The Twenty Percent

My friend Samyr Qureshi is the co-founder of this tutoring app called Knack. Samyr actually correctly predicted what his 20% customer base would be. His 20% are students in the upper level courses of STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math). This was the customer base he expected when starting his business, since he noticed the cultural and academic trend of more students flocking towards those areas of study in their academic careers. Additionally, him and his team did extensive background research on the demands of a tutoring service itself, as well as what majority of students are being tutored for. This information largely contributes to why he guessed his 20% accurately.

1.The customers' demographics for this company are college students and their unmet needs are finding tutors for various subjects. The customers of this business are young, so they are very much into the media world as far as, apps and social media.

2. All three customers said that they thought Knack targeted college students as well, since they have witnesses this app marketing around campus for users. They said they would find this app helpful but they aren't entirely sure how often they would need to use it.

3. I think that the entrepreneur I interviewed accurately targeted the right population and identified their possible needs. The only thing I think the entrepreneur may have considered but there's nothing him and his partner can do about it, is the frequency in which someone would want or need to be tutored.

Half- Way Reflection

1. Some skills I have acquired in order to keep up with this class is definitely improving both my time management and organizational skills. I also learned to think outside of the box in trying to develop a business idea as well as going outside of my comfort zone to interview strangers for feedback.

2. At times I felt like giving up or just not doing assignments because I felt swamped with the other things I had going on and classes. Also, sometimes gathering videos can be discouraging because it's time consuming. A way in which I pushed myself on is by telling myself just to rip the bandaid off and just do it.

3. Three tips I would give to the next student who takes this class is: 1) Try to get ahead in case your other classes start overwhelming you. 2) Do not wait until last minute to do assignments because you will miss them. 3) Try to take this class as seriously as possible because even if its a requirement for you it'll definitely be worth your time in the long run.

Week 8 Reading Reflection

1. I found it surprising how many steps there are and just the overall extensiveness of the marketing plan an entrepreneur would have to take. Obviously building a business and promoting it is not an easy venture, but I was still surprised by how extensive the marketing planing process is. 

2.  I didn't find anything confusing in this chapter. 

3. The two questions I would ask the author are: 1) For the observation part of the marketing research process, what should one do if they are unable to observe anyone? 2) Shouldn't the marketing plan be assessed more than annually, perhaps semiannually, in order to ensure if there needs to a change in marketing?

4. In this chapter of reading, I didn't find anything disagreeable with what the author was saying. I think the author did a good job of clearly and concisely explaining the marketing process. 

Week 7 Reading Reflection

1. I was really surprised or it stuck out to me greatly in the reading that a business plan can help even inexperienced individuals who are starting a business. Of course it is fairly obvious that a plan for anything leads someone to a greater chance of success but I wouldn't think that someone who is very inexperienced could make a business plan good enough to compensate for their lack of experience.

2. One aspect in the reading that was confusing for me is how to use the U.S. Census Bureau to establish a potential market for your business plan.

3. Two questions I would like to ask the author are: 1) Why is the Internet used in later stages of planning for a business plan? Since wouldn't it be useful to find any supporting evidence on the Internet before really delving into your business plan? 2) What would be a good way to ascertain all the potential risks of a possible business idea?

4. One thing I thought the author was wrong about is not using any information on the Internet in assisting an entrepreneur with their business plan. Of course a business plan should include opinions of potential customers the entrepreneur interviews himself/ herself, but wouldn't it make the plan stronger if there was also samples or evidence on online surveys that further supported the business plan?

Elevator Pitch No. 2

Customer Interviews No. 3

1. The questions I intend on asking are:
-Do you think this is a place you would want to eat at?
-Do you see this business as something that is going to fulfill a need?
-Do you have any suggestions to improve the business plan or idea?
-How often would you visit Roll Through?
-Are there any concerns?

