Final Reflection - Assignment 30

2) I think the most formative experience in this class was writing the elevator pitch for the first time. While I did not think that writing it was difficult, I came to realize the importance first impressions are when presenting an idea or concept to an audience, especially when you are asking that audience for a favor (money). I think this helps me realize that taking time to craft your own personal elevator pitch or introduction is critical to making a lasting impression in your professional network.

My favorite assignment was the last reading reflection. I would never have found the book I read on my own volition, so I am glad I was “forced” to by that assignment. I took away some valuable concepts that I will be able to apply both within and outside my professional network.

3) I do not think I developed an entrepreneurial mindset as I still see a clear and solidified career path for myself through the traditional employee route. While it is interesting being able to work on your own time and be the master of your product, I think I am better set up for the traditional career path and it will lead to more success over time.

4) I would recommend putting more effort than you think is required to coming up with your problem and the solution to that problem (business idea). Since it is the foundation for the whole course, a bad idea will make completing the other assignment difficult. To garner the entrepreneurial mindset, I would recommend choosing a problem solution that you have some passion for. Otherwise you will not find an interest in solving the problem and seeing how you can make others lives easier. 

Venture Concept No. 2 - Assignment 29

1) Venture Concept

Opportunity

Most college students suffer from stress and an overwhelming amount of work classes, extracurricular activities, grad school or employment search, and a demanding social life. While college students have come to accept busy schedules as the norm, they have also accepted being tired and lethargic as also being the norm. From the time we began working hard in high school or earlier, we already accepted the notion that feeling tired and rundown is simply the inevitable consequence of working hard to accomplish your goals. I believe the root cause of this presumption is imbedded in broader cultural themes and habits that contribute to feeling of tiredness, lethargy, and stress.

While a little stress goes a long way to motivating students accomplish their goals, students often find themselves overwhelmed by this stress and consequently are brought further away from the goals they have tried so desperately to achieve. Of course, being tired from working hard is inevitable, but I believe there are simple solutions to this problem that is overlooked by almost all young students as well as adults.

The largest environmental forces is the social norms that the post lunch pre dinner lull is inevitable and the solution to being tired is to pour caffeine, energy drinks, or other chemicals you can not pronounce into your body. This only exacerbates the issue at hand.

Currently, students attempt to satisfy this need by either ignoring their mental health, writing it off as normal, or trying to compensate incorrectly.

The opportunity that is found is preventing or remedying this issue is large and is pertinent to almost the entire working population that has not already found a solution to their issue that prevents them from further exacerbating this issue. The primary opportunity lies in young people as their bodies are most likely to accept being tired and push through it.

The window of opportunity for finding a solution to this issue extends well into adult life after college. I think there is a great opportunity to expand my service into the working generations and the elderly population. However, I recognize that these markets are vastly different than my original target audience, so I will need to make adjustments accordingly.

Innovation

My “innovation” is not so much an innovation but instead a solution to people’s issues, but by targeting a more niche demographic, allows it to have a higher penetration rate and be more successful than competing services like mine.

My service provides college students with ideas to solve their energy issue. My company, Your Body Loves You, utilizes our human capital of employees that have spent years crafting their lifestyles to optimize their daily energy and health levels to provide college students with solutions that allow them to not have to fight against their body. We believe that your body is your best friend and is designed to work alongside you and not against you. However, your body needs you to work with it and provide it with the resources and fuel it needs to do its job: helping you live a healthy lifestyle while also working hard to accomplish your goals.

The service first attracts potential customers by our free Instagram platform that provides daily tips and blog posts centered around nutrition, fitness, and overall energy levels. At this point, followers will be enticed to sign up for our premium service where they can receive personalized counseling and plans that will allow them to reach their goals. This service is a subscription-based service that utilizes 3 month contract lengths to ensure that the customer has adequate time on the program to see results. A 6-month subscription costs around $100, just over $1 a day and our cost structure is primarily labor costs of the associates that provide for their clients.

Venture Concept

My product solves college students energy levels because it targets aspects of their lives that they are largely neglecting or not thinking about enough. For example, we believe that your nutrition, sleep, and circadian rhythms contribute the most to your daily energy levels and overall well-being. However, college students do not take these aspects seriously. Sure, everybody knows 7-8 hours sleep is ideal, but college student prioritize other things above sleep. By correcting the most impactful aspects first, Your Body Loves You is able to easily correct the largest issue contributing to people’s well-being.

