Final Reflection

After I read through my blog posts from this semester, I really tried to look at how I grew over the past few months in terms of my entrepreneurial skills. Here is what I found out:

What sticks out to you as your most formative experience?

I think my most formative experience was when I interviewed Collin from New Scooters 4 Less. I found out some really helpful information about not only how to be a better entrepreneur, but how to make a comeback from failure as well. He gave me some great insight and I think that because I was able to hear first hand how the whole entrepreneurial process works, it opened up my mind to a lot of possibilities.

Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to this mindset?

I don't really see myself as an entrepreneur right now, but I am definitely a little closer. Even though I do not want to be an entrepreneur in terms of my career goals, I can still apply a lot of these skills to becoming an entrepreneur for myself. I know how to sell myself because through this class, I was able to understand my skills and strengths a little better.

What is the recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future?

My advice to students wanting to venture down this path would be to try and be true to yourself and what you believe in. It's really easy to get caught up in money or failure, and we often forget our main mission, which is to contribute to society in some way, whether it be big or small. Don't lose sight of that mission and I promise you'll be successful in pretty much any venture you decide on. In terms of this course, make a schedule! It is really easy to fall behind on things if you're not organized because there are a lot of assignments.

Venture Concept No. 2

1) My Venture Concept

Approximately 40 million adults in the United States today have been diagnosed with some kind of anxiety disorder. Basically anxiety is a mental illness that causes the brain to release adrenaline in the body at random times, which can cause panic attacks. These panic attacks are scary, and often make people feel isolated and alone. Among college students, the diagnoses of anxiety and depression disorders are skyrocketing, mostly due to the increased amounts of stress from school work. There have even been reports of college students whose anxiety developed into schizophrenia. As of right now, people with anxiety are relying on doctors and therapists to manage their illness. This illness will always be in existence, so this opportunity will always be there. In addition, being someone who has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, I can definitely attest to the fact that there is a surprising lack of services out there dedicated to helping people manage their illness. My business concept centers around this question: What if there was a mobile application that will allow these millions of people all over the country to manage their illness at their fingertips?

My innovation to answer this question is an app called MyCalm. MyCalm is an anxiety-relieving app that is dedicated to helping people with anxiety disorders manage their disease. Upon opening the app, the user encounters a menu with all the options available. Options include: a 5-step calming process, a 24 hour help line, classical music, nature scenes, calming games, and a social media function to allow people with anxiety to connect with others and build a support group. The app is tailored to any kind of help the user needs. Therapists will be on standby on the help line in case the user needs to be talked through a panic attack, the 5-step calming process helps people in the midst of a panic attack, and the other functions provide the user with a more laid-back stress relieving experience. The app will cost 99 cents in the App Store. However, there will be a free trial available for those who would like to try the app first to see how they like it. There will also be advertisements to help with making money as well, with an upgradeable version that will cost $1.99 without advertisements.

MyCalm will help people with anxiety in major ways. Often, people who have anxiety will feel lost because they do not know how to control their thoughts. MyCalm not only provides ways to manage their illness, it provides them with a support group as well; something that they would not normally have otherwise. Customers will switch to this product because there really isn’t another comparable service out there. MyCalm is a simple and organized way for people to manage their illness effectively. Because of this need, I don’t think it would be very hard at all to get people on board with my product. Competitors are slim, and none of them have 24 hour help lines or social media functions, which is a big weakness on their part. Packaging and the business location won’t play a huge role in my venture because it is a service. However, customer support would play a huge role because the services we provide are tailored to people’s specific needs in terms of their illness. Customers will have a chance to submit reviews on the app as well as contact a customer service representative in case the services are not to their liking. My business forming from this app would include coders to provide maintenance on the app, researchers to keep up with trends in mental health, and directors and other leadership positions to implement changes to the app. Numbers of employees could reach pretty high depending on how popular the app would get.

I think my most important resource is my passion. Being someone who has anxiety, I am able to connect on a personal level with my customers. I know exactly what is proven to work and what doesn’t. I know exactly what it feels like to feel alone with your illness, and I want to eliminate this terrible feeling for as many people as I can. This passion fuels my business venture in that I will do whatever it takes to help my target customers in any way that I can.

The next step for the venture would be to add a separate function in the app for doctor use. Here, the doctor can make schedules for breathing exercises, or even keep track of the patient’s progress as they continue to use the app. Making the app compatible with doctors can be a huge help because the doctor can more effectively understand the patient’s day-to-day calming practices.

In five years, I would really like to be reaching at least 1 million users. Through extensive outreach and advertising to doctors and patients alike, I really think I can reach this goal. In the next decade, I would really like to be reaching 5 million or more users. As an entrepreneur, I would like to be running MyCalm at a national level with my app available across all kinds of devices. In the next decade I would even like to have the potential to expand this internationally so I can continue to help people manage their anxiety around the world.

2) Feedback

The feedback I received from my last Venture Concept was pretty positive. They basically said I had a good concept that will definitely help people manage their anxiety, which is exactly what I was aiming for. They also said I might have a little difficulty ensuring 24 hour help, but I think that it would definitely be possible if I use the models that other help lines use, such as the Suicide Hotline. Perhaps the biggest critique I got was on my price. One person said that he wasn't sure if he would spend 99 cents on the app before having a free trial. 

