23A – Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

1. Me. I, as an employee of my own, have basic marketing and manufacturing knowledge. Since I will graduate in one year from the University of Florida, I found myself a valuable but not very rare knowledge labor. Not very hard to copy by others and not very hard to find substitutes. However, it is most likely that I am going to pursue other degrees in the future, I am able to have a more competitive human capital. 

2. Capital. I have established connections with a few investors who are especially interested in gaming related areas. I found them very supportive of my idea which combined gaming devices and wireless charging technology. I think they can help me with my initial financing and that is very valuable to an entrepreneur. This is a rare resource and, in my case, hard to find substitutes. 

3. Technology. I have a couple of friends who are also students from the University of Florida. We met each other in an information system course. We all love playing games and we all business major. Because of the sharing interest, we became good friends and group members. I believe that they are my valuable social capital. Although they are not rare to find, they are not inimitable and non-substitutable.

4. Background & social network. I am an international student in the US. I have a lot of international friends that came from China. We shared the same culture and have a similar background. We are closer than ever since we all living and studying aboard.  We support each other in difficult conditions. They are my valuable resource, rare, and inimitable. They are non-substitutable.

5. Product. My business idea is to connect all gaming devices together and made them organized. As a result, people who love gaming and willing to purchase related devices will be a great target of my products. A noticeable characteristic of this target group is that they tend to try out new things and have plenty of money to spend on devices. 

6. Production: I am familiar with the cheap labor force in China and I think it will be a great opportunity for me. I will have advantages during my production processes. This will be a valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable advantage for my business. 
  7. Experience in E market. I used to open an e-shop on Taobao.com in China. I am familiar with the process of packaging and selling. I think it will be a valuable and rare ability for my business. However, it is easy to copy by others. 

8. Good at Design. I used to learn drawing when I was little. Therefore, I have a good sense of aesthetic. It will be an advantage of mine. This ability is valuable but not rare. It is easy to copy by others and substitutable.

9. Familiar with business law. I am learning business law this semester. I am able to solve a few basic law problems on my own. This ability is valuable and rare. It is not inimitable and substitutable.

10. Culture. I think my future business culture will be very clear and strict. I believe that will help my business to success. 

Among all the capitals, the most important and valuable one is my financial capital.

22A – Elevator Pitch No. 3

Most of my commons from last time is positive and they made me feel confident and they encourage me a lot! Also the commons made this video more interesting.
I think where I do better this time is that I feel more nature during the speech and I feel more confident.

21A – Reading Reflection No. 2

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

Through more than 20 years of psychological research, Professor Carol Dweck has found that there are two modes of thinking that enable people to create different worlds – the Fixed Mindset and the Growth Mindset. The childhood and adulthood of human beings gradually emerge and play a completely different role in many aspects such as setting our goals for life, dealing with work and relationships, nurturing children and exerting their potential.


2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

Prof. Dweck elaborated on how to use the growth thinking mode to achieve outstanding achievements in the fields of music, literature, science, sports, commerce, and how to change their thinking patterns and achieve success at different stages of our lives just like what we trying to achieve through learning this course.

The author's research field is extensive and applicable and has a significant impact on the development of parents, teachers, coaches, and managers to understand and cultivate growth thinking patterns.

Accept a growth-oriented mindset, be ready to grow up, and you will see an incredible self!

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

Turning Fixed Mindset into Growth Mindset exercise.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I have heard this book before, and I also read the speech of the author Carol S. Dweck at TED. Before I read, I was curious as to how the difference between the success and failure of the person is? Can you stand up again and again after facing failures and setbacks? Why can successful people see failure from another perspective? I found that the Growth Mindset people grow their minds in self-challenge and do their best, but people with stereotypes are not interested when they are not going well. They care that they have not made any mistakes and their perfect performance, and feel smart. The growth mentality is the opposite. They feel that when things are very difficult, and they are trying hard, they can do things that they could not do before, and they will start to figure out the clues... In this case, they feel that they have grown up, and more importantly, Diachronic learning, making progress in the challenge. A person with a stereotype will not only learn from failure but will not remedy the failure. He is more likely to try to repair self-esteem and find those who are worse than themselves.

19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1) Me. I am an information system student and a game lover. I believe the uni adapter gaming set will become my second trying to the real business world. It will be a huge challenge but also a great opportunity for me.

2) What am I offering to customers? My product is a uni adapter wireless gaming set will wireless charging system, which will save space on the desk and time for changing or charging the battery.

3) Who Am I offering it to? High-end gamer and high-end personal computer, PSP and X Box user. They have a high demand for high-end devices.

4) Why do they care? The product will help the desk in organized and customer will never need to worried about the battery. Customer will be interested in this idea.

5) What are my core competencies?  No competitor has this kind of device for now and they can upgrade their devices step by step by changing part of it, but only in the same brand.

The whole idea is great and will be a Hugh success. The weakness of this idea is from huge device companies such as Logitech. The technology itself is easy and easy to copy. The solution for this is doing it quick and quiet and be famous fast before large company can react, and then cooperate with them.

Point 1: PSP user also

Point 2: Competition solution

20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Person #1 Domain expert in my industry

Romero

Romero is the owner of two used car dealerships in Gainesville. He has 21 years’ experience in this industry. He is a domain expert who knowing everything about used car dealership. He just opened a new dealership besides mine and I was introduced to him by our land lord. He said he will teach me more about this industrial and we would share our inventories and customers. For example, if I don’t have a car my customer want, and he has, I will take the customer to test drive his, instead of just losing the customer, and he would do the same thing. It will improve both my experience and sales of the company.

Person #2 Expert on my market

Jeff

Jeff is the sales manager of another dealership in Gainesville. He have been in this industry for 15 years and is very experienced on the market. He know everything about customer and advertising because he was the one in charge of the whole marketing department. He was recently introduced by my land lord too. He helps me on how to showing cars to customer and the seasonal trend of the industrial. He is expecting to get customer and a Chinese girlfriend from me.

Person #3 Important Supplier to my industry

David

David is the manager of local PPG paint supplies shop. I just ordered a $2500 painting system this week, that is how me know each other. He is very experienced about painting. When I having trouble on painting, he is the one I’m going to ask. He teach me about the painting and expecting me to order more products from them.

Reflect:

All these contacts were coming from the operation of the business. It is defiantly the best way to do meet people doing the same thing as you do. I’ve never doing like this before I started the business. But when I did, the networks coming to me.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

My customer is a 27 years old adult with a full-time job in Gainesville.  He loves to play computer games and he purchased a lot of gaming devices in order to improve game experiences. He is a cat person who adopted two cats. He has a blue Mustang that his parents brought for him when he went to college. He is thinking about changing his sports car to an SUV.  Everyday after he gets off working, he likes to lay in the couch and watch game tournaments. He is still single but he is seeing someone that his parents introduced to him. He thought she is a good girl that worth to marry. He is right now saving money and preparing for their future lives. 

I am also a game lover. Although I am not good at it, I purchased a lot of game devices. I feel it is not a coincidence that I have common with my avatar. Because when I started to have the business idea, I always image the circumstance that how I will need the product to be. During the thinking, I realized that there are a lot of people love gaming. They love to purchase relative items and devices just like I do.  27 years old men with full-time jobs are the good target groups because they have the time and ability for their hobbies.  So there is a great chance that we have the same hobby.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

I did not write the last elevator pitch so I did not get any feedback.