1. The most formative experience for me was when I was finally able to nail down one thing that I wanted to use as my idea for the rest of the semester. Though it does not feel like it was that long ago, I believe that we got these 'long term' ideas set within the first 3 weeks or so of the class, so 12-13 weeks ago, and have been posting about them in at least two posts per week since then. That is probably also the experience that is most memorable for me. The most joyous is writing this, final post, knowing that after this and my finals next week, I only have one semester left of school. That is also the same moment that I am most proud of accomplishing; in the classes that I have taken this semester, my lowest grade SHOULD be an A-.
2. I still do not see myself as an entrepreneur yet, however I do feel that through both the posts and the lectures in this class, I have developed more of an entrepreneurial mindset.
3. My recommendation for what must be done to succeed in this course is make a schedule and stick to it. While my personal schedule is not the best (all of my initial posts have been done on Friday night and all of my replies on Sunday or Monday, the day that they are due), I have been able to stick to it and only missed one deadline the entire semester using it. I would recommend to decide on your schedule for getting these assignments done in the very beginning and stick to it for the entire semester, as a way of making sure that you use it. If you switch between different schedules, you may forget if you did a particular assignment or simply think that you did it the week before and get a 0 as a result.
The people who have this need are the exhibitors of show animals and their parents. This is a need that is currently under-met, with a very limited supply and high demand. This need is located in Central Florida, particularly Polk County. Currently, the customers are meeting this need by shopping for brand name show feeds that are expensive and limited in terms of options. This opportunity could be very big, expanding from the current local area to the state and at least the region. The window of opportunity could close at any time.
The innovation that I am offering is a new animal feed that will serve as a show animal feed. It will be more inexpensive than the current feeds and will serve as a complete ration, not requiring customers to mix the feed with other products to meet their animals' needs. The exact price will be determined by the cost of manufacturing the feed, however the plan is to cut out the middleman and therefore keep the price lower. This will be done by selling directly from a mill; most feed stores mark prices up at least 20%, in my experience. Cutting this markup out will keep prices down.
The main two reasons that customers would switch are to receive a ration that is complete and because the new feed will be more inexpensive. It will be hard to get some to switch and easy to get others; it will depend on the particular person. All in all, most people will be likely to start out buying a few bags and trying the feed before they commit to switching all of their animals over to it. The competitors are Purina and Nutrina, the current two brand name feeds that have show feeds. They both have one main weakness; their prices are very high and customers do not appreciate that. If the business were to remain local, less than five employees would be needed. It would be made about two to three times a week in the mill and the same people would be able to serve the customers when they come to pick the feed up. As the market expands and the feed sells in new places, more people would be needed. The roles would basically be the same, as long as only one main feed was sold. If this expanded, a sort of feed store could be started, complete with managers and lower level employees.
The advantage that I would have in this business are my contacts. From feed representatives of 'rival' companies to the people that would actually be buying the feed, I know many people in the area that are involved in the industry.
Next for this venture would be expanding. This can be done in two ways. The first is expanding to new areas/markets. The second is expanding to new species; if we start out with only swine and cattle feed, we could expand to chicken or sheep feed in the future. One possible and very large way that this could be expanded into other breeds is by marketing it for pets, as well. By developing a new dog and cat food, for example, this would reach out to a much larger group than simply those that own show animals.
In five years, this feed company could easily expand to cover the entire state, either all operating out of one location and customers coming to me or by having different locations spread about. The main thing that I aspire to be in the next decade is successful and profitable; this company has the ability to make me both in at once.
2. I received one comment on both of the posts that relate to this one. They both explained that they liked my idea and thought that it was very thorough, with one piece that the individual felt that could be added.
3. There were no changes to my idea from the first to the second draft of it; instead, one item was added. The concept of not only expanding to other show animals, but also to begin to go into the pet food area is one that I had not thought of, but am glad to add to the potential future plans of the business.
1. I would stay with the company for several years and continue to expand it throughout the region. I would then plan to keep it in the family and pass it down to the next generation, probably by the time I was in my fifties, and then retire in the future.
2. I have chosen this strategy for several reasons. I would pass it down to the family because I feel that doing so would give the next ownership a true sense of pride in the company not simply as a thing or as a title, but in the fact that this is something that their family began and has always run. My stepping down and letting my children take one by the time I am in my early fifties also serves three purposes. First, they would have time to work under and with me in leadership roles and begin to learn how things have been run. Second, they would still have me working under and with them as they take over and I can guide them as I see fit, while also giving them some freedom to try new things. Lastly, it will keep people that are younger, more up to date with the current (or in this case, the future's current) technology, and therefore allow the company to remain innovative.
3. My exit strategy is something that I had not thought much about, specifically. I do not truly consider it an exit strategy, in my case. I would be here for the long haul. With that in mind, it did have some effect on my business plan. I was not thinking of this as something that I would try to make worth a lot of money fast so that I can sell it for a maximum profit and move on; I was considering it something that would, theoretically, be my and my family's life work.
