Amazon Whisperer

• Describe the revenue drivers you currently include in your business concept for this class. Revenue drivers are the different ways you make money. 
• The ways this that Smiley's Delivery Service will make money is by the service fee we would charge for the delivering of the department store products to the customers.  The service charge will be a percentage of the final cost. 
• Describe what kind of product offering you believe should be next. What's the next thing your customers want?
• After getting the delivery service started, I do not believe we should extend into the food business.  I believe there is too much competition in Gainesville for that installation.  However, I do believe we could begin to get groceries from grocery stores and get the list that people need and go get there gorcerie and delivery it to them within the hour to two hours. 
• Describe how this "next" thing will enhance your existing product/service offering. Does it improve the user experience, does it increase customer switching costs, does it foster customer loyalty, etc.?
• This next thing will extend our service to another basic need that people need.  Grocery shopping is just as much of a hassle as department store shopping for people without cars or time.  This service extension would help our name continue to grow while offering more services.
• Go to Amazon and try to find a product that is similar to the one you want to offer next. Describe the product. Include a picture of the product.
• Amazon itself is a similar product.  It is a service that delivers items at a good price.  They are even beginning to use droin deliveries.
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• What are the customer reviews for the product? What, exactly, do customers not like about the product? What do they like about it?
• Amazon prime members love the service and prices of Amazon.  With the drones, Amazon is beginning to be able to have same day deliveries.  This gives people time utility, place utility, and price utility.  
• Describe what design/usability changes you'd make to the product. 
• What I think the biggest change we would need is an interface change on the website.  I have been told that sometimes, bigger items like televisions can be hard to choose from just by a picture.  Maybe videos of them woukld help give a better display of how the televisions compare to each other.  
• Describe why you think this product would make a good addition to your current product/service offering.
• The new service extension to groceries will give the business a wider span of customers and more consistent customers.  On average, people go to the grocery store once a week while department stores are more irregular.

Week 11 Reading reflection

1. What I liked most about the reading this week was the take on innovation.  Innovation is an interesting concept as I believe we all try and innovate every day.  We come up with ideas of things that would make projects, jobs, or life easier.  It is interesting to find out that there is a process and strategy behind innovation.  From the thought process to the implementation process.  That is really cool to think about as we come across ideas throughout the day and finding out how we come to those ideas.

2/3 Nothing really confused me. Everything was pretty much straight forward.  However, I would like Karatko to expand on how certain innovations do not align with the business strategy. What causes this to fail?

4.  I thought this chapter was easy to read and understand and I did not disagree or have a problem with anything.

Week 10 Reading reflection

1. I loved this Reading this week.  I was not necessarily surprised by much.  It was mostly how math and accounting is involved in entrepreneurship which is interesting to me because I have always loved math and enjoyed what I have learned so far in my finance and accounting courses.

2. Nothing really confused me either in this reading.  Most of the stuff covered in this chapter had to do with accounting and math which I have learned a lot of already.  It was cool to see how it was used in the business entrepreneurship setting.

3. One big question I would ask Kuratko would be if the accounting courses he took helped him significantly in running a business, and what are the major challenges for people who never went to school and took these courses.  What kind of problems do some of these people face and how do they overcome those problems?

4.  I did not disagree with anything in this chapter.

My Secret Sauce

1.  What I would say sets me apart from others is my work ethic, care, personal skills, humbleness, and attitude.  Since I was a kid, whenever I had a passion for something, I made it my gal to become the best at that particular thing.  Even if I do not end up being the best, it is about putting in the effort to try and succeed.  Work ethic is definitely related to passion for me however.  I tend to work a lot harder at the stuff I am passionate about, and that usually sets me apart from competition.  As for caring, I usually think of others in every situation I am put in.  That does not necessarily mean I always put other before myself, but it means I am willing to look at other perspectives in situations and take those perspectives into consideration when making a decision or in an argument.  My personal skills are highlighted when faced with meeting new people. I am comfortable making new connections and finding out similarities I have with new people.  I also like to think of myself as being humble, despite what that sentence sounds like.  In fact, sometimes writing a paragraph like this is hard because  never like to talk about if  am good at this or that.  I let my try to work my hardest and whatever I accomplish can represent my skill level.  If the responses are good then keep at it, if they are bad, know you tried your hardest and figure out how to change the direction of your work.  Being humble is staying true to yourself and to others.  You do not need to brag when your work and accomplishments show who you are. My attitude is similarly related to my work ethic.  I tend to have a positive never give up attitude.  This positive energy can help others in a team setting feed off of the energy to increase morale and overall efficiency.  In my mind, nobody accomplishes anything by being negative.  When something goes wrong, acknowledge it, and figure out ways to fix it rather than dwell on it.

2.

The main takeaway from this interview is my work ethic.  Ashtin highlighted throughout the interview that my work ethic sets me apart in each knowledge, skills, and emotional section.

The main takeaway fro this was the emotional standpoint.  Bruce pointed out how I can wear my heart on my sleeve and am not afraid to express my emotions.  This can definitely be good when working with other employees as bottling up emotions can lead to bad work environments.

