Making It Real

My Entrepreneur's Resume

My Exit Strategy

1. I plan to sell my business within the next 5 years for a return. I hope to grow the business by the time I sell it so that I am operating at UF, FSU and UCF and I will hopefully have multiple interested buyers. I will likely sell the business as I am going into the 3rd year of my PhD program, or maybe midway through the second year.
2. I have made this plan because while the money will be good while I am in school, I will not have time to work on anything but quals and my dissertation when the time arrives. After I earn my PhD, I won't want to cook meals for college students anymore, as I will be pursuing my long-term career goal. Therefore, the time at which I sell may change depending on how many gap years I take and how long I choose to extend my PhD program.
3. My exit strategy has influenced how and were I grow my business. I theoretically could try to open a shop in every major college town, not just in three Florida ones. But I would choose to keep my business small and reigned in so that I have an easier empire to manage and so that I can complete my schooling while operating the business. The exit strategy also influences the number of employees I hire - I would need more employees as I go further in my education, as I will be doing less and less of the actual cooking/delivery.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity:

There is an opportunity in the college-student market for fresh, home-cooked, low-priced meals delivered weekly. The environment changes this opportunity as college becomes more and more rigorous and students have less and less time to take care of their personal health. Also, student loans are quickly becoming commonplace, allowing more students to attend college while staying conscious of their increasing debt – meaning they spend time outside of classes at part-time jobs and are not keen to spend a lot of money on food. My belief is that this need is not separated geographically, as college kids across the nation likely fit into the same market. I also believe, from interviews, that females tend to be more prepared to cook for themselves while in school, though they may still not have time to. Customers currently satisfy this need by sacrificing either their health, their bank accounts, or their time – eating fast food, eating expensive but healthy meals out, or spending about 1-1.5 hours cooking for themselves every day. I believe that this opportunity is a big one, and if I can time it right and advertise well, I could gain a lot of customers in a short time. I also believe that this window of opportunity will not only be open for a long time, but it will continue to grow as college evolves and more kids attend university and higher education becomes the new high school diploma.

Innovation:

My innovation is an adaptation of an existing product/service scheme. Currently, weekly meals are sold for $10-20 per meal and are advertised as purely organic, or as paleo, or as fitting a very specific macronutrient breakdown. College students don’t need nor want such intricate meals, all they need is pre-made food that won’t poison them and that won’t break their banks. I am offering low-priced meals that could have come out of their parent’s kitchen. I am offering two different-sized types of meals, ones around 400-500 calories and ones around 700-900 calories, based on the interest from different people. The more meals bought, the cheaper they will be, but for single meals the smaller ones will be priced at $4 and the larger meals at $5. I am offering 7 mall meals for $25 or 7 large meals for $30.

Venture Concept:

My innovation will address the opportunity I found in the college student market. College students need good food for cheap, and very convenient. I will supply them with that food and with delivery service, so that students can focus more on their homework and classwork. Customers will want to switch to my product because there is currently no product that meets all of their health, time, and monetary needs all at once, and my product/service offers this. There are no direct competitors, but all of the convenient restaurants in Gainesville, like Chipotle and Moe’s, could take customers away on a daily basis. My pricing defines my business concept, as well as customer experience. The customer must love the food and the low price in order for the business to work. I would probably employ 2 employees, one to do the advertising and recruiting and customer support and one to assist with the cooking and to deliver the meals and collect the money.

Minor Details:

My most important resource, as defined in my “Unfair Advantage” post, is my cooking capability. I have a certain style of cooking that is my own, and I am good at what I cook. Others are also good cooks, but maybe they do not choose to combine the same ingredients I do for the certain taste I enjoy.

Next for my venture, I would want to expand my offerings to offer breakfasts and desserts, if the market demanded them.

As for myself, I’d want to be a small business owner with a larger employee base, so that I might have 2 days off a week….as if entrepreneurs get days off. I’d probably stay in Gainesville with 4 employees, while having a base of 5 employees in Tallahassee creating meals for students at FSU.

