30- Final Reflection

Intro

Looking through all my posts was an interesting experience. Much of the business creation process seems obvious now that I've learned about it all through experience.

• Talking to and asking people about their problems and using the perceived problems as a baseline for a product, finding the specific group of people I should market the product to, asking people what they look up when trying to solve X problem, giving an elevator pitch (for real, and three times, not just thinking "I could talk about this to people"), finding out the unique selling points of the product, and laying the business all out in idea napkins and venture plans… 

Some of the best parts of this class were the other students in my group- reading their blog posts, seeing their entrepreneurial journey, and following them as they developed their projects along the way. I especially enjoyed reading their comments on my posts because I knew If I worked extra hard on an assignment, it would be seen and acknowledged by the readers which would encourage me to strive to make higher quality content. 

Formative Experience

The accomplishment I am most personally proud of was the fact that I was able to set a time in my schedule to talk to business owners about the product subject I basing this class's assignments on, and actually did it. Wow, right? Well, I am generally not fond of reaching out to random people because I don't want to bother or waste their time but I was happy to find that most of the people I called to talk about their businesses were very friendly (though of course I also ran into the terse and not so friendly) and many of them made me laugh or smile in the course of the conversation even though I just reached out for the purpose of the class.

Mindset

I would have never considered starting my own business outside of having some brilliant sudden idea that is able to steal the market, but I realize that this isn't what entrepreneurship is all about. I just have to keep a keen eye out for problems(or bugs) in the world to stay aware of business opportunities. Creating a business as a solution to a specific problem is a much more approachable idea than waiting for a sudden flash of genius which may never happen. Just knowing how a business goes from startup to large corporation can help me facilitate growth in any company I work for in the future.

Advice for Future Students
Students who do this course: Work hard to make products you can be proud of, things you will look back on and not think are stupid. When you look back on all the assignments you did, it's great to see a sort of portfolio of curated ideas, not barely legible and half-baked sentences strewn together. This class is a journey, and just like you would want to take good pictures during any adventure, you want to have pictures (encapsulations of your experience at least) in the entrepreneurial journey. Be as transparent as possible and speak the truth so you can be corrected by your peers and can look back on your complete though process when you look back- see what changed in yourself as you learned and grew.

I would also say the books were some of the most interesting parts of the class, so try to read ahead or (because I know you won't like I didn't) make sure you select the books you are most interested in reading, not just the ones with the least pages.

Footnote

Really, thanks for the feedback. Good luck with your college years and potential future entrepreneurial businesses!

...also, this is a good book

29- Venture Concept 2

Opportunity

1. Who has the need: Home watch business owners who are either just starting and do not own software or are dissatisfied with the reporting software or methods they currently use (due to the price of the software or the time it takes report all the information to clients). Customers are people who want to send detailed and professional reports and pictures of the home to their clients. The customers are not people who do home watch as a side job or for friends and family. A user of the software will likely feel uncomfortable writing a casual personal email or sending a text to the person whose house is being watched to say nothing extreme has happened.

2. Nature of the need: Home watchers will want this product because they have a desire for efficient data entry for the reporting process of home watch and want to avoid having to re-type checklists and notes into emails and invoices or numbers in financial reports for tax time. Home watchers also use reporting software to appear detail-oriented and professional in emails and invoices so as to maintain the trust in the home watcher-client relationship.

3. Environmental forces: Snowbirds (people who move to sun-belt states from their home states during winter and move away during summer) who own two or more houses and want to ensure that their winter homes in Florida are in order when they are in their home states (or not around), creating the opportunity for home watch businesses to grow. In order for a home watcher to effectively manage a large number of clients (say due to the high volume of  snowbirds who leave their houses in Florida during the summer) or to take on more clients, they will want to be as efficient as possible when driving to client houses, scheduling contractor/client visits, reporting (generally), and sending invoices and emails to customers

4. Geographic/demographic market: One of the highest volume areas for snowbirds to migrate to and from is Naples, Florida. Naples is a city with many wealthy retirees and travelling business people who have enough spare money to have and travel between two plus homes.

5. Current satisfaction: Many home watchers use the QRID Home watch reporting software and are satisfied with the product. A problem I have heard home watchers mention is that the software is exponentially expensive as the home watcher increases his/her client base and the home watchers do not want to spend so much of their relative income. I believe that this is a valid concern and common theme and if the home watchers using QRID are given a viable alternative for a lower price, they will use it. Also, home watchers who are increasing in client volume are likely to become dissatisfied with non-software reporting and will purchase software to become more efficient or to appear more professional/detail oriented.

6. Market Size: The market is relatively small because there are only so many home watch businesses in the United States, but in Naples alone there are around 30-40 home watch businesses and the industry is growing in states with snowbirds. The market is also likely to expand as baby boomers retire. There are likely more than 200 home watch businesses around Florida and I expect to be able to sell software to about 10% of them. This would add up to about $1100 per month.

7. Window of opportunity: The window will be open until a coder is able to incorporate all of the best aspects of each of the different home watch reporting softwares into one, or if QRID, in the face of competition, lowers the price of their software substantially.

Innovation

Users will pay $55 for one month of access to an excel spreadsheet-based software that home watch business people will download on their computer. Although similar home watch software exists, home watchers will be able to will expatiate their home watch reporting process with this software for a lower cost than the competition and for a GUI which they may prefer to the competition. To save time reporting on their homes and to ensure they have checked everything important in the house, home watchers make checklists. With this software, home watchers will be able to choose from our list of pre-formatted checklists, which saves them time from making checklists themselves and can give them ideas for what to check in each house. They will also write notes in the notes section and upload pictures to the software, and the program will create cleanly formatted emails and invoices based on the checklists, notes, and pictures that the home watcher uploads. The software will save all checklists, notes, and pictures in a low-data-usage archive on the local computer. 

Venture concept

1. Why switch: Since all current home watch software charges a monthly fee, the price of an expensive software only adds up. If people are able to get a easy to use, clean (GUI) home watch reporting software for a lower monthly fee than the competition, they would be wise to switch.

