30A – Final Reflection

Experiences. In the beginning of this course it was really hard for me to talk about myself and find qualities to talk about. This is much easier as I can see myself in a different way. There are many aspects to a business and analyzing them in the assignments made me appreciate a business owner more. LET ME TELL YOU…. The elevator pitch was very hard for me. But after my last one, I realized how much those assignments helped me. Also talking to those I would not usually reach out to was a growing experience for me.

              I was proud of the experiences I had after completing my assignments. Especially those where I had to interview people. I really learned more about myself and how my friend and family think about me and business in general.

Entrepreneur? I do see myself as an entrepreneur and feel like I look at things differently now that I took this class. I think I have moved closer to an entrepreneur mindset.

Recommendations. Follow the syllabus from beginning to end. If you have spare time one week WORK AHEAD. Look ahead at the assignments so you can thoroughly complete your interviews. Put out work that you are proud of because you will learn best that way. If you have some time management, you will get through the course.

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity. The opportunity exists in people who are too busy or shy. People who live a busy life are sometimes unable to take care of their mental health due to the odd times they may be able to seek help. Others are just too shy or intimidated to show friend and family they are seeking help. I believe this need is urgent considering what is being presented in the media and what I have observed in my mental health club (Club Will To Live at UF).

It is important to put out something easy and positive in the universe for people to use and make changes. This will be most beneficial to young adults 16 to 30. Then sparingly to the older adults as they also can be shy and busy, but they are more willing to seek out help. The customers I would have are currently doing nothing about their mental health or are just thinking of what they should do. At this point and with all that is happening in the world, my service is a huge opportunity.

Innovation. The service will be an application on a smartphone. This application takes a customer through some start-off steps before introducing them to the psychologist assigned to help them. The customer will provide their name and contact information, along with a payment method. Then they will take a “quiz” that asks them some confidential questions about how they are feeling and what they think they need. Once this is received, the service team will assign them a psychologist based on urgency, symptoms, and what the client believes they need. When a session with a psychologist starts is when the customer will start getting charged. Since the target market is younger we will charge $50 per 45 minutes of phone calls and $60 per 45 minutes of video chat. A texting session will be priced at $30 per 20 texts from the psychologist. These are low prices compared to what an in-person psychologist would charge so we can better target the younger market and make the service more attainable.

Venture Concept. Customers will want to use this service because of the availability and pricing. I think that it will be easy to get customers to use this service because they were not using anything else. I would be competing with in-person psychologists and a service similar to mine. My workers can work from home, so a large facility is not needed to run the business. Therefore, service fees can be lower for the consumer. There will be teams of employees for each step in the process like payment processing, organizing the psychologists, psychologists, and outgoing client services. Employee base will likely start at 50.

Minor Elements.

1.       My knowledge in the service I am providing. Even though I am not a psychologist, I feel I know a lot to start the business and am able to use experts for help.

2.       I want to integrate a way for people to get treatments through essential oils and have this as an entity of the business.

3.       I want this venture to develop into a multimillion dollar company and provide for those in need. I want to be able to reach people in the most remote areas of the world. Most people need some kind of help when it comes to their mental health. This first venture will likely be handed off to someone else and I will move onto my next venture.

4.       I will have to use a special system for those who may be too young to pay. This may be free patient care to those and be a write-off for the business.

Summary of feedback

The feedback I got was very positive. One good element mentioned to look at was the age bracket that may not be able to pay. I will need to figure out a program within the company to fix this problem. Develop a charity or donation type program so the younger age can participate and get help.

With that feedback, I will change my pricing plan so to accommodate the money I would not be receiving from those too young to pay.

From: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwihqsj5pMrcAhUMpFkKHemcCP0QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livehealthonline.com%2Fpsychology&psig=AOvVaw1Ln8RBX2CNDq-Kv_roJ1R2&ust=1533159121514058

28A – Your Exit Strategy

I plan to grow my business as far as I think I can and then sell it. I believe this will take about 10 years. Plus, it will be my first venture and therefore I will grow attachment to it. A business like this can thrive without me, otherwise I would not let it go. After 10 years, it is time to move on to a new venture and learn about new things. It is my goal to learn and experience as much as I can before I am unable to anymore.

I do not believe the opportunity was chosen in relation to my exit strategy. However, looking at it now the way the business is setup will work with the exit strategy. The business is something I can train someone else to take over after I am done. My goal is to sell the business in 10 years, so the growth of the company must be consistent as any drops it revenue will be detrimental to a specialized business like this. I need to have good resources to start off, so they can be beneficial to me from start to finish. I need to work on acquiring more resources for back up to my original resource. Back up plans are essential to maintaining a business.

