Final Reflection

1.) The most formative experience I have had in this class was going out to campus and conducting interviews with random students to identify opportunities and later to find out more about the issues students were having with purchasing textbooks. I found that it was nice to connect with random students I would not normally encounter in classes and realize that a lot of us college students were dealing with the same financial struggles of overpaying for basic educational resources. I don't know if there is a lot I will remember about this class when I look back years from now. I am sorry about this but while this class was nice, I don't think it had the impact on me that was intended which is fine. Due to this, I did not really encounter a particularly joyous occasion nor one I was exceptionally proud of.

2.) I do not see myself as an entrepreneur at all. I did not develop a significantly more entrepreneurial mindset than what was already there before I started this class. I suppose I do try to identify entrepreneurial opportunities more now than before which is definitely a progression towards that mindset.

3.) My one advice to students who are going to take this class is to do all of the assignments or as many of them as possible. It is easy to look at one assignment that requires more effort than the others and think it is only 3 points so I can skip it. They add up quickly and before you know it, that mindset costed you an entire letter grade. To do the best in this class, get ahead of the weekly schedule and complete a few assignments ahead of time since they are always available to you. Doing this is the best way to ensure you won't miss any assignments and you can use the extra time you have focusing on other classes that require more effort. I don't feel that I am qualified to give advice on what to do to foster an entrepreneurial mindset but one thing that stands out to me is try to look around your every day world, the problems you find in it, and come up with a possible solution. These problems are where business opportunities are found so this would be a good start to developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity      

    The opportunity I have found is one that involves college students everywhere. Students are expected to purchase ridiculously overpriced textbooks for the classes they take in college. According to data collected from College Board, college students spent an average of $1250 for textbooks between 2017 and 2018. That number is staggering and it should not be the case especially when considering that college students are in no way the most economically stable group in society. Many either have near minimum wage part-time jobs or do not work at all. Assuming that students are financially supported by their parents is also ridiculous because this is not the case for a large amount of students in college. It is unfair that the cost of basic educational material is so high and that the consumers of this material are naturally unable to afford it. This problem is caused by textbook manufacturers seeking the highest amount of profit possible for a product that does not incur heavy costs to produce. The average textbook used by a college students takes less than $20 to produce but is sold anywhere from $100 up to $400. That profit margin is almost criminal when you realize that is coming at the expense of poor college students who do not have sustainable incomes that can adequately pay for these books along with their other expenses.
     What this means is that students are looking for a cheaper solution to this problem because they still need their books, they just don't want to sell their kidneys in order to afford them. That is why the market I have chosen as an opportunity is among college students. The demographics of this market are essentially just college students anywhere that are expected to purchase their own books. There is a very wide age range but the majority will fit between the ages of 18 and 25. This is a need across the world but for the beginning of my venture, I am only aiming to focus on students in the United States. These students are currently using their university bookstore, online vendors like Amazon and E-bay, or local bookstores. While all of these options provide students with textbooks, they are not by any means cheap. Even Amazon charges upwards of $70 for used books which is ridiculous. Often students resort to buying earlier versions of textbooks that are not as updated as the editions currently being used in their classes just because those are the cheapest alternatives. I don't think its right that we are making students rely on sub-par educational materials because they cannot afford to have the standard option available. Students who use these outlets to buy their textbooks are not extremely loyal to them and I believe they would easily switch to a cheaper alternative if it was offered. I think this provides a massive opportunity because the majority of college students feel that textbooks are too expensive, meaning there are millions of potential customers who would switch to a cheaper textbook alternative. I think this window of opportunity will be available for years to come because I do not believe that textbook manufacturers will suddenly reduce their prices.