Customers will want to buy this product because they have the inherent human need to care for themselves. We believe one of the largest issues college students have is that they underestimate the results they can achieve if they make minor adjustments to their daily routines. When potential customers utilize our free service through Instagram, they should begin to see improvements in their lives. Once they realize this they will want to continue improving, and this is where they have the opportunity to purchase a 3-month subscription.

My underlying service is not unique and many competitors exists. However, I differentiate due to my focus on college students and their specific needs. Understanding the uniqueness of their lifestyles is a critical component to achieving client goals.

Customer experience plays the largest part since we are promoting an overall life experience improvement, so customers should feel good the more they interact with our brands. This is even more critical when you take into account the subscription based business model of my service. If customers do not find an appropriate value proposition for the price they are paying, they will quickly cut their service.

Most important resources – Culture of improving clients well-being (benchmark success on clients success not monetary success)

Next opportunity – Potentially branching out to emotional well-being instead of mental and physical well-being

What’s next for me – I want to be able to have Your Body Loves You provide service to populations besides college students. Adults long into their successful careers need even more help living a healthy lifestyle since their bodies become more vulnerable to diseases and sickness. As an entrepreneur I want to say I made a difference in people’s lives.

2) Feedback

My feedback focused on two main areas

1.       Ensuring my customers enjoy the service enough to want to be returning customers

2.       Expanding my target audience to older generations, especially the older generation without a knowledge base of healthy habits.

I agree on the first point and it was a major focus of my original venture concept. I think that customer satisfaction will be critical as customers can easily determine if the price they are paying is appropriate for the service they are receiving.

I slightly disagree with the second point as I don’t think older generations are as willing to make lifestyle changes. Older generations grew up with no scientific knowledge of nutrition and healthy habits, so educating them is like teaching an old dog new tricks. While I know this is somewhat a negative opinion, many professional in the space (especially doctors) have no knowledge in the space, and changing their preconceived notions is a lot harder than with a younger generation.

3) Changes
My changes to my venture concept are described in the red text in my above venture concept. I took my two main areas of feedback (described in part 2) and incorporated them into the venture concept and weighed the pros and cons of each. While I think that the feedback in critical to incorporate, I should use my judgement when expanding my business to an unfamiliar target audience.

4) Illustration

This represents the multi-generation approach I can take to my business. Hypothetically, all generations represented in the below image could be a target audience for my service

Reading Reflection No. 3 - Assignment 27

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big - Scott Adams 

1) The general theme of the book is found in the title – failing does not equate to losing. One can still fail at a lot of things (just like the author) and still be able to find success by adopting certain mentalities.

2) Adams specifically mentions how entrepreneurs will never find success based on goals, but rather on a system. Adams advocates for adopting a system mindset, which differs from a goal mindset in that victories are found largely in the process and it is a culmination of the system that results in achieving a goal. For example, instead of setting a goal to lose 20 pounds, a system would be to exercise daily. By actually exercising daily you are achieving successes without the automatic failure of your goal until you actually lose the 20 pounds.

3) It would go back to the system mindset described above. The exercise would be 1) for students to think of a broad goal (such as receiving an A in the class). Then they must decide on the system to achieve that goal (complete every assignment and get atleast a 50% on all cupcakes). Then they must decide what they will do to achieve success based on the system and not the goal. In essence, getting an A shouldn’t be a thought in their minds, they should be focused on each individual assignment.

4) Adams makes a point that withholding praise in immoral. In essence he says that compliments and positive feedback in the adult world is so hard to come by, so when you actually are impressed by something, you should be obligated to let that person know. It is something so easy but makes a large difference in the lives of the other person. While I recognized that giving compliments is something that one should do, I never really took it to the extreme of morality. I may disagree slightly with this point, but looking at it from that perspective somewhat makes sense and encourages me to compliment people more often, especially loved ones.

Your Exit Strategy - Assignment 28

1

    1) Since my business is largely a service structure, I think it will be difficult to create a large economy of scale and grow my business for the remainder of my working career. Thus, my ideal exit strategy is stepping down from my position as CEO once I believe I have tapped the entire possible markets successfully or if I simply do not have enough time to dedicate to the business.

2  2) I have chose this strategy primarily because I do not think I could grow my business large enough to support me financially for an extended period of time. I think continuing my career in finance will give me a better financial standing down the line with the same amount of effort that would take to grow my business. I would probably sell my stake in the company and cash out.

