Final Reflection

The first Idea Napkin was the most informative experience. I was able to fully write out everything that I stood for and it really put things in perspective. I think that it really helped me understand what my values are and how to go about explaining those values. I also really liked interviewing people about my concept in relation to the Gainesville community. I learned that there is a lot more initiatives like my venture than I thought there was. For example, a school 30 minutes away actually already has hydroponics systems installed in their school! Rather than discourage me, this urged me to research further on how to scale the idea.

Week 14 Venture Concept #2

Opportunity
The opportunity that I'm addressing is the need for a shift in our diet and the inevitable food scarcity that will be occurring by the year 2050 with the rise in our population. There are not enough avenues educating the you on healthy eating choices and my venture concept intends to provide that. Additionally, my concept addresses the issue of food scarcity in inner cities (and beyond). The potential customers are schools and school boards. The product is geared towards students but the school board will be the one purchasing it. This means that I have the challenge of appealing to both the kids and the school board. This opportunity is huge. Every single kid can benefit from eating healthier. The focus of my direction will be to inner city schools because I feel they need the exposure to healthy food the most. That being said, that is not where my initial profit will come from so I will have to start off with targeting schools with more money to spend.

Innovation
My innovation is a school program that combines a vertical plant watering system with an online engagmenet platform to get kids engaged with eating healthy.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

I really liked how this article focused on the development of a new leadership style. I liked the quote- “many initiatives connected primarily by values rather than design.” This made me think of how we can get along with people who are going at things with different approaches but have the same values at their core. I definently agree that the corporate environment is ( and should be) focusing more on creating an environment that fosters innovation. 

Going for Google Week #14

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimiation (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

I honestly didn't pay as much attention to the quality of my blog as I should have. Although this isn't an excuse, I'm taking this class as a last minute credit in my final semester of art school. I've been focused on completing my art projects and general things in life and haven't focused on the blog as much. That being said, I can address this question using the ideas I would have incoporated if I had taken it more seriously and not just as an assignment for a class. 

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

Keywords I would use are as follows: entrepreneurship, small business, hustle, healthy eating, vegan,vegartian, plant-based, schools, elementary. I would want anyone looking up these words to see my business idea. Anyone looking for vegan/vegetarian recipes or community could potentially be interested in this. I chose words like "growth" because it sybolizes our growth as a species, something that my product definentely is working towards. 

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I think the youtube channel was a great addition. It would be a really good idea to keep a consistent format for each video made. For example making an opening and ending to each bio that you could just place in. Another example would be to take each video in a similar place. Of course this was hard to do because we were assigned to do a lot of public interviews but you could definently make sure you did a lot of public interviews. 

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

My Idea Napkin #1 was my most viral post. I spent a lot of time and effort on this post and it was my most high quality. The quality was noticed by the public as it has the most views. 

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

I did not make it past the first pages of google results. I made it to the 7thpage which is obviously not great. 

Week 14 Very Short Interview w/ Entrepreneur #2

The initial interview was much more vague. I feel like that the entrepreneur I interviewed was much more open with me when I interviewed him the second time around. Unlike the beginning of the course, I was able to speak in more specific terms relating to business and entrepreneurship.

Interview w/ John Bonani, Founder & CEO of ISG Imaging

What would you say the biggest risk you take every day (in regards to your business)?  Many, but one...Losing a large client Who would you say your customer base is and has it evolved over the years? Primary Customer base is advertising agencies and other print companies that do not do the specific service that we offer so we act as an extension or division  of their own business. And yes it has definitely evolved we used to deal with more end users and found it was better for us to deal with resellers Has your understanding of your customers developed throughout the years? Yes and understanding your customers needs is imperative to keeping that customer.  ---------------------------------------------------- Honestly, I don't think I've come that far in my discussion of entrepreneurship. The only thing that has changed is being able to refer to specific techniques and vocabulary when talking abut a method. When crafting my questions, I definently aimed at finding more specific answers. For example, I asked what detailed questions about the customer base. I've learned that an understanding of the customer base is extremely important and I'm really interested in an entrepreneur's journey to discovering that.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

My biggest surprise was the emotional bias section. This always brings you back down to earth in realizing that companies perform just like humans do. We all get equally jaded in our rational thoughts due to emotions and ego. I was confused about the section of the chapter where he goes on to talk about the pricing formula. It was difficult to relate it to my own business because he was using terms that I had never heard of before (or rarely heard in context). My questions to the author would be to explain the "Control Factor" a little bit more as well as to explain how we could apply it to our specific businesses. I didn't see anything wrong with the way the author wrote this chapter.

Celebrating Failure Week 13

I failed at committing to a major this semester. During drop/add week I had to choose a major and fully knew that not choosing one would leave me in a state of indecision for the rest of the semester. That is exactly what happened. This happens a lot. 

I guess I learned, for the thousandth time, how important trusting yourself is. The important of this was reiterated to me for sure. I think I’ve gotten too good at accepting failure. I’m very okay with it but don’t think I’m as motivated as I used to be about going forward.