29A- Venture Concept No. 2

My business idea is to open a grocery store that gives away free groceries to every 1 in 100 customers that enter the store. The idea is that the increased number of customers that come into my store because of this deal will offset the cost of giving away free groceries. In addition, most grocery stores, even successful ones, have an incredible amount of waste product, therefore this deal will help eliminate spoiled food without having to increase costs too much. The name of this store is Shop Free, but that is subject to change if I think of something better.

In terms of opportunity, I believe everybody has the need for my product because everyone needs groceries. However, there are certain demographic groups that the store will be more popular for. I think the biggest opportunity is with young parents with multiple children. This group of people usually buys a lot of groceries to feed the whole family and at the same time they are looking for ways to save money as much as possible. If a young parent buys 200 dollars of groceries a week, they will probably want to shop at the store that gives them the chance of all this food for free. If they end up winning the deal, then they will enjoy their experience so much that they will hopefully become a life-long customer. People are always looking to gamble and win big. A large amount of people constantly buy scratch off lottery tickets daily even if there is a very small chance at winning anything. Shopping at my store can be seen as the same thing, however it does not cost extra money to shop here. 

Forces in the environment that can change the success of my business is the economy. The higher the economy, the higher the spending capability of customers. This would cause customers to splurge and buy the more expensive groceries and buy a great quantity. However, I think it may hurt business in the fact that people are not looking for deals as much, so they might rather stick to their already trusted grocery store that they are comfortable with. I believe customers do have a certain loyalty to the stores they shop at now. Especially Publix has a large following that are in love with shopping there. However, I think if a store opens up that has the same food quality and gives customers the chance to win free groceries, people would be willing to change stores. We want to have a similar culture to Publix where the customer service is extraordinary.

For innovation, I think this is a brand-new idea that will be popular. I also think that if it is successful, other stores will probably not copy the idea. This is because my store will only have a few locations at most. Large grocery chains won’t change their national policies just because of a few competitive stores. The way the system will work is a computer generator will track every 1 in 100 customers that checks out. This will be random and not in order, to ensure that people are not waiting at the checkout area counting to 100. In other words, the first and second customers of the day may win free groceries and then the next person who wins could be the 200^th customer. It is not an exact order, but the computer generator will ensure that 1 in 100 people at the end of the day have been given their order for free. Customers will find out that they won at the check out and when they are about to pay, “Free Groceries” will pop up on the screen and they will be given their order for free. There will be a rule in place that you are not allowed to return any items after you find out if you win or not. This way, people who do not win can’t return all their food.

Venture Concept: The innovation described above addresses the opportunity of giving people an exciting way to save money on groceries. It is a struggle for large families to be able to afford all the food they want to buy. This is why they will choose to shop at my store, if the food is of good quality. It may be difficult at first to get customers to switch from their normal grocery store. There needs to be a good marketing strategy in place to make sure people know that they can shop here and win free food. However, once people start trying my store, and winning free food, I believe it will be easy to make people switch from their previous grocery store of choice. The key is to have great food quality with competitive prices. If I can do that and market my competitive advantage well, there will be no reason for customers to shop anywhere else.

My main competitors are Publix, Walmart, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes. Each has their own weakness whether it be price, customer service, or food quality. I am sure my store will have its weakness too, however we may not find what it is until business has started. The customer experience is very important while defining my business concept. What makes my grocery store different than others is the experience customers have of shopping and the excitement of finding out if you win free groceries. Organization of employees will be very similar to other grocery stores. There is no need to change the typical model. I would like to add another unique part of my store. For example, Publix has Pub Subs that draw customers in. Maybe my grocery store will have a great hot bar for people to get meals or an impressive bakery. This can be discussed with my team when I hire some employees.

In five years with this venture I want to be ready to open up my first store. I will have to do additional market research and more interviews to see if this idea is worth pursuing. I have done a significant amount of that in this class, but I will have to do a lot more. I will then have to find funding through investors and loans. Then, I will have to find a perfect location with a lot of families nearby and not a lot of competition. Lastly, I will have to put a staff in place and talk with multiple food suppliers. If all this can be done in 5 years, I will be on track to making this idea become an actual business that provides an exciting way for people to grocery shop and save money.

2. The feedback I received on my first Venture Concept was actually all positive. There were no suggestions on how to change it, however I know that nothing can be a perfect product, so I looked through it again to see what changes I should make. Everyone who peer reviewed my paper said that I did a good job answering questions that most people would have. Throughout the semester some students were confused on the logistics of my business idea and they thought this paper did a great job at clearing up any ambiguity.

