Customer Interviews #1

1. For an opportunity I decided to use the problem of focusing with distractions in todays society.

2. Everyone might have this unmet need, but specifically I’m targeting college kids who have to stay focused to get good grades.

3. After asking five potential customers about this opportunity, I think there is a real chance to build something off of this idea. So many people are unfocused in their day to day life. 

4. While interviewing people I didn’t know it was a little nerve racking but also a neat experience to get honest feedback from people about a potential opportunity that could help people if a solution can be found.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

1. The thing that stood out to me the most in chapter 9 of Kuratko’s book is the section entitled eBay Entrepreneurship. I just enjoyed reading the different steps that you can take to become a successful eBay entrepreneur, because I know several people who use eBay as a second source of income and make quite a bit of money doing it part time.

2. Something that was confusing to me in chapter 9 was table 9.5 because its not very well organized. 

3.Two things I would want more in depth discussion about from the author would be the section about internal and external problems experienced by entrepreneurs and the section about facing your fears because they are both very interesting to me.

4.There is nothing in chapter 9 that I disagree with, and I feel that his assessment of entrepreneurial opportunities are accurate and fascinating. 

Week 4 Reading Reflection

1. The thing that stood out to me the most in this chapter was the “Most Common Idea Killers.” It’s just a short list of phrases that people say that kill ideas, and the reason why it was such a surprise to me is because I’ve literally heard every single one. From phrases like “where do you get these weird ideas?” to “I don’t see anything wrong with the way we’re doing it now.” It’s that type of thinking that kills creativity!

2. One thing in the chapter that confused me was the Critical Thinking Process chart. It’s five squares labeled creative process, incubation, ideas, evaluation and implementation, and knowledge accumulation. An arrow points from creative process to all of the squares and then they are all linked on the outside, and there isn’t much explanation about the chart to explain. 

3. One question I would ask the author is to explain the Critical Thinking Process Chart better. I also would ask him to elaborate more on table 5.4 that pertains to the two brain hemispheres.

4. I don’t disagree with anything in Chapter 5. Kuratko’s ideas on creativity and innovation are very unique and interesting and I don’t think there was anything wrong with the ideas displayed. 

Week 3 Reading Reflection

1. The thing that stood out to me the most in Chapter 2 of “Entrepreneurship” by Donald Kuratko is the characteristics often attributed to entrepreneurs. There were 42 listed attributes related to entrepreneurs including things like dynamism and aggressiveness. It just stood out to me because you never realize how much an entrepreneur has to be able to do. 

2. The thing that not so much confused me but bothered me was the section entitled “The Dark side of Entrepreneurship.” In this section Kuratko points out the negative attributes that an be attained by Entrepreneurs including financial risk, career risk, family risk, and even psychic risk. It just goes to show that entrepreneurship has its downside as well.

3. Two things I would ask the author is why he didn’t make the dealing with stress section bigger, because he has four sources of stress and then a very small section addressing all of these sources. Another thing I would ask is how to control the entrepreneurial ego that Kuratko descries.

4. Honestly, there was nothing in this chapter that I could really disagree with. I found this chapter very interesting and an eye opener to the different struggles behind entrepreneurship. 

Very Short Interview No. 1

For my Interview with an Entrepreneur, I had the pleasure of interviewing Craig Wilburn. Craig is the CEO and team leader at Keller Williams Realty who started Team Dynamo, Gainesvilles number one residential real estate team. Craig is a multi million dollar producer and has been in Gainesvilles top 1% of realtors since 2003.

1. What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

So, essentially in my opinion what it means is that you are a visionary. You are someone who has the ability to see things that other folks don’t see and you have the people skills and communication skills to communicate the vision to others. You recognize that a true entrepreneur can’t do anything on their own and have to have other people who understand the vision.

2. What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?

Probably one of the most important things to learn is you want to learn how to structure, learn systems, and how to be a good communicator. So I think those are probably the most important things. You have to learn communication skills, time management skills, to be successful in whatever your business venture is.

3. What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur?

Aw man, so much! Because the reality is that most of the things I've learned I didn’t learn in school. The most important thing I didn’t learn in school is learning about yourself. The psychology of people and really learning about yourself is so important in my opinion. Being educated by seeing other people who have taken risks and studying other peoples failures and successes from their own personal risk taking is something I didn’t do a lot of in school but as I grew up and learned these things. These concepts have really helped me be an entrepreneur. Learning and understanding other people also help in management skills, which is a skill as an entrepreneur. Also, you don’t learn the value and importance of networking, and how important that is at being successful at what you’re doing. Networking is everything.

My reflection on this interview is just looking at entrepreneurship differently. Entrepreneurship isn’t just owning your own business, its all these things discussed in this interview combined with that to help people, and then the money follows. 

Top 5 World Problems

Top 5 Problems:
1. Poverty
2. Terrorism
3. Water
4. Global Warming
5. Lack of education

Top 5 solutions:
1. Water
2. Lack of Education
3. Global Warming
4. Poverty
5. Terrorism

I selected poverty as my top problem from my list out of five because the majority of the world lives in poverty. Third world countries are living on pennies a day and thousands die from starvation. I feel like this is the biggest problem in the world

I selected that finding a solution to lack of water would be easiest out of the top 5 world problems. I feel that finding ways to desalinate ocean water at a mass scale wouldn't be that hard since we already know the technology. And the fact that the majority of the world is covered with salt water, we should never have a problem with running out. Also, we could supply countries that don't have clean water with this water.

