Final Reflection

Throughout this semester, there has definitely been high and lows. Some of my high points included expanding my venture concept, I never really put an idea like this together and followed it through this far. It showed me the potential for ideas to become business plans and possibly grow into more. Just as there was high points in this semester, I also had low points. These low points were very much needed in my case, when I felt like giving up because I missed an assignment here and there, I looked back at the progress I had already made and used that to help me push through the negative feelings I was having.

What sticks out to me the most from this experience is the ability to push through an idea to fulfill the needs of building a business. There are so many people out there with great ideas and innovative concepts but with the lack of effort that surrounds most of us, they never come to light. I truly believe that if successful entrepreneurs showed other people looking into business development how to engage with their idea, we could have many great innovations.

I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur but I really do think I am closer to that mindset. This class has taught me that there is more to being an entrepreneur than just putting an idea together and going with the flow. Instead, you have to look at market trends, especially within your venture in order to make progress with the business. Other traits that are needed to develop this entrepreneur mindset are networking skills, social capital resources, and tangible or intangible factors.

I would recommend other students to take a closer look at the assignments and how they will all blend into one big project. If I would have known this was the bigger plan, I would have chosen my current venture concept earlier. Another important factor I would recommend the students to take into consideration is the readings. It’s a part of the class most people wouldn’t pay much attention to but it will definitely help you get in the mindset of an entrepreneur.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

The opportunity that I’ve have discovered brings two ideas into one major idea to remedy a huge problem a majority of the college population face at some point in their college careers. As college students, we are forced to live in apartments and houses that we can’t simply afford by ourselves; instead everyone, even incoming students, will find themselves rooming up with random roommates to help lessen the total expenditure on housing. The potential customers will include college students throughout the nation. Whether they are second and third year students or incoming freshman, the website will be used by the students, apartment complexes, and college dorm administration groups to help sort through the millions of students that enroll every year. Another potential customer base could be students who have moved to big cities to start their career and can’t afford the expensive living arrangements in the big cities. This opportunity presented itself when I ran into the exact situation last year. I had to move from one place to another and it happened last minute; most of the people I knew in Gainesville had found other places to live in with other people and I was left to look for my next roommates on craigslist. Scrolling through the pages of craigslist, I found out many people have the same issue I did. The environment that helps keep this opportunity going is the constant change we students go through every year and the incoming students the colleges get every year. The market is defined to areas around college campuses, mainly apartment complexes and communities built for the students themselves. Demographically, the market is defined by the college student. Most students who are attending have to stick to a budget and this forces them to find places outside of campus living and a little farther away. Mainly students from a middle or low class demographic will find themselves in this market. Customers are satisfying their need mainly through word of mouth and their connections. Most students now will start the hunt for roommates before the Spring semester starts in order to secure the people they want to live with and the place they have in mind. Those that are left will jump to craigslist or let whatever apartment complex they’re moving into pick the next roommate they’ll live with. When it comes to loyalty, I find it hard to believe these students will be loyal to the craigslist method of finding roommates, but the best option still falls on the word of mouth or connections route; students will want to stick to this route the most since they already know the other person and have seen the potential to become roommates. I have a strong belief that this opportunity is huge. Implementing this idea throughout college campuses throughout the nation and the constant influx of new students, will keep this venture concept in its’ prime. Considering the constant changes new and current students go through every year with their housing opportunities, I believe this window of opportunity will be open for quite a while.

Innovation

My innovation brings the ability of “matchmaking” to the roommate search we endeavor as college students. I plan to develop a website where one can find their perfect roommate by answering some questions about themselves and looking over other student profiles to room up together. The surveys and profiles will depict all the interests, like and dislikes, ratings and possible background checks that one can use to select their perfect roommate. The website will start by having the customer create an account, provide an email, and specify the location they wish to move to or that they’re a part of. Once they’ve provided this information, the next step is the questionnaires. These questionnaires will be designed to pinpoint the likes and dislikes of the individual answering them to find the common ground they will have with other individuals. These questionnaires will have about 40 to 50 questions; therefore, we can get a good sense of the what the profile should be for that individual. Once the questions have been answered, the website will produce results with your best matches to other individuals. At this stage, you can browse the individual’s profiles and find out more of what they like and dislike. What sort of arrangement they want in the new lease whether its half a year, a couple months, or a few years. This list will be provided in order for the individual to see the potential that has been uncovered. Once the individual chooses another individual to be their potential roommate, they have the opportunity to see that individuals email or message them through the website but they have to pay at this point. The individual will then have the 2 opportunities to contact a potential roommate or roommates in order for them to catch on to the potential of the website. If they haven’t had much success or need to contact a few other individuals, they will then pay a $3 fee per individual or a two-week trial for $19.99. Another phase of this process will allow the customer to get a background check on a potential roommate before matching with them but at their cost. This background check will have a $10 fee per individual.

