18A Create a Customer Avatar

The prototypical customers I have identified so far and have done the most observing/interviewing of were my neighbors and people in the town of Suwannee. This is a small weekender fishing town on the gulf coast where the Suwannee river meets the Gulf of Mexico. The main hobbies of my potential customers would be fishing, hanging out and golf. Most tend to drive trucks or large sums used to pull their boats or other toys around. Their hobbies directly relate into why I appeal to them as I can provide a service to potentially save their river house from disaster and in the event they are affected I can provide relief to them. Most of the time they watch fishing, football or other sports channels on the tv. Some of the have later teen kids while others have kids who have graduated college and starting families of their own. That being said potential clients range from 30 to 70 years of age and they are all fairly active as they enjoy to be out and about. The places where I provide the service to them are where they go to get away and relax on the weekends.

With my customers I share the love for fishing and the outdoors along with the fact that I have a residence in the town of Suwannee. Our similarities are not a coincidence as that is what brought us together, without the common interest we never would have met up in this small town in pursuit of fish and a good time.

Attached are some pictures of what my neighbors and I faced in both the beginning and aftermath of some of the hurricanes to move through the area.

17A Elevator Pitch No.2

Here is my link:
https://youtu.be/uCG-MX4wVxI


Feedback:
The most helpful and useful was relating to my word choice and the way I talk. Often times I don't catch my slang or mumbles but when talking in a professional and important situation like an elevator pitch I should talk that way it should be proper and correct. All the feedback I received I tried to implement into my new one, from the area and lighting change to trying to talk clearer and louder with better enunciation and proper grammar. All in all just doing it again helped me greatly by becoming more comfortable in front of the camera and recording myself.

15A Figuring out Buyer Behavior No. 2

For this section in interviewed three more people who were directly affected by storms in the past, two middle aged and one older gentleman. I explained my idea and business to them and then took their feedback and advice. In their times of need they set out themselves to fix their problems much like why my service would be providing. They were faced with the tasks of storm preparation and recovery all by themselves and said if a service like this had existed they would have definitely been interested.

The alternative of my idea is basically what they all did themselves. They set out with groups of friends and neighbors in order to clean their properties up after the storm came through and took turns running to get supplies from the outside world. Closer neighbors came down in the final days before the storm hit and checked on houses and everything both for themselves and the neighbors who were farther away and unable to make it to their houses in time.

Price definitely plays a role in alternatives to my business, family or friends may work for free or a simple thank you but that doesn't keep the lights on as they say. People may be drawn to the family and friend approach but not everyone has that option. The quality of work executed by family an fiends and yourself being there to oversee it may be different but my quality is certainly high and aim to provide services higher than family or friends can offer. Some people are certainly the I want to be there and do it myself kind of people, and in that case I would not be selling my service to those people. All of these factors together weigh in to a consumers choice on whether or not to enlist my services. Local availability and distance from their main residence to the storm affected residence plays the largest role in my customer basis.

My customers are reached through local advertisement or even online but the services are performed in person. My segment is in cash or check payments no need to finance my services. My service isnt sold in stores as it is a local and seasonal type of business.

My customers are most worried about saving their homes and valuable belongings from terrible storms and I am a way they can increase their chances of doing so. I also remove some stress from the post storm processes as well. They think the purchase was worth it when it is shown of how my service aided them in damage prevention and post storm recovery.

As I learned from my interviews my business definitely has promise but they brought up some valid points, it is a very seasonal and dependent business and could easily face rough patches and it is hard to build up a good customer base because no one really wants my help because that means there is something bad on the horizon. My services have a negative connotation due to the fact that  when I come around there is a storm coming as well. These interviews greatly helped me see the possible problems I could face if this was put into reality.

There is a definite tough choice for my customers in terms of whether or not they should enlist my services as some times they may not be needed if the storm turns or such, it is a tough choice but it is better to be safe than sorry. After the purchase they will either be really happy that I was able to present potential losses to their property or potentially mad as they bought my services and the storm changed track or decreased in strength.

14A Halfway Reflection

1) In order to keep up in this class I have set aside time every week in order to do these assignments so I am not rushing at the last minute to do them. This class isn't hard per say you just have to take on the work with an open mind and positive attitude.

2)Many Fridays for this class I feel like skipping assignments in this class but I remember I need to do them in order to do well and it won't hurt to save up those points for later in the semester so I can use that time to study for other exams or just take it easy. The assignments are never that hard they just take time and I often find myself getting distracted while doing them. Sometimes I have to put my phone in another room in order to focus on the assignments and get them done. Past experiences and the stress free end of the semesters in the past tell me that it is better to have those points stockpiled away so you don't have to count every point at the end of the semester an beg for extra credit.

3)To a future student I would say to set aside a solid time each week so its a habit to do the work, watch the lectures as soon as they are released and build up all the points you can in the beginning of the semester.

13A Reading Reflection No.1

Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc

The most surprising thing from the reading to me was that Ray Kroc was in his fifties when he started the McDonalds empire. To me always think of entrepreneurs as younger folk so to see a 50 plus year old man start an empire like he has is pretty surprising to me.

I really admired the fact that he never sold anything they didn't need or take advantage of them. He sold what he had and did it in an honest way. Everything he sold he saw as a tool to help other business owners grow and prosper as well much just like what he did with his water cups. The water cups are what taught him how to do business and provided the foundation for everything.

There isnt much I don't admire about him he made a whole lot of something form nothing. One thing I would say is, its not really a lack of admiration but a critique on what he did. He gave up on his paper cup sales for a while to pursue illegal liquor and and a few other business opportunities which at the time I'm sure seemed promising but looking back they weren't the smartest. If he had stuck with the paper cups and the multi mixerfrom the start he could have enjoyed more of his spoils.

While getting involved with the multi mixer corporation he struggled very much. He had to devote close to 60% of his income to put towards capital in order to get that business up and going. He was forced to live off of just 40% of his already small income. Many times his motto was to just grind through it and that is exactly what he did, he made do with what he had and went on with life. He never had major failure in his businesses but came close many many times.

The biggest competency that I saw while reading was his lack of giving up, perseverance played a huge role in him being able to made McDonalds what it is today. Just like the title is named, grinding it out is wha the really became known for. He sacrificed sleep along with many other things just to get his dreams off the ground.

I never found anything really confusing in the story as far as reading it goes but looking back I question why he made some decisions when he did. But he was a smart man so I'm sure there was some underlying reasons.

If I were able to ask him two questions they would be; "Did you ever think that it would grow to this?" and "What made keep grinding so much?". I was very impressed at his ability tokeep pushing forward and want to know how he was able to keep on.

I think his opinion of hard work was that in order to work hard you have to persevere and not give up. Thats what he did as he ran his businesses and was major part as to why he was so successful.