Week 15 Reading Reflection

1. I thought this article was awesome.  It is nice to see a company be successful with the right Morales and ideals.  Helping out the less fortunate and poor shows the type of people that run this company and who they are.

2.  I wasn't really confused by much.  I just liked the whole article and how it showed some of the hard times of being in the poorer country and the differences that this country might have rather than than others.

3. My questions to the writer would be Why you started this business. Where did the passion for helping other come from.  Did you know as a kid you wanted to help others.  I would also touch on the fact of When did you know that you wanted to start a business to help others rather than another profession that helps others like a doctor.

4. I did not disagree with anything, just a cool last weeks reading.

Final Reflection

1. This semester has been something. Looking back on my many blog post, I would have to say now, the high and fun moments had to be interviewing customers.  At the moment, I dd not really get the satisfaction I am getting now from this assignment.  I think that happens with a lot of things in life.  But looking back on it, the experience I got, and even some of the reactions I got in interviews are great memories and will enhance my experience going forward.  I am much more confident now interviewing people. I would say another high is definitely interviewing the entrepreneur at the end of the semester.  At the beginning, I was like a young, unacknowledged student who didn't know much.  I asked broad questions and did not gain much from the interview.  But by the end of the semester in the last interview with the entrepreneur, I had experienced a lot of what entrepreneurs experience. I had targeted customers, pitched my idea, and planned for the future.  This knowledge showed in my last interview, and I think it was really cool. However, there were some dull moments to look back on.  I missed quite a bit of assignments.  some that I wish I would've done for the experience, but at the same times,  had many other school obligations that needed to be done first.

2. This one is easy, Like I said before, Interviewing customers was an experience Iwill never forget and will use that experience later on in life.  I learned as the semester went on, that people arent as scay as you would think.  Just confidently approach them and present yourself in a professional way, and ask the questions you want to ask to get the information needed to succeed.

3. I think we all moved forward in an entrepreneur mindset.  The assignments given forced us to. From finding what opportunities there are, choosing one that you can relate to, pitching it to investors, interviewing customers, perfecting and finalizing the product/service, and planning for the future all combined to create an entrepreneur mindset for us all.

4 I would advise students in the future to not think of this as a class.  Do not think of it as assignments you have to do, and I have to do this for a grade.  Grades are important and definitely get the A in the class, however, looking back on this class, I do wish I would taken in some of the experience and had fun with it more.  That is what I would advise future students.  The experience in this class is like no other class you will take.  The assignments are sometimes fun and sometimes dull but both types give you some kind of taste of what entrepreneurs go into.  Embrace that experience and have fun.

week 14 reading reflection

1.This weeks reading actually took a step back for me.  I found myself getting distracted a lot and was not overall satisfied or intrigued by this chapter.  I think in large part this had to do that to was confusing and was not as relative to me as the past few weeks chapters.  However, I did find the whole innovation correlation to success and how different companies use it section to be interesting an surprising at some points.

2.  I was confused by a lot of this chapter. In particular the tables.  The tables seemed to confuse me more than help as they continually had confusing labels and no direction.  Along with that, I didnt have much to relate to this chapter.

3.  I would ask Kuratko to expand on innovation and companies who dont plan to innovate in the future.  Does it always end up costing them? Are there examples of companies who tried to stop innovation and succeeded.

4.  I didnt disagree with anything I was just not all interested and very confused throughout these chapters.

Google Gold

1. To pursue SEO, I created titles and labels to allow my blogs to extend their possibilities of being noticed in the average google search.  These were the main tools.  Also, in many of my blogs, I included pictures from google that could help increase the posts presence in google searches as well.

2. As the semester went on, the titles and labels were the main sources of key words.  The titles got more specific as the semester went on which helped the presence of my blog. Also,  I began to add pictures and videos to the blog, and I connected my log to my YouTube channel.

3. Unfortunately for the most part, I dd not utilize my social media platforms to their full potential to gain exposure.  I have many firends, however, who have used primarily Facebook and Twitter to creat posts about their blogs and link the blog to their about me section of their profile.  For me, I did link the blog to my YouTube channel which created more views in my  posts.  However, I have learned that in the future, Facebook and Twitter have seemed to be the top two social media platforms for advertising this kind of blog.

4. The most activity I saw was on my "Interviewing Customers No 1."  The main reason this was the most trafficked in my opinion was the link from my YouTube Channel combined with the number of videos, specific title and as always the label.

5. When I searched for keywords for my blog, I not only didn't show up on page 1, but I also dd not show up on the first few pages  checked on Google search.  With my last name Smiley, I thought it would be clever to use Smiley in my blog name.  However, the main part of my name "Smile" is widely used in many different names of blogs.  This created too much competition and not a unique google known name that would land me on the first page.

Very Short Interview Part 2

1. I would say that looking back on the first interview, there is already so much that I have learned without realizing it.  Of course the most notable is putting myself out there and interviewing customers and finding my targets.  However, I have realized from the interview that through all the criticisms, elevator pitches, interviews, and venture concepts, I have learned how to budget for a big project/entrepreneurship like this, plan ahead for possible failures, learn the market, and much more. In the first interview, the entrepreneur, Scott Smiley, harped on the fact that he wished he knew how much start up cost really would be and he explained this would be a major thing to learn about in this class  Now, we have not specifically had an assignment about it, but through the comments from fellow students and interviewees, I have learned what start up cost I am forgetting about, don't need, and essential.

