Week 15 Reading Reflection

    This week's reading reflection was on how to make money from a lower tiered economic position in that world while still having enough resources. The most interesting principle mentioned in this article was that of adopting a profit-oriented approach as a business. The most surprising part of this article was the third principle mentioned being that of using the latest technology in order to decrease costs and limit space for errors. I personally found it surprising as I felt it was ironic due to the fact that doing such to me only sounded like increasing the costs for any business. I was confused about what SKS scales are and how they affect margins. If I could ask the author two things the first would be to explain how the relationships to the media and telecom providers impact businesses? Also I would ask the author how long it takes to be able to come up with the best plan that mitigates repayment plans? Overall, I did not disagree with anything the author said.

Final Reflection

     After reading through my blog, as I recall my experiences of the highs and lows, one thing that sticks out to me the most about this formative experience was how many people I was able to meet despite the fact that this course was entirely taken online for myself. One experience I will remember years later was how joyous I felt about deciding to change my project to a whole other company which was that of Make-up-meet-up.  Another experience I'm most proud of was the activity of handing out 5 free dollars. It was just a really odd and funny experience. 
     From the beginning to the end of this semester, I have remained very adamant about trying to emulate the qualities of the entrepreneur and incorporate its mindset to anything I do. Due to this I feel I can say I do feel closer to have developed an entrepreneurial mindset. One recommendation I would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future is to never underestimate the availability in your schedule meaning one should never take time for granted and leave things for later. Especially in this class, I have found myself leaving things to last minute and that truly disrupts progress and productive/efficient time management. 
     To do best in this course I would definitely say, stay on top of all your work and stay updated and active in networking. That is the best way to foster this entrepreneurial mindset, surround yourself with people who are passionate about what they do and often times you'll see that it's because they are their own boss and truly passionate about what they dedicate their time to.

Elevator Pitch No.4

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity:

One of the most remarkable skills of/as an entrepreneur is the ability to identify opportunities and beyond that a “group of customers with un-met needs”. As a college sophomore, I have identified a group that is seriously underappreciated and underrepresented in a college town being that of make-up lovers/artists. As a new member of the Sabor Latino dance team and the cousin of an AOII sorority member, I recognized that make-up needed for both dance and theater productions or for the sake of special occasions wasn’t an easy thing to find here in Gainesville, Florida. Beyond that, I also recognized that free-lance make-up artists have very minimal opportunities in a college town being that there is only 1 mall with MAC, Sephora and an Ulta nearby. I could only imagine how difficult it might be to build a strong portfolio with such little opportunity given that the financial stance of the general population (college students) is not willing to pay for expensive make-up in order to get a make-over by a professional.

Dance teams, theaters and sorority girls currently satisfy those needs on their own by being loyal customers to certain make-up brands and getting ready on their own. There is nothing wrong with this alternative but a group that is constantly surrounded by this kind of art would definitely appreciate more professional help in getting made-up for those special occasions/ projects that are representative of their group. To help connect the underappreciated free-lance make-up artist and the clients that are part of the aforementioned groups creating a networking platform that connects both of these groups would be a major opportunity. This service would attend to the needs of both the artist and the client in the form of providing an opportunity to build portfolios and a network of clients as well as simply help the client to achieve that desired look for that special event/occasion.

 

Innovation:

           

 The service conceptualized as an innovative solution would be the creation of an application that works as a networking platform to connect a freelance make-up artist nearby to a client in need. The application will work similar to the booming company now known as Uber. The application will connect the nearest freelance make-up artist available to the client in need in order to allow them to meet up. The name of the service would be “Make-up-Meet-up”. The innovation to this service is the combination of a network platform and a transportation system that essentially delivers a much-needed service to a customer group that values the service at their very doorstep in the comfort of their home. The price for this service begins at $20 and can go up to $30 maximum where the network itself would only get 20% of what the make-up artist makes.