3. When I reread my venture concept I found some typos, grammar mistakes, and reworded some sentences to make it sound more clear. I also changed the name of my store, but I am not in love with it so I would be happy to hear if anyone has any good suggestions for the store name. Other than that there were no other changes made to the paper. If given more space, I would talk about the potential opportunity to market to senior citizens as well. It would be good to have this population shop in the middle of the day when everyone else is at work. This way it would be a more consistent flow of customers. More details about this were written in my "What's Next" post, however, I still think my primary target market should be families with young kids.

30A- Final Reflection

1. Looking back at my previous posts I see how much I have grown as an entrepreneur. There were a lot of high moments that I will talk about below. The moments I dreaded were taking the Cupcake quizzes. For the most part I did well and the lectures were very interesting to watch. But a few times I would get a .2 or .4 and it was not ideal. Overall, I am extremely glad I took this course and it allowed me to be creative and receive honest feedback, which is not the case for a lot of other classes.

2. The most formative experiences were the elevator pitches. I will remember these for a long time because it allowed me to improve my selling ability. The feedback from my peers were very helpful and honest. The best part was that we did the elevator pitch 3 times and each time I improved. In most school assignments, we do something, get a grade, and then move on. Here, we were able to take the time to really improve and receive feedback. The most joyous experience was creating my idea. I think my idea is very unique and would work. Unfortunately, it is more of a marketing strategy that a grocery store could use instead of its own business. I am most proud of completing mostly all of the assignments. When I first looked at the syllabus I saw 2-3 assignments a week and I was taking 20 credits, so I was worried that it was going to be hard to manage everything. I was able to complete the assignments pretty quickly because I enjoyed doing them and it allowed me to think creatively.

3. I have definitely moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset. You can see improvement throughout my posts and I have become more comfortable talking to strangers and sharing my ideas with them. Even though I will most likely not bring my idea to life, the communication and critical thinking skills that I have gained will be helpful in any business I wish to start.

4. I would recommend to future students to plan ahead in this course. You do not want to see Thursday night that you have to complete three interviews. I would also tell them to use this class to their advantage. If it is a week where you have 3 exams, then you can get away with doing the minimum requirements. However, if you have a lighter week, take the time to really put in 100% effort into the assignments and you will be surprised how much you grow as an entrepreneur. Also, do not be afraid to switch you business idea if you feel like it is not going anywhere.

27A- Reading Reflection No.3

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More

The general theme of this book is that when you are starting a new company it is smarter to focus on a small niche with little competition and then as your company gets more successful you can start providing a wider selection of products or services. Too many times people try to provide too much when they first start out or focus on the most popular products and this causes new companies to lose money. Find your niche and become an expert on that, even if your customer base is not very large. 

This book connected a lot with this class because it talks about smart strategies for starting a new business and finding the right market to target. We took a lot of time learning about segments in this class and this book teaches you how to find the right segment.

If I were to design a class assignment based on this book I would ask the students to figure out what they are the best at. Something they are really good at that most others are not. Then I would tell them to think of a company idea that can exploit that unique talent or interest even if they initially do not think a lot of customers will be interested in this. It is better to be the best at something for a small market than similar to everyone else in a large market. 

My biggest 'aha' moment came when the author was describing how Netflix started out. This illustrated his idea very well, saying that Netflix took movies that did not do too well in the box office and offered them via DVD. There was demand for the high majority of his movies and Netflix became popular. There is a niche for each movie and just because it was not a big hit in theaters, does not mean there is not a market out there that will spend money on it. The big takeaway is that as your company grows, it might be a good idea to focus on less popular markets and be the only one selling than to sell popular items but have a lot of competition. 

28A- Your Exit Strategy

My exit strategy will be determined on how successful my grocery store is. If it is not going as well as planned, selling it after 5 years would be unrealistic. I plan on starting small with one store in the perfect location and growing from there. Hopefully I will love my job and want to remain owner and CEO until I retire. That would be the ideal plan. I think this long-term plan has altered my decisions because I am not trying to make all my money at once. I want to take the time, focus on one store, and learn from that experience so when I add other locations I can learn on how to improve. Ideally my store will one day be as popular as Publix or Trader Joe's but I know that it will take some time to get there, especially on the national level. After a year in business, I believe my long-term plan will be a lot clearer.

