22A Elevator Pitch 3

1) The pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI3L4L8Ty74&feature=youtu.be

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch.

From the last pith I did, I received mostly positive feedback. All of the feedback I received talked about how well I used hand gestures and my eye contact. They said that it really shows that I am trying to connect with my audience and really engage in communication. I think the advice I enjoyed the most was to have more confidence which comes with practice. I do not think any of the advice was wrong. I really enjoyed my feedback.

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

Based on my feedback, I made sure to practice my pitch a couple more times before I recorded it. I found that with more practice, I was more comfortable and confident speaking about my product. I made sure that I maintained my eye contact and hand gestures. I also updated my script a little bit just to improve the information I am trying to communicate to the audience.

21A Reading Reflection No. 2

For this reading I chose to read The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, by Guy Kawasaki.

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

The general theme of this book is the author giving tips to readers on how to use social media effectively. There are over 123 tips in the book covering a range of topics. The author covers many of the most popular social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.). The author gives advice to readers on the importance of profiles, comments, posts, and how to get many followers. The book focuses on how to gain the most out of social media on both an individual level and a business level.

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

This book connects with a lot of the material that we are learning in ENT 3003. The book really relates to the importance of connecting with your audience. Everything you do on social media must connect your business to the consumer. Nowadays, in order to be successful with your business, you must have a strong presence on social media. It is one of the important tools to market your business and receive a lot of feedback from people who view your posts about your business. Having a strong presence on platforms like Linkedin, you can also grow your social capital as well.

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

If I had to design an exercise for this course, based on the book, the exercise would focus on utilizing social media for the business concept. I would design the exercise by having students design a mock social media page for their business venture on one or two platforms of their choice. I would have the students create a “profile” based on the tips given by the book. I would also have them use the tips to draft content for a couple of weeks. Like what we do now, I would have others comment on their posts for feedback. Finally, since Kawasaki emphasized the importance of responding to feedback, I would have the students respond back to the feedback they received.

Another assignment could be to have the students look up companies who are in the same kind of work as the business venture, and to have them reflect on the methods they use and see if many correlate with the tips from the book.

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?

I think my biggest ‘aha’ moment when reading this book is how much I did not know about social media. First, I guess I did not realize the big role of the social media profile. According to the author, people spend a few seconds looking at it and make a “snap decision”. It is almost like how employers look at resumes for a few seconds and make a quick decision.  I also did not know how many programs are out on the market to help you keep a schedule of when to post. As someone who does not post on social media very often, the frequency that Kawasaki recommends is very high (once to multiple times a day). I also thought that the main social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin) were the main ones used by businesses. The author stressed how much Google+ is effective which I found was quite interesting. Finally, I also did not realize the power of the hashtag. I thought it was something mostly focused on Twitter. According to Kawasaki, the hashtag is one of the most important tools you can use on social media. It is something that you should to promote anything and you should have as many people use it as possible. The more people that use the hashtag, the more publicity you gain and possibly more followers.

19A Idea Napkin No. 2

1)     You. 

My name is Avery Smith. I am a first year student at the UF and I am currently a marketing major in the business school. I hope to eventually join the Master of International Business program. After conducting interviews with people close to me, I have found that I am very hard working, energetic, and motivated. I always try to be a team player and try to have good communication skills. I have a lot of experience with leadership from the volunteer work I have done the past couple of years. I also have experience with creating a company that offered software and apps to people. My aspirations are to be an international business attorney someday.

In regards to this business concept, my goal is to be able to help people. If I were to start this business concept, I can see it playing a really big role in my life. I want to help others succeed and being able to do something like that excites me.  

2)     What are you offering to customers? 

As in my last idea napkin, I am offering this product to both the individual and businesses. However, my primary market is with the individual. The product is a software application that people can download on their phone that will help them hold themselves accountable for maintaining healthy, balanced lifestyles. The application will track various aspects of a balanced lifestyle (social time, study time, diet, fitness, mental well-being, etc.) by having the users set goals and manually input their data so that they can hold themselves accountable for meeting these goals.

The unmet need that this product is helping to solve is the need of a way for someone to hold themselves accountable for maintaining a healthy balance in their life styles. Right now, there are many products out on the market that can help with one individual aspect, but there is not a product that can help with the balance of all aspects. I am also helping solve businesses’ unmet need by providing a way to help keep people (employees or customers) well rounded and more productive. It also provides businesses an outlet in order to provide their own services and products to the individual who are experiencing the unmet need described.

3)     Who are you offering it to? 

The customers for my product are both individuals and businesses. On the individual level, my target segment are current freshmen students (both male and female) who are experiencing independence for the first time. The primary age of these students would be 18-19 years old. Not all freshmen will have this unmet need. Everyone comes from different backgrounds which as a result, some students may not struggle with being independent and being accountable for leading a balanced life. The primary target market is those who struggle with trying to lead a healthy lifestyle during the transition into college life. Based on the research and interviews, the primary users would more than likely be those who still struggle at the end of their first semester living away from home. Many of the interviews I conducted showed me that the aspects that students struggle balancing vary person to person. Even if it is just one aspect they struggle with (diet, fitness, time management, etc.), they would also fall into the target market group.

