Assignment 30A

The most formative experience I had with this class was having to create the idea napkins and the venture concepts. It was difficult for me to get my complete thoughts and ideas about my product onto paper, and try to explain simply what it was I wanted to do and what I am offering. The experience I’ll remember the most was having to call random professionals in the industry, trying to get them to talk to me about my product idea. My most joyous experience was when I would work really hard on an assignment and someone would comment that I had a well thought out idea, because it really felt like my work paid off. I am most proud of myself for accomplishing the elevator pitches, as I was super nervous and anxious to record them, so getting them done made me feel great.

I wouldn’t say that I see myself as an entrepreneur quite yet, because I think I still have a ways to go and learn before that. I do think I have developed the entrepreneurial spirit quite a bit, however, and I feel like I’ve learned how to continue developing myself in this way. After this class ends I’m going to continue with the skills I’ve learned from this class, and hopefully I will have success with any entrepreneurial endeavors I take on in the future.

For students who are going to start this journey int he future, I would say to do every assignment as each of them really reinforces the topics we are learning, and with practice you get better, making each next assignment easier. I would also recommend to set up a schedule, as many of the assignments do require a bit of thought or effort before the due date, so staying on top of your work is obviously crucial. To foster the mindset I would say to always be thinking of the assignments as real work, not just school. Think about how you would do it if your income depended on your success.

Assignment 29A

With so many students going to college now, it's easy to see why there is an opening in the market for a bag that would work for college students for many uses. College students are facing increasing costs of living, with increased importance on trying to save space and live in smaller areas. Many students live in very small apartments, or even in dorm rooms. These students do not have very much space and also very little extra money so even if they did have the space to store multiple bags it is unlikely that they would purchase them anyway.  Because of this many of today's college students find themselves without a proper bag for many overnight stays. geographically there's no real indication for where this market is, but rather it is with all of the college students we have no room for a bag or even business travelers who face unexpected conditions and never know how much stuff they need to pack. The market is definitely defined more to the younger people, due to the fact that they tend not to own homes and don't have the space that may be required to store multiple bags. There is very little in the market now to satisfy this need for the customer, so they have no loyalty if there were to be a better option I'm sure they would switch easily. Typically people in the situation now are trying to find ways to take up less space with storing more bags or simply use one bag for every purpose. I would not say that this opportunity is huge, as it is mostly selling to college students who have very little extra money. But this is a very real issue for many of these college students so I'm sure that many of them would be happy to purchase an item I would make things easier for them. I believe this window of opportunity will be opened for a while but not for much longer as someone else is sure to enter the market to begin selling these bags for multiple purposes to these college students and business travelers. It's a fairly simple opportunity but one that is relatively untouched so far in the market as many companies who create bags started to categorize their bags into how many nights they can carry worth of clothing.

The innovation in my product is the ability to change the dimensions of the bag to suit your needs exactly. This is achieved through a series of zippers and pockets that allow the bag to be unzipped and expanded in many different areas to change your company simply one or two nights to a full week. The bag is a relatively easy thing to manufacture and can be done by small local textile companies. The costs of production would increase a lot once sales exceed what can be done by a small supplier, but once the shift is made to a large manufacturer, the costs should start to decrease overall. I would like to be selling this bag for around $60 as I believe many people will find use from this bag, but I don't think it will be something that they purchased more than once. The innovation here really revolves around the understanding of constraints within the home in storage, and ideally college students like myself but no longer have to try and make do with one bag that's huge or way too small because we don't have the space to store multiple bags. The goal with this product is to allow customers to have one bag that they can zip up and make very small and easy to store, and when the need arises, expand the bag to fit their needs for that specific moment. I would like customers to see this bag as one bag to fit all their needs no matter how long the trip may be.

People who live in very small homes like college students will no longer have the issue of trying to store multiple bags for multiple occasions but instead will just have the one bag that they can use for all of their needs. I believe that customers will buy this innovation because it solves an issue that not many people really realize exists for them until the situation arises where they're trying to pack for a trip and realize they have only one bag and it does not suit their needs for this trip. This difficulty in identifying the issue means that people are not normally looking for solution as they would only really be interested in the solution during the same time as they’re experiencing the issue and this means that would marketing the product we will have to remind consumers of the issue in order to make them desire the solution that we provided. I don't think it will be very hard to get consumers to switch to this product due to the fact that there are very few solutions out there that do the same thing. As of now, it seems that the most prevalent solution is simply own one bag and try to make do with it whether it's cramming tons of stuff in it or caring one huge bag for one night away. I believe that college students and business travelers who have this issue will see that this product we have provided is very helpful and I think they will switch with great ease.