2. Competitors: Competitors to BhekaTec are QRID and HWSoft. HWSoft appears aesthetically outdated and has additional charges for different components of the home watch software (such as scheduling/calendar, accounting). QRID's GUI is a more aesthetically appealing, the program is simple to use, and it has the added benefit of allowing home watchers to report their GPS location to clients to prove that they did go to the house as they said they would. The software otherwise includes most of the same features as HWSoft. The issue with the QRID is that the pricing model charges home watchers exponentially based on the number of clients they have, making the software impossibly expensive for home watchers with higher client bases.

3. Customer experience: Our product to home watch business people is the sale of software, but the support from BhekaTec doesn't end there. We will personally help home watchers set up the program and give them any support along the way- they will have access to a support line and email for the software to address any issues or concerns they may have.

4. Organizing business: This software business will likely not need employees because once home watch businesses own and use the software on an everyday basis, they will not need much support. Even if the software has 200 subscribers (people paying the monthly fee for the product) the work to be done on the software will be minimal and it will easy to handle for one person. The startup cost of making the software is high (in terms of the time it takes to code), but the operations/day-to-day business is low-cost and will only require cost to keep the website up and maintained and to pay the state LLC renewal fees.

Minor Elements

1. Most important element: The most important resource we have in BhekaTec is the experience with coding. Without this experience, it may take a person 1-2 years to come up with the same program as what has been developed over the past 3 months. Many inexperienced coders would likely give up in the face of such a challenge or would have to allocate a substantial amount of their time learning coding in order to replicate the product.

2. What's next: The software is still in development. As soon as the software is done, we will be sending it to a number of home watchers who are willing to beta test the product in exchange for a discounted or free version of the software. As these beta testers comment on the product’s features, mention bugs, or suggest improvements, there will be rapid integration of their feedback into the software to establish a more complete and higher quality product. The improved software will be sold to home watchers on the BhekaTec website which will have a cashflow through PayPal . The plan to acquire business once beta testing is over is to is to advertise the product on google (or at least to make sure it's on the first page), to cold call home watch business people, send them pamphlets in the mail, and to interact with them through email and social media. Additionally, to avoid being liable for potential lawsuits, the software will be published under an Limited Liability Company (LLC).

3. Where do I go: This first venture is my way of planning out the business aspects of the product my father is developing and learning about the entrepreneurial process. Until I come up with a good idea of my own I will likely not be an entrepreneur  (I do not feel like an entrepreneur currently because I am not developing the software myself and have no control over the technical aspects of the product- the most I can do is market the material once it is complete). Overall, while I hope to start my own business one day, for the time being I am comfortable getting a corporate job as long as I have work-life balance and have enough time to pursue my own interests.

Summary of Feedback

I did not complete the "What's Next" exercise and did not receive constructive feedback on the venture concept itself (other than encouragement to seize the market for all it's worth), but I fixed some grammatical errors in the venture concept above and added some content to the "Where do I go" and "What's Next" sections.

27- Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles

Below are the answers to the questions, but I didn't the class's questions interesting enough to write much on them, so below are my notes on the book - this will give you a better understanding of the material I hope- the formatting is disgusting, I apologize in advance

General Theme
The focus of the book is on the creation of a society focused on observing governments, markets, businesses, customers, and environments and coming up with innovative solutions to problems. It gives many strategies for existing and new businesses to adopt as well as for public service institutions (government) to embody the spirit of entrepreneurship for constant progression.

Connection to ENT3003
The book gives many examples which were used in ENT3003 lectures and is structured pedagogically similar to the class.

Exercise
The best exercise for this book would likely be the bug list. A large focus of the book is established on the idea of looking for existing problems and using information from outside sources to solve the problem. There is likely technology that has been discovered today which hasn't been implemented into a business or hasn't found its market yet, and if the entrepreneur finds a match between the market and possible solutions, they can capture a market

Interesting Parts
I found the government aspects of the entrepreneurial society to be the most interesting. So often, politicians make significant promises as if they will be able to pull off a revolution in government on their own, but they don’t do what they speak. The book recommends that public institutions set realistic, (not grandiose), specific goals and have a mission like any business- focus on a gradual yet meaningful progression. If the goal cannot be realized than it is either a false goal or ill-defined. Government should see change (economic, social, demographic) as an opportunity and be willing to adapt fairly quickly to so as not to hold society back.


Notes- Skim it, it's dense

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and PrinciplesPreface
Discusses structure of book and sources, ethos of writer
Intro- economy
Around the world, lost jobs 50s-80s as econ. Slowed from WWII econ, America not- less corporate fortune 500, but more ent. Job
Idea of high-tech and innovation together, but most new jobs not
Growing business barbershop chain, dentist, restaurant, private schools
Private run of public services based on bids "fourth sector"
Kondratieff cycle- economic (ref. Joeseph Schumpeter, Jay Forester)
America bypassed cycle, not period of stagnation like Europe
Universal bank- finding and funding ent. In exchange for disciplined management aid 1890-1914 German, (Amer econ. Present)
Ent. in Amer. Not explained by purely economic study- culture and psych.
Study of management not only for big bus., systematic innovation
Deinstitutionalization- focus on small and powerful management
Value for customers: Quality and predictability of McDonald's
Learn principles to develop/practice discipline
Practice of Innovation- Search for opportunity, Do's and don'ts making idea to business
Systematic Entrepreneurship
Technology already out there, needs to be applied
Wilhelm von Humboldt see university in Germany to adjust public perspective, applied in United States, brought to middle class
Ent.not aimed at ownership- better allocation of resources, own shares and sell after growth
Economic theory doesn't explain bc. Ent is also social, culture, knowledge
Ent. Doesn't have to be risky, needs to be purposeful
Purposeful Innovation and the Seven Sources for Innovative Opportunity
ex. Innovation of cargo lifted from boat to back of truck, textbook
Japanese focus on social innovation as it accepted West good/service Meiji Restoration- unlike China (goods forced on it)
Systematic innovation- organized search for change and analysis of opportunity changes may offer

7 sources

Inside org.

