22A- Elevator Pitch #3

1.) The Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvgkweyfaj8&t=5s 

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. 

The most important feedback I received was being concise, to the point, and talk in a very uplifting and enthusiastic tone. If I can keep people entertained enough they will actually listen to what i have to say and elaborate on the ideas I propose. Also someone suggested using actual physical copies of books/magazines as a reference which I thought helped support my ideas and was a very smart idea. One of the idea's I thought were silly was to actually propose my pitch in a library. 

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

The pitch itself was way more smoothly and easily recited. Memorization started playing key in allowing me not to stutter and get to my points much more quickly and elegantly. I never really had a problem talking in front of people but for some reason talking in front of a camera at first was very awkward. But after the numerous tries I just imagine I'm talking to the person behind the camera and feel a lot more comfortable now doing so.

21A Reading Reflection #2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of this book was to always be proactive with your day. Make the most out of each and everyday and if one can set systems for each day they will have a drive to get up and want to accomplish these on a daily basis. One needs to be able to accept failure and turn it into positive energy and adapting to it.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

This book really opened my eyes and made me realize that the only person who can truly control how you act is yourself. One needs to understand themselves first and harness their own strengths before trying to accomplish anything. Once one is able to control their personal energy they will expand their opportunities to the next level. This book was helpful for ENT because it showed me that I need to believe in myself and my business (Books-to-Go) in order to be successful. It taught me to accept failure and to turn failures into positive experiences.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

The exercise I would devise for the class would be one that is not too complicated but at first no one could accomplish. They would have to fail first in order to realize what they need to do next time in order to pass.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I think one of the biggest 'aha' moments for myself was when Adams talked about in his book about forgetting goals because they are for te weak and create systems. Systems are basically a set of procedures one should do everyday in order to give them something too look forward too each and everyday. Adams talked about this idea when he was working and how it helped him stay positive all the time and loaded with good vibes and energy.

20A - Growing your Social Capital

1) Who they are and what their background is.

The three people I talked to to grow my human capital are:

Rocky Shiffner (Pre-School Teacher)

Betty Joostema (Retired Nurse and Librarian) 

Pete Mozes (Traveling agent)

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot. 3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

Rocky (Domain Expert): Rocky is actually a close friend of mine mom and she fits this aspect for me because she herself is a pre-school teacher and has a passion for making sure children are reading books at a young age. She told me she has a passion and want to write children books, which would be incorporated into my business as some book options to choose from. She has a good idea of the overall market of how books trade and sell. She came up for a baseball game and it was a perfect time to talk about this assignment.

Betty (Market Expert): Betty is actually my grandmother but she has a vast knowledge of the book market being she was a former librarian. She has an understanding of the book market and has research about what people want and the books people could care less for. Her and I came into contact after I gave her a phone call. 

Pete (Supplier Expert): Pete is one of my dad's best friends and I gave him a phone call to talk about what he does. Basically he travels around for his business to places across the nation and tries to make other companies/institutions buy his product. His products range from electronics to books and much more. He has an idea of how to persuade and talk businesses into accepting your product and wanting to make it one of their own which would be huge for my business.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? 

Rocky: Rocky told me the difficulties that include trying to mass produce and find someone interested in the product one is trying to sell. She told me sometimes its a dirty business and just because your idea seems like the best it sometimes will go unnoticed and she told me to never give up. She emphasizes this idea because Rocky herself has been trying for a few months now to have some books approved for publishing. Her ultimate goal is to get books into the market that can be used by many ages for enjoyment and knowledge.

Betty: We talked about the true difficulty of determine the types of genres and style of books that people nowadays tend to read or want to read. She told me how the trend has become more expansive as more and more people want to read such different subjects. But she ensured me one thing and that was as long as people are alive and breathing there will be people interested and wanting to read.

Pete: Pete and I actually talked for awhile a lot about life and then I basically ran through my elevator pitch with him. He told me it was a good start but needed much improvement. He told me I have a great tone but I lack in the ability of persuading others that my product far outweighs other competitors and it would be hard to get accepted if I cant overcome this.

All three listened to my business idea and helped me develop pointers and tips on what my strengths and weaknesses are and how I can try to improve them.