3) How I Changed

I really didn't change my concept a whole lot just because my comments on my last concept were pretty positive. I did add the free trial in there because I thought it was a great idea. I would like to have my customers see how the app would work before they purchase it. Other than that, I really didn't change much. Thanks for all the feedback guys!

Elevator Pitch No. 4

I didn't really change much about my elevator pitch this time because I got good compliments on my last one, so thank you guys very much! With this pitch, I essentially just tried to refine my speech and shorten it a bit. I thought my last pitches were a little long, so I really tried to get this one to a minute, even though I was a few seconds over. I am more confident in my idea now since it is the end of the semester, so I think I was a little bit more comfortable talking about MyCalm than I was in my other pitches.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

The section I found most interesting in the reading was actually at the very beginning in the section talking about how entrepreneurs need to create an innovative environment for their employees. By setting innovation goals, creating a feedback system and giving positive reinforcement, emphasizing individual responsibility, providing rewards and not punishing failures, entrepreneurs can effectively create an environment that would propel their business into the future. I think this tactic is very smart and I wouldn't have thought about it previously.

I didn't really find anything about the reading to be confusing. It seems clear to me that an entrepreneur needs to not only set an appropriate environment in their workplace to foster innovation, they need to plan a long-term strategy to help guide those in the company towards an innovative goal.

If I was able to ask two questions to the author, they would be 1) what circumstances would corporate entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship work best, and 2) what are some tips to creating a freely innovative work environment?

I didn't really disagree with anything in the reading. I agree with the author in that an entrepreneur's innovation doesn't stop after he or she becomes successful. An entrepreneur needs to continue this upward motion of innovation by creating a workplace environment that fosters innovations for the future growth of the company. Social and corporate entrepreneurship are also great strategies to develop in order to ensure the future of the company stays bright.

Google Gold

1) SEO Strategy

My SEO strategy was just to include as many commonly searched words in my posts as possible. For example, in my Idea Napkin posts, I included the words "anxiety," "app," and "relief" as many times as I could. I also googled "anxiety relief" and tried to keep track of the most used words in the top search results. I tried to incorporate these terms into my posts as well. I did not tend to focus on the blog titles for SEO, which I probably should have done.

2) Keywords

Like I said in number 1, I used keywords that I believe to be the most commonly searched terms on Google. I also searched for things such as "calming app" and "stress relief app" and tried to notice the words that those search results were using and tried to include those in my posts as well. At the beginning of the semester, my keywords were more general because my business idea was not as refined. Towards the end of the semester, it became more specific and more frequent.

3) Social Media

Unfortunately, I did not use social media as much as I should have to promote my blog. I did share it on Twitter and got a few people to visit, but most people ignored it. However, I wish I would have shared it on more platforms because social media can be used as a huge driving factor to get viewers of your page. I think people really underestimate the power of social media in this regard. Once you share something, it could reach literally millions of people.

4) Most viral post

My post that received the most views was my Idea Napkin No. 1. I think this was mainly because I tried to use as many commonly searched terms as possible in my post. I tried to tailor it to people searching for stress or anxiety relief tactics, and I think it worked pretty well.

5) Did I make it to the first page of Google?

When searching the terms "anxiety relief" and "stress relief app," I unfortunately did not make it to the first page of Google. However, when I searched the name of my blog I was on the first page. I think if I had tailored my blog post titles a little more to SEO, then I would have made it on the first page with both searches. I think I I would have used social media a little more to my advantage I would have made it as well.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

Something I found surprising about the reading was the section on the Due Diligence Evaluation. I never really thought about the fact that an entrepreneur should lay out everything on paper in detail when considering the acquisition on a venture. I think this is really smart because then an entrepreneur can really look at all the details and figure out their's companies' true worth.

One section that was confusing to me was the section on the adjusted tangible book value. I'm not exactly sure how to conduct this book value assessment and what it means for a company.

If I was able to ask 2 questions to the author, they would be 1) how exactly do you conduct an adjusted tangible book value and 2) what is a price earnings ratio used for?

I pretty much agreed with everything the author said. An entrepreneur really has to take a lot of things into account once they begin their business venture. I never really realized how in-depth and detailed it needed to be as well. I think any entrepreneur needs to really think about this before the decide to begin a venture, because it could make or break you.

Celebrating Failure

1) Tell us about a time this past semester that you failed.

I am taking a Writing Fundamentals class this semester and the first part of the class was all about grammar rules. I thought I knew grammar pretty well because I always seemed to do very well on writing assignments. However, this section of the class turned out to be really hard for me and I failed a few quizzes about certain grammar rules.

2) Tell us what you learned from it.

I was really hard on myself about this and started to feel like I was a really bad writer, which is kind of bad since my major is Journalism. But I did learn that I should pay more attention to the mechanics behind my writing and that I should ALWAYS proofread everything. I also learned that just because some grammar rules are a little difficult, that doesn't mean I am a bad writer and I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

3) Reflect, in general, on what you think about failure.

Failure is essential to success. If you don't find out what doesn't work, then how will you ever find out what does? I tend to be a little hard on myself whenever I experience failure. I immediately start blaming myself and think "why can't I do this right?" However, I should really be thinking "how can I do it better next time?" This class hasn't changed my perspective on failure a whole lot, but I have realized that I need to be better at searching for other opportunities to improve what hasn't worked before. I do think I am a little more likely to take a risk now than I was four months ago, and I hope to continue expanding my horizons and looking for better opportunities.