My Exit Strategy

1. I don’t necessarily have an exit plan but I do tend to stay in the business. With manufacturing, I feel that a lot of the business is automated and once you have a system going you can have other companies do the work for you. For example, with amazon they will reorder your product when they run low, store your product, and ship the product whenever a customer orders it. This leaves you time to come up with new products, test the market, and then put your products on the market. I assume I would be able to either sell this business when I retire or pass it on to a family member who has the will or drive to keep the business running.


2. I have selected this particular exit strategy because I feel like I can still live an open and free life with the business running. I want to own a business that runs on automation and liberate myself from the 9-5 curse that most Americans deal with.


3. This exit strategy has definitely changed my decisions I’ve made in my concept. Because it’s not just about coming out with one successful product and then selling the company for a profit, it’s about continuous innovation and helping people. I will constantly be looking for reachable niche markets, brainstorming products, micro-testing products, and hopefully launching successful products that help people in every day life. I plan on using the successful principles of past companies to grow this company into an income producing giant! Using this strategy I will always be cautious of payables and receivables and not just what product can take off and make me a million bucks.    

Week 12 Reading Reflection

)    1. For me, the most remarkable part of chapter 13 was the lack of strategic planning. An entrepreneur wants nothing more than for their business or company to be successful and in order for anything to succeed one must plan appropriately or have the necessary skills to keep a business afloat and productive. On page 421, the five reasons include: time scarcity, lack of knowledge, and lack of expertise/skills, lack of trust and openness, and perception of high cost. Lack of knowledge and lack of skill are unacceptable if one is willing to put everything one has into a company or an idea. By being unprepared in this way, the company is most likely going to fail.

    2. I am still a little confused about the Bureaucratization versus Decentralization section; I think examples would be helpful in fully explaining exactly what they mean.

    3. Where did you attend school, and with what degree? What inspired you to write to teach students about Entrepreneurship?

   4. I think the author made very valid points throughout the chapter, they gave step by steps where the information was a little more complicated, and they showed charts as well. I don’t disagree with the information the author has laid out in chapter 13.

Venture Concept #1

The first part of my Venture Concept idea is opportunity. My original opportunity lies within my college demographic, but as my MentalEdge Company grows I think I can branch out to a much larger target market, including anybody who enjoys energy drinks. These are every day people like you and me who get groggy throughout the day and need a boost of energy to keep them going with peak performance. Fortunately for me, the market is nationwide and ranges from young to old. Customers are currently satisfying this need with unhealthy sugar packed drinks like monster and redbull, but I want to come up with a quality energy supplement for study aid, and follow up that product with an energy drink to target a wider market. I think this is a huge opportunity as I constantly look for a way to gain energy but don’t enjoy taking energy drinks that give me the jitters and eventually lead to a massive crash. Since energy drinks are such a huge market I don’t see this window of opportunity closing. People were drinking energy drinks when I was born, and they will be drinking them when I die!

The next part of my venture concept is innovation. I believe this continuous innovation to energy drinks will definitely be revolutionary. My product will stand out because of the quality ingredients and the low level of caffeine. I plan to concoct a formula that will be not only delicious, but nutritious that provides long lasting energy. Basically, I want to make a drink that has the effects of five-hour energy, the taste and appeal of monster, but with much healthier ingredients. I know this sounds hard, but I definitely think with determination and the proper minds working on this it can be done. Once this drink catches on, it would be a huge success. There are no name brand energy drinks that are known as healthy. Plus with economies of scale we would be able to produce each can for a fraction of the cost we would sell them at, clearing high profit margins with relatively low overhead costs.  I feel that we could make these drinks for as low as 25 cents a can and sell them at competing prices with redbull and monster.

And finally, my venture concept all comes together. This is where my continuous innovation addresses my specific opportunity. This is where my new healthy energy drink not only reaches my original market of college kids, but also reaches a wider variety of people who enjoy a pick-me-up. Customers will buy my innovative product because of the growing health craze in the United States. Everyone is going green and everyone is trying to drop weight, and with the obesity epidemic there is no better time to come out with an energy drink that is healthy. With energy drinks already being an extremely popular market, I feel that mixing this market with the health industry would be a home run. Customers will switch to this product and become loyal consumers of MentalEdge when they realize that they can get the same lasting energy with a much healthier drink. As long as I can make the product taste great too, I think it won’t be hard to get customers to switch over. My competitors are huge companies including redbull, rockstar, and monster. I think that their weakness is their lack of innovation. Any company can come up with different flavored drinks, but a real dynamic product is one that completely changes how the industry is viewed. With my product being healthy, I definitely think it will set me apart from the competition. Packaging, pricing, distribution, customer support, and customer experience all play a huge role in my venture concept as well. Without proper management and all of these aspects being in line, it would be impossible to have a competitive energy drink with the other massive companies. I would have to have my business structured properly in order to complete this. I think production lines controlled by employees would be the way to go. It would mostly be automation, but also have people there managing the process and making sure everything goes smoothly. With automation, I would have less labor costs but still be able to mass-produce the product keeping costs low. I would assume that I would need at least 50 employees to manage different parts of the factory, including sales reps, marketing professionals, and general managers.

Three minor elements:

1. I think my ventures secret sauce will be perseverance. You can’t fail if you never give up!

2. The next opportunity I would tackle would just be continuous innovation on the products I have. Perfecting the formula and creating new flavors of  product.

3. In five years, if everything went as planned, I would see myself running this venture and continually adding to it and making new products. I would do most of my selling through retail stores and online, and just continue to grow my company. In the next decade I’d like to become financially free, and these venture would definitely help me do that. I want to be able to do what I want, when I want and not have to work my life away for a paycheck.

