Final Reflection

This has definitely been an interesting semester and year for myself. I have had great times throughout the semester, and I have had moments when I questioned this class and was inches away from dropping it. Some highs through the semester were when I finally thought of a venture idea that I deemed worthy to work on the entire class. Looking back now, I feel accomplished and happy with the progress and feedback I have received through the semester. Some lows throughout the semester was tearing both ankles and developing nerve damage on both ankles. When I reached out to Professor Pryor, he was very unaccommodating and that made me worry about the potential grade I will receive in the class, because there were days when I couldn’t get out of bed due to the pain, let alone walk to record an assignment. Getting over that obstacle was definitely hard, and I am still regaining my walking, but I have completed the class with a good grade, and I am very proud of myself for doing that. What sticks out to me the most would be the interviews with my friends dad Billy Birndorf. Learning that he lost his job as a farmer to go on to starting his own marketing business that is now very successful has opened my eyes to the possibilities that awaits in the future. No matter if you fail, or if you succeed, there will always be opportunities to grow. What I am most proud of accomplishing would be this entire blog. I have always wanted to create a blog, but I never knew where to begin. I can honestly say that I am proud of the work I have done so far and I think I will take these skills and apply it to other ventures in my future. I believe I do see myself as an entrepreneur now. I go to sleep now thinking about ideas that can change the future, and businesses to start. Since the beginning of the semester I have now started another successful business reselling high-end designer men’s clothing, which has grossed $3,000 in profits within the first two months of opening. I can attribute most of the success to entrepreneurship class and the lectures that Professor Pryor spoke about. With all this done, and the semester coming to an end, I believe I have developed an entrepreneurial mindset. One recommendation that I can make to students about to embark on this journey would be to create a business venture that you are passionate about and dive head first into it. If I put a few more hours into my work each week, I think I could have come out of this semester with this business started, and the app being created. What I would recommend to foster a mindset is would be to keep a journal next to your bed, and every night try to think of ideas that could change the world for the better. Looking back with all that I have done, I wouldn’t mind if this class was longer and we got more experience. I think I did well in this class, and I learned a lot from my peers, and I would think they have learned from me too.

Week 15 Reading Reflection

This weeks reading, also the last weeks reading was by far the most valuable and best reading I believe we have had in this course. It is written in a tone that grasps the reader, and makes them want to understand the text even further. The biggest surprise in the reading was how their company was grossing %200 a year, and gaining 160,000 new customers a month. One part of the reading that confused me was how the company started and how they grew so large to have an 8 million client company. It amazes me the hard work and effort that was put in to make this company successful. If I could ask the author two questions they would be: 1.) What percent of your clients default on their loans, and how does it effect the company? 2.) What was the biggest change you personally have noticed in a family's life in india? I think the author was right in nearly every since of the way. Not giving into the gangs and the thugs in india and denying extortion must have been a difficult choice, but I think it was the right one. Overall I enjoyed this reading very much because it expanded my thinking about business, and if I can create a company that not only is extremely profitable, but help people out drastically, I would love nothing more than to do that.

Elevator Pitch #4

I have never been good at elevator pitches, but this time I wore a fedora so hopefully I stood out better. I also am not a very good public speaker so I stutter a bit and my train of thought goes wack when I try to record a video. Hopefully Venture Concept #2 will better explain my idea and business venture. What I changed based on my feedback would be, not wearing a tanktop, and looking into the camera more. Overall I hope it was a good pitch and that my peers can understand what I am trying to imply. Enjoy!

Venture Concept #2

     My idea that I plan on pursuing after the end of the semester has a plethora of opportunities that can allow me to succeed and create a vibrant business. There are too many opportunities that awaits for me but I will share a few with you. My customer base is roughly 25 million people but mainly college students. I plan on capitalizing on what the schools failed to do which is properly teach students how to study efficiently. I believe this will be extremely successful, because who wouldn't want to spend multiple hours less of studying to retain the information even better?  I dont look at the market demographically, because I know there is a need for my product across all genders and races from the feedback I have received this semester. I believe this opportunity has the potential to gross 25 million within the first 5 years of being up and running. My window of opportunity will be open as long as the school system continues to fail at properly teaching students to study, so my guess is will be open for quite some time. 

