30A Final Reflection

What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? 

I think the most formative experience in this course was the first idea napkin because that's when we first really had to lay out our idea or opportunity as we started to work on it.

The experience that you'll remember years later? 

I think the experience I'll remember years later is the elevator pitches. These are a useful skill to have not only as an entrepreneur but in business in general. It really helps if you can convey your ideas quickly and concisely to an audience.

What was your most joyous experience? 

My most joyous experience is probably writing this post because it means that I am finished with the work for this class. I don't mean this in a negative way but at the start of the semester looking at a workload of 30 blog posts and 60 peer reviews it feels good to have made it through.

What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

The experience I'm most proud of myself for accomplishing is the "growing your social capital" assignment. I typically don't go out of my way to meet new people but that assignment pushed me to do it.

At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? 

I would say that I see myself as more of an entrepreneur than I did at the beginning of the semester but I wouldn't say that I see myself as an entrepreneur because I'm not actively involved in a business venture.

Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

I definitely have moved closer to having an entrepreneurial mindset. The initial assignments about identifying opportunities helped the most with this and set the tone for the course in developing this mindset.

What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? 

Stay on top of your assignments. It's easy to lose track and miss the deadline for some posts especially because the due date is at noon instead of midnight like every other class.

What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? 

Map out all the deadlines for the semester in a google calendar or something similar so that you don't miss any deadlines.

What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

Think about possible opportunities as you walking around in your daily life. Observe your surroundings and look for ways to improve them.

29A Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

The opportunity or unmet need that I have identified in this course is the difficulty of finding shoes that fit well and fit the individual style of men whose shoe size is 13 or above. At the moment my customers would be men who struggle with finding the right size shoe. This is a global market that is not restricted to any one geographical location. Demographically, these customers do not fit in to any one race, nationality, or religion, but they are typically taller individuals who care about the shoes they use whether it is solely for style purposes or for an athletic need. A large proportion of athletes, specifically in sports like football and basketball where the players are large and their shoes are critical to the sport they play, have this same unmet need. Currently, customers satisfy this need with hours of online search. It's mostly online because in-person stores typically only carry up to a 13 and that's only in a few of the most common shoes they sell. Another way customers deal with this need is they find one or two pairs of shoes that they like and continuously buy the same ones every time they need new shoes because they don't want to spend the hours it takes to find a new pair that is their size and preferred style. I believe that these customers aren't loyal to the current method at all and would be more than willing to switch to something that makes this process easier. Unfortunately a better method has not been introduced yet, which is where the opportunity lies within this industry. Currently about 18% of men in the United States wear a shoe size that is 13 or above. This is about 63 million men just in the U.S. alone. Across the world this number would be multitudes higher than 63 million. From these numbers I would say that this is quite a large opportunity to gain a customer base that needs an easier way to shop for shoes. In terms of how long this opportunity will be open I believe that there is no time like the present. I can't say how long it will be open because as technology becomes more ingrained into every facet of our lives, it will be used to solve every problem under the sun, and it's only a matter of time before it's used to solve the opportunity I've presented here.

Innovation

How I would meet this need is to create a website to serve as a one stop shop for these customers. The plan is to compile all the shoes that are offered in sizes 13 and above from the most popular shoe brands across the internet into one place that customers can use to cut down on search time and find the shoes they want. On top of just offering them all in one place I would like to implement a system that allows customers to try the shoes on before buying them. Trying on the shoe is a critical part in the purchase decision in terms of making sure the profile of the shoe matches your style or look. The way I see this working is customers find a shoe they would like to try and select it. They would put down a payment method that is checked to be valid and will receive a hold for the full amount of the shoe to make sure they can afford them. The shoes are then shipped to them for a 3 day trial period from the day they receive them which will start from the time they are delivered, which we will know from the tracking information on the package. If they decide to keep the shoes the payment method they provided will be charged for the full price of the shoe. If they decide they don't like the shoe they will be provided a return label in the original box that they can use to return the shoes and the hold on the card will be released provided there is no damage to the shoes upon return. This method provides everything they need for a purchase decision that an in-person store provides but in an online format that removes the costs associated with a physical space. Since we are already going to have to clean shoes that are returned we can also offer a cleaning/refurbishing service for shoes that the customer already owns. Customers can send their shoes in, pay a cleaning fee that's dependent on the level of damage to the shoe. On top of everything else, a popular website also provides the opportunity to monetize with ad space as well.

