Week 9 Reading Reflection

The most surprising thing for me in the reading were the statistics about social media and its effects on social media marketing.  Forrester research estimates that online spending will reach almost $250 billion a year, which is 8% of the total retail market.  With no in store costs, this raises profits for the companies by a ton, and marketing over social media is relatively inexpensive as well.  It was also interesting to see that social media marketing is different from regular marketing because it is a two way street instead of a one way one, from the marketer to the consumer.  On social media, consumers can respond and give their honest opinion about a product, where people can see it.  It was a little confusing when the chapter mentioned that companies should categorize social media platforms and focus its efforts on the ones that have the largest relevancy to their products.  In my opinion, most social media networks are used by an extremely wide range of people, so it would be hard to distinguish networks from each other.  Almost every demographic is on Facebook and twitter, so how would you categorize those from each other in order to find one where the audience appealed most to your product?  If I were to ask the author, I would ask what the effects of advertising and marketing are on social media.  Is it possible for people to be annoyed at the advertisement and therefore become annoyed with the product?  Adds on youtube can sometimes get annoying and repetitive, and may even anger some consumers. There was nothing I think the author was particularly wrong about, I was just confused in some sections, as I mentioned before.

My Secret Sauce

When I think about my qualities, I have always believed that I have a lot of common sense and persistence.  Even though my academic life might not be perfect, I think I'm very street smart, like having a good way with people and knowing how to do things and get places.  I've always had a very good sense of direction, and I've been alarmed in the past when people do not know where they are or how to get someone, as I always seem to have a good handle on where I am.  I also think I get very frustrated when other people lack what I consider to be common sense, but most of these people make up for it with success in school and classes, where I do not naturally thrive.   I think I am not afraid to try new things, and I think I am a very naturally curious and interested person.  And because I am so interested in the world, I try so many new things that in turn, make me a more interesting person.  I have a knack for getting what I want, and I will try very hard to achieve something if I set my mind to it.  When I have a goal, I am very good at making it a reality, as I believe I am a "doer."

The people who know me best are not currently in Gainesville, so I called them and recorded the phone call and uploaded them here, with their picture. 

Interview 1:  In this interview, the interviewee said I was smart, passionate, adventurous, hard working and responsible.  As a parent, I expected to say things like hard working and responsible, because I know he is very proud of me, but I was pleased to hear passionate and adventurous, as those are qualities I know I have, but not all people know of.
Interview 2: This was interesting because instead of focusing on what my qualities were specifically, she went into detail about what kind of person I was, out of two different options, and how that effects traits.   She said I was the kind of person who believe I have control over my fate, and that I can control the things that happen in my life, so instead of waiting for life to come to me, I go out and make things happen.
Interview 3: She talked about how I was mature, and very curious about aspects of life, and that I make my own assumptions and opinions on things based on experience that I've had.  She also said that these experiences that I'm always looking for and curious about, give me a great perspective on life.
Interview 4:  She mentioned how I was smart and persuasive, how when I want something I will get it, and I am good at making people do what I want them to. She also mentioned how I was motivated to be doing well.
Interview 5:  Interview 5 was a lot like interview 4, she mentioned how I am smart and a hard worker, and how I can adapt easily to situations, and try to do as well as I can in those situations.

After watching and reflecting on the interviews, I can come to the conclusion that my family and close friends really think that I am smart and that I am a hard worker, and adapt easily to situations.  I get into these situations because I am curious and adventurous, and I make my own assumptions and opinions about my experiences. I also now know that people believe that I think I can control my future, which is what makes me a doer.   Instead of waiting around for good things or great situations to happen to me, I go out and make them happen.  I think my conclusions from the interviews are extremely similar to how I see myself.  If I were to add anything to my original list, I would probably focus more on how I was a doer because I believe I have complete control over how my life turns out.  I believe I can make my own destiny, so that makes me happy as I always have hope of success.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1.  I am a Finance student at the University of Florida.  My talents are organizational skills, people skills, and customer service. I think my experiences working in retail and in the restaurant industry have significantly developed my customer service skills, and my experience with travel and with social organizations have developed my people skills.  I think I am naturally an organized person because I prefer to lead an organized and scheduled lifestyle. This business of tracking my belongings would play a huge role in my life because I love having control over my belongings at all times because I am a very organized person.  I hate the feeling of not knowing where my property is, or worrying about my belongings being stolen or lost.  Being able to track my wallet, or other items, would be essential for my mental well-being.  I could get so much more accomplished if I did not have to worry about losing or misplacing items.
2.  I am offering customers a chance to have a peace of mind while traveling or going out, and in their day to day lives.  SafeCard is a tracker that will track the location of items that are not connected to the internet or network in any way.  A wallet has no way to send you a location of its' whereabouts like the iphone can.  Safecard is an app downloaded on your phone and on your computer that can show you the location of your wallet at all times.  Simply slide this credit card look alike tracker into your wallet, and the app can track its whereabouts.
3.  The demographic of my customers is quite broad.  Almost everyone uses a wallet or a purse, both of which the tracker can be located.  Men and women alike use wallets, and most women carry around a purse as well.  Women can purchase two trackers and keep one in a purse and one in a wallet.
4.  People would care to buy this product because it is like an insurance policy, which is a peace of mind.  Yes, there is a possibility that these customers will not lose their wallet or their purse, but if they do, they could be losing hundreds of dollars, as well as ID's, credit cards, and precious pictures.  Some purses and wallets are hundreds or thousands of dollars themselves.  The Safecard is an affordable way to make sure you can always track your wallet or purse, and you can have a piece of mind, knowing that you have control over your belongings.
5.  Although people can buy small trackers to put in their items, Safecard is different because it resembles a credit card, so thieves will be unaware that the wallet or purse is being tracked.  Safecard is also unique because it uses an app and website to tell you where your belongings are.  So even if you do not have your phone, you can access the information from the internet on any computer.

