Final Reflection

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/77/42/6c/77426c82158f28606bdf301c8d88458d.jpg

Final Reflection

1) This past semester in this class, I had a bunch of highs and a few lows. When looking through my past blogs and where I started and how far I have gotten in this class, I am truly proud of myself. It was a long journey but I think it was a great experience and I have learned a lot about my career path. When it comes to my highs, the opportunity I had chosen provided me with them. I loved learning more about our ocean and how it is truly affected by pollution and I also enjoyed sharing this knowledge with people who are involved in it. I also enjoyed interviewing and meeting such wonderful people and gaining tips from them as well. Some low points for me were when I struggled to push myself through this class. I had a hard time procrastinating to get this work done but in the end, it was definitely worth it. I also struggled with telling my idea in a written form to others. I knew what I wanted to do but when it came down to it, I had a hard time explaining it. However, every struggle that I had always ended up making me stronger and I learned a lot from this experience. 

2) An experience that I had during this class that stood out to me the most was trying to figure out a bug list. For some reason, this was very hard for me and it was also the first assignment so I did not truly understand the concept of the reason behind doing it. After finding the perfect opportunity, the bug list was not so hard and that there are a lot of major issues and opportunities in this world that need to be fixed. The most joyous experience was when I got to interview a member of an organization that helps clean the beaches. I really enjoyed talking to him and listening to how much he truly knows and loves our oceans. There are a lot of good people I got to meet along this journey that really care about our planet and have good hearts and I am super lucky to have met them. 

3) Due to this experience and all the information gained from this class about Entrepreneurship, I definitely see myself as an entrepreneur and have learned a lot more about it. Due to the information given from the professor and also having to create a concept to start a career, I know the basics of what I want to do with my life and more about my career path. Before I joined this class, I did not know the true definition of an entrepreneur but now I understand the whole meaning behind it and how to become one. I definitely see myself as one and have moved towards that mindset to become successful. 

4) For the students about to partake in this class and follow this long journey, I would recommend to work ahead in this class and to pay lots of attention to the videos. Also, to pick a very unique opportunity so that in the future, you have less competition. I struggled most with competition so if that does happen to your fellow students, try to find or create things to make you different from them and make you stand out. Other than that, I think you guys will really enjoy this class and it was a great learning experience for me and my career. 

Venture Concept #2

How Pollution Truly Affects Our Oceans

1) Opportunity

    My main audience for this service are restaurant owners and beach lovers across the South Florida area. I hope to reach more areas across the state of Florida in the future. Plastic pollution and trash along the waterways are a huge issue towards humans, marine life, and also the environment. There is a plastic ball the size of Rhode Island that covers the Atlantic Ocean that does not allow marine life to travel through. That is caused by fishermen, restaurants, and most people who leave their trash on the beach. The reason why I address this is because of my idea to ban all restaurants from the use of non-degradable items, such as plastic, located on the South Florida waterways. The potential customers are people who are educated on this matter and want to help save our oceans as well. Everyone has this need without even knowing or understanding it. Mostly residence living on waterways and people who go to the beach daily are the most interested in this service. I already have a variety of customers who are willing to help reach out to restaurants to end this issue and also customers who are willing to commit to this service for the long-run. Most people go to the beach to enjoy the scenery and the ocean but do not take the time to save it, so I hope to advertise that as well to my customers. This need is presented in many different ways such as, organizations and people who volunteer to collect trash. The customers that are loyal to those jobs just want to help so I know they will be very interested in my service as well. Most customers who are not interested in this service are people who do not have the patience to understand how much plastic damages our planet and also people who are careless about trash on the beach. I hope for this opportunity to last so that more restaurants across the world are open to using only degradable items and ban the use of all plastic. However, I believe this need will not only help marine life but also help educate people on this matter and hopefully reach out to those who do not understand how damaging plastic truly is to our Earth. 

2) Innovation

    As I stated before, My idea is to create a service that bans or restricts the use of non-degradable items at beaches and restaurants located on the coast of South Florida. This solution will help take a bigger step to end plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans. My innovation is the service that will eventually stop the use of plastic in restaurants and on beaches by creating a business to donate other degradable items instead and also knowledge of the customers on the effects of pollution in our ocean. This will ensure that plastic straws, cups, lids, and all other items will not be entering the waterways from the restaurants. Over 1,000 sea turtles die a year from plastic, so imagine all the other sea life affected as well. I will be advertising how much plastic damages our oceans towards mostly restaurants and daily beach people and by doing this, I will be making money through donations and through my own advertising, such as selling stickers and shirts. I also will be working with restaurants to help spread awareness. When it comes to pricing it depends on how much people are willing to help prevent pollution and in the future, I hope for my business to reach many people in other areas that want to help as well. Also, that not only are that many sea turtles dying, but there is a ball the size of Rhode Island located in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean as well. People are affected by pollution too so If we want a brighter future, this is a way to help solve it.

3) Venture Concept

     I believe customers will switch to buying into this service because of how effective it is compared to other services and organizations. I also think a majority of my customers want to just help save our oceans in the fastest way possible and to also spread awareness in a unique way. The main competitors are other services that do beach clean-ups. The only reason why they are competitors is because people usually volunteer to hope they are helping by cleaning up the beaches, however, I want to educate people on ways to clean up after themselves and how important it is. When it comes to the business location it is perfect because South Florida is a main area where tourists visit and there are a variety of restaurants located on waterways. When it comes to employees it would be mostly assistants and advertisers, since I just want to spread awareness and get my service to more people than just the south Florida area. 

4) The Three Minor Elements

    My service's most important resource is the customer support. This is my "secret sauce" because not a lot of organizations, similar to mine, have this. When it comes to a small service or business this is the most important factor to have so that the customers that do support your service share and spread it out to others. It will be difficult for someone to copy my idea due to the fact that I already have plenty of customers who are interested in it and my location as well is very unique and helpful. Like I have said before, I hope in the future this service spreads globally and ends all plastic materials not only in South Florida but in other parts of the world.  Lastly, In the next five years, I hope that this service has met its goal of restricting the use of non-degradable items and all I want to be is successful with this and hope to educate more people on this topic of pollution and the importance of protecting our sea life. Having customer support can help a business grow even further. 

Feedback

    When it comes to my feedback, I did not receive that much feedback from the students. Although I did receive compliments on how a student understands my concept better and thinks its a great idea and that I used a strong amount of detail.  So, since that is all the feedback I received, I decided to ask some other peers on their suggestions and tips to change this venture concept. They told me it was really well done and that I should talk more about why customer support is so important to your business and how that will truly benefit me. I agree and so I deeply addressed the importance of it. I added more statistics and just got even deeper with the meaning behind my opportunity. I think this assignment truly helped me acknowledge my business for the future. 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.miaminewtimes.com%2Fnews%2Ffive-dumb-florida-preemption-laws-11416294&psig=AOvVaw210k2OJVRYk4g5EmVTjsYn&ust=1596240621731000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPjZ7_mZ9uoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

My Exit Strategy

My Exit Strategy

1) My exit strategy would be to hopefully sell it to someone in the next five years. I am hoping for it to be spread to more areas than just South Florida so it can grow into something bigger, it might take more than five years but at this rate, I have a lot of customer support for it to spread in the near future. Although my service is year-round, the most popular season would be summer so maybe even in the near future, I will be able to only work during the summer and lean off of the majority of the rest of the year. I hope to make a larger profit when extending it past five years if possible.

2) I have chosen this particular exit strategy because it would hopefully make me the most successful when working less. I also think it would be beneficial to spread awareness through other services and connecting with them in the near future and selling them my business. 

