30A) Final Reflection

It was a very interesting semester in general, and different I would say. Definitively, the interviews were the most formative experience for me, especially since I had never conducted so many interviews before, in such a short period of time. It will be one an experience that I will remember years later because they were the first interviews that I did with business purposes. Another takeaway was the writing, I had never written so much before for a single purpose. I have to say that I even type superfast now because of how much I practiced it this semester (I was used to handwriting before). My most joyous experience was how much we all had to communicate wit each other and to see how everyone improved their business idea along the semester. I am most proud of the fact that I was able to go through this class with a perfect score and I was able to do all of the assignments and manage to learn something from them. Because English is not my first language, I really thought that it would be a problem for me.

I do believe that I have opened my mind to a more entrepreneurial mindset, not just because of this class, but because of a series of events that have influenced me. I come from a society where government regulations destroy any motivation to be an entrepreneur, therefore it was something that wasn’t part of my ideology.

I would definitively tell them to work ahead of time. It will save them time and avoid stress, some of the assignment don’t even have to be in order, what I mean is that if you find yourself stuck with an assignment, you could go and do another one in the meantime, and it could even pull the trigger for what you were stuck with. Another advice is to take assignment for real, I know a lot of people simulate their answers and ideas and fake the interviews and comments. If you really want to learn and challenge yourself, try to go for real.

29A) Venture Concept 2 EZTime

Opportunity:

I live in a big apartment complex in the Southwest area of the Gainesville and from the very beginning I moved in, I started having issues with my roommates. They are around my age and they all study full time at the University of Florida. Some time went by, and my friends started telling me about their issues with their roommates and the difficulties of keeping the place clean. Here is an analysis of common characteristics of who ended up being prospect clients:

·        Full-time students at UF (some of them even work at part-time jobs, or vice versa, study part-time, work full-time)

·        Ages range between 18 and 25

·        Come from families from medium and high income

·        Share apartment with other students with similar demographics

·        Live in apartment complexes (such as Gainesville Place, the Enclave, The Ridge)

·        Do not like chores, or do not know how to do them efficiently

·        Some of them have pets that make a mess or roommates are not happy with that fact

·        In the case of guys, I often notice that they tend to see chores and all these cleaning activities (specially for common areas) not manly and diminishing.

To clarify, I did not recognize any pattern where males were more exposed to these problems. In fact, it was a paradigm shift for me, because I found that many women have the same struggle, and in fact discussions tend to be of a greater dimension between female roommates.

After performing a series of interviews, the usual tasks that students struggle with:

·        Wash dishes

·        Vacuum

·        Take the trash out

·        Cleaning drier’s filter

·        General cleanliness

·        Bad smell in the carpet

·        Cleaning the refrigerator

I think this opportunity will be open for a long period of time because Gainesville is a city where students come and go (they spend about three to four years in town)

Innovation

With my business idea, I will present the solution to free student’s time, and help them reduce stress levels and arguments about house chores.

I am offering a house keeping service completely dedicated to local students in Gainesville, particularly for those sharing apartment. With a monthly fee starting at $40 per person (and up to $55 depending on the size of the apartment and the amount of people) students will be able to live in a clean place, where a person will come and clean the floor, vacuum the carpets, wash the dishes, take the trash out every week. This service can be requested for individuals (of course, it will be cheaper) or for everyone in the apartment. I plan to deliver the ultimate customer service at an affordable price, and to accomplish that, I will be considering the personal requests from our customers and learn from all the feedback. I even will offer a free trial to give my customers the opportunity to realize what are the benefits of using the services of EZTime (my company).

The innovation part of my idea is not in the service itself, but in the challenge of targeting students and having a cost-efficient structure. Also, it is worth to mention that I am aware of the low barrier entry to this industry and that it would be easy for competitors to copy my idea. That is why one of my aims is to create a brand moat.

Venture Concept

What I will be offering is a very straight forward service, where students pay a flat monthly fee to get a person come every week to cover the needs mentioned before (wash the dishes, vacuum the carpet, etc.). I think it will be very important for my success as a company to taking specific requests into account. In order to have a high customer satisfaction and inflow of customer I will need to pay close attention to the individual demands, especially because young (mostly dependent students) are a very challenging market segment.

The most important element of my business plan will be price. After doing research, interviews, listening to suggestions, I concluded that the main reason why my prospects do not use this service is because of price. Housekeeping services around Gainesville charge around $65/hour which is too much for them. This is the reason why other companies have not gotten into this sector yet (it would mean to forgo a great portion of profits). The low profit margins are the reason for the lack of competitors.

