Social media is a free advertising platform which allows us to market ourselves at peak efficiency. However, it is 2019, which means that more and more companies are attempting to establish a strong social media presence, which means that our window of opportunity is continuously shrinking. Regardless, the era of social media shopping has yet to reach its peak.

Innovation

One of our main creative additions to the clothing market is how we brand ourselves. While most companies try to look as professional as possible, our vibe is more of a homemade in the backyard style, within reason. There’s a difference between looking like amateurs and looking like a local business. Our goal is to create customer loyalty, which is often prevalent among smaller, more local businesses. Related to local look is how we deliver the shirts. Every order is placed in a burlap sack with our logo on it, as well as a sticker, and then driven and dropped off to the consumer. This will have to change in the future as we cannot simply drive across the country at a whim but for now that is our delivery innovation. As for our prices we are currently selling single t-shirts for $15 and then 2 for $25, the same goes for our sweatpants.

Venture Concept

As I mentioned before, there are more and more companies hopping onto social media to expand their market. We are going to do exactly that, but with our own individual look that isn’t blasting back to school ads at you for all of August. Besides this an essential element for our product is the presence of us, the creators. Clothing companies love to show the shirts and the designs that they have, but they never even mention the designer behind it. A group of decently attractive nutheads designing clothes out of their backyard is a way more notable brand then shirts posted on a solid color background saying 15% off. As mentioned in the innovation section we anticipate packaging to play a decent role in retaining customer loyalty. It’s different from the norm while providing a reusable bag that has our logo on it, continuously advertising our brand to whoever uses/ sees it. In terms of how we are going to change the actual business make-up in the future we have talked about using companies such as Shopify which is a Canadian based company that deals with the financial aspect of receiving and delivering orders. This will allow us to not have to worry about orders and delivery so that we can focus better on our clothing and our branding. Employees are another topic; we will most likely hire minimal employees except potentially models for social media. Other than that, our goal is to do as much of this process ourselves, reflecting our brand image. I have no qualms, however, in potentially hiring people to work on social media as it requires a lot of time to adequately keep in touch with your audience as well as gauging what their needs and wants are. This will, again, allow us to focus on the clothes themselves, which is the most important part of the business.

Reflection

Unfortunately, I was unable to submit the first venture concept assignment and therefore did not have any feedback to reflect on or a previous draft that I was able to edit. I did, however, submit the What's Next assignment and the feedback I received was as follows: the marketing is as important as I say it is and worth the time,  don't mark up the price too much, and inquiry on how I would expand my audience. I believe that I have adequately explained how I would expand in the future and am not worried about it being an issue. 

(Snapshot of one of our Instagram posts)

Exit Strategy

1) Identify your exit strategy

My exit strategy is definitely to stick with my company for at least 10 years. If I've already put in the work to create something that I care about then I'm definitely going to stick with it for awhile. That being said one taste of success would probably lead me to try and start more businesses so I would definitely consider selling or joint-owning down the line.

2) Why have you selected this strategy?

I have selected this exit strategy because this start-up idea is very important to me, my friends and I have been working on it and continue to work on it now. Since we are so passionate about this we want to be a part of it and if it became successful we would absolutely stick with it and keep creating. After all, that's pretty much my dream job, getting paid to create and design.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept?

I definitely think that my passion about this idea has led me to think and act differently when answering these assignments. This is something that I would be willing to do for the rest of my life so of course I'm going to treat it differently then Joe's fly-catching device. Since we are expecting to get bigger we are starting small so we can financially support our progress 100% of the way. So yes I think differently about my venture because I am actually invested in it and need to think about finances and such because it literally affects me.

Reading Reflection No. 3

I chose to do my final reading on Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life by Lisa Chaney

1)
-What surprised you the most?

I was most surprised by the fact that she was able to be so successful coming from such an unsuccessful background, especially due to the fact that her father abandoned her and her mother.

-What did you most admire?

What I admire most is that she was so passionate and confident about her fashion and style. Her creativity made her stand apart from other designers but she stuck through it and succeeded because of her perseverance.

-What did you least admire?

