This image represents my pride in my elevator pitches.
Monday, December 2, 2019
Alex Clouser- Final Reflection Assignment 30
Throughout this semester, there have been many highs and lows, especially outside of this class for me. I believe that this class has given me a way to feel as though I accomplish a lot on Fridays when I am cramming to finish up my blog posts, which really helps my self esteem as I feel like at least something is going right in my life. I think the most formative experiences were the reading reflections because I really feel like I learned a lot from all of my books that can be applicable even if I do not choose to become an entrepreneur. I think that the reading reflections were also extremely interesting because you got to read other peoples' reflections about their own, different, books. I think that I will remember these books years later because they were just very impactful and overall interesting to read. My most joyous experience in this class was writing this blog post because it is my last blog post and signifies the end of my entrepreneurial experience in this class. I am most proud of myself for doing all of the elevator pitches because when I first looked at the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, I told myself that I could be fine without doing the elevator pitches and still get a good grade, but I actually willed myself to finish them on time and was comfortable enough to upload myself in a video, which I was dreading at the beginning of the semester. I do not see myself as an entrepreneur, but I do think that I have fine tuned some entrepreneurial characteristics that I already possessed prior to this class. I believe that this fine tuning has definitely lead me closer to the entrepreneurial mindset, but I do not believe that I am quite there yet or whether I even want to be there in the future. One recommendation I would give to students who are taking this class in the future is to stay on top of lectures and to watch all of them because they help with the Cupcakes a lot and also help to let you not get overwhelmed by your workload. I recommend that they just hold themselves accountable in order to foster this mindset.
Alex Clouser- Venture Concept No. 2 Assignment 29
My potential opportunity is in the data collection industry. The nature of this need is to have a data collection system that collects data effectively and securely because a lot of people have fears about the safety of their privacy with regards to data collection. My target consumers would be in the retail industry and social media outlets because they rely on data collection to further their business and their marketing exploits. The forces that are creating this opportunity are the public distrust and the overall attitude towards data collection and how it is invasive to consumers private data. I believe that the opportunity is long term because I think it will take a long time to change this public attitude towards data collection. I think that this is a big opportunity because of the lack of available alternatives to current data collection methods.
My innovation would be new data collection methods that do not invade people's privacy and make them feel better about the action of data collection. This innovation would make data collection more indirect through things such as promos or holiday gift guides or other things of the like. It works through people interacting with the product, such as ordering things from the holiday gift guide or participating in a special promo which gives you a certain bonus during a specific criteria, such as a discount when you shop on your birthday, or something of the like. I do not know yet the pricing criteria for my innovation, but I wouldn't make it too expensive because then no company would want to buy it.
The data collected from this interaction is then processed by the retailer and used to improve their next holiday gift guides with popular items purchased, improve their marketing campaigns, and gives them the ability to help better serve their customers with things that they want. This will help to ease consumer attitude towards data collection by not being invasive, yet also still help companies to further their future ventures. My product will change consumer distrust surrounding data collection because it will be publicly known that none of the information that is collected will ever be sold to or used by any other company except for my own. Companies will buy my product because they will gain positive publicity for actively trying to change their data collection methods and will not get as much public backlash as other companies have been getting in recent years because of the non-invasive quality of my methods.
I believe that my most important resource is my connections to people in the retail industry because that can benefit my venture the most and is also hard for other companies to replicate. What is next for my venture is to further expand my data collection methods and to continue to come up with new ways that are not invasive to collect data. To be honest, in 5 to 10 years I would like to see my venture become successful and would really like to sell my venture for a hefty sum of money because then I could put my energy into something less time consuming than running a business and would be able to focus on my other life goals that I have.
The feedback that I received on my last Venture Concept was pretty positive, but it definitely included some critiques and suggestions to help strengthen my venture concept this time around. One of the main things that was talked about in the feedback was to expand my customer base in order to reach more customers. One more suggestion that was given to me about my last Venture Concept was to explain more about how exactly I plan to go about changing the consumer stigma surrounding data collection and gain their trust. Other than these critiques, the rest of the feedback was very positive and said that my concept was very detailed and well thought out.