3) This existing strategy has not influenced any of the other decisions I have made through this process. When it comes to the goals I have for this business, I was not thinking of leaving it anytime soon unless my goal is achieved and I make a large profit from this. When it came to choosing my opportunity I was not thinking of the exit strategy at all so it has not influenced my decisions. I wanted to make an impact on this planet, not just try to escape a business I have been successful in. For the resources I have used and will be using, this does not affect them at all. I have the resources I do to make my business successful but I do not think it has an impact on them. With customer support, I do think it will help me get to the exit strategy I want to use but I do not think I use certain resources for my exit strategy. 

Reading Respond 3

For the last reading response, I chose to read "The Art Of Social Media",

 by Guy Kawasaki, I felt it was very helpful when trying to start a new business.

1) The overall theme of this book is the ways and tips to creating a business-like brand on social media. The main key points were strategies for posting on social media in a unique form that will make you different than your competitors. 

2) This book connected with this class because of the ways to market your product, Pryor discussed to us in the videos. This class and the book both discuss the importance of a target audience and how to advertise the business in a unique way. When it comes to the customers, knowing what they want and having an exact type of customer will benefit you in the long run when it comes to small businesses.

3) When it comes to creating an exercise for this class based on the book, I would have each student identify how many hours go into their advertisement and posts on social media. It should take a while to make sure everything is unique and precise. I feel like the students dedicating more of their time to their posts will help them understand the importance of it.

4) The biggest "aha" moment for me or that I was surprised about was when Guy mentions in the book a paraphrase of how not everyone can just post something and get noticed right away and how each post must come with purpose when it comes to getting recognized. I'm surprised by how much comes to social media and the work of process people go through just for one post.

Celebrating Failure

   KiteBoarding

 The time I have failed in this past semester would be the time I spent trying to learn how to Kite Board. All summer I have been wanting to learn and I thought it would be the easiest watersport since it just has the kite do all the work. I failed horribly the first couple of times, slamming my self against the water and being dragged with the kite. I got very frustrated and just wanted to give up. I spent hours trying over and over again but just kept failing multiple times. After a couple more times and hours of trying, I finally got the kite up and started riding. I did give up and fail over and over again, but with more practice and time things started to click. I learned a lot from this experience, I learned to never give up and that certain tasks can take patience and time to succeed. Failure is hard and very frustrating but I believe it can push you to succeed at a task. Failing multiple times was definitely embarrassing and a huge struggle, I always want to be the best at the task I am trying to achieve but it always comes with failing first to learn the ways to reach a goal. This class has taught me a lot about failure and how I overcome it to reach my goal. I always take risks but after this class, I know to just accept failure and to take a different perspective on it to achieve what I want in life.

What's Next?

Existing Market

In the near future, the next step is to further my service to more people and restaurants around the world by growing my advertising and spreading the awareness even further. For the products, I just hope to have more donations and revenue towards this cause so it can spread to even more people. When interviewing the three people, they said very similar ideas when it comes to planning new ideas. The overall helpful idea is to also clean up beaches and work with more local organizations that can help with my business so that more people understand my concept. They also said to make sure that I have enough people interested and understand what I am trying to achieve. Lastly, they noted to maybe even reach further than just restaurants on the coast and try to reach out to plastic-making factories and get them to recognize the damage they are creating.

Overall these were all very good points made from each interview. I believe that I can achieve all of these ideas and that they will end up benefiting my service in the long run. For my venture, I believe that reaching out to factories can be a stronger way to spread the awareness and acknowledge the damage being created. I think that once I have my service running, that will be my next goal. 

New Market

For my new market that is very different than my own, I am reaching out to people who do not live near waterways or on the coast of South Florida. I am focusing on people who live in Suburb areas and cities.

The reason why this is very radical is because the plastic they use does not affect waterways as much as living near the beaches. I chose this area because plastic still affects the environment in these areas, just in a different way. The location of this service and the audience is very different than my original market, I still hope to reach out to these people as well in the near future. Even though these people do not live near the ocean and get to experience its beauty, If I educate them on the damage of pollution I believe it will still make an impact on those who care about the beautiful Earth. Plastic damages earth in every city and every part of this planet, just because people do not live near waterways doesn't mean trash should still be left in the cities. I believe that no matter what location I present this issue too, people will still try to help save our planet and recognize the damage being done by us. When interviewing, the key points this time were to make sure I have a good presentation of how harmful it truly is and how they can help. They said this will truly help meet customers like them so that they truly understand what I am trying to achieve and what they can do to be apart of it. 

Reflection- From this new market I learned that I have a variety of customers that are interested in helping than just my main targeted customers. I was surprised that people who even live in large cities want to understand how pollution affects our planet and oceans, even when they don't even get to see our oceans they still care enough to hear about it and help. This new market was very helpful and I feel even stronger as a business that more people will want to spread awareness and that I have a variety of customer support from all over Florida. 

Venture Concept #1

How Pollution Truly Affects Our Oceans

1) Opportunity

    My main audience for this service are restaurant owners and beach lovers across the South Florida area. I hope to reach more areas across the state of Florida in the future. Plastic pollution and trash along the waterways are a huge issue towards humans, marine life, and also the environment. There is a plastic ball the size of Rhode Island that covers the Atlantic Ocean that does not allow marine life to travel through. That is caused by fishermen, restaurants, and most people who leave their trash on the beach. The reason why I address this is because of my idea to ban all restaurants from the use of non-degradable items, such as plastic, located on the South Florida waterways. The potential customers are people who are educated on this matter and want to help save our oceans as well. Everyone has this need without even knowing or understanding it. Mostly residence living on waterways and people who go to the beach daily are the most interested in this service. I already have a variety of customers who are willing to help reach out to restaurants to end this issue and also customers who are willing to commit to this service for the long-run. Most people go to the beach to enjoy the scenery and the ocean but do not take the time to save it, so I hope to advertise that as well to my customers. This need is presented in many different ways such as, organizations and people who volunteer to collect trash. The customers that are loyal to those jobs just want to help so I know they will be very interested in my service as well. Most customers who are not interested in this service are people who do not have the patience to understand how much plastic damages our planet and also people who are careless about trash on the beach. I hope for this opportunity to last so that more restaurants across the world are open to using only degradable items and ban the use of all plastic. However, I believe this need will not only help marine life but also help educate people on this matter and hopefully reach out to those who do not understand how damaging plastic truly is to our Earth. 

2) Innovation

    As I stated before, My idea is to create a service that bans or restricts the use of non-degradable items at beaches and restaurants located on the coast of South Florida. This solution will help take a bigger step to end plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans. My innovation is the service that will eventually stop the use of plastic in restaurants and on beaches by creating a business to donate other degradable items instead and also knowledge of the customers on the effects of pollution in our ocean. This will ensure that plastic straws, cups, lids, and all other items will not be entering the waterways from the restaurants. Over 1,000 sea turtles die a year from plastic, so imagine all the other sea life affected as well. I will be advertising how much plastic damages our oceans towards mostly restaurants and daily beach people and by doing this, I will be making money through donations and through my own advertising, such as selling stickers and shirts. I also will be working with restaurants to help spread awareness. When it comes to pricing it depends on how much people are willing to help prevent pollution and in the future, I hope for my business to reach many people in other areas that want to help as well.

3) Venture Concept

    I believe customers will switch to buying into this service because of how effective it is compared to other services and organizations. I also think a majority of my customers want to just help save our oceans in the fastest way possible and to also spread awareness in a unique way. The main competitors are other services that do beach clean-ups. The only reason why they are competitors is because people usually volunteer to hope they are helping by cleaning up the beaches, however, I want to educate people on ways to clean up after themselves and how important it is. When it comes to the business location it is perfect because South Florida is a main area where tourists visit and there are a variety of restaurants located on waterways. When it comes to employees it would be mostly assistants and advertisers, since I just want to spread awareness and get my service to more people than just the south Florida area. My process is very simple and all it takes is the customers to understand the importance of it and how much this service can truly help our oceans.

