Week 15 Reading Reflection

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

Nothing really stood out to me, but I really liked this article. I wish more companies would come to the USA and do this with lower income areas, or try and help people in their 20's do things like this. I know tons of people my age who could milk a cow everyday and sell the milk for some money, and after 15 years turn it into a big business.  To bad banks here are only lending out thousands of dollars for the big interest payments up front.

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

Does this company really think it can keep this growth up for long?  Adding 150,000 thousand customers a month is great, but at some point they will cover all of India and be out of new customers.

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

Have you considered doing this in the USA?  I think this would help a lot of younger milllenials!

How much does your company profit?  Just curious how many micro loans does it take to become profitable.

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

I like the author and the ideas. This was a great read!

Final Reflection

What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

I really enjoyed making a venture concept in this class.  It gave me a perspective about what it takes to start a business. Lots of hours and lots of initial capital are required, and more than I originally thought actually. Doing tat exercise I think was the most eye opening and gave me the right perspective, I definitely have a greater respect for individuals who started their own enterprises.

3) At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. And we repeated the mantra -- I am an entrepreneur. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

Well, I do not consider myself that much of an entrepreneur. I think I have some good idea, but they are not always original, and they are mostly support ideas for other products and ideas. I think I am really good at adding value on top of ideas already in existence, and in a way that is entrepreneurial, but I think it is different.

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

I would recommend students to keep an open mind and just do the assignments. This class has a lot of work up front, but after week 8 it gets easier and easier. This class requires students to be organized, and utilize time management skills.  All the assignments are always due on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, so keeping track is easy!

Elevator Pitch No. 4

Okay,   This tool can be used by individuals or companies as a whole.   Don"t think ace hardware  and Home Depot. Although they might be customers I want you to think companies such as Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman. Big companies that need close tolerance hardware for specific needs!    So that is what I adjusted from the precious week.  Thanks for the good feedback.  Although, someone said they would use this on their own car, and YES this would be an ideal app for those purposes too. All of your hardware needs solved on the first trip to the Store.    I might even be able to sell advertisement rights for this app to a store like Lowes or home depot.


https://youtu.be/NRmiRbc8dOc

Venture Concept No. 2

People as a whole have a need for a better CrossFit gym, and so do many college students who want to play sports for their college, or further enhance their physical condition. Customers can range from college students to stay at home moms who want to improve their overall fitness level. Gainesville currently has what I consider tier 3 CrossFit gyms and they are essentially no good in my opinion. Currently customers are going to what they think are good Crossfit gyms but they are lead by people with little talent, who are solely after the money or trainers who don’t know what they are talking about. I used to train at a few of these facilities and I think they only stay open currently because new students come in every 4 months.

Customers would switch so quickly if the location was close to campus and big enough to accompany 50 people at once (Nearly 2x the current average).

I will have a decent amount of competitors, but my location will be prime, priced better, and trainers who actually know what they are talking about. Customer service will play a vital role in the business as people will want o be treated very well as they should. The appearance of this product (location) will also have to be good to distinguish myself from other competitors.

I could see this place operating with 3 full time trainers and perhaps 2 part time trainers if needed.

What will you have that will make it hard for competitors to copy your success?

The size of the location will be almost 2x the size of any other location in town, and that is so difficult to replicate.  The only options another gym might be able to perform is to move, and that is costly, so my competition will have no choice.

 What’s next for the venture?

Developing an athletes guide to get students on path to join college sport teams. There are a lot of college want-to-be athletes who never made the official college team, but still have the same dream. I would like to fuel that dream with a program that would enable these athletes to train over the course of a year, and then be able to walk on a UF Athletics team! I think in the begging phase I would have to have a specialty program for just track athletes, and then expand into baseball, and then football, and then the next sport.  This would take a lot of upfront work, but after a few success stories this would explode! So this would be the most fun part of the business, but in the start up phase will not pay for itself. The regular class that teaches regular students CrossFit will be the prime money maker in the beginning phase.

What’s next for me?

After success with this venture, I think the goal would be to expand into new territory.  There are colleges all around the country filled with students who are not satisfied with their CrossFit gyms. Gainesville being a prime location and having what I consider tier 3 gyms is an eye opener. If Gainesville has this type of opportunity I believe other college towns would as well. The trick is to cater to the right customers, and understand their unique goals, and get them on the right track.

