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.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

I was very surprised from the start of this reading passage as I was under the assumption that advertising did in fact base its advertisements on demographics such as age, sex, education and income. I could see where the non demographics such as preferences and tastes could be successful, and can recognize these strategies by looking at any modern advertisement, however, I thought that it was a cause-effect type theory. I believed that demographics, such as education, influenced non demographics, such as tastes, and thus was why demographics were still important in the modern age.
I was little confused about the article's goal. Most of the article seemed to be trying to convince the reader why old-school habits of advertisement worked best, appealing to buyers of a certain demographic and improving the product based on those findings, while educating the correct customers on what the product itself has to offer. However, reading further into the article it began to seem as though the authors also saw the worthwhileness of using other non demographic factors to appeal to potential buyers. It all began to get a little jumbled for the overall goal in the middle, and while the article concluded decently, I'm still unsure on the authors' opinion. I'm not sure if they were trying to say one method was right and another wrong, or just educate on how to properly advertise, but it just was a little confusing.
I would ask why appealing to possible customers dreams or pleasures is bad? Not that they necessarily said it was bad, just that there was a better way to advertise. Which leads me to my second question, why could you not combine these two factors into advertisements to reach optimal marketing strategies? The authors at the end state that they hope their article showed why the believe non demographic facts don't work, but I just don't think they reached their full potential.
If I had to pick anything to disagree with the authors about, it would be what I stated above, that I believe these two statistics could work nicely together for good advertisements. I believe by properly appealing and educating to the proper demographic, as they suggest, while also showcasing the "luxury" or "dream-like" a product is can, together, create the best advertising strategies.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

I really appreciated the comment on my first Elevator Pitch because I hadn't even thought of how I would keep products uncontaminated behind the scenes. Luckily, someone pointed this out and I decided to add this to my new Elevator Pitch.
I decided, after realizing I had missed this detail, that I should explain my company in more detail in general, not just behind the scenes, in the kitchen, but also a more in-depth description of how a customer would go through my bakeries experience. I added what the store would look like coming in from the front, never having been there, and what my bakery would look like in the back, in the kitchen.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

I was very surprised with one fact being that it's not about who's the biggest company, but rather the most profitable. I don't know if that fact was necessarily surprising or educational, as I had previously thought that whichever company was the biggest was the most profitable.
I was most confused about substitutes and how these can come from other industries. Though I could see how this could by rare and infrequent chance occur, I don't understand how this can be a real enough possibility to have been mentioned in the reading. I know some inventions have sometimes been made for one original purpose, and later discovered to work better for another purpose, however I don't understand how often this could really happen.
I would ask him if there were any "subcategories" to these five forces, as well as how learning these five competitive forces we can use this knowledge to our advantage? By understanding that we should focus or time and energy on all of these categories, and learning, or becoming experts, in all these categories, how can we use this knowledge to become more innovative and unique?
There was really nothing I could disagree with, especially as Professor Porter is an economic expert, and I am not. I really enjoyed his layout of the five forces for strategy and thought they were well-thought out and very realistic and understandable. It was rather obvious that once reading his publications and applying his teachings, you could become a successful business owner, not by being the biggest, but the most profitable.

Customer Interviews No. 3

I still think I'm talking to the right customers, since I believe my target audience in my bake shop would be college students because the sop would be in Gainesville, close to the UF campus. I was considering also interviewing more people with those specific dietary restrictions I've discussed my concern with, however, I still think the people that any student feedback is worthy because I could not just thrive off of students with dietary restrictions alone. I need to make sure that all students would be interested in eating at my bakery as it will be open to all students and thrive off of primarily students, so the more the merrier. I need to make sure that the interest in the product exists among a majority of people that would be walking by the shop, which means the majority of all students, not just those with specific restrictions. 
You can find my interviews here.
I learned that conducting interviews is a great way to get immediate feedback about how successful a possible business idea you have would be without breaking the break. I discovered that people can be more standoffish than I had originally thought and that it is your job to get a good, honest interview out of them, not theirs. By doing so, you can get the best and most important feedback for your future business. I also learned that an interview is not a "poll;" it is an "interview" because you are talking to them, not polling them on some multiple-choice questions. This means that as prepared as you want to be before going into an interview, you don't want your planned questions to restrict you as you should be listening to the interviewees answers and responding and asking further questions based off of those, not continuing on with you planned questions just because that is the layout you previously made. 

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. I've worked before on a team to draw a business plan, and though the business never actually became a reality (because it was for a class assignment),, I have experience in thinking through all the details of starting experience. Growing up with both my parents having diabetes, I have experience in how dietary restrictions can affect people's day-to-day lives and ideas to help improve these. I see the business as a place for people to come and not have to worry about what's in their food, and just to enjoy it. I want people with all dietary needs to be able to not have to constantly cook for themselves and just enjoy the company of family and friends at a meal.
2. I hope to provide a menu basically split into three parts: gluten-free, sugar-free, and vegan friendly. Each third of the menu will generally have the same foods (such as banana bread, red-velvet cupcakes, chocolate chips cookies, etc.), but each food will be prepared differently to satisfy the different dietary needs.
3. My focus for potential customers are people with diabetes, gluten allergies, or vegan lifestyles. All my customers will have the caring and understanding for what goes into their food and the quality of their food, even those who don't have any of these dietary restrictions will hopefully eat at my bakery because of their passion for clean, healthy and natural eating.
4. Customers will enjoy this bakery as not a single friend of theres can miss out. Every time someone just wants to go grab a quick snack, such as pumpkin bread, and asks a friend to join, no longer will their friend have to miss out on outings due to their dietary restrictions.
5. What's different about my bakery is two things: one, my bakery will have a wider variety than most shops close to the UF campus as there is no true bakery in the UF area. Two, my shop will include products following all dietary restrictions, rather than focusing on one, this way no matter which friend has which dietary restriction, everyone can still join in out eating out.