I changed my venture concept by adding social media outlets to my customer base since that was one of the most mentioned suggestions. I also changed my venture concept by adding more detail to my plan on how exactly I am going to get people to trust my data collection methods more than they do the current ones. I learned a lot through the feedback on my first one and have learned that you can always improve in some way in order to keep your business successful and running.
My innovation would be new data collection methods that do not invade people's privacy and make them feel better about the action of data collection. This innovation would make data collection more indirect through things such as promos or holiday gift guides or other things of the like. It works through people interacting with the product, such as ordering things from the holiday gift guide or participating in a special promo which gives you a certain bonus during a specific criteria, such as a discount when you shop on your birthday, or something of the like. I do not know yet the pricing criteria for my innovation, but I wouldn't make it too expensive because then no company would want to buy it.
The data collected from this interaction is then processed by the retailer and used to improve their next holiday gift guides with popular items purchased, improve their marketing campaigns, and gives them the ability to help better serve their customers with things that they want. This will help to ease consumer attitude towards data collection by not being invasive, yet also still help companies to further their future ventures. My product will change consumer distrust surrounding data collection because it will be publicly known that none of the information that is collected will ever be sold to or used by any other company except for my own. Companies will buy my product because they will gain positive publicity for actively trying to change their data collection methods and will not get as much public backlash as other companies have been getting in recent years because of the non-invasive quality of my methods.
I believe that my most important resource is my connections to people in the retail industry because that can benefit my venture the most and is also hard for other companies to replicate. What is next for my venture is to further expand my data collection methods and to continue to come up with new ways that are not invasive to collect data. To be honest, in 5 to 10 years I would like to see my venture become successful and would really like to sell my venture for a hefty sum of money because then I could put my energy into something less time consuming than running a business and would be able to focus on my other life goals that I have.
The feedback that I received on my last Venture Concept was pretty positive, but it definitely included some critiques and suggestions to help strengthen my venture concept this time around. One of the main things that was talked about in the feedback was to expand my customer base in order to reach more customers. One more suggestion that was given to me about my last Venture Concept was to explain more about how exactly I plan to go about changing the consumer stigma surrounding data collection and gain their trust. Other than these critiques, the rest of the feedback was very positive and said that my concept was very detailed and well thought out.
I changed my venture concept by adding social media outlets to my customer base since that was one of the most mentioned suggestions. I also changed my venture concept by adding more detail to my plan on how exactly I am going to get people to trust my data collection methods more than they do the current ones. I learned a lot through the feedback on my first one and have learned that you can always improve in some way in order to keep your business successful and running.
This picture represents my addition of social media companies to my customer base in this Venture Concept.
Friday, November 22, 2019
Alex Clouser- Your Exit Strategy Assignment 28
1. The exit strategy that I plan to make is selling my business off a few years down the road for a large sum.
2. I have already touched on this in one of my previous posts, but I would choose this exit strategy because I do not see myself managing a business for my entire life. I do not think that I have the right personality to turn a business into a family business and hand it down to my kids, but I do think that I could start a business and let it be bought out by a bigger company for a large sum of money. I would just like this strategy the best because then I would use my money to invest and I would get a steady job that would supplement my earnings from the sale of the company and allow me to live comfortably for the rest of my life.
3. I do not believe that my exit strategy has influenced how I have identified an opportunity, but I do believe that it has influenced my growth intentions because I have always had this exit in mind when designing my venture and I believe in growing my business as quickly as possible so as to gain a large traction in the market that is attractive to a larger investor who would be willing to buy out my company.
2. I have already touched on this in one of my previous posts, but I would choose this exit strategy because I do not see myself managing a business for my entire life. I do not think that I have the right personality to turn a business into a family business and hand it down to my kids, but I do think that I could start a business and let it be bought out by a bigger company for a large sum of money. I would just like this strategy the best because then I would use my money to invest and I would get a steady job that would supplement my earnings from the sale of the company and allow me to live comfortably for the rest of my life.
3. I do not believe that my exit strategy has influenced how I have identified an opportunity, but I do believe that it has influenced my growth intentions because I have always had this exit in mind when designing my venture and I believe in growing my business as quickly as possible so as to gain a large traction in the market that is attractive to a larger investor who would be willing to buy out my company.