26A- Celebrating Failure

One time I failed this semester was when I performed poorly on an interview. I spent a lot of time on my application and it was out of state so I had to spend a lot of money on the flight and hotel. I did not answer the questions very well and I probably did not sound confident enough. It was disappointing to spend that much money and time and have an unsuccessful interview, but it was a great learning experience. I then interviewed at another place after thinking about how I can improve, and it went very well. This experience has taught me that sometimes you are just going to have bad days and you need to take the time to focus on how you can improve after a failure.

I like to think of failure as an opportunity to get better. There have been multiple classes at UF that I have done poorly on the first exam and I need to meet with the professor or other students to see how I can improve for the next exam. I think this class has helped me with failure because of all the interviews. A lot of time strangers do not want to talk and it makes you care less about what people think of you. I would say I am more likely to take risks after taking this class because I have heard so many success stories of people who have taken risks and succeeded.

25A- What's Next

To determine what's next for my company, I have to figure out how I am going to fund opening the grocery store. I am going to have to gain investors and take out loans. In order to convince people to invest, I need to keep perfecting my elevator pitch and listening to feedback on different ideas for my store. I think I have highlighted key differences from other grocery chains that can make my company successful right away.

Once I have enough funding, I need to get some employees that will help me with creating my store and managing the food supply. I have to promote the store well or else nobody will even know that they can win free groceries.

New Market

In previous assignments I have highlighted targeting college students and targeting young parents with families. College students was not a great market because they do not spend much money on large grocery runs. Young parents is the ideal market because they are looking to save as much money as possible and still have to make large grocery orders.

A new market that I can look into are retired senior citizens. They often grocery shop in the middle of the day so it would be great to have customers when stores would normally be slow. Senior citizens also are always looking to save as much money as possible because they do not have income coming in. I think senior citizens would be thrilled to have the chance to win free groceries and give them an exciting place to shop at. I was unable to go interview customers on this because of the coronavirus but I would be real interested in seeing if they like the idea and what suggestions they have.

24A- Venture Concept No. 1

My business idea is to open a grocery store that gives away free groceries to every 1 in 100 customers that enter the store. The idea is that the increased number of customers that come into my store because of this deal will offset the cost of giving away free groceries. In addition, most grocery stores, even successful ones, have an incredible amount of waste product, therefore this deal will help eliminate waste without having to increase costs too much. The name of this store is Win Big Grocery Store, but that is subject to change if I think of something better.

In terms of opportunity, I believe everybody has the need for my product because everyone needs groceries. However, there are certain demographic groups that the store will be more popular for. I think the biggest opportunity is with young parents with multiple children. This group of people usually buys a lot of groceries to feed the whole family and at the same time they are looking for ways to save money as much as possible. If a young parent buys 200 dollars of groceries a week, they will probably want to shop at the store that gives them the chance of all this food for free. If they end up winning the deal, then they will enjoy their experience so much that they will hopefully become a life-long customer. People are always looking to gamble and win big. A large amount of people constantly buy scratch off lottery tickets daily even if there is a very small chance at winning anything. Shopping at my store can be seen as the same thing, however it does not cost extra money to shop here.

Forces in the environment that can change the success of my business is the economy. The higher the economy, the higher the spending capability of customers. This would cause customers to splurge and buy the more expensive groceries and buy a great quantity. However, I think it may hurt business in the fact that people are not looking for deals as much, so they might rather stick to their already trusted grocery store that they are comfortable with, without putting in effort to find a new store that can possibly save them money. I believe customers do have a certain loyalty to the stores they shop at now. Especially Publix has a large following that are in love with shopping there. However, I think if a store opens up that has the same food quality and gives you the chance to win free groceries, people would be willing to change stores. We want to have a similar culture to Publix where the customer service is extraordinary.

For innovation, I think this is a brand-new idea that will be very popular. I also think that if it is successful, other stores will probably not copy the idea. This is because my store will only have a few locations at most. Large grocery chains won’t change their national policies just because of a few competitive stores. The way it would work is a computer generator will track every 1 in 100 customers that checks out. This will be random and not in order, to ensure that people are not waiting at the checkout area counting to 100. In other words, the first and second customers of the day may win free groceries and then the next person who wins could be the 200^th customer. It is not an exact order, but the computer generator will ensure that 1 in 100 people at the end of the day have been given their order for free. Customers will find out that they won at the check out and when they are about to pay, “Free Groceries” will pop up on the screen and they will be given their order for free. There will be a rule in place that you are not allowed to return any items after you find out if you win or not. This way, people who do not win can’t return all their food.

