Celebrating Failure

1. Recently, my wife and I have been doing home renovations. The toughest project during our renovations have been doing the bathroom. We have run into many problems and failures throughout the process. The first failure I had was not being able to turn off the water due to a broken shut off valve. I didn’t know it was broken and I thought I turned off the water to the sink and then took off the supply line. Water started spraying everywhere! I ended up having to shut off all the water to the house and replace the shut off valve. Once we got the shut off valve replaced and the old vanity out we turned the water back on. I didn’t know you had to put the P trap back on but I found out! My wife was in our other bathroom washing her face and I walked by the bathroom and I heard water hitting the floor. I walked into a flooded bathroom and the water ended up in our bedroom. This was our biggest failure. The next failure I ran across was after I took out the old sink and realized the tile stopped at the vanity and didn’t go underneath so I had a big hole where the vanity once was so I had to either finish the tile or re do the flooring entirely. My wife decided we would put new flooring down. Once we decided on the flooring we had to figure out how to make the hole even with the rest of the floor. Luckily, we had old flooring left over from our recent laundry room renovation, which worked perfectly. The next failure we came across was finding flooring that matched. We bought two boxes of washed oak dove flooring from Lowe’s without realizing one was much lighter than the other. The employee at Lowe’s said that’s how those boxes were. Some were light some were dark. We returned the dark one in hopes of getting another light box but they were all out and weren’t going to get a shipment for a week. When the shipment came in someone bought all the boxes before we could buy one so I had to search all over town for the right box. After I got the correct boxes I had to take up the flooring I had already laid to get all the same colors. Once I got to the toilet I approached another failure. I couldn’t cut the flooring around the toilet and make it look nice so I had to remove the toilet and place the flooring underneath. Currently in this project the failures I am working on are getting the trim on the walls and putting in the new vanity. I didn’t prepare so my drill is being charged.

2. From this experience I have learned many handyman skills such has how to lay flooring, basic plumbing, and how to replace a toilet. I also learned that I should be prepared to do this better. Having my drill die would have never happened if I was more prepared. I have learned how to do things myself and the joy you get from completing something even if it is something small.

3. I think failure is necessary to grow as a person. It is much easier to learn from failure or a mistake than it is to learn from something that goes perfectly. It is definitely embarrassing to fail but it is more embarrassing to not try something you aren’t sure you can do. Normally, when I encounter failure I get really down on myself then I try to do better the next time.  This class has helped me with failure because it has shown me everyone fails but what matters is how you react to it and if you give up after you fail. Also, this class has made me do things that aren’t in my comfort zone, which I am thankful for.

Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy

1.       My exit strategy would be to sell the company, hopefully, to one of my employees to help better both of our lives. I would like to make the exit after about 10 years of running the business myself. I think this gives the business enough time to have a good foundation and reputation and also allows me to make a good amount of money to live off of and travel the country.

2.       I have selected this exit strategy because I feel like it gives me and the business enough time to establish ourselves and expand but also isn’t so long where I could possibly get burnt out. The reason I would like to sell the company to one of my employees is in hopes that they continue the tradition that we built together.

3.       I do not think my exit strategy has influenced my decisions in my concept. I think 10 years in a business is ample time to complete everything I have mentioned in my concept. Staying with the business allows me to expand the region to which my company provides its laundry service and also allows me to add to what services I provide such as dry cleaning and comforters and sheet washing. It has given me a deadline to have my business at a certain point where I can live comfortably after selling my business. The 10 years until selling is a goal I would like to achieve.

Picture of me at Fenway Park.

Week 12 Reading Reflection

1.     The biggest surprise in the reading for me was the complexity of strategic planning, specifically, the continuous feedback. Based on the reading, strategic planning seems to be a never-ending process that must be worked on tirelessly. Once the plan is completed you can start over in the process to better your plan.

2.     The part of the reading that was a bit confusing to me was the paragraph about the entrepreneurial strategy matrix model. The specific aspect that confused me was how something could be high risk and low innovation or low risk and high innovation. To me, risk and innovation should go hand in hand.

3.     My first question I would ask the author is, “Should an entrepreneur find a happy medium between an entrepreneurial mind-set and a managerial mind-set to become successful?” I would ask this because an entrepreneur could have the best idea but need help executing the idea but unable to manage people and the idea become unsuccessful. The second question I would ask the author is, “Is there a time table as to how long the first four steps of strategic plan should take?” I ask this just to get an idea of how long the process should take.

4.     Since I was so unfamiliar with the strategic planning process prior to reading the chapter there isn’t anything I could disagree with because I had no prior knowledge. For the most part the author was very descriptive as to what strategic planning was and what it entailed.

Venture Concept No.1

Opportunity

My business concept is a mobile laundry service that picks up your dirty clothes, takes them to be cleaned and folded at the brick and mortar location, and then delivered back to the customer's house. The group of customers that my business concept is targeting is college students and single parents.  Both college students and single parents have a need for a business like this so they can have one less thing to take care of in their busy lives. Most college students spend their time in class, studying, or doing extra curricular activist boost their resume. Having a trusted laundry service to handle their dirty clothes would give them one less thing to take care of. Single parents have even more to deal with than college kids. They have to work and provide for a child all on their own. Having a affordable laundry service to handle their laundry chore would give them peace of mind and more time to spend with their child. Currently, my business will only be working in the Gainesville and surround communities areas so geographically it is relatively small but the demographics of the customers are limitless. Customers satisfy their current laundry needs by either A) Doing their laundry at their residence or B) Taking their clothes to a laundromat to do their laundry. Both options take a lot of time and effort and my business concept would cut back on both. I believe customers would gladly give up their laundry duties and have someone else do it for them if it was affordable so I don't believe they are very loyal to their laundry chore. The opportunity is as big as I make it. The more the business expands the greater potential for customers. I believe the opportunity will always be there for a mobile laundry service because people are always trying to find easier ways to do things in life.