To face this issue of low profit margins I have created a very cost-effective structure for my company. It will be key for me to deliver the service to people living within the same apartment complex. That way I will be able to save travel time and money.

As part of my branding strategy, and in relationship with my mission to help and free students time, I will be including something similar to an informative bulletin. It will be something that includes information about how to communicate with roommates, things to do to improve such relationships, how to better use your time, etc. I think it will be a good idea to make my customers more related to my brand and to differentiate myself even more from competitors.

At last but not least, the staff. I will be trying to keep the number of employees as low as possible and increasing as the business grows. It is part of the plan to keep costs low. I plan to start with myself and another person, getting paid with a percentage of each job done.

Minor elements

My most important characteristic is how I shaped my business model, to have a cost-effective structure. By targeting specific people, in specific places. By having this specific structure, I am able to deliver an outstanding service at a low price (even lower than competitors) and is the main reason why I can offer this to college students. Also, it is key to the success of my diversification plan since I will have big groups of clients in the same place.

My expansion plan is to add other services to the portfolio. The options include cleaning services to offices, a car wash and a home delivery. I think it will help me target other prospects that did not go for the initial cleaning service, but might be interested in a car wash, or other delivery services. I will also try to make contracts with the administration of the condominiums, so I become the official service provider of the place.

For the next five years I think that I would sell the business to keep going with my life, especially because I will not be living in Gainesville after I graduate. I will be in Law School and getting my MBA at the same time. After that I will start performing Corporate Law and investing in startups in the side.

Feedback

In general, I have received a lot of positive feedback. Students tell me that in paper it sounds like a great idea, and that it is a real problem, and I will have plenty of prospective customers. People also like the structure I plan to implement and how I care about students’ well-being, because I am willing to forgo a big chunk of the revenues just to at an affordable price for them. In the review comments people have told me that they like the details I give and how well thought my business plan is and how I am aware of my strengths and weaknesses.

The constructive feedback I have been told that students are usually broke and are not willing to pay for this type of service. This goes back to my point that if the student is “broke” it means that he/she cannot afford multiple things, not just a cleaning service, and therefore are not part of my market segment. Same thing with students who tell me that they do it themselves because they have the time and the know-how. Again, they are not my target. But these comments helped me realize that it would be harder than I originally thought, but I think that with the right marketing I can change people’s mind (or at least for a small percentage of people). In addition, people have shown concerns about security, for that I will be making background checks to employees, they will have a profile where the client will see a description and know who is coming in advance.

I expanded my venture concept a little bit based on feedback. I added some details to better explain my idea and to include a couple of new ideas that I got. For example, the informative bulletin and the deal with the administration of the apartment complexes.

27A) Reading Reflection 2

“The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More” by Chris Anderson

1.      The book was published in 2006, and it talks about how the market has been changing in the last few decades. It used to be a market of “hits”, where everything was about mass production of “successful” products -selling tons of just a few products. Mr. Anderson describes in the book how the introduction of new technologies has made possible to reduce the cost of inventory and shelf, the latter to almost zero. He explains why the success of companies like Amazon, eBay, Rhapsody, Netflix, etc. and how they presented what would be the new tendencies in the market -selling less of more. Also, the author describes what are the elements that have contributed to this evolution: democratization if production, democratization of distribution, connection between supply and demand.

2.      I feel like this book is an extension to what we learn in class. In class we learn the basic ideas of how understand the market forces, how to find an unmet need, and how to deliver a solution. With this book, I have been able to appreciate a new perspective of the market, looking from a more analytical and statistical point of view. Moreover, it taught me how the behavior of customers has changed, mostly due to the rise of the internet, and how it is more evenly distributed among the different good offerings.

3.      I think that probably a case study would be a nice way to put in practice the knowledge acquired after reading the book. The author mentions many times examples of companies that have been part of this revolution. I suggest using one of them, or maybe find a “new” company that uses a similar approach and perform a case study of that business about it has impacted the market.

4.      Actually the ‘aha’ moment came from the very beginning of the book. I was impressed about the topic the book was presenting, I didn’t think about how the market now a days has a “long tail” (that is how it is called when there are events, even a few, further out the tail of the distribution curve). Plus, I was kind of in shock when the Chris Anderson disregards the famous 80/20 rule and explains how it is not as common in today’s environment.

28A) Exit Strategy

My exit strategy is to sell the business in the near future, most likely within the next 5 years. I do not intend to keep it or pass it to the family for many reasons. First of all, I do not plan to be living hear much longer after I graduate, hence, I will not be able to take proper care of the company. Also, I think that the money that the sale will generate is going to help me with other things that I have planned. It could be repaying my student loans or investing it in the stock market or another startup with more potential growth, profit margins, or near my next place of living.

