What's Your Secret Sauce?

My description of what makes me different:

1. I have had the opportunity to work three different jobs, two of which were internships in my interested career field and one of which was a part-time job working as a student assistant on-campus. Therefore, I would say my different work experiences has allowed me to gain a lot of knowledge about different fields, such as consulting and retail.
2. Growing up I constantly had to move around a lot. I can recall moving approximately ten times in my 22 years of my life. These experiences have allowed me to gain the skill of adaptability and openness to change. 
3. As a fourth year, I feel that I have gained a plethora of knowledge with my double major in Psychology and Management. Upon graduation, I will have a degree in two completely different fields and I think that sets me apart from my colleagues.
4. Living with 16 other girls for the past four years (I live in a scholarship house where rent is free) and I’ve had to build on my interpersonal and communication skills to be able to live communally. In addition to that, I believe because of how many diverse relationships I’ve created within my household, I have learned to be empathetic and considerate as well.
5. I was born in a different country, Ukraine and grew up in a household where Ukrainian was spoken regularly. Therefore, I have been fortunate to be bilingual. I also have been learning the French language and have basic speaking and writing skills.

Interviews:

Recording #1 - Rony Schutz, one of my best guy friends

Rony talked about my more sociable attributes, such as my charisma and ability to connect with others. He also reflected on my cultural background and upbringing which he believes plays into my determination with school and work.

Recording #2 - Anatalie Dantes, one of my roommates

Anatalie geared her answer towards my past work experiences and my ability to be adaptable. This interview was more reflective of what I wrote about myself.

Recording #3 - Veronica Eslava, one of my roommates

Veronica went a bit in-depth and focused on my strengths as a person. She emphasized on how I am in a more social setting, specifically with my friends or loved ones. There was a greater emphasis on my emotions and how they contribute to my human capital.

Recording #4 - Sofia Calderon, one of my roommates

Sofia was able to expand on many of my attributes, such as my emotional abilities and experiences. She even mentioned my cultural background and how it is a big part of my identity.

Recording #5 - Mason Cheng, my boyfriend

Mason truly delved deep on my involvement on and off-campus and how those experiences have shaped who I am. He talked about my interpersonal skills and how they've been beneficial in my personal life and throughout my internship experiences.


Reflection:
All in all, some of the interviews aligned with my description of my human capital. I noticed most of my friends and loved ones focused on my more personable attributes, such as being a caring person or having empathy. I focused more on the pragmatic skills I've gained since I find it a bit uncomfortable talking about myself. I based my descriptions on my experiences whether it was with work or on-campus involvement. It was interesting to hear people talk about attributes that I never truly think about or dwell on. I guess it's kind of like asking someone to talk about how great they are. It's pretty uncomfortable and might not provide the most accurate responses. Overall, I feel that my list was pretty accurate on what makes me different, since the attributes were more tangible, but next time I'll have to incorporate more intangible attributes since they seem to be just as important.

Figuring out Buyer Behavior, No. 2

The segment I chose this time around were female college students between the ages of 18-22. One female was a  freshman who lives on-campus, another female was a student athlete, and the last female was a first year graduate student, getting her Master’s in international business. 

Begin with an alternative explanation.

Upon introducing the self-defense workshop idea, I also went about asking potential alternatives to this service. The freshman female believed it should be a free service and should only cater to women or marginalized groups rather than everyone because those are the groups that need these skills the most. The student athlete believed it should mirror the way mixed martial arts classes are taught, with pay as you go classes and a sole focus on just physical actions and bettering them. She believed the price for this service should relatively be the same price as other fitness classes. And for the last interviewee, the female graduate student, she believed there might be too many barriers of entry with this kind of service and that it should be more of an educational service/seminar centered on just learning about crisis management.

How/where do they buy?

With this service, all three candidates believed that if this business were to be successful some form of a monthly membership fee could potentially work. The female student athlete and freshman stressed the importance of having a pay as you go service at first, and then gradually transitioning into a membership for loyal customers. The graduate student believed incorporating some sort of feedback or “refresher session” at the end of each class/workshop would help identify whether the customer feels satisfied with the service; whether that be through an online survey or personal anecdote of the experience directed towards the instructor. 

