Final Reflection

1) I would say that the most enjoyable parts of this class were the reading reflections for the autobiography on the Wright brothers and the novel How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. The second novel in particular was very interesting. Around the halfway point in the class, the assignments began to feel like a lot of drudgery. Finally, the Free Money extra credit assignment was the biggest low, because the situation was very awkward.
2) My most formative experience was probably the elevator pitches, because it allowed me to develop an important skill. For years I'll remember the human capital assignment, because it took my brother about 15 takes to get through it without laughing. My most joyous experience was is finishing the course, because it gives me a sense of accomplishment. I am most proud of myself for completing the venture concept assignment.
3) I believe that I have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset. At this point, if I was to complete the class again with a new business I would find the assignments much easier. However, I believe the work I have done with Global Brigades has made me more of an entrepreneur than this class has.
4) I would recommend that students take the assignments seriously and treat their business ideas as a real business when completing this class. Additionally, I would recommend that students complete the assignments ahead of time in order to make sure the work doesn't pile up. Finally, I would recommend that students keep an open mind in order to better develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

Venture Concept 2 - Dollar Superstore

Venture Concept - Dollar Superstore

Opportunity:

• Consumers in the lower or middle classes try to save money whenever they can. Additionally, there is a market of college students and young people who are looking to save money. These are the people who prefer to shop for dollar store price products, but would prefer the variety of a larger store.
• The increasing popularity of dollar stores is creating the need for more dollar store products.  The market is defined as lower class consumers, middle class consumers, and college aged consumers looking to save money.
• Customers are currently satisfying this need by either shopping at dollar stores to save money, or shopping at larger retailers for the greater variety. This "window of opportunity" will be open for the foreseeable future.

Innovation:

• The Dollar Superstore is innovative, because their are currently no dollar stores that have a similarly large supply and variety of products. This will help to attract consumers from both the dollar store market and the larger retailer market.
• However, customers who avoid dollar stores because they believe the products are of a lower quality will not shop at a dollar superstore. This group is not a part of our target audience. 
• This business will make money by purchasing cheap goods at bulk and selling them to consumers for a profit.

Venture Concept:

• My innovation will solve this opportunity by offering a large variety of dollar superstore products to consumers for very low prices, typically $1.
• Consumers will switch to the dollar superstore from dollar stores in order to have more products to choose from. Consumers will switch to the dollar superstore from larger retailers in order to save money.
• I believe that I would be relatively easy to convince customers to switch to shopping at a dollar superstore. The top competitors are Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Walmart, and Target. Dollar Tree and Dollar General would be vulnerable, because they are a lot smaller scale than a dollar superstore. Walmart and Target would be vulnerable, because their products are more expensive than those of a dollar superstore.
• Price point is an essential factor in convincing consumers to shop at a dollar superstore. By selling most products for $1, many consumers could be convinced to shop there in order to save money.
• Business location is very important, because the dollar superstore would need to be located in a densely populated area. This location would make the dollar superstore more convenient for more people.
• In order to save money, very few cashiers would be employed and the business would feature many self-checkout systems. The business would have several employees in charge of stocking shelves and helping customers.

Minor Elements:

• My most important resource would be maintaining a dialogue with employees in order to hear their suggestions on ways to make the business more profitable. This will help the business grow over time.
• Over time, I will expand my business to sell goods online, and partner with a fast food restaurant to sell fast food inside of the store. This will increase the business's revenue.
• Five years after the store's launch, I believe that I would be looking to sell the business in order to pursue other interests.

Feedback:
I didn't receive any negative feedback in my comments, so I made the changes to my venture concept based on my own evaluation. The positive feedback I received highlighted the fact that my venture concept was specific and to the point. Also, I had all of my information under the correct sections. Additionally, people said that my dollar superstore business idea was convenient, easy for customers to transition to, and caters well to employees and customers.