The thing that I least admire about her is probably the way she used sex to gain a leg in the industry. She had several affairs with rich and powerful men that helped her make more of a name for her brand.

- Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure?

Definitely, being poor and being a woman brought a lot of negative attention to her as well as her reputation for sleeping with rich guys. Nonetheless she powered through and reached success.

2)

Creativity. Gabrielle Chanel was so creative that she was able to build a fashion empire. Literally the epitome of creativity is when you create things that the world likes and its very obvious that people liked her and her ideas.

3)

There was nothing particularly confusing about this biography.

4)

-Looking back on your childhood, are you thankful for the hardships that you experienced for making you into the person you are today?

-Thinking about everything you've made and given to the world, do you think you changed the word? and if so, for the better?

5) 

I think that Gabrielle Chanel would consider passion to exemplify her definition of hard work. Gabrielle put everything on the line for her company, even her body, she exuded passion for her company and that's what brought her success. I think that if anyone asked her about hard-work she would respond by asking how passionate they were.

-

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Celebrating Failure

1) This semester I failed for the third semester in a row. Since I've been at UF I've tried every semester to make straight A's but every single semester I fail because of my procrastination and laziness. It is really disappointing honestly considering my brother makes straight A's at Notre Dame studying physics while I'm just here in J-School (shoutout J-School).

2) While I know this is stretching the prompt a bit because it says this semester, this is just something that has been on my mind recently because it means a lot to me. Recognizing it now and calling myself out on it makes me excited for next semester because that is another chance for me to reach my goal. Other than that I learned that I need to be more proactive in my life and plan ahead better.

3) Failure sucks, plain and simple. When you set your mind to achieve something and then don't, there's no worse feeling. However, failure helps us learn, about ourselves and about each other. When we fail we need to recognize it, completely. If you don't accept your own failure then you start running from it and that results in lies and cheating. Cheating is just accepting failure. This class makes me look at things a little differently now, everything is a calculated risk. I think that I will be trying to take more calculated risks from now on.

What's Next?

Existing Market

1) I think the next step for my business is to finalize some designs and start making a large amount of shirts to start selling. At this point we have developed a brand and have created a decent amount of demand, but now we need to supply that in order to get our brand to a bigger audience and create more demand.

2)
- Ben, 24 - When I asked Ben what he thought we should do next he completely agreed with what I said in the previous paragraph. Ben said that we definitely need to start pumping out shirts to sell because we need people to see what the brand is about and seeing other people wear it makes people more likely to buy it for themselves.
- Anna, 20 - Anna agreed with Ben that more shirts need to be made, but she also emphasized that we need to improve our social media. Anna said that while it's good that we have one and are using it, we need to completely revamp it and make it more professional.
- Kelsey, 21 - Kelsey actually disagreed with the two other interviews. Kelsey thought that we should wait to produce more shirts and instead work on mastering the screen press. Her thoughts were that we needed to act more professional since we are already doing everything by hand. Once we get really good at printing is when we should start mass producing.

3)
I liked the feedback that I got from these interviews, all of them were very helpful to consider with my current business plan. I particularly agreed with Anna's point about our social media. Since we've had the Instagram only one person has had the password for the account and after the split into different locations he is the only one able to post. Being part of the Tallahassee squad I am unable to influence his posts since I am in Gainesville. What I need to do is get the password and work on diversifying our media presence.
As for Kelsey's comment I actually disagree with the suggestion to get better at using the screen press because of how our brand is very do-it-yourself and making our shirts look professionally manufactured takes away from that brand. We have even talked about making our designs look more hand-drawn than they are now to add to that brand even more.

New Market

1)
The new market that I am identifying is a very trendy, designer clothing market such as Louis Vuitton. To make this new market all of the prices of my shirts will be raised significantly. Besides this there will be a much smaller selection of designs that come with each release in order to make them more rare/exclusive. Orders will still be delivered in the burlap sack but with a sticker and a pin instead of just the shirt.