Celebrating Failure

1. This summer semester, I attempted to bench press 95 pounds for 5 sets of 5 repetitions. It took my fourth try (about 2 weeks) to finally hit that weight and rep scheme, and those last couple of reps were sloppy and so tough. The first time I attempted the weight, I failed on the third set, 5th rep. The second time, I failed on the 5th set, 3rd rep. The third time, I failed on the 5th set, 4th rep. That 3rd attempt was incredibly frustrating, because I only got one more rep than the previous training session and because I was SO close to my goal.
2. I learn so much about myself every time I fail in the gym. The bench press is my favorite of the big three lifts because I feel exceptionally confident in my form and my ability to recruit the necessary muscle groups, so when I repeatedly miss a lift on the bench I tend to really stress about it. This time, though, I really focused my energy into reminding myself that most women my age can't bench 95 pounds for even one repetition, much less for a 5x5, and that every time I tried the weight I was able to lift more. Even though I didn't hit my goal for two weeks, I wasn't plateauing or stalling or losing progress; I was still moving forward, and it's okay that I wasn't moving forward as quickly as I wanted to.
3. I used to be very, very terrible at accepting my failures. I would try to blame someone else, or I would retrospectively change my goal so that it would seem like I hadn't actually failed. Somewhere in my college career - probably due to the fact that I failed at more things here at UF than I ever did before college - I learned to let go of my hang-ups over failing. My biggest feelign fo failure happened this past January. I let go of a two year relationship with someone who I had been best friends with a year before we began dating. Coming out of that relationship and realizing that my future was suddenly much less determined felt like a huge failure to me. I had "failed" at maintaining a happy, healthy romantic partnership with someone important to me. I am actually very proud of myself for how I dealt with this potentially isolating and depressing failure; I applied for a competitive research scholarship and won it, I applied for a job tutoring with the UAA and got a position, I proved myself to my research lab so much so that I was offered a paid position (the only paid undergraduate out of 35 of us), and I reconnected with old friends and made a ton of new friends. Essentially, I put myself in a ton of different positions to fail at a ton of different things, and I put my heart into succeeding at each of them. My way of dealing with failure has become to ensure that I succeed at something else, which has landed me in the incredible place I find myself today - thriving, happy, and confident in my abilities. I don't think that this class has changed my opinion of failure at all. Then again, if I put more effort into this class and completed more assignments, specifically the ones where I am supposed to interview strangers, I am sure that I would have experienced more failures.

One of the best days of my college career. Having a lab that works so well with

me and that is proud of me is a feeling I wouldn't trade for the world:)

