Week 14 Reading Reflections

This week's reading reflection was very informative about creating a company culture that can correlate to evolving social trends. The main thing that interested me is the concept of social entrepreneurship which involves going beyond your own personal value. The type of leadership style called Ecovision is the best type for a social based entrepreneurs based on the text. The author did a good job explaining how a company must set a standard of company values or morals. This helps guide the company and future endeavors. The two questions I would ask the author is how do u tailor specific social trends to your company and how do you asses differing views between employees about values?

Going for Google Gold

Looking back on my SEO efforts I can say that I did not do as much as I could throughout the posts because of the amount of posts that I have. Some of the things that I did do to make it easier to find my blog would include making sure that all the posts had a keyword in the them that relates to the post and the blog. Since this was a class blog the use of social media was not as prevalent as I would have used on other blogs. The main focus was to attract my fellow peers to my blog to be able to leave feedback and advice. I think that social media can highly influence the amount of people that visit a blog and that it is a useful tool to utilize. The most viral post that I had was my Elevator Pitch number 2. This one had the second highest amount of page views but had more comments than the post  with more page views which was my first pitch . I think this post had the most traffic because it is something that a lot of people are interested in especially seeing someone talk about their company. I did not show up sadly on any of the initial Google Pages.

Very Short Interview, Part 2

Reflecting on the initial interview I realized that most of the questions asked were just focused on the broad scope of entrepreneurship. There was a lot of good advice about steps taken to become an entrepreneur and what that entails from the perspective of the person I chose to interview. I think that the first interview was good but I also wanted to get more in depth about entrepreneurship on a personal level. Once again the person that I chose to interview is Sean "Millz" Grant. Sean known as Millz to most of the public is the owner of Rain and Simons Nightclub in downtown Gainesville

1. If you could go back and change one thing in your journey what would it be?

•  " Even if I had the choice to change anything I wouldn't because I appreciate the struggle that I went through to be where I am today. When things are easier you don't appreciate them as much  and I respect the grind more than anyone else" He continued to talk about how everyone wants to take the easy way out now and does not want to actually go out and work for what they want. " Take life one step at a time and respect the process."

2. How do you deal with failure?

• " I make sure that I don't let it stop me. There are going to be days where a party or event does not turn out to be the best thing or not a lot of people show up but you shrug it off. Ask yourself man where did I mess up at. Failure is a part of the game everything isn't going to go the way you want but you don't stop until it does" 

3. Has there ever been a time you felt like giving up?

• "A couple of time yeah. There have been times when I said is this really worth it. It's not easy being a club owner and never having time for yourself or your family I think wanting to give a better life to my people is what motivates me to not stop and to keep pushing"

This interview I was a lot more comfortable asking the questions and a lot more interested because these were questions that I was able to formulate myself . I think that made me a lot more interested in the interview and also influenced me to get a lot more in depth information this time. Millz also seemed more interested because they were not generic questions that most people usually get. I think this interview went better than the last one.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

This week's reading took a lot at the steps and the process involved when wanting to buy or sell a specific business. Th main thing that stood out to me during this reading is the amount of questions and the details that go into buying an existing business. For example, due diligence questions are asked in order to help create a valuation of how much the business is worth. Valuation in itself is very dependent on many factors from the buyer and seller and change based on certain criteria. One of the main things that I learned is the benefits of acquisition rather than going through the start-up process themselves. I would ask the author how not being with the business from the start may cause managerial problems in the future, and what problems could occur from trying to transform visions across different owners. I think this week's reading really helped in understanding how much people can value a business across a spectrum and some key elements of that valuation.

Celebrating Failure

A time this past semester where I have failed horribly would have to be the time that I tried to run for President of my organization I had been dreaming about this position ever since I joined the club and it's been a crazy roller coaster of events. In part I believed that I had done everything in order to make sure that I was qualified for the position so I ended up running and lost by a vote. I was so hurt and saddened but eventually I realized that everything is not meant to be. Something important that I gained from the multiple failures that I have experienced in college is to continue forward. There are a million different things on campus and everyone does not need to be in everything in order to be successful. I also learned that a title is just a title and the person behind the title is what really matters. This class has taught me to not look at things as impossible but to find a way to make a solution and if not make a solution from what's stopping you in the first place. Taking this class also inspired me to think about the world in a different manner of innovation. I think taking risks and going for it is really something that can be beneficial and it has so far to me.

My Exit Strategy

1. My exit strategy consists of growing my app to the highest degree to the pint that I would soon be able to sell it. This is a service business that think I could dedicate a lot of time to while now in college but after graduation maybe not. The best thing is to try to establish a good foundation, create a market share, pass the business down to a fellow peer after graduation and then eventually sell the app.

2. I selected this particular venture because I want to be able to focus on other new innovations and also my career in the future. I think that Tap&Snack would be just a stepping stone into my entrepreneurial ventures. I also think that it would be better to continue having the business ran under the control of someone that is still I college until sell to help identify what is going on campus.

3. I think that my plan to sell the business affected the initial resources and how much funding that I would allocate to this service. Knowing that this business is something that I do not plan on having past 5 years I though of the most simple but innovative way to provide a service to students in college.
  

Week 12 Reading Reflection

This week's reading was something that really made me look at the process from going to an entrepreneurial based business to a manger based business. The different things that you have to keep in consideration like control and responsibility throughout the company can hugely affect the success of a business. Something that I also found really interesting is how crucial the transition stage is for an entrepreneur. You are no longer able to make decisions based on what you want for the company but you have to make sure that you are taking everyone's wants and needs and vision for the company into consideration also. The author did a good job explaining how a business is supposed to create an atmosphere of constant innovation. I would ask the author how do you sustain a sense of innovation if your business is not financially stable to do so and what are the hardest parts about making innovation possible?