Assignment 23A: Your Venture's unfair Advantage

For this post, students have been asked to expound on what will separate their businesses from the pack. More specifically, we will be coming up with a list of 10 “resources,” that we already have, and then conducting a VRIN (valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable) analysis for each resource. Let’s get started!

My resources:

1)      Top 10 University educated leadership

V: A well-educated leader will command respect from business partners and the public

R: There are approximately 10 Top 10 universities

I: This quality of education is hard to imitate by a non-top 10 university

N: A quality education simply cannot be self-taught or taught by a lesser university

2)      Location

V: Our location is valuable because of the direct access to thousands of potential customers daily

R: There are no coffee shops in the area

I: Real estate cannot be duplicated

N: Real estate cannot be substituted, no two locations are alike

3)      Natural Customer inflow

V: having easy access to customers is valuable for any business ever

R: Few businesses have the luxury of being located on the same property as most of their customers

I: This is not an opportunity that could be easily duplicated

N: There is no substitute for customers

4)      Commitment to quality

V: A commitment to providing high quality coffee will pay off with repeat business

R: Most people are used to Starbucks or Dunkin donuts, which is good but not as good as most local boutique type shops

I: This is a process that can be imitated, but it will come at a cost

N: There is no real substitute for high quality coffee at a coffee shop

5)      Lack of direct competition

V: Good fences make good neighbors; lack thereof makes good competition

R: Most of the restaurant market in the area is heavily saturated

I: It would be difficult to create a situation with the combination of steady population and little competition

N: The best substitute for lack of competition would be competition that isn’t very competitive

6)      Start up capital approx. $5K

V: Having a bit of start up money will help me put some materials together to get off the ground

R: It is somewhat rare for an American college student to be cash positive

I: There are some imitations for cash, (like a loan)
N: Credit could be a substitute for cash on hand in a business setting

7)      Human Capital

V: Having the few skills that I have gained will prove to be very valuable for my business

R: I have a relatively rare but not unheard-of amount of work experience

I: There truly is nothing that can shape you like on the job experience

N: Education can take you a certain distance, but at some point, you will have to rely mainly on work training

8)      Social Media/ Marketing Capabilities

V: Reading The Art of Social Media proved to me just how valuable having an online presence is

R: There is still a learning curve to be had before social media marketing skills are main stream in society
I: There really is nothing in the realm of marketing to make up for not having an online presence
N: Blogging or just having a website is no longer an effective substitute

9)      Property management relationship

V: Having known the managers of our potential property will help ease all negotiations
R: I’m not sure that this is very rare for experienced entrepreneurs
I: There are probably other ways to make negotiations go smoothly, but everything helps when you are a strapped for cash startup
N: I can’t think of a great way to substitute for that personal relationship

10)   Social Capital

V: The value of true social capital in many ways is immeasurably great
R: I do think that it is rare, and becoming rarer to have a substantial amount of social capital
I: In a way, true social capital can be imitated with purchased social capital
N: There is no solid substitutes for having connections in your community

My top resource:

Upon reflection, I think that the steady inflow of customers is my top resource.

Assignment 22A: Elevator Pitch No. 3

For this assignment, students have been asked to post their third of three elevator pitch videos. Continuing the trend from that has been developing during the second half of this semester, students have also been asked to reflect on the feedback that they have received from their second elevator pitch. To make things more transparent, I will post the feedback that I received below. Let’s jump into it!

 “Hey Michael!
I really enjoyed watching your video about the further consideration of your coffee business! I especially like how you incorporated comments from your last pitch to make this one even better. It really is important to incorporate either statistics or background information about the area in which you were going to open these coffee shops and you did it successfully, thanks for sharing!”

“Hey Michael,
Your video was very enjoyable as you delved deeper into your coffee business idea. Using elements of your last speech and combing them with the feedback your peers had on your previous one was a great idea, as it allowed growth not only for you as a person, but for your business idea. Using the data you did research on to make sure that you are addressing a need in a market and have a diverse amount of products that is not overly diverse, but is fulfilling the exact needs of the customer was something that I enjoyed learning about. You presented this information in a great way, and this pitch would have me investing in your business in no time. Thanks for sharing!”

“Michael, your pitch was very well thought out and I could tell that you put a lot of planning into what you were saying. The statistics and other information was very relevant and insightful. Sometimes it can be hard to have just the right amount of data to present in these quick pitches, but I think you found a great balance!”

              I found this feedback to be overwhelmingly positive. I think that if I were to get this type of feedback in the real world of business, I would keep on doing what I was doing. With that being said, I have decided to not change my pitch because all three of the people who gave me feedback did not point out any weak parts of my pitch!