3  3)     I think the greatest impact by exit strategy has played into formulating my business idea was in the creation of my target audience. I decided early on that my primarily market would be UF and some other Florida colleges. By choosing this target market, I implicitly decided that achieving economies of scale will be difficult, thus my business in its current format could not sustain across the country.

Celebrating Failure - Assignment 26

1.    This semester I began taking classes for my specialized masters degree. While I have done well to keep up with the more demanding class loads, I often times found myself struggling to organize my study schedule since I am so used to using third party services like Study Edge and Smokin Notes. For my final exams for the last module (graduate degree courses are scheduled in two Mods a semester), I studied neither enough not the correct materials in order to do well. Consequently I did not do well on the exam and my final grade was not what I hoped for. I consider this a failure not because of the grade, but because of the lack of effort I put into studying for something I considered important.

2.    From this experience, I learned that while it is challenging to study for something you do not have adequate study materials for, I still need to be able to find ways to study for an exam in those type of classes. Since they are less structured, I need to be more proactive and sometimes do more than I think would be necessary.

3.    I believe that failure is preferable to regret. Often times the feeling of not doing something and regretting it eats away at us worse than the feeling of failure. In this scenario, I probably feel more regret than I do shame of failure. I regretted not spending the extra night or two in the library more than I feel sad about the grade I received. To handle failure, I try to view failure as positive rather than negative. Because I even tried and do not have to live with regret makes failing okay in my book.

This class has put faikute in a different perspective and has made it more common to see. Entrepreneurs are considered failures until they finally make it with their new idea. Being able to live with that takes fortitude.

I am more likely to take on a risk now than I was largely because I realize that most of the time, abnormal success comes from taking unusual risk. Beyond that, since I am young I can probably afford to mess up in some things. Trying things ultimately makes it worth it, regardless of the outcome.

What’s Next? - Assignment 25

Existing Market

Step 1: I think the next thing for my service is a portion designed to help clients with emotional health, rather than my current focus of just mental and physical well-being.

Step 2:

Interview 1: Since we are focused on the UF population, we can probably set up in person meetings rather than doing everything online

Interview 2: Provide actual training sessions at southwest rec or another gym. That way you can not only provide an additional layer of service, but by attending exercise sessions with clients, you ensure they are taking your advice.

Interview 3: Since we want to expand to adults as well as college students, we can begin my helping professors at UF. That way we can stay centralized on a college campus but also branch out our potential customer base.

Step 3:

I did not think much about providing in person consulting as part of my company. Since our primary model of advertising is on social media, that provides we catch the attention of the entire social media platform, not just those at UF. Since most of our clients will come from UF, it makes sense to include in person consulting to out packages. Marketing to professors at UF is a great idea as it expands my current market but also opens the door to adults and rapidly expanding my total addressable market.    

Additionally, in person coaching will allow us to establish more of a well-known presence at UF rather than operating solely behind closed doors. Since my service begins by focusing on a centralized region (smaller customer base), I should make sure I juice the most out of my potential locally. My service can be scaled appropriately to include solely online coaching for areas away from college campuses and include in person for certain cities. This also capitalizes on the opportunity to reach out to professors to include in my current market.

New Market

Step 1: A radically different market from my current market is a service directed towards businesses. This would probably take the form of organizing corporate culture and office buildings to maximize employee happiness and productivity.

Step 2: My venture concept would probably have to take a different form when providing a service for a corporation. However, it can take a multi-legged approach where we first advise on changing culture and then should the business want it we can then provide the same service provided to college students but tailored to the employees of the business.

Step 3:

Interview 1: I spoke to a local startup in Gainesville that designs products that can be used by companies or events to advertise. All partners and officers of the business are current UF students. They told me that they think it would be hard to incorporate my product into their startup since the number of employees of the firm are small and they currently operate out of the UF innovation hub, so altering their office space is not possible. However, they said that on a persona basis, the employees could benefit from my my original venture concept since they are all extremely busy and often time burnout.

Interview 2: My second interview was a local study business sin Gainesville that most students utilize for difficult classes. They host in person study reviews and have a considerable number of employees. They mentioned that they think designing the office building can be useful since they are often teaching study sessions in their building, so having students able to better concentrate and learn would actually make their service more effective, helping increase sales. They also mentioned that advertising my product to students could be beneficial for both parties since I will have an outlet to advertise and they will have more energetic students.

