Final Reflection

Sadly all great things will have to come to an end. This class was one of the ones that I will never forget. From creating a product idea to filming myself describing and marketing this product, It was all a great experience. The most difficult part of this class was just finding where to market and interview people that could benefit your product. Other than that, I found this class to be quite entertaining. I was able to read and watch many students interesting products and ideas, some new and some re-tooled for a different market. This class has helped me gain a hunger for creating my own empire when I am ready to jump off and start. I have gained various skills from this class and would highly recommend the next class to take these lessons seriously and put your all into it. 

Venture Concept No.2

"To begin, an opportunity is defined as a group of customers with unmet needs. When coming up with this product I had to carefully come up with who I thought would have this need. After careful consideration, I came up with the realization that an abundance of people had this need, not just a certain group. That is why I decided to propose a zero calorie cat and dog treat. For example, pet owners need it, dog trainers need it, and groomers. The nature of the need just depends on exactly how you live your day-to-day life with your pet. Some people are around their pets all throughout the day, others only a few times a day.  I would say the nature of the need just fully depends on how you live your life. This market is defined on how many pets are to a household plus the varying weights. See I am from a family that has had two overweight dogs, so I am always giving treats that have too many calories, a zero calorie treat could have helped me our pets weight tremendously.  Customers really are not currently satisfying this need since there is nothing to satisfy it. I would have to say that the closest thing to it would have to be a low 2 calorie treat that is on the market right now. Customers have proven to be rather loyal if they are treat givers, so I think with my product I would be perfectly fine in regards to loyalty.  This opportunity is really big in my opinion, I feel like customers would line up out the door to purchase my product.  The window of opportunity would be there for a while, I am sure some other company would try to copy my product but if I keep updating mine I would be fine. You can never get comfortable in a business; whenever you are satisfied that is when you get in trouble. The innovation that I am introducing is a completely calorie and fat-free treat. There is no product like mine on the market today. The closest thing out there is a “low-calorie" treat, which does not even compare to my product today. How it works is simple, it works like just any other treatments out there, just that it is a fully calorie-free treat. No longer will you need to waste your time and money buying those fatty filled treats. I have literally tried three different kinds of them and they all were fattening. That was another point in time when it hit me, and I wanted to find a solution to this problem. In regards to selling my product, it will all depend on what size box you want (60oz, 120oz, 500oz). The 60ozwill run you $12, the 120oz will run you $21, and the 500oz will run you $63. I think with the low prices and the product that you are getting I do not think that customers will have a problem paying this price for my treats. My innovation will solve the problem of not having a fully calorie-free treat on the market. The customers will buy my innovation due to the fact that the opportunity is there and the customers want it. Customers will switch to my product since there is nothing like it, it might be difficult to get them to switch out of their existing products. Once they get out of their product I’m confident they will make the switch. The competitors in this business are all of the other treat companies and how they choose to adapt to my product. Their weakness will be they will not have a treat with the capabilities like mine, so it will be hard for them to compete. Packaging, price points, distribution, customer support, the customer experience will play a big role in my business concept. I have learned you have to give the customers what they desire by figuring out what they want and adapting accordingly. I would support the ongoing production of my new product, pretty much on the demand of my new product. If it is doing really well I would obviously have to hire more employees to fulfill the demand for my product. Without a doubt my unfair advantage would be a fully calorie free cat treat, there is just nothing out there on the market that can compare at the moment right now. What I would like to tackle with my product next is to expand overseas; I think that would help my product grow even more. I would like to be sitting back very successful after 5 years. Working and thinking for my next new innovation, and hopefully will have way more resources to make that happen. This venture will help me realize what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur."

From my original Venture Post, I have taken feedback and believe that I have a great product that could possibly do well in the market. My main feedback was, that I need to focus greatly on marketing. Since this is a new product that is coming to the market, I will need to make sure I advertise greatly and keep people up to date on where my product is and how they can benefit and acquire it.

27A - Reading Reflection

The book I decided to read was “The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

1. The general theme of this book is to always be having a growing mindset. Never become stagnant in life and always strive for more.
2. This book closely connects with this class because it wants you to embrace the act of failure and turn it into something greater.
3. If I had to design an exercise, I would make it about failure. I would make people find an entrepreneur that failed greatly to get where he is and try to explain why he kept going.
4. Complimenting others on how they do despite whether it is bad or not was always deemed to be good in my mind. I didn’t think that it should be bad is what they explained in this reading.

28A – Your Exit Strategy

I believe that the product I have will be able to survive past the initial 5 years and show a true profit. I don't believe that I will sell my company at this point. I intend to keep this company within my family business. This can be a product that might be able to have some copycats but if I always renew my patents and formulas, I will have a far superior product. Having this mindset has helped me be more aggressive when finding resources and capital investors\.

