Elevator Pitch #2

1) The pitch. 

2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch. 

- All of the feedback I received for my first elevator pitch was really positive. Some people made the suggestion to talk more about competing companies and other websites that have similar concepts to us and what makes them different. I think that was the biggest takeaway I took from the feedback from my first pitch. 

3) What did you change, based on the feedback?

- I did not change much with the content I was telling about my company, however, I did change the order that I talked about the company. I decided to start off with describing exactly what our company does, competition from other companies, I then I finished it off by telling the audience exactly what makes our company special.  

Customer Avatar

     My customer avatar starts with any gender. It is most likely that our customers will be in the 25 to 45 year old age range because they have to be in a position to need a personal assistant. My ideal customer will most likely have mature hobbies because they are in an older generation. They are most likely small business owners, however, any job could require the use of a personal assistant and we are open to getting anyone who needs assistance. the right person for their need. My customer could drive any type of car. Since any job could use a personal assistant, the range of income that my customers earn will also be a wide scale. My customers could also drive any color car because that is not dependent on the need of my service. My customers most likely do not watch Netflix as much as the younger generation, therefore a lot of the tv shows that they watch are probably on cable and not specific. My customers are most likely to watch mature tv shows and follow the news regularly. Typically my customers will probably have children because of the age range that they fall under, however this is also not dependent to the need of my service. Personality traits have nothing to do with if my customer has the need for my service, therefore it is hard to pinpoint my exact customer "Avatar." The only thing all of my typical customers will have in common is a job that needs a personal assistant, a lot of work that they need to accomplish on a daily basis, and an outside life that needs to be stimulated which is why they are in the need of a personal assistant.

Buyer Behavior #2

1) For this assignment, I found three people to interview that fall into the segment of "aspiring small business owners." The three people I found for this interview are Jason, Lindsay, and Maya. I found these interviews at Heavner Hall.

2) From these interviews, I found that quality and convenience were the two most important factors for using a personal assistant. All of the people that I interviewed believed they would pay a wide range of prices for a personal assistant, as long as their assistance are convenient and good quality. Although price is a factor in the)  decision to purchase the use of a personal assistant, as long as the assistance is good quality they are willing to pay a higher price for the service.

3) I plan on offering the service on a website. On this website, someone who is seeking a personal assistant will be able to enter their zip code, and the area in which they need a personal assistant in. The system will then pull up a list of all personal assistants signed up in that specific area. This will allow purchasers to hand pick exactly who they want to be their personal assistant. This is most likely to be an online transaction in which purchasers enter their credit card information. I also plan on offering a mobile application to use the service as well.

4) The thing that matters most to my customers are the quality of the service. No one wants to purchase something that doesn't work, this goes for my service as well. No one want to purchase the use of a personal assistant if they are not a good quality assistant. I want buyers to be happy that they decided to use my service, not regret the decision.

5) I found that all of the people I interviewed were seeking quality service. They all believed my service could be successful as long as it is a good quality. They also emphasized the ability to look up a personal assistant in a quick and efficient manner. They do not believe hiring a personal assistant would be worth it if it is not a good quality assistant and looking them up was not quick and easy.

6) I believe this market segment is the most popular of all the segments for my service. Aspiring business owners know how difficult it is to start a business, and they know that they need the help. Since they are in need of help starting their business, they are the most likely to purchase my service.

Secret Sauce

1) I believe I am a very unique person. There are a variety of the things that make me different from others. First off, I am an only child. Being an only child in our generation is not common. I am one of the few only children that I know. Another thing that separates me from others is my compassionate attitude. I grew up with my mom and my grandfather, they taught me growing up to listen to others and to show compassion for everyone. I was always taught to treat others the way that I want to be treated.

2) All of my interviews were very similar. For this part of the assignment I interviewed my three roommates and two other guys in my fraternity. Joey, Trevor, Emilio, Jackson, and Peter all believe that my best qualities are my hardworking mentality, my devotion to anything that I am actively working on, and my ability to listen to others. Each of my friends believe that I am very smart, both in school and in "street smarts." Finally, each of my friends emphasized that I am one of the nicest guys that they know and am always someone that they can talk to when they need help.

3) After conducting the interviews, I have determined that my friends see me in a very similar way as I see myself. I have always taken pride in being a good person to others, especially ones who have done no wrong to me. I do not think I would change anything from part one after doing the interviews because most of what the interviewee's said about me was in coherence with what I said about myself. The only thing that was different that my friends said about me that I was not expecting was my hardworking mentality. I have always tried to work hard on assignments and tasks that I must complete, however, I never saw that as a quality that defines me. It makes me feel really good about myself that my friends see myself that way.

