FINAL REFLECTION

WEEK 15

• Looking back at my blog, I have realized that we have come trough a lot. It is amazing to see how much I have improved with every elevator pitches, venture concepts, post, etc. Having the assignments just become part of my daily routine and with every single assignment and throughout the weeks come along, the assignments become easier and like a said part of my daily routine. Also, the reading helped me a lot with the way I start writing my post and most importantly, the way I now think about any business and the market in general. On the other hand, I personally think the videos helped me a lot to over come fears and be better with customers and people in general. Also, confidence was a big deal in order to do every single assignment, the more we did assignments, the more I was getting confidence to do them. Overall, every single assignment and exercise made me a better person and I am glad I did take this class. 
• One of the best memories from this class or the more enjoyable one was the venture concepts and when we had to ask our best friends what they think about us. Those exercises Made me think out of the box and step out of my comfort zone to complete those assignments. It was also nice to get incredible feed back from people and to hear what the people you most care about think about you. These two exercises gave me not only ideas for the future and so much to learn. Also let me to overcome hard situations. 
• I do think that I have always have  an entrepreneur mindset. However, this class has gave me more tools to really start my own business idea and be a real entrepreneur.    
• I would recommend definitely to be organize if one want to accomplish aver single assignment. Also, try to think out of the box and do not be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. I would encourage everyone to take this class since it is one of the most interesting classes that I have take at UF. 

ELEVATOR PITCH No.4

WEEK15  

Here is my last elevator Pitch, I took the past feedback from my classmates and people that I interviewed here. Also, I felt more relaxed and confident with this final elevator. I think is due to the past experiences that this one was was easier to do. 

VENTURE CONCEPT No.2

WEEK 15

Fresh Home-Made Meals "Molde":

Opportunity:

Here on the University of Florida's campus and its surrounding areas, I have found an unmet need. In today's society or people's life styles, we do not have time to cook a good home made meal. People is always busy with work, school, job, and the list goes on and on. We barely pay attention at what we eat, specially in those busy days when you just have to get the fastest food you can get. What we do not understand as students or just busy people, is that our bodies need food as much as a car needs gasoline. Most importantly, we need good food and  when I say "good" I meant, healthy nutritious meals. We might not pay too much attention at what we give to our bodies but let's just face it, some day our bodies are going to surfer our previous choices. Therefore, I thought in a business idea where I can full in those needs and help people in their daily routines by preparing fresh home made meals that I would call 'Molde". why Molde? because is easy to pronounce and remember and molde means basically caserole in Spanish. First, I would be making a mash potatoes caserole with well seasoned and well prepared ground beef and lots of cheese. This market is an unique group of people who would be more than happy to have a delicious home made meal just by ordering it. According to the interviews I have done, not only students will be interested in this product also, staff from the University of Florida. This business idea does not need to much advertising since it would work by 'worth of mouth" I would first tell my friends, they will tell their friends, and on and on until  I meet enough profit to add advertising to my business. I will start with baby steps until the product become popular in the University of Florida's campus and I have to make the decision of expanding the business in order to met everybody's needs. 

Innovation:

I have two newest venture concepts concerning this business idea. One is to add an extra caserole for those vegans who would like to consume the product. instead of meat, I would have a caserole made of mash potatoes, well seasoned and well prepared ground veggie tofu, and almond cheese. on the other hand, this product would have its own app where costumers will have easy access to the products and will be able to order them just by going to the app. This app will also offers rewards and points, if you are a good member, you will received point by avery purchase you make until you can get free meals and rewards. The app would have plenty of scenarios where customers can either order their meals or go to the app and order meals in anticipation. In other words, customers will have the option to order their meals days before day want it. Also, loyal customers will received the best benefits they can get. 

The Three Minor Elements:

1. I have one big advantage, convenience. College students are always looking for food is what keep us going so, I would be offering the most important need for our bodies in a innovative and ease way to get it and last but not least. This product would be cheap compare to other business who only offer fast food.  
2. What's Next? Molde will be using its app to satisfy customers and reward the loyal one in order to keep them motivate and engage with the product. 
3. What's Next for you? well, hopefully with my business idea being on track, I will be offering customers to make their own "Molde" with the ingredients they chose and one day I would have my own line of frozen food at supermarkets. 

Feedback:

I am glad to share that I have received a really good feedback on every single assignment we have done in this course. For this one specially, I have received such great feedback. Actually, the  idea to a have a vegan line came  out after interviews with costumers. Other than that, I have not received any criticism with this business idea, everyone seems very excited with the idea and love the idea as much as I do. Based on the research done and the previews interviews, I do not have to change anything about my business idea, perhaps just try to add new products and make the idea a reality.

