Reading Reflection No. 3

Berry Gordy - To Be Loved; The Music, The Magic, The Memories of Motown

1. I think the thing that surprised me the most about Berry Gordy was his rising from nothing. This surprised me and didn’t surprise me at the same time. Many stories of fame come from humble beginnings. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say… He was impoverished and was raised at the poorest time in our Nation’s history. He had a large family, but they made it work.

The thing that I admire the most about him is that he kept all the values that his mother and father instilled at him from an early age. He was humble and often humbled by his peers in the later years of Motown. He kept that sense about him even though those values may have been misplaced at times. As with most entrepreneurs, he has an amazing story, but there are also things lacking. His familial relationships suffered from the relentless pursuit of his dream. After reading this and Coco Chanel, I am seeing this theme of these major players in entrepreneurship losing spouses or never having spouses due to their pursuits. If there is anything to not admire about them, it would be that.

Berry Gordy did experience adversity and failure. He came from the poorest of circumstances, but learned at an early age to use what you have and keep going. He learned not to give up. I think that seeing his “Pop” do what it took to take care of the family, always picking up odd jobs and making decisions with the family in mind taught him to do the same in a way. He knew that there was better out there and come hell or high water he wasn’t going to let people tell him that he can’t do it.

He was incredibly driven and resourceful. He was a teacher. He learned and educated so many others on every aspect of music from writing to producing to mixing, singing and performing. He seemed to be able to do it all, and was not hesitant to learn from others along the way to be able to teach so many.  

2. I felt that this book was pretty straight forward. Nothing really stood out as confusing to me, other than keeping all the children straight.

3. If I were able to ask 2 questions I would ask how it feels to be part of such a profound movement, how does it feel to be a part of or the one who brought African-American music into pop-culture?  And my other question would be to ask if it was worth it. Were all the years and struggles and frustrations worth going through to have been a part of Motown. I have a feeling that they answer to that would be an astounding yes, but a follow up to that would be to ask what he would have done different, what were the parts that weren’t worth it.

   

4. In this book, Berry Gordy said that his Pop was his hero. I think that Pop showed him what it was like to be a hardworking man from the time that he could understand what it was that he was doing. I believe that his view of hard work is doing what you can, whatever you can to make it work, to make your dream come true no matter what that dream is. And my honest answer to this is while I do share this opinion in my head, it is easier to think it than act on it. I do work hard for what I want, but there is a point where I draw the line and I think that is the difference between true entrepreneurs and myself.

Making It Real

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DYRVlUF6sCvItFrWUteDX_xbb3zMagFrcUOfxic-i44/edit?usp=sharing

Venture Concept No. 2

VENTURE CONCEPT NO. 2

Opportunity:

I have identified an opportunity, a need, for parents in the sporting community.

• The need is to get the children of busy parents to the sports events that they need to attend.
• Parents are busier these days with the rising cost of living and the economy. They must work longer hours, they have more demanding jobs, they have more children. These parents have demands that need to be met and not enough time to meet them.
• This market is targeted for families ranging in ages that are located in cities and towns where there are numerous sporting activities outside of school, city sporting leagues for example.
• Customers are currently satisfying this need by using friends to take their children to these practices and by taking off of work, if they can.
• This is an ongoing opportunity. My personal opinion is that if more parents were willing, this would be a huge opportunity for business growth, however in today’s society parents are justifiably skeptical of these types of services. This would be more of an opportunity for older children, middle school age up to the age of being able to drive themselves. There will always be children who are involved in sports.

Innovation:

The service that I am offering is a transportation service designed to meet the needs of the children and the parents.  My plan is as follows:

• We would have a website that allows the parent(s) or guardian(s) to schedule transportation for their child(ren), either on a one time basis or a recurring basis. You would be able to schedule a simple pick up and drop off to practice or the parent would be able to schedule a pickup and drop off to and from practice. This website would also include the additional feature of purchasing a drink, snack or drink/snack combo for the child(ren). The drink price would be $1 for water, $2 for Gatorade, $1-2 for the snack, depending on what they chose, and the combo would likely start out at $3-4.
• My drivers will be clean cut, female college students that have been through a thorough screening including driving test, drug screen and level II background check. All drivers will be required to wear a uniform shirt so that they will be easily identified by both parents and children as employees of this company. The employees, I feel, would be the greatest resource to the company.  
• I would start off with a small fleet of vehicles that I would strategically use car wraps on for advertising and identification.  
• We will go to great lengths to provide a safe service. We will have a mobile application to accompany our website. We would have an alert system in place through this app to notify the customer, aka the parent, of when their child was picked up from the designated location and dropped off at the designated location. We are looking into the addition of webcams in the vehicles so that the parent may log on and see that their child is safely in the vehicle that they are supposed to be in.
• The price for this complete service is undetermined at this time.  There will be options to purchase individual rides, a set of rides, i.e. to and from practice, or you can sign up monthly if a parent knows that they will need this service on certain days of the week through the month. I do have the plan to offer discounted rates for those that sign up for a longer time frame of transportation, for example a month of service or a season.  

Venture concept:

The Mom-Mobile Service is an innovative way to get your child to and from sports practices and games when the parent(s) cannot get them there.  It is not uncommon for parents to struggle with getting their child to practices and/or games on time. By using this service, the parent’s time is relieved of the rushed and stressful feeling of getting their child or children to the sports facility. They also can benefit from a structured schedule while being assured that their children are safe with the implemented safety features.  With little professional competition in the Gainesville area market, the only other alternative is to have friends or family members transport your child to these events. Having spoken to some parents that take advantage of that opportunity, it is not always ideal and can leave them with a feeling of burdening the transporting parent or relative.

The competitors in this market are two small companies that provide transportation for children. One such company has been in business since the mid 1990’s, however not many people know of their existence. Neither of these companies have strong marketing campaigns, this is a weakness for their business. With my vehicles wrapped with my logo and catchy slogan “Let me be part of your village,” it will catch people’s attention and create traffic to my website.       

