Blog Post #30: Assignment 30A - Final Reflection

Honestly, I will remember this entire experience as a whole for years to come. From having to create a unique service/business out of nowhere to finding customers and a market to creating a business plan and elevator pitches, I will never forget this experience because this most likely be the only time I ever do anything like this. Prior to this semester, I never imagined that I would ever have to or be able to accomplish the tasks that were presented to me in this class. Therefore, the fact that I was able to complete this course with a passing grade is a major accomplishment for me alone. In addition, I now also feel like I can loosely call myself an "entrepreneur". Although I may not be a very good one or ever become one in my real life, I believe that the skills and knowledge I've acquired from this class allow me to be able to call myself one and, further more, developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

For all of the students who will take this course in the future, I wish them good luck and recommend that they 1) never suggest creating a new app and 2) complete each assignment and take each of them seriously. Although it may not seem like it, but by completing each assignment and learning as much as you can from each of them, you come closer and closer to developing that entrepreneurial mindset.

Blog Post #27: Assignment 27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

1. The general theme of this book was that there are two systems of thinking that different people use every day that help us make decisions, but at the same time can also cause us to make mistakes.
2. In my opinion, this book is connected with and has enhanced my learning in ENT3003 because it can show the different ways that customers think, allowing entrepreneurs to more effectively communicate with them.
3. An exercise based on this book that could be used in this class would be to have students identify which type of thinking system a customer uses based on their characteristics.
4. My biggest surprise from this book is that people tend to spend most of their time using System 1 thinking.

Blog Post #28: Assignment 28A - Your Exit Strategy

For my exit strategy, I intend to stay with my business for as long as possible until I no longer feel a passion for the work I am doing. Once that day comes, I will sell my service for a (hopefully) large enough return so that I can retire and live comfortably for the rest of my life. I have chosen this strategy because I truly care about my business. I want it to succeed for as long as possible by having the most capable people doing their best work for it. However, if I lose my passion or for whatever reason can no longer do my best work, then it only seems fair to the company to sell it someone who can do a better job than me. I also chose this strategy because I would like to retire early and make as much money from my business as possible. With that being said, I believe that the only thing this decision has influenced about my company is that I want the best, hardest-working, most passionate employees working for me and my service.

Blog Post #26: Assignment 26A - Celebrating Failure

This past semester, I failed to successfully complete a task that was given to me at my job. My boss asked me to thoroughly clean all of the equipment at our office before his 30-minute meeting was over. Although the amount of equipment I needed to clean was a pretty large, I still should have been able to clean everything in the time I had before my boss came back. However, I got more focused on making sure each and every single piece of equipment was absolutely spotless rather than simply making sure everything was cleaned. Therefore, by the time my boss returned, I was not finished cleaning everything. When he came back to see that I was still cleaning, not only was he very disappointed, he gave me a pretty stern warning that if it happened again, I would not last at my job very long. After that, I was pretty disappointed in myself, but I learned from it, left it in the past, and moved on.

After failing to complete that task, I learned that everyone has different wants and needs and that they can be misidentified. In this particular scenario, I thought that my boss' main need was to have the equipment as clean as possible. However, what he really wanted was to have all of the equipment cleaned as quickly and efficiently as possible. In other words, he was more focused on the speed of the task being completed rather than the quality of it.

Personally, I have never been a huge fan of failure. With that being said, when it does happen, I accept it, learn from it, and move on. You learn more from failures than successes. Therefore, I think failures can be a good thing, as long as you learn from them, don't let them affect your performance and work in the future, and make the same mistakes again. Being a part of this class this semester has helped me understand this lesson even more.

Blog Post #25: Assignment 25A - What's Next?

Existing Market
I think what the next step for my service would be to pick up and deliver both marijuana products for local dispensaries and food from local restaurants. I think that this would help my service acquire a wider range of customers.

After interviewing 3 members of my existing market about my idea for the next step of my service, they were all very excited about it and thought that it would be a great addition to my service. Since one of the medical uses of marijuana includes helping those with eating disorders, I believe that by adding food to the list of things that my drivers pick up and deliver, this can benefit both my service and customers greatly.