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esb66AAWF2k

Assignment 20A: Growing Your Social Capital

For this post, students have been asked to meet three potential contacts, and expand their network. Let’s jump into it!

Pat:

Pat is an owner of a local restaurant near my home town. While he does not own a coffee shop, I am counting a restaurateur as an acceptable fill for the “domain expert” slot. Pat and I met shortly after I walked into his restaurant when I was home on Spring Break. I walked in during the afternoon lull, and upon finding out that he owned the establishment, I asked him for five minutes of his time. As a display of goodwill, I offered to refer all my friends to eat in his restaurant in exchange for his time. Having connections in the local restaurant scene will help me get introduced to the right kinds of people to optimize my coffee shop. In the future, I doubt I will do very much “cold calling,” where I just walk in to an establishment and strike up a conversation with the owner. I have never done that before because I have never tried to start a business, so it was different than any networking experience that I’ve ever had.

Justin:

Justin owns a local t-shirt shop in my hometown. He will be filling the slot for “expert on your market,” because he and I will both be primarily targeting tourists in the Panama City Beach area. I used to work for Justin, so I just called him and asked if he had five minutes to hear my elevator pitch and chat. In this case, the exchange was more based on our existing relationship which we both think of as a good one that we’d like to uphold. Justin and his family are prominent members of the community whose networks would be ideal ones to have access to. This won’t really change how I network in the future, because Justin is someone who I have known for years. It was different for me to network in this way, because for the most part up to this point I do not have many professional contacts that are already established.

Troy:

Troy is an employee of Sysco. While I was in Pat’s restaurant, Troy stopped by for a delivery. I grew up with Troy, so it would have been awkward for me not to speak to him. It just happened to be a big coincidence that he would be there and be able to fill my role for an “important supplier.” After I pitched Troy my idea, we decided that if I launch my business, Sysco will undoubtedly be my supplier. Having an inside man at such a large company will really help with my inventory management. This experience has taught me that networking opportunities will jump out of nowhere, so I always need to be prepared.

Assignment 21A: Reading Reflection No. 2

For this post, students have been asked to complete their second of three reading reflections for this semester. The book that I chose was The Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki. I found this book to be a quick read that’s packed with great information. I would consider it a must read for almost any modern-day business owner. Let’s jump into it!

1)      What was the general theme or argument of the book?

This book is an informative text that gives the reader over 100 tips for social media success. The tips spread across all major platforms, and teach skills like optimization, gaining followers, and curating great content.

2)      How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

This book helped me to see ENT 3003 from a more 21^st century perspective regarding networking and influence.

3)      If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

Since this class is primarily blog posts, I think I would tweak some of the overall requirements based on what I learned. I would place a bigger influence on formatting for gaining traffic to our individual blogs.

4)      What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

My biggest surprise was finding out that Google+ existed, and that people use it. There is an entire social media world out there ran by one of the largest companies in the world that I did not even know about. Aha!

Assignment 19A: Idea Napkin No. 2

This week’s assignment will follow the trend from the past few weeks of focusing on feedback. More specifically, students are being asked to follow up the first Idea Napkin assignment by incorporating the feedback that we received from our peers into a new Idea Napkin. For clarification purposes, I will be posting the feedback below. Let’s get started!

“Michael,
I like how defined your business model is, but the restaurant industry is very volatile. My family has owned restaurants my entire life, and you really have to have a product that differentiates your business from the competition in order to succeed. Without knowing if there is any competition or other businesses like yours in the area that you plan on starting the coffee shop, it is hard to project whether or not your claims about a dedicated base of customers will actually exist. Thanks for sharing!”

“Hey Michael!
I agree with RJ, from your previous post, you mentioned the 5 steps and the models that you would like to follow for the coffee business. I really like how you went into more depth of how and why people would buy your product. It is still different from the loss information about your competition, but I believe research can easily fix that. Thanks for sharing!”

1.)    You-  I am a graduating senior this semester at UF. Being a business major, my academic skills are strongest in math and critical reasoning. My experiences thus far have been in sports, tourism, and financial services. My biggest aspirations involve working for myself in some capacity and traveling. If my business were to take off, I would feel great fulfilment at work, as well as in the lifestyle that my business would provide for me outside of work.

2.)    What are you offering to customers? -    I’ll be providing my customers with Coffee and assorted breakfast items, which they cannot get made to order anywhere very close to our location.