I received some positive feedback letting me know my idea was well thought out and detailed. The best feedback I got through was letting me know how helpful it would be to include some kind of cost structure or understanding. I used this and tried to explain how costs would work for creating these bags, but without solid numbers, I can't provide an exact cost structure. I hope that with some explanation of how costs would work for creating and selling these bags, people will have a better understanding of how it all works.

Assignment 27A

I read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams. The main theme of the book is that people will encounter numerous failures throughout their life, and you have to learn to take care of yourself so you can keep pushing forward and achieve your dreams. He believes that goals are inherently flawed and instead people should set forth systems that will help them achieve their dreams, rather than goals.

The book enhanced what I’ve learned in this class by really explaining how failure isn’t an issue, but we have to continue on and keep trying. It also reinforced what I’ve learned in the class about working on projects that you really care about. Adams says that if you have energy when doing a task, failure won’t stop you, because you’ll be enjoying the journey.

I would have people identify their ideal schedule, and identify when they work best. Some people work best in the morning and some work better in the afternoons or the evenings. FInding your proper schedule and lining it up with when you work best will provide the highest productivity.

I was really surprised about how Adams doesn’t think goals are effective, as I’d always thought having goals was the best way to progress in life. Adams says that goals have two main flaws, and that's why we should set up systems for ourselves so we can continue to grow. The flaws are that goals are too far in the future and bums you out working today to achieve in the future and that they are too specific and often leave people disappointed with minor deviations from the achieved goal.

Assignment 28A

I would like to sell the business in around a decade. I think this would give me plenty of time to build a well functioning and profitable business. I want to sell it because I don’t foresee myself doing this company for my entire life, and the money from the sale will allow me to finance my next venture. I think my exit strategy has influenced many things, like identifying an opportunity based on the profit to be made rather than a need a very much want to fill. I also think it influences how I plan to acquire resources. Since the goal is to sell the company in the end, we would want to acquire as many resources as possible to increase the worth and effectiveness of the company.

Assignment 26A

Throughout this semester I have been taking a class on public speaking and I’ve had to do many long speeches in front of many people. I got poor grades on the first four exams and only on the fifth did I finally receive a C. I spent hour and hours working on and practicing those speeches, and ultimately failed. Every time I learned feedback from my professor I did my best to incorporate it into the next speech, but with the increasing expectations, I was unable to get a decent grade.

I learned that just because you fail more than once doesn’t mean that you won’t succeed in the end. It took me 5 tries to get a decent grade but I’m so glad I didn’t give up or drop the class because I wouldn’t have finally earned this grade. I also learned that truth behind the quote “failure isn’t defined by falling down, but defined by not getting back up” meaning that it's really okay to fail as long as you don’t let it get to you, and you continue to push forward.

I got very embarrassed when I performed a poor speech in front of my class and would go home and sulk about it and be sad for a while. After the first few failed speeches I realized that sulking wasn’t helping and was silly to dwell on. I could only do better and work harder for the next speech and I’d get more done without being sad. This class has taught me that without risk there can be no reward and that everyone encounters failure. We can’t avoid risk to avoid failure but rather we must embrace it, and learn from our failures. I am much more likely to take risks now than I would have been at the start of the semester.

Assignment 23A

I am a student living on campus and as such have access to numerous college students who might be interested in my product.

This is very valuable but very easy to copy and substitutable, and not rare at all, as there are so many college students around the country.

I have made connections with people who work in the fields that will help me create and sell this product.

This is very rare and valuable and not easy to copy as it takes years to develop relationships like this. It’s hard to substitute for good help.

I am able to gather a lot of information on demand and the specifications that people might want from this product.

This is very valuable and hard to substitute for but isn't very rare. It is also fairly easily easy to copy and hold focus groups.

Starting to create my product will not take a lot of money to produce the first few, as it’s mostly sewing, which will allow me to get started without the large financial influx.

This isn’t super valuable but it is hard to copy as your materials depend on what you’re making. There are few substitutes for needing little money, and its a fairly rare thing.

I am a very friendly person, and very good at getting people to agree to have meetings or calls with me.