Post-purchase evaluation.

The female freshman believes that if the service helps make her feel more comfortable about walking home alone at night, she’ll feel “right” about the business and paying for its service. The student athlete agreed, but since she is an athlete and has done strength training, she believes the service will be worth it if there’s a tier structure with a beginner, intermediate, and advanced level. This tier structure would eventually open it up to a wider demographic of individuals and not just limit it to those with no physically active background. The graduate student had a similar opinion to the student athlete, and she greatly emphasized the educational aspect of the service and believes there that it will provide a greater return on investment with more focus on crisis management education.

Conclusion.

This segment of females between the ages of 18-22 surprisingly had some differing views about what they felt would be a better alternative service. Some believed in administering it as an educational service/seminar on proper crisis management, sort of like a class. Others believed it would be more successful if it followed the typical fitness class rubric. All in all, each interviewee’s contribution on the idea definitely provide good insight on how to better the self-defense service. 

Halfway Reflection

• Tenacious is a competency.
• I have definitely learned more about time management. You would think as a fourth year, I would have protected this notion. It is still something I struggle with pretty regularly, but I am grateful to be taking a course that truly utilizes a consistent schedule and makes me accountable for my deadlines. As for behaviors that have develop my entrepreneurial spirit, I see myself becoming more open-minded and utilizing those problem-solving skills I never knew I had, especially when I am trying to improve on my business and its opportunities.

• Tenacious is also about attitude.
• On more than one occasion I have felt like "giving up," sometimes it was knowing that there was an end to a project or an end to a destination was the one thing that kept me going. The moment you realize there is a finality to most things, the more motivated you become to reach it. A lot of these assignments, in all honesty, made me want to "give up" especially when I had other deadlines and priorities. But the moment I got into the zone and began seeing results, the more determined and motivated I became. So in a sense, I did grow a more tenacious attitude.

• Three tips
• Do not procrastinate, make sure to be on top of your assignments and get ahead with interviews so you can get the most content and information on your entrepreneurial venture.
• Do not be discouraged if your business has some flaws, sometimes you need to find those flaws or mistakes to perfect the business and make sure the opportunity can be exploited to the best of its abilities.
• Use the resources readily available to you. Think of business ideas that you can execute yourself, such as DIY products or services

Reading Reflection, No. 1

1.     From reading Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s, the one thing that truly surprised me the most was how late into his life Ray Kroc exploited the opportunity of fast food chains. At fifty-two, he established his own small business when most executives at his age were reaching retirement.

As for his most admirable achievement, Kroc revolutionized the game of family dining with his Multimixer invention and business acumen. And subsequently so, he surpassed one billion dollars in total revenue in his twenty-second year of leading the McDonald’s empire. At the time, big-name companies such as IBM reached its one-billion-dollar sales mark in its forty-sixth year, and Xerox took approximately sixty-three years before they hit their mark. For the time, this achievement was widely impressive. Kroc was a self-made man, who climbed up the ladder and used his hard-work and determination to turn his lowly life of a cup salesman to one of the most successful entrepreneurs.

I think the least admirable aspect of Ray Kroc is probably one of his most admirable trademarks. The fact that he was willing to venture into a risky business and sacrifice everything for an industry he was not familiar with seems a bit naïve. But at the same time, it takes a lot of courage and grit to pursue such a mindset and he was undoubtedly successful for it.

I think the trials and tribulations Kroc faced in the beginning of his life were a bit difficult for him to conquer. He was involved in selling illegal liquor and bad real estate. Many of his career moves were unstable and he was not scholastically inclined either. He ended up overcoming these adversities by going into selling where he worked his way up and exploited on a milkshake machine invention. And from there on out, the rest was history.

2.     Kroc’s competencies behind his success  revolve around hard work, persistence, and decision-making ventures. Throughout all of Kroc’s ventures, he followed these key principles whether he was out playing piano at different bars or selling Lily Cups to restauranteurs. He continued to follow those competencies even after his growing success with the Multimixer and his McDonald’s restaurant expansion efforts.

