Final reflection

I think my most informative experience was the Celebrating Failure assignment. While there wasn’t much research involved in creating the assignment it really does make you think about how you can accept and interpret failure. Its something that everyone goes through, however depending on how you take your failures will determine if you can be successful or not. I think the thing I am most proud of accomplishing is the venture concept assignments and all the attributing assignment that went along with it. This experience, I think, encourages students to think outside the box and develop a real concept for a potential business or venture. It makes you think about all the things that go into a venture if one was to actually start up and do something with their idea. While progressing through the course I believe that I have developed more of an entrepreneurial mindset through the lectures as well as through the assignments. I think that the assignments encourage students to think more like entrepreneurs and see more opportunities in the real world. The recommendation I would make to students who are going to journey down this path is to never stop learning. While this course does a good job at introducing the principles of entrepreneurship there is an endless amount of resources out there that will help students learn more about in-depth parts of starting businesses and how to become successful. To perform best in this course, I would say to keep up with the assignments. While most aren’t difficult, if you wait until the last minute you can definitely run out of time to turn them in. To further foster the mindset, I would suggest getting out in the world and looking for opportunities where things can be improved. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see ways to make peoples lives easier, all you have to do is look hard enough and recognize opportunities.

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

My opportunity is to take advantage of the large influx of people moving into Florida as well as the rapidly growing metropolitan and downtown areas of Florida. The potential customers that I imagine are young families that are looking to relocate to more popular areas of cities where events are going on. However, these typical customers also work in the area as well, allowing them to work and live without having to travel as much to enjoy thing around their residence while also having a short commute to work. The nature of this need is fairly basic. While the basis of my idea is predicated around building and selling a quality residence that supplies the basic need of shelter. The location is also desirable by building in areas that people want to live in. The main driving forces behind the large amount of people coming to Florida is due to climate, beaches and other touristy spots, no state income tax and an abundance of jobs. With these factors not likely to change anytime soon, it ensures that there will likely be a continued growth in the population of Florida with a constant supply of people moving into the state. Based on this, my window of opportunity will stay open for the foreseeable future as long as Florida legislation and tax law doesn’t change. Lastly, this opportunity has a huge potential to make money, which it involves a large upstart and a lot of work it can be turned into a very successful company as well as be able to expand to other real estate markets.

Innovation

The innovation, in part, in what I am bringing into the market would be a company that not only builds real estate, such as apartments and multi-family residential, but also sells them without having to go through another party or company. This will allow us to be able to supply desirable real estate at a lower cost without sacrificing quality. In addition to this, by practicing the most modern and efficient construction practices it will allow us to lower our building costs and allow for more revenue. We can do this by implementing new construction technology and with advances in construction coming out faster than ever before; if we can stay on top of new practices and continually innovating our build process, it will allow us to compete at the highest level. Secondly, our real estate sales would be in direct conjunction with our projects. By also implementing the latest in renderings and modeling, we will be able to pre-sell buildings while they are under construction. In addition to this, by hosting events with brokers and potential customers, this can help word spread fast about new projects. We will make money through sales of apartments within our real estate division as well as having the option to sell to investors to fund the project and save ourselves capital. As far as how much money specifically, it would vary widely. It could be anywhere from several hundred thousand for a building sellout, up to millions of dollars. The amount of money being made is directly proportional to the type of construction, the location, the quality of the apartments and the overall size of the building.

Venture Concept

My innovation will provide the quickly growing population of Florida with housing. By providing a superior product for less money to the demographic of people moving into the state it will make for a successful venture as well as one that has a continuous source of new customers. The reason customers would use my company is because we would be on the leading edge of real estate sales while also creating unique, quality housing in desirable locations. Competitors would be other construction companies as well as other real estate firms that focus on selling similar types of properties. Their potential weakness is that they either do one or the other, build or sell. My company would do both. Providing both of our teams, sales and construction, with knowledge about our products. Price point plays a huge role as we aim to price high quality housing for a lesser price than currently available. The customer experience and business location also play a huge role. The customer experience in building or buying a house can be very stressful so by making this process as easy as possible as well as providing options will help massively with customer relations. Lastly the business location must be ideal since it is hard to build and sell in a location far away from where the company is based.

I think my overall most important resource would be my networks that I already have established in my target area of Florida. This can be extremely helpful in finding subcontractors, information, financing, potential employees and even just general advice.

Second, my next idea for the venture would be to develop entire areas, not just one building at a time. By creating retail and office space in the areas that I am also building apartment building can help me create desirable areas for my company to build in. Instead of having to find areas that are popular, I would be creating the entire popular area itself.