I think that my exit strategy hasn’t affected my decision making on the development of the business plan. I have tried to play safe to guarantee that the company will be around in the next few years, and that it has a solid growth. But it is something that works for both decisions, whether I keep it or not. What it has done is to make me focus on learning as much as possible and fail forward to make me a better entrepreneur.

26A) Celebrating Failure

This semester all my classes are online, therefore, I don’t have a strict schedule to do things. Rather, I can choose when and where study and make assignments. I thought it would be an easy semester because of how discipline I am, but I turned out wrong. What I thought would be the best of the semester -flexible schedule and freedom- were a double-edged sword. I have to say that I have failed to be constant and stay motivated during the semester.

I have learned that the mind is an incredible tool and that it all depends on how you train it. It is out nature as human beings to be constantly challenged, and the name for it is eustress, which refers to the optimal level of stress where we are the most productive. The graph for stress level (x-axis) and productivity (y-axis) is an inverted U. Under too much or too little stress our mind doesn’t function at its best. That is what happened to me. Because I don’t have tight deadlines or mandatory in-person classes, I lack the motivation to wake up early or study on my own schedule.

At the beginning of the semester I knew that it would be important that I create my own routine, therefore, I decided to follow a regular bedtime (where I go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. It worked for a little while, but soon I would start to “make exceptions” that became the new norm. I struggled to be effective and started spending some time trying to fix my situation. I tried some vacations to recover mentally, tried changing the routine, adding more workouts, but nothing really worked. I still wasn’t able to open my eyes when the alarm went off, instead I would turn it off and keep sleeping. The result was a self-fulfilling prophecy, where I would wake up late, not study enough, spend more time in other things to entertain myself, not getting the best grades, stressing about it, going to sleep later every day, and so on and so forth.  Falling in a small depression. I realized that, even though, people would give advises to change my situation, it ultimately depended on me. Thus, I started doing more intellectual activities to train my brain and boost my self-esteem and discipline. I have to say that it has been better lately, but I still need to improve, and I am on my way to getting there.

It definitely changed my perspective on failure. I now understand the role of risk taking and failure in life. By using those two properly, we can go from making a plan and set goals, and transform those in achievement and success without the fear of failing on the way. I am now more likely to assimilate risks and take opportunities that would challenge me and make me realize that I need to improve.

25A) What's Next

Existing Market

I think that the next step after I start my housekeeping service is to create a brand around it, some type of moat that calls the attention of prospective customers and makes me stand out among other similar services. It is very important that my company and my logo is present all the time in the areas that I will be targeting (sort of advertising). I need students to be aware of the service my company offers and that EZTime is the first name that comes to their mind when they are struggling with chores at home. With this, will come an expansion to towns with similar conditions. Non-metropolitan and a student-based population.

I took the feedback as constructive criticism, since I did not notice some of the things that my interviewees told me. For example, of them (a person that is willing to use the service) told me that it is a great idea to think about establishing a brand, but he doesn’t think that it will be easy or quick for me to expand to other towns because of cultural differences and because (as he made me realized) I have not done any research about those markets. The second person shared similar insights.

 In the other hand, the only girl I interviewed is not willing to use my service, even though she has the characteristics of my market segment. I guess that the only fact that puts her apart is that she is economically independent from her parents (she is 19). She thought that the business was a great idea in paper, but that students are not willing to spend money to clean the apartment. It made me realize that I need to create a marketing campaign where I illustrate that the benefits of using EZTime are not just a clean floor, but harmony in the apartment.

New Market

I am currently targeting students living in apartment complexes; therefore, a radically different market would be office buildings. The differences are obvious, students are mostly economically dependent, don’t spend at much time at home, and they don’t really care about cleanliness. In the other hand, in office buildings people spend most of the time in there, it is where they make money and sometimes they receive clients in person (so they have to keep a clean appearance).

After talking to a small law firm and a dentist office I got to learn that it is a very competitive market. They said that they loved the idea of my cost-efficient structure to target students in Gainesville, but it doesn’t work the same with office. I was told that to be able to target offices I had to adjust the structure, especially because schedules and load of work. I told them about how I was planning to add a mobile car-wash, which idea they loved because while the car is in the parking garage it could be wash and workers wouldn’t even have to waste their time taking to the place to be washed.

In general, I learned many things. For example, students are a very challenging market, even when you have a well thought, well-structured idea, It is not a very competitive market right now for a reason and it is the risk and low profit margins. In the case of targeting offices, the first problem is the competition in the market and the difference in schedules and reasons why the would request a cleaning service.

