Final Reflection

While the image posted above may make it seem like I had a horrible time in this class, in reality I find it hard to say that I enjoyed another class at UF more than this one! 

One of my most memorable experiences was definitely the assignment in which I had to try go "sell a dollar" to a stranger around campus. While I had spoken with strangers for some of the previous "Interviewing customers" assignment, I always felt like those interactions went by very smoothly. I knew what I had to say and why I wanted to say it. By contrast, selling a dollar (getting someone else to take a dollar, no strings attached) is much harder and requires some more imagination.

I would rank the series of elevator pitches that had to be completed for this class as some of the most useful experiences overall. It's hard to summarize a business idea in a minute and it's even harder to make a convincing presentation to obtain funding. 

I don't currently see myself as an entrepreneur simply because I haven't created an actual business yet. I would say that I've acquired an entrepreneurial mindset however and that I have a much better idea of how to take advantage of an opportunity for a business in the future. 

The one recommendation that I would make for future students would be to put some practice behind the theory of this class. It's all good and well to create practice business concepts and proposals, but they will never replace the experience that actually starting a business provides. While I haven't done this myself (yet) I do know that it's a necessary step if I'm ever going to consider myself to be an entrepreneur.

Week 15 Reading Reflection

After completing the final reading assignment of the semester, I was most surprised by the profitability of Vikram Akula's company. Before reading the journal article, I found it hard to believe that a business could profit from extremely small loans made to the poor. What Vikram has accomplished is truly astounding and a testament to the untapped markets that still exist in modern society.

I was most confused by the way in which the author introduced his business idea and model at the beginning of the article. While he mentioned the problems SKS Microfinance experienced in Nizamabad, he failed to clearly explain what was done to resolve the problem there. Could nothing truly be done with the exception of leaving the town?

If I had the opportunity to ask the author two questions I would first ask if SKS Microfinance has ventured to conduct business in other countries with poverty levels similar to those in India? Intuition tells me that there are definitely other countries in which this business model would also be profitable, but there must be a  reason the company hasn't entered new territory as of yet. I would also ask what the exact job specifications of the loan officers are. I understand that they make sure that customers are on track in re-paying their loans, but how are they able to enforce this without acting as a loan shark?

Given that I have very little experience with the field of Microfinance I would not say that the author was wrong about anything.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

Pitch:

Feedback and Changes:

The feedback that I received from my last elevator pitch was all positive, indicating that most people really liked my pitch! I would appreciate some constructive criticism so that I can improve however, so feel free to speak your mind in the comments.

Since the feedback from the last elevator pitch was all positive, I didn't change much in order to address people's concerns. I did however add some more context to the pitch, adding in that OddJob would be more focused on college students and how it would work in a localized way.

Google Gold

1.) Unfortunately I have not focused most on my blog on being search engine optimized. While I could have done a better job of utilizing labels in each of my posts, I think it would have helped the most if I named my blog after my product or included the product name in the URL. I did make sure to post a link to my blog in every student's blog that I commented on, but those links are read as text by Blogger, which would not really help in having the search engine give more relevancy to my blog.

2.) The only keywords that were used throughout this course were the week name labels. This blog post has one for example, Week 14.

3.) I did not use social media to any extent in promoting my blog. In the case of this specific blog, along with the posts that it has created, I'm not sure a significant increase in the site traffic would have been achieved. Most social media users click on blog post links that relate to a topic of interest and have the potential to teach them something new. Most of the posts on this blog have been analytic in nature, although I think some people would be interested in those posts with videos.

4.) The "My Entrepreneurship Story" and "What I Think are the World's Biggest Problems" blog posts obtained the highest number of page views. I think this is because of the recent creation of the blog at the time those posts were created. At that moment in time I was sharing the URL to my blog with friends and family members and while they may have looked at the blog post, they most likely didn't continue to visit the site for subsequent posts.

5.) Since I did not have any pre-defined keywords at the start of the semester, I have done some searches with the keywords I believe I would have used. Note that each page of search results in google shows 10 results.

Keywords - rank - page

uf odd job blog - 10th - 1st page

ent 3003 odd job blog - 1st - 1st page 

uf odd job app blog - 6th - 1st page

While these results are all on the first page of Google, they are due to very specific searches. Had I searched "uf odd job" I would have had a very hard time finding the results since my blog is not optimized for general keywords.

 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise for me, in this week's reading, was how extensive and far reaching corporate entrepreneurship can be. Previously I only considered corporate entrepreneurship to include the acquisition of other business in similar or different markets. I've now come to realize that internal development and production is a large part of corporate entrepreneurship and that by fostering an open and creative environment, any employee can bring an entrepreneurial idea to fruition.

After reading Chapters 3 and 4 of our textbook, I was most confused by one of the types f morally questionable acts detailed in Chapter 4. Here the author details Role assertion as a type of morally questionable act but does not give clear examples. How does "investing in South Africa" or "using nuclear technology in energy generation" represent morally questionable acts? Perhaps these examples refer to the South Africa of the past, when apartheid was present, but overall the examples don't seem to be very good.

If I had the opportunity to ask the author two questions, I would first ask if there are any business development workflows that allow entrepreneurial ideas to become most apparent. The company where I currently work employs a system of software development called the Agile/Scrum method in which departments are broken down into small groups of 4-7 individuals. Each group decides which tasks are of most importance and work together to deliver on business commitments after a set amount of time. Are there other models such as this one that can help in creating new concepts? I would then ask if there is a most efficient manner of allotting time for employees to work on innovation projects during the workday. Many companies are more focused on keeping employees busy during their hours of work but don't consider the benefits that a set amount of "innovation time" could provide.

