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Showing posts from November, 2018

My Exit Strategy

My exit strategy for my app FitTrend, is to sell it for a large return in hopefully stock, (not a majority but a decent amount of shares), and some cash. This is because although I do think I have a chance that it could be successful, it would be more valuable and successful for a larger company that has the ability to run it properly. Whether it be a company such as LA Fitness or a tech company like Google, they would be better equipped to hire the personnel and grow the company than my limited knowledge of the subject, which requires me to outsource almost every aspect of the company. For this reason, I would sell for a large return with stock so I can get money for the future from FitTrend, as well as immediate money if I want to jumpstart a project that I’m more passionate about and more ready to handle myself. It hasn’t necessarily influenced me yet, as this is really the first time I’ve given it a lot of thought, but it definitely would factor into some of the decisions. I would

Failure Is Good

Failure is something that is initially hard to take at first, but is beneficial in the long term. Something that happened with me specifically this semester that relates to failure was when I didn’t do well on my first financial accounting exam. It was the first one at the beginning of the semester and I didn’t realize how to properly study for that class nor the tests. I simply thought that because I was doing the homework I didn’t have to study as much for so I wasn’t adequately prepared. It was good that it happened at the start of the semester, however, as it taught me how much work it would take to get a good grade in the class and I took that principle forward in order. I decided to devote more time to the second exam and studied different materials and ended up getting a 90, and plan on doing the same for the third exam. Failure is something that is essential to every aspect of life because of the process it makes you learn, and the harder the failure, the better you learn. The

New Markets

Existing Market While I think my product can definitely have a good foothold in my existing market, after interviewing a couple different customers I think there is definitely ways I can improve and grow in it. I interviewed one person who works out at Southwest everyday, another one of my friends who goes to Student Rec, as well as one random person who I met through one of my friends. We discussed how I could grow in my existing market, and what I need to be doing and planning for that I’m already not. The biggest takeaway I think is an aspect of customer service that I seemed to miss. In the fitness market, I definitely could add a constant stream of communication where I could have a personal trainer on the line, ready to talk with any consumer about how to do a workout or what they should do. This, along with adding a nutritional aspect to my app, could help my app grow and expand in the fitness market, getting more consumers and raising demand for my product. New Market I thin

Venture Concept

Opportunity There is an opportunity in this market for a personalized trainer app that takes out the middleman and gives consumers a customized workout plan directly at the fingertips without having to meet with a trainer, saving them both time and money. This is for young adults and millenials who want to get fit but save the time and money it takes to do so. With the rise in fitness and being in shape ever so prevalent in social media and pop culture, there is demand to get that perfect body now more than ever. The market for a product like these includes young adults all over the U.S., specifically towards anyone trying to get in shape or workout. Customers satisfy the need for workout plans by simply going to trainers, and while some remain relatively loyal as they’ve gone to the same trainer for a while, those looking to cut down time and money would be willing to switch for a cheaper product. This opportunity is pretty big as many people are trying to workout and it could be adve

My Venture Resources

1. Organizational Structure - One of my resources that allows me to keep costs low is the fact that I would have a virtual system, where I could do all of my work at one headquarters as all of the information is sent in online and we create our custom workouts online. This allows for all of the physicians and people who create the plan to be in one location, or even work from home and send it to them, so we can keep costs low and not have to have multiple facilities. Valuable - It’s very valuable because low costs mean higher profit margins. Rare - I would say its moderately rare. Big companies like Walmart, Sam’s, and others are able to keep costs low because of their economies of scale, but its not like everyone does it. Imitable - Again, moderately imitable. Some companies all work online and it allows for low costs, but it is not very common Non-Substitutable - There are other ways to create the same benefits, so it is somewhat substitutable. 2. Social Capital - I plan on hiring we

Elevator Pitch 3

https://youtu.be/EOUR7jL7FeM My feedback from my last pitch made me think that I should focus less on my product and more on the consumer and what they need. I also thought that it was a bit silly because I was told that I should move more by one of my friends, but I think in this specific scenario where I'm recording a video rather than giving a sales pitch made that not relevant. I tried to be more engaging in this elevator pitch, focusing on making an actual connection with people and trying to be more relatable to them. For this reason I tried to address the need this time early on so that people would see it, rather than talking about just my product like I did in the last pitches. I also changed my script up a bit more, yet still it had mostly memorized because a lot of it was the same from the previous pitches.

Reading Reflection 2

The book that I chose was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams the cartoonist. Adams uses witty humour and big ideas to show a couple specific points that create an alternate way to get what you want rather than simply just trying to work hard. One big idea is his idea of having a system as opposed to a goal, as it focuses on doing completing task and being realistic rather than simply having an unknown reward at an uncertain time in the future for the work you put in. Another important idea was the concept of deciding versus wishing. Adams urges people to decide what they want and the price they must pay for it, rather than simply wishing for something. This stuff, along with programming yourself to more fit your internal clock and finding things that give you energy rather than the typical “finding your passion”, combine to show a different way than the traditional way of reaching success. For me, this is where it connects the most to ENT. This class has

Social Capital

One of the first people I talked to was my friend, Michael Kennedy, who is a computer science major here at UF and knows various coding languages. He also works on dance marathon website and has helped develop apps before. He was especially relevant because he could be of use in knowing how complicated it could to be code and design an app similar to mine, because of this I’m filling him with the domain expert slot. I met him through another mutual friend at UF and we sat down and talked. He gave me a lot of ideas about how to code properly just because he wanted to be friendly, so he did not expect anything in return. By getting this knowledge, it gives me the ability to better understand how much capital I’m going to need to properly start my business and run maintenance on my app. The second person I found is one of my parent’s friend Beth, who is a personal trainer at a gym back home. She makes all her money off of in person appointments, and I thought it would be important to get

Idea Napkin Part 2

19A After doing several interviews and reflection exercises and getting feedback, I believe I have a different perspective on my skills and myself. In my previous post I mentioned that I am an ambitious, organized person which would help with my business. In addition, I think my calm temperament and ability to problem solve would be a huge addition as well, especially in a startup with a quickly changing environment. My past experiences with marketing and the internship I had last summer would provide a lot of benefits that could aid the business. I see it growing to be one of the biggest, most downloaded apps on the market, and expanding my business to hire more employees, personal trainers, and technicians to keep the app constantly changing. I’m offering a fitness app to customers, which gives them the ability to workout properly and have a customizable plan that will get them in the shape they want. The difference is that I’m going to market it as a personal trainer app rather than