30A - Final Reflection

The experiences, or rather blog posts, that stuck out most to me were the venture concept posts. Both of these posts had significant documentation and asked many questions, meaning that not only were these my longest posts, but they were also the ones that had the biggest effect on the way I was going to move my business. Maybe this is because they came close to the end of the semester, but these posts really solidified the way I wanted to take my business concept.
After a semester in this class, I feel as though I have the knowledge and skills to make it as an entrepreneur in today's market. But to the actual question of, do I consider myself an entrepreneur, I cannot say I do. Pryor had made it very clear during his workshops that he had a distaste for this class for the reason that many of us do not actually do something entrepreneurial. So, while I feel as though I could become an entrepreneur and take nearly any business venture I head far, I cannot confidently say that I am an entrepreneur. In reference to the other question asked, yes I do believe that I have not just gotten closer to the entrepreneurial mindset, I believe I actually do have it.
The recommendation I have to any students taking this class in the future would be this, make sure that sometime throughout the semester, you sell something unique. Not only for the workshop held each semester, but to ensure that you truly use the skills acquired in this class to become an entrepreneur yourself. As for this course however, I will be honest, it is not that difficult, simply stay on top of your assignments and ensure that you aware of each assignment you will have to do at the start of each week to plan around them and give yourself ample time to complete them by the end of the week. To foster this mind set, please, please, please, start planning things ahead of time. Many people, myself included, come from a high school mindset where we do not need to worry about things until the due date. If you are like me, this is the course that will begin your transition to a more planning mindset. Take this as the first step to becoming more responsible when it comes to anything you do. Now that I've completed this course, I feel as though I've taken my first real step toward becoming a working part of today's society.


(Source) https://fee.org/articles/use-this-amazing-resource-to-track-how-humans-are-making-progress-around-the-world/

29A - Venture Concept No.2

1. Opportunity
There are two major forces acting upon the world's population that are providing me with the necessary demand for my product. The first is the ever growing world population, people are moving into smaller homes with one another, meaning that there is an increasing need of small, movable furniture. The other force is the ever increasing mobility of people around the world, whether it be moving from one home to another, or moving out of one's home into an apartment, dorm, or other building. My market was originally defined by anyone living in a space in which they would need furniture that was compact, mobile or both. However, I have shifted my market to target these people, but more particularly retailers in need of these kinds of furniture, especially rental furniture retailers or suppliers of furniture for large buildings or apartment complexes. Currently, consumers are satisfying this need by buying cheap furniture that can be disassembled or simply paying moving companies to move bulky furniture from one space to the next. Retailers are satisfying this need by simply buying furniture that they can ship or sell. This opportunity is one that isn't world changing, but is significant enough that an entire market can be sold on it. The window of opportunity is one that will always stay open, but not without more competition coming in further down the line. The main issue I'd have with joining this market later would be other furniture companies patenting ideas that I'd have.
2. Innovation
As I'd stated in my previous venture concept, the product I'd wished to create has changed. However, now thinking back, it hasn't changed as much as my market for it has changed. The main concept of it is movable furniture. To elaborate, I'm referring to furniture that is able to be folded, compacted, or even rolled from place to place without excessive amounts of labor. Where I've changed my design is similar to how I've changed my market, this is to say I've changed it from being more accessible to the average consumer and cut down on costs by simplifying it to be more appealing to rental furniture retailers and business furniture suppliers. While my furniture isn't exactly the typical, industrial looking furniture you'd see in an office building, it certainly isn't going to be the center piece of any house any time soon.
3. Venture Concept
The reason companies would switch, or at least begin to purchase my product would be, the low costs I'd boast along with the utility of the furniture. While my furniture would be similar in cost to other lines of furniture people would buy, the costs of shipping and handling would significantly decrease with the product, meaning that both the customer and the supplier save money, meaning I also gain a slight profit from that. I can sell my furniture at a slightly higher price and still be saving my customer money. I imagine it would not be hard to enter the market and get supplier to begin ordering my product because of the amount of extra revenue they already have for purchasing and selling new products. My competitors would at first only be other furniture lines; all of us competing for space in stores all around the country. However, after my product takes off, I'll begin to see competition from other brands looking to copy my furniture line's design. The weakness my line would have would be not covering enough pieces of furniture or not being specific enough in my patents, allowing other lines to pick up the slack I'd inadvertently leave for them. The role of packaging and distribution is the most important when it comes to my line, as this would be where both suppliers and consumers would save money, the easy and plentiful transportation my product innately provides. As stated before, my price points would be slightly higher than competitors but would save money in the long run. The customer support and relation would only be business to business at first, meaning I'd have to be very charismatic in order to convince my market that my product is worth buying. My business would consist of mostly manufacturers and transporters moving my product wherever it needs to go, with a small group of managers and financial experts managing the logistical side of the company; this being the amount of units we're shipping, the costs, the profits, etc.