26A – Celebrating Failure

1

1. This summer I have taken on 3 classes including an internship. It has been overload. On top of that, I have been working on getting my real estate license. The first time I took the state exam…. I failed. It was the day after a BUL4310 exam, but it was the first available time slot to take the exam and I was excited to get the license. The second time taking the exam I did pass because I took the few days before to study my problems areas and had no other stress.

1. What I did not think about was how much stress I would have with those exams back to back. I learned that sometimes its okay to take your time. I should have waited until the next week to schedule the real estate exam. Doing that would have been just fine. In this case, not having patience failed me but I came back even stronger.

1. Failure is very hard, especially if you are a person that plans things out. A simple failure can bring everything else crashing down. I am very emotional depending on the failure. In the case of the state exam, I was very upset about it but with everything else on my plate I didn’t have much time to be However, failures are our greatest lessons and makes people more cognizant and able to fail. I think I have taken more risks because of all my failures.  

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity. The opportunity exists in people who are too busy or shy. People who live a busy life are sometimes unable to take care of their mental health due to the odd times they may be able to seek help. Others are just too shy or intimidated to show friend and family they are seeking help. I believe this need is urgent considering what is being presented in the media and what I have observed in my mental health club (Club Will To Live at UF).

It is important to put out something easy and positive in the universe for people to use and make changes. This will be most beneficial to young adults 16 to 30. Then sparingly to the older adults as they also can be shy and busy, but they are more willing to seek out help. The customers I would have are currently doing nothing about their mental health or are just thinking of what they should do. At this point and with all that is happening in the world, my service is a huge opportunity.

Innovation. The service will be an application on a smartphone. This application takes a customer through some start-off steps before introducing them to the psychologist assigned to help them. The customer will provide their name and contact information, along with a payment method. Then they will take a “quiz” that asks them some confidential questions about how they are feeling and what they think they need. Once this is received, the service team will assign them a psychologist based on urgency, symptoms, and what the client believes they need. When a session with a psychologist starts is when the customer will start getting charged. Since the target market is younger we will charge $50 per 45 minutes of phone calls and $60 per 45 minutes of video chat. A texting session will be priced at $30 per 20 texts from the psychologist. These are low prices compared to what an in-person psychologist would charge so we can better target the younger market and make the service more attainable.

Venture Concept. Customers will want to use this service because of the availability and pricing. I think that it will be easy to get customers to use this service because they were not using anything else. I would be competing with in-person psychologists and a service similar to mine. My workers can work from home, so a large facility is not needed to run the business. Therefore, service fees can be lower for the consumer. There will be teams of employees for each step in the process like payment processing, organizing the psychologists, psychologists, and outgoing client services. Employee base will likely start at 50.

Minor Elements.

1. My knowledge in the service I am providing. Even though I am not a psychologist, I feel I know a lot to start the business and am able to use experts for help.

2. I want to integrate a way for people to get treatments through essential oils and have this as an entity of the business.

3.  I want this venture to develop into a multi-million dollar company and provide for those in need. I want to be able to reach people in the most remote areas of the world. Most people need some kind of help when it comes to their mental health. This first venture will likely be handed off to someone else and I will move onto my next venture.

23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

Resources in my venture

1.      Publicity: Public awareness: Mental health is a big topic of discussion now. With everything going on in the media right now it’s a great resource.

·       Valuable: It gives the product a platform to be exposed on.

·       Rare: Since mental health is getting a lot of attention in media, it would be rare resource unless a product with similar media attention is launched

·       Inimitable:  It is an easy “bandwagon” to jump on once a product like this hits media.

·       Non-substitutable: It would be easy to do regular advertisements and commercials, but with the hyped media coverage on mental health this would be better. A news outlet would want to be the first on covering something that would help others.

2.       Social Capital: UF student in mental health clubs on campus

·       Valuable: This is valuable as students will try it out themselves and then recommend it to other students.

·       Rare: This is not rare as many people have communities they can promote their venture in.

·       Inimitable: Very easy to imitate

·       Non-substitutable: There are other people that would be willing to support my service

3.       Financial resource: I have previous experience raising money for clubs

·       Valuable: This is very valuable as I need finances to keep the service running

·       Rare: This is not rare as many people are able to do this

·       Inimitable: This can be imitated, it would be slightly changed depending on the product or service.

·       Non-substitutable: Hire an agency to help, but that would be a waste

4.       Human capital: Ability to work together

·       Valuable:  The company will start out large and then continue to grow. Being able to work with different types of people will be very valuable.  When hiring it is so valuable that I develop this kind of environment.