4) The Three Minor Elements

    My service's most important resource is the customer support. This is my "secret sauce" because not a lot of organizations, similar to mine, have this. When it comes to a small service or business this is the most important factor to have so that the customers that do support your service share and spread it out to others. It will be difficult for someone to copy my idea due to the fact that I already have plenty of customers who are interested in it and my location as well is very unique and helpful. Like I have said before, I hope in the future this service spreads globally and ends all plastic materials not only in South Florida but in other parts of the world.  Lastly, In the next five years, I hope that this service has met its goal of restricting the use of non-degradable items and all I want to be is successful with this and hope to educate more people on this topic of pollution and the importance of protecting our sea life. 

Venture's Unfair Advantage

1) Human Capital: Personal Experience- Growing up near the beach and seeing how much trash is there on a daily basis. First-hand experience with trying to collect the trash as well.

VALUABLE: Very High, It's why I started this process.

RARE: Low

IMITABLE: Somewhat High

NON-SUBSITUTABLE:  In the middle, average 

2) Human Capital: Marketing & Advertising- Having connections that will help advertise this service very well and also market the service so people understand how helpful it truly is towards our planet.

VALUABLE: Very High, much needed for this process

RARE: High

IMITABLE: Low

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: Low

3) Human Capital: Dedication- I have always wanted to start this service to help our oceans and I am determined to accomplish this and dedicated to reaching other areas besides South Florida.

VALUABLE: High, this is a huge part of my service and determination

RARE: Low

IMITABLE: Low

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: High

4) Social Capital: Knowledge- The more customers who are interested in this service, the more education on this matter this experience will bring them. Most people do not understand how pollution truly harms our oceans.

VALUABLE: Very High, People who are knowledgeable on this matter, try to help more and care for the ocean more as well.

RARE: High

IMITABLE: High

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: Very Low

5) Financial Capital: Low expenses: Since most restaurants' concerns about switching to non-degradable items is because of the prices, so donations for this service go to a great cause and play a huge role in ending plastic altogether.

VALUABLE: Very high and strongest

RARE: Very High, Most of these services similar to mine are very expensive and money can get lost in it as well.

IMITABLE: Very low

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: High

6) Social Capital: Customer Service & Support- Having such interested customers already truly makes a difference in this service, it also helps spread awareness and has a huge impact when reaching out to more customers.

VALUABLE: High, this is very important when it comes to starting a business, the customers are the main key for small services.

RARE: Average

IMITABLE: Low

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: Very Low 

7) Human Capital: Value of this service- This service spreads awareness about pollution and how harmful the use of plastic truly is towards our environment. This service brings good to the planet and will help many marine life for the future. 

VALUABLE: Very High, Impacting us and also marine life

RARE: High

IMITABLE: Average

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: Average

8) Human Capital: Beneficial to all: Many people go to the beach to enjoy the scenery and by starting this service, all people and sea life will benefit from it by spreading the awareness of plastic damage. 

VALUABLE: Average

RARE: High

IMITABLE: Average

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: Low

9) Customer Location Experience: Understanding how customers react to this service and what they liked/disliked the most about this service so I can work on things that need to be fixed. When interviewing multiple people at once I can tell who truly cares about this service and those who do not. This means I know where to launch this service.

VALUABLE: Very High, this is very important to this service because it shows the best location and people to start it.

RARE: High

IMITABLE: Low

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: High

10) Human Capital: 5+ Restaurants who are already on board in the South Florida Area- By already reaching out to certain well-known restaurants in the south Florida area and gaining their support with tiny information, makes it seem like more restaurants would be open to this idea as well. 

VALUABLE: Strongest, this is the first step to the service provided, getting approval.

RARE: Somewhat High

IMITABLE: Low

NON-SUBSITUTABLE: Very High

In Conclusion, The strongest and best resource after conducting the VRIN analysis would have to be the customer support. Without customer support and recognition gained, the service would fall through. When gaining attention and acknowledgment of the oceans and how pollution truly hurts it, people understand and want to help even more. By starting this service, all resources matter but obviously more than others. I also think that the more people hear about this service, the more they want to learn about the pollution and plastic damage and want to try to save it as well. 

Elevator Pitch #3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH4SUiZWbEc

Elevator Pitch #3 link^

• For this next elevator pitch, I listened to the comments and changed up the scenery so that the lighting is way better and I also spoke a lot more clearer. For the feedback that I got from my classmates, they said they really liked the question in the beginning so I kept it. I also talked more stronger and passionate about this matter and brought in more statistics. I definitely have it way more memorized and also even sound way more comfortable and confident than my last two pitches. 

Reading Reflection #2

The Book I have chosen for the second Assignment to read is...

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Written By, Carol Dweck

1) The overall theme of this book is how important your self-perception and mindsets are towards your successes and failures in life. Growth and Fixed mindsets are the two key parts throughout this book, both play a huge role in this book and how people can have a stuck mindset which can affect their future decisions. 

2) This book truly did help enhance what I am learning in this class because of the different views on myself and the two different mindsets I can have towards reaching my main goal. This book has a lot to do with entrepreneurship and the principles discussed through the book perceive in these people. A Growth mindset plays an essential role when it comes to this class because of the challenges I have gained through this class and how I take those challenges and failures and never give up, which is very similar to the different ways discussed in the book to handle failure and grow from it.

3) The exercise I would provide based on this book is to describe three successes and failures and how you overcame those failures and how you reached those successes. I also would mention how your mindset was during those failures and what you could have changed to make them successful. 

4) I truly learned a lot during this book and I was surprised at the different aspects of how people handle situations, including myself. Since this book discussed the growth and fixed perspectives within the mindset is connected to how I see myself acknowledging future situations based on those two mindsets. It made me have a totally different perspective on ways to overcome future challenges and the way my mind will handle them from now on. I truly enjoyed reading this book and think it can help not only entrepreneurs but people who have a hard time getting over certain failures. 

Growing Your Social Capital

Social Capital Interviews:

1) Tina Dugan- She has over 20+ years of cleaning up beaches and is an expert on this issue located in South Florida

2) Domain Expert- Experiences the same problem and is engaged in the same main service I want to start.

3) I found Tina from a past interview with one of the residences I had interviewed. I also know of her from cleaning up the beaches, I received her number from the local residents and then reached out to her. She was very helpful and supported this service I am proposing.

4) Tina was very helpful and provided many key tips on the importance of starting this service. She thinks its a great idea and actually really wanted to support it. She helps all organizations that try to help the ocean and was very helpful when thinking of some ideas to help start this service. Her service is very similar to mine, she started a service that cleans up the Loxahatchee river and is very well known in Jupiter. She truly inspired me and is very interested in my idea. I will help her service as well to give back everything she will do to help me.

5) Including Tina in this service will help spread this idea through her connections and also her tips will advance my idea.

1) Jack Connolly- Years of helping Tina with her business of keeping the oceans clean. 

2) Market Expert- Tina uses Jack for her Instagram and advertising part of her service. Jack is very interested in my market and thinks it can be very helpful to our oceans not only in South Florida. 

3) I reached out to Jack because of Tina. Tina has given me a lot of connections to start this service since she is very well known in the South Florida area. Jack wants to help me market my service and also spread the awareness. 

4) Jack also gave me a lot of tips when it comes to spreading this service to more people and also wants to help me reach out to more people. He also gave me tips on what services are already similar to my idea and how I can make mine different than others. I think Jack is very interested in my business and truly wants to start it to help marine life and create this service to spread even more awareness in South Florida.

