The Twenty Percent

1.) Find a business owner and talk to them about their customers

- I had the privilege to talk to a business owner in Miami that owns two frozen yogurt shops called YogurBerry. He has a location in Miami Dolphin Mall and a location in Coral Gables.  

Who do they think their target customers are?
- When I asked Chris this question, he knew what to answer right away. He didn’t spend time thinking about it, he said it as soon as I was done asking the question. He told me because both malls are located near busy tourist spots, a lot of tourists like to enjoy and spend money when they are on vacation. Especially on food and sweets. Plus, he mentioned that shopping is a tiring activity and customers love to have something cold while they shop!  He also recognizes that the location itself in South Florida makes it also a bit better when it comes to sales. He says that during the summer, people go nuts for frozen yogurt!

What are their customers' unmet needs?
- Something cold, a better alternative to a standard ice cream, creating toppings, and something to cool them down from the hot sunny Florida heat.

Where do they find their customers?
- Shoppers that visit the mall.

What are their customer's demographics?
- Mostly people from South America, Chinese customers, and lots and lots of other tourists. He mentioned because it’s known as a tourist mall, a lot of local people choose not to come. They choose to go somewhere else where it is less crowded and quiet.

2.) Next, go and talk to 3 'target customers' -- using the demographics/psychographics the entrepreneur described. 

- Because I talked to Chris over the phone, I was not able to go to Dolphin Mall and ask questions to his customer base. His target customers, in Chris’s word, are mostly people from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and even Chinese tourists.

3.) Reflect. Does the entrepreneur adequately understand their customers' problems? Where are the differences? Why might these differences exist. 

- In my opinion, I believe Chris decided to locate his shop purposely inside a mall to target his customers. He knows what the foot traffic is like inside a mall and with a mall that is next to an airport and is a popular tourist spot, he gets to have both foot traffic and people who came to spend money. I think Chris really understands what the customers are looking for and what he can provide them. I visited one of his shop couple years ago when it first opened and the line was unbelievably long and they were all tourists.      

Half-way Reflection

1.)  If there were couple things that I want to tell to new students coming into ENT3003, I’d tell them that the class is unlike any other class I have ever taken at University of Florida. Like the assignment says, being tenacious is very important in this class due to the number of assignments you have to keep up with day after day but also because it involves a significant amount of time completing some of them. In this course, the main key behaviors that is used is PERSISTANCE, OPEN MINDNESS, and PLANNING.

2.) During the two months in this course, I experienced and developed new attitudes about the world of entrepreneurship and in this course. In this course, there are some assignments that require you to step out of the comfort zone, recording yourself and or talk to random people. For me, public speaking and going out of my comfort zone was never my strong point so it took some courage to get myself started. In the beginning, I decided not to do some of the assignments but as more assignments were handed out, I realized I can’t run from them anymore and that I will just have to face my fears and do it. After my first posting of the Pitch, I began to enjoy the process of recording and now I don’t have a problem doing them. I look forward to the next couple months to see what new attitudes I will run into and overcome.

 3.) I believe in this course, a tenacious mindset definitely helps with assignments required in this course. Being strong-willed and being persistent in this course will help you succeed in the class and in the real world. Being top of the calendar provided on canvas helps tremendously and every student should plan ahead of time so it does not conflict with your personal schedules. I think it is imperative that everyone try to do every assignment instead of skipping some due to it being more difficult of time consuming.
Definitely try to do the best that you can do on every assignment!

Week 8 Reading Reflection

In this week’s reading reflection, Kuratko writes about the different sources of capital for entrepreneurs. This week was one of the more interesting sections that I’ve read thus far and I wanted to make sure I read this chapter meticulously because financing is important when it comes to entrepreneurship.

In the beginning of the chapter, Kuratko lists the various sources of capital and displays a financing continuum chart for the readers to see. For me, I was unaware of the ways an entrepreneur can get funding and this chapter definitely was a big help. Commercial loans, public offerings, private placements, convertible debentures, venture capital, and informal risk capital were all listed in Kuratkos sources for capital. It was surprising for me to see so many ways for funding and to be honest, I only knew two; venture capital and public offerings.  

The part that was confusing to me at first was the differences between a venture capitalist and an angel investor. Angel investors and venture capitalists both invest in a business venture that have high rate of return, provides capital for start-ups during early stages, and both take on risks. If I had to ask the author a question, I would ask Kuratko what she thinks is the major difference between the two investors.

I don’t think there was anything that the author got wrong. This chapter was enlightening and I enjoyed reading about the different sources of funding.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

In this weeks reading assignment, the most interesting to me was the part about market segmentation. The strategy involving subdividing into subsets of customers, businesses, and countries was a very interesting read. Examples of market segments can be find in streams in our everyday life as in how businesses decide how to market and target us. If I had to think of an example, I would thing about what going on in the media landscape. What I mean by media landscape is that they are able to target us through cable, streaming services like Netflix, TV, and there are many others. The book lists the four major strategies; behavioral, demographic, psycho-graphic, and geographical differences. I would think media would belong in demo, psych, and geographic. 