2)
-Brian, 20 - Brian was not very intrigued by the new market. He said that the shirts seemed a little overpriced and he did not know "what the h*ll" he would do with a pin that's included in the shirt order.
-Liz, 19 - Liz was more of a fan of the new market than Brian was. Liz said she liked the high-class aspect of the shirts and that she would definitely buy some sweatpants and potentially a shirt. Her biggest issue was the fact that our clothes were made more towards males than females.

3)
I honestly did not expect anyone to be up for this new market. Based on the designs that we've made they do not at all match with a designer brand. That being said Liz surprised me greatly by her enthusiasm on our sweatpants and that she like how expensive they were because they made you value the purchase. I clearly do not have as much money as Liz but the fact that there are consumers for that market took me by surprise. I agree however that our market is more targeted at males and we need to improve our female clothing options.
Compared to the previous business model this one is most definitely inferior. The quality of our products simply do not match up to the quality of the designer brands. Marketing could most definitely help if we advertised ourselves as if we were real snobby and high class, but that just feels fake and snarky. I would much rather drive for hours delivering t-shirts for 15$ that they will enjoy than ship a shirt for 40-50$ that is completely overcharging the customer.

Unfair Advantage

Resources:

• Screen Printer
• Screen printers are very essential to the shirt making process, having one allows us to make our own shirts whenever we want and not have to rely on a third party to produce them which is more money and more time.
• ink/dye
• ink and dye is useful obviously but not exactly rare
• 3 different geographical locations
• Since spreading out for college the members of Tallwood have split across the 3 cities of Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Jacksonville. Having theses 3 locations makes it easier to reach a larger audience on a personal level, not just over social media.
• Connections through 3 different fraternities (and thus multiple sororities)
• There are 3 of us in Tallwood who are also in Greek life. This provides us with a much greater selection of customers since we live with 50 other people, let alone the people we meet throughout the year at various events. This allows us to show our brand to a much bigger audience and get feedback as well as purchases. 
• Social Media account: Instagram
• This is nothing rare at all since its free to make an Instagram, but its important nonetheless.
• blank tees
• Another relatively simple resource to gather, just takes time and some money. Tallwood buys all their clothing thrifting and prints on them or dyes them.
• Tallwood burlap sacks
• One of my favorite resources, we ship all our clothing in branded burlap sacks. This adds a handcrafted touch to the order since it isn't completely plastic wrapped and smell like a factory.
• Adobe Creative Cloud
• We use Adobe for our designs. Being in college is very helpful for this resource because of the fact that it is discounted for people with an .edu email. However, Adobe is open for purchase by anyone.
• 5+ different designers
• While most clothing companies are going to have a decent amount of different designers, what makes Tallwood different is that we constantly look at and challenge each other's designs. In a traditional company style manufacturer there would be someone overlooking the designers, either accepting or rejecting designs, but our group analysis allows us to get the most feedback and improve our own designs before they are even released.
• Shirt Delivery
• So of course ordering a shirt from Amazon will get it delivered to you by a truck, but an order from Tallwood will get you a delivery by a car full of 19 year-olds in the middle of the night. This point is similar to the burlap sack because it adds to our quirky, homemade vibe. We make this for the customer and so we are going to make sure they get it. 

After analyzing my list of resources, I would say that my top resource is the connections we have through Greek Life. While this may sound very conceited, Greek Life exposes you to so many people that you are constantly meeting new people and making new friends. Say, for example, I wear a Tallwood shirt one night at a social, every single person there is going to recognize it as a brand that they are not familiar with and potentially ask about it and therefore get exposed to the brand and the products. Wearing it myself is important too because people are interested in what other people are passionate about and as a creator I am very passionate and would express this to any interested consumer. On top of this, Greek Life is very interconnected and so every person I get interested will tell a friend who can tell a friend and then the domino effect takes over.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WGjv_DI74Q

2) From my last elevator pitch I was told that my main issue was the length of my pitch. While it was within the given time range my peers felt like it went a little too long for the topic. Besides this the other main concern was not to waste time introducing myself. Other than these concerns I was told that I had a good confidence and composure for my pitch.