With Mom-Mobile, the customer is our top priority. We would strive to give parents peace of mind with someone whom both the parent and the child can be comfortable with. We would like our driver to be viewed as an extension of the family. Our prices would be competitive with the other companies, but affordable enough for most to take advantage of.

With employing college age females as drivers, I anticipate incorporating services such as scheduled babysitting and tutoring. Living in Gainesville, a college town, the possible employee pool is in abundance.

In my current 5 year plan, I will have successfully introduced these additional services and would have started a franchise. This is a need, not only in Gainesville, but in cities and towns across the nation.   


Summary on Feedback:
Due to a mistake, on my part, on the way I posted my Venture Concept No. 1, I had no feedback on that, but I had a large amount on feedback on my What's Next assignment, so I will work with that. All of my feedback was positive. I had no negative feedback. There were a couple suggestions made. One of those suggestions to instead of hiring college age females to drive my vehicles, I could hire already vetted Uber drivers. If I were to incorporate that, I would have to research the qualifications for Uber drivers which I have not done. Since that research has not been done, I am staying with my college age female drivers. I am unsure as to how many female drivers Uber uses, but statistics show that there are less females committing crimes involving children and I believe that a parent would feel more safe with that type of driver. Another suggestion was to switch to my new market and solely work with senior citizens. While I agree that this may be a lucrative market, it would not solve the need that I, and so many others, have as a busy parents.

As I stated, I had all positive feedback on this assignment. I do realize that it is hard for people to have knowledgeable input on an idea like mine when they have little to no life experience with children. With that in mind, it was refreshing hearing that they could have used this when they were younger or that this service would have been of great benefit to their parents. It assures me that I am on the right path.

I understand the two suggestions that I was given, and agree with them to an extent, but I do not agree that it would be wise for me to change those two aspects of my concept, therefore my Venture Concept remains the same.

Final Reflection

I have to say that I have really enjoyed this class.

What sticks out to me as the most formative experience is the interviews. Interviewing people, whether they are strangers or friends, is quite an intimidating experience. You want feedback and you want to collect that data for your venture, but it's almost like baring your deepest darkest secret. I think that was the scariest thing for me, sharing my idea with people and getting their reaction. They might not be as excited as I am about out idea. Those interviews stick with you and they teach you that it's okay to stick your neck out and it gives you confidence for the future. I don't know that I had a joyous experience, but the one that I was most proud of was the What's Next assignment. It was the last set of interviews, I feel that no one really wanted to do them, but I had to to make sure that I got all the points I needed for the class. I ended up having my most amazing interview from the entire semester. I didn't want to do and it was a struggle, at the 11th hour I pulled it all together and got it turned in. It may not be a traditional feeling of being proud, but I was so proud of myself for getting it done and not passing it up.

I somewhat see myself as an entrepreneur, but I don't know that I would want to do it as my only source of income. I don't feel that I am in a stage of life where I can be as creative as I would need to be as an entrepreneur. I can say that I have definitely moved closer to being to one and have started to develop the mindset, but I don't think that I would want to be one at this point in my life.

My suggestion for anyone taking this class is to just do it. Just do the assignments. Just read the assignments before deciding whether to do them or skip them. Just do the interviews. Just do it! It's a great class, it's an easy class if you do the work. It can be overwhelming, but in the end you will learn a lot from it. You will learn about yourself and learn from others. I said this before in another assignment, practice helps too. I would tell students to practice in the mirror or practice with friends. It can be unnerving interviewing people, so practice!  One last thing that I would add is to keep an open mind.

Goodbye ENT 3003, it's been fun!  

My Exit Strategy

My plan for Mom-Mobile is to cultivate and grow the business as much as I can. I would retire and pass the business to my daughter if she chose to do this. I think this is the most fitting since I would be creating this business to benefit her and other children and families in our position.

It is my belief that the exit strategy should be in place from the beginning so that you will know the direction in which you want to take your business when an opportunity presents itself. Any decisions that I make either in the beginning of the process or during the lifetime of the business will be made in the best interest of the business and my daughter. I would like for her to have a successful business to work at while going through school and a place that she can one day own and manage. I am almost certain that as she gets older, different opportunities will present themselves, perhaps ones that I have not even thought of, that I may incorporate into my line of services. Having a business goal for her helps me to set, maintain and achieve goals for myself and the success of Mom-Mobile.

As a parent, I have found that it is always important to have a back up plan in place. If this business is not something that my daughter would like to acquire, then I would sell the business once it was time for me to retire. I would try to find the right fit for the company, someone who cares about the community and families as much as I do and hopefully sell for a large return.      

What's Next

Existing Market:

My target market are families with children between the ages of 6-16. These families would have their children active in extracurricular activities such as sports. I had thought that maybe what was next was branching out with different services, such as child care, but after interviewing a few people, their ideas seemed much more like franchising.

For this part of the experience, I interviewed 3 women who fit my demographic.  All three of these women had excellent ideas that I had not thought of up to this point.

At this point, I see the future of my business being so much more than I had originally planned. I had originally planned this very low cost start up business. It was suggested to me that if I spend a little more money in the front end, my business would perform better and be more profitable sooner. What I had imagined and put into my plan was stay at home moms, but after speaking with Erika, who is a local business owner in Gainesville, she pointed out some serious flaws with that decision. She also pointed out other flaws in my business plan and made some suggestions  for low cost advertising. She also gave me other suggestions that I will implement in further planning.

In speaking with these three women, I have thought about more revenue drivers to add to my business. I would be adding more services to the main service that I would be providing. I would not add any more products at this time, but I would be adding more services such as babysitting, tutoring, different options of pick up, maybe not just for sporting events. I have also changed who I would like to hire. Instead of hiring the stay at home mothers to be my drivers, I would hire college students with clean backgrounds. The more parents I talk to, the more I am finding that they love a parent driving their child or children, but they don't mind a college student as that is usually who they hire to babysit already.

New Market:

The different market that I started to target was those in their "Twilight" years. My current market is targeting families with children, the other end of that are those over the age of 60 who need rides. This is not an innovative idea as there are these transport services in abundance. It is simply a radically different market that I do believe I could incorporate into my business plan and if planned and executed properly has the potential to profit.