Venture Concept:

            Make-up-Meet-Up is an application for any Iphone and smartphone that essentially works as a networking platform to connect freelance make-up artist near any client in need. The service functions similar to Uber that will allow the client and make-up artist to meet in the comfort of the clients home or wherever they desire. It’s a makeover delivered to your very own doorstep! I am well aware that the most difficult part about this venture is getting customers to give it a chance. The way in which this risk would be taken care of is by partnering up with Sephora and Ulta’s make-up artists and hopefully build relationships with the companies themselves as prospective future suppliers. The make-up artists before the app opens will go on to promote the application themselves with clients that walk into the stores for the day of the opening of the application once it is launched and accessible.

            Another strength of this company is the fact that absolutely nothing like this has ever been done before and there is nothing like it. A weakness recognized is the fact that most of the times these services come in as too expensive to afford but being that the geographical setting of the use of this app would be in a college town the service and the expense would be as cheap as $20-30. The factors that play a major role in my service include the distribution, business location and the overall customer experience being that it is the distribution and offering of a complete make-over, the location is flexible and transported to comfort of a clients home or whichever destination desired which is the key to the overall customer experience as it is safe and comfortable. This service would provide a win-win for both the client in the form of looking exactly the way they would want for that special occasion and helping freelance makeup artists build strong professional networks to build their portfolios and get their work recognized.

The Three Minor Elements

·      My unfair advantage and secret sauce is the originality of this venture concept and the customer group that has no other service offered in the form of a delivery service that meets such a specific need.

·      What’s next for the venture is expanding on the demographic and geographic location of this application/networking platforms accessibility and move it into cities like Miami, New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago.

·      What’s next for me as an entrepreneur and hopefully in the next five years is giving myself a chance to become a fashion designer and build a brand for myself. In the next decade I also want to write a book on my experiences as a third culture child and adjusting to new changes so much in my personal life as in my professional life. 

    

    Feedback

      

     My feedback was all overall extremely extremely positive and uplifting. Many people felt I was targeting an unexploited market which otherwise meant it had a lot of potential for business. The one thing that I found very interesting was that someone asked about the grading system for the makeup artists. He asked if there would be a rating system and if people would be able to have access to those high-end make-up artists or if it would just be the nearest make-up artist.

    Change:

    I very much appreciated this feedback because it sparked change and a new idea. Side note, it's in these moments when feedback and constructive criticism turns into good. This feedback helped me to think of an idea that provides incentive to people to use this app. I would implement a rating survey at the person's service completion. I would allow the person to be able to access the higher-end make-up artists after continuous rating help and also for using the service.  

     

    

 

  

 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

     This weeks reading had to do with social entrepreneurship and te ever changing environment and the ethical challenges of social entrepreneurship. One of the things that surprised me the most was the fact that social entrepreneurship is about creating innovative ways to solve social problems on a "large-scale". I thought it was interesting that there's a whole concept like that at all, a concept about applying entrepreneurship to improve and environment. One thing I was confused about the chapter were the descriptors used to talk about social obligation, responsibility and responsiveness when it used the words "firms" it was confusing me cause I thought actual firms is what it was talking about. My first question for the author would be to provide a scenario in which the definition of ethics given could be applied as far as executing a project ethically. Also I would ask what is the difference between ethical principles and ethical processes which is where the conflict of ethics comes up? Either way I do not disagree with anything the author said.

Going For Google Gold

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimiation (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

Some activities I did for each of my blog posts to pursue SEO on my blog would be to start somewhere as simple as sharing it on my personal social medias or with groups that I'm part of. For example, I'd even ask my dance team to share my blog and posts to be able to get views. As well as that I enhanced my search engine optimization through it's nomenclature and the specificity of keywords and even hashtags and making my persona unique.

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

My keywords were entrepreneur, self-improvement, passion, hard working, determined, driven, project management, creation, imagination. My words did not change that much and were following along the same themes of creation and the principles of entrepreneurship. 

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I think I answered this in my first question, please read back there to answer the first part of this question. My surprises or general impression of using social media that came from my sharing this project on my social media personally was very beneficial and motivating. This is however cause of the fact that my product does work well with the audience of a dance team who happened to be one of the primary groups of people o shared this with. Due to this it didn't get ignored and a lot of girls on my team are also in sororities so it helped with networking as well. 

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

The post that obtained the most traffic I think would be my entrepreneurship story. I do think it isn't the one I've  gotten the most comments on but it was the one which comments spoke the most to me was that post. This was due to the length of the comments on this post. 

