Week 11 Reading Reflection

• Something that surprised me while reeding this journal was the fact that up to now, I always thought there was just one office or department in a company that was in charge with innovation strategies. Instead, innovation strategies are something that should be practiced at every point of the business process.
• I did not find any part of this reading confusing. I found it to be a very straight forward read.

• What's the best way to approach a failed innovation strategy? What are some of the most successful innovation strategies that you have seen very rarely fail? I believe that responses to these questions would help companies have a clearer idea of how to tackle certain strategy losses.

• I did not find myself disagreeing with the author at any point. It was an overall very interesting reading.

Amazon Whisperer

Revenue Drivers:

• Companies paying for advertising
• Customers purchasing application

Next Product:

• Offer coupon codes to customers to use on retail stores
• Hashtags

How the "next" thing will enhance the current experience:

• The coupon codes will encourage customers to buy more because they're saving a few bucks. Also, the retail store will be notified when we send them customers and pay us a percentage of the purchases.
• The hashtags will help the bloggers promote better and allow the customers to find exactly what they're looking for.

Amazon:

• A product such as this does not exist on Amazon.

Customer Reviews:

• I could not find any products online with reviews but based off of twitter and instagram hashtag reviews, hashtags seem to be a very popular and useful thing.

Design/Usability Changes:

• Something Instagram and other hashtag apps do not offer is the combination of hashtags for one search. I would provide the option to search several hashtags at once.

Why this product would make a good addition:

• The addition of these products will produce more customers, therefore both us and the other companies that pay us will earn more customers and revenue.

My Unfair Advantage

1. Social
Valuable - I'm able to expand my social network through comfortable communications.
Rare - With todays addiction to technology, people have become uncomfortable in real life social interactions.
Inimitable - Many people say they are social but very often they are not.
Non-substitutable - Being easy to talk to is something that is a very important must when promoting your business.

2. Bilingual
Valuable - I am able to communicate with more people around the world. There are 21 spanish speaking countries in the world.
Rare - Unique to find someone that speaks another language because of how difficult and time consuming it is.
Inimitable - Some people do speak more than 1 language, but it is rare to be perfectly fluent in both.
Non-substitutable - Translating sites could offer this resource but they are not as accurate or personal.

3. Customer Service Experience
Valuable - Can allow me to communicate better with customers and know what their needs are.
Rare - Not everyone has customer service experience.
Inimitable - Many people have customer service experience but not everyone learns from it,
Non-substitutable - No real substitute fro knowing how to properly handle customers.

4. Beauty Industry Experience
Valuable - Allows me to understand how the inside world of the beauty industry functions.
Rare - Not everyone has experience working with the actual companies they blog about.
Inimitable - Some people have experience but not everyone tries to learn from it to later apply it.
Non-substitutable - Can't be substituted.

5. Blogging Experience
Valuable - Learned firsthand how to promote oneself.
Rare - Not everyone that tried to blog succeeds.
Inimitable - Others blog but not many think of it as an entrepreneurship opportunity.
Non-substitutable - Can be substituted but only by hiring someone that understands promoting and that costs money.

6. Unique Makeup Style
Valuable - Allows the style of the brand to be easily recognizable.
Rare - Will create a cult fanbase that identifies with one style.
Inimitable - If anyone tries to imitate it, it'll be obvious.
Non-substitutable - It's too unique to substitute.

7. Inexpensive
Valuable - People are more interested when they don't have to spend too much money.
Rare - Promoting a company or brand is rarely this cheap.
Inimitable - Some bloggers offer free promoting, but they wont reach out to as many people as this app would.
Non-substitutable - Reaching out to individual bloggers would be a substitution.

8. Colleagues interested in investing
Valuable - Can help with the starting of the company such as programming and designs.
Rare - Not everyone has help when they're starting up.
Inimitable - It's possible to seek out assistance but it'll cost money.
Non-substitutable - Can be substituted with your own money and time.

9. Time saving
Valuable - Customers will appreciate saving time looking for promoters.
Rare - Easiest way to promote, just go on one site, tell us what you want, and we'll do it.
Inimitable - Some bloggers offer promoting but brands have to find them and see if they properly represent the brand which takes time.
Non-substitutable - Reaching out to individual bloggers would be a substitution but thats more time consuming.

10. Offers something for everyone
Valuable - Offers something for the companies, the bloggers, and the bloggers followers.
Rare - Very few apps take everyone into consideration.
Inimitable - There are no other apps that are work with everyone.
Non-substitutable - Substitution would be Instagram, Twitter, etc. but its harder to get all the details or payed.


Top Resource:

My top resource would be my blogging experience. Being a beauty blogger, I'm like the middle person. I work with the company and the customers. With this experience, I have been able to learn from the companies that reach out to me, how to properly promote the products and how to reach out to the bloggers. Also, from interactions with the customers, I'm able to learn what their needs are as well as they opinions. With all this, I am able to apply it to my venture.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

• I was not really that surprised by this reading. I found that I had knowledge on everything that was discussed. The only thing mentioned that was new to me was the part on pro forma statements.