1. Unexpected event- success/failure

  Succ

1. Macy's doing unusually well in sales w/o doing anything new management, Bloomingdale joins market
2. No attention paid- limit of knowledge, vision- should
3. Questions- (exploiting opportunity) What would it mean to us, where could it lead us, what would we have to do, how do we go about it
4. Demands serious support and management focus

 Fail

1. Misunderstand need/demand- ask why they buy, listen, watch without assuming knowledge
2. Understand lifestyle segmentation

  Unexpected

1. ex. Personal computer- gaming industry- take advantage

2. Incongruity between is and ought (cog. Dissonance).
2. Economic- call to action- innovative solution must be definable

Unexpected rise in healthcare cost- USA unbundle healthcare, price explosion- Britian private healthcare (front of line), grows

2. Irrational customer- indicator customer has different value for service
3. Disruption in otherwise routine work- innovation- ex. Eye surgeons cutting muscle

3. Process need
1. Demographic need- no more workforce- robotics
2. Program research- ex. Japan gov. car crash problem, Iwasa reflectors made- clear objective
3. Must understand issue
4. Change in industry/market structure
1. Expanding product globally- suit to tastes- ex. Car market, lifestyle
2. Seen in rapid growth, after market has doubled check for segmentation
3. Structural change if change in way doing business
4. Need to keep strategy simple or expose itself to too many variables

Outside industry

5. Demographic
1. Movement of people, Predictable in long run ex. X kids born, predict need Y uni professors
2. Baby bust- Teenager clothing, inc. age as population inc age, where do they want to shop
6. Change in Mood, perception, meaning
1. Ex. AA progress, but still see disenfranchised, 1920-30 women progress but not enough in eyes of feminists
2. Need to get timing of lifestyle, demographic, social movement
7. New knowledge
1. converging knowledge, need for tech pushes use into market (War)
2. About 30 years until scientific theory used
3. Needs analysis of necessary factors -develop knowledge (research)- social, economic. If not, other business uses it
4. Focus on strat. Position- complete system, market focus (create the market), concentrate on key function, entrepreneurial management
1. Edison made sure before distrib. bulb, power to houses, distribution, not just creation
5. Explosion of new market, weeds down to few- globalization increased joiners- have exit strategy when joining boom
6. Need to make sure ppl receptive- gamble
8. Bright idea- unpredictable success

Principles of Innovation

If New idea not replicable or teachable- not innovation

Do's

Analyze opportunities systematically

Confirm assumptions by talking and listening

Make sure people can see innovation filling their need

Focus on specific, start small

Strive for leadership in environment

Don'ts

Too many things at once

Don’t only innovate for future- make it applicable today

Conditions

Focus on strengths- innovation and self values/reasons align

Social and economic activity- not risk taking, filling need

The Practice of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurial Management- existing business

Focus in medium sized business

Big bus. Not against innov.- need leadership focus on it

Policies for ent. Man(agement)

1. See change as opportunity- ent. Climate- benefit managers for promoting, need time frame laid out
1. Allow man. To abandon wasteful pursuits, otherwise Allocate best performers to innov., financial resources
2. Make man. aware of short life cycle of products
3. X-ray business- if continue to make present products, how long can we go- find minimum innovation- aim for 3x minimum innov- many don’t work
4. Practices

Focus on opportunities and problems

Man. Meetings to discuss successes and failures- cross-adopt best practices among management

Higher management listens to lower for vision, opportunities, threats- three times/yr- suggestion person should write proposal for making opportunity real

2. Appraisal of performance- built-in learning

Expectation vs result- find success/limitations

Review of all innovative efforts- see needs, success, or abandon

Compare innov. Review to objectives

Structures- policy- needed or ent. Env. dies

1. Separate old from new
2. Assign role/title in accordance with task- accountable- need checkups from existing business- set up separate business w/ project manager- can all report to one senior management- innov. Have similar problems (like infants)
3. Keep them at good pay
4. Evaluate new business differently- growth goals, profit goals, time limits
5. Assign responsibility

Staff

Do- focus behavior, policy, practice

Don’t-

put man. And ent. Together

Take main business to focus on innov.

Acquire business and expect man. To buy in

3. Incentive/rewards

Public-service institution

Funds based on budget others have earned- success defined as getting larger budget, not result- existence based on satisfying all

Seen as moral imperative- help all even if unrealistic

Ent. Policy

Need mission/objectives- institutions as means to end- failure to achieve means obj. wrong or defined wrong.

Realistic goal statement

Welcome change as opportunity

Need to innov

Look to social, econ, tech. shifts as opportunity or become obstacle

Public school need to innov. But policy won't change, private school growth

new venture

Exit strategy when skill and learning desire stops- experts needed

Market focus

Know innov. May find use of product/service business never thought of-understand and exploit

Financial Foresight

Need to predict costs for year- worst-case assumption

Want product to break even soon :2-3yr max

Want routine operation- not require much supervision

Reach market fairly quick

Growth of 40-50% to maintain financial control- more= outgrow- if so, control critical fin. areas in enterprise- ex. Receivables, manufacturing cost

Management team

Build team before bus. needs one or capped potential- need time to earn man. trust- usually 3yrs

What areas do survival of business depend on- what areas can be taken on as aligned with personal strength, "what can enterprise expect of you"

Don't just take roles for what is expected of X position, focus on personal strength

Needs of business: strategy, R&D, Development of people- who best suited

Some want to build co, not run them

Entrepreneurial Strategies- innovation to market

"Fustest with the Mostest"

Focus on grandiosity with aim at immediately dominating- take advantage of large opportunity- needs to succeed immediately or it fails completely

May be useful to be outside of industry

Immediately come with innovation on product, cut prices systematically to bar competitors

Hitting Them Where They Ain’t

"creative imitation" Take another ent. Attempt that is close but just off- not satisfying market- dominate-Catering to new markets- some innovation, analyze issue with existing

Needs alertness for flexibility

5 bad habits allowing imitation domination

1. Not invented here- new not good if
2. Focusing only on "big" users/ highest spenders
3. Thinking quality= time/money- only needs to satisfy need
4. Premium pricing
5. maximize not optimize- incorporate all features for different markets into 1 product- need segmentation to avoid complexity

ecological niche

toll-gate strategy;

Focus on areas where new product/innovation does not change demand- cannot raise prices with monopoly or obsolete

specialty skill strategy

Develop skill for product/service people in industry need, become "standard"- innov.