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to? 

I did not make it to googles results first page. 

Very Short Interview, Part 2

Hello again,

Now that we're getting so close to the finish line it's important to reflect on the hard work and growth we've all done as entrepreneurs. In revisiting the first "very short interview" the questions I asked were:

 Q1: What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?
Q2: What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?
Q3: What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur? 
  
I feel these questions were appropriate and in line with someone who was just starting her journey as an entrepreneur. I looked to Fabiola, as the exemplary entrepreneur and used her answers to guide me. I will say I couldn't agree more with Fabiola's first answer on how entrepreneurship involves perfecting what you have to offer as an audience. If anyone has been following my blog then they would know that very far into the journey I took a 180 degree turn and completely changed my product in order to do something I was a lot more passionate about. Like she said, its consists taking care of a business as your own baby and it's because of this very reason that I changed my company to something I would be passionate about. As far as her answer to the second question being to always think out of the box I truly feel I did this by identifying a very specific audience that is highly under appreciated on a college campus, which I'm proud of. I agree with Fabiola's wish to have been able to learn about business in school because I feel I've learned so much from this class and venture concepts as well as from being part of the IA academy. 

For this post I was not able to go to Miami to meet with Fabiola and record the interview similar to the first time instead we talked on the phone and I spoke to her through there and wrote down her responses. 

Q1: How do you feel Make-up-Meet-up will impact Gainesville's community as well as students at UF? Or do you feel there will be no impact at all?  

Fabiola: I agree with the way you feel about your target audience. You did a really good job of thinking about a group of people and community of employers who have limited opportunities in a place like Gainesville. Not only did you come up with an innovative ideas but you did what any good entrepreneur does which is to provide job opportunities and growth for the people working for you or within your network. 

Q2: From your experience, where do you see my company going in 5 to 10 years?

Fabiola: Honestly, I see how you and Marcela (my cousin) and many girls value make-up so much I feel there will be a lot of competition in trying to promote anything in the makeup world. What makes your company standout is that it's not specifically selling a product like with my restaurant. The restaurant takes a lot of renovation such as upgrading the menu and spicing the place up a bit sometimes. Starting Salsa Saturdays where people can come in and dance after 11pm right after a yummy dinner. I think the fact that your company is a service is your strongest point. I see your company hopefully becoming replicated in the biggest cities in the United States if that's what you really wanted to do because as entrepreneurs taking those risks and pushing yourself to get to that final goal is at the heart of this project/job. 

Q3: Do you think this company could be implemented in hotels?

Fabiola: Why not? I think that if you can come up with something as unique as a delivery make-up artist and make-over then fostering relationships with hotel chains seems entirely appropriate as a goal in your journey. 

After the Interview:

Reflecting on what Fabiola said about my company was very encouraging. I only wrote down the questions I had planned specifically for this post but the rest of the conversation made me feel really proud of how far I've come. Most of all, my sudden change of idea in the middle of the semester was a move that I felt validated by Fabiola during this interview. I'll admit it was a change I felt very worried about in the beginning but I've definitely noticed a change in how much more I value this journey because it gives me the opportunity to work on/with something I truly value and care about. I did feel a lot more comfortable in talking about entrepreneurship with Fabiola this time compared to three months ago because we were able to discuss the logistics of this project in a way that I was completely ignorant about before. This course has provided me with the proper terminology and knowledge to defend myself in such conversations let alone initiate them. Fabiola definitely conveyed a sense that I had progressed but more than that she was just so proud to see how passionate I was because I truly did make the right decision, without it I wouldn't have been able to say this project really has become like my little baby as cliche as that might sound. 

Week 13 Reading Reflection

     This week's reading was on "the valuation of entrepreneurial ventures". This chapter focused on the valuation of business and the best times as well as factors to consider when determining the value of any business or venture. The one thing I was confused on or did not understand was the topic of ESOP meaning the employee stock option plan or profit sharing plan for employees. I didn't understand if this was a service offered by the employer or something that employees create for themselves as a form of security. The most interesting part which was also the most surprising topic of the reading was the topic of the emotional bias of the seller. Again, as a sociology and psychology major anything that has to do with the human condition or the emotional identity of a person is something I'm very interested in. I found it incredibly interesting that the emotional bias is even something that is considered when establishing the value of a business. If I had a question for the author it would be what makes due diligence questions so specific to due diligence? Also to explain the covenant part? I don't disagree with anything the author said.

