Week 15 Reading Reflection

The first thing that the article talked about was the most surprising part of this reading, or at least the most interesting. It was very intriguing to hear about the fatwa in India that almost destroyed the author's business. It was interesting to read that instead of succumbing to such threats, the author left their offices there and moved elsewhere, and it was very exciting to hear why they only loan to women and the good things his business has the capability of doing.
The most confusing part of this reading for me was ho the author talked about his business as though it was making a product, like Starbucks makes coffee and McDonald's makes burgers. But I never gathered what the product was. I only read that the "product" was loan giving, but I'm not sure if that's all it was because of the fact that the author used such terms as technology and factory-line to make it sound like his business was making something, an actual physical something.
My first question would be in concern to above, how did you make money off giving out loans, or did you actually have a product you were selling? I understand that banks make money from loans as well, but all from interest and being that your company's target audience is those in a lower class, did you not charge them as high of an interest? I understand that the business had high accommodations and thus strong customer loyalty, but in repayment to the business, did their interest rates remain high or low? My second question would be how did men respond to your company? Being that you only gave loans to women, did you ever have any issues with this? Was that maybe why the gang came and harassed your business?
I question how the author had a million dollar business form just giving out loans, while also receiving loans of his own. Where did he make the money that goes into his own pocket, as well as a large enough some to pay his employees who must venture through such rough terranes at such unwelcoming hours. That could be the only thing I don't understand how the author could be "correct about," but overall, I think his business sounds amazing and very innovative. If more businesses learned from him, we could live in a much better, more advantaged and higher-functioning world.

Final Reflection

The experiences I remember the most are the interviews. These were the moments of dread for me, not because I don't like talking to people, but rather because I am aware that people don't like being photographed and recorded my strangers. These were such hard exercises to complete not because of my own hard-work, but rather the need to depend on others for a high grade. People already were shy enough to talk to me, but when they agreed but then learned I had to record them, they would immediately back out. This made all of these assignments very stressful form me.
My favorite post that I am the most proud of is my "Celebrating Failure" post. I enjoyed this amount of reflection and telling myself that it was/is okay to fail. It finally made me believe it.
I think I may slightly be closer to the entrepreneurial mindset, though we have learned in this class that an entrepreneur is not just a mathematician or a business person, I still feel that these are important traits to have, especially after the last couple of readings in the textbook. This makes me still feel a little unsure if I could ever truly be an entrepreneur, but the skills I have developed in this class will nonetheless still be useful throughout my life in other aspects.
My biggest piece of advice is don't be scared of the assignments. In the beginning of this course, I think I was way overthinking on all of the assignments given and thus they became so stressful and scary and I'd really put them off because I didn't understand and was nervous that I would do it wrong. That's not the point of this class. The point of this course is just to try, so that means don't over think on anything, just do. If you think the assignment meant to do this, then just do that! No matter if that was what was intended or not, you'll still learn a lot from just doing that anyways. So don't be shy or scared!

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity
I believe the unmet needs for my customers is rather numerous. One of their unmet needs is the need for certain foods and ingredients. Another need of theirs is happiness, the joys that only a sweet treat can bring. I also believe an unmet need for my customers goes beyond just the food and what's in it, but also includes their social affairs. Dietary restrictions don't just restrict what foods they can or cannot eat, but also the places they can go and the people they can be with. In all cultures across the world, there is some form of bonding over meals. This is a time to relax, unwind and enjoy the company of your loved ones (loved ones being anyone from friends to family to colleagues). The changes in the environment that have created this opportunity is a mixture of things. One may be a evolutionary change in which more and more people have started to form allergies to certain ingredients, such as gluten. This may be a result of the shocking amount of processed chemicals that are more and more commonly being used in foods, specifically in the U.S. Another environmental change that has created my opportunity is a growing awareness of what people are putting in their bodies. Many more people are starting to take the quality of their food into consideration before eating. I think this also is due to the outrageous amount of chemicals being used in U.S. food market, and with more studies showing the harmful effects of these products, people are taking action.
People are just now reaching out and changing their routines to satisfy this need. This means that this is a growing market with lots of potential as it's fairly new and everyone is still trying to figure out which solution works best. This recent founding of this market means there is a lot of growth to come, which means big opportunity to those that jump on this ever-growing fad now.
I believe the window of opportunity for this market will be rather long as it keeps changing and new discoveries continue to be made. Though you might have to quickly jump into this market to ensure the unmet loyalty of this demographic now, I believe even if you miss this window, new loyalties can be made as opinions and knowledge keeps changing.

Innovation
I'm going to be selling bakery goods, this means foods such as cupcakes, sweet bread (like banana and blubbery), muffins, etc. The different between your normal cupcake and mine will be what's in it, ingredients wise. I will have three different styles of similar foods, so a vegan cupcake, a gluten-free cupcake and a sugar-free cupcake. So the vegan cupcake wouldn't have any eggs or milk in it and the gluten-free cupcake wouldn't have flour and so on. What this innovation will do is two things; one, it will create a sweet-shop for those that need these certain foods and, two, it will be bring together a variety of different dietary restrictions together under one roof so that this is no longer a "speciality" shop or food. I would be selling my baked goods at different prices depending on the product. A cupcake or muffin would probably be about $3 or $4, while a loaf of banana bread would probably be closer to $8 or $10. The price would also take into account which diet it followed. Gluten-free would probably be the most expensive so that price might be a dollar more than that of the other foods.

Venture Concept
I don't think for my particular product it's so much as "switching" as a searching. Because this is such a new market and so little currently exist and people are still trying to figure out the best fit for them in these new dietary lifestyles, there's a constant searching for what is better (tastier) and easier (more convenient). This is why I think my business will be so successful in giving this demographic what they want as the "sweets" for these diets are still being discovered through new ways of making them taste as "normal" as possible. My business will also be convenient as no longer will my customers have to search for the perfect recipe that maintains their dietary needs and then take the time to shop and bake these goods, rather they can easily divulge their sweet tooth with one quick stop to my shop. My competitors are other small restaurants that serve to similar diets as myself, this can range from the savory for dinners and lunches, to other sweet shops such as Karma Cream (a local restaurant in Gainesville that serves vegan ice cream and some other vegan foods). I think these competitors weakness when compared to mine is two things; one, there's very few speciality in which the shop is just a bakery, and two, mine would be one of the first to serve multiple dietary needs, rather than focusing just on one which is how almost all of the restaurants that currently exist are.
I think specifically the location would play into my business concept because if there are other shops already like mine that exist, there are almost none in Gainesville, or at least close to campus. My shop would be in the immediate surrounding area to UF's campus, most likely in the area of  University, 13th, or Archer. To start off with, my business would have very few employees. There would be someone to act as a manager/business/financial advisor, one or two bakers, and one or two cashiers that would also do any necessary bus work. This would total to about five employees for one location.

