30A – Final Reflection

The most formative experience for me was having to go out and interview as many people as I did. This was a great experience for me and allowed me to really step outside of my comfort zone and talk to strangers about an idea that I have. Something I will remember later are all the amazing ideas that everyone came up with. Some of them are so cool and would be really useful and I hope some of them actually start these businesses! My most joyous experience was getting a lot of positive feedback on my ideas as it really encouraged me to keep going with this idea. I am most proud of myself for make this idea as large as it is. I love seeing how far I have come and how much research and thought I have put into this.

I definitely think I have an entrepreneurial mindset. I know that I can create anything I want and if I actually wanted to do these things, it is very possible! This class showed me that anyone is capable of doing these things and creating their own businesses. 

I recommend not being shy and do what you really want! Even if it is something you have no idea how to even start, this class will help you start your idea and show you have to continue it!

29A – Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity.

The customers that I am marketing towards fall into three categories.

1. The first category which makes up most of my potential customers are soldiers who do not have transportation or prefer to use public transportation. This customer may not be able to afford a vehicle, not be able to afford insurance, not be able to drive or simply is trying limit his spending.
2. The second category are the families or soldiers. These families may only have one vehicle or no vehicles at all. These families are anyone that lives on or off post that is in need of getting around post.
3. The third category are DOD civilians. These are people who work on post that may be looking for a ride.

 What are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity?

• The main reason creating this opportunity is the fact that other means of transportation are not allowed on post.

How is this market define geographically and demographically?

• Geographically this market is currently limited to the base that I am located at. Demographically this market is young or new soldiers, families and DOD civilians.

How are customers currently satisfying this need? And how loyal are they to whatever they use now?

• Customers are currently satisfying their need by getting rides from friends, riding bikes or walking. They are very loyal to this because they have no other option.

How big is this opportunity?

• This opportunity has the potential to be used as a base-wide means of transportation. It can potentially replace some individuals transportation.

How long will the "window of opportunity" be open?

• This opportunity will be open until someone else does it. With how long the opportunity has been open, there seems to be no motivation from others to change it.

Innovation. 

The service I am offering to address customer needs is a bus system that will be brought on post for anyone to use that has access to the base. This will contain multiple buses that run 24/7 across the post. There will be stops along major neighborhoods, close to shopping centers, close to works and at all the gates across post. 

There will be 4 different ways for customers to purchase these bus tickets. All ticket prices will be the same for all people on post.

1) The first way to buy a ticket will be to purchase a one-way bus pass.

• $1.00

2)The second way to buy a ticket will be to purchase a day pass. This will allow customers to use the bus system for an unlimited time for 24 hours.

• $3

3) The third way to buy a ticket would be to buy a 20 ride pass. This will allow customers to ride the bus 20 times.

• $15

4) The fourth way to buy a ticket would be to buy a monthly pass. This will give them unlimited rides for the entire month.

• $40

Venture Concept.

Implementing a bus system will offer a means of public transportation for everyone on post that was once not available. Customers would buy this service because there are no other competitors and they are very limited on options. It will not be hard to get customers to switch as it is reliable and inexpensive. The only weaknesses would be accidental bus breakdowns or accidents. If this happens there needs to be a close bus and driver nearby to replace this broken bus.

My most important resource will be being able to relate to these customers and understand their needs because I once had this unmet need.

The next venture would be to implement a bus system at other posts that currently do not have a bus system or a quality bus system.

In five years, I would want to have a successful service at my current installation and be in the process of implementing these bus systems at other posts.

I received a lot of positive feedback on my venture concept as people stated my prices seemed fair and they loved the idea of helping people who can not afford these prices but are still trying to get to work and other areas of the installation. Another comment had mentioned what we would do during a pandemic such as the one we are in now as many people are avoiding public transportation and this would hurt my business.

In order to compensate for things like pandemic, I will have additional buses that are able to switch between others in route so they can get cleaned every so often. I will provide hand sanitizer and implement a hand washing station at each bus stop for individuals to use before and after they get on the bus.

28A – Your Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

My exit strategy is to stay with the business for several decades and retire. This all depends on how the business is going as well, if I do not think it is going well then I might sell it and move on.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

I have selected this particular exit strategy because I think my service is something that will be needed for years and years. I do not think that the need will ever change.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

I do think it has influenced my choices greatly. If I did not see a successful and long future with this product, I would not have hoped to start this opportunity as I would not receive all that I have put into it.

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

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

The theme of Inbound Marketing is how to attract people to your product in terms of social media and different marketing techniques.

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

This book has provided me with many tools I can use to market my product and different ways I can use social media to do this. Throughout this course I have struggled to find good ways to market my product but after reading this book I feel a lot more comfortable being able to do this.

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

For an exercise for this class, I would use what I learned from Chapter 4 - Create Remarkable Content. I would have students create different content for their proposed products and have them learn how to track their progress as described in the book. This would allow the students to visually see if their content is good or not.

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?

One thing that I found surprising was how much marketing has changed over the past 10 years with the way technology has changed. You can no longer use things such as phone calls or emails or even advertisements on TV because people have technology that can filter out these and skip ads on TV. All of this has definitely made it much harder for people to advertise their products.

