Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: My opportunity is late night healthy food near campus and the students of UF have the need. There is a need for a healthy food option in midtown because the only things open late night are not great for you and could be considered "drunk food."
There is definitely a trend to eat healthy currently happening and so this has led way for the opportunity to open a late night healthy food cafe.
My target market is UF students so anyone who lives close to UF campus. We will mostly have young college aged students in but definitely a diverse crowd.
I think people are having to satisfying their need for healthy food by eating at home. Although it is cheaper to eat at home, it is way less convenient than grabbing something already made.
The opportunity to bring healthy food near UF campus is pretty big because there are so few options available, but I do think that people are already starting to catch onto that and offer healthy food, for example Grill Fresh just opened in Midtown.
My product is a smoothie and salad cafe made with only organic ingredients. We will make money by selling our smoothies and salads at an affordable price of $4.99.
My cafe will solve the problems of my consumers because they will be able to pick up healthy food at an affordable price and not have to go far off campus to do it. We will also be open until 3 am in hopes of offering an alternative to pizza and burgers for the people leaving the library or bars late at night.
I think people will switch to the cafe because it will be so convenient to campus, affordable, and high quality food. I don't think it will be hard for customers to switch because people generally prefer a smoothie with no added sugar because they are usually drinking a smoothie as a healthy alternative.
My competitors would be Planet Smoothie, Designer Greens, and Grill Fresh. Our price makes our product stand out because typically healthy food is expensive so college students will not eat it, but we are going to offer high quality healthy food for an extremely low price. Our location is the best part of my venture because it will be so convenient to the students at UF and will bring a lot of late night customers in.
I would only hire about 3 employees as we started off the business and do a lot of the work myself to save money for a while. We will have me operating as the manager, and 3 food prepping employees.

Competitors cannot compete with us because we use all organic products and do not add any sweetener to our smoothies.
The next step in our venture is adding more items to our menu like sandwiches and soups.
In five years I want to be further removed from the project, as in have hired a manager and be opening other locations.

Amazon whisperer

My revenue drivers are selling coffee and a delivery surcharge. I believe my next product offering is going to be pastries or light snacks to go with coffee. This will allow me to both meet thirst and caffeine needs as well as hunger needs, both of which affect people's purchasing decisions. My product is a service therefore there are no comparable items on Amazon. There are no applicable customer reviews.
I reviewed a portable speaker with Bluetooth capability. It may add value to my product to add a fun environment. It needed better batteries, so I would make a better battery.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1) I was surprised by how necessary it was to keep the company going even after the innovative process was finished. How innovative are these companies if they can't sustain themselves?
2) I was confused by what innovation items the amazon whisperer would change? Would it only take a couple of comments with modifications for them to decide what to change?
3) I would ask them what their company has going for them that keeps other companies from jumping in there too? Do they think there is an infinite amount of innovation, so entering the market will never be an issue?
4) There was nothing I disagreed with

My Unfair Advantage

Ethical:

V-  In my opinion, Ethics are the most valuable aspect of a business because people want to do business with ethical people. 

R- It makes me sad at how rare ethical businesses are these days. Our society has become so corrupt and so many businesses are only worried about the money aspect of it. My venture would always put ethics first. 

I-  Our venture will be unique in that we will post our code of ethics on the wall so that our customers can hold us accountable to our promise to be ethical always. We will not just be financially ethical but socially and environmentally as well. 

N- There are no other resources that can substitute for ethics.

Health centered: 

V: My whole venture is centered around the opportunity of healthy food options near campus. I genuinely care about the health of the students at UF and their health is of great value to themselves. 

R: It is very rare around midtown area for their to be a healthy option for food and smoothies, especially that is open late night. 

I: Although other ventures may claim this resource, we will actually follow up with our advertising. Our smoothies will have no added sugars, our salad dressings will be fresh and low calorie, and all our ingredients will be organic. 

N:  There is a potential for other substitute resources but I think health centered is pretty distinguishable. 

Loyal Investors: 

V:  Loyal investors is of great value because they will keep our business around and will be the key part in starting up our juice bar and cafe.

R: It is rare to have loyal investors because most investors will pull out the second they think the business is going to go under, but we will be backed by people who believe in our mission and support us until the very end. 

I: This is something other companies will strive to copy but it will be very hard for them to succeed in. 

N: There is no other substitute resource. We need loyal investors because they are the main thing pushing us towards success. 

Word of Mouth: 

V:  Word of Mouth is the most valuable form of marketing there is, so if we can get loyal customers to talk about how amazing our juice bar and cafe is that could be one of the most beneficial resources we have. 

R: It is rare for word of mouth to be the strongest resource behind your company, but word of mouth will be a factor in every business. The key is to ensure people are talking positively and not poorly of your company.

I:  People will be able to copy this only if they are good enough for people to rave about. It is all about how great our customer service, food, and smoothies are. 