24A) Venture Concept EZTime

Opportunity:

I live in a big apartment complex in the Southwest area of the Gainesville and from the very beginning I moved in, I started having issues with my roommates. They are around my age and they all study full time at the University of Florida. Some time went by, and my friends started telling me about their issues with they roommates and the difficulty of keeping the place clean. Here is an analysis of common characteristics of who ended up being prospect clients:

·        Full time students at UF (some of them even work at part-time jobs, or vice versa, study part-time, work full-time)

·        Ages range between 18 and 25

·        Come from families from medium and high income

·        Share apartment with other students with similar demographics

·        Live in apartment complexes (such as Gainesville Place, the Enclave, The Ridge)

·        Do not like chores, or do not know how to do them efficiently

·        Some of them have pets that make a mess or roommates are not happy with that fact

·        In the case of guys, I often noticed that they tend to see chores and all these cleaning activities (specially for common areas) not manly and diminishing.

To clarify, I did not recognize any pattern where males were more exposed to these problems. In fact, it was a paradigm shift for me, because I found that many women have the same struggle, and in fact discussions tend to be of a greater dimension between female roommates.

After performing a series of interviews, the usual tasks that students struggle with:

·        Wash dishes

·        Vacuum

·        Take the trash out

·        Cleaning drier’s filter

·        General cleanliness

·        Bad smell in the carpet

I think this opportunity will be open for a long period of time because Gainesville is a city where students come and go (they spend about three to four years in town)

Innovation

With my business idea, I will present the solution to free student’s time, and help them reduce stress levels and arguments about house chores.

I am offering a house keeping service completely dedicated to local students in Gainesville, particularly for those sharing apartment. With a monthly fee starting at $40 per person (and up to $55 depending on the size of the apartment and the amount of people) students will be able to live in a clean place, where a person will come and clean the floor, vacuum the carpets, wash the dishes, take the trash out every week. This service can be requested for individuals (of course, it will be cheaper) or for everyone in the apartment. I plan to deliver the ultimate customer service at an affordable price, and to accomplish that, I will be considering the personal requests from our customers and learn from all the feedback. I even will offer a free trial to give my customers the opportunity to realize what are the benefits of using the services of EZTime (my company).

Venture Concept

What I will be offering is a very straight forward service, where students pay a flat monthly fee to get a person come every week to cover the needs mentioned before (wash the dishes, vacuum the carpet, etc.). I think it will be very important for my success as a company to taking specific requests into account. In order to have a high customer satisfaction and inflow of customer I will need to pay close attention to the individual demands, specially because young (mostly dependent students) are a very challenging market segment.

The most important element of my business plan will be price. After doing research, interviews, listening to suggestions, I came to the conclusion that the main reason why my prospects do not use this service is because of price. House keeping services around Gainesville charge around $65/hour which is too much for them. This is the reason why other companies have not gotten into this sector yet (it would mean to forgo a great portion of profits). The low profit margins are the reason for the lack of competitors.

To face this issue of low profit margins I have created a very cost-effective structure for my company. It will be key for me to deliver the service to people living within the same apartment complex. That way I will be able to save travel time and money.

At last but not least, the staff. I will be trying to keep the number of employees as low as possible and increasing as the business grows. It is part of the plan to keep costs low. I plan to start with myself and another person, getting paid with a percentage of each job done.

Minor elements

My most important characteristic is how I shaped my business model, to have a cost-effective structure. By targeting specific people, in specific places. By having this specific structure, I am able to deliver an outstanding service at a low price (even lower than competitors) and is the main reason why I can offer this to college students. Also, it is key to the success of my diversification plan since I will have big groups of clients in the same place.

My expansion plan is to add other services to the portfolio. The options include cleaning services to offices, a car wash and a home delivery. I think it will help me target other prospects that did not go for the initial cleaning service, but might be interested in a car wash, or other delivery services.

For the next five years I think that I would sell the business to keep going with my life, especially because I will not be living in Gainesville after I graduate. I will be in Law School and getting my MBA at the same time. After that I will start performing Corporate Law and investing in startups in the side.

23A) Unfair Advantage

1.      Customer service experience. So far, all my work experience is related to customer service, and I have excelled at my job.

·        Valuable: I think it is a valuable resource because this tells me that it will be a strong factor to differentiate myself, and to gain and retain customers.

·        Rare: It is not a rare quality, since many people can have customer service experience.

·        Imitable: No, customer service experience is easy to acquire and learn, but it takes time to understand the different possible situations

·        Non-substitutable: Yes, I think it cannot be substituted because it is a service business, which means that customer service is one of the pillars for the success of the company.

2.      Direct and personal customer service. Since it is a small company, I will be able to have a more personal and fast approach to customer service.