5) Jack provided me with a lot of information on how to create a unique service and how to make it different than the services already available in the South Florida area.

1) Christian Turdo- Has been working at an Intercoastal restaurant for years now in South Florida.

2) Supplier-  Since he surfs at the beach almost every day and views all the trash there and then goes to work and sees all the trash rushing through the intercoastal, He wants to help me spread the awareness to his restaurant and others. 

3) I reached out to Christian because he is a close friend of mine that works at a local waterway restaurant here in South Florida. He also works with Tina with her service and works with many organizations to help prevent pollution and thinks my proposal is a great idea.

4) Christian is the supplier because his restaurant will be the first one to stop providing non-degradable items. They think its a great idea and will make an impact but they know there are many other restaurants that need to stop using plastics as well. It is more expensive so Christian also has a lot of connections with businesses that help this cause and will support me as well. 

5) Including Christian will help my service through his connections with his restaurant and others, this will help exploit my opportunity and help spread awareness.

Reflection: In Conclusion, I think this exercise helped me figure out the best plan to help start my service and also has brought me lots of connections. I think that growing this social capital has already been super helpful so I am excited to see what the future holds. I now know who my competition is and what makes my idea different and also who to start working with to grow my service even higher. 

Elevator Pitch #2

Elevator Pitch 2- Youtube

• For my first elevator pitch, I did not receive a lot of feedback... however, I still changed this next pitch based on what the person had said about my first one. The part that stood out to me the most was that he liked the way I added a question in the beginning. I always try to do this to hook my audience and keep them interested. I did not find any feedback wrong or silly, just extremely kind and helpful. I also think that the feedback was very helpful and also he commented on the statistics I had added, so I kept that in there as well. I personally had my own feedback and based it on that as well. 
  

Idea Napkin #2

1) Hi, My name is Mayson Sages, I am a person who likes to stay organized and also can be very competitive. I always like to keep myself busy and I try my best not to procrastinate. Some of my skills are that I am athletic, I have great writing skills, and I also try my hardest at everything I try to achieve. I want to learn how to address my writing skills to work but also my ideal job would to start my own business or management. I love selling items, I actually created an online website where I sell my own clothes, so I can see this business playing a huge role in my life. 

2) My Service is based on protecting our oceans and marine life. I want to try to ban all restaurants located off of the Coast of South Florida from the use of plastic and other nondegradable items. I am offering my customers knowledge on other degradable items to use while also educating them on how much trash truly effects these oceans and the environment. 

3) I am offering this service to coastline restaurant owners and beach lovers. They all have in common the desire to want to protect our ocean.  

4) People will care about this service I have created because of how much they enjoy the scenery of the beaches and if they are educated more on why this is an issue, then they will hopefully want to help our oceans and marine life. I believe that my service can truly have an impact and many of my customers I have already interviewed are very interested to help save our beaches.

5) The main advantage of this service that sets it apart from many others is the amount of customers that are interested and the main goal I am achieving. Many people start organizations to stop pollution towards our ocean, however, I believe that my willpower and commitment to this idea will have a wider impact than most services similar to this. 

I believe that these elements do fit well together, they all are very strong and I think that I have a great solution to this unmet need that most of my customers do not even know they have. I have a wide range of customers and I think that's very helpful for my service. I think that this service can truly help our planet and save a huge amount of pollution from entering the coast of South Florida.

The two main feedback points I received were that there are a lot more benefits to this unmet need than people think and also that this issue can have a solution it just takes time and is a very long process. I believe both of these are true and that I agree this solution is not that easy but in the long run will be very beneficial to our planet. 

Create A Customer Avatar

I did not feel the need to customize my own avatar because there are multiple people that are my customers. When creating an ideal customer it will be for coastline restaurant owners, people who go to restaurants, and also beach lovers. I added these two pictures for an example of my ideal customers. Most of my customers will be located on the coast of South Florida and also I cannot address their favorite hobbies, TV shows, nor the car that they usually would drive. However, my customers can range from the age of 14 years old and up, most children do not understand the concept of my service, that is why I chose that age to start with. With these customers and my ideal customer, we both have in common that we love the beautiful beaches of South Florida and just want to protect our planet. We all have the same goal, which is to save marine life and the environment. I do not think this is a coincidence because even though people can be careless about trash, most people want to help protect this planet. I do think that since my customer range is so broad, that we will not be too similar, however, we both want the same solution. 

What My Secret Sauce Is...

My Human Capitals:

1) My outstanding work ethic- I've always strived to be the best and to work the hardest and I also have had a job since I was fourteen. I love the feeling of accomplishing something and achieving my goals.

2) My Athletic Capabilities- Growing up with two brothers, I have always tried to be more athletic than them, so I have always played more than two sports per season throughout my school years and always had to succeed in every sport. I played track, volleyball, basketball, flag football, surfing, and wakeboarding. 

3) I always take a different route to be unique- Throughout middle school and high school, I never took the common second language, Spanish,  I always wanted to try something different and be unique, so with only four people in my class, I took Chinese and American Sign Language. Now I am also Bilingual in English and ASL.

4) I try to be a leader, not a follower-  Growing up I went to eight different schools and did not care to follow the schools my friends went to. I always tried to go to a different school to meet new people and eventually all my friends started following my lead. 

5) I think outside the box- I always try my best to achieve my goal and be the best teammate on the team. I am very competitive so I always try to think of a different way to go about things, especially issues and opportunities. I also have persistence when it comes to thinking outside the box which helps me achieve this.

Interview #1- My Father, Michael Sages

https://soundcloud.com/user-6693523/michael-interview

Summary: My father always said I am very loyal when working, I actually use to work with him so he knows my string work ethic the best. 

Interview #2-My Boyfriend, James McGrath

https://soundcloud.com/user-6693523/james-interviewww

Summary: My boyfriend of four years knows I much I try to achieve my goals and how I have to sometimes take a unique route to do this. 

Interview #3- My Mother, Colleen Sages

https://soundcloud.com/user-6693523/country-club-dr-3

Summary: My mom also pointed out some other skillsets, such as being persistent. I always try my hardest and can be very persuasive when trying to achieve a goal.

Interview #4- My best friend, Alex Harrison

https://soundcloud.com/user-6693523/alex-interviewww

Summary: Alex made some really good points. He knows how much I love playing sports and that I was MVP for every sport I played and can take this achievement and these skillsets learned by playing to my career path. 

Interview #5- My older Brother, Reed Sages

https://soundcloud.com/user-6693523/new-recording-2

Summary: This interview with my brother was very interesting just because I was curious about what he was going to discuss. I think he made some unique points and I am surprised with what he had said. I agree that I do try my best to be a leader instead of a follower when it comes to approaching a lot of my ideas, which is the best way to achieve certain unique goals.

Reflection: After hearing all their different responses, they all agree with some of my human capitals I listed. I think they all think the same things about myself that I do because they had similar responses. I did not notice any major differences and I would not change anything to my list that they said about me. I think they made strong points that actually correlate to my key points as well, so I would not make any changes to how I view myself and my skills addressed above.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior 2

Service to prevent the spread of pollution in the ocean.

• For this assignment I still chose people who best fit the segment for my opportunity,  I interviewed two of my friends who visit the beach a lot, Alex and Christian, and then also my father, Michael. I asked very similar questions.