Step 4:

In my first interview, I was not surprised by the response, as a small startup would have difficulties implementing another program to their already hectic business. My second interview surprised me since I did not think about the potential opportunity to expose by business not only to the employees of the business, but also to their customers who happen to be the same students I would be targeting anyways. Essentially this would provide me with another outlet to advertise.

This market does sound to be attractive to an extent. The largest issue I would have with this new market is the cost to cater to this market. I would probably need to hire a new set of employees with a much different skill set than my original venture concept. Beyond labor costs, implementing strategies, essentially research and development, would take time and I would have to build the infrastructure for these businesses. The most realistic option is found in businesses like in my second interview as we provide each other with a mutual benefit beyond monetary compensation. I could essentially barter my services for advertising, which may lead to more revenue than simply asking for monetary compensation for my service to the business.  

Venture Concept No. 1 - Assignment 24

Business Name: Your Body Loves You

Opportunity

Most college students suffer from stress and an overwhelming amount of work classes, extracurricular activities, grad school or employment search, and a demanding social life. While college students have come to accept busy schedules as the norm, they have also accepted being tired and lethargic as also being the norm. From the time we began working hard in high school or earlier, we already accepted the notion that feeling tired and rundown is simply the inevitable consequence of working hard to accomplish your goals. I believe the root cause of this presumption is imbedded in broader cultural themes and habits that contribute to feeling of tiredness, lethargy, and stress.

While a little stress goes a long way to motivating students accomplish their goals, students often find themselves overwhelmed by this stress and consequently are brought further away from the goals they have tried so desperately to achieve. Of course, being tired from working hard is inevitable, but I believe there are simple solutions to this problem that is overlooked by almost all young students as well as adults.

The largest environmental forces is the social norms that the post lunch pre dinner lull is inevitable and the solution to being tired is to pour caffeine, energy drinks, or other chemicals you can not pronounce into your body. This only exacerbates the issue at hand.

Currently, students attempt to satisfy this need by either ignoring their mental health, writing it off as normal, or trying to compensate incorrectly.

The opportunity that is found is preventing or remedying this issue is large and is pertinent to almost the entire working population that has not already found a solution to their issue that prevents them from further exacerbating this issue. The primary opportunity lies in young people as their bodies are most likely to accept being tired and push through it.

The window of opportunity for finding a solution to this issue extends well into adult life after college. As long as someone is working hard constantly and has not put much thought into their energy levels, the window to introduce them to a solution is open.

Innovation

My “innovation” is not so much an innovation but instead a solution to people’s issues, but by targeting a more niche demographic, allows it to have a higher penetration rate and be more successful than competing services like mine.

My service provides college students with ideas to solve their energy issue. My company, Your Body Loves You, utilizes our human capital of employees that have spent years crafting their lifestyles to optimize their daily energy and health levels to provide college students with solutions that allow them to not have to fight against their body. We believe that your body is your best friend and is designed to work alongside you and not against you. However, your body needs you to work with it and provide it with the resources and fuel it needs to do its job: helping you live a healthy lifestyle while also working hard to accomplish your goals.

The service first attracts potential customers by our free Instagram platform that provides daily tips and blog posts centered around nutrition, fitness, and overall energy levels. At this point, followers will be enticed to sign up for our premium service where they can receive personalized counseling and plans that will allow them to reach their goals. This service is a subscription-based service that utilizes 3 month contract lengths to ensure that the customer has adequate time on the program to see results. A 6-month subscription costs around $100, just over $1 a day and our cost structure is primarily labor costs of the associates that provide for their clients.

Venture Concept

My product solves college students energy levels because it targets aspects of their lives that they are largely neglecting or not thinking about enough. For example, we believe that your nutrition, sleep, and circadian rhythms contribute the most to your daily energy levels and overall well-being. However, college students do not take these aspects seriously. Sure, everybody knows 7-8 hours sleep is ideal, but college student prioritize other things above sleep. By correcting the most impactful aspects first, Your Body Loves You is able to easily correct the largest issue contributing to people’s well-being.

Customers will want to buy this product because they have the inherent human need to care for themselves. We believe one of the largest issues college students have is that they underestimate the results they can achieve if they make minor adjustments to their daily routines. When potential customers utilize our free service through Instagram, they should begin to see improvements in their lives. Once they realize this they will want to continue improving, and this is where they have the opportunity to purchase a 3-month subscription.