Celebrating Failure

Hello again,

       So there are two major failures that I've experienced this semester. The most recent was actually this past Friday and to be honest I'm nowhere near over it because I still haven't gotten to the part where I'm over it or have learned from it. Due to this I'll start to tell you guys about the first. Ever since my transition from Belgium to Peru, I started doing really bad in math class and this issue remained for the rest of my high school years. It's been the most challenging subject to work with and I can confidently say it's definitely my worst. This is even evidenced here in Gainesville specifically back in my freshman year when I had to drop my first course being that of pre calculus. This issue has gotten so bad that eventually I almost always walk into anything having to do with math with the mindset that I just know I'm going to fail. This means my failure is basically presupposed and even premeditated. My biggest success was last summer semester when I got an A in my math course but then again it was math for sociology majors so often times people downplay that accomplishment when I personally am so proud of it.
        This semester however, my current math course is stats 1 and to be entirely honest I started really bad. I will say I did a good job of keeping up with the work but when I completely bombed my first exam I lost all hope and got very discouraged to even try. It wasn't until two weeks ago that I experienced the most wonderful turn. I studied so hard and I'll admit I procrastinated a lot to even start studying and in my second exam I went from an F to a B-. I know B- still isn't my best BUT the huge leap betwee those grades is something I'm extremely proud of and I feel so determined to stay on top of things especially for my third exam. I'm determined to do this because I proved to myself that I could get a B- and if that was done form procrastinating imagine what could come of proper study time?
        This class has changed my perspective because it truly proved to me that I'm capable of doing this. I always just told myself I couldn't do it and I had no hope but after being able to accomplish that I feel very encouraged. I'm going to try my absolute best and it's an experience and subject I've experienced so much failure with, that I can now celebrate that journey. This experience has also changed my perspective on failure because I feel like hard work pays off but also because I'm now less intimidated by math.

My Exit Strategy

       

              It's difficult to think of an exit strategy when this project/creation is still something so new and exciting to think of. The thought of already having to plan how I would want to potentially end it personally hasn't become an option. The exit strategy I wish to employ to is to stick with the business for at least 1 decade. I feel that modern technology will continue to advance in so many ways that this business would eventually have to restructure itself and the way it functions in order to acclimate to any technological changes and business trends. The market will also be something that will change and so I feel that maybe I should even reconsider the at least a decade to possibly at most a decade. I have selected this exit strategy because I have faith in my idea and I would want to give it the best chance to flourish and take it as far as possible. I feel this exit strategy goes hand in hand with my intentions to continue to acquire resources because I plan to expand and grow a strong network in order to improve my product and service over the years.

What's Next?

 For this post, It was really difficult to get down the 6 interviews given that I had no storage on my phone so I had to resort to using my friends who until now has only sent me one of them.

Existing Market:

 For my first interview, I interviewed Galiana Gaetan a fashion merchandising major and these were her thoughts.

 For my second interviews I interviewed Isa Perez, a journalism major currently interning for college fashionista and writing for elite daily. Her video was one of the missing ones. Isa Perez felt that one thing we weren't doing that we should be doing is finding a way to ensure the customers of the safety of this service. As well as this, one thing she said that was extremely insightful was to consider the time's for the services available or what kind of constrictions to place in order to ensure the safety of the employee's alike. When I asked Isa about the ideas for what I planned next from the post with the explanation of incorporating the opportunity to sale products she said that would be a good idea however to really think about how that extra service is offered without imposing. For example, she said maybe in the app, before finalizing the request maybe an option could pop up asking if that would be something the customer would be interested in.