Minor Elements
My company's secret sauce will be our diverse menu in the fact that it serves so many common dietary needs.
My next goal for my company would be to bring in either more sweet goods that they could buy (that would fall under the existing diets we serve), spreading out into more dietary restrictions, or teaching baking classes.
I think the best way I can describe where I see my venture in five or ten years would be something similar to Sprinkles Cupcakes, a well-known specialty cupcake shop that I believe started in New York and has now spread across the nation with multiple locations. I want my business to become sort-of a franchise so that everyone no matter where they live can enjoy their favorite baked goods no matter what they're diets consist of, but I also want to make sure my bakery maintains a homey feel to it because that's how I imagine a bakery should feel. I believe this type of warm and welcoming setting for a bakery will succeed the most in accordance to customers' desires.
This first shop will help me as an entrepreneur because it will have started in Gainesville, a college-town is the perfect place to start a new business as you can get the most feedback and more people are more open-minded in the areas. I believe this opportunity will allow me to grow and learn the most to perfect and polish my business to be the most successful it can be.

Peer Feedback
Almost all of my feedback from students was positive. Everyone said they loved my idea and I seemed very creative and focused. I think that's a great impression to give as the founder of a start-up company in order to receive good feedback and lots of growing sales. One suggestion I received to see if I could work a deal with Publix or other local grocery stores to sell some of my products in their stores. I think that's an amazing idea so that those that have never heard of me and are just shopping for their grocieries see my locally-made food and become curious what that's about. Then maybe that can draw more customers to my stores. A lot of people said my company had growing potential beyond just Gainesville. However, as much as I want to see my company grow and succeed, I also don't want it to loose that homey feel and that locality factor. I believe my company needs a face no matter where it is, that means a hands-on manager and a hands-on team.

Revisions
The only revisions I want to make are in where I want my brand to go and what I want it to do next. Like I mentioned in the peer feedback section, someone mentioned trying to sell in local grocery stores. I absolutley love this idea and think it would give my company just a little bit of added revenue with a whole lot of added customers. Another peer review I wanted to look at was my What's Next post. Here, a lot of people reacted extremely positivley to my idea of going into catering/large orders. They thought this would be a great wy to increase my customer loyalty. This was my personal favorite of all the ideas listed in that post and it had the best reactions in the comments, so that would without-a-question be my next step for my business. 

Elevator Pitch No. 4

On my last elevator pitch I got very positive feedback, people told me not to worry about what others thought and just focus on my business. A lot of people thought my pitch was as good as it could get for a one-minute video and that I did a good job in discerning what information was the most important to include, and what was just not important enough to waste any second on for such a short video. The only constrictive criticism given was to slow down my speaking. I tried to slow down my speaking enough to just sound like personality, but still talk about everything I wanted to mention. I definitely am the happiest with how this pict turned out of the four I've done. I only said "um" twice and I even cam up with a catch phrase for my business at the end.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

One of the most surprising things in this weeks readings was the table 4.2 on chapter 4 where the author discuss the stages of social entrepreneurs behaviors. Here, one of the stages mentioned is philanthropy. I never had previously thought much about businesses donating to any philanthropic cause, and I never thought of it's connection to the entrepreneurial world. However, in this table the author points out its exact benefits and necessity to that of a growing entrepreneurial business.
The sustained corporate entrepreneurship layout was rather confusing to me. The makeup of businesses has always been something I've pondered about, especially that of large corporate companies. However, the larger the brand, the more confusing I truly find it. Though the graph 3.5 did help immensely, I wish each box had been a little more well-explained of what exactly each of those people did and their place in the company. Also, I don't know where I, an entrepreneur, would fit into it, especially that of my own company.
The author talks about the importance of preparing for failure as it's a very real possibility in any entrepreneurial venture and the idea of learning from failures has become common thinking. But besides stating these facts, the author doesn't really discuss how to deal with the actualities of the situation. I'm definitely one to promote learning from your mistakes, but either way, you still have failed in the present, and what can you do to move past this? You may have financial standings that are ruined, or idea that were stolen, or many other possibilities that you are left with in the rubble of your failure, what do you do next to get to that "now look back and learn from your mistake(s)" stage? Then, in chapter 4, the author discuss why unethical behavior remains, even with the knowledge of its misconceptions and clear mistaken choice. However, after listing the five reasons why this might be ignored, the author gives little reason to combat those reasons. The one that stuck out to me was greed, which I think many people view entrepreneurs as, which is then tied into their view that entrepreneurs are thus unethical. How can entrepreneurs move away from that mindset? Even those that actually are greedy, how would the author suggest teaching them that any unethical decisions are still not the right choices?
Under the section titled "Developing Individual Managers for Corporate Entrepreneurship," the author briefly talks about innovative thinking and states that it is foreign to traditional organizations and there are large misconceptions around this idea. However, I think that though it may still be foreign to some rather old-fashioned businesses, I believe many organizations have caught on to the importance of innovative thinking in today's fast-paced world that expects the newest and most open-mindedness in companies they support. An ignorance to such open thinking will only lead to the companies inevitable downfall as the world gravitates towards innovation more and more.

Google Gold

1. The best strategy to achieve SEO is to create a headline, or post title, using key words that people would regularly type into Google, something I learned from my public relations classes. However, since we did not choose the title for our posts in the class, I didn't really put much thought into SEO for my posts. Another good way to create web traffic to your site is to use hashtags to also be easily found on a good search. I didn't do this, the only hashtags I used were the ones we were suggested to use (the labels for each week). The only other way to get any views to your page, then, would have been to repeat key words throughout your post, which I did try to do. But this is the least valuable strategy of the three I've listed, so it wasn't all that successful in my Google search.
2. Key words that I used in every post included "dietary restrictions", "vegan", "sugar free" and "gluten free". These words were much too broad though, especially when only being used in the body of a post, and not the title.
3. I never posted my blog on any social media sites, except for canvas, so the only views I got from this were those that came to my blog to comment on posts. Though from other similar experiences to this, I have learned that social media can help, but not as much as people assume it does. I write for an online publication and my first article that I posted to my Facebook received a lot of attention and traffic to the site, however, the weeks to follow did not gain nearly as much attention as that first piece did. 
4. My post "viral" post was my "Celebrating Failure" article. With six views, this was the most attention any post received, with my next highest being five views on a couple of different posts.
5. I did not make it to the first page of my Google search, I couldn't find any remnants of blog until page 20, and even that took a couple of different searches to finally find.

Very Short Interview No. 2

From where I stand now at the end of this course, I still think that this initial interview was very helpful and beneficial to me. I think the entrepreneur gave me a lot of good tips and advice that I definitely saw come into play throughout this course. The only thing that the entrepreneur did mention, that was not really brought up in this class, was working together on a team. I'm sure this is important in the real-world of entrepreneurship, however this specific class just never had this piece within its assignments.

How have you dealt with any unpredictable changes that have occurred?
"Somebody saw an item, and wanted matching pieces, but I didn't have it because the stuff is all uniquely made. I always tell them sure I can do it, none of the pieces will be exactly the same, but I can get it for them."
How do you decide what you business's next step is?
"I always ask when I'm selling my merchandise, 'Is there anything that you would like that you don't see?'. Some of my best-selling products have come from that tactic."
Have you begun to think about your exit strategy? If so, what is it and why?
"No because I always want to continue doing it, at least as a hobby. But I have already slowed down marketing it as a business."