Innovation 

     The innovation I have thought of to solve this problem is an online platform that students pay a monthly subscription to access and this platform will offer students all the textbooks they will need for any given semester or school year. Once a student signs up for the service at a nominal monthly fee, they have unlimited access to all the textbooks they would need. They can save these books to their own personal library that they are able to access on multiple devices, including their smart phones through a mobile app. I feel that the best way to price this would be dependent on the number of textbooks the student would want to access and save in their library. The base options would be $20 for 3 textbooks a semester and then each additional book would be an extra $5 a month. A student that would need four textbooks for the average 4-month semester would spend $100 on all 4 books combined as opposed to $100 on each individual book(which is honestly considered a cheap price if the textbook is new). 

Venture Concept 

     This platform would absolutely solve the problem of having expensive textbooks. Studies are showing that the average student in America is spending around $600 on textbooks a semester and my platform subscription service would bring that cost down to $100. I definitely feel like students would definitely switch to this cheap alternative easily because of this. The primary competitors to my venture are the existing alternatives I listed above that sell textbooks like university bookstores and Amazon. The biggest weakness university bookstores have is that they sell their books extremely overpriced. Amazon offers slightly cheaper pricing options but nothing compared to what this platform would offer which would mean more students will switch. Competitive price points, customer support, and accessibility will be what matter to my customers more than anything else. In order to launch this product at an initial level focused around one university like UF, I would probably need a team of developers to create the platform, an IT team that will provide technical support to the platform and customers, and a data team that can manage all of the storage that is necessary for this platform. Around 25 people would be needed for a small scale launch like this.

Minor Elements

1.) My venture's unfair advantage is that once the platform is up and running, there is very little additionally costs that are there such as production and manufacturing costs. Which is something most of my competitors won't be able to match. 

2.) Eventually I would like this subscription service to turn into a Netflix-like platform that people pay for monthly and have all of the books they would want. 

3.) Assuming this venture launches, I would want to be on the verge of selling the rights to the platform to some bidder for the largest amount of profit I am offered in 5 years. I know this is not particularly noble or bold but I don't want to focus my life on this particular service and platform. If I am able to sell it and achieve long-term financial security for me and my family, that is absolutely what I will do. 

I didn't do the initial venture concept or the "What's Next" assignments so I did not have any feedback I could use. This is the first venture concept I have done. 

 

Your Exit Strategy

1.) The exit strategy I would have if I ever started an online textbook rental service would be to just see what happens. This is not a lifelong passion I have had that I would want to see succeed more than anything. Personally, I am not committed to such a venture and it had nothing to do with what I want to do in life. If the service took off, I would help grow it for about 5 years or so until I can sell it for an enormous profit. I would take that money to plan for my future.

2.) I selected this exit strategy because I do not want to run a textbook rental service in the long run. It does not interest me, it is not what I selected to study in school, and it is not the career path I want. It would be nice if I had managed to create a successful service but even if that is the case, I feel like I personally wouldn't get any emotional satisfaction from this line of work. Once it had become a success, I could easily see myself get bored with the business.

3.) Because my exit strategy is one of very little attachment, every decision I have taken is one that was made without a lot of care. The opportunity I identified was one that stood out to me easily as a college student but if I cared more about the business I was starting, I could have chosen something more profitable or at least easier to get started. Since I don't plan on keeping this business over the long term, it has made me less motivated to seek and utilize resources to help it grow.

Reading Reflection No. 3

      The book I read for my third reading reflection was Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker

1.) Drucker splits his book into three parts that focus on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial strategies. In this first part of the book, Drucker defines innovation which he says is basically the exploitation of any change that gives a competitive business advantage. The second part focuses on management of a new venture, existing venture, or public institution. Drucker argues that all of these establishes requires management with an entrepreneurial mindset because that facilitates success. All organizations must acquire entrepreneurial competence to keep pace with changes in economy and society. 

2.) The entire book is focused on the need for an entrepreneurial mindset and strategies to help grow any potential idea a person has into a successful business venture. It talks about taking time to seek opportunities in a fast-paced world and how those opportunities must be utilized. That is exactly what we spent the first part of the semester doing while we were trying to figure out what our business ventures would be. 