4. Changes/Summary from feedback
The piece of feedback I'd received involved praise for me maintaining my stance on who my market is. So in this post, I reiterated my market and did something that I think might help my business venture in the long run: I defined my market very specifically, keeping a wide view on the amount of people I can sell to. This is to say I was very specific in the people who would buy my product, but also defined multiple groups ensuring that at least one of the groups would purchase my product.

Below I've provided a very simplified look at how my relationship would be with my retailers.

(Source) https://difference.guru/difference-between-a-wholesaler-a-distributor-and-a-retailer/

28A - Your Exit Strategy

Should my business actually take off, because I'm simply selling a line of furniture. I'd begin hiring designers in order to take over this job for me, at which point I'd begin taking a more logistic job. I except I'd become something of a CEO for my company, managing the finances and worrying about the stocks and marketing. Granted, I wouldn't be growing the company past a few designers and ensuring that my suppliers continue to provide me with the necessary materials. Similar to the Eames line of furniture, I intend on making my line a sort of household name to maintain royalties and potential to maintain business even after I inevitably retire.
I've selected this particular because it ensures that no matter what I do, I will always maintain some sort of income or acclaim from my furniture. While I may not gain a ridiculous amount of money or vast political power as some innovators do, I will ensure that my name will live on far past my life span.
Personally, my exit strategy has only had one big effect on my business strategy, and that is branding. More than anything, I need to ensure that my furniture line has a name on it, whether that be my own family name or one I come up with. This way, any possible imitations will be just that, imitations of my product. Thusly, I can act accordingly upon any imitations, taking a cut from their profits, or simply shutting down competition using my innovations.

27A - Reading Reflection No.3

For this reading review, I decided to read the book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. I'd seen the book in other reviews when I was doing peer reviews for the second review and decided to pick it up for myself. I found it rather comical as it depicted key moments in Scott's life and how he ended up succeeding from his failures.
The biggest theme of the book is focusing on the now. This means that while you can have dreams of the future and grand goals, these all pale in comparison to the weight of your current plans. If you keep your head in the clouds, you'll never get the rest of yourself up there. In short, the author is telling the reader to evaluate what is important in their journey, and commit to their journey without their end goal in mind. Focusing on the end goal will lead you off track.
This book has very similar themes to that of this week's assignment about failure, although that isn't hard to find out given the title of the book. Regardless, this book helped to explain the deeper meaning of failure a bit better to me. Failure isn't just a setback, nor is it just finding another way of doing things. In reality, failure is an incentive to get it right the next time. It's a learning experience that shows you the outcome of what you've done in order for you to learn how to do it better the next time.
The exercise I'd design for this class based around this book would be as follows. I'd have the class recount three different failures in their lives. The first being one when they were a child, the second as a teen in high school, and the last being one that happened extremely recently, as in a week from the assignment the latest. I'd make them recount what the failure was, why they failed, and how they solved their issue for the first two. But for the last failure, the one they currently have, I'd make it so they have to describe the process in which they will seek amends for this failure. For example, failing an exam so you go through a different process of studying, like getting a tutor or Study Edge. Lastly, I'd have the students connect how this process was similar to their past failures, letting them see that getting out of failure is as simple as finding a new process of doing things.
My biggest aha moment of the book was when I finally understood what he meant by focus on the path, not the goal. I'd always envisioned focusing on the goal as being a motivator, so when he kept describing situations in which focusing on the goal led to more failure, it really didn't click at first. Once I understood this central concept, the rest of the book became much more insightful than I'd previously expected. I got more out of the book than what I went in anticipating.

