The Twenty Percent

For this assignment I interviewed Eduardo Cortez. Who I interviewed was Eduardo Cortez, he is a tested business entrepreneur and a clergyman. He first came to this country from Ecuador at the age of 30 with his family, with only one goal, to establish a Hispanic church. Eventually he found a work opportunity with the United Methodist Church. He started with a congregation of 5 members and is now the biggest and growing Hispanic Methodist congregation in Central Florida. Before that, Eduardo was very much involved in the business world. In Ecuador, Eduardo learned at an early age the tactics and strategies it would take to become a successful entrepreneur. By the age of 25 he was managing several male boutiques in 3 central malls in Ecuador’s capital. Finally here in the United States, he decided to dedicate his time to his ministry. A few years later, he would make a bad business decision and invest a large amount of his savings into a business called “The Natural Home” which would eventually go under. But business is trial and error. With this failing business venture came lessons, tactics, and strategies, which he put into practice with his church and his current successful day care business. The questions in this assignment are mainly directed to business that provide products. But like I mention Mr. Cortez runs a service business, the day care, where everyone who attends has to pay. So technically, when I asked what percentage of his customers are providing a 100%n of his revenue, he just smiled and said “All my customers are my business, all my customers have to pay”. But of course I knew this was the case so I changed the questions slightly and hope this will suffice.

Me: “You operated the church long before you opened a day care along with it correct?” *nods “what percentage of your customers do you attribute to your church?”

Eduardo: “Now that’s a more interesting questions. Not everyone that goes to the daycare has to go to my church. But all of my employees are frequent or permanent church members. I would say a good 15% of the kids here go to the church or found out about our daycare through someone that does go to my church. But again I operate my church and the business completely independent of one another. Yes they are in the same building, but my wife takes care of the daycare mostly and I do the church. And yes all the students that go here are also studying the bible, but we do that because that is what we believe in, God is the foundation of this business, and we don’t do that to get these family to come to our church or nothing of that sort, all though they are more than welcomed.”

Me: “Out of everyone that goes to church with children, how many have used your services? Have they discovered the church before the day care, or vice versa?”

Eduardo: “I think everyone that has a child that goes to my church, they all have used our daycare service or are using it. When we first started the day care mostly everyone knew about the church before the day care. Now it’s, I would say, somewhere along the middle. We don’t advertise much, other than the couple of signs we have out on the road, most of our customers are either from the area or have heard of us from word of mouth. Most of the time we are full. We have expanded this building twice already just so we would have more room and to increase out capacity. We have 6 class rooms all with at least 20 kids in each and when you do the math that’s quite a few families, more than the families that show up on Sundays. So maybe I would say that at this point more people hear about our church through the day care, but a part of me doesn’t think that either.”

Me: “Do you ask for feedback about your business from your customers?”

Eduardo: “Most of the time our feedback come in the form of complaints. Especially when we first started the business every complaint was just another way for us to better our business. Over time I think we have gotten the hang of it. But everyone here knows I have an open door policy, if they have any questions or concern they know is ok to either come straight to me or my wife. I am also all ways here, I walk around and make sure everything is running smoothly in all of our classrooms and I’m frequently talking to the family members and the kids too. I know every single kid that goes here one way or another, this is a lot more than a job it my life. As a pastor I’m always here for the community for my people.”

Me: "Describe to me your target customers? What is their unmet needs their demographic?"

Eduardo: “Well that’s simple, everyone is someone with a child that needs care. Almost everyone is a family with kids that are too young to start school, and they need someone to look after the kids while they are at work. Or the parent’s get out of work after the kids get out of school. So our daycare, which provide transportation, will pick up the students at school and take them back here, until their parents can come and pick them up.”

When it came to the customers, none of them wanted to be filmed. So I went ahead and just recorded the videos with the camera facing down. Two if the interviews are recorded in Spanish. So I will translate by typing them out. I asked the customers how they though the business was going, how many of the people that go to the church also go to the daycare, vice versa, and who are the target customer?