Venture Concept

I think customers will switch to this because it will cut their search time substantially and makes the process incredibly easy for them. This would provide them all the same resources as an in-person store without them having to leave the house. I don't think it will be hard to get people to switch with the right types and quantity of advertising to increase the customer awareness of the convenience this would provide. I would not be a manufacturer of shoes so I wouldn't be competing with the big names like NIKE or Adidas. In addition to this, I haven't come across or heard of a similar service to this so competition would be low in the beginning. The most important part of this venture is the customer service and customer experience involved. Providing a better experience than what is currently available is the main defining aspect of this business concept. In terms of organizing a business around this I would have the typical executive officers like CEO, COO, CFO, and CMO. In addition to that I would need people to track inventory and control shipping and returns, people who will clean and refurbish the shoes, as well as customer service reps to deal with customer problems. The number of employees would be dependent completely on how much traffic and sales we have in the business to handle the operations.

The Three Minor Elements
1) My most valuable resource in my opinion would be the fact that I have the same unmet need as the customers I'm trying to serve. This helps me to understand additional problems I could offer solutions for. Also, this allows me to find additional unmet needs than a competitor who has to search for the problems instead of seeing them on a day to day basis.

2) The next opportunity I would like to tackle is women's shoes as well. I currently don't know the comparable size in women shoes that this service would fulfill but it would be relatively easy to integrate that.

3) In five years with this venture I would want to be over one million site visits and over 100,000 orders. As an entrepreneur in the next decade I would like to still be focusing on this venture until I believe I could put it in the hands of a new person and step back as CEO to pursue other ventures or sell the business for a fair price.

Feedback

The good feedback I received talked about how the one stop shop idea was good and that customers in this time prefer that level of service from the places they shop. In addition, they thought the broadness of the opportunity being in shoes was important. Everyone wears shoes so it's not bound to any specific demographic. The thing people thought I should change is my 5 year goals and that they were a little ambitious

Changes

What I changed based on the feedback were my goals. I still the the one million visits to the site is reasonable but I lowered the order goal from five hundred thousand to one hundred thousand. I also added the idea of a cleaning service for both returned shoes and as a stand alone service as part of this venture concept. I also tweaked some lines to make the idea clearer and fixed any typos I missed the first time.

28A Your Exit Strategy

1) I think if I were to pursue this venture, my exit strategy would be to build value for a few years and then sell the business. To me, this doesn't seem like a business that could grow to be a large company and therefore while it could be successful in its own right, I think the ceiling for growth will be hit fairly quickly.

2) I chose this exit strategy because I dont think this is something that I would want to pursue over a long time because I would much rather work my way up in an already established and secure company.

3) I think my planned exit strategy probably has affected some of the other decisions I've made throughout the class. I think it made it harder to think about log term goals for this business because I wasn't planning to stick with it long term. It also influenced my opportunity decision because I chose something that was relatively niche and wouldn't take long to set up.

27A Reading Reflection No. 3

Book: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck.

What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of this book is distinguishing between the two types of mindsets, which are a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one that believes that a person's abilities are set and avoids trying things that they do not believe they can do. A growth mindset believes that a persons skills and abilities can be improved and will try new things to cultivate or improve new and existing skills. The book then argues why the growth mindset is more beneficial.

How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

This book actually connects to blog post 26 about failure. The fixed mindset avoids new challenged because of a fear of failure, while the growth mindset will try new things regardless of the opportunity for failure. So the blog we just did on failure reaffirms a lot of what the book discusses.

If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

The exercise I would suggest is to try 5 new things that require skills you are weaker in throughout the course of the semester and to document them with successes or failures. If they believed they failed make them reflect on the activity and ways they could improve. I think would show the students the ways a growth mindset could help them in life.