Alex Clouser- Reading Reflection No. 3 Assignment 27
1. I read about Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. What surprised me the most in his book, Shoe Dog, is how Phil Knight managed to not write some boring autobiographical book about his rise to success, but how he actually made it extremely interesting and a very interesting and motivational read. I most admire his tenacity and passion that he put into his business from the time that he was in college. Phil Knight wrote an entire paper his senior year of college that explained how Japanese cars were becoming very popular in the United States, so Japanese shoes would be no different and he saw the opportunity for this market to be very lucrative. After college, he actually traveled to Japan, after traveling all over the world, and set up a meeting with a top Japanese shoe manufacturer and actually made them believe that he owned his own shoe company in America and faked his way into a deal that allowed him to distribute their shoes in America. I least admire the way that Phil recklessly took action like that and did not even have a way to pay for the shoes he had just negotiated a deal for. I think that you do not always need to plan out every aspect of a business, but I believe that you need to at least plan out your financial risks and expenses or have a general plan before you start to take action. He did encounter adversity as his motto was "fail fast" because this early failure can lead you to bigger and better opportunities in the future by learning from failure. Most of his adversity came in the early stages of Nike when he made almost no profit off of Nike because he reinvested every penny into buying more shoes to sell. He even had to take a full time job with an accounting firm to be able to pay his bills and support his new wife and kids.
2. I noticed that Phil Knight exhibited competencies such as tenacity, passion, and a growth mindset. He was not particularly skilled in the finer parts of business, but he was able to learn because he had passion for what he was doing and the tenacity to make his dreams a reality. He also accepted risks and failure because he believed that these would ultimately help him to grow and expand his ideas in the future through the lessons and wisdom these experiences provided.
3. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was how he would reinvest every single penny into ordering more shoes in order to expand Nike as quickly as possible. I found this very confusing because I would never do this because although it worked, it is extremely risky as you can have a bad sales year and then you are left with inventory that you already paid for and are not going to make any money on, losing money in the long run.
4. If I was able to ask two questions to Phil Knight, I would ask him how he managed to stay so focused on his business throughout everything that went on and also how he managed to fake a company into reality when meeting with the Japanese shoe company. I would ask these questions because they both fascinate me and I think it would be cool to hear his entire experience word for word about his meeting with the Japanese shoe company for the first time.
5. I believe that Phil Knight's opinion of hard work is that hard work can get you through the most difficult challenges and with a little hard work, you can make your dreams a reality just as he did. I share this opinion as I am a big advocate for work ethic and it correlation to success. I believe that if you put in the work, you will see the rewards.
2. I noticed that Phil Knight exhibited competencies such as tenacity, passion, and a growth mindset. He was not particularly skilled in the finer parts of business, but he was able to learn because he had passion for what he was doing and the tenacity to make his dreams a reality. He also accepted risks and failure because he believed that these would ultimately help him to grow and expand his ideas in the future through the lessons and wisdom these experiences provided.
3. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was how he would reinvest every single penny into ordering more shoes in order to expand Nike as quickly as possible. I found this very confusing because I would never do this because although it worked, it is extremely risky as you can have a bad sales year and then you are left with inventory that you already paid for and are not going to make any money on, losing money in the long run.
4. If I was able to ask two questions to Phil Knight, I would ask him how he managed to stay so focused on his business throughout everything that went on and also how he managed to fake a company into reality when meeting with the Japanese shoe company. I would ask these questions because they both fascinate me and I think it would be cool to hear his entire experience word for word about his meeting with the Japanese shoe company for the first time.
5. I believe that Phil Knight's opinion of hard work is that hard work can get you through the most difficult challenges and with a little hard work, you can make your dreams a reality just as he did. I share this opinion as I am a big advocate for work ethic and it correlation to success. I believe that if you put in the work, you will see the rewards.
