Your Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make.

As someone who is as of yet to decide exactly what they want to do for their career, I know that I want to explore. However, this business is important to me. I believe that it is an unbelievably important cause that we all need to come together for a fight. That being said, my exit strategy is that I would startup the company and stick with it for a couple years until I know that it is stable and profitable. I would then sell it to someone who is looking to continue the business. That way I can make a large return for my efforts within the company, the company can benefit for a newer and fresher perspective, and I can pursue a career more towards my field of interest.

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

I have selected this particular exit strategy, knowing that though I believe in this idea and this topic is something that is very important to me, running my own business is not what I necessarily imagine myself doing the rest of my life. I think that this offers a balance in giving me new experiences, starting a company that I truly believe in, and giving me the chance to make a large profit from this company.

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept?

I never had really thought about my "exit strategy" until now, so I don't really think that it has had any particular influence over the decisions I have made thus far. I think that while you are with a business you should give it your all, whether you plan to be with it for 5 or for 25 years. This is exactly what I have tried to do, I have given my all into the ideas that I have put into my company. The only thing that I would probably add to my plan is to find an apprentice to work with me, someone who is aspiring to own a business similar to this or who I can trust to maintain the core values of the company even after I am gone.

Reading Reflection No. 3

The Last Book

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

1) General theme or argument

The general theme of this book is of how social media is the foundation of advertisement, for not only your business, but you as the business person. In here, the author talks about different ways to maneuver social media and gives you tips on how to sell yourself to through social media to your target audience.

2) Enhance what you are learning

This book connects with and enhances what we are learning in ENT 3003 through showing us, as entrepreneurs the importance of having an online presence and how to profit from this with minimal effort. It talks about why this is important in today's day-and-age and how you can profit as: an individual, an entrepreneur, or a working person.

3) An exercise for this class

Creating an assignment for this class based on this book, I would have everyone take a look at their social media. They would have to go through and remove everything that they don't want to be a part of their campaign for themself. We would then, in class, rewrite our biography and user-tag, to fit this same criteria. Then using the books tips, and in the next week, post at least one picture everyday that follows the guidelines he set.

4) Biggest surprise or 'aha' moment

I think that the biggest surprise for me when reading this book, was about the author. Before reading this book, I had no idea who Guy Kawasaki was. Afterwards, however, I found out that he is Apple's former chief evangelist, and he is one of the developers of having blogs, a twitter, facebook, and tumblr, for a business. Having learned all of this, I think that he is more than qualified to write this book. I also think that this was simply interesting and gave me a new perspective of this person due to their significant background.

Celebrating Failure

Let's Fail, A Lot!

Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed.

I think that somewhere I have failed this past Semester, overall, is just in my Time Management skills. I feel as though as many thinks in my life continued progress: work, family stuff, school, clubs; it left me a little overwhelmed and I wasn't able to do everything up to the standard I expect from myself.

Tell us what you learned from it. 

What I have learned from this experience is that taking the time to sit down with a calendar or planner of some sort, is extremely important. The excuse I tell myself a lot of the time to avoid doing this is 'I don't have time to right now'. The longer you push something off, the more you'll have to catch up on. This is a really hectic time in our lives and it can most definitely be overwhelming, so we shouldn't be putting all of this pressure on ourselves.

Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure.

Failure is defiantly embarrassing, in my opinion. You hold yourself to a certain level, and even if you don't fail in the eyes of someone else, you can fail in your own. It's usually hard to admit when you failed at something because you are partially embarrassed and partially disappointed in yourself. I think the best way to cope with failure is to simply take it as a learning experience. Take this situation and think of ways to prevent it in the future. I think that's really all you're able to do cope with failure. However, by saying that, I think that it is important that we fail. Because only through failure, can we gain a new perspective, can we learn and grow, and can we gain new experiences.I am not saying to not try and succeed, Obviously give your all to whatever you are doing, but if that isn't suitable for a particular situation, this is when you can come back and learn a new technique.

What’s Next?

