Week 8 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise to me during this weeks reading was also something that really interested me. That was the idea about Myth 4 about capitalist being interested in back new ideas that involved high technology inventions. I always believed capitalist just wanted to make as much money as possible but this myth shows that they want to back someone up that has a good idea and good management.
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The types of debt financing confused. I always believed that debt was bad and so it was very confusing to learn about it from a more financial viewpoint and way to finance it.
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What type of debt financing do you think is the best?
Which myth do you think was the most important to capitalist?
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I did not think that the author was incorrect on anything.

Halfway Reflection

In order to keep up with the requirements for this class it is important to plan ahead. When you first look at the class it seems as though you will be able to finish all the assignments the day that they are due. However, once classes begin picking up it is easy for a due date to slide by without realizing. It is important to plan ahead and get ready for the weeks assignments in advance so you are not stressed in the last minute to get everything done.
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A point in this class that I felt like giving up was during the "Free Money" exercise. This exercise was the most difficult and awkward for me. Going up to random people is uncomfortable but going up to random people to give them a dollar is more awkward. I was worried that some people would take it the wrong way as though I felt that they NEEDED the dollar. I was able to push through because I realized that it was for a class and I had to do it for my grade and after interviewing random people I felt more comfortable going up to individuals that I did not know. I definitely think I have a more tenacious attitude now.
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1) Be prepared to have a lot of small assignments that may take time
2) Do not give up and keep telling yourself that you can do it
3) Plan ahead!

The Twenty Percent

The entrepreneur that I talked with for this exercise was an individual that started up and owned Celebrated Experiences. Celebrated Experiences is a travel agency that books vacation to England & Wales, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. When I discussed with him who his 20 percent target consumers were they said individuals that and an interest in having a unique experience when traveling to these areas, specifically people that do not have family in the surrounding areas and may not know much about them. Celebrated Experiences prides themselves on the fact that they help vacationers not feel as though they are tourists. When I discussed with two adults and one college student that met this profile and they were given the choices between Celebrated Experiences and other travel agencies the said that they would choose Celebrated Experiences. When you are traveling you do not want to be felt like a tourist, you would rather feel as though you know your way around. I believe that the entrepreneur does adequately understand their customers and knows how to reach out to them perfectly.

**Because of the company being in Atlanta I tried to discuss with people in the Atlanta area and therefore my interactions were on the phone and unable to be recorded.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

A big thing that surprised me was how much power a buyer truly has in the stock prices. Obviously this is something that you understand but it was not until this reading that I truly understood how much power the buyer had.
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The forces were very confusing to me. While I understood the five forces, the possibility of the 6th force made me very confused. I did not understand why the sixth force was just a possibility and not added into the forces.
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What is the true difference between "zero sum" and "positive sum"?
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I do not think the author was incorrect on any of the information.

Free Money

For this exercise I stayed at my apartment complex and found people as they were coming in and out of their apartments. I decided to approach individuals that seemed as though they were walking with a purpose or somewhat busy. I felt that these individuals would portray actual customers the best. I started the conversation by saying hello and directly asking them if they would take the dollar from me. I hope for the individual to be questioning so that I can explain why. I decided that my reasoning was to "pay it forward" like the movie in the hopes that in the future that individual will also pay it forward. I hope to be able to give away 3 dollar bills.
Below are two of the people I interacted with. One of them was an individual that was accepting and asking questions of why. The second is one of the individuals that did not care who I was or what I was offering and just continued walking past me.

Giving away a dollar was definitely harder than I expected it to be. Many people walked right past me and did not want to listen to what I said while others were very genuine in hearing what I was saying and thought it was amazing. Obviously, targeting individuals that seemed to be busy/in a hurry I was expecting for many people to walk past me. Overall, I gave out 2 dollars. 

Elevator Pitch No. 2

Unfortunately, I made mine on a webcam but I tried to be as dynamic as possible! The feedback that I found important was to memorize my pitch. While I tried to not memorize it because I did not want it to feel like it was a memorized to speech but rather as if I was talking to a friend about the app. Also, I decided to take out the high school sports aspect as of now for my app because it would be too difficult to fully perform as of now.