For the third interview, I spoke to Yurian Escobar a make-up guru based out of Miami and California. Yurian is currently in California and resorted to sending me the interview answering the questions specified but still has not. As an overview of what she was going to say I recall her mentioning that one thing we weren't doing that we should be is finding a way to really market this company/idea on a bigger level. She said it's very easy for a company like this to get lost and that maybe finding a way to have Uber partner with us would be beneficial. I found it to be entirely helpful to really consider such a partnership. As for my idea on the incorporation of selling products she also mentioned finding a way to partner up with Bellami hair (extensions) and even products such as the Kylie Lip kit which are hard to obtain as a product that would really appeal to clients.

Reflection: As for their feedback each had something entirely different which I found very relevant and helpful in perfecting this idea. Galiana mentioned the incorporation of a delivery service of just the products alone in a "bundle" which could be sold off the app. Isa Perez recommended reviewing the possible hours of the day that this service could be offered. Yurian included partnerships with bigger already very powerful companies that value make-up art in order to have them market this company and idea before we could branch off to be our own. I also forgot that she mentioned the incorporation of colored eye-contacts from Desio eyes which are based out of Italy and often times very difficult to obtain. I do feel that including all of these as well as the international company would be a good direction to take Make-up-meet-up.

New Market:

For the new market I had in mind I thought up of three. I considered the military, athletes and the magazine world. Galiana however mentioned that the magazine world, fashion and the make-up world were all too similar for that to be an option so I was down to the military and athletes. The military was an option that I felt would be the most difficult to work with given that my experiences as an army brat have always been abroad overseas with limited resources in comparison to here in the actual U.S. I did however think of maybe discounts for the military or maybe finding a way to market this app on military bases for those special events such as the the army, air force, navy and marine corps ball. I think maybe in exchange the military could help provide a service for vetting the prospective make-up artists/drivers as a way to help provide those background checks. This however was hard for me to do because getting an interview from the people I know are all on another continent.

I resorted to athletes and again, I have none of those videos.

The first athlete I asked was swimmer Dorka Balla. Dorka's thoughts on my idea and how it may apply to this market was that she felt the convience in the app for athletes would be specifically for competitive athletes who travel nation wide. On the nights of award ceremonies or special banquets this app could be found really helpful to them in such occasions. She also said maybe a good way to target this market would be by having certain famous athletes or even sports clubs endorse our idea and hopefully have this company be able to sponsor an athlete in the future. I didn't in any way predict that a partnership like this could be an option and I thought it was a really good one too. It would take this company to a whole other target and level and it would only further heighten the convenience of this service which is at the heart of it's purpose.

The second athlete was cheerleader Chloe Murphy. I did feel this sport would be a little more bias towards the market given that makeup art is obviously valuable to this type of sport. However I still asked for her opinion as it is equally valid. Chloe informed me that she's even competed in Germany and went to Europeans. Chloe said for cases like that maybe the app could incorporate tutorials specifically for sports makeup from gymnasts to cheerleaders. I found this to be a super exciting new idea cause it would be a way to incorporate some fun and entertainment on the app.

The third athlete I interviewed was soccer player Joan Elise Hoefsloot. Joan is currently in Holland and she felt that an app like that was something completely unheard of specifically in Europe. It's definitely a reach but being able to take this company to an international level would be a dream. As well as that Joan Elise felt that something that athletes really value is waterproof make-up but more importantly skin care for the constant sweat. When I asked her about the tutorials she said maybe tutorials on at home skin care or even things that could be done quickly specifically when on the road would be a good idea.

The three athletes offered great ideas to optimizing the service and it's value. Dorka's idea of researching into partnerships that could lead to sponsorship or having a famous athlete promote our brand for marketing purposes would be great for business. Chloe's idea of heightening the customer experience from even the use of the app as far as adding entertainment and fun through quick tutorials seems to be a wonderful way to add more interaction on the app. Joan Elise, similar to Chloe mentioned the value of skin care for female athletes and how quick on the go home remedies could be good for tutorials as well.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

    This reading was about building a business growth strategy. The chapter centered on how to take an entrepreneur's approach into developing better processes towards growth. The chapter like the entire book focuses on management for entrepreneurial growth and applications of strategic planning for future ventures. I was confused on the part where bureaucratization and decentralization and I didn't know how it was applied to a more growth-oriented approach. I had no questions about the chapter. I didn't disagree with a single thing the author wrote given that the chapter was mainly on entrepreneurial growth.