Existing Market

Step 1

Talk about what you think is what's next in terms of products and services for your venture.
As for what I think is next in terms of products and services for this venture, I think that obviously finding and building the facility for the first location is key. Shortly after is when advertising would begin, to get the word out about our company and get people excited about our grand opening.

Step 2

I interviewed: Dorothy Richardson, Alexia Bryd, and Kari Trozak, to get an understanding about what my target audience would believe is next for this company. I asked them "What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?" A lot of the feedback was along the lines of: get a starter loan, get facilities and equipment, find qualified teachers and trainers, and and plan advertising technique.

Step 3

What makes the most sense for this venture in terms of growing my existing market, I believe is building a foundation of trust and loyalty. After getting my venture open, I know that it is keen to deliver on everything we promote and advertise because that will be the first impression of the customer. When we begin promoting ourselves, part of our mission statement is that we are a family and we want to be a safe place for people. That said, employee-customer interaction is crucial. We need our employees to remember faces and get to know the customers so that they know we are interested in each of them individually.
There are probably only a limited number of ways to set a path for the future in order to achieve this, so this is what I have come up with: have design layout and profit plan for first five years, pitch case to bank for a loan, break ground and begin construction, start advertising to community and build up online presence, look for qualified and eager employees to train and teach customers, and begin interior work on building, have grand opening.

New Market

Step 1

Identify a radically different market from what you're currently planning to target. If you're currently targeting B2B, think about going after a B2C market. If you're currently targeting an affluent part of society, think about targeting a very poor part of society.
A radically different market from the one I am targeting are older women. My target audience are women ages 12-40, so targeting women ages 50+ would be a huge change in advertisement and in the way we would be teaching.

Step 2

I think that older women are still at risk people, maybe not for sexual assault, but but for assault and theft. Given the age difference, I think that an online presence is not as essential as community advertisements and getting promoted in the paper or certain magazines. I believe that the online presence would be more directed at their children or grandchildren, encouraging them to pass the information along. Finally, in terms of training, I think that there should still be a physical aspect, however I think that 3/4ths of the training should be in using self defense tools and being armed with something like pepper spray, at all times. Finally, I think that the classes are just as important and that everyone should be well informed about the statistics of sexual assault, assault and battery, etc.. People need to know what kind of risk they are in and how to defend themselves or reduce this risk.

Step 3

I interviewed Lucille-Ann Whalen and Donna Richardson to ask them how they think this business might help customers like them. They said that it would make a group of people who are often seen as and depicted as defenseless in most situations, gain some of their confidence back and know how to confidently steer clear of dangerous situations. Some adaptations I might have to make however, are having more on the spot trainers in case anyone needs help, along with medical examiners or nurses in the case of anyone getting hurt.

Step 4

I think that the most important thing to know is that age is not a condition that makes you not human. Everyone can still do things for themselves, they still have fears, they still have ambitions and want to learn. Maybe a few adaptations need to be made for whatever group of people you are focusing on, however that does not mean they can't do something, it just means they can do it in a different way.
This new market, for me is not as appealing as my existing one, and the reason for this is not because the new market shouldn't be focused on, it is only because the threat to the existing market is so huge, that it is hard to turn away from them right now.

Venture Concept No. 1

Putting it All Together

Opportunity

The opportunity is that every 92 seconds there is another American victim to some sort of sexual assault. The rape rate in America had been steadily declining since 1992 when it reached an all time high at 42.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. However, since 2013, the rate has once again started on this incline that grew from 25.9 to 30.8 in only five years. I feel as though customers needs are not being satisfied which is why this is growing so drastically. They need a company like mine, a group of people there to teach them and to be there for each other. This is a very 'hush-hush' topic that you don't hear many people talking about. The reality is though, that an overwhelming majority of women are afraid to walk alone at night, afraid to go out by themselves and afraid to take a bus unaccompanied. This should not be the case. People should not have to live their lives in fear that someone else might try to harm them. By creating a well marketed and advertised platform for my company, showing women that we are there to help them feel safe, we will have a large window of opportunity. This will show them that they have somewhere to go to help protect themselves, and I believe this window will be open until this statistic is obsolete because all anyone wants is to feel safe.

