TENACITY & PAYING IT FORWARD

During the first two months of this semester I have learned how to be an entrepreneur and how to be tenacious. It is part of my entrepreneurship story and I have some tips for other people who will take this class next semester or semesters to come. Something I learned is that it is hard to be an entrepreneur, but no idea is bad. It was hard to come up with a product but being an entrepreneur is not all about creating something new. It can also be something that exists, but needs fixing. I felt like all my ideas were bad and I wanted to give up. I just took my time to think about how to make my product work, but this didn’t happen the first time I did a blog post. It took me some time, until it started making more sense. A few tips I have are: 

1. Don’t give up. It will all come together slowly and it will make sense as you go. 
2. Once you have the motivation and your mind sent on it, you will really enjoy the product you’ve created. 
3. It’s all a learning process. It’s trial and error and there will be a lot of errors, but the end will be successful. 

FIGURING OUT BUYER BEHAVIOR NO. 1

The segment that I had for the three interviews were a student, a teacher, and a parent. I asked how they felt about the product. 

A Stoneman Douglas High School graduate:

She really liked the idea. She had already graduated when the school shooting happened but she was still effected by the news. Although she did not know anyone that was harmed, she was in shock that this happened in the school she graduated from. 

Public school teacher:

She agrees there needs to be a safer way to stay protected in school. Although her school has procedures, if something happens, the idea of an automatic door lock really caught her attention. She feels like there should be different alternatives to stay safe.

A parent:

This parent has not been effected from a school shooting, but she thinks it is unfair. If what happens on the news would happen to her child then she would be devastated. She feels for other parents and wants more safety procedures. 

I feel like these interviews really showed me that this is something not just students need. Teachers are also at risk during these situations and have the pressure to protect their students. Also, parents are concerned and want to make sure that their kids come back from school safely. 

IDEA NAPKIN NO. 1

1. I am a Marketing major, studying abroad in Madrid, Spain. I have customer service and business administration skills. I had an internship last summer with digital media and I have gained knowledge about Marketing. I do not see this business actually happening in my real life but I think I would be able to sell this product with the skills I have learned in my internship and Marketing classes.

2. My product is an automatic door lock for schools, starting in South Florida and hopefully move up towards Gainesville and the rest of the United States. This is an unmet need in elementary and high school because there are school tragedies happening and there needs to be a way to stop it. 

3. My customer would be public school systems in different counties within Florida. Each county has its own rules and procedures. I would start with Miami-Dade and then move towards Broward and so on.

4. The customers care because it is something that has been effected in South Florida. The Parkland shooting was a year ago and people are still mourning and it is unfair to parents and students to feel unsafe in school when it is a place of learning and growing.

5. I know people that have been effected by this and I have thought about multiple things that would help schools stay protected. I did not go to public school so I am not sure about their rules, but I have many friends and family members that have gone to public school and I have interviewed them in the past and they agree this is a great idea.

Overall, I think this could go two different ways. I have not calculated the pricing, but I feel like it would be a bit expensive. It all depends on the counties because they all have different budgets and this may not be a priority if some places. 

ELEVATOR PITCH NO. 1

This is my elevator pitch: https://youtu.be/5Bxnpihm6dk

I’m sorry about the ending, for some reason it cut off. 

TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS PART 2

My opportunity is to create an automatic door lock for public schools, focused mostly in Miami-Dade Country to start with. 

Who: I don’t feel like anyone falls outside of my boundaries because everyone that I’ve interview wants to feel safe. The only people that I could think about them falling outside of my opportunity are private schools. Private schools have their own policies and procedures that the public school system does not have. 

What: There have been different procedures that have been done and protocols to keep schools protected but this will be a way that will have everyone stay safe. It will be economical, helpful, and it will help.

Why: The cause of the people in the outsider’s need is different because they have different ways of running their schools and a different system.  

	Inside the Boundary	Outside the Boundary
WHO	-    People who feel unsafe in school -    Schools with minimum security	-    Private Schools with different systems
WHAT	-    Help stay protected -    Effective way to stay safe	-    Already have a procedure to stay safe
WHY	-    There has been a lot of school tragedies	-    Not enough money in the public school system