Final Reflection

As I recall the year of blogging and developing a more entrepreneurial mindset, I remember the fact that there were times were I felt discouraged by the comments and things that people said about how my idea wasn't plausible. But what I am encouraged by has been the criticism that has pushed my idea along and made it into not only a more plausible idea, but a business that I could see my self operating. My highs definitely were the blogs were I discovered more about my self, "World's Biggest Problems", "Bugs List" and "Celebrating Failure". The lows of the year were the interview, which were awkward, difficult, and time-consuming, but I sure am glad I stepped out my comfort zone to complete them. I definitely remember dreading the fact that, it felt like, I had a new blog to write every day.

The most formative experience I had in this class was the "Free Money" activity, where I had to offer money and see if people would take it. This activity was very awkward, but it was so formative because it made me engage with people and understand what made them unique. One thing that I will always keep with me is that during the "Google Gold" assignment, I realized the importance of marketing yourself. I am definitely most proud and joyous about the fact that I stepped out of my comfort zone and did something I wouldn't normally enjoy, talking to people.

I definitely see myself as an entrepreneur, someone who is willing to look at the world, notice a problem, and offer a well thought out solution. This class has greatly shaped how I look at the world and its many issues, especially in the sports world, where I do my studies at the University of Florida. I see that I can change the aspects of youth sports that I believe need reform, by offering plausible solutions and being an entrepreneur.

If I had one recommendation for students taking this class down the road, I would suggest that they be open and willing to engage with anything, even if it's awkward. One way to perform well in this course is to stay on top of things, stay dedicated, and treat every assignment as an opportunity to grow and to further an idea that you actually can achieve. In order to foster a mindset of being an entrepreneur, you have to go out there and be yourself. Create ideas and solutions that interest you!

Week 15 Reading Reflection

Biggest Surprise: The most surprising part of this chapter was that micro financing is such a big deal. I didn't realize how financing was going to be so detailed when it came to starting a business.

Most Confusing Part: I was kind of confused with how to properly leverage the brand. I understand the importance of doing so, but didn't understand what they were telling us to do.

Two Questions to Ask the Author: 
- What made you start the business that would allow you give out loans to people who wanted to create a future of success?
- What is a pyramid in regards to business? What is another example?

The Author was Wrong about: I disagree with how the author suggests that text messaging is a good form of communication in regards to business and particularly, loans.

My Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity: 

We have an opportunity to help with the needs of many college students at the University of Florida. Our customers will be these students and almost all of them have one thing in common; they all need transportation to some extent. From the grocery store to the mall to the gym; we all have places to go. With this need for transportation in mind, we have the solution. The reason that this problem has grown larger is that each class of students coming on to our campus each year is getting larger and thus we see an increase in demand to have places to park there cars. With this increase in demand from the students, we also see a demand among professors and faculty to push for new and better facilities to operate their craft in. The problem with this is that both of those things cannot happen, we cannot produce more buildings for teaching and research and construct more parking lots and garages. Geographically, the problem is focused mainly on-campus and for about five blocks in each direction. Demographically, our target market would consist of mainly college students from the age of 18-23 that do not have a car or that are so fed up with trying to park on campus, that they have just given up. Most of these students will be busy and in need of a fix to their problem whenever it arises, immediately. Currently, most students substitute this need by using their feet to walk to campus or using a scooter. Unfortunately, students cannot all afford scooters and often, it isn't feasible to walk to some parts of campus because you are either in a hurry or it is too far and hot. Most scooter operators are loyal to how they satisfy this need because it is relatively quick and eco-efficient. Potential customers that walk are not satisfied mostly because it takes longer and is more exhausting. This opportunity is pretty big, with nearly 55,000 students attending the University of Florida. This window of opportunity will be open as long as the University of Florida doesn't decide to build more garages across campus. But even if that were to occur, our solution would still be viable for people who do not own a car either.

Innovation:

I will be providing an on-demand, Eco-friendly, pay-as-you-go biking system that has stations located conveniently around campus to help students get where they need to go on time and quickly. My innovation includes having about 15 bicycles located at each of our 16 stations around the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. This will help meet the need because they can come to any station or use our app at Ez2Bike and they can rent a bike at a charge of $1.00 an hour by using their debit/credit card to pay. They will input their card information and then it will unlock the bike for the user and they will have free-roaming usage of this bike until they are finished. When they are finished, they can return the bike at any of our 16 conveniently located stations and they will insert their card again. At this point, the machine will read how long they had used the bike and will charge their card based on the hourly rate. If a renter chooses not to return the bike, we have their credit card information on file and are more than willing to charge the fee for the bike that they have stolen, this way we are not liable to any lost bikes without full reimbursement. If we cannot access their card any longer because they cancelled it, we will have a master list of names and will file a police report. This bike that they will rent will come equipped with securely attached lights for night riding. The app that we will be using will show the user how many bikes are available at each station and allow them to rent a bike in advance if they believe there will be a high demand at any given time.



Venture Concept:

When a student needs to go to a class or exam and they are late, they cannot worry about finding a ride or walking, they need a quick fix to their issue that they can solve on-demand. Our innovation provides a quick, on-demand fix for the opportunity because they no longer have to worry about how they will make it to their destination on time. Customers will buy access to our bikes because their simply isn't enough parking and that will always be a need at our campus. I do not believe it will be hard to get them to switch because it is simple and cheap, which makes it much easier to get someone to use once, which is all you need to get someone invested in your company. The main competitors that we have are the local bus transportation system and the Zip Car company because they provide different opportunities that people can use to get almost exactly where they need to be. These systems are vulnerable because they require more time to use. For buses, you have to wait for the bus to arrive and it isn't always convenient for your schedule. While for Zip Car, they do not have many stations to drop off the vehicle and driving a car on campus is typically a nightmare. I would organize the business for our new innovation by hiring tech assistants that could repair any system damages within the access points and a group of bike mechanics who work on any of the bikes that are not taken care of well or are in bad shape. The main thing that we hope to focus on to gain a competitive advantage over other transportation issue companies is that my company is so Eco-friendly and that we are looking to expand into that market.