Venture Concept: The innovation described above addresses the opportunity of giving people an exciting way to save money on groceries. It is a struggle for large families to be able to afford all the food they want to buy. This is why they will choose to shop at my store, if the food is of good quality. It may be difficult at first to get customers to switch from their normal grocery store. There needs to be a good marketing strategy in place to make sure people know that they can shop here and win free food. However, once people start trying my store, and winning free food, I believe it will be easy to make people switch from their previous grocery store of choice. The key is to have great food quality with competitive prices. If I can do that, on top of market my competitive advantage well, there will be no reason for customers to shop anywhere else.

My main competitors are Publix, Walmart, Wholefoods, and Trader Joes. Each has their own weakness whether it be price, customer service, or food quality. I am sure my store will have its weakness too, however we may not find what it is until business has started. The customer experience is very important while defining my business concept. What makes my grocery store different than others is the experience customers have of shopping and the excitement of finding out if you win free groceries. Organization of employees will be very similar to other grocery stores. There is no need to change the typical model. I would like to add another unique part of my store. For example, Publix has Pub Subs that draw customers in. Maybe my grocery store will have a great hot bar for people to get meals. This can be discussed with my team when I hire some employees.

In five years with this venture I want to be ready to open up my first store. I will have to do additional market research and more interviews to see if this idea is worth pursuing. I have done a lot of that in this class, but I will probably have to do more. I will then have to find funding through investors and loans. Then, I will have to find a perfect location with a lot of families nearby and not a lot of competition. Lastly, I will have to put a staff in place and talk with multiple food suppliers. If all this can be done in 5 years, I will be on track to making this idea become an actual business that provides an exciting way for people to grocery shop and save money.

23A- Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Creative marketing strategy that gives my new store a competitive advantage.

Valuable: This is my most valuable resource, I will give free groceries to  every 100th customer 

Rare: No other grocery store has this marketing strategy.

Inimitable: It is easy to copy, but most established grocery stores will not change their ways

Non-Substitutable: There are no other resources like this.

2. Multiple connections in the grocery supply business.

V: These people will help with my food supply and any questions I have about the industry.

R: It is rare to have connections with suppliers this early in the process.

I: This is easy to copy as every grocery store has suppliers.

N: My store will need to have multiple suppliers if I want great quality of all types of food.

3. Business education from a great university

V: The skills I learned studying business for four years will be helpful for building a business

R: This is relatively rare, there a lot of good schools out there, but University of Florida is among the best public schools.

I: This is not easy to copy because it is a four year education.

N: There are other resources like this because an education means nothing if you don't apply the skills you learned.

4. A strong elevator pitch that has gone through multiple rounds of feedback.

V: This is valuable because in order to get funding I will have to sell my idea to multiple investors.

R: This is not that rare because every good company has a strong elevator pitch.

I: This is hard to copy because it is very unique to my product.

N: There are no other resources like this.

5. A business plan I have worked on in this class.

V: This is valuable because I have thought about this company in many constructive ways that helped grow and develop ideas.

R: This is rare because a lot of people do not have this class to help grow their company. 

I: This is hard to copy because it is unique and focuses on fixing the weakness of your business idea.

N: There are not many resources like this. 

6. Determination 

V: This is very valuable because every entrepreneur needs determination.

R: This is not too rare because a lot of people have determination.

I: This is not hard to copy.

N: There are not many resources like this.

7. Passion for the food industry.

V: This is incredibly valuable because succeeding is a lot easier if you have passion for what you are doing.

R: This is not rare.

I: It is not easy to copy passion.

N: There are no other resources like it.

8. It will be an exciting place to grocery shop.

V: This is valuable because it will bring in a lot of customers who want the chance at winning free groceries.

R: This is very rare because people usually do not enjoy grocery shopping.

I: This is hard to copy.

N: This is similar to my first resource of my competitive advantage.

9. It is new

V: A new business can be flexible to customers and change things easily as they seem necessary.

R: It is rare because there are not many new grocery store out there and people may like trying something new.

I: This is not something that can be copied.

N: There are not any other resources like this.

10. Connections to people who work at other grocery stores.  

V: This is valuable because you want to know people in multiple areas of the industry.

R: This is not very rare but it is necessary.