3.     There was no specific part of the reading that was confusing. The only thing that may have been a bit confusing were some of Kroc’s life decisions or how some of his career plans panned out. He seemed very invested in the music industry, with his piano jobs and radio features. I was just curious to know why he would completely abandon those passions after he became extremely successful.

4.     The two questions that I would most likely ask Ray Kroc are the following:

a.     When times would get rough and you feel like there’s no way up, what kept you going? What made you think that everything was going to work out in the end?

b.     With your work ethic, how do you not get burnt out?

I would ask these particular questions because they seemed to be a common theme throughout his book. He talks about all the work and his journey up the ladder, but he never really dives deep into his life outside of his career. It would’ve been interesting to see how he maintained the work/life balance so many of us aspire to have in our future careers.

5.     Throughout this assignment, a recurring topic surrounding Ray Kroc is his work ethic. He was a man of true grit and determination, and nothing could stop him. He mentions the saying “all work and no play makes jack a dull boy”, where he goes about refuting this belief because he himself found work and play analogous. So evidently, he exhibited a true mark of an entrepreneur because working and following his career path was his play and he didn’t feel the need to take a break from it. I, on the other hand, am a bit different. I wholeheartedly believe in maintaining a balance between work and life, but I admire people who follow Kroc’s mantra and grow successful from it.

Sketching out the Beginning of the Buyer Behavior Process

Segment

The segment I chose were personal trainers and/or workout instructors. I spoke with two male personal trainers, one who teaches at the Southwest Recreational Center here at the University of Florida, and another one who trains at the Gainesville Health & Fitness Center. The workout instructor was a female and she teaches kickboxing and/other strength training workout classes. All three of them cater to my exact demographic, and for the most part many of them believed there is some merit in establishing some active self-defense workshop in their designated work places.

Interview Summaries:

Interview #1: The first interview was with a UF personal trainer. He has on more than one occasion trained college females, but something he has noticed was their discomfort around him. It seemed as if they had an imminent fear with working with him and he never understood it. It wasn’t until later that he found out most of the female clients felt uncomfortable working with him because he was a guy and they didn’t know if they would need to defend themselves. It would take a couple of training sessions for them to warm up to him, but upon hearing their stories and fears he understood why they felt that way. He thought it was a shame that guys like him would do that to other females, and he agreed that having some sort of self-defensive workshop might help the females but it doesn’t solve the overall problem.

Interview #2: The second interview was surprisingly a bit different, even though the personal trainer from Gainesville Health & Fitness center was male as well, he did not seem to have the same issues the UF trainer had. Many of his clients were a good mash-up of men and women between the ages of 25-45. He did not realize this unmet need for security and self-defense was needed until he spoke with one recently graduated UF student. But now that he’s more educated on the matter, he thinks having some sort self-defense workshop wouldn’t be a bad idea. He mentioned that it might be difficult to make a business out of it, since the police department sponsors a lot of these similar types of programs for free.

Interview #3: My last interviewee seemed the most aware of this problem. She is a workout instructor for a lot of strength training classes at the UF recreational centers, and her current position sparked interest in her because she has experienced this imminent fear and sense of vulnerability herself. She’s actually the ideal poster child for the mission of my business venture. She’s still in university but upon graduation she wants to continue teaching kickboxing and her other classes because she believes it can be incredibly empowering. She has friends and family who have fallen victim of violent crimes because they were defenseless, therefore she’s on a mission to change that narrative. She thinks the self-defense workshops might have some difficulty building clientele, but she believes it can be possible with the proper marketing and business plan layout.

What I learned?

I learned that this issue is way more common than I thought. The opportunity is there and people who fall into this market believe it to be true too. The only thing that seems to be a struggle is the operating competitors in the established market. Similar programs already exist and many of them are free. The barriers of entry will make it difficult to establish a role as a viable competitor.

Description of Segment

For the most part, I think the awareness for the need was there. Some were more aware than others, I think it has a lot to do with the demographic they’re constantly being exposed to in addition to their environment. As for their ability to search information, their experiences and data is mainly reported through observation. There is a bit of AN availability/representative heuristics issue where they may generalize based on the clients they tend to see.