I did not find the author to be incorrect with any of the points made. Overall, I found no problem with the concepts and ideas brought up in the reading.

Celebrating Failure

While the instructions for this assignment indicate that a failure from this past semester (Spring 2016) should be used, I will instead be using a failure from last semester (Fall 2015). Doing so will enable me to fully detail a failure from which I learned and have reflected upon quite a bit.

Fall 2015 was a hard semester for me, quite possibly the hardest semester I have experienced as a sophomore at UF. I was taking several challenging classes including ACG 2021 (Introduction to Financial Accounting), CDA 3101 (Introduction to Computer Organization), and finally COP 3530 (Data Structures and Algorithms) during Fall 2015. While I knew from the beginning of last semester that I would have to put a lot of work into my classes to succeed, I underestimated the amount of work that was truly required. By the end of the semester I ended up getting a B in CDA 3101, a B- in COP 3530, and a C+ in ACG 2021. While some would not consider these grades to be a true failure, seeing as ACG 2021 is touted for it's difficulty as an undergraduate course and COP 3530 is a prerequisite for nearly every class in the Computer Science Engineering major, I hold myself to a high standard. For me, Fall 2015 constituted a semester in which I failed.

As a result of my failure, I learned various lessons. More than once I left assignment for the last minute in COP 3530, a class in which the assignments were non-trivial in scope. As I worked to complete assignments that I procrastinated on, I forgot to complete assignment for other classes, such as a quiz in ACG 2021. I no longer procrastinate on assignments, especially those assignments that stand to teach me the most (with regards to my field) and which I know will be involved beforehand. Furthermore, I've learned to keep on working and pushing forward, even when the going gets tough. Had I studied longer and worked more towards practicing the concepts covered in tests for ACG 2021, I could have gotten a B or a B+ instead of a C+, which would have been much better. Now, even though I work a part-time job (19-23 hours a week), I continue to work and put in the extra degree of effort in my assignments because I know the rewards speak for themselves.

I have found that while I initially handle failure emotionally (I think that to a certain extent, we all handle failure this way) I eventually handle the bulk of the failure in a behavioral manner, finding ways to better myself and change my habits in order to succeed in the future. I personally believe that this is the best method of dealing with failure. There's no use in thinking in terms of "could have" and "should have" when the past cannot be changed. As a result, I see failure as an opportunity to grow and advance as an individual. While this class has not significantly changed my views on risk-taking, I find that I am more likely to take a risk in which the main consequence is "failure" simply because I know that failure can push one to succeed and achieve more than previously thought. I think the image below illustrates this point well. Don't see failure as an absolute end. Instead see it as an opportunity to work harder and reach goals that seemed too far to reach before.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

After completing this week's reading, I was most surprised by the amount of steps that must be taken in order to both value a venture and for an existing company to buy another company. Before reading Chapter 14 of our textbook I knew that these processes are by no means simple. However, Table 14.1 and Table 14.2 (Due Diligence Evaluation and Checklist for Analyzing a Business) both clarified the exact points that must be addressed when properly valuing a business.

I was most confused by the process to apply the price/earnings ratio to privately held corporations. While the math makes sense to me, I'm not sure where exactly the capitalization rate comes from. Some more explanation for this quantity would have been helpful in understanding the conversion method.

Given the opportunity to ask two questions I would ask how big the difference between start-up costs and the costs of purchasing an existing business is when creating a final valuation price and how important it is that every item on the Due Diligence checklist be completed. The first question arises from the section at the end of the chapter, which states that while existing companies will be more expensive to acquire than start-ups, the overall cost is cheaper when considering the costs a start-up must incur to obtain a clientele and start making money. The second question comes from the fact that the evaluation checklist is quite long, spanning the length of almost two pages.

Overall I think that the author's points are very sound and do not contain any errors.

My Exit Strategy

After having successfully grown OddJob into a viable business I plan on greatly minimizing my involvement with the venture. I would make sure the structure of the business is such that it would be able to grow and survive with a different team in charge of it's operations.

I have selected this particular exit strategy because I know that after growing a business I will want to  move onto another opportunity. While I'm not opposed to continually supporting OddJob and other older business ventures, I think there are always greater opportunities for advancement.

I don't think my particular exit strategy has influenced my other decisions in building the concept of OddJob. My exit strategy only applies once the business venture has grown a sufficient amount and does not depend on the amount of time that has passed. Assuming that OddJob is still a viable business after 5, 7, or 10 years, I would only leave once I felt the business is in a stable enough position.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise for me in this week's reading was how much of a challenge it is for entrepreneurs to make a change into a managerial mindset.

I was most confused by the difficulty in which entrepreneurs have in delegating work to other individuals in the company. I can understand that many entrepreneurs are perfectionist that take pride in their work but it seems to me that when needed most people can effectively delegate.

Given the opportunity to ask two questions to the author, I would ask when is it appropriate to increase company-community involvement and what are easy steps that emerging ventures can take to reach out to global markets. In my mind global business has only been available to larger corporations. I would be interested to see what suggestions the author has for these questions.

I do not think the author was wrong about any of the points made in this chapter.