Reflection:
I felt much more comfortable talking to the entrepreneur this time in the interview than I did the first time. As seen above, I knew many more terms of the field as well as had a better understanding of what went into. Coming up with my own questions made me realize that I had a much better sense of entrepreneurship now, as my questions were much more broad in the first interview and much more detailed this time.
I definitely think my entrepreneur could tell my gain in knowledge talking to me this time as opposed to the first time. She were a little stunned after I used the term "exit strategy," I don't think she expected me to know this term, nor was she ready to be asked it! She also paused after the first question as she really had to think about unpredictable changes she's had to withstand, I think having thought of something so specific about parts of the job really showed her how I've grown and learned in entrepreneurship.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me the most right away in reading this chapter was all the reasons for acquisition, which is an important reason as to why an entrepreneur should value their existing business. I thought the only reason why you would need to know the value of your company would be if you were looking to sell it, either to a patent label, larger corporation or different small-business owner. But rather, according to the book, you should know the value of your business for more reasons than just an exit strategy, but possibly even a growth strategy. The textbook lists many reasons as to why you should price the value of your business, many of the reasons include expanding on your current venture.
The price/earning section was the most confusing part. I actually remember doing this in math at some point in my life, I can't remember when, but I was very confused by it then and I think I only ever slightly understood it. The formula always seemed confusing to me, as did the values used (I didn't understand what net income and stock price, etc. were). I also don't really understand what this formula answers for a business owner. Maybe I would have understood this more if the formula was given more in a linear, note form as opposed to the word, horizontally-written form. This way it would have been easier to follow and possibly understand.
How do you choose with method for venture valuations is best? They all seemed to have their own usefulness, as well as draw-backs, so how do you choose one as opposed to the other? And if you should do all of them exactly for this reason that they each have their own problems, how do you compare one method to the other to find the most accurate value of your company?
I didn't necessarily think the author was wrong here, but I thought his 14.2 table was way too long and confusing. How do you keep track of all of these answers to compare them to find a fair value of your firm? I also disagreed that the discounted earnings method couldn't be the most real value of your firm since this method uses projection values, thus also having it's own fall-back due to error with estimations.

Celebrating Failure

This past semester I took Multimedia Writing. In this class we had lab once a week where we would write some type of news story, feature story or press release. Time and time again I couldn't get much higher than somewhere in the 80s on each week's assignment. On the rare occasion, I did score a 90 or so, but this wasn't too common. I think my most common mistake was with my headlines, I never knew how hard coming up with those short headlines you see every day in magazines or newspapers really was! It's hard to capture a whole story that could catch the attention of your audience in only 8 to 10 words.
The biggest thing I learned in this class was the difference between essay-style writing and news writing. We're trained to be masters at the 5-paragraph essays with a thesis statement, introduction paragraph, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. So much so, that it's almost impossible to not automatically write like this anymore. Always told to have at least 5 sentences in each paragraph really messes with your brain when all of a sudden a paragraph is usually only one sentence and no more than 35 words. Though this was difficult, I think I finally started to improve, at least with news releases, which is more important since this is more of what I'll be dealing with as a public relations major.
Failure is definitely scary. Even as we get older and learn of its importance, it's still our first, initial reaction as humans. Growing up, my mom always encouraged my failures, she never was hard on me or disappointed in me every time I made a mistake, I actually was my hardest critic. No, she always would cheer me up by telling me to look at what I learned from my failures and what I would do next time to make it better. Though I still shy away from failure, I think this type of parenting has allowed me to be more of a courageous and adventurous person than most. I don't know if this class has really changed my perspective on failure, being that this class was virtually all on a blog, it's wasn't as real as other failures I've experienced. I think the best failures that I've learned the most from are those that happen in person and have the largest loss or gain on my life. The things that hold the most value are always the scariest to loose and the most likely to learn from.

My Exit Strategy

I plan to stay with my business until I retire. I think the fact that it's owned by a person, and the brand has a friendly and familiar face, is the drawing point to many customers, as opposed to franchises. If I were to sell, I think a lot of customers would be disappointed and stop coming. The whole idea behind the company is to bring authentic and high-quality food to those that care about what they put into their bodies, or teach others that don't already. If I were to sell, I think a big-industry company would not care at all about the food itself, and without someone with the passion for the food and a personal connection to the different dietary restraints, I think the product would really change for the worse. A big-company might not care much to keep trying recipe after recipe until they find one that tastes good, they might just go with the easiest or cheapest option. I think this exit strategy has influenced the brand's mission and growth intentions I plan to ensure the ultimate customer satisfaction by being such a hands-on owner, which is why I wouldn't leave the company until I was ready to retire. I want to make sure every design made is for the benefit(s) of our customers, and then financially makes sense, too. I think this strong work ethic is what makes the business so successful because it would show in high customer interest and pay-off.

What's Next

Existing Market

1. I think my next steep should be going into catering and making larger orders, so large orders of cupcakes or cakes for parties such as birthdays and weddings. I think this should be my next step so for any occasion, my customers can enjoy my sweets. I also think this will allow me to broaden my customer intake because now people can order my product for larger venues, this will help ensure customer loyalty.
2. I went back to my pre-existing customers and asked them what they thought should be my company's next move. I also asked them what they thought of my current next step of action and how they would react to such additions.

3. I think the next best step of action would be to actually offer cooking classes. I thought this was a great idea that one of the people I interviewed had and I think it could really broaden my market. This would be a very doable next step of action as it would require very little finance to help start it. This would help broaden my market because now any age would become more interested. A lot of people find cooking classes very fun and a good activity to do. This would make it the perfect addition to draw in more customers as people that like to cook, or have no idea how to cook, all enjoy learning new ways to bake yummy things.

New Market

1. Before I was targeting those with dietary restrictions, or those who had close friends and family that were restricted by what they could eat. I now decided to venture into the market in which people are not at all affected by these restrictions to see what I could do to draw their attention.

2. I think the first and most obvious thing I could do to add value to my business from this market would be to add products that are "normal," or, in other words, aren't different in ways of dietary restrictions. However, because my company's mission is to not just provide a bakery for those with dietary restrictions, but to also ensure that we pay attention and bring value to the quality ingredients we use, these "normal" goods would still be made with only high-quality ingredients. 

3. I interviewed people in the new market that I named in step 1 and asked them what they thought my next step would be. Some gave answers that would expand my current range that had to do with dietary restrictions, others agreed with me and said I should add these "normal" foods to my menu.

4. What surprised me the most by these new market interviews was how many of them actually gave answers that stayed "within the lines" of my current market and business. None of these answers were too out there or too new. I had guessed, as I said above, that at least one person would say to add the "normal" food to the menu, but I didn't think that so many answers would stay on the current line of vegan, gluten-free and sugar-free. I expected to here more answers about adding "normal" food, or maybe drinks (like smoothies) to my menu because I thought they as people not affected by these diets, they would see my bakery as more of a health shop than a place just for people to go and grab a quick sweet. I was surprised that many of these new customers really understood right away though that this wasn't just a health shop because we served vegan food or so on.