Changes:
I made several changes to my venture concept based on my own evaluation of my first attempt. I decided that the blocks of text made the venture concept more difficult to read than it had to be. I switched the format from paragraphs to bullet points in order to fix this problem. Additionally, I added information to the "opportunity" section detailing the types of large retail customers that I wasn't going to be targeting for this business. This gives people a better understanding of who my customers would be. Finally, I read through the venture concept and corrected grammatical errors.

Free Money

• I plan on approaching people inside a Target.
• I will approach people who look like they are in their twenties or thirties. Also, I will only approach people in groups of one or two.
• To get the conversation started, I will tell them that I lost a bet and now I must give a dollar away to a stranger.
• My plan is to mention the bet, and then just offer the person one dollar.
• I assume that I will be able to give away four of the five dollars.

 On my first attempt, the person laughed when I told him that I lost a bet, but then said "Nah, I'm good." The second person that I approached was a Target employee. This person also did not accept the dollar. He said that he did not think he could accept money from customers, because he is an employee. The third approach that I made was a couple of college student. The girl originally took the dollar, but then she asked me if it was a scam. I told her that it was not a scam, I was just giving away money. After that, she decided to give the dollar back to me anyways. The fourth person that I spoke to was a college-aged girl who was by herself. I told her that I had lost a bet and had to give a dollar to a random person. She responded positively and took the dollar. The last approach I made was to a man who was with a woman. He took the dollar as well, and the entire interaction was very short.

This exercise was very awkward, because people typically don't try to give money away to strangers. Therefore, people don't understand the situation and don't know how to respond to it. Giving away a dollar is much harder than I thought it would be, just because it is a strange situation. My prediction was incorrect, as my success rate was half of what I predicted. My prediction was too high, because I underestimated just how awkward the situation would be. I assumed that people who didn't take the money would be more dismissive and rude than they were. While only two of the five people took the dollar, all five of them were very nice.

Exit Strategy - Dollar Superstore

1) Once I have developed a functional dollar superstore with an established customer base, I intend on selling the company to either a dollar store, such as Dollar Tree, or a larger retailer, such as Walmart. I would also be open to selling the company in an earlier stage of development. I do not intend to continue with the company long-term.
2) I have selected this particular exit strategy, because retail is not an industry that I would be interested in pursuing long-term. I would rather sell the business early and then pursue other interests.
3) This exit strategy has influenced my decisions for the business, because I have kept all of my plans for the business relatively short term. Therefore, the opportunities I have identified mainly relate towards short term gains, such as cutting expenses by using a self-checkout system. My exit strategy has influenced my growth intentions, because I don't plan on investing resources into the business that would expand it to a national or international scale. I intend on selling the business before it would reach that point.

Celebrating Failure

1) Fitness is one of my favorite hobbies. Earlier in the summer, I injured my elbow lifting weights. I had a goal of rehabilitating the injury and getting back to my previous bench press personal best, 245 lbs, in one month. Over the month, my elbow began to recover and I attempted to bench press 245 lbs. However, my elbow began hurting almost immediately when I started and I was unable to complete the exercise. Afterwards, I attempted 225 lbs, but was unable to complete that as well. Since then, I have continued trying to rehabilitate my elbow.
2) From this experience, I learned that some things just need time to improve and I can't rush them. This experience taught me to be more patient and smart about how I deal with injuries.
3) Failure is something that is very difficult. However, if you never experience failure, that may mean that you aren't setting high enough goals for yourself. When I experience failure, I try to learn from it and not stress out too much about things that are in the past. Since I began this class, I would say that I am about as likely to take risks as I was before.