Week 2 Reading Reflection

1. The biggest surprise to me in this reading were the 10 myths of entrepreneurship. Because I have a lack of knowledge on the subject, I was one of the many who thought the majority of these myths were true about entrepreneurs.

2. One thing that confused me slightly was the Financial Analysis Emphasis. Are the three venture stages necessarily always going to happen (start-up, ongoing, and decline)?

3. If I was able to ask two questions to the author this far, I would ask why he chose certain trends as hot trends to watch. Some of these trends include Food and Beverage and Apparel which to me seem like trends that have been around since the dawn of time, as opposed to Tech or Health trends. I would also ask the author if he is an entrepreneur himself.

4. The one thing I think the author was wrong about is that Entrepreneurs are made and not born. I feel that while you can teach someone how to be an entrepreneur, there are distinct traits that one is born with that make them exceptional. You have to be aggressive and willing to take risk, which some people just don’t have the guts to be this way no matter how hard you try to train them.

Identifying Local Opportunities

http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article51565890.html

Title: Traffic: Still bad, but ideas are flowing
Description: This story is about the officials in Dade county and their plans to fix traffic. While they originally thought they would need the FED’s to step in and spend tons of money to fix the situation, they instead took matters into their own hands are trying to come up with “smart solutions that depend more on ingenuity than spending millions.”
Problem: This problem presented in this article is about how bad the traffic in Miami is and what the county is trying to do to fix it.
Who: The problem is directly related to the officials in Miami, like mayor Carlos Gimenez and commissioner Esteban Bovo Jr.

http://business.blogs.gainesville.com/10290/vellos-closed-landlord-seeking-better-concept/

Title: Vellos closed, landlord seeking “better” concept
Description: Vellos Brickstreet Grill, a local Gainesville restaurant, closed downtown after 6 years in business and the owner is trying to lease the space to someone with another concept.
Problem: The owner of Vellos was tired of doing mediocre business and didn’t want to run the restaurant anymore.
Who: The problem is related to Billy Scheel, the owner of Vellos.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20160105/ARTICLES/160109863/1150/news09?Title=County-asks-attorney-for-fracking-ordinance

Title:  County asks attorney for fracking ordinance
Descrption: The Alachua County Commission has asked the county attorney to create an ordinance than bans fracking.
Problem: Alachua County clearly doesn’t want to be an oil county and is more of a tourist/agricultural county, so they want to put a ban on fracking.
Who: This problem related directly to the Alachua County Board.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20160107/OPINION01/160109840/1076/opinion01?Title=Editorial-Buying-the-biomass-plant

Title: Editorial: Buying the Biomass plant
Description: GRU is attempting to buy the Biomass plant in Gainesville florida
Problem: Because GRU made a mess of the contract, they are having trouble buying the plant. It seems as though GRU is trying to change the terms of the contract to lower the cost.
Who: This problem relates to GRU, the purchaser, and GRE, the owner.

http://citylimits.blogs.gainesville.com/17359/gainesville-gets-d-on-naacp-economic-development-report-card/

Title: Gainesville gets D on NAACP economic development report card
Description: Gainesville got a D from the NAACP after they closely looked at the records of the city both public and private.
Problem: The city got an “F” for both small and minority business spending and in minority advertising and marketing.
Who: The city of Gainesville

World’s Biggest Problems

1. Terrorism.
Terrorism is striking fear in the hearts of millions of people around the world as senseless bombings and shootings are coming from a terrorist group ISIS. Since terrorism is just an idea, I can’t think of a sensible solution to this problem other than find the leaders of the organization and kill them and hope that this causes the group to disperse or be weakened.

2. Poverty.
Poverty is a global issue that is definitely one of the worlds biggest problems. Thousands of people, including children, die every day because of starvation and living in poverty. Some ways to end poverty would be to teach people/countries how to grow food in abundance like we do in America.

3. Racism.
Racism is a growing problem, especially in the United States with campaigns like Black Lives Matter. I think that ALL lives matter and the only way to cancel out racism is to realize this, and become more united.

4. Hunger.
This goes along with poverty, but millions of people die from starvation, and this is a huge global problem. While Americans are throwing away food other people are starving to death. Like I suggested previously, the solution to this is getting food to those that are hungry.

5. Language barrier.
Many people who immigrate are having trouble getting jobs they deserve due to language barriers. I feel that we could fix this problem by having mandatory language classes for the country in which you travel to.

6. Homeless.
This is a huge problem world wide. Shelter is a necessity and millions of people go without it. I know there are already steps to solve this problem, but more housing and information to reach the homeless could possibly help ease this problem, as well as building shelter for third world countries.

