Reading Assignment 3

1) You read about an entrepreneur: Coco Chanel

• What surprised you the most? Coco Chanel went through a lot more tragedy that I had originally expected. Her mother died when she was quite young. Additionally, as a child her family did not have very much money. I had assumed she'd come from a more wealthy background. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? Coco Chanel was extremely resilient and well adjusted. I think this quality is extremely admirable and super useful as an entrepreneur and honestly a general person. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? I genuinely cannot think of anything I don't admire about Chanel. She really built her business from the ground up and stayed strong in times of distress. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Absolutely. She struggled from an early age, losing her mother and living in poverty. She learned to make the best of her situation and found success through hard work.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? I would consider Chanel to be resilient and tenacious

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. Chanel's controversy during the Second World War was a bit confusing. 

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I would ask her where she found inspiration and what her main purpose was because I know these things are what drive progress. 

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I absolutely think that hard work was crucial to Chanel's mindset as an entrepreneur and this is an opinion that I share

Exit Strategy

1) Identify the exit strategy you plan to make. Do you intend to sell your business in the next 5 years for a large return? Do you intend to stay with the business for several decades and retire? Do you intend to protect the venture as a family business, and pass it down to your children?

I think my innovation is definitely sustainable, I will just need to pass it along to students or other organizations that can keep it going. The first way to do this would be partnering with on-campus organizations concerned with sustainability. I don't think I would consider selling the business. 

2) Why have you selected this particular exit strategy?

I have selected this as my exit strategy because the need will continue to grow without the service I am providing. While my project does not fully eliminate food deserts, it helps to offset difficulties related to them. I also think this could be a great opportunity for students. 

3) How do you think your exit strategy has influenced the other decisions you've made in your concept? For instance, has it influenced how you have identified an opportunity? Has it influenced your growth intentions or how you plan to acquire and use resources?

I think identifying new opportunities, such as more suburban communities, has helped me create a strategy that is mobile and can continue. 

Failure: Failing to Fail

1. I've never been a "math person." I'll admit it, I don't necessarily have a flair for the mathematics, but I always try my best. As a journalism major, this is no big deal, I typically take and excel in my English classes and have no practical use for the Pythagorean theorem...until I was required to take Math for Liberal Arts Majors. This class, specifically Exam 1, wrecked me, to say the least. After hours of studying, I received a 50%

2. My first thought was to panic. How will I ever recover from this? After recovering from my initial stress, I knew I needed to go over the material I had missed, seek extra help, and prepare even harder for the other exams in the class

3. I think failure is important to recognize. We absolutely cannot be good at all things. Failure is also how we learn and it's important to not be afraid to ask for help when we need it.

FreshFood Trucks Co. (24A)

This innovation would attack a lack of access to fresh, healthy, and convenient foods and food sources. Its purpose is to change this in order to fight rural health disparities. Other factors including health literacy also play a part in these disparities, which would not be impacted by this nonprofit. This innovation would help people living in food deserts in rural counties. However, people that never leave their house would not be able to access the portable farmers markets as they would be at particular events. Additionally, since there are so many churches in several Florida rural counties, I would have the markets often form there. If people do not attend these services, they would not be able to access this particular one. Differing underlying causes could be a lack of education, choice to live a rural lifestyle, live on a farm and have access to ingredients

I believe the type of person that would benefit most from my product is someone from a rural county. After speaking to several people from nearby rural counties including Bradford and Levy counties, both of which are only approximately half an hour to an hour away from UF. I found that most interesting because of the abundance of options we have so close to campus compared to food deserts in rural counties only a short drive away. I have recently taken a trip to Levy county for my introduction to health disparities class, so I was familiar with the options or namely the lack of options for affordable, accessible healthy fruits and vegetables, but it was very interesting to hear about what it was like to actually live there. My interviewees in the past have described rural life as a simple one, with only a few convenience stores and what seems like more churches than houses. They described the landscape as very open with sometimes miles of space between houses. 