1. The thing that I found to be most surprising was actually the first thing that was talked about. Musk said no and did not cooperate with the biography for several months, and only changed his mind to cooperate by getting to be the one that got to read through it first, make edits and add footnotes. To me, that was most interesting. The thing that I admire most about Musk is that he is not a rich person who is surrounded by what the author calls 'handlers'; he is speaking his own words/thoughts and does not have someone to buffer between him and those around him. I believe that this is admirable. The thing that I least admired about him was the way that he talked about women. While it could have been a joke or could have been serious and I am looking into it wrong, he talked about the 'minimum' amount of time that a woman would want for someone to spend with them when they are in a relationship. To me, this is something that should not be a set number. It should be something that is simply natural for both people involved. Elon Musk has definitely encountered adversity and has been able to push through it. He has, in most recent memory, done so by coming clean publicly and apologizing for actions that he has taken. In the past, he has simply not given up and continued working hard in order to succeed again.
2. The entrepreneur exhibits a vast amount of competencies, with some of the most obvious being that he is very intelligent and hard-working. Pairing those two things together without many other things would make someone successful; however, Musk has those plus many more. Those are simply the two that I view as the most important, personally.
3. I got a bit confused reading about his life goal of dying with humanity having a bright future. He plans to do so by helping make it possible for humans to migrate to Mars.
4. What should I do with any money that I have to invest, and what is your one start up idea that will make me a billionaire? The first would be something that I would ask in order to invest more of the money that I would like to buy stocks with. This is because, while his portfolio became very risky very fast, he has become a very rich man based on those risks. The other is because he has already started and sold two businesses for large sums of money; large enough that I could sell one and never work a day in my life beyond that.
5. He views hard-work as mandatory. This is obvious through the fact that he profited $22 million on his FIRST (and significantly smaller than his second) start-up company, and turned around and used that money to start another. He could have retired and been comfortable for life after that first company, but did not. This shows that he is a hard-worker. I share that view.
1. I failed one specific shift at work several times this semester. I was hired to work in one department (seafood), and have done well in my own opinion in each and every one of my shifts inside of that department. However, sometimes I am asked to work in the meat department, which is what I actually applied for when I applied for a job. However, the meat department shift that I work is one that is relatively busy and that I was never well-trained for in my store. With that in mind, my first time I did not get to make all of the products that I was supposed to, and at the end of the day I had to leave most of the things that I was supposed to clean for the next person to finish. Each time following this, I got slightly better but still failed to do all of the tasks that I was assigned.
2. I learned that what you think you want to do is not always what you really want to do. When I started, I was disappointed to learn that I would be in seafood and wanted to work in the meat department more and more. As time went on and I got comfortable working seafood, this completely changed and I began to want to work in the seafood department.
3. Failure to me is not succeeding in anything. In some cases, failure on a test could be getting a B, while in others it could be that you literally failed (got a C- or less). In different situations, failing can be different. I feel that I handle failure relatively well. I am a person that is usually pretty confident and I do not react much in terms of emotions very often. I hide from others that I have failed by doing this, even when I know that I have and they do not. I am no more or less likely to take risks after this class. I have always been someone who feels that I can do things well. While this class strengthened my viewpoint on this and made me see that some risks are more worth it than others, I do not think that it made my risk taking preferences any different.
I believe that the future for this business is expanding beyond the local area that it will begin and serving new customers, as well as the original ones.
Once I talked with my potential customers, I felt that I was right. One person in particular's response strengthened this idea; he told me about a friend in a neighboring county that he felt would appreciate the idea and would be glad to buy the feed, if it were available near them. He also told me about the people in the area that this friend of his knew, and therefore the domino effect could take place in terms of new customers in that particular area beginning to buy the feed, if the opportunity was given to them.
This would be an example of growing the existing market because it would be the exact same product in both areas. Essentially, the goal here would be to establish a name for the brand. By mastering one type of feed for the state's climate and then moving to a county or area that has essentially the same climate and same needs, the feed will appear to do well from the start for any of those who have not heard of it before and try it. Doing this will give a good reputation to the brand and help grow it further in the future, by exploiting other areas of growth.
New Market
The new market that I can see becoming available for this company would be different species of animals, with sheep and chickens being the particular species that come to mind for me.
I found out through my interviews that this is actually not as much of a need as that of the swine and cattle industries. It turns out that most sheep feeds are not very expensive, and most chickens do not eat enough feed to make it necessary for people to worry as much about the amount that they spend on each bag. However, that does not mean that the market would be impossible to enter. Like the other two areas, there are a very select few options that are available to those who raise show sheep and show chickens.
Taking advantage of this area of the market, simply trying to enter the product in as something new that the customers have never seen before and keeping the price of the product just below that of the competition's similar feeds would make the feed something that could possibly sell. In my opinion, that paired with the (hopefully) good reputation that the company will have built from its swine and cattle feeds in the same areas will make it something that people would at least be willing to try. Pairing that with changing the formula and attempting to perfect it early on based on customer feedback, and I feel that this is a new area of the market that the company would excel in, in the long run. However, especially in the short run, the existing market will be more successful.