I believe all of these five traits do come together perfectly so be a successful business venture, however my only worry would be number five. I do think that my business is unique, but I am not sure if it is different enough to compete strongly with other similar shops. I also think that this uniqueness only holds true in the UF area, as if you go to other cities, especially those bigger than Gainesville, there may a place like this already in existence, possibly even a few.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

Some things that surprised me in this week's reading was all the areas listed of entrepreneurs' shortsightedness. In previous chapters it felt as though entrepreneurs were to be the opposite of shortsighted, and no such entrepreneur existed that didn't plan and clearly understand the marketplace. However, this chapter the author talks all about how entrepreneurs might under calculate costs, have no insight on the market place and may realize new products with poor timing, and may not have a valid estimate as to how much and/or how a product will be developed. It was interesting to learn that entrepreneurs might not be as well versed in every subject as it seemed previously.
The section on "uniqueness" was really confusing to me, I wasn't sure if the author was trying to say that an issue with entrepreneurs can be that an idea they have is so unique that the technology doesn't (yet) exist to create it, or that there are some more unique ideas than others.
The author talks about a downfall of entrepreneurs being a lack of objective evaluation, and so I would ask him how could we get our ideas completely objectively evaluated? Are there websites we can go to to ask others that are complete strangers to give us their thoughts? Or are there groups you can join to group evaluate each other's ideas? I would also ask the author how you can minimize all of the downfalls he listed within this chapter without being an expert in every area, from innovation, to business and market, etc? It felt as though each downfall was a result of being to, say, too creative, and not enough, say, "business-like," or vice versa, so how could you truly eliminate all of these problems?
The only part that I really disagreed with in the entire chapter was the section where the author discusses the issue of product availability. The author states that a failure to a new product idea can be the lack of availability once the product is released. I don't know if this is always the case, as you see make-up brands and other such companies advertising for future products to get customers interested, excited and hooked onto this interesting new idea. I think that this can sometimes be effective as long as it isn't too premature and can allow for a successful amount of immediate response from the market.

Interviewing customers No. 2

As much as my idea really sounded perfect for the Gainesville area, with it's already existing vegan restaurants, I don't know if my original idea was all that unique. After interviewing 5 customers last week, everyone sounded interested in the idea, but unsure of if it was suitable for them. With so many other existing places similar to this, I feel like the idea would need much more of a confident backing than what I received.
I definitely think I talked to the right customers, I believe my target audience in opening this bake shop would be college students. I just don't know if enough college students have the dietary restrictions that my bakery would focus on, thus enough people to keep the business going. The only other people I would like to interview would be more people with those dietary restrictions I named, I only had one person with an existing restriction in my original interviews, and two people with friends with such restrictions, so I would like to take to more people with these specific diets.
My new questions would be:
1) What dietary restrictions do you have?
2) How difficult are they to follow? What kind of difficulties, if any, have the made in your life?
3) Would you be interested in a bakery that had more foods that you could eat?
4) What kind of foods would you be interested in seeing/
5) Do you think other people besides yourself, without such dietary restrictions, would be interested in this kind of bakery?
At the end of my first post, I talked about how I found that my idea would overall be more or a less a failure. It doesn't seem to have a unique enough spin on it to keep customers coming, or to grab new customers' attention at all.
I don't mind asking people to answer questions, that wasn't the difficult part of this assignment, at least for me. I thought the difficult part of this was getting people to approve of me filming them, I felt that I could have gotten more people to agree to let me interview them if it wasn't being recorded, people could be very warm and comfortable talking to me, but became very self-conscious and uncomfortable as soon as I started recording.
My Three Tips:
1) Be warm and understanding; make them feel comfortable with you as though you've known them your whole life.
2) Be genuinely interested in what they're saying and don't feel confined or restricted by the questions you may have pre-prepared, if they say something that sounds interesting, ask them about it, don't just move on to your next question; there could have been something interesting that you didn't think of that they could have had to say!
3) Be polite! Say "thank you" and "hi" and ask them about themselves! People love to talk about themselves, and the more you let them tell you a little background on them, the more comfortable they'll be with you and the more you'll get a better interview! And not only that, but something they mention in some background information could help you determine better questions to ask , etc.
Here are my interviews.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

Everyone Gets Baked Goods

I want to open a bakery that everyone can eat at, no mater what their dietary restrictions are. So I'm proposing to open a bakery in which we serve your regular bakery goods, as well as gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan friendly baked goods as well. I think this is the perfect solution to the current issue of people with dietary restrictions being unable to eat out at most places and having to slum it alone, always cooking for themselves.