Interviews:

1) Michael- took the longest, with roughly 15 minutes

2) Alex-roughly 10 minutes

3) Christian- roughly thirteen minutes

The alternatives I came up with were helping this unmet need in other ways than my solution, a few ways, such as organizations and volunteering to clean up the beaches themselves. The best alternative they liked the most was the one that did the most to prevent people from leaving their trash. All three agreed that they were sick of cleaning up after people and that they liked my main idea to provide a service of banning all non-degradable items to be the most effective. They picked this to be the easiest alternative and the most effective and is why they chose it. Two people in my interview already did volunteer and they agree it is not the best way to take action towards this unmet need. There will be advertising to support this action and also fundraising to help gain peoples interest in this issue. These interviews opened my eyes to what the customer will want out of this, some might not be as interested that others and that is okay. As long as more people are knowledgeable about this issue and grasp how important it is to this Earth to keep it clean. Most of the people I interviewed think this is a great idea and a great start to help save people from polluting and think this service is the most effective way. 

In conclusion, based on these past interviews, the people who go to the beach on a daily basis understand why this issue is so important and also do not understand why people can be careless about their trash. My father, who I interviewed actually started an organization for this since he grew up on the beaches, and thinks this service will truly benefit everyone in the future. To summarize, the people I am trying to reach the most with this service are those who are not aware of this issue and actually interested in learning more about how each and everyone can help this process go a long way. Most of the people interested in buying this are those who have already volunteered and are knowledgeable about oceans and pollution so I want to reach farther than them, to the people actually creating the pollution. 

Halfway Reflection

Part 1. The behaviors I have developed to keep up with this class are to try to work ahead. I pretend every assignment is due Thursday at 12pm instead of Friday, that way I can always turn assignments in on time.
Part 2. I have had a couple moments when I wanted to "give up", although I really enjoy this class and want to become an Entrepreneur. It is hard being home while taking summer classes. There is a lot on my plate with family events and also taking four classes right now, so I try my best to make sure every assignment is complete before the day it is due. These past two months have been difficult because it is hard dealing with this virus while also focusing on what I want to do with my career in the long run.
Part 3. Three tips: 1) Always work ahead in this class to make sure you meet every deadline 2) Prepare yourself for the Cupcakes, make sure you have notes and listen to each and every video 3) Make sure to reflect off other people's blogs when reviewing them so you can learn from their mistakes and also their ideas.

Reading Reflection 1

For this assignment, I read "Miracles Happen" by Mary Kay Ash, I chose this entrepreneur autobiography because of I have heard of it before due to Mary Kay cosmetics and I actually use these skincare products and makeup. I am very inspired by Mary and how she always wanted to live life by the fullest.

• What Suprised me the most is how women back then were not allowed to be successful and start their own businesses but this did not stop Mary Kay from living her dreams. 
• What I admire most about Mary Kay was her positivity throughout her life that she can do it, that nothing stopped her, and that she didn't feel discriminated by anyone. I also admire her mother that encouraged her to become a leader and gave her the power she needed to start something so risky. 
• Throughout the book, Mary Kay discusses ways to become successful so others can do it too. I think what she is doing is trying to encourage others as well, but I think it is way harder in this generation so some of the ideas were a little hard to grasp. I admire Mary Kay in every way and her story from start to finish is both incredible and inspiring, but it is still very hard, as a women, to be a successful business owner. 
• Throughout the autobiography, Mary Kay inspired me with every story she told to get to her dream but I also found it scary and risky to start something so difficult in such a horrible time period for women. Most businesses didn't allow women to do what she did, but I admire her for doing it anyways. Mary Kay always wanted to live life to the fullest and to follow her dream, I believe that is why she became so successful. There was nothing to not admire about Mary Kay, she was a very successful and grateful human being. 
• Mary Kay did encounter a lot of difficulties, she put her whole life savings on the line to start her business and achieve her dream, which was a huge risk. She started by owning a shop with her son to sell the products. She also was a woman, which made it hard for her to get accountants and investors for her cosmetics.
• Mary Kay had a lot of competencies, such as strong confidence, work ethic, and also wanting to achieve her goal, nothing stopped her. The way she handled her business with not a lot of help, truly showed her optimistic character. With only her son working with her, she had a lot of pressure and worked tirelessly throughout her career. 
• Nothing was truly confusing about this book, I was more confused on why woman had such a hard time back then starting a bussiness and how this had such a huge impact on Mary Kay. Also, the whole adoptee program was a little confusing on how cosmetic business owners can recruit anyone from anywhere. 
• If I could ask Mary Kay two questions, I would ask, "How were you not discriminated by others to achieve your dream?" I would ask this because a lot of the times, I quit something I want to do because of how other people view me and I admire how Mary Kay was not bothered by these people who judged her and discriminated against her. I also would ask, "Was being a women in the workforce a huge impact on your decisions and other peoples decisions to work with you?" I admire how much time and effort Mary Kay had put into her work while still facing sexism and it must have been hard being a woman through all of it. I think her family truly helped her get through a lot of these obstacles.
• I really admire Mary Kay for achieving her goal and staying optimistic through it all. It encourages me to not get discriminated against what other people think and I believe that every woman is capable of achieving their goals as well if they work hard enough for it. 

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior 1

Segment:

• The segment I have chosen for this assignment is people who have both heard of this issue and those who have not, to find their interests. For this assignment, I interviewed three local people that live in my neighborhood, which is located near the Jupiter Beaches. These three people, Michael, Reed, and Julia visit the beaches on a daily basis and have grown up living near these waters. Each Interview lasted roughly fifteen minutes, Julia's was a bit longer due to the fact she did not know a lot about our oceans in regards to this issue,

Here is what I took notes on during these interviews:

• I started off with the same question for each person, "How much pollution do you see on a daily basis at the beaches?" When it came to this question, they all stated roughly the same response that it was too much trash and that they couldn't count but said around a hundred pieces. Then I started to discuss this unmet need to see if they had it. Each of them knew that pollution was a major issue but thought my service could seriously help in the long run. They wanted to learn more about this issue and when I told them about the marine life and the plastic ball located in the Atlantic Ocean the size of Rhode Island, they wanted to support my solution even more. They knew organizations had already existed but they think my service will have the biggest impact on our oceans and started to realize how much they truly desired this unmet need.  

Conclusion:

• Overall, when conducting these interviews, I felt more confident about this unmet need and want it to exist even more knowing people are interested. I know there will be a lot of obstacles when it comes to presenting this topic to people but I think it will be worth it in the long run, just like my interviewers had said. I believe in the future, this opportunity will have a huge impact towards many people and marine life in a beneficial way. As time goes on and more people get educated on our oceans, the more people will want to save our beautiful earth and understand this unmet need. 

Idea Napkin 1

1) Hi, My name is Mayson Sages and I am going to be a sophomore at the University of Florida. I am majoring in Public Relations and minoring in both Business Management and Innovation.  My main skills are communication, working with customer service, working as a team, and I am also a writer. My talents and also what I love most are surfing, playing volleyball, and wakeboarding. When I start something new, I always have to finish it and it has to come out successfully. This will be applied to starting my business because I never will give up on it and will learn from my mistakes throughout the process. My main goal is to start my own business whether it is working with this opportunity or not, I think these different skills addressed will help me achieve this in the future and it will play a huge role in my life. 

2) I am offering a service to my customers that will eventually help them enjoy the beaches in the future and also help save marine life along the way. I hope to ban or restrict restaurants, located on the coast of South Florida, to stop using non-degradable items to save our oceans. 

3) The demographic for this opportunity is all restaurant managers, employees who support this, residents located in south Florida, organizations, volunteers, people who go to beaches, and basically everyone who wants to help save and protect our oceans and rivers. The main people I want to address this opportunity to those who are not educated and invested in this matter. My service will hopefully educate more people to bring awareness to this issue. 

4) Customers will care about my service because it is something they will benefit from as well. With the amount of trash and plastics on our beaches and oceans, in the near future, there will not be a beautiful scenery to look at. Also, my customers will care due to the fact that many marine life will die off which will hurt our food chain system, affecting our planet even more.

