Final Reflection

After reading what I had posted over the semester I realized has have progressively moved toward an entrepreneur mindset.  I think developing my business idea for the road warriors and continuously adjusting it was a great and made me really think about how to think as an entrepreneur. I think the low of this class if there has to be one would be the elevator pitches. Though I am not a fan of recording myself, I did get better as the semester went on. My favorite part was being able to be creative about my idea and being able to adjust my idea as the semester went on. Now at the end of the semester I feel that I have almost perfected my business plan.

I am very proud of the way I adjusted to this class and the workload. Having multiple assignments due each week meant I really had to focus on my time management and prioritization. I love that I was able to be creative in creating my business and I felt I was getting better with what I adjusted in the business as the semester went on.

I think I have developed an entrepreneur mindset by now because I was forced to think out of the box and figure out ways to keep improving my business concept. I now look at problems as opportunities and I figure out in my head creative solutions on how to fix them. I see myself one day being an entrepreneur and maybe launching my business concept.

One recommendation I would make to a future student of this is to make sure they allocate enough time to this class and its assignments. I would also recommend to really think out of the box when you think about your venture concept. You need to make sure that your concept is feasible and also if people would really pay the product or service.

Venture Concept No. 2

 

Opportunity

Billions of dollars get wasted every year by people sitting in traffic. Countless hours of sitting in your car wasting time and wasting gas money. Thousands of cars releasing harmful emissions into the environment can be prevented. This is a lot of money and time that can be saved with a good system. I think this is a problem in our society that can be resolved, and it needs to be urgently resolved. The market I see an opportunity for is defined geographically. I see this problem in geographic areas that are heavily populated and tend to have a lot of traffic congestions. There is no service out there at the moment that specializes in assisting to prevent and control traffic. I think there are customers out there that are willing to pay for a service that saves people time, money and the environment. I think it’s a big opportunity because it is easily scalable and once it is tested in one market, it can then be implemented in other geographic areas. I think the window for this opportunity may be closing soon. Technology is advancing quickly and the billions of dollars that can be saved is an opportunity that very enticing. I think as the environment begins to show more and more affects from human flaws, the opportunity to save the environment will grow bigger and traffic will become one of the things people will want to reduce. I see this service concept being implemented all over the world in very populated cities. I think that this service can useful in foreign cities as well. There are multiple countries that have worse traffic than the U.S.  Countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Russia all have multiple cities that have worse traffic than the United States and could use my service. The opportunity that I see could be placed in almost anywhere in the world.

Innovation

The service I am offering is called Road Warriors. My road warriors are people who drive specialized trucks to help control and prevent traffic. My drivers who will be on the road at all times will report to any traffic jam or accident to help prevent or control it. These drivers will be all over the city and can report to these incidents faster than the average first responder. My drivers are trained in first aid just in case it needs to be applied. Once my road warrior has evaluated the situation, they then start to empty the road to allow traffic through. They will do this in the state-of-the-art trucks. There trucks will have equipment and tools that allow them to take care of any debris on the road or car wreckage that is stopping traffic. People can report these incidents either on an app or call a service number. We expect to get multiple calls at once for the same incident so we will have a system that filters duplicate callers out for the same traffic jams. We do this because we always want to have as many customer service employees and drivers available. We also have developed an algorithmic system that allows all our drivers to be within 10 minutes of any part of the city at all times. We’ve calculated exactly how many drivers we need at all times depending on the time of the day and what day it is. We have also determined the perfect routes for all of our drivers so they can all be within 10 minutes of any place. To give a simple explanation of this very complex algorithm, we will have our drivers driving in circled routes in the city we are located in. They will be driving in synchronized fashion so when one driver is at north part of their route, the driver south of him should also be near the north part of his route. This allows that all areas to be covered at all times.  