I: This is not hard to copy.

N: This is similar to resource number 2.

My most important resource is my unique marketing strategy of giving away free groceries to every 1 in 100 customers that enter the store. Without this, I am not too different than any other grocery store.

22A- Elevator Pitch 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHw7oFkltjg&feature=youtu.be

My elevator pitch changed a lot since my first one. For example, this time I had my entire pitch memorized without having to look at any notes. I had an increased level of enthusiasm and incorporated some hand gestures to keep the audience engaged. The feedback from my second elevator pitch was mostly all positive so I wanted to keep it relatively similar while still fine-tuning some areas. In hindsight, I probably should have stood further away from the camera, but the lighting was not the best.

21A- Reading Reflection No. 2

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.

1. The main theme of this book is that people do not challenge themselves enough. People like to stick to what their good at with the fear of failure or humiliation if they try something new and do not succeed.

2. This book relates to the activities in ENT3003 because in this class we learned that anybody can be successful if they have the right mindset. People who only rely on their natural intelligence rarely succeed. To be a successful entrepreneur you have to have the desire to challenge yourself and not shy away from difficulties or unclear outcomes. This book and this course both resonate that message.

3. If I had to design an exercise for this class based on this book, one week I would offer 2 choices. One choice would be to do 3 normal class assignments for the typical 2 points each, or I would offer a more challenging, more time consuming assignment that would be worth 10 points. This assignment would be graded more strictly than the average exercise, but they would only have to do one assignment. According to the book, the people with a fixed mindset will choose to do the normal assignments. They are in the later stages of the class and feel very comfortable with the amount of effort they put in and their work is not strictly critiqued. In theory, few people would choose to do the assignment that is graded more harshly because people are less comfortable and afraid they may make a mistake and it be counted against them. However, if the students choose this path they will probably have a much better product and learn a lot more.  

4. The thing I learned that differed from my expectations is that your brain biologically changes and re-wires itself when you learn new things. This just shows that it is not about the intelligence and knowledge you are born with. If you work hard at something and put in enough work at improving, and do not let the fear of failure stop you, you are going to be more successful and innovative with your work. 

20A- Growing Your Social Capital

1. Domain Expert

The domain expert I reached out to is someone who has been working at Publix for a long time. I asked him about what different deals Publix offers and if the coupons they give out are used often. I also asked what he thought of my business idea. He said the idea itself is not bad but starting a new grocery store would be close to impossible. I found this person because he is a friend of my roommates, he works at Publix full time. Including this person in my network will be good because I will have someone who is in a grocery store everyday, interacting with the same customers I am trying to talk to. He can give insight on what deals the customers like and what types of promotions are not as popular.

2. Supplier

The supplier I will reach out to is the head of one of the biggest food importers in the country. I was an intern at this company over the summer and got the chance to meet a lot of people in the grocery department. Unfortunately it is a very stressful time in the grocery industry with the coronavirus so I figured now was not the best time to ask about my business idea. Adding this person to my network will be incredibly helpful because the company can potentially help supply the food to my grocery store. I know many food stores are competing to have them as a supplier, so if my store can get their help it would be very helpful for business.

3. Market Expert

I will again contact a person at the company that I interned with, who I had not talked to during my internship. This time I will contact the head of the marketing department that knows how to sell food to people in my target market. They will also help me with pricing and inform me on how other grocery stores they work with price the same items I will be selling. I would also like to hear their feedback on my idea from a marketing perspective.

This networking experience was great when I spoke to the person who works at Publix. However, due to the coronavirus I was hesitant to reach out to an executive during such a stressful time in the food industry. I know if I want my grocery store to be successful, I will have to have strong networking. I will need to deal with multiple suppliers for the many items that I will be selling. Networking will also be great to bring in customers. Word of mouth is a great form of marketing.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Who you are- I am Eric Frank and I am graduating from the University of Florida in May with a degree in business administration. I will be starting dental school in July. I have experience in the food industry as I had a summer internship working pricing and sales for the largest privately owned food importer in the country. I understand what goes into the food industry and the logistics behind making sure you have the best food quality possible. If I were to truly start this business, it would have to be my number one priority and be a big part of my life.

What are you offering to customers- My idea is to open a grocery store where groceries are randomly given out for free to encourage more people to shop at the store. Originally I thought every 50 customers was a good number, but through the peer reviews I am starting to think that maybe every 100 customers is a better idea. I will still make sure that the food is of great quality, and with all else being equal to the top grocery stores in town, I think customers will choose my store for the chance of winning free food.