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Rocky: Rocky has experience in trying to sell to the market and with her and she knows how to produce books/ services. She has way more knowledge then I do with actually trying to enter the market and has many tips that would be beneficial to my service. 

Betty: Betty has such an array of knowledge as has been alive to witness all the trends that have shaped the the book market to what it is today. She has a good idea of what books are a "hot read" and which ones I shouldn't even worry to include within my business. She has a background knowledge of the subject to help my service progress to maximizing its opportunities. 

Pete: He would be a perfect addition in my network because he really would give insight for my service of being persuasive and showing that we are the best company for the service that is needed to be provided. He has extensive background history in selling to firms in my industry and has a great idea of the best ways of how to do that.

Finally: Reflect. 

This experience actually really will help me in numerous aspects of future networking events that come my way. I've learned from this that 1.) it is so beneficial to look for others for advice. You need a team in order to fulfill all the needs of a successful business and talking with everyone made me realize this. 2.) It will make me also always looks for outside the box solutions of how to differentiate myself from others and be a unique service. This experience differed a lot from other networking experiences i've had because I actually had to make initiative to go out and find very compatible sources that I could learn a lot from. I did research and much more to find suitable people.

19A Idea Napkin #2

1) You. 

I am Daniel Plattner, a third year Junior at the University of Florida looking to obtain a degree in both APK and Business. My Skills involve being very friendly and being able to speak in front of large groups. I am creative, intelligent, and a very determined/hard-worker. when faced with adversity I will do my absolute best to overcome and achieve whatever goal i have set forth. My main aspiration is to better myself everyday that I live. This could be from learning or some sort of physical experience. Regardless of how i'm improving I am doing it one way or another. If i were to start this business I could see myself becoming completely devoured by it. I would want to make it the best service possible and do everything in my power to achieve this.

2) What are you offering to customers? 

What i am offering for customers is a way to past airline travel time down by the old but efficient way of reading books/magazines. My service follows the same system of RedBox where you would rent a book for a specific amount of time and then return the book/magazine once you are done with the use. 

3) Who are you offering it to?

I am offering this product to basically anyone who likes to read books/magazines and finds this a suitable and effective way to past the time while traveling. The people in my target segment don't have the best understanding of technology and because of this uses old fashion way to past the time (by reading). These people have the same passion of mine and want to improve everyday and they could accomplish this by learning more through what they read. 

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

People will actually pay money to use this service for many reasons. But two of the most important would be because people actually enjoy reading and would prefer to read a physical copy of something in front of them instead of on a phone or any other electronic device. Also, people would choose this method because the pricing for it would be affordable for basically anybody.

5) What are your core competencies? 

What sets this company apart from others is that there is nothing else that even matches this type of service. Kindles are the closest thing to competition for this service but many people do not have kindles and prefer a physical copy to actually read from. 

For the "feedback memo" -- please summarize at least two main points that you took away from the feedback you received. Also, please describe how you incorporated the feedback into this idea napkin. 

Elements

I believe that all of the elements of my business concept do fit together pretty perfectly. I feel that they all have a connection to each other one way or another and all of the aspects are needed from my target market in order for my business to be successful. I feel the one weakness my business faces is the evolution of the advancement of technology. As technology keeps advancing who knows what the world will be like in a few years from now and if my service will even be needed by then.

Feedback

The feedback i received I gathered two main points away from it. The first was to be able to create an actual system of renting/drop-off that would be convenient for both the buyer and seller and allow for both of them to maximize from the service they are receiving. When this becomes implemented it will put the business in the right steps to be successful. Another point from my feedback was to make sure I can efficiently promote my service to people who would actually want to use this service. I need to make it clear who exactly my target market is and I need to make sure I aim to make that as clear and evident as possible. These two points allowed me to really decide and focus who my target market would be and that a business has many more steps that are needed to maximize its potential.

17A Elevator Pitch #2

The Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GR9ThRXmqM \


Feedback from the last pitch:
The greatest feedback I received from my last pitch was the use of my enthusiastic tone and the use of painting a mental image of exactly what my product would do and how it would fulfill the unmet needs. I feel the feedback that was not so useful for myself was trying to explain how my service is similar to matching Redbox. My service is basically the same idea but it is my own company and has many differentiations to that of Redbox.

