Week 15 Reading Reflections

After reading “Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid”, I very intrigued by the borrowing processes that SKS has created for the women of India through microfinance loans. The way that SKS began and saw the need to expand the processes through standardization, scalability, and the inclusion of technology has truly re-energized its industry. The only part I found confusing was the how they collected customer information from the villagers. I understood how they used the information to determine where the highest need was; however, I did not understand how they went about developing their product assortment for these new potential customers. If I was able to ask two questions to the author they would be: 1) Given the soaring increases in growth, how long do you think this will sustain in the Indian marketplace? 2) Has SKS looked into creating similar programs in other parts of the world, if so where would they see the next venture being the most impactful? Throughout the reading I did notice the focus of SKS to focus on making microloans to women and I was curious to know if they had tested this process with men also. Overall, the article was very insightful and gave a fresh look at how an emerging business can have social responsibility while maintaining strong incremental margins of growth and profit.

Final Reflections

Throughout this course during the semester, I have found myself looking at some of our assignments with the lenses of “what are we truly getting out of this?” To answer that question that question in particular would be to examine my experiences. I will say the ENT3003 class was challenging for me because I had did not embrace all the learnings as I should have with an open mind. The most formative experience I can gather is that the course as a whole was an opportunity for me to be more open-minded, cope with change more fluidly, and bounce back from my failures versus letting them get the best of me. My most joyous experience would be completing my venture concept. It took me a moment to really lay out and structure what the purpose of my venture was. After I had a friend read it, she commented as to how this could be a real venture. I felt not only proud, but excited to know that I could have that type of impact through the organization of my thoughts.

                As far as seeing myself as an entrepreneur, I still have a ways to go with reinforcing the mindset necessary to be truly successful. I do feel as though this class has helped me, not necessarily through the assignments, but through the lessons of the experiences I have gained…and should have gained if I would have been more forthcoming with each assignment given. The best advice I could give to excel in the ENT3003 course would be to give every assignment your best shot, truly go outside of yourself to create an experience, and if you put in the effort the rest of the assignments throughout the semester will get easier for you. To sum it up, in order to be the best entrepreneur you can be develop that mindset through taking every challenge head on and get uncomfortable to become comfortable.

Venture Concept No. 2

DRYlivery—Dry Cleaning delivery on your time…

Opportunity

            My opportunity comes from the need to be able to pick up my dry cleaning at a time that is convenient for myself. Upon thinking about this need further, I began to realize that there are many people who undergo the same experience of not being able to pick up their dry cleaning after work because their provider is closed. This is where the opportunity for DRYlivery comes into play.

            The need for DRYlivery is simple…utilize a mobile based app to schedule pick-up and delivery of your dry cleaning to you at your convenience. The additional need is also steams from local dry cleaning providers to offer additional amenities to their current customers without having to sacrifice more overhead expenses on their existing business. With the expansion of easier care fabrications to garments and the insurgence in washing/dryer technologies at home, dry cleaners have been seeing a slight decline as these two innovations continue to develop. According to IBISWorld, there is a decrease of 0.2% annual growth during 2011-2015 for professional dry cleaning services.

·         Who is the DRYlivery customer?

The DRYlivery customer actually two different customer bases. The first being the professional dry cleaners we partner with, and the second customer base being their customers we deliver to. The market is preexisting and already define geographically and demographically. This is one of the strong suits for DRYlivery because we do not have to establish a new customer bases entirely on our own.

·         How are we satisfying this need? How loyal are they now to their current service?

Current customers generally have this need being met by the dry cleaning provider. However, the provider is adding expenses to its business through labor cost for delivery drivers, maintenance/repairs for vehicles, and cannot always have deliveries being made at the customer’s convenience. Most customers may not take this current amenity as it normally cost the customer additionally per delivery. Also, customers trying to find time to make it to their provider while trying to fit everything into their day seems to be the current way they fill this void.

·         How big is this opportunity and how long will the “window” be open?

This opportunity can be pretty big. Seeing as how many cities do not have a specific national chain or franchise running most of the dry cleaners, local providers are always looking effective and cost conscious ways to expand their business and gain new customers. The window of opportunity I know could be pretty long standing considering that we are building upon existing businesses and customer bases. Through marketing and provider partnerships, we have the ability to continue market growth and expanding customer bases for providers with convenience for their customers.

Innovation

DRYlivery is a concept based off of Uber. A customer uses their regular dry cleaning provider, who partners with DRYlivery. The customer then uses a mobile application to schedule a pick-up and delivery of their garments to a location and at a time that is convenient for them. DRYliery’s purpose is to make the lives of their customers easier through taking a task off their list and making it easy for them. The pricing for these services are $300 to business partners per month and $25 per month to customers.

Venture Concept

            The concept for this venture is very straight forward. The opportunity we want to address is being able to provide more time to customers and lower overhead costs to dry cleaner providers through the use of DRYlivery. For both dry cleaning providers and their customers, switching to DRYlivery would be rather easy and convenient for them. There are no competitors at this moment and this service could be easily copied though. Through providing exceptional service that is consistent and world-class, we can set the expectations high for competitors to try to replicate…not easily though. The only organization we would need or production or package would be consistently updating and innovating our mobile application to provide more services to customers.