Reading Reflection #1

Elon Musk 

• What surprised you the most?
• I was most surprised about the fact that Elon Musk made most of his money through Paypal.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
• I admire Elon Musk's ambition. He always wants to develop the new best products. Take SpaceX for an example, the first privately funded group to launch a  spaceship, and aspires to put the first men on Mars. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
• There was nothing that I did not admire about Elon Musk and his ambitious entrepreneurial skills. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
• Elon Musk grew up in a life that was filled with adversity. He was bullied as a kid and faced many problems with his entrepreneurial endeavors. A lot of problems Musk had was because of his drive for perfection, and he expected that out of a lot of his workers as well. In order to adapt, changes had to be made. Musk just recently stepped down as the chairman of Tesla and is weighing his options for the future. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

-  I think one of the biggest competencies Elon Musk exhibits is his tenacity. He is someone who does not give up, like any great entrepreneur. 

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

- I do not think any of this reading was confusing, some parts were less interesting than others which made it hard to follow, but I would not say any of it was confusing. 

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

- The two questions I would ask Elon Musk would be: 1) How do you want your legacy to be remembered and 2) What do you hope your kids do with their careers? 

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

- I think Elon Musk's opinion of hard work is perfection. He is a perfectionist and perfect is the only thing he accepts. I do not share this same opinion, I think hard work is determined by effort not perfection. 

Halfway Reflection

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

- Some behaviors that I've had to acquire in order to keep up with the requirements of the course are my creativity skills, my ability to work ahead on my assignments, and my organization skills. 

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 think I have developed a tenacious attitude over the past two months. One assignment that I felt like "giving up" on was the assignment where we chose our opportunity. It was very difficult for me to come up with a good opportunity at first but because of the development of my creativity skills and changing the way I think about situations with certain opportunities, I was able to determine the opportunity I wanted to tackle. 

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' ?

- If I could give three tips to incoming students that are taking this class next semester, I would tell them to first make sure you devote a couple hours to this class at least twice a week, get organized early on and plan ahead, and finally I would tell the student to embrace their creative side and start thinking outside the box as early as possible.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior #1

1) Pick a segment 
      The segment I would like to look at is aspiring small business owners.

2) Interviews
      I interviewed three people that are all aspiring business owners

3) 
     From my three interviews, a few things became apparent to me. I found that the need for my service is most prevalent when they have a lot of work due at the end of every month. This makes the most sense though because people who are interested in my service will already have a high need for the service since they went out of their way to look up my business.

4) 
     When someone has the need for a personal assistant, they will be able to look up my company on google and find the database that will have a list of assistants in each area with their specific specialization. The name of my company is Easy Assist, so if either of those words are in a search bar my company will pop up. I also plan to have a mobile app that works similar to Uber. I want the app to have an easy finder window in order to find the assistants in the right area. It will be extremely easy to find my company.

5) 
      I learned from my interviews that small business owners will definitely find my business as a great option to invest money into a personal assistant. Owning a small business is a lot of work, and having a personal assistant is a smart and efficient way to get all of the necessary work done on time.

6) 
      In conclusion, this market segment for my company is one that will find a lot of use with my personal assistants. All small businesses are a lot of work when you are first starting, and sometimes people cannot get all of their work done by themselves and need an assistant to help them out. These assistants might help them organize their daily lives or help them out with their workload, but no matter the case, small business owners will find this company very useful

Idea Napkin #1

1) You:
     I feel that I have a few strong talents. My best talent is my ability to socialize. I am a very friendly person and I can talk to anyone. Another talent I have is my ability to stay motivated on a task. I aspire to be someone with a large family that I am very close with and to have a steady job that pays enough to support my family. If I were to start this business, I would devote the majority of my day to this business if it projects to be very successful, however, family is extremely important to me and time must be devoted at night to them.

2) What are you offering to your customers? 
     The service that I am offering to customers is an assistant service for business owners or bosses can hire to help around the office or with personal work. This assistant service will utilize college students to give them the experience in the workplace that they are looking to be apart of one day.

3) Who are you offering it to?
     My assistant service will be offered to anyone, however a smaller subset of people will find the service more useful than others. My target consumers will be any business owner, manager, or boss that needs assistance around the office or with their personal work. The consumers could be male or female and could be any age. All of my customers will have one thing in common, they will all need the help of an assistant to get their work completed on time and in an efficient manner.

4) Why do they care? 
      Customers will pay for my service because it is a service that will only be used by the people who really need it. The assistants will be all college students so they will sign up to be an assistant for someone in the workforce, and the people that need the assistant will pay for it because that is the only way you can get an assistant.

5) What are your core competencies? 
      What sets my company apart from everyone else is the utilization of college students as the assistants. This will be a fast and easy way to hire an assistant that is specializing in the same field as you but just doesn't have the same work experience because they're in college. Finding a helpful assistant will never be easier than this.