Final Reflection

1. Reading through my past blog posts, its strange to see how far along I’ve come. I started very weary of this class, especially since it’s not like traditional classes.  I wasn’t sure what it would be like to have a class with no exams, but overall I can say I enjoyed it. I think in a sense a learning style like this is more effective than traditional learning, where I’ve often found myself cramming for a test just to forget all the information as soon as the exam is over.

2. I’d say an experience that I will remember far after this course is over would be when we had to give away five dollars. I was discouraged because people were looking at me strange and didn’t want to take my money, but I stuck with it ended up giving them all away. The experience I most enjoyed was really just the process of coming up with a business idea and then expanding it. It gave me a better sense of the work that actually has to go behind a business. I also read almost every chapter of Kuratkos book, which I found really informative. I think the book

3. I definitely think that by the end of this course I have moved closer to the entrepreneurial mindset. I am much more open to the idea of owning my own business, and while it might not be the business venture I came up with in this class that I end up going for, I feel that down the line I will definitely own my own business.

4. One recommendation I have for students who are planning to take ent3003 in the future is to just keep an open mind and stay on track. It is easy to fall behind so you have to make sure you’re getting your assignments done. Also just to enjoy the experience instead of looking at is as work. In this class since you may have to do things that are outside of your comfort zone you just have to keep an open mind and don’t get discouraged!

Elevator Pitch #4

Based on my feedback from my last three elevator pitches I decided not to change anything. I have gotten both good and bad feedback about my supplement, but it really boils down to putting out a quality product that is healthy and will help students focus while studying. If you watch this pitch compared with the other ones, they are all very similar!

Venture Concept #2

1. My opportunity for this venture concept has not changed since the first concept. Everyone has the need for more focus and energy. Although I originally wanted to target only college students for a niche market in study aids with my supplement MentalEdge, I decided to open up my market and reach out to everyone who needs a boost of energy throughout the day by instead creating a healthy energy drink.  The difference between my choice of energy and others is health benefits. I want to create an energy drink that not only supplies lasting energy but is also healthy. I know a lot of people who will come to work and slam down redbull’s or monsters just to keep themselves going throughout the day. These drinks are filled with not so great ingredients that supply you with short-term energy but are not very great for you. I know that personally, this drinks severely upset my stomach, so I am basically out of the market for all energy drinks. Because of this, I think this opportunity is huge. The health industry is massive, and with ongoing obesity, I know that this drink would be a huge success. Unfortunately, I doubt this window of opportunity will be open for long because the already established, big time energy drink companies have been coming out with alternatives like no sugar, low carb, energy drinks, but if you’re smart and check the ingredients these are still very unhealthy.

These healthy Mental Edge energy drinks I plan on selling for a competitive price of  $2 per can. The problem with this is being able to mass produce these drinks so I can get a healthy product margin, instead of just breaking even. The innovation is basically the fact that these drinks would have healthy ingredients with energy boosting supplements and a lower/safer dose of caffeine. I think if I can successfully manufacture this and get enough capital to produce this product to scale, it would be a success.

My competitors are the energy drink giants like Monster and RedBull which are both very big and successful companies. They have great marketing strategies and a wide customer base, but their weakness is that they are unhealthy for you.  This is the exact reason why I think customers would switch to my product. A few celebrity endorsements, a mixed drink using my energy drink, and promoting the health benefits would also help to get this company off the ground. However, since this business is a sort of manufacturing business, I would need quite a few employees and large factories to make my drink successful and competitive. I think all of this along with my tenacity and will to never give up, and this company could turn from a mom and pop shop to a giant. After I came out with the original drink, I would add new flavors, better advertising, and bigger factories. If everything works out as planned, I would probably sell the company after it’s grown profitable, and retire young!

2. I got great feedback from my original venture concept. People were excited at the idea of a healthy energy drink, and while it is a far shot, every great thing started with an idea. People who already drank monster or redbull said they would switch over because they don’t like how bad they are for them, and others said that they simply don’t drink energy drinks because they’re bad for you but would start if there was a healthy option.

3. Based on the feedback I received, I didn’t change my venture concept very much. The only things I really added were the celebrity endorsements and adding more factories and employees to apply economies of scale. I think my first venture concept was accurate, and that if executed this product would be a hit.

Week 15 Reading Reflection

1. Wow! This whole article was extremely interesting. These people going to poor countries to microfinance and give out loans to the poor to help them build a better life is pretty amazing. I would say the selflessness is what stands out the most to me. I know they obviously have to make money, but such a dangerous business with small loans doesn’t seem so lucrative until they build up their customer base.

2. Nothing was really confusing to me. I just think I might have handled a couple of the situations differently, but they handled most of the situations properly. For example, when they were being strong-armed by thugs would it be wrong to bring in authorities or strong arm them back? I don’t know the culture very well over there and I’m sure it could get dangerous, but extortion is illegal in most places.

3. I would ask him where his business started and his story on how he expanded it. I would also ask him if he personally travels to all these areas before setting up micro financing to make sure that they seem somewhat safe.

4. There was nothing wrong that I saw! I enjoyed this article and the fact that they doing business at the base of the pyramid.