Who are you offering it to- Since everyone buys groceries this is pretty much useful for anyone. I think this store will be popular in college neighborhoods because students are always looking for the best deals. However, after thinking about it more I feel as though the store will be most popular for the people buying large amounts of groceries such as parents who are shopping for their families. If people are spending 150 dollars at the grocery store, I believe they will choose my store because there is a chance they won't have to pay anything. 

Why do they care- Customers will choose my store because there is a small chance that they do not have to pay anything. If my store is next to a Publix and I make sure that the food quality and customer service is the same, I expect the customers to choose my store just because there is a chance at free groceries.

What are your competencies- It is obvious what will set my store apart from other grocery stores. We just have to develop a system of randomly generating who wins to make sure people are not taking advantage of the system. At the end of the day, one in every 100 people will get free groceries, however, it will be randomly scattered throughout the day so people can't count themselves.

Summary

I think these aspects fit together. The toughest part is to make sure that the quality of food and prices match everyone else. This plan will only be successful if all else is equal or better. I think people will really like shopping at the store and if they win once they will be a guaranteed customer in the future because they know that they can actually win. I would have to do more research, but I am confident that the amount of customers we bring in will off-set the cost of giving away free groceries. We will have to make rules such as not being allowed to return items at the cashier just because you don't win. We will also have to develop a random generator to make sure the winners are random and consistently 1/100 customers. When doing my interviews for the other assignments people had their concerns about this plan. If I want to make it successful I need to sell the idea in a better way for people to understand and to take their feedback seriously.

Feedback Memo: I did not change a whole lot from my first Idea Napkin assignment. The feedback was generally positive and they seemed to like the idea, at least better from when I first introduced it. The main thing I changed was who I am targeting. I explained above how I used to think college students was the perfect group of people to target, but now I think parents shopping for their whole family is a much profitable market to focus on. 

17A- Elevator Pitch #2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSJpGQCZgTM&feature=youtu.be

The feedback I received on my first elevator pitch was that they liked the business idea but did not see it being feasible long term. I also was told that my video was too short last time, therefore I made it longer. For the first pitch I had it be 1 in every 50 customers gets their groceries for free. People worried this is too small of a number so I doubled it to 1 in every 100 customers.

18A- Create a Customer Avatar

This is Zach. He is a 32 year old electrician with three kids. His hobbies include baking, landscaping, hiking, and doing anything active. His wife is a doctor who works long hours so Zach is usually the one who grocery shops and cooks for his kids. He has been shopping at the same Publix for years and they seem to have everything he could think about buying. It is a little pricy, but there really is no other option unless he wants to shop at Wal-Mart. He has a fourth child on the way and he knows he needs to start saving up money in any way that he can. I do not relate too much to this customer because I am a college student and I only need to grocery shop for myself. Previously I thought college students would be the most ideal segment, but now I realize people like Zach are the customers that I should be targeting.

15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

The segment I chose is college students. I think my grocery store would fit well with college kids because students are always looking for the best deals around town. When I asked the three people I interviewed what mattered most to them when choosing a grocery store, two of them said price and one said location. The person who said location does not have a car so this is understandable. With popularity of online grocery ordering on the rise, I asked if they prefer to order groceries online or shop at the store. They all said that they prefer to shop at the store. This is not surprising because online ordering is not common for college aged kids. However, if online ordering continues to rise in popularity, that may become a threat to my grocery store, since my competitive advantage of giving 1 in every 100 customers groceries for free requires you to be an in-store shopper. When asked about the post-purchase evaluation, all three people said they do not really regret anything they buy at the grocery store since groceries are low-risk purchases. Two of them did mention that they regret when they spend too much at the store and their food goes bad because they waited too long to eat it.

After these interviews I would describe this segment as very price-focused. Quality of food does matter, but the most important thing on their minds when they go shopping is "where can I find the least expensive items." This is a good segment for my company because my proposed grocery store will give students the chance to earn free groceries. In addition, after conducting the interviews I know that I have to keep my prices level with my competition. If my items are even slightly more expensive, there is little chance that the grocery store will be a popular place to shop.

14A- Halfway Reaction

1. To keep up with the requirements of this course I have had to make sure that I read the assignments about a week ahead of time. At first I did not do that and I had to rush through my interviews and was not able to take the time to make sure I interview the best people. Now I am able to plan farther ahead of time to see if it is a longer assignment.