Customer 1:

“I think the business is going well, Mr. and Ms. Cortez know what they are doing they have been doing for a long time. I personally go to their church and work here and both my kids go here. The bigger one goes to school and comes here after school. My little one is too little for school just yet so he is here all day. I think a lot of the kids and family that go here are somehow associated with the church. You don’t necessarily have to go to the church to go to the daycare though. But a lot of families find out about the daycare through someone that does go to the church. And I would say all the employees go to the church. Like I said I think about half the kids that go here are from the church or have found out about us through the church. I haven’t heard anything bad I think the business is going well.”

Customer 2:  

Week 8 Reading Reflection

This chapter mainly focuses on different forms of capital entrepreneurs can take into consideration. Initially the chapter talks about debt and equity investments and they go into details about each. Debt, which regards commercial banks and the equity, which regards to public offerings. I found this chapter pretty interesting. I am an accounting major so I am familiar with a lot of these terms, I also believe that’s why I have a lot of opinions regarding this topic. First and for most, investing when you start a business. Like the author said, it’s a lot safer to get involved in equity capital than in debt financing when stating up. Although in the U.S they both have their risk. Debt investment means that you will need to pay a significant amount of interest which after some time might actually outweigh the borrowing benefit. You also have a responsibility to pay back and a heavy use of debt can actually hurt the growth of your company. This is true for the U.S but this hits a lot of areas where I personally don’t agree with the United States banking system. It’s important to be aware of your risk in either investment, like they say “magic always comes with a price”, well investing does too (usually in the form of interest). Personally I think the theocratic countries got it right. Islamic banking is the most ethical form of debt financing. Although there is no significant evidence that Islamic banking helps at all with economic crisis, I have to agree with the theories that it prospers innovations and helps with new ventures. Islamic banking allows individuals to take loans from the bank but banks are not allowed to charge interest, everything is based on physical assets and the entrepreneur and the banks share the risk. So if my business fails, I’m not the only one suffering the loss, so is the bank. Hence forcing the banks to have the best interest in mind when it comes to small businesses. If we had this system in place then debt investment would be a lot safe than equity investment. Just think how much better this would be for small local firms. But in the U.S we don’t have this system, meaning that for small firms it’s safer to go public than to rely on your local bank. I could go on about this for a while, but my point is this was my favorite part of the chapter. Now, I completely disagree with the author on his “Dispelling Venture Capital Myths”. Maybe I’m too cautious, or maybe my dad conservative, laissez faire mind set has sort of rubbed off on me. Personally, no I don’t trust venture capitalist, mainly for all the reason/myths the author has listed. For example the author claims venture capital firms want to control your company. This is extreme and impractical, but I do believe that they are in the business of making a profit, not helping the average citizen with some saving make a return. This is why I admire theocratic countries and their ethical/conservative business measures (although I do not agree with their accounting regulations, I do believe U.S GAPP/IFRS are superior). Secondly, he goes on to these really good relevant points, but he glorifies venture capitalist. Nothing is that good in this world. Just ask yourself, would you rather own your own business or partner in a larger, potentially more successful one? All in all, investment and borrowing is necessary, you have bills to pay, quotas to mean, machinery that needs replacing and investments that need to be made in order to stay competitive. You just have to find a way to finance your business growth. 

Half-way Reflection

This class is not difficult at all. But noticed I used the word difficult not the word hard. If you are a procrastinator this class is going to be a challenge. And even if you aren’t a procrastinator this class it tedious when it comes to work. There all loads of assignments due in just one week. Most of the assignment are not hard at all. But when you have other classes and work and a social life, you’re going to leave this class for last then realized you might have missed a few assignments and the assignments that are due soon are somewhat time consuming. You have to be organized in this class as well as attentive. Like I said it’s not really hard but it’s easy to miss some assignment. And its ok to miss some. You have extra credit that allows you to miss about five assignment but I would save those opportunities. I personally check the class every single day and on Sundays I look ahead for the week. I look ahead so I have an idea of what’s coming because some assignments you just can’t leave for the last minute because they require videos of yourself or of other random people. What I don’t like about this class is we need to talk to strangers just way too much and some things are just out of my comfort zone and I find it really unfair that I have to lose points because I genially have a problem doing some of the assignments. But I guess that’s why we have the extra credit for. I have given up in this class before, most had been with the assignments regarding videos of me asking strangers questions. Like I said, it’s completely out of my character and I find it unfair at times. My 3 tips for you is to one, stay organized. Two, when you find yourself with some extra time knock out some assignments and three, actually put in the effort and you will learn something. Like I said I have given up on some assignments but all the assignments I have completed I have given them my 100% because I’m here to learn. And although you can pass this class with minimal effort is all about the mindset. 

