1. The exit strategy I plan to take is none. I do not intend to sell my bar. Instead, I will own it until I wish to retire, and then I will pass it down to my kids.
2. I chose this strategy because why work so hard to get this going, only to sell it. Instead, I want to expand and open up even more bars. I have no intentions of selling.
3. My exit strategy has influenced my other decisions heavily. Knowing that I have no intention of selling, I must make sure I make every correct step along the way, to not mess anything up. I am looking forward to this process.
Monday, November 26, 2018
27A
I read Elon Musk's biography, by Ashlee Vance. The thing that surprised me
the most is that in its first year, Tesla only had 8,000 dollars in
sales. From there, it has emerged as one of the most global companies in
the world. This just goes to show that good things do not
happen overnight in the business world. You must market your product in
order to expand. The thing about Elon Musk that I most admired is the
perseverance that he and his team showed. Tesla and SpaceX throughout the years ran
into numerous lawsuits, many fines, failed designs, etc., but none
of this ever slowed him down. The world can thank him for that, or else
many of us would not have many of the great innovations of this time. Throughout the book, it is expressed that Musk was sometimes very secluded with his work. It was mentioned that he was
not one to give much positive feedback, and was often indecisive with
his decisions. I would have to say these are the things that I least
admire about Musk. As previously mentioned, Tesla ran into much
adversity through the years. But to overcome it, they kept churning out
new designs, offering better products, and making sure consumer
satisfaction was at the top of their interests. Some of the competencies
that I noticed Musk exhibited well were innovation and the ability to
change concepts. It is tough to switch from failed products, and then
all of a sudden design a concept that works. So, for that I must applaud
him. The part of the book that most confused me was how Musk started
this whole thing off with selling failed products, all the way
to becoming the giant it is today. One question I would ask Elon would be how the idea of Tesla originally started. I would like to know
if it started as wanting to create a comfortable car, or if the idea
was to create a car giant. Another question I would ask Elon is if the
first time he created a product or design that failed, what did he say to himself to
get past this failure. I think Elon was a very hard worker. You cannot
slack off and create one of the biggest companies in the world.
26A
1. This semester I have failed to get an A on my Sports Economic tests. No matter how much I studied, how many problem sets I redid, or how many times I took the practice test, I just cannot crack the A mark. It is not like I am far off, I got a B+ both times, but I just cannot get into that A threshold.
2. From this, I have learned to not let my mood down when I fail. Yeah, maybe I did not get the A I was looking for. But I still have to look at the positives. I beat the average for my class, and still received a good score. Failing to achieve something does not define who you are.
3. I think in order to get past failing, it is good to admit failure. Move on from it and start to look at the future. Every single person on this Earth fails at something almost every day. So you cannot let it get you down, and you must move on from it. This class has taught me a great deal about that. I am definitely more likely to go out and take a risk than I would have been four months ago.
2. From this, I have learned to not let my mood down when I fail. Yeah, maybe I did not get the A I was looking for. But I still have to look at the positives. I beat the average for my class, and still received a good score. Failing to achieve something does not define who you are.
3. I think in order to get past failing, it is good to admit failure. Move on from it and start to look at the future. Every single person on this Earth fails at something almost every day. So you cannot let it get you down, and you must move on from it. This class has taught me a great deal about that. I am definitely more likely to go out and take a risk than I would have been four months ago.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
25A
Based off of the advice I got from the people I interviewed who are a part of my current market, I believe the thing I most need to focus on is creating demand for my bar. I need to be promoting it around college, to make sure enough people hear about it. Another idea is to hand away free coupons and such, to initially get people to come to my bar. They all thought the hardest part about this for me would be initially getting people into my bar.
Another thing I learned from my interviewees is that taking away loyal customers from other bars may be harder than I thought. Two of the three people said they only go to the one same bar every time they go out. For this reason alone, they both said I would really need to be innovative in order to create demand for my bar.
To radically change the dynamics of the market I came up with, I flipped the switch and decided to interview three people over the age of fifty. The goal for this was to see if there could still be a demand for my bar outside of the college-aged kids. The first man I interviewed was strongly against the idea. He said he likes his classic bar, and wouldn't really be interested in deviating from this. The second man I interviewed said essentially the same thing. However, he also included that with cheaper prices he may be inclined to give my bar a go. The third man I interviewed said he would be fully behind my idea. He said that he would love to have a place where he could go to drink, but also play bar games and arcade games while doing it. He called it an Adult version of Chuck E Cheese.
