Assignment 30A Final Reflection

1)    Read through your posts from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you've had along the way -- the highs, the lows -- the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.

a.     There were a lot of highs and lows in this class. One low definitely was forgetting to submit my assignment. I really loved exploring the idea of starting a new business. 

2)   What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

a.     The most formative experience was working on my elevator pitches. I thought it was very beneficial to develop and gain experience forming my elevator pitches. I liked receiving feedback from others to help better my elevator pitches. I will definitely remember this in years to come. 

3)   At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

a.     I feel a little bit more like an entrepreneur. I have definitely moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset and looking at the big picture, including being more realistic with my goals and market. I have begun to see the world as a place of opportunity where it takes a lot of thought into starting a business. 

4)   What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

a.     I would recommend to students on this patch to stay on top of things and develop an open mind. To succeed in this class it is imperative to be realistic and genuinely have an idea that your passionate about, or else the entire semester writing about this one business idea that you’re not interested in is going to be very boring.

Assignment 29 Venture Concept 2

·     All Around the World Fast Food

 

·      Opportunity

o  Individuals that want to choose a place to eat that people of all different backgrounds can enjoy. My potential customers mainly are people seeking something unique and different to add to their everyday lives. 

o  The nature of this need is somewhere along the lines of changing the way people live their lives and measure their standards. My business proposal seeks to catch the attention of individuals and groups by creating an entirely new way that people can enjoy ethnic foods.  

o  The changes in the environment that are creating this opportunity are the desire for inclusivity and diversity. As people are becoming more accepting and willing to try new things, eating at a restaurant that serves different culture’s foods allows a place where people can embrace their nationality and others’ as well. 

o  In the beginning, I will restrict the geographic aspect of the market to just the continental US, then gradually expand globally once funds are available. Demographically, people of all ages, races, genders, and cultures can enjoy eating at my restaurant. One thing that that may limit someone in my demographic could include people with special dietary needs. 

o   I will focus on targeting my audience by demographic.

o   I believe this opportunity has the chance to be successful globally if we market it in a successful way and portray to our market all the good that will come from this. 

o  This window of opportunity could be open for a long time, as I think my business idea is very innovative. Once people start to increase their standards, people will desire a change in the way they eat. 

·      Innovation

o  My product is innovative in several different ways. For one, my restaurant will have to have a kitchen that can cook foods of that have many different preparation processes. Creating and developing new machines will probably be one of the hardest challenges we need to overcome. In order to be successful, these machines must be able to optimize production and be useful for many different dishes. I am allowing individuals to travel across with their food the world without going out of the country. 

o  Another way my product is innovative is how it is changing the way people are going to want to eat. With all the options, I will be providing them, my market will never want to eat anywhere else. Whatever they are in the mood for, they will get!

o  Depending on what my customers order, I am selling my different meals and employee’s labor for around $5-$20. 

·      Venture Concept

o  My innovation will address the opportunity by allowing customers to choose what type of food they want to eat that day. 

o  Customers would switch to this new product because it is something that they have never seen before. It might be hard at first to get them to switch because some people may not initially like the idea of eating different cultures’ foods in one location. However, once they see what a great opportunity this is and how society is continuously changing, they will fall in love with the idea. 

o  My competitors include current food restaurants. I know it is such competitive competition, but I believe that my restaurant will stand out. The competitors’ weaknesses are mostly that they don’t provide different types of ethnic foods in one location. Everyone has seen Mexican restaurants, Chinese, Italian, Brazilian, and more, but no one has seen a restaurant where all those cultures blend together and provide the best meals from all around the world. 

o  Price points, distribution, packaging, customer support, business location, and customer experiences are all very important factors when defining my business concept. All of these factors will play a big role when starting and developing my business. 

o   I will start my business with one location, after I have concept tested each market. I think around 50 employees would be a good start. Different roles include a kitchen staff, front of house employees, accountants, managers, team leaders, and definitely a few more. 

·      Three Minor Elements

o  My most important resource is the variety of options to consumers. It may be hard to copy this because we will have an algorithm system to determine the best set of choices for consumers to choose from. We will definitely have a head start in the business which will help us develop ways to improve our variety to consumers.

o  Next for the venture would be to actually start developing the innovative products that my business will use. Possibly creating a customer input inbox to allow customers to recommend foods that they would like us to put on the market, especially people that are from different countries so they can help us truly embrace the great foods of each culture. 

o  In five years, I see this restaurant as the go-to restaurant all around the world. I am going to be super successful and keep improving the restaurant to help customers get what they want. 

·     Summary of Feedback 

o   I really enjoyed reading the feedback that I received on this assignment. Everyone who commented seemed to be very supportive of my idea. I am not going to lie, nobody really had any negative feedback so I can’t comment on that. On my what’s next assignment I received some pretty positive feedback as well! They also didn’t have any negative feedback there as well.

·     How I changed my Venture Concept

o  For one, I added an image. Also, I described more on how I would target my demographic by analyzing specific geographic regions. Another thing I kept in mind while editing my venture concept was adding more detail to my opportunity bullets and describing how to target my markets. 

Assignment #28 Exit Strategy

1)    Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

a.     I would keep my business as family business. This is something that I have invested a lot of my time in so I would definitely keep it and have family members run parts of it as well. I would definitely take an early retirement once my kids are trained well in the business. 