For this portion of the experience, I interviewed 3 people who could have used a service like this in the past or are facing needing a service like this in the future with a family member or themselves.

I would have to make a few changes to my current plan of providing a service for children to accommodate the older generation of clientele. I would need to consider hiring older drivers, as it was suggested that someone in their 60's would probably not like to "hang out" with a college student. My services would need to change as well, such as helping carry in groceries, small repairs or moving small items around the house. These services would be extra and would vary in price. It was also suggested that types of vehicles would probably be different for seniors than for the children. Accommodations would also need to be made for walkers, canes and possible wheelchairs.
Through this experience, I learned that it isn't only parents with children that are in need of extra help, it is many people.

It was also suggested that for maybe the seniors that are still very active and young at heart, they might prefer someone younger, college age up to middle age, to drive them around. The interviewee felt that they would know more about what was happening around town and might be more intune to the happenings around town. I think to fit this need, I would give the client the option of the type of driver that they would want.

As a stressed out parent, I am often consumed with my own issues and my unmet needs as a parent, that I overlook my surroundings. There are so many unmet needs that a service such as this could provide, from transportation to companionship. I am not surprised that this need exists or that people would be willing to pay for extended service for the seniors as many of the caregivers for this group are the working, struggling people who need this service for the children, the "sandwich generation" as one of my interviewees called it.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByQcuOmoc-ZnaG1KcmJSRHp1dDg
https://soundcloud.com/user-855894863/kristi-whats-next
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnNHNLWjRjaGpoR0k/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnMThMMW5sWTlZa2s/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnZVVNd2lTUkN5SjA/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnamtSSWZ3QWFmNUk/view?usp=sharing

Venture Concept No.1

Venture Concept No. 1

Mom-Mobile

Venture Concept No.1

VENTURE CONCEPT NO.1

Opportunity:

I have identified an opportunity, a need, for parents in the sporting community.

• The need is to get the children of busy parents to the sports events that they need to attend.
• Parents are busier these days with the rising cost of living and the economy. They must work longer hours, they have more demanding jobs, they have more children. These parents have demands that need to be met and not enough time to meet them.
• This market is targeted for families ranging in ages that are located in cities and towns where there are numerous sporting activities outside of school, city sporting leagues for example.
• Customers are currently satisfying this need by using friends to take their children to these practices and by taking off of work, if they can.
• This is an ongoing opportunity. My personal opinion is that if more parents were willing, this would be a huge opportunity for business growth, however in today’s society parents are justifiably skeptical of these types of services. This would be more of an opportunity for older children, middle school age up to the age of being able to drive themselves. There will always be children who are involved in sports.

Innovation:

The service that I am offering is a transportation service designed to meet the needs of the children and the parents.  My plan is as follows:

• We would have a website that allows the parent(s) or guardian(s) to schedule transportation for their child(ren), either on a one time basis or a recurring basis. You would be able to schedule a simple pick up and drop off to practice or the parent would be able to schedule a pickup and drop off to and from practice. This website would also include the additional feature of purchasing a drink, snack or drink/snack combo for the child(ren). The drink price would be $1 for water, $2 for Gatorade, $1-2 for the snack, depending on what they chose, and the combo would likely start out at $3-4.
• My drivers will be clean cut, female college students that have been through a thorough screening including driving test, drug screen and level II background check. All drivers will be required to wear a uniform shirt so that they will be easily identified by both parents and children as employees of this company. The employees, I feel, would be the greatest resource to the company.  
• I would start off with a small fleet of vehicles that I would strategically use car wraps on for advertising and identification.  
• We will go to great lengths to provide a safe service. We will have a mobile application to accompany our website. We would have an alert system in place through this app to notify the customer, aka the parent, of when their child was picked up from the designated location and dropped off at the designated location. We are looking into the addition of webcams in the vehicles so that the parent may log on and see that their child is safely in the vehicle that they are supposed to be in.
• The price for this complete service is undetermined at this time.  There will be options to purchase individual rides, a set of rides, i.e. to and from practice, or you can sign up monthly if a parent knows that they will need this service on certain days of the week through the month. I do have the plan to offer discounted rates for those that sign up for a longer time frame of transportation, for example a month of service or a season.  

Venture concept:

The Mom-Mobile Service is an innovative way to get your child to and from sports practices and games when the parent(s) cannot get them there.  It is not uncommon for parents to struggle with getting their child to practices and/or games on time. By using this service, the parent’s time is relieved of the rushed and stressful feeling of getting their child or children to the sports facility. They also can benefit from a structured schedule while being assured that their children are safe with the implemented safety features.  With little professional competition in the Gainesville area market, the only other alternative is to have friends or family members transport your child to these events. Having spoken to some parents that take advantage of that opportunity, it is not always ideal and can leave them with a feeling of burdening the transporting parent or relative.

The competitors in this market are two small companies that provide transportation for children. One such company has been in business since the mid 1990’s, however not many people know of their existence. Neither of these companies have strong marketing campaigns, this is a weakness for their business. With my vehicles wrapped with my logo and catchy slogan “Let me be part of your village,” it will catch people’s attention and create traffic to my website.       

With Mom-Mobile, the customer is our top priority. We would strive to give parents peace of mind with someone whom both the parent and the child can be comfortable with. We would like our driver to be viewed as an extension of the family. Our prices would be competitive with the other companies, but affordable enough for most to take advantage of.

With employing college age females as drivers, I anticipate incorporating services such as scheduled babysitting and tutoring. Living in Gainesville, a college town, the possible employee pool is in abundance.

In my current 5 year plan, I will have successfully introduced these additional services and would have started a franchise. This is a need, not only in Gainesville, but in cities and towns across the nation.  

Celebrating Failure



I have failed at a lot of things. I fail constantly as a parent, I have failed at being a wife, I have failed in my job, I fail friends...the list can go on and on. I feel that I fail at something almost every day. I have had my own business and I am part of the statistic that small businesses close within 5 years. ME! Right here, this girl....totally failed. But that failure wasn't because my business wasn't good, it was because I more-or-less gave up. Life got hard so I closed it. I shouldn't have done that. It's hard to pick just one failure for this assignment when I have so many.

