Make it Real

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sBxiY8zgkAiJrT8A__HPYfBrfjkQm0WRdgYQWaEKPk0/edit

My Exit Strategy

1. My business is really not something that I want to be doing my whole life. I see myself selling the business once it starts turning enough profit. I would use the money that I make in the sale to start a new business in a field that I am more interested in.
2. I have selected this exit strategy because I think that it will help me the most. I think that having the extra money to start something that I am really interested in would be great. 
3. My exit strategy has influenced other decisions within my concept a little bit. Because I plan on leaving, I did not give myself too important of a role. I am more focused on hiring the right people that can do the job better in the long run than I could. It has influenced my want for growth with this company because the bigger the business the more it will sell for in the end. 

Celebrating Failure

1. One thing that I have failed at a few times in this class is getting the interviews that I need. There have been multiple times when I had done the assignment but could not submit it because I had not completed the interviews.
2. I learned that I just need to persevere and do it. It’s really a simple thing to do. I just have to have the will to do it.
3. I really hate to fail. Weather it be in school, in a sport, or in my everyday life, I absolutely hate failure. When I fail I get in a pretty bad mood and I try to distance myself from everyone and just be alone. This class has changed my perspective on failure a little bit. I have learned now that it is okay to fail sometimes and that sometimes failure is actually a good thing. If I had known this sooner, I may have been more fine with failing at some things. 

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:

There are many unmet needs that people have around the world. In fact, I would be willing to say that everyone has at least one unmet need in there day to day life. One unmet need that I have recognized is a need to save money on clothes while still getting clothes that you like. Most people have experienced the feeling of finding a clothing item that they really like but then looking at the price tag and realizing that you can not afford it. This is where I see an unmet need. I think that the need is a fast, easy way to find clothes that you like for a lot cheaper. I think the people that would benefit the most from this would be college students, but realistically this is a need that a lot of other people need fulfilled. I think that this need is much easier to solve in todays world because of all of the technology that we have. With all of the phone applications out today, I think that it would be easiest to fill this opportunity that way. Geographically speaking, people have this need not only throughout our country, but also throughout the world. I think that there are tons of people that have this need. If there was a way to fill this need, I think that the business could be very profitable solely based on how many people could use it. Right now, customers are satisfying this need by doing countless hours of Google searching. There has to be a better way to do it. I think that the window of opportunity will be open until someone comes up with a product that fills this need.

Innovation:

The innovation that I have come up with is a smartphone application that allows you to take pictures of clothing items and then see other clothing that looks similar and is cheaper. These results will show as pictures of the clothing on the screen. With the pictures there will also be a price and a link of where to purchase the clothing. Another option that the app will have is the ability to specify a price range. When specified, you will only see the clothes that are in the selected price range. This will make it even easier for people to find clothes within their budget. This app, however, has other uses than just to find cheaper clothing. It can also be used to replace clothes that no longer get the job done. Say you got a stain or a rip in your favorite shirt. You could simply take a picture of that shirt and find another one instantly. It can also be used to just find clothing items that are similar to ones you like. The app will show all clothes, not just cheap ones. This will broaden the demographic quite a bit.

You may be asking how will this business make money with it just being a middleman between consumers and suppliers. The first way that we will make money is by charging a small fee to purchase the application. It will be about one or two dollars. However, the main source of income will be advertisements within the app. Advertisements are how most apps make money, so why would this one be any different. If the app gets popular enough, I think that it could generate some real revenue from the ads.

Venture Concept:

I think that customers will buy this phone app because it is something that a lot of people could really use. I do not think that it will be hard at all to get customers to switch to my phone app simply because there is nothing like it on the market. My main competitor would probably be Amazon. Amazon does not have an app that lets you take pictures, but they do have a section of “things you may like” which is pretty similar to what we are offering, but I believe that ours will be much more in depth and easier to operate. Since we are not really selling an actual object, our packaging does not really matter, but the look of our app matters immensely. The better it looks, the more serious people will take it, which in turn will grow its popularity faster. Our price point is amazing. With how much money people can save using this app, spending a dollar or two to get it will be an excellent deal. The customer experience is also very important which is why our app must work quickly and seamlessly. The better it operates, the happier our customers will be. I think another benefit of a business like this is that you need a very few number of employees. You would just need a few people to be in charge of creating the app and making sure it runs correctly, and then you would need people to create and maintain the database of the clothing items that we show.

Minor Elements:

I think that the most important resource will be the database that has all of the clothing items on it. Without this, our business cannot operate. Second on the list would be the app itself. It will be good looking and very user friendly.

I think the next venture with this business would be to create a sister application that lets you take pictures of more things and see things like them. This could be used for home decorations or for cars or for anything you can think of. This will be a lot harder because it will require a much greater amount of information in order for it to work properly.

This first venture is not something that I would really want to be doing my whole life. I honestly feel like running a phone app would get a little boring after a while. Down the road I see myself finding and taking hold of another opportunity. This venture, however, is the most important because it will be the one that sets the tone for the rest of my career.