Based on my own expectations and the feedback I received from a few customers in my existing market, I believe that the best way to expand my service would be to add food as an item that my drivers pick up and deliver to customers. Consumption of marijuana products, whether for medical or recreational usage, induces hunger. Therefore, I think that the addition of food delivery would be very beneficial for both the customers and the success of my service.

New Market
A new market that is different from the one I plan on targeting is to grow and manufacture marijuana products. This will create value for our customers because, by eliminating the need to go to dispensaries and pick up the products from their and pay the dispensaries, customers will be able to order products directly from my service. This will result in lower costs for our customers.

After describing my service to the customers of the new market and my new idea on how to expand and improve my service, they seemed quite enthused. By being able to lower the prices of my service by selling products directly instead, the customers said they would be more likely to use my service.

I was able to learn a lot from this new market. I learned that, although customers prefer to pay lower prices for my service, it is still very important to them that the products they purchase are of very high quality. However, since I do not know a lot on how to grow and manufacture marijuana products, I believe that it is in the best interest of my service to stick with simply picking up and delivering marijuana products.

Blog Post #23: Assignment 23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources

1. Drivers
1. V: Yes because they provide an easy and quick form of delivery.
2. R: No because a lot of people know how to drive.
3. I: No because it is easy for similar companies to hire drivers.
4. N: No because there are other ways our products can be delivered to customers, such as drones.
2. Cars
1. V: Yes because they provide an easy and quick form of delivery.
2. R: No because many cars are used and manufactured every day.
3. I: No because it is easy for people to purchase cars.
4. N: No because people can use other forms of transportation, like scooters or bicycles.
3. Access to Marijuana Dispensaries
1. V: Yes because drivers will be picking up desired products for customers from the dispensaries.
2. R: Yes because dispensaries have regulations that only allow certain people in.
3. I: Yes because it can be difficult for some people to access dispensaries.
4. N: Yes because dispensaries are the only places where the products our customers desire are legally sold.
4. Outside Investors
1. V: Yes because their investments were able to get the service off the ground.
2. R: No because anybody can become an investor.
3. I: No because other companies can gain investors.
4. N: Yes because only they can invest in my service.
5. My Own Investment
1. V: Yes because it helped start my service.
2. R: Yes because I only invested in my service.
3. I: Yes because I will only ever invest in my own service.
4. N: No because I can replace my investment with an outside investor.
6. Bill, my father's friend, from GrubHub as an Advisor
1. V: Yes because he can provide advice on how to improve my service.
2. R: Yes because not many people have his level of expertise.
3. I: No because other people can get advice from him.
4. N: Yes because few people have his level of expertise.
7. Knowledge of Marijuana Product Trends
1. V: Yes because we can market certain items more to customers if we know they really want them. 
2. R: No because other people have this kind of knowledge.
3. I: No because other people can gain this type of knowledge.
4. N: Yes because you cannot replace this kind of information that we know
8. Loyal Customers
1. V: Yes because they make up a large amount of our sales.
2. R: Yes because must customers are not loyal to only one service.
3. I: No because all companies and services have some loyal customers.
4. N: No because we can replace customers with other ones.
9. Excellent Customer Service
1. V: Yes because customers appreciate quality customer service.
2. R: Yes because not all companies have good customer service.
3. I: No because any company can have good customer service.
4. N: Yes because you cannot replace excellent customer service.
10. Low Costs
1. V: Yes because customers don't want to pay a lot of money.
2. R: Yes because most services of this kind are costly.
3. I: No because other companies have low costs.
4. N: Yes because you cannot replace low costs.

My Top Resource

My service's top resource is my access to marijuana dispensaries because without access to them, my service would not be able to deliver products my customers desire.

Blog Post #22: Assignment 22A - Elevator Pitch No. 3

https://youtu.be/ElD6Ug97lxY

What really stood out to me in the feedback that I received was that I did a really good job of being direct and detailed in my elevator pitch. However, I needed to do a better job of being more enthusiastic.

Based on the feedback I got, I didn't change much. I kept what I said mostly the same. However, I tried to be more enthusiastic and passionate in how I delivered my elevator pitch.