I obviously expected to hear a lot about adding the "regular" food to my menu. The only problem with doing so is how to do this in reality. It worries me to add too many diets to my menu because of the behind-the-scenes reality of keeping all of these dishes separate. I already thought I would have a hard time in keeping just the three diets separate in the kitchen, I'm not sure how much more it could handle. We would definitely have to have a very big kitchen in order to do so, or at least, a lot of storage for all the separate dish-ware we'd have to have on hand. 

This new market is not too attractive now interviewing three people. I thought it would be so easy to gain the attention of people without dietary restrictions and that they'd be open to trying new things. However, it doesn't sound like they really would be open to trying these different baked goods. Even those that said I should expand on my current range didn't seem to actually be interested in this food themselves, they seemed to be making this suggestion on the behalf of those with these restrictions. 

Week 12 Reading Reflection

The thing that surprised me the most in this reading was a lot of the reasons for lack of strategic planning have. The author states that one of these reasons is the lack of knowledge from the entrepreneurs, as well as the lack of expertise and skills. He says that entrepreneurs are usually generalists. Together these two facts surprised me because my perception was always that that's exactly the opposite of what entrepreneurs of, and this thought had always justified why I wasn't, or couldn't be, an entrepreneur. I thought entrepreneurs always were knowledgable in the field they were going into and of its market. I thought that what made entrepreneurs so successful and unique was their knack to take the general issues into a very detailed and specific solution. I also thought that this fact played into their open-mindedness, because they were so open to new ideas and beings, they always were one step ahead in thinking of the next best and helpful thing.
One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the short subsection about strategic positioning and the entrepreneurial edge. I wasn't sure if the author was trying to say that entrepreneurs don't come up with new ideas, but rather reinvent old ones, or if he was saying this was the case sometimes, or if he was just stating the fact that this is a good position to be in due to the fact that the exiting idea already exists and is successful and by making it better this can only confirm your inevitable success.
One question that I thought of during the section on the strategy matrix was how to you determine the "innovation" level and "risk" level. I found this theory very interesting and beneficial, and though the author defined these two terms in their relation to the matrix, I'm not sure if I quite understood how these characteristics are determined. How do you know if something has "high innovation" value or "low innovation" value? Is it just based off of how new and original the idea is? My second question has to do with the section on the entrepreneurial mindset and the author's goal in this section. Was he trying to point out how you can hear off the track of an entrepreneur and how to stay weary of that? And why is this a bad thing? Why should you not find a steady middle as a manager and entrepreneur? This way you can manage all the new ideas you have and see their potential all the way through.
In this same section is probably where I disagreed with the author most. I think that there should be a happy middle as an entrepreneur and manager. By finding this equal balance, you will be creative an innovative enough to continue growing and changing so that your company or brand doesn't dull and slowly fade away, while also not going to far outside the box for something that the public wouldn't be interested in and also an idea that could bankrupt your company. By finding this middle ground I believe this would ensure the success of your business, rather than lead to its downfall.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity
I believe the unmet needs for my customers is rather numerous. One of their unmet needs is the need for certain foods and ingredients. Another need of theirs is happiness, the joys that only a sweet treat can bring. I also believe an unmet need for my customers goes beyond just the food and what's in it, but also includes their social affairs. Dietary restrictions don't just restrict what foods they can or cannot eat, but also the places they can go and the people they can be with. In all cultures across the world, there is some form of bonding over meals. This is a time to relax, unwind and enjoy the company of your loved ones (loved ones being anyone from friends to family to colleagues). The changes in the environment that have created this opportunity is a mixture of things. One may be a evolutionary change in which more and more people have started to form allergies to certain ingredients, such as gluten. This may be a result of the shocking amount of processed chemicals that are more and more commonly being used in foods, specifically in the U.S. Another environmental change that has created my opportunity is a growing awareness of what people are putting in their bodies. Many more people are starting to take the quality of their food into consideration before eating. I think this also is due to the outrageous amount of chemicals being used in U.S. food market, and with more studies showing the harmful effects of these products, people are taking action.
People are just now reaching out and changing their routines to satisfy this need. This means that this is a growing market with lots of potential as it's fairly new and everyone is still trying to figure out which solution works best. This recent founding of this market means there is a lot of growth to come, which means big opportunity to those that jump on this ever-growing fad now.
I believe the window of opportunity for this market will be rather long as it keeps changing and new discoveries continue to be made. Though you might have to quickly jump into this market to ensure the unmet loyalty of this demographic now, I believe even if you miss this window, new loyalties can be made as opinions and knowledge keeps changing.

Innovation
I'm going to be selling bakery goods, this means foods such as cupcakes, sweet bread (like banana and blubbery), muffins, etc. The different between your normal cupcake and mine will be what's in it, ingredients wise. I will have three different styles of similar foods, so a vegan cupcake, a gluten-free cupcake and a sugar-free cupcake. So the vegan cupcake wouldn't have any eggs or milk in it and the gluten-free cupcake wouldn't have flour and so on. What this innovation will do is two things; one, it will create a sweet-shop for those that need these certain foods and, two, it will be bring together a variety of different dietary restrictions together under one roof so that this is no longer a "speciality" shop or food. I would be selling my baked goods at different prices depending on the product. A cupcake or muffin would probably be about $3 or $4, while a loaf of banana bread would probably be closer to $8 or $10. The price would also take into account which diet it followed. Gluten-free would probably be the most expensive so that price might be a dollar more than that of the other foods.

Venture Concept
I don't think for my particular product it's so much as "switching" as a searching. Because this is such a new market and so little currently exist and people are still trying to figure out the best fit for them in these new dietary lifestyles, there's a constant searching for what is better (tastier) and easier (more convenient). This is why I think my business will be so successful in giving this demographic what they want as the "sweets" for these diets are still being discovered through new ways of making them taste as "normal" as possible. My business will also be convenient as no longer will my customers have to search for the perfect recipe that maintains their dietary needs and then take the time to shop and bake these goods, rather they can easily divulge their sweet tooth with one quick stop to my shop. My competitors are other small restaurants that serve to similar diets as myself, this can range from the savory for dinners and lunches, to other sweet shops such as Karma Cream (a local restaurant in Gainesville that serves vegan ice cream and some other vegan foods). I think these competitors weakness when compared to mine is two things; one, there's very few speciality in which the shop is just a bakery, and two, mine would be one of the first to serve multiple dietary needs, rather than focusing just on one which is how almost all of the restaurants that currently exist are.
I think specifically the location would play into my business concept because if there are other shops already like mine that exist, there are almost none in Gainesville, or at least close to campus. My shop would be in the immediate surrounding area to UF's campus, most likely in the area of  University, 13th, or Archer. To start off with, my business would have very few employees. There would be someone to act as a manager/business/financial advisor, one or two bakers, and one or two cashiers that would also do any necessary bus work. This would total to about five employees for one location.