My underlying service is not unique and many competitors exists. However, I differentiate due to my focus on college students and their specific needs. Understanding the uniqueness of their lifestyles is a critical component to achieving client goals.

Customer experience plays the largest part since we are promoting an overall life experience improvement, so customers should feel good the more they interact with our brands.

The primary infrastructure of a business supporting my product is primarily employees who are able to provide quality services to their clients as well as a tactically organized social media presence that will be the central form of advertising.

Most important resources – Culture of improving clients well-being (benchmark success on clients success not monetary success)

Next opportunity – Potentially branching out to emotional well-being instead of mental and physical well-being

What’s next for me – I want to be able to have Your Body Loves You provide service to populations besides college students. Adults long into their successful careers need even more help living a healthy lifestyle since their bodies become more vulnerable to diseases and sickness. As an entrepreneur I want to say I made a difference in people’s lives.

Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage - Assignment 23

1)   Resource: Social media presence

Valuable: Outlet to reach potential customers

Rare: Not rare, easily replicable by others for free

Inimitable: Somewhat. If my content is unique it is not inimitable

Substitutable: Yes, there are multiple social media outlets

2 )      Resource: Self (human capital)

Valuable: Yes, allows me to take advantage of creativity

Rare: Yes, no one like me

Inimitable: cannot imitate

Substitutable: Yes, if someone else has a more creative mindset

3)      Resource: Coworkers (human capital)

Valuable: Yes, they allow me to expand my business

Rare: Depending on their skill set

Inimitable: No. Others can find employees with similar skill set

Substitutable: No, my business relies on advice from people with experience

4)      Resource: Low cost of entry

Valuable: Yes, this allows me limited barriers to entry

Rare: Yes. Most businesses are capital intensive

Inimitable: Yes, can set up a similar business model

Substitutable: Yes if a new business has excess cash

5)      Resource: Inherent desire of customers for benefit of service

Valuable: Yes, this is the underlying reason I would have demand for my product

Rare: Yes, most products do not entice a natural human need (desire to be healthy)

Inimitable: Yes but only in certain business areas that cater to human need

Substitutable: No, unless people search out alternative methods to feel healthy

6)      Resource: Culture of helping others

Valuable: While we are for profit, we judge a job well done based on how our clients feel

Rare: Yes, most businesses set monetary benchmarks

Inimitable: Yes if other businesses also have the mindset of helping others

Substitutable: No, culture can be a unique trait that builds customer loyalty

7)      Resource: Centralized and conveniently accessible target market

Valuable: Do not have to spend much in marketing

Rare: Yes, only collegiate businesses have several thousands customers centralized on a campus

Inimitable: Yes by other businesses catered to college students and centered on campuses

Substitutable: Yes by ecommerce, but ecommerce still loses personal touch

8)      Resource: Adequate seed money

Valuable: Yes since new companies burn money very quickly

Rare: Sometimes. Most businesses ensure they have an adequate capital position to start

Inimitable: Not hard if they know where to find potential investors or generous family members

Substitutable: Yes since they can get a loan from multiple financial institutions

9)      Resource: Customizable business model

Valuable: Yes since potential customers can have a tailored product

Rare: High customization is a pretty dominant model

Inimitable: Easy to copy if they have the scale to do so

Substitutable: Yes, but they do not have a personalized touch by being a UF student

10)   Resource: Service based model generates recurring, predictable revenue

Valuable: Yes since we will be better able to predict future revenues and associated costs

Rare: No. Services are being more predominant than products

Inimitable: Not hard if the product being offered can be turned into a service

Substitutable: From a recurring revenue standpoint. Some products have lifecycles

My top resource is probably the culture I am aiming to create with my service. While we are a for-profit business, we judge our results based on client goals. We know that if we are doing our job correctly and improving the lives of others, the income will follow. Other similar businesses might not have this personalized touch as they usually sell in bundles. Moreover, most of the services have standardized packages (goals), so they usually do not listen to their customer enough. Us on the other hand, consult with clients about their goals and build a product around that.

