Week 15 Reading Reflection

1) I actually read about micro-financing in my marketing class! The whole concept to me is shocking in a good way. It's a great process and it helps many many people in developing countries, especially women who aren't often given money. Microfinancing also has great repayment rates which is very reassuring to the whole process.

2) I was most confused by why the DDS (where the author worked before founding his company) wouldn't serve the extra village. And how was that company worse off than his own.

3) I would ask why did he learn from Starbucks and McDonalds and not other companies who have quality standards. I would also ask if he thinks that this is the best solution for helping the impoverished. I would also ask if he thinks this can be used in America to help the impoverished here.

4) He said the concept of microfinancing was created in 1976 however, google said similar practices of small credit loans have been a thing since the 1700s.

Final Reflection

1) I will most certainly always remember the assignment "Free Money" where we had to attempt to give money to people for free. It was quite the challenging assignment and I didn't expect to give all of the money out and I didn't. It was quite odd and the reactions were memorable for that I will never forget. The assignment I'm most proud of is the same "Free Money" assignment. I'm not always the best at talking to strangers so this assignment was quite difficult but I was still able to do it.

2) I don't really feel like an entrepreneur. But I feel like being an entrepreneur is like being a hero. No one ever says "I'm a hero" but they know when they are because other people will usually call them a hero, same for entrepreneur, it's not really a self-proclaimed title in my opinion.

3) I highly recommend you work ahead. It's very frustrating to have entrepreneur assignments on Sunday night due at 9pm so work ahead and get them done on Thursday or Friday, your future self will thank you. There's not really any way to get into the mindset, you just have to do. Start making good time management habits and eventually you will be very ahead in this class.

Venture Concept No. 2

1)

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: All throughout the country hundreds of parties are happening on and around universities every single night. They cause noise, they cause damage, and worst of all, they cause the host to spend all day cleaning up after everyone left. Currently, there are thousands of college students who don’t have the time to clean their apartments and houses, and they don’t have the money to hire professional cleaning companies. At the same time there are thousands of students who need money and are willing to make money by cleaning. Currently, whenever a college student throws a party they have to spend the entire morning hungover and picking up the disgusting sticky red cups while stale beer lingers in the air, maybe if they’re lucky a friend or two will show up and help but that’s only because he forgot his keys and had to get them back. And it’s not only kids who throw parties that need their apartments and houses or dorms cleaned, there are plenty of pre-med students or engineers or Over the years the cost of professional cleaning services has gone up so now only people with real jobs can afford to use them regularly.

Innovation: Many people don’t consider that many businesses sell directly to other businesses and they don’t deal with the general consumer. Ebay, the popular e-commerce website, is known for its forward auction style bidding where consumers bid higher than the highest bid. Meaning the buyers compete for a good from the seller. However, in the business side of trade it’s more common for a reverse auction style, where the sellers compete with other sellers to get the business from the buyer. This means the sellers will usually lower prices to entice the buyer. I want to bring this auction style to the mainstream consumer world. Whenever someone uses the ridesharing app, Uber, the Uber Company takes about one dollar and some change from the exchange. My mobile application would be very similar. The app would automatically deduct a small amount of money from each exchange. However, this would be common knowledge and it would be a very small amount, however, if there are hundreds or luckily thousands of exchanges each day it will be a very substantial payout. Let’s combine this idea with the opportunity.  

Venture Concept: Now imagine a student somewhere just threw a party or they spent 16 hours nose deep in a textbook at the library, when they wake up or when they get home from the library the last thing they want to do is clean their apartment. So using their phone, they would take a picture of the room or a video of the room showing the mess and they would post it on an app, Cleanrs. Students in the geographic area who want to make money as “cleaners” would see your picture or video and they would be able to reverse auction bid on the ability to the room. This means the student gets a price that is much lower than those of professional cleaning services. However, we don’t want “cleaners” pricing incredibly low and doing a horrible job so the user would be able to compare not only the bid price but also the “cleaners” rating. This will allow for users to compare all the competitors at once for price and overall skill. The “cleaners” would also rate the users of course, because we want the “cleaners” and users to both have expectations going into a cleaning job. And of course cleaners would have to go to a background check in order to sign-up and their first job would be for an existing “cleaner” so that they can watch them in action. I believe students will adopt to this idea for several reasons. First, it will save them both time and money. They don’t have to hire a professional cleaning service that costs $70 for one job and they don’t have to spend their entire morning and afternoon cleaning up a mess that only brings back embarrassing memories. They say that time is money, when in reality time is priceless. Second, I believe that students will be trusting of this service because it will be students cleaning for other students. But I do think that the switch will be gradual for a bit until it catches on. To advertise I would create fliers and put them at the cashiers of convenience stores, wholesale retailers, and other stores where cleaning supplies are commonly purchased. I would also run a promotion where I would cover a certain amount of the cost for a certain amount of time, this will get people to try the app. Customer service will be very important in this endeavor because we need to be vigilant if anyone causes issues.