Vulnerable to change in market it's attached to

specialty market strategy.

Specialized knowledge of market

Vuln. When small becomes mass market

Changing the economic characteristics

Creating utility

Enable customer to serve their purpose- satisfy wants their own way

Pricing

Align pricing with what customer thinks it should be worth ex. Buy copy machine for documents- charge per document

Customer's reality

Price in accordance with how customer works-

Ex. Turbine service included in new blade cost, farmer w/seasons pay installments for machine

true value

Cost structure aligned with with value to customer

Ex. Contractors pay for lubricant insurance- working equipment

Customer pays what makes sense to them- doesn't have to be lump sum

Conclusion- Society

Do not need revolution, need adaptation and specific, controlled solutions to problems- decentralization

Gov. shouldn't focus just on high tech- not most important- need ent. Society and few high tech will come from it

Not only stick with "safe" large firms

Innovations needed

Help redundant workers- blue collar- gain education, skill, social competence, otherwise inhibit society- innovation opportunities as jobs

Abandon unnecessary social policy and public-service institutions and develop new solutions for ineffective ones

New tasks

Tax system- have to pay tax for liquidating business parts, promotes allocation to inefficient areas to avoid tax

Give small businesses tax exemption or put off tax until established- prevent from allocating all profit/surplus into tax or inhibit growth

High regulation for tax and law costs small businesses money- charge gov. for costs of red tape above 5% co. rev.

Individuals

Continuous learning- learned at childhood is not all- only launching pad

Constantly adopt New practices- update methods with present

28- Exit Strategy

The exit strategy for the BhekaTec home watch software business is to stop updating the software and stop contacting home watch businesses. BhekaTec will likely stay lean, and I do not foresee any need for employees in the future to maintain the business. Once the software is out there, it can be infinitely sold and used without any loss to the distributor, similar to an online book or an operating system for a computer.

Software distribution does not require constant attention. Once the software is made and the payment method is set up, the creator may profit without acting. The exit strategy is to allow people to find the product on their own when they look for home watch software on their search engine.

The exit strategy has influenced the creation of the product in the first place. My father wanted a way to earn a passive income and he decided to do so by creating the software which home watchers would find and use when they search for home watch software on their the internet. Although the plan to initially get the name of the software out there is to advertise the product on google (or to make sure it's on the first page), to make personal and social media connections with home watchers, and to make sales calls to the businesses, once the monthly revenue from the product high enough, the work of sales can end. There may be another entrepreneur who creates a similar software in the future which makes BhekaTec obsolete, and the business may die, but for the moment, the promise of a few years of passive income is all that matters.

26- Failure in China

This summer I was in China doing an internship for an education technology startup company called TCK EdTech. Since I was one of the first interns at the startup, did not show signs of stress when the boss assigned us to our first project, and did what I could on the work assigned, I assumed the unofficial position of manager in the eyes of the boss and the other interns. I was never given the title of manager and my role was never made directly made explicit by my boss which would have legitimized my authority, but I stepped into the role without question. The problem was that because of the lack of formal recognition, I was never completely confident when ordering someone to do something (who am I to tell you what to do).

I assigned tasks and roles to the other interns throughout the weeks at TCK EdTech and I was busy all day, but frequently felt frustrated that nothing had been accomplished at the end of the day. I would be stressed because I generally knew all the work that had to be done but did not take the time to lay out all the objectives and plan beforehand, and was thus inefficient in my work and in my duty of assigning tasks to the other interns. Because of my poor communication, at times I felt the need to do the work that I knew had to be done directly instead of assigning the tasks to the other interns. At the same time, I was frustrated with the other interns because I wanted them responsibility for their work and not allow all the pressure of the boss to fall on me as the accepted but not titled manager. 

Because of my stress at work, when I got home at the end of each day I tended to fall into escapism. I didn't want to think about work in the little free time I had and I would not focus on improvements that could be made at work while at home because I knew that the next day I would have to go in and contend with the same issues that I had the day before. It was a vicious cycle of not reflecting on the failures of the day before and then being highly stressed at work because I didn't plan or reflect on how to accomplish the tasks for the day and therefore felt not enough had been done.

What I learned from the experience was the importance of communication as manager, to act like a leader regardless of the title given, and the necessity of reflecting when contending with failure. If I had just taken around thirty minutes at the beginning of the day to reflect on what to improve from the previous day and to plan and set objectives for the present day, I may have been much more successful as a manager. I also found that no matter the position I am officially given, I have a responsibility to myself and others around me to act as a leader (especially when we are all facing the unknown together). I should not shy away from assigning tasks if I am the one who knows what needs to be done and the other people around me are not acting. Furthermore, instead of  giving into frustration and trying to do all the work myself, as the leader, I need to accept the idea that for optimally efficiency I will be spending less time personally doing work, instead spending more time communicating the objectives and tasks to the other workers so as to not waste their time and presence.

Failure is only valuable if you reflect on it and the more immediate the reflection (because we forget minute details over time), the more valuable the experience. I've noticed that failure can get me stuck in a cycle where I don't reflect because I'm stressed and I get stressed because I don’t reflect on the failure. The lectures haven't changed my perspective on failure, but having time to reflect on my past failures due to this assignment has helped me identify a pattern of my behavior to watch out for. Taking a close look at my failure and learning from it makes the unknown clear, and I am more willing to take on a managerial role now that I am more aware of what I did wrong in the past.