The people who have this need are the exhibitors of show animals and their parents. This is a need that is currently under-met, with a very limited supply and high demand. This need is located in Central Florida, particularly Polk County. Currently, the customers are meeting this need by shopping for brand name show feeds that are expensive and limited in terms of options. This opportunity could be very big, expanding from the current local area to the state and at least the region. The window of opportunity could close at any time.
The innovation that I am offering is a new animal feed that will serve as a show animal feed. It will be more inexpensive than the current feeds and will serve as a complete ration, not requiring customers to mix the feed with other products to meet their animals' needs. The exact price will be determined by the cost of manufacturing the feed, however the plan is to cut out the middleman and therefore keep the price lower. This will be done by selling directly from a mill; most feed stores mark prices up at least 20%, in my experience. Cutting this markup out will keep prices down.
The main two reasons that customers would switch are to receive a ration that is complete and because the new feed will be more inexpensive. It will be hard to get some to switch and easy to get others; it will depend on the particular person. All in all, most people will be likely to start out buying a few bags and trying the feed before they commit to switching all of their animals over to it. The competitors are Purina and Nutrina, the current two brand name feeds that have show feeds. They both have one main weakness; their prices are very high and customers do not appreciate that. If the business were to remain local, less than five employees would be needed. It would be made about two to three times a week in the mill and the same people would be able to serve the customers when they come to pick the feed up. As the market expands and the feed sells in new places, more people would be needed. The roles would basically be the same, as long as only one main feed was sold. If this expanded, a sort of feed store could be started, complete with managers and lower level employees.
The advantage that I would have in this business are my contacts. From feed representatives of 'rival' companies to the people that would actually be buying the feed, I know many people in the area that are involved in the industry.
Next for this venture would be expanding. This can be done in two ways. The first is expanding to new areas/markets. The second is expanding to new species; if we start out with only swine and cattle feed, we could expand to chicken or sheep feed in the future.
In five years, this feed company could easily expand to cover the entire state, either all operating out of one location and customers coming to me or by having different locations spread about. The main thing that I aspire to be in the next decade is successful and profitable; this company has the ability to make me both in at once.
Valuable- Being dedicated to anything is extremely valuable; it determines the limit to your success, in my opinion.
Rare- In today's society, I consider this relatively rare. Most people seem to find it hard to show dedication towards things today.
Inimitable- If people were to dedicate dedication, this is something that I feel could be easily imitable.
Non-substitutable- I have heard "nothing can take the place of hard-work" my entire life. Dedication and hard-work go hand in hand. Therefore, I consider this something that is not substitutable.
Responsible
Valuable- This is extremely valuable. Being responsible takes effect by both determining your customer satisfaction as well as whether or not you can find business backing in the form of investors.
Rare- Again, this is something that I think is very rare in people that are my age.
Inimitable- I feel that this is also somewhat imitable. If someone focuses on being responsible, over time they may be able to become more responsible but it is harder to find naturally.
Non-substitutable- In some instances I feel that it is substitutable for a time, but over time being irresponsible usually comes back to bite you.
Contacts
Valuable- This is possibly my most valuable item on the list. Both the contacts that I have in the industry and the contacts that I know as potential customers would make a huge difference for this business venture.
Rare- These are extremely rare contacts. No one else has the exact list of people that I do on my list; others may have better people, but my set of contacts is unique nonetheless.
Inimitable- This is something that is virtually impossible for someone else to imitate. Their own list may be very similar to mine, but it would take a very similar upbringing and set of life experiences to compile the same list.
Non-substitutable- A set of contacts is not substitutable. All of the other things on the list could help one try to make up for this, but even then it would not be the same thing.
Experience with animals
Valuable- This is something that is very valuable. It is one of the major reasons that I have the idea and have the desire to follow through with it.
Rare- This depends on the group that you are considering. For those close to me and potential customers of mine, it is not that rate. For others, it is very rare.
Inimitable- It is not difficult to gain more experience with animals.
Non-substitutable- A great deal of education can replace this, but it will not be as effective.
Experience with industry
Valuable- This is very valuable. My experience with the industry gives me a sort of insider information when it comes to things such as feed prices and markup amounts, as well as the science in the feeds.
Rare- This is somewhat rare. Not many people have spent the amount of time that I have inside of the industry.
Inimitable- This is not imitable. Without spending 3-4 years in the industry, another person cannot get the same experiences.
Non-substitutable- This cannot be substituted. Learning what formal education says is one thing, but the actual hands-on experiences of the industry are always different.
Hard-working
Valuable- This is very valuable. Without hard work, nothing will succeed.
Rare- This is another trait that I feel is very rare in today's society, but it is still present.
Inimitable- This can be imitated. Like responsibility, continually making yourself work hard can make it a habit, but it is easier if you start at a younger age.
Non-substitutable- As explained above, this CANNOT be substituted in my opinion.
Formal education
Valuable- This is relatively important. My understanding of business and economics would help in this business, but it is not as valuable as some of the other information that I have gained from things such as work experience.