·        Valuable: Yes, I would say it is not the most important quality, but it adds up with other resources to increase customer satisfaction.

·        Rare: No, it is common to see companies that have many ways to communicate with their clients, but the bigger the company, the harder it becomes to keep this trait.

·        Imitable: No, everything it takes is to pay a person (or more) to only take care of communicating with customers.

·        Non-substitutable: There have been may tries to substitute this with automatic phone messages, and computerized responses (on the phone or online), but I would say that it hasn’t been that successful.

3.      Easy to approach my target market. Since I live in the same town, and I fulfil the characteristics of the segment I am targeting, it is easier for me to understand my clients, get in touch with them.

·        Valuable: Partially, like at said before, it is not my main strength, but it adds up with the rest to give a better competitive advantage.

·        Rare: In my area I would say that yes, the only housekeeping services that exist are managed by people in their 30’s and older, and they don’t target the same market.

·        Imitable: It is copied by having a founder/chief sharing many similarities with customers or by adding diversity to the staff, which is more effective in bigger companies.

·        Non-substitutable: yes, it cannot be substituted.

4.      Openness to listen to customer requests. I aim to differentiate my service by making it more personal, therefore, taking into account requests and suggestions

·        Valuable: yes, college students tend to be very diverse in what they want and like. It will help me maintain a higher customer satisfaction.

·        Rare: Yes, usually these types of business have a rigid structure that allows them to reduce the human error and be more efficient.

·        Imitable: It can be copied but it increases cost

·        Non-substitutable: No, it is a capability that is offered or not.

5.      Lack of direct competitors. There are similar services to mine in Gainesville, but the difference is that they don’t target the same segment.

·        Valuable: Yes, I think it is one of the most valuable qualities I have right now.

·        Rare: Yes, usually the lack of competitors is not often in a country like USA, specially in a industry with low entrance barriers.

·        Imitable: Yes, could be imitable, but it requires to forgo a greater profit margin, at east for a period of time.

·        Non-substitutable: No, it is a very important aspect.

6.      Narrow target market. I have a very specific description of the demographics of my customers

·        Valuable: Yes, this trait allows me to be in a market without direct competitors

·        Rare: No, usually companies try to target a narrow market segment. The problem is when it overlaps with other companies.

·        Imitable: Yes, but what makes it harder is that to target my same market segment means to forgo great profit margins (which I did to be able to solve the need of thousands of students)

·        Non-substitutable: Yes, because the characteristics of students sharing apartment is completely different to adults and families living in their own home.

7.      Even though I seek a narrow segment of the population (local students in Gainesville, living in apartment complexes and sharing apartment), it is the predominant demographic in the area.

·        Valuable: Yes, I focused in that segment, which is hard to sell to due to financial limitations, but it is a huge segment here in Gainesville

·        Rare: It is rare for housekeeping services, but not for other business.

·        Imitable: Yes, but again, it brings costs and profits to the discussion table

·        Non-substitutable: No, it is key to my success.

8.      Cost efficient structure. I plan to approach a system where I only target apartment complexes and condos, which saves me time and travel expenses. Also, it means that my responsiveness will be better, and it will be free advertising.

·        Valuable: Yes, it is basically the key to my business model. It is what allows me to target this tough market segment and keep the competition away. It also triggers other key qualities.

·        Rare: Yes, it has not been done by any other housekeeping service in town

·        Imitable: It could be copied, but not by itself, it requires the price of the service to be low, so college students pay for it.

·        Non-substitutable: No, it is the most important element to keep costs low.

9.      Low price supplier. My price is $40-55 a month per person, while competitors charge about $65 an hour. I am able to do this thanks to my business model.

·        Valuable: Yes, it is valuable to be able to sell to my customers, but at the same time it is the reason why my profit margins are low.

·        Rare: Yes, I mentioned before other companies’ prices and they are way higher.

·        Imitable: To be copied, companies need to make changes to their structure.

·        Non-substitutable: Yes, it cannot be substituted because it means that students will not be able to pay for it.

10.   Diversification of services. I plan to expand my business to offer other services, like a mobile car wash, and probably some chores like the purchase of basics for the apartment.

·        Valuable: Yes, it will add value to the company, specially if I know how to manage the expansion, if I can be effective targeting the correct customers and creating more dependency of customer on my company

·        Rare: Not really, it is something that I have seen other companies do (but not the car wash though)

·        Imitable: Yes, it is imitable, in fact, I am copying it from other companies.

·        Non-substitutable: No, it is something that is decided by the owner of the company and depends om the market research done.