Venture Concept

I plan on offering my Road Warrior service to everyone that is located in a certain geographic area. My company will have a partnership with the local government to give my Road Warriors the same authority as first responders have. The local people of the city I am in will all pay a small fee that will be embedded into their car registration fee. So, I will offer my service to everyone on the road who is driving in the city I am located in. Only the people that live in the city will have to pay for service. This allows my company to primarily focus on how to perfect our operations instead of trying drive profits. I think customers will be happy with the service because people will save a lot of time and money which will outweigh the cost of my service. At this point there are no direct competitors but there are other companies that doing similar things we offer. Triple A offers a similar service to us, but our company offers more by not only attending the victim but trying to lessen the effect to other drivers by being faster and clearing the road up. We will have a great customer service team that is always available to answer questions and report incidents. I will need enough employees to handle customer service, driving the trucks, and dealing with public relations. I think our trucks and algorithmic system of routes will put us over any other competitor that will try to enter the market. I think once the concept Is tested in one market that it can be easily duplicated and put in another city. The idea is scalable, and my hope is to put it in every city that suffers with traffic congestion. I see this company becoming a necessity in all highly populated cities once the concept has demonstrated success. I think this service can implemented all over the U.S. and can save billions of dollars on gasoline and save people time. I think our sustainable mission will allows us to gain this partnership the local governments. The partnership with the local government will give us a great competitive advantage and allow us to focus just on delivering a great service.

Feedback: I received feedback that noted that the opportunity was not only available in the U.S. but is available in many other countries. There are multiple countries that have worse traffic than us. I added that once the market was tested in the U.S. that I could then bring the concept to other countries to better traffic all over the world. If we could reduce car emissions across the world, I think our company could make a good impact on the world. 

Your Exit Strategy

Everything eventually comes to an end. After running my company for several years and being at the maturity stage of my company, it will be time decided what I want to do with the company. There are multiple factors I would have to consider before I would exit from the company. How much the company is worth would be the first thing I would evaluate before exiting. I would consider who is a shareholder and how much I would gain from selling the company. I would not do any of these considerations if I feel the company is not perfect. If I see there is room for improvement in my company, then I don’t think I would consider selling it. My purpose for the company was to create a service that is for the greater good. I want my company to benefit everyone who drives a car. I want the company to save people gas money, time and I would also want it to drastically benefit the environment.

I think I will end up staying with the company for the long run until I retire. I think I will keep improving the company throughout my lifetime. I will want to continue improving the concept and also would want the company to scale as much as it can. I would like to put this concept in every major city in the U.S. and I do not think it’ll be possible for me to do in a short period of time.

My exit strategy is influenced by my growth intentions. I want to grow this company as big as I possibly can. I want to scale at a feasible speed to put the Road Warriors in every major city possible.

Reading Reflection No. 3

Elon Musk went through a tough childhood while living in South Africa. He was bullied and his parents separated while he was young. His dad was an engineer who was also an alcoholic. What surprised me the most is that Musk had the perseverance in him to get through all his hardships and become a successful entrepreneur. What I admire the most about him is that he left his birthplace to do bigger things. What I admire the least about Musk is the way he treated some employees and his wife. Some sources say he treated his wife like an employee. Musk encountered many failures throughout his career within multiple companies. Elon was asked his after his 3^rd failed launch attempt if he would give up and he said that he will never give up. Elon also has a very detail plan to colonize mars.

I noticed that Elon Musk showed a lot of perseverance throughout his life. From having a tough childhood to failing rocket launches, Elon has gotten a lot of backlash for the way he runs his companies. He continues to strive to do things for the greater good and I admire this about him. If I were able to ask Elon a question, I would ask him why he decided to pursue the mission a colonizing Mars. I would also ask him what made him decide that it was a good idea to leave his birthplace to go to Canada.

I think that Elon Musk has a different perspective of hard work than most people. Elon Musk works hard toward his goals, but I don’t think he views it has hard work. I think his passion for what he does is bigger than anything and he enjoys it. He with no problem works more than overtime. He continues to work until what he wants is accomplished.

Celebrating Failure

I think there are multiple things that I fail at on a daily basis that I think I can improve on. Things like not making my bed in the morning, not doing laundry on time or not washing m dish. These kinds of failures occur daily and do not take much effort to fix. On the other hand, one failure that I deal with that is not so easy to fix is trying to perfect the aspects of my Road Warrior business plan. Every time I tr to alter the details of the company, there still feels like there is something missing. I continuously add and subtract things that could the affect the businesses outlook and it never feels like I have successfully finished. This type of failure is not one that has an outright solution. Just like an entrepreneur, the problem I face is ongoing and doesn’t have an endpoint where I can consider it to be finished and perfect. I have learned that dealing with this kind a failure can take a toll on a person and you need a lot perseverance to continue. I deal with this failure well because the feeling of not having a perfected business plan motivates me to continue to strive for perfection. This class has changed my perspective on how to deal failure because it has showed me that failing is okay an makes you more intelligent because you get another perspective on how not to fail again. Failing is okay to do and this class has prepared me to deal with failures in the future.

