Week 13 Reading Reflection

This week in ENT3003 we had to read chapter 14 Valuation of Entrepreneurial Ventures. I thought this was an interesting read. I was surprised at the amount of questions that need to be answered when evaluating a business. I didn't think much into that side of business. It think a better way to evaluate a business is to list pros and cons because I think the valuation process is too confusing. I would like to ask the author the question of is there a special person that a company hires to do these evaluations? Also does this person return feedback to business owners? I believe Kuratko enlightened into the evaluating entrepreneurial ventures and like always I don't disagree with his work.

Celebrating Failure

  In this week's blog post I will write about a time this semester where I failed. At the end of fall semester I received a admission to a spring program at UF called Retail You. Retail You is a program hosted by the Miller Retailing Center under Warrington College of Business. Every Friday the selected few must attend an 8:30 to 10 am seminar on internships for the rest of the semester. I was really interested in this program because I believed it could sharpen my skills and better help me apply for an internship next summer. However, things started turning downhill. I started attending Retail You late and then I started missing sessions all together. I wanted to be in the program but I just couldn't get up on Friday mornings and push myself to go. I wasn't taking the program seriously. During this same time I was going through some personal issues of my own. One of my family members passed away which took a toll on my every day normal behavior. This tragedy made it very hard to focus on my school work and Retail You. 

  Eventually, I was called in by the director of the program for a one on one meeting to talk about my absences. The director barely muttered a few sentences before I started crying. I was very grateful that the director of the program was so understanding. She brought out a box of tissues from under her desk and let me cry for as long as I needed. After a long talk she gave me a second chance to get my act together and begin attending Retail You sessions. A few weeks later I emailed her saying I would no longer be participating in the program. At that point I began to see Retail You as a failure. 

  This failure, like all others, took a toll on me. In was disappointed in myself that I could't get my act together and participated in the program. However I slowly started fixing my resume and applying for other opportunities around campus.

  I believe failure is a way the world makes us realize we are not perfect. I believe failure is a reminder that we are human and making mistakes is part of life. Failure is hard to accept. My failure through Retail You as made me want to work hard in other programs and involve myself to develop my skills and qualifications. I feel that this class has made me handle risk taking better than I could before. 

My Exit Strategy

Deciding how to go depends on the success of my business. I would personally like to sell my business Rent A Scooter to a company that would be able to continue its success and innovation as well as maintain the values and morals that are the foundation of the company. I have selected this specific type of exist because I believe others should be able to take over a company if they are interested and willing. I believe if the company or investor buying out my company has my best interests in had that it will be ok with me if I sold it. My exit strategy is purely based on what is best for the company. If I believe a company will bring innovative ideas that could further help Rent A Scooter develop.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

This week in Principles of Entrepreneurship we had to read chapter 13 in Kuratko's book and it is entitled Strategic Entrepreneurial Growth. It surprised me that so many factors have to be secured for a company to be able to have entrepreneurial growth. A company must have a plan for long run economic growth. I was confused when I saw the entrepreneurial strategy matrix. I would like to ask Kuratko a question it would examples of companies who have expanded using these techniques. As usual I never disagree with any of Kuratko's work.

Venture Concept No. 1

                                                     Venture Concept

        For this assignment I wanted to take my readers back to the beginning of the class.  Our first assignment on venture concepts threw me off guard. I had no idea of a business that I thought would work. I always wanted to start a bakery but in small town Gainesville, I didn't think it would hit off all that well. So I asked myself, what do Gainesvillians need? I knew that UF students always seemed to complain about parking, so that is what I decided to do my venture concept on. 

   After interviewing about a dozen people, I knew I had found an unmet need. Almost everyone I interviewed agreed that UF was in need of parking for students. I also learned that even faculty don't  receive free parking at UF. After researching on UF's parking website faculty have to pay up to $1,188 annually to park on campus. I was astonished. It seems absurd that an employee has to pay for parking. After learning about the faculty problem of parking, I decided that my venture concept could not only help UF students but also UF employees too. 