Innovation

The innovative aspect of my company is incrementally innovative. Many self defense classes involve going to the class, learning some moves, and leaving. My company is innovating on the idea of what self defense should involve. What I mean by this is that we will not only have classes teaching you about how to defend yourself, but we will teach why we need self defense, and how to be aware of your surroundings. Our company will be subscription based, having payments on a monthly or yearly basis (or whatever would work best for our customer). In addition to this, when signing up, each individual will be assigned to an instructor and paired with a buddy. The importance of this is so that way the class does not end when you leave the vicinity. You can keep in contact with both of these people and have them as resource to call when you feel like you are in a fishy situation. This company wants everyone to feel like family, to feel safe when around each other. Loyalty from customers comes when they feel important to an organization.

Venture Concept

Competitors to my company are the other self defense companies. However, more than this I honestly feel as though Personal Defense Devices are a bigger threat. This is because people often think "oh i am safe, I have my pepper spray," even though they have never used it, might forget it at home, or don't know how they would react under the more intense circumstances of sexual violence. This is why my company would teach them all of these things. There are not a lot of sexual defense companies that are at least well-marketed to have made themselves known. I suppose gyms could possibly be a threat to the company, however, most gyms either don't offer classes or their classes are limited and people with jobs don't have time to attend them. We combat all of these things, as said previously.

Three Minor Elements

1. I believe that my most important resources for starting this venture are my keen interest in what I am doing, my contacts to start up the business and my communication skills. These resources are not only unique to me, because all of these resources are, but they are also what is going to help start up my business, and what is going to make me keep going even when the company faces hard times. I think passion is extremely important, you obviously need more than that, but without passion for what you are doing, there would be no drive in your work ethic and nothing keeping you there.

2. The next opportunity that I think that I would like to tackle with my current innovation would be to aim it at children and have programs where children could use the Buddy system for bullies. We would tech self defense and what to do if they are facing bullies along with giving them confidence to speak up about it. This is because a big problem is that most children who are being bullied, do not tell anyone.

3. In five years from now, assuming that I launched, I would hope that we would have around 33 locations in Florida, spread out to be about 1 location for every other county. I would also hope that it had begun to spread out of Florida.

1. Alaska
2. Michigan
3. Nevada
4. Arkansas
5. Colorado
6. South Dakota
7. New Mexico
8. District of Columbia
9. Nebraska
10. Oklahoma

These are the states with the highest rape rate in America and so my goal would be to definitely have a least one franchise in each state within five years and grow from there.

Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

What Makes You So Special

Resources in my Venture

Human Capital, Social Capital, Financial Capital, Capabilities, and Organizational Culture

Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, and Non-Substitutable

1. Self Defense Training
• I have had different kinds of self defense training in my life, and I obviously would like to further pursue this and learn more. I have a yearning for growth and I have a decent foundation to do that from.
2. Keen Interest in This Topic
• Having personally experience many types of sexual harassment and knowing many women who have been victim of assault, I can not just stand by knowing that there must be something that can be done to help defy this.
3. Experienced with Leading and Organizing Group of People
• Much of my work experience that I have accumulated has helped me to build up my organizational skills and my leadership skills. I am not saying that I want to become President or anything, however I do think that I have enough experience and will gain enough experience and have enough passion that would make me a suitable leader in this endeavor. 
4. Education - the University of Florida
• Seeing as these resources are being stated for the future prospect of starting up this company, I have not yet completed my education, however I am currently working on getting my degree in Business Administration with a Specialization in Mass Communication, accompanied by a Minor in Innovation.
5. Connections to Police Officers - Help with Specialty Training
• My father is a Lieutenant with the Jacksonville Sherifs Office. That being said, many police officers conduct these types of self defense training, so I then have contacts to be involved with either teaching classes at my company or in training my future employees for qualification of being a teacher.
6. Contacts with Marketers - Make Business Known
• One of the biggest event for a company is their 'Grand Opening' which can only be grand if marketed well enough, to give the desired turn out. I have several connects to people who are really good at marketing and who could potentially help me market my company to get the name out there.
7. Good Credit and Savings
• I believe that I have always been very responsible with my money and that I am really good at saving. I also have really good credit which could help me get a loan if necessary. 
8. Communication Skills - People Facing
• A large part of any job, especially as the entrepreneur, is that you are the face of the company. Even at my current job, I am being trained in customer service and think that I have very good communication skills that could help build up my clientele. 
9. Familial Support
• I have been blessed with a very involved and supportive family that I would have the support of with this company and that I know I could rely on if need be.
10. I Value Support, Growth, and Accountability
• Some of my core values are support, growth, and accountability and I would reflect these in my company and company mission statement.

