16A: What's your Secret Sauce?

Don't get Lost in the Sauce?

• Confidence
• When it comes to getting things done, I always have the will to make it happen, even at the expense of my overall wellbeing; I get that bread.
• Teamplayer
• Labor allocation is exactly what happens in the professional landscape, and as a result being a team player is whats necessary to get things done, and luckily I have that in spades.
• Creativity
• Thinking outside the box is exactly the business minded nature an entrepreneur is and I have a good grasp of it.
• Innovation
• I've taken Catalyst and Creativity in Context, so I feel like this checks out the street cred of Innovation.
• Resolve
• Who takes failure lightly? Not this guy. I'm always determined to meet my own incredulous standards.
• Interview 1:
• "I think you're an intelligent person driven by an ambition to make money" -Friend 1
• Interview 2:
• "What makes Kenneth unique is his drive to avoid failure" - Friend 2
• Interview 3:
• "Kenneth's ability to make decisions that account for everybody makes him unique" - Friend 3
• Interview 4:
• "I consider Kenneth's biggest strength to be his tenacity" -Friend 4
• Interview 5:
• "After having known this kid for this long, i'm sure his greatest asset is his confidence." -Friend 5.
• Conclusions:
• I feel my friends accurately assessed my skills and were fair in what they called my best strengths. It was definitely a reflective experience to hear through the mouths what they thought to be my best gifts are. Looking back I really shouldn't value my creativity as much as I do if I were to go by my friend's assessments.

15A: Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Evaluating Buyer Behavior:

Interview 1

• What drew you to seeking out an elderly care provider?
• "Well it really was a result of my mothers second fall. Around October 2014 she had just gotten out of the hospital after suffering a nasty fall down some stairs, bu my dad was managing to keep good enough care for both her and himself, but after a repeat incident at the tail end of 2018, it was evident she needed more than what my father could provide her."
• What Alternatives do you think exist for such institutions?
• "Personally the best alternative is just to not grow old haha! But in reality the alternatives include moving in with relatives and in-house nursing, which place a huge burden on the family both mentally and economically. I normally would just buy my plan at my healthcare provider, but he feeling is usually glum."

Interview 2

• What drew you to seeking out an elderly care provider?
• "I had initially considered the possibility of finding one of these places in the event my mom ever required the need for one of those, or for myself because you never are fully in control of your aging. My mother's memory has been worsening, and as of late is affecting her ability to live a healthy lifestyle.
• What alternatives do you think exist for such institutions, and what is the buyer experience like?
• "To summarize it: bleak. It feels so melancholy having to seek out a care provider for a person you love, especially when it's so painfully obvious many of these places look at patients as paychecks. Purchasing of course takes place in office, and it is a great peace of mind to know what I did makes sure my mother can live safer and healthier, despite the cost.

Interview 3

• What drew you to seeking out an elderly care provider?
• "With my father living in the inner-city all on his own, despite his resolve and strong will, his arthritis really impedes his ability to do much of anything for himself other than drive and get in/ out of bed. After so many weekends of spending the day helping my dad do day to day tasks is when I finally realized I had to take steps to find the right care.
• What alternatives do you think exist for such institutions, and what is the buyer experience like?
• "In terms of alternatives, I don't think many exist outside of integrating the afflicted person into your own home and life, or hiring a private nurse to account for their care; both of which are an insane burden to bare. And like mindedly the buyer experience for getting a plan for a loved one really takes that burden off your shoulders.
• Conclusions: I think it's safe to say the demographic pattern for my business follows a customer that isn't in the market to spend upwards of 20% of their living wage on a sustainable solution and that product within a specific price range with stellar customer service has a high chance of customer satisfaction and economic growth.

14A: Halfway Reflection

Reflection:

• One of the many adjustments I made to better suit the parameters of this class was to tune my internal clock to the Friday/ Monday schedule that this course has its assignments due on. It really helps to pace yourself to this same sort of tune so the weekly basis of this class doesn't overload you. Another behavior would probably be digging deep into your acquaintances to make sure the interviews you provide for this class meet the level of quality expected from an eager entrepreneur.
• In terms of tenacity, it was surely at its weakest when during week 4. Week 4 was the culmination of multiple classes projects and 2 exams in my hardest classes, and of course that coincided with 7 and 8A, when I needed to procure interviews to properly assess the chances of success my opportunity might have, and as such my will to perceiver was at its lowest. I pulled through of course since I really don't want to fail myself in the long run of my education, but I guess the last 2 months have been the most eager I've ever been.
• In terms of giving tips to incoming students ventures into ENT3003, I would say one of the first is to make absolutely sure you're comfortable with the 4 assignment weekly work schedule and the second might be to make sure you have plenty of creativity for the questions you'll have to ask others for the interviews you'll be conducting to aid your business hypothesis later on in the class.

The Entrepreneur god himself

13A: Reading Reflection No. 1

Book Review 📖

1. What really surprised me the most about the book was how committed the protagonist was to becoming an entrepreneur and how he learned so much from his experiences throughout the book. I admired the entrepreneurs innovated attitude the most I could really feel his thought process out. I disliked how detached the entrepreneur became from non-entrepreneurial ideals later on in the book. At first it seemed as though the entrepreneur failed to capture his market, but in general it was a success since he kept working at it.
2. The entrepreneur was competent at many things, some of those things he really honed over the course of the book. His competencies were his speaking skills and his ideation.
3. One of the more confusing parts of the book was how bad the author was at conveying the sense of urgency that an entrepreneur goes through when tailoring their product to an adapting marketplace, just a bad author in general.
4. I'd ask the entrepreneur if they liked being an entrepreneur and if they could do something better with their life why would the be an engineer.
5. His opinion was centered around a can do attitude and the falls in line with mine too; he's like the little engine that could my dog.

