Assignment 30 - Final Reflection

The most formative experience was trying to come up with a business venture to go after as this made me really focus on thinking like an entrepreneur and shaped the course for the rest of the weeks. What I am most proud of accomplishing is completing the vast majority of the assignments even though there were times I did not want to or felt like I could not.

At the end of the semester I really feel like I have developed that entrepreneurial mindset. I have definitely moved closer to developing into an entrepreneur as this class made me focus on certain aspects of business and opportunities that I had thought of before.

One recommendation I would advise to students going though an entrepreneurial journey in the future is to try and find something that motivates them and also have that stick with them, almost as a chip on their shoulder to help accomplish what they are dreaming. To succeed in this course I would advise they should stay working ahead and keep in mind the schedule of the course as it can be easy to forget some of the assignments and easy to get behind if you do not work ahead on assignments.

Assignment 29 - Venture Concept 2

Venture Concept 2

Opportunity:

The opportunity for my venture concept are those that have just newly entered the sports gambling world and seek the best advice and data out there to help them make educated decisions. The major reason for consumers having this need is because of the new legislation concerning sports gambling. As more and more states pass these laws making sports gambling legal, more and more consumers will become available for my business. Geographically speaking, the market is in those states that have legalized sports gambling. Demographically speaking, the market is usually more male than female and those middle adults in their late 20s to 30s as they most likely have steady jobs with a steady income and can afford to pay for my service. Customers are currently satisfying this need by trying to research data and analysis on the web themselves, but by doing this clouds their judgement with over information and differing opinions on the web about teams and players. They are not really loyal to this, I have found that these consumers are more loyal to what consistently works best for them, so whatever is producing results gives loyalty. This is a pretty big opportunity in my eyes as the new legislation as created a whole new change in the sports gambling scene and I want to take advantage of it. I believe this window of opportunity will be open for about the next 10 years, as that is how long I predict this will take for every state to make sports gambling legal, plus a few added years as after then I feel like the sports gambling will have moved on to something more innovative.

Innovation:

The service that I am selling is a sports gambling consulting service that uses experts analysis and team data and analytics that help advise sports gambling consumers to make an educated decision. The serviced would range from $9.99 to $39.99 a month based off the extent of the package that a consumer would want. The different package would range from the variety of sports someone wants covered and to the type of bets someone wants to be placing. For example, if someone would wanted just the standard over/unders, moneylines, and line bets on just the NBA then it would just cost them $9.99 a month. If someone were to want everything including parlay bets on leagues such as the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, NCAA then it would cost them more like the $39.99 price point.

Venture Concept:

I do not think it will be hard for consumers to switch over to my service at all. I believe this because my service is relatively cheaper compared to other services. Also, because I believe my service will provide the best results, and because I will market on social media and get more consumers engaged better than any other service. I do not believe it will be hard to switch because usually the consumers just follow as to what provides the best results, so if I produce results they will follow and become loyal to me. The role of price points and the customer experience play the biggest role in my business venture. Price points because I mentioned earlier they really separate myself from the rest of the pack. In a risky business like sports gambling consumers, especially new ones area willing to take that risk if the risk is deemed lower by price. Also, customer experience because the happier and more satisfied my customers are then the more they will be likely to continue to come back, and the easier it will be to generate new ones. I would organize my business with a very small, but knowledgeable and hard working staff. Since this is a new business, I will need people who can work through almost anything and are determined to help make this work in order to progress this business. I would need it to be very small, because there would not be much demand just yet. The roles for these people would include social media, analytics and data research, and writing.

Three minor elements:

My business’ advantage over others is are customer experience that will help engage customers as to what is going on and keep them informed. We will do this by being a totally transparent company. The hard working and determined nature of our team will also be to our advantage as we want to service our customers as much as possible. Also, our team’s research and knowledge of sport will be superior to others. The next opportunity for us I believe is for us to create a more useable service through an app for customers that combines all of our packages in one. In the next 5-10 years to come I want to see this business grow and compete with all the top services and be one of the most productive and reliable service out there. As an entrepreneur I want to be known for my tenacity and dedication through this service.

Summary of Feedback: I did not receive any feedback since I never posted an original venture concept.

How I changed venture concept: I never changed my concept due to me never posting an original one.

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Assignment 28 - Exit Strategy

The exit strategy I plan to make is to sell my business in the intermediate future probably about 5-10 years down the line for a large return.