This is very valuable when trying to sell, and also hard to substitute for. It can be copied but it does take a decent amount of work, but unfortunately isn’t rare as many people are nice who are involved in selling.

I have a large network of business associates from my many years working many jobs, and I could call on these people when I first start to sell the product.

This is moderately valuable but not very rare. There are not many substitutes for a good selling network, and as such is fairly hard to copy.

Market testing is easy because all I have to do is show someone the bag and they can decide or not if they like it, it doesn’t take much time to decide.

This is not very valuable, but it is hard to copy. It’s easy to substitute a short market test for a longer one, so that's not a huge deal either. There are also multiple substitutes for market testing like this.

I have been in management positions because so once the company starts producing many bags and employees are needed, I will have no problem leading the team

This will be very valuable once the company gets bigger, but it’s not rare as many people have management experience. It’s hard to copy but can be substituted by simply hiring someone.

Because the bag is made of a plastic-based fabric, it's relatively cheap and doesn’t take anything fancy to find the materials.

This is hugely valuable because it means I can start producing very cheaply. This is hard to substitute or copy, but can not rare since many people are producing with cheap materials.

Many stores sell overnight bags so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a store willing to give our product some shelf space.

This isn’t very valuable, but it is hard to copy. Everyone wants their stuff in stores so its rare to have a product that would get in easier than others. There are not many substitutes for selling in stores.

Assignment 24A - The MultiBag

With so many students going to college now, it's easy to see why there is an opening in the market for a bag that would work for college students for many uses. College students are facing increasing costs of living, with increased importance on trying to save space and live in smaller areas. Many students live in very small apartments, or even in dorm rooms. These students do not have very much space and also very little extra money so even if they did have the space to store multiple bags it is unlikely that they would purchase them anyway.  Because of this many of today's college students find themselves without a proper bag for many overnight stays. geographically there's no real indication for where this market is, but rather it is with all of the college students we have no room for a bag or even business travelers who face unexpected conditions and never know how much stuff they need to pack. The market is definitely defined more to the younger people, due to the fact that they tend not to own homes and don't have the space that may be required to store multiple bags. There is very little in the market now to satisfy this need for the customer, so they have no loyalty if there were to be a better option I'm sure they would switch easily. Typically people in the situation now are trying to find ways to take up less space with storing more bags or simply use one bag for every purpose. I would not say that this opportunity is huge, as it is mostly selling to college students who have very little extra money. But this is a very real issue for many of these college students so I'm sure that many of them would be happy to purchase an item I would make things easier for them. I believe this window of opportunity will be opened for a while but not for much longer as someone else is sure to enter the market to begin selling these bags for multiple purposes to these college students and business travelers. It's a fairly simple opportunity but one that is relatively untouched so far in the market as many companies who create bags started to categorize their bags into how many nights they can carry worth of clothing.

The innovation in my product is the ability to change the dimensions of the bag to suit your needs exactly. This is achieved through a series of zippers and pockets that allow the bag to be unzipped and expanded in many different areas to change your company simply one or two nights to a full week. I would like to be selling this bag for around $60 as I believe many people will find use from this bag, but I don't think it will be something that they purchased more than once. The innovation here really revolves around the understanding of constraints within the home in storage, and ideally college students like myself but no longer have to try and make do with one bag that's huge or way too small because we don't have the space to store multiple bags. The goal with this product is to allow customers to have one bag that they can zip up and make very small and easy to store, and when the need arises, expand the bag to fit their needs for that specific moment. I would like customers to see this bag as one bag to fit all their needs no matter how long the trip may be.

People who live in very small homes like college students will no longer have the issue of trying to store multiple bags for multiple occasions but instead will just have the one bag that they can use for all of their needs. I believe that customers will buy this innovation because it solves an issue that not many people really realize exists for them until the situation arises where they're trying to pack for a trip and realize they have only one bag and it does not suit their needs for this trip. This difficulty in identifying the issue means that people are not normally looking for solution as they would only really be interested in the solution during the same time as they’re experiencing the issue and this means that would marketing the product we will have to remind consumers of the issue in order to make them desire the solution that we provided. I don't think it will be very hard to get consumers to switch to this product due to the fact that there are very few solutions out there that do the same thing. As of now, it seems that the most prevalent solution is simply own one bag and try to make do with it whether it's cramming tons of stuff in it or caring one huge bag for one night away. I believe that college students and business travelers who have this issue will see that this product we have provided is very helpful and I think they will switch with great ease.