N: Social media could do the same type of marketing for our company, but word of mouth is actually often more trusted than social media so it would be a little less effective. 

Loyalty rewards: 

V: A great loyalty rewards program is valuable because it will bring people back because they want to get the free smoothie or food item. 

R: It is not rare to find companies with great loyalty rewards programs in fact I would model it after the Hyppo, Starbucks, and Pascals reward programs. 

I: People can copy our rewards program formatting but people have to like their product enough to return back to get it.

N: I think loyalty reward programs do something very specific that is hard to do with any other resource because they create loyalty in customers using reward power.

Great Hours of Operation: 

V: For me, this is what makes our company the most valuable. In a college town you need a late night food option that offers healthy food and that is exactly what we do. 

R: There is no healthy food options open late into the night in midtown so our company would be rare. 

I: People probably would not copy this because it would cost them money to stay open later and because there isn't a lot of healthy stores that could stay open to copy us. 

N:  This is the only resource that can produce the same outcome. 

Affordable: 

V: This is valuable because we will be selling to college students who don't have a lot of money to spend. 

R: It is very rare to find well priced organic and healthy food and smoothies especially near campus. 

I: People cannot follow in our footsteps in making their healthy food affordable because their aren't many competing places and because we will grow a lot of our stuff making it easy to price things low. 

N: Pricing the food low is the only way to make it affordable for students. 

Accessible: 

V:  Geographic location of our store is valuable because it is easy for students to access and for them to get a snack when they are at the library. It also is accessible for anyone on University street so not just for students. 

R: It is not rare to find food in midtown but it is rare to find healthy food in midtown. 

I: People can copy this resource by buying a shop in midtown. 

N: There are not other resources to accomplish good geographical location for our target market. 

Target market: 

V:It is valuable to know who your target market is so that you can effectively market to them.

R: It is rare to market healthy food to college students so we will definitely be different than other people. 

I:  People can copy who we target our marketing to. 

N: There may be other ways to market our product but it will be done most effectively by targeting to the college students who we are expecting to be our loyal customers. 

Passion: 

V:  There are few things more valuable then having the passion to make your product and to succeed in it. 

R: It is rare to find someone who is passionately doing what they love these days.

I: Passion cannot be created or copied.

N:   There are other ways to succeed in our venture but not if you want to enjoy it everyday.

 I think loyal investors is our most valuable resource because they have the ability to keep us in business forever. There is nothing more valuable then someone who financially backs your company and believes in what you are doing. 

Week 10 reading reflection

1) What surprised me most about the reading was that they referred to taxes as a liability. After taking numerous accounting classes you would think I would of heard that by now but this was the first time I had ever heard them be classified as that.
2) The thing that confused me the most is the break even point section. I have always struggled in my classes to find the break even point using calculations but am hopeful that I will master it.
3) What budget strategy would you use when beginning a venture? I did not really have many questions since I am very familiar with the subject.
4) I did not disagree with anything the author talked about but would love to hear more about why Taxes are liabilities to him.

Elevator Pitch No. 3

1)

2) I received a lot of great feedback from my elevator pitch like asking people to invest directly and telling them exactly what it will do for them. I got a better idea of how to get investors and how to make people believe in what I am doing. I also got a lot of feedback about  beating the competition and it surprised me that people were already thinking about this because I have never heard of it before.

3) I changed the way I filmed the video to be more stable and professional looking and I changed the way I addressed potential investors so that they knew exactly what I needed from them and what was in it for them.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Hi my name is Katie Austin and I am a junior at the University of Florida. I am a smoothie and health food enthusiast and am seeking to start my own juice bar. I am so sick of drinking sugar filled smoothies from the places here in Gainesville so I am going to start my own. I will run the store for the first year or two almost on my own to save money. Once we are an established store I will hire on a couple of employees to help me out. My juice bar will be open all day and through the night to give college students a healthy alternative at all hours. Our smoothies and food will be 100% organic but priced well and delicious. My biggest target are UF students because my juice bar will be located in midtown across from the library, although I think we will attract other people as well. Late night we will target students leaving the library so they no longer have to settle for a hamburger and can eat alternative. I am opening my juice bar because I care about the students of UF and their health. As a UF student I know how little healthy options there are for us nearby campus and I know how much of a demand there is for some. I am doing this for the people so that we can be a healthier campus. What we have that no one else has is well priced healthy food and smoothies. Forget about the $6 sugar filled smoothie and come try our all organic $4.50 smoothie. We provide quality food at a reasonable price.

My idea is starting to come together better but a lot of it seems a little unfeasible. I really want to provide well priced organic food but I also know how expensive it is to buy organic so I have a feeling it may end up being more expensive than I would like. I also think I may need to hire on at least one person to help me out so that I can get the sleep I need to function well.

The feedback I received didn't really help me that much because a lot of people just liked my ideas. I think had I gotten more constructive criticism, I could have continued to grow my product into what I hope it becomes. This has helped me understand how important criticism is, and how we really need it.