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.
Showing posts with label Week 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 5. Show all posts
Sunday, February 7, 2016
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.
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.
Monday, February 1, 2016
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.
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