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.

23A Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resource List

1. Connection with someone who could create my technology
1. V: cheaper than hiring an employee if a friend is willing to help me out
2. R: a small percentage of people actually know how to code
3. I: could be imitated with some difficulty
4. N: could be substituted by an employee I don't already know which would probably take more time and cost more.
2. I have the same unmet need
1. V: I know what my customers want because I have the same need
2. R: fairly rare, not a lot of people understand this problem
3. I: not easily imitated because it depends on your genes
4. N: You could market research but that is expensive and takes time
3. My finance knowledge
1. V: Wouldn't have to pay someone to handle the finances if I'm able to do that.
2. R: Not a lot of people understand the reports and laws involved in business finance.
3. I: Can be imitated by learning the difficult material involved
4. N: could pay someone who knows but thats more expensive
4. Leadership experience
1. V: Valuable in dealing with people especially in the start to keep people motivated
2. R: Rare because it's hard to get good leadership positions that handle larger numbers of people especially when you have to compete for election.
3. I: Can be imitated but takes a lot of time to gain that experience
4. N: Again, could just hire someone but that is expensive
5. Casual but efficient culture
1. V: People work better when they're comfortable and happy which it the type of organizational culture I would strive to create
2. R: Becoming less rare in recent years as we've seen in large companies like Google
3. I: Can be imitated elsewhere but wouldn't affect ours
4. N: Don't know how you would substitute this.
6. Advertising knowledge
1. V: Valuable because advertising is moving towards less traditional methods and towards social media which is something we have grow up with and understand well
2. R: Not a particularly rare skill but important in targeting a certain audience
3. I: Can be imitated through education
4. N: Could substitute by hiring an advertising professional
7. My work ethic
1. V: Helps you to get work done efficiently, and gain respect from your peers
2. R: Rare because many do not develop a strong work ethic in their youth
3. I: Cant really imitate this over an extended period of time
4. N: Cannot substitute
8. Natural Intelligence
1. V: Helpful in dealing with day to day problems and making quick in the moment decisions
2. R: Rare because people have varying levels of intelligence and logic
3. I: Not easy to imitate but improvement is something everyone can make
4. N: Cannot Substitute
9. Good Strategist
1. V: Helps you think in terms of the long term goal of the organization
2. R: Some people are better than others naturally
3. I: Can be learned but takes time
4. N: Cannot Substitute
10. Time Management
1. V: Valuable in hitting deadlines and keeping track of progress
2. R: A lot of people cannot manage their time effectively
3. I: Time management skills can be improved but again this takes time
4. N: Could be substituted with more efficient methods that cut down on completion times.

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.

22A Elevator Pitch No. 3

2. The feedback that stood out to me the most was to work on my pace and tone which I agreed with completely and tried to work on that with this one. What surprised me the most is the feedback that said I presented without hesitation because I definitely felt hesitant while recording.

3. A) my pitch is somewhat memorized. I don't want it to sound like I'm reading from a script so I more try and memorize the main points I want to hit to allow for improvisation. B) I felt more comfortable in front of the camera this time but it's still weird to just talk at a phone by yourself and sound natural. C) I think my pitch was better this time. I tried to improve the hook at the beginning and work on my delivery.

21A Reading Reflection No. 2

What was the general theme or argument of the book?

     From my point of view the general theme of this book is advice on how to structure your life and priorities to succeed. He does this with a pretty simple set of steps. These steps are "look after yourself first," this involves staying healthy through sleep, exercise, and diet, "look after your economics," this means a stable job and financial well being because without that you become a burden on your family, and lastly, "look after all other things" once your life is stable then you can begin to prioritize the things outside of that.

How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT3003?

     One piece of advice the author gives is to find side projects that excite you enough to give you the energy to work on them. I feel like this is something that starting entrepreneurs feel about their ideas and is where the self motivation comes from. The author, Scott Adams, knows this from the experience of working in a corporate job for 16 years before creating the famous comic strip "Dilbert".

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

     Scott Adams has this idea that "every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success." I would want to build an exercise around this by having student pick any kind of skill that they don't know already on the first day of class. It could be anything like playing an instrument, juggling, or in my case typing with all 10 fingers, etc. Then have progress reports throughout the semester on their progress, and finally a demonstration at the end. I think this is an assignment that could be a lot more interesting and engaging than just writing blog posts twice a week.

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, it seemed that Adams had a very laid back view on success and that success is more about being a well rounded person than it is about being extraordinary at any one thing.

20A Growing Your Social Capital

1. Benji Riviera ran a successful online shoe business for people looking for high end special edition shoes.
2. This contact is filling the domain expert slot because they own a similar business to my idea
3. I met this person here at UF through friends we had in common and I've contacted him through text and in person
4. I haven't asked him for any favors but I know he would help me in this business plan if I asked him to.
5. Including this person would help because he's already set up a similar business and could assist me in doing so, as well as know what to avoid when starting to be more successful.

1. Ryan Landers is someone who represents a major piece of my market as a consumer of these types of products.
2. This person is an expert on my market being that he is an avid sneaker head but also has the same problem of not always being able to find his size.
3. Ryan is a close friend I've met here at the University of Florida and I talk to him on a daily basis through multiple avenues of communication.
4. Ryan and I always help each other out when needed. He's a year younger than me so I've helped him navigate UF and he's always helped me when I ask so I'm sure he would help me with this.
5. Including this person in my network would help provide more valuable insight into the market that I'm targeting through his personal experience and shedding light on thing I may have missed.

1. Shawn Hatchwell is a talented web and app designer in the industry who has worked for big name companies like Microsoft.
2. This person is an important supplier in the industry of online business being able to make clean and functional web pages and apps for companies to market themselves online.
3. Shawn is also a friend I've met while here at the University of Florida that I talk to in person at least once a week and through text almost every day.
4. Shawn had some great ideas for how to set up an online presence for my business and how to achieve the more technical hurdles in starting this business. He also had great idea for an app that would increase my customer accessibility and make it even easier for people in my market to find and use this service.
5. Including this person in my network would be a major advantage in exploiting this opportunity. People base some of their purchase decisions in online shopping on the design of the website alone. If navigating the site isn't too intuitive people will leave the site without buying anything and Shawn can help me avoid these issues.

Reflect:
As a student in the college of business you learn very quick that networking is a critical part of success in the business world. This activity was good because most of the networking I've participated in the past has been without any specific goal or business opportunity in mind and I think that having one for this helped me get more to the point of the networking instead of just talking to people for the sake of networking.