Interviewing this other side of the market made me realize that my demand really does primarily lie in the college-aged kids. While some adults would get behind the idea, most of them would like to stick to the types of bars that they have been going to for decades. For this reason, I really must come up with some really innovative ideas for my bar if I want it to be successful.
Another thing I learned from my interviewees is that taking away loyal customers from other bars may be harder than I thought. Two of the three people said they only go to the one same bar every time they go out. For this reason alone, they both said I would really need to be innovative in order to create demand for my bar.
To radically change the dynamics of the market I came up with, I flipped the switch and decided to interview three people over the age of fifty. The goal for this was to see if there could still be a demand for my bar outside of the college-aged kids. The first man I interviewed was strongly against the idea. He said he likes his classic bar, and wouldn't really be interested in deviating from this. The second man I interviewed said essentially the same thing. However, he also included that with cheaper prices he may be inclined to give my bar a go. The third man I interviewed said he would be fully behind my idea. He said that he would love to have a place where he could go to drink, but also play bar games and arcade games while doing it. He called it an Adult version of Chuck E Cheese.
Interviewing this other side of the market made me realize that my demand really does primarily lie in the college-aged kids. While some adults would get behind the idea, most of them would like to stick to the types of bars that they have been going to for decades. For this reason, I really must come up with some really innovative ideas for my bar if I want it to be successful.
24A
Opportunity:
I have an unmet consumer need regarding having a go-to place
for college-aged kids to both drink and get away from the typical bar scene at
the same time. All too often in college, I hear all of my buddies complaining, “I’m
so sick of Midtown, all of the bars there suck.” “The beer is too expensive,
and there’s nothing to do besides stand in a small cramped space with one
hundred other people.” I’m sure that this demand is also met nationally, and
not just here in Gainesville. Demographics do not matter here either, boy or
girl, black or white, it does not matter. Everyone seems to run into this same
problem. (Maybe unless you live in one of the massive metropolitan cities of the
world like New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago) Customers are responding to
this need by forcing themselves to the same old places weekend after weekend.
This makes this opportunity huge. If I could reinvent the college American bar
scene, who knows how much money this could make me. With that being said, this opportunity
is not going anywhere either. There will always be a plethora of college kids
in America, and they will always be a high demand for drinking and night life,
especially in college towns.
Innovation:
I must get very creative in order to come up with an idea
that will get people to try out a new place. I must come up with ideas that
most other places do not have. For my bar, I will employ a variety of different
night life aspects. For example, in order to attract people to come to my bar,
I will hire five drivers every night to cab people back and forth from my bar.
(As long as they are going somewhere on campus) This will be free of charge. I
will also incorporate many bar games into my bar, so it is not just a regular
old bar with the bar and maybe a pool table. Instead I will bring in classic
arcade machines such as pinball, Ms. Pac Man, Super Smash Bros, etc. On top of
this I will add air hockey, foosball, dart boards, and of course a room
dedicated for beer pong. I will make my money primarily from alcohol sales, but
also from these arcade games. The arcade games are a fixed cost, in other words
I pay for them one time, and then I don’t incur any more costs on them. I will
also devise a plan to offer alcohol at a cheaper price to attempt to attract
more people to my bar. Who doesn’t like cheap beer and liquor? On top of lower
prices, I will offer deals for all people, not just deals for women. How does
Masculine Monday, half off all drinks sound for guys? The ideas I have
discussed I realize are not conventional for bars, but I believe I can attract
enough people to achieve a healthy profit.
Venture Concept:
My innovation would solve the opportunity I previously
mentioned by giving college kids a reliable place to go week after week, and
not feel like a boring old bar is a hassle anymore. Customers will buy into my
innovation for a few reasons: I will offer cheaper alcohol, I will provide many
bar games to keep you occupied for hours, and I will provide a free ride home
as well. All of these I believe will contribute to this bar being a huge hit.
With all of that being said, I do not foresee it being extremely hard to get
people to switch over to my bar. If someone offered me a cheaper place to
drink, including a multitude of games to stay occupied with, I would say “Send
me the addy.” The competitors will be the preexisting bars that already have an
established reputation and loyal customers. However, as previously stated I firmly
believe my cheaper alcohol prices will be able to drive these customers to me.
Customer support, customer experience, and pricing points will be the biggest facets
of whether or not my bar can be profitable as well if I can get enough people
inside every night. I would realistically need only 10-15 employees total for
this business venture of mine. I will need the five drivers, seven or eight
bartenders, and a couple cooks for food. With this many employees, my payroll
will not be high month to month.