2. One moment I felt like giving up was when I had three exams one week and three assignments to complete in this class. I thought about skipping some of the assignments and taking the hit on my grade but I decided to face the challenge of completing everything. I was able to time manage and stay focused in order to ensure that I do well on the exams and complete the assignments to the best of my ability. At the end of the week I was proud of my ability to accomplish all the tasks at a high level.

3. Tips for future students.

Tip #1- You get out of this class what you put in. You can pass this class by just doing the minimum requirements, but if you take the time to try your hardest your entrepreneurial skills will really grow.

Tip #2- Pay close attention to the lectures. A lot of times at UF the material does not seem to be applicable in your life so you focus on just getting good grades. If you pay attention to Dr. Pryor you will leave each class with life skills that will help grow your career.

Tip #3- Be creative. This is a time to think outside of the box and see if you can create something great. And if you have a few bad ideas, there are no consequences.

13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

Shoe Dog Phil Knight

1. I was most surprised with how many challenges he went through. When I think of Nike I think of one of the most well established, popular companies in the world. I never took the time to think of how it was made and the struggles that he went through to create it. He was able to build a business with under 100 dollars.

I most admired his ability to think on his feet and his fearlessness. To start his business he set up a meeting with a Japanese shoe manufacturer and convinced them that he owns an established company and he can distribute their shoes across America effectively. He then ordered a large set of inventory even though he had very little money and no set way of distribution.

I least admired that he did not invest enough in the staff in the beginning of his business. It seemed like he was trying to do everything himself and not looking for a lot of employees to help him out. I understand employees are expensive, but working alone in such a major industry adds a lot of unnecessary busy work when he should be out building his business. Later on he found great employees that loved the business just as much as he did.

They had issues with his factories and he was unable to trust them but he still needed them. When his relationship with his Japanese factory fell through, he had to quickly find new shoe designs and new factories abroad in order to make sure that the business did not take a hit. Financial people would tell him that he struggled with growth and it was not smart to just keep buying more shoes without investing any money.

2. I noticed that Phil Knight was very intuitive. At first he would go to track meets and talk to experienced runners to see what they want in their shoes. This was very smart because he did not want to waste time making a shoe that nobody wanted. He then was smart enough to make his company private. This move made him make a lot more money. He also knew that if he did not make a profit, and reinvested every dollar in the early stages, it would allow exponential growth for Nike.

3. I was confused when the book talked about how running was not very popular back then. There had to be commercials to advertise running in general, and just when Phil Knight was starting there happened to be a rise in popularity. This was surprising because running is not an innovative concept to me, I just assumed people had been running since the beginning of time.

4. If I were to ask Phil Knight two questions I would ask what the biggest mistake he ever made was and how many times did he think about giving up and what made him persevere.

5. From reading the book it seemed like Phil Knight believed in hard work but that you have to love what you do. If you do not have a passion for your business it is going to be miserable every day, even if you are successful.

12A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

The segment I chose was college students. I interviewed two seniors and one junior in college who have grocery shopped in Gainesville for a long time. They identified a need for a new grocery store. They say Publix is great but it is too expensive and if they try to save money at Walmart the quality is not good. The Junior I interviewed said that they would like a grocery store with a bigger parking lot that is close by to campus because, especially at dinner time, the Publix parking lot is very crowded. The seniors seemed apathetic about changing the Gainesville grocery scene since they are graduating in a few months. One senior loved the idea and said that they would shop at that store all the time and that it is a great marketing strategy to give away free groceries to 1 out of 100 customers. The other senior was not convinced that it would work and said that he probably would continue just shopping at the grocery stores he shops at now. However, he did mention that he does need a way to start saving money on food. To fix their need now, when they need to save money they just do not eat as good as they normally do. They eat ramen noodles or pasta instead of having a balanced, healthy meal. They also said that they search for any food deals going on by using certain apps or asking their friends if they have any ideas where they can buy food for cheap. I think these interviews show that college students are constantly looking to save money. This should motivate them to want to shop at my store because there is a chance that all the food they buy will be given to them for free. I also think a college town will be good for this store because college students are usually just buying for themselves and not whole families. Therefore, the amount of free food we give away will most likely be less. Overall, I think this is a good segment to target and I will continue to gain feedback so that I can make this grocery store successful in a college town.

