Ilana’s Entrepreneurship Blog

Throughout this class, I have learned the importance of perseverance and really listening to feedback. There were times where I wanted to give up on my idea and create a new concept because I thought it would be too costly or that I would have to deal with too many outer parties to get my parking app going. Despite this feeling of occasional doubt, I still continued to go with my idea and realized that the feedback I received helped reassure me. The little changes that I made throughout this process had helped me to better improve my idea and make it more efficient. The most formative experience was being able to talk to employees that worked in the industry and gave me some feedback on it. I networked with a lot of beneficial people that could potentially help me start and grow my business to the point where I will be knowledgeable enough myself to take my concept elsewhere. I think this was an experience that I felt most proud of because I had to deal with people that were curre...

Mark N'Park  Opportunity: The people who have the need for available parking spaces on a local level are college students and families in Gainesville. The main environmental factor for this demand is due to the high number of restrictive parking across the city of Gainesville and the low number of available street parking close or around the campus. During the busy time of the semester, it is difficult for many students to find open spaces on campus so they have to arrive earlier on campus to make sure that they get a parking spot or are forced to find another alternative solution to the problem. For instance, after interviewing several college students, each of them experienced the same exact issue but reacted to the problem differently. One individual would park their car 15 minutes away from campus and walk the rest of the way to his class, while another student would take the bus so they would not have to risk being late to their class. On the perspective of the families, ma...

For my exit strategy, I intend to sell my business in the next 5 years for a long return because I do not want to be so focused on this business since I have other interests and other goals I would like to accomplish in life. I know running a business is a lot of work and can cause a lot of stress so I do not see myself exerting so much of my time and energy in the long-run for this type of business. My exit strategy has influenced my ability to identify an opportunity because I knew that I would want to sell my idea to landmark property companies or other big-named companies that would be interested in continuing this business in the long-term. It has influenced my growth intentions because I know I would just want to focus on the business for the first couple of years to get as much profit as I possibly can before selling it.  

Autobiography Book: Steve Jobs Author: Walter Isaacson 1). ·       The thing that surprised me the most was where the name Apple came from. Although there were various reasons as to why Steve Jobs chose Apple to be the name of his company, the main reason for it is because Apple came before Atari in the phonebook. Atari Corporation is a company that manufactures computers and was the company that Jobs previously worked for before he decided to start his own company. Jobs did this because he did not want people to see his competitor’s name before his company’s name whenever they would search for computer companies in the phonebook. ·       I admire how resilient and determined Steve Jobs was in accomplishing what people thought to be the impossible. He never took no for an answer and had an ability to push people to perform at their best. ·       The thing that I least admired about Jobs was how man...

One time I failed during this semester was when I had to do a recorded interview for a sophomore summit for Goldman Sachs and did not hear back from them. Before I took the real take, I did several practice rounds and rehearsed what I was going to say. I was really nervous because it was my first time doing a recorded virtual interview and was not used to how impersonal it was. After several practice rounds, I decided to just record myself and submit my response to Goldman. However, I did not realize that it was only going to be one question that I would be asked and did not know that I would not have ample time to come up with a response. I ended up pausing for a good 5 seconds before I gave a response that was not very clear and seemed very rushed because I was too nervous to think of a strong answer. I was quite upset at myself because I only had one shot to give them an impression, yet I missed that opportunity. I did not think that my response was a representation of the skills I...

Resources in my Venture: 1.      Goal-Oriented V- Having this resource is valuable because I will know what tasks have to be done in order to be successful and will be confident enough to stay on track even if obstacles come my way R- This is a rare resource because not everyone can define what they are trying to accomplish and are not disciplined enough to focus on what’s truly important. Most people tend to get sidetracked by things that may not be a priority. I-This resource is not easy for others to copy from because everyone has to have their own goal and go about it their own way. There are restrictions that prevent people from completely copying one’s idea. N- There are no other resources that can provide the same benefits because it is something that each individual must define themselves. Not everybody is going to have the same goal and not everyone is going to be as driven to accomplish them. 2.      Efficiency V- This...

Existing Market: In terms of service for my venture, I think my concept would be applied on campus and not just in locations around the university. I am also thinking that the app could be applied in highly populated cities where traffic are major issues. One interviewee mentioned that I should consider applying this app to places where there are sports arenas because thousands of people attend these events and there is always limited parking. It also would reduce congestion because people would know exactly where to park their car and would not have to spend time looking for where they parked it because it has already been recorded on the app. I would also be making more of a profit because I could be sponsored by the arena itself or the companies that are sponsoring the event. In terms of growing my existing market, I think it makes the most sense to focus on establishing a strong base with the local contractors and developer companies in Gainesville before I decide to expan...

Mark N'Park  Opportunity: The people who have the need for available parking spaces on a local level are college students and families in Gainesville. The main environmental factor for this demand is due to the high number of restrictive parking across the city of Gainesville and the low number of available street parking close or around the campus. During the busy time of the semester, it is difficult for many students to find open spaces on campus so they have to arrive earlier on campus to make sure that they get a parking spot or are forced to find another alternative solution to the problem. For instance, after interviewing several college students, each of them experienced the same exact issue but reacted to the problem differently. One individual would park their car 15 minutes away from campus and walk the rest of the way to his class, while another student would take the bus so they would not have to risk being late to their class. On the perspective of the families, m...

https://youtu.be/Y28w-5VvRZU Reflection:  Some of the feedback I received from my last elevator pitch was to focus on controlling my hand movements and gestures. I noticed that I tend to do too much hand movements when I talk because it is my way of communicating my points to others. One tip that I received from a fellow classmate is to get into the habit of standing still and only adding certain gestures when it will add to my presentation. They said to not worry about looking too stiff because my body will naturally move when I talk.  Because this was the only feedback I had received and knew this was something I had to work on beforehand, I was not surprised by the feedback I had gotten. I definitely appreciated  the tips I had received and focused on controlling my hand movements in this last pitch. I was shocked at how quickly I was able to do this pitch because it was my third time doing it and I was able to do it in exactly 90 seconds. I did not...

1.       The general theme of the book,  The Argument of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users , is to provide readers with the beneficial tricks and insights to creating a strong and popular social media foundation. By using the bottom- up strategy, Guy Kawasaki focuses on helping people develop their social media profiles to promote their businesses.  2.       In my opinion, the book enhanced the topics I am learning in the class because they both touch on the importance of promoting and presenting oneself in a professional manner to attract a target audience. The book also mentions the effectiveness of blogging which is an activity that I have learned to do through this class. Blogging is a captivating and interactive way to get people interested because it allows them to read the other individual’s ideas and provide feedback for them to improve upon whatever they are trying to promote or develop.  3.  ...