·         How does DRYlivery make it easier for dry cleaning providers and assist them in growing their business?

o   DRYlivery partners with dry cleaning providers to provide deliver services to the provider’s customers. How customers benefit is the ease of this amenity because the dry cleaner does not have to operate longer hours to make deliveries, keeps overhead cost at a fix cost per month with no surprises, and the ability to be marketed through DRYlivery’s application.

o   User Ratings also make it a great tool to gain more customers as well as define their business amongst the best by being able to focus on what they do best every day without having to worry about deliveries or other amenities outside the four walls of their business.

·         What are the costs involved for DRYlivery?

o   For business partners, the cost is only $300 a month. What this includes are: delivering to customers, storage for after business hour deliveries, and marketing. This cost is minimal compared to the upkeep for a delivery fleet, labor, and additional marketing that they may spend for their business.

o   For customers, the cost is only $25 a month. This service fee includes unlimited deliveries during the month and the ability to deliver on their schedule. The pricing of this service should be considered by estimating how much time one spends trying to pick up their dry cleaning times how much they make per hour. Most customers would pay for this in two deliveries alone.

Three Minor Elements

            For DRYlivery our secret sauce would be utilizing my experience in retail management to provide an exceptional customer experience. Many people can make an application or create a service that would be similar to DRYlivery, but at the end of the day it is the people that make the brand that customers want to stick with. Also, our philanthropy is what would set us apart from any competition. Our focus would be to collect gently worn business attire to help those in need who may not be able to afford newer clothing for job interviews or helping support their new job. Creating a brand that cares for others is very important to many customers these days.

            What would be next for DRYlivery would be to create a platform for creating job training and education to help develop those in need to acquire work experience, job related training, etc. The mission would be to build our workforce to potentially build their self-esteem and skills to be able to continue to develop a career path for a sustainable future for themselves and their families.

            Within five years of the venture, I would like to build the concept in order to sell it. As an entrepreneur I would like to be continuing onto the next challenge and be developing a new business. This venture would help me start by creating a solid foundation for me to be seen as a leader in innovation and expanding my partnership network for the next venture I choose.

Feedback on the Venture

Most of the feedback I received was positive. The one thing I did change was the tactic on the pricing schedule for customers and business partners. I needed to expand the selections for business partners to add in the marketing theme to assist in growing their businesses outside of the delivering service alone. Another person suggested that I rethink the cost per month for customers, but I feel like the price someone would pay for this service as a convenience would be perfect because they would be saving so much money by not having to shift their schedules.

Elevator Pitch No. 4

Elevator Pitch No. 4 Reflections

     After reviewing my recording, on this pitch I should have been more dynamic. I felt as though I was having a conversation versus pitching a fantastic idea. Also, I needed to include pricing for the vendors and customers. Overall, this was one of my better pitches because I was not as frantic as others I have done in the past. The reflections I have had also incorporated the feedback I received from others as well. What I did change was being more personable and creating a need around the use of the app through my dialogue. 

Google Gold

Blogging in class this semester, I will be honest I was not aware of that having a strategy for search engine optimization (SEO) was a condition. However, after doing some research and creating a strategy for what my approach would have been has really made me more aware when I am blogging for the future. (I honestly had no idea that there are people in companies that SEOs are all they do.)

My search engine optimization approach should have started from day one. This approach would have included:

·         When beginning each blog, I should have planned out specific themes including titles, specific phrases, and additionally a hook phrase to be repeated within each blog to link them together by the chosen theme.

·         Selecting my medium for my blog is very important. By using Blogger, for instances, I will have better chances for capturing Google’s webcrawling bot’s attention. Also, the content I provide needs to be fresh and utilizing the multiple phrases I have chosen to capture a consistent measure that the bot typically looks for. (The overall thing is that I want to make sure that the bot doesn’t think my blog is just reposting other’s work undermining its legitimacy.)

·         User experience is important to ensure that the information search is accessed quickly and looks professional. Users would take what information, weighing it more academically if I am very conscious of how I format the site’s layout, theme, and content.

·         Using social media effectively is extremely important. Keeping the keywords consistent amongst all my social media platforms, as well as my blog, will keep my opportunity more likely to be amongst the highest results for the search engines. Another added benefit would be to have users trained to look for those key words, potentially creating brand awareness.

Speaking to social media and its benefits, the media platforms I would have utilized would have been Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Having multiple types of content that are reflective of my keywords and consistent will allow me to be most effective for SEO results. Creating unique hashtags and images that correlate to my blog, its content, and brand will push the overall results for branding and SEO.

The main keyword that I would have chosen would be the title of my blog, which is #Entrepernu-whaaat? Other keywords that I would have associated with my brand would have been hashtagging: #entrepreneurship, #lifeofanentrepreneur, #entrepreneurialstartup. These three reflect the most general to more specific topics covered on the blog itself.