2)   Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

a.     I selected this exit strategy because I believe that my hard work is something that should stay in the family and that my kids can learn from. This exit strategy will be beneficial to me and everyone in my family. 

3)   How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

a.     My exit strategy has been a large influence on how I see the potential for this business. Because I want to keep this business in the family, I saw a lot of opportunities that my business can potentially face. As I identified opportunities in the market, I saw chances where my business could grow and develop into a mature and successful business. These opportunities have definitely influenced my growth intentions because deciding to expand globally is definitely something that I personally want to do and be there to witness when it happens. 

Assignment #27 Reading Reflection No. 3

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

1)    What was the general theme or argument of the book?

a.     The overall theme/argument of this book was that you should build your life around systems and not goals. Scott Adams was basically advocating that individuals should take risks in jobs that you are comfortable in. 

2)   How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

a.     How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big byScott Adams has connected to what we are learning and have learned in ENT3003 because it talks a lot about failure. Challenges are what help you learn from things, which is probably one of the biggest thing I learned from this class. He mentions that you can use time and space to manage your energy. Once you focus and set a system, much like how this class works, you can overcome many challenges.

3)    If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

a.     Designing an exercise for this class, based on this book, I would have students list things on a scale from they’re comfortable doing to things that are out of their comfort zones. Then I would have students figure out  a plan to work up to the things they are uncomfortable doing and reflect on what they learned from challenging themselves.  

4)   What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

a.     My biggest surprise when reading this book was that Scott Adams was not a big fan of making and setting goals. His reasoning for not liking goals was because they’re unknown because they are set for the future and they are too specific. I personally disagree with him because setting daily goals is the only way I get through my semesters successfully. 

Assignment 26: Celebrating Failure

1.    My New Year’s Resolution was to eat healthy and go to the gym more often. Neither of those two things happened, sadly. I probably worked out less than 10 times this semester and have not stopped been eating to healthily. I have definitely failed with my New Year’s Resolution. 

2.    I learned that I might’ve set goals that weren’t quantifiable, and therefore, were unrealistic. From now on, I will make my goals quantifiable, like working out at least twice a week and only eating chocolate 3 times a week. 

3.    Failure is something we all can learn from. It definitely is hard realizing how badly I failed at this. This failure now has helped me learn how to change my goals so I can actually reach them. This class has changed my perspective on failure because I am more likely to take risks and am more willing to learn from my mistakes. I have talked to some successful individuals throughout this class who have mentioned how they failed once in their life but learned from that failure and moved on with their life towards where they are now. 

Assignment #25

Existing Market

1.    What is next for the venture would be to actually start developing the innovative products that my business will use. We have to start making the machines and gathering information from potential customers to get their opinion on this business idea. Possibly creating a customer input inbox to allow customers to recommend foods that they would like us to put on the market, especially people that are from different countries so they can help us truly embrace the great foods of each culture. 

2.    After I explained my business idea to these three customers, I asked them: “What should we be doing that we aren’t planning to do? And what do you think about my ideas of what customers might want next?”

a.    Emily: I would suggest trying to make dishes that have different cultures in it. Or a buffet style so you can have an even better way to choose what you want. I also think customers would want a way to express their own opinions of what dishes should be served. 

b.    Doreen: Maybe try making a way for customers to have combo meals of different cultures. I would say you can try having a bunch of entrees from different cultures and a bunch of sides from different cultures and let people mix and match. I do agree that customers should have input in what you are serving. I think it will help your business be successful. 

c.    Carmen: I think you could focus more on advertising to customers, because the concept of mixing different ethnic foods kind of seems a bit weird. Once people get used to the idea then it will start being successful. 

3.                What makes the most sense for my venture in terms of growing my market would be to assess various locations and see what their opinions are. I would do concept tests and test marketing in various locations and gather data to create the best product for my customers. One thing that seems to be very important is letting customers have a say in what is being served. 

To be successful, my company has to focus on marketing to the right groups of people. I want people to focus on the inclusivity and diversity of this restaurant. Some towns may not see value in that, so we would definitely have to do extensive research on where this business would thrive the most. 

New Market

1.     A radically different market would be the entire US population. I want to make this a place where everyone any anyone can eat at. With so many choices, there will be an item that appeals to almost anyone. We would target the wealthy and the poor. We will try to reach as many people as possible and make the biggest impact as possible. 

2.     We would create value to people in this market by being so inclusive. We will stand out as a restaurant and we will reach the ends of the earth. Adding value might be hard to add to the people that simply don’t want anything to do with my business. We will start by doing personalized advertising and online delivery. 

3.     After I described my business to these two individuals, I asked them: “How do you think my business would help to meet customers like you? What kind of adaptations to the product mix do you think I should make to be successful in this new market” 

a.     Arie: I think you just need to focus on segmenting your market and figure out a way to target each segment differently. You might want to consider narrowing your market and only focus on a select group of people. 

b.     Anne: I really like your business idea! I think that you could possibly incorporate a deal or discount to certain individuals. Also, I think you could work more on trying to appeal to individuals in different ways using different marketing techniques. 

4.                I learned that my new market might possibly be too large. One thing that I would have to focus on would be targeting individuals in different ways based on their typical lifestyles. I did assume that some people would like a discount where others wouldn’t be bothered that much. 

This new market could be more attractive that my existing market if I target each individual correctly. I think I just have to focus on making each person into a certain group of ways I market to that specific group. Classifying individuals will be most beneficial to my advertising success.