Sara's ENT3003 Blog

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...

10 resources: 1. Costumer service skills This is a valuable resource because I will be able to talk to potential costumers. I feel like its not really a rare skill, because many teenager get costumer service jobs as their first job. It's an inimitable skill, but I also believe everyone has differing training at varying places, resulting in having different idea about how to treat a costumer. 2. Public speaking This is a value recourse because this will help with pitching and selling my product to a room full of people. I did theatre in the past and that is a skill that has greatly helped me with speaking to crowds. I feel like this skill is a little more rare. Many people struggle with speaking in public, so even though I do feel this is a inimitable skill, it is challenging, 3. Innovation Minor  This is valuable because its helps me come up with new idea and gives me the resources and knowledge to follow through with them. This is more rare as well, because ...

The book that I read was "The Art of Social Media: The Power Tips for Power Uses". 1.The general theme of the book was to get people to be more cognizant of their social media accounts. Your accounts are representations of you, make them professional, but still able to showcase your personality and talents in a. positive manner. 2. The book connected back with ENT because it really targeted marketers and how to gain attention based on putting out quality content. This relates to the pitches we do, getting on the best content to our audience, while being concise, just like a post on a social media platform. 3. Have the class choose either to make a profession Wordpress or Weebly or some other sort if free website designer, and have each person in the class design it to showcase their special skills. This not only ensures that they attained the knowledge in the book, be also leaves them with an extra something for their resume. 4. One part of the book that surprised me,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mo4rtLCPW0 Feedback that I got on the second pitch was mostly about my attire and the background of the pitch. People reminded me that I should be in professional wear, instead of the Florida sweatshirt I was in the last time. I also filmed in my dorm bedroom for the first pitch and the bathroom (lol) for the second pitch. I took the feedback and dressed in a nicer shirt and used a neutral curtain background.

1.  One person must be a domain expert in your industry.   I talked to a business owner in my hometown. She sells water bottles, but decorates them with initials, sports teams, etc. I thought it was be interesting to talk to her because I got feedback on a past assignment and through interviews that it would be cool if my heating cup came in different designs and colors. I talked to her about my product and she loved it. She explained to me that her business stood out to people because the bottle wouldn't be generic, it would have personality and appeal to all ages because they can accessorize it as they please. 2.  One person must be an expert on your market.  Alex Pagani is a sophomore at UF. He is also an innovation minor and that is how I knew him. Alex is a student ambassador for an app, Islands. The app is also targeted at college students so it was great talking to him about how he and his team appeal to the masses of students. They often table at...

1. You? I am a Telecommunications major with a minor in Innovation. Through my minor, I have learned a lot regarding the process of thinking about problems people face and innovating an idea. The minor has also enabled me to learn different pitching tactics through working with events such as catalyst. These concepts I learned can greatly contribute to the success of the product. 2. What are you offering to costumers? The product is a reusable stainless steel cup with a heater on the bottom of it to heat the contents instantly. This will allow the costumer to instantly heat soups, stews, and even coffee without kitchen access. 3. Who are you offering it to? On the first Idea napkin assignment, I got feedback saying that it would be easier to market my product to one segment rather than multiple. I had talked about the homeless, busy parents, and students, but now I will be targeting college students. 4. Why do they care? Convenience is a big reason people will value and care ...