26A - Celebrating Failure

This semester, I've failed myself; not in the usual aspects like schoolwork or grades, but in my own personal health and well-being. I've put my grades and work above myself. I told myself this semester that I'd make the conscious effort to start going more to the gym and eating out less, in order to cook for myself. While the semester started out nicely, I slowly began to put more emphasis on my grades over my health, excelling in my classes but stunting my own health in the process. Granted, this is not without reason; because of a mistake caused by myself and my adviser in my first semester, I am required to excel in each of my classes this semester in order to change majors. This has put an extreme tension on me that has worked in my favor when it comes to studying and work, but causes me anxiety in literally everything else.

Through this, I've learned that I need to take myself into account more than anything. Grades are expendable at the end of the day, but my own health is something that is irreplaceable. While I'm certain no permanent damage has been done to my body, I do know that I've set myself back several months of exercise that I'd done prior to this semester.

Moving into my next semester, I will take myself more into account, (God willing I do end up with the grades needed in order to change majors.) Without the stress of having to achieve above a 3.5 GPA this coming semester, I will be a lot more free to do what I please. The first thing I will do is set aside a permanent time in which I do some sort of exercise; preferably this would be going to the gym, but should I need the extra time I set aside, I have a set of weights in my room for these occasions. 

25A - What's Next?

Existing Market

Step 1: First and foremost, I have to finalize and begin bringing my concepts to the real world. This mean I'll probably be going to the Infinity Lab in order to create my first, rough prototypes. I'll need to amass all the resources needed: wood, hinges, saws, and sanders in order to fully put together a first prototype. The aim of this first prototype is to test the functionality of my product rather than to bring something to sell to people.

Step 2: I interviewed two of my dormmates who will be seeking out apartment living next semester as well as the current tenant of an apartment I'm interested in. To note, both of my dormmates answered together, meaning their answers were very similar. The questions I asked were more to the side of: what functionality do you think the furniture should have, apart from foldability, what material should it be made of, and what type of furniture would you be most interested in?

My dormmates were quick to come up with ideas for other functionalities: small compartments that could be accessed even when the pieces were folded, maintaining functionality when the furniture was folded, like a dresser turning into a small step or even strongbox, and lastly pop-out wheels that could be folded out for easier movement. When it came to material, they weren't exactly familiar with what woods go into building different furniture, which I can't blame them for. Funnily enough, they suggested mahogany wood because they believed it to be one of the more fancy types of wood. Lastly, when it came to furniture, one said they needed a nightstand for sure, because his old nightstand was very old and he wanted a new one, whereas my other roommate was interested in desks. He's the kind of guy to sit behind a desk all day and do work anyway, so I could see why he was interested.

The apartment tenant I asked was in  the process of moving out into a house, so while he didn't apply to my target audience, it would be a good way to gain insight into an audience I didn't originally intend to reach. When it came to what he thought should be featured within the functionality, he heavily emphasized that I should not sacrifice comfort and style for utility. He explained that furniture in most homes is meant to be a reflection of what the consumer wants to feel in their home, so they wouldn't want to feel like they're in an office building. When it came to the material, he suggested plywood as a base to test for functionality, then to move onto whatever sturdy wood I had available, oak and maple were the examples he gave. Finally, when it came to the piece he was most interested in, he simply wanted something like a small table or nightstand in order to get a feel for what the rest of the products would be like. Start out small then work my way up if I like it, is the way he phrased it.

