30A - Final Reflection

 What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? 

The most formative experience for me was when I had to make a list of bugs. It made me realize that their are little bugs in  our daily lives. Some of these bugs are leads to great ideas and can potentially start a business. 

The experience that you'll remember years later?

I will always remember reading about Phil Knight , the creator of Nike. It is one of the best books I have read and was very insightful. I was able to relate to him in many ways. I liked learning about the life of a successful entrepreneur. Reading the book I was able to see his early failure and struggles. The booked had many examples of adversity and working around obstacles.   

 What was your most joyous experience? 

My most joyous experience would be networking with people who are more advanced in my field of business. I learned a lot in these conversations and formed great relationships. It was good to form relationships with people have a good understanding of the industry I want to get involved in. Knowledge is everywhere and it is not expensive to get, It just takes reaching out and getting to know people. 

What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

I am most proud of meeting potential clients. Pitching my idea to a business owner and getting interest is a great feeling. I now understand the love for entrepreneurship and why people find it satisfying.  

3) At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

I see myself as an entrepreneur. This class allowed me to see how setting goals and reaching them is a great feeling. I was always optimistic about entrepreneurship because I was worried about making money. I learned that money is not the priority for entrepreneurship, it is just a bonus sometimes. Doing something you love is a lot more rewarding than a generic job.  

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

Making connections is key. Having communication skills will get you far in this journey. Also be okay with failing and learn from your mistakes. Not everything is going to go as planned. As an entrepreneur your mind should be ready to adjust and always look at new perspectives. Do not take feedback as an attack on you but as suggestions that will better your ideas for the future.

29A - Venture Concept NO.2

Opportunity

• Social media marketing to small businesses 
• Local Restaurants
• Local Farms
• Small insurance companies

Having a good product is important, but will not sell your audience. Businesses need to maintain strong relationships and convey their message with customers to survive. Marketing assists firms to sell their product and convey their message to customers. I understand the importance of companies having brand awareness and how if a business markets itself well it will portray itself as more credible. 

Many small businesses or start up companies have a good product. However, they do not know how to market their product or service well. I have seen great ideas and businesses fail to succeed and meet expectations all because of bad marketing. It is difficult for small businesses to market themselves, it takes a lot of time. The market is always changing and peoples preferences are never the same. Running a business and keeping up with marketing trends is to much work for a small business.

Marketing business' on social media is a new trend that has gained a lot of success. While, it does help businesses succeed not all companies know how to use it or at least use it professionally. Millions of people are on social media today. Being able to engage with customers on platforms that have millions of people is a great opportunity.

Social media marketing is relatively new and is always changing with new trends. The opportunity to market for small business' is a big opportunity and will last for a good amount of time I believe. My customers may be on social media platforms but are not using it to their best benefit.

Running ads on social media platforms can be costly and if not used right is like throwing money away. Businesses such as Facebook do not care if your ad does well or not. They just want your money.

Innovation 

• Creating and Curating Social Media Post 
• Selling Social Media Weekly Plan to Small Businesses
• Cost friendly ads

Small business' that I see to have great opportunity on social media are restaurants. My service would have a local restaurant plan. Food is visual and Instagram is a great social platform for customers to visualize your product. I would set up a daily Instagram post for restaurants. An Instagram plan for a restaurant or related business cost $35 a week. This come out to be $5 a post. I would also use Facebook and possibly Twitter depending on the circumstances. Facebook is a great way to promote an event taking place or a special deal a restaurant is having. It is also a good place to tell a story. Facebook post also bring traffic to the restaurants website where customers will be to engage even more with your product. These Facebook post will cost $8 per post. 

As a food and resource economics major I would also market for small farms. Small farms are very important but are over looked. For local farms I will communicate to customers on how they can purchase products that are produced my local farms. Shoppers today may not know how to buy food that is local. On social media I will be able to better communicate what products are local. I can also point out why people should maybe buy local rather than big over produced food companies a farms. I will talk about things such as health and prices. Marketing on social media will allow people to know what they are putting in their body. 

Venture Concept. 

• Better Communication
• Customer Engagement
• Allowing a better understanding of the target market
• Competing with bigger marketing corporations 
• Having a personal B2B partnership 
• lowering marketing expenses 

Businesses will buy my product so that that they will be able to better communicate with their customers and have a better understanding of who their target market is. Many small businesses go out and close because they spend to much money on advertisements that do not work. My marketing business will not lose money for companies but allow them to gain more. 