Week 7 Reading Reflection

I found this article pretty interesting compared to the last one. Although I am not a marketing major and I have very little interest on the topic, the reason why I found this article so interesting is because it reminded me of the show 'Mad Men' right off the bat. The article talks about how in the 1960s its was becoming much harder to predict what consumers wanted. During this time consumer needs where already meet, and although constant products where being introduced most of them where modifications, they were just merely catering mild preferences. Products where less distinctive and the market was just full of verity. So, as a result, marketers had to find a way to sell practically the same product. What they did was place products with people that society wish they were like and they tried to convince individuals that these products where perfect for them. The other way they sold products was to focus on the emotional aspects of the product rather than the functional ones. So they will market the product and relate them to social status, sex appeal and pride. This is practically all that happened in the first couple of seasons in Mad Men. Basically their jobs was not selling good products, it was making products look good, regardless of their quality. Every commercial they pitched was regarding an experience and females. Going just along with the article they depicted women so horrible throughout the show (if I hated anything about it, it was that). But every time they will shoot a commercial it was about the prettiest face, the girl that every women wanted to be like and they would hold auditions based on looks not talents and all the jerks in the office got to pick what girl was featured in the commercial. Not to mention the men in this show have absolutely no respects for women, let alone their wife’s with the countless affairs they have, but that’s beside the point. What I wish the author would have touched more on would have been the section labeled ‘What are we trying to do?’ this is where the author starts to mention product segmentation and how important it is for new CMOs to think about them. I wish he would have mention some bad examples. For instance soda Chap Sticks? Why was that ever thing, the Chap Sticks that where soda flavor, I’m not sure but I thought it was gross as a child. Another example should have been Armand Hammer Baking Soda. Personally when it comes to Armand Hammer baking soda, I don’t know if it’s a cleaning product, a food product or a hygiene product. They just put that stuff in anything. If I could ask the author anything it would be why this topic? I’m assuming he has some sort of interest in marketing far beyond mine. And I would also ask his about mad men and if he hasn’t seen the show I would then very much recommend it. 

Elevator Pitch No. 2

Hi, my name is Alondra Ramos and welcome to Gainesville Florida where I have 7 visitor parking spaces in front of my apartment for my friends and family to use, but they are all inconveniently taken. Where towing companies make a fortune from individuals parking where they are not “supposed to” and where scooters are a more popular choice of transportation because of their size.

Gainesville is a small city not intended to hold such a big population. And that is why I am proposing building underground parking garages.

My company, Advanced Construction, would build the most efficient, ecofriendly, underground parking garages that will eliminate the need for you to be at the bus stop 40minutes before your class even starts, will decrease the chances of your car getting towed and having to pay a $100 dollar fine, and most immortally not being able to find a parking spot.

 I know what most of you are thinking? How do you even build underground parking garages? Most of Florida is sadly and below sea level. Well nothing is impossible with modern technology. Thankfully for us Gainesville is in the heart of Florida where the land is a little higher. And the key to my company is not digging thousands of feet underground. We would dig underground for only one level and then expand to the sides. This will help with the geographical problem as well as the environmental concerns. Although we might have some challenges ahead for us, our possibilities can be endless.

Most of the feedback I’ve received was about questions regarding if this was even possible. Hence, what I changed based on my feedback was addressing the “how” concern, and as result I added more information towards the end on my video. It is it would just take a lot of work and time. And I do believe that with these circumstances the risks do outweigh the benefits. Gainesville population is just going to grow over time. All you have to do is look at the U.Fs population increase in the last couple of year. The university is accepting more students and more students are wanting to go to college. We also have Santa Fe expanding their campus attracting more students to the area.  

Interviewing Customers: Third Time's The Charm!

*My phone died mid first interview, so I just wrote everything they said down, sorry.