My most viral posts were my Interviewing Customers No. 2 and Idea Napkin No. 1. These two posts received equal number of comments and traffic compared to my other posts. As far as making it to the first page of a Google search, I was not successful and could not find my blog on any search result pages. However, with a plan like I have outlined in place from the beginning of the semester, I would have had better chances of being effective in doing so.

Week 14 Reading Reflections

From this week’s readings, I had the opportunity to piece together how the entrepreneurial mindset can be applied in corporate settings. What fascinated me the most was the need and understanding to not punish failures. Working for corporations most of my life, I always saw a punishment to negative results…even if the results were produced with the most available resources given and market demands. Combining social enterprising into the entrepreneurial mindset was discussed as well. Many brands and companies are finding being socially aware and committed to a cause not only helps their bottom line, but maintains their customer bases to be loyal. There wasn’t really anything confusing, questionable, or disagreeable about the readings this week, as I found them rather direct on the subjects presented. Two questions I’d like to ask the author would be: 1) How do you thing introducing corporate entrepreneurship will change many established companies within a market? 2) With ecopreneurship being a focus of many companies today, how do you think this will affect venture costs compared to past business ventures?

Week 13 Reading Reflections

This week from the learnings I found that the P/E method was quite fascinating. Taking the earnings expectations and calculating it out versus calculating a direct method can make a better argument for the price of your venture if you are going to sell or estimating the value itself. Some of the calculating was a little confusing to me at first, but made sense after reading over the terms several times. Two questions I would ask the author would be: what do you foresee as the future for ventures…selling quick to larger companies or holding out to make it as a small enterprise? Secondly, how will the role of larger firms in the marketplace affect the valuation of new start-ups when selling (i.e. Instagram being bought out by Facebook)? I really do not feel there was anything I would disagree with this week’s readings.

Celebrating Failure

This past semester has been a whirlwind for myself. Balancing between work and school engagements has been a real challenge for myself. One thing that I tried several times this semester was focusing on working full time this semester while taking two classes. I had done this in the past and done so with flying colors. Working 40+ hours a week and then managing to get all my assignments completed while I was in community college was no sweat at all. The difference in this semester versus then was the fact that I was taking a more challenging course load than what I was anticipating. Taking a statistics and the entrepreneurship class had many engaging assignments, unlike the courses I was taking in the community college. Managing my time to give the most quality to the assignments is what I was faced with this semester. The assignments that were the most demanding were the interview assignments which definitely put me out of my comfort zone. I did skip a couple of the interview assignments because I was feeling extremely uncomfortable. After attempting them several times, I found that I should have just pushed through and allowed mistakes to happen. What I found through taking this class is that blunders are going to happen and perfection is the mother that doesn’t allow you to grow-up. Even though you can plan for everything imaginable, the plans may not work out as you had hoped and you need to just go with the flow. Looking back to look forward, I will absolutely continue to be pushing myself to allow mistakes and failure to happen. I know I could have done much better within this course if I would have allowed for more mistakes to happen. I will be taking more risks to create failure to work though my awkwardness in the moment.

My Exit Strategy

What is my exit strategy for Drylivery?

Thinking about my exit strategy for Drylivery would be to build the business over a period of time maybe 5 years in specific markets and try to sell it for a larger return. My mindset for doing so would be to give enough time and energy to make the vision come through and ensure systems are in place for its success. After the venture has seen success and growth year over year, then I would sell. Selling the venture would be best because I would be able to focus on the next opportunity that arises for a new venture.

Why is this my exit strategy?

                The venture of delivering dry cleaning to customers and assisting professional dry cleaners in growing their amenities to their clients, the venture has a shelf life on it. With a general decline in dry cleaning services being used, it would only be a matter of time before the opportunity would not be appealing to customers. Also, selling the business at its peak would give me to opportunity to fund my next venture and/or give me more time to develop.

How has this strategy influenced you?

                The decisions I have made for the concept have been in mind with a five year plan. For example, utilizing existing businesses clientele would allow for a quick start up and the targeted demographic that we would need to facilitate the venture. Another key decision was the use of business leasing fees to generate higher cash flow to create a more appealing venture to investors and potential buyers alike. Knowing that I wanted a five year plan, I knew this opportunity could exist for only so long.

Week 12 Reflections

In Chapter 13, for this week’s readings, I was intrigued with the focus on how many ventures may not be as successful without proper planning. I found that planning is a necessity and the time spent one moment truly does save one from many hiccups along the way of any venture. I did not quite understand what the author was meaning by “moral failure”. Does moral failure mean that there is lack of trust between the entrepreneur’s vision and their trust in their team’s ability to carry out the vision? Also, another question I had was, is it possible for the venture’s typical life cycle to follow that of the economic business cycle? I did not find anything necessarily wrong with the author’s view points in the readings. I did, however, wonder why he used the term “managerial leadership”. From my experiences, many managers do not possess the leadership qualities it takes to be entrepreneurial. What I mean is, a manager does what they are told and reacts to the environment versus an entrepreneur who is consistently seeking out new ways of doing things and always trying to figure out how to adjust to a situation before it happens.