What I changed:
I decided to try and be even more enthusiastic and use more visuals in giving my pitch. An attention grabber is key for success. I also decided to try and more slowly talk about the aspects of my business and how this business can be used to target the unmet needs of many people who would find use of my business.

18A- Create Your Customer Avatar

What kind of hobbies does your customer have? 
My customer has hobbies that would include reading, writing, and wanting to learn more throughout all aspects of their life. They are people who empassion reading and truly digesting into a good story or article. They form their own opinions and ideas from what they read and embody their own ideas. 
What kind of car do they tend to drive? (What color is it?)
I would say a customer of mine would drive either a smart car, Prius, tesla, or a Nissan. Cars good on gas and the environment.
 What TV shows do they watch?
History channel, discovery channel, or documentaries 
 Do they have children? 
Probably have a family
 How old are they?
Somewhere anywhere ranging from 25-45
 How old do they feel? 
They feel youthful but has awareness of their limits

 What do you have in common with the customer avatar?
I would say one of the biggest things the custom avatar and myself has is the desire to read and want to learn from we are reading. We prefer nonfictional books that have meanings and backstories to them that help readers develop feelings and opinions for what we are reading.
 If you have anything in common with the avatar, do you think that is a coincidence? Why?
I feel like this is not a coincidence we share such a common interest as Books-to-go was first thought of and created by combining a nuisance that occurred to me and a personal passion of mine that was used to solve the nuisance. 

16A- what’s your secret Sauce

What makes me who I am:
I consider myself a very intelligent, essay minded, decdiated and caring person. I feel my tenacity of wanting to always succeed and win are one of the best reason why I can separate my selves from others. I really care and always will give my all no matter how against the odds i am from succeeding.

Interview on Youtube: names correspond with people in interview in order)

https://youtu.be/tOUB8hOMIaE

Interview #1 (Ryan Cutright my cousin):
From my interview with Ryan I realized that he was right and family does mean a lot to me. I always want everything working as a whole and that includes my family. Bridges need to be made to make connections.
Interview #2 (Justin Cutright cousin)
From my interview with Justin I realized that being self determined is one of my key traits  of making myself who i am. I want to be someone who is committed to my goals and is someone who can always follow through.
Interview #3 (Brandon Conti friend)
From my interview with Conti I realized that i have a want for self improvement. I strive everyday to be better than the last.
Interview #4 ( Josh friend)
From my interview with Josh I realized how trustworthy of an assets i can be.  being able to maintain trust is key to successful relationships in life.
Interview #5 (Sydney )
My interview with Sydney helped me realize to be happy with life i need to understand how to have fun but be serious at the same time.

Reflection:
After all of my interviews i’ve reaized that what makes me who i am is starting with my roots and that’s my family. I idiozlied how I was raised and promote the same caring, dedicated and free flowing lifestyle. When seeing how others would talk about me I noticed they would keen in on how supportive I was. I feel these ineterviews were correct and going back to my list i feel they all are pretty consistent and that I should add being supportive.

15 A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior

Summary of Interviews:
After doing a thorough conduction of three interviews, with a 23 years Uf Senior, a 31 year old who does business selling products to customers and a 20 year old Uf sophomore. Starting with the alternative evaluation it became obvious that one of the most important thing for this product was the price associated with the quality. Many buyers made it clear that the best alternative for my service Books-to-Go was the Kindle Fire. People didn’t like this alternative though because for some the price is way to much for a service they would only use so often. The benefits of Books-to-Go would provide a cheaper alternative to rent a book for such amount of time and get the full use of your paying amount. Leading off of that many people who would use my service would prefer the buying in person method as they would hold physical book in there hands to read, just like the old fashioned and convenient way to do so. The best way I would be able to tell about Post-Purchase behavior would to base that off of offline reviews and quetionarres we assess to customers of the service. A bad response would obviously elicit the customers disapproval of the service.
Conclusion:
The segment market of mine would be people looking to pay time by reading books/magaazines the conventional and efficient way by physically having the said item in their hand. People who like the buy a book to read a book/magazine for cheaply and liking the service to be in person would be the ideal target market.