     The innovation of my business is still being considered, due to the large amount of opinions I have received. To start my app will first allow students to purchase a type of plan they would like. An example of the plan could be a monthly payment, allowing a student "x" amount of tokens to unlock different parts of the app. Different parts of the app will include: studying techniques, ways to block out distractions, live tutoring help,  peer evaluations, peer to peer studying, individual class study guides, general class study guides, and much much more. This is just a basic example of one of the types of ways a student can get involved. There will also be ways that the student can unlock different parts of the app by promoting it to friends, people watching advertisements, and much more. The potential for this app is endless, and I intend to capitalize on all of it. 

     I believe once a few students at each university try out the app, they will immediately  recommend it to their friends, and it will spread like a wildfire.  Customers will want to by my innovation because it will not only save them hours of studying, but it will also allow them to study more efficiently and retain the information at a higher rate than they normally would. I dont think customers will be switching to this app because there is nothing on the market like this. Currently there are no competitors, which is why I wanted to keep my idea and venture a secret with limited amount of exposure to insure that a large corporation does not steal my idea and make it a reality before I can. The investments that I will need to make will be to find a programmer and a computer designer to create the app for me. I will also need a team to run the app, make sure there are no glitches, and a team to manage customer service along with the finances that I will be bringing in.  

     I believe my most important resource will be college students trying to maximize their studying habits to save time. In five years time I hope to have grossed 25 million and be the CEO of this company along with starting new ventures that I have no clue what they are yet. With the money I have made I also want to start investing in real estate and properties across the world. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1.) This week's reading was much longer than the others. It was two chapters but definitely more interesting than most of the other readings. The biggest surprise in the reading would have to be licensing, patents, and trademarks. I have always had ideas and concepts that I have wanted to own, but never knew where to start or begin. It stood out because I had way different than what I read. I never thought how expensive it would be, and the difficulties that lied with filling them.

2.) One part of the reading that confused me would be corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. Running a company is extremely diverse, and there are so many different positions and tasks that need to be filled and completed each day. Being a ceo must be very stressful and time consuming.

3.) If I could ask two questions to the author they would include: 1. If you could give any tip to a starting entrepreneur what would it be? 2. What is something that most entrepreneurs miss within their first year of starting that they should have done?

4.) I again dont think the author missed anything because he seems very intelligent being able to write this detailed of a textbook specifically about entrepreneurship. If I had to disagree with the author I would say some of his ideas may be out of date, especially with this technological era we are currently living in.

Google Gold

1.) My general approach is different than most. I was not ready to expose my idea to the billions of people in the world. I was planning on gathering information, and opinions from my fellow peers before investing a large sum of money to turn my idea into a reality. Therefore, I did not promote my idea to many members outside of my entrepreneurship class.

2.) After analyzing google's stats about my blog, I found out that six people found my blog on their own. I was hoping for zero page views, however, I was planning on a few people to find it. I need to keep my idea and concept as private as possible so a large company does not steal it and create it on their own. They have the capital to do that.

3.) I ignored turning to social media. I took this class very seriously and if my idea continues to get positive reviews and support. I plan on pitching my idea to a company that can then build the app that I want, and I plan on getting donations and funding to make it happen.

4.) The post with the largest page views I received was the blog Celebrating Failure. That blog received a total of 12 views and I would assume it is going to max out around 14 or 15. I believe that blog was the highest in view count because the comments I left on other people's blogs led them to mine.

5.) I did not make it to the first page of google. I stopped looking when I still did not make it to the 10th page. I am not upset or worried about that though, because when my concept and venture is fully functional, is when I will heavily advertise my business.

