28A - Your Exit Strategy

I think I would probably stay with this business until I graduated from UF, and then hopefully try to sell it to someone else who I think would be able to manage it and grow it well. At most, I would keep the business for five years and then sell it. I’ve selected this particular exit strategy just because I want this to be a college business, and once I’m no longer in college, I want to be able to move on to bigger and better things. I will use this business as a learning experience and take what I learn from it and apply that to other business ideas that I come up. I really don’t think that I thought about my exit strategy in depth until this assignment, so I don’t necessarily think that it has an effect on any of the other decisions that I’ve made throughout the class. I want the business to be as successful as possible, no matter how long or how short I decide to keep it. 

27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

I read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

What surprised me the most was the before it was Nike, he called his company Blue Ribbon.

I think what I admired most was the fact that Knight was willing to go broke for his idea. He was so passionate about sports and his ideas, that he put everything on the line and had the “nothing to lose” attitude. 

What I admired the least was that I felt, at times, Knight relied a lot on faith in himself. While having faith is a great thing, it only gets you so far. 

Knight of course encountered failure and adversity. He had several lawsuits, didn’t have that much capital to begin with, and had to change suppliers, just to name a few. Knight always kept his cool and dealt with every situation well. He was never overcome by failure. 

Phil Knight exhibited many competencies. He was passionate about sports, and turned that passion into an extremely successful brand. He was not afraid of failure, but did what he could to avoid it and create an empire. He was willing to do anything to make Nike a success, even selling shoes out of his car.

I think the only part that confused me was the name change. If Blue Ribbon had a good name and reputation, why would Knight want to change the name to Nike? 

I would ask Knight where he got the courage to cold call Mr. Onitsuka. I would also ask him how, after the shortcomings and the lawsuits, he was able to persevere and find success. 

I would say that Knight believed hard work was everything. It is clear that he always put in the work to make sure Nike was a success.

26A - Celebrating Failure

I’m an industrial and systems engineering major. For my major, one of my critical tracking classes is a computer programming class. I was in this class last semester, and no matter how many programs I did, no matter how hard I studied, my brain just could not comprehend the coding language. I didn’t think I was going to be able to pass, so I dropped the class, and retook is this semester. I spoke to the professor beforehand and he said students usually pass with flying colors the next time they take the class. So, I went into it with an open mind and really thought I was going to be able to pass. Well, I haven’t been doing that great again and now I might have to switch my major because of one class. I’m not a bad student; I put my all into everything, I spend countless sleepless nights in Library West doing the sample programs, but for whatever reason I just cannot learn how to code. All of my different study techniques have failed. I’ve tried recoding all the past programs. I’ve tried just reading through the codes to understand the logic. Nothing seems to work for me. I don’t really handle failure very well. I’ll be honest, I’ve cried for hours and hours before and after exams because of my frustration. I have a chance at passing the class this time, but I don’t know if I really can. Honestly, what I’ve learned is that there are multiple paths to success. If this doesn’t work out, maybe there’s something better out there for me. This one class does not change the way I perceive myself—I have a perfect transcript otherwise and I know I’m not dumb, I just can’t code. And that’s OK. This class really had no effect on my perspective of failure. I am going to take a risk and take the final and see if I pass rather than withdraw from the class again, but that is because I need to take a chance, not necessarily due to this class. 

25A - What's Next?

Existing Market

I think what’s next would be to start actually finding tutors that I know have a really good background and understanding in whatever classes they are going to be teaching. I can’t really move on to any other steps because if there are no tutors for a tutoring service, essentially the product doesn’t exist. 

The first person I interviewed thought that I shouldn’t limit myself to just upper-level classes. He said that if I was going to create a tutoring service, I should try to provide as many classes as I possibly could, and if this meant doing some general education classes as well, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, I would just be providing for more people. This person agreed that I should start by finding tutors, then working forward from there. 

The second person I interviewed said that my next step should be finding an actual facility to conduct the tutoring sessions (the group review sessions). This person couldn’t think of anything that I should do that I wasn’t already planning on doing—his only “issue” was that competing with services like Study Edge was going to be an obstacle. He said customers might want you to start marketing and offering deals right now so they have incentives to join your tutoring service. 

The third person I interviewed said that I should try to make a deal with the UF Bookstore in the Reitz Union to sell my tutoring supplies. She was skeptical about this at first because she thought that they exclusively sold Smokin Notes, but still thought that that should be added to the list of things that I should do that I wasn’t already planning on doing. She thought that an on-campus distributor would make the product more convenient for UF students to access instead of having to go somewhere else to pick up notes and packets. 