3) The main thing that I changed in this elevator pitch is the length. Since I was told that my pitch was too long last time I decided to take out some fluff and get right to the point. Personally, I believe that my second pitch was the best but I still think this pitch is strong.

Reading Reflection No. 2

The book that I chose to read for this assignment was The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki.

1) The general theme of this book is that social media is a powerful tool that can really boost a company's performance if used correctly or hurt it if used poorly.

2) Currently I am enrolled in Social Media and Society so a lot of the topics covered in the book were already familiar to me but what I thought really helped connect these lessons to the class were the real life examples that it provided. A big part of entrepreneurship is learning from other people's mistakes or success but you can only learn from things that you've experienced or researched/read yourself.

3) If I were to create an assignment for the class based off the book that I read, I would assign a story or some kind of business update for social media and then make the students change the format of the message to fit its respectful social media channel.

4) Honestly, I was surprised at learning how to respond to negative comments. I've always figured that unless it involves tech support or something then negative comments should be left alone, but according to Guy Kawasaki it's actually best to reply to them one at a time. This makes sense to me now because it shows that the business/company is open to criticism and willing to take the time to make the customer experience better.

Growing Your Social Capital

1) Kevin Masaro - Domain Expert
Kevin Masaro is a co-founder of the clothing company Always True. The company was founded in 2015 after the passing of their brother Brandon K. Howard who rapped under the name of Always True. I went to one of their pop-up sales in Gainesville and bought a shirt and talked to Kevin about how he got started in the business and what it takes. He gave me his phone number and told me to contact him if I needed anything.

2) Josh Huey - Expert
Josh Huey is the Head Graphic Designer of Dragonfly Graphics, a company based in Gainesville. As Head Graphic Designer Josh works closely with clients and is known for being able to bring an idea to life exactly as its imagined. I emailed Josh and asked him a few questions. The best answer I got was that it was his hobby and he said that pursuing your passion is extremely rewarding.

3) Ben Hippeli - Supplier
Ben Hippeli is a Professor of Professional Selling at University of North Florida. I found him on LinkedIn and messaged him about his experience with the distribution of shirts and ink. Being skilled in market strategy, Ben told me that it really wasn't anything complex, the main thing to remember is to keep good relations with every business you encounter because you never know when they will be useful.

This targeting network experience showed me just how many businesses there are that deal with making clothes, which is slightly daunting. However, everyone that I reached out to was very nice and polite and that made me like the industry more and got me more excited for my own company. It differed from other networking experience because instead of being for an assignment it was for my own idea which gave me useful information.

Idea Napkin No.2

You:
I am a college student who is trying to get into the film industry. Lately my friends and I decided that we wanted to put our creativity to god use and started making t-shirt designs. I am Adobe certified and have used several Adobe platforms working on t-shirt designs alone. I am also capable of operating cameras for pictures and video which is relevant to the social media branding side of the company. While I don't necessarily see this being my primary focus after college I definitely think that we will continue to work on it in the future and it could potentially become successful.

What are you offering to customers?
I am offering a brand. A unique sense of style that has never been made or sold before, while at the same time staying comfortable and cheap to better draw business from the youth. The goal of Tallwood is to let people where whatever they want and express themselves.

Who are you offering it to?
My target audience is definitely 15 - 25. I am targeting this age group because I want to target high school and college kids who, for the most part, don't where uniforms. Not only is this age group the best chance at liking my product and buying it, but they will also get me the most exposure because they will wear it to school and talk about it to their friends.

Why do they care?
They care because the like the style of clothing as well as the message behind it.

What are your core competencies?
My creativity is my most valuable trait for this product. Clothing is such a subjective thing that you can't spend the time worrying about what the customer wants (besides factors like price and quality) you just have to be true to yourself and create what you want because people appreciate passion and will be more interested in things that you are passionate about.

I think all five of these elements are important to being an entrepreneur. They fit together in the way that all are important things to consider when thinking about selling a product or service. My weakest element is clearly "why do they care" because there are already a lot of clothing companies that have been made so getting people to prioritize mine over pre-existing ones is going to be my biggest challenge.

