The 80-20 Rule: "The Twenty Percent"

1) Find a business owner and talk to them about their customers. Who do they think their target customers are? What are their customers' unmet needs?Where do they find their customers? What are their customer's demographics? What kinds of media do their customers consume?

http://www.goodvibesjuiceco.com/

     I went to a local business called Good Vibes Juice Co. I had an acai bowl I asked the owner/entrepreneur if I could ask him a few questions for an entrepreneurship class. He accepted but did not want to be video recorded so I asked him who he thought his target customers were and where he finds his customers and what the demographics of his customers are and what kind of media he uses to get in contact with his customers. He claimed that his target market was high-end customers of all ages - capturing the youth and the elderly - who are willing to pay a higher price for a higher quality product. His idea of his target market seemed to match up with the ideas that the customers thought the target market was. After interviewing the owner of the small business, I interviewed three customers that were at the store. 

2) Next, go and talk to 3 'target customers' -- using the demographics/psychographics the entrepreneur described. Ask these 'target customers' the questions in the paragraph directly above.

     The three girls I interviewed seemed to have the same answers that the owner had - the target market is generally youthful, healthy, and higher-end clientele who are willing to pay a premium for a fresh, healthy, acai bowl or juice. The customers seemed to neglect the elderly market that the owner wishes to capture. The target customers were all young, lively, healthy. The main concerns that the target customers had about the product was its high price, location of the store, and they also wished that there was a larger food variety. Although these seemed to be issues for the customers, it is not stopping them from still frequenting the store.

3) Reflect. Does the entrepreneur adequately understand their customers' problems? Where are the differences? Why might these differences exist.     

     I believe that the entrepreneur does adequately understand his customer's problems. The issue of price is something that is built into his business model because his product is like no other. The ingredients are fresh, healthy, and therefore must cost more than the McDonald's next door. His customers understand this and are willing to pay more. After trying the acai bowl for the first time I think that the "higher price" is justified - the ingredients are organic, fresh, and the fruit is delicious. The entrepreneur also targets his customers by doing trade shows, pop-up shops, and utilizes social media to gain a following. This is definitely geared toward his more youthful target market that is on Instagram, Twitter, and goes to trade shows.

Below you can find the videos of me interviewing: 1. the entrepreneur/owner 2. customer interview #1 3. customer interview #2 4. customer interview #3 5. a video of the inside of the Good Vibes Co. store

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

The biggest surprise for me in the reading was the concept of the guerrilla marketing plan. This is a technique that forces the entrepreneur to choose the seven most important marketing issues that face their company. The key is to address each issue in no more than one sentence, though, which is an interesting technique I had not heard about. 

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

The one part of the reading that was somewhat confusing was the part about the comparison table of major survey research techniques. The table is cluttered, confusing, and does not do a good job of describing each criteria in detail.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why? 

I would ask the author if he could explain direct/cold mailing in regards to the survey research techniques. The other question that I would ask the author would be if internet marketing is more important than tv marketing. As we enter the golden age of the internet and the decline of tv, I wonder what the trend will be in relation to marketing techniques by companies. 

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How? 

I did not find anything that the author was wrong about. Marketing concepts and challenges for entrepreneurial ventures is a topic that I want to learn more about so I do not yet have the knowledge to specifically disagree with the author about anything. 

Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

As I stated in my first idea napkin, I think it is important to state in this idea napkin that my morals and values are strongly rooted in my faith which direct my work ethic as a businessperson, in school, and in life. My idea pertains to me because I live in a dorm and also frequent the gym and think that a product like the one I have come up with would be a huge help to me in my life and would make living in the dorm a little more enjoyable. It is something that I am passionate about so I know I would work hard to make this product an actual business.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

I am offering a product that replaces shower shoes. The customers that I have identified definitely have an unmet need and I think my product will solve this issue. The product is a spray that comes out of a can and it will be a polymer-based solution that will seal the surface of the customer’s foot in order to protect it from the dirty floor. 

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common? 

The people that I am offering this product to are mainly college students, specifically students who are living on-campus in dorms and students who frequent the fitness centers on campus or around campus. The other demographic is the elderly who go to the YMCA on a daily basis who use the sauna, steamer, and showers. The thing that all of my customers have in common is that they use public showers. 

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

I have already talked to at least 30 potential customers who claimed that they would pay money for this product. It is a cleaner, more convenient, cooler, and safer option to the traditional shower shoe. 

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

This is a proprietary product that was created from an unmet need that the creator specifically had. This is a versatile idea that could be applied to other ventures such as the sealing of surfaces temporarily.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others. 

     The elements of my business flow in that I have talked to multiple customers and have had reassuring feedback, but have also had helpful criticism. People have had concerns about the stickiness of the product. This is something that I am working on and is a concept that is weaker than the others. My response is that the stickiness of the polymer will be enough to stick to the foot without leaving a residue and will be easy to peel off without coming off on its own. Other than that concern, I think that the rest of the business flows together and makes sense. 

