Assignment 30A- Final Reflection

Assignment 30A- Final Reflection

Throughout this class, I’ve experienced many highs and lows. There were many times where I underestimated the amount of work it would actually take to develop a business concept. The assignments where we had to interview people that would help contribute to our potential business was definitely challenging, but so informative. Conducting market research and seeing how customers would respond to your product is integral in understanding the scope for your business. Out of all the experiences, however, I believe the most formative experiences were the different elevator pitches we recorded. I can definitely see the growth and progress I made between the first and third pitch. While it pushed me out of my comfort zone, I think being able to talk about your product and sell it a large audience is one of the most integral components of starting a business. Even though I was only in front of a mirror, I could imagine giving the same speech to a crowd of people. Although, this scared me I believe it was great practice to get me ready for a similar situation in the future should I choose to launch this type of business or another. Public speaking is never easy, but as an entrepreneur it can be a great tool to increase your customer base and future revenue. Therefore, I consider the elevator pitches the most joyous experiences and the one that caused me the most challenges. I am most proud of myself for putting myself out there and pushing myself by getting through them. After this class, I definitely think more like an entrepreneur and have developed an entrepreneur type mindset.

Although I wouldn’t go as to far as to call myself an entrepreneur because I have no product or begun to market anything, but I can see a change in how I think. I now consider elements like competition, resource availability and marketing, rather than just coming up with a product that can help people. I now go beyond, about how exactly I can reach an unmet need, tap into unexpected markets, use social connections and exploit opportunities. One recommendation I would make to students going down the same path is to be on top of time management and take the assignments seriously. These assignments are geared toward allowing you to generate a realistic business model and plan. Using these exercises will only help you in the future as an entrepreneur. Time management is also very important because some assignments require intensive research or interviewing many people, which can take a while. In order to get into the right mindset for this class, I’d recommend reading some of the books on the reading list. These books can help encourage you to take the assignments seriously and take your business model to another level.