What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

For me this would be when Carol Dweck says that a persons mindset is a choice that they make themselves. While there are outside influences that shape our mindset growing up, it is never set in stone and can be changed. I thought this was interesting because before reading this I never really thought about my own mental attitude in this way and it allowed me to think about choices I can make to improve my mindset.

26A Celebrating failure

This semester I failed in my goal of staying consistent with my workouts in the gym. Last spring and summer I was able to do this successfully going 3-5 times a week and eating right. However, this semester I cut back to 2-3 times a week after taking two weeks off before the fall began. This seemed like a better regiment for me with how much busier my schedule had become, but about halfway through I got lazy and couldn't find the energy to stay consistent in my goal. Eating healthy has also become harder this semester because I am now on a meal plan and the options for meals are more limited compared to last year when I had a kitchen and could cook for myself. This failure is less embarrassing from an external perspective and more from an internal perspective where I feel disappointed in myself.

I think what I've learned from this failure is that I just need to hold myself more accountable to achieve my personal goals. No one else is going to do this for me so it is up to me to self-motivate and stay on track.

Failure is definitely difficult to handle in the moment, but it's something that everyone experiences from time to time. I try not to dwell on failure for too long because I believe it's somewhat counterproductive. What's done is done and I learn my lesson to avoid the same failure in the future. I don't know if this class has increased my likelihood to take risks but I do believe that taking risks in life is an important aspect of growing as a person and with them sometimes comes failure which is perfectly fine. This assignment reminds me of a quote from Albert Einstein, "If you've never failed, you've never tried anything new."

25A Whats next?

Existing market

What I think is next in the existing market is to constantly expand the selection of shoes available as well as expand the services available to do cleanings and restorations of shoes that customers already own.

From the three interviews I conducted, I received some very helpful feedback on my ideas to improve and grow in my existing market. One thing all three talked about was effective advertising. One major part of growing in my existing market is to expand my customer base and increase customer awareness of the products and services that are provided.

I presented the idea I had for growth starting with expanding the selection available to include as many brands as possible both from large and more niche companies. They all thought this was an obvious but necessary move. Not everyone has the same style so the more offerings that are made available the more customers will be attracted to the site.

Next, I talked about expanding the services to provide cleaning and restorations of shoes the customers already own. Two of the people I interviewed didn't seem very interested in this service as it isn't something they've done with their shoes in the past, but I believe at the right price and with the right marketing they could see how useful it would be. The third person who is very interested in shoes said that this would be a great thing to offer for people who really care about their shoes.

New Market

The new market I think I could provide value to is a B2B market with shoe stores and manufacturers of shoes. The value I would provide would be with the service of cleaning and refurbishing the shoes. These stores and resellers could outsource the cleaning to my venture for a cost for cheaper than it would cost them to do it themselves. This could be achieved because this will be a service my venture is already providing to customers and due to the economies of scale the more stores that outsource their cleaning to us the lower we will be able to drive down the cost.

The two people I interviewed were my friend that works at foot locker and one of his coworkers. They believed that the service provided here would definitely be helpful to their store and similar companies, but most of the cleaning they do is light dirt on returns and not deeper cleans or refurbishing.

What surprised me the most about this market is how little the employees thought about this process other than the fact that they don't like to be the one that has to do the cleaning. What this shows me is that the employees would be happy to rid themselves of this task and that there is probably a better method for this which is an entrepreneurial opportunity.

I think my assumptions about this market was correct. I didn't know for sure going in how much cleaning the stores has to do but I assumed some of the returns had to be cleaned to be presented and sold to new customers who are expecting shoes in new and mint condition. However, I don't think this market is as attractive as I initially believed because most of the cleaning the stores do is light and might not be worth the time and effort to send it elsewhere to be cleaned and then returned.