Rare- This is not that rare. Many people go to at least some college. It is more rare that I am getting a masters degree, but still formal education as a whole beyond high school is becoming more common in society.
Inimitable- This is imitable. Someone could go and get the same degrees and take the same courses that I have.
Non-substitutable- I feel that while it is relatively common, this cannot be substituted. Things such as economics would be virtually impossible for most people to learn on their own. With that in mind, any role that this would play in my venture are not substitutable.
Market
Valuable- This is extremely valuable. Without a market for my product, there would be no product.
Rare- This is not rare. There is a market in most places, at least in Florida. In other states, however, a market for show feeds is extremely rare.
Inimitable- This can be imitated. In other regions of Florida, there can also be markets.
Non-substitutable- This cannot be substituted. As explained above, I understand that there is a market and can therefore exploit it. Without one, there is not a need for the product.
Area
Valuable- This is very valuable. This product would be for the central Florida area, which has a decent need for the product. If I were in another area without a need, it would not be successful.
Rare- This is relatively rare. Not that many people in central Florida would think about solving it, they would simply note the issue.
Inimitable- This is imitable. Somewhere else, others could have an area with the need.
Non-substitutable- This is very similar to market in the sense of if you are in an area without a need, you will be unsuccessful.
Personal gain
Valuable- This can be very valuable or invaluable. I feel that it is valuable, because I have a reason beyond making money to want this to work. On top of the business making money, I could save my own operation money if I were to develop a show feed that actually works.
Rare- This is not very rare. For the people that I know, anyone that would follow through with this plan has the same personal gain to achieve.
Inimitable- This is not inimitable. Anyone could theoretically achieve it.
Non-substitutable- It is not substitutable. Either you have personal gains to attain or you do not.
The top thing that I have to bring to the table is my contacts. It is better than the rest because it is the one thing that I have that no one else can get, under any circumstances. The probability of someone developing the exact same contacts and having the same exact relationship with all of them that I do is virtually 0.
2. The feedback that I received on my last post was all positive. The things that I fixed in between the first and second pitches seemed to improve it a great deal in my group's eyes. I noticed that both of the people felt that the picture that I painted in the opening of the pitch was very effective and made the pitch better, so it was something that I tried to leave mostly the same between pitches, with some minor adjustments and attempting to get it out with a more smooth flow and less pauses.
3. I changed essentially nothing between the second and third pitch. There was nothing that my group outlined as things that they thought that I should change, so I tried to take their advice and leave it mostly the same between submissions. I did, however, try to polish my delivery a bit more. While this was not something that was given to me in the feedback, as I watched the video before beginning this one, I noticed that I paused a bit more than I would like. I still did have some points in this video that could have been better, but I feel that the delivery was much smoother this time around.
I read Innovation and Entrepreneurship, byPeter Drucker.
1. The general theme of this book was to explain some of the methods that Drucker followed in his work. Essentially, this is the closest thing that he has ever come to explaining that exact methodology. One of the largest arguments that I see being posed throughout the book is the importance of change; it explains that some changes are good and others are bad, and that people/organizations must know how to utilize change.
2. There are many parellels that can be drawn between the book and the course. Two of the main ones that I saw were that both explained entrepreneurship to be something more and different than most people view it as and that it is important to look deep into the target audience for a company, into things as personal as demographics and political views in some areas.
3. I feel that the exercise that I would design would be one very similar to this one. By asking pointed questions about the book but giving people the option to read several different books both a) gives students some freedom to pick what they do the assignment on and b) allows each of us to get at least a little bit of up to three of the selected readings (the one we read for our initial post and the possibility of reading posts about at least two different readings from our peers).
4. The portion that I found to be the most interesting was the one discussing the different growth rates between large and medium sized companies. Though this reading is from over 30 years ago (it was written by Drucker in 1985), it explains that in that time the Fortune 500 companies were experiencing a steady decline in terms of employees that they had working for them, while 'mid-sized' companies were steadily becoming larger and creating new jobs, while paying their employees well and being profitable.
1. I talked to Jim, a co-owner of J&J Tack Shack. He has been a horse owner his entire life and has been an owner and operator of the feed store for over a decade.
2. He is a domain expert. As a person who owns his own feed store, he knows firsthand the prices that are charged for the current brand name show feeds. As an animal owner, he also knows firsthand how hard it can be to pay for these expensive show feeds.
3. Jim is someone that I used to work for, so I have known him for years. I contacted him by calling the main store of the company, where I know his office is located, and asking to speak with him for a few minutes.
4. I presented some of the ideas that I have had towards this plan so far to Jim and asked for his opinion. The return that was implied is that if anything were to come of this company or feed type, that he would be one of the first to know so that he could either prepare to counter it or try to sell some of it in his stores as a vendor.
5. Having someone who has been around the feed industry longer than I would be valuable in many ways, with one of the main ways being having access to more stores across central Florida that I could potentially sell feed out of if a deal were struck.
Person 2
1. The next person that I met with was Jeff. He is a Purina show feed representative.
2. He is a supplier. As someone who has helped create and sell show feeds for at least the last 15 years, he has met with people around the southeastern portion of the country and helped them with their show animal feed concerns.
