Week 15: Final Reflection

1). It is very interesting reading through my blog from the beginning. Still the same me, just now more educated and with more experience. A low for me would be all of the interviews because I am studying abroad in Italy and it was very hard to get in contact with people that spoke English.  The highs for me have definitely been the elevator pitches. In the beginning, I had to record them multiple times becomes I would get nervous and stumble over words. My fourth and final elevator pitch was from my first take which in itself proved how far I’ve come and how much confidence I’ve gained along the way. I dreaded a few of the exercises, especially the ones where I had to get out and interact with people, but I found it much easier when I stayed ahead and completed assignments early.

2). As I just mentioned, I think the elevator pitches had the most influence on me because it is easy to see the progress from the first to the fourth one. It took some practice, but it the thing I will remember most from this class. My most joyous experience was probably reading all of the positive comments. I chose a business concepts that was very personal to me and shared some of my health concerns on the Internet for anyone to read, but the majority of people were extremely encouraging which was awesome. I am the most proud of the venture concepts because it is nice to see my entire business so detailed and planned out. I worked hard on that post in particular and I think my passion really came through in those posts.

3). I see myself as someone who is applying entrepreneurial principles to everyday life, which to me is an entrepreneur. As we learned throughout the semester, it does not have to be a small business owner. It is simply a mindset and I definitely think I have developed that perseverance through this class. I know that there is always more to learn, and I am eager to see what else is to come in the future, but I am proud of the progress.

4). My biggest recommendation that I have repeated over and over is to plan ahead. This course has such a unique design that allows you to complete assignments on your own schedule. Studying abroad this semester, I was constantly traveling, so it was amazing to be able to do assignments on my time and take advantage of the flexible format. Another piece of advice is to complete the extra credit. Hardly any college course offers extra credit, especially not an entire letter grade, so take advantage of Yellowdig. To help foster the mindset, just go with the flow. There will be assignments for this class that you don’t want to complete. Just attempt them and do your best, and it works out in the end.

Week 15: Venture Concept No. 2

1). Overall description-

Opportunity:

Earlier last year, I was diagnosed with a chronic disease called Interstitial Cystitis. The day I got the diagnosis, I was handed a pamphlet of my new diet to follow for the rest of my life. Things to avoid included chocolate, orange juice, tomatoes and their byproducts such as ketchup, alcohol, yogurt, sports drinks such as Gatorade, and cereal just to name a few. As someone with an already picky diet, this eliminated a huge chunk of the foods I could no longer eat. Enough about me though, an estimated 8-10 million people have Interstitial Cystitis alone. This got me thinking about other dietary restrictions in the world today. Whether for personal, religious, or medical reasons, there are many diets today including gluten free, kosher, diabetic, vegan, vegetarian, and lactose intolerant. Food is a necessity of life and any one of these dietary restrictions limits food options. Because there are so many different types of restrictions, there are no exact numbers on the how many people today actually live with this, but if you add up these 6 segments alone, that’s over 50 million Americans, so there is a huge unmet need. Going to the grocery store is a bit easier because we know what items to stay away from, but restaurants and premade options are much harder because you need to know the complete list of ingredients to ensure that you can have that type of food. There are no grocery stores specifically designed to meet the needs of people living with dietary restrictions. We are lucky if things are properly labeled, or if there is a section properly identifying our particular segment. This will continue to be an opportunity because these diseases aren’t going anywhere. Actually, the numbers are increasing, especially with genetic diseases, so unless a cure is developed, these segments will only continue to grow.

Innovation:

I am proposing an on campus grocery store, similar to the POD that specializes in foods for those people with dietary restrictions. It would be open for extended hours so you could run in for a midnight snack, and be at reduced prices because it is for college students and faculty. Often foods such as gluten free flour or cheese that contains no dairy is extremely expensive because they only cater to smaller segments. However, you may not know that common foods also meet these demographics such as Oreos, which are vegan, and Tostitos, which are gluten free. This means that anyone would be able to shop at the market because it would carry “normal” snack food that also happens to fit these needs. It would make a profit because simply a grocery store on campus is long overdue, but also it would fit the needs of many different types of people, so anyone could shop there and appreciate the cheap prices, convenient location, and extended hours. Since it is grocery store, I can’t list every price because there is such a wide variety of items sold, but reasonable prices it part of the core competency of the business, so they would be relatively cheap and comparable to other competitors.