Ryan is definitely one of my best and longest friendships.  The main takeaway I got from this interview is his emphasis on my effort to learn.  You can always learn more even in a manager position, and being able to be willing to learn is a big quality.  Also, a big one is keeping my emotions under control.

What I mainly took away from Lane's interview that was different from the rest was his emphases on my ability to talk to new people and connect with them.  Finding the connection with another person can lead to new business and clients.

This interview was a little bit harder to hear but it was definitely interesting as I got a perspective form three different people in one interview.  I think the thing that stood out the most was my competitive nature  This competitive nature is similar to work ethic as previously mentioned in other interviews, however, it can help not only work the hardest but have an emphases of being the best as an individual and as a team.  

3. For the most part, my friends assessment of myself were similar to my assessment.  Work ethic was a reoccurring theme that was said about me.  However, like I said, I believe that it goes hand in hand with passion.  Think about jobs in the future, when you are more passionate about something, your positive energy is more which causes you to be excited to get things done and learn more.  Something that I would definitely add to #1 that was mentioned in the interviews was my ability to connect with people.  This is especially important in the business environment as making connections with people and people skills on general help lead to new clients, negotiations, and deals.  I thought Bruce's takeaway of wearing my heart on my sleeve mixed with Ryan and Ashtin's takeaway of thinking of others when making decisions definitely helps in the business environment.  When wearing your heart on your sleeve, you have to take into consideration the other persons emotions as well as you express yours. This consideration can help you say what you need to say without coming off as degrading or mean to the other person.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1. What came as the biggest surprise to me is how Kuratko believed the best way to collect data was.  he says that marketers should collect secondary data first rather than primary data.  This got me thinking about when I research data even for this class, and it was not until then that I realized how true it was.  I used data from other sources thhat have already been there to get ideas of what my potential business might do before I started doing interviews to collect data about my own business.

2. The most confusing part of this weeks reading probably came from many of the comparisons like the quantitative and qualitative research for one.  I understand the definitions alone but wouldve like to have examples of each type of research to further differentiate the two.

3.  I would ask Kuratko what his experience marketing was like.  What marketing strategy yielded the most success for him, and why he thinks that is?

4. I did not disagree with anything really from this chapter.  It was kind of cool to read about since a ot of the material I learned briefly about in my marketing class last semester.

Idea napkin no. 2

1. As I stated in the first idea napkin, I am Brandon Smiley. I have worked in business jobs such as banking at Capital City Bank for a summer, and I got to learn a lot about the operations of a bank and the process of approving loans.  Along with that, I learned how employee client relationships are formed and kept.  I personally love make a impact on other people's lives, and to see that impact take shape.  This is why I would think the this delivery service idea would be so awesome.  The idea would allow people to go about their plans uninterrupted.

2. I am offering a delivery service for department stores like Home Depot, Walmart, and Best Buy in Gainesville, Florida.  As of right now, the only local delivery services that deliver unmet needs within an hour or two are food delivery services like Gainesville2Go or Doorstop Delivery.  Smiley's Delivery will extend these services to electronics, furniture, household items, and crafts.

3. In my last idea napkin, I talked about how this service can be used by both students and working adults for time convenience.  However, being based out of Gainesville, I have realized that the main focus should be on students. Gainesville's population is about 127,500.  There are about 75,000 students at the University of Florida and Sante Fe colleges alone.  That is over half of the Gainesville population which makes students the dominate target.  Also, many students may not have the luxury of having a car, which would make them perfect candidates for this delivery service.  

4. Customers will pay for this delivery service for multiple reasons.  First off and most imprtantly, customers will pay for the ime convenience.  This delivery service allows for people to get more things done throughout the day and not have to deal with traffic or department store crowds.  The service allows people to allocate time towards jobs rather than shopping.  Another reason is that people can tend to be lazy.  This service allows people to give into their laziness every once in a while.  If someone does not want to take the time to drive across town and would rather watch tv, this service allows them this option.  The last reason is stated in #3 as well.  For people without cars, this service allows them the chance to still get their supplies from these department stores without needing a friend to drive them around or paying for a taxi.

5. What sets Smiley's Delivery apart fro everyone else is the product of delivery.  All the other delivery services in Gainesville focus on food deliveries.  Our delivery service focuses on appliances.



I believer that all of these five elements work together to make a great start up idea.  I think if this were to become an actual service, their still needs to be more interviewing, trial runs, and research to see how successful the service can really be.  I received a lot of feedback from previous idea napkins and interviews.  From these I have adjusted some of my ideas and even known competitors.  I have extended the delivery service to crafts for those who are busy crafting arts for clubs, work, etc.  I have also taken account to the fact that Amazon could be a big competitor with their drone delivery service.  However, I believe we would still have competitive advantages over these drone delivery services. Our delivery service would be able to delivery much bigger an bulkier items and well as have a more speedy delivery process. Another possible red flag that was brought up was with these bulkier items, should their be a weight limit in the delivery process or an item limit.  Even big SUVs and trucks can only hold so much.  We would allocate cars to smaller deliveries and SUVs/trucks to bigger, bulkier deliveries.  In these bulkier deliveries, I believe that a weight/size limit must be enforced to ensure the order can be delivered.