In terms of “what’s next” for growing my tutoring service, I think the first person I interviewed made some really compelling points. While I was initially only going to offer tutoring for the major focused, upper-level classes, I think it would be smart to branch out and offer classes that most freshman are taking as well. That way, the students can come to us at the beginning of their university experience and stay with us as loyal customers until they graduate. Once they see that our tutors know what they’re talking about and they see actual results from their freshman year, they will feel confident in our tutoring service to help them get all the way through college.

New Market

As of right now my tutoring service is for young, undergraduate students at the University of Florida. A market that is radically different may be adults (ages 40-50) that may have graduated and want to go back to school and get another degree or just learn some more material during their free time. 

My tutoring service might create value for these adults because school is really different (and harder, in my opinion) than it was when people were going to college ~20+ years ago.  My tutoring service could teach them how to study now and help them get acclimated to a university environment again. 

I interviewed my mom and dad for this section. My mom agreed that college is vastly different now than it was when she was going to university. Her adaptation was that I should offer Skype tutoring sessions because there are people who work full-time jobs and may not have time to meet anywhere for tutoring. My dad was worried about marketing to adults. Being that I was planning to use social media for most of my advertising, he thought it would be hard to reach a lot of the older generation because he doesn’t really understand how Facebook and Twitter work, so, for him, the advertising would be ineffective. He suggested finding a different way to reach this target audience. 

I think after talking to my parents, I think that this is actually a pretty good marketing to try to break into. I was initially surprised because I was only trying to make a tutoring service for undergraduate students, but I realized there are many adults that still are going to school and still want to learn. I think the university environment can be a little intimidating for some adults, especially because there is so much technology incorporated into the classrooms and the homework assignments nowadays, so I think it would be a good idea to try to target the adult market and help them get acclimated to school life. The only issue that I see is what my father brought up with the marketing aspect. I wouldn’t really know how to reach a lot of adults because they might be working jobs during the day and attending class at night and have no time to check social media for our advertisements or just simply not know how to work social media. That would be the only issue that I see with this market, is just simply trying to reach out to them and let them know that our services are available. 

24A - Venture Concept No. 1

·      Opportunity

o   My product is a tutoring service for higher-level courses. This does not include general education, introductory classes for the University. The tutoring will be specifically for students at the University of Florida who have entered into their major-focused classes. As students start to enter into the major classes, there are fewer resources for them, yet the material is much harder. My tutoring service aims to solve this problem.

o   I think that the curriculum here at the University of Florida is changing more and more and it is getting more difficult. As we admit more highly qualified students and our ranking increases (Top 10 Public University!) our professors expect more from us. Because of this, exams will be made harder as they think we can handle more. Harder exams and harder classes are creating this opportunity.

o   The market is defined as students at the University of Florida, typically second semester sophomores through seniors.

o   From interviews that I have conducted, it seems that customers are satisfying this need by visiting their TAs and professor’s office hours. Several people have complained that professors are not always available for questions, and office hours aren’t held every day. Therefore, it seems they are not very loyal to this current method.

o   This is a big opportunity because students always want to succeed in their classes in order to get jobs and enter the workforce.

o   The window of opportunity will, I think, always be open. As long as students are attending university, there will always be the need for tutoring and additional help.

·      Innovation:

o   My tutoring service will give you all the tools you will need to succeed in your higher-level courses. The courses we will offer are specifically geared towards your harder classes; the classes which your potential employers will be looking at specifically to see if you understand the concepts and if you have the skills they are looking for when hiring applicants. We also want to teach you appropriate study habits and help organize your schedule.

o   My tutoring service will come with three different options for you to choose from. You can buy a monthly subscription for group tutoring services at $50 a month, you can buy a package with hourly rates for one-on-one tutoring at $70 an hour, or you can choose to buy helpful study materials that contain important lecture notes that you can study with on your own at $20 per package.

·      Venture Concept:

o   Students will buy a subscription for my tutoring service because they will see that there aren’t other services that offer tutoring for upper-level classes in the Gainesville area.

o   I don’t think customers will switch to my product because there isn’t another tutoring service near UF that does what I want to do. Sure, there are some that teach the Chemistry and Calculus classes, but none offer high-level courses.

o   The competitors are other tutoring services. Their weakness is the fact that they don’t offer that many classes.

o   I think that price point will play a big role just because I am dealing with students who are already paying a lot in tuition and fees, and I have to price fairly so they will use my service.

o   I would hire as many tutors as I could, probably over 50 to begin with, and preferably people that have taken the classes at UF so they know the professors and know the curriculum. The roles in the venture would be the tutors, the marketing staff to get the word out, the advertising staff, and a front-of-house group to answer questions about the venture.