Top Resource

I believe that my most important resources for starting this venture are my keen interest in what I am doing, my contacts to start up the business and my communication skills. These resources are not only unique to me, because all of these resources are, but they are also what is going to help start up my business, and what is going to make me keep going even when the company faces hard times. I think passion is extremely important, you obviously need more than that, but without passion for what you are doing, there would be no drive in your work ethic and nothing keeping you there.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

Pitching Practice Makes "Perfect"

1) The Pitch

'“Every 92 seconds another American is sexually assaulted (1).” Due their inability to defend themselves or simply being uninformed about how serious this issue is, more and more women are becoming victim to sexual violence and the rape rate in the United States has gone up. Due to this, "59% of women who ever walked down an alley alone always or often feel unsafe doing so (2)." The solution is developing a company that not only provides accessible but affordable, weekly self-defense classes, as well as pair each customer with their own ‘buddy’ to call when they feel like they are in an uncomfortable situation. Through large community advertisements and promotion on social media we can make our company known. Working with each customer individually, we can make personalized payment plans that work for them. The Buddy System is a crucial part to this idea because if you are alone but on the phone with someone or in communication with them in some way, you are less likely to be targeted by a predator. And worst case scenario, there would be someone that knows you're in a bad situation and could call for help. Amongst the different types of self defense classes we offer, there would be training for hand-to-hand combat along with in how to use pepper spray, tasers, and other self defense weapons. Webster Merriam's phrase synonym for together is "at peace". No one should ever have to live their life in fear, afraid to going out by themselves in case that 'something might happen.' Our goal is to teach you what to do and how to defend yourself from acts of sexual violence and act as your security blanket when you are out with friends or on your own.'

2) Reflection

As someone who really struggles with public speaking, I think that this is really helping me. Having to do this and practice this so much has helped me to slowly gain a little more confidence in myself. Also, receiving feedback from my fellow students has been very helpful in letting me know how I may improve myself. It is a less direct way than someone getting called out in front of the entire class, so it makes me feel like I am developing and able to fix what needs fixing.

3) Feedback

From my feedback in previous assignments I was told that I could maybe expand on what type of self defense classes and trainings we would offer. I have now addressed this specifically in my pitch. I really appreciated this feedback because I honestly don't think I otherwise would have addressed it, so thank you and I welcome any more feedback that can be offered. Additionally, no one said this, however, I feel as though I get nervous during public speaking and know that I struggle with having my pitch come across in the most confident way. I have been working on improving on this and hope that it comes across in my delivery.

Reading Reflection No. 2

Bringing In A Second Opinion

Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Peter Drucker

1) General theme or argument

The general theme or argument of the book is that entrepreneurs must use innovation to exploit change and shows how this is so within the economy and society. The author discusses why, when, and how different innovative tactics should be used by entrepreneurs.

2) Enhance what you are learning

I think that the book connects with and enhances what we are learning in ENT 3003 because, just as this class, it focuses on an entrepreneurs actions and behaviors and shows how innovation intertwines with the development of an entrepreneur and their business.

3) An exercise for this class

If I had to design an exercise for this class, based on this book, I would create a list of different problems and then split everyone up into groups. Each group would represent their own company. I would give each group a different problem to say that is what your company is facing. Their task would be to come up with a way to overcome the problem (for example, a new competitor entering the market) in a way that benefits their company the most. So each group would then have to use different innovation strategies and advance their consulting analysis to ensure customer loyalty, increase revenue and decrease any potential threat to the company.