My secret Sauce:
Taking four years of economics courses have taught me all
sorts of things that will prove useful for this business venture. From simple
economics like supply and demand, from pricing decisions in a competitive
market versus a monopolistic market, or inelastic versus elastic products, I
have an abundance of knowledge in this field. I feel extremely confident that
it will come in handy along this journey for me. Competitors of mine without
this same knowledge, I believe I can blow them out of the water.
The next step:
My next step in this process will be coming up with the
capital to actually get this venture started up. On top of that, I will need to
find a business partner to cut costs, and also seek out investors to further
cut costs. From there, I will have the knowledge and then the capital to
actually get this bar started up. The final step in the process would be
picking out the right location to maximize my profits.
Future:
I would love to open up a multitude of bars in the future.
Assuming this idea worked out, I would keep expanding to new locations to
accumulate even more profit.
23A
My Resources
1) My human capital:
Valuable: 20+ years of schooling
Rare: Many people do not graduate high school, yet alone college
Imitable: You cannot imitate knowledge
Nonsubstitutable: You can substitute my knowledge with someone who possesses at least the same amount
2) My wealth
Valuable: Being young and in college, my wealth at this point in my life is not too valuable
Rare: Not very rare, since I do not have too much money up to this point
Imitable: Cannot imitate wealth, either you have it or you do not
Nonsubstitutable: Can substitute my wealth for someone with more wealth
3) Partnership
Valuable: It will be very valuable to have someone committed to this project with me, which I have
Rare: Not very rare to have a business partner
Imitable: I cannot pretend to have a business partner, either I do or I don't
Nonsubstitutable: I can substitute one partner for another, as long as the former is compensated or bought out
4) Investors
Valuable: Extremely valuable to have investors, that way I am not burdening all of the costs
Rare: Not rare to have investors when starting up a business
Imitable: Cannot pretend to have investors if you do not in reality
Nonsubstitutable: I can always have more and more investors, but I can never have less than zero
5) R&D
Valuable: Good R&D is integral to get a good cost-benefit analysis compared to your competitors
Rare: I hope R&D in starting a company up is not rare..... Otherwise you won't be very successful
Imitable: You cannot fake R&D, the things you are researching will be facts only
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot substitute R&D with anything else, something that must be done
6) Attention to detail
Valuable: I think this is extremely valuable. Attention to detail will lead to more profit in the long run
Rare: I do not think enough people put enough attention to detail as they should
Imitable: You can imitate detail in the short run, but not if you want to be profitable in the long run
Nonsubstitutable: You cannot substitute detail for something else
7) Drive for success
Valuable: Very valuable for small business owners
Rare: I would put this in the not very rare category. Most people that had the drive to start a business also have the drive to sustain it
Imitable: Cannot imitate success with anything. Either you are doing well or you are not
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot substitute for anything else
8) Ability to adapt
Valuable: Very valuable, have to be able to move with what is working for you and the industry as a whole
Rare: Very rare, not everyone is able to be able to see these changes that must be made
Imitable: Can imitate other trends, but will not necessarily lead to success
Nonsubsititutable: Can substitute for other things, but will not always be profitable
9) Understanding of economic principles
Valuable: Very valuable for owning a business
Rare: Very rare, economics is a degree that is on the downturn
Imitable: Cannot imitate knowledge if you do not have it
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot substitute this knowledge with history knowledge
10) Understanding of business concepts
Valuable: Valuable for owning a business
Rare: Not too rare, many people have learned this at some point in their lives
Imitable: Can imitate knowing business ideas, but they may be flawed
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot subsititute
I think my most valuable asset is my extensive knowledge in the field of economics. It is more important than all of my others due to its value to me, the rarity of it nowadays, and the fact that you cannot imitate it or substitute it.
