Sara's ENT3003 Blog

Opportunity At the start of this class, when I was still on the road in developing my venture, I had a huge segment that I thought would use my product, but in feedback and as the class progressed, people made me understand that I needed to hone in on one segment and not multiple. The segment I have chosen since then is college students. The nature of the need I will be supplying for is completely convince based, which is a pro for a busy college student. Nothing really in the environment creates this opportunity, though for colder weather I feel like this product would be successful because soups, hot coco, etc. can be heated instantaneously to keep the user warm on the go. People are currently satisfying this need with the use of a Thermos. They are loyal to this concept of having the contents of the Thermos stay warm, but my product would be a step up from that in that the cup would not just keep the contents warm, but warm it instantly and continue to do this even when it cools off...

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? Though I am passion about my venture, after a few years of working on my business to get it where I have envisioned,  I would wish to sell. I would like to work out the logistics with adding design and accessories to the cup and making the name spread. I would love to sell my venture to a well known manufacture for cups like Thermos L.L.C. 2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy? I feel like once I get my venture to where I want it and assist it in spreading, I would wish to hand it off to work on other ventures and focus on my telecommunications career. 3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has...

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book? The author talks about his experience in his professional career and compiled them in this book.He discusses how to maintain energy, through exercising and eating healthy, how to learn from mistakes, and discussed his take on topics such as goals vs systems and deciding vs wanting. I thought it was a very interesting and fun book, navigating hacks to a successful career. 2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003? The author discusses failure in the book and how to move on from them and grow. This goes hand in hand with what we do in this class because ever great entrepreneur  is going to fail sometime. This is why the class we get feeback from peers so we can strengthen our product and service. The celebrating failures post we did was a great way to evaluate a fail outside this class. 3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book...

I'm a Telecommunications News major and last year as a freshman I decided to audition for an anchor positions for the five o'clock news at the news station on campus. I gave it my best go and they told me they generally don't except freshman, but that it was a good practice opportunity. I tried to audition again this semester and still didn't receive a position. Though upset, I feel like this prepared me for the real world. I am not always going to get every opportunity and this helped step back and evaluate how to improve my performance. Everyone around me was supportive and told me to just try again next year. I definitely feel like I'm more inclined to take risks because of this class because I got to see and understand the beauty of a mistake or failure. Making mistakes and getting feedback in this class made my product better, just like doing the same thing in the real world improves my abilities.

Existing Market I believe my next step is to develop a blueprint of the product with an engineer so we can work out the heater's mechanics. The first person that I interviewed is in a service club at UF with me. She always carries around a Hydroflask, so I thought she was worth talking to to see if she would ever use my product. she loved the idea, though she was confused about the battery life and replacement of the heater. I explained to her that when the heater goes out on the product, you bring it back to the store you got it to have them put in a new heater. They would take your old heater, fix it up, and then give it to another cup that comes in and is need of a new heater. She told me my next step was refining that concept and figure out the heater's battery life with an engineer. I talked to one friend about the next steps of the product and she was explaining to me that my next step is to definitely get an online shop/ website. Most college students don't sho...

Opportunity At the start of this class, when I was still on the road in developing my venture, I had a huge segment that I thought would use my product, but in feedback and as the class progressed, people made me understand that I needed to hone in on one segment and not multiple. The segment I have chosen since then is college students. The nature of the need I will be supplying for is completely convince based, which is a pro for a busy college student. Nothing really in the environment creates this opportunity, though for colder weather I feel like this product would be successful because soups, hot coco, etc. can be heated instantaneously to keep the user warm on the go. People are currently satisfying this need with the use of a Thermos. They are loyal to this concept of having the contents of the thermos stay warm, but my product would be a step up from that in that the cup would not just keep the contents warm, but warm it instantly and continue to do this even when it cools o...