Minor Elements
My company's secret sauce will be our diverse menu in the fact that it serves so many common dietary needs.
My next goal for my company would be to bring in either more sweet goods that they could buy (that would fall under the existing diets we serve), spreading out into more dietary restrictions, or teaching baking classes.
I think the best way I can describe where I see my venture in five or ten years would be something similar to Sprinkles Cupcakes, a well-known specialty cupcake shop that I believe started in New York and has now spread across the nation with multiple locations. I want my business to become sort-of a franchise so that everyone no matter where they live can enjoy their favorite baked goods no matter what they're diets consist of, but I also want to make sure my bakery maintains a homey feel to it because that's how I imagine a bakery should feel. I believe this type of warm and welcoming setting for a bakery will succeed the most in accordance to customers' desires.
This first shop will help me as an entrepreneur because it will have started in Gainesville, a college-town is the perfect place to start a new business as you can get the most feedback and more people are more open-minded in the areas. I believe this opportunity will allow me to grow and learn the most to perfect and polish my business to be the most successful it can be.

Amazon Whisperer

Currently my only revenue drivers are customers that come into my bakery and order a product.
I think the next thing I should offer would be catering service or large order service. So if someone was, say, a vegan, and was getting married a needed a wedding cake, they could order such a large product from my bakery that would be 100% vegan friendly. Or, if the same person was getting ready for their wedding and was having a bachelorette party and wanted an order of different sweets for a dessert table, they could place such a large order and have it delivered to them for their convenience. Going off of this catering service, to make our catering different than your typical delivery, we would set up and bring our own placement, such as decorative three-tiered stand and other cute decorative pieces to make for a nice dessert set-up.
I believe this service of setting up and bringing our own place settings will relieve the stress of customers as planning any event is stressful enough; this service will allow our business to be different and better liked by customers. This will incur customer loyalty and outreach as word gets around at how pleasant their customer experience was with my bakery and will tell more and more people. This should also help slightly in sales at the actual shop as new customers that heard about a good catering service will stop by the shop for their first time and probably try the product before placing for a large order.
I did an Amazon search to see what products were sold on Amazon that were similar to my product and this is what I found:

• For gluten free:
• I found a brand that sold different bakery mixes that were gluten-free called Bona Dea. I also found an all-purpose baking mix by a brand called "Wholesome Chow" (the mix was also organic).

• For sugar-free:
• I found two products that were somewhat similar to my product; a Pillsbury sugar-free devil's food cake mix and a recipe book called "Baking with Less Sugar."
• For vegan:
• I found the only product I found was a cook book called "Chloe's Vegan Desserts." There were couple of products similar to this, but all cook books, no other product assortment.
  

For the reviews:

• For the gluten-free products I found that the the blueberry muffins mix was rather successful with an overall rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars and almost all of the reviews I read were positive. The all-purpose baking mix was also a raging success with an overall rating of 4 and many positive reviews to follow.
• For the sugar-free products I found the the Pillsbury cake mix was rather successful in its reviews. It had an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars and many of the reviews I read said the cake was delicious. For the "Baking with Less Sugar" cook book, the overall rating was 4.1 stars and many reviews were raving out how yummy the desserts were. Some of the "bad" reviews were more based on how the product wasn't "no sugar," but "less sugar."
• For the vegan cook book, the overall rating for this product was a 4.5 out of stars, but from the first couple of reviews I read, I saw mixed decisions. A couple people said the brownies were greasy, and other things too sweet, etc.

Because these products aren't exactly the same as my product, I couldn't make many changes to them based off of the reviews. However, the few things I would take into account for my business would include maybe an alternative to sugar supplements, such as Splenda, as these supplements tend to make customers gassy, which was the only bad reviews I read of the sugar-free products. For the gluten-free, many of the reviews talked about how "wheat flour was supposed to taste," and that the product either did it correctly or failed, so I would be sure to focus on making the flour taste "real." Lastly, for my vegan products, I don't think I'd have the problems that many people complained about because in my bakery we would keep trying different recipes and measurements until we found one that was just right, and not too greasy or overly sweet.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

The first thing that surprised me right away was Pisano's statement that the reason for failure in innovation and in it's continuous success is that there is a lack of innovation stagey. I would not have guessed this as our textbook is constantly describing all these different strategies for every area of innovation that studies have found for its success.
Nothing in this reading was confusing. I really enjoyed the reading and thought it was well-written because the author separated all of his different ideas into short subcategories, and continuously explained what he points were through real life examples that people knew of or could relate to. This allowed the article to become interesting as it connected to my real-life knowledge, as well as allowed me to thoroughly understand what Pisano was trying to explain. If I had to choose one confusing part, the section on "Managing Trade-Offs" and about crowdsurfing was a little bit confusing because it wasn't as short and simple as the other parts of the article, and I'm not really sure if I understood why you should sometimes use this method and sometimes not.
In the case when the author talked about his time he spent working with a contact lenses company, I am curious to know if we were ever to be in a similar situation how we would know if we were wasting our time and how we could find the root of the problem before spending all this time and money on a failed innovation, as the contact lenses company did. I also am curious how you can know when you're innovation has gone too far from a population's open-mindedness. How do you know if you're product is pushing the limits of their imagination too far to the point that they won't want to risk it? Is this as easy to discover via surveys, or is it much bigger and trickier than this?
As much as I do think Apple and/or Steve Jobs are definitely innovators to look up to, I don't know if I agreed with the author's argument that crowdsourcing doesn't always work. I think Steve Jobs was a true genius, innovator and risk-taker, which most people aren't and I think it's rare for the choices he made to actually work. The author brings up a rather well-known quote from Steve Jobs in which he commonly said that people don't know what they want, but I think it's still important to utilize crowd-sourcing before introducing something just to get an idea for where your crowd will be in accordance to the liking of your product. Sometimes it's good to smart with something small that population might only slightly realize they want, and build up from there to things, as Jobs says, that they don't even know they want.