I have failed assignments this semester. I have not done some. I hate when I don't get assignments completed, I feel like a total failure. It makes me feel like I'm not a good enough student. I feel like I am almost 38 years old, I should have my shit together and sometimes I don't. Sometimes life gets in the way and things are unavoidable. That is when I become really hard on myself, like why can't I work full time, raise a child and go to school, I mean, it's only 1 class, right!?! Oh yeah, and let's throw in a move while we are at it.  Then I have to take a step back and laugh. It's okay, I'll know better for the next time this happens. I will know to read ahead and not let assignments sneak up on me. I'll know...     

Failure is incredibly hard to swallow when you are not expecting to fail. It can be embarrassing. You can go into a situation expecting to fail and it be okay or more acceptable, an easier pill to swallow or you can go into a situation completely unprepared for failure and just be absolutely mortified. I think that the people that find failure to be a complicated emotion are hard on themselves and expect more from themselves than they are capable of at times. I am this way. When I have the hardest time accepting failure is when I am the most hard on myself, but that can also turn into motivation to get it right, or at least better, next time. Sometimes I do not handle it well. Sometimes I get angry and throw things, which is extremely childish. I ultimately use it to better myself though. If nothing else, you realize what doesn't work and either you grow or use it to help others.

I absolutely am more likely to take a risk now than I was 4 months ago. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the possibilities that are around me. I feel that I have learned quite a bit.   

My Unfair Advantage

Business Knowledge: I have owned my own business before. I have knowledge of what it takes to keep it running.

• Value: This is very valuable.
• Rare: This is not rare as many people own their own businesses.
• Inimitable: This knowledge is easily imitated, as many people have it, but no one has the same experience, so this cannot be 100% duplicated.
• Non-substitutable: To me, this is not substitutable. You can take classes to prepare you, but until you have owned a business yourself, you don’t know what it is like.  

Customer Oriented: I am very customer oriented. I want my service to feel like an extenuation of a family experience.

• Value: This is a valuable characteristic.
• Rare: I don’t think that this is rare.
• Inimitable: I do think that this is easily copied.
• Non-substitutable: I do not think that this is easily substitutable.

My employees: My employees will me moms, just like myself. Moms who will take care of these children as if they were their own. Moms who are already providing this service out of the kindness of their hearts and not getting paid.

• Value: This is extremely valuable.
• Rare: This is rare.
• Inimitable: This can be copied.
• Non-substitutable: This could be substituted.

Personality:

• Value: Personality is extremely valuable when providing a service, especially a service involving children. It has been suggested by the people that know me the best, I have the personality to interact with the public.
• Rare: a good personality is not rare, but it is not that common either.
• Inimitable: An individual personality is not something that is easy to imitate.
• Non-substitutable: A good personality is not substitutable, but it can be duplicated. It can be faked.

Cost Conscious:  This would, ideally, be a service that everyone could be able to use, to be affordable.

• Value: This is valuable.
• Rare: This is somewhat rare with this type of service.
• Inimitable: This can be copied, but I don’t know who would be willing to do so.
• Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable.

Parent myself: I have been in the exact situation of the service that I would be offering.

• Value: This is extremely valuable.
• Rare: This is not rare.
• Inimitable: Not easily copied.
• Non-substitutable: Cannot be substituted.

Self-sufficient: I am a pretty independent person. I ask for help when needed, but can do things on my own.

• Value: valuable capability
• Rare: sometimes
• Inimitable: no
• Non-substitutable: not substitutable

Networking: knowing people that can help

• Value: highly valuable
• Rare: not rare in general, but may be rare for my concept
• Inimitable: yes
• Non-substitutable: not substitutable

Low overhead: Can work from home and employees work from home.

• Value: This is extremely valuable from a cost standpoint.
• Rare: I don’t feel that this is necessarily rare
• Inimitable: the idea can be copied
• Non-substitutable: not substitutable

Low Start up Cost: Moms, cars, electronics and insurance 

• Value: This is valuable for the business.
• Rare: This is not rare, as many businesses start small.
• Inimitable: This can be copied.
• Non-substitutable: This cannot be substituted. 

My most valuable resource, by far, would be my employees, my moms. Without them, I would not be able to provide the service that I want to provide. I do not think that I would be able to hire non-moms and get the same work product. That is not to say that all moms are the same and provide the same amount of care. I would have to be selective when hiring, but without moms as employees, the service would not have the same feel.  

Amazon Whisperer

Mom-Mobile

My business idea is a service based business, a transportation system for children to or to/from sporting events that they are involved in. There would be two options to chose from when scheduling a ride for your child, a parent could pay just for a ride to the field/facility or chose the option for a ride to the field/facility and then a ride home after the practice or game. 

Revenue Drivers- As of right now I only have a few revenue drivers beyond the two service options - snack options. Chances are that if you can not get your child to practice or a game on time, you can not get that child/children a snack. We would be offering healthier snacks, drinks (gatorade and water) and a snack/drink combo.

Next Product Offering - I don't know that parents or children would necessarily need any products beyond that. If I had to expand products that I offered, it may be something like sunscreen or equipment rental in case someone forgot their gear. Coaches often have extra equipment for their players to use so I am not sure how beneficial that would be. I could also see something like this growing into a child care service as well. Since the heart of my company is just that moms are being moms, I can see where people may want to see us branching out for child care services as well. However, that would not be a service that would be provided until the company became more established.   

Improvement - I do believe that parents would pay for a mom-like service. As mothers, we can't always be there for our children so we rely on other moms to help out. Sometimes those moms fall through too, so I think that additional services that we could provide, whether it be extra equipment that people could pay to use or keeping sunscreen for our regular customers or having it on hand for people to buy or providing child care down the road, I believe that that type of service would create loyal customers and would enhance the customer experience.   

