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.