Elevator Pitch No3 - Assignment 22

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOvDR1J2zU

Transcript: What if I told you never have to have that after lunch late afternoon lull. What if I told you you don’t need to crave a nap everyday. What if I told you you can be more productive while having more free-time at the same time. And what if I told you you can accomplish all that without having to take a magic energy pill or consume a drink with additive and fillers and other ingredients you cannot pronounce. What if you were able to reach your fitness goals by reading and practicing what is sent to your email inbox. What if you can learn healthy habits by just scrolling through Instagram. Your Body Loves You is a service that enables college student to take control of their lives, energy, and bodies. Rather than having to fight against your body, make it work alongside you by incorporating our hundreds of tips contributed by dozens of students like yourself. Out staff of UF students have spent years crafting their daily lives to optimize their lifestyles. Whether this be from changing their diet, workout routines, or other aspects of mindfulness, our staff has found the secrets of feeling good all the time that are not actually secrets, it is what your body is designed to do. We are not salespeople and we are not crazy, we simply believe your body is your best friend, you have just not been a good friend to your body. We want you to learn what your body has to offer you, but more importantly, wants to offer you. Follow YBLY Daily on Instagram or sign up for our free daily emails to truly understand for your body to love you back.

Reflection: I think the feedback I received was in line with what I expected. Some people said my hand gestures were a good touch and I spoke at a good pace. There were little negative comments which was reassuring.

Changes: One thing I knew I could improve on is the excitement in my tone and my enthusiasm. I naturally have a very monotone voice and do not have exaggerated facial expressions. So while other may be able to naturally sound enthusiastic, that is something I actually need to be aware of and try to do more.

Reading Reflection No.2 - Assignment 21

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

- While Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman covers a multitude of topics, the book primarily deals with two different systems of thinking. System one is characterized by fast thinking; the type of thinking we do subconsciously like 2+2=4. System two is considered slower thinking and is the type of thought is more complex and more mentally draining. The two systems can always work simultaneously by filling in for areas where the other system runs into trouble, as well as monitoring each other’s thoughts.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

- The second half of the book had to do with other emotions that revolve around emotional thought. One of these is regret and fear of regret, which causes an individual who might be risk adverse to fear regret so much that they are actually afraid of the possibility of failure. This relates to this class as entrepreneurship is all about taking a risk and having confidence in your process that you think will lead to success.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

- It would be a type of risk aversion test. There are a ton of tests like these online that could be used. This is important because knowing yourself and your risk appetite will help determine the type of steps you can take in your business (riskier decisions)

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

- The book also talked about Hindsight and how we think about hindsight. Before reading the book I knew and agreed with the phrase “hindsight in 20/20”, but I never thought whether thinking that way is good or bad. Ultimately, when we base the “right or wrong” of a decision based on the outcome, we ignore the care that was put into the process that came to that decision. At the time the person making the decision probably had a good reason for that decision, but since it did not come true we assume the person was wrong and the decision was “bad”, but perhaps the decision was actually the correct one to make based on the information available at that time. This made me remember some regrets I have and made me realize that viewing those instances as “regrets” is probably the wrong thought process to have.

Growing Your Social Capital - Assignment 20

Domain Experience

1) An Instagram account I follow that posts daily regarding exercises not simply for bodybuilding, but primarily for athleticism – a unique area of focus

2) Domain experience: This person runs an account with over a million followers as well as a YouTube channel. He has run these accounts for almost 10 years now.

3) I found the person over a year ago when searching through YouTube videos about new workout ideas. The easiest form of contacting this person was through Instagram direct message, which resulted in a reply the next day.

4) I briefly told him my idea and asked what area of the market did he think has been neglected the most. I was taken back by his answer that nutritional awareness is lacking in the market right now. He mentioned how YouTube and Instagram is filled to the brim with videos of bodybuilders showing what they do in the gym, but never about what they do in the 22 hours a day they spend away from the gym. The favor I asked for was information on the market and the return expectation was at the very least a reply, which I got.

5) Since my biggest area of concern was my personal credibility, having a well-known industry expert that can give my service credibility will go a long way.

Market Expert

1) The head of Social Media Outreach for an advertising firm from back home in South Florida. She has been in the position for 3 years and graduated from University of Miami with a degrees in Advertising and Marketing.

2) Expert on my market. While it does not seem at first that this person might fit the description, I wanted to understand more about targeting a younger audience via social media rather than simply those that my service most directly targets.

3) I found this person through a close friend of mine from back home that is a marketing major. I decided that since I wanted her expertise in something, it would make the most sense to reach out via email so she can take her time in replying and be more receptive to helping me out on her free time.

