Final Reflection

This semester has definitely been of the most formative and memorable months of my life. Although this class was, at times, the bane of my existence, it helped me start thinking in more of an entrepreneurial mindset. For example, learning how to present and come up with an elevator pitch was one of the first things I did that made me start thinking of myself as a candidate in the career field. To future students, I would say that this class is easy if you try to understand concepts and develop a business-oriented way of thinking. Think outside the box.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515490/The-stunning-photographs-capture-magical-moment-delicate-butterfly-emerges-cocoon.html

Venture Concept No. 2

Building on the same premise of my first venture concept, I have learned a lot from feedback and my own personal experience. To reiterate the concept of my venture, I am proposing a portable laptop charger that has several ports in order to work with both Windows and Mac products. The proposed price is set to be round $60, and I am focusing on the accessibility and practical compatibility as the product's main selling points.

I also received feedback on my venture idea through my classmates, and I was continuously reminded the target audience will be much more likely to buy the product if it was significantly cheaper than any other similar products in the market. Since the audience of the product will be mainly college students, I have been thinking of ways to make the charger cheaper and more appeasing to the target audience. As such, I decided that the charger should be sold online with free shipping and multiple colorways. There will also be options to include certain ports: you can choose a portable charger that would only have an Apple port, or I can choose to have Apple, Microsoft and USB ports all-in-one.

I still agree with my previous idea to focus on networking for this product. Word of mouth and connections would be of upmost importance with this product, especially as we are in a college town with a lot of potential customers ready to buy a new product. A fully functioning, effective portable laptop charger would be a game-changer, especially if the product is made before Apple and other tech giants make their own equivalent product.

Your Exit Strategy

The exit strategy that I plan on following is selling the portable computer charger concept to one of the big computer retailers- such as Apple or HP. This could yield significant returns as this field has not been thoroughly explored. I plan on doing this because I honestly know nothing about electronics. I am construction major and am not cut out to sell chargers - although it is a profitable idea to. This is kind of a change from the beginning thoughts I had towards these big computer brands as I earlier was considering them competition but now I am considering them customers.

Failure

1.       Coming into this class and semester I told myself that I was going to start some new trends and habits that would be beneficial to my life. I said I would start reading more, work ahead and be on time with all of my assignments. Unfortunately, I have not read a book, I have been on time but not ahead, and I have a few classes that I have been lacking in.

2.       One of the biggest things that I have learned from all of this is the need to have your priorities straight. I need to get better at my time management and knowing when not to go out. At the end of the day it can pretty much all be brought back to my discipline and being able to have the will power to do the right thing.

3.       Failure to me is essential and I think that to be able to be successful one must fail at things. The need to learn from your mistakes is so huge in my life. I cannot tell you how many things I have failed at. It doesn’t feel good at first, but being able to see the positives in every situation and keep moving forward no matter how hard it is is necessary. The way that I cope with it is constantly looking for the little wins, no matter how small.

Reading Reflection 3

Cognitive Surplus By Clay Shirky

1)      The main theme about this book is the concept of cognitive surplus, an idea about how people can better society when correctly using the excess of time, technology and connections that they encounter. This is coupled with his 4 different types of sharing of information and how we can learn more from each other than ever before.

2)      As we continue to go through this course, we continue to see different themes from this book that connect very nicely. The first is the need to constantly grow and learn from other people. Throughout this book they emphasize the need to take the information from technology and others to make the best possible outcome. In this class we are doing much of the same, utilizing the technology that we have to discuss and get feedback from others.

3)      I think that because of the discussion Shirky makes based on the types of sharing, I would have students identify different ways in which they can utilize these within their own business concepts. Of course, they can pair this and take it a step farther by applying it to different business if they would like to as well.

4)      The more and more that we get caught up in social media, I think we begin to get wrapped up in the drama and insecurities surrounding it. Instead of doing this, Shirky makes a case for the benefits of social media and how we can continue to encourage each other and push each other to new heights. I think this is a crucial step in the story of all of us as humans and critical if one day we are going to solve the current problems in society that we have.   

Whats Next?

The existing market that I've chosen to target with this product is University students. What is next for my product (a portable computer charger) is to have it sold in the UF bookstore and nearby office stores to begin earning sales revenue.
In the interviews conducted, when asking "what should we be doing" the students all agreed with me that the plan to have it sold in the bookstore is a great way to have it noticed and sold quickly for a sustainable price. The only thing that the interviewees had brought up that I hadn't previously thought to hard on is the idea of cost reduction strategies. If this product is to come to the market, it has to be affordable if consumers are going to buy it. Growing this market beyond university students may be difficult but it is definitely doable. What makes the most sense to me is expanding this products sales beyond storefronts and to create a website to market and sell this product to whoever else may need it.
The new market I intend to enter is the need from consumers who do all of their shopping online- not specifically University students anyway. There is still plenty of value in a computer charger that is as portable as the laptop itself in almost any case besides what I have mentioned on campuses. This type of device can be used in office buildings, beaches, kids' sports games, and a ton of other places where there is no power outlets. For the second set of interviews regarding the new market, I interviewed my oldest brother's girlfriend and my mother - both who gave me immensely good feedback in terms of putting this type of device for sale on the internet. While they brought up the fact that you can buy a similar type of device online already, they are pricey and the reviews show the products are not trustworthy or worth the expensive price.
What I learned here is that there is a much larger opportunity than I thought for a portable laptop charger. It is not only needed in Universities, but parents and the working class all show a very similar need as I for a device like this. There are so many occasions in which a person needs to charge their laptop urgently and as a result, they can't complete their work in a timely manner. While this new market is not necessarily as attractive as the first one I intended to pursue, this one is still worth the time nonetheless.

Venture Concept No. 1

The opportunity present is the group of potential customers among the populations of colleges and Universities. These students have the need for a laptop charger that is as portable as the device itself and are the demographics are pretty easily defined as college aged students. This opportunity is huge as there is tons of marketing that can be done within colleges for this type of product. While the customers in this case are indeed loyal to the wall plugin chargers they use now, they would all be pleased if an affordable portable laptop charger came to the market. This window of opportunity will be open until it is taken by one of the big computer brands.
The innovation in this case is an incremental. Portable chargers for phones and other types of devices already exists while there are wall plug in chargers currently sold with laptops. This product is a combination of the two ideas into one universal laptop charger. It is to have a similar style as the portable phone chargers, but ports to plug into various types of laptops and enough power to actually sustain the batteries. One of these chargers is expected to be priced around $60, cheaper than the typical Apple wall plugins.
The venture concept here is addressing the opportunity of students' dying computers in libraries and lecture halls. My peers and I have had this problem continuously, and it would be solved by this product coming to the market. It shouldn't be too hard to get customers to switch to this product if it was to actually come into stores, because I am yet to see a portable computer charger in any sort of storefront. The competitors are the big computer brands, Apple, HP, etc. who's only weaknesses are the failure to address customer needs adequately. Packaging, price points, customer support, and distribution all are some of the most important roles here, as no one wants to travel far or spend large amounts of money only on a charger. In order to support the ongoing production of this business, I would like to organize a business as some sort of partnership, one in which someone could help with the design of the electronics within the product.
Again, my most important resource here is networking. Being able to work with other people is vital in this kind of business because there is an array of things I am yet to learn about the production of electronics and chargers. The second thing to handle is the actual production of the device. What's next is trying to get my product in the UF bookstore and nearby office stores where sales will flourish.