24- BhekaTec Venture Concept

Opportunity

1. Who has the need: Home watch business owners who are either just starting and do not own software or are dissatisfied with the reporting software or methods they currently use (due to the price of the software or the time it takes report all the information to clients). Customers are people who want to send detailed and professional reports and pictures of the home to their clients. The customers are not people who do home watch as a side job or for friends and family who are comfortable writing a casual personal email or sending a text to the person whose house is being watched to say nothing extreme has happened.

2. Nature of the need: The desire for efficient data entry for the reporting process of home watch and to avoid having to re-type numbers in financial reports for tax time or checklists and notes into emails and invoices. Home watchers also use reporting software to appear detail-oriented and professional in emails and invoices so as to maintain the trust in the home watcher-client relationship.

3. Environmental forces: Snowbirds (people who move to sun-belt states from their home states during winter and move away during summer) who own two or more houses and want to ensure that their winter homes in Florida are in order when they are in their home states (or not around), creating the opportunity for home watch businesses to grow. In order for a home watcher to effectively manage a large number of clients (say due to the high volume of  snowbirds who leave their houses in Florida during the summer) or to take on more clients, they will want to be as efficient as possible when driving to client houses, scheduling contractor/client visits, reporting (generally), and sending invoices and emails to customers

4. Geographic/demographic market: One of the highest volume areas for snowbirds to migrate to and from is Naples, Florida. Naples is a city with many wealthy retirees and travelling business people who have enough spare money to have and travel between two plus homes.

5. Current satisfaction: Many home watchers use the QRID Home watch reporting software and are satisfied with the product. A problem I have heard home watchers mention is that the software is exponentially expensive as the home watcher increases his/her client base and the home watchers do not want to spend so much of their relative income. I believe that this is a valid concern and common theme and if the home watchers using QRID are given a viable alternative for a lower price, they will use it. Also, home watchers who are increasing in client volume are likely to become dissatisfied with non-software reporting and will purchase software to become more efficient or to appear more professional/detail oriented.

6. Market Size: The market is relatively small because there are only so many home watch businesses in the United States, but in Naples alone there are around 30-40 home watch businesses and the industry is growing in states with snowbirds. The market is also likely to expand as baby boomers retire. There are likely more than 200 home watch businesses around Florida and I expect to be able to sell software to about 10% of them. This would add up to about $1100 per month.

7. Window of opportunity: The window will be open until a coder is able to incorporate all of the best aspects of each of the different home watch reporting softwares into one, or if QRID, in the face of competition, lowers the price of their software substantially.

Innovation
Users will pay $55 for one month of access to an excel spreadsheet-based software that home watch business people will download on their computer. Although similar home watch software exists, home watchers will be able to will expatiate their home watch reporting process with this software for a lower cost than the competition and for a GUI which they may prefer to the competition. To save time reporting on their homes and to ensure they have checked everything important in the house, home watchers make checklists. With this software, home watchers will be able to choose from our list of pre-formatted checklists, which saves them time from making checklists themselves and can give them ideas for what to check in each house. They will also write notes in the notes section and upload pictures to the software, and the program will create cleanly formatted emails and invoices based on the checklists, notes, and pictures that the home watcher uploads. The software will save all checklists, notes, and pictures in a low-data-usage archive on the local computer. 

Venture concept
1. Why switch: Since all current home watch software charges a monthly fee, the price of an expensive software only adds up. If people are able to get a easy to use, clean (GUI) home watch reporting software for a lower monthly fee than the competition, they would be wise to switch.

2. Competitors: Competitors to BhekaTec are QRID and HWSoft. HWSoft appears aesthetically outdated and has additional charges for different components of the home watch software (such as scheduling/calendar, accounting). QRID's GUI is a more aesthetically appealing, the program is simple to use, and it has the added benefit of allowing home watchers to report their GPS location to clients to prove that they did go to the house as they said they would. The software otherwise includes most of the same features as HWSoft. The issue with the QRID is that the pricing model charges home watchers exponentially based on the number of clients they have, making the software impossibly expensive for home watchers with higher client bases.

3. Customer experience: Our product to home watch business people is the sale of software, but the support from BhekaTec doesn't end there. We will personally help home watchers set up the program and give them any support along the way- they will have access to a support line and email for the software to address any issues or concerns they may have.

4. Organizing business: This software business will likely not need employees because once home watch businesses own and use the software on an everyday basis, they will not need much support. Even if the software has 200 subscribers (people paying the monthly fee for the product) the work to be done on the software will be minimal and it will easy to handle for one person. The startup cost of making the software is high (in terms of the time it takes to code), but the operations/day-to-day business is low-cost and will only require cost to keep the website up and maintained and to pay the state LLC renewal fees.

Minor Elements
1. Most important element: The most important resource we have in BhekaTec is the experience with coding. Without this experience, it may take a person 1-2 years to come up with the same program as what has been developed over the past 3 months. Many inexperienced coders would likely give up in the face of such a challenge or would have to allocate a substantial amount of their time learning coding in order to replicate the product.

2. Whats next: The software is still in development. As soon as the software is done, we will be sending it to a number of home watchers who are willing to beta test the product in exchange for a discounted or free version of the software. As these beta testers comment on the product’s features, mention bugs, or suggest improvements, there will be rapid integration of their feedback into the software to establish a more complete product which will then be distributed to home watchers. The plan to acquire business once beta testing is over is to cold call home watch business people, send them pamphlets in the mail, and to and interact with them through email and social media

3. Where do I go: This first venture is my way of planning out the business aspects of the product my  father is developing. Until I come up with a good idea of my own I will likely not be an entrepreneur. I am comfortable getting a corporate job as long as I have work-life balance and have enough time to pursue my own interests.