WEEK 14 READING REFLECTION!

WEEK14

To my surprise, I really liked to read about the 3M's philosophy, I did not know anything about this and how it woks. Reading about how companies implement this philosophy and make progress through its application really stood my out. There was not anything really confusing to me. However, I would like the author to give more examples about the corporate entrepreneurship topic and how corporates take the decision to use this method. Therefore, I would like to ask the author about social and green entrepreneurship. what's its future? and how can new entreprenuors be successful with it?. other than that, I do not have more questions.Finally, there was anything in the reading that I have to disagree with the author, I think he knows what is he talking about. 

GOOGLE GOLD

WEEK 14

1. My general approach and strategy to advertise my blog was consistency and motivation. I always try to use some key words that helps my blog to be founded. Also, I try to follow the instructions given at the beginning of the class when tagging our blogs. Maybe after this class is done, I would change this blog into a personal one and I will use different methods, perhaps creating personal hashtags. 
2. My keywords were basically  the homework assignments words and stuff relate to it. I think in some point I forget to promote my blog since we were not remind to do it. 
3. Since this is a blog for a class, I did not advertise my blog through  my personal social media because I don't like the idea of everyone having access  to what I do in a class.
4. My most viral post was my elevator pitch number 2, with 5 comments and lots of views. 
5. Even though I did not think advertising my blog it would make a huge difference when looking for my blog in google. Now I see how all this really works. In order to find my blog in google, I have to put this "entrepreneurship carpe diem blog natalia garcia" then, I made it to the first pages. 

VERY SHORT INTERVIEW PART 2

I am a senior and I'm a bout to graduate, these four years have been a really important part of my life. I feel UF has gave me the most incredible tools to go out there and face the real world in order to accomplish my career goals. Also, it gave me the opportunity to meet awesome people that I have learned something from each of them. even though, my emphasis it is not business administration, this class taught me a very important deal. For example, now I am one hundred percent sure that before I start moving on with any business idea I have, I need to research first the target market. How do I do that? looking for people's needs, survey people, and query the demand.

This time the interview took place through the phone. Mr. Bread started thanks to word of mouth, Mrs. Pelli, the owner, came from an Italian family which cooking skills are delectable. Linda Pelli started to make French breads, pastries, desserts, and any Italian breads. One day she decided that it was time to make some goodies as people's request, her friends were fascinated, as well as her friend's friends etc. As people tell other people the demand was very high that she had to hire help and months later she opened her own bakery-caffe. Today, Mr. Bread has a variety menu where customers can order from cakes, desserts, breads, to any kind of pastry and panini.  Since my Mother is very close to her due to her obsession with Mr. bread products, I called Mrs. Pelli  and talked to her. here are the questions I asked her.

• What do you think is next for you? 

Currently we are looking forward to open a second bakery at Palm Beach Gardens, My daughter will be the one who takes care of that one. I will be here in charge of this one but in a couple of years I hope my daughter take care of the entire business. 

• What do you think has been the key for your business's success? 

Honestly, this started as a hobby of mine, I'd never thought I would have my own bakery but people wanted more so I think our products make the difference since you would not find our products in any other places near us. So, I think we owe the success of this business to the quality of our products.

• what recommendations would you give me if I want to follow your steps?  

Put your product out there, try, see people's reactions and then start only by product request after that you will have experience, you will know your market and you would have more tools to open your own place.  

I was so glad I did this interview, Mrs. Pelli is a remarkable woman, very determinate and smart. even though, she did not have plans to have her own restaurant. opportunities were there for her and she did what any good entrepreneur would do. She took those opportunities and by hard work she has now a very successful place. 

WEEK 13 READING REFLECTION

In this week's reading the most surprising thing that I found is how long and tedious the due diligence evaluation is. Even though, I found it tedious I have to admit that it is fundamental, essential, and useful can be for the owner of any business. On the other hand, I did not find any part of the reading confusing or anything that it was not understandable.
If I have to ask the author a question I would ask " Do you think is essential for a business owner to have such a tool like the diligence evaluation? besides that I would not ask anything else. I did not disagree with anything said in this reading. I thought it was very interesting and it will be useful.

