The 80-20 Rule

I find this class to be a bit unfair. I have two broken legs and have been on bed rest for over a week know and I still have a few weeks left. Therefore I was unable to interview customers, but I did interview an entrepreneur. 

The entrepreneur I interviewed is named Cameron Peres. He is a sophomore at the University of Michigan and just launched an advertising business. Due to a legal contract he has to abide by that was all of the information he provided me. He did however tell me about his target customers which you can guess pretty confidently what he does. Here is the Interview:

Michael: What type of business have you stared and what are you future plans?

Cameron: It is an advertising company, but I cannot disclose specifically who we are contracted with. 

Michael: Who are your target customers?

Cameron: Students and young adults between the age of 14-25

Michael: Have you spoken to customers about their problems and needs? 

Cameron: Yes, we have a high success rate in responses, and what our company is created to do.

Michael: What was one issue a customer brought to your attention? 

Cameron: We had one who was not satisfied with the outcome of what we created, and we gave him a full re-reimbursement, and we offer our clients 100% satisfaction guaranteed,

Michael: Thank you for your time. 

Cameron: Your welcome 

What bothered me was his lack of responses and his secretiveness and information he was withholding from me. It makes me question whether or not he is actually pleasing his customers or if he is just saying so to look good in the interview. Personally he was the worst interview I have conducted and definitely a great learning experience, 

Week 8 Reading Reflection

This weeks reading has been my favorite so far. CUZ IT'S ALL ABOUT THAT MONEY!! learning about social and crowd funding I believe would be my strong point if I were employed in doing something in that area. What I also find interesting is that everything is based around money. People have become so greedy that I believe we are loosing what society needs the most and that is the connections people are making to better the world. Fighting terrorism caught my eye, and as I did some research I never knew how much money is used and wasted in war. Billions of dollars lost, that could have help feed hungry people and children across the country. With the economic boom happening right now, there have been more billionaires and millionaires than ever before, and at the cost of the middle class and people in poverty. The last thing I want to touch on that I found interesting was how to raise capital, and venture spending. Overall, again my favorite chapter so far and probably the most interesting.

Half-way Reflection

This semester has been an interesting one to say the least. Entrepreneurship has not only taught me how to think like a business person, but also how to act and dress professionally. It has also taught me to fight through the hard times when I didn't think I could. This semester I tore both my ankles, developed nerve damage in the right and it caused an incurable pain disease. I was ready to drop out of school and fly back home to Michigan. But then I realized, there are going to be obstacles in life that just tear you down to your breaking point. Understanding that it will happen and it is only a matter of time is key. Moving past and working towards a better future is what keeps me going. Hearing the stories of failed entrepreneurship business and ideas to later find that person 10 years later and extremely successful is how entrepreneurship taught me to fight thorough and succeed. Three tips I would give students who will be taking this class are:
1. Don't quit
2. Always have faith that you will succeed
3. Failing is the best way to learn

Week 7 Reading Reflection

This week's reading was about Rediscovering Market Segmentation, written in the Harvard Business Review in 2006, the article revolutionized the way markets work and how consumers are targeted. Daniel Yankelovich and David Meer proposed a nondemographic segmentation which classifies consumers into more categories rather than just age, race, and gender. This essentially opened up a whole new way of targeting who should by what, and what products companies should produce. Today however the use of nondemographic segmentation is used almost with all advertising. Allowing the customers to relate to the people on television and in ads. What surprised me the most was how much we use these techniques and how they have changed in the last 50 years. I was first confused as to what segmentation meant, but know I understand. If I had to ask the author a question it would be, would you still publish this article or would you try to make money if you could do it all over again? Lastly the article was kinda interesting, not my most favorite of topics but overall a good read.

Elevator No. 2

This elevator pitch I just went with the flow and stated more of what I have learned from My interviews. Based on my feedback I did not change much because everyone I interviewed was on board with my product and ideas.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

1.) What stood out from this week's reading was the section on powerful buyers and sellers. It talks about the buying power that suppliers and buyers have when they own a great portion of the industry. In this case they used the example about soft drinks vs powdered drinks and the cost to produce and sell.
2.) I found a lot of the reading to be confusing, but one part in particular that stood out the most would be Jockeying for a position. This essentially is using tactics to intensify rivalries to therefore produce more profit in the end.
3.) If I could ask the author one question it would be. 1. What industry should I get into now that has large profit margins, with little work! 2.) Why cant there be perfect markets?
4.) I didn't personally see anything wrong with the text, but Im not a professional economics person, so I would assume based on the publication from Harvard that the text is correct and accurate.

Napkin No.1

1. My name is Michael Sacks and I am a sophomore studying Business Administration at The University of Florida. This is my first semester in the business school, so I am starting to get a grasp around the business culture and what is has to offer.
2. I am offering my customers a way to save time, learn more information, and be more efficient in day to day tasks. I am offering a service that teaches and provides studying techniques and methods, along with applying them to specific classes and areas of study. I also want to integrate a tutoring system of students to earn some extra money.
3.My main customers will be the millions of college students and my secondary customers will be high school students.
4. Students care about their time, and if a student can study more efficiently and faster, it's to their benefit to do so.
5. My core competencies would be communication and teamwork. I work efficiently and I like to work on large projects with groups of people I know will do just as much work as I will.

I believe these elements fit together, and they need to for a business or idea to work properly. I think for my idea and concept to move forward these concepts need to be evaluated and planned out. I need to create a detailed business plan, along with detailed plans of revenue for investors to see and hopefully want to back my company.

Interviewing Customers No. 2

Last week I unfortunately was unable to interview customers about my business idea and plan. This week however I was able to hit the streets of Gainesville and share my concept for Smarter Studying. This app will not only track your studying progress determining if one is being efficient or not, but it will also have the capabilities to track websites visited while studying and being able to block them. Some more features include teaching methods of effective studying, and then applying those methods to specific classes and exams to personalize a study plan to be successful. The app can then determine what areas a student may still be struggling with and can connect them to a one on one tutor through the app. This app has potential revenue in ads, a paid subscription of the app, and  referrals and tutoring services provided. What I learned from interviewing customers is that students are unsure mostly of how they study, and all can benefit from tips and tricks to be more successful. Below are the interviews. Three tips I could give future students include:
1. Don't be scared to approach strangers, they are actually excited to help
2. Accept criticism
3. Continue making your idea a reality, don't let peoples opinions get you down.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

This week's reading had a soft spot in my heart. That was because I was caught for copyright infringement in 8th grade, but as a young kid I had no clue what that meant. Know looking back at my days of downloading movies off the internet I can see how blindly I was and how much illegal stuff I actually got away with. Btw I was let off with a warning when I got caught. I also found this chapter interesting because it speaks a lot about personal property and how to protect our ideas and businesses. What has me confused is the legality behind all these economic policies. The biggest surprise to me was the little amount of trouble I got in when I committed copyright infringement. Two questions I would ask the author are, 1) where is your money invested? 2) Can you invest my money with your money? I feel as if one is smart enough to produce an economics textbook for a top university, he must be a smart investor.

Elevator Pitch No.1

My business is called Smarter Studying. An opportunity presented itself while I was studying for an exam I have coming up. I thought to myself.... Am I really studying to my full potential? Then it hit me. I am creating an app that teaches and demonstrates proper studying habits and techniques. This will not only save students time but it will allow them to retain the information longer and more efficiently. In the app I also want to allow students to connect with one another in their specific class, along with tutors if one has a question they need help with. The revenue generated with this business will be through ads, referrals, paid subscriptions, and tutor tokens.