Lastly, to anyone who has visited my blog and read my business plan, I would hope you would respect what I have done and please keep it to yourself. I dont want my idea spreading to far. Thank You,

Michael Sacks

Very Short Interview Part 2

This class has been a great learning experience for me and I believe with all the tedious assignments and busy work that this class has, it has shaped me into a more focused and dedicated student. I asked three questions to an entrepreneur named Billy Birndorf who started the company Apple Marketing, which is very successful now. I will be posting a video of the phone call below of the interview. Three months ago I did not expect to learn this much information, and I think revisiting and interviewing this entrepreneur gave me more sence into what is needed to run a good business, and how to make it successful.

Celebrating Failure

Failing is not something one likes to share on a daily basis. It can be a touchy subject to most, but I view it as a learning opportunity. When i'm wrong i'll admit it, especially when I am with friends. A time this past semester I failed was in my personal goal to read two books a month. Reflecting on it now, i'm not sure why I didn't accomplish this goal, but thinking about it now doesn't feel to good. I wanted to better myself by reading two books a month, to gain information I haven't learned yet, and to increase my vocabulary. For some reason, this semester has gone by so fast and to be honest i'm not sure why I failed reading, but it just happened. What i've learned from this was not embarrassment, but more disappointment in myself. I have never been one who gets really upset when I fail, or dont accomplish a goal, but I do see now why this is a problem. I am simply to lazy, and realizing this now makes my drive for success even greater now. I want to read two books a month, and I believe I can do it. This class has changed my perspective on failure because it has allowed me to realize there is much more in life than always being successful. Some of my most cherished moments in life have included failure, and I think it has made me a better person because of it. I am not afraid to fail, and I do cherish success, but what I live for are those moments in between, that makes the chase worth it.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

This weeks reading I spent a bit more time reading than I normally would. At first I found it very confusing but then analyzing the text in more detail I found it to be quite interesting. What I found confusing in the reading was how they can come up with accurate evaluations on the valuation of a company. What stood out the most in this reading is probably the bias in coming up with a good valuation of a company, and how there are many factors that start going into valuations and how one needs to be completely withdrawn from that company to come up with a fair evaluation. If I could ask two questions to the author it would be 1.) if you could be 18 again, what would you do differently with your life and your investments with money? 2.) What made you want to explore the opportunities in economics and why did you decide to write this textbook? I dont think the author is wrong with anything that he is stating in his text, because again, I am not an expert like the author is. Overall one thing I would like to add is the variability between real and or fantasy evaluations, there will always be factors that can mess up this information and cause even the most accurate valuations to not become true.

My Exit Strategy

I have had a wonderful time thinking about my business and what i want to do in the future. If all goes well I want to grow this business into a multi million dollar app that gets investors interested in buying out my product. The plan would be to work with one of those companies for a couple of years and then have them buy me out. I would then want to invest that money into other ventures possibly retail stores or property investments. I think this strategy is a pretty good plan because it ill leave me with a lot of capital that I can then use to invest in other companies. Lastly I would also pitch my company to bigger companies hoping they would buy me out.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

The strategic entrepreneurial growth chapter was a chapter that made more sense compared to the other chapters. I was able to relate to some of the strategies better, considering I like to do a lot of planning myself before I jump into something. The biggest surprise in the reading would have to include the lack of strategic planning. I never realized how much work needs to go into planning a new venture, and If one skips steps and doesn't plan correctly their business or ideas have a much higher risk of failing. One part of the reading that confused me would include the entrepreneurship matrix model. I did not understand one bit what that section meant, nor how it is applied. If i could ask two questions to the author they would be 1.) what kind of models have you applied to business you were starting? 2.) what would you do differently with starting a business and creating strategic models for it? Again I dont disagree with anything the author said because they are the industry expert on entrepreneurship strategic models if they are creating a college textbook for that specific reasons.