Third, what’s next for me in five years I would like to have at least two building projects under construction as well as one or two already complete and close to sell out. As an entrepreneur I want to take what I’m good at and turn it into an entity that has the ability to successfully redevelop and develop areas of cities that will provide places for people to live work and enjoy. Most of the feedback for my venture concept has been positive, I think the biggest feedback I have received was that this would be a difficult company to start given that there are a lot of start-up costs involved and other requirements to be a licensed contractor as well as to sell real estate. In addition to this I received advice on what I would need to obtain before starting this venture. One of the biggest things was to ensure I have plenty of strong networks in the areas of investors, subcontractors, contractors, real estate brokers as well as teams for operating construction projects. This caused me to change from my originally idea by targeting a more specific market segment and focus on two main areas of my business, building and selling. What I also changed is that instead of trying to develop commercially and build real estate, start with real estate and then move on to other areas of development.

Reading Reflection 3

Elon Musk

I chose to read the biography about the life of Elon Musk. He is one of the most popular entrepreneurs and inventors in the world and is currently doing things that no one has done before. What surprised me the most was to learn that Elon Musk was at the point financially where he would either have to give up on SpaceX or Tesla. However, he was able to secure funding for both companies just in time before he would have had to shut one down. What I most admire about Elon Musk is that he is always thinking to the future. Even when he was a student, he knew that he wanted to make a big difference in the world. Additionally, he has constantly been making strides towards creating solutions for the future of humanity, whether its electric cars to reduce oil dependency or SpaceX to try and start commercial space travel, he is constantly looking to bring futuristic ideas a reality now.  What I least admire about Musk is that he is a big talker. He does deliver on his promises, but he does tend to talk about it a lot. In my personal experience I think that it is better to move in silence and not let people know everything that you’re doing. Elon Musk definitely encountered a lot of adversity and failure in his time as an entrepreneur. Most famously, when SpaceX and Tesla were about to run out of money. To overcome this he found investors, got a government grant and kept moving forward. He didn’t let these challenges discourage him and defeat him, he found solutions to make sure he was able to achieve his dreams.

One competency I noticed was that he finds a way to overcome failure. Through his many ventures he finds a way to make them successful no matter what. Whether is how to start the company or finding money just to keep it afloat he gets it done. While he promises many big things, he finds a way to accomplish them. Additionally, he has a strong vision for the future and is a very forward thinker, making him very successful in his futuristic type companies. The only confusing part to me was what actually inspired Elon Musk to be some enamored with the future growing up. While his family was involved in engineering and flight, I’m not sure where he came up with his inspiration to ensure humanity is ready for the future.

If I could ask Elon Musk two questions, the first one would be: How did you know where to get started? I would ask this because Elon Musk has created such a massive empire of wealth and resources, it is truly impressive what he was able to create. My second question would be: What was your inspiration for SpaceX? SpaceX is one of the most future-forward company when it pertains to space travel. I think that it would be interesting to see what caused Elon Musk to pursue such a risky venture knowing that it could not be successful and would cost a lot of money if it went under.

I think that Musk’s opinion of hard work is fairly simple: do what inspires you and give it your all. The reason I say this is because this is essentially what he does. He creates companies in fields he is passionate about and puts everything into them. Even when he is unsure if he’ll be able to keep the company from bankruptcy, he still does not give up on them and finds a way to make it work. I share this opinion of hard work, as I believe that it is very important to give a venture your all or else it won’t be successful. This is exemplified by the past companies Musk has started as well as the ones that he currently runs.

Exit Strategy

My exit strategy for my venture is to stick with it for several decades and use it as a cash cow. What I envision is creating a company that will provide substantial income for myself and my family while using my income from it to invest into other businesses and other ventures. As I get older I would like to hand over the company to someone else but still retain majority ownership and have a large say in the company without being involved in all the day-to-day processes so that I will be able to focus on other ventures at the same time. Eventually I would like to be able to create something I can pass down to my kids and provide them a means to make their way in life.

I selected this exit strategy because I feel that it would work best for my personality. I like to always keep moving forward, and while this company revolves around something, I’m passionate about, I always like having a new challenge. I think that by taking my income from this first venture and putting it towards others is a great way for me to achieve this. Additionally, I believe that after setting up a successful model I will be able to train people and show them how to run the company successfully while providing me with some time away from the company to focus on starting/managing others.