Three Minor Elements:

• My companies most important resource is its immediate accessibility and the fact that college students often demand quick services. 
• The next opportunity that I believe we could capture moving forward would be the community of people living near and around downtown because those people often need to travel much farther distances and our innovation could help with this if they used our service daily. 
• In five years, I hope to have sold my company to a friend who can push this company into other major college towns around the United States.  

Major Feedback Received:

The overall feedback I received was that my venture concept was very well constructed and that people continued to think there was a definite need for my idea. One of the comments made note of the importance of my idea being Eco-friendly. Also, one of the comments mentioned the worries of stolen bikes, which is a worry of the company. But overall, I didn't receive much negative feedback at all and didn't have much to change. 

How It Changed Because of Feedback:

In my innovation section, I made sure to include a part that described the price and how we would handle theft situations in regards to either charging their credit card with the rate of the bike or by choosing to file a police report. Many people throughout my comments noticed that I have looked to promote a Eco-friendly company and they love that, so I tried to embrace that more in my venture concept.

Google Gold

1) Generally, I tried to increase my overall social media exposure by linking my blogs to different pictures and even featuring articles that I had read in some. I also used a title that has some meaning and shows a little bit of my character so that it would entice people. I used the handle: "UsingMediaForGodsGlory" because it shows that I am a Christian and would maybe increase interest and media exposure.

2) Other than the required titles and labels, I didn't really use any keywords. I did use a hashtag (#Entrepreneurship) once and this may have helped link my post to any search engine.

3) I used social media by posting a link to my blog on both Facebook and Twitter, which I hoped to bring more traffic to my page, but in fact, it was mostly ignored. When I look at the views for each of my blogs, I see that they increased during the days following my post, which mean social media did help bring some viewers to my blog.

4) The blog post I had that went the most viral was "Celebrating Failure" with 28 views. The reason this post had the most amount of traffic was because the title is counter-cultural and makes you really think about how much our society values success over all things and almost makes us believe that failure isn't natural or necessary, which it is.

5) Unfortunately I didn't use key words so I wasn't located on the first page of google searches, but when I searched "God blogs" I was on the eleventh page. So I guess my blog's handle acts as a keyword in this situation.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

Biggest Surprise: The biggest surprise for me was how we value a firm and the different accounting methods we use to access how the firm is moving forward in regards to its current and potential success.

Most Confused By: I was truly confused by the corporate entrepreneurship assessment tool and how it effects the work environment.

Two Questions for the Author: 

- If you were creating a new business, what organizational structure would you choose to implement?
- Why do companies, such as Proctor & Gamble, choose to use so many different brands?

I Disagreed With: I kind of disagreed with the thought that men and women will always naturally manage differently and that we are rule-based and that women are people-based. I believe I am much more people-based and I am a man.

Celebrating Failure

As a student, we continually search for better ways to do things. We are constantly trying to cut down our wasted time and use it for better things. Of course, I have fell to this often and it has made me very burnt out. 

1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed:

I am a member of a Christian ministry on campus, CRU, and I love to meet up with people and help mentor them through their times in college. Like I said earlier, I often am looking to limit my time that I am wasting and optimize the things I do. I have the desire to meet up with people and get to know them better and try and mentor them, but I want to optimize my meetings so I have tried to limit the time I spend with people. The other day someone told me that they felt that they weren't actually friends with me because I was always on the go or trying to push the speed of our meetings instead of letting them be authentic. I failed because I want to mentor people, but they felt it wasn't natural and called me out on it. 

2) Tell us what you learned from it:

I learned that you have to choose and value your friendships instead of optimizing your time and trying to do everything perfectly. I want to do great in school, build great relationships, and serve the community, but its impossible to do all those things perfectly and that I will have to sacrifice certain things for the things that I value the most. 

3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure:

I think that failure is natural and that you have to fail in order to truly find the things that you are pursuing and the things that you loved. When I got to school, I was mechanical engineering, but I never wanted to be an engineer. I failed a few classes and had to switch majors and I switched to Sports Management. Failure led to me finding the major that I love and that I have truly flourished in. I do not handle failure well, but I embrace that it will happen so I am not upset when it happens. I feel that this class has made me realize that I can accomplish more than I think I can, but I have to be prepared for failure and be willing to pursue the next idea. I feel like this class has made me more of a risk taker because I have seen the different things about my business idea and how those things were wrong and had to make adjustments. 

Week 13 Reading Reflection

Biggest Surprise: The thing that most surprised me was the idea that the value of a business isn't determined by its short-term success, but by the value of its potential earning power. Naturally, I would assume that short-term success generally mean long-term success, but that may not be the case because of the time necessary for something to be marketed correctly, to increase awareness.

Confusing Part of the Reading: The most confusing part of the reading was the table about the different kind of ventures that are available and what those different ventures look like.

Two Questions for the Author: 
1) Why is due diligence so important in this chapter?
2) What made you create the "checklist for analyzing a business"? Why was it created?

Anything that was Wrong or you Disagree with: I didn't disagree with anything in this chapter because I had no background knowledge of this topic.

My Exit Strategy

As with any good idea, it may start off doing well, but can fade quickly if you are not aware of your opportunity and whether or not it will consistently be there. With this in mind, my exit strategy would be more short-term than I wish. I wish I could keep my company open for the long-term, but technology is making it more difficult for a venture to stay open for long.

My exit strategy would be to grow this company and see how it goes for about 5 years and hopefully it would be excelling and there would be outside interest in purchasing the company. I would look to sell this company after 5 years because more technology is being developed that would potentially allow for smaller cars that could make parking not an issue on our campus and eventually, flying technology that would solve the problem of parking and transportation issues on our campus. I hope that by selling my company, I would get a large return because I am weary of how long this venture will be available.

As I stated before, I am weary that my venture would close quickly due to all the new technological advances and I am scared that when I look to sell, there will not be as much interest and I will not gain a large return on my investment.

I think my exit strategy mainly influenced my thoughts to make my company a private venture instead of working with the government and being public. The main reason that I chose this was because being private allows me to sell and get out quicker than it would be if the company was public and had more influence from outside of myself. It also makes expansion not as important, other than possibly expanding to more locations around the nation, particularly around college campuses.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

Biggest Surprise:

The most surprising part of the reading was about how important planning is in the venture life cycle and how creativity plays such an important role in making your business successful and pushing it forward past other competing companies.