My most important characteristic is how I shaped my business model, to have a cost-effective structure. By targeting specific people, in specific places. By having this specific structure, I am able to deliver an outstanding service at a low price (even lower than competitors) and is the main reason why I can offer this to college students. Also, it is key to the success of my diversification plan since I will have big groups of clients in the same place.

22A) Elevator pitch 3

Link to elevator pitch--> here

I have not received a ton of feedback from my elevator pitches, but it has been the opposite for my other assignments where I have received constructive criticism. For example, I was told to always explain in as much detail as possible what I am offering in the service. Also, I was suggested to include a free trial period so my clients would be able to try and enjoy the benefits I offer, that way they can be sure that they would get great value from paying me.

Though it wasn’t much, the feedback was really useful. I added comments about the nature of why a person would need my service and included the offering of the free trial. Also, I noticed that in my last elevator pitch I studded a little bit and got stock a few times, which is something that I improved in this attempt.

21A Reading Reflection 2

“The Art of Social Media” by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick

1. This book, as the title suggests, talks about how to master the art of social media, especially in such an evolving environment like today’s world. The main author is Mr. Kawasaki, who wrote the entire book, but partnered with Ms. Fitzpatrick to include some of her ideas, analyses, and advices. At the beginning of the book he explains that they decided that only one of them would be in charge of actually writing the book to avoid any difference of styles. The book is divided in 12 chapters, 11 of them dedicated to a different aspect of social media, and the last one is a conclusion that puts everything together. After reading the book you would have a better understanding of how Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. work and what are their differences. Also, it will teach you how to behave online, and how to get the best out of all these platforms.

2. In this class we learn how to find an unmet need, and more importantly, how to find a solution to it. Well, in order to do that, we need to communicate with the world around us, either to find that need, or to deliver the solution. I think this book teaches you what is the best way to approach people over the different online platforms, and how to reach more prospects.

3. I would say that it is hard to design an exercise about social media in Principle of Entrepreneurship, I think that it would be part of a more specialized class. A simple exercise I would do is to tell students to find a “social media guru” and analyze and summarize what that person have done in a given period of time. It would be something like recognizing and criticizing strategies and behaviors. Probably compare the results with other authors.

4. The topic of the book was pretty much new to me, I have used social media before, but never for a business matter. In the book he explains how to promote events, how to debate online, and what are the strategies to use on the different platforms. The was something that I always wondered how people do it, and it was to add so many tags, hashtags, and so forth in every post. Moreover, I never understood how some authors can be present in all social medias at the same time, being up-to-date, and actively posting. Turns out that there are multiple apps out there that help you link your different accounts, schedule posts, and automatically add hashtags. That was mind-blowing for me.

20) Growing Social Capital

I would like to start by doing a disclosure about this assignment is that since my specific service is not being exploited in the exact same way by others in the area, I had to adapt the assignment to what I was able to find. Moreover, to avoid the possibility of someone copying my idea I did not share the entire business idea.

·      

•     Domain Expert:

o   Amanda, Chief of Student Maid.

o   I consider her an expert in the industry because she has been in a leading position of Student Maid for a few years now and has been part of the growth of Student Maid.

o   I googled “housekeeping service in Gainesville” and Student Maid was one of the options. I picked this one because it looked like the one more related to students, even though they don’t target my same market segment, they employ UF students. While I was trying to learn more about them, I found a link to their Instagram page, that’s how it happened.

o   We did not talk much, but I could get a glance of how it looks like to run a housekeeping service type of business. I should say that I felt a little awkward because I didn’t want to share too much detail about my idea to avoid that they would copy it. The most important aspect that I learned from them was that background checks play an important role to gain customers trust.

o   Since they are the closet thing I have to a competitor in the area, I will need to pay close attention to what they do, as well will they. Another thing is that competition makes it harder to succeed, it makes you be better as well, that is why I think that it will be a win-win experience.

•       Market Expert:

o   Hilda Rodriguez, housemaid in Miami

o   Like I said before, I wasn’t able to find any housekeeping service specifically targeting students sharing apartments in Gainesville, but Hilda is a great person that has been doing housekeeping for years and know a lot about the technical part of the job.

o   I have known Hilda for about 3 years now, she is the housemaid of my family home in Miami. So, I just texted her and then called her to ask her a few questions about the industry the business and customer’s behavior.

o   She was telling me about some skills that a housekeeper should have, and how to be effective. She thought that my idea of targeting groups of apartments that are near each other was great because she spends too much money and time traveling.

o   I enjoyed talking to her because she is very knowledgeable about the technical part of the job and she did not have any problem sharing it with me. She helped realize that my profit margins would be too low, but that Is something that I am willing to give up in order to reach my target market, plus the idea of my business is more to help students that to squeeze every penny out of them.