4) I simply wanted to know 3-5 of the most important things to consider when using social media as my primary outlet of advertising and outreach. She replied with her top two techniques: 1) the first two seconds a user interacts with your brand are the only seconds that matter when capturing a new customer and 2) everyone has a different response to a single form of advertising – switch it up. Additionally, she sent me a guide that her firm distributes to clients that directs them through the early setup of their online identity. 

5) She will allow me to use my number one advertising outlet, social media, effectively. This is critically important since this is my primary outlet of getting my service into users hands. If I do a poor job of this, my service will probably fail.

Industry Supplier

1) A representative for a well-known fitness brand that commonly sponsors individuals that they find online and think would represent their brand well. They have been a rep for two years now and prior to that had several thousand Instagram followers primarily due to his bodybuilding pictures.

2) This person is the expert in supplying the industry. Since his job is to advertise the brand of the company he represents, he has somewhat of a professional training on how to attract potential customers to buy off of him. Essentially I will want someone like him to come across my service and want me to advertise for his company (essentially become a representative myself).

3) I found this person through a friend of mine who is a representative for the same company. I direct messaged him on Instagram and we had a slightly long conversation.

4) We went back and forth with questions and answers regarding primarily what his company looks for in potential sponsorships. I was primarily concerned about reasons for not sponsoring someone who has plenty of followers and seems like an obvious candidate for sponsorship. My favor request was simply a conversation and my return expectation was information about his company’s preferences.

5) This will help me in two ways. 1) I received valuable information about what grabs the attention of people in a way that would make them want to open up their wallets and 2) he now knows about my brand and I will be a thought in his mind for potential sponsorship should I be able to get my service off the ground and meet the criteria his company looks for.

Reflection

This will help future networking as it gave me practice on how to break the ice and essentially cold call people to request information. This experience is slightly different from the past as I am the one soliciting information rather than the person volunteering to do so. This was different than something like a career fair since people at those events are there to give you information and want to talk to you. In a sense, I had to make a good enough first impression to even get them to want to talk to me.

Idea Napkin No.2 - Assignment 19

Idea Napkin No.2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

o   I am a third year student at the University of Florida enrolled in the Masters of Science of Finance program where I will complete my bachelors and masters in finance in four years (graduating May 2020). Some of my skills are analytical thinking, writing, and leadership, all of which allow me to excel in my student organization that I have a leadership position in. Outside of academia, my main interest is health and fitness and well-being. I love experimenting with my body – trying different diets and different exercises to see how my body reacts. With regards to my business, this fits well into my endeavors outside of a career in finance. Since I am currently extremely interested in health and wellness, my business plan fits well with that. If I found my business to be a success, it would be the main part of my life, otherwise it would be a side job.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

o   I am offering a service to college student primarily at UF that allows them to learn more about their bodies and how to live healthier lifestyles. My main goal is to provide an outlet for interested students to learn how to optimize their health to allow them to reach their collegiate goals. The problem is that most students are unaware how much their body wants to help them succeed, however they often treat their bodies incorrectly and must fight against themselves just to get through the day. My service will differentiate from other health and wellness outlets due to our focus on energy and overall feeling good everyday all year, rather that simply setting yardstick goals.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

o   College aged students primarily at UF. After several interviews conducted for previous assignments, I realize that my main demographic are students who have the need and are interested in living healthier lives. My targeted audience would be those who will want to engage with a service that they trust and think will help them. This demographic probably has a proactive viewpoint and are willing to make changes and take advice from others.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

o   Like I mentioned above, not as many students will think my service is as valuable as I originally thought. This would create significant issues as it would be hard for students to want to pay for something they are unsure of. My solution to this is by providing the first leg of the service for free, then any additional features will cost money. Essentially students have a free trial via social media, and should they find that “trial” helpful, hopefully they will be able to be converted to paying customers. Customers will want to pay for the service because they will actually be able to see tangible results from using the “free trial”. Moreover, users may be willing to pay for the service because should my service actually do what I am advertising it to do, it will save consumers money in lost time throughout their daily lives. I would need to make an effort to help them realize this.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

o   I am actually part of the demographic I am targeting. I have a keen interest in improving my well-being, a college student at UF, and believe your health is worth a high price tag. Other services online that offer fitness help seem very informal and are very broad based. By focusing on a single or a few college Universities, I will be able to offer more tailored and catered advice to the demographic. I would be able to offer solutions to problems that may be unique to a certain college campus or something those students have in common. In short, targeting a smaller demographic allows me better cater to my customers and provide them a differentiated service.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others. 

