Growing Your Social Capital

-Created app to help organize attendance at meetings and events, bringing in over $10,000 of revenue

-Domain Expert

-Friend who personally created the app with a group of 2 others

-He told me a lot of the struggles on the business and legal sides of running an app

-I regularly talk to this person so being able to constantly go to him for advice will help me a lot

-Professional photographer, takes photos for the Miami Dolphins and Florida Gators

-Market Expert

-Hired to take a head shot photo and kept in contact with him

-I contacted him to see if I could ask him some questions and he gave me a lot of information on what kind of market he thinks I’ll be working with and how he would approach his marketing strategy for it

-Taking photos for a college and professional football team has definitely given him some great contacts so I may be able to meet more people who could assist me through him

-Helped create small app to encourage businesses to be more environmentally green

-Supplier Expert

-I met this person through the domain expert, who is a friend of mine. I asked him if he knew of anyone else that could have any experience in the field.

-They basically told me all of the ins and outs of reaching out to a business to see if they would be interested in using your app

-I met this person through someone I had already networked with, so hopefully I can continue the chain and further expand my network

I think after this networking experience, I can more confidently reach out to people in larger companies to ask their advice on things. This kind of got my foot in the door and gave me some practice in how to network. I’m also going to reach out to everyone I talked to and see if they know anyone in a bigger company that could help and how to go about contacting them.

Idea Napkin No. 2

I am Shaun Rogozinski, a 21 year old, 3^rd year Finance major at the University of Florida. Some of my skills/attributes include leadership, technological knowledge, and being good at working with others. I’ve had a couple past jobs, one working construction and another working at Chipotle. Working jobs like these, not that they’re bad, have made me realize that I want my life to be able to go in another direction. Hopefully one day I can have a job where I travel a decent amount but also have time to spend with my family. I think my business concept could play a big role in my life because I enjoy working out and technology, and it’s a combination of both.

I am offering a product that can greatly increase the convenience of going to the gym, something many people aren’t motivated to do. Hopefully with this added convenience factor more people will be willing to go. It could also help with congestion getting in and out of the gym at busy times. The app specifically allows customers to basically sign in and out of the gym simply by having their phone on them. It would be location based and be able to tell when someone walks in to the gym and sign them in, and when someone walks out of the gym and signs them out.

Well, obviously, one thing all customers must have in common is that they must visit a gym. I do think, however, that regardless of whether the person works out 5-6 times a week or 1-2 times a week, it can fit both of their needs. It is more of a convenience app which allows it to be desirable by everyone. There is also the option to offer the app to the gyms rather than the customers of the gym. This would allow the gym to pay to use the app and not each individual customer.

Customers would care for the added convenience factor. This is not something people necessarily need, but I think once a few people start using it and other people see it, they will automatically join. No one wants to not have something that someone else doesn’t, especially the demographic I would be covering, which is a very competitive one.

I think there are definitely things that have been made in the past to help speed up the process of signing in and out of a gym, such as fingerprint scanners. This would basically just be the next technological step. Many gyms have already converted to the fingerprint scanner, so I think many would also convert or upgrade to the app.

I do think the five elements fit together for this product. Knowing many people that do engage in gym activities, I think they would be very interested. The only concern I have is that it is only a convenience product which could affect demand since it’s not necessarily a need.

One thing I didn’t think about that I received in feedback was that it could help some people who aren’t so confident in going to the gym. I mentioned this in talking about motivation, because some people who maybe aren’t confident don’t want to face the person at the front desk so this could motivate them to go since they don’t have to talk to anyone. Another point in feedback was that technology is already very common in use for the fitness industry, so this wouldn’t be a major adjustment.

Create a Customer Avatar

My typical customer would obviously be someone who regularly makes trips to the gym