I think Yankelovich & Meer's did a very good job with being clear and to the point about market segmentation. I had to research some words on investopedia but other than that, it was a very good read. I did not have any confusion about this weeks reflection.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

The Pitch 2





Feedback:

"Orlando is a big destination for tourists. And, true, that if more bus opportunities from Orlando to other popular tourist destinations existed by bus, there would be more opportunities for the tourists to visit more destinations in Florida and that would also create more job opportunities for the bus drivers that would deliver them to their destinations." - Gregory, Classmate

I didn't get as much feedback as I would of liked but I did receive a good one from a classmate, Gregory. I liked what he said about having more routes in terms of buses and I agree that the opportunities for tourists would grow if more bus routes were created.


What did you change based on feedback?:
Since I didn't receive feedback on the actual video, I went ahead and critiqued myself and found several things that I did not like about my first pitch video.

1.) I thought the recording of the volume was not as loud as I liked it to be
2.) The color of the dress shirt made the room darker
3.) Stumbled words and messed up couple times.

The Change

On this second video, I tried to address the problems that were apparent in my first video.
1.) Spoke louder so that it can be heard better
2.) Changed the dress shirt to white
3.) Tried to memorize more of the pitch rather than reading it from the screen.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

From reading this weeks assigned readings, I got to learn about the forces/framework that analyzes the framework of competition. Porter lists those forces as the following:

1.) Threat of new entrants
2.) Substitute products/services
3.) Bargaining power of customers
4.) Bargaining power of suppliers
5.) Competitive Rivalry 

After reading about these forces, the thing that surprised me the most about the forces is how each of the forces under neath has so many other important points you have to focus on. For example, just under the first one, I noticed that there were over ten other little points you have to cover. Things such as capital requirements, government policy, taking considerations of the size of your business, retaliation from other companies, sunk cost, and even have to take into consideration the loyalty that other customers have to established companies.This is just going into the #1 ( Threat of new entrants.)

Going deeper into the readings, I realized how little I knew of the these forces and I realized that this class really helps me with understanding the deeper levels of a new business. It was definitely a great text to read and I believe Michael Porter gives insight to the world of entrepreneurship.

I feel like I am not in the place to correct Michael Porter and his list of forces. I am here to learn from scholars like him and so far, every week, I have enjoyed the texts given. I find it very hard to pin point something that I disagree with.

Idea Napkin No. 1

My name is Brian Do Kim and I am a student at University of Florida. I will be graduating in 2017 with focus on business administration. I believe my talents are in the field of sales with experience in ethnic diversity and multicultural traditions with concentration mainly in the Asian countries. I have a deep understanding of the global market place and have hands on practice when it comes to undertaking business deals with wholesalers, distributors and even big companies that come to the states for trade. Through experiences, I know how people from Asia like the work to be done. Accommodating to their needs and wants is my main focus.

After years of working, I noticed that people that come abroad for business trips would love to see the rest of the country they traveled long for. You have to understand that coming from Asia to the states is no easy venture. They dedicate a lot of time and money just to come see a convention, business meeting, or a facility of a company in the states. Truth be told, the meeting or convention only lasts a small chunk of their time in the states and the rest of the time they have they might just spend it at the resort hotel that they are staying in. That is where my business idea of a travel agency comes in. With a friendly smile, a tour guide who speaks your language will meet you in the lobby and take you to places that they only seen in movies or read. Trip is ran on an itinerary or a trip plan. They are able to pick and choose the areas they want to see from a list of tourist allures. This is not only a plan for Florida but for all major cities that have major pull from Asian markets. I’ve heard people say that because of the advancement in technology, the need to fly globally for business will no longer be needed but I disagree. There is something priceless and treasured in meeting face to face and shaking hands with the people you work with and it is a touch that that web communication cannot give.

I believe my business is unique in the idea that it will be a private luxury agency. Private tours and accommodating to the wealthy Asian demographic. Plan to target the well-off clients is mainly because the customers that come to the states are usually the important/top management individual. They care mainly because coming to the US is a rare opportunity and while they are here they want to see all the places the US has to offer.

I believe what sets us apart from everyone else is how we target the audience. When wealthy people spread the word back home, they only spread the word to other people on the same status as them and my travel agency will be known as the agency that only handles those who want luxury, private tours, and own private guide to help your stay become more enjoyable.

 I believe all the elements that I touched on fit together pretty well. From the experience I have with people from that part of the world and knowing how they like work done and what makes them happy, I think I have a huge advantage over those who never worked with people from Asia. I think if I had to choose a weak point to my idea, it would have to be that the people I choose to employ will have to have the same mindset as I do. Service is sometimes tough and customers’ demands can sometimes be ridiculous but as a business, we would have to put the customers first. I would have to have employees that are dedicated and know how people from Asia work and I feel like finding people like that would be tough.