23- BhekaTec: Unfair Advantage

List of Resources

1. List of home watch businesses and phone numbers to make sales calls, records of home watch business owners' perspectives on good home watch software
2. Established elevator pitch script and video
3. Enough money to make a website and buy the license to register as a limited liability company 
4. Personal connection to father who is developing the software 
5. Connection to family friend home watcher who is willing to test and use the software 
6. Knowledge of the pricing system favorable to home watchers, and awareness of the cons of similar, existing programs 
7. Surrounded by many peers (in university) who may be able to give feedback on the program, website, and guides developed
8. Brother who is an experienced coder, used to run an IT business, and currently works as corporate IT personnel.
9. Connection to accountant who can give feedback on how to integrate QuickBooks into developed home watch software- a feature desired by most people who purchase home-watch software
10. Family members to encourage sale/distribution of software- recommendations to friends and acquaintances 

VRIN

• Valuable- Coding skills and experience required to create the software as well as an awareness of the day to day functions and records maintained in a home watch business
• Rare- Similar software available on the market, no USP - other than low cost-focus
• Inimitable- Similar products available, lines of code that may be copied, written, or researched. Requires time and knowledge of coding to imitate. More experienced software developers will have an easier time replicating the product
• Non-substitutable- Consumers could choose from a range of similar home-watch reporting software or could make checklists of their own if they don’t mind spending time writing emails, inputting customer visit times and dates into a calendar, making invoices, and maintaining an archive reports of contractors and financial records entering accounting data separately.

Top Resource
The most important resource we have in BhekaTec is the experience with coding. Without this experience, it may take a person 1-2 years to come up with the same program as what has been developed over the past 3 months. Many inexperienced coders would likely give up in the face of such a challenge or would have to allocate a substantial amount of their time learning coding in order to replicate the product.

22- Final Elevator Pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yY3O0H6dKs&feature=youtu.be

I recommend watching this at 1.5x speed

Hook
Home watchers without reporting software can spend an average of 2-3 hours per day retyping notes from their handwritten reports - time they could have spent going to houses and earning money.

Problem
Home watchers want to look as thorough, and professional, about their services as possible when billing time comes around, but frequently face inefficient double-entry on the back end making their paper checklists and notes digital and then compiling it all into emails and invoices to send to customers after each home visit. Pair that with scheduling, districting, and keeping track of contractors and financial records for tax time- it can be a real challenge.

But what if all these front and back end home watch needs could be managed with one program?

Solution
This is where BhekaTec comes in. Make or choose from our ever-expanding database of preformatted checklists, upload pictures of the house you’re at, digitally type out your notes and then BhekaTec creates the professionally formatted invoices and emails at the push of a button. Choose from the list of local contractors if you're faced with a problem, District your home watch locations, view the calendar to see your Customer and contractor visits laid out by date, and keep all your files stored in a low-data-usage archive. All this at a monthly fee of $55

With our frequent updates, BhekaTec will help you show your customers that you're the most professional, detailed-oriented, home watcher around.

Next Step/implementation
If you're interested, check out our website. We'll get you started with in-depth setup guide and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to call or email

Reflection

I knew that I should have memorized the script but I didn't find myself to be passionate enough about the product offered to spend the time to do so. I tried to memorize the script but after a few attempts I grew frustrated and ended up reading it word for word. My facial expressions are less dynamic than my second elevator pitch but I added more hand motions- I should have both.

Changes

I changed and shortened the script by a few seconds but it was challenging to make it all fit into a 1 minute time interval. I  was no longer wearing the suit jacket because I could not fit my arm through the sleeve with my cast on. I feel my vocal range and auditory emotion was improved from the last elevator pitch because I was more familiar with the content and the emotion I wanted to evoke in my audience. The lighting was worse in this presentation than the last. I feel I was more concise in this presentation than in my past two.

21- Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

Summary
The way we think can be explained with two systems: System 1 and System 2. Perceived reality is largely based on unconscious assumptions which aren't always right, but are still used and passed down socially because they require minimal effort and illicit a feeling of control. For critical decisions we are focusing on, we employ system 2, our logical side, but this requires effort and we avoid- generally favoring efficiency. In everyday life we make poor decisions based on our perceived expertise, ego, and optimism- our biases- by relying on system 1.

Confidence means someone has constructed a coherent story in mind, not necessarily that they know the truth. For example, many experts are confident in their ability to predict long term outcomes but they are often statistically as wrong as a random guess(ex. Wall Street believes in expert stock traders despite unpredictability of stock prices). Instead of relying on experts who could not possibly know the long-term, we should use conventional wisdom and make it into an algorithm to predict long-terms- people miss many telling cues when relying on intuition. People should learn where the limits of their intuitive reliability and if they have not been in a sufficiently regular environment with which they could reasonably predict an event, they should look to statistics. We crave confidence regardless of its incorrectness.

How the book relates
The book connected with the class mostly because it explains why we should not trust ourselves in most entrepreneurial cases and should have evidence and reason for our business decisions

Activity
I would take an exercise from the book called Postmortem:

When it seems like a business decision has been made, imagine yourself 3-5 in the future and take 5-10 minutes writing a history of the disaster resulting from that decision. This is meant to help break groupthink, reduce optimistic biases, and establish a realistic account of the ways a business decision could go wrong (ex. Spending beyond budget, spending more time than originally predicted)

Aha Moments
What shocked me most about the book was when it presented the statistics of the effectiveness of interviews. Since the process rarely gives immediate feedback on decisions, the interviewee frequently makes a poor judgement call on the candidate because it is largely based on unconscious processes which are biased. The book suggests that instead of relying on the interviewer to give a general judgement, the employer should select around 6 traits to assess, only ask questions that will return factual results for one trait at a time and rate the person's answer from a scale of 0-2 after answering each question. Statistically, this will give better long-term results. This was a surprise to me because I don't know how many companies use this method when interviewing- none of the companies I have interviewed with have used this method

Additional

Pupils dilate more when a person is facing a difficult task on the edge of their competency to do it and when people see something beautiful.

