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.

My Unfair Advantage

RENT A SCOOTER

Resources:
1) scooters available for immediate use
   ~VRIN:nothing like it on campus
2) home office/location
   ~VRIN:no other location that has scooters for immediate location right next to campus
3)storage space for scooters
   ~VRIN: customers don't have to deal with the storage and up keep of the scooters
4) next to campus
   ~ customers don't have to go far to rent a scooter
5) workers with experience to sell
   ~customers can be assured our employees will help them
6)ability for students to rent a scooter
   ~VRIN: students won't have to walk
7)tracking on scooter
  ~VRIN: come to a customers assistance
8)fuel
  ~VRIN: customers don't have to pay for fuel
9)repair man on site
  ~VRIN: no worries if scooter breaks down
10)monthly plan for customers
   ~VRIN: customers can already have an account with us making it faster to rent a scooter

TOP RESOURCE:
#1 -scooters available for immediate use
   -without this resources my business venture would be useless.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

This week we had to read chapter 11 Financial Preparations for Entrepreneurial Ventures. A big chunk of preparation when opening a business goes into the financial sectors. After reading this chapter I understood the how to's of the financial side of entrepreneurship.  I now understand balance sheet. I had an idea from my bank statements that I receive every month but balance sheets have a lot more to them. This was probably the most confusing to me, understanding what constitutes make up a balance sheet. I am currently takes macroeconomics and I found it surprisingly nice that I understood gross sales and net income meant. Why do some companies do these quarterly and yearly?  If start up companies have a negative net income in other words they are losing money should they still continue operating? I have no disagreements with the author.

Growing My Social Capital

   My entrepreneural business tackles the issue of parking on campus. I have interviewed numerous people in our assignments and have come to the conclusion that there has to be a better way to get students to class and back. I have come up with the idea of "Rent A Scooter". Students will be able to rent a scooter on campus and off to get them to their destination and back with no hassle.
   I understand that to build this business I need to make partners with other business oriented folks. I need to make a friendship with one that is an expert on the business of scooters, one that is an expert on the market of scooters, and one who supplies to this industry.

Expert on this industry: 
The expert I found on this industry is Spiro Katsaras. Mr Katsaras is off greek descent and holds a high level position for Battle Frog. I found Mr Katsaras in my home town of Miami after visiting a Battle Frog event. I contacted him via Facebook and he was more than willing to help me with my business venture. He helped me think of problems that will arise and how to solve them. He discussed with me customer problems and what customers won't like and what they will. He discussed about where to set up locations and if to rent or buy a location for my business. From my conversation with Mr Katsaras, I now have gained valuable information on how to start my business and the best ways at combatting problems that may arise.


Expert on the market: 
For my expert I choose Mr Montesdeoca. Mr Montesdeoca graduated from the University of Florida and is currently a business manager for Siemens industries. I have contacted him through a friend and discussed with him via phone about what the market for scooters looks like. A discussion was made on how the market for scooters will look in Gainesville. He said there will be a high profit of return in this area because I am targeting the right customers. I feel that having Mr Montesdeoca in my network will enhance my market research.


Supplier to the industry: 
I wasn't able to find a supplier in my specific industry but through some contacts I was able to find a supplier in the industry of mass printers and he was able to help me with questions I had. Mr Junco has a high level job in kodak and I contacted him via phone and he was able to discuss with me how he supplies his clients and the traveling that he does to secure the sale. Mr Junco graduated from FIU and worked his way up in Kodak. His discussion on what he does and how he connects with clients gave me a picture of how I should go about finding a supplier.

Feedback: 

This assignment helped me reach out to others whom I know could help me in my business ventures. I tend to be shy with these assignment because I like to conquer things on my own but reaching out to people really helps. Like the popular saying goes "two minds are better than one". Reaching out to these people helped me think of all the effort and work that goes behind opening a business.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

This week in Principles of Entrepreneurship we had to read Ch. 10:  Marketing Challenges for Entrepreneurship Ventures. This was a very interesting chapter. I feel that this chapter went into depth about problem new ventures face when trying to sell their product/service. What was surprising to me was the many mistaken beliefs. The belief that was most shocking to me was how research data is irrelevant. My perspective is that research data can always be relevant and useful. The most confusing section of this chapter was internet marketing. Internet marketing has many features to it that are overwhelming and confusing to me as a beginner. I would like to ask the author if marketing research has ever been false or in accurate. Another question I would like to ask the author is if marketing research as ever been tampered with? In other words has any person tricked the results to force a company to think one way. I didn't disagree with anything the author wrote about because it was the reading was all new to me and I am learning from Kuratko.

My Secret Sauce

Hello Business Bloggers!

This week I will talk about human capitol. 

1) I believe my human capitol is 

• my organization skills
•  my hard work ethic
•  my patience, my people skills
• my well roundedness. 

2) Interviews:

In this interview my close friend Arielle discussed my skills. She mentioned how I am organized and hard working. 

In this interview my friend Jay talked very kindly about my work ethic skills. He talked about how I was a "go getter" and how I know what I want. My friend Sebastian talked here about how I am diligent and hard working. He mentioned that I am organized and that I posses good qualities. In my second to last video I interviewed my friend Michelle who talked so lovely about me. She mentioned that I am diligent and hardworking. In my last video my friend Yazan talked about how organized I am. 

3) I feel that my closest friends felt the same way about myself as I did me. I described myself as organized and hard working and so did my friends. When I am studying whether it be at the library or at the home my friends now it has to be in a clean environment studying with organized notes. There wasn't an differences in my assessment versus my friends assessment. I think my friends were correct on identifiying my skills. I would not make any corrections to my list. I am very confident in my the skills I associated with myself. 

Idea Napkin No. 2

Good Morning Business Bloggers!

In todays post I will talk once more about my idea napkin.

    But first I will give a short summary on who I am. My name is Andrea Gennaro and I am a second year business student at University of Florida. My ultimate goal is to have a high level position at the corporate offices of Sephora. Some might not know what Sephora is. That is ok. Sephora is a world-wide makeup store. I know that getting a high level position at Sephora will not be easy but I believe that it is something worth pursuing since it is my dream. Graduating from UF will be my first step towards achieving my goal.
   Since my last idea napkin I tweaked my business opportunity.  Before I was interested in creating something that offered more parking to students. However, after much thought, I couldn't see a possible solution. So I have created a new business idea. My new business idea is called Rent A Scooter. I am always wishing I could borrow a scooter but don't want the hassle of parking it at night or taking care of it. A simple short few hours borrowing a scooter is enough for me and would make my day a lot easier. This business venture would target UF students who are also in the same boat as me. I would charge an hourly fee for each scooter rented. I believe that $8 dollars an hour is an adequate amount. From interviewing students about parking, I do believe that Rent A Scooter is a good solution to parking problems that many students face. I believe Rent A Scooter is a unique opportunity that hasn't been done yet that students would love.

Reflection:
I believe that my business idea works well in all aspects of business ventures. I believe that finding a suitable hourly rate will be hard. I don't know whether students would be willing to pay $8 an hour or $6 dollars an hour. I think interviewing a couple of students would help solve this problem. From the feedback I received in Idea Napkin No.1 I believe I improved and the comments I received. From the feedback five points I received where:

1) how would my business opportunity work in the real world
2) would students want my business
3) how would I attract students
4) more specificity
5) what was the price of my venture

I incorporated my feedback into my new business venture. I believe I dressed all these problem in the above paragraph about Rent A Scooter. I look forward to reading the new comments on this idea napkin.