Celebrating Failure 26A

I am taking an operating systems class at UF and I am just getting beat up left and right by these projects. I am always struggling with each one because of the degree of difficulty that comes with the assignment. But as I bunker down and don't lose hope, I am able to finish each assignment within the allotted time. This has shown me that no matter how down I am feeling because of the difficulty, I am able to have faith and pull through each time.

This class has helped me understand my failure better and learn from it, either than let it tear me down. I understand that to get far in life, you must roll with the punches and always understand that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

Venture Concept No. 1

To begin, an opportunity is defined as a group of customers with unmet needs. When coming up with this product I had to carefully come up with who I thought would have this need. After careful consideration, I came up with the realization that an abundance of people had this need, not just a certain group. That is why I decided to propose a zero calorie cat and dog treat. For example, pet owners need it, dog trainers need it, and groomers. The nature of the need just depends on exactly how you live your day-to-day life with your pet. Some people are around their pets all throughout the day, others only a few times a day.  I would say the nature of the need just fully depends on how you live your life. This market is defined on how many pets are to a household plus the varying weights. See I am from a family that has had two overweight dogs, so I am always giving treats that have too many calories, a zero calorie treat could have helped me our pets weight tremendously.  Customers really are not currently satisfying this need since there is nothing to satisfy it. I would have to say that the closet thing to it would have to be a low 2 calorie treat that is on the market right now. Customers have proven to be rather loyal if they are treat givers, so I think with my product I would be perfectly fine in regards to loyalty.  This opportunity is really big in my opinion, I feel like customers would line up out the door to purchase my product.  The window of opportunity would be there for a while, I am sure some other company would try to copy my product but if I keep updating mine I would be fine. You can never get comfortable in a business; whenever you are satisfied that is when you get in trouble. The innovation that I am introducing is a completely calorie and fat-free treat. There is no product like mine on the market today. The closesest thing out there is a “low-calorie" treat, which does not even compare to my product today. How it works is simple, it works like just any other treat out there, just that it is a fully calorie-free treat. No longer will you need to waste your time and money buying those fatty filled treats. I have literally tried three different kinds of them and they all were fattening. That was another point in time when it hit me, and I wanted to find a solution to this problem. In regards to selling my product, it will all depend on what size box you want (60oz, 120oz, 500oz). The 60ozwill run you $12, the 120oz will run you $21, and the 500oz will run you $63. I think with the low prices and the producrt that you are getting I do not think that customers will have a problem paying this price for my treats. My innovation will solve the problem of not having a fully calorie-free treat on the market. The customers will buy my innovation due to the fact that the opportunity is there and the customers want it. Customers will switch to my product since there is nothing like it, it might be difficult to get them to switch out of their existing products. Once they get out of their product I’m confident they will make the switch. The competitors in this business are all of the other treat companies and how they choose to adapt to my product. Their weakness will be they will not have a treat with the capabilities like mine, so it will be hard for them to compete. Packaging, price points, distribution, customer support, the customer experience will play a big role in my business concept. I have learned you have to give the customers what they desire by figuring out what they want and adapting accordingly. I would support the ongoing production of my new product, pretty much on the demand of my new product. If it is doing really well I would obviously have to hire more employees to fulfill the demand for my product. Without a doubt my unfair advantage would be a fully calorie free cat treat, there is just nothing out there on the market that can compare at the moment right now. What I would like to tackle with my product next is to expand overseas; I think that would help my product grow even more. I would like to be sitting back very successful after 5 years. Working and thinking for my next new innovation, and hopefully will have way more resources to make that happen. This venture will help me realize what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.

Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

The resources that I possess, go as follows:
1. Great product that has not been done before and will not be repeated

2. Human Capital: Product developer skills
This is a valuable skill, but this human capital is not hard to acquire. 

3. Human Capital: market research analyst skills
Also a valuable skill, but still not hard to acquire.


4. Human Capital: extensive knowledge of the users of this product range 
It is valuable to understand your market, but this is common amongst entrepreneurs.


5. Social Capital: Niche-community with growth by word-of-mouth
Since pet owners are the market, pet store presence and word-of-mouth will be easy tools to grow this company.


6. Social Capital: Ambassadors that promote the product at stores and on social media platforms
This is a new marketing tools businesses that are social-media savvy have been using, it is easy to imitate. 


7. Social Capital: Partnerships with and support from organizations across the nation, such as Petsmart and Petco.
This is valuable and rare. Having these connections provide credibility to this company. 


8. Financial Capital: Funds raised by sponsors and investors (Pet treat enthusiasts).
This is not as rare to acquire, another company can easily obtain loans for financing.


9. Financial Capital: Funds granted through start-up business idea competitions.
This is a bit more challenging to acquire a normal competitor. 


10.Culture: Aspire to create a culture centered around pet treat enthusiasts, creating a special form of network.
This is a unique resource. Must work hard to align goals and actions to the vision we have created.