3. I have met Jeff several times over the last 12 years at various cattle shows. For this particular occasion, we ran into each other at a show that my siblings were at two weekends ago and I talked with him about this idea.
4. The favor that he did for me was give me constructive criticism about the plan and what he would change if he were me. There was no real agreement for how I would repay the favor to him.
5. Jeff is someone that I would be able to talk to about this plan all the way through. Even though he would technically work for a form of a rival company, he is someone that realizes that a small company or mill in one portion of one state is not going to have a real impact on him and Purina, as they are a global brand.
Person 3
1. The third person that I spoke with was Derrell. He is the owner and operator of a custom feed mill that he has run since 1974.
2. He is an expert on the market. In the past, I have worked with him to make custom blends of show feeds for my cattle and have bought other people's custom feeds for swine that he blended.
3. Over the years of buying feeds from his mill, he and I got to know each other relatively well. This initial contact allowed me to reach out to him easily enough and present the idea to him.
4. He gave me more contrastive criticism and told me the things that would be hard to make the plan work. He then told me that if I were to follow through with this plan, he wanted to be my mill. Therefore, the returned favor would be making his company my partner if this venture became real.
5. Derrell is now the person that I would use to manufacture this feed if this plan were to become an actual business and there became a way for me to go about following through with it.
Reflect:
I did not network any different than I have done in the past for the assignment. Instead, I used contacts that I already have and reached out to those people. This will change how I network in the future by simply giving me the experience to approach these types of situations with more confidence and possibly be more effective as a result.
1. I am experienced with raising and showing animals of different species. In my life, I have raised small animals such as dogs, cats, chickens and rabbits, as well as large animals including horses, cattle and hogs. With that in mind, I have had many experiences with feeding animals. On top of that, I worked at a feed store for over two years, and was able to talk to various feed representatives in that time, as well as see how much the feeds are sold to the stores for and how the markup on these feeds works. In the future, I aspire to be a sales representative for a veterinary pharmaceutical company.
2. The product that I would like to offer is a new, more complete and more inexpensive show feed ration for both show swine and show cattle for 4-H and FFA members and their families to use on their animals. This is something that I will expand on in the future, if this hypothetical idea/company was to come to fruition, to try to include more and more types of show animals and in turn benefit more people.
3. The specific customers that this will be directed at are animal owners, with the vast majority of the consumers being those that own animals that are intended to be shown or intended to have offspring that are shown.
4. There are three main reasons that people may be interested in buying this product. First of all, the goal is to make it more inexpensive than the existing products. Second, it will give them a way to get away from the large brand name corporations that some people have had bad experiences with and give them another option. Lastly, this will be a way for people to feed one feed as a complete ration, rather than having to mix in different feeds and supplements to make it cover everything that their animals need.
5. The first thing that I feel sets me apart from other people is my background. I have tried different feeds, including some that are not available locally that I was required to drive nearly 100 miles each direction once every two weeks in order to get the feed. On top of that, I have worked with feeds in a feed store and feel that this informed me more of the available options. Lastly, I have gone to UF and been educated by professors around the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, including several that are in the animal sciences department. Therefore, I have a solid formal education foundation as well. In addition to these experiences, I feel that I am an honest person who people would enjoy doing business with. Through showing my animals, many people already know my name and who I am that are involved in this industry. I feel that these people would be willing to do business with me, simply because they know that I am going to treat them well and because they have watched me participate alongside them.
I feel that all of these points flow together relatively well. The problem that I am setting out to solve is very similar to the way that my idea is a solution, which is reflected by the fact that the points are nearly identical between the two. On top of that, the things such as my background and education are both the reasons why I understand the need for this solution and the reasons that I am confident that I could solve the problem. All in all, I firmly believe that my entire background and all of my experiences mean that this is something that I am well-rounded enough and well-prepared for.
Feedback:
I did not change my post much from what I initially said. In fact, the only change that I made is adding a new aspect to the plan for potential growth in the future. This is because in the feedback that I received, I did not really have anything new that I feel I needed or anything that I needed to change. The only reason for the growth being added to the idea now is due to the ultimate goals of this plan; to make money and to help FFA and 4-H students have a way to feed their show animals affordable feed. By expanding from just swine and cattle once the business is up and running, I would both open myself up to new clients and therefore more income and be able to help a growing number of people find affordable show feed.
2. I received a good deal of feedback from the initial post. Some of the things that I found beneficial were the ones that were pointing me towards more of the marketing side of my product rather than the side of talking about nothing but the problem. I also appreciated that some of the people enjoyed my idea of throwing my own experiences in. There was not really any feedback that I did not think was beneficial or warranted.
3. In this video, I tried to make the first half a condensed version of what my first pitch was. In the second half, I used the feedback and talked more about the specifics of the product that I would be offering. The only thing that I feel had some value that I had to cut out in doing this was the personal experience piece of the pitch; however, this is not something that is only able to be shared in the elevator pitch, I feel that I would be able to work it into the discussion with certain potential customers in the future.