I think that my exit strategy has influenced me to set a very lofty goal for my venture idea. By setting this exit strategy it encourages me to grow the company for the first 20-30 years and make it something great and then at a certain point, semi-retiring and focusing on other ventures. I think, if anything, it has influenced me to want to grow the company larger and expand more so than if I were only keeping it for a few years. The reason I say this is because I’ll have ample time to grow the company and there won’t be a need to rapidly grow and over-extend the reach of my company. Furthermore, knowing that I will re-invest my income into other ventures this encourages me even more to put my all into my venture concept.

Celebrating Failure

One time in this semester where I failed was in my mechanical systems class. More specifically, it was our second exam in the course. On our first exam I did very well, scoring a 97. In the time leading up to Exam 2 I thought that it would be no problem to do well on it, so I neglected studying until about 30min before the exam. However, this strategy did not work out well at all, I knew very little when I took the exam and ended up scoring a 52. While I still didn’t get the lowest grade in the class, I obviously was not very happy after receiving this grade. What I learned from this was that studying for the first time immediately before the exam is not a successful strategy and if I want to do better, I would need to start studying a day or two in advance.

I think that failure is very important and it the greatest teacher. While failing is never fun and can be very embarrassing, its an important thing to go through because you can learn so much from it. My friend, Joe, from UNF has a saying that he says quite frequently: “you don’t learn from success, you learn from failing and seeing the wrong way of doing things”. Whenever I fail, I don’t necessarily get discouraged, I usually take time to reflect and see what I did wrong. Depending on the scenario I’ll use this information going forward and give it another try. But I don’t let it get me down, while it can be defeating, if you keep your head up and keep moving forward no failure will be able to defeat you. The most positive thing you can do after failing is to find out where you went wrong or what you did wrong and ensuring you don’t do it again. However, if you fail and don’t change what you’re doing or let it keep you down then you won’t end up learning anything and it will be a waste of a failure. I think this class has definitely changed my perspective on failure. I would definitely be inclined to go out and try new things and take new risks since no matter how it goes, I know I will take something away from it. Additionally, I’ve learned that failure is ingrained into the nature of entrepreneurship and there is nothing you can do to get away from it; you must learn to embrace it and learn from it.

Venture Concept

Opportunity

My opportunity is the large influx of people moving into Florida as well as the general metropolitan and downtown areas of fast-growing Florida areas. The potential customers that I imagine are young families that are looking to relocate to more popular areas of cities where events are going on. However, these typical customers also work in the area as well, allowing them to work and live without having to travel as much to enjoy thing around their residence while also having a short commute to work. The nature of this need is fairly basic. While the basis of my idea is predicated around building and selling a quality residence that supplies the basic need of shelter. The location is also desirable by building in areas that people want to live in. The main driving forces behind the large amount of people coming to Florida is due to climate, beaches and other touristy spots, no state income tax and an abundance of jobs. With these factors not likely to change anytime soon, it ensures that there will likely be a continued growth in the population of Florida with a constant supply of people moving into the state. Based on this, my window of opportunity will stay open for the foreseeable future as long as Florida legislation and tax law doesn’t change. Lastly, this opportunity has a huge potential to make money, which it involves a large upstart and a lot of work it can be turned into a very successful company as well as be able to expand to other real estate markets.

Innovation

The innovation, in part, in what I am bringing into the market would be a company that not only builds real estate, such as apartments and multi-family residential, but also sells them without having to go through another party or company. This will allow us to be able to supply desirable real estate at a lower cost without sacrificing quality. In addition to this, by practicing the most modern and efficient construction practices it will allow us to lower our building costs and allow for more revenue. We can do this by implementing new construction technology and with advances in construction coming out faster than ever before; if we can stay on top of new practices and continually innovating our build process, it will allow us to compete at the highest level. Secondly, our real estate sales would be in direct conjunction with or projects. By also implementing the latest in renderings and modeling, we will be able to pre-sell building while they are under construction. In addition to this by hosting events with brokers and potential customers, this can help word spread fast about new projects. We will make money through sales of apartments within our construction as well as having the option to sell to investors to fund the project and save ourselves capital. As far as how much money specifically, it would vary widely. It could be anywhere from several hundred thousand for a building sellout up to millions of dollars. The amount of money being made is directionally proportional to the type of construction, the location, the quality of the apartments and the overall size of the building.

