30A Final Reflection

Overall, I have personally grown so much throughout this course. I will always remember the interviews I had with entrepreneurs years later because I successfully made connections with entrepreneurs that had a similar business venture. I did not like the elevator pitches because I was very intimidated to explain my concept through a recording. I do not really like making recordings. I am most proud of myself for creating a solid business venture through the venture concept exercise. I never would have thought I could formulate my own business venture at the beginning of the semester. I have definitely acquired an entrepreneurial mindset from this class, and I see myself as an entrepreneur. I recommend students who are taking this class in the future manage their time wisely to complete all the assignments on time. Buy yourself a planner to write down all the due dates and give yourself enough time to finish the assignments. I also recommend that you take risks in this course. I know it can be intimidating to take a risk, but this course will help you learn so much if you challenge yourself to take the risk.

29A Venture Concept No. 2

Planet Green

Opportunity:

I have identified an opportunity for an affordable vegan friendly restaurant with a diverse menu near the University of Florida campus. Most vegan students, teachers, and locals currently cook meals at their own homes or pay higher prices to eat the same vegan meal at local restaurants. Many University of Florida students are becoming vegan for the following reasons:

·      Healthy lifestyle

·      Environmental reasons

·      Animal rights

·      Self-image

This opportunity arises from the lack of healthy vegan friendly restaurants in the Gainesville area. Vegan students and locals are tired of eating the same meal at their sorority house or constantly cooking meals at home. Although some restaurants in Gainesville may offer a few limited vegan options, these restaurants usually only provide salad or beans. A healthy restaurant just opened in Gainesville; however, the restaurant charges exorbitant prices for vegan meals. Therefore, vegan customers are looking for an affordable, diverse menu in one restaurant.

The market for potential customers encompasses a broad range. After conducting interviews around campus, I found both male and females in the age ranges of 18-22 who decided to go vegan. Sorority girls at the University of Florida make up a higher percentage of vegans on campus than males at the University of Florida. Not only do undergraduate students partake in a vegan diet, but I have also discovered teachers in the 30-40 year old range who identified themselves as vegan. Athletes, body builders, and gym rats in the Gainesville area also maintain a vegan diet to maintain the best shape and health.

Potential customers are satisfying their needs through the following ways. Vegan sorority girls at the University of Florida are mainly eating the same salad from the salad bar at dinner. Some students are cooking all their meals at home to avoid eating the same meals daily. While some vegans prefer cooking at home, the vegans who like to eat at restaurants usually only have the option of Grill Fresh or Designer Greens with limited menu options. I should be able to persuade the customers who eat at their sorority houses and the other restaurants to purchase my vegan meals and eat at my restaurant to find the cheapest, most delicious options in Gainesville because they do not seem extremely loyal to these methods. After I market my restaurant properly and word of mouth spreads about the affordable prices and various options, I am sure I can convince the vegans who cook at home to step outside their comfort zone and try my restaurant.

This opportunity for a vegan friendly restaurant should exist for a time unless someone quickly capitalizes on this market with a major lack of competition in the Gainesville area. If I can open the first vegan friendly restaurant with decent prices and various options, I can maintain a huge competitive advantage and profit over future restaurants that may open.

Innovation:

I have developed an effective solution to the fully satisfy the unmet needs of vegans in the Gainesville community. Although my solution proposes a unique vegan restaurant, some restaurants do currently exist with vegan options in the Gainesville area. I plan on offering my potential customers a wide variety of vegan options on my menu for low prices. Not only will my restaurant use fresh ingredients shipped from all over the United States, but the staff will also be able to educate customers on the ingredients of every dish and the most popular meals. You can order vegan-friendly pizza, snacks, and meals for an affordable price. Instead of breaking the bank to keep a vegan lifestyle, you can actually afford the fresh, vegan friendly meals I will offer. I would ideally like to open my restaurant in the downtown Gainesville area as a family owned restaurant with a very warm and friendly atmosphere. The diverse menu will denote all the ingredients used in our specially designed recipes and the calorie count. In addition to serving customers inside our restaurant, we will offer takeout and delivery to accommodate the busy schedules of our customer base. I will make a profit by selling vegan friendly meals to my customer base for cheap prices. For example, I will offer vegan friendly pizza with different toppings for the low price of 5.99. When I first open the restaurant, I intend to offer special discounts to students in Greek Life and specific clubs to encourage them to try my restaurant.