3.)    Who are you offering it to? -  My customers will be the guests, residents, and staff at Laketown Warf Resort. The typical guest is a family of four on vacation. Most residents are either young singles or retired people. The staff comprises of locals and seasonal workers in the summer. This is a very broad range of people, allowing me to have a diverse customer base.

4.)    Why do they care? -  Customers will care about our shop for a variety of reasons. First, caffeine is addictive, so while people won’t need a cup to get ready for work, their body will still crave that coffee. Second, there is not really a convenient place nearby to get coffee. Third, and last, people tend to go out to eat more while on vacation.

5.)    What are your core competencies? - My core competencies center around my work ethic and positive attitude. I believe that your mindset will ultimately determine success.  

I believe that these five factors fall together harmoniously. The customers will be on-sight regardless of whether the coffee is there or not, so I think demand will be easily projectable.

Feedback memo - I always appreciate feedback and have taken these two pieces into consideration for my revised Idea Napkin. While I did find this feedback useful, I think that it is worth noting that I have mentioned in several previous posts that there is not a coffee shop within 10 miles of my desired location. However, just because there are no coffee shops does not mean I would be the only one selling coffee in the area, so I guess there is still some competition.

Assignment 18A: Create a Customer Avatar

For this post, students have been asked to create a “customer avatar,” based on an ideal customer from their customer segment that they have been researching for the past few weeks. As a reminder, the customer segment that I have been focusing on is college students. Since my business idea is so location specific, and it is around that time of year, I am going to do my avatar on a Spring Breaker. Panama City Beach has long been known as a popular Spring Break destination, so I think this is realistic. Let’s get into it!

The average spring breaker is here to one thing, and that is not drink coffee. However, I think very few of them would turn down a reasonably priced morning pick me up after a day or two in the hot Florida sun. They are probably dressed in bright clothing, swimsuits, and wearing hats. As far as automobiles go, there is a great chance that they are driving whatever one of their parent’s drove until they turned 16. Their entertainment habits are incredibly diverse, one person in their group only watches sports, another is a Netflix addict, another could be a movie critic, and the fourth watches all three. Their favorite books start with the letters f-a-c-e, and they read a significant amount more on screens than they do paper. Most of the crowd is still closer to being a child than having one, but you really never know. Their favorite politicians are probably very polarizing figures with ideals relatively far from the middle ground that Americans live in daily. The average age is somewhere between “independent adult status” and “mom can you send me money for this coffee?”. Which is approximately 18-22 years old. This is the typical customer that I will proudly serve.

Assignment 17A: Elevator pitch # 2

For this assignment students have been asked to build off the first Elevator Pitch assignment. An elevator pitch is about a 90-second pitch where you describe the highlights of your company. It is important to set the hook, making sure you have the audience’s attention. It is also important to be concise, so that you won’t lose or confuse your audience. Once you have their attention, and are confident that you will not lose it, it is important to make sure they know how you will be making money. You will be doing elevator pitches for potential investors, so showing them how you make money is showing them how they will make money too.

              My previous post did get some feedback, I am going to post the comment below, then address it. The comment reads as follows:

“Hey Michael!
I enjoyed that you decided to stick with the business of coffee. I really like that you spoke about your business in 5 parts, really made it more specific and easy to follow. What other items were you planning on selling? Do you have any statistics when it comes to coffeeshops in the area? Any competition? Thanks for sharing!”

              First, I’d like to thank my classmate for the comment. I have evaluated it and have decided to tweak my pitch slightly. I will include some examples of other items that we will be selling. I won’t include any statistics about the competition because my pitch can only be 90 seconds, however, I would have that information handy in case an investor would like to know.

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esb66AAWF2k

Assignment 16A: What's your Secret Sauce?

For this exercise, students were asked to reflect on what sets them apart from the crowd, their human capital. Human capital is arguably the most important tool in entrepreneurship, because it is one of the few tools that is unique to each entrepreneur. Format wise, we’ll start with a personal reflection of my best attributes, then transition into some outside opinions. Let’s jump into it!

Coming up with my five unique human capital attributes turned out to be a bit of a challenge for me. In my opinion, we are never really finished with developing our human capital. If you are not moving forward, you are moving backwards. However, for the sake of this assignment, I have come up with the following five attributes that I think set me apart from the pack.

1.)    Work ethic – Playing sports growing up helped me to develop the proper work ethic needed to succeed in the real world.

2.)    Salesmanship – Through my internships during my college tenure, I have developed strong sales skills.

3.)    Positivity – I’m not sure if this was developed and cultivated throughout my life or just comes naturally, but I can usually see the good in situations.

4.)    Communication skills – It has never been difficult for me to effectively convey my positions or emotions.