Customer Interviews No.3

My interviewing strategy this week was to write down on a notecard what the app was that I was creating. I then handed that notecard to the person I was interviewing and once they finished reading it I asked them the following three questions:
1. What is your reaction to this app?
2. Is there anything you would add to it to make it better?
3. Is there anything you would take away from it to make it better?
On the notecard I wrote:
"I am creating an app called Scores and Stats Now. It is an app that allows you to find scores and statistics on players at the high school, collegiate and professional level. Not all high school sports will be included but major ones like football, basketball, and soccer will be. You will be able to customize the teams and players you follow in order to get push notifications about players and the teams. This would be a free app with advertisements or you could pay $1.99 in order for there to be no advertisements"
I felt that this way of interviewing got the most honest answers from the interviewees. They truly told me what they thought was beneficial and what they thought was unneeded. I feel that from these interviews I may make the app more college and professional related instead of having any high school information on it. I may also not have the ability to charge people for it because I feel that I will get more advertisements that are related to sports if the companies know all people are viewing it instead of just people that didn't feel like paying for the app.
Below are my five interviews:

Week 6 Reading Reflection

After taking the marketing class here at the University of Florida we discussed in great lengths market segmentation. During the discussion we never truly discussed when there were ever changes in how market segmentation occurred. However in this reading it was interesting to find out about how market segmentation changed after World War II when many people became more price conscious than before. I never truly knew when this occurred so it was interesting to read about how the changes occurred.
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Something that confused me was about the depths of decisions you must make with your product and the segmentation of it. I did not really understand the questions it was answering and how any of it would help with selling more of the product or if the questions were to try to figure out if they should get rid of the product. Overall it just confused me.
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Do you think market segmentation can sometimes be wrong and that it can make people that would originally buy the product not buy it if it isn't advertised to people like them?
Do you ever think that some products don't need to have market segmentation?
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There was nothing that I thought the author was wrong with. I thought the reading in general was very interesting and informative.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) I am Leigha Hinds and I am a junior at the University of Florida doing a combined Master's and Bachelor's degree in Sports Management. I aspire to work for the marketing department of a professional football or basketball team in the future. With this business adventure I want to give sporting fans what they have always hoped and dreamed for; a place to have scores of all sporting events from high school to professional.

2) I feel that this venture will benefit fans and parents of athletes. It will allow you to customize the teams and players you want to follow and give you notifications if anything were to happen, good and bad, with them. Sports fans are always looking for the perfect app to follow all sporting events and players. This app will do exactly that.

3) I am offering this for any individual that is a sports fan in the United States. While this will follow MLS teams that are in other countries, it will not follow any other sports (cricket, sledding, etc) that are not in the USA.

4) Customers will care about this because if they are true sports fans it will give them all the information they have ever hoped for in an app.

5) I will have the ability to follow high school, collegiate and professional sports. Clearly the high school following will not be as large or in-depth but it will still be offered for everyone to take part in watching.

I believe that all of these elements fit together. I am hoping to appeal to sports fans from around the United States that enjoy all types of sports. From high school to professional there is always someone that wants updates on the sports that are occurring. One thing that I will have to fine tune is which high school sports I will follow. Clearly it is impossible to follow all high school sports (basketball, football, softball, baseball, track & field, tennis, lacrosse, etc). I think altogether though this would be a great investment.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

Something that I found interesting in this chapter was all the reasons for failure of a new venture. Originally I believed that failure was because the entrepreneur did not do enough research for his target market or did not try hard enough. After reading this chapter I am able to understand there are many reasons why a venture may fail.
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I found the phases of the creative process were confusing to me. I had difficulty understanding the phases.
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Do you feel an entrepreneur needs to be creative to be successful?
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I felt there was nothing wrong with the reading.

Interviewing Customers No. 2

Questions:
1. Are you a sports fan, high school, collegiate or professional?
2. Do you ever wish there was an app that you could see all scores for your favorite high school college or professional sports?
3. Is statistics of specific players something you would want to see on the app?

I have learned that this may be a small niche market. Not everyone is a huge sports fan or would care for this type of an app. However, I feel the people that would enjoy this app would be super interested in getting it. This app would be an app that you are able to put your preference of sports teams and players in order to get updates to your phone immediately; at high school, college, or professional teams.

Three tips for future ENT3003:
-Before the interview see if the person is a potential customer for the product
-Don't be scared to go up to random people
-Have fun while you do it

Elevator Pitch No. 1

My elevator pitch is for a new app called SSN- sports, stats, now. It is for the people that want to follow high school, college and professional sports of their choice. This app was made to allow individuals to get all of their sports information at one app. They program it for their favorite teams and players and the app does the rest!