Venture Concept No. 2

Venture Concept

• Opportunity
• When it comes to studying, something that all college students should be doing, there are mixed feelings about whether or not one wants to go to the library to do so. Going to the library doesn't seem like such a big task, but when it comes to walking around, several minutes on end, looking for a table to sit at, it becomes one. My goal is to make it easier for students to know what tables are and are not available, so they can use their time wisely, studying, rather than walking around aimlessly in search of a place to sit.
• Innovation
• My product could potentially become very innovative, depending on how far it goes in it's production. My first plan is to create a chart at the main library desk, for students to select where they are going to sit, and check out when they leave, allowing others to know that another table is available. Depending on the success that it achieves, possibly making an addition to school campus Apps, to table availability at the library would be next. 
• Venture Concept
• I am hoping that my idea will fully address the problem that I know every student hates to have. There could, however, be issues in this process. People could forget to sign in as they arrive, or forget to sign out as they leave, making the chart system inaccurate and inefficient. 
• Minor Element
• Being a college student will certainly help out when it comes to implementing this idea. I know this is an issue, because we are currently in finals week, and I have yet to go to the library, along with many of my friends, due to the amount of people that are swarmed in there. My idea is not to empty out the libraries and make more space available, but to simply make people aware as to whether or not there are actually places open to sit.

Feedback

• When I first asked people about my idea, people as in students who attend UF, they loved it. They liked the idea of being able to know how many spots were or were not available in the library, so they could just go elsewhere rather than wandering around the building. However, as I stated above, the issue that most saw was whether or not people would keep up with it. It's not that most would intentionally ignore the system, as it would benefit everyone, they would just simply forget.

Changing My Venture Concept

• I think the best way to change my venture concept, would be to have every student swipe their Gator1 cards as they enter and exit the library. This would grant them access to enter, and let them know what areas are available to sit in.

Google Gold

In all honesty, I didn't really have an approach or strategy for search engine optimization. For every assignment, I basically made the post to the best of my abilities, or simply didn't post anything due to being too anxious or worried to go out and interview people. There were some assignments that I truly enjoyed doing, but for some reason I never had the thought to tag more labels than necessary, as I only expected students in this course to respond. However, now that we are at the end of this course, I wish I would have done so. Although not all of it was great, I loved getting feedback for my assignments. All of the feedback certainly helped push and motivate me, making me think even more, and because of that I wish I would have been able to get feedback from others, and not just students taking this course.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

From this reading, what surprised me the most is the fact that enterprises still struggle when it comes to providing the freedom and encouragement that are need in order for employees to create their ideas. It’s very evident that we live in a quickly changing society, therefore I think employees should be able to think of ideas more than they used to since they are more able to stay updated with the newest trends. 

The part that confused me the most about the reading is the fact that there is a green fee for companies who want to be considered “a green store.” I guess I just find this confusing, because I don’t understand why there is a fee for wanting to do something good for the environment.

If I could ask the author anything I would ask why they think people think of their actions are singular and don’t add up to affect the environment as a whole? I would also ask what they think we could do to make people more aware of what is going on in the environment?

I do not think that the author was wrong about anything. I liked the reading and agreed with it!

Very Short Interview, Part 2

From where I stand now, my impression of my initial interview is a little bit shocked. I knew Vincent was a very intelligent man, but I didn’t think his advice would be completely perfect for this entire class. When telling me these things, I thought it was just a general thing; mainly for once you enter the working force, not for this course.

I was unable to record my interview with Vincent this weekend, since he was out of town, but I did speak to him over the phone. These we’re the questions I asked him, and the responses I was given:

1.     Do you think taking this course helped you get where you are today, or is it more of a “learn as you go” kind of job?

·      “That’s a little bit of a difficult question because frankly, it’s both. The course helps you much more than you’ll realize. You’re doing assignments because you have to, because you don’t want a failing grade. But the things that you have learned in this course will make you a better entrepreneur in the long run. You’re always learning new things in this industry, everyday, but it all starts with school and the fundamentals.”

2.     Are you happy with where you are in your career?

·      “Absolutely. I love what I do and my education is what got me here. Sure, my days are long, always. And I usually work at least one day during the weekend, if not both, but I would never change that. I enjoy what I do and because of it I’ve been able to give my family a great life, and I would never trade that for anything.”

3.     What would you say the best thing about being an entrepreneur is?

·      “I’d say the best part about it is that things are always changing. Nothing is the same for too long so things are always new and exciting. That can make work hectic and stressful, but I’d rather have that than be bored.”

Compared to the beginning of the course, I felt as though I was much more confident in my interview with Vincent. My questions to him came out more naturally and it felt like I was having more of a conversation with him, rather than interrogating him. He actually noticed and said that I seemed much more talkative than the last time!

What's Next

Of course, I’m having problems with my audio. It’ll upload, but won’t play. So here’s a summary of everything that was said:

Existing Market:

For my product, as I mentioned in “The Amazon Whisperer,” I feel like the next step would be making an app for phones so people are able to see the availability of seats at the library, without actually having to go there to check.

I asked three people about this idea and these are the responses I received:

• ·      Cara Millburg: “I think putting this concept into an App would be much better than using it only at the library. The most effective way is to probably have it in the library and in an App so you can have double the accuracy.”
• ·      Savannah Hyatt: “I like the idea but I’m not sure what I’d want next. After being able to access it from a phone I’m not sure how much further you could go, but I definitely like the phone idea.”
• ·      Kyle Campbell: “This would be even better if you made it for all of the libraries on campus, and not just the main ones. There’s a lot of small ones people go to, but it’d be nice to know if those are packed too!”

For the most part it sounds as those the concept for my idea would be used/like by people. My only concern is that people will like it, but won’t keep up with it, and completely forget to check in, making the chart on the app inaccurate.

To start off I think the best idea would be to put this on the UF Campus app, rather than making it an entire app of its own. That way, we could test it out on one college campus, then extend it to others, and finally extend it to other libraries across the country.

New Market:

For a new market idea, I would keep the same concept but use it for libraries all over the country, not just those on college campuses. I feel like the idea, overall, would just make traveling to the library much more convenient for everyone.

I asked the same three people what they thought of me extending my idea to public libraries and not just those on college campuses:

• ·      Cara Millburg: “I don’t really know many people who go to the library when they’re home. I don’t. I think people go to grab a book or movie, not exactly to study like they do here. I don’t think it’d work as well in big cities.
• ·      Savannah Hyatt: “I would still use it at home! I don’t go to the library often at home but I have used it before for studying when my house gets too noisy, it could probably work.”
• ·      Kyle Campbell: “Do people still go to libraries other than on campus? I’m not sure. I’m not sure how reliable it would be, but you can always count on people to be at the libraries on campuses, I don’t know about anywhere else.”

Basically, for the new market idea, I learned that most people probably wouldn’t use it or take advantage of it. With students specifically, it doesn’t sound like most of them use their community libraries while at home, and simply rely on the ones located on campuses.

I’m not really surprised by this because I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been to the public library in my hometown. I don’t think this is an issue in other libraries, but is mainly specific to those at colleges/universities where student’s are always studying for exams, etc.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

From this week’s reading, the thing I found most surprising was how much information I already knew just from taking MAN3025. A lot of things in the reading we have already talked about in Management, it just went a little bit more in depth, for example strategic, tactical, and operational planning.

I didn’t find any of this chapter confusing since I have also been learning about it in my management course. It was just interesting to read about it in a different perspective than we do in MAN3025.

I have no questions for the author and I don’t think he was wrong about anything. All of the topics he discussed were exactly what was in my management textbook, it was just nice seeing it from another point of view.