Confusing Part:

The most confusing part of this section was about the SWOT analysis and how it can be properly analyzed. The issue that confuses me is how a company is supposed to internally dissect their business and truly access how their company is doing in certain categories.

Two Questions for Author:

1. What is the hardest thing about growing a business against the creativity of other companies?
2. What is the most important quality about a business that can set them apart?

Author was Wrong About:

I disagree with some of the fatal visions that the author states because he is making it sound like entrepreneurs should never pursue anything that is challenging and that you cannot maintain a competitive position in. This is just a flaw because all entrepreneurs had to start with no competitive position.

My Venture Concept #1

Opportunity: 

We have an opportunity to help with the needs of many college students at the University of Florida. Our customers will be these students and almost all of them have one thing in common; they all need transportation to some extent. From the grocery store to the mall to the gym; we all have places to go. With this need for transportation in mind, we have the solution. The reason that this problem has grown larger is that each class of students coming on to our campus each year is getting larger and thus we see an increase in demand to have places to park there cars. With this increase in demand from the students, we also see a demand among professors and faculty to push for new and better facilities to operate their craft in. The problem with this is that both of those things cannot happen, we cannot produce more buildings for teaching and research and construct more parking lots and garages. Geographically, the problem is focused mainly on-campus and for about five blocks in each direction. Demographically, our target market would consist of mainly college students from the age of 18-23 that do not have a car or that are so fed up with trying to park on campus, that they have just given up. Most of these students will be busy and in need of a fix to their problem whenever it arises, immediately. Currently, most students substitute this need by using their feet to walk to campus or using a scooter. Unfortunately, students cannot all afford scooters and often, it isn't feasible to walk to some parts of campus because you are either in a hurry or it is too far and hot. Most scooter operators are loyal to how they satisfy this need because it is relatively quick and eco-efficient. Potential customers that walk are not satisfied mostly because it takes longer and is more exhausting. This opportunity is pretty big, with nearly 55,000 students attending the University of Florida. This window of opportunity will be open as long as the University of Florida doesn't decide to build more garages across campus. But even if that were to occur, our solution would still be viable for people who do not own a car either.

Innovation:

I will be providing an on-demand, pay-as-you-go biking system that has stations located conveniently around campus to help students get where they need to go on time and quickly. My innovation includes having about 15 bicycles located at each of our 16 stations around the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. This will help meet the need because they can come to any station or use our app at Ez2Bike and they can rent a bike at a charge of $1.00 an hour by using their debit/credit card to pay. They will input their card information and then it will unlock the bike for the user and they will have free-roaming usage of this bike until they are finished. When they are finished, they can return the bike at any of our 16 conveniently located stations and they will insert their card again. At this point, the machine will read how long they had used the bike and will charge their card based on the hourly rate. This bike that they will rent will come equipped with securely attached lights for night riding. The app that we will be using will show the user how many bikes are available at each station and allow them to rent a bike in advance if they believe there will be a high demand at any given time.



Venture Concept:

When a student needs to go to a class or exam and they are late, they cannot worry about finding a ride or walking, they need a quick fix to their issue that they can solve on-demand. Our innovation provides a quick, on-demand fix for the opportunity because they no longer have to worry about how they will make it to their destination on time. Customers will buy access to our bikes because their simply isn't enough parking and that will always be a need at our campus. I do not believe it will be hard to get them to switch because it is simple and cheap, which makes it much easier to get someone to use once, which is all you need to get someone invested in your company. The main competitors that we have are the local bus transportation system and the Zip Car company because they provide different opportunities that people can use to get almost exactly where they need to be. These systems are vulnerable because they require more time to use. For buses, you have to wait for the bus to arrive and it isn't always convenient for your schedule. While for Zip Car, they do not have many stations to drop off the vehicle and driving a car on campus is typically a nightmare. I would organize the business for our new innovation by hiring tech assistants that could repair any system damages within the access points and a group of bike mechanics who work on any of the bikes that are not taken care of well or are in bad shape.

Three Minor Elements:

• My companies most important resource is its immediate accessibility and the fact that college students often demand quick services. 
• The next opportunity that I believe we could capture moving forward would be the community of people living near and around downtown because those people often need to travel much farther distances and our innovation could help with this if they used our service daily. 
• In five years, I hope that the venture has taken off and I hope to be expanding into the city of Gainesville and maybe expanding to other college campuses, such as the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia, and Florida State University. 

Amazon Whisperer

Ez2Bike

Our customers gain value from our business by gaining access to instant, on-demand transportation around the University of Florida via our bike station system. We will provide 15-20 bikes at each of our multiple stations around campus. This will help any students that do not have a car or scooter to get around campus and need to be able to go somewhere near campus. My business is service-oriented so

Our primary and only true revenue driver is debit card rentals of our bikes. We plan on charging 2.00$ per hour used. They will swipe there card when they arrive to get there bike and when they check the bike back in, it will charge the card automatically based on the time usage.

As a substitute product for transportation around campus that students could buy instead of using my service would be a old-fashioned Razor Scooter. They would use this product because they would need something to fulfill their need if they didn't want to continually pay for my service.

If they choose to buy a Razor Scooter as a better form of transportation than using a scooter or car, then they will have a better experience as a student at the University of Florida because they will not have to worry about the issues of parking and wasting time without proper transportation because of campus driving rules.

Customer Reviews: People think that it is very well made, both mechanically and aesthetically. They believe that the grips and handles are very sturdy and that the break function is very well made to help with optimal safety among riders. One negative that I saw was that customers thought it wasn't made well for tricks and tail-whips. 

In order to make this product for usable for customers: I would keep it as simple as possible and market it more as a transportation unit. Optimally, we would keep them at red, blue, or black colors in order to not lose any of the market. I also would think about bringing on thicker wheels in order to gain maximum stability. 

This product would mainly serve as a replacement for my service sense there isn't really a product I could bring in with my service-style business model. 