My index card contained the following paragraph:

As you may know Gainesville has horrible parking. This small city was not meant to hold such a huge population. We suffer from horrible traffic and parking restrictions because of it. Towing companies are huge here, as well as the bus system and most students prefer to buy/use mopeds instead of cars because of their size. But many students have cars, most who barely use them because they are just simply unable to find parking. Students who don’t have mopeds are forced to either walk, ride their bikes or use the bus system to get to class, which can all be an inconvenience when you factor in time. students are forced to catch a bus 30-40 minutes before their class even starts just to get their on time, even when their home or apartment could only 10-15 minutes away. To solve this dilemma I have come up with the idea for underground parking. These would be underground parking garages that would be located in populated areas around Gainesville. This will allow students to use their cars for transportation at a low rate and in a timely manner. To cover cost and make a profit we will charge for the first couple of years they start to implement a decal system. And I know what you’re thinking how could this be possible in a place like Florida? Most of Florida is sadly and below sea level. Well nothing is impossible with modern technology. Thankfully for us Gainesville is in the heart of Florida where the land is a little higher. And the key to my company is not digging thousands of feet underground. We would dig underground for only one level and then expand to the sides. This will help with the geographical problem as well as the environmental concerns. Any thought?

Interview 1:

“You claim it’s possible but I’m not so sure. Yeah sounds great and it would help a lot but I just don’t know. Plus I feel like that would cause so economical damage. Like would RTS do if less people are ridding the bug, lay off workers? And there’s lots of moped business in town too.”

Interview 2:

I wake up late all the time so this would actually help. I’m always late because I gate on the ‘late bus’. And yeah I have a car, which I don’t drive to school. But I don’t know how this would make traffic better. Like traffic get worse if more people are using their car?”

Interview 3:

“Yes please! I wish I could drive to school. You know how many meetings I have after 5’oclock when parking at school is open to everyone, and I still can’t find parking!?”

Interview 4:

“Sounds like a good idea, and if U.F keeps it up they will be making every parking a new building soon (*awkwardly laughs). But yeah they should totally do if they can, and this way people can also drive to mid if they want instead of taking an Uber or the later gator. Although maybe not if they are gonna to get drunk.”

Interview 5:

“I would use the underground parking garages, especially if I was late. I think it’s a good idea. Although not sure how they would build it, especially build on land, if that makes any sense. Like I would think they would need to build underground with nothing on top and there’s barely any clear land next to campus so I’m not sure if this would work.”

I liked this interviewing method a lot better because I didn’t really have to talk to them. The only down side is that everyone just answered without really explaining why they either disagreed or agreed. I think maybe I should have put less on the card to give the interviewees room for thought. But after all the previous assignment I’ve collected all the potential questions they might have asked me and answered it for them.  

Week 6 Reading Reflection

This week’s reading assignment was a Harvard business article. Not one of my favorites as it was not that interesting in my opinion and it was pure economics. This article mostly focuses on the five factors that shape completion. I think all these forces are relevant and the article goes really in depth in all of them. By far my favorite one was the power of buyers. This factor along could easily have its own chapter in a textbook. If expanded this topic can really hit on the unfairness or the market place. Yes producers might produce their products and merchandisers might distribute them but who’s going to buy all these thing? I am one to think that the buyers really do have most of the power. But think of the buying power some companies have, companies like Walmart for example? The have the capital and the space to buy huge amount of product so in turn they are buying them much cheaper and the also have the capital and the space to buy whatever consumers desire. Whether it’s the hot new video game or some trendy new item. How do expect small business to compete with that? If I where the author I would have just expanded a tad bit more on this topic. The only other thing I found interesting was how they try very hard to distinguish the factors from forces. I thought this was a very good point to bring up. When I think of the factors I think or things that can be controlled. These are all market characterizes where if you play your cards right you take advantage of. The important thin about the forces it that they seem completely out of consumers, distributors and producers control. These are think that doesn’t matter what you do, they can be helped. For example the government, it’s neither bad nor good but no one in the market can control its effect. The most you can do about the government is understand how it affects the 5 forces. Another example is technology, no one can see the future, no one’s knows what the next break threw is going to be. Unless you are the one creating the technology who’s to say how it’s going to affect the market. Again technology is neither bad of good, one day a new piece of equipment is fixing a current problem and helping us prosper as a society, the next its tacking peoples jobs and running local owners out of business. I wish the author would actually implement his research and document it I think that would be a great idea. so if i where to the author anything i would ask if that was a possibility. I would also ask, considering this was publishes 2008, if there could be any new factors or forces that he could add to his list, as well as if he would fix some of them. 