My Unfair Advantage

1. Myself
2. I am good with technology
3. Overwhelming emphasis on customer service/satisfaction
4. My brother who is much better with technology
5. Google
6. My father, who has owned his own businesses and has always taught me that the customer comes first.
7. The people that we will hire. I only want to hire people that are loyal and a genuinely good people.
8. Low start-up costs
9. Not much experience with designing apps.
10. Being able to admit I can’t do something and being able to hire someone that can do the job the best.

I think that my top resource will be customer service/satisfaction. Even though there are plenty of businesses that pride themselves on customer service, we are going to go above and beyond to make sure that we are the absolute best. This will create a customer base that is loyal and will encourage them to go tell others about our great service. 

Amazon Whisperer

• My idea is a smartphone app that allows users to take pictures of clothes they like and the app will present them with clothes that are similar to the ones pictured. I think that there are two major revenue drivers in this business concept. The first is having a one time payment for the app. The app will cost just a dollar or two, but if enough people get it, the number can get big. The second revenue driver would be ads within the app. Once the app gets big, advertisements will be the main source of revenue. 
• I think something that should come next would be an app that lets you take pictures of anything and shows you things like it. This can span from cars to house decorations.
• This “next” thing will enhance our existing service offering because it will allow customers to find anything that they want. It would definitely be very hard to accomplish and being such a much broader app, we would probably increase the initial payment price. It will however be free for already existing customers to update to the new app. I think this will definitely increase customer loyalty.
• I am not able to find anything on Amazon because I am offering a service, not an actual product.
• I think that this service would fit right in with the already existing service because the new one is really just a broader version of the already existing one. I think that adding this new service will make all of our customers happier.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Idea Napkin:

1. My name is AJ Mendola and I am a Food and Resource Economics major entering my final year. One skill that I have is that I am very good with people. I have worked for my father at his business and the one thing that they focus on is customer service. I learned quickly how to deal with people in a respectful way. My aspiration is to own my own business of some sort. The idea that I came up with could one day be a real business.
2. The product that I put out would be a phone application. This app would allow customers to take pictures of clothing items in stores and would show them clothing items that are similar to the one in their picture. This would help people looking to save money. If they saw a shirt that they liked but it was a little too expensive, they could look on our app and see things similar for less money. It could also help people who have a favorite style of clothing to find others just like their favorite.
3. I think that this app could really help all people. However, I do think that our key demographic would be college students. Most college students are on a very strict budget. Being able to save money on clothes opens up that money to be used elsewhere.
4. I think that the customer would buy the app because the money that they spend on it would quickly be made up in savings that they would get from buying cheaper clothing. Although customers will pay a small fee to download the app I think the real money will come from advertising within the app.
5. I think one thing that sets me apart is that I am really driven and willing to learn. This will be helpful because I don’t know much about how phone apps work. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to figure it out though.

Feedback Memo:

I only received one comment on my first idea napkin so I was not able to get much input. One thing that was said is that I should make it more clear how we would make money. In number four I made it a little more clear.

My Secret Sauce

1. Five ways that I think I am unique:
1. I am very hard working
2. I am willing to do anything that is needed of me.
3. I am willing to step outside of my comfort zone to get tasks finished.
4. I am a great learner and believe I can learn to do almost anything. I think this is a great skill to have because it makes me very diverse in what I can do with a job.
5. I am extremely loyal and have great character. I see these as two of the most important qualities that a person can have. One thing that I have always told myself is that when I have a business of my own, I will hire good people that will remain loyal to my company.
2. Interview:
1. I was only able to do one interview because no other people that really know me were in Gainesville. My family live in a different town and most of my close friends are home for the summer. The interview that I did record is with my girlfriend, Robyn. She knows me better than anyone so I think that her opinion will be better than anyones.
2. https://soundcloud.com/user-859880791/robyns-interview
3. Summary: Robyn’s main points were that I am a very hard working person. Another one of her main points is that I don’t quit things that I start. She also said that I am an influential person.
3. One thing that both me and the interviewee said is that I am a hard working person. I am glad that the person I interviewed said this because it reaffirms what I think of myself. One thing that I did not put that she mentioned was that I am influential. I never really saw myself as an influential person, but now that I think about it I might actually be. 

Elevator Pitch No. 2

I was not able to upload my first elevator pitch because I got the date that it was due messed up, therefore I did not have any feedback to reflect upon.

My Customer Avatar

My prototypical customer is a going to be a college student or a person that is college student age. Although this is my ideal customer, I think that this could be used by a lot more people. I also think that this would be more helpful to women than it would be to men because women tend to shop more then men.

Customer Avatar:

The customer that I have pictured is a 21 year old female college student. She does not have any children and lives with one roommate in a house in her college town. In her free time she enjoys painting and doing other crafty things. She sells these crafts online to make money for college.  One thing that she really likes is shopping, but she is very conscious of not spending too much money. 

Final Questions:

• The things that I have in common with my customer avatar are that I am 21 years old and that I do not have any children.
• I think that our ages being the same is not a coincidence. I think that when I was searching for a problem to solve I was thinking of problems that would help me. So us being the same age is not a coincidence.