Product - Unfortunately, there are no products from Amazon that I can look up. I am not providing an "upgradable" product or even a product to sell with my service beyond food and drink. However, I am open to any suggestions that anyone has for a product to offer along with my service. 

Elevator Pitch No.3

Mom-Mobile

Unfortunately, I was unable to record the second elevator pitch to get any feed back, but I did receive feedback on my first pitch. Overall, I got some good feedback. I did not receive any negative or silly feedback. I only had one suggestion and that was to, perhaps, incorporate a price point, but I have yet to come up with a price or how I would structure the options for purchasing the service. That will be done soon. I did use the feedback to add a little about the safety features that I would have, i.e. the webcam and a website to log onto and check on the child's location. Other than that, my pitch is pretty much the same. I am open to any feedback that anyone is willing to give.  

Reading Reflection No.2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Kind of the Story of My Life
By: Scott Adams

1. The general theme of this book, or what I took away from it was to take care of yourself and manage your energy, so that you can focus on different ventures and juggle business, family and personal time. That is okay to try new things and fail. You gain more experience with each failure and that experience may be great for a different venture. You can take what you learn about one aspect of your failed idea/venture and apply it to another concept and so on until you have so much knowledge that you will eventually get something right.

2. I have to say that his "Passion is Bullshit" chapter didn't really go along with what I feel we talk about in class, but it was a funny chapter. Don't do what you are passionate about because you will grow to hate it. He did reiterate that failure is good, failure is okay. It's a learning tool that can lead to bigger and better ventures in the future.  

3. I have a couple of assignments that I might do: 1. I might would have student think back through out their lives and come up with 3 things that they are really good at and then find opportunities involving those things. Those are the things that you will, most likely, succeed at and 2. I might would have students write down affirmations for this class or any class they were taking, post it somewhere they look every day and then at the end of the semester have them report back to see how they affected them or if they helped in any way. .  

4. The biggest thing, for me, was his idea to take care of yourself in all aspects. When I think of being an entrepreneur, I think of working all the time and possibly working yourself to death. I think that because he had struggled with psychological and physical issues, he wanted to drive home that taking care of yourself can be done along with all the other demands of being an entrepreneur. You have to prioritize, manage your time and energy.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Mom-Mobile

The Bigger Picture

For those of you just coming onto my blog, my concept is a car service for children, specifically children who are in afterschool activities such as sports. 

You: I am a mom. A single mother that holds down a full-time job, while going to school and raising a VERY active soon-to-be 9 year old daughter. I have also worked in childcare and have been a preschool teacher. I can now add volleyball coach to my resume, which is what got my wheels turning in the first place. I am pretty good with kids, firm but fair. My aspirations would be to have a reputable service that caters to children ages 6-16. I care about reputation when it comes to my kid and I know that other parents do too, so it is important for me to have a safe, reputable business that serves children. 

What are you offering to customers? I would be offering safe transportation for children to get to or to/from practices. It's a paid car-pool service. I would also be offering part-time jobs to moms who otherwise would be stay-at-home moms. With these jobs, they would be able to take their children with them, they would not have to worry about child care while working.

Who are you offering it to? I am offering it to parents: single parents, very busy parents, parents with odd work hours, parents of multiple children.

Why do they care? They care about their children. They want their children to be active so they sign them up for sports, but they can't always get them to practice on time. Their children have to miss out on practice, maybe because one child is sick and the parent can't get out or maybe both parents have to work late on a day that practice is scheduled. They don't want their child to miss out. 

What are your core competencies? I am a mother of a child who is in this age range, who is also active in spring and fall sports. I have also been employed with the State Attorney's Office for over 10 years so I KNOW what goes on in our world and have a sensitivity to it. I think what I would have that no one else does is extra security measures for that very reason. I would have an alert system, notifying the parent of when the child was picked up and dropped off at practice as well as a webcam in the car so the parent could log on and see that the child was secured in the vehicle. It has also been suggested that I have GPS tracking in place as well, which I will be looking into. The drivers would also go through a Level II background check, have a test drive (or two) and random drug screens. We all want our children to be safe, but can't always be with them. I completely understand that position and want to create a business that people can trust and rely on. 

I believe that these elements do fit together. I believe that I have experience, both as a parent and as a provider. Like some of my feedback has said, this is something that parents already do for free. I agree. I have done it. I have picked up players and coaches and taken them to practice. What about the players that don't have someone close to take them? What about the players that might not know anyone, that are new to town? There are 1,000 "what ifs." There will be parents who would not put their kid in a care to save their life and that is fine, I understand that and appreciate it. My whole idea is based on a concept that is primarily for the children, but also fills a need for the parent.  

Feedback memo:
I only got one comment on my Idea Napkin No. 1. I did not incorporate any feedback into this assignment, as I had none. The commenter believed that I was setting my idea apart from competition in "a possibly saturated market" by it being a shuttle service for sports practices and games. This would be a great comment and something to think about if there were a saturated market. However, it is not. There are only two companies in Gainesville that offer this service, neither of which are highly marketed. It is my belief that not many parents know about these services. My thoughts on my business idea remain the same.  

My Customer's Avatar

Mom-Mobile

Car service for children to or to/from sports practice and games.

My prototypical customer would be busy parents of children in sports. These parents would be working parents either with unique work hours, parents of multiple children, single parents or parents that may have jobs that do not allow them much time off.  These parents are hard working. They are trying to do the best they can for their children. I can relate to this group of people as I am one, a prototypical customer. Since I do fall into this group, for the purposes of this assignment, I am going to use the term "we" to describe us. 

These parents, depending on their individual circumstances, are often working long hours to provide the most for their children, to provide them with toys, popular clothing, joining sports for entertainment, skill development or health reasons. I would say we range in age from early twenties to late forties. We often don't have much time of our own. We may or may not participate in these sports activities with our children at home in our free time. I can only speak for myself, but as a single parent, I try to practice volleyball with my daughter as I can. I often find myself trying to take care of the daily chores of life while she is doing something else. We often have to juggle meals, play time, transportation, school, practices and down time, if there is any. If these parents are anything like me, they are just waiting until bedtime rolls around so they can have a little time to themselves. If their children are young, the parents typically don't have any hobbies as they are mostly just trying to survive the chaos. They may have some favorite shows like Game of Thrones or something that comes on after the kids are in bed. We often drive SUV's, minivans and large Suburban type vehicles, "mom-mobiles" or "grocery getters," as I have heard them called. You can spot us anywhere. We are usually the ones who look extremely tired. 