I believe these elements do fit together, because all of them touched on the importance of having control over your belongings and having a piece of mind.  One aspect that is weaker than the rest is probably the demographic information.  I am still unsure what demographic I would be targeting specifically, because most people do use a wallet or purse. Possibly I would be targeting a younger crowd, because they would be more prone to going out or traveling, where getting pick pocketed or intoxicated is more common.  On the other hand, young people might simply pay using their cell phone, as the younger generations are more likely to utilize new technologies.  I did not do the first napkin idea assignment so I am unable to analyze any feedback.

Week 8 Reading Reflection

Angel capital was interesting for me in this chapter because I had never heard about it before.  I also thought it was surprising that the median amount for an informal investment is $700,000, because that seems like quite a lot. I was also shocked to read that theres only around 500,000 people in the United States that have over a million dollars in wealth, I assumed there would be so many more, considering our population is over 325 million people.  Venture financing was a little confusing for me, when the pool talked about if a group of people was available for venture financing, and then came up with a number of what the pooled money would amount to, I was unsure about where this number came from.  If I were to ask the author a question, I would want to know what methods he thinks is best for collecting the funds for a start up.  Or if he has started a business, how did he collect his funds and does he have any regrets?  I did not disagree with anything written in this chapter.

Half-way Reflection

This is the image google uses in it's definition of Entrepreneurship. So far I have really enjoyed this course and I think the image above defines it well. I have definitely developed the skills needed to succeed in this course.  In the beginning, when the assignments would require video recording and going out and talking to actual business owners, interviewing random people, and various other intimidating activities, I would forgo doing those assignments because I was much less comfortable doing them.  As I saw my grade slip, I learned that I just have to be confident and go out and do the assignments, even if they are intimidating.  As I did more and more assignments, I became so comfortable with going up to random strangers and entrepreneurs and asking if I could ask them a couple questions.  I was frustrated that I lost those points earlier in the course, just because I was nervous about the assignment.  My advice to those students who are taking this class next semester is just to jump in and start learning to be comfortable with the activity based assignments right away, because you eventually will have to. When I was interviewing Entrepreneurs, I interviewed someone who I realized was just the owner of a chain restaurant, so he did not create the restaurant himself.  After searching for more entrepreneurs and running into this same problem over and over, I felt like giving up.  But I stuck with it, and told myself I would try a couple more businesses; and I found a business owner at the next shop I went into, who was willing to be interviewed.  The key is persistence, so I would encourage future ENT students to be persistent, confident, and driven.  Its important to stay on top of the work and check canvas frequently, as deadlines can pass quickly.

The Twenty Percent

The first video is an audio recording of my interview with the owner of Maude's Cafe, and the following three interviews are of three Maude's customers.  It was interesting to see that what the owner thought Maude's biggest problem, was unmentioned in the interviews with customers.  The customers seemed to thing customer service, the time it took to receive what they ordered, and the seating at the cafe was insufficient or less than desirable.  They only rated these issues as a problem from about a 4 to a 6, so not too bad. The owner, however, did not mention any internal problems that Maude's had, but only mentioned the homeless coming to disturb the customers and ask for money.  The owner did not accurately understand the customers problems, but the owner also did not know that I was going to interview her customers as well, so this might have been why she did not feel the need to disclose any internal problems, such as customer service.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

What stood out to me in the reading was that companies and the marketing industry in general is always struggling to find the best way to segment their customers.  I had assumed that marketing strategies had been perfected, when it came to measuring the customer base.  After reading this article, I learned that marketing strategies are always a mystery for companies, as well as marketing segmentation. In this article, the attitudinal type of segmentation confused me the most. Financial sophistication, time spent on investments, and risk tolerance seemed difficult to measure and the results seemed a little unhelpful.  The majority of people spend zero time on investments, so how would you compare this whole group of people? I was also confused as to why effective segmentations only have one or two issues, and why they need to be redrawn after they lose their relevance.  I would ask the author, how do the issues lose their relevance? How do brands measure random acts of purchasing? Do they believe there is a method and reason to all customer purchases?  Do they account for randomness in their calculations and analysis? Overall, I agree with the author that there is no perfect marketing segmentation, as society changes, peoples preferences for purchasing will change.  Societies values can change from spending money on physical items to spending money on experiences such as music festivals and traveling.  I do not think the author was wrong about anything in this article.