After conducting various interviews for this project I can conclude that there is definitely a need for more accessible and affordable healthy options in rural areas. It would be important to establish a proper schedule for the portable farmers market in order to ensure accessibility for the ideal consumer. 

My ideal customer is proud to live in their rural town: a low income, small town family, that frequently attends church and enjoys the simplicity of their day to day life. My customer probably lives in a small family, possibly two or three kids, maybe homeschooled. Politically they are probably more conservative as they live in a rural area and are quite religious. They probably watch the news and focus on more local events as they are very in tune with their community. 

25A

Existing Market:

What’s Next: In regards to my particular innovation, the next step would include more research, gathering volunteers, and finally implementation. Obviously I would need to figure out how exactly I am getting the food together. I think it would be really great to work with universities, starting with UF to gather volunteers. 

Customers: After speaking with my ideal, typical customer, it is clear that my next step is gathering volunteer. Additionally, supplies are a must. This would also include transportation and how exactly I would set everything up. 

The first step in the future path would be finding volunteers. After that I would follow typical protocol for building an event and using the connections I have within the community to start gathering supplies. From then on it would be scheduling the different events for the “food desert truck” to appear in commonly frequented events. 

New Market:

I can identify a more affluent part of society, one that’s filled with resources and transportation opportunities. 

Perhaps if I put the food truck at more local suburban events it could be more like a delicacy rather than a way to support basic necessities. 

After talking to one of my family members I actually think my innovation would fit in really well in a more affluent community. It would have the “farm fresh, farm to table” idea and aesthetic that is really popular. It could actually be trendy! This was actually a really interesting concept in brainstorming for this innovation. 

I was really surprised after applying my ideas to a different type of market. I had really only thought of my project as a way to bridge inequality gaps and help struggling communities combat health disparities. However, due to current social and health trends, I think a lot of people in other communities might enjoy having a supermarket fresh food truck at community events.  

23A

Passion for human rights issues: really important, specific to me, my “why” that helps drive everything  (top)

Experience in Rural counties: rare, helped show me the need

Health Disparities class and professor: provides me with important resources and research

Friends from Rural Counties: provides a new perspective 

Communication skills: helps in interview process

Peers studying sustainability: helped to provide research and a new perspective 

Friends studying nonprofits: rare, taught me about starting 

Writing abilities: help me to be clear and specific

Innovation minor: this one is definitely more rare, helps me to collaborate 

Political experience: shows me from a policy standpoint what can be done about food deserts 

Book Review 2

1. The general theme of “How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big” by Adams was unlikely success. He explains that entrepreneurial success stories are unique and they do not all follow the same, standard type pathway. 
2. I really enjoyed how this book amplified what I have been learning in this course. The author used lighthearted, more anecdotal styles of writing to effectively show how being an entrepreneur can be done in so many ways which I think is something this class directly shows us. While we each complete the assigned steps, we weave in our own creativity along the way and see how our connections can help us get to the top. I really liked the part about selfishness and it made me think of our idea napkin and how we had to identify our own qualities.
3. I would institute a scenario where everything changes. The author explains hope important flexibility in your idea is, so instituting a major change for our innovation would be a fun way to see how students would adapt. 
4. As a very logical person, I was most surprised when Adams told readers to assume that people are irrational. Nevertheless, I think his advice here was very worthwhile 