Venture Concept

Through this venture concept, I will help solve the constant hassle of finding a roommate you ACTUALLY want to live with and bring a stop to random roommates. This website will help bring two individuals with the same interest into contact to potentially live together without the fear of living with someone you despise. I believe customers will buy this into this innovation because this is a huge problem that students deal with and if they find themselves with the wrong roommates, it can create an overabundance of stress and anxiety. Customers will switch to this product easily because the alternative options include meeting people the day you move in with no knowledge of what kind of person they are. My website helps them find individuals they will most likely grow fond of. There really aren’t many competitors since the only other methods of finding roommates is through word of mouth, craigslist, and the random selection some apartment complexes do. I’m a strong believer in customer satisfaction and support; making them happy will always be my first priority. My price points will fluctuate a little bit depending on what seems fit at the time or until I find the right price to suit the needs of the customer and my company’s. I would organize my business through different roles in the team. Obviously someone would be in charge of the research and development and constructing teams of the website. There will also be a strong customer support and satisfaction team that will only focus on benefiting the customer. Lastly, I will find the right group of marketing experts to help research the potential markets that haven’t been touched or enhancing the existing methods for the same market.

·      The most important resource I have is the intellectual resource my business will develop. Through the intellectual resource, my business will develop better software every time so no competitor can really substitute us. This will also help bring customer satisfaction to higher levels since our constant innovation of the software relies on their feedback.

·      The next opportunity for this business will be to bring the same methods to property owners that want to find tenants suitable enough to lease or rent their properties to. This website will give the property owners the ability to match with the tenants they want without dealing with the hassle of property damage and other issues that can rise from random tenant signees.

·      In five years, I would like to still be a part of this business venture. This business venture has a huge open window to progress and keep being innovative with the constant inflow of college students. As an entrepreneur, I can see myself looking for new opportunities close to the same field this first venture was. The experience gained from this can help grow another opportunity quicker.

The feedback I’ve received from previous posts has been relatively positive about my idea. Overall, everyone seems to understand the need that has to be satisfied and how I plan to do it. Some comments have stated that they really liked the in-depth characteristics my website would provide for the consumer such as background checks and personal questions used to find more about the consumer. One aspect I would have to look more closely is the price points for the website. I’ve gotten mixed reviews and therefore I’m going to have to tinker with the prices and how much contact the consumer can have for that price.

Due to the feedback I’ve received in regards to the pricing, I decided to offer a free trial that will offer the consumer 2 chances to message another consumer they might be interested in rooming with. After those 2 chances have been used, the consumer will then have to pay for each message they decide to send for another $3 or they can buy a two-week trial for $19.99. These price points and the method itself might change as the business progresses but I feel this would be a good start to bait people into using my website.

Reading Reflection No. 3

Thinking, Fast and Slow

1.    This book explains the theory behind our patterns of thinking. There are two different systems, System 1 and System 2. System 1 depicts the person who thinks fast and makes a quick decision, almost like fight or flight responses. That’s the way I like to think about it. System 2 on the other hand explains the thinking we have behind the long thought out processes we make every day. It allows us to use other factors such as mental traits or morals and those of our surrounding environment to process our thinking and make whatever decision we seem fit.

2.    The book connected with me by showing my thought processes on different assignments and other parts of my day as well. I definitely noticed my “System 1” and “System 2” methods of thinking in action from the questions I’ve had to made for my interviews to the quick decisions we make when we drive. It has also helped me enhance my learning of entrepreneurship by exploring the different theories associated with thinking. Many of these are influenced into marketing strategies and can be used to target different markets.

3.    If I had to design an exercise for this class, I would probably incorporate something with the thinking methods explained throughout the book. Trying to create an assignment that will get the student to think in both ways and show them the differences between both methods. Hopefully it’ll illustrate the changes one makes when they’re faced with both circumstances.

4.    My biggest “aha” moment was realizing the amount of time we spend processing the System 1 and System 2 type of decisions throughout the day. We are constantly making decisions but we never really acknowledge most of them. When we wake up for instance, we DECIDE to get out of bed and get the day going. It might feel like it’s something we have to do but we actually choose to do it.