Week 15 Reading Reflection

1) This entire article surprised me as a whole. I had never heard of this sort of business model although I thought it was a really positive business idea. It gives people living with these very low wages hope for a better future through these loans.
2) I was confused on how he came up with the idea and started the company. I would want more clarification on the ground level of his business.
3) I would ask the author what the maximum age would be for them to give someone a loan. If the person dies while the loan is not paid off they would not make any money. Also how do you prevent people from taking the loan of money and running away with it to reestablish themselves somewhere else. It might be easier to do this in low income countries.
4) The author was telling more of a story than giving out facts. Therefore as long as the author did not lie I believe that the author was right about what they said.

Final Reflection

Final Reflection

My most formative experiences were my interviews with Marty Schaffel. I asked some general questions in my first interview and I was able to ask some more precise questions in my second interview. I was also able to ask some questions that I was interested in during the second interview. My most joyous experience was interviewing customers. I enjoyed talking to people and hearing their opinions. I was most proud of my Elevator Pitch videos. I feel as this was very important and necessary for me. An area that I would need to grow in is selling a product to someone else. I found that activity very useful. 

I believe I have begun to think in an entrepreneurial mindset. I have begun to notice what attracts customers to each business. I have also started to pay attention to different marketing techniques that business are using to increase their sales. 

The number one recommendation I would make to someone who is going to take this class in the future is to be confident and do your assignments before the due date. Gaining the confidence to do some of these assignments may not be easy but it will help you in the long run. 

Venture Concept No.2

Venture Concept Write-Up

The bathroom and kitchen has evolved tremendously over the past hundred years. With new technologies that include the toilet, washing machine, and microwave, people are always looking for new ways to make their life more convenient. My product offers this next great convenient appliance. I want to make the lives of Americans easier by selling the next great appliance. My product is a bathroom or kitchen sink that is automatic. This product is common in public places but I want to make it available to the everyday American. The user no longer has to put themselves at risk of germs and bacteria by touching a dirty lever. With the automatic sink you can quickly wash your hands win the most convenient way possible. This product is the future of all bathrooms as we have reached a point in our society that this idea is technologically possible and affordable for many Americans. 

What make my product different is the fact that I offer an installation package with a handyman while at the same time offering a high-tech product. My product offers variation from the normal, boring sink that people have in their homes. Not only will my sink be available in many different aesthetic designs but it will also impress any guests that you have in your home with the automatic dispensary of water. My product would offer a solution to every desire that someone would want in a home sink. It would offer a cleaner, faster, and more convenient way to wash your hands. While at the same time it would look very appealing to anyone that uses it. I would make my money off of the purchases and installation of the sinks. I will have a very drastic price range of sinks from a simple concept to a very elegant and fashionable design that fits the look of that you are aiming for in your bathroom or kitchen.

The goal of my company is to be the supplier of the next technological advancement appliance. We want to supply consumers with what will be the new norm of home bathroom and kitchen sinks. This is my vision because I believe it is a rare opportunity. There are many people out there who are willing to pay for the most convenient and high tech product on the market. There are also many people who have to replace their broken sinks and are looking for new alternative. The changes in environment that created this opportunity are the technological advances that we have made. This product is relatively new and therefore consumers need to be convinced of its worth before they feel comfortable putting it in their homes. My main focus geographically would be the United States but if I find that I am having success I would expand to Canada and other countries that I believe my product would be successful in. This is a universal product as everyone has a demand for sinks. Customers currently are using sinks that  have levers on the sides. These levers are dirty and unnecessary. My product offers an alternative to touching dirty levers. Once you wash your hands why would you want to put your hand back on a dirty lever to turn off the sink? This opportunity can be huge. Everyone uses sinks and people are constantly replacing, building, or upgrading their bathroom and kitchen sinks. This could be a very profitable opportunity. This window of opportunity may not be open for very long. I feel as if a large corporation may come up with a similar idea and put their plan into action. 