This is a sample of the avatar that I created. A generous portion of the people that shop for my product will be men, as from my experience most of the time when the parents are shopping for animal feed for show animals, the dad does the shopping. A good deal of these customers will also drive trucks. My customer's main hobbies include being outdoors and raising animals. The vast majority of them supported Adam Putnam as the Commissioner of Agriculture and again in the governor race, and he is their main favorite politician as he is from Central Florida and has an agricultural background. Most of them are in their 30's and shopping for their young children, showing for the first few years.
Many of the views and hobbies that this customer has are similar to mine. Adam Putnam, for example, is someone that I have met in person and hold a great deal of respect for. I also enjoy doing things outdoors and raising animals is one of my main hobbies. This is not a coincidence at all. I had this idea because it is something that I have had an issue with in the past, and is something that I wanted there to be a solution for in those time. These people are similar to me, because they are in the same position that I was for the last 10 years.
1. The five things that I feel make me different are my ability to lead, my confidence, my drive to succeed, my focus and my hard-work.
My ability to lead is something that I have used since I was a freshman in high school. Since I have been in college, I have used this less than I did in high school, but it is still something that is important for me. Any time that I am put into a group situation, I strive to be the one that 'takes charge' and leads the group. While this is not always the case, it is something that happens more times than it does not, and without it I do not think that I would be in the same position that I am today.
My confidence allows me to follow through with being the leader as I explained in the first point. If I was not such a confident person, I would not want to put myself in a situation where others are listening to me. However, I also use that confidence as a strategy for school. In situations such as a major test, I have always used the technique of answering any question that I have some sort of idea on the first time through the test. After that, I will not look at any of those questions again. I go back and make my best answer on the rest of the questions and turn it in. The majority of the time, when I look back at tests where I did this, I would have likely changed my answer and would usually have changed it to the wrong answer if I were not confident in myself the first time.
My drive to succeed is what pushes me to learn the material and continue to further my education. If I did not want to succeed in my future, I would have simply gotten a degree from my community college and gone into a low level career immediately. Instead, I have spent the past four years getting a degree from UF, where classes are undoubtedly harder than they are at a community college. I have even returned for a graduate degree, where classes are even harder still. Without my drive and desire to succeed in life, I would have taken the easy way out a long time ago.
My focus is what allows me to balance my hectic schedule. On any given day, I either have classes to attend, homework to finish or a shift at work; the past several weeks, I have had all three most days. At points in my life, I would have been unable to focus on each task at the appropriate time and get everything done. Now, however, I have further developed this ability. I will note that I have homework to do at work, or that I have work after class, but while I am performing any one of those tasks, I focus on it and complete it to the best of my ability.
Lastly, I feel that my hard-work and work ethic make me unique. Much like the last two, this is something that allowed me to get my first degree at UF, come back for my graduate degree and allows me to keep up with a busy schedule. However, it is something that I feel I have not developed, rather I was taught at a young age and have used it from grade school on. I can remember watching my dad go to work at 6 am before the sun was up and not be home until 8 or 9 pm, after the rest of us had eaten supper and were about to go to bed, at least once a week most weeks while I was in elementary school. How hard I knew he was working made me look up to and respect him during that time. It also taught me the importance of working hard and working until your job is done; these are both qualities that I feel I have gained from these experiences.
2.
a. My girlfriend - She outlined the determination that I possess. She explains that I have used it during my time in school, as well as in the job that I hold. I feel that this is something that relates well with both the drive to succeed and the hard-work that I explained above; they are all relatively similar to one another.
b. Keitha Hall; former teacher and scholarship mentor - She outlined many different skills and abilities that she feels I have. She elaborates on the ability to work as a teammate that she feels I possess. I feel that this relates well to the leadership abilities that I explained above, as sometimes being a teammate means being the leader of the team. In other situations, it means allowing someone else to be a leader.
c. My stepdad - He explained that he views me as someone who is hard-working and able to achieve things that I set my mind on. He also talks about how I am able to focus on those certain things. I feel that his interview is one that all of the points I made about myself relate to.
d. My college best friend - He outlined the memory that I have for things. He described (and always has described) my memory as 'photographic'. This is something that I did not use as one of my answers for what makes me different. However, it is something that I know is a strong point for me. While I do not have a truly photographic memory, I do have a very strong short term memory for educational material and long term memory for small things such as pieces of conversations. These things all play into the amount of confidence that I have.
e. My grandmother - She explained my desire to succeed. She also explained that I tend to not stop until I reach goals that I have set for myself. These match up exactly with one of the points that I explained above, which I find comical as I typed all of those areas out before conducting a single interview, and her interview was the final one that I completed.
3. There are not many differences or variations for how I view myself and how others view me, or at least there were not in the interviews that they gave me. Personally, I feel that my list above is a relatively complete list, as I know that these are things that have helped me get through life thus far. I also feel that the list that I compiled based on the interviews is accurate, and that they are a good representation of the person that I am.