I am going to ask people within my target population, which are individuals who enjoy eating sushi. The interviewees don't have to necessarily be my age and the business does not need to be limited to a college town but college students can still be a great target population for this set of interviews.

2. 

3. What I learned during the interviews is even though my business assures the fresh quality of the fish made for sushi and that the sushi will be prepared like in Publix- fresh that day and the old ones will be thrown away after the end of the day- people still have health concerns. So in my business plan I would have to find a way to ensure the public the sushi is fresh or at least pump up the marketing on that aspect of the business. Additionally, during the interview I learned the importance of constantly introducing new and diverse rolls in order to keep the business interesting and exciting to go to. This is something that I did not consider prior to the interviews.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. I am a 20 year old English major with a Business Minor. I have had a lot of work experience surrounded around small business and start up companies. I worked as a Brand Ambassador for the start up app Speakiesy as well as working at a family owned restaurant back home for four years learning the workings of a small business intimately first hand. If this business would actually come into fruition I feel that I have a fairly solid foundation to work on making it happen as well as understanding some fundamentals of how to brand and market the business. I aspire to be successful in whatever I am passionate about and hopefully make a living off of that as well after college.

2. I am offering a service to people who want to eat sushi quick on the go for people who don't have time to stop for take out or sit down at a restaurant. Roll Through would provide fresh and good quality sushi to individuals who are constantly on the go.

3. The population I would be targeting is not specified by any particular age, except for maybe limiting those under the age of being able to drive a car. My business would obviously be targeting those who enjoy eating sushi. People who don't necessarily have time to sit down and eat sushi somewhere and need to pick up something quick before heading off to another obligation would also be another characteristic to the target population. Additionally, my business has an advantage over other drive throughs since sushi is naturally a lot healthier than any other food that drive throughs offer.

4. Customers would care about my business because it would allow them to be more time efficient if they are the type of people who don't have time to eat something during the day. It would also allow them to not break their New Year's Resolution of being healthy and staying fit, as sushi is quite healthy. Additionally, it would be offered at a reasonable and attainable cost.

5.  No other fast food restaurant or drive through offers the kind of fresh and quality food and ingredients that Roll Through would offer its customers. Naturally the fish that would be used to make sushi has to be fresh and pure because otherwise it would cause some severe health issues for the consumers. At a cost effective manner sushi would be offered through a drive through. Also, my business is the first business that would provide a sushi drive through which is something I have never heard about before.


I feel that after writing the list of 5 elements of my Idea Napkin that all the points sort of run together and flow cohesively. I think that is probably a sign that my business idea is well thought out and has established a strong foundation for something that could possibly be started.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

1. The biggest surprise for me in the reading was reading about patents and that fact that even if a business has an idea patented already, it doesn't mean that any other ideas relating to that patent are nulled. I didn't realize how complicated and extensive the knowledge and use of patents were until reading the chapter for this week and I found it a very interesting section in the textbook.

2. One part of the reading that was confusing to me was the law on trademark. After re-reading the section a couple times I understood the concept but at first I thought it was a tricky one to grasp.

3. If I could ask the author two questions I would ask: Why are overzealous employees the problem if it would be a good thing that employees are excited for an arising opportunity? My next question would be: What kind of insurance specifically should a firm adopt if they are not selling a specific product or occupy a certain space for production?

4. There wasn't really anywhere in this chapter that I disagreed with the author or thought anything that was said was false.

Elevator Pitch No. 1

I have a lot of friends who really enjoy eating sushi, but don't always have the time to sit down to eat it or run into the nearest Publix to take it to go. Therefore, I came up with an idea to have a drive through sushi place called Roll Through, where customers can also come in to eat sushi as well as get it to go. When thinking about my idea there was a stipulation concerning the freshness of the sushi since raw fish is a very specific food that should always be fresh. A solution I had in coming to this problem is that there will be a predetermined menu for sushi rolls, and when customers come through the drive through and order a roll, that roll will already be pre-made or being made as it is often done in Publix.