Final Reflection

I will admit that this class was challenging. The class was very demanding with assignments and exploring areas outside of your comfort zone. This may be a bit confusing but the most formative experience in this class was to challenge me with creativity for establishing my opportunity. I had to think about many things that I could possibly improve upon or find things that didn’t have solutions. The assignment that I found the most interesting is the bug list. It allowed me to finally express my strong dislikes and somehow find an opportunity within it. Since that assignment, I developed my opportunity and it has changed drastically from its initial conception. Now that the semester has come to a close, I believe that I have developed an entrepreneurial mindset. I am able to think more critically about the opportunities that may exist amongst us. I now find myself thinking about how products or other various opportunities can be improved. A recommendation that I would give to students for the future is to think critically but do not overthink because the answer is probably right in front of you. To perform well in this course, I will highly suggest not to procrastinate. That will lead to a path of disappointment. This mindset can be fostered by working ahead of time an keeping an open when you get stuck.

Your Exit Strategy

The exit strategy that I choose is to stay with them to sell the company in 5 years for a large return. I choose this strategy because I won’t have to worry about the maintenance of the product or newer versions of it. However, I will make sure that I invest in the company before I sell it off so I can have a part of the company still. I chose this option simply because technology is growing rapidly and I simply do not have the resources to keep updating the product. This exit strategy has influenced other decisions that I made for this concept because I never had intents on where it would be long-term. I focused primarily on how this product can make an impact now. The need for the product has been identified as something that is needed now and all the resources are things that can be easily obtained. This product is great but will be too much for me to handle for years to come.

Venture Concept No. 2

The opportunity that I present is an all in one diagnostic tool for your car. Drivers are constantly driving around with issues on their cars that they do not know about which leads to costly repair bills if they are not tended to in the correct manner. This tool will give you access to all your vehicles functions and be able to view regularly scheduled maintenance. This device will allow drivers to get the peace of mind that they deserve so that they know when something is wrong with their car in all aspects and can attend to them in an appropriate manner.

The need for this exists because there are a lot of drivers who are unaware of the consistent maintenance that a car requires and this device will keep drivers aware of the health of their cars. Newer cars are requiring longer intervals which can cause drivers to be less aware of what items need to be tended to. There are a lot of older cars on the road as well that simply do not have this technology available as standard equipment so that drivers can stay aware of the service needs for their car. These are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity. This device is intended to let drivers know when to get an oil change and when to put air in their tire, when to change the filter, as well as diagnose any problem that may result in a check engine light. This device will plug into the OBD port on a car and sync with a mobile application on your phone.

The device is tailored to customers who are high school and college aged or elderly but are not limited to these audiences. The device will be highly populated in areas where people that fit that demographic live. The reason why this opportunity exists in these markets is due to the idea that they are not as educated on servicing their vehicles due to inexperience or it being to complex. This is not to be mistaken that these individuals are not capable of getting these services done on their own. Customers are currently satisfying the need by following dealer recommendations, personal knowledge, and service intervals listed in the owner’s manual. A lot of people develop a sense of trust with their mechanic and trust their word for any services or repairs their cars may need. This is where a lot of their loyalty lies.

This opportunity is big because it can revolutionize the way people keep their cars on the road. The window of opportunity for this product will be open for as long as there are consumers in this market.

The reason customers will switch to this product is because it is will make owning a car a much simpler and headache-less  process. This will simplify and streamline car servicing and repairs. It is easily accessible and will be compatible with nearly every make and model of car. There are currently no direct competitors to this products with the exception to the carsbuilt in computer. The weakness of these competitors is that you have to pay for this features and they are limited to that specific vehicle. The factors of my business concept that play a significant role are the price point and distribution. This product will be affordably priced, $49-$149 depending on the model, and be easily accessible at your local auto parts store like AutoZone or pep boys.

After feedback from prospective customers and from the potential sellers of this product, it has been suggested that research of a current company who currently develops products similar to the product I’m offering should be conducted. This will reduce production costs and reduce the cost of the product long term so that it is more accessible to consumers.

The resource that I see as most valuable is competency of what customers want. I believe this is the most valuable resource because they are the people who will be buying this product so it is essential that we tailor it to our customer needs. The next step for this venture is to help consumers perform the repairs themselves. With this technology, it will be easy to instruct consumers on how to perform simple services or repairs like an oil change. Five years from now, I want this to be a device that everyone own so that they can save lots of money from preventable services.

The feed back that I received on this venture was very minimal. It was suggested to me to look at co-producing with another company who make similar products. This product is very similar to an OBD II module which would allow for production to be relatively easy to establish.  This will reduce production cost and allow for the device to hit the markets relatively quick.

I didn’t change my venture concept too much. I received good feedback about the product. The line got blurred when it came to production and the implementation of the product. It has been suggested that I establish a collaboration with an existing company to reduce costs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Reflection No. 2

The book that I chose was Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker. This book discusses that entrepreneurship is the heart of growth in the united states. It breaks down what innovation is and what entrepreneurship is and how it applies to society. The book connects with the entrepreneurship class by explaining what entrepreneurship is how to be innovative when going through this process.  If I had to design an exercise from this book to put into practice for this class, I would implement the top down management practice. This practice will allow for top level management to work with junior level and below management to help build them up and also get their perspective of things.  My biggest aha moment was when I found out that you have to separate the new from the old and organize them separately. It makes sense since you will be able to analyze both of them individually and see the outcome that it has  separately.