My Unfair Advantage

1. People skills/ability to read people
• Valuable: Being able to connect to people is how I can maintain excellent customer service. 
• Rare: Many business owners are too logical, and usually not good with talking to people and being social.
• Inimitable: Having good people skills and being able to truly read and understand people is not something you can really learn. If you want to learn this, it's very difficult, more more commonly you're just born with this skill; it's all in the way your mind thinks.
• Non-substitutable: It's almost impossible to create good customer service if you can't read people. How can you give your customers the best experience possible if you don't understand them and know what they want?
2. Familial background
• Valuable: Because of my personal connection to certain dietary restrictions, I have passion and determination to create a place where no matter what you can and cannot eat, you can come together to eat and bond together.
• Rare: Not everyone has a personal connection to such issues.
• Inimitable: You either have such a connection and drive to a mission or don't, those that don't have a personal relation to such an issue won't be willing to work as hard at fixing it. 
• Non-substitutable: The more passionate you are about a topic, the more willing you are to work towards a solution, the closer the issue is to you personally, the more passionate you feel about it. This sense of connection and passion are traits only I posses.
3. Network/connections
• Valuable: Knowing people in the industry will give me an endless supply of tips and possible connections to other people I may need to know. This also shows that there is already a market that exists for my type of business.
• Rare: The people I know may differ from the people that someone who is trying to open a similar shop knows. My unique group of people that I know may give me an upper hand.
• Inimitable: Knowing more people means I have a broad understanding of what already exits, which means I know what not to copy because it won't make my business different.
• Non-substitutable: Knowing a certain person is irreplaceable. There's no telling what a certain person I may know could do for me and my business. They could surprise me and help me in more ways than I even originally thought.
4. Passion
• Valuable: A passionate person means a hard-working owner. The more passion someone has, the more they're going to want to and work towards the success of their business.
• Rare: In a growing corporate world, the factors of passion and care are becoming less and less common, but people like these traits and react positively to those businesses that can show they have these characteristics.
• Inimitable: You cannot imitate passion. You either care or you don't. Fake passion is more easy to see through than water. 
• Non-substitutable: Passion creates an outcome for success of a business like no other. 
5. Knowledge
• Valuable: Recipes I may know, the people skills I may have, the imagination I may have or the people I may know,  this is all my knowledge of an industry and what will work.  
• Rare: Only you hold the specific mixture of things you know. Many people may know the same things as you, but you may know a better way to apply these thoughts all together.
• Inimitable: There's a famous saying that the only thing that no one can take away from you is your education, well this is true and exactly what makes you exact education and background unique from any other. 
• Non-substitutable: There's nothing that can be more important than the knowledge you may know to help build the success for your business.
6. Creativity
• Valuable: Creativity and knowledge go hand in hand, you can be very smart, but without anything interesting pertaining to your business, it can be dry and unpopular. But with too much creativity and not enough knowledge, customers may be drawn in, but ultimately left disappointed. I believe the key to a successful business and a balance of both of these resources.
• Rare: Creativity is a rarity because even if two people both consider themselves "creative," these actions can play out in different ways. One could say blue walls, the other could say yellow walls, it's all different and unique.
• Inimitable: Something that is truly unique and original cannot be imitated. Even if another were to copy and idea, once an idea is out there, it usually can be recognized when being copied. Especially with things like social media now, word can get around fast.
• Non-substitutable: The popularity of a business can be based on the creativity of its owner(s) alone. The more different a business is, the more likely customers are to be drawn to it.
7. Logical
• Valuable: Logical is similar to knowledge, because without this trait, your business may suffer due to lack of awareness.  
• Rare: Many people that have a passion and drive for a topic can usually get lost in the heart-ache of it all and start going against their logical thinking. I tend to truly listen to my logical voice over any other.
• Inimitable: Logic isn't a skill to imitate, you either are aware of things or aren't, and listen to this thinking or don't.
• Non-substitutable: Without thinking of the logistics to your business, there's very little possibility for its success. You need to be able to be passionate about an idea without entering into the dream world.
8. Organization
• Valuable: The more organized you are, the more prepared you can be and the more space there is for you business to grow.
• Rare: I think that this isn't exactly "rare," but it's not common. I think about 50% of people are organized and the other 50% is disarrayed.
• Inimitable: Organization is imitable, many people follow the same organizational methods.
• Non-substitutable: Though organization is nothing new or rare, it still allows for the growth and success of a business.
9. Hard-working
• Valuable: A hard-working person is necessary in the start of a business, especially a business that may be different from others that already exist as they will have to really work to stand out and draw a crowd to the unfamiliar.
• Rare: Many people may be hard-working, but what that means vary and it is important to not just work hard, but to see the results of those actions.
• Inimitable: It's hard to just say you're going to be hard-working. Most people either have what it takes to work hard or don't and those that don't but want to usually find it is very hard to change that about themselves.
• Non-substitutable: This is so important for a new business because you have no following yet so you have to work for that following. But once you have this, the job doesn't all of a sudden become a lot easier, you must still work hard to keep the following and grow.
10. Save money
• Valuable: Saving money can be very beneficial for a business because of any money I've already saved to open this business as well as once my business is open saving money at all possible ends can leave space for my company to grow.
• Rare: I think that many people, especially in today's society, don't know how to save money and struggle with the self-restraint to do so.
• Inimitable: Many people will try to imitate this, but the ways in which every person decides to save money are different. 
• Non-substitutable: This is essential for a new business to be able to know where to cut ends or tricks you already know on how to save money.

I think my people skills is my top resource, which can be seen in my secret sauce interviews as many of my friends and family highlight this trait as what makes me unique. In today's society, people value customer service and a person's social skills above almost all else. My ability to read people can only help my business gain a following and the support it needs.

Growing My Social Capital

1. Domain Expert- UF Nutrition Major
• I contacted a nutrition major as my domain expert since she definitely would know more about nutritional facts for different foods than I would. In the domain of dietary restrictions, I believed that someone that was learning all about nutrition must give them a decent understanding of what these different diets/lifestyles often do to peoples bodies. I also thought this would be a good contact because when they graduate they could possibly refer clients to my business (if I were to open this bakery). I thought this would be a good future contact to have as we both went on to develop in our own fields. I've mentioned in previous posts that my bakery is more than just for people that have dietary restrictions, but for people that care about what they're putting into their bodies (including those people with dietary restrictions since they obviously are forced to care about what they're putting in their products). I just asked some basic questions about what the differences were between the three diets that I was focusing on was (gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan) and asked a little bit about any recommendations she might have for achieving these three dietary foods while also using the best quality ingredients. The student that I spoke to was very helpful and gladly told me some ways that I could make such different dietary foods without forgoing the quality of the food. In fact, it seemed like most of these diets force you to use only high-quality ingredients.
2. Market Expert- Chef Brookes
• I emailed a local chef from my hometown who owns a vegan restaurant and teaches vegan cooking classes. I deemed her a "market expert" as she already owns a shop somewhat similar to the one I've described. I emailed her and asked her how if she had any tips from being in the same industry that I told her my potential business was in. She replied very vaguely and didn't really give any insight. She asked me to be more specific but I honestly had no idea how to be more specific as I just wanted to know if there were any random tips that she had never thought of but had learned over the course of owning her business.
3. Supplier- Publix/Happy Healthy Treats
• For this one I wasn't really sure who I should contact, so I first called Publix to see if they had different ingredients that my type of bakery would need. I asked if they had key ingredients such as gluten flour and bananas (which often act as eggs in bakery goods for vegan food). They had a lot of products that I would need that I wasn't even aware that they had. I also decided to email a woman who has a tent in my hometowns winter-farmers market. Her tent sells vegan baked goods and I was lucky enough to meet her because my mom is a very frequent client (my mom is vegan). I'm still waiting for her response (and I'll update this when she replies), but if I remember correctly this past winter when I was talking to her she told me it's not very complicated and she uses simple ingredients that you can get from any grocery store. She said that this isn't a hard lifestyle like many people think it is.

Reflection: I was very happy to learn how possible opening this kind of bakery could be. All these different types of diets seem so foreign and mystical and as though they'd be hard to keep track of, but in reality all the ingredients are right under our noses and in fact require very little differentiation from our "normal" diets. Especially with these diets becoming more and more popular in today's society, the knowledge is really endless in lists of recipes online, as well as facts to attain these diets. 