I believe customers will switch to this new product once they realize the benefits that my product has to offer. It is much better in many ways than the current product and therefore I believe customers would want to switch to the newer product. The competitors are any companies that sell sinks. I would be competing in the sink market which is very competitive. There are many very large players that if planned correctly would have a much better chance at being successful implementing my ideas than I would based on their brand name. I would start my company off with a website. From this website I would offer the consumers the product and installation and give them a specific price. I would then spend part of my funds on marketing. It is important that consumers know where to find our product. Once I begin making sales and expanding I would need to hire employees and inventory to keep up with the demand. This will allow me to progressively grow the company as I scale it to the amount of demand that I have. 

My unfair advantage is the way I can market my product. I believe that my product is undoubtedly the most convenient and easy product on the market. I would need to convince consumers to invest their money into my product using key words like convenience, cleanliness, and safest. The next opportunity that I would want to target with my venture is adding an automatic toilet as a product. This would change the dynamic of my company from a sink company to a bathroom appliance company. I believe the automatic toilet would work very well with selling an automatic sink as many people will be looking to buy both products at the same time. In five years I hope that my company will be such a hit in the United States that I will be able to make an easy decision to expand it to other countries. I hope that I have created a company that consists of many great and wonderful employees with whom I have grown close with. I hope that my company is respected and well-liked by all my consumers. I also hope that consumers genuinely enjoy my product and I am able to attain my goal of making their lives easier. I also hope that my company grows to become the most powerful player in my market. 

The feedback that I received reminded me of how saturated the market is for the product I am attempting to produce. I would use creative marketing techniques along with a personal installation to attract more customers. I would reach out to contractors and interior designers to make my sink the most recommended sink on the automatic sink market. I would also add an automatic toilet package to buy in compliance with the sink.I did not feel a need to change my venture concept but rather expand on what I previously created. 

Elevator Pitch No.4

Very Short Interview No.2

My opinion remains the same as it was the first time I interviewed Marty Schaffel. I remain very impressed with his ability as an entrepreneur and with his previous accomplishments.

1 What was your initial vision when you started your company? Several visions, wanted to start a company that was the opposite every place he hated of every place he worked. Place were people were treated well and equal. Everyone was equally treated.

2 When hiring individuals, what did you look for in an employee? Looked for people who were honest, motivated, excited about getting up everyday and making a difference. People who had initiated.

3 In what ways did you advertise and market your business in order to attract customers? Was in 1979 therefore done through mailings, making phone calls, going to different businesses.

4 In what areas of the world do you do business? United States, Canada, Asia, Africa, Europe, South America.

I was able to come up with much more in depth and thoughtful questions after taking this course. I also felt as if I had a better understanding for his answers. 

Week 14 Reading Reflection

1) I found that there was a lot for me to learn from these chapters. Although there was a lot to learn I thought the chapters were very practical. Therefore I was not very surprised by anything in the reading.
2) I was confused on what corporate venturing was. I did not completely understand what the author meant with this term.
3) I would ask that the author expand on what intracapital is. I did not fully understand this term
I do not have any other questions for the author
4) I do not think the author was incorrect in any of his statements. Much of this chapter was information and definition based therefore I do not believe he was incorrect.

Google Gold

1. The goal with Search Engine Optimiation (SEO) is to create the most traffic onto your webpage. I attempted to do this by using key words that were popular in whatever topic I was writing about. I would make sure to restate the main part of my assignment multiple times throughout the post.
2. Keywords that I included were business. customers, product, entrepreneur, money. These are words that usually attract viewers people are searching for a post and or article
3. I used youtube to attempt to enhance my SEO. These videos hopefully helped attract viewers to my blog.
4. My most “viral” blog post was the Twenty Percent post. Although this post only received twenty-two views. What makes this post very active is that I had nine comments. This was the most comments that I received from a post during this semester.
5. Using these key words, I was non-existent on the pages of google. My posts have not attracted nearly enough attention to gain a presence on youtube. I was able to find my blog on google, however, by searching Cameron Barsoum Blog. My blog was the first item to come up after searching this.