4) Biggest surprise or 'aha' moment

Honestly, I did not have much expectations when beginning this book. I feel as though, especially after taking Creativity in Action, a lot that I have learned about innovation and how it functions in a work place and trickles out to the society, has remained consistent. So even though I did not have an 'aha' moment when reading the book, it was defiantly interest seeing his specific thoughts on how everything worked together. Specifically, my favorite section of the book was on 'Entrepreneurial Strategies', which talks about different strategies to manage a new business.

Growing Your Social Capital

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry. This would be someone who's engaged in the same type of business activity as you would like to be. They may own the same kind of company that you would like to own, or they may be a technical expert who knows a lot about the kind of product or service that you would like to produce.

2) One person must be an expert on your market. This would be someone who is targeting your market with similar products services -- or knows a lot about conducting customer research in your area -- or represents a major piece of your market (this might be most applicable with B2B markets).

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry. This would be someone who is selling products and services to other organizations/firms in your industry. 

What constitutes 'contact'? Social capital exists in the "potential goodwill" that exists between two people. For you to establish "potential goodwill" for this exercise, you need to have asked feedback from each of these people on your business idea so far or in some other way created a favor "request." For instance, this could include asking to meet with them to show your elevator pitch or your idea napkin. 

One last catch: The three people you add to your social capital cannot have participated in any other exercise you have completed as part of this course. 

How to write up this post. Break up your post into three parts, one for each person. For each person, describe:

1) Who they are and what their background is.

2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot.

3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person.

4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? 

5) How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity?

Finally: Reflect. This experience requires you to do a little 'targeted networking.' How will this experience shape how you participate in any future networking events? Did this experience differ from your networking experiences in the past? How?

Idea Napkin No. 2

You

I am a second year Business Administration student, specializing in Mass Communication and Minoring in Innovation. I am a Brother in the Business Fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi whose vision statement recognizes as the premier developer of principled business leaders. Within the University of Florida's Innovation Academy I have become fluent in Fusion 360 printing and design and Arduino UNO Rev3 Microcontroller. I currently work as a Sales Associate at Planet Smoothie and have previous experience as a Senate Page for Senator Rob Bradley, Councilor at Bright Minds Youth Development, and Intern for Congressman Ted Yoho. I have learned a lot in terms of interaction with customers, working with others and refining my organizational skills. I aspire to use the skills that I have learned to contribute to a company, and am always looking to learn more and grow myself within that company.

What are you offering to customers?

This company is accessible and affordable and offers weekly self-defense classes, as well as pair each customer with their own ‘buddy’ to call when they feel like they are in an uncomfortable situation. Through large community advertisements and promotion on social media we can make our company known. Working with each customer individually, we can make personalized payment plans that work for them. Our goal is to teach you what to do and how to defend yourself from acts of sexual violence and act as your security blanket when you are out with friends or on your own.

Who are you offering it to?

Target Audience

Demographics

Women｜Age: 15 - 40｜Any Race｜Rural Areas｜Lower / Middle Class

Psychographics

Values safety｜Doesn't want to be a victim｜Women who feel vulnerable｜Strength to Women

Why do they care?

Every 92 seconds another American is sexually assaulted (1).” Due their inability to defend themselves or simply being uninformed about how serious this issue is, more and more women are becoming victim to sexual violence and the rape rate in the United States has gone up. Due to this, "59% of women who ever walked down an alley alone always or often feel unsafe doing so (2)." 

What are your core competencies?

The Buddy System is a crucial part to this idea because if you are alone but on the phone with someone or in communication with them in some way, you are less likely to be targeted by a predator. And worst case scenario, there would be someone that knows you're in a bad situation and could call for help. Amongst the different types of self defense classes we offer, there would be training for hand-to-hand combat along with in how to use pepper spray, tasers, and other self defense weapons.

My company is innovating on the idea of what self defense should involve. What I mean by this is that we will not only teach why we need self defense, and how to be aware of your surroundings, but also have classes teaching you about how to defend yourself.