    After much thought I could not think of a way to create parking on campus. Campus has a building on almost lot and no space to build a parking garage. The only solution would be off campus parking but people already do that. 

    Finally, an idea came to me, Rent A Scooter. Scooters are a great way for students to get around campus. However most students have cars and don't want to buy a scooter too. I think having a Rent A Scooter store across the street from UF (preferably in midtown) is a great idea. Scooters have dominated UF's environment. UF has huge spaces for scooters to park. I have many friends who have told me they are thinking about buying a scooter but don't know yet because of the price. I think Rent A Scooter is good solution and will be a hit!

     Geographically, my market is contained to Gainesville. It is not common for scooters to be as popular as they are in Gainesville elsewhere. I think setting up shop in Gainesville will start Rent A Scooter. It is possible if business does well here then set up shop in other universities. Most incoming freshman buy scooter even before they their first semester begins. I think this opportunity is huge! I think that scooters will still be big on campuses for a while. 

     Rent A Scooter not only always customers a chance to rent a scooter for a day or up to a week but we also provide charging stations around Gainesville and campus for free charging refills.  I believe electric is the future so I have decided that all Rent A Scooter scooters will be electric. I also believe that our customers will like this since they will receive free chargeable refills. For the charging stations I pictured in my mind a similar look to a gas station. The station would have several hooks to one mount and several mounts to the station. Only Rent A Scooter customers would be able to use the charging stations with a Rent A Scooter card that would be insertable to the charging station. 

     In addition to the chargeable stations, customers have the option for signing up with us for a monthly subscription. Each subscription would entail a year of use of Rent A Scooter, similarly to renting apartments off campus at UF. For example a Rent A Scooter monthly subscriber signed up for a years rent of scooters starting in January. So until next January, each month this subscriber will get a bill of $14 ( I don't know the real rate yet). 

    I believe my customers will like my service because renting from Rent A Scooter requires no maintenance or upkeep of the scooter and no requirement of refilling the gas tank. Also plenty of scooters will be available at the lot for immediate use. I believe Rent A Scooter is a win win for students and even faculty.
    At this point in my life I can start a business. I have no money or assets to buy things to start a company with. I think it is a great idea for an entrepreneur who is finished college and ready to start a buisness.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

  This week in ENT3003 we had to read You need an Innovation Strategy by Gary P. Piscano. In this reading, Piscano discusses why innovations fail. He says its because of a lack of innovation strategy. It was interesting to me and surprising when Piscano mentioned that companies can invest time and money but if they don't have an innovative system the odds are low of the success. Though I liked his idea of a business strategy I was confused in the paragraph were he tried to explain how the strategy would come about. I wanted to ask Piscano why he didn't label degrees in the innovation strategy idea so readers can get a better picture at what an innovation strategy looks like. I also wanted to ask why he didn't include a detailed example of a failure or success? I don't think Piscano was wrong about anything.

Amazon Whisperer

Business venture: Rent A Scooter

- The revenue drivers in my business are the scooters. My business would make money from renting the scooters we own. We would charge per hour and more for any hour exceeded.
-The next thing my customers would want is chargeable stations. The scooters we would have would all be electric. The next step we would be is a chargeable stations around campus so customers can reload their battery for free.
-My companies chargeable stations will enhance my existing service of renting a scooter. Customers will not have to worry about gas and the cost of re fueling. This improvement does not cost a dime to customers and improves their experience with my company.
-I wasn't able to find on amazon a product similar with what I'm trying to give to my customers (the chargeable stations).
-Since I could't find my product I wasn't able to find reviews.
-I would want my chargeable stations to have the name of the company Rent A Scooter in big letters so that everyone would know that it is a charging station. Each chargeable outlet would need a certain type of key so that only Rent A Scooter customers could use them.
-I think this product is a good addition to my company because it benefits our customers experience at Rent A Scooter.