Venture Concept

My innovation will provide the quickly growing population of Florida with the problem of housing. By providing a superior product for less money to the demographic of people moving into the state it will make for a successful venture as well as one that has a continuous source of new customers. Reason customers would use my company is because we would be on the leading edge of real estate sales while also creating unique, quality housing in desirable locations. Competitors would be other construction companies as well as other real estate firms that focus on selling similar types of properties. Their potential weakness is that they either do one or the other, build or sell. My company would do both. Providing both teams, sales and construction, with knowledge about our products. Price point plays a huge role as we aim to price high quality housing for a lesser price than currently available. The customer experience and business location also play a huge role. The customer experience in building or buying a house can be very stressful so by making this process as easy as possible as well as providing options will help massively with customer relations. Lastly the business location must be ideal since it is hard to build and sell in a location far away from where the company is based.

I think my overall most important resource would be my networks that I already have established in my target area of Florida. This can be extremely helpful in finding subcontractors, information, financing, potential employees and even just general advice.

Second, my next idea for the venture would be to develop entire areas, not just one building at a time. By creating retail and office space in the areas that I am also building apartment building can help me create desirable areas for my company to build in. Instead of having to find areas that are popular, I would be creating the entire popular area itself.

Third, what’s next for me in five years I would like to have at least two building projects under construction as well as one or two already complete and close to sell out. As an entrepreneur I want to take what I’m good at and turn it into an entity that has the ability to successfully redevelop and develop areas of cities that will provide places for people to live work and enjoy.

What's Next

What I think I would consider the next step for my venture would ultimately be expanding my service and products to general commercial development as well as residential in the form of subdivisions. The first person I talked to, the VP of Construction at a residential builder said that they believe that is the next step to take in a venture like what I have envisioned but it is a big leap to take and requires many risks. But in the short term, he advised that it would be smart to make the products and services as customer friendly as possible. Whether it is the usability of a website, an app or simply in-person service; all of these are keys to growing and maintaining a successful business. Next, I talked to a superintendent that works for a commercial GC. What he brought up was specifically pertinent to the construction side of my venture. HE explained how finding the most efficient field teams can save large amounts of money during construction by completing jobs on time and under budget; providing larger revenues for the company. Additionally, he brought up how the owner/investors of the building must be treated equally as a customer. The third interview was with a real estate agent suggesting the idea of advertising and holding touring events for upcoming real estate properties. This can be done by open house events or even through the use of virtual reality for tours of projects that aren’t completed.

After receiving this feedback, I believe that there are 2 main areas where my venture should focus. The first part of it is the marketing and advertising part. By getting the word out about new and upcoming real estate projects there can become excitement created about the project which will encourage more interest in the project.  In addition to this, hosting “open house” events with brokers and customer this can provide sales as well as showing my real estate projects to potential customers.

The second main focus area is the actual construction process itself. By streamlining this process and doing it in the most efficient manner can drastically increase revenues and decrease overhead costs on construction projects.  By completing projects sooner there will be less fixed overhead cost as well typically being accompanied by some form of bonus from the owner since they can start selling real estate sooner. Additionally, projects completed with less money than was budgeted, the money left over typically goes back into the contractor’s pocket.

A completely new market would be to create a venture in track-home building. Track-homes are essentially “cookie-cutter” houses that are in a neighborhood or subdivision is which nearly all houses look the same. These houses are built en masse and are sold very quickly for low prices, anywhere from low 100s to high 300s. I think the best way I would be able to create value would be in the construction process itself.  These houses are typically built very quickly and by implementing more efficient building practices as well as an experienced team, we would be able to be built faster than the average builder with higher quality. After my first interview, a construction manger that builds track-homes, he explained that it would be difficult, but my idea is possible. However, he advised hiring construction mangers with experience specific to the types of houses I would be building. My second interview was with an entrepreneur that invests in real estate. His advice was that there is a lot of money to be made in this venture given how quickly these types of houses are normally sold. Both interviewees said that my product/service mix was appropriate for this type of venture.

I think what surprised me the most was that my current product/service mix was already appropriate for changing to such a distinctly different market. While many of the same tactics would be used in the selling and building process, they would just be targeted to a different demographic. About half of my assumptions were correct. Originally, I think my idea was too long term. However once realizing how many things there are to be improved in the short term, it makes you realize that you can always be improving your idea.

This new market appears to be as attractive as the existing marketing that I’m targeting. It provides a large cash flow, quick construction time as well as very fast-paced business. However, given the nature of building track-homes I would not change my venture in commercial real estate to peruse one in much less valuable real estate/property. I believe that while my original idea may need tweaking and reevaluation, I think that it has a high potential of becoming successful if done correctly and with the right people.