Final Reflection

Throughout this semester there was many assignments that I enjoyed while there were other assignments that I dreaded having to do. One assignment that I will always remember is the Free Money. I do not think that there is any other class that would have an assignment about trying to give money away to people and not inform them why. While this is the assignment that I will remember, it was also one of the most dreaded assignments I had. One of the assignments I truly enjoyed was interviewing an entrepreneur. It is crazy to think how almost every job has some form of entrepreneur in it and how taking a chance can really pay off in the future. From this class I mostly learned if you enjoy what you are doing, then you are doing it right.
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While I do not feel that I have completely created an entrepreneurial mindset, I think I am on my way there. Before taking this class I did not truly understand the importance of entrepreneurship and what was involved in it. Now I have an understanding and hope to one day be able to call myself an entrepreneur.
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For individuals taking this class in the future I would recommend they enjoy every assignment. While you may not feel comfortable talking to random people, having the courage to do it will teach you a lot about yourself and help you grow as a person. In order to perform well in the class, I would recommend making a schedule for when assignments are due and sticking to it. It is often difficult due to assignments being due at 9pm rather than midnight, but once you get the hang of it it is easy to accomplish.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity: Sports is a growing entity in America and as more and more individuals start playing sports and fans become more involved in the game, people will need a place to et all the information possible. Parents of high school children need a place where they can get the scores of their children’s games. These same parents will also enjoy collegiate and professional sports. The kids that are taking part in the sports will want to have the ability to see how the sports teams they are playing against in the following week did during the previous week.  All of these individuals want to have a single place to go to get all of this information. What else do these people want, to have the ability to watch all of the collegiate and professional games on the go. Sports have very strange hours and at times people can’t be at home or at a sports bar watching. Having all the games on a single app that you can tune in and watch at any time will ease this for everyone. The window of this opportunity could technically be year round because there are always sports occurring. 

Innovation: Create an app that encompasses all of the previous stated aspects. From including all high school sports scores, college and professional sports scores and statistics of players along with a live feed of the games. I would also like to include an area that makes it capable to live stream sporting events in the professional and collegiate level. If there is enough interest I will then include high school. This will make it that there will be a monthly fee. 

Venture: I have created an app that allows individuals to see the scores and statistics of collegiate and professional sports and remote high school sports. There will be basic rules and positions for the sports to help teach individuals about the games. 

Secret Sauce: My secret sauce that it will make it difficult for competitors to copy me is that before I launch I am going to have people working in the remote high school areas in order for all scores to be up to date and that way there is never a period where a specific area does not have the high school scores for the area. This also shows that I do not believe a specific area for sports is better than any other. 

What’s Next: Obviously getting television rights to air the collegiate and professional sports games will be nearly impossible, the next thing I hope to make for the venture is writing books about how to play a sport, the rules of the sports, and the positions. I think this will broaden my consumer base to people that may want to get involved in sports but feels too uncomfortable to ask people about sports. 

What’s Next For Me: In the future I would hope that I would remain the CEO of the venture but also work with sports marketing for a specific team.

I decided to add the live stream and monthly subscription fee to my venture due to the feedback I got. A lot of people liked the app but one comment by Richard made a good note that I had not explained how I would make money from the venture. 

peace. love. sports. 

Very Short Interview Part 2

Unfortunately my phone was broken and I was unable to tape my interview with an entrepreneur. I also previously did not take part in this assignment and will be unable to reflect on the questions I asked the first entrepreneur at the beginning of the class. My discussion was with a lawyer named Jorge de la cruz-munoz. He started his own law firm about 15 years ago with specifically working with trust and estates.
Below are the questions I asked and the answers that were received:
What made you decide to open your own law firm? 
I wanted to open my own law firm in order to be my own boss. While this is very cliche I felt as though I was ready to dictate what I wanted to do and when I wanted to do it. Obviously it was difficult to begin my own law firm but in the long run the decision has definitely helped shape the type of lawyer I am.
Have you ever thought about having more lawyers to cover more bases of law? 
I have thought about it but it didn't seem feasible. It is very difficult to get started as a law firm and when you bring in new lawyers people often will not trust those lawyers and could feel uncomfortable around the office. Being a lawyer for an individual is all based on trust that is formed between you and the client. If a client doesn't like new lawyers that are brought into the firm, it can cause them to go to another lawyer. Also, having a large law firm would take away from the personality I try to give every client.
What were some of the difficulties you met with when starting the law firm? 
When I first opened the law firm I had difficult building trust with first time clients. Since I am a small law firm, I did not have the backing of a large name to get clients to come in. As time progressed I was more well known and was able to open up the law firm to more individuals.
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During this conversation I felt a lot more comfortable. I understood what he was speaking about and knew that while things may get difficult in time it will get better. Because of this class I was able to better understand him and get more intense questions asked. Before this class began I would have had no idea what made an entrepreneur good vs bad and after this class I am able to better understand that.

Celebrating Failure

A time that I failed was when I had to drop financial accounting at UF. It was a very hard time for me because I knew how expensive it was for my parents to pay for each class as an out of state student. I also had never failed a class before so that was just as hard for me. Once I dropped the class I realized that life does go on after you do bad in school and that your grades don't dictate everything. I was able to retake the class during the summer and realize what I actually want to do in life. While failing the class was not fun it truly taught me a lot.

My Exit Strategy

I am hoping to keep the venture as a family business and after many decades retire from my position to give it to a child or grandchild. While this will not be my only job, it will be something that I enjoy doing and take part in. I hope that it will remain successful for many years. However, if it happens to take a turn for the worst, I would try my best to salvage it to the best of my ability. 

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I am selected this exit strategy because I truly do love sports and want to have something to do that I enjoy. Being able to pass it down in my family will allow me to always have a smart part of it as my own. 

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My exit strategy may not have influenced how I came up with the idea but the idea chose my exit strategy. Had I chosen something that I was not as interested in I probably would have sold it within 5 years to make a large return but to be able to do something I enjoy is more important to me. 

Week 12 Reading Reflection

The biggest surprise to me during this weeks readings was about the probability or risk and innovation for creating an innovation. I feel that mixing the two is needed but I didn't realize how much risk in correspondence to innovation can create a profit for an entrepreneur. 

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The part of the reading that was most confusing to me was the mistakes that multiple entrepreneurs tend to fall prey to. I feel that when you are creating a strategic plan you ensure that you would not make any of those mistakes. However, Kuratko explains how almost every entrepreneur becomes a victim of those mistakes. 

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How long do you believe it should take to create a strategic plan? 

Do you think there will ever be a time that entrepreneurs will not become prey to the common mistakes? 

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I do not think that Kurkato was wrong about anything. I feel he explained everything very well.