Alex Clouser- Celebrating Failure Assignment 26
This semester was my roughest semester here so far and was no walk in the park. I decided at the beginning of the semester to take 16 credits and I believe that was a big mistake as I have been extremely busy all semester trying to keep up with my classes. This semester has been full of a lot of challenges, but not necessarily failures. I have also had a couple health scares throughout the semester that I have been monitoring closely with my doctor that have made things even more hectic. Overall, I think my biggest failure this semester was getting a D on my first financial accounting exam. I count this as my biggest failure this semester because I have already taken financial accounting in high school during my freshman year as part of the Academy of Finance program at my high school. I believe that having already took it somewhat contributed to this bad grade because I was very overconfident and thought that I didn't need to study that well because the test was just going over the basics that I already knew. I did not study until the day before the test because of this overconfidence and it ended up hurting my grade very badly. This failure was a wake-up call that I needed to start putting in more effort to that class in order to succeed. I learned from this failure by starting to study for my next exam a week before so that I had enough time to practice and thoroughly understand everything. This improved work ethic was rewarded by a much better grade on the second exam that brought up my grade a lot. I believe that failure is hard, but it is necessary to grow as a person. Failure brings about change in our lives more effectively than anything else. I usually handle failure by freaking out at first and thinking of the worst possible scenarios and consequences to come out of this failure, but then after about an hour I settle down and realize that I just have to do something to avoid the same mistakes next time. I usually brush things off pretty easily and am a pretty laid back individual, so I don't fear failure a whole lot, but I definitely have a healthy awareness of it. To be honest, I do not think this class has changed my perspective on failure as I always saw it as a stepping stone for success even before this class. I feel as though this class has just emphasized my pre-existing view on failure and not really changed it. I would say that I am not a risk averse person, but I do not actively seek risks for fun, I will take some risks but most of the time I would rather play it safe.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Alex Clouser- What's Next? Assignment 25
Existing Market
I believe that what is next in terms of products and services for my venture is just a few simple data collection methods that are not invasive to people's privacy. Based on the feedback I received from three of my connections in the retail industry, they said that I should focus on changing the stigma surrounding data collection to really make my whole business work, and that I should target other big retailers in order to cover the most ground possible with regards to awareness about my product. I also believe that this should be my plan in the future as it would give me a wide range of people who are aware of my services and also in need of my services, which is good for starting the business.
What makes the most sense for growing in my existing market is just to try to appeal to many big name retailers and to try to persuade them to use my data collection methods in order to more effectively and ethically improve their future ventures. I believe that my company can be very successful in this market and that it is definitely the market with the biggest potential for my product and has the most need for it.
New Market
A new market that I am thinking about targeting once my company is expanded and grown is social media companies such as Facebook. Many questions surround these companies and their uses and collection methods of consumer data and I believe that my company could help to change consumer attitude towards them and that they would be more successful than they already are due to more positive publicity. Based on my interviews with two people I know who work for Facebook, I believe that my venture would be very successful because they recognize the public's attitude towards their current data collection methods and they see it as their weakest point in the public's perception of their company and are actively trying to fix it.
What surprised me the most about this new market is that they are actively trying to fix the problem and have still not garnered any attention to this fact by the media. I found it very interesting how they also are very self aware and keep up with their own social image of their company, although it makes sense because they are a social media company. I think that with a few tweaks and different data collection methods, my company would be very successful in this market and would be able to expand and grow, though I am not sure if it is to the same extent as my existing market because it would be harder to think of more secure and less invasive methods of data collection through social media.
I believe that what is next in terms of products and services for my venture is just a few simple data collection methods that are not invasive to people's privacy. Based on the feedback I received from three of my connections in the retail industry, they said that I should focus on changing the stigma surrounding data collection to really make my whole business work, and that I should target other big retailers in order to cover the most ground possible with regards to awareness about my product. I also believe that this should be my plan in the future as it would give me a wide range of people who are aware of my services and also in need of my services, which is good for starting the business.
What makes the most sense for growing in my existing market is just to try to appeal to many big name retailers and to try to persuade them to use my data collection methods in order to more effectively and ethically improve their future ventures. I believe that my company can be very successful in this market and that it is definitely the market with the biggest potential for my product and has the most need for it.