·       Rare: It could be rare. Some people have a very hard time with working with others or become very authoritative in their position

·       Inimitable: yes

·       Non-substitutable:  This cannot be substituted with anything else.

5.       Social capital: I have connections with psychologists that would be willing to help build up the company

·       Valuable: I need a team of employees and this is where I would start.

·       Rare: this can be rare as finding people to work in such a specified area is hard. Also, it is new technology, so some may not be willing to get involved right away

·       Inimitable: not really. Such a specialized position

·       Non-substitutable: I need people to work. There is no substitution.

6.       Financial resources: Since I do work in the real estate world, I have connections with banks.

·       Valuable: If I can’t raise my fund on my own, I will have to get a loan from a bank. Someone I know will be able to do it themselves or find someone who can.

·       Rare: This is rare as some banks can be tough when giving out loans because they want to make the most profit and get their money back.

·       Inimitable: This can be as others can have bank connections.

·       Non-substitutable: This can be substituted as I could get a loan from another place or person

7.       Background in Mental Health: Since starting college I have immersed myself in the research of mental health and was able to use this to start a club on UF’s campus.

·       Valuable: I see this as a very valuable resource because I am not going into this blind. I have knowledge of mental health and am able to use this to meet consumer needs.

·       Rare: It is not very rare. Anyone could research and learn about mental health

·       Inimitable: My knowledge and opinion of mental health cannot be imitated.

·       Non-substitutable: I could hire someone to have the knowledge but then I would have to pay them. And I could be taken advantage of this way.

8.       Lack of competitors: There is one other competitor that has a service similar to mine, but it does not have as many features as mine. Their service seems a little scattered and harder to use.

·       Valuable: This is valuable because it will make going into the market a little easier than have 15 competitors.

·       Rare: not rare. Other products or services could have minimal competitors.

·       Inimitable: My service can be copied.

·       Non-substitutable: My service can be substituted but the substitute would not be as helpful.

9.       Personal relationships: My mother and father both starts and run their own business. My boss that I work closely with also is the starter and owner of his business.

·       Valuable: This is very valuable to me starting my own business. They can assist me with any questions or concerns I might have.

·       Rare:  I believe it is rare for one person to have a lot of successful entrepreneurs around them.

·       Inimitable: Cannot be imitated. Personal relationship.

·       Non-substitutable: Someone with more experience in my specialized service.

10.   Human capital: organization: This will be key when starting the business.

·       Valuable: This is extremely valuable when in comes to keeping patient information organized and confidential

·       Rare: not rare. Many people have this skill.

·       Inimitable: The type of organization this service will take is going to be specific to it and could be difficult to replicate.

·       Non-substitutable: cannot be substituted. I must be organized. I could employ someone else, but I still have to be organized.

Top Resource. My top resource is having the background in mental health and being very interested in the topic. This make me more dedicated and able to connect with the service. This is important to the venture because my knowledge will help me double check that the plan is perfect for those in need.

Ultimately, I won’t have to have someone looking over everything. I will be doing this myself and thus protecting myself from the risks of having another person in charge.

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market

What’s next? I think next, I will invest more time into finalizing the business plan and securing investors and start up finances. This will include developing an employee base and the first rounds of a client base for when the service is launched.

What we should be doing?

·       Interview #1: He suggest that we should stress the fact that the information given by clients will be confidential like any other doctor’s office. It would be important to take extra precaution to protect our clients’ information from hackers. He thinks the process is sound easy enough for almost all consumers to use and get started.

·       Interview #2: This is a marketing major. She believes that the campaign for this app should be large and involve all different types of people. She believes it would be beneficial to do commercials along with media. She would see Twitter as the largest social platform we should advertise on as that is where most of our target market spends their time in terms of social media. The campaign must be catchy and have a message with it. Customers will likely want a fun platform on the application and not something that would remind them of going to an actual office. “Need the feeling of being laid back and comfortable.”

·       Interview #3: Psychologist. She thinks the person doing the interviews to employ the psychologists should be one because they know what is best. In this case, it would be very easy to employ someone that is not very capable because of the distance that could occur when interviewing. She believes that my ideas are inline with what someone needs in this circumstance.

Reflection. With interview one, he brought up some good points about protecting the customers. I already had these intentions but did not really think about bringing it up when explaining my venture to him. However, the interview made me realize just how important that part of the business would be. Interview three agreed with interview one that my ideas would be what the customers want next.

New Market

Different Market. 60 to 90 years of age target market.

Value for People. This application would be very important to the older community. It could benefit them if they are unable to get themselves to a doctor’s office to see a psychologist. Also, it reduces the risk for them when traveling.

Asking About Services.

·       Interview #1: 70 years old. She finds the application very interesting. She is actually very good with her iPhone and enjoys downloading applications and trying them out. She believes the app should read what is on the screen when accessing it because some days she has a hard time reading the screen. She suggests that the quiz could have the option of being done by an actual person.

·       Interview #2: 65 years old. He is not very good at using technology and thinks he would have a hard time using the application. He thinks instructions should be very detailed and have the option of increasing the size of the letters.

Reflection. Thinking about my service in this aspect really opens up opportunities. I did not realize how useful this could be for this market. I do not think it is more attractive than my current market, but it is definitely something I should consider when marketing.  

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

Reflection. Natalie gave me some really good feedback. I added an "attention grabber" at the beginning. This is a statistic about mental health. I have began to memorize my elevator pitch and be more comfortable in front of the camera. I'm still trying to figure out the best motions for my hands. I feel like this pitch turned out great compared to the other ones.

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

I had a difficult time with this project. Getting people to make contact back with me was difficult, but I was able to get a little response from each of the people I spoke with.

Domain expert

• My domain expert is a certified psychologist and I have been talking on and off to her about what I would like to do. She has been certified for over 5 years.
•  I made contact with this person through a familiar psychology office that I used when in my hometown. She is friends with my old psychologist and has been interested in the kind of service I am trying to create.
• I spoke face-to-face with this person. I dropped in the office to ask my questions and see how she felt about my pitch.
•   She will be a great person for me to bounce ideas off of and see what is ethical going forward with my idea. There are certain boundaries that I am trying to stay within and not violate any of the patients’ confidentiality.

Market expert

• This person came from the same office as above. She is the office manager and oversees patient files in organization. The faces she sees come into the office are between ages 15 and 30. She was not able to tell me much more.
• She will be able to help me when I am trying to determine exactly the kind of people I want to target. She also is able to help organize the system when targeting these people. She sees 
• I also spoke fact-to-face with her.
• Having her in my network will be ideal when trying to decide what age group and geographical area I should hit. She keeps up with the stats of mental health in the country.

Supplier

• I was unable to get a response from someone in this area
• I tried contacting the company that would be competing with my idea www.betterhelp.com. There was no answer and I thought it would be the best option.
•  I have been seeing a lot of advertisements about this website since starting research on my business idea. Thought they could give me some insight on their target market and how they feel their business is and how they have approved.
• I found the president online and tried contacting him through email and a phone call. Both went unanswered.
• I thought including them in my network would enhance my company.  We could try to work on some projects together to improve mental health around the world through campaigns.

Reflections

                This task was very stressful as I felt crunched for time and was unsure of the responses I would get giving my pitch. However, after getting positive responses, it gave me more confidence to make contact with people when I may need help. This experience was a little more in-depth than the past networking I have done.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

I read The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick. It was a really informative book and I would definitely recommend it to anyone starting a business or starting on social media. Or just someone looking for more insight

1)    What was the general theme or argument of the book?

This book teaches all kinds of people tips to developing their social media base, whether they are social gurus or just starting. There are about 123 tips included in the book that range from how to write a catching post and using visual aids you make to how to make your events more talked about.

2)    How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

As a future entrepreneur, I think the book will help me promote my product or service by using a few of the tips presented in the book. The author, Guy Kawasaki, was entrepreneur himself through his marketing expertise. He was one of the few employees that helped Apple market their Macintosh computer. However, I believe that only a few tips should be tried out at a time and not all at once, as that could be overwhelming.

3)    If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

The exercise would entail having students begin a social media profile on the site of their choice (like a blog) and pitch their ideas on it. They would use their choice of tips from the book to expose and get other people to follow and talk about their profile and idea. This would teach students how to market through social media.

4)    What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I learned that it is important to promote others stuff too and not just your own. A kind of way to give back. Other people are promoting your stuff so returning the favor to others is important. It builds a sharing community, which will reach out to many more people than just yourself can. This did not really differ from my expectations, but I did not realize how important it was unit I read this book.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

The feedback I got was that my thoughts seemed unorganized. When I watched my pitch again it did seem like it could be confusing to others. So, I redid my whole pitch. In this pitch I make it list-like and make it easy for possible consumers and investors to understand. I continued to speak slowly, as I have a hard time with that when talking to people.  

Please give me more feedback. I have a hard time with public speaking and assignments like this.