Reading reflection 3

1. The general theme of the book is right in the title “Mindset”. This book argues that the belief one has of theirself has a significant effect on how they live their life, and their future potential. She says there are two main mindsets. One being fixed, meaning that people believe that they are who they are and that can’t be changed. The other being a growth mindset. The fixed mindset severely limits one’s self, while the growth mindset can encourage you to practice/learn new things. The growth mindset loves adversity and criticism, because that is the basis for growth to occur.
2. This book connected with this class because we are always looking to improve on things (find unmet needs and solve them), and this is exactly what occurs with the growth mindset. The growth mindset looks at problems and finds solutions to those so we better ourself, while the fixed mindset would just get mad at the problem.
3. If I had to design an exercise for this class I would create a practice log that people have to fill out, where once a week they log in pratice time on a certain skill they want to improve. At the end of the week they would write how they “grew”, even if it was just from the slightest amount.
4. I found this book to really resonate with me because I try to live by the growth mindset, but its not always easy. I realized in this book that instead of blaming other causes for my problems, the better mindset is to look at everything and ask what I can do to prevent that for next time.

Final Reflection

Looking back on this semester of ent3003 I think my the moment I will always remember (as well as the most difficult moment) is trying to come up with the bug list in the first week. That kind of made me realize that this class wasn’t going to be easy. It did however provide useful insight to how the world works, and I find myself looking for unmet needs at all times now. I enjoyed the assignments where I was able to involve friends, either in interviews or with the made up word assignment. The assignments that involved tracking down people/strangers that were relevant to the concept I created were tedious, but I feel proud of myself for completing some of those. Regardless of if I ever act upon one of my ideas, I definitely see myself as an entrepreneur now. I think the mindset I’ve developed because of this class will prove to be useful in a lot of aspects of my life. My recommendation to others in this course is to just try, there is a lot to be taken away from this course if you put in the effort.

Venture concept 2

1. Opportunity

Kids feet grow very fast, and constantly are in need of new shoes to accommodate. This causes families to spend more than necessary on footwear, and is also wasteful when throwing out the previous pair of shoes. The customer demographic is families with young children and this need exists all over the world (kids with feet are all over the world).

1. Innovation

My idea that solves this issue is adjustable shoes. The way this works is that it will have a pin/button on the side of the shoe that locks in place to the desired size. It can be moved forward or backward. (see below)

The shoes will be made will a breathable athletic material, with excess at the “joint of the shoe”. This allows for the size change and when fully extended there will be no excess. In the soul/foot of the shoe there will be a mechanism that allows for the shoe to slide. The back of the shoe is wider to allow room for the adjuster to slide between. In order to fully accomidate the unmet need, the adjustable shoes will have two traits (selling points).

1.They will be relatively cheap

2.They are durable (last a long time)

The revenue drivers are the sales of each type of shoe. Different colors being (black, white, blue, and pink).

1. Venture concept

-people would buy this product because it would save money in the long run

-the shoes will look fashionable

-last a long time

-it is more practical than competitors

-there’s color options for everyone

-they will be comfortable

-(pretty much everything you could want in a shoe)

Competitors:

The products that rival my concept are any other shoe brand. The downside of their shoes are that they won’t have the added benefit of adjusting to growing feet. Meaning they won’t last as long. While there are many other factors that will contribute to the success or failure of this product, it will be defined by the function it offers. The shoe will be sold in retail stores and online. I will devote resources into concepts and design of the shoe by hiring creative engineers that ensure the shoe is top quality. I plan to eventually sell the rights of the shoe to a larger company and make cash money.

Feed back: what I took from the feedback is to make sure that the shoe is durable, otherwise it wouldn't provide the service it suggests. I made sure to include that as well as some other small details. Other than that I did not change much from the first assignment. People seemed to like the idea, and it seems to be clear enough as to what it is/does.

My Exit Strategy

1. I plan to cash in and sell the business idea to a larger shoe company. This will probably be within the next 5 years.
2. The reason for this is because while I do enjoy this idea a lot, I don’t want to devote much of my life to it if I don’t need to. Also I think I can move on and come up with more concepts.
3. My exit strategy influenced how I chose my venture, and what I did with it. The reason I chose this concept is because the creation of this product is much easier than my software concept. Because of this I am able to sell this concept much easier, rather than spending time and money I don’t have into development.

Making it real

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FdNvxlJPSuG2QYtHzOt_2GNnl42puu8PNzf3xB6V_R4/edit?usp=sharing


The main skill I think I've acquired from this class is a critical/aware outlook. I am always looking for potential needs, and am constantly coming up with small solutions to these problems I run in to. I think this class was very valuable in helping me grow creatively.

Venture Concept No. 1

1. Opportunity

The unmet need consists of many different parts

• Kids feet grow at a rapid rate
• Parenets have to constantly buy new shoes to accommodate their growing feet
• These shoes could still be in good condition, and it seems wasteful to toss them after having them for only a couple of months
• The customers/demographic is families with young children
• This opportunity is big because it exists all over the country/world, and will continue to exists as long as there are kids who wear shoes

2. Innovation

-The product that accommodates this unment need is adjustable shoes

-the way they work is a lot similar to the picture below. There will be a pin/button on the side of the shoe that locks it in place to the desired size.

-the shoes will be made of an athletic material, with an excess at the “joint of the shoe”

-in the soul/foot of the shoe there will be a mechanism that allows for the shoe to slide forward or backward

-The back of the shoe will be slightly wider to allow space for the adjuster to fit between

-the shoes would be relatively cheap around 50 dollars

-the revenue drivers are the sales of each type of shoe. Different colors being (black, white, blue, and pink).

Prototype drawing

3. Venture concept

-people would buy this product because it would save money in the long run

-the shoes will look fashionable

-it is more practical than competitors

Competitors:

-all other shoe brands

-their weaknesses are that they only sell one size & are overpriced for kids shoes

-packaging, price, distribution, and customer experience are all very important to this product. However I believe the functionality of this product is what will define it.

-the business will not have of its own stores. The shoe will be sold at common shoe stores (ex. foot-locker). The energy will be spent on hiring specialist in design/engineering and manufacturing to ensure the shoe design is top quality. Another approach to my concept would be to patent the idea, create a prototype, and then sell it to an existing shoe brand & claim a portion of the profits.

Celebrating Failure

Me and my friends have recently been getting into golf. I grabbed my dad's old clubs from the garage & brought them up to gainesville with me. I found it to be very challenging at first, and was definitely not succeeding. I usually pick things up relatively quickly (especially when it comes to sports), but even so this still took some time to get the hang of. After a couple of times of playing a round or going to the range I was finally noticing a lot of improvement. In most aspects of life learning always takes place, this is prevalent with golf in that you are always critiquing and changing your swing in order to adjust how you want to hit the ball. This is similar to how we looked at our venture concept and slowly added/changed parts of it in order to improve the overall idea.

Because of other things going on in my life, there was a good amount of time (over a month) where I wasn’t able to play. When we finally did play another round, I discovered that I had lost almost all the progress I had made. That day I couldn’t hit my irons to save my life. I kept “topping” the ball. This was very discouraging, and I wasn’t really as motivated to play as I was before. Regardless I’ve gone back since and am getting better each time.

The lesson I learned through all this is that if you want something you not only have to put time and effort, but you also have to stick with it and continue to work towards it. While I don’t like to fail, I embrace it because it is an opportunity to learn and improve myself. Taking this class has only strengthened that perspective of failure, and I would say I am willing to take more risks because of it.