·      My “secret sauce” is the fact that I am a student at UF myself and I know the struggles that students face. I have heard about the hardest professors and know about the tricks on certain exams. This allows me to help other students taking the course to succeed.

·      If this venture sees success, I could potentially expand to other universities and offer this type of tutoring service in different locations. For now, I am most familiar with UF’s curriculum so I want to stick here and then grow if there is potential.

·      Hopefully, this business will allow me to learn and grow as an entrepreneur. Maybe in 5 years, I will have sold and moved on to another venture. This venture serves as a learning experience to whatever I do next in my life.

23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1.     I am a student at the University of Florida and I have similar struggles that other students have

·      Valuable- it’s valuable because I can relate to other students in the struggles with classes

·      Rare- I think it’s pretty rare to have a tutoring service created by a current student at that particular university

·      Inimitable- I suppose other students could create their own tutoring service so it could be imitated

·      Non-substitutable- I don’t think this could be substituted because this is what makes my tutoring service unique

2.     My mother is also an entrepreneur

·      Valuable- this is extremely valuable because I could have someone help guide me

·      Rare- this is relatively rare I suppose—I don’t know many people with entrepreneur parents

·      Inimitable- nobody would help me the way my mother would so this cannot be imitated

·      Non-substitutable- I don’t think another mentor would help me in the same way as my mother so this cannot be substituted

3.     My connections at UF—the clubs and organizations that I’m involved in could get involved or help spread the word

·      Valuable- any type of publicity would be valuable

·      Rare- this isn’t rare because people always ask their friends for help

·      Inimitable- other people could do this too, they just have to ask their friends for help and use their connections to their advantage

·      Non-substitutable- the connections that I’ve made with people cannot be substituted

4.     The proximity to other successful tutoring services

·      Valuable- this is valuable because I could potentially ask people with successful business models for tips

·      Rare- I don’t think this is rare because there is always competition around

·      Inimitable- this could be copied

·      Non-substitutable- this could be substituted with different mentorship  

5.     The leadership positions I currently hold

·      Valuable- being in charge of several organizations has taught me valuable skills that I can apply to being in charge of a business

·      Rare- this isn’t rare because there are plenty of people at UF that hold leadership positions in their clubs

·      Inimitable- this can be imitated because other people can hold leadership positions

·      Non-substitutable- I don’t think that the experience of being a leader can be substituted

6.     I have experience tutoring students

·      Valuable- this will be valuable because I know what works and what doesn’t

·      Rare- I don’t think this is that rare because there are people that tutor for volunteering or just to make extra money on the side

·      Inimitable- this can be copied because there is always a need for tutoring

·      Non-substitutable- this type of experience cannot be substituted

7.     My willingness to ask for help when I need it

·      Valuable- this is valuable because it is important to ask for advice when you’re in a rut

·      Rare- I don’t think this is rare—there are definitely people that ask for help when they need to

·      Inimitable- this is a skill that can be imitated by other people

·      Non-substitutable- you can’t substitute something like this

8.     My ability to adapt if things don’t work

·      Valuable- this is valuable because it is important to accept your mistakes and make adjustments

·      Rare- this is relatively rare because sometimes people are afraid to change things

·      Inimitable- this can be copied if people accept what they are doing wrong and are willing to change their approach

·      Non-substitutable- you cannot substitute a skill like this

9.     I see a genuine need for this product

·      Valuable- this is important because if there is no need, then why would you waste time creating the business?

·      Rare- I don’t think this is rare because usually people create things that they see people have a need for

·      Inimitable- this is copied because people create businesses when there is a need for them

·      Non-substitutable- you can’t substitute this, because if there’s no need the product will not succeed

10.  My passion

·      Valuable- this is valuable because if you don’t believe in your business it will never succeed

·      Rare- this isn’t rare because a lot of people are passionate about what they do

·      Inimitable- you cannot imitate passion you just have to have it

·      Non-substitutable- you cannot substitute passion for anything else, you just have to have it

I think my first resource is most important because if I want to open a tutoring service at UF, I will know what the classes are like and that helps me determine different approaches and ways to help students in their classes. My experience with the professors and the classes gives me a big heads up other the other competition.