Whats Next?

 Existing Market

I think in our existing market we can improve on our method of reporting and dealing with certain incidents. There are some cases where we deal with rude customers and people that don’t want there car moved for legal purposes. We aim to better our system in dealing with these situations. I interviewed 3 people who are in my target market and all of them, mention that improving my system should be my main concern. Making sure we have a 100% rate of success and that our drivers are polit and deal with the situation correctly. I was told that the customer service system needs to be perfected because you do not want customers who are already upset to become more upset with my customer service.

I think to continue to grow in our existing market we need to continue to improve on our logistical operations. We need to be able to improve on our algorithmic route system so that we can keep decreasing the time it takes for road warriors to arrive at the scene. We need to continue to improve our system in reporting these incidents. One weakness that was mentioned is that most people that are reporting incidents are probably driving and we don’t want to have people getting in accidents while reporting other incidents.

New Market

I think there a plenty of new markets we can enter. Once my business concept is proven successful then the concept can be applied elsewhere. I plan on bringing the concept to every major city in the U.S. I think we can create similar value in almost any other market. People will save money and time. What will determine the value is how often traffic gets congested and how often my road warriors will be called to help.

After interviewing two people they were delighted with the concept, but their biggest dilemma is will it work. If my concept works in one city then it will not be hard to duplicate and put in another city.

I learned that my business is easily scalable once it is proven to work. I think my biggest concern is to perfect all operations in the first market so then I can duplicate the process in other cities. 

Venture Concept

Opportunity

People in the U.S. waste hundreds of billions of dollars every year on sitting in traffic. Countless hours of sitting in your car wasting time and wasting gas money. Thousands of cars releasing harmful emissions into the environment can be prevented. This is a lot of money and time that can be saved with a good system. I think this is a problem in our society that can be resolved, and it needs to be urgently resolved. The market I see an opportunity for is defined geographically. I see this problem in geographic areas that are heavily populated and tend to have a lot of traffic congestion's. There is no service out there at the moment that specializes in assisting to prevent and control traffic. I think there are customers out there that are willing to pay for a service that save people time, money and save the environment. I think it’s a big opportunity because it is easily scalable and once it is tested in one market, it can then be implemented in other geographic areas. I think the window for this opportunity may be closing soon. Technology is advancing quickly and the billions of dollars that can be saved is an opportunity that very enticing. I think as the environment begins to show more and more affects from human flaws the opportunity to save the environment will grow bigger and traffic will become one of the things people will want to reduce. I see this service concept being implemented all over the world in very populated cities.

Innovation

The service I am offering is call Road Warriors. My road warriors are people who drive specialized trucks to help control and prevent traffic. My drivers who will be on the road at all times will report to any traffic jam or accident to help prevent or control it. These drivers will be all over the city and can report to these incidents faster than the average first responder. My drivers are trained in first aid just in case it needs to be applied. Once my road warrior has evaluated the situation, they then start to empty the road to allow traffic through. They will do this in the state-of-the-art trucks. There trucks will have equipment and tools that allow them to take care of any debris on the road or car wreckage that is stopping traffic. People can report these incidents either on an app or call a service number. We expect to get multiple calls at once for the same incident so we will have a system that filters duplicate callers out for the same traffic jams. We do this because we always want to have as many customer service employees and drivers available. We also have developed an algorithmic system that allows all our drivers to be within 10 minutes of any part of the city at all times. We’ve calculated the exactly how many drivers we need at all times depending on the time of the day and what day it is. We have also determined the perfect routes for all of our drivers so they can all be within 10 minutes of any place. To give a simple explanation of this very complex algorithm, we will have our drivers kind of driving in circles in patched area of the city we are located in. They will be driving in synchronized fashion so when one driver is at north part of there route, the driver south of him should also be near the north part of his route. This always allows that all areas to be covered at all times.