1) My human capital:
Valuable: 20+ years of schooling
Rare: Many people do not graduate high school, yet alone college
Imitable: You cannot imitate knowledge
Nonsubstitutable: You can substitute my knowledge with someone who possesses at least the same amount
2) My wealth
Valuable: Being young and in college, my wealth at this point in my life is not too valuable
Rare: Not very rare, since I do not have too much money up to this point
Imitable: Cannot imitate wealth, either you have it or you do not
Nonsubstitutable: Can substitute my wealth for someone with more wealth
3) Partnership
Valuable: It will be very valuable to have someone committed to this project with me, which I have
Rare: Not very rare to have a business partner
Imitable: I cannot pretend to have a business partner, either I do or I don't
Nonsubstitutable: I can substitute one partner for another, as long as the former is compensated or bought out
4) Investors
Valuable: Extremely valuable to have investors, that way I am not burdening all of the costs
Rare: Not rare to have investors when starting up a business
Imitable: Cannot pretend to have investors if you do not in reality
Nonsubstitutable: I can always have more and more investors, but I can never have less than zero
5) R&D
Valuable: Good R&D is integral to get a good cost-benefit analysis compared to your competitors
Rare: I hope R&D in starting a company up is not rare..... Otherwise you won't be very successful
Imitable: You cannot fake R&D, the things you are researching will be facts only
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot substitute R&D with anything else, something that must be done
6) Attention to detail
Valuable: I think this is extremely valuable. Attention to detail will lead to more profit in the long run
Rare: I do not think enough people put enough attention to detail as they should
Imitable: You can imitate detail in the short run, but not if you want to be profitable in the long run
Nonsubstitutable: You cannot substitute detail for something else
7) Drive for success
Valuable: Very valuable for small business owners
Rare: I would put this in the not very rare category. Most people that had the drive to start a business also have the drive to sustain it
Imitable: Cannot imitate success with anything. Either you are doing well or you are not
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot substitute for anything else
8) Ability to adapt
Valuable: Very valuable, have to be able to move with what is working for you and the industry as a whole
Rare: Very rare, not everyone is able to be able to see these changes that must be made
Imitable: Can imitate other trends, but will not necessarily lead to success
Nonsubsititutable: Can substitute for other things, but will not always be profitable
9) Understanding of economic principles
Valuable: Very valuable for owning a business
Rare: Very rare, economics is a degree that is on the downturn
Imitable: Cannot imitate knowledge if you do not have it
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot substitute this knowledge with history knowledge
10) Understanding of business concepts
Valuable: Valuable for owning a business
Rare: Not too rare, many people have learned this at some point in their lives
Imitable: Can imitate knowing business ideas, but they may be flawed
Nonsubstitutable: Cannot subsititute
I think my most valuable asset is my extensive knowledge in the field of economics. It is more important than all of my others due to its value to me, the rarity of it nowadays, and the fact that you cannot imitate it or substitute it.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
22A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzQEdLcrx9Q
The feedback I received was very constructive. The best I got from it was to show more enthusiasm in my pitch. Really sell my product, which will be better for my audience. Another good piece of advice I got was to give a better description of my product, along with my goals for it and how I will achieve these goals.
By now my pitch is almost memorized, I feel much more comfortable with it. This assignment has really helped my confidence.
The feedback I received was very constructive. The best I got from it was to show more enthusiasm in my pitch. Really sell my product, which will be better for my audience. Another good piece of advice I got was to give a better description of my product, along with my goals for it and how I will achieve these goals.
By now my pitch is almost memorized, I feel much more comfortable with it. This assignment has really helped my confidence.
Monday, November 5, 2018
21A
The book I chose was Thinking Fast, and Slow.
1. The general theme or argument of the book was that when it comes to considering judgements and choices, a human goes through two systems of thought. The first is a sudden, and automatic response by the brain. The second system is slower and more deliberate.
2. This book connected with our class in many ways. For starters, the whole book is predicated on making the right decisions based off of what you are given. You must strategically decide on things throughout your life, especially in the business world. In order to be a good entrepreneur, you must be good at System number two, something Kahneman hits on throughout the book.
3. If I were design an exercise for this class based off this book, I would create ten situations and ask the students to do two things: Provide an initial response for each situation. And then after that, deeply think about each situation for ten minutes, and develop a new response for each situation. Then, compare how different each of your answers were.
4. The biggest "aha" moment for me was regarding doubts. I was surprised to find out that System 1 cannot really experience doubts. However, System 2 is when you start to get into some problems with doubting yourself.
1. The general theme or argument of the book was that when it comes to considering judgements and choices, a human goes through two systems of thought. The first is a sudden, and automatic response by the brain. The second system is slower and more deliberate.
2. This book connected with our class in many ways. For starters, the whole book is predicated on making the right decisions based off of what you are given. You must strategically decide on things throughout your life, especially in the business world. In order to be a good entrepreneur, you must be good at System number two, something Kahneman hits on throughout the book.
3. If I were design an exercise for this class based off this book, I would create ten situations and ask the students to do two things: Provide an initial response for each situation. And then after that, deeply think about each situation for ten minutes, and develop a new response for each situation. Then, compare how different each of your answers were.
4. The biggest "aha" moment for me was regarding doubts. I was surprised to find out that System 1 cannot really experience doubts. However, System 2 is when you start to get into some problems with doubting yourself.
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