11A- Idea Napkin

Who you are- I am Eric Frank and I am graduating from the University of Florida in May with a degree in business administration. I will be starting dental school in July. I have experience in the food industry as I had a summer internship working pricing and sales for the largest privately owned food importer in the country. I understand what goes into the food industry and the logistics behind making sure you have the best food quality possible. If I were to truly start this business, it would obviously have to be my number one priority and be a big part of my life.

What are you offering to customers- My idea is to open a grocery store where groceries are randomly given out for free to encourage more people to shop at the store. Originally I thought every 50 customers was a good number, but through the peer reviews I am starting to think that maybe every 100 customers is a better idea. I will still make sure that the food is of great quality, and with all else being equal to the top grocery stores in town, I think customers will choose my store for the chance of winning free food.

Who are you offering it to- Since everyone buys groceries this is pretty much useful for anyone. I  think this store will be popular in college neighborhoods because students are always looking for the best deals.

Why do the care- Customers will choose my store because there is a small chance that they do not have to pay anything. If my store is next to a Publix and I make sure that the food quality and customer service is the same, I expect the customers to choose my store just because there is a chance at free groceries.

What are your competencies- It is obvious what will set my store apart from other grocery stores. We just have to develop a system of randomly generating who wins to make sure people are not taking advantage of the system. At the end of the day, one in every 100 people will get free groceries, however, it will be randomly scattered throughout the day so people can't count themselves.

Summary

I think these aspects fit together. The toughest part is to make sure that the quality of food and prices match everyone else. This plan will only be successful if all else is equal or better. I think people will really like shopping at the store and if they win once they will be a guaranteed customer in the future because they know that they can actually win. I would have to do more research, but I am confident that the amount of customers we bring in will off-set the cost of giving away free groceries. We will have to make rules such as not being allowed to return items at the cashier just because you don't win. We will also have to develop a random generator to make sure the winners are random and consistently 1/100 customers. When doing my interviews for the other assignments people had their concerns about this plan. If I want to make it successful I need to sell the idea in a better way for people to understand and to take their feedback seriously.

9A. Testing The Hypothesis Part 2

For this assignment I am going to propose a new idea. My idea in the previous assignment would require an incredible amount of knowledge in technology and sustainability so I decided to move on. My new business plan is to start a grocery store where every 50th customer gets their groceries for free. It may seem crazy at first, but I believe giving away groceries would cause many customers to want to come in and that would actually increase business. On top of that, so much food is spoiled at the end of the day anyway so the losses will hardly be noticeable. I have always wanted to run a grocery store, however the barriers to entry are very big because it would be impossible to compete with the big chain stores. However, this plan would make my store have a competitive advantage and make people want to come and shop with the chance of getting their food for free.

For my interviews I told 5 people my plan and asked them what they thought of it. I got mixed reviews. 4 of the people were college age students and one was a 50 year old. Two people loved the idea and said that they would always shop there, especially if the food is still of good quality. The other three thought it was a great marketing strategy but mentioned it is not really a business. From the interviews I realized the biggest struggle is that there is not a real big need, it is more an added bonus to an everyday task. These people were outside the need because they could afford groceries. However, people who struggle financially will find having a chance to gain free food as a major benefit. One of the people I interviewed works at Publix and he said the amount of people who buy the scratch off lottery tickets is shocking and people are always looking for ways to get big deals at check out. This shows how much the public enjoys games of chance in order to win big money, which shopping at a grocery store that gives 1 out of 50 customers their food for free will provide. I did not get quite the positive feedback that I expected, however these interviews revealed major flaws in my idea that I can work to fix.



                        Inside the Boundary                                                Outside the Boundary

Who is In Pretty much anyone who grocery shops can be helped by this business model.	The people who are not in are people who think they have no chance of winning the free groceries or are already loyal to one store that they go to.
The need is people want excitement in their lives even during the most mundane activities such as groceries. People could use help paying for their groceries. People these days also love gambling and betting, especially with the increase of online gambling and legalized sports betting. This can just be another way people have a chance of winning big.	The need is not that this is a necessary thing to have in life, but it can make a boring task exciting.
The need exists because groceries are expensive and there are so many places to choose from. People tend to lower their quality standards so that they can get cheaper food. In this store you will be able to save money and we will strive to keep the food quality the best that it could be.	Alternative Explanations This business plan can backfire, mainly because it is an incredibly competitive industry that takes a lot of time to get into. As stated above, it is not really a dire need, it would more just be an added thing that people may enjoy.