Two main points that I learned from my feedback were to be more informative and confident. My last idea napkin was not as thorough as this one and did not inform very well, however it displayed a confidence in my product that my peers liked, which is why I mentioned the importance of passion. I think this napkin is much improved compared to last time.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

Unfortunately, I did not upload my first elevator pitch to my blog and sent it via canvas only, so I was not able to receive feedback from my peers. However, from what I've looked at and to critique myself, I was not very grounded, I looked very awkward in the video and need to do a better job creating a strong, firm presence.

Here is my second elevator pitch:

https://youtu.be/qEUbH9rEdG0 

18A - Create a Customer Avatar

My Customer
My prototypical costumer is a high school teenager who likes to skate and surf and run around outside. My prototypical customer wants to stand out from the crowd and be unique. Being unique not only affects his quirky personality but also his music taste and more importantly, his clothing style. My prototypical customer drives a grey Prius but occasionally has to borrow his mom's minivan. His favorite TV show is SpongeBob SquarePants because he hasn't watched TV since he was younger; he prefers to watch movies, specifically Quentin Tarantino.

Reflection
I find the description of my prototypical customer to be very similar to myself, which is not very surprising because as the designer of my clothing company I design shirts based off my own interests, which would appeal to someone who is more similar to myself. I think many people who aren't as similar to me will still find appeal in my shirts but the prototypical customer is pretty much someone as similar to me as possible.

What's Your Secret Sauce?

1) Human Capital:
-Sympathy - I think one of my most unique human capital is my ability to sympathize with people. This capital is really important to me because it allows me to see things from other people's perspective. I would describe myself as very calm and slow to anger and I believe that sympathy is a big reason for that because I am constantly contemplating how other people feel and how they are affected by my actions and the actions around me.

-Creativity - Creativity has been one of my favorite human capital for most of my life. I love to think and imagine and create things. Most likely inspired by my love for movies since childhood I have been drawing and writing various characters and stories for as long as I can remember. Its something that allows me to express myself and stand out from the crowd.

-Humorous - Not to gas myself up or anything but I believe myself to be a pretty funny guy. Not really like a class-clown per say but just in general I can make a person laugh. This is something that I take pride in because it allows me to make people happy. This kind of goes hand-in-hand with sympathy because if I feel for someone who is going through a hard time I have the choice to do something about it, even if its just temporarily.

-Nice - This might not be a million dollar word but when it comes down to it I can't think of a better one. I am a nice guy, what can I say? Honestly, I've tried to be mean or douchey, but at the end of the day I'm not mean and I'm not a douche, I'm just a nice guy who would happily open the door for you.

-Content - This may also seem like a strange word choice but the way I mean it hear is that I have the ability to be completely satisfied in my current position. Now I'm not saying that I would be happy if I dropped out of college and lived on the streets but the current position I am, even though its completely average, gives me happiness and I know that in the future I will be able to find happiness no matter where I go.

Audio Interviews:

https://soundcloud.com/user-551332911/entrepreneurship-bergida-interview-1

https://soundcloud.com/user-551332911/entrepreneurship-laberge-interview 
https://soundcloud.com/user-551332911/entrepreneurship-frans-interview
https://soundcloud.com/user-551332911/entrepreneurship-corey-interview
https://soundcloud.com/user-551332911/entrepreneurship-biggs-interview-public

Reflections:
It was kind of strange listening to people talk about myself but I think for the most part everything that was said supports my list ad my thoughts about myself. At the end of the day I think what I said about myself was supported and I would not change my list at this point in time.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Interviews:
John, 19 - I talked to John about what it was that made him want to buy something. He said that the main thing was attention, if the item grabbed his attention then he would start to consider buying it. After that was the style, since I want to make t-shirts I asked him what his buying process was for shirts and he replied that after his attention was on something it was the style and the colors that mattered next.
Alex, 20 - Alex told me that a huge factor for him when he is buying stuff is the amount of money that he currently has. Since he is a college student who isn't working all the time money is a big factor since you can only buy things when you have money. Assuming he had enough money to make a purchase Alex said that convenience was the next important factor. If he was at the store or on Amazon he would be more inclined to buy since the store gives it to you immediately and Amazon ships in two days.
Sarah Beth, 19 - Sarah Beth said that her main concern when buying clothes was the comfort level. Besides something not fitting correctly she said that her only reason for taking back clothes is if she is not comfortable in them.Price isn't necessarily important if its nice quality clothing but comfort is everything.