CELEBRATING FAILURE

WEEK13

I have failed a couple a times in my life, at least that's what I think. However, recently I have a bad experience with a class. Last semester I was so concern about a personal matter that I did not realized I was doing poorly in that specific class, that maybe required more time from my part and I just did not do it.  I  tried to lay to myself by buying smokin notes, trying to memorize them but at the end of the day I was not doing well and not learning at all. Also, when I finally realized that I was not doing well in that class, it was too late and I could not pass it. Sometimes unexpected situations are put in to your life and you just do not know how to handle those situations, well that was my last semester's  case scenario. 

I did learned that I have to learn how to handle classes with daily life problems and not to underestimate a class even tough, it looks like an easy class. I was also reminded to manage my time in a better way in order to be able to handle classes and outside matters. 

I personally believe I can handle failure very well. I have been through a lot of situations when I have to face failure and I take it as a learning experience. I believe the decisions we take have a cost and a consequences, sometimes those decisions are not the best ones. However, we can learn from them and keep trying until you reach the goal you want to reach. Now, after taking this class I am more aware of consequences of taking risks in a business field so, this class help me to understand failure even more.  

MY EXIT STRATEGY

WEEK 13 

If for any reason my business idea do not grow and do not complete the goals I have for it, I will end up just  not making the product or passing the idea to someone that is interested in ti. Also, I will research the market and make all the arregemnets in that order the  person  can continue with the business idea. However, this might not happen since the product is prepared by customer request. I will hope that this idea grows as I planned and I can have a legacy for my children and maybe one day I will open my own restaurant. I have selected this exit strategy because in the worst case scenario, my business idea could be followed by any person that have the capability to cook a fresh meal and they would be the ones who follow my paths.
I believe my exit idea has inspired me to work harder for my business idea. Since I interviewed a new market, I did realized that more people than I though is interested in this idea. Also, my exit strategy has influenced new decision that I will be implementing to my product in that way I am sue the product is going to be a successful and some day I will have my own restaurant with innovative products and in that order, some day it will be a chain restaurant with its own frozen foods located in  supermarkets all  over the country.

WEEK 12 READING REFLECTION

WEEK 12 

In chapter 13 it was very interested to learn about the stages to achieve growth. The explanation of the strategy matrix model was very helpful, the one kind of confusing at first, was the SWOT analysis but after reading twice made much more sense.  I personal found the matrix model a little confusing but once again, after reading it for the second time, it was much more clear. One question that I would ask the author would be that I would like to have furthermore information about the different types of failure. Other than that, I do not have any more questions.
In this chapter I did not disagreed with anything the author said. For the most part of the chapter, the reading was pretty straightforward, well explain, and easy to understand. I only have trouble understanding one small part and after reading it twice I did understand the whole thing.

WHAT'S NEXT

WEEK 12

In case you have forgotten about my product or business idea here is the link of my latest pitch. http://nataliagarcia2022.blogspot.com/2016/02/elevator-pitch-no-2.html watch it and be familiar with the product. Now that you remember exactly what I am offering I will tell you what's next. I interviewed three customers from my parent's town, one of them happen to be the owner of a  small business make "Run Cakes" this small business, that is not that small anymore have more than fifty different flavors of run cakes and Mrs. Kern (the owner and administrator)  gave me some good insight on how she started her business. Having the opportunity of meeting Mrs. Kern was such a great experience, not only for the great advice she gave me. Also, just for the experience to see on first hand how such a local product and  home made product started.


Existing Market: 

My current market is College-age people in college towns. From the people I interviewed it seems that I am on right track and I have to continue to come up with strategies or ways to attract more people not only college people. For example, at my parent's town the product could be a little bit more expensive and more detailed prepared. Here are some tips that my interviewed gave me, unfortunately they did not let me to record them so I am going to write the interview.

• What do you think of the product? 
• 1: I think is very innovative and helpful, especially for weekends when you get lazy to cook. 
• 2: I love it! specially that you have a vegan option. 
• 3: It is amazing, having the chance to get home made food when you don't want to cook

Everyone loved the idea and they liked it even more when I told them about the vegan version of the product. However, some of them recommended me to use vegan cheeses  as well. 

New Market:

For the new market I decided to ask seniors and people from my parent's town where is such a different market and surprisingly they loved the idea. However, my biggest concern was if senior's would like the idea since it is such a different market with a different life style. However, the response was positive and it seems that they would welcome the product with open hands. 

Overall they have positive reactions with the product and it seems that they would buying it. Therefore, comparing both markets, the existing market and the new one gave me the same recommendations and the positive response was the same in both of them. In addition, the product have a good future in both markets even though they are way different from each other.