 

 

Celebrating Failure

A time that I failed was a few week ago. I didn’t get the opportunity to turn in reading reflection 2. I had failed to check my assignments earlier in the week to know what assignments I needed to get ahead on. Friday came around and I had a super busy schedule. I also didn’t realize that we had 3 assignments due instead of 2. In spite of my mistake, I still tried to get all assignments done. I had to be strategic in my approach to get these assignments completed. I did the first two assignments that took less time to complete then tried to do the reading reflection. By the time I completed the first two assignments, I had about 30 minutes to get the reading reflection done. This simply was not enough time so I simply did not upload it. This experience taught me to do my work ahead of time and stay on top of it. Though I may see this as a failure, this class has taught me that this failure can easily be combated. Since this class is based off the points earned by completing assignments, I am still in good standing in the class because I completed all the other assignments.

What’s Next?

Existing Market

 

The next step for my all in one diagnostic tool is to create a tool that gives you step by step instructions on how to perform repairs. This will be the next generation of car repair and can help save consumers lots of money. If the average consumer can learn how to perform an oil change on their car, they can save hundreds of dollars over the life of their vehicle. This is the next generation of auto servicing.

 

After conducting my interviews, the biggest concern is how much will performing the services themselves really save them? One interviewee stated that after buying the materials needed to perform these services and the amount of time it will take, they would rather pay the extra few dollar to pay someone to perform the same service. This was the general consensus amongst everyone

 

New Market:

The current market that I am marketing to is a B2C market. There is no need for me to market my product to a business. Considering the circumstance of this assignment, I had to think of how to allow my product work for a B2B environment.

 

I spoke with two companies who have fleet vehicles and tried to figure out how this product can be implemented in their company. Both companies were very receptive to this opportunity and found that it would be something that they can add to their fleet vehicles to keep better track of them for their services. Both companies manually keep track of service history for their company vehicles.

 

After gathering this information, I realized that this is a viable market to pitch this opportunity to. They are valuable consumers just as well.

Venture Concept No. 1

Over the course of this class, I have come up with an opportunity. The opportunity that I present is an all in one diagnostic tool for your car. Every day, drivers are driving around with issues on their cars that they do not know about which leads to costly repair bills if they are not tended to in the correct manner. This tool will give you access to all your vehicles functions and be able to view regularly scheduled maintenance. This device will allow drivers to get the peace of mind that they deserve so that they know when something is wrong with their car in all aspects and can attend to them in an appropriate manner.

The need for this exists because there are a lot of drivers who are unaware of the consistent maintenance that a car requires and this device will keep drivers aware of the health of their cars. Newer cars are requiring longer intervals which can cause drivers to be less aware of what items need to be tended to. There are a lot of older cars on the road as well that simply do not have this technology available as standard equipment so that drivers can stay aware of the service needs of their car. These are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity. This device is intended to let drivers know when to get an oil change and when to put air in their tire, when to change the air filter, as well as diagnose any problem that may result in a check engine light. This device will plug into the OBD port on a car and sync with a mobile application on your phone.

The device is tailored to customers who are high school and college-aged or elderly. The device will be highly populated in areas where people that fit that demographic live. The reason why this opportunity exists in these markets is due to the idea that they are not as educated on servicing their vehicles due to inexperience or it being to complex. This is not to be mistaken that these individuals are not capable of getting these services done on their own. Customers are currently satisfying the need by following dealer recommendations, personal knowledge, and service intervals listed in the owner’s manual. A lot of people develop a sense of trust with their mechanic and trust their word for any services or repairs their cars may need. This is where a lot of their loyalty lies.

This opportunity is big because it can revolutionize the way people keep their cars on the road. The window of opportunity for this product will be open for as long as there are consumers in this market.

The reason customers will switch to this product is that it will make owning a car a much simpler and headache-less process. This will simplify and streamline car servicing and repairs. It is easily accessible and will be compatible with nearly every make and model of car. There are currently no direct competitors to this product with the exception of the cars built in computer. The weakness of these competitors is that you have to pay for this features and they are limited to that specific vehicle. The factors of my business concept that play a significant role are the price point and distribution. This product will be affordably priced, $49-$149 depending on the model, and be easily accessible at your local auto parts store like AutoZone or pep boys.

To keep this business concept running, I have to develop a factory to manufacture the products and hire a customer support team. I will also need to establish and engineering team to assist with improving the product over time.

The resource that I see as most valuable is competency of what customers want. I believe this is the most valuable resource because they are the people who will be buying this product so it is essential that we tailor it to our customer needs. The next step for this venture is to help consumers perform the repairs themselves. With this technology, it will be easy to instruct consumers on how to perform simple services or repairs like an oil change. Five years from now, I want this to be a device that everyone owns so that they can save lots of money from preventable services.