Step 3: Personally, I believe that my concept needs more functionality. So, the suggestion I received from my dormmates about pieces like dressers or desks turning into something else when folded really stuck with me. The way I see my concept moving forward is through further testing and prototype creation. What will most make sense is taking my prototypes and verifying that they function, then going to potential investors and acquiring the funds necessary to begin regular production.

Following this, I will bring a finished product to investors to ensure I have enough funding to last me until the point that I go to retailers and provide them with a secure line of furniture. Once a retailer is set and their payments begin rolling in, then my product will begin constant shipment. I will repeat this process with other retailers until the point that I become a well-known business that is known for mass producing my type of furniture for both consumers and retailers.

New Market

Step 1: As I'd mentioned with my interviews, I've been targeting people who are moving into apartments and small spaces, rather than people moving into homes. These people, while they would have more money, wouldn't necessarily be looking to buy my type of furniture. Granted, after the interview, I see that there is a potential market here that I've overlooked.

Step 2: My furniture may be able to cater to people in this market through design and stylistic choices. While they wouldn't need to move their furniture from home to home, it certainly would be a hassle to move it from room to room, so my furniture line could work to alleviate this. Outside of this, I'd simply be another line of furniture they could look into should they like the more simple, modern style my current iterations have.

Step 3: I interviewed two homeowners in the Gainesville area (I've been touring homes throughout the area as I'm looking into the city's real estate market for something else.) I asked them about my furniture concept, keeping the conversation very general (I was touring their home after all.) The only specific thing I mentioned to them is, what kind of furniture would they want to buy right now, as in what kind of furniture would they want to add to their home at any moment. Unfortunately, nightstands, desks, and dressers were not included in their lists. The first homeowner specifically mentioned chairs and other sitting furniture, as these pieces were easily stored and constantly used. The other homeowner mentioned footrests and small containers for outdoor use; the kind of containers that would be used to store pool toys, basketballs, general outdoor toys, while also being an extra place to sit.

Step 4: Clearly I need to try to have my line of furniture be as broad as possible. This is not to say that I need to start out with a wide assortment of ready products, rather I should have one or two finished products to start with that I can lean on for support while I prepare more. The types of furniture I should focus on are those that are constantly breaking or are constantly used, mainly sitting furniture. If I can jump into the chair and couch industry following my first designs and sales of nightstands, desks, and tables, then I can easily move into other areas.

Furthermore, I need to market my furniture line intelligently. I came into this idea thinking that it should be a line of furniture for apartment-goers; a line of furniture for those with not a lot of room. Rather I should start with this idea, then branch out and continually target people, not necessarily on where they live, or their socioeconomic needs, but on where they want to feel like they live. For instance, there are those who love living in small apartments, for these people, I'd market one way, and for anyone who wishes they could live in a big mansion, I could market another piece that way. More than anything, my marketing strategies need to be concise and effective.

24A - Venture Concept No.1

1.      Opportunity

My customer base is anyone in need of furniture, meaning that this includes anyone who has either recently, purchased, rented, or moved from one home to another. This implies that people have at least a certain amount of capital to spend, guaranteeing that I will have at least a small market. The specific people who most have the need are students moving to apartments (both renting and buying,) workers/commuters who are constantly moving around the state or country into cheap apartments, and anyone looking to sell their home and in need of newer and/or smaller furniture.

The reason this market is prevalent today, is because of how rapidly the world’s population is growing. Take for instance countries like Spain that either hold a multitude of people in a single household, or Japan that have extremely small apartments for one or two people. Innovations have been created for these people in furniture, especially in Japan with their changeable furniture, pull-out couches that become beds and tables for instance. But in most other places in the world, particularly in America, there aren’t any similar products. This means you’d have to import for something that doesn’t really apply or make your own model, which is what I’m doing. Currently, customers are satisfying this need only by importing products with similar features to what I’ve specified above, or simply buying smaller furniture. Both options aren’t the most efficient and can even be rather costly. This opportunity is one that will remain prevalent, so long as the world population continues to rise, meaning there will be less and less room for people and they’ll have to live in smaller and smaller places. The same applies for how long the window of opportunity will remain open. So long as no natural disasters, major wars, or plagues come about, then there is ample time for me to create, market, produce, and sell my product.