   

My Secret Sauce

5 ways that I think I have human capital that sets me apart:

1. I am super friendly and social. I rarely meet someone without leaving with a new friend or acquaintance. I have a tendency to make people feel at ease around me.
2. I care. I genuinely care about people.  I really care about children. My business would be about the children, I would care for them like I do my own child.
3. I am loyal. Once I reach a certain level of friendship or business relationship with someone, I am fiercely loyal.
4. I take no crap. I am firm, but fair.
5. I tend to have a different perspective of things. I try to be a decent human and not be selfish all the time. I think that selfishness is human nature, but I really try to take a step back and understand the situation and do what's best for the whole, not just myself.

I interviewed 5 people who know me the best, who have been with me through the good, the bad and the ugly. My interviewees are as follows:

• My best friend, Kristi. She knows me better than I know myself. We have been friends for almost 25 years. 
• My friend Dayna. We have known each other for over 10 years, but have become much closer in the last 5-6 years.
• My friend Tamara. We have been friends a little over 4 years. We met, instantly clicked and have been thick as thieves since.
• My Dad. He has been there for almost 38 years. We got much closer after my mom passed. I think he knows me pretty well. 
• My Aunt Carol. She, too, has been there for almost 38 years. She is the only family member that I have stayed in contact with throughout my life and I once lived with her. I think she knows me pretty well too.  

There really was no difference in what they had to say about me and what I thought about myself. I think that I have been blessed to go through trials in life and survive them. I am able to take a step back and see who I really am and see my worth. I am pleased to see that I have a pretty spot on sense of self. It didn't make it to the recording, but Tamara stated that I "have been refined by fire." It took 38 years, 3 states, 3 colleges, 20 years of working full time, one child, an impending divorce, salvation and a whole lot of sh!t in between to see who I really am and I kinda like me.  

The general consensus is that I'm a pretty alright person. Every single one of them said that they enjoy being around me because of my personality and humor. Kristi and my Aunt Carol touched on some things from the emotional category that others didn't, I can get angry and can be fierce when pushed too much. They are right. I feel that I give people ample opportunity to redeem themselves or their behaviors, but I am a firm believer in 3 strikes. Kristi also touched on my knowledge of the law, which is good to have in any business situation.  I think that everyone said pretty much the same thing, that I have diverse knowledge, am helpful, cheerful and am all around pretty happy person.

I think the funniest part of this assignment was talking to people about my emotions. Dayna busted out laughing saying that I can get overly invested in things emotionally and Tamara did too, to an extent, although Tamara feels that I am more guarded with my emotions.  Clearly, Aunt Carol, Daddy and Kristi have seen me get upset over things and know where my boundaries lie. I guess that is to be expected since I have been around them the longest.

Halfway Reflection

 

I have really enjoyed the first half of this semester. I don't know that I want to be an entrepreneur, but it definitely has gotten my wheels turning and it has been a pleasure seeing what ideas that our classmates have come up with. 

This class has definitely made me feel a little uncomfortable. Just in the sense that I don't like putting my ideas out there for people to critique. It has taken me out of my comfort zone, but in a good way. I have realized that there are many different opinions and they aren't all bad. It has also made me a little more receptive to constructive criticism. 

The only thing that really made me feel like giving up is just not having enough time. With a very busy life and a short semester, I just haven't had time to complete all the assignments. I have grown to really appreciate the steps to possibly making an idea come to fruition. If anything, I found that there was a time or two when I didn't try as hard as I could to get all my interviews in for specific assignments, but in those instances the opportunity always presented itself so I took advantage. No matter how short the interview was, I took the opportunity to record it, post it and complete the specific assignment. I felt that if I didn't just do it when it was right in front of my face, I was a fool. I tried not to let laziness get in my way. I guess that mindset has come from this class. 

Three tips that I would have for someone who was taking this class is:

1. Just do it. No matter how uncomfortable you are, if you do the assignment the chance is pretty good that you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. It will be uncomfortable, but worth it. The assignments are not hard. You will learn a lot and get a pretty easy A.  

2. If you just can't bare the thought of taking off on your own to do interviews or if you are like me and feel that you are a terrible interviewer, practice with friends. Or take a friend with you. If you just need that moral support in the beginning, take a friend with you. It's okay if they laugh when you stumble over words or repeat yourself three times. Most people understand that you are nervous and you may have trouble talking to strangers. 

3. Be patient with yourself. It's okay to fail or feel like you have failed. You probably won't or haven't, but if you feel that way, it's okay. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back out there and get that A!  It does get easier! 

4. And a little extra advice - read ahead!!! Don't get caught trying to cram 5 interviews into 1 day. 

     

Reading Reflection No. 1

For my first book, I read Coco Chanel: An Intimate Life by Lisa Chaney,

What a great book! If you are interested in Chanel, the brand, or Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, the individual, I highly recommend it!

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. What an incredible woman, What an incredible life. I was most surprised by her resilience. Going through all the things that she went through, in life, I would have given up. Just given up. She started out with a terrible childhood. She lost her entire family either through abandon or death. The amount of great loss that she experienced in her life would be looked at as debilitating, but she ended up using it to her advantage. I am not going to lie, along with her resilience, the fact that she may have prostituted herself out to keep afloat in her younger years REALLY surprised me. I found this a bit scandalous, but according to the cook, this was not uncommon at that time.

Gabrielle's resilience and tenacity are the things that I admire the most about her. She didn't give up and she dared to be bold, to be different. As a person who hates ordinary, I absolutely loved this about her. She experienced adversity from her peers. She was quite the talk of the town, being so daring with wearing pants and going against the common "flare" of the time. She beamed with simple elegance, mostly noted by her admirers, both men and women. I didn't realize just the impact that this woman had in fashion and society. She thought outside the box and didn't give a damn what others thought. This may have hindered her in the beginning of her career, but she did not let that deter her. She had a vision and stayed steady.