• Industry supplier:

o   David Whitney, management consultant and business strategist

o   Because of his position as management consultant and business strategist he offers advice to businesses and help them develop a strategy to grow.

o   As part of my Entrepreneurship class last semester I had to talk to a group of business-people living in Gainesville, and that is how I met him. I already had his email, so I decided to email him.

o   We had a short exchange since he is a very busy person, but he basically told me about how important it is to be consistent with the job and to worry about customer satisfaction. He was also worried about my profit margins and said that if I decide to work at that level, I will need to be conscious about my expenses and have a low margin of error.

o   Since he is a business advisor, I think it will be useful to go and talk to him every once in a while, to check the progress and what would be the best next step. He would also help me keep my feet on the ground since it is very common that entrepreneurs overthink everything and expect complete success from their ideas, not taking into account the possibility of failure.

This has been an eye-opening experience for me. Usually networking for me was with the aim to prepare for the future, but in this case, it felt more like a real thing, that it had significant immediate consequences. It showed me the importance of not been afraid to ask, because if you don’t do it yourself, no one will solve the problem for you. I better understood the importance of been respectful. I learned that for the future, I have to seek any chance to network, and to have an elevator pitch at any time, in case the opportunity appears all of the sudden.

19A) Idea Napkin 2

1.      My name is Enrique Cabanas and I am at my junior year of my Business Administration degree, with Entrepreneurship as my minor and Pre-Law as my area of specialization. I was born in Cuba and lived there through most of my life. I think that what I lived and learned in Cuba plays an important role in my life and helped me shape who I am today. Dealing with scarcity, be a hard worker, and have ambition in life are few of the things that came from that experience. I came 3 years ago with a huge hunger for success and willingness to work hard. I would say that I have a slight OCD for “perfection”, what I mean is that if I do something, I want to do it perfectly. All my work experience is related to customer service, but diverse in some way, at a Financial Aid office, doing catering for special events, and as a swim instructor. It has shaped me as a person and as a professional. I dream to be a great business person. I think that this business is a trampoline in my life. With EZTime, I expect to learn the duties of an entrepreneur and business person and pursue another business idea.

2.      What I am offering is a house cleaning service that will help students free up their time by cleaning and organizing their apartments while they can spend their time in more productive things like watching lectures, doing homework, or even working (for those who work). It is also a solution to those conflicts and arguments over who cleans what and when, and everything for an affordable price, below the competition. Prices will range from 40 to 55 dollars, and the service will be delivered once a week, unless otherwise required (it will mean a different fee). It includes thing like cleaning the floor, vacuum the carpets, washing the dishes, and taking the trash out. I will consider some personal request from the customers.

3.      The ideal market segment for my business would be full-time college student living in apartment complexes in Gainesville, especially for those in big apartments with a minimum of 3. Ages usually range from 18 to 25, with some outliers and I expect most of my customers to be males, but not by a big margin. Probably my last characteristic is that these customers are part of medium and high-income families. I think that these are the ones that would have the buying power to afford this service.
4.      Full-time students tend to feel like they lack time to do other thing than study. And it is even worse for those who work on top of that. House chores are a headache for people who do not like to do them, and even for those who do know how to do them, it becomes a problem to find the time. The worst part is that it needs to be done routinely in order for the living space to be comfortable and clean. Usually during weekends is when all these responsibilities accumulate and provoke a bad mood. A common issue is that people don’t like to clean other’s mess, that is another reason why roommates might coordinate to finance a service like mine. With my service people can feel more comfortable in their own house, they will be able to boost their confidence (they won’t need to worry about friends or family criticizing their mess), etc.

5.  In my case my competitive advantage is that my housekeeping service will be dedicated only to young students. It will help me create an image among the University students and increase the word of mouth. It is very important that my service will be delivered at a low fee to attract more customers and the cost will be compensated with the structure of the company. By targeting apartment complexes, I will be able to save traveling expenses and time. I will also be able to use the fact that I am a student myself and that gives me advantage to reach more students.

I believe that so far, my business plan holds together very well. I have been able to find a well-defined market segment, which was already tested by interviewing multiple people. I actually came up with this idea because I personally have this need, and I think that this service will create value in customers. I know that my biggest challenge will be to raise awareness among my market segment and convince them of trying it. But once people know this exist, it will be demanded.

Through out the development of my Business Plan in this class I have received many significant feedback and constructive criticism. I have learned from that and I have applied mist of what my classmates have recommended me. For example, I considered and included the idea of mentioning what the prices for my service is, that way I can be more specific, and customers and investors can get a better picture of what my business represents. Another example of feedback, in this case positive, was that I should get more advantage of what I learned as a person in Cuba and even market it with the business to attract more customers. Last but not least, what I have seen that people agree the most with, is the fact that with EZtime, students will be able to free a lot of time and decrease their stress levels.