My Unfair Advantage

1. Resources:
1. excellent cook
2. efficient
3. already own the large crock pot/pots/pans necessary for mass meal production
4. I live alone, making dirtying the kitchen easy
5. My workload allows ample time to make meals
6. I already have 10+ great recipes
7. I have great people skills
8. The start-up costs will be very low, and I have the money for them.
9. I already have potential customers.
10. My business will run heavily off of work of mouth, which for me is a good thing.
2. VRIN
1. excellent cook
1. Valuable: it is necessary to my service quality
2. Rare: this is a rare quality in a college town
3. Inimitable: it takes years to learn
4. Non-substitutable: when making food, nothing can replace the taste of well-made food
2. efficient
1. Valuable: I will make more per hour of my time by being more efficient
2. Rare: this is probably not a rare quality
3. Inimitable: efficiency is key to running a business
4. Non-substitutable: no other quality can replace efficiency
3. already own the large crock pot/pots/pans necessary for mass meal production
1. Valuable: lower start up costs
2. Rare: college students do not own these tools
3. Inimitable: these tools are necessary for meal preparation 
4. Non-substitutable: smaller tools will work, but would be very less efficient
4. I live alone, making dirtying the kitchen easy
1. Valuable: this will be a messy business, and living alone lets me make a mess without regard for anyone else
2. Rare: most people have roommates that will complain about messes (naturally)
3. Inimitable: this will lead to more efficiency for
4. Non-substitutable: even a larger kitchen would not help me, as my roommate would need to cook/ue our kitchen at ome point while I
5. m covering every surface.
5. My workload allows ample time to make meals
1. Valuable: I can take classes, work, and do this on the side
2. Rare: My work schedule is more flexible than most
3. Inimitable: it takes a lot of pre-planning and good luck to get the schedule I have
4. Non-substitutable: no other resource can give me more free time
6. I already have 10+ great recipes
1. Valuable: less front work I would need to do
2. Rare: most college kid don't have legitimate recipes int heir won recipe books
3. Inimitable: probably pretty easy for someone else to come up with recipes
4. Non-substitutable: the recipes are the backbone for my concept, cannot substitute recipes for anything
7. I have great people skills
1. Valuable: for meeting/keeping customers
2. Rare: not a rare quality
3. Inimitable: it is a relatively innate quality, though it can be learn-able
4. Non-substitutable: my business will run off of word of mouth and face-to-face interaction
8. The start-up costs will be very low, and I have the money for them.
1. Valuable: keeps costs low, of course this is valuable
2. Rare: many business concepts have very high start-up costs
3. Inimitable: any business with low start-up costs has the same advantage
4. Non-substitutable: saving money is key
9. I already have potential customers.
1. Valuable: already have a source of income, plus word-of-mouth advertising will begin immediately
2. Rare: not rare to line up customers before starting a business
3. Inimitable: not inimitable
4. Non-substitutable: customers are necessary!
10. My business will run heavily off of work of mouth, which for me is a good thing
1. Valuable: potential customers will hear from a trusted source/friend how good my service is
2. Rare: not rare, lots of businesses are based on word-of-mouth
3. Inimitable: not inimitable
4. Non-substitutable: there are other forms of advertising that would do the job f letting people know about the business, but word of mouth is so great because people hear about the product from someone that they trust.
3. Top Resource: my cooking capabilities. I have a certain style of cooking that is my own, and I am good at what I cook. Others are also good cooks, but maybe they do not choose to combine the same ingredients I do for the certain taste I enjoy. I think my proficiency at cooking is my best resource.

The Amazon Whisperer

• Revenue Drivers:
• Weekly meal creation
• Meal delivery
• Customers next will want: classes to learn to cook meals themselves
• This "next thing" will enhance customer experience and provide a community atmosphere for the customers, as well as making them more satisfied because they are learning a skill.
• My "next thing" is a service rather than a product, so it is not found on Amazon. So instead, I found a cooking-class cookbook on Amazon. This cookbook includes 600 recipes from a website that offers video cooking classes
• 
• Customers do not like that the product uses the same recipes from previous books published by the same author, or it "recycles recipes". Customers like how very detailed the book is and how many pictures it uses for each step for each recipe.
• I would put less recipes in the book so that there weren't many, if any, repeat recipes. Since the book would have less recipes, I could sell it for a lower price and perhaps pick up more market share.
• This product would be a good inclusion for my business concept because it would promote the customer' sense of independence and confidence while also making them love my meals. Since my customer is a college with no time to cook every day, I do not fear that I will lose customers with this addition.

Reading Reflection No. 2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Scott Adams

1. The book contains all of the secrets that the author, the artist of the Dilbert comics, has learned on how to be both happy and successful in life.
2. The book goes through many points, some of which are reflected in ENT 3003. Adams suggests to the reader at one point that the reader understand the difference between novelty-based jobs (learning new things daily) and repetitive jobs (like athletes), and we should know which type of job makes us happiest. Entrepreneurship is definitely a novelty job, and some people, though full of fantastic business ideas, may prefer repetitive jobs. Also, the author encourages looking at success as a learn-able skill, which I can see reflected in this class. The class is essentially teaching us how to be a successful entrepreneur, and showing us that with the right knowledge and skillset and motivation to learn, anyone can do it.
3. I would tell the students to pick 5 of Adams's tips/tricks that they believe they need to work on. Then, over the next week or two, they should practice those skills/tricks. Then complete a write-up of how practicing those tips affected their mood and their outlook on their own ability at achieving success.
4. Probably the most "Ah-Ha" moment for me was when I read the very first tip - "Passion is Bullshit". The author argues that success does not come from passion, but in reality passion comes out of success. This made the think back on my won successes and passions. I am successful in my research lab, and I am also very passionate about my research. However, I joined the lab and became heavily involved because I loved the people and the atmosphere (as a starting undergrad, I was not yet exposed to the real research). Now that I have a huge responsibility in the lab, I do love it. I am good at participant contact and testing - if I was not good at it, I probably would not love it. I can see the passion/success paradigm working both ways, really.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Idea Napkin:

1. Again, I am a 4th year college student. I began cooking for myself when I was 15 and I became a vegetarian, and my mother only consented to my eating habit change if I agreed to learn to cook my own dinners. When I came to college and returned to eating meat, I had a whole repertoire of meals and continued to cook for myself. The past two years I have prepped my meals for myself weekly, since it really cuts down on total cooking time. I see this meal prep business fitting really nicely into my current routine - I'd cook the weekly meals for customers at the same time I cook my own.
2. I'm offering weekly, fully prepared meals at low prices. I am also offering delivery for these meals.
3. I'm offering these meals to college students who do not have the time, money, or knowledge to cook their own food.
4. Potential customers need this service because it is a cheap way to get actually healthy food daily without having to do any of the prep work themselves or even leaving their homes to get good food.
5. There is no other college-kid-affordable meal prep service in Gainesville - the only services are either a fully vegan (and expensive) meal service or paleo diet/fitness-oriented services (also expensive).
6. My core competencies to make this business succeed are my determination, dedication, people skills, and my ability to cook well.

I believe that my who/what/why's fit together quite well. I think I have the abilities to provide meals for students who have issues cooking their own food, and I have found that there are plenty of students with some form of that problem. Definitely an issue that I addressed and that a commenter brought up was the issue of keeping the meals them affordable enough for college students but expensive enough for me to make a reasonable profit.

Feedack Memo:

1. Most college age kids love the idea of this model.
2. Delivery should be an option that I offer.
3. There is some skepticism about if I can make a profit while keeping meals cheap.
4. Price will definitely mater to college kids.
5. There are similar companies at other college campuses.

After feedback, I included delivery as a service I would offer. I also began thinking more about price. I would need to make the business worth my time, but that would be tough to do while keeping prices low. Food service in general has such high mark-up (at places like Panera), I wouldn't be able to do that and keep customers. I'd have to really cook in bulk.

My Secret Sauce

My Assessment of myself:

1. I tend to "collect" ideas, activities, and people. I fixate on one thing and throw my full self into learning everything I possibly can about that person or idea or activity, and I become slightly obsessed with learning about it (I don't obsess over people, don't worry). When I have learned as much as I can, I back off and keep that thing in my mental storage in case of necessary recall.
2. That being said, I also have a hard time focusing on one thing or person or idea for the long haul. I bounce around from exciting new thing to exciting new thing as I learn about everything in my grasp. Sometimes I spend 2 years on a topic, other times it's 2 days. This made choosing a college major very tough, and also makes relationships difficult for me.
3. I am very, very stubborn. If someone tells me that I can't or shouldn't do something, then I will make sure I do that. And if someone tells me to do something, I refuse to. I only do something if it is my own idea and of my own volition. (My poor mother).
4. I really, really, really, enjoy learning and education. I consume research articles for fun, on multiple very different topics. I love going to classes and I love going to office hours to talk about extra material outside of class.
5. I have a great work ethic. I will always go above and beyond whatever my job calls for, not because I am thinking about promotions (although I do end up getting promotions because of this trait), but because I enjoy the results of putting all my effort into something. It does not make sense to me why someone would show up to a job just to try to get out of working as much as possible the whole day, there is no pride in that.
6. As a bonus trait, I am very prideful. I don't see this trait a a good one, but it isn't all bad, either. I think that pride, when directed in the right manner, can help a person grow.

Others' Assessments of Me:

1. Jareb Mendez: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/my-secret-sauce-jareb-mendez
1. Determined
2. Happy-go-lucky/positive
3. Gets irritated easily
4. Likes to argue
5. Caring
2. Amy Brinkerhoff: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/my-secret-sauce-amy
1. Dedicated
2. Perservere
3. Integrity
4. Compassionate
5. Patient (or I appear to be)
3. John Brinkerhoff: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/my-secret-sauce-john
1. Love of horses
2. I can lift heavy (lol thanks dad)
3. I budget my finances and stick to it
4. I am a planner, not a spontaneous person
5. I am comfortable striking conversation with and talking to people I don't know
4. Alan Williams: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/my-secret-sauce-alan-williams
1. Ambitious/determined
2. Stubborn in accepting outcomes outside my control
3. Good people skills
4. Reliant on social feedback/social confirmation
5. Trustworthy with professional work and with relationships
5. Jessica Brinkerhoff: https://soundcloud.com/sbrinkerhoff/my-secret-sauce-jessica
1. Stubborn
2. Determined
3. Able to separate emotion from logic/good under pressure
4. Witty/dry humor & intelligent
5. Forgetful

The Differences:

     I was definitely more critical of myself than others were of me. I also noticed that some traits that my friends and family picked - such as "ambitious/dedicated/determined" and "caring/compassionate" were traits that, though I notice about myself, I didn't write down because I didn't believe that I was any more of those traits than the next person. Based on these responses, I show those traits more strongly than I knew.

     I also got responses about my"integrity", "trustworthy with work", and I myself mentioned my work ethic. This is a trait that I do strive to exemplify, because I am very proud of honest work. I am glad that it does not go unnoticed.

     Three out of five people mentioned my people skills, or ability to talk to and relate to people I don't know. Again, this is a trait that I never really noticed in myself - I just know that I like to talk, probably a little too much. This trait does help me immensely with my current job and future career in research on older adults; I am constantly meeting new participants and spending hours with them in the lab, and it is imperative that we keep our participants smiling and happy - this can be hard to do with some 65+ adults. However, I do not think that my people skill/positivity make me unique. Many people have just as good or better people skills than I do.
     I took my sister's interview to heart the most, because she knows me best out of anyone in my life. I thought all of her traits about me were very on-point, and more accurate and knowing than the others. She also mentioned how I fixate on thing for short periods of time, which were my first and second points about myself.

     I think I would change my first note about myself to "dedicated", because it is a better description of what I was trying to explain about myself. I would not change any other points, because I still believe that they are my most defining points.

My Customer Avatar

Male college student who is just lazy enough that he is dedicated to his school/classwork and gets good grades but doesn't make time to cook for himself.

The typical customer enjoys going out with his friends on the weekends (and occasionally heads to midtown on Wednesdays). He goes to the gym to lift weights pretty irregularly. When he does go to the gym, he usually does chest/triceps or sometimes back/biceps - he rarely hits legs.

His parents are wealthy, and one of his parents worked from home or did not work when he was growing up. He never really learned how to cook for himself or do his laundry because he never needed to. He does not have a job in college. He is in a tough major, probably following one of his parents' footsteps.  He spends much of his time studying/doing homework, and any time he isn't he would rather be with his buddies doing something fun than taking a couple hours to cook food or clean up his apartment.

He drives a silver 2012 Honda Accord that his parents got for him when he came to college. He doesn't watch much TV (besides Game of Thrones, of course) because he isn't generally a physically lazy person nor does TV give him any intellectual benefit. He spends his free time hanging out with friends either at bars or outside throwing around a football. He doesn't enjoy reading.

He doesn't really care about politics, though he leans liberal on most issues

I am also a college student, but that is where the similarities end. However, this avatar is 100% a mix of my ex-boyfriend and my male best friend. I saw in them the opportunity for this business at the same time I saw in myself the exact opposite of this avatar - I had the skill, abilities and time to cook for myself and others.