I plan on doing so for my exit strategy because I believe that my service is not fully sustainable for the future ahead. I believe that there will come a time and place when my service is run out by bigger companies and I plan on selling to those companies or to others before I am ran out of business.

My exit strategy has definitely influenced the decisions I have made in my concept. In my concept I plan on trying to develop the most growth that I can due to the new legislation laws and market. Then once the market has become saturated with a bunch of others trying to do the same thing that I have been doing, I will then look to sell.

Assignment 27 - Reading Reflection 3

Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, Chris Anderson

The general theme of the book is about the everchanging world that we live in and how it is changing to a more software and technological based world sparking a change in manufacturing.

The book connects very well to this class as entrepreneurs we are challenged to come up with product ideas, but to be able to sell those products and ideas with the world we need to make something tangible for the customer. The tangible product must be made by the manufacturers that use the advanced technology like Anderson talked about in his book. Anderson talked about how before if an entrepreneur wanted a prototype for his idea they would have to pay up a lot of money and capital for one, and would also have to rely upon a big corporation. Now these products can be manufactured more easily because of all the technology causing the steep capital to go down.

My exercise for the class would be for the class to list all of the ideas in the past 10 years that was invented without the need of technology. Obviously, this would be almost nothing, but by doing this they will see just how vast the important of technological advancements are in our world.

My biggest ‘aha’ moment from reading this book was when Anderson mentioned how technology and software have cut down the costs for manufacturing which is allowing smaller inventors to enter the market with their products. This really stuck with me as it shows how technology is allowing and creating more of a free market for entrepreneurs and their ideas to come to life.

Assignment 26 - Celebrating Failure

1) A time I failed this past semester was when in this class I had trouble completing assignments and failed to complete them on time. This was often due to my forgetful nature and forgot that we had a cupcake due the first few times around, or did not plan out my time to complete assignments efficiently enough.

2) From this I really learned the importance of not giving up after this failure and not being too hard on myself for it as well. I learned that if I want to fix these failures I have to make changes in my work routine and start by actively writing down all due dates for the assignments and working on them ahead of time.

3) I believe it is not hard or rare to fail, but the hard part about failure is accepting it and moving forward for the better from it. The way I handle emotional or behavioral failure is to look at what I have been doing and try to change it and once I figure out what to change, I move on. I move on, but all the while keeping it in the back of my mind for motivation. This class changed my perspective on failure because it made me see and realize how natural and often failure is in everyone’s lives.

Assignment 25 - What's Next?

Existing Market.

Step 1: I could create another service that goes along with my sport gambling consulting that livestreams the games and tracks the consumers bets live with the games the customer bet on. Also, possibly a podcast that goes along with my service that talks about the daily sports gambling news and scores, so that consumers can get to know the staff and minds that they are buying into.

Step 2:

Interviewee 1: Interviewee 1 responded by describing that we could track the customers bets and possibly send recommendations as to what type of games and leagues they usually bet on and send them the lines for those type of games. They said they had not thought of my idea as to what customers might want next, but it sounds like a good idea.

Interviewee 2: Interviewee 2 responded by saying that he would do something where there would be a service that shows tips on how to bet and what is the smartest way to divvy up one’s betting portfolio. They said the same things as interviewee 1 when is shared my solution.

Interviewee 3: Interviewee 3 responded by saying they would probably add something like an app to put this all together and market that as well. They agreed with my solutions I described and said basically the same things as the other interviewees.

Step 3:

After receiving all the feedback my future looks pretty bright as everyone liked my ideas and they provided really good ideas of the future for me.  For the future I expect to use my idea of live streaming some games on an app like one of my interviewees suggested. I really like that idea of an app is it would be a simple way for consumers to access my services and it would be pretty simple to market to consumers.

New Market.

Step 1:

I am going to switch my approach from business to customer, and change it to business to business. I am going to start targeting those that own sports gambling shows and/or podcasts that want to buy space on my app and to be featured.

Step 2:

There will be created value for the people in this market as they also are trying to address the new market for sport gamblers and an easy way to do that is to get exposure from services like mine.

Step 3:

Interviewee 1: Interviewee 1 said that they think that if my business were to establish this app and gain some traction then people like them would be likely to do business, but they enjoyed the start I was on.

