Week 8 Reading Reflection

    After reading Chapter 8 of the textbook, I think that what surprised me the most was the section on fighting terrorism with financial opportunity. I didn't quite understand how these two concepts related to each other at all, until I read the section and found out so much on Ronald Bruder's theories of why terrorism and finance relate to each other. I think that one part of this reading that was confusing to me was the definition of business angels, and how that goes hand in hand with informal risk capitalists. I would probably ask the author how those two terms relate to one another. I would also ask the author how he/she came up with the list of criteria for evaluating new-venture proposals. There is nothing, however, that I feel the author was wrong about though.

Half-way Reflection

    For this unique class known as ENT3003, I began to think a little differently from how I thought in a lot of my other classes. For example, I was made to use a lot of creativity for some of the assignments in this class, and I had to develop an entrepreneurial sort of a mindset, in attempting to create business ideas and opportunities. I would say that the moments in which I wanted to give up consisted of the assignments in which I had to ask strangers if they wanted to be videotaped for an interview and several of them said no. I think that what pulled me through was just asking more and more people until they agreed. It definitely did cause me to develop a somewhat tenacious attitude which I didn't have before. The odd and kind of uncomfortable situations entailed in the assignments for this class were what contributed the most to this. I would definitely advise next semester's student to not let one or two unsuccessful tries to let them down, and to just keep going at it. I would also advise them to not be so conscious of being videotaped and having other classmates see it, as they are all doing the same thing you are anyways. These two things would allow you to have the tenacious mindset that an ENT student requires. Another tip I would give to the future students of this class would to just use as much creativity as you possibly can, in developing your business ideas.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

For this week's assigned reading, what surprised me the most was just how much marketing had changed over 40 years, in terms of segmentation. Nondemographic segmentation became just as unenlightening as demographic segmentation had been. I was a little bit confused by the idea that Yankelovich had to re-assess whether the claims he made about segmentation earlier were true or not, because I did not quite understand why 40 years later he would think that the market could change back to its previous ways. This would be one of the two questions that I would ask the author. I would also ask the author how effective segmentation really is in the market. I do not think that the author was wrong about anything in this article though.

Free Money

For the exercise, I simply went around my home neighborhood, and not surprisingly, people were pretty willing to take the dollar, as this is not a common sight, where someone just gets handed a free dollar. So in that way, giving it away was easier than I thought, and it did match up to my predictions about how it would all span out, as I did assume that people would take the dollar willingly, and without questions.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

I really enjoyed reading the comments and feedback on my previous elevator pitch. I think what stood out to me the most was how positively people reacted to my idea, and how much they appreciated it. I didn't think any of the comments was silly or wrong, and I really helped from all of them. Based on some of my feedback, I added a more personal touch to my pitch and talked more about the financial aspect of the company.

Customer Interviews No. 3

I basically extended my question to summarize the entire issue of college textbook prices and why it exists, specifically. Before, I was speaking of more experience based questions on textbook prices, and now it's more about looking at why this issue exists for people. I learned that people feel the same why as I do about textbook prices, and the fact that they are too high. I was surprised at the answer of people not being able to afford these books because of their family background and income, because I was thinking it would be because people are spending too much money in other places. I hope that more people will realize this opportunity and begin to want to change it for the better

Week 6 Reading Reflection

   For week six's assigned reading, I would say that the biggest surprise I encountered was the graph on the five forces that shape industry competition, just because I had no idea that there was such an organized chart on this subject. One part of the reading that was confusing to me would be the aspect of government in relation to this subject, because it is not good or bad for industry profitability, so I would ask the author why he/she included it in the list, if it does not have any effect on industry at all. I would also ask the author about how exactly he/she came up with the long list of typical steps in industry analysis, and what all had to be considered to create that list.

Idea Napkin No. 1

    When it comes to my business concept, I feel that a huge aspect of it is definitely to describe me as a person. I am an animal sciences major here at UF, and hope to attend vet school after my undergrad. I have a lot of experience working with animals, and that is also what comprises a lot of my compassion in life. As a student in the college of agriculture and life sciences, I felt as if creating a business idea that includes both agriculture and animals would be perfect for me, as I am also very compassionate about the agriculture industry and the way meats are produced today. That is why I think that my company, "Pure Ag" will give customers the benefit of knowing that they are eating pure, organically produced food that is also not ridiculously harmful to farm animals. This type of business idea would definitely appeal to people like me, who want to eat natural foods with meats that are produced in the correct way. This is important because nowadays, every other food chain and brand does not take any pride in the way that they produce their meats, and just bring out low quality, unhealthy foods for their customers. I think that the aspect which will set me apart from other organically producing food companies would be the fact that mine would be open to selling its food in any store and not creating a whole separate store like Trader Joes or Whole Foods, for it.


   I think that most of the aspects of my business concept gel pretty well together, but I do feel that I need to elaborate more and just how the foods would be produced. I also think that speaking of specific kinds of food that would be sold would also be helpful. I would probably consider these two elements to probably be my more weaker elements in this business idea.

Interviewing Customers No. 2

I definitely learned a lot from recording these 5 videos, and that was the fact that everyone has search contrasting views on a certain opportunity, and their answers are not always going to match what you expect. I would recommend for people to always keep that in mind, when interviewing customers, and to also create clear, relative, and concise questions for the opportunity being represented. I would want to advise others to create an opportunity that they understand very well and can talk a lot about

Week 5 Reading Reflection

     For this week's assigned reading, I would say that what stood out to me the most was the concept of trade secrets. It was surprising to find out that certain business processes and information that cannot be patented, copyrighted or trademarked may still be protected as "trade secrets." One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the section on the process of obtaining a patent. I didn't quite understand why there was an aspect of examination and then also post-examination, and I would ask the author why those too are needed in the process. I would also ask the author if he/she considered the entrepreneurial process to be a parody or an infringement. Other than that, I did not consider this book's author to be wrong about anything.

Elevator Pitch No 1

The opportunity that I am making use of in this assignment is the food/agricultural industry. There are quite a few issues in this industry, with how meats and food are produced, and my solution is my business venture, "Pure Ag". This company seeks to fix these issues, and provide pure meals to its customers.