5) The difference between my opportunity business is the advertisement and knowledge I will bring towards people. Also, that I hope to ban restaurants on the coast of Florida, which has never been done before. This service will also not be costly and will help benefit our earth more than ever, which is never the case when it comes to these circumstances and issues.

In Conclusion, I believe this opportunity will be weak in certain aspects, such as getting the word around. After viewing each element, the hardest process with this journey will be educating those who will maybe not be interested in saving our oceans. Overall, I believe these five elements will work hand in hand with each other but also think it will be difficult at the starting point of this process.

Elevator Pitch 1

Testing The Hypothesis, Part 2

My Hypothesis, Part 2

For part 2 of testing this hypothesis, I decided to interview random people along the beach, my neighbor, and also relatives that live near or on the coast of South Florida. Most of the people on the beaches did not have the same interests towards this opportunity as the others, and here are some key points for why. 

• Who: For most of the people I interviewed, they truly wanted the unmet need and new a lot more than I thought about trash affecting the oceans. My neighbor who lives on the Intercoastal, sees trash on a daily basis when looking at his window and definitely supports this opportunity. However, when approaching people on the beach and asking them a few questions, they did not seem to interested. Even though these people were residents living on the coast of Florida, They were outsiders because they were educated on this subject like most of the people I interviewed were. Also, They did not seem to care enough to learn more either. 

• What: My idea is different from others because it has never been addressed the same when coming upon this opportunity. There are many organizations run along the coast of Florida, however, it is not known and forceful enough as my idea is. With the banning of plastics and other non-degradable items at restaurants, allows people to gain awareness of this issue while also saving marine life. Or even advertising this issue more can help spread awareness. Even though there are many people who are trying to save our ocean, not many people know about them or factual evidence based on this subject. If people saw the marine life being hurt because of us they would care more about this opportunity and unmet need. 

• Why: The underlying need is different for the people in the outside boundary because they are not educated enough when it comes to our oceans. This may be the case because this problem is not addressed enough in the US. Also, maybe they do know that plastic and trash is killing off marine life, but they might just not have enough respect and are careless towards our waters. Some people even leave trash on the beaches because they don't think that one piece of trash left behind will cause any damage, even when it does. 

Inside The Boundary	Outside The Boundary
Neighbor, Family Members, Organizations, Friends, Residents on the coast.	Vacationers, Some people on the beaches, Some boaters
Protection towards our oceans and awareness that saves marine life and birds	Takes up time and also not important enough for people to express this issue
Many people do not understand the harm they are doing when using plastic and leaving trash on the beaches. restaurant owners and fishermen do not think they are affecting our oceans as much as they are.	Due to coronavirus, the beaches have been closed so when they opened there have been more people which means more trash. When coronavirus kicked everyone off the beaches and had restaurants close, there was no trash on our beaches and marine life started to come closer to the inland.

• My findings while working on this opportunity and interviewing more people on this subject encourages me to spread this opportunity to more people and also allowed me to have a better understanding of how people view this unmet need. 

Solving The Problem

The opportunity I have approached has to do with the issue of plastics and trash in our oceans and rivers, located on the east coast of Florida. over 10 trillions of plastic get dumped into the Atlantic ocean each year. Growing up in Jupiter, Florida, and being apart of the beautiful beaches in South Florida it is truly awful on how much trash I see on a daily basis. I work and volunteer with organizations to help clean up the beaches but it is tiring cleaning up other peoples' trash. Even though organizations do help, sometimes this major issue is not brought up enough. The marine life and our Earth is being affected because people are careless towards this matter. The solution I have come up with is creating a law that every restaurant located on the coast of South Florida needs to ban the use of plastic and other non-degradable items in their restaurants. There is a ton of plastic the size of Rhode Island in the Atlantic Ocean that fish cannot cross over. There are multiple ways to end this crisis, however, that is my starting point. Another idea, is it work together to start making items and advertising that grab people's attention to help donate to the organizations that help save trash from falling in our oceans. There are over 1,000 turtles dying per year because of plastic and a solution to this is to start representing degradable items all over the coast of South Florida. This service will spread the word and hopefully, people will start respecting our oceans knowing they are doing it to save our planet and beautiful marine life. 

Testing The Hypothesis, Part 1

1. My Hypothesis: Due to the lack of public awareness and respect, trash and plastic spread out through all the rivers and our oceans.

2.

• Who: Residents who try to enjoy their beaches and boat rides, and volunteers who help pick up other people's trash, marine life, and birds.
• What: Trash and plastic is killing marine life and affecting our waters.
• Why: Due to people not respecting our waters and throwing away their trash off boats and on beaches. Also, fisherman leaving their lines in the water and restaurants located on intercostals using non-degradable items impact marine life. 

3.  Testing who: There are others who need this, such as organizations that help with this situation and try to clean up as much trash as possible on our beaches and in our rivers. More people should be aware of this opportunity but this is a really big issue that is overlooked.

Testing what: The boundaries for this would be the time it takes to help this situation. Other than that, there are no boundaries because everyone can help with this situation in such a minuscule way. Everyone needs to start collecting their items and start using non-degradable items. Restaurants need to stop using plastics and plastics should be banned on all the coasts. This is a challenge because no one truly understands how much this affects our Earth.

Testing why:  This is not important to everyone and there are many people who don't even know about this opportunity. However, due to people who keep leaving their trashes on beaches for other people to pick up or for it to drift into the ocean, is not okay. Not everyone is going to agree and do something about this. However, there are many organizations and volunteers who understand the importance of this.

4. Interviews:
1. A local resident located on the coast of Florida.
Who: She believes this is a great idea because she is so tired of trying to enjoy boat rides and the beaches and seeing trash and plastic all around the waters. It disgusts her.
What: She also agrees that not everyone understands how important it is to keep picking up trash so it does not hurt the marine life anymore and kill many sea creatures.
Why: She thinks that volunteers collecting on the beaches is not enough and that many restaurants need to start using non-degradable items to prevent this. Also, she states how living on the coast, just around her area, there are over fifty restaurants that use everything plastic.

2. A friend that owns a house on the Loxahatchee River.
Who: My friend thinks that this is very overlooked. She actually started an organization to help spread the awareness but it did not spread how much she wanted it too. Many people overlook this issue and she will do anything to help this cause.
What:  During the summertime is the best time to start this, she thinks that many people travel to Florida over summer so there are more people to share this information with. She also believes that the state of Florida should ban all plastic items since it is non-degradable.
Why: She does not understand why some people do not recognize this major issue and take a stand for it. She thinks people working in the restaurants and fishermen need to understand this more than anyone.

3. My father who has grown up in the Loxahatchee River.
Who: My dad states how he has never seen so much trash in plastic in the river this last year than ever. He believes that this time period has gotten so much worse and he thinks its because of how many people have been traveling here that don't respect the waters.
What: My dad thinks this opportunity will be very effective if discussed in the right manner. He thinks that this needs to be solved and not overlooked anymore.
Why: My dad believes that marine life is very important and that not everyone understands what these creatures and corals provide for our beautiful Earth.

4. A Jupiter Beach Organization Founder.
Who: The founder for cleaning up the beaches is very disgusted by the way people leave this earth. The beaches are not used for trash and should be respected more than they are. The public awareness and careless for our oceans is beyond overseen and needs to be addressed by the Government.
What: The founder thinks that this issue will only get worse because people are so careless about this matter. He believes in the near future that we will not have corals to dive, beaches to look at, and turtles to see because of how messy we treat our Earth.
Why: He believes that this opportunity is very much overlooked and it's because people are careless towards this planet. They take it for granted and need to understand what they are causing by making such a minuscule judgment.