My most important resource will be students willing to take a chance and try out the service. If no one will be the first to use the service the app will never take off. No amount of money can get people to try it.

Next the app could be slightly modified so instead of users wanting their house or apartment cleaned they can take a picture or video of their car and get their car washed at home, or people could come clean the user’s dogs.

In 5 years I would want this venture to be a household name. People enjoy being their own boss and something like this would help. I also think that the more these apps exist, the more that will follow. I know currently there’s Uber for taxi-ing, there’s knack for tutoring, my idea for cleaning. I think if this idea did well I would try to stay in the mobile application business. I just don’t really know where to go from here. Yes, I have a good idea (or I think) but I have next-to-zero coding experience and have no money to pay for someone to attempt to code it.

2) On my last venture project people said I had a good idea, however, safety is a concern. Running background checks on the "cleaners" will be mandatory, similar to Uber makes drivers submit their driving forms and they run a background check as well. Of course, we can't make everyone (like the regular users) do background checks, but Uber doesn't have too many issues with strangers putting themselves in tight spaces together. To make it better for both parties the users will have to have to enter information and of course any issues that arise will be taken care of by the corporation. Someone said my idea is like craigslist, but I suppose I could also use craigslist in place of uber too? There are enormous differences with my idea and posting a craigslist ad about cleaning a room. First, my app will handle the monetary transaction, for craigslist there is much more trust required. Also, my app will run the necessary background checks and gather a lot more information than craigslist does. Also, people use craigslist when time is important. If you want someone coming over to clean your apartment/dorm/house in 20 minutes, you will use my app. Someone also suggested that I learn coding, which is thoughtful but I feel like this type of app will require years of coding experience in knowledge.

3) I haven't changed my venture concept.

4)

Elevator Pitch No. 4

1)

2-3) On the last video I received mostly good feedback. A few people said I appeared nervous and one suggested that I hold a script up behind the phone. However, in the event of a real elevator pitch I won't be able to hold a script behind the person's head, so I made do without it. I still rehearsed but not too many times as I don't want to seem robotic.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1) I was very pleasantly surprised to hear that the United States changed their patent law has been changed. First to file is a lot easier for small businesses or inventors because they don't have to necessarily get the prototype out as soon as possible.

2) I'm still a little confused by the patent laws though and the differences between a patent and a trademark.

3) I would ask the author, when is the critical time to submit a patent? What is the worst time you have seen an entrepreneur cheated because of a trademark or patent?

4)I don't think the textbook author was wrong about anything.

Google Gold

1) To improve my SEO I would comment a link to my relevant blog on every comment I left during this semester.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by keywords. I assume you mean labels? If that is the case I just used the weekly labels we were told to and I did not refine them during the semester.

3) I didn't use social media to promote my blog. I like to keep my academia off of my social network sites and I will try to do the same with my careers when I am older and an adult.

4) My highest viewed blog post was Idea Napkin #2 with an enormous view count of 17 views. Perhaps people thought my idea was very solid so they shared it with a friend or two.

5) I don't have any keywords. But my blog comes up on the first page if I google my name.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

1) I think the first interview went well. I didn't have to prepare the questions so that made it quite easier, and I think now I am able to ask better questions on my own without being told what to ask.

2) Question: Did you consider yourself an entrepreneur when you were getting your first practice started?
Answer: No, I didn't. I was just trying to do as straightforward as a job as I possibly could. I was innovative but that was not my purpose, I was just being a doctor.

Question: What mistakes did you make when first starting?
Answer: If I could go back I would be more confident in my business decisions. I was a little too trepidatious at first.

Question: What are your plans for the future?
Answer: I hope to expand my practice enough that I can open a new location and hire another doctore to work full time.

3) I have come quite far in this class. Talking to entrepreneurs is a lot easier but talking to entrepreneurs wasn't my issue. Talking to strangers was the difficult part. I've done it many times now so this time was much easier. I realized that a lot of people enjoy spreading their advice so they don't mind being interviewed and asked questions. I was unable to sense if the entrepreneur I interviewed thought I had come far or not.