Five Years- Expand into at least one new location such as Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Sarasota, orTampa. The goal would be to set up the Gainesville location and have such success that athletes all over the country would want an opportunity like this. I think developing the proper program for athletes is going to be the toughest aspect of this venture. A football player, and a gymnast will have very different needs as far as training goes, and I am going to need coaches with expertise in both! I realize this will be tough to solve, but all problems are fixable.

Ten Years- Have several locations, and expand outside the sunshine state to increase territory. At this point I would think other competitors would see my plan and try making their own version of my product. That will happen, but not in every single market.  The goal would be to have locations in several markets and take care of them for long run business opportunity.  After 10 years I would imagine hiring outside management to take care of individual locations while I focus on new ventures. I think this idea is unique, and I do not see others doing it..YET!

Everyone who reviewed my last post only gave me positive advise, so that was a good thing. Although I noticed some people had no idea about how bad the Crossfit gyms are in Gainesville and how bad I think of them. So now I know the Market I will be working in is not as educated in this area, or maybe customers do not see it the way I see it.  I imagine my product will be very very different than anything else ever seen in Gainesville and it will take the town by storm!   I only changed my concept, by adding a bigger time estimate to it. Perhaps 10 years will not be long enough, and instead I should aim for 15 or so.  The first establishment will take a very long time to nurture and grow.

Google Gold

1) A discussion of your general approach and strategy to search engine optimization (SEO). What were some of the activities you did for each blog post to pursue SEO? 

At first in the semester I would just make sure to share my posts with all of my email contacts.  That seemed to generate some web traffic.

2) What were your keywords. How did you select those keywords? Did you change or refine your keywords through the semester?

I did not put in specific key words to increase traffic or refine them in anyway shape or form. 

3) How did you use social media to enhance your SEO efforts? What your your surprises or general impression of using social media to improve your blog's profile? Was social media generally receptive of your blog, or did it get ignored?

I used Google Plus which is recommended by the blogger site, but after a few weeks I decided to not pursue this option any longer. I did not want to bombard my friends and family with my school work topics. If I had a product I would simply use Google AD-WORDS to get the front page I want.

4) What was your most "viral" post? In other words, which post obtained the most traffic? Why do you think?

My Venture Concept Idea number 1 gained the most traffic, and I think it can be contributed to two factors. Number one This was the longest assignment and I really tried my best to do this assignment to the best of my ability, and I think people noticed. This assignment also required 4 comments, so most of my views came from comments.

5) Finally, did you make it to the first page of Google results for your keywords? If not, what page of results did you make it to?

YES I made it to the first page of google results, for two of my blog posts.  My Key words are my name Stephen Clegg. I am also the first LinkedIn Profile that appears.  Never knew I would be first page google material, but here I am!

Very Short Interview, Part 2

From where you stand now, what is your impression of that initial interview?


I think my initial interview was very educational, but not eye opening.  Everyone wants to open a business and sell it for a hige profit after 5 years, and move onto the next project.  Make a lot of money and have fun with it is drilled into our brains. Altough, real world business does not always flow perfectly. There are set back and hills to climb over. Nick Saban believed in a term called THE PROCESS. Go in a do your best everyday to work towards the goal you seek.  That is what business is all about. Get the job done, and just grind.

I am not asking the same question instead I am asking my Boss what he sees in the future of his company what my physical presence will bring, and what is his exit strategy.

Government Contracting dealing with parts being manufacturer to delivered for specific projects. I will start learning the process of government sourcing and dealing with DLA to help our company grow into a multimillion dollar enterprise.   My Boss does not have an exit strategy. After 20 years of this job he might spend another 10 working and then sell the company off or hand it to managers to handle the daily operating.


Well I have always been very blunt with people and conducting interviews is something I consider easy, so tht did not change.  I did ask different questions, but I think that is more dependent on the material we were learning at the time.

Week 13 Reading Reflection

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

WHen the author discusses One-Person Band Syndrome I thought that was a good vocab word for the definition.  I know a lot of people who should read that paragraph.

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

How is Strategic Entrepreneurial Growth studied and proven to work better when implemented or not implemented?

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

I would not ask the author questions.  I understand what he wrote and I am still taking it all in

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

Nope, I just wish he would have sourced some of his statements so I could read up, and make sure he really knows what he is talking about.