5. A friend who goes to the beach on a daily basis
Who: She believes this is affecting more than just marine life but also ourselves. She sees over a whole ton on the beaches and in the ocean when she goes surfing. She joined an organization that cleans the beaches for a whole day and she still believes that is not enough.
What: She believes that not enough people understand how important picking up their mess is and that she should not be doing it for them.
Why: She thinks people need to start listening to these organizations and start helping out so our planet is not ruined. People need to realize that we, humans, are not the only ones gifted with this beautiful earth and that we share it with fish and wildlife. So, we need to start respecting it since it is a gift. She thinks that this opportunity needs to be addressed more.

Summary:
After interviewing people who go to the beach on a daily basis, those who started an organization, and also residence, I have learned a lot more subjects towards this opportunity. I find it really interesting how each person used the word "overlooked" and I believe this is very true. Why do some people care so deeply about saving our planet and others could not even be bothered?  What I did not know about my hypothesis that I now know more about that is very informational is when the best time to address this situation is and how much are earth is actually impacted by our own selves. Learning from the founder of the local organization that there is a huge circle of plastic that is the size of Rhode Island that marine life can not get over. This is really upsetting to me that Humans have created such a mess and I hope to address this issue more in the future.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

1. Economic Opportunity #1: 
Major Unemployment in US
2. Link: (a) https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/16/unemployment-claims-coronavirus/
 (b) Why it exists: Due to the spread of Coronavirus, it has lead over 22 million people in the US to be unemployed. I believe this opportunity exists because of all non-essential that were forced to shut down to stop the spread of Covid-19. The Government is trying to help those in financial debt before the economy begins to crash.
(c) Prototypical Customer: Everyone unemployed or financially unstable in the US due to this pandemic.
(d) I believe this Opportunity is relatively easy to exploit due to the high amount of people who are affected by this pandemic and are willing to do anything for a little bit of help and money. 22 million people is a lot and everyone is suffering in some sort of way because of this virus.
3. I saw this as a huge opportunity due to personal experience. Both my parents and my close family friends have been struggling with money and the loss of their jobs. It is such a hard time to also support everyone in the family again on top of this because they are all back home now. It's very sad to see close friends and my own family struggling so I think most people would believe this opportunity exists.

1. Economic Opportunity #2:
Climate Change in the US
2. Link : (a) https://www.thebalance.com/top-usa-future-economic-trends-3305666
(b) Why it exists: Due to the increase in greenhouse gases, there are more hot days in the US, causing food pricing to rise. This causes food prices to rise because the corn and soy fields are getting too hot and dying. Also, other natural disasters such as flooding due to risen sea levels, and more US wildfires.
(c) Prototypical Customer: People who try to help the Environment, Everyone who buys from stores and is worried about food prices and also anyone who eats corn and soy.
(d) I believe this opportunity to be relatively easy to exploit due to how many people are actually affected by all these natural disasters occurring. The only issue I can think of is persuading the people that this is occurring and will only get worse for Earth.
3. I saw this as a huge opportunity due to how many people are going to be affected by this now and in the future if it gets worse. I have personal experience with this since I noticed the rise in food prices and how the sea levels have risen due to all the flooding in my area. I want to be able to make everyone notice that this opportunity does exist and can be seen as a major issue for everyone in the US.

3. Regulatory Opportunity #1
US Food Safety & Food Processing
2. Link: (a)  https://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2019/food-safety-and-regulation-issues/
(b) Why it exists: Due to all the small businesses having to understand the Produce Safety rule it is affecting the farmers by having to be in alignment with these rules as well. If the Irrigation outbreak still occurs in these large farms there will be major criticism towards all the produce inspections. Also, the food trends and how there is a major demand for "healthier, cleaner, and all "natural" foods changing the overall food industry.
(c) Prototypical Customer: Anyone who eats out in restaurants and also uses food delivery methods.
(d) I believe this opportunity is relatively easy to exploit due to how many consumers want plant-based foods and "clean meat". There is a high demand for these foods and this opportunity will help the FDA inspections, restaurants, and customers enjoy their food the place they eat.
3. I saw this as a huge opportunity due to personal experience. I eat out almost every day and do notice the consumer trends on the food and how it affects it. I also notice the change in the food industry. Also, I use to work in a restaurant so I saw the cleanliness of them and where the food comes from and the food processor. I believe this opportunity can help many people in the long run.

4. Regulatory Opportunity #2
Health issues caused by the use of Face Masks
2. Link: (a) https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1435/rr-40
(b) Why it exists: Due to Coronavirus, Many restaurants and main businesses such as CVS Pharmacy, Publix, Walgreens, Hospitals, etc, are requiring customers to wear face masks to stop the spread of this disease. However, this may be causing a "false sense of security" and intake of too much carbon dioxide, which makes it harder for people to breathe. So, are face masks really helping the US prevent this virus? or is it hurting us?
(c)Prototypical Customers: Shoppers and people who eat out.
(d) I believe this opportunity will be relatively difficult to exploit due to how many people believe that the face masks are actually helping us more than they hurt us. I think that health issues while wearing the mask only affect certain people so it could be difficult to stop the use of them due to these minor issues. However, some people are allergic to face masks and have actual health issues that they cannot wear a face mask. So some stores do not let them in, which I believe is against our freedom and against the Disability Act.
3. I saw this as a huge opportunity due to personal experience. I actually cannot wear face masks due to personal issues and I got denied into a Publix, which really felt un-constitutional. I believe that Face Masks are hurting us more than helping due to the facts stated on the link above. I also think this would be a great opportunity for people who do wear face masks if though they cannot but have to in order to get food and necessities in the stores.

Identifying Local Opportunities

Opportunity #1:

Title: Palm Beach County bars, clubs and entertainment venues wait for their turn to reopen

Link: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200525/coronavirus-florida-palm-beach-county-bars-clubs-and-entertainment-venues-wait-for-their-turn-to-reopen

Description of the story: Due to Coronavirus, many restaurants and bars are uncertain when they will be reopening and if they do, they would have to participate in social distancing. Also, possibly reopening outdoors at first then transitioning to inside.

Description of problem: The spread of Coronavirus is canceling out many restaurants and bars, causing them to be financially unstable. The restaurants in West Palm Beach are finding ways to avoid the spread of this disease by moving tables farther apart, and getting UV lights that kill bacteria quicker. So many people are being financially in trouble because of this disease shutting down their work. 

Who has this problem: Everyone is being affected by COVID-19, however, all the restaurant owners, and employees, and even the customers are being affected by this because everyone lost their jobs and can't afford a lot of things. 

Opportunity #2

Title: More Flooding Shuts Down Ballpark Covid-19 Test Site Again

Link: https://wflanews.iheart.com/featured/florida-news/content/2020-05-26-more-flooding-shuts-down-ballpark-covid-19-test-site-again/

Description of the story: Due to Memorial Weekend rains, the ballpark located in Palm Beach where Coronavirus testing is held is shutting down due to massive flood. 

Description of problem: The rain destroyed the campgrounds for this pandemic (picture) and also many people have to reschedule appointments and spend more days not knowing if they have this disease.

Who has this problem: Everyone working on the ballpark testing, and also the people waiting to get tested

Opportunity #3

Title: Relentless rain floods roads, crews work to clear storm drains

Link:  https://cbs12.com/news/local/relentless-rain-floods-roads-crews-work-to-clear-storm-drains

Description of the story: In parts of South Florida, Crew workers had to spend days digging out clogged drains and several inches of standing water is covering roads and parts of Florida due to flooding.

Description of problem: From this past weekend "relentless rain" has caused major floods in parts of Martin County Florida, causing clogged storm drains to need work on and a lot of effort to fix them. 

Who has this problem: The crew fixing the drains and the people who own the drains that need work on.

Opportunity #4

Title: Coronavirus school closures push out student teachers. Will the US teacher shortage get worse?

Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/04/06/conoravirus-school-closures-student-teaching/5105809002/

Description of the story: Due to Covid-19, Many schools are being switched to teaching online, causing teachers to not want to go back and work in schools or just not teach at all. Schools are worried about teachers not wanting to become certified since they are no longer managing classrooms and have exposure to leading the lessons.

Description of the problem: Many schools across the country and in South Florida such as FAU, are worried about shortages of US teachers due to switching online classes. Teachers are not feeling respected and many students do not have access to the online systems. Teachers are having to learn the online systems and are getting frustrated and feeling unappreciated. 

Who has this problem:  Teachers and students

Opportunity #5

Title: Loxahatchee River dying for freshwater, needs emergency help

Link: https://www.wptv.com/news/protecting-paradise/loxahatchee-river-dying-for-freshwater-needs-emergency-help

Description of the story: "Emergency fusion of freshwater" The Loxahatchee river, in Tequesta Florida is on "invisible fire" and being poisoned by not having enough freshwater under such dry conditions, The salinity levels are rising.

Description of the Problem: The scenic river and wildlife are in an emergency need for freshwater, due to the dry conditions allowing the ocean water to ruin the Loxahatchee River and damage the water. This needs to be settled before wet rains arrive.

Who has this problem: People admire the Loxahatchee River, People who work to help maintain the river, and Palm Beach County. 

Forming an Opportunity Belief

I believe there is an opportunity to solve the problem of water pollution.  I chose this opportunity due to personal experience, going to the beaches, and seeing all the trash and plastics lying around on the sand on a daily basis. Growing up in Jupiter, Florida exposes me to ways to help clean the beaches and the river water to save marine life and keep our environment clean.

examples:

https://environmentflorida.org/feature/fle/wildlife-over-waste

http://www.oneworldoneocean.com/blog/entry/10_ways_to_help_save_the_ocean

To help solve the unmet need, the people who go to the beach need to stop bringing plastics and trash just to leave on the beach. I know there are laws that have been made of littering, however, people still believe the beaches and rivers a place to throw away their belongings. I also think that banning the use of plastic straws is not doing as much as needed. There are so many bigger harmful non-degradable items than plastic straws and I think the use of any non-degradable object on the coast of Florida should be banned. To go into depths of this specific issue, I interviewed two different people who have worked with organizations in order to keep the ocean and rivers clean and then one professional kitesurfer who uses the beach on a daily basis.  

Prototypical Customer #1:

Naia Mader, Founder of Riverkids Organization

How often do you see trash on the beaches/rivers?

 -"Every time I go to the beach I see either a plastic bottle or over five cigarette buds and so much more."

When you see the trash, what do you do with it?

-"My first instinct is to always pick up the trash, and every time I do, I get frustrated that I have to pick up everyone else's trash because they are so unaware of how it affects our planet and marine life."

What do you think needs to change and what do you think will help to make this change?

-"Working with an organization that picks up other people's trash on a daily basis does not help spread the word nor stop the trash but it does help in some way keep our beaches safe. I think creating a business that makes only non-degradable items for all restaurants, stores, and items for the beach would be a really smart place to start."

Prototypical Customer #2:

Friends of Jupiter Beach Organization

Cleaning the beaches on an everyday basis, how much plastic would you say is collected on average?

-"On an average, with fifty volunteers, and cleaning for two-three hours, would contain over 1,000 plastics collected."

How harmful is plastic to the oceans and rivers? is this need necessary?

-" On average the amount of plastic dumped into the ocean is over 8 million tons per year. This kills not only marine, making over 100,000 marine life dying from this plastic. Banning plastic and help cleaning these pollution up is much needed before we lose all marine life goes extinct." 

When did you start wanting to help clean the beaches and want this need?

-"Growing up in Jupiter, Florida, and going surfing and to the beach, I was disgusted by the amount of trash on this beautiful beach I call home. I wanted to do something in order to help the environment and get involved to solve this issue."

Prototypical Customer #3:

James McGrath, Professional Kitesurfer

Going to the beach daily, How much trash do you see not only on the beach but also in the water?

-Living basically in the ocean and surfing since I was six years old, trash and plastic has always been an issue on the beach. When I paddle out to catch a wave, the amount of trash floating in the ocean just alone is so harmful to marine life and also to Earth.

What do you do to set this unmet need? How do you change it?

-Whenever I am in the ocean and see a piece of trash, I always pick it up. However, that is not my job and I believe that people need to clean up after themselves and appreciate Earth and try to protect it. I also believe restaurants on the coast need to ban plastic and start using degradable items to realize this is not a joke.

How long have you seen trash on the beaches and how much do you see on a daily?

-I see trash every single day, either floating in the water, drifting in the sand, or washing up on the shore. It is not only occurring from the people who come to the beach but also comes from boats, restaurants, and fishermen. I see over a hundred pieces of non-degradable items in some form every single day I am on the beach.

Reflection: I learned how important it truly is to clean up after yourself and to keep this environment clean. Not only does the trash come from people on the beach but also from many restaurants that are located near or on the beaches and intercostals. The fact that over 100,000 marine life dies per year, makes me want to do everything I can do keep our beaches clean. I believe that if every single person knew how harmful trash and plastic can be to our Earth, a change could happen for the better. I also found it very fascinating how many people volunteer just to help the beaches stay clean and protected. 

Summarize: The original opportunity to solve the issue of water pollution most definitely still exist. Although, after interviewing these three prototypical customers, I don't think it will be an easy problem to solve. I think Entrepreneurs should strongly rely on their customer's feedback to gain an understanding of how other people view the unmet need and its importance to the world. With everything going on in the world today with Coronavirus, the beaches have been closed and they have never been so clean and beautiful. Marine life is coming up to shore and there are fish everywhere. It is sad to see that having people stay in their houses is saving this planet and our oceans.

Entrepreneur Story

Entrepreneurship has always been apart of my life in many ways. My father had started his own landscaping business when he was twenty and has made it very successful. He has taught me the main ropes about starting a business and how I can turn that into being successful. One of my dream jobs after college is to create my own clothing line or own a clothing store that I started. Well, I began many years back during my first year in High School by opening my own page on the Instagram App. Since I needed money desperately throughout high school but did not want to work after school in a restaurant or some boring job I had to find a way out. My parents were very strict about having a work ethic and still are, so I knew I needed to start soon. When I was a sophomore in High School I started my own shopping store on Instagram called ShopMacii (Macii is my nickname and at the time being only sixteen, I thought it was a great title). To begin, I would post pictures wearing the items in order for them to see how they fit my body and would add the sizes and brand in the caption. I also would allow the customers to come to my house and try them on before buying the item. I started selling my clothes and bathing suits on there that did not fit me anymore for the same price that I got them for. I made over $500 in a week and just continued to keep selling. Eventually, I sold most of my old clothes and had gained over five hundred followers on this website. I only sold to locals so I made a logo and put the clothes in cute bags as if they were buying the items from an actual store. Honestly, I really enjoyed taking the pictures/modeling the items and also meeting with the customers. It was a great and fast way for me to make money and also be able to get rid of the clothes that I never wore or did not fit me. The Instagram page has grown so much throughout the years and I still am selling items on their today. I officially ship items now so the page is followed by many people around the United States. I hope to eventually start creating my own items to sell on there and possibly one day open my own store and brand to sell.

I enrolled in ENT 3003 thinking it can possibly help assist myself through the business world. I want to learn the best strategies and opportunities there are when trying to become an entrepreneur. I want to learn more on the true meaning behind entrepreneurship and take that definition into my own work. I hope to gain more knowledge towards becoming an entrepreneur and the procedures to take, so that maybe one day I can become a professional Entrepreneur. 

Image: