Assignment 30: Final Reflection

1. I definitely had a lot of good moments doing some of these posts for this class. Although I think I had a rough time coming up with the 20 bug list ideas was pretty difficult, it was different thinking about how many things actually bugged me. However, it did get to the point where I had to start thinking about things that didn't necessarily bug me but could bug somebody else. The interviews were definitely annoying because of having to go to so many more different people. It was really hard to find the time to go out and interview people. The assignments were all quite easy, but the venture concept was probably the most time consuming one of all. took a lot of thought for each section that you had to put into it. I liked the elevator pitches, just a little, because it helped me get better at presenting in front of a camera. 
2. The most formative experience that I had in this class was the elevator pitch because, like I said, it helped me better my skills in performing in front of a camera. It helped me focus on being natural and being who I really am instead of cracking down under pressure. The experience that I'll remember for years later will be the reading reflections because of how interesting and eye-opening the books I chose were. The books helped me think of failure in various ways and helped get a deeper understanding on Phil Knight. My most joyous experience is the one I have now because of this semester being done knowing that this will be the last post I'll be writing. The experience I am most proud of is the elevator pitch again because I was never good at performing in front of cameras. This assignment allowed me to stem from comfort zone and overcome something I still was yet to accomplish. 
3. Now that this semester is over, I do feel that I've acquired an entrepreneurial mindset. I now see things as opportunities and I also see things as learning experiences rather than failures. I do feel like I am progressing further and further into an entrepreneurial mindset.
4. For future students who will be taking this class, I would recommend that they do the assignments ahead of time. Some of these assignments will interfere with other exams and you will just stress yourself out if you leave the assignments till the day that they are due. Oh and watch the lectures because the cupcakes are just bombs with frosting on them. To foster this mindset, I would say to dedicate yourself time within the day to work on the assignments for the class. If you feel like you can't do the assignment, take a break and think about something else and then come back to it. If you decide to do this at 11:30 on the day the post is due, then good luck.

   

Assignment 29: Venture Concept No.2

Bulk Bites

Opportunity

The opportunity that I am going for is creating a product to satisfy the hunger in between meals for people. The people who have the need are those in the gym and college students. The product is made to be an aid to increasing muscle mass for those who go to the gym, and it is also a nice little snack to eat while going in between your classes for college students who are unable to take time to go to a place to pick up something to eat. The nature of the need is everyday for college students because of the lack of time created by studying and going to classes. The nature for gym goers is also everyday because they normally want to keep their muscle mass size up. The forces and/or changes in the environment creating this opportunity is the lack of time college students have to get things to eat in between their meals, and the sometimes the lack of effort gym goers and college students have to make their own snacks. Currently, the market is targeted towards Gainesville and Boynton Beach in Florida because of me going to school in Gainesville and living in Boynton Beach. In terms of demographics, I'm targeting those who are between 15-35 years old, men, and woman. These individuals are normally people who go to the gym and college students who lack time to get snacks or make them. Currently, people are satisfying this need by buying protein bars from the grocery store or making their own protein shakes. However, I feel that people are not too loyal to these forms because of the lack of tastiness of protein shakes and the lack of knowledge of what's put into making the store-bought protein bars. The opportunity really isn't that big because not a lot of people find this as a problem. I think the "window of opportunity" will remain open because of the new generations to come for college will acquire the same problem that current students are having, there will also be people who are trying to increase muscle mass at the gym. 

Innovation

The product that I am selling is made up of peanut butter, oats, honey, protein powder, raisins, or any other ingredient that is recommended to me for their batch. The product satisfies all the nutrient values for protein, carbs, fats, fiber, sugars, and fruits. This product is meant to satisfy hunger in between meals for a short time in order to keep you full till your next meal. The product is meant to be eaten as about 2-3 "bites" per in between meals. The product is meant to help build on the gains at the gym and satisfy the huger for college students in between meals. I'm selling the product in bulk (hence the name) by 10 and 25. I am selling the batches for $15 and $25 respectively.

Venture Concept

My product will address the opportunity of hunger by supplying people with a healthy, homemade snack that they can eat in between their meals. People will buy my product because it's not too expensive, it's healthy, and it's homemade. The reason I think that people will switch to my product is because people get bored of eating the same protein bars and protein shakes. I design my product around personalization where people are able to choose some of their added ingredients as opposed to getting the same product all the time. I feel that it won't be hard to get people to switch because of the factors of taste and mystery involved in what you're getting out of the alternatives. The competitors are the grocery stores/people who supply their protein bars in the store and protein shake companies. The vulnerabilities and weaknesses of these companies is that they don't have homemade products and they normally have ingredients that nobody can pronounce. They also don't allow someone to personalize their products because of how expensive it is for companies to do that. The role in packaging, price points, distribution, customer support, and the business location don't really play a huge role in my product. The role of customer experience does because I'm allowing my customers to put in any ingredients on top of the base ingredients that they want into the bulk bites (raisins aren't a base but is good for a first batch). I wouldn't grow my business bigger to the point of gaining employees. The general role of my venture is to be small and emphasize the homemade factor of my business. 

Three Minor Elements

1. The most important resource of my venture is the homemade factor. By staying small, I am able to appeal to those customers who worry about what's in their snacks and foods. It would be hard for companies to match this because of how inefficient they would be if they were to try and achieve this goal. 

2. What's next for my business would probably sell to-go containers for the bulk bites. I was thinking about making the containers in the shape of little spheres that will house maybe 3-4 bites. I was thinking about designing them to look like things in world culture such as dragon balls or poki balls. Probably sell these containers at around $5-$10 each.  

3. For the future, this will serve as some side income as I'll be dedicating most of my time to firefighting. 

Summary of Feedback

Almost all of the feedback that I received was positive except for my feedback on the Bulk Bite Kits. The comment talked about how the kits will enable people to learn about how the product is made and prevent them from purchasing from my company again because of them having the recipe. They talked about how this is the reason why recipes are so heavily guarded by companies. Other than that, people really supported how detailed I was in the innovation aspect and that the new potential market that I highlighted in the "What's Next?" post were some really good ideas. 

Changes

Based on the feedback that I received, I scraped the idea of making a kit for people to make the product at their homes. Instead, I am focusing on making the little to-go containers that will not only help gym goers and college students transport the bites with them, but it will also serve as a to-go container for outside workers and kids for when they transport the bites via lunchboxes. 

Assignment 28: Your Exit Strategy

1) The way I'm handling my business is that I'm going to keep on doing the service until I find something to replace it. For now, it's a good form of some side income and I don't see much of a threat or competition coming from other people. But I intend on keeping the business small and not doing much to necessarily expand it because I don't want to have it to where I would need to hire employees. This whole venture isn't meant to be the start of some big business plan to be completely honest.

2) I selected this particular exit strategy because I plan on focusing a lot of my time to firefighting in the future and I don't really see this business expanding more than around town. This is also just a little business for me to have some extra cash for college because food is often pretty pricey; especially, when you like to cook a lot of interesting meals.

3) I do think that my exit strategy influenced my other decisions because from the get-go of the whole "creating a business venture" I was already planning on what I was going to do with the business. The resources I chose, especially Adam, is very close to me so I am able to just take a 10 minute drive to get some protein. Plus, I can get the rest of my resources from Publix and Target which are right down the road. I already had this opportunity going before this semester thinking that it wasn't going to be a life-long thing so the opportunity was influenced by the exit strategy. It also influenced my growth intentions because I don't plan on growing a business where I have no intentions on making it my primary job.

Assignment 27: Reading Reflection No.3

Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

1)  The purpose and argument that the book is illustrating is that people often think irrationally due to faulty intuitions. Kahneman describes two systems: one automatic (impulsive) and another conscious, and how these two systems ultimately shape the reason for how humans behave and react to instances. Kahneman also talks about how your brain is lazy and how this restricts you from using your brain's full potential. Furthermore, with our brain being lazy, this causes humans to make errors when thinking things through. Another thing that Kahneman mentions is that people shouldn't use their emotions when trying to make decisions with money involved. Kahneman explains that humans are more afraid to lose what we currently have as we're trying to receive more.

2) The book connected with and enhanced what I'm learning in ENT3003 by thinking about how reaching to new markets could help our business ideas. If we were to make an impulsive decision (System 1) we would ultimately think that reaching to these more outlier market will increase and benefit our business. However, if we think more about it using more of System 2, we may figure out that trying to reach these out-lying markets will be bad for our business and cause us to lose money instead of earning money. 

3) I would create an exercise where students make a list of things that would require the students to use each of the the two systems. Maybe do five examples of each system. This would require students to examine their day-to-day decisions, classify which system these decisions fall under, and explain why students think that the decision belongs under that system. I believe this will aid in the student's deeper understanding of how we make our decisions and how much effort we actually place on them.

4) What I found surprising when reading this book was how your brain competes with itself into thinking that you've found the right answer through the two systems. Sometimes when reading a question out and planning how to solve it, your brain initially goes through the first System, in which it thinks that it can handle answering the question without the help with System 2. When in reality the question is not as simple as it appears. This causes people to make mistakes because their brains perceive something too simple and not complex.  

Assignment 26: Celebrating Failure

1) During this semester, I tried to balance my time for each class I have; however, I struggled to keep a consistent schedule. For instance, I would dedicate most of my time to either one class like finance and stay away from my other classes until I either had something due or there was an exam coming up. I started in the beginning of the semester pretty well; however, when it came to the second exams for both my Finance and Management classes, I fumbled my time and didn't execute my goal on keeping a consistent schedule.


2) What I learned from this hardship is that if I put more effort into actually being interested in the subjects that I am learning about that I'll have a better time when it comes to test my knowledge in exams. For example, when I was first studying for my first finance exam, I forced myself to become interested in what I was learning. This not only helped me understand the information better but it also helped me have a little more confidence going into the exam. It also helped get a little bit of the stress off my mind.


3) If you haven't noticed, I never used the word "failure" until just now. The reason why I don't use the word failure is because it doesn't exist. People do one of two things: they either quit, or they keep on going. In reality, I don't even think that the "failure" I put in the first paragraph is a failure because I never quit on making the time for each of my classes. Yes, I do create obstacles in my schedule that caused more attention to specific classes, but that's just what they are, obstacles. You're not a "failure" until you've quit on yourself. If we were able to go more into the past for a failure, I would've went back to when I quit playing football. Honestly, how I would handle failure (an obstacle) is by looking past it and sometimes even going back to it to find out why it happened. If I find why and how the obstacle happened, I can alter how I approach the same task in the future. I wouldn't allow the obstacle to bring me down or anything like that because life is basically just a big learning experience. If you approach life with intentions of not having hardships and obstacles, you won't be ready for when they come. In regards to this class changing my perspective on failure, I don't think the amount of risks I'm going to take will change. I sort of understood what failure meant in this class and I feel that it had many similarities with my own personal understanding of failure. 

Assignment 25: What's Next?

Existing Market

1. What's next in terms of my product is to start making prototypes and have people try the bites themselves. I feel like at the price that they're at it's not really that appealing to buy a whole batch just to try one. Furthermore, I would also like to maybe setup some free samples for people to try. Maybe dedicate one whole batch so that people can try the product before they buy them.

Interviews

1. Danny

• Danny talked about how I should be planning my time in case of big orders. Since it takes a lot of time to make, he recommends that I schedule what I need to do that's unrelated to making the Bulk Bites and work around those things. He likes the idea of creating a batch of samples because people don't want to buy something that they don't know what it taste like; especially, if they would be dropping a minimum of $15.

2. Conner

• Conner talked about creating more differential batches when it comes to how many people want to buy. He recommends that I should make lower quantity batches and higher ones as well. After telling him about my ideas, like Danny, he was all for the extra batch for people to sample.

3. Michael

• Michael talked about creating a package for the Bulk Bites. He recommends that I not only have the batches but also a unique package that appeals to the customer. He also recommended that I do a to-go container for people on the go and those who want to take some to the gym. When I told him about my ideas, he recommended that I do make the sample batch, but also do what Conner said and create small batches.

Future Path

For the ideas that I had before the interviews, I'm going to stick with them. I'm going to create a batch of samples so that people are able to try the product before they buy them. I will most likely create different ones with maybe a few ingredients changed so that it highlights the personalize-able aspect that I am trying to implement into my venture. Since all of my interviewees liked the idea of the sample batches, I'll most likely do this in the future.

Reading through the feedback I got in the interviews, my interviewees gave some good ideas that I can put into my business for the future. I've always thought of making more incremental batches for those who were more worried about the price of the batches. I just felt that it would be kind of a headache and inefficient to make the batches too small or too large. I really liked Danny's idea of building a schedule as to when I will be making the batches because it's key that they don't just add stress to my everyday schedule. 

New Market

1. Since it seems that I'm marketing more towards those who go to the gym and college students, I think I may expand my target market to mothers and people working outside. 
2. These two groups would be perfect to market to because of their situations. For mothers, the snack would  be perfect to go into their kid's lunch boxes. The Bulk Bites will satisfy all the needs in terms of nutrition for a growing boy/girl providing protein, carbs, sugar, good fats, and fiber. For those who work at an outside job, the sun is constantly stealing calories from your body causing these individuals to have a need for a surplus of calories. These Bulk Bites would be perfect because they're quick to eat and they supply a high enough calorie content to satisfy the outdoor worker's need for more calories in the day.

Interviews

1. Mike

• Mike thinks that my business can help those who work outside because currently he would normally just run across the street to get something from a fast food place instead of making a snack before he heads to work. The fact that my product is healthy makes it more desirable than continually going to fast food places to get a snack between meals. Mike thinks that I should make a carry to-go container where individuals can just bring a little container instead of the whole batch package.

 2. Carol

• Carol is part of the mother market where she needs to make snacks for her kids to eat while at school. She normally struggles to find things on the shelf that are both healthy and tasty for her kids. Carol said that if my Bulk Bites are tasty, that my product could go the distance in the market. However, some adaptations that she recommended was to increase diversity in the ingredients because a lot of kids are allergic to peanuts and that will affect the reach to these kind of mothers.

What I learned about the New Markets

In terms of the outside worker, I learned that working outside is really detrimental on your calorie storage. The sun depletes a lot of the calories causing a lot of outside workers to burn more calories than those who work in an office all day. So to battle this, these individuals consume a surplus of calories, and it doesn't matter what kinda calories they are. Most of the calories that they consume are unhealthy which is where my product would shine in the market. My expectations about the outside workers market was correct in that they require more calories than the normal in-office individual. I do believe that this market seems to be about the same level as the existing market that I'm trying to reach. 

In terms of the mother market, I learned a lot about the constraints that I would have if I were to enter that market. Things that I would have to watch out for would be how my product tastes. The taste of my product needs to appeal  to the younger generation where they are very picky on what they like to eat and don't necessarily care about how healthy the snack is. Another thing that I need to watch out for are allergies. A lot of kids are allergic to things like peanuts which is one of the main ingredients to my snacks. So I would have to see if I could someway substitute that in the recipes for those with this kind of allergy. However, my expectations for the market were correct where I knew that I was going to battling picky eaters, but didn't realize the peanut allergy situation. On second thought, this market doesn't seem to be as attractive that I thought it was going to be. I feel that it may be more of a hassle than a benefit to my venture.

Assignment 24: Venture Concept No.1

Bulk Bites

Opportunity

The opportunity that I'm pursuing is solving hunger in between meals with a healthy snack. Those who are heavy into working out, this snack is meant to aid them in growing muscle mass by providing this snack to be eaten in between meals. However, for those who aren't heavy into increasing muscle mass, this product is also designed to be eaten to ensure that people are getting their needed calories for the day. Those who have this need are primarily gym goers and college students. The nature of the need is usually an everyday thing. For college students, the product is normally designed for cases where they are overwhelmed with classes and are unable to get something to eat. The snack provides a healthy way that students can get their needed nutrition for the day. Forces and/or changes that are creating this opportunity is the slow shift into more and more people wanting to work out and become stronger. For students, classes are the primary sources of change that create this opportunity. The market that I am targeting are the students at the University of Florida. I'm marketing my product to both male and female. This product is primarily marketed to the 18-30 age range mostly because the product is for those who are students and people who regularly go to the gym. Currently, people are satisfying this need by making protein shakes and buying store bought snacks that they can eat between their meals. I feel that people who take protein shakes aren't too loyal to the shakes because they take too much time to make and there's too much cleaning involved. Those who buy store bought snacks I feel are a little more loyal to what they buy to a certain extent. They like the selection and ease of purchase; however, they can get sick of certain flavors of snacks that are on the shelves. The opportunity isn't necessarily too big because there are a lot of alternatives available and some people already make their own snacks. I feel that the window of opportunity will always be open because there's always going to be new college student and people who are trying to get bigger in the gym. As long as people don't want to spend their own free time and effort into making healthy snacks, the opportunity will stay open. 

Innovation

The product that I am offering is a healthy snack made up of peanut butter, raisins, honey, oats, and protein powder. This product satisfies all nutrient values including protein, carbs, sugars, and fruits. This product is meant to satisfy hunger for a short period of time in between meals. How this product works is that you eat about 2-3 "bites" in between your meals to hold your stomach off till your next meal. Its meant to build on your gains in the gym and satisfy the normal person's hunger. I'm selling my product in bulk (hence Bulk Bites the name) at 10 and 25. The prices for the Bulk Bites are $15 and $25, respectively.

 Venture Concept

The Bulk Bites will solve my opportunity because its designed to help individuals who go to the gym a more satisfying way of in-taking protein powder, which is what they might use to make shakes. For the college students, the snack is quick and easy to eat because of how small they are. They're easy to transfer and normally 2-3 satisfy the hunger of a normal college student; therefore, each 25 batch will last a while for them. Gym goers and college students will buy my product because it's healthy and it provides a new way of getting their needed nutrition for the day. Among the alternatives like protein shakes and store-bought snacks, my product is far tastier than any shake and healthier than any snack that's on the shelf. The reasons why gym goers will switch is because gym goers understand that it's better to have physical forms of nutrient intake and will see that its a lot more simple and cleaner than a protein shake. Shakes are also less filling than physical food. The reason why college students will switch is because they're almost always hungry and they don't have to put in the time and effort to make their own snacks. I do feel that it'll be hard to get people to switch because people don't know the taste of the snacks. I guess the competitors for what I'm going through are the companies who make protein bars and health bars. The possible weakness and vulnerabilities to these companies is that they don't emphasize the homemade and healthy factor. The customer experience is the main factor that is defining my opportunity because I'm allowing my customers to give feedback on what they may want specialized for their batch. Some individuals may want something changed from the original recipe because they're allergic or don't find it enjoyable. I don't plan on expanding too large to where I would need employees; therefore, I don't have a number for the amount of employees I would have. The role in my venture is to stay small because I want to emphasize the fact that my product is homemade. 

Three Minor Elements

1.  My most important resource is the homemade factor of my product. Because I plan on staying small, I am able to appeal to customers who worry about what's in their snacks. It's hard for companies to match this because it would be inefficient for how big they expanded their business.
2. What's next for my venture is maybe selling a Bulk Bite kit that'll enable individuals to make the product themselves if they wanted to. In this kit, I would include a to-go container that would be designed like unique objects such as a dragon ball or a poki ball. 
3. For the future, I want to have a steady "side income" for this venture because I'll be dedicating most of my time to firefighting in the future.