1. The first person that I interviewed felt that price was the most important thing. He explained that when he is picking between show feeds, he will usually try the cheapest one first; if it seems good enough, he keeps using it. If it seems to be inefficient or lacking in quality, he will change it up and start feeding the one that is closest in price, and so on. The next person also picks their feeds by price, but they have a different method of picking which feed to keep. Rather than basing it on whether they like the feed or not, they go solely on price; every few weeks, she looks at the different prices and whichever is the cheapest is the one she gets that time around. The third said that his method is to find the best all-around feed; he looks for one with a middle of the pack price and quality and feeds it as long as it seems to be effective and the price stays about the same; this allows him to feed a little bit more than he would if he were to feed a higher price feed, but not need as much as the ones that are the cheapest.
2. All three potential customers were forced to buy their feed in the store, and all three agreed that if my idea worked out (the school that they or their children attend buy the feed and they in turn buy it from the school), they would be very interested as it would save them the drive and time going to the feed store every week.
3. The first customer reviews the 'rightness' of the product often and focuses on finding the right balance between quality and lowest price. The second customer focuses entirely on price, and therefore feels that they made the right purchase any time that they get the most inexpensive feed available. The final customer is similar to the first in the fact that they aim for a comparison between quality and price, but they are different due to the fact that the final customer is willing and able to move up into the middle tier of price in order to find that superior quality whereas the first customer is either not willing or not able.
4. I would aim to satisfy the idea of evaluating alternatives by keeping track of the other brands and the prices that they are selling for. Keeping my price right around or just under these brands at the very highest makes my feed a feasible option for every exhibitor, and keeping the quality at a comparable level becomes the focus for those that are able to purchase the more expensive brand name feeds. By keeping a good balance between these two areas, I will likely get more people to buy my feed over time, as the reputation for a cheaper and equal quality feed spreads. I will evaluate the post-purchase mindset of the customers in two ways; first, I can keep track of who continues to come back and buy the same amount of feed or more, as well as those that buy smaller amounts over time. This is a possible way to see those that are growing to like the feed more and those that trust in it less, with the obvious pitfall of changing numbers in animals also changing the amounts of feed sold (if someone has 10 cows and sells 9 of them, they will purchase less feed by a large amount buy also may completely love the feed). In order to avoid those pitfalls, I will also have informal surveys with customers in order to determine what they think about the feed, what they want to change and what they want to stay the same moving into the future.
1. The main behavior that I have used for this course is setting up a rough schedule for myself to follow. Between classes and work, I mostly do the assignments for this course in the evenings and on the weekends, which lines up well with the structure (cupcakes are only open on the weekend). Therefore, my schedule includes starting the assignments for the class on Thursday's and finalizing them either later that day or Friday, and then doing the replies and cupcake either Saturday or Sunday after work. Following this schedule has allowed me to spend the necessary time on this class, as well as keep up with my other classes, where most of the work is due during the week.
2. The time that I most felt like giving up and not doing at least one assignment occurred a few weeks ago. As I sat down to work on the replies and cupcake for the week, a storm hit and the power went out. I had already worked a 9 hour shift and was tired, but it was Sunday night and I worked again the next morning, so I HAD to do the cupcake before going to bed or I would get a 0 on it. After about 5 minutes of thinking about quitting, I decided to use my phone as a personal hotspot long enough to pull up other blogs and find posts to reply to, and simply did the cupcake once the power was on and I had wifi to use. With that in mind, I do feel that I have not developed a tenacious attitude, but rather strengthened the tenacious attitude that I came into this course with.
3. My three tips are short. The first is the answer I gave in question one; set up a schedule. The second is to develop a business idea that you feel you can talk about a lot at the beginning of the semester. Finally, do not give up and try your hardest, and you will succeed!
The thing that surprised me most and the thing that I most admired were the same thing; he was someone who was born into poverty, yet became one of the richest, most well-known and most successful businessmen of all time.
Something that I do not admire about him is the way that he lied to his investors, while I can understand why that might seem necessary from an owner's point of view. As someone who likes to watch the stock market and invest in stocks, I know that I would be very disappointed even as a very small investor if a company was to feed false information.
Carnegie experiences a HUGE amount of failures. Some of his failures were personal, many professional. All in all, his way of overcoming them to me was simply by pushing on and not giving up. For example, he made many great business decisions, but he also made many that turned out very poorly and cost him a great deal of money. These failures did not force him to quit, however, as is evident by his ultimate success.
2. Carnegie was had a great deal of natural intelligence. While he did not receive much formal education, he was someone who was still quick thinking and described as quick-minded. Another key competency that he had was a mind for business. This is again evident through the success that Carnegie Steel had throughout the years.
3. The part that I got the most confused in was actually during the beginning of the book. Going over the history of Carnegie's family was something that I knew nothing about beforehand, whereas I knew a little bit about his business ventures. Also, the names Andra and Andrew were used interchangeably in the beginning only, something that I had to reread the beginning of the book to understand better.