Venture Concept:

My venture solves the problem of the lack of vegan friendly restaurants around campus. Potential customers will buy the diverse and delicious meals I am offering to satisfy their unmet need of healthy vegan foods in the Gainesville area. Customers will choose my restaurant over other restaurants and home cooked meals because I will provide the highest quality meals for an affordable price. Instead of paying high prices for meals in other restaurants, customers can purchase my uniquely designed healthy meals for a price that fits their budget.

I would create my restaurant by hiring servers, kitchen staff, and a social media marketing team. I assume I would probably have around fifty members on my staff to maintain the upkeep of the restaurant. The support of customers will disseminate the high quality and low prices to persuade other vegan customers in the area to eat at my restaurant. The customer experience also plays an important role because customers who have an excellent experience will become regular customers and encourage others to eat at my restaurant.

My venture’s unfair advantage is my unique business concept and lack of competitors in this industry. The unique meals and lack of competition provides me with a competitive advantage to capitalize on the market.

The next step in this venture is formulating the unique recipes for the restaurant and accumulating funds and sponsors to cover start-up costs. I plan on reaching out to family and friends to help me cover start-up costs.

I would like to see my restaurant running smoothly and satisfying the needs of vegans in Gainesville. If I can garner enough support, I would like to expand my vegan restaurant into a chain within the next decade. Expanding my restaurant into a nationwide chain will help me achieve my vision of owning multiple businesses and offering healthy food to the maximum amount of people.

Although I did not receive any feedback on my venture concept, I did improve a few parts of my venture concept. I decided to give students in specific organizations and clubs at UF a discount on my restaurant to garner their support. In addition to honing the innovation section, I included exactly how I intend to cover start up costs of my restaurant by reaching out to family and friends who may want to become potential donors. This venture concept has inspired me to build a healthy restaurant in Gainesville and expand it to other cities to maximize the availability of vegan restaurants nationwide.

28A Your Exit Strategy

I intend to sell my restaurant in the next five years for a decent return to a Gainesville local. After I graduate from the University of Florida, I plan on moving back to Miami. It will be extremely hard to manage a restaurant when I will not be living in Gainesville anymore. A potential Gainesville local that wants to own a restaurant can maintain the culture and values that my business will build. It has influenced my growth intentions because I need to quickly establish a firm customer base and successful restaurant to be able to sell it within the next five years for a profit.

27A Reading Reflection No. 3

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, Guy Kawasaki

What was the general theme or argument of the book?

Guy Kawasaki discusses the importance of social media and useful tips to hone your social media strategy. He utilizes humor to portray his social media advice. His breakdown of social media for businesses and people offer readers key takeaways to use in their own lives and businesses.

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

This book enhances the importance of social media presence and marketing your venture correctly. Social media can positively impact your business venture and expand your customer base. I plan on implementing tips from this book into the social media strategy for my restaurant.

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

I would design an exercise where my students would create their own social media platform whether it is a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page to market their own business venture.

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?

I did not realize pinning posts to Pinterest had such a positive impact on social media blogs. I was quite surprised to learn this and I intend to use Pinterest to share my blogs and acquire more followers in the future.

26A Celebrating Failure

I recently failed this past semester in my finance class. Math classes have always proved particularly challenging for me. I purchased the Study Edge and watched all the chapter reviews. However, I still could not get a good grade on the exams. After the first exam, I found a tutor to private tutor me and go over the practice problems with me. The extra practice and tutoring seemed to work until I saw my grade on Canvas.

I learned from this failure that it is extremely important to manage your time properly to study for challenging classes. I now know I need to seek extra help earlier in math classes to avoid failure. 

Failure is definitely hard because failure causes emotional distress and self-loathing. You begin to think you will not succeed if you do not get an A in all your classes. I am an extremely competitive person, so I get distraught whenever I fail anything. This class has changed my perspective on failure by forcing me to take risks to achieve my goals. I would have never created my own business concept or made useful connections in the Gainesville area before I took this class because I was always afraid of failing before. However, this class instilled confidence in me to take risks despite the chance of failure. Entrepreneurship taught me that it is okay to fail because I can learn from my failures and improve myself.