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. 

I’m just a university student, but I am more than half way done with my degree in accounting. If I were to take on this business concept it would be after graduation. So that puts me in a place where I will be a Certified Public Accountant, with experience in running an efficient and profitable business. I’ve also been working sense I was 16, all my previous jobs have required direct contact with customers, so as of now I have a great work ethic and great customer service.  

2) What are you offering to customers? 

 I’m offering customers the choice to either use their car or use public transportation. I’m offering them about an hour extra of sleep in the morning. I’m offering them a solution to their parking problems. My underground parking garages will not take up space so in turn they won’t make already crowded areas even more crowded and they will provide a cheap parking spot.

3) Who are you offering it to? 

My main focus is to target the University of Florida’s population. All students that live off campus have struggled or a currently struggling with this problem. Through time we could broaden our target customers to the whole city, but for now mostly students and faculty around the universities perimeters.

4) Why do they care? 

They care because most student move away from home and bring their cars with them, and a large portion of them just keep them parked somewhere and barely to rarely use them because you just can’t find parking here. Most students take a 30-40 minute bus ride just to get to class, and take into consideration campus is only 10-15 minutes away from most apartment complexes here in Gainesville. Another major issue it towing.  Towing is Gainesville way of fixing its over population. If you park somewhere you’re not “suppose” to park, your car will get towed and they will hit you for a $100 fine.

5) What are your core competencies? 

 What mostly sets me apart is the fact that they are underground. This allows us to build right under the populated areas and will allow customers to be right where they need to be. Yeah we have parking garages here, but they are really far from your destination, sometimes so far that you have to take a bus from the parking garage just to get where you need to be.

I think all the elements of my idea fit together really well. The only question I have is whether it is possible or not. I’m not sure with Florida’s land mass and all, that we would be able to build such massive underground parking garages. I mean we don’t have basements here and I always thought that was because of our sinkhole problem. But other than that, I think my plan and its comments complement each other well.

Customer Interviews No. 2

1) Fine tune your opportunity. 

I started with a problem I’ve been facing for over 2 years now, ever since I’ve been at The University of Florida. When I moved away from home I brought my car with me with the idea that I would drive to school. Well I wasn’t aware of U.F’s limited parking, let alone Gainesville’s limited parking. There’s a reason why the Regional Transit System of Gainesville exist. Because if your not one off the few who qualify for a U.F decal that’s actually close to campus and if you don’t own a shooter, chances are you are taking the bus to get to school. But the buses take forever, if you have a class between 10:00am-2:00pm, one good luck finding a seat and two there’s no way you will make it to class on time unless you leave about 40 minutes before your class even starts, even though campus is only max 10-15 minutes away from all major apartment complexes. So my idea, although it might be impossible, was to build underground parking garages to maximize space and minimize crowding. After my first round of interviews it seemed like I had overwhelming support. So I believe that if I were to implement my idea I would have support.

2) Fine tune the "who."

I think I did talk to the right customers last time. My problem and solution is mainly focused on students and I only interviewed students. This time I’m going to try and get more females. My first round of interviews consisted of only males, this could lead to misleading results. So this time I’m going to try and offset all those male interviews with females.

3) Tweaking your interview questions. 

So I’m proposing building underground parking garages in polluted areas around Gainesville mostly around campus and I just have a couple of questions regarding my idea.

My originals questions were as follows:

Why is this a necessity more than a luxury?

How would this affect your everyday life?

Should everyone have access or only certain individuals?

Should it be free or should we charge for this service?

Do you agree with this idea even if it affect the environment negatively?  

This time around I will be asking the same questions and just a few more:

Do you think this idea could have any negative consequences?

