Week 6 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

What stood out to me the most is that the forces that shape competition are different based on different industries or markets.  

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

One part that was confusing was that "eliminating rivals is a risky strategy." This doesn't really make sense to me how one would go about eliminating a rival from the market. That seems unrealistic.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

First, I would ask the author is if rivalry among competitors is something that drives people away from certain industries?

Second, I would ask the author statistics regarding how these factors actually effected to success of failure of new competitors that enter existing markets (aka entrepreneurs)?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

There wasn't anything in the article that I disagreed with but I think the author could have used more real life examples to go along with the information he provided.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. 

I am a junior at UF who is very sociable and enjoys spending time with friends and family. Since classes, tutors and playing lacrosse take up much of my time, when I do get free time I like to use it to the fullest. I am a very motivated individual that is devoted to the things that interest me. I enjoy making others happy. I believe the social aspect of college is one of the most important. College is where you shape who you are, who you will become, and establish a core group of friends who will stay in your life for a long period of time.

2) What are you offering to customers? 

The service I will offer to customers is an app called Future Pay that allows you to pay hours ahead of time to get into your favorite Midtown bars. This will speed up the long waiting process to get into the bars. It will be a more efficient system for both the bouncers and the bar goers.

3) Who are you offering it to? I am going to offer this product to UF students who like to go out in Midtown. Most, if not all, of those who go to bars in Midtown are college students. The bar owners and bouncers of the bars will also be offered the app because they will have to operate their business through Future Pay in order to manage how many people they allow into their bar.

4) Why do they care? 
 This service will be valuable to costumers because the last thing people want to do when they are going out is to wait in a long line and deal with obnoxious people trying to cut them. With Future Pay, lines will hopefully be eliminated completely to make for a much more efficient system than what is currently in place. Especially in Gainesville, the social scene is very important to the culture of the University of Florida so it is necessary to make it as appealing as possible.

5) What are your core competencies? 
What sets me apart from most people is my constant drive, determination, and motivation to complete my goals. I am able to work through adversity and failures have never caused me to give up. I am very independent and self motivating which would be vital to working on the completion of Future Pay.

I believe these elements fit well together with the concept of my business idea. In order to make a new app work, you must have confidence in yourself and be willing to accept failures. I have never been someone who gets discouraged when things don't work out at first. These are very important traits when working to become an entrepreneur because there is no doubt that you will faced with obstacles, difficult decisions, and failures before you are successful.