Venture concept:

I think it is fairly straightforward that nothing exists that specifically addresses the needs of people living with dietary restrictions. Potential customers would not be switching from any other company because there is no current competition. Distribution and business location play a fairly significant role because part of the benefit of this idea is that it is on campus, but it is relatively easy to get supplies to these areas, so it would not be hard to use existing suppliers to get the resources to the market. Like I mentioned before, it would be fairly similar to the POD market, so a small on campus grocery store with about 3 employees to start. These employees would have a nutritional background so they would be able to answer questions about what foods are safe for certain segments, and also specialize in customer service. I think starting small and seeing the popularity is always smarter, just to build your reputation and get the word out, and then expand from there.

Other elements:

As I mentioned in my unfair advantage assignment, I would have to say that my top resource is reputation because it is the combination of numerous elements working together. Intangible resources are harder for competitors to copy and certainly take time to develop. Someone may be able to sell similar products, but adding the welcoming atmosphere, great hours, convenient locations, and experienced staff, all contribute to a reputation that sets my business apart. A positive reputation is essential in any industry, and is a key factor in being the best for years to come.

I think the next thing is just expanding the product line. As new products come out, just being sure to keep up with market trends and listen to customers. As I mentioned on another previous assignment, with technological innovation and genetically modified foods, I think science could potentially develop foods that are safe and delicious for those who can’t eat traditional key ingredients such as regular flour, sugar, or wheat. Seeing what the future holds in terms of science and innovation will be interesting in years to come as well because it will play a huge role in determining the future market.

Having a personal connection to this, I am very passionate about finding alternative foods that actually taste good for people living with dietary restrictions. I would love to stick with this and keep a personal stake in the company. Management would be nice, but my skills are in marketing, communication, and customer relations. Wherever this may go, I would want to make sure that I am actively involved and not calling the shots from behind a desk. Possibly partner up with someone whose talents are more administrative so I could run more of the employees and customer feedback, whole they focused on business and company operations. As I mentioned in my what’s next assignment, I would love to pass this on as a family business in the years to come. To grow this business and see it take off would be amazing to pass down to future generations and keep it within the family if they were interested. Doing good for people is a core value I hope to teach my children and hold central to the business, so I feel like it would match up well and meet the needs of each other.

2). Summary of feedback-

All of the feedback was extremely positive. One of my favorite comments said they liked that it was all-inclusive in that no one was left out for a change. Since people with dietary restrictions are often excluded from many food options, it is cool that my message and core value cam across in a simple post. Another person who commented personally struggled with a dietary restriction, so it was cool to have someone who understands firsthand say that they support the idea as well.

3). Changes from the last venture concept-

I didn’t change much from the first venture concept. I worked really hard on the first assignment and tried to be extremely detailed and deliberate with my word choice. I made a few minor adjustments on areas where I feel that I repeated myself or moved certain sentences into the heading where it I felt it was a better fit, but I honestly was proud of my first venture concept. The biggest change was adding in where I would like to be with the company in 5 years. Although I kept the same basic plan, I elaborated more since our what’s next assignment because now I knew how to better explain why I chose this option.

Week 15: Elevator Pitch No. 4

1). The pitch:

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS7ZPWWxeQs

2). Reflection: The majority of the feedback said that they particularly enjoyed my passion and enthusiasm for the venture. The comments were very positive and encouraging about continuing on the same path. A couple people also noted that I made some good adjustments in becoming more organized and deliberate with my speech overall. The feedback that surprised me the most was how many people have noted professionalism in their comments. It is very reassuring to hear others say it because it can feel awkward recording yourself in a dorm room, so it is nice to know that I come off as knowledgeable about the business concept. The only thing I slightly disagreed with was one comment said my idea wasn’t completely unique because it relates to similar customer needs from other ideas. I’m not entirely sure what they meant by this, but this was the only comment with a criticism.