12A: Figuring out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Buyer Behavior:

• Pick a Segment: My Market Segment I intend to isolate is a demographic of middle class Americans between the age of 55-70, and their need for care opportunities for their aging parents.

• Interview, Need Summaries and Information Searches: 
• Interview 1: My first of the series of interviews was with a Gainesville local woman who fits right into my segment. Her need summary was exactly what'd i'd expect for a prototypical customer. Her need comes from her mother being in her late 80s and beginning to falter due to old age, and the where aspect is finding care facility that's right for her due to the fact she has alzheimer's. Her information searches consisted of googling for "nursing homes" and asking fellow co-workers if they have a similar situation to hers and where she might be able to turn to.
• Interview 2: This interview was conducted right outside of a Super Target with a 63 year old man named John. John's need summary also fits right inside of the definition I have laid out for my business opportunity. His father is beginning to have issues caring for his wife, as she has suffered 2 falls within the past 1 and both requiring surgery. The care she needs can't be supplied by his father so John needs an outlet to solve this problem. His information searches just devolve to using newspapers and inquiring where he might be able to find a care facility that he can afford.
• Interview 3: The final interview happened right at an Ocala gas station with a woman who also fit quite well into my demographic. She explained her need summary from the standpoint that she needs to find a place that's capable of caring for her aging mother due to her mother beginning to have mental issues and along with it consequences of an earlier hip replacement a few years prior. Her information searches tend to fall around using facebook as research outlet to poll for where she might be able to send her mother to live a quality life on the budget of a school teacher.

• Conclusions: From my interviews, I've realized that as long as I can reach out to my intended segment in the business market, I stand a fair chance of making a profitable business so long as the under the hood costs can be managed in a way to make the cost to customers manageable with middle class income and insurance. The need awareness can be categorized into simply needing a care facility that does 2 things: Cares for their loved one properly, and is affordable on a paycheck to paycheck basis. 

11A: Idea Napkin No.1

Idea Napkin:

• You: I am an aspiring computer scientist that is deeply rooted in the sentiments that resolve leads to innovation, and innovation can lead to success. My skills are concentrated in things like programming, hardware, and ideation; and ideation is one of my strong sides. Should my business opportunity become fully fleshed out, I would sell it off to somebody else and collect royalty checks for the rest of my life.

• What am I offering to customers?: I offer the most valued thing in such a complex age, peace of mind. I offer care that is second to none, from a business that puts your loved ones ahead of an insane profit margin. A system that cares for the elderly that once cared for you; that is what I am offering at a price-point that can managed for a middle class in todays time.

• Who's being offered it?: The customers are being offered this, but primarily the customers family. Odds are if someone needs this service they're either physically disabled or mentally disheveled, and it falls upon the family to take up my service.

• Why do they care?: They care because it's a loved one. You'd want to the best you could for your mother or father / grandad and grandma, so you come to a business like mine to see to it they live life with a higher quality getting what they need at a price that doesn't bankrupt.

• What are my core competencies?: What sets my idea apart from others is a staff that is licensed to care for the elderly and who's skills are specified into maintaining the quality of life that the patients are used to, something nowhere else can say.

• Evaluation: When it comes to all of these answers, I find that there is a cohesion of some sort. The customers will readily see the competencies I display and find that the care offered will always edge out any other care facility, and at an affordable price-point to. Altogether I think that the only outlier might be my own experiences and skillsets being so separate from my business opportunity, but there is no reason why I couldn't translate such proficiency into my business.

10A: Elevator Pitch 1

9A: Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

Going on with my hypothesis from part 1, I went ahead and surveyed the opinions of five different people, with the interviews down below.

Interview 1: Publix Deli Woman (40-50s)

Does this solution present a fix you need?

• "While the problem is certainly there, my mom and dad are still going strong living on their own and don't really have a need for a nursing home even if it could correct the well known problems associated with them, and even then I really feel like once they get up in their age that they could just move in with me."

Interview 2: Car-Salesman (50-60s)

Does this solution present a fix you need?

• "Despite my parents being in there late 70s nursing homes are an extreme for us, and the services offered by the program you're presenting have to come with a price-point that just isn't all the do-able on decent salary, and it seems to be such a selective problem on the assumption my parents wouldn't be able to care for themselves sometime soon."

Interview 3: UF Professor (60-70)

Does this solution present a fix you need?

• "The need for your problem doesn't really present itself until the later walks of life,  and fortunately my mother is still doing quite well working from her home and in good health meaning such a service is a moot point to me."

Interview 4:  Neighbor (50-60s)

Does this solution present a fix you need?

• "My father and mother are actually living with me and my family for the time being. They eventually found themselves needing more and more help with day to day activities and moved in with us to be closer to the grandkids and simultaneously help us while we can help them. So I don't think what you're offering is a fit for me personally."

Interview 5: Football Coach (50-60)

Does this solution present a fix you need?

• "Currently my mom and dad are living fine on their own in Tallahassee so I can definitely conclude that I am not in need of the service despite the fact that my age and work puts me in your demographic."

Inside the boundary	Outside the boundary
Who is In: Middle aged people with dependent parents.	Who is Not: Middle aged people with independent parents.
What the Need Is: An outlet to help them with care.	What the Need Is Not: Care facilities for those who can care for themselves.
Why the Need Exists: Elderly being unable to take care of themselves.	Alternative Explanations: Home-care being present and parents that don't suffer from disabilities.