5.)    Leadership – I think that this skill also comes from playing sports growing up, but I have always been a natural leader.

Interviewing the five people closest to me turned out to be much easier than coming up with five attributes myself, because I happen to have two parents and three siblings. (2 + 3 = 5)

Mom: My mom probably sees me in a more altruistic light than most people do, as is expected with most moms. She described me as intelligent and ambitious.

Dad: My dad is very much a man’s man. I’m not sure that he fully understood what we meant by “human capital.” As far as capital, he rated me as expensive and high maintenance.

Sister: My sister Tori is only two years older than me, we are by far the closest. She said that I am smart, hard-working, and have unlimited potential.

Sister: My sister Farrah is the oldest out of all of us. Being the oldest, I think she has a very realistic view of the world. She thinks that I’d be a great fit for entrepreneurship because of my uniqueness and problem-solving skills.

Brother: My brother Travis is older than Tori, but younger than Farrah. He has a great deal of professional experience and thinks that my ability to follow instructions will set me apart in the real world.

Conclusion: I think that my family largely shapes the way that I perceive myself, so we really weren’t too far off as far as human capital goes.

Assignment 15A: Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

For this post, students have been asked to follow up on last week’s assignment, “figuring out buyer behavior.” More specifically, we’ll be looking at the back half of the buying process: how customers evaluate alternatives, how they purchase a product/service, and how they evaluate the purchase afterward. Like last week, I’ll be conducting three interviews from my chosen customer segment, college students. Let’s jump into it!

              Interview #1: Randy: Randy is a third-year Biology major who drinks coffee only on occasion, but he could see himself as an everyday drinker later in adulthood. He has a Keurig machine at home, so he usually uses that for making a cup. He buys his K-cups from Sam’s club, because he gets a cheaper unit price when buying in bulk. His preferences show that he leans towards convenience by using the Keurig and is price conscience because he buys in bulk.

              Interview #2: Logan: Logan is a second-year accounting major, who drinks a cup of coffee from Starbucks almost every day. Having a cup of coffee has become just as much a part of her day as going to class she says. She likes to switch up her order, but usually sticks with a size medium and not too many extras. She says she does not really think much about buying herself Starbucks every day. As an accounting major, she was able to recognize that there are cheaper alternatives out there but maintained that sometimes you just can’t put a price on convenience.

              Interview #3: Javis: Javis is a graduating senior, majoring in Mechanical Engineering. (Congrats, Javis) He is an avid coffee drinker, and will switch it up between his French press, Starbucks, and a few of the local shops. Javis explained to me that his buying decisions change depending on how he is consuming his coffee. With his French press, he is more likely to pick up a random bag of coffee at wholefoods or trader joes, whereas when he is at a shop he is more likely to stick with what he knows. For him, coffee is about having experiences with friends and getting some variety out of life. I would compare Javis’ buying behaviors to more of a connoisseur or collector than most coffee drinkers.

              Conclusions: College students are so diverse that I think I should have narrowed my segment a bit for a look at some more telling findings. I did notice some common factors, however. College students are very busy, and aside from a few outliers, convenience is a huge factor in how they consume their coffee. College students are also not quite as frugal as one may think for having the reputation of being “broke,” all the time. Students, like everyone else, are willing to pay a bit more where they see value. I had a lot of fun with this week’s assignment and learned a good bit as well. Happy Spring Break!

               

             

Assignment 14A: Halfway Reflection

For this post, students have been asked to reflect on their semester so far from the perspective of talking to a student from the next semester. The focus of this post will be about tenacity and how it relates to entrepreneurship. Let’s jump into it!

              Keeping up with this course can be a challenge. What has helped me progress this far the most has been establishing a routine. Every week, I block out some time to work on my blog posts. This has helped me stay consistent and earn all my points so far.

              There will be moments when you feel like giving up, or just don’t know how you’re going to get the assignments done each week. For me, I think back to the challenge that I faced playing high school sports and decide that if I could make it through summer practice, I can make it through this assignment. Learning discipline in sports has absolutely made me a better college student.

              Developing an attitude of tenacity will not only help you in this course, but also in life as well. There are no limits to what we can do other than those that we place on ourselves. To further cultivate your attitude of tenacity, you should follow these 3 tips. 1.) Practice deferred gratification. This will help you to recognize the value in working for what you want. 2.) Get out of your comfort zone. The only way to grow is to do things that aren’t in your wheelhouse, whether that is socially, physically, or mentally. 3.) Set Goals. It is so much easier to push yourself if there is a clear-cut picture of the finish line.

              Let’s go out and be tenacious!