Venture Concept - Dollar Superstore

Venture Concept - Dollar Superstore

Opportunity:
Consumers in the lower or middle classes are try to save money whenever they can. Additionally, there is a market of college students and young people who are looking to save money. These are the people who prefer to shop for dollar store price products, but would prefer the variety of a larger store. The increasing popularity of dollar stores is creating the need for more dollar store products.  The market is defined as lower class consumers, middle class consumers, and college aged consumers looking to save money. Customers are currently satisfying this need by either shopping at dollar stores to save money, or shopping at larger retailers for the greater variety. This "window of opportunity" will be open for the foreseeable future.
Innovation:
The Dollar Superstore is innovative, because their are currently no dollar stores that have a similarly large supply and variety of products. This will help to attract consumers from both the dollar store market and the larger retailer market. This business will make money by purchasing cheap goods at bulk and selling them to consumers for a profit.
Venture Concept:
My innovation will solve this opportunity by offering a large variety of dollar superstore products to consumers for very low prices, typically $1. Consumers will switch to the dollar superstore from dollar stores in order to have more products to choose from. Consumers will switch to the dollar superstore from larger retailers in order to save money. I believe that I would be relatively easy to convince customers to switch to shopping at a dollar superstore. The top competitors are Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Walmart, and Target. Dollar Tree and Dollar General would be vulnerable, because they are a lot smaller scale than a dollar superstore. Walmart and Target would be vulnerable, because their products are more expensive than those of a dollar superstore. Price point is an essential factor in convincing consumers to shop at a dollar superstore. By selling most products for $1, many consumers could be convinced to shop their in order to save money. Business location is very important, because the dollar superstore would need to be located in a densely populated area. This location would make the dollar superstore more convenient for more people. In order to save money, very few cashiers would be employed and the business would feature many self-checkout systems. The business would have several employees in charge of stocking shelves and helping customers.
Minor Elements:
My most important resource would be maintaining a dialogue with employees in order to hear their suggestions on ways to make the business more profitable. This will help the business grow over time.
Over time, I will expand my business to sell goods online, and partner with a fast food restaurant to sell fast food inside of the store. This will increase the business's revenue.
Five years after the store's launch, I believe that I would be looking to sell the business in order to pursue other interests. I am more interested in a career in finance and doing part time humanitarian work.

What's Next? - Dollar Superstore

Existing Market:
Step 1:
The next step in the business would be to allow customers to shop online and have the products delivered to them. This would allow the business to adapt as online shopping becomes increasingly popular.
Step 2:
The first person that I interviewed said that the business could be modernized. Because the dollar store is bigger, creating an app to locate items could add to the store's convenience. When I asked her about online shopping, she said she liked the idea. However, she believed that bulk orders would be better, because money could be saved on shipping cheap items.
The second person that I interviewed suggested expanding the business to include online shopping, just as I had thought. This could benefit the business by increasing the volume of goods sold.
The third person that I interviewed suggested that the business expand to include food service. By offering cook to order food, customers would purchase food while they were at the store. When I asked the interviewee about online shopping for the dollar superstore, she said it is a great idea. Just like the first interviewee said, interviewee #3 stated that a minimum order price would be necessary to ensure money was not lost on shipping.
Step 3:
Based on these suggestions, I have identified two ways to grow the business: online shopping and food services. To bring in more customers, I would expand the business to provide home delivery. Free shipping would be provided on orders above a certain price. Additionally, I would expand the business by partnering with a fast food restaurant, such as McDonalds, in order to sell ready to eat food to customers in the store. Both of these expansions could increase revenues for the business.

New Market:
Step 1:
My business currently sells products to consumers. However, there is a market to sell these goods in bulk to businesses instead. Goods such as office supplies and some food products would be the main ones sold.
Step 2:
By providing office supplies and food to businesses at low costs, smaller businesses could cheaply get the products they need in order to save money. This can help new or small businesses to save money in order to be successful.
Step 3:
The first person I interviewed suggested that I adapt the business to sell all products online instead of in person. The property where the products are located would be a warehouse, not a store.
The second person that I interviewed suggested that I adjust the business to produce less variety of goods, but more of the same goods. Because individual customers would not be browsing for goods in the store, it would not be necessary to have a large variety. By decreasing variety, production costs would be reduced.
Step 4:
This new market seems to be much simpler and more similar to a supplier of goods. This market seems to be more attractive than the previous market, because less customers would be needed in order to sell the same number of products.
I was surprised how much simpler this market was than the dollar superstore market. Additionally, the people that I interviewed seemed to believe that the new market could allow the business to be more successful.