• I did not understand the linear regression section but, aside from that, I did not find anything else confusing about this reading. The author was very straight forward and clear.

• Why does simple linear regression help the operating budget? I did not fully understand this. Why would it be better to approach accounts receivable payments from those who are not paying? 

• I did not find myself disagreeing with the author at any point. It was an overall very interesting reading.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

• The biggest surprise for me with this reading was that depending on how mature your company is, the marketing strategies could differ. I was also surprised to learn that quite few entrepreneurs do market research despite how risky their choices could be.

• I did not find anything confusing about this reading. The author was very straight forward and the author clearly explained the importance of marketing and the different way entrepreneurs can go about it.

• Could you please provide some real life examples of where these marketing tactics were used and whether or not they were successful? What is the correct way to handle a possible website hack that later follows negative feedback on social media? Answers to these questions would make the readings more credible and produce a better, more understandable picture for the reader. 

• I did not find myself disagreeing with the author at any point. It was an overall very interesting reading.

Idea Napkin No. 2

1) You. My name is Evelyn Fernandez and I am currently a student at the University of Florida pursuing a major in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Entrepreneurship. But aside from school, I have an incredible passion for beauty and fashion! Seven months ago I created a beauty and fashion blog that continues to grow in followings every day (instagram.com/evicitta). With the use of this blog, I have seen the world of promotions and the world of consumers. Every day I take a photo using some product from some brand and followers bombard me with questions of "where is it from?", "where can I get it?", "how do you like it?", etc. With the time spent in this "business", I have witness the good and the bad, and because of this, I have found a better way to go about it, and that way is Gravity Shop. With the use of this app, I expect my blogging process to become much less time consuming, repetitive, and thus more enjoyable. 

2) What are you offering to customers? I am offering the customer/follower a method to shop in a more comfortable and straightforward manner. I am offering the blogger a way to elaborate better on the products discussed and offer a website for the followers to click on and direct them straight to the product desired. Lastly, I am offering the companies that desire promoting, a cheaper alternative that, in many ways, reaches out to more consumers than a payed spread on a magazine or commercial. This app will easily connect to a bloggers primary website, save every post the blogger makes on such website, and then when the blogger is ready, they can open the app, attach websites to the products used, and even include promo codes for the followers to use! A link to the site will then be attached to their primary blog so that all followers interested can easily access and shop!

This app will also help companies with the search for inspirational bloggers! Gravity Shop will track the bloggers follower count and from that, select bloggers that meet the companies "look" and offer to send them products to promote. This cuts time and money spent by the company in order to promote their brand! All that is asked is for the company to pay a set monthly amount, which is based on how many promotions they desire to have in that given month. A cut of that monthly fee is then given to the bloggers promoting while the rest of the cut is for Gravity Shop. Blogger salaries will be based on the amount of followers and the amount of posts. For example, a blogger with 5K+ followers will be payed 25 cents per post and a blogger with 10K+ followers will be payed 50 cents per post, and it continues. 

3) Who are you offering it to? This application is offered to bloggers/promoters, followers/customers, and companies/brands. This application is for anyone who seeks an easier way to promote, sell, buy, or blog. This app is for anyone with a passion for beauty, fashion, or just simply shopping!

4) Why do they care? Companies/Brands care because it is an easier way to promote their products with a more honest and personal feel. First off, with the increase of social media, there is a better chance of a customer coming from a social media site than from a commercial on TV(who even watches commercial anymore?). Plus, with a blogger helping to promote, the customer has somebody to go to and ask question and get personal feedback! Bloggers care because they have a way to try more products and share with followers! Last but not least, customers/followers can get more reviews on products they are interested in and have an easier way to shop for exactly what they want!

5) What are your core competencies? There is no company or application as simple yet intricate as this! Some companies offer bloggers a place to show their professional photos, some are applications simply for professionals, but with all those you practically start from zero! With Gravity Shop, your work from your primary blog is saved and ready to edit and get payed! Everything is just overall made easier for everyone!

In my opinion, these five elements all seem quite put together and organized. But feedback and criticism leads to a better final product! So I would love to get some feedback from as many people as possible! The only weak point at the moment is how to get access to save posts from all those primary blog websites. Aside from that, I feel this company would be wonderful! 

"Feedback Memo"

This part is a little difficult for me because only one out of my four feedback comments involved a possible concern, the rest were all excellent feedback. Five points that I took away from my feedback were that 1) it is a very well constructed concept, 2) it is certainly unique, 3) if implemented well, it would be a great app, 4) it have very obvious and beneficial uses, 5) and that it strikes individuals interest. The only criticism I received was "how would you make money from this app?" With this feedback, I went back into the section of "What are you offering the customers?" and slightly changed what we do with the money we get from the company thats looking to promote. Before my original plan was to use the money to pay the bloggers but after this critique I changed it so that a cut of the money is used to pay the bloggers while the rest is for the app.