24A Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

The opportunity or unmet need that I have identified in this course is the unavailability of shoes for men who are a size 13 or above. As well as the difficulty that is present when trying to find shoes that not only come in their size but also fit in their style. At the moment my customers would be men who struggle with finding the right size shoe. This is a global market that is not restricted to any one geographical location. Demographically, these customers do not fit in to any one race, nationality, or religion, but they are typically taller individuals who care about the shoes they use whether it is solely for style purposes or for an athletic need. A large proportion of athletes, specifically in sports like football and basketball where the players are large and their shoes are critical to the sport they play, have this same unmet need. Currently, customers satisfy this need with hours and hours of online search. It's mostly online because in-person stores typically only carry up to a 13 and that's only in a few of the most common shoes they sell. Another way customers deal with this need is they find one or two pairs of shoes that they like and continuously buy the same ones every time they need new shoes because they don't want to spend the hours it takes to find a new pair that is their size and preferred style. I believe that these customers aren't loyal to the current method at all and would be more than willing to switch to something that makes this process easier. Unfortunately this method has not been introduced yet and is where the opportunity lies within this industry. Currently about 18% of men in the United States wear a shoe size that is 13 or above. This is about 63 million men just in the U.S. alone. Across the world this number would be multitudes higher than 63 million. From these numbers I would say that this is quite a large opportunity to gain a customer base that needs an easier way to shop for shoes. In terms of how long this opportunity will be open I believe that there is no time like the present. I can't say how long it will be open because as technology becomes more ingrained into every facet of our lives, it will be used to solve every problem under the sun, and it's only a matter of time before it's used to solve the opportunity I've presented here.

Innovation

The service I would provide to meet this need is best described as a "one stop shop" website. The plan is to compile all the size 13+ offerings from the most popular shoe brands across the internet into one place that customers can use to cut down on search time and find the shoes they want. On top of just offering them all in one place I would like to implement a try before you buy system for customers. Trying on the shoe is a critical part in the purchase decision in terms of making sure the profile of the shoe matches your style or look. The way I see this working is customers find a shoe they would like to try and select it. They would put down a payment method that is checked to be valid and will receive a hold for the full amount of the shoe to make sure they can afford them. The shoes are then shipped to them for a 3 day trial period from the day they receive them which will start from the time they are delivered, which we will know from the tracking information on the package. If they decide to keep the shoes the payment method they provided will be charged for the full price of the shoe. If they decide they don't like the shoe they will be provided a return label in the original box that they can use to return the shoes and the hold on the card will be released provided there is no damage to the shoes upon return. This method provides everything they need for a purchase decision that an in-person store provides but in an online format that removes the costs associated with a physical space. On top of everything else, a popular website also provides the opportunity to monetize with ad space as well.

Venture Concept

I think customers will switch to this because it will cut their search time substantially and makes the process incredibly easy for them. This would provide them all the same resources as an in-person store without them having to leave the house. I don't think it will be hard to get people to switch with the right types and quantity of advertising to increase the customer awareness of the service this would provide. I would not be a manufacturer of shoes so I wouldn't be competing with the big names like NIKE or Adidas. In addition to this, I haven't come across or heard of a similar service to this so competition would be low in the beginning. The most important part of this venture is the customer service and customer experience involved. Providing a better experience than what is currently available is the main defining aspect of this business concept. I terms of organizing a business around this I would have the typical executive officers like CEO, COO, CFO, and CMO. In addition to that I would need people to track inventory and control shipping and returns, as well as customer service reps to deal with customer problems. The number of employees would be dependent completely on how much traffic and sales we have in the business to handle the operations.

The Three Minor Elements

1) My most valuable resource in my opinion would be the fact that I have the same unmet need as the customers I'm trying to serve. This helps me to understand additional problems I could offer solutions for. Also, this allows me to find additional unmet needs than a competitor who has to search for the problems instead of seeing them on a day to day basis.

2) The next opportunity I would like to tackle is women's shoes as well. I currently don't know the comparable size in women shoes that this service would fulfill but it would be relatively easy to integrate that.

3) In five years with this venture I would want to be over one million site visits and over 500,000 orders. As an entrepreneur in the next decade I would like to still be focusing on this venture until I believe I could put it in the hands of a new person and step back as CEO to pursue other ventures or sell the business for a fair price.