Amazon Whisperer

The revenue drivers for my current product are the quality ingredients and the niche market that I supply to. I believe this, along with a solid marketing strategy, high ROI, and low overhead costs will make this product a success. I believe that the next product I sell should be an energy drink. To accompany a study aid supplement that already increases energy and focus, I think an energy drink will broaden my market, increase customer loyalty, and boost my revenue in my growing MentalEdge Company. The supplement I found on amazon that is similar to the product I want to offer would be 5-hour energy. The customer reviews are almost 5 stars, and this product is known by almost everyone in America as a huge hit. The customers like the lasting energy and tasteful flavor without crashing or getting the jitters. The main complaints from the customers had to do with too much caffeine in the product, or shipping errors where the bottles broke inside the box and leaked and had to be thrown away. The changed I would make would include be the ingredients, the size of the container, and of course, the logo/color. I would make the ingredients more natural, and try to come up with a formula that still gave lasting energy but with less un-natural stimulant ingredients. I would also increase the container size slightly, because even though this will increase supplies costs, I think the visual benefits will make customers purchase the product more. Finally, to make my product seem more natural, I would make the wrapper white with a  green brain that has muscles on it to attract customers. I think this product would make an excellent edition to my current product offering for two reasons. First, it fits perfectly with my previous MentalEdge supplement. In addition, the energy drink industry is huge, creating billions of dollars in revenue, so if I can market this product correctly and get repeat customers I feel that I could be a major competitor. 

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1. What stood out to me in this reading is that there is a strategy to innovation. When I think of innovation, I think of people just concentrating on new products or ideas to better a company, which to me doesn’t seem strategical at all. My mind changed after reading this article and realizing that major companies like Bristol-Myers use strategic innovation to come up with new target markets.

2. One thing that was confusing to me was why certain successful strategies that are known to work, wont work for every company. It seems like when something works, you should stick to it, and that other companies will copy it. But according to this article, each business is different, and the different innovation strategies won’t work for everyone. This just confused me because it steps outside my normal way of thinking, but it also makes sense after delving more into the subject.

3. I would ask the author if he Knows Donald Kuratko! This article is very similar to chapter 3 in the book “Entrepreneurship” by Donald Kuratko. It talks about innovation and entrepreneurship/intrapreneurship in corporate business, which is essentially what the HBR article talks about as well.

4. There was nothing in this article that I directly disagreed with, and I felt it was well written and easy to understand. The only thing I didn’t originally agree with was the topic from question 2 that I thought was confusing, but after reading more about it and thinking about why he says what he does, it made more sense.

My Unfair Advantage

1. Venture Capital
V: This is valuable because many businesses have trouble finding the capital to start and operate.
R: This resource isn’t necessarily rare; you just have to know the right people who believe in your product.
I: Resource Imitable.
N: Other resources can provide capital like traditional banks and other private moneylenders.

2. People skills
V: Very valuable resource for an entrepreneurial venture in regards of getting people to like you and buy your product.
R: This resource is rare in my opinion, because it’s not easy to be personable.
I: Resource is imitable.
N: This resource is non-substitutable unless the product is so good that it sells itself

3. Niche market
V: Very valuable for the product I plan on selling, because it sets me apart in the market.
R: This resource is rare for the market I am in, because there aren’t other products that pertain to my niche.
I: Resource is imitable.
N: This resource is non-substitutable, and offers unique benefits.

4. Quality ingredients
V: Very valuable for the supplement market.
R: Resource is not rare for the supplement market, because one of the main goals is health benefits.
I: Resource is imitable.
N: This resource is non-substitutable and very beneficial in the supplement in the market.

5. Dedicated workforce
V: Valuable for any business, especially a new entrepreneurial venture.
R: Semi-rare for most companies that I’ve worked for.
I: Resource is imitable.
N: This resource is substitutable with new technology and machines, but I believe there is nothing like human capital.

6. Social Capital
V: This is a very valuable resource for a new business, because as a new entrepreneur there is a good chance you will need help and advice along the way.
R: This is not a very rare resource, and many people have mentors before going into business.
I: Resource imitable.
N: Non-substitutable resource with a surplus of benefits.

7. Market knowledge
V: Valuable for any industry, almost a necessity.
R:  Not rare for this market and definitely attainable with the proper research.
I: Resource imitable.
N: Non-substitutable resource and gives many benefits for knowing your market.

8. Entrepreneurial/Intrapreneurial spirit
V: very valuable for continuous and discontinuous innovation, as well as making employees feel comfortable in the environment.
R: I feel like this is relatively rare, and not encouraged at any previous job that I’ve worked at.
I: Resource is imitable.
N: I feel this is a non-substitutable resource and dire for success in a company like mine.

9. Open company policy
V: Very valuable to allow employees to come to you with anything that bothers them and letting them know there are no repercussions to speaking up.
R: Not very rare for most large corporations but can be looked down upon.
I: Resource imitable.
N: Resource is substitutable with different policies that could achieve the same thing, but I think the open door policy is the most direct and best way to go about it.

10. Limited competition
V: Very valuable in any industry.
R: Rare in most industries as there are always competitors.
I: Resource not imitable.
N: Resource is non-substitutable, and owning a business that is one of a kind and targets a niche can lead to outstanding benefits for your company.

Out of all these resources, I feel that holding a niche market and having limited competition stand out from the rest and go hand-in-hand with making this company successful. Since there isn’t other supplements out there are marketed to the same niche mine would be, I think that this MentalEdge supplement could be a huge hit. Most other resources on the list are important, but are commonly replicated and used by other corporations, but these ones stand out because they are one of a kind resources.