2.      Innovation

The product I’ve proposed at the beginning of this course has changed drastically, but has maintained the same theme: movable furniture. This is not to simply say, furniture that is able to be moved or that has wheels, rather it is to say that the furniture itself is easily moved from place to place and stored if needed. The vision I’ve always had is a desk or nightstand that can be emptied and folded up into a small, compact piece. This way packing one’s furniture or moving it from one spot to another is easy. Currently, there is not bridge in between the realm of bulky furniture that comes in a single piece, meaning it is an extreme hassle to move around and furniture that must be disassembled and assembled, simply to get it through a doorway. I want to bridge these two things by making a line of furniture that comes in single pieces, already built, but can be folded and shrunk in order to move about. While I am unsure as to the exact logistics of my product, I’m confident that I could outsell most of my competition by charging around $30-$40 dollars for nightstands, $60-$70 dollars for kitchen tables, and $50-$60 dollars for work desks. These prices are already cheaper than the competition but would provide way more utility than my competitors.

3.      Venture Concept

My innovation will solve this problem by providing my potential market with a line of furniture that is cheaper than most of my competitors with a significantly higher amount of utility in the form of being able to easily move the furniture from place to place. The consumers themselves may be rather hesitant to switch to this product from their normal providers however, I aim to market my line to retailers instead. Retailers would provide a much more steady amount of revenue through constant sales, despite a small drop in the price I can sell it to them for. Where this becomes most prevalent is in the market of furniture renters. These retailers are extremely valuable to me as they are constantly looking to buy furniture that provides a lot of utility, is durable, can be held in their stores in mass, and are transported easily; it just so happens that my product aims to meet all these needs. My competitors at this point would be slim, seeing as retailers will take furniture from nearly anyone. Granted, my main competition would be IKEA, as their furniture can be marketed to be similar to my own, without the need of actually having that extra utility; the name alone is enough to keep people buying their product instead of mine. Packaging, style, and the actual production of the pieces matter immensely, as patent laws will certainly prevent me from styling any pieces to be similar to others. Despite this, I’m certain that producing a desk in the style I’d like wouldn’t be much of an issue. The business I’d start would have to involve a factory with a good number of employees, say fifteen to twenty, all ensuring the machinery that would be producing the pieces are functioning properly. This would only be if my idea truly does take off and I can amass the capital necessary to continue production and subsequently begin mass production.