·                 I think these elements work well together. However, I think my main issue in developing my service will be building the business as reputable and trustworthy. Since I am not a health major and those who I employ may not be either, it may be hard to convince prospective customers that what we have to say is valuable. One thing that allows me to get around this is that the “free trial” aspect of the service is a good starting point to build reputability. Should users of the trial see tangible results in their lives, this will build credibility. At this point, my users will be able to see their daily routines change for the better and now view my service as instrumental to their daily routines.

Feedback Memo

The feedback I received primarily revolved around my personal competencies that would make my product successful as well as my service’s wholistic approach being very relatable to those interested in health and wellness.

I incorporated the following two changes:

Added a sentence that details a bit how my product would differ from the competition. I notice that most fitness and wellness services/apps/blogs are designed with the purpose of helping its users reach some short-term goal or help them with very niche things they want help in. My service is different since it centers around a wholistic lifestyle designed to make you feel good every day all the time. In a sense, my service can be considered a lifestyle rather than a simple method.

Added more detail about why customers would want to pay for my product. What makes my product special is that it is designed to create a lifelong improvement in the my user’s lives rather than simply reaching a specified goal. Due to this setup, my users will actually make what they learn from my service a part of their everyday lives. Now that my users will rely on my service for their daily routine, they will  begin to see value in my service and be willing to put a monetary value on it.

Elevator Pitch 2 - Assignment 17

Link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_EA2SC7NAc

Transcript: What if I told you never have to have that after lunch late afternoon lull. What if I told you you don’t need to crave a nap everyday. What if I told you you can be more productive while having more free-time at the same time. And what if I told you you can accomplish all that without having to take a magic energy pill or consume a drink with additive and fillers and other ingredients you cannot pronounce. What if you were able to reach your fitness goals by reading and practicing what is sent to your email inbox. What if you can learn healthy habits by just scrolling through Instagram. Your Body Loves You is a service that enables college student to take control of their lives, energy, and bodies. Rather than having to fight against your body, make it work alongside you by incorporating our hundreds of tips contributed by dozens of students like yourself. Out staff of UF students have spent years crafting their daily lives to optimize their lifestyles. Whether this be from changing their diet, workout routines, or other aspects of mindfulness, our staff has found the secrets of feeling good all the time that are not actually secrets, it is what your body is designed to do. We are not salespeople and we are not crazy, we simply believe your body is your best friend, you have just not been a good friend to your body. We want you to learn what your body has to offer you, but more importantly, wants to offer you. Follow YBLY Daily on Instagram or sign up for our free daily emails to truly understand for your body to love you back.

Reflection: The feedback I received partially surprised me because I did not think all my comments would include them mentioning they would use the product. Of course I know this is a service that can definitely help UF students, but I did not expect it to be received so well.

Changes: I did not change much in my video. After personally critiquing my previous video, I decided to speak slower, use more  hand movements, and really emphasize the "You" language throughout my pitch.

Create a Customer Avatar - Assignment 18

My customer avatar would be a college student in the age range of 18-23 years old that attends a large university in the state of Florida. My customers probably have irregular sleep schedules, busy daytime schedules, and multiple commitments and responsibilities that weigh them down daily. My customer probably attends the gym occasionally or daily and probably eats the same type of foods most of the time (simply due to preference). My customer avatar is not specific to race, gender, religion, or socioeconomic status. My customer segments probably follows some social media accounts that center around lifestyle and fitness and check their social medias on a daily basis. Assuming my customer segments are extremely busy, they may not scroll through their Instagram feed, but instead check a few of their favorite accounts.

I share most of the above characteristics of my avatar. I attend the gym almost daily and while I do go on social medial daily, it is usually less than 10 minutes just to check some of my favorite accounts. I do not think this is a coincidence as it is probably a reflection of our busy lifestyles. Since we have to spend time worrying about our responsibilities and engaging with other interests, social media goes to the back-burner of our minds. One area that might differentiate myself from my avatar is my sleep schedule as I tend to go to bed and wake up within the same time frame every day. I think this is largely due to me prioritizing restful sleep more than other college students as I notice a huge performance difference when I get less than eight hours of sleep.