Investing in my service will also give businesses more time to spend on things they are good at. For example, if you are good at making pizza you should be focusing on making pizza and posting an social media. Not knowing how to use social media properly can actually hurt your business and can potentially convey the wrong message. People who want the right message to be out will buy my service. 

It will not be hard for me to get people to switch. In my interviews I have received great feedback. It is a service that people are interested in and need. The only concern some have is price. I will have to prove that their money spent in me will actually grow their revenue.
My business will have close relationships with the businesses we are working with and get to know the owners on a personal level. My company will have a few employees in the being. To start off I have a photographer, editor and a market planner.
There will be competition but it is not impossible to enter the market. Big marketing agencies do not work with more local companies. Instead they work with other big corporations. Also, I will be competing with companies who might have a marketing employee. My service will be cheaper than having a full time employee.
My goal is to make a business money not lose money. Ads should be spent to make money. I will make sure a business invest the right amount of money in marketing. My business will be cost effective and have good short and long term effects. Spending to much money in advertisements is a major reason why firms do not survive. My service will be more organic and get customers to engage more with the business.
The Tree Minor elements

• Unfair advantage is the experience of working social media internships. I also have good connections with people in the restaurant business and agriculture. 
• Next is not just B2B but B2C
• I expect myself to have more business knowledge in the next 5 years. I will have stronger business connections and have a a better understanding of how the market works

2.) Summary of  feedback: My structure was good and well organized. Cost is very important. Customers want to know what a product or service is going to cost. Social media has a lot of assumptions and some people do not know the business side of it.

3.) What I did: I made sure I highlighted the cost more. In my venture concept I made it more clear that my business was going to be more cost effective than other media businesses. Running ads on social media can be expensive. I explained how there are cheap ways to market that are more organic  and effective.   

28A - Exit Strategy

1.) I intend to stay with the business for several decades and then retire. However, I am not opposed to starting other businesses.

2.) I am choosing this path because I love marketing and creating content. I don't think I will get board with my job because my field is always growing and developing. While I will be owning the same business I will constantly have to be changing and molding the business around the market and how consumers behave. Since my business is a marketing service and not an actual physical product I do not have to worry about a big company buying me out. I eventually see myself retiring and giving away the business to whoever wants it and has the same passion as me. If it turns out to be a younger generation in my family than I would not have a problem extending it.

3.) Knowing that I want to stay with this concept for a long period of time has gotten me to understand how to see short term and long terms  goal. My long terms goals will be just as important as my short term. My long term goals will be more subjected to change because I can not predict everything, but having an understanding an trying stay on top of things will be important for the success of this concept. I know I should stay up to date on technology changes and trends. Marketing on social platforms now might be popular but 5 years from now my company might have to adapt and learn new business strategies.

27A - Reading Reflection 3

I read the book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

What surprised you the most: I was most surprised by his childhood. He had a difficult family life in South Africa and was bullied a lot in school. He had a hard social life life as kid and resorted to his early learning by being self taught.

What did you most admire: Elon Musk work effort impressed me the most. He is an extremely hard worker and is very dedicated to his work. He is working on two big projects, SpaceX and Tesla, and is constantly flying back and fourth to work on them. I also admire his entrepreneurship mind that started at such a young age. He had big ideas and did not let his dreams go away. He always had an interest about renewable energy and colonizing planets. 

What about the entrepreneur  did you least admire: Elon is so focused and determined on his business goals and dreams that he doesn't leave himself any free time. He also expects this type of work ethic on his employees and can be seen as inconsiderate.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?: When Elon was fresh out of college he had many failures but his failure helped him grow. He was into physics and the internet. He got into the internet when it was brand new and many businesses saw it as a fad. In the beginning Elons websites would crash. He eventually grew his companies and sold them to make millions. with his money he started spaceX. With spaceX he has had many failures. His goals for SpaceX are very ambitious and has launch dates scheduled that have never happened.

 What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?: Elon rarely took no for an answer. He is good at looking way into the future and seeing what is good and necessary for humanity. When he started making electric cars people thought it was a waste of time. Now scientist are coming out warning people about climate change. Elon is also heavily involved with solar energy.

 Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. I find SpaceX to be the most confusing. Some of his ideas are way out there and almost seem like a crazy person is coming up with them. However Elon is extremely successful and worth billions.

If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I would ask him how much of success came from luck. I would ask this because there are many people who are ambitious and have crazy dreams but they never come true. I want to know if he has something different in him, than just ambition or if luck had something to do with his success. I would also ask him,  if you ended up living in South Africa longer would you be where you are today, or is living in America a significant factor.


What is hard work: Elon and I have some disagreements on hard work. I believe in hard work but I also think their should be some time for leisure. Elon has a very hard work ethic and it has made him billions. However, it might effect his social and family life. He has been divorced twice and their are numerous complaints from employees about him. I do like how his work comes from ambition and passion. He would say to work hard on things you love to do. I agree that if I do not enjoy something I should not waste my time working hard on it.  

26A - Celebrating Failure

About A Time I failed this past semester

This semester I am taking quantitative methods. This class has lots of work and can be easy to get behind. There are 4 exams for the class and the first one was meant to be the easiest. However I received an 88. This worried me because I knew that future exams were going to be a lot more difficult.

What I learned 

I learned I should not assume things are easy and see everything I do as important. Part of taking exams is mental. There is a difference of being confidence and having ignorance. I also realized that I need to take more advantage of professor office hours and TA office hours. I found time in my schedule to meet up with my TA weekly and go over problems. Going to the TA helped me a lot and I was retaining information much better. I was a lot more prepared for the second exam and surprised myself with a 100.

What I think about Failure

Failing can be embarrassing and sometimes hard to overcome. In school and by peers it is common to hear "you learn from failing". While, I agree you can learn from failing I would much rather to get it right first. Through my experience of failing I have learned many things and have grown a lot. Realizing successful people have failed many times gives me more hope. The caveat to failing is that their has to be effort and hard work in failure. If I failed because of laziness then I am probably not learning anything. But as long as I have a goal and living a driven life, failing is okay! The most important thing I have gotten out of this class is to take risks. I will never know if something works, such as a business, unless I take a risk. I understand failure comes along with risk but have learned it is nothing I can not overcome. 

25A - What's Next

Existing Market

Interview #1

I talked to the owner of the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, Florida. We talked about the importance of social media for local restaurants. I then told him my idea of a social media marketing business for local businesses. He liked the idea and gave me some more insight of what would help restaurants. He said online reviews are very important. People like to go on Google reviews a Yelp when finding a place to eat. He said online reviews can really hurt a business if they are negative. He explained having someone respond to negative reviews in a professional manner would benefit a lot. I asked him what do you think customers might want next. He responded by saying by businesses getting more personal. Mr. Gonzmart said that social media platforms are growing and making things more personal. This will allow places like a restaurant to show customers a more personal side. 

Interview #2

For this interview I talked to my uncle who owns a sports bar in Tampa called Ducky's. He started this sports bar with the MLB player Evan Longoria. He told me social media is growing he has been seeing the role it plays. He told me that people love following celebrities or athletes like Evan Longoria on social platforms. He told me it would be a good idea to contact people outside the business but who are related to it to post about it. He said focusing on contacting micro influences or people with a sustained social media presence can help grow the business more organically than in your face ads. He sees advertising and marketing in the future to be more subtle.


Interview #3

Through my internship I was able to get in contact with a manager at Cigar City, a craft beer brewery in Tampa. I told him my idea and asked what else should we be doing. He said really understanding the business you are working with. Doing research, reading about the product and understanding the customers in great detail. He also said that competition is going to grow because of social media. I have to make sure I stand out and the post do not blend in with everyone else.

What I think is next:  I believe social media is going to be a lot different then what it is now. It is going to be business catered eventually. So getting brand out as soon as possible is important now, because it a business waits to long it could get buried. Social media is going to make marketing more subtle than ever before. Ads will not look like ads we see today. They will blend in like a normal post. Getting people to talk about your brand and bringing awareness to your products with out directly posting it from the official business account could escalate engagements.


New Market

  my new market would be marketing for direct consumers and not limited to B2B. I could help build personal brands for people. Personal brand is more important than ever. Jeff Bezos the founder of Amazon says your brand is what people say about you when you are not around. My business will assist people to make their online personal brand visually appealing.


Interview #2

I talked to a senior at UF who is about to graduate. He told me that when looking for jobs, in some of his interviews they ask for social media accounts. Having a business assisting him in creating  professional social accounts that highlight a personal brand would help. To be successful in this market he said time would be key. In the digital area things may seem fast pace. However, slowing things time and making sure quality is the number one priority would be best.


Interview #2

For this interview I talked to a PR major. He suggested that having a personal website and domain would help express his personal brand. He said he likes the idea of personal brand and thinks it is important for his personal and career life. For success in this market he said he would like if a business such as mine would gear towards his future goals.


Reflection: I was not surprised to see how building a personal brand is important. However, I was surprised to see it have a significant role in getting a job. It use to be employers would just want to see a resume but not a resume is not simply enough to showcase yourself. Having a personal brand takes a lot of work but it is sometimes hard to show. Using social media platforms professionally or building a personal website will really help showcase a persons personal brand.
I think this market is attractive and is similar to my first market in someways. There are differences but the main goal is the same. A business has a brand they are trying to sell and a individual person is trying to brand themselves.   

24A - Venture Concept NO. 1

Opportunity

• Social media marketing to small businesses 
• Local Restaurants
• Local Farms
• Small insurance companies

Having a good product is important, but will not sell your audience. Businesses need to maintain strong relationships and convey their message with customers to survive. Marketing assists firms to sell their product and convey their message to customers. I understand the importance of companies having brand awareness and how if a business markets itself well it will portray itself as more credible. 

Many small businesses or start up companies have a good product. However, they do not know how to market their product or service well. I have seen great ideas and businesses fail to succeed and meet expectations all because of bad marketing. It is difficult for small businesses to market themselves, it takes a lot of time. The market is always changing and peoples preferences are never the same. Running a business and keeping up with marketing trends is to much work for a small business.

Marketing business' on social media is a new trend that has gained a lot of success. While, it does help businesses succeed not all companies know how to use it or at least use it professionally. Millions of people are on social media today. Being able to engage with customers on platforms that have millions of people is a great opportunity.

Social media marketing is relatively new and is always changing with new trends. The opportunity to market for small business' is a big opportunity and will last for a good amount of time I believe. My customers may be on social media platforms but are not using it to their best benefit.

Innovation 

• Creating and Curating Social Media Post 
• Selling Social Media Weekly Plan to Small Businesses

Small business' that I see to have great opportunity on social media are restaurants. My service would have a local restaurant plan. Food is visual and Instagram is a great social platform for customers to visualize your product. I would set up a daily Instagram post for restaurants. An Instagram plan for a restaurant or related business cost $35 a week. This come out to be $5 a post. I would also use Facebook and possibly Twitter depending on the circumstances. Facebook is a great way to promote an event taking place or a special deal a restaurant is having. It is also a good place to tell a story. Facebook post also bring traffic to the restaurants website where customers will be to engage even more with your product. These Facebook post will cost $8 per post. 

As a food and resource economics major I would also market for small farms. Small farms are very important but are over looked. For local farms I will communicate to customers on how they can purchase products that are produced my local farms. Shoppers today may not know how to buy food that is local. On social media I will be able to better communicate what products are local. I can also point out why people should maybe buy local rather than big over produced food companies a farms. I will talk about things such as health and prices. Marketing on social media will allow people to know what they are putting in their body. 

Venture Concept. 

• Better Communication
• Customer Engagement
• Allowing a better understanding of the target market
• Competing with bigger marketing corporations 
• Having a personal B2B partnership 

Businesses will buy my product so that that they will be able to better communicate with their customers and have a better understanding of who their target market is. Many small businesses go out and close because they spend to much money on advertisements that do not work. My marketing business will not lose money for companies but allow them to gain more. 

Investing in my service will also give businesses more time to spend on things they are good at. For example, if you are good at making pizza you should be focusing on making pizza and posting an social media. Not knowing how to use social media properly can actually hurt your business and can potentially convey the wrong message. People who want the right message to be out will buy my service. 

It will not be hard for me to get people to switch. In my interviews I have received great feedback. It is a service that people are interested in and need. The only concern some have is price. I will have to prove that their money spent in me will actually grow their revenue.
My business will have close relationships with the businesses we are working with and get to know the owners on a personal level. My company will have a few employees in the being. To start off I have a photographer, editor and a market planner.
There will be competition but it is not impossible to enter the market. Big marketing agencies do not work with more local companies. Instead they work with other big corporations. Also, I will be competing with companies who might have a marketing employee. My service will be cheaper than having a full time employee.

The Tree Minor elements

• Unfair advantage is the experience of working social media internships
• Next is not just B2B but B2C
• I expect myself to have more business knowledge in the next 5 years. I will have stronger business connections and have a a better understanding of how the market works