4. What stocks should I invest in today, and if you could restart your life today, would you go into the same ventures?
The first question because making money through investing was how he made a name for himself, and he may still be effective in determining where to invest today. The second is for many reasons, with the main being that he decided to change his life entirely near the end of it, going from worrying about making money to selling his business and literally giving money away.
5. I feel that his view of hard-work was just that; working hard in everything that you do and never giving up. This is something that is very closely in line with my own views.
1. I decided to pick the segment of middle-aged parents who's children are close to being of age to show animals, with a background in showing animals themselves. This group of people would be strong potential clients who would have no strong loyalties to a brand currently, as they have been disconnected from showing for some time, but they have enough knowledge from their own experiences to make educated decisions and to offer critique towards my plan moving forward.
2. I completed my interviews of three new people.
3. In all three of my interviews, I asked the parents what their plan was for feeding their children's show animals when they began to enter into that venture. All three of them were somewhat skeptical, and gave answers that reflected that. One said that she had not thought about that yet. She basically has the plan of going to the feed store the day before they get their hog and buying whatever is available then. The second explained that she has looked but has not come up with a definitive answer yet; all of them were expensive, and when she had time to do more research, she would decide which appeared to be the best value and use it. The final said he did not feel he had much choice, but that he would probably use Purina Show Chow, as it is a brand name and one that he remembers being effective when he showed his own steers. Next, all were asked if they would be interested in a local brand of show feed that was a complete ration for their animal in each stage of its development, was comparable to the brand name show feeds in terms of quality and was more affordable than other show feeds. All of them said that they would definitely be willing to try it at the beginning of their projects. The first explained that she would trust the brand because of it being locally operated and smaller; the second explained that the price being lower is her selling point and the third explained that while Purina was a brand he remembered, he was always willing to try something new and liked the sound of not having to integrate supplements on top of the feed for it to be complete.
4. In terms of looking for information, there were again three different approaches. The first answer was essentially just to go with whatever looks and sounds the best the day that they go. In other words, her plan is to not have much of a plan, at least for this first year. The second idea was to google and look at the information on the different show feeds in the area. However, she did inform me during the interview that she was disappointed and underwhelmed with how little options there were. The third said that he has gotten prices and feed labels from the different feeds that he is considering. In doing so, his plan is to compare prices and the quality that he expects the feed to contain based on the label.
5. The summaries are above.
6. There are three different approaches that would need to be used for these three different potential customers. For one, it is simply getting the name of the feed out there where she can hear it, and she is likely to at least give it a shot for no reason other than hearing about it. For the second, it is important to establish a way for people to be able to read about the feed online; having some sort of Facebook or website for the feed could suffice, if it were to reach enough people as a result. Finally, I would need for the feed to have a set price or a limited price ranges and a complete label, with ingredients and percentages, in order for the final person to be interested. This will allow customers such as this gentleman to research the feed in a way that could be considered more old fashioned by some, but that allows customers to look at what exactly they are buying and find any differences in the feeds.
1. I am experienced with raising and showing animals of different species. In my life, I have raised small animals such as dogs, cats, chickens and rabbits, as well as large animals including horses, cattle and hogs. With that in mind, I have had many experiences with feeding animals. On top of that, I worked at a feed store for over two years, and was able to talk to various feed representatives in that time, as well as see how much the feeds are sold to the stores for and how the markup on these feeds works. In the future, I aspire to be a sales representative for a veterinary pharmaceutical company.
2. The product that I would like to offer is a new, more complete and more inexpensive show feed ration for both show swine and show cattle for 4-H and FFA members and their families to use on their animals.
3. The specific customers that this will be directed at are animal owners, with the vast majority of the consumers being those that own animals that are intended to be shown or intended to have offspring that are shown.
4. There are three main reasons that people may be interested in buying this product. First of all, the goal is to make it more inexpensive than the existing products. Second, it will give them a way to get away from the large brand name corporations that some people have had bad experiences with and give them another option. Lastly, this will be a way for people to feed one feed as a complete ration, rather than having to mix in different feeds and supplements to make it cover everything that their animals need.
5. The first thing that I feel sets me apart from other people is my background. I have tried different feeds, including some that are not available locally that I was required to drive nearly 100 miles each direction once every two weeks in order to get the feed. On top of that, I have worked with feeds in a feed store and feel that this informed me more of the available options. Lastly, I have gone to UF and been educated by professors around the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, including several that are in the animal sciences department. Therefore, I have a solid formal education foundation as well. In addition to these experiences, I feel that I am an honest person who people would enjoy doing business with. Through showing my animals, many people already know my name and who I am that are involved in this industry. I feel that these people would be willing to do business with me, simply because they know that I am going to treat them well and because they have watched me participate alongside them.
I feel that all of these points flow together relatively well. The problem that I am setting out to solve is very similar to the way that my idea is a solution, which is reflected by the fact that the points are nearly identical between the two. On top of that, the things such as my background and education are both the reasons why I understand the need for this solution and the reasons that I am confident that I could solve the problem. All in all, I firmly believe that my entire background and all of my experiences mean that this is something that I am well-rounded enough and well-prepared for.