Focusing on what you are doing makes it more pleasurable- ex. eating

19- OOH Idea Napkin 2

1. Who am I? I have been exposed to home watch because my father does home watching for some customers and has a friend who also does home watch. My father has made a home watch software to save his friend some time, and now he is trying to sell the software to home watchers but he does not know how to advertise and distribute it. This is where I come in. I am a business student at UF. When I was in China this past summer, I did an internship for an education technology (edtech) startup called TCK EdTech and was made aware of the potential of the software market while I was working there. I aspire to distribute the software my father is making by networking with local home watching businesses.
2. What am I offering? Users will pay a monthly subscription of $55 for access to a software on computer or an app for smartphones that will expatiate the home watch reporting process. They will be able to choose from our ever-expanding database of preformatted checklists or make checklists of their own, write notes, and upload pictures and create invoice. Users will have access to location distracting filters for their customers. They can transform their checklist, pictures, and notes into a professionally formatted email with their company logo and next visit date. The software will save all checklists, notes, and pictures in a low-data-usage archive on the local computer. 
3. The audience: I am offering this service initially to home watchers in the Naples, Florida region who have between 10-50 customers, preferably during summer. This will spread to other areas that have a large population of snow birds such as New York and California as these are the areas where home watchers thrive. Generally the home watchers with wealthier clients will be more likely to use the software because of the desire of those wealthier clients to receive professional, detail-oriented reporting.
4. Why do they care? Home watchers will pay because they want to appear professional and detail-oriented so that they will get and retain home watch clients. The software will save home watchers time- it is central platform of data entry to prevent double entry when it comes to note writing, emailing, invoicing, and taxes. Double entry is one of the largest time sinks for home watchers. They will be able to spend this time doing more home watch and in turn will earn more money. 
5. My Competencies: I have experience running a startup company in China and know how to perform rapid product prototyping and integration of feedback. This means that if customers have any feedback regarding the services they want added to the program, the changes can be implemented in the next update. The program is constantly evolving so that home watchers can stay on the competitive edge in regards to home watch software. They also will have access to a help/service line which will help customers to set up the software for their business. 

Summary
Although I don't have much experience making the software itself, I do know about the home watch market in Naples, Florida because I was born and raised there and it was made evident to me from my father's work and his network. The service is being offered home watch businesses in Naples because there are many snowbirds and thus a majority of the home watchers there have between 10-50 clients.
In order to be efficient with this number of clients, home watchers use home watch reporting software. Since home watchers are catering usually to a wealthier demographic the software be marketed as a professional, clean, and detail-oriented reporting brand as that is what the majority of wealthier clients positively respond to. Home watchers' use this software in place of the competitors because of the focus on constant innovation and improvement of the software as well as focus on customer service.
This selling point may not be unique enough for people to want to buy this software over the others available.

Reflection
I received no feedback but upon reading over the idea napkin over, I realized I had made some spelling errors which I corrected. Otherwise I did not adjust the idea napkin. I will be creating bug lists and looking for other marketing or and regulatory trends to try and find a new business idea in the coming weeks.

17- Second Elevator Pitch- Out of Africa Home Watch Software

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KsLn-yVxe8&t=

Script Hook 
Home watchers without reporting software can spend an average of 2-3 hours typing notes on what they did-- time they could have spent going to houses and earning money.

Problem
Home watchers want to look as thorough, professional, and transparent about their services as possible when billing time comes around, but frequently face inefficient double-entry on the back end- typing out checklists and writing and compiling notes from a note pad into emails and invoices to send to customers after each home visit. Scheduling, districting, keeping track of contractors, and keeping records for tax time can also be a challenge.

But what if all these front and back end home watch needs could be managed with one program?

Solution
This is where Out of Africa Home Watch Tech comes in. You can either use our ever-expanding database of preformatted checklists or make checklists of your own. Upload pictures of the house you’re at with the push of a button, type out your notes and have them stored by the visit or by the month, and create invoices seamlessly with this all in one software.

Hit email button to transform your checklist, pictures, and notes into a professionally formatted email that stands out, company logo and all, and send it out to customers.
If there are any problems at the house you're watching, press the contractor button to find the local solution.

District your home watch locations so you can save travel time. Open your calendar so you can easily see your customer visits laid out by date, and keep all your checklists, notes, and pictures for each client by-date in a low-data-usage archive. All this at a monthly fee of $55

Stay ahead of your competition by being the most professional, detailed-oriented, and transparent home watcher around.

Next Step/implementation
If you're interested, check out our website. We'll get you started with in-depth setup guide and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to call or email.

Reflection
I didn't receive much feedback on my first elevator pitch but I knew I should stand in business professional to give the presentation. I tried to have more facial expressions, move my mouth more, speak up, smile more, and memorize some parts of the script (I didn't do that very well).I also improved the script.

For my third elevator pitch, I will try to have the whole presentation memorized so that I can focus on being more dynamic with my gestures and facial expressions.

18- Home Watch Avatar

Who?

Height: 5'6". Nancy is a woman from the ages 30-55 who has an interest in real estate and started a business of home watch because her friends suggested it. She is just starting home watch and hasn't yet joined any home watch associations or groups, but she is looking into it. She has made some strong client relations because she is sweet, good-natured, and good with people, but she also has had some corporate experience and is knowledgeable about the professional environment. She is having a website developed that she's proud of, but wish hosting a domain costed less, and has two children in high school. Nancy drives a fuel-efficient car and reads some child-rearing books and occasionally a romance novel. She always tries to eat healthy and go to the gym at least once a week to stay fit because she wants to see her grandchildren grow up and still be able to play with them and wants to be able to do her business for a long time to come. Because she owns a business, she feels competent, self-sustaining, and powerful, and as a result, feels a bit older than she is. She doesn't like to be told how to do her job, but she is kind to young students trying to sell her software that will make her business more efficient. Nancy doesn’t want to immediately say yes to buying anything, but instead she looks over the details of a product and compares it to other goods available, choosing the best option for her money.