3). Changes from previous elevator pitches: I again tried to make it slightly more casual and use more informal language. I kept a lot of the same content because the comments were so positive. I tried to make this one more conversational, but there are many similarities between this one and my previous pitches. I also added more information about fresh produce and organic options because that seemed popular with previous posts.

Week 14: Google Gold

1). As our guest speaker mentioned in the beginning, I mainly focused on keywords and writing a lot of quality content. For each post, I was sure to meet the assignment criteria, but also tried to tie in key words whenever they fit in naturally. Explaining my business concept at the beginning of each post, even if it was just a couple sentences, was also important to me because it helped keep the reader up to date if they hadn’t read previous posts. This also helps keep many of the same words and idea so the blog is cohesive overall.

2). I tried to use key words central to my overall concept. Since my idea is a grocery store that focuses specifically on the needs of those with dietary restrictions, I used words such as market, grocery, fresh, and dietary restrictions. I selected these because they were natural in many of the posts, but they also related to the business concept. I changed slightly over the semester in trying to be more specific, but I used many of the same key words because they’re still very applicable.

3). I did not share my blog on any social media outlet this semester. Linking my YouTube account and blog gained a lot of traffic, but I never shared the link to my actual blog on Facebook or Twitter. In my opinion, Twitter is the best social media outlet to get the word out about new and exciting information, and I do not have a Twitter account, so I did not use social media to promote my content through another source. I think social media would be receptive if I were to share it though because my business concept relates to me on a personal level. As someone who has a dietary restriction and went through a few health scares in the last few years, I believe my friends and family would be supportive if I decided to share it one day.

4). My most viral posts were elevator pitches 1 and 2, tied with equal number of page views. It is interesting that these two posts obtained the most traffic because they are a great overall description of my business concept and my blog as a whole. It is not surprising because it is linked to my YouTube channel, which has been around much longer than my blog, so it has more followers. In addition, my blog post and videos share the same titles, so keywords also help to obtain more traffic because they are linked.

5). I did not make it to the top of Google for dietary restrictions in general, but the more specific you get with key words, the more of my posts begin to show up. For example, if you include dietary restriction and Michelle Kelley, two of my posts come up on the first page. Basically you have to include at least three specific key words, or one key word and my name, and my blog comes up on the first page of Google; not bad for my first blog and just 14 weeks.

Week 13: Celebrating Failure

1). I am currently studying abroad in Rome this semester. English is obviously my first language and before I came here, I knew no Italian. Every time I walked into a restaurant or tried to order a croissant at a coffee shop in Italian, I failed in the beginning. It is hard to relearn something that comes so natural, and even when I got one thing down, they would ask me something I wouldn’t understand, and I would just stand there like a stupid American and shrug. I have failed multiple times throughout the semester and still continue to fail on occasion even though I know how to speak basic Italian now.

2). Luckily most people speak some English or I could use nonverbal to point so I always figure it out, but it was extremely frustrating in the beginning to not be able to communicate with anyone around me. I learned to be patient and realize I am the visitor in their country. It is important to not adopt the ethnocentric attitude that everyone should speak English, so I always try Italian first (even if I am horrible at it), and if they speak back in English, then it is okay. As I mentioned before, I have also learned how to better communicate with nonverbals so that when there is a linguistic barrier, I can work around it.

3). Failure is definitely hard. Even though this seems like it is on a small scale, it is extremely discouraging to feel like an outsider where you live. I have been here for four months now, and obviously it is a lot easier now, but it was definitely difficult at times when I would try and it wouldn’t come out right. I am a perfectionist and don’t want to offend anyone, so I want to learn the language and become culturally diverse. I would say this class has helped with risk taking in some ways and that I am more accepting of failure. It has taught me to think of it more as a learning tool.