New Market
A new market that I am thinking about targeting once my company is expanded and grown is social media companies such as Facebook. Many questions surround these companies and their uses and collection methods of consumer data and I believe that my company could help to change consumer attitude towards them and that they would be more successful than they already are due to more positive publicity. Based on my interviews with two people I know who work for Facebook, I believe that my venture would be very successful because they recognize the public's attitude towards their current data collection methods and they see it as their weakest point in the public's perception of their company and are actively trying to fix it.
What surprised me the most about this new market is that they are actively trying to fix the problem and have still not garnered any attention to this fact by the media. I found it very interesting how they also are very self aware and keep up with their own social image of their company, although it makes sense because they are a social media company. I think that with a few tweaks and different data collection methods, my company would be very successful in this market and would be able to expand and grow, though I am not sure if it is to the same extent as my existing market because it would be harder to think of more secure and less invasive methods of data collection through social media.
Alex Clouser- Venture Concept No. 1 Assignment 24
My potential opportunity is in the data collection industry. The nature of this need is to have a data collection system that collects data effectively and securely because a lot of people have fears about the safety of their privacy with regards to data collection. My target consumer would be in the retail industry because they rely on data collection to further their business and their marketing exploits. The forces that are creating this opportunity are the public distrust and the overall attitude towards data collection and how it is invasive to consumers private data. I believe that the opportunity is long term because I think it will take a long time to change this public attitude towards data collection. I think that this is a big opportunity because of the lack of available alternatives to current data collection methods.
My innovation would be new data collection methods that do not invade people's privacy and make them feel better about the action of data collection. This innovation would make data collection more indirect through things such as promos or holiday gift guides or other things of the like. It works through people interacting with the product, such as ordering things from the holiday gift guide or participating in a special promo which gives you a certain bonus during a specific criteria, such as a discount when you shop on your birthday, or something of the like. I do not know yet the pricing criteria for my innovation, but I wouldn't make it too expensive because then no company would want to buy it.
The data collected from this interaction is then processed by the retailer and used to improve their next holiday gift guides with popular items purchased, improve their marketing campaigns, and gives them the ability to help better serve their customers with things that they want. This will help to ease consumer attitude towards data collection by not being invasive, yet also still help companies to further their future ventures. Companies will buy my product because they will gain positive publicity for actively trying to change their data collection methods and will not get as much public backlash as other companies have been getting in recent years because of the non-invasive quality of my methods.
I believe that my most important resource is my connections to people in the retail industry because that can benefit my venture the most and is also hard for other companies to replicate. What is next for my venture is to further expand my data collection methods and to continue to come up with new ways that are not invasive to collect data. To be honest, in 5 to 10 years I would like to see my venture become successful and would really like to sell my venture for a hefty sum of money because then I could put my energy into something less time consuming than running a business and would be able to focus on my other life goals that I have.
My innovation would be new data collection methods that do not invade people's privacy and make them feel better about the action of data collection. This innovation would make data collection more indirect through things such as promos or holiday gift guides or other things of the like. It works through people interacting with the product, such as ordering things from the holiday gift guide or participating in a special promo which gives you a certain bonus during a specific criteria, such as a discount when you shop on your birthday, or something of the like. I do not know yet the pricing criteria for my innovation, but I wouldn't make it too expensive because then no company would want to buy it.
The data collected from this interaction is then processed by the retailer and used to improve their next holiday gift guides with popular items purchased, improve their marketing campaigns, and gives them the ability to help better serve their customers with things that they want. This will help to ease consumer attitude towards data collection by not being invasive, yet also still help companies to further their future ventures. Companies will buy my product because they will gain positive publicity for actively trying to change their data collection methods and will not get as much public backlash as other companies have been getting in recent years because of the non-invasive quality of my methods.
I believe that my most important resource is my connections to people in the retail industry because that can benefit my venture the most and is also hard for other companies to replicate. What is next for my venture is to further expand my data collection methods and to continue to come up with new ways that are not invasive to collect data. To be honest, in 5 to 10 years I would like to see my venture become successful and would really like to sell my venture for a hefty sum of money because then I could put my energy into something less time consuming than running a business and would be able to focus on my other life goals that I have.
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