3.) I would not design an exercise for class from this book. We have more than enough assignments and I personally did not feel like I gained anything profound from this book that can be best learned through some exercise. 

Celebrating Failure

1.) I can think of numerous instances this semester that I failed in but one incident that comes to mind in terms of this class is when I did not do the elevator pitch assignments. I have missed all of them even though I did not intend to. The first one was due around the time that I was buried with my midterm exams. The next two elevator pitches were easily doable but I procrastinated on them until finally I was too busy both times to actually complete the assignments.

2.) The biggest thing I learned from this particular failure is that I need to seriously work on my time management skills. I left 9 points on the board in this class because of my complacency, which is inexcusable. It is going to be the difference in why my grade in this class won't be as high as it could be which is irritating.

3.) How I handle failure is to dwell on it for enough time that I am able to see what caused the failure and how I could keep myself from making similar mistakes. The key is to not dwell on my failures too long because it gets harder to accomplish anything when there is a fear of failure. One has to take their failures and grow from it. I do not think this class has changed how I handle failure and I do not think this class has led to me becoming a more risk-seeking person.

Reading Reflection No.2

1.) The book I read for the second reading assignment was "How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Big". The general theme of the book is about how the author, Scott Adams, likes to use failure as something that guides him on his path to success. He gives various tips and advice that would be useful in finding success in an a difficult environment.

2.) The book helped enhance what we are learning in ENT 3003 because the focus of the book is how to overcome failure and have it work for you which I believe is necessary for this class where the goal is to learn about becoming a successful entrepreneur. When trying to operate a successful business, failure is a natural part of the process. Thus, a book that teaches how to turn that failure into success greatly enhances what we are learning in this class.

3.) Adams talks about prioritizing activities based on the amount of energy it takes up. One activity I would design for this class is to have students list out their daily activities based on the amount of energy each activity takes up starting with what takes the most energy all the way to what requires the least amount of energy.

4.) Adams talks about building your life around systems instead of goals because systems are more efficient in the long term than goals. He then explains what is the issue with goals. He talks about how goals are in the future and goals are too specific to where they invite additional opportunities for failure. I found this to be a very new perspective that I had never considered before and it made me realize that designing my life around systems could be a helpful way to live. 

Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert- Thomas Rodgers is my domain expert. Mr. Rodgers is the lead IT developer at a company called the New England Packaging company. Rodgers was responsible for creating the company's online customer platform used for ordering products and services. Mr. Rodgers and I met at a networking event before Career Showcase at UF and we had a few different conversations over the course of the week. I emailed him about my business idea and he told me that he saw the growth potential in it. He directed me to which programming languages and online databases I could most effectively use for my platform. By having a technical expert I can contact whenever I have questions regarding the platform development will greatly help me design a very efficient and user-friendly online service.

Market Expert- Aaron Brady is my market expert. Mr. Brady works at the UF Survey Research Center which conducts research for the university and outside contractors like Texas Medicaid, Florida Department of Health, and the state government. Part of Brady's research is focused solely on university students, which makes him an expert in my target segment. I met Mr. Brady at the UFSRC when I used to work there as a survey interviewer. The biggest benefit I see to having Mr. Brady in my network is that whenever I would like feedback or additional input regarding my platform, I know I can rely on Brady for the research necessary for it.

Supplier- Drew Manning is my supplier. He is a textbook sales representative for McGraw-Hill textbooks, one of the biggest textbook manufacturers in the country. I met him at a sales convention this past summer that I attended with my father. I believe Manning will be useful because I can turn to him for information regarding book pricing which I could use when I am creating my payment options for my platform.

This experience did not differ from any previous networking experiences I have had because two of the three people were met through traditionally networking methods, which I am familiar with. However, this exercise gave me a real example of why networking is so important which has made me realize I need to expand my network as much as I can.