Feedback Memo

1. I talked about the “you” aspect more. I also listed why this idea pertains to me and why I want to create this product.
2. I incorporated my target market to include the “college kid” demographic that I am really going after. 
3. I am going to create a polymer-based solution as the spray.
4. This solution could be used for many other applications for sealing surfaces temporarily.
5. I will expand my customer base and look more into the YMCA elderly people demographic.

     I incorporated this feedback into this idea napkin by talking more about myself in the “you” section of the idea napkin. I talked about why I want to create this product and why it means something to me. I also added a demographic in the customer section and think that expanding my customer base would only benefit my company. I also thought about potentially using this polymer-based solution in other aspects such as temporarily sealing certain surfaces or using it for gloves, socks, or bandages.

Week 8 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

The biggest surprise for me in the reading was that in equity financing, the money invested in the venture has no legal obligation for entrepreneurs to repay the principal amount or pay interest on it.

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

The one part of the reading that was somewhat confusing was the part about collateral in regard to commercial banks. Through context clues and research, though, I infer that it is something that the borrower is liable for in order to pay back the loan to the lender. Another part of the reading that was confusing was the part about factoring.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why? 

The first question that I would ask: what do you mean by factoring? You say that it is the sale of accounts receivable, but what does that mean? What do you mean by the factor is the client’s receivables?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How? 

I do not think that there was anything the author was wrong about; however, there were parts of the reading that require some more clarification, such as factoring, public offerings, and venture capitalists’ screening criteria.

Half-Way Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is a skill. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? 

I have learned to develop a set schedule that incorporates time management. Keeping myself accountable for assignments has taught me to work ahead and to not procrastinate.

2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this? 

I was on my way home back to Gainesville and I held off doing interviewing customers no. 1 because I was spending time with my family and neglected to work on the assignment until the very last minute. I did the interviews Sunday morning and then I drove back to Gainesville at around 6pm and got to my dorm at 8:30pm and tried uploading the videos to my blog. To my frustration, the videos would not upload and I was out of luck and the 9pm deadline rolled around and I could not share/declare the exercise even though I had done the assignment and had the videos on my phone. So I would say the key is to never give up even though it feels like the world is turning against you.

3) Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset’ ?

1. Set a schedule for yourself and actually stick to it.
2. Do the weekly readings - many people neglect this aspect of the course but there is so much knowledge to be gained by doing the readings.
3. Enjoy the assignments and put effort into them - you get out what you put in! 

$ Free Money $

• Where will you go? I went to two places: the lobby of my dorm and Turlington Plaza. I went to these two places because I wanted to reach two different demographics. There are mainly freshman in the dorm and there are all ages of people at Turlington so I wanted to see if freshman vs. other grades would accept the dollar more eagerly.
• What kind of people will you approach? I approached people that were on the phone or people that looked like they were in a hurry to get to/from Marston Library.
• What will you say to get the conversation started? I asked how they were doing and told them my plan for the dollar bill to get the conversation started.
• What is your plan for the conversation? For conversation, I told the five people I gave dollar bills to that I was doing a daily acts of kindness movement. It is not random, but rather systematic acts of kindness that happen on a daily basis.
• Out of five attempts, how many dollar bills do you think you will be able to give away? Out of the five attempts I thought that I would get all five to take the dollar; however, to my surprise I was wrong. I only had three people out of five actually take the dollar bill. The two that did not take the dollar bill said they "did not feel right taking my money" and to "donate it or give it to someone in need."

Reflection

• When I first read the directions for this exercise I thought it was absurd! I did not want to give away my own money to random people. After doing the actual exercise, I can say that it was fun and felt good to give to others and see the smile on someone's face. Giving away a dollar seemed really hard in the first place because the idea of giving away money is not something I like, but after following through with the exercise it was not as bad as I thought. I am glad that not all five people took the dollar, though! I planned to talk to people that were either on the phone or people that looked rushed or busy because I wanted to see if they would actually stop for me. I did stop a person who was on his way to work and was also on the phone and he surprisingly took the dollar bill with only a couple questions. It felt nice knowing that I could make his day better. Overall, this exercise might scare some folks because not many people enjoy giving away their own hard-earned money but for the sake of learning I think giving away less than $5 is a bargain. 

Giving Away Free $$$

Week 7 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

The biggest surprise to me in the reading was how important branding and how to position the brand. It is true that people will pay a higher premium for a brand they can trust and a brand they are loyal to. 

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

One part of the reading that was confusing was the part about which attitudes matter to the buying decision. I was confused about the concept of immutable personality traits that rarely bears much fruit.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why? 

The first question that I would ask the author would be: why do you think that tastes and preferences outweigh the traditional demographic knowledge of a given population if tastes and preferences are always changing? My second follow-up question would be: Wouldn’t it be hard to gauge customer tastes and preferences and very expensive?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How? 

There was one thing that stood out to me that seemed somewhat incorrect. Traditional demographic traits such as age, sex, education levels, and income seem to be a good basis for marketing strategy, which Daniel Yankelovich claims they are not. He rather says that values, tastes, and preferences override the traditional demographic traits.