Venture Concept

I plan on offering my Road Warrior service to everyone that is located in a certain geographic area. My company will have a partnership with the local government to give my Road Warriors the same authority as first responders have. The local people of the city I am in will all pay a small fee the will be embedded into their car registration fee. So, I will offer my service to everyone on the road who is driving in the city I am located in. Only the people that live in the city will have to pay for service. This allows my company to primarily focus on doing a good job instead of driving profits. I think customers will be happy with the service because it will be a small cost but will save them a lot of time and money which will outweigh the cost of my service. At this point there are no direct competitors but there are other companies that doing things we offer. Triple A offers a similar service but our company offers more by not only attending the victim but trying to lessen the effect to other drivers by being faster and clearing the road up. We will have a great customer service team that is always available to answer questions and report incidents. I will need enough employees to handle customer service, driving the trucks, and dealing with public relations.

I think our trucks and algorithmic system of routes will put us over any other competitor that will try to enter the market. I think once the concept Is tested in one market that it can be easily duplicated and put in another city. The idea is scalable, and my hope is to put it in every city that suffers with traffic congestion. I see this company becoming a necessity in all highly populated cities once the concept demonstrates success. I think I will be to implement this service all over the U.S. and can save billions of dollars on gasoline and save people time. I think our sustainable mission will allows us to gain this partnership the local governments. The partnership with the local government will give us a great competitive advantage and allow us to focus just on delivering a great service.

Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

10 Resources

1.  I think my first resource would be our knowledgeable human capital. It is valuable because my employees need to have great knowledge to think in critical situations. They need to be able to know whether they need to apply first aid or not and how to. They also will know.  how to take care oh traffic jams by clearing up whatever is blocking the road. This is rare because there is no company that does both.

2. I think another resource we have is our algorithmic system of patrolling areas that get congested with traffic throughout the day. I think this is valuable because we have figured out a way to be within 10 minutes of any accident or traffic jam at all times in any geographic area we are located in.  This is rare because we can be to many places much faster than first responder can be.

3. The research we’ve done is very valuable because we have looked into where most congestions happen and why and came up with a method of patrolling those area more closely than others. This is rare because we will be the only company patrolling the area. This is non-substitutable because there will not be another company that has the abilities as us.

4. Another resource I hope we will have is plenty of financial capital. Having this capital will be extremely valuable because it will allowed us to take care of the high startup cost of the company and be able to direct the company in the right direction at first. After starting up the company the fixed costs will be low. The is not rare because many service companies have a similar business plan.

 5. Our customer service is a very valuable resource we have. My road warriors are always one the road driving and my customer service employees are always available to call. This isn’t rare but we strive to have a top-notch customer service system that is very responsive and gives no customer any problem. This can not be substituted by another company because we will be the first and only customer service system that provides all these amenities.

6.  Our partnership with local governments will be very valuable to the people in the area. We will be in contact with local authorities and be able to monitor traffic and accidents much better than any other service. This is rare because no other company with our abilities will have a partnership with the local government. It is not imitable because no other company will have the monitoring capabilities or access to our proprietary algorithmic system of patrolling the city. No other company can substitute our abilities or knowledge of local traffic.

7. Our Intellectual property is a very valuable resource we own. Our trucks will be able to pick up debris from the street and move wreckage quickly and safely to allow traffic through. This is rare because it usually takes a while for wreckage to be moved from accidents. It will be non-substitutable because no other truck will be allowed to have those capabilities or authority to move wreckage other than us.

8. Our sustainability goal is a something we have great pride in and puts us a ahead of other companies. This is rare because most companies in our industry just focus on profits and not a sustainable goal. Since our fee is embedded into people car registration fees, our main focus is not revenue but how to make traffic more ecofriendly.

9. Good management is a key resource we have. We have training programs for our managers so they maintain a high level of performance. This is not rare because many companies exhibit good management.

10. The mission and culture of our company is one of our biggest resources. All my employees are driven to give the best that they can. We strive to give the best service we can that’ll help prevent traffic jams around the city. We consider ourselves a first responder to traffic emergencies, even though we may not be saving lives, we are saving people time and gas money. We also are saving the environment. This is rare because our goal is not to drive profits, but it is to sustain the environment and do better for the greater good.

I think our most valuable resource is our partnership with the local government. I think that this with this connection that we will not really have any competitors in the local area. This partnership allows us to intervene with traffic jams and correct the problem. We also are able to relieve some stress off of local authorities who would usually have to monitor these traffic jams and accidents.