Olivia Masih - ENT 3003

I've gained a lot from this class through the course of the semester. I think the most formative experience/assignment for me was the elevator pitch. I've never been super comfortable with them, but being able to do it for a business idea that I came up with myself really made a difference. Having to record and revise the pitch multiple times also helped me become more comfortable doing it. Another high point in the semester was finally coming up with a business idea. When we were first asked to come up with one for one of the earlier assignments, it took me a long time to create one that I was actually interested in and could see myself developing throughout the semester. Compared to the beginning of the semester, I do believe that I've developed a more entrepreneurial mindset. A lot of the assignments that we did kind of force you to think in ways that you hadn't before and to use different skills to solve new problems. Being able to come up with different ways to d...

Opportunity: From my interviews, I found that commuting students spend about 45 minutes to an hour everyday waiting for buses and trying to find parking on campus. This adds up to an average of four hours every week that students waste by commuting.  A lot of commuting students (and staff) dislike having to allot that much time everyday for commuting issues. They feel like they could be using that time to be more productive. Basically, they need a more efficient way of getting to campus that wastes the minimum amount of time. The reason this problem exists is due to traffic that causes buses to not be on schedule along with the fact that the amount of parking available to students on campus is lacking. The market is primarily undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Florida who live a few miles or less off of campus. They either take the RTS buses or drive to campus. These people have multiple other reasons for going to campus besides going to classes, they are...

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children? I would plan on staying with this business for the remainder of my undergraduate studies and possibly graduate studies if I stay at UF for grad school, so maybe 4 or 5 years depending on its success. I think running a start up would be great experience, especially because I don't know what I necessarily want to do for my career.  2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy? I selected this exit strategy because this business doesn't really fit my own personal interests and hobbies so I can't see myself sticking with it for too long. However, I do think it would give me enough experience to figure out what I don't want to do and how I want to approach future businesses...

What surprised me most about Berry Gordy was that he also had a passion for boxing and before really starting his career in music, he made an attempt at professional boxing.  Based on what I read, Berry Gordy seemed very competent in being ambitious. He had a certain drive and tenacity that allowed him to pursue his dreams in different areas and be successful in them.  I was kind of confused about the first chapter which discussed Berry Gordy being unable to sell his own company. I didn't know much about him before reading this book, so I was a bit skeptical about why he was trying to sell his business at that point.  If I were able to ask him two questions, one would be if he would choose to do anything differently in terms of creating Hitsville. The next question I would ask him is how different things would have turned out if he didn't have his childhood in Detroit.  I would say that Berry Gordy's opinion on hard work would be that it isn't something that ca...

Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed -- whether in this class, or outside of this class. Don't spare any details! It'd be even better if there was something you tried several times this semester, and failed each time.  So this semester, I am taking the lovely class that is Financial Accounting. For some reason I decided to take it at UF instead of another state university like UCF where it would be considerably easier. All of last year, all older business majors told me that it was a difficult class so I kind of knew what I was in for, and they all told me to get Study Edge for it. I decided for the first exam that I didn't need Study Edge and that my study abilities would be fine, so I basically ignored all the advice that I was given. I mostly did this because I am an independent person who likes to prove that I am capable of doing things on my own, which can be a flaw such as in this case. Anyway, I thought I studied well for the first exam but whe...

What I think is next:  I think the next step for this venture would be to really try and market this to the current target audience. On a college campus, word gets around very quickly, especially with all of the social media that is used. This could really help to spread awareness to most of my market. I could also consider potentially expanding the market to people who don't have commuting issues but could use my service for their other needs. For example, I could market to students who live on campus by suggesting a scooter rental for when they need to go off campus. Existing Market Interviews: My first interview was with my roommate who takes the bus to campus. After telling her about my current ideas for this venture, she suggested that a good idea would be to figure out how the rental schedule would work. She asked if students would be able to change and cancel rental days if they needed to.  The second person I interviewed asked whether or not I would limit this to...

Opportunity: o      From my interviews, I found that commuting students spend about 45 minutes to an hour every day waiting for buses and finding parking. This adds up to an average of four hours every week that is wasted o    A lot of commuting students (and staff) dislike having to allot that much time everyday for commuting issues. They feel like they could be using that time to be more productive. Basically, they need a more efficient way of getting to campus that wastes the minimum amount of time. o    The reason this problem exists is due to traffic that causes buses to not be on schedule along with the fact that the amount of parking available to students on campus is lacking. o    The market is primarily undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Florida who live a few miles or less off of campus. They either take the RTS buses or drive to campus. These people have multiple other reasons for going to campus besi...

1. Social Capital: UF Rec/Club Sports: I am a student at UF and I'm part of the Club Sports organization sponsored by UF Rec Sports. Because of my participation, I have a lot of access to potential contacts and customers. Valuable: This connection is valuable because I already have direct access to a group of people who fit my target market.  Rare: This is kind of rare because not all businesses are in areas where they can access such a large group of potential customers. But it's not rare for any other person starting a business in a university setting. Inimitable: This isn't inimitable because you could do this with any other organization on campus.  Non-Substitutable: This is substitutable because I could be using any other organization on campus.  2. Market Size & Strength: UF is a largely populated university with lots of people ranging from undergrad students to staff who live off campus. Valuable: This is valuable because it would give my business a l...

Some feedback from my second elevator pitch that I thought was important was that it was a lot more natural than my first one. This is something I wanted to work on with this third time as well, and I think it shows in comparison to my first one. Since it was the third time doing this assignment, it was a lot easier to record. It took me so many tries (around 7 but it felt like 15) for me to get a good recording for the first elevator pitch, but this one took a lot less.

 Then general theme of the book was finding success in the numerous failures that happen in life.  In my opinion, this book coincided a lot with the discussion of tenacity in this class. In one chapter titled "Passion is Bullshit," Adams discusses the controversy of passion being the key to success as most people think it is. He elaborated on how with each failure and success of his different ventures, his level of passion changed every time. I think this goes hand in hand with tenacity. If you are starting a project or business, your levels of motivation and passion are bound to fluctuate, and you need to be tenacious enough to work through them and see past it.  If I had to design an exercise based on this book, it would involve students coming up with a business idea based on something they hate. In one chapter, Adams says a former boss of his stated that people who start businesses because they are passionate about the subject of business (a baseball fan starting ...

Domain Expert Ron Schwartz, Owner/President of Ride Green Scooters Ron Schwartz is an entrepreneur in Winter Park, FL (my hometown) who started Ride Green Scooters in 2009. He successfully owns and manages the company to this day. I found the information online that he was the owner of the company and I called their store to try and get into contact with him but he was not at the store that day. I spoke to a sales associate to try and get into contact with Ron Scwartz but he was not there. I asked the associate if I could talk to them about my idea and luckily they said yes. They said it would definitely be a different venture than the one they have in Winter Park because it's not as big of a college town, but that I have a strong market in Gainesville for the scooter business. If I were able to actually get into contact with Ron Schwartz, he could help me understand what it takes to specifically operate a scooter service. Market Expert Annabeth, a student at UF who c...