23A - Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. Infinity Hall’s Design Lab.
V. The lab grants me acces to all of the materials I’d ever need in order to produce prototypes, or even nearly finished products of my concept.
R. Only a few students know about the lab, and fewer ever utilize it, giving me an easy space in order to work on and produce my furniture.
I. While students do have access to the lab, I’m confident that no other student is going to create my concept there, at least in my time there.
N. Any other lab or design space I’d go to wouldn’t have the resources, human capital, or cost/time effectiveness as going to the design lab.
2. Home designer contacts.
V. Not everyone has many contacts to people within the industry of designing home spaces like I do, meaning I can easily get a good idea of what a consumer would want by contacting these people.
R. As stated before, not everyone has these contacts, making me somewhat unique in my industry.
I. While others may have the contacts I do, not everyone wishes to utilize them for the same reason, most are looking to them as consumers instead of producers.
N. Without these contacts, my concept could still come to fruition, but it would be lacking the element of understanding what a consumer would want in the look of the product.
3. Contacts in the furniture design industry.
V. Similar to above, these contacts would be key in determining costs, design choices, and the logistics of my product.
R. Again, not many people have access to these contacts in the way I do, much less with the intention of using them to design their own furniture.
I. The advice and information these people would give me would be key in helping my design that non-professionals could ever give.
N. I need these contacts because without them I’d be going in somewhat blind, making a lot of guesswork as to the process of furniture design as well as guessing the costs along the way.
4. Subject passion.
V. Many people in today’s workforce lack a driving passion toward what they do. Emotion is a powerful thing, especially when working on something, granted this passion will not lead me to “fall in love” with a prototype or unfinished product, rather it will lead me to keep retrying until a make a product with little to no flaw.
R. As stated previously, people usually feel a lack of emotion toward their work, whereas I aim to put my all into what I do, while also avoiding the pitfall of getting stuck on one iteration of my project.
I. This emotion is not unique by any regard, but is something that the world lacks.
N. Without this passion, it would be impossible for me to even go on with this. Frankly at this point, I’d have already completely given up thinking that the product is too hard to design.
5. A multitude of potential concepts
V. With multiple possible pieces and paths to go with the furniture, it makes it easy for me to pick out which will be the simplest to produce, while also maintaining style and functionality.
R. As stated in the previous point, people fall in love with prototypes or concepts, leading them to ignore any possible changes or alternatives.
I. With multiple ways to go about creating my product, I’m certain that one of them will be completely unique and sell my own style and brand.
N. I’m certain that going in with a single, or even a handful of potential concepts will end with me being shot down on the spot, so having a multitude of ideas to pick from to start designing is a must.
6. Versatility.
V. As with the nature of my furniture, versatility is a must, both in the mobility of my furniture as well as in the concept of the furniture itself. I adapt rather easily to change and have taken this into account throughout the course.
R. I won’t lie, versatility isn’t unique, however it is somewhat rare for both the product and producer to be versatile, so I’ve got that.
I. The versatility of my furniture is rather unique, I have yet to find another line of furniture that is able to be folded, compacted, or even easily transported without some disassembly.
N. Versatility is a core feature with my furniture line, as well as an integral part of what makes me, me.
7. Circle of supportive friends
V. Having a circle of people I know I can rely not only helps m Erin every day life, but also in any of my business ventures. To relate it to this class, I would classify this as human capital. But in all honesty, having my friends is enough on its own.
R. While having friends isn’t a rarity, it is nice to have these people by my side.
I. Having friends isn’t some unique or inimitable. So this doesn’t really apply.
R. There is no substitute to having friends, the bonds formed between myself and these people isn’t something that can be bought or faked.
8. Time
V. Recently, I switched major from computer science to information systems. Thusly, I’ve been freed up from a lot of the obligations I’d had: tedious exams, arguous coding projects, etc. time is extremely valuable to someone looking to create a concept like this.
R. In this day and age where people want things fast and easy, it’s those with the most time who can actually provide, so I think I’m one of the few.
I. Again, time is relative and isn’t something that is imitated per se.
N. Time is essential in my project as I need ample enough time to create and fully develop my idea.
9. Unique concept
V. The value of having a unique concept, especially in furniture, will definitely pay off in the long run. Consumers will have nothing else to buy.
R. As the title implies, having a unique concept implies that it is one of a kind, the most rare if you will.
I. While competitors will try to imitate my product, I have the distinct advantage of being first, as well as utilizing patent laws to my benefit.
N. When consumers begin to purchase my product, the lack of a substitute will keep them buying my product and put up barriers to entry for any potential competition.
10. An established market
V. Having an established market ensures that no matter what product I make, so long as I cater to the needs of that market, I will have consumers. This also ensures that I have a target audience to market toward and design my product around.
R. No everyone in the world who has a need know that they have it. This is not the case when it comes to furniture, at least most of the time.
I. Other markets may try to imitate this, but can only go so far within their consumer base, if there even is one at all.
N. As with any market, there cannot be any products without consumers. So without my market, there would be no product to be made in the first place.

Most important: Personally, I find the most important asset I have to vary between two. The first being the more practical contacts I have with industry experts. These contacts put me in touch with people who can accurately explain to me how to market and sell my product, ensuring that I at least make some of the money back from what I put in.
However, I find that passion is equally important, as without it, the entire project would have been a bust a long time ago. Passion in what I do keeps me going and keeps me from flat out giving up.