Is there anything you would add to my idea to make it more appealing to consumers?

Do you think there’s a better way to eliminate Gainesville parking problem?

4) Go talk to customers! 

Videos are bellow. 

5) Tell us what you learned about the opportunity. 

There are many lessons you can take from this exercise, for one, the more people you interview the more precise the answers to your questions will be. Second, when you are providing a service or a product, it doesn’t matter how good of an idea it is if you don’t have customer support. Business must realize that customers are the ones that will be spending their money and time of what the business has to offer, without them you don’t have successful business, because without consumer spending, business wouldn’t make money. That being said it’s important to target consumer needs and it’s important to keep consumers happy. This also ties in to the importance of marketing. In order for customers to try your product or service, or even for them to have an opinion about it, they have to know it exist first.

6) Tell us what you learned about interviewing customers. 

Some tips for future entrepreneurs is first to be confident and try to not come off as nervous. If you’re all silly and nervous the individual you’re interviewing will find it hard to take you seriously, and then, in turn you would have just collected bad data that could have been potentially useful. Another tip when interviewing complete strangers, is to try and find mutual friends so it’s not that uncomfortable. I for one am really bad at talking to strangers so when I had to interview random people I actually did it at a friend’s get together. I interviewed everyone that was there that I didn’t know. So this way my friend would introduce me and she would practically ask for me and before I knew it I had done all 10 interviews. 

Week 5 Reading Reflection

This chapter focuses on new venture startups. In recent years there has been an increasing number of new ventures in the United States. Up to 600,000 new firms every year, that is 1,500 business per day. There are several reasons why individuals start companies, but one thing is for sure, there is a high risk of failing within the first year of your business being in operations. That’s why it is important to be aware of certain factors before you dive into your new venture, and factors you should be on the lookout while you are running your business. All this being said, we have to keep in mind that it is very difficult to collect data on new startups. One of the biggest challenges is finding reliable date on startups that fail. I found this point very interesting. If you think about it, if you want to be successful you have to be able to learn not just from your mistakes, other company’s mistakes as well. If we find it difficult to collect data on startup that have failed, how are we supposed to know for sure what caused the business down fall? How are we supposed to lean from our mistakes? The most important thing anyone can take from this chapter is the critical factors that entrepreneurs need to consider when starting a new venture. Each of these factors seem so simple but they aren’t, and they are all so important. Things like the uniqueness of your product, how available your product is, how much capital you need to start your venture and lastly the grown of your sales. If you think of the opposite things of these factors you will get the major reasons ventures fail. Things like product performance, inadequate knowledge of market, undercapitalization and poor timing. Moving on, what I found most interesting about this chapter was the internal and external problems experience by entrepreneurs. When you look at the external ones you see two really big categories and other smaller ones. But what I found interesting was how evenly distributed the percentages where for the internal problems. Leads me to the conclusion that entrepreneurs have to be very well rounded. Sadly when you start a business everything is important and everything needs equal attention. And I honestly think this is one of the main reasons a large percent of starts up fail. They fail to see the bigger picture, you can’t be completely successful if you are just giving 3 out of 5 components of your business your attention. Everything needs to be in sink, because are these factors are interrelated and without one the whole business could fall apart. 

Elevator Pitch No.1

What I ended up coming up with for my business opportunity was underground parking garages for populated areas, concentrating on the city of Gainesville. I don’t know if this is possible considering Florida’s geography, like the soil and etc. But I just went for it. I named my company Advanced Construction, and my scrip and video of my elevator pitch is below.

“Hi, my name is Alondra Ramos and welcome to Gainesville Florida where I have 7 visitor parking spaces in front of my apartment for my friends and family to use, but they are all inconveniently taken. Where towing companies make a fortune from individuals parking where they are not “supposed to” and where scooters are a more popular choice of transportation because of their size.

Gainesville is a small city not intended to hold such a big population. And that is why I am proposing building underground parking garages.

My company, Advanced Construction, would build the most efficient, ecofriendly, underground parking garages that will eliminate the need for you to be at the bus stop 40minutes before your class even starts, will decrease the chances of your car getting towed and having to pay a $100 dollar fine, and most immortally not being able to find a parking spot.”