Reading Reflection No. 3

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki

1) The general theme for the book was talking about the importance and the myriad of ways of how social media today is a way to help a business thrive or for it to struggle. There is no denying the power of social media today and how it has an influence on so much that happens in businesses today.

2) The way the book helped connect with the class was how us entrepreneurs started blogs about our experiences on all the work we accomplished throughout the semester. We started our own form of social media to share out there with the world.

3) I would add an element of not only writing the blogs for the class but to also have the students share the blogs onto their own social media so that more of their friends and family would see their ideas for input.

4) The entire book for my was a huge "aha" because I did not know the lack of knowledge I had towards the importance of social media and what it is. Even had me second guessing how I use my social media and the improvements I want to make for myself

Final Reflection

1) Going back and reading through all my blogs it has definitely been a roller coaster of a semester for my in the class, with my summer classes and with my life in general. There were times where things were amazing and other times where it was not so amazing.

2) For myself, the biggest experience would have to be coming up with my venture idea, like something that not was thought off but also written out and talked about with others. The building of ideas and improvements over weeks stretches was definitely an experience and the first time I do such a thing.

3) I do see myself even more as an entrepreneur since I was put to think like one. My experience definitely has given me, even more, respect to all entrepreneurs for the experiences that they had to go through to achieve their dreams and success.

4) One recommendation I would give to future students is to take advantage of being able to think out the box and follow a dream/thought that you come up for your venture. There is nothing more rewarding and exciting than having an idea come to life and doing something you are passionate about.

Making It Real

Resume

My Exit Strategy

1) My exit strategy will be determined based on my experiences from it and where I am in life with my personal life. If I see it working out well and has the potential to grow even more I would keep it. If I see it costing me more in my personal life then I can see myself letting it go.

2) I choose this strategy because I want to do what is best for me. I do not want to live my life with regret and thinking "what if"

3) My exit strategy does influence my other decisions because one decision will have me doing everything I can to make it grow while another would make me want to do everything to set it up right so I could let it go, so it is all a matter of where I am going with my decision.

Celebrating Failure

My most common failure that I have had recently has to be in my internship. I can not count the amount of mistakes that I have made that has been the internship an experience, to say the least. The failure at times has been my fault for not paying enough close attention and making the "rookie" mistakes. Then others have been because I was put under the assumption of knowing how to do something but my fellow coworkers forgot I am new and do not know everything yet. Plus there have been days where the seconds have felt like minutes with how ridiculous and stressful things were going at work. At the end of the day though I can look back at it all and see what I have learned, how I have grown and know what I do not want to deal with in the future. Failure is hard for me, I am a perfectionist when it comes to many things. But for somethings, I am open to mistakes happening and learning in stride with what is going on. This internship was that, taking the time to accept mistakes are going to happen and then be able to learn from them to be able to capitalize in the future. Failure is something that is emotional and mental for me, I like to think a lot and failures are something I ponder about quite a bit at times. I have been much more open recently to taking risks because I have learned for me at least, it is what life is all about. Taking that risk for that reward.

 

Venture Concept No. 1.

Opportunity: The opportunity that is out there for the future customers is the chance to enhance their driving experience. There are vehicles out there today that have really bad blind spots and that makes driving dangerous and stressful. With offering a device where there be alerted of vehicles in their blind spot is would make the driving experience much more pleasant. The need is really any driver out there with a vehicle that doesn’t have blind spot sensors already on their vehicle which is millions of drivers in the U.S. alone. This window of opportunity will be open for many years to come until it becomes a basic part of vehicles to include blind spot detection.

Innovation: This idea of mine is not exactly new, it has already been done in a way. The issue is that it hasn’t been marketed in a way for it to have success. It has not been taken out and shown to people about it and how it can enhance their driving experience. The product is out there and for a while now, it just has not been presented in a manner yet where people feel that this can be a benefit to their lives. It is applying sensors on the blind spot of the vehicle so that the driver and feel confident and comfortable driving at all times. The price of the sensors will be determined on the manufacturing of the product as well as the amount of sensors that are bought, they will be sold in packs of two for the customers.

Venture Concept: Customers would buy this product because they will realize a way to benefit their life on the road in a way they never realized they could. And anything that makes life easier and better is a life that many people would want. For that reason people would by the product and the way to keep them is by keeping the product high quality and consistent in its use and experience. Competitors are already out there and that is where the idea came from in a way.

Minor Element

My secret sauce would have to be the connections that I have already made of individuals in the automotive industry. This would definitely help with getting my foot in the door and in the right direction to make this all happen.

The next opportunity for the venture would be making improvements to enhance the experience of the customers who are already using the product and finding ways to bring new customers in.

In five years of launching I would like to have the company to be self-sustaining, making its own revenue to run on. And in the next decade make a contract with a major automotive company to put the product into mass production in all vehicles. 

My Unfair Advantage.

1. Ease of use
v- High, something easy to use is wanted especially if it has benefits
r- Low, not an original idea
i, Low, can be duplicated
n- High, there are others out there that offer similar benefits

2. Potential to grow
v- High, for investors this may seem worthwhile
r- Medium, something like this can be new to some people
i- Medium, if a similar product was to come out it can compete
n- Low

3. Industry connections
v- High, great foot in the door for a big job
r- High, not normal for such potential
i- Medium, someone with similar connections can capitalize
n- Medium, someone with similar connections can do the same

4. Personal drive
v- High, needed to achieve success
r- Low, not rare but at the same time not everyone has it
i- Low- anyone can get a drive for success
n-

5. Multilingual
v- High, can expand into many regions and countries
r- Low, others know the language as well
i- Low, anyone can learn the language
n- Low, many resources out there can translate

6. Growth
v- High, any growth is good growth for the company
r- Low, growth is needed for success so not necessarily rare
i- Medium, could be duplicate but could lead to different results
n- Low, not many resources that are perfect

I am aware I am 4 short of the requirement. I had a tough time thinking of good advantages that can be brought to the table. But out of the 6 mentioned above I think the biggest advantage would have to be the connections I have in the automotive industry. As the saying goes, "its not what you know, its who you know."