20A

1. Expert in industry:

1) Who they are and what their background is: The expert in this topic is my Introduction to health disparities professor. 2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot: She fills this spot as she is an expert in health disparities which is the main issue I am trying to address when it comes to the purpose of my innovation 3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: I found this expert through class and contacted her in this way 4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? She provided me with a lot of key information regarding food deserts and health disparities and different methods of combatting them. She also provided me with information regarding rural healthcare which directly is impacted by my idea.2. Expert in Market 1) Who they are and what their background is. My second “expert” is one of my peers who is a sustainability major. He has done extensive research on food deserts and thought of similar project based solutions in class 2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot. I am filling the spot of market expert as my classmates has created similar entrepreneurship based projects. 3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person. I found this person through my connections within the Innovation Academy here at UF 4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? We discussed existing solutions and he provided me with additional measures for research purposes. 3. Industry supplier 1) Who they are and what their background is. My third person is an entrepreneur who now works in sales  2) Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot. I am filling the supplier as he has felt with marketing projects through work in the past 3) A description of how you found the person and contacted the person. I found this person through other business related contacts and we spoke over the phone  4) The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation? The exchange was very positive and he gave me great advice on sales and the pressures of the marketing industry. This experience in networking was really beneficial to my growth as an innovator and an entrepreneur. I was forced to get out of my comfort zone and talk to new types of people. 

Elevator Pitch 3

Here is my third elevator pitch! I continued to talk passionately about my innovation and tried to really make sure my pitch was catered to my audience. I tried to speak clearly and confidently with a professional manner to effectively get my point across. I enjoyed hearing the feedback from my classmates and feel like their input helps me get closer to achieving my goal. Third time's the charm!

Idea Napkin part 2

1. Hey ENT friends! My name is Megan Wordell and I am a rising junior in the Innovation Academy majoring in Political Science and Journalism with minors in Innovation and Sociology. A few of my talents include trying to be funny on Twitter, political organizing, and most of all I can eat a whole jar of frosting in one sitting! My more comical skills and experiences probably won’t be very useful in this project but they help me make light of more serious issues, such as the one my project is based around. While I don’t know my specific aspirations, helping people in some aspect of their life is very important to me and I think my values of empathy and compassion will really come through in this. I am extremely passionate about politics and human rights which is what I decided to focus my project on. I'm a firm believer in equality of opportunity and that's why this issue is so important to me. 

 I am offering a stable source of affordable, healthy, and most importantly accessible foods to customers in rural food deserts 
My ideal customer is someone, perhaps a family, living in a rural area, with a shortage of access to local health options. I am mainly focused on fulfilling these needs in food desert areas.
Customers will care because this is a cost effective way for them to achieve a healthier lifestyle.
I think a few of my core competences include my professional communication skills and strong leadership style. I have had the chance through group projects in the past to expand upon both of these and it has really shaped the way I collaborate. Additionally, a few of my core values include empathy and compassion, both of with are related to helping the needs of others 
I feel that all of these competencies, skills, ideas, and values, will all mesh well together with my project topic. My work in politics and passion for humans rights issues is also directly related to this assignment; I learned about food deserts in one of my sociology classes, and it was the main source of a lot of my research for this project. I will be able to combine my passions for these issues with the skills I have gained in other works to bring this project to fruition.

I believe that all of these components of my life and personality can help me in my project in some way, even the ones that seem off topic. I am really passionate about helping others and I know that I will be able to use that "why" in whatever I do, in this project and in my life 

Customer Avatar

My ideal customer is proud to live in their rural town: a low income, small town family, that frequently attends church and enjoys the simplicity of their day to day life. My customer probably lives in a small family, possibly two or three kids, maybe homeschooled. Politically they are probably more conservative as they live in a rural area and are quite religious. They probably watch the news and focus on more local events as they are very in tune with their community. 

I don’t have very much in common with my character avatar. I mainly chose this type of customer after learning about a need for this service in a class about health disparities. While I do recognize our differences, I think it is important to recognize barriers to equality of opportunity and this is something my innovation really focus on. 

Elevator Pitch 2

Since my first elevator pitch, I feel like I have learned so much more about my ideal consumer. I think I would cater this pitch to my audience, if I am talking to students I would keep this introduction as it is. If I were talking to investors, I would talk more about the economic possibilities of my idea and how it would be an efficient project to fund. Hearing from others has allowed me to find a new perspective on my idea and better craft both my innovation and my marketing tools.