Alternative Evaluation:
It's fairly hard to discern what the main factor is that my audience is looking for as I got a fairly wide variety of answers, however as a consumer of clothes myself, I would say that the quality of the shirt is the most important. No matter how cheap something is if it looks trashy people are not going to buy it. However, if its not too expensive yet is good quality, that is worth a buy. But just like in my last post, I need to figure out a profitable price that can afford quality material.

Reflections:
Since I am such a far way away from being able to own a store, online is really my only choice to sell from, however the big issue with that is delivery time, so I would have to make sure it doesn't take forever to get to the customer. Nowadays, the biggest post-purchase decision is the reaction from your friends. When you make a social media post or wear it to school your friends are going to notice and its their reactions that can influence your post-buy decisions. Overall, from these interviews I have learned that I will need to make a website that is trendy and eye-grabbing. On top of this I need quality shirts that are comfortable as well as stylish that aren't much more expensive than $20.

Reading Reflection No. 1

Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s

1)  

What surprised you the most?

What surprised me the most was the fact that I had never learned anything about Kroc's story even though McDonald's is a huge franchise.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I admired his dedication and his ability to take his idea, which was completely unheard of at the time and turn it into national prominence in only 10 years.

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I least admired the fact that Kroc got so many divorces. He really didn't have his life together very well outside of his business.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Kroc definitely faced some setbacks in his life but he always pushed through in order to help his company. No matter if it was relationship issues or financial problems he persevered and was a success.

2) 

What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?

One specific competency that I noticed about Ray Kroc is his exceptional talent for being a salesperson. He was always able to get consumers to look at his product differently. 

3) 

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

Something that confused me was the fact that the McDonald's brothers were not more helpful toward Kroc.

4)

If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

a) How do you feel that a lot of people point their finger towards you for the obesity crisis in America? 

-I would ask this because I think McDonald's is very unhealthy

b) It seemed that your marriages were never very successful, do you regret the lifestyle that you chose to live?

-I would ask this because I thought that Kroc did a terrible job of maintaining his relationships and would want to know if he felt similar.

5)

For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? 

It seemed that Ray Kroc cared quite a lot about hard work, working maybe a little too hard for his business and not enough for his family. I honestly disagree with his opinion because I think life is more about balance than working hard and I don't think Kroc had a very good sense of balance, especially after his multitude of divorces.

 

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1) The segment for my market is people from the age of 15-30. This is because I am trying to target the youth of America.

2) The three interviews that I arranged were all college students around the age of 18-20. They were all intrigued by my idea of a clothing line and especially liked the concept of it being locally made. Based off of these interviews I am fairly certain that the biggest issue I am going to face is the pricing. College kids are not the most rich people in America and I am not a known brand, so I need to make sure that my pricing is high enough to make a profit for myself but not too high to dissuade consumers.

3) The issue with my market is that the need is very easily fixed. Anyone can go to the store and get any kind of shirt at any time. I just need to show that my brand is cooler and better than the others. While this is a pretty corny thing to say it is actually essential. I need to brand myself and my product efficiently so consumers know who I am and what I am about.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You: I am a creative-minded college student with big aspirations. I want to make Academy Award winning films, I want to start my own clothing brand, I want to travel the country and show the nation what American culture is by promoting up-and-coming artists and musicians, and I want to start my own news channel that will attract the younger audience who won’t watch the boring CNN reports but will watch my show and be informed. This is the person that I want to be, but knowing it myself is just the first step, the real challenge is making the world know who I am. 

2) I am offering quality entertainment and quality clothing. Come on what else do you need?

3) My primary audience is people from the age of 15-30. This is because I am trying to target the youth of America. My style of filmmaking is out-of-the-ordinary and whenever something goes against the grain older people usually shoot it down but it is the youth of America who are more accepting of quirky style.