17A) Elevator Pitch 2

Link: Elevator Pitch

Well, to be honest I did not receive that much feedback for my elevator pitch, actually only one. I can say that it helped me to better shape this new elevator pitch. She was straight forward and mentioned that I needed to more specific, and that I should talk about what my service will offer to those who pay for it. I think she is right that is one of the things I improved from my previous pitch.

The feedback that I received was really useful. I was suggested to add more details about what is included in the service. In this case, I added to the elevator pitch that as part of the benefits will be included periodic cleaning of the floors and carpets, washing the dishes, plus any specific request from the customers will be considered.

18) Customer Avatar

My business idea is aimed to customers (B2C). My market segment would be young students (form 18- 25 years old) that live in Gainesville and go to the University of Florida. My customers could be men and women, but I will be talking specifically about guys for this assignment.

My prototypical customer is a young man, that lives in Gainesville and spend most of its time studying. To make it easier, let’s call him John. Because John shares apartment with at least a messy roommate and doesn’t have enough “extra time” he lacks the time and motivation to do all the chores at home, like cleaning and washing. Also, he is a ports fan and enjoys watching football, soccer, the NBA, etc. either at home, or going to the stadium. He drives a relatively new black sedan, which was a gift from his parents, but he has to pay for his gas and some other minor expenses of the car. John enjoys watching Netflix, shows like Game of Thrones, Friends, and The Office are his favorites. He doesn’t have kids, and he is not hurry about that. He is 21 and he wants to enjoy the life now, so he doesn’t regret anything later.

I would say that we have a bunch of stuffs in common, like we like comedies, we love sports and we have the same age. I noticed that we have kind of the same lifestyle, where we are young and want to enjoy life. John drives a car similar to mine. But the most important fact is that neither of us has time to do the chores at home. I don’t think this is a coincidence since I came up with this idea after realizing how useful it would be for me and my roommates to have a service like this. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that my prototype customer would be someone like me or my friends, with whom I share a lot of characteristics.

16A) My Secret Sauce

1.      I am very people oriented, I think that due to my customer service background, I learned to treat people, and specially a great variety of them. I live by the rule, treat others like you would like to be treated.

2.      I am easy going with math. I think it is something in my genes, because my parents and grand parents all are good at it, and have worked all their lives with numbers, so it is something I grew up with.

3.      I tend to look at all the options to choose the best way to get things done. I like to consider costs, benefits, and time, and what people value the most. It is related to the fact that I grew up in a country where scarcity was common, so I had to analyzed everything very carefully.

4.      I always look for the why, not just the what. What I mean by that is that I like to find the explanation of why things are like they are, especially when it is something that will be part of my life.

5.      I want things to get done correctly. I don’t like to have my name related to a job that is incomplete or that is not good enough. I usually put all my effort to get things done the best way possible and fulfill people’s expectations.

Interviews and summaries:  (links are included in the names, the recordings were edited to reduce time and eliminate some noise )

·        Eduardo: He makes an emphasis on how my skills are very related to a leader and therefore a good manager. He uses terms like commitment, goal oriented, entrepreneur, which I apply in my academic and professional life.

·        Clarisel: She focusses more on my moral and ethical standards and how I apply them in all aspects of my life. She has a very strong opinion about how I relate and communicate with others, endorsing what I mentioned as one of my strengths.

·        Javier:  In the interview Javier emphasize that I always look for the why of thing and problems, that I don’t get comfortable with a simple answer, I look for the reason of why something is the way it is. He also focusses his interview about my caring for my family, friends, and people in general.

·        Teresa: She talks a little more about myself in a way of how organized I am and how I look to excel in everything I do, seeking to learn more and to forward my career. She also commented of how caring and thoughtful I am.

·        Sofia: She mentions how curious and committed I am. She also focusses on my ability communicating with people and maintaining a good relationship with costumers. Lastly, she mentions that. I am a fast learner and I can overcome any obstacle in the way

I think that overall all the interviews are quite similar in what they say about me and agree with my personal description. Endorsing my soft skills, and how people oriented I am, my math skills, and good to make tough decisions. The only thing I think that they don’t mention during the interviews is how I besides being goal oriented, like to exceed to people expect from me. It might be related to the fact that it is something that is more appreciated when big projects are projects are on stake. As I said before, I think that these interviews show from different perspectives who I am and what is special about me. Therefore, I wouldn’t make any correction on my first list.