I am also offering this application to universities and local services. Many universities offer products and services to incoming freshmen who are experiencing this unmet need. This product could help guide students to these services that they may not have known were available. The idea is to make the application customizable so that universities can upload their own specific content and provide it to their students.

4)     Why do they care? 

Like in my first idea napkin, I think that individuals and primarily the universities will pay money for this product. I think that students understand the importance of having a healthy balance in their lifestyles and I think they would be willing to pay for services that can help them hold themselves accountable for this balance. The universities would pay money because this product would allow them to provide easier access to the resources that they provide that students may be unable to find. If universities choose to purchase the product, they can provide it free to their students which would incline them to use it. Local businesses would also be inclined to purchase it because then they have a platform to promote their services to help students as well.

5)     What are your core competencies? 

There are already many products out there on the market that are designed to help students with aspects like how to time manage or how to eat healthy. Many universities and third-party vendors also provide their own services. However, the down side to this is that many of those products only focus on one aspect of someone’s lifestyle. This product would set itself apart because it would be able to focus on all elements of a balanced lifestyle. This product is not a “how-to guide”, but rather a platform that generates goals to keep people motivated and accountable. Based on the interviews I have conducted, people value the effectiveness of this product. People can quickly see the effectiveness by tracking how well they are completing their goals.

I think that the five elements of this idea napkin work really well together. Having done more buyer behavior research and changing the idea napkin based on the feedback I received, these elements now work really well together. I still believe that universities would show some hesitation until the product has built a good reputation and there are many users. I think now that the idea napkin has been improved, aspects of the concept are stronger and more solid. I think the only thing that would be a holdback is the lack of reputation. I think once people start using the product and it starts to build a good reputation, then it will be successful.

Feedback memo:

1.     I changed some formatting issues that were in the first idea napkin. I shortened the subheadings in order to make the idea napkin cleaner and easier to read.

2.     I included more information from the interviews with people who know me best. I added more detail to who I am and what my skills are in order to further attest as to why I am a good fit to further pursue this venture and make it go.

3.     I provided more detail to who my target audience is. I included details from my buyer behavior research to specifically describe what kind of individual I am trying to sell this product to. I included details about who exactly the individual is and why they would use this product.

4.     I also updated the sections on why people care and my core competencies. I used the feedback I received from the buyer behavior research in order to improve these sections. I focused primarily on individuals purchase decisions and post-purchase evaluations. I think by adding this information, it has made the sections of my idea napkin stronger and more valuable. 

20A Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert:

1.     Who they are, what their background is:

a.      Sean Zhang is an app developer. He worked as a software developer for Ericsson cellular technologies. He has led a team of developers to create apps for mobile devices from scratch.

2.     How they fill the slot of “Domain Expert”

a.      He has expertise in the app development industry and has developed apps with his team that have gained hundreds of users. He has a lot of knowledge of what will be involved in developing an app like my product.

3.     How I found and contacted him:

a.      I have family friends who are in the software development business. They have worked with Sean in the past and on some current projects today. I reached out to them and they gave me Sean’s email address as a way to contact him.

4.     Nature of the Exchange:

a.      Since Sean is currently working on projects in China, I reached to him via email. I explained to him my idea concept and asked him to look over my idea napkin. I asked him to provide me feedback and information on the technical side of things. For example, I asked about the process involved with developing an app like the one I want to develop and how long it would take. The return expectation was that he gave me information and feedback in hopes that I can use his expertise in the near future should I decide to pursue this venture.

5.     Why including them in Social Capital is important:

a.      It was really nice being able to reach out to an expert on app development. By including them in my network, I now have someone I can communicate with on what the process will be like and how to approach this product correctly. It also creates the opportunity of using his services to create the app in the future.

Market Expert:

1.     Who they are, what their background is:

a.      John Desylvester has a lot of experience and knowledge about my market. He owned nutrition supplement business and has worked with high schools across the country to promote healthy living via fitness, diet, and good mental well-being.

2.     How they fill the slot of “Market Expert”

a.      John fills the slot of market expert in a couple of ways. He has experience with targeting my market with similar products. He used his business to sell nutrition supplements to young adults in order to help people achieve a healthy balance of nutrition. More importantly, he has worked with high schools to teach high school students the importance of healthy living and how to achieve a healthy balance. It is his expertise that can help with research and understanding my market.

3.     How I found and contacted him:

a.      John is one of my dad’s clients and he gave me John’s email so that I could reach out to him.

4.     Nature of the Exchange

a.      I asked John to look over my idea napkin and asked for feedback. I asked if he could provide me feedback in how I should be targeting this market and how I can improve my business concept to better serve the needs of my market. John gave me a response as to the current state of the idea napkin and has promised to help me improve my concept into the future.

5.     Why including them in Social Capital is important:

a.      By having John as part of my social capital, it enhances my ability to exploit my opportunity. He has a lot of knowledge about my market and has provided services to my market before. He knows a lot about how to better understand my market which will be beneficial in improving my venture concept to better suit my market.

Supplier:

1.     Who they are, what their background is:

a.      Lauren Sonnen is a supplier in my market. She runs a fitness training program and works as a personal trainer with young adults.

2.     How they fill the slot of “Supplier”

a.      Lauren works as a personal trainer and coordinates a fitness training program in Sarasota. She promotes the importance of having a balance of fitness and diet among young adults. Her business is currently one of the types of services that college age students are using to achieve a healthy amount of fitness which is crucial to a healthy balanced lifestyle.

3.     How I found and contacted her

a.      I received her contact information from a family member who used to train with Lauren. I used the contact information to reach out to her.

4.     Nature of the Exchange:

a.      Like with my other two experts, I asked Lauren to look over my idea napkin and asked for any recommendations on how to improve it. I also asked her how she provides services to young adults and explained I will need services like hers in order to give users resources on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

5.     Why including them in Social Capital is important

a.      Before this exchange, I had not talked to any suppliers of services that young adults can use. By having this exchange with her, I now have developed a contact with a third party resource that I can include with my app that students can use in order to achieve their goals. She can also supply goals that young adults can use to makes sure they are achieving a healthy level of fitness.

Reflection:

After completing this assignment, I have realized that “targeted networking” is a very difficult thing to do. I was very fortunate to have prior contacts that I was able to use to reach out to each of the three of people. It also presents a difficulty because there are not any substitute products that I have found on the market that are providing a product that focuses on all aspects of a balanced lifestyle and forces users to be accountable to achieving their goals. After having some practice reaching out to people about my business concept, I am starting to feel a little more comfortable for future networking events. This is really the first time I have done targeted networking on my own. Overall, I feel like this was a very rewarding experience and I happy with including these three in my social network.

18A Create A Customer Avatar

In theory, my product is something valuable to both businesses (schools) and individuals (students). For the customer avatar, we are going to focus on the individual.

           

They are going to a university outside of the state they live in (ex. they attend the University of Florida, but they live in North Dakota). They are 18-19 years old and they are first time college freshmen. They grew up with an easy childhood where they had parents and siblings in the house to help with the chores. They always could rely on someone in the house to remind them to eat healthy, exercise, and other aspects to help them maintain a balanced healthy lifestyle. They exercised in high school but never joined any team sports. Now they just started attending the university and have begun the process of acclimating to living on their own for the first time. They are excited for this new change but quickly realize that living on their own is harder than they thought.

           

Since they are living on campus for their first year in hopes to make the transition into college life easier, they do not have a car. They prefer to travel by foot or on their bike to their classes. They are very studious and always dedicate much of their time to their studies. Sitting in the classroom with hundreds of brand-new faces, they are shy to talk to people they have never met before. They realize making friends has proven to be a difficulty, so they look into joining some clubs. However, there is so many to choose from they often find themselves overwhelmed by having to choose one or two to join. But not to worry, they always have the Office on Netflix to watch if they are feeling they need some relaxation time.

            

Living at home, they always had their family to make sure they were leading a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, due to the stresses of living on their own for the first time is causing them to become unbalanced in some areas of a healthy life. Having unlimited access to the dining halls is causing them to lose track of maintaining a healthy diet. Having to figure out how to budget their time on their own is creating an unequal balance of study time, social time, and time for exercise. They understand the importance of living in a healthy way, but they realize now that they have fallen off track, they need a way to regain that balance. They know the university offers many resources, but they do not know where to even begin. They are only 18-19 years old, but they feel like they are 30 years old. They just need a way to hold themselves accountable of maintaining a healthy balance of these aspects.

What do I have in common with the avatar?

I grew up in a home where my family also made sure I was maintaining a healthy life. My parents always made sure I was eating right and were always encouraging me to exercise. I have always been a studious person like the avatar.  As a freshman, this is also my first time living on my own and had to learn that living on your own is harder than it seems. I had to learn how to maintain a balanced healthy life on my own and in certain aspects I struggled a little bit.

Is this a coincidence?

I do not think this is a coincidence. I came up with this idea because of the experiences I had been through and the experiences other freshmen I know had been through. I understand that maintaining a balanced healthy lifestyle on your own can be a struggle and that is why I wanted to pursue this venture and help students who are experiencing this problem.

17A Elevator Pitch No. 2

Link to New Elevator Pitch:

https://youtu.be/UFN2kVGCGUw

Reflection of Feedback:

I really like the feedback I received. The feedback I received mentioned what I did well and what I did not do so well. Some of the things the feedback pointed out that I did not do so well are things that I did not even notice the first time I did the elevator pitch. The most useful advice I received is to make sure I maintain eye contact throughout the entire presentation. During my first elevator pitch, I broke eye contact a couple times which can distract the people I am giving the pitch to, which is definitely not a good thing.

What I changed, based on feedback:

In this presentation, I definitely made sure I maintained total eye contact with the camera. I tried to maintain the same energy as before. The feedback I received before also mentioned how they liked the use of my hand gestures, so I tried to make sure I continued that. I tried to be a little more engaging and I changed the content of the pitch a little bit to better explain my product and the scenario.