Week 10 Reading Reflection

In the section on revenue, something the author stated surprised me. I had never even thought how revenue could be overstated; you sold this much at this cost, how could you have found a bigger number than what was true? But I had never even thought to take into accounts returned items or discounts. I especially always had thought of discounts as helping a company as it's advertising that draws clients that may not have normally been clients, but it completely makes sense how this could affect your true revenue amount.
Many parts of this chapter were a little confusing to me because I'm really bad at math and financial terms. Luckily the author did a decent job explaining many things, but it was almost an overload of information and by the end of the chapter I'm not sure if I really understood how to factor all of these different pieces together for a successful business. A lot of the parts that talked about taxes I didn't understand because I have very little experience in paying taxes so far in my life, so I didn't really understand what taxes were paid for (what things you had to pay taxes on/didn't have to pay taxes on).
Many parts of this chapter the author talked about how there were these different "projected costs." There were estimated taxes, projected sales, advertising costs, etc. How do you determine these numbers and how do you determine which things you should assume, or do you just make assumed costs for every single category? Another question that I was wondering throughout the chapter was how do you decide if advertising is worth it or how much advertising to use? It's hard to see the payoffs of advertisements, so are you just supposed to use surveys and hope customers will take the time do fill these out for you, or are there other methods to determine your best advertisement methods?
Being that this chapter was all about financials, I have no idea if the author was wrong about things or missed any part of the financial side of having a business since I've never had a business. It honestly seemed like he must've hit every single detail because of how many things the author kept listing off that I have no idea how one person (or a team of owners) could even maintain all of these actions. This chapter really made me realize how hard it must be to be a small business-owner where you don't really have the funds or space for a financial department and it falls on you.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

I was very happy to have very little negative feedback. The primary thing that many people commented to change was my use of filler work, like "um." I think I did a decent job on cutting back on these words this time. The only other consistent comment that I got on my last elevator pitch was to also discuss how I would pay for all of this. Obviously I couldn't go into too much detail in a one-minute video, but I did throw in a short little explanation on my thinking for this at the end. I really appreciated everyone's feedback on my last pitch and I definitely think it really improved this one (it definitely cut down on my time!), so thank you and I really hope to get even more great feedback on this one!

My Secret Sauce

1) I think I'm different in 5 key ways: 

1.  I think I am curious to learn. This makes me passionate and hard-working. 
2. I am social and interested in people; I'm compassionate. I care about people and am curious and pay attention to what makes people do what they do, why and what makes people different. 
3. I am creative. I thrive off of originality and uniqueness. I try my hardest to think of the same old things and thoughts in a new light.
4. I am a thinker. I like to analyze and question things. I often find myself "zoning out" to go over something that happened a week ago.
5. I problem solve. To be honest, I might not love problem-soling, but I am pretty good at it as a first child of three, I often noticed issues first and had to fix them (this came in time with much practice from babysitting).

2)

Shaina said that I'm caring and that my friend groups vary which is what makes me different (rather than how most people are friends with only one "group" of people).

Tori believes that what makes me different is my curiosity to understand people; she says that I like to learn every aspect of people and their personality and why they do things.

Sam thinks that what makes me different is my adaptability and how I can be very social but also very introverted and logical. She believes that this type of personality allows me to just go with the flow.

My mom said that I'm different because I'm mature and self-driven and embrace growth.

My dad thinks that what makes me different is my sense of people. My understanding of people's motivations and my ability to connect to people make me unique in the way I can act to them.

3) Reflecting back on these interviews, I'm very surprised that no one really discussed my creativity. I always thought that my artistic ability is what defined me and made me different, but it seems that my closest friends characterize me as unique primarily based off of my social skills and how I like to understand people. My mom's interview I think was the most different from mine. She touched on how I was mature, which I didn't really mention, and embrace growth, which no one else mentioned either. Besides that, I think that what all five of the people I interviewed said were along the same lines of what I said. I think the difference in how I viewed my creativity as being such a major key to what makes me unique and how the people that were closest to me viewed my social skills as what makes me unique is primarily due to the fact that that's how most people describe people today. I think that it's usual for a person to be summarized on how they act socially alone, and others don't really take into account the other characteristics people have to offer. I believe that this is because we live in a society that values social skills as the most important skill.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

What surprised me most in this reading was the paragraph about markets. The author described markets and then stated that a new product will only survive if a market exists for the product or service. This seems common knowledge, but I have read about new inventions that were meant as this and ended up being more successful by having a different use in new markets that may not have necessarily been described before.
The most confusing part of this reading was the section on marketing segmentation. I didn't really understand, specifically from the author's example, how people who are in the market can be divided. Sure, I understand you can say these people like chocolate and these like vanilla, but I don't really understand what good that does and if it's a waste of time. I kind of understand how the author was saying this was important for new ventures, but for well-established companies is this really that important?
I'm also surprised that the author discuss production-driven philosophy in which you focus on productivity and then sales later. Why would you do this? Shouldn't the first step in a new business venture be how could I sell this/would this be sellable? Because if your answer is no to this question, but you find out after having already produced your good, isn't that a waste of time, money and energy? I would also ask the author how conducting primary data research could cost money, as he said it could on page 287. Isn't conducting such market research as easy as what we've done in class and just going up to customers? That doesn't cost any money.
There wasn't really anything I disagreed with the author about because I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, or at least more than me who's new to the world of economics and entrepreneurship. But if I was to disagree with him on anything it would be these questions that I posed above and the things that confused me about this reading. But again, I'm sure he could explain it and I would have no disagreement then.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. Having had past experience in developing a business, I understand the importance of thinking through every aspect and asking for outside help to ensure you didn't miss anything. Since growing up with both of my parents, as well as grandfathers, have diabetes, I have experience in how dietary restrictions play a role in people's day-to-day lives and have constantly thought of new ideas that would help improve the hardships these restrictions have caused. I want my business to be a place for people to come and have worries about what's in their food, and to just be able to enjoy their food and their company. My bakery will allow people with dietary needs to be able to not constantly be cooking for themselves and to finally partake in group activities. Many cultures around the world consider meal time the fundamental time for familial and friendship bonding. With this in mind, I hope to open my bakery with this as our mission to make such bonding time possible for all people, no matter what they can or can't eat.
2. I imagine a sign above the register in plain sight among entering my store reading the menu. The menu will be split in the sections: gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan. Behind the scenes, the kitchen will be run similarly to kosher-style kitchens. This means separation; separating the bowls and utensils for the gluten-free from the sugar-free, etc. Kosher-kicthens have two sets of everything, one for meat and one for dairy. I'll be applying this idea to how my kitchen would be separated depending on the dietary restrictions I have listed above. As for bringing in regular dishes for those that want to eat with their friends that have dietary restrictions, but do not themselves have these restrictions, I hope to include this in the same way. So rather than three sections, I would have four; four-sets of this for sets of that and four sections on our menu. Finally, in the serving process we would tie in all aspects of this "splitting of the foods" and serve each dietary restriction on different colored plates as to not get the foods confused outside of the kitchen. So if a group of three friends came to eat at my bakery, the customer with the gluten-free restriction would receive her blueberry muffin on a blue plate, the customer that was vegan would be handed her chocolate cookie on a yellow plate, and the customer that was sugar-free would receive a banana-walnut bread on a red plate.
3. My primary customers are people with diabetes, gluten allergies, or vegan lifestyles, or friends/family of these people. Truly my demographic would be any person of any age or any gender, as long as they have a little bit of a sweet tooth! I expect that most of my customers will have some amount of concern or awareness of the food they put into their body, even those that might not have prior to their visit to my bakery should at least have the smallest sliver of recognition for this after leaving my shop because of the how evident it is all over the shop. 
4. With quality of food and nutrition becoming a bigger a bigger fad, my customers will be intrigued by how my shop offers these qualities, as well as focuses on a diverse group of people and is not restricting to only those without dietary needs. As these dietary restrictions slowly become more and more popular as more people choose to follow these diets to maintain happier lifestyles, more people will be looking for bakeries just like mine. And it won't just be those that have made the change to these diets themselves, but family of friends of these people, too, as they want to all eat out together.
5. What sets my business apart is the lack of solo-bakeries in Gainesville (or at least around the UF campus). And what I mean by that is that there are little to no shops in this area that just serve baked goods, or at least an assortment of baked goods. There are some shops that are specialty bakeries and only serve one or two baked goods, or there are restaurants with a wide-variety of baked goods, but also serve primarily meals. Secondly, my shop will also be different in the fact that it will be one of the only shops that not only serves to those with dietary restrictions, but with a rather wide-variety of dietary restrictions rather than just one.