26A – Celebrating Failure

1) Earlier this semester, I tried to fix my car on my own. I researched what the issue could be and I asked multiple people their opinion and I decided to fix it myself. I changed all of the things I thought it could be and that did not help. Then I had to tow my car an hour away to go get it fixed and it turned out it was the entire computer system in my car. Luckily, it was under warranty but I failed to fix my car.

2) I learned that I am not an expert on cars and even though something may seem so easy, it isn't always that easy. Sometimes you need help from others. 

3) I think failure is annoying if anything. It's annoying not to be able to do something you try to do and have to do it over and over again. I think I deal with failure pretty good as I am a strong believer in everything happens for a reason. I think once I get over the initial annoyance of it, I can move on pretty quickly. I think I am more likely to take a risk because of this class just because I know ways I can prepare for failure without it hurting my as bad.

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market. 

For these interviews, I continued to get positive feedback and supportive potential customers that were very intrigued about my business idea. They loved the idea of a bus system that they could use whenever and the prices seemed very fair to them.

Some ideas they had were to include a few buses that would try off post to the neighboring city that has more stores and restaurants. They also mentioned only running these buses during the weekend as there would be less travel on post due to everyone being off work and having these additional buses would provide additional revenue for the bus system on the weekends.

I loved the idea of including buses that run to the neighboring cities on the weekend! I thought it was a great idea and would definitely give people a way to travel off post as well. I think this would be more successful as a weekend thing due to the travel distance and limited people traveling to these places during the weekend.

New Market.

For this part of the assignment I decided to focus on individuals who are poorer or have less money than the average person I am targeting. I think that we should included discounted prices for people who are in financial situations that have caused them to lose travel. For instance, with the Coronavirus, many people were left without jobs and people may not have been able to pay for their car insurance and may not be able to drive. With this, we could offer these individuals a discounted price for bus tickets to help them with their situation.

I interviewed a single mom who has had her hours cut due to the Coronavirus and someone who has lost their job due to the Coronavirus. Both of these individuals thought the bus system was a great idea and it would help them do simple things such as going to the grocery store. It would also allow them to go to job interviews and go other places on post that they wouldn't have been able to do before.

I really enjoyed doing this assignment as it allowed me to hear the opinions on many different people that I may have not thought about otherwise. I definitely think having discounted prices for these individuals is very important, we'd just have to figure out how to assess their financial situation.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity.

The customers that I am marketing towards fall into three categories.

1. The first category which makes up most of my potential customers are soldiers who do not have transportation or prefer to use public transportation. This customer may not be able to afford a vehicle, not be able to afford insurance, not be able to drive or simply is trying limit his spending.
2. The second category are the families or soldiers. These families may only have one vehicle or no vehicles at all. These families are anyone that lives on or off post that is in need of getting around post.
3. The third category are DOD civilians. These are people who work on post that may be looking for a ride.

 What are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity?

• The main reason creating this opportunity is the fact that other means of transportation are not allowed on post.

How is this market define geographically and demographically?

• Geographically this market is currently limited to the base that I am located at. Demographically this market is young or new soldiers, families and DOD civilians.

How are customers currently satisfying this need? And how loyal are they to whatever they use now?

• Customers are currently satisfying their need by getting rides from friends, riding bikes or walking. They are very loyal to this because they have no other option.

How big is this opportunity?

• This opportunity has the potential to be used as a base-wide means of transportation. It can potentially replace some individuals transportation.

How long will the "window of opportunity" be open?

• This opportunity will be open until someone else does it. With how long the opportunity has been open, there seems to be no motivation from others to change it.

Innovation. 

The service I am offering to address customer needs is a bus system that will be brought on post for anyone to use that has access to the base. This will contain multiple buses that run 24/7 across the post. There will be stops along major neighborhoods, close to shopping centers, close to works and at all the gates across post. 

There will be 4 different ways for customers to purchase these bus tickets. All ticket prices will be the same for all people on post.

1) The first way to buy a ticket will be to purchase a one-way bus pass.

• $1.00

2)The second way to buy a ticket will be to purchase a day pass. This will allow customers to use the bus system for an unlimited time for 24 hours.

• $3

3) The third way to buy a ticket would be to buy a 20 ride pass. This will allow customers to ride the bus 20 times.

• $15

4) The fourth way to buy a ticket would be to buy a monthly pass. This will give them unlimited rides for the entire month.

• $40

Venture Concept.

Implementing a bus system will offer a means of public transportation for everyone on post that was once not available. Customers would buy this service because there are no other competitors and they are very limited on options. It will not be hard to get customers to switch as it is reliable and inexpensive. The only weaknesses would be accidental bus breakdowns or accidents. If this happens there needs to be a close bus and driver nearby to replace this broken bus.

My most important resource will be being able to relate to these customers and understand their needs because I once had this unmet need.

The next venture would be to implement a bus system at other posts that currently do not have a bus system or a quality bus system.

In five years, I would want to have a successful service at my current installation and be in the process of implementing these bus systems at other posts.