Innovation

Like I stated previously, my business concept is a laundry service that comes to your house or apartment and picks up your dirty laundry. Once the laundry is picked up it is taken back to a warehouse where it is then washed, dried, and folded. Once your load or loads of laundry is complete it will be delivered back to your house. If you wish to have the laundry delivered at a specific time, then that is done to the best of our ability. Most loads of laundry will be completed within a few short hours. There would be two different fees involved in a laundry service. The first fee would be for the actual laundry. I would charge $0.75 per pound of laundry. This fee will cover the washing, drying, folding, and maintenance of the machines. The next fee would be a mileage fee for pick up and delivery. The fee would be $0.50 per mile one way. For example, if you had 10 pounds of laundry and you lived 5 miles away from the warehouse your total charge would be $10, $7.50 for the laundry and $2.50 for the picking up and delivering.

Venture Concept

I think customers will be willing to switch from doing their own laundry at home or at the laundromat because it is very affordable and it allows them to do something else with their time instead of doing laundry. The only competitors that I know of are laundromat services that wash, dry, and fold clothes for you. I used to take my clothes to a laundromat that did these services for you and it was $0.80 per pound so my laundry service would not only do it for less per pound but also pick up and deliver your clothes to your residence. My low price points and convenience play major roles in my business. Being the most affordable and the most convenient will be key for my business to be successful. To start out the business, I would have 5 employees. I would have 2 drivers and 3 warehouse workers not including myself. I would like all 5 employees to be cross trained to perform every task in the company so drivers could help with the actual laundry and warehouse workers could make deliveries if necessary.

My most important resource will be myself. I will make sure I hire trustworthy, hard working employees who embrace my vision. Also, I will be able to do every aspect of the job and will train all employees to make sure everything is done correctly. I am a firm believer in leading by doing instead of leading by telling. In my experiences in life, I am more willing to work for someone if they are doing just as much work or more than they are asking me to do than if they are doing nothing and asking me to do everything. After I get the laundry service up and running I would like to expand it to dry cleaning for business professionals and doing heavier items such as sheets, comforters, and blankets. After successful launch, I would expand my business to surrounding major cities like Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville. All three of these cities have an abundance of my target demographic and would be a good stepping stone to making this a state-wide and potentially nationwide company.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1. The biggest surprise in the reading for me was the fact that many companies don't focus on innovation. Innovation seems like it would be a key focus for businesses to keep up with the change of times and try to find the new "it" product or service.
2. The author explained innovation strategy and its components very well. I understood the article in its entirety.
3. The first question I would ask the author is, "Why don't more businesses focus on innovation, especially, when companies like Google and Apple always seem to be innovating and are extremely successful?" The second question I would ask the author is, "Why do so many companies try to copy other company's successful innovations instead of coming up with a great innovation themselves?"
4. I really enjoyed this article. I did not know much about innovation or innovation strategy before reading this so there isn't anything that I would disagree with or say the author was wrong about.

The Amazon Whisperer

The revenue drivers for my business concept are the machines and vehicles I have to wash and dry the clothes and deliver them back to the customers. The more efficient I am in doing this the more money I will make.

I believe the next service I should include is dry cleaning clothes and washing sheets and comforters. I think both of these services are things customers will also want to have washed for them.

Dry cleaning will be the next service that I include in my business. Having the option to have your nice suits and dresses dry cleaned would beneficial to customers because it would reduce the risk of shrinking items and some clothing must be dry cleaned or it will be ruined. This service would enhance customer satisfaction and user experience.

Here is a picture of a dry cleaner called the SWASH system I found on Amazon. I had to screen shot it from my phone because I couldn't get Amazon to work on my computer for some reason. The reviews for this product were 3.6 stars out of 5 stars. The customers said that this machine doesn't get all stains out of clothes and requires pods for cleaning. Each pod is $0.60. Some of the other negatives is it is a big machine and hard to maneuver. Some positives of the machine are it is very easy to use and only takes about 15 minutes per cycle.
It is a large machine, about 50 inches tall and about 36 inches deep and around 80 pounds. It is a sturdy metal machine. To use the machine you hang the article of clothing on the hanger inside, then load the swash pod and choose a cycle and it takes about 10 to 15 minutes for a cycle to complete.
I think the SWASH system would be a good product to add to my business because it would allow me to also dry clean clothes for relatively cheap. The machine was only $399.00 on Amazon so after a couple of months of dry cleaning it would pay for itself. Also, adding dry cleaning to my business could lead to more customers.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1. The part of the reading that stuck out to me the most was the cash-flow budget. I thought cash-flow was just the sales that the company made but the paragraph on cash-flow budget taught me that it also includes cash payments and loan proceeds. This tells me that there is more to making money in a business than just cash sales.
2. The portion of the reading that confused me the most was the paragraph on contributed capital. In the paragraph, there never was a definition of contributed capital so that is what confused me the most.
3.  The first question I would ask the author is, "Which portion of financial preparation is the most important for an entrepreneur in your opinion?" I would ask this to get their prospective on which they though was the most important. The second question I would ask the author is, "Why would an entrepreneur use the internal rate of return method if it is so complex?" I would ask this because if I was starting a business I would like to use the easiest way possible.
4. I took financial accounting last summer and everything in this chapter was the same as what I learned in class so there is nothing that I disagree with the author on.