2. questions

•  When you finally decided to branch off and start your own firm, what was most essential to do before opening the new firm? How did you and your partners decide on a partnership instead of a LLC?
• So far in this class, I have had to go out and conduct interviews to find out how the community would respond to my product, and to see what potential customers I would have.  What did you do at the start of the business to engage with potential customers and bring in business.  Any specific type of advertising or target market?
• When the firm began to take shape, what was the difference in bringing in new clients than in the beginning? Different kind of advertising? Harder or Easier
• How did you and do you still plan for possible problems in the future? 
• Looking back from where you started to where you are know, is it anywhere to where you envisioned the firm going? Where would you like to see the firm go in the future?

3. This interview went a lot differently than the first interview.  First off, the interview lasted a lot longer, and I was able to see what directions his answers were going and relate in a small way to the theoretical directions I could to my company.  I also believe the question types were different  In the beginning, it was more about trying to figure out what exactly makes and entrepreneur what challenges they face.  The questions were broad.  In this case, the questions were more specific, and they focused on different time periods of the business. My dad, the entrepreneur, definitely recognized a difference as well, noting that this interview seemed more natural and informational than the first one where it seemed too broad.  

Week 13 Reading Reflection

1.  What surprised me the most was how specific it can get when valuating another business another business.  It seems like an extremely lengthy process sometimes but I can understand why when possible investments might be made or competition is being analyzed.\

2. I wasn't necessary confused by anything in this chapter, however, there were a lot of tables that did not seem to help out a lot in understanding the chapter.

3. Have you ever had experience or witnessed where the valuation side of a business is done poorly.  Where did they go wrong and why.  What ended up being the final result.

4. I have no problems with this chapter.

Celebrating Failure

1. This past semester I have failed at a few things, some bigger than others, but one that I have continually failed to do was follow up on not procrastinating on my schoolwork, particularly in this class.  I always seem to be rushed to finish these assignments because I wait until the last minute like I am doing right now with this assignment as I am watching the Masters on Sunday Night.  Each time after I rush to get the assignment done, I tell myself afterwards that I need to plan to work ahead but I have failed each time.

2. Failing can be caused by a lot of different distractions.  Competition, other priorities, laziness etc.  Unfortunately for this assignment, most of the cause of the failing was the laziness.  However, some other classes have contributed to having to put off certain assignments.  This is definitely something I need to learn and prioritize.

3. This is an awesome question.  I used to play the game of failure, baseball.  In this sport, you are considered a great when you fail 70% of the time.  With all of this failure, you need ot learn how to persevere through the failure and learn from it.  There are a few options when faced with failure.  1. quit because you dont think you can push through it.  2. ignore the failure as not important. 3. take the failure and analyze why and how to learn from it.  In this class, we discuss entrepreneurship where, like baseball, failure is all around us in every stage of the process.  We constantly have to find out the failures of the industry, products, and our own ideas to create the perfect product and target the perfect demographic.  I would definitely say that the assignments in this class have made me more willing to take the risk because I am more confident in the risks I am taking.  I have gone out and interviewed customers and entrepreneurs.  I have analyzed the market to choose my best target and how.  I have created an idea and improved it from criticism from others. This class has improved a lot of different skills

My Exit Strategy

1 This is probably one of the harder questions of this course for me.  When I originally thought of this idea, My plan would be to sell it after five to ten years.  However, the main reason for doing this would be to focus on becoming a lawyer and law school which I have begun to start thinking about.  I would really have to think hard about exiting and selling, especially if the business is going well and I am enjoying the role I am playing in the business.  I think as of right now at this beginning stage of the company, I still plan to exit by selling the company in the next five to ten years, However, I would say that this plan is fairly flexible and it would be cool see what this company could grow into.

2. As stated above, the main reason I am choosing this route for an exit is mainly in order to go to law school and end up becoming a lawyer.

3. I think that this exit strategy has influenced where I have looked for my opportunity.  I looked for this opportunity in the students of Gainesville.  That being said, this strategy focuses on college kids and campuses.  I guess in my head, I thought of this as just a five or so year deal where a couple years after graduation, 'I sell the business and try to go to law school to one day open up my own law firm.

week 12 reading reflection

1. I may have not been surprised by it, but I definitely found it interesting to read about how important preparing for the future can be for entrepreneurs.  It was funny seeing the possible failures that can occur for an entrepreneur when they are unprepared.  This highlights how important preparation is from meetings, to future outcomes, to possible unexpected disasters.

2. The confusing part to me was when Kuratko explained how companies will forgo strategic planning in order to save money on different aspects of the company.  Strategic planning was exemplified as a key to success for an entrepreneur.  Knowing this, why would entrepreneurs see it as such a small replaceable part of the business.

3.  My biggest question I would ask Kuratko is to expand on the situations where skipping the strategic planning may be more beneficial than actually spending the time and money to perform strategic planning.  Are some cases more needing of strategic planning and why are they.

4.  I had no problems or issues with disagreeing in this chapter.