Interviewee 2: Interviewee 2 said that they would definitely be interested and think that customers would enjoy it if the app I had were to update with some sort of system where if you were to click on any random game there would be given data and recommendations on what to bet.

Step 4:

It was refreshing and encouraging to hear the feedback from the target customers that they enjoyed my concept. I find that the existing market is far more attractive to me than the new market I am trying to target.

Assignment 23 - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

List of 10 resources:

Knowledge of sport:

V-valuable as I have a good grasp of the sport world and all the important factors that go into a teams’ performance.

R-rare to a degree as many people follow sports, but the extent of my knowledge and insider information is decently due to my many years being in sport and following sports.

I-inimitable, can be replicated somewhat as other companies can copy my marketing and promotion strategies, but not as much the extent of knowledge my company has.

N-non substitutable, others can have extensive knowledge of sport as well so it is somewhat substitutable.

Social sport contacts:

V-valuable, this is pretty valuable as it allows me to know potential partners or mentors in the field that can help back up my business.

R-rare, not that rare to have contacts but my exact ones are rare and unique to me.

I-inimitable, my exact contacts cannot be replicated but others could have contacts that could help them in their own way.

N-non substitutable, can’t substitute

New field:

V-valuable, this is pretty valuable as there are not many companies so far in the field to compete with.

R-rare, there are plenty of new fields in today’s world.

I-inimitable, a specific field can’t really be replicated

N-non substitutable, can’t really substitute a field.

Knowledge and contact of target potential customers:

V-valuable, this is valuable as it is important to know the type of people you are selling to and what characteristics they possess.

R-rare, not very rare as most companies and business possess some sort of knowledge of their potential customers.

I-inimitable, can be replicated as others also have knowledge on potential customers, although maybe not the same exact contacts of customers I have, but they could easily contact those customers if they wish.

N-non-substitutable, this is pretty substitutable by my resource of sport knowledge and sport contacts.

Social abilities:

V-valuable, this is valuable as it allows me to meet new people and build relationships with them helping my business.

R-rare, not very rare a bunch of people of social skills.

I-inimitable, pretty easy to replicate social skills, business can just talk to people and build mutually beneficial relationships.

N-non-substitutable, could be substituted along with sport contacts and knowledge of potential customers as these require social abilities.

Knowledge of analytics:

V-valuable, valuable to company as we will analyze data and analytics of teams to help us form predictions on games.

R-rare, not very rare as analytics and the usage of them is commonplace in today’s atmosphere.

I-inimitable, can be replicated as others also have knowledge of analytics.

N-non-substitutable, this can be somewhat substitutable by knowledge of sport as with that comes along a basic understanding of the analytics that go along with the sport.

Knowledge of other companies:

V-valuable, valuable as it is important to have a sense of what other companies are doing and what works and does not work for them.

R-rare, not too rare as these companies market themselves on the internet and social media and are pretty transparent of what they do in order to gain consumer trust.

I-inimitable, other companies can easily do this themselves with a little internet and social media research.

N-non-substitutable, not really substitutable by any of my other resources.

Social media skills:

V-valuable, valuable as it helps me reach out to a wider customer base and it is easier to spread the innovation of my product through social media.

R-rare, not really rare as others have a bunch of social media ability, especially in our social-media heavy environment today.

I-inimitable, can be replicated by other companies as all they have to do is know how to use social media.

N-non-substitutable, could be substituted by my social abilities resource.

Creativity:

V-valuable, valuable as creativity is important to find solutions to problems and get a leg up on competition.

R-rare, a lot of people are creative, but nobody has my mind and therefore my exact creativity, so this is rare.

I-inimitable, companies can replicate by coming up with creative idea themselves.

N-non-substitutable, not substituted my any of the other resources as none of them involve unique creativity.

Willingness to adapt:

V-valuable, this is valuable as it helps my business react to the everchanging world around it and the everchanging tastes of customers as well.

R-rare, this is somewhat rare as most successful companies adapt well, but others do not adapt and despise change and do not succeed as much.

I-inimitable, can be replicated it is just whether or not they are willing or not.

N-non-substitutable, can be somewhat substitutable by creativity as adapting to the changes around my business might require some creativity.

I think my top resource is my creativity as this is something that should help me get a leg up on competitors. All my other resources are resources that most companies would have some form of, but my creative mind is something that would make my platform stand out to consumers.