I think that these elements all together will allow for an undoubtedly successful bakery as it's so unique that there will be little competition, while also being completely possible with no real use of new technology (just new ideas). With such a broad opportune clientele, so much room to grow and expand, and such consideration into current social movements, this bakery should be covered in all the right places and not have any problem becoming popular.

There was so little negative feedback that there was very little to change, fortunately. The five points that I took away from people's feedback was that: 1) Many people have one of the dietary restrictions I listed (which means I should have a big clientele). 2) Many people were friends with or had family that had these restrictions, which expands my clientele, as I mentioned above, into people that aren't even affected by these restrictions 3) People thought it be great to bring close to the UF campus because nothing even similar to my bakery exists in that area 4) Many comments noted that they liked how personal this issue was to me in growing up with parents that had diabetes and 5) How I was going to keep these foods separated (which I then took into consideration and laid out a solution to in paragraph 2).

The Twenty Percent

I interviewed an entrepreneur for a business called Pretty, Stoned and Wired. The owner believes her target customers are married women between the ages of 40-60. Their unmet needs are a boost to any social affair. Elisa, the owner, believes that her product brings liveliness to social effects and a smile to her customers' faces. Elisa usually finds her customers via craft-shows or word-of-mouth. Elisa also thinks that her customers' demographics, besides being married women of the ages between 40-60 years old, are of the upper financial class because her product is not a necessity and is on the expensive side. With no budget for advertising, Elisa primarily promotes her business by word-of-mouth or advertisements created by the event organizer. Watch the inehrtview below.

I repeated these questions to three of the types of customers Elisa described above to see if their answers matched. I asked a married mother between the age of 40-60, a husband married to a women between the ages of 40-60 (to get a males perspective and see if they'd be interested in buying, as well), and a grandmother over the age of 60.
I tried to ask a diverse group of people to get their opinion on who would be interested in buying Pretty, Stoned and Wired products and see if these potential customers were interested in the products to see if this population included more than those Elisa originally believed. Watch the full interviews with these three customers below.

As seen above, the entrepreneur clearly doesn't fully understand her potential customers, but does understand their needs. The primary difference is that most of the customers said that more than them just enjoying the product, the like to buy it as gifts. However, all the customers said they enjoy the products because it's nice for anyone that owns a home and hosts parties, which Elisa does already realize to be the unmet needs for her clients. So the only thing she doesn't understand is her full customer demographics. I believe she might not be aware of her full customer demographic because many people who buy from her give her products away as gifts, so she may not see who actually ends up keeping the utensil.

Half-Way Reflection

1. The primary skills I applied during my time in this course have been my people skills. Talking to strangers and asking them questions and getting their permission to record videos of them, these are the skills I constantly was using every week for this class, and if you don't already have these skills, you will definitely develop them.
2. The time I most felt like giving up was for the three customer interview projects. Constantly asking the same questions over and over felt so tedious, I think this made me loose determination because you begin to get bored of the same idea, or you regret choosing one idea that wasn't thought out enough. For this, I advise really thinking and brainstorming for a good strong business idea that way you won't get tired of it after a week; you'll be talking about it a lot so pick something interesting!
3. a) Like I said above, definitely pick something your passionate about! Only passion will keep this course interesting and allow you to fully enjoy the assignments. b) Don't over-think the assignments. The more you over-think them, the harder they are and the less you get out of the assignment. Just go and do, don't think too much about it. c) Not everything is going to work out, or be "successful." That's ok, it can feel like the assignments are only designed for "successful" ideas, but just keep talking about why your particular idea isn't or wouldn't be successful.

Week 8 Reading Reflection

I was very surprised with the amount of steps and work that went into making a company "public." When you think of starting a company, I always believed that the owner focuses more on the finances side of the business, how much will this cost, how much will you sell the product for, how will this be different enough to sell, who will I sell to, is that a large enough population to keep the company afloat, etc? However, I rarely thought about the legal aspect to it all and having to file paperwork to get your company approved etc, meanwhile, the process in order to take your business public is all about the paper work and legality of it all, it appeared. So this seemed like 3 times the work because of the extra "stamps of approval" you now need as the business owner. But, going public does seem to bring in probably the most revenue or backing to a company so I could understand how this extra work would make sense for that extra financial support.
The most confusing part of this reading was the differences between all the different financing sources, I understand that the author was trying to give brief descriptions by not going into too much detail so that the chapter wasn't a novel in itself, but some of the financial backings seemed so similar I'm not sure what the difference was. I also don't understand how you would make your decision as to who to turn to for financial support as a business owner with so many different options. How do you know which is the best for you?
Where do you start, that'd be my first question. Is there someone you can go to for advice on this? Can you go to a financial advisor for advice as to which finical source to apply to and can they help you with the application process to make sure you're prepared and will be successful in your financial sourcing search? I'm also curious if any small-business owner can apply for any single one of these backings? Can a small-business owner of say, a local boutique, apply for an IPO?
I know nothing about the financial beings of companies and financial funding process so this chapter was much too over my head for me to know if I necessarily disagreed with the author on anything. Everything he said seemed to make sense to me and I liked that he tried to explain this complicated subject in such a simple and  basic way so someone like me, who like I said had no prior understanding of the topic, could understand it at the root of it and at least kind of understand it and research it in more detail on their own.