Entrepreneurship Blog

Domain Expert in My Industry 1. The person who is a domain expert in my industry is David Clark. He is a family man who loves tennis. He works as an adjunct professor at UNF, teaching public relations. His main work is centered on nonprofit leadership, as he is the Executive Director of DESC, an nonprofit organization that provides food, clothing, and financial assistance to those in need. 2. This individual fits this slot of domain expert in my industry, as he has many years of experience in philanthropic matters. His work with Feeding Northeast Florida and Farm Share in obtaining resources for his own food distribution to those in need is value in itself. He is engaged in an extremely similar business activity to that of my own interests, feeding the hungry. 3. I met David Clark recently while volunteering for his organization. I had no direct ties to him upon beginning my volunteer service there; however, I have had brief conversations with him since then. We were barely acqu...

Who am I? As previously explained, I aspire to learn continuously, requiring that I talk to people to do so. I believe there is a lot to learn from others, so, listening is a good skill to maintain. With this in mind, having some ability to network is within my skill set. My aspirations specific to my business concept include providing meals to those in need, essentially meeting philanthropic goals. Again, like previously expressed, if I were to start this business, it would not play a major role in my life, despite its importance. I would prefer to initiate it and make sure it runs smoothly, but then step back for a more hands-off approach. What am I offering to customers? I'm offering a service to customers that basically pairs people who want to improve their health with those who require assistance in feeding their hunger. This service aims to help motivate previously unmotivated individuals in pursuing healthier lives by rewarding those actions that promote good health. This r...

https://youtu.be/aHM4O1KSakE Having received no feedback from my last pitch, I have essentially nothing to reflect on. Due to this lack of feedback, there is no feedback that stood out to me as important, any feedback that surprised me, any wrong or silly feedback, or any feedback that I thought was useful and insightful. Also due to this lack of feedback, I have changed nothing based on any feedback. Despite a lack of changes due to feedback, I did make changes to my business concept in general due to comments made by Professor Pryor in his lectures. He mentioned that you should do as much as you can for your business in house, including app development. As I have no skills in app development, I decided an app was not a feasible goal. I instead intent to use easily accessible platforms to help match customers with those in need in creating mutually beneficial relationships.

"College Students Who Volunteer on the Weekends"  The prototypical customer in my segment of young and middle-aged people who are looking to improve/maintain their health is best represented by college students with philanthropic tendencies. They volunteer on the weekends, or even during the week for a few hours. They call themselves artistic, advocating for the arts either because they genuinely believe it or because they think it's trendy. They value the opinion of others highly. They are constantly looking for validation from others, but still try to pretend to not care how others see them. My prototypical customer is easy to spot. They wear thrifted clothes or clothes from Goodwill the majority of the time, as they don't believe in fast-fashion. When they're not wearing the above-mentioned clothes, they're outfitted in athleisure. They love to dress in comfort colors. On a normal day, they won't look extremely put together, but they also won...

Just as all people have some form of human capital, I have my own distinct human capital. The following are five ways in which my human capital is unique, they're what make me different. 1. I genuinely love learning. I'm not referring to learning in a school setting necessarily, but rather, learning in general. I have always loved learning new information or concepts, as it would help me excel in school, but it also always gave me something to think or talk about. I find intellectual stimulation fascinatingly enjoyable, inherently making learning an essential part of my everyday life. My dedication to learning has pushed me toward talking to a whole host of various people, learning from their past experiences and the knowledge they hold in general. I listen to podcasts (business, finance, news, history, etc.) while I do common, everyday things, such as riding the bus or cooking, ultimately ensuring that the information stream never stops. 2. I am constantly and unintention...

Having previously conducted interviews to determine buyer behavior regarding need awareness and information search, I now must consider the alternatives. I conducted three more interviews of different people within my identified segment (young and middle aged people looking to improve/maintain their health) to find what factors customers consider when evaluating which alternative to pick. I have summarized the main points of my interviews below. Alternative Evaluation My interviewees gave me mixed results regarding how they choose among a set of alternatives. An interviewee voiced his concerns about convenience. He tends to choose the alternative that is perceivably of the greatest quality, but also the easiest to access. In this way, the style or design of the alternative matters most for this individual. On the other hand, the other two interviewees expressed that the most important factor determining how they pick is the price. They shared similar concerns regarding affordability of...

Having read the biography Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance, I've drawn a couple conclusions about the entrepreneur, Elon Musk, which I have summarized and listed below. What surprised me the most? Having not known Musk's background, I was surprised by the sheer amount of things he has accomplished in the few decades he has been alive. He was creating and selling something of his own making before he even hit puberty. That's incredible! Additionally, his ultimate goal to preserve humanity was quite surprising to me. I believed he must have had some greater driver than pure profit for all that he does, but I didn’t realize what it actually was until reading about him. What about the entrepreneur did I most admire? I most admire Musk's sheer determination and work ethic. He has such a great amount of tenacity it's incredible. He formed multiple companies in different industries, but managed to use them to work to...

It's been two months now since starting this blog and, therefore, the documentation of my entrepreneurial journey. In this time, I have come to completely change my use of time and my overall mindset. I used to procrastinate everything heavily, staying up extremely late the night before to complete multiple assignments. Since the beginning of this semester and this ENT 3003 course, however, I have stopped all of those past (unhealthy) habits. To keep up with the requirements of this course, I have learned to start working on assignments early on in the week, only to later complete the assignment by a reasonable time on the day before its due at the latest. Ultimately, this change is a result of better time management. I have learned to use a calendar and stick to it as best as possible. Making the conscious decision to complete work rather than slack off and take a nap has proven to improve my overall productivity. Despite these grand changes in both my behavior and my attitude, I ...

Segment Young and middle aged people looking to improve/maintain their health Need Awareness Included in the three people I interviewed was a college student (a young person) and a dad (a middle-aged person). Throughout these interviews I learned that, although they may be at different times in their lives, people are becoming increasingly aware of the value of their own physical health. Whether it is the college environment of seeing much fitter and better looking peers or a realization that one's time may run out sooner if they don't take their health into their own hands, people view health in high regards. One of the interviewees even mentioned that he realized he needed to work on his health when he went to get his blood tested as a part of trying to increase his life insurance policy. His blood pressure was too high to meet the standards of the increase, as insurance companies make sure to run medical exams to determine whether or not increasing an individual's policy...

Who am I? To get to know how I may pursue the previously identified opportunity concerning health, I must first recognize my strengths and how I may contribute to and execute the pairing of people who want to improve their health with those in need. I like talking to people. Talking to people, but specifically listening to them, is incredible, as there is so much one can learn from others. With that in mind, networking is one of my skills that should help with regards to my business concept. My aspirations with regards to my business concept include successfully meeting philanthropic goals, meaning providing meals to those who need them. If I were to start this business, I would see it as playing an important role in my life, but not a major one. It would be something that I would dedicate time to formulate and start, but not something that I would want to be actively monitoring for the majority of time. What am I offering to customers? I'm offering a combination of a product...