7. Lack of Education.
Education is extremely important for people to not only grow but prosper. A way we could fix this lack of education is by building schools in countries that don’t have them, and requiring more from people who do have the ability to go to school

8. Water Problems.
Millions of people around the world don’t have access to clean water, which is a huge global problem. We need to create more machines that can clean this water, or massive desalinators to use ocean water to supply these people who are suffering from lack of water.

9. Global Warming.
With the rise in pollution, there is a lot of evidence leading to global warming. In order to fix this problem we would have to cut down on pollution and create higher standards for pollution control.

10. Pollution.
This goes along with global warming, but is a serious problem in itself. We are destroying our planet by pumping pollution into the atmosphere. We need to put strict regulations on our pollution policies to avoid further problems.

Bug List: 20 things that bug me

1. Bug: The traffic in Gainesville during rush hour is outrageous. What usually takes me 10 minutes to get from point A to point B can take up to 30 minutes.
Why: The roads aren’t built properly to have this many residents all driving at once.

2. Bug: When someone texts me late at night and my phone is off silent because I use it as an alarm to wake up.
Why: There is no sleep mode where you can keep texts on silent but have your alarm still be loud instead of just vibrating.

3. Bug: People who chew food with their mouth open.
Why: Its rude and obnoxious.

4. Bug: People who lie to make you believe they are somebody that they are not.
Why: Its deceitful, and once you lie I can never trust you again.

5. Bug: People who snore loudly.
Why: It keeps me from getting my beauty sleep!

6.Bug: Body odor.
Why: This ones self explanatory. :)

7. Bug: When toothpaste isn’t squeezed properly from the bottom and the tube gets all twisted up.
Why: it makes it hard to get the toothpaste out and eventually I just throw away a tube that still has toothpaste in it.

8. Bug: Dogs that don’t stop barking.
Why: It gives me a headache and is annoying.

9. Bug: When people are overweight and don’t make an attempt to change it.
Why: Your physical health is extremely important and should be taken seriously.

10. Bug: Borrowed items never getting returned.
Why: All of my friends borrow stuff from me and I never get it back.

11. Bug: Running out of gas.
Why: I know this is the drivers fault, but running out of gas is such a stressful thing.

12. Bug: Taxes
Why: I feel like all my money is gone before I even get my paycheck.

13. Bug: Having to wait at a red light when there are no cars coming.
Why: I’m very impatient and value my time, so sitting there for no reason bothers me.

14. Bug: Delayed Plane departures.
Why: Again, I’m very impatient and I dislike having to wait around because my plane is late.

15. Bug: People not cleaning up after there animals.
Why: Its extremely unpleasant to step in a pile of dog poop.

16. Bug: Co-workers who don’t do there job properly and then you have to make up for it.
Why: It’s unfair! You do more work and get paid the same.

17. Bug: Slow internet
Why: I can’t stand when my computer isn’t running properly and I have important things I need to do.

18. Bug: People who drive slow in the left lane on the highway.
Why: Get over if you’re going to drive under the speed limit!

19. Bug: The fact that all my friends are alcoholics.
Why: It’s ok to go out and drink but getting black out drunk 5 days of the week is overkill.

20. Bug: When people display affection in public.
Why: It’s gross to see a couple making out in public.

Coming up with these 20 bugs is relatively difficult and took some time to think about. Mainly because I’m not a complainer and this whole post is basically one big complaint about things I dislike. Also, I’m not wired to think like that, and try to look at the positives instead of things I dislike. However, I see how the entrepreneurial competency of opportunity identification fits in here. If you can find unmet needs and find a way to meet these needs, you have yourself a good business venture and a way to potentially help people.

Introduction

My name is Keifer McClain and I am from Detroit Michigan, but moved to St. Augustine, Florida in 2008 where I attended high school. I am a third year University of Florida Business Major and a future UF grad student. I have an active real estate license and currently work for Keller Williams in Gainesville Florida. I plan on using my degree from UF to go on an entrepreneurial venture and open my own real estate brokerage firm. Real estate excites me and it’s something I can see myself enjoying for the rest of my life. No one wants to work doing something they don’t enjoy, that’s miserable! As far as traveling, I’ve been all over the united states from New York to California, but the only other country I’ve been to is Canada. I plan on traveling the world though, one country at a time. My favorite place I’ve been so far is Santa Monica California, because the weather is perfect and its right by the beach, which is my favorite place to be. I’m looking forward to this ENT3003 class and the principles I’ll take away from it!

My Entrepreneurship Story

My interest in Entrepreneurship stems from the first time I knowingly met an entrepreneur. My sophomore year in high school I started hanging out with a kid named Austin, and little did I know Austin’s family was very wealthy. One day he invited me over to his house to hang out and when I arrived his house was easily four time the size of any of my other friends. I was amazed and had no idea he had wealthy parents. As i got to know him and his family better I found out that his dad is an entrepreneur and owns his own Telecommunications company, and thats the source of his wealth. The thought of owning your own company, not having a boss, and making more than the average American interested me, but I know its not all about the money. That is why I enrolled in ENT3003, to learn the process of entrepreneurship and better understand the mindset behind it. While I could use entrepreneurship to own a business, I could also use the principles of entrepreneurship to benefit others and give back to my community.

The Entrepreneur’s Mantra

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