Week 11 Reading Reflection

Biggest Surprise: I was most surprised by how the author discusses different departments of a business when it comes to innovation. He talked about how innovation is impossible unless you use cross-functional departmental teams in order to succeed. The reason he explains this is that each departments views innovation from a different perspective, which was something I didn't think of.

Confusing Part of the Reading: The most confusing part of the reading was the part where he discusses innovation landscape maps and I am slightly confused on how you determine where your business stands on this map.

Two Questions to Ask the Author:
- What is the best way for departments to be set up in order to innovate new ideas cohesively?
- How do you determine your location on the innovation landscape map?

The Author was wrong about: I didn't disagree with anything that the author said, I was just partially surprised that departments actually can limit the business if you're not using them correctly.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1) The thing that surprised me the most was the section about accounts receivable and how it plays a role in the life of a business owner.

2) Nothing really confused me during this reading, just a few things I disagreed with.

3)
- How important is budgeting to an entrepreneur?
- Why is accumulated depreciation so important for managers and entrepreneurs to take a look at?

4) One thing that I somewhat disagree with is how the author believes that currency is so important in regards to economic growth. I believe it plays a part, but he makes it sound like it is the most important thing.

Elevator Pitch #3

The biggest feedback that I took from the second elevator pitch was that I was told my elevator pitch was too vague and that people wanted to know more about the benefits of this service. Nothing that they said was wrong, but I didn't include the feedback of allowing for a monthly or yearly service fee because I want this to be a on-demand service that people turn to when they are in need.

In my third pitch, I wanted to focus on the benefits of my service which were that we are saving energy, going green, and also are pushing to living a healthier life by choosing to use my service. Also, I tried to be less vague by explaining that there are stations around the university that they can check bikes out from, pay with a card, and take the bike.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1. I did not think that secondary data would be as important to entrepreneurs as it is. They use this data again and again to market their company and their product after using it to test if there was a market. Even though the data is well-known, they are continually used.

2. I still do not entirely understand why customers believe price means the product is higher quality. An example of this is Banana Republic, they sell plain white T-shirts and so does Wal-Mart. They are made of the same material but Banana Republic is higher in cost. I do not understand why people fall into this trap and think they have a better quality shirt.

3. If I could ask any two questions to the author, the first would be: Why do you believe marketers have moved from the 4 P's to the 4 C's? The next question I would ask would be: Is internet or physical marketing more used and which is most useful?

4. I have no prior knowledge to marketing before this course and so I don't disagree with anything the author states.

My Secret Sauce

5 Ways That Make Me Unique:

1. In the summer of 2014, I traveled to Paris and lived there for six weeks as a missionary with a Christian organization, CRU. Also, I work with an organization called Bridges, that focuses on improving the quality of life for international students as they transition to the United States, allowing them to meet American students. The reason this makes me different from others is that I have seen the world and have been able to work with different types of people, than the typical, white student at the University of Florida. I had to overcome language barriers and meet an entire new type of person while I was in Paris.

2. I was born in a town in Florida called Lakeland and grew up in a poor area with plenty of homeless and poverty-ravished families. The majority of the population around the area were either Latino and African-American and most of those families were rather poor. We all went to the same schools and there was a large amounts of violence. This life experience has made me very unique because I grew up with different types of people and I was the minority. I had to communicate and live with diverse people and this is something, most of my colleagues in college have not had to live through.

3. I am a very emotional, passionate person because I grew up around friends and family who were very passionate. My mother is admirable because she is very passionate about the care of her patients in the mental/physical health clinic she manages and for this reason, I have wanted to replicate her passion for my desires.

4. I have been gifted with the ability to be a natural-born leader. I was the captain of two varsity teams, basketball and football. I was the vice-president of a club called Leaders Club and I was able to grow my ability to lead people, and this has changed my career choice moving forward because of the skills i learned through Leaders Club on how to be an authentic, honest leader.

5. I have been gifted with an incredible joy when it comes to working with people. I just enjoy being around new people and learning more about them.

Interviews:

The question I asked all of these people was: "What is one thing that makes me unique?"

Luke Cabrera - Luke is a sophomore, engineering student who is my roommate. The main thing he could think of was my leadership skills and how he sees me as a leader. The first thing he spoke of was how I lead our community group, which is a small group bible study. And the next thing was about how I lead a team with CRU, called the prayer team and help plan events for that.

Kate Webb - Kate is a sophomore, pre-med student who I met through mutual friends within CRU. The main thing that came to mind for her was that I am very welcoming and that I enjoy bringing people in to my community. She said that when she sees me at CRU, she notices that I am very open to meeting others and getting to know about their lives.

Rachel Mitts - Rachel is a senior, food sciences student who I am dating. When she thought about was unique about me was that I am so willing to help out with whatever needs someone has and that I always say yes to them. She said that this was a good quality and used an example that I would get a drink for someone if it was closer to them than it was to me without any grumbling.

Mark Mutz - Mark is from the same town as I am and is a senior, finance student who also runs track for the University of Florida. The one thing that he brings up is that I am humble enough to not be cocky. He believes this is unique because most people cannot walk in humility.

Savannah Benefield - Savannah is a senior, family, youth, and community sciences major at the University of Florida. She said something that is unique about me is that I always wear hats and that she thinks I "rock" them.

Reflection:

Most of the people that I interviewed seem to think the same things about me that I think about myself. I view myself as a leader, who is centered on other people. One thing they didn't mention was how diverse my personality is because of my cultural background. I think they didn't mention the diversity I grew up with because most of them are not from the hometown as me. Because they didn't include this, I may have wanted to change that part of my original self-assessment, even though I still believe that is a large part of who I am. One thing I disagree with is that I believe I am not humble and that it is hard for me to not want all the credit. Overall, I believe my interviewees were relatively correct in their assumptions about me.

Idea Napkin No. 2

You: My name is Walter Huffstutler and I am a third-year, Sports Management major at the University of Florida. I am from Lakeland, FL and now live in Gainesville, FL. I love sports and have been blessed to be pretty athletic. I played basketball, football, and baseball in high school. I am heavily involved in a Christian organization, CRU, and have served as the prayer team leader for that organization this year and even traveled to Paris to be a missionary my freshman year. I love to travel and enjoy new places around Florida and the rest of the World. I love to listen and go to concerts and hear music from different bands, especially at High Dive. As I have mentioned, I aspire to work with the YMCA in the future and have secured an internship with them for next spring. In regards to my business idea, I am excited to start a reusable bicycle company so that transportation can be more readily available, to increase sustainable living, and to promote health. If I were to start this business, I would love to move it to whatever city I move to in hopes of creating an environmentally-friendly, healthy community for all residents.

Offering to Customers: As a college student, we often are in sticky situations where we do not have transportation or the scooter or car we own is in the shop. With this being such a common need for students, we are going to be providing an on-demand, bike system that will have stations set up around the campus. This company would be privately owned and I would partner with the University of Florida. Students will be allowed to rent these bikes and return them at any station around campus for a certain price, which will help them with their immediate need of transportation. Our bike system will be set up so that students can use these bikes whenever and all they have to do is swipe their debit card and they have unlimited access to anywhere in the city. Another idea would be that we could create certain bikes with heavy-duty baskets on the back so that students can put their groceries in them if they wanted to use our bikes for that purpose. In order to make this a more usable system for college students, we plan on making an app that can allow for payments and can save a bike at the station for the student, so they are not just hoping there is a bike available. This will allow them to actually see how many bikes are available at each station for check out. 

Audience Offered to: Our local Gainesville audience would be primarily students as they are more often the people in need of quick transportation. These students would generally be between 18 and 21 years of age and be pursuing their bachelors degree at the University of Florida. Generally, our product is marketable to people that do not have an operable scooter or car. These students all have stressful lives and tend to very busy people. Most of our audience would be for people who live on campus or very close to campus. 

Why Care: The reason students will choose to use our service is that so often students are stuck walking from Heavener Hall to Hume or from their dorm to the commuter lot. These students would greatly benefit from the saved time using a bike. Another reason they would use our service is that the only transportation that can be rented is the Zip Cars and they are so expensive and are not feasible for parking in most places that students need to go. The issue with Zip Cars is that they are way more expensive and you are not always confident that they will be available when you need them. Students also will pay money for this service because it promotes a healthier life and an environmentally sustainable life. 

Core Competencies: The reason that our business could be so successful is that this is a need for our community and their is no one currently in the market for satisfying this need. For example, we would be the only bike system on campus that would provide instant traveling ability. Our business model competes with that of Zip Car, Taxis, and Uber, but the significance of our brand is that we provide instant access to bikes when students want them and they do not have to wait thirty minutes for a bus or Uber. 

Evaluation: I believe these elements all fit together. I currently exist in this need and their is nothing able to satisfy this need if you are not blessed to have a car or scooter or bike and need to get across campus in ten minutes. Because of my personal knowledge of this issue, I know this solution would be appealing to myself. I have friends that have expressed this need to be fixed by the university and I believe other students would jump at this opportunity and that they would value the saved time they would be receiving, as well as, the promotion of living a healthier, more environmentally-friendly life. One aspect that I hadn't thought of was that our bikes may be stolen, but because we are charging them on credit card for a particular price; we can charge them if they are lost or stolen. 

Feedback Memo: 

• I really enjoyed that customers would want an app so that they could check out the bikes in advance so that they are not stuck without one. Also, they could see how many are available and be able to pay on the app. 
• After reading the feedback, I analyzed Zip Car and found out that they are not able to be checked far in advance and this makes it hard to make plans using them. Also, they are difficult to find parking for on campus and there only true purpose is transportation closely around the city and our system can meet that need without the large costs. 
• One thing that I haven't used as a tag line that was brought up to me was "on-demand" and I could use this to market my service.
• One feedback comment shared the importance of making my bikes unique. I thought about this so that no one would steal them, but the issue is that if I paint them certain colors and designs, I may lose part of my market, which I do not want to do. 
• Also, one comment stressed the importance of making a decision on private vs. public ownership and I chose to be private and work with the university. 

Week 8 Reading Reflection

What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? What stood out the most as different from your expectations?

The biggest surprise for me was the part about the myths of venture capital because I believed many of those myths were true. For example, I would have expected the majority of funding for a entrepreneurs start up to be from venture capital, but that is actually just a myth.

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

The most confusing part of this chapter was when the author discussed the notification and non-notification plans. I understand that this applies to when using accounts receivable as collateral, but it still confuses me.

If I were able to ask the author two questions, these would be them:

1. Why would a company choose to work with private placements?
2. What exactly is a venture capitalist and why do they exist?

Was there anything you thought was wrong that the author said? Where do you disagree with them? How?

I think the first thing that sticks out to me is the different myths that were disproved. I agree with all of them, which is that the venture capitalist doesn't want to own the business. The reason I disagree is that shows like Sharktank show that investors are looking to become at least part equity-owners and to have a say in the decisions.

Half-Way Reflection

Being tenacious is one of the important characteristics of Entrepreneurs. They do not care if they fail, they are confident that they will succeed in the near future, despite their current circumstances.

1. Tenaciousness is a skill

In order to keep up with the demands of the schedule for this class, I have had to set up a calendar and stick to it, or else I wouldn't be able to complete all the activities on time, and unfortunately I haven't done a great job at this. Moving forward, I hope to learn how to use my calendar to my advantage, and not my demise. Often I put off everything and do not use these deadlines to my advantage, but I am slowly learning how to develop this skill.

2. Tenaciousness is also about attitude

Every time I see a video assignment that I am supposed to work on, I look at it and feel like giving up. But in reality, this is a class I need in order to graduate and this thought has pushed me to be tenacious and dedicated to my work and my education. I feel like over the last few months, I have learned how to give up activities for my responsibilities, like I haven't had to in the past, which has been great at pushing me toward being an entrepreneur. There are so many deadlines for this class and experiencing the defeat of not abiding by them has pushed me into a more tenacious mindset. 

3. Three tips

- Do not just write everything in your calendar. Set individual deadlines for each part of the assignment. This way, you will not be forced to turn in a poor assignment, right before the deadline assigned. 

- Do not be a YES man. What I mean by this is that, sometimes it is better to say no to one thing in order to finish the responsibilities you have. As college students, it is very easy for me to say YES to every person or opportunity that is pulling me in one direction.

- Do not expect to be perfect and; expect to fail. If you always believe you will do everything exactly as assigned, the first time, you will eventually fail and this will often take away opportunities for success in all your classes. Expect failure and try to minimize those occurrences.

Week 7 Reading Reflections

The first thing that I noticed that surprised me were how they targeted people through advertising. They didn't just put people in their advertisements using their products; they put in people who customers would want to look like or be. These people were supposed to be like their customers or be for people looking to change to more desired features. You can see this type of advertising specifically with make-up and night attire advertisements, that highlight the female body.

The thing that confused me the most was most of the graphs and diagrams, specifically the Gravity of Decision Spectrum. I didn't really understand the variables they used and how they related.

If I could ask the writer two questions, they would be:

1. How do you determine which market to target that will make the most revenue and what tactics are used to determine this?
2. Are you truly able to obtain a market share in every type of market or must you choose a few selected markets?

The author seems to be focusing on how the culture we live in is dynamic and never stops changing. I believe he is completely correct about how our market is and doesn't say anything that I question or disagree with.

Elevator Pitch #2

Most of the feedback I received was positive and made me think my idea was implementable in the future if I chose to pursue it. The feedback that I mainly received was about my focus on the UF student community. Something I didn't think about that someone mentioned was that its often not easy to just build a new garage for more cars.

The first change I implemented in this pitch was that I didn't mention the health benefits because students mainly care more about the service and less about the health benefits. The second change I made was that I continued to highlight the service, but I shifted my focus more to the UF student community than to the city of Gainesville like I did in my last pitch.

Idea Napkin No.1

You: My name is Walter Huffstutler and I am a third-year, Sports Management major at the University of Florida. I am from Lakeland, FL and now live in Gainesville, FL. I love sports and have been blessed to be pretty athletic. I played basketball, football, and baseball in high school. I am heavily involved in a Christian organization, CRU, and have served as the prayer team leader for that organization this year and even traveled to Paris to be a missionary my freshman year. I love to travel and enjoy new places around Florida and the rest of the World. I love to listen and go to concerts and hear music from different bands, especially at High Dive. As I have mentioned, I aspire to work with the YMCA in the future and have secured an internship with them for next spring. In regards to my business idea, I am excited to start a reusable bicycle company so that transportation can be more readily available, to increase sustainable living, and to promote health. If I were to start this business, I would love to move it to whatever city I move to in hopes of creating an environmentally-friendly, healthy community for all residents.

Offering to Customers: As a college student, we often are in sticky situations where we do not have transportation or the scooter or car we own is in the shop. With this being such a common need for students, we are going to be providing a bike system that will have stations set up around the campus. Students will be allowed to rent these bikes and return them at any station around campus for a certain price, which will help them with their immediate need of transportation. Our bike system will be set up so that students can use these bikes whenever and all they have to do is swipe their debit card and they have unlimited access to anywhere in the city. Another idea would be that we could create certain bikes with heavy-duty baskets on the back so that students can put their groceries in them if they wanted to use our bikes for that purpose. 

Audience Offered to: Our local Gainesville audience would be primarily students as they are more often the people in need of quick transportation. These students would generally be between 18 and 21 years of age and be pursuing their bachelors degree at the University of Florida. Generally, our product is marketable to people that do not have an operable scooter or car. These students all have stressful lives and tend to very busy people. Most of our audience would be for people who live on campus or very close to campus. 

Why Care: The reason students will choose to use our service is that so often students are stuck walking from Heavener Hall to Hume or from their dorm to the commuter lot. These students would greatly benefit from the saved time using a bike. Another reason they would use our service is that the only transportation that can be rented is the Zip Cars and they are so expensive and are not feasible for parking in most places that students need to go. Students also will pay money for this service because it promotes a healthier life and an environmentally sustainable life. 

Core Competencies: The reason that our business could be so successful is that this is a need for our community and their is no one currently in the market for satisfying this need. For example, we would be the only bike system on campus that would provide instant traveling ability. Our business model competes with that of Zip Car, Taxis, and Uber, but the significance of our brand is that we provide instant access to bikes when students want them and they do not have to wait thirty minutes for a bus or Uber. 

Evaluation: I believe these elements all fit together. I currently exist in this need and their is nothing able to satisfy this need if you are not blessed to have a car or scooter or bike and need to get across campus in ten minutes. Because of my personal knowledge of this issue, I know this solution would be appealing to myself. I have friends that have expressed this need to be fixed by the university and I believe other students would jump at this opportunity and that they would value the saved time they would be receiving, as well as, the promotion of living a healthier, more environmentally-friendly life.

Week 5 Reading Reflection

One of the things that surprised me the most was how Moonlight U.S.A decided to expand into the United States and that as an entrepreneur, we have to make decisions that can provide innovative opportunities to grow and make more revenue. I didn't even think about how just bringing your company to a new country can grow opportunities so much.

The book lists many questions that entrepreneurs must answer before starting a business, which include employee turnover, target sales, and delivery times. Something that really confuses me is how an entrepreneur is supposed to know those things before he opens the business in the early stages.

I have many questions that I would love to ask this author. My first question would be whether or not be started his own company. My next question is: if so, how did he figure out all those questions I spoke of earlier before starting that business. I believe he would give me some insight into having and entrepreneurial mindset.

There wasn't anything in this chapter that I disagreed with, but I was surprised by some of the examples he used to show the difficulty and fun of a start up venture.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

Hey All,



The name of my company is Ez2Bike and we will be promoting reusable bikes for the community that help with transportation around the city. This will help with environmental issues that excess cars produce and will help to minimize traffic. With so many students being forced to live off-campus, there is a huge issue in our community with transportation. Some people are blessed to have a car, scooter, and bike, but most of us are not. With this in mind, I believe it is important to fix this problem. We all have experienced that horrible moment when you can't find a spot and your class or exam starts in ten minutes, and this is something that must be fixed. My solution is that we implement a pay-as-you-go biking system that will allow for the reuse of bikes in order to transport to your class quickly. Theses biking stations will be set up all over the city so that you can return a bike at any of the stations and this will really help out the college community.

What we need now are investors, willing to help fund this idea. Please check out the video below for my details:

Top 5 World Problems

Top 5 world problems from most serious to least serious:

1) Lack of Clean Drinking Water

2) Malnutrition

3) Obesity

4) Terrorism

5) Sex Trafficking

The reason I believe that lack of clean drinking water is the most serious is that we all need water to live and so many people are dying yearly because of lack of clean drinking water. Malnutrition is similar, but much less people die every year from it. Obesity is specifically a major world issue in urban, fast-paced countries such as the United States, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia. Terrorism in the form of terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda are a major problem because they can strike at any time, any way. Sex trafficking is a huge issue in Florida surprisingly, but is an even bigger issue globally as young women and men are trafficked in order to meet certain demands by different industries, such as the pornography industry. Although these are all very important, dying of clean water (something we could fix) is much more of a problem than the much smaller number of people who get sex trafficked. 

Top 5 world problem solutions from most feasible to least feasible:

1) Banning the pornography industry, in order to stop sex trafficking

2) Using Filters of Hope, partnering with major organizations to help provide clean, drinking water

3) Better Nutrition Testing for foods in order to ban those that lead to obesity

4) Training government employees and military units better ways to interact with people groups of a different culture.

5) Using food portion controls and learning to help share resources to those countries in need of food

The reason that banning the pornography industry is the most feasible is that there is a lot of scientific support for the claim of pornography being bad for people, plus the large amounts of people being sex trafficked would stop so quickly. The next most feasible solution would be for governments to partner with filters of hope toward giving these filters to individuals in need across the World. Proper nutrition testing is harder because it takes away certain foods that can be fine if ate in moderation. Training government officials is very easy to do, except there is thousands of different cultures. Every person eats certain portions because of their size (skinny women to bigger man) and thus portioning control is difficult to define.

World's Biggest Problems (and Solutions!)

This world is surrounded by problems that could plague our growth as a society. This post is to help share with you all what I believe to be the 10 most important problems we must fix and provide some ways we can implement to help change them.

1. The single greatest problem our world is facing is the fact that millions are dying every year because of a lack of clean drinking water. Some studies show that over 2 billion people suffer from not having adequate sanitation. One solution that is feasible is that people and even nations could partner with an organization called Filters of Hope. This organization has created a filtration system that can give any family clean water for ten years. The cost of these systems is only 40$ and I am confident that people and entire nations would support this cause in order to supply filtration systems to people that don't have adequate sources of clean, drinking water.

2. With the emergence of ISIS and Al Qaeda over the last fifteen years, I believe a large problem that we must address is terrorism and how to help create a more peaceful environment. As we continue to fight a war on terrorism in the Middle East, we are creating a culture for terrorism growth in that area, where they will eventually attack the rest of the world. One way to help decrease terror attack levels is to train soldiers and officers on how to communicate with different cultures in order to limit any sort of disagreement or hostility that may create radical, terror attacks.

3. Throughout history, we have seen a steady decrease in coal use because of how limited it is and now we are worried we will start to see lower quantities of natural gas and petroleum around the world. This specifically worries countries that manufacture large automobiles or equipment such as Italy and Germany. One way that we can begin to lower our consumption of natural resources is by getting global commitment to using renewable resources at all costs instead of non-renewable's and by teaching people early how to consume less.

4. Naturally, we as humans try to be a head of another person. We can see this so clearly in how countries have competed to have the greatest armed forces, the Arms Race. The issue now is that we have figured out how to develop nuclear weapons and countries are competing to have the largest weapons in order to be able to protect themselves in case of a massive attack. Our world must take a stand against nuclear development. One way that I think we do this is by learning to compromise in trade and be willing to take loses and gains during particular seasons, in order for our entire humanity to be appeased. One way we could do this is by introducing a leaders peace conference where we promote compromise and the importance of human life and continue to not submit to nuclear weapons.

5. Americans specifically, but much of the world has been affected by the plague of income disparity. The top 1% of income earners have 48% of the worldwide wealth in their possession, including nearly any person working full-time in America. We have opportunities to bridge the gap from the top 1% to the bottom feeders by cutting down on consuming. One particular way we can cut our consumption is by choosing to limit portions in food and to decrease the abuse of items we do own, so that we can use them for longer. An example of this is how people abuse their phones. We can have an iPhone 6 and drop it and immediately we are in need of a new phone and cannot live without this. The issue of this philosophy is that we waste our disposable income on our carelessness, instead of helping people in need. 

6. As we continue to grow in population worldwide and people get busier, we are choosing to feed our children things that can be prepared quickly or that are cheap. This issue with these things are that they usually don't contain the necessary nutrition that humans need. With this in mind, we have seen a dramatic increase in obesity among our global population. One way in which we can help to change this is by forcing companies that supply food to go through nutrition testing in order to sell their food product. For example, if a specific type of food doesn't meet the needs of its consumers based on its caloric output, then it would not be allowed to be produced until meeting the criteria. 

7. Something that has risen concern over the last fifty years has been climate change that has occurred due to our uses of resources that deplete the O-zone. One way to help slow this climate change is by using hydroflourocarbons (HCFCs) instead of chlorofourocarbons (CFCs) in our refrigerators, freezers, air conditioning systems, and automobiles. These HCFCs are much less harmful to the O-zone and can help to slow its depletion. 

8. Medical abilities have grown in developed countries, but have yet to reach other parts of the world and people are dying of diseases all the time that could be cured with proper medication and treatment. One way that we can solve this problem is by doing collection days to collect all unused prescription and over the counter medication and shipping it to countries that are in need. 

9. One of the fastest growing industries in the world, unfortunately, is the pornography industry. What happens in this industry is a large problem and that is sex trafficking. Sex trafficking takes women and men without their permission and uses them for pornography because they won't survive without it. We can make a change in this problem by globally working to end the pornography industry. If we make this industry illegal, we can help end a large quantity of the sex trafficking that occurs. 

10. Along with the lack of clean, drinking water, many people are forced to malnutrition because their communities don't have the resources to provide for the residents in certain areas of the world. We can help with this by consuming less of the worldwide food products by reducing portions of foods that we consume in develop countries. 

Reading Reflection - Week Two

After reading the assigned work for the week, I couldn't help, but be surprised that people thought so negatively of entrepreneurship and that they didn't believe it brought on much success. From my experience, what makes a good manager is that he is able to think and come up with new ideas. 

What really confused me were the author talks about how aggressive that entrepreneurs are, I think they're more or less, just persistent and passionate. I agree with almost everything that the author says, except that she suggests that entrepreneurs are aggressive.

If I could ask the author any two questions, I would ask:

1. How do you develop a entrepreneurial mindset?

2. What is the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur?

Walter's Bug List

Bug 1: When I am talking with someone one-on-one, and they either answer a phone call, get on social media, or begin texting.

Why? People are often not satisfied with the present and look to either show their past off via social media or make plans for the future. 

Bug 2: When my roommate begins snoring very loudly.

Why? I value their sleep and don't like to be awoken by something they can't control.

Bug 3: When I make an appointment with someone and then they bail last minute.

Why? I am a planner by a nature so I like my schedule to be fixed and not have too adjust it or waste time.

Bug 4: When I drive from Lakeland to Gainesville, I take I-75 and often I run into some pretty bad traffic, but then later I realize that there was a fender bender and people slowed down to see what happened.

Why? People are so curious sometimes that they will slow their car down just to see the people in an accident. I get annoyed by this curiosity because it doesn't affect them.

Bug 5: Often when I go to the Top, I find that the service is really bad.

Why? I value my time and don't want to be made late to my next event or to waste valuable time.

Bug 6: In my apartment complex's parking garage, a silver car's alarm goes off for five minute increments all night and then it will wait about ten minutes and begin again. 

Why? The repetitive noise of the car alarm often wakes me up or makes it difficult to study.

Bug 7: When I go to Pascal's Coffeehouse, they turn the heat on whenever the weather gets under 70 degrees, and it often gets too stuffy to breath.

Why? I get hot easily if I am focusing and it makes it a hard environment to study or read in.

Bug 8: Whenever my professors don't let me out of class on time. 

Why? They are choosing to take time away from me for themselves, which doesn't feel right.

Bug 9: Being told a wait time and then it ends up taking longer than they say, like when I go to the Outback on Archer.

Why? I usually go to a restaurant when I get hungry, so not being sat immediately when they say they will sit you is annoying. 

Bug 10: Being called by a telemarketer over the phone or by a company looking for workers.

Why? I have to take time out of my day to answer calls and this often annoys me.

Bug 11: My roommates will take some of my eggs and tell me they will buy some for me, but instead they never repay me.

Why? They don't respect the things I own or buy and thus, they're showing they don't respect me. 

Bug 12: While I am telling a story, I am bugged when someone interrupts me and tells their story.

Why? They don't respect me and choose to not listen to what I have to say.

Bug 13: When someone coughs without covering their mouth.

Why? They are risking me getting a cold and then I will have to take time to get better and most likely get behind in school.

Bug 14: In my truck, I have to put Diesel gas and sometimes, gas stations will say they have Diesel gas and then they ran out.

Why? Usually I have to get out of my car before I notice that they ran out and it's frustrating when they don't value their customers to tell them.

Bug 15: In Lakeland, something that use to annoy me was waiting in line at the DMV

Why? They don't value the people coming in because they are required to come in, so they hire slow employees and don't care how long you wait.

Bug 16: When I email a professor and they either don't answer or take a week to answer.

Why? Usually it takes them about 30 seconds to respond so they are choosing to neglect their students for their needs.

Bug 17: My neighbors in Lakeland have not mowed their lawn in 5 months and it looks horrible.

Why? They don't realize that it actually decreases the property value of  my home and this makes my home look worse.

Bug 18: When you're at the airport and they delay your flight due to their being too many planes on the runway.

Why? They are choosing not to schedule the departures of planes with an appropriate amount of distance in take off time and it gets jammed up, which isn't valuing me as a customer.

Bug 19: When I see people throwing trash out of their car.

Why? They are showing they don't value the Earth and that is something I truly value.

Bug 20: When someone is smoking in my face or around me.

Why? I dislike my clothes smelling like smoke. 

This assignment was very difficult for me because I don't think of life in what bugs me. Most of the things that I saw, had to do with my time, how I plan my life, and whether or not the people I am dealing with value me as a person or a customer. 

My Entrepreneurship Story

My father is a computer technician for his own organization. He has always loved computers and loved learning how to fix any issue that came about within his own computers. The reason he is an entrepreneur is because he decided to start his own computer business without any real resources. He took out a loan and decided to make cards and give out flyers. He got his name and number out there and people started calling for his help. After a year or two, he had enough revenue coming in that he started advertising on Google and in Yellow Pages. The reason I think he is an entrepreneur was because he took a huge risk because he knew he wanted to create his own business. He now is very successful working under major organizations and high-income clientele in Lakeland.

The reason that I enrolled in ENT3003 was because it is a sports management elective that I need in order to graduate. The reason I chose this course over other electives was that I believe that I can be more successful if I live with a entrepreneurs mindset. As I become more of a entrepreneur, I believe I will become more creative and willing to take risks in order to expand the businesses I work for, specifically the YMCA. As the picture below shows, I believe that having a entrepreneurship mindset is a major key to success.

My Introduction

Hi All,

My name is Walter Huffstutler and I am a third-year, sports management major. I am from Lakeland, Florida and I will be living in Orlando once I graduate from the University of Florida. I have two half siblings, both a brother and a sister, and live with my family in Lakeland.  I have an internship in place for spring of 2017 and I will be interning with the Dr. Phillips YMCA. I am interning with the YMCA so that I can eventually be a sport director for the YMCA in the future. I hope to work with their youth sport programs and to help grow leaders among teens. When I was growing up, I was very involved in the YMCA and joined a teen leadership club, called Leaders Club. It was in that club that I heard about God and now I am a Christian. After my freshman year, I went on a missions trip with CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) and shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people in Paris, France. I have traveled to most states on the east coast and most of the southern states.

My Entrepreneur's Mantra

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