I don't know that there was anything that I didn't admire about this woman. Personally, I might not have done the things she did, but that was a different time. If there was something that I wouldn't admire about her, it would be the use of others or the alleged prostitution, but this could also be construed as  ingenuity.

Gabrielle had an incredible understanding for fashion, networking and business. It was said, in the book, that she made this all look easy. That is a great leader. A great entrepreneur. She had a knack for being around the right people at the right times, whether through networking or through finding them on her own. She always knew the right people to help her with what she wanted or needed. I feel this came from the men in her life. She was a mistress to a few men and she had the foresight to learn from those men and have them help her create her empire through investments, teaching her the ins-and-outs of business and networking.

I think the most confusing thing about this reading was all the french terms. I kept looking people up to see what they looked like and looking up terms so that I could know what I was reading. Trying to keep all these straight was confusing. There is so much missing from Gabrielle's life story, we may never know the real story, but from what Lisa Chaney was able to piece together, we can get a pretty good idea.

If I had the chance to sit down with Gabrielle today, I would ask her if it were worth it. Was it worth giving up family life and being lonely and secluded to have this life that she created? As a woman, I think women can have it all, but at what cost. Was the price that she paid too high, and would she do it all over again? Would she have tried to settle down with the only man that she ever loved? Would she have tried to be tamed by Arthur Capel? I hope not, but given the time period, it was uncommon for women to be as bold as she was. I know that I should probably ask her questions about her business decisions, but I would be far more interested in her personal life and how that factored into her business. So many men played into what she became, I would want to know why, if these handful of men helped create her fashion house, she felt no obligation to stay with them. I believe that is where her strong personality and feminism come into play. I know that she had foresight and a dream of what she wanted and wasn't afraid to go for it, but I would want to know, in her words why the drive to keep on and move past these men. I am enthralled with her personal life.

I believe that Gabrielle had a strong work ethic. She was constantly at work, even when she wasn't at the stores. As I have previously said, it was stated in the book that she made this look easy. It was her head seamstress that said this of her. She made it look like she was casually coming into the stores to check on things and then leaving in her chauffeured Rolls Royce. Behind the scenes, she was not only sketching these amazing works of art for people to wear, She was managing a fashion house, on her own. She was employing seamstresses and clerks, making sure things stayed in order. The seamstress also stated that she would host dinner parties and attend affairs of royalty and such. She was not merely attending parties and hosting dinner parties, these affairs were major connections. Her attendance was necessary to further her fashion house. Through the people that she met at these gatherings, she was introduced to other artists from other countries with whom she would import their textiles and what not. She was constantly working...and maybe having some fun while doing it. I don't know that I would share her work ethic to her degree. I do believe that to have a thriving business, it needs to be a top priority, but I don't want it to be my main priority and be the one thing that is behind every single thing that I do or decision I make.

 

Idea Napkin No. 1

Mom-Mobile

The Bigger Picture

For those of you just coming onto my blog, my concept is a car service for children, specifically children who are in afterschool activities such as sports. 

You: I am a mom. A single mother that holds down a full-time job, while going to school and raising a VERY active soon-to-be 9 year old daughter. I have also worked in childcare and have been a preschool teacher. I can now add volleyball coach to my resume, which is what got my wheels turning in the first place. I am pretty good with kids, firm but fair. My aspirations would be to have a reputable service that caters to children ages 6-16. I care about reputation when it comes to my kid and I know that other parents do too, so it is important for me to have a safe, reputable business that serves children. 

What are you offering to customers? I would be offering safe transportation for children to get to or to/from practices. It's a paid car-pool service. I would also be offering part-time jobs to moms who otherwise would be stay-at-home moms. With these jobs, they would be able to take their children with them, they would not have to worry about child care while working.

Who are you offering it to? I am offering it to parents: single parents, very busy parents, parents with odd work hours, parents of multiple children.

Why do they care? They care about their children. They want their children to be active so they sign them up for sports, but they can't always get them to practice on time. Their children have to miss out on practice, maybe because one child is sick and the parent can't get out or maybe both parents have to work late on a day that practice is scheduled. They don't want their child to miss out. 

What are your core competencies? I am a mother of a child who is in this age range, who is also active in spring and fall sports. I have also been employed with the State Attorney's Office for over 10 years so I KNOW what goes on in our world and have a sensitivity to it. I think what I would have that no one else does is extra security measures for that very reason. I would have an alert system, notifying the parent of when the child was picked up and dropped off at practice as well as a webcam in the car so the parent could log on and see that the child was secured in the vehicle. It has also been suggested that I have GPS tracking in place as well, which I will be looking into. The drivers would also go through a Level II background check, have a test drive (or two) and random drug screens. We all want our children to be safe, but can't always be with them. I completely understand that position and want to create a business that people can trust and rely on. 

I believe that these elements do fit together. I believe that I have experience, both as a parent and as a provider. Like some of my feedback has said, this is something that parents already do for free. I agree. I have done it. I have picked up players and coaches and taken them to practice. What about the players that don't have someone close to take them? What about the players that might not know anyone, that are new to town? There are 1,000 "what ifs." There will be parents who would not put their kid in a care to save their life and that is fine, I understand that and appreciate it. My whole idea is based on a concept that is primarily for the children, but also fills a need for the parent.          

Testing the Hypothesis - Part II

In Testing the Hypothesis - Part I, I found that there is a need for my opportunity, a kids car service. For right now, this service would be primarily for extracurricular activities such as sports practice, karate or dance.

In Part I, the demographic was established, parents with children ages 6-16, mostly working parents, were in great need of this type of service. For Part II,  I found people in the same demographic, but that may not have this need. What I actually found were more people who were in need of this type of service. 

