Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

I am Chris Parrish, a senior at UF.  My talents are seeing opportunities and finding ways to make something out of them.  I currently own my own business which specializes in customs coatings on firearms and the manufacturing of firearms.  We also to retail sales. This has given me a great deal of experience with all of the things that it actually takes to run a business from taxes and accounting to quality services and customer satisfaction.  My aspirations for the project in this class is for everyone to know what the product I am creating is and have the opportunity to get a mattress that cools itself.  It would play a major role in my life because I would be involved with every aspect of the business.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).

My product is a mattress that has vent channels and it sends cool air through them to the side of the mattress that you are sleeping on.  So instead of your mattress heating up and making you too hot at night, you will sleep comfortably under your sheets. 

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

I believe my product works for almost everyone.  The majority of people get hot at night while they sleep so there is a pretty broad market. There will probably be more buyers in the southern United States simply because of how much hotter it is for more of the year.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

They care because they will be able to get a better nights rest instead of waking up from being hot.  It will also save them money because they won't have to turn the air down so far in their house to be able to get the same good night's sleep.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

I have the willingness to take the risk to create a business which is what I believe holds a lot of people back.

I believe that all of these elements fit together and that I have the ability to create a successful business out of this if I did it in the real world.

My Customer's Avatar

I believe that my prototypical customer consists of a wide range of people.  Everyone sleeps on a mattress so it just comes down to who cares more about spending money to get a good nights rest.  I think that males are the ones who are more willing to spend money to accomplish something like that.  Also, someone who is more active and middle aged is more likely to not sleep as well or have back issues from being active.  So the person I created in my mind fits the picture below.  As far as their political views and what car they drive, I would honestly be biased and say they are republicans who drive trucks.  But that's just because that fits me.  Really and truly I have such a wide range of customers that they will all share all kinds of different views.  

My Secret Sauce

I am out of town on vacation and unfortunately unable to do the interviews in front of a camera.  However, I was able to make phone calls and still do the interviews so I will post the summary.

1)
A.  I believe I am more of a risk taker than most people which is something that is needed for an entrepreneur.
B.  I think I am a very logical thinker which helps me to solve problems and think about things in ways that a lot of people don't.
C.  I have been creating my own little businesses and trying to sell things ever since I was little.  I remember getting in trouble in 5th grade for making and selling stress balls at school out of balloons and sand.  I was selling them for a dollar each and got in trouble when one busted in class.
D.  I can easily ignore what people say so it helps with not getting offended very easily and causing issues in relationships.
E.  I have determination to make things work even when it is difficult.

2)
AJ Moser
He thinks I am very smart and somewhat arrogant.  But the arrogance is also from me being confident in my abilities.  He said I am able to run my business successfully and make money so he understand how I can act extra confident sometimes.

Chris Noel
He said that I always have good ideas and answers to problems.  Every time he has pitched an idea to me I have been able to give him constructive criticism for it.

Kristiian Serena
He said that I am a good salesman.  I am always buying and selling something and making money. Also that I like working for myself so I can think on my own and not be controlled by someone.

Devyn West
She said that I am smart and come off as cocky sometimes.  Also, that I like being in control because I always want to drive everywhere and do everything myself instead of letting others do it.

My Mom
She thinks that I am confident and independent.  She has watched me with my businesses and knows that I spend a lot of time working and trying to make things work well.

3)
I pretty much agree with what everyone said.  I definitely like doing things myself if I want them done right because I don't trust others to do it right.  I wouldn't make any corrections to my original list.  I think everyone described me pretty accurately.

Hangry

Hangry- The emotion of becoming angry due to being hungry.

As we have seen in people, as you become hungry, you start to become irritable.  Also, the hungrier you get the easier it is to get angry.  Therefore, I have combined Hungry and Angry to become, Hangry.

Since I started using this word, so have others around me.  The word is easy to understand the meaning of when used in context so others caught on to it easy.

Halfway Reflection

1)  This course has required some perseverance and a lot of determination.  Although none of the assignments are really "hard," they do require your time each week and force you to do some things that you wouldn't normally do.

2)  I felt like giving up on one of the very first assignments, the bug list.  I had the hardest time thinking of so many different things.  I normally only focus on big problems but the big list involved spotting the smallest problems that really don't affect me that much.  This class has helped to think deeply about different problems to search for resolutions.  This class forces you to think in a way that will benefit you in the future.

3)  a. Try to prepare yourself to spend several hours a week on this course.
     b. This isn't really a hard course but it does take your time and commitment to fulfill all of the assignments.
     c. Make sure you don't miss any of the extra credit quizzes!

Idea Napkin No. 1

1)  My talents include the ability to solve and overcome problems.  I think in logical ways about solutions to issues that we are faced with.  I want to see this product around the country.  I want everyone to know about it and know that it is an option available to them

2)  I will solve the customer's need by offering them a mattress that cools at night instead of heating up with their body heat.  This will especially help couples because the extra body heat of another person just heats a tradition mattress up more.

3)  This product is available to absolutely everyone.  Everyone has body heat and either has to keep their house very cool at night to not get hot, or they just get hot when they sleep.

4)  This is a valuable solution because it beats all of the other options.  For example, for the people who turn their A/C cooler at night, that costs them more money.  If they had this mattress they wouldn't have to turn their A/C down because the mattress will keep them cool.  This also helps consumers to get a better sleep at night.

5)  No one else has done this in the way that I have imagined.  This is a problem that I have first hand experience with and it bothers me every night.

I believe that all of these elements fit together.  If you can't answer all of these question, then you probably won't be able to run a very good business.

Reading Reflection No. 1

I chose to read The Wright Brothers by David McCullough for my first book.

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?  What surprised me most was how hard it was for the brothers to get started.  They ran into so many obstacles and people literally thought that they were crazy.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?  I admired their perseverance more than anything. Everyone they contacted to work with shut them down.  In the end they succeeded while other, better funded, organizations failed.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?  There wasn't really anything about them that I didn't admire.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?   Yes, they encountered an enormous amount of adversity and they constantly failed over and over again.  That is why I admire their perseverance so much.  So many people would have given in to the constant failures and listened to all of the people telling them that they are crazy.  Most would have given up, but the Wright Brothers didn't. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?  The brothers were skilled at building things.  They started with their love for bicycles and they opened a shop building those.  Their imagination also helped with discovering how to make a plane.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.  Nothing was really confusing...

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask how they were able to block people's opinions out and simply focus on their work.  Most people would have given up with everyone thinking that they were crazy, they would of eventually started to believe they were crazy.

I would also ask how hard it was to leave such a close knit family to travel around and conduct all of their testing and demonstrations.  Most people coming from a family like that don't like leaving home.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?  I think that their opinion of hard work is to never give up even in the face of adversity.  I would like to think that I share that, yes.