4) They don't care right now but they will once they see the value behind it.

5) What sets me apart from everyone else is my creativity. I know that sounds super cliche but that's literally what separates me from everyone else: my taste and perspective.

Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

Opportunity: Alachua County has changed the Tobacco law age to 21+. The opportunity that I saw with this recent change is the eventual full-on quitting of nicotine vapes as they are being exposed in a primarily negative light recently and raising the legal age is already a big step forward. I propose a nicotine reward system that will track your nicotine usage like a fitness watch. Each day you will get a certain amount of nicotine hits, but as the days go on you get less and less until you quit altogether.

Who: Some businesses that share a lot in common with my opportunity proposition is other types of nicotine alternatives such as nicotine patches and nicotine gum. Nicorette and Pixotene are just a couple of these companies who are trying to create products to help people quit nicotine. However, these companies differ from my idea because they lack any type of user experience design which will ideally keep consumers more interested and actually quit.

What: This need is more specific to younger kids who are addicted to nicotine because of the recent explosion of nicotine vapes. I am not expecting 30-year-old construction workers to suddenly download an app to quit cigarettes, but I believe that a high school kid who got addicted because of his friends Juul would definitely consider a phone application to help him quit.

Why: While two people who want to quit nicotine have the same end goal, I feel like people who smoke cigarettes and people who vape have different mentalities about nicotine. People who vape do it because they know cigarettes are "bad" for you but they still want the nicotine buzz. Yet, people who smoke cigarettes smoke because they need nicotine, or at least that's how they feel. Someone who knows they might get cancer but chooses to smoke cigarettes anyway is going to handle quitting much differently than someone who hits a mango pod everyday.

Interviews:
1)  Ben, 18, UF freshman: Ben has been at UF for a semester now, having finished up Summer B. He had never had a vape before but ended up buying one over summer. He uses it daily, but is starting to think that he may be wasting his money. He likes the buzz but he just doesn't think its worth the money anymore. Ben said that he would definitely consider downloading an app to help him quit.

2) Lindsay, 20, UF Junior: Lindsay has owned a Juul for 3 years now and is severely addicted to it. She hits it first thing when she wakes up and before she falls asleep. She says that she has never really thought about quitting until recent news about its potential health risks. Lindsay said she was interested in the app and would definitely consider it if she was going to try and quit.

3) John, 19, UF Sophomore: John was a frequent nicotine vaper as a freshman but decided to go cold turkey over summer. Upon coming back to school John had a relapse and started to vape again. When asked about this product John showed interest and joked that if Sims could get him off nicotine it would be way worth it.

4) Anna, 21, UF Senior: Anna has never personally owned a nicotine device but admits that she often asks her friends to let her use theirs. When asked how often she vaped per day, she thought about it for a second and said,"more often than I'd like to admit." Since she doesn't actually own one she had never really considered quitting but thinks that an app interface would be helpful.

5) Paul, 35, Bus Driver: Paul used to be a heavy smoker, but when Juul first started to advertise their product he got a vape as a means to stop smoking cigarettes. He said that it was hard at first but that he thinks he has made a big improvement since. As a cigarette smoker he said he would never use an app, but now that he's been able to get himself off of cigarettes he would definitely consider it as a means to go nicotine free.

Solving the Problem

The problem that I will be addressing is the Tobacco age law that I raised in one of my prior blog posts. The opportunity that I saw with this recent change is the eventual full-on quitting of nicotine vapes as they are being exposed in a primarily negative light recently and raising the legal age is already a big step forward. I propose a nicotine reward system that will track your nicotine usage like a fitness watch. Each day you will get a certain amount of nicotine hits, but as the days go on you get less and less until you quit altogether.

The point of the app is that it will bother you if you go over your daily nicotine usage and complement you if you do well. It will be very similar to the water drinking app that "waters your plant" every time you drink water. This generation loves simulated worlds like that that are obviously fake but are stimulated by our own actions in the real world. I think this could help people quit using nicotine vapes in the future.