I conducted a few interviews, and admittedly I sought out people who I thought would not use this service at all, for one reason or another. I was actually wrong. Whether people were just trying to be nice and supportive, I'm not sure, but before conducting the interviews, I asked for an honest answer. I only had two people that have a solution to this problem, using family members or friends to get their children to practice. One person, a single dad on a set custody schedule, just makes the accommodations needed by taking off of work. One thing is clear though, there is undeniably a need for this type of service, but whether people would feel comfortable enough to use it or not is another question.

Inside the Boundary

• WHO: Busy parents with children ages 6-16 in extracurricular activities. 
• WHAT: The need is to get their/our children to practice on time and safely. If we can not do it ourselves.
• WHY: The need exists due to the fact that most parents have to work or have other obligations during the time that the child is to be at practice or an event. 

Outside the Boundary

• WHO: Stay at home parents with children ages 6-16. Parents with alternative means for children to get to practice.
• WHAT: There is no time constraint for these parents. They have accessible rides for their children. They are able to get off work in time to get their children there or are able to take vacation time. 
• WHY: They are already using their family and/or friends as resources to provide rides to these activities for their children. Safety precautions, they are skeptical of a service for their child.       

Elevator Pitch No.1

Good afternoon!

I am not really sure where I am going with this, as far as who I am pitching to for this first one, so I took the approach as to pitch to my potential customers. It's a large market, but a limited one also, especially for this class. At this point, I am not sure if I would need to pitch to investors. I welcome any feedback that you may have.

My business opportunity is a car service for children who are active in extracurricular actives, Mom-Mobile. (That name is up for debate) As parents, we often find ourselves short on time with lots of activities on our schedule. Our children have sports practice or dance lessons that they need to attend. These practices are vital for group activities, teaching our children valuable skills. We want our children growing up to be an active part of our community, but often have trouble getting them to these functions. My solution would help solve a good bit of these time management issues. As a single parent, I have safety concerns for my daughter.  I do not want her going with a stranger to these events, however I often can not get her there. The answer to this is carefully screening stay-at-home moms who are often going to these practices/lessons anyway. Why not put some money in these mom's pockets while ensuring that our children can safely arrive to and participate in the activities of their choice.

My Solution

Previously, I have identified an opportunity for working parents of children in sporting activities. These parents are often short on time and run late getting their child to practices or their children may end up missing practice completely.

My solution to this is creating and providing a car service for these children to get to practice on time.  

Looking for Opportunity in Economic Trends and Regulatory Changes

Economic Trends:

1. According to Florida Trend, the recovery from the recession is creating jobs for Floridians.  The economy is becoming more stable thus creating confidence in business growth. The projection for the largest growing job market in 2016 is in construction, creating many positions for those who were previously out of work due to the recession. There are many opportunities associated with this trend. With the economy leveling out and even growing, more businesses may want to expand. There will be opportunities for business growth, in the organizations that are hiring these construction companies and the construction companies themselves. With more projects comes a greater demand for employees. With more employees comes a greater demand for housing opportunities. The rising economy creates a trickle effect. The customers for these opportunities are the business owners and the employees of that business. The opportunities are easy to exploit. As in any situation where there is growth, bringing more people into an area, there needs to be more housing, more food options, possibly more child care options.

Having friends that are in the construction business, from friends that own a lumber supply store to friends that work for painting contractors, it has been my observation that this growing field creates many opportunities. It brings more people into a centralized area, creating more needs. Some people may travel for these jobs. Depending on how long the project is going to take, they may need temporary housing and they certainly have to eat at some point.

2. A look at a more local trend is the housing market in Gainesville. According to The Florida & Metro Forecast the housing market in Gainesville is rising, becoming a seller's market.  This can be contributed to a low unemployment rate in Alachua County, one of the lowest in the state of Florida. There is also a decreasing number in foreclosures, making property values rise. There are some opportunities that can come from this trend, making it an easy exploitation. Many home owners can sell their homes at a higher price than in the past. This can mean that they have more income to purchase a more expensive home and the trend would continue upward. Also, many contractors and builders can profit from this. New housing developments can emerge creating more job opportunities. Land owners can sell their land at an inflated price for these housing developments.

As stated above, I have observed some of these opportunities from friends in the construction business. I also have friends that are currently trying to take advantage of this situation. They are trying to find a house in Alachua County to purchase before the housing prices become too high for them to afford the size house that they need. They are also trying to make improvements to their current home as to maximize their selling price.

Regulatory Changes:

1. A new law passed in Florida is that all police must have procedures in place for body cams. Many articles can be found about this, but for the purposes of this assignment, I am going to use the article from Greene Publishing, Inc.: http://www.greenepublishing.com/new-florida-law-requires-police-department-body-cams/
This new law does not require that agencies use body cams, just that they have procedures in place for the training and retention of such devices and recordings to keep in compliance with Florida's public record law.

 I believe that there is a small opportunity with this new law. It has the potential to create more jobs with the larger agencies. I don't believe that this is an easily exploitable opportunity, but it is not difficult either. The opportunity is going to lie with the larger agencies such as Miami-Dade PD. Here, in Gainesville, I know that there is not enough funding for such devices and/or jobs. Even though I am not a law enforcement officer, nor do I work for the Gainesville Police Department, I do work with an agency that works in close relations with GPD.

2. Veterans Court is a law that has been passed for those who have served in our military that may have issues related to their time of service, including PTSD. Not many people are aware that there is such a program. You can read about it here: http://health.wusf.usf.edu/post/new-florida-law-allows-more-vets-receive-treatment#stream/0 

Many of our military heros have come home wounded, mentally and emotionally. This can lead to drug problems, alcohol problems and minor deviant behavior. This is an opportunity for them to get the help that they need and stay out of jail. This is not an opportunity for the masses, but it is a huge, life changing opportunity to these men and women who struggle with these issues. To me, that is the most important opportunity, a chance to get these men and women back on their feet, but it also is an opportunity for those counselors and therapists to reach these men and women and help them. Here, in the Eighth Judicial Circuit, we have had Veterans Court for a while, but with this beginning to be seen more around the state, opportunities could arise for more treatment facilities and therapy centers, thus creating more jobs.