I am similar to the customer because I see the value in running one's own business and being self-sustainable financially. I feel older than I am when I personally accomplish something  in business, and it is extremely rewarding. I would never be able to say yes directly to someone trying to sell me something without studying the specifications and comparing the product to similar ones on the market, and I want them to do the same for any product I am offering- I want them to choose the best option for their money. Like the home watcher, also I wish websites costed less because when you have your own business you must have one to have any credibility. We're also similar in that we both have the desire to be healthy and fit throughout our lives- we both want to be able to do all the things "we could in our 20's” for as long as possible.

15- What is Quality

Interviews
All would purchase the software online.

 
1.
The GPS location service and ability to create invoices are the most important. The invoices look professional and save me the time of having to make one separately and the GPS shows my customers that I am reliable and will do what I say I'm going to do. I would know my purchase is good if I notice that I get my work done faster than I used to, and that I am able to get more clients advertising my reporting method than I had been without it.

2.
The price would be a major factor when considering a product- I don't want all my money from house watch going into someone else's pocket. I also want it to have a fairly simple and clean user interface so there isn't so much of a learning curve. I'm buying the software to become more efficient, so I should immediately notice that I'm saving time. I would know it was a bad purchase if it takes too much time to set up or more time than when I was using my checklists or if I saw it was eating up all my revenue- I saw the QRIT program but that is just exponentially expensive.

3.
The reporting checklists should look professional. The more wealthy client base does not want to see something that looks amateurish, they want to make sure their money is going to a quality service.
By putting the software on my website my clients can see, I get more phone calls than I had before buying it.

Summary

People buy the home watch software to be more efficient when reporting, invoicing, and writing notes and to appear professional to clients. They will know their purchase is good as they notice they are spending less time writing notes than they used to and are getting more clients than they used to because the software makes them appear reliable. They do not want the software to cost too much.

Reflection

The interviews seem to be getting repetitive at this point- most of what I heard were ideas I had from the previous interviews I have done. I know the real next step is to start making connections with the home watchers on Facebook or by contacting home watch boot camps with the hopes of being recommended by them to new home watchers- to actually distribute the product. Since the home watch software market is already occupied I will have to find out how to stir up dissatisfaction with the software the home watchers currently have. I will likely advertise the software as cheaper than the others available.

16- Who am I.

What I think is unique about me

1. Always trying to to work to create a more efficient system
2. Reflecting on self every Sunday to set new long term goals or refresh the list I have
3. Reading great novels and philosophy to come up with my own philosophy- always have a purpose, even with entertainment
4. Persistence due to a strong focus on the long-term
5. Enjoy hearing what is logically wrong with my ideas when I communicate them

The Questions I Asked 

1. What do you think I know or understand most in the world 
2. What do you think my skills and abilities are 
3. What is your understanding of my temperament and emotional perceptions to things and what do you think my mindset is

Dad
Understanding: You know how to making things happen. You do your best at everything, you're focused, able to discern the best path to follow, can communicate with anyone to come in contact with, and can support your own views in the context of conversation.
Skills/Abilities: You can achieve highly with anything, insight into how things should be run with research
Temperament: Incredibly logical, see through  the crap, see what is useful, don't take much emotionally but instead retrospectively with insight, very wise



Mom
Understanding: You  have empathy and understand people's situations deeply, business knowledge, well read, intelligent, kind/understanding. You improved, you were harsh at one point. You're maybe not patient enough when explaining things to other other people or encouraging people to also take responsibility for their work (like in China). Responsibility, hard worker, need more people skills and should get to be more relaxed around women.
Skills/Abilities: You're good at research, but your ability to market on social media needs improvement- lots of information you may miss out on if you're not on social media. You're not very communicative with the outside world.
Temperament: Strong- hear a certain amount of something and then ignore the rest, can get to get to the heart to deeply understand issues, knowing that people come from all different situation to lead them to a place

Matt
Understanding: You understand that hard work required in life, and that there are a lot of option out there and you don’t want to miss out on opportunities. You get that that living a fulfilled life take lots of effort early on, but this may be a bit over the top (not extreme, but still), could dial back
Skills/Abilities: Motorcycle riding (haha), analytical skill- you get to know the depths of systems, people, or anything you're interested in.
Temperament: You believe there is room for improvement in most fields of life, that any person can improve themselves or improve systems, and you're good at picking out how things can be better or you're at least interested in finding out how.

Ryan
Understanding: You know what you want and don't let other people change your mind or get in the way
Skills/Abilities: School stuff potentially, you're strong willed, determined, and stick to it when you put your mind to it.
Temperament: You're serious about the job you do, you don't let distractions get in the way.while you're finding out how to do something,


Darren
Understanding: You understand people well, you grew up real quick because of (Family situation),  you see through to the core of personalities, like whether they're just trying to get something for themselves or for the team. You have the ability to construct conversation well.
Skills/Abilities: Your communication is effective. You didn't talk much before (when you were young)  so now when you do speak its something valuable- you get straight to the point. You have an interest in business, you're calm/relaxed in situations and are professional and effectively obedient
unlike these students in this military school
Temperament: Not so focused on emotions, you're determined, set on achieving goals, good worker- do hard work now instead of later, division between emotion and logic. You have some emotion when bored, but you're analytical otherwise

Reflection:
When I was interviewing the members of my family, nothing surprised me very much because I feel we are all generally open about how we perceive each other and the patterns of our past conversations seemed to naturally lend to the answers they gave in the interview. Each member of the family had a different view of me and pulled from their own ideals and values to characterize me. For example, my brother Darren is in the Navy, so qualities such as professionalism and effective communication are more important than they may be to my mother- so he mentioned those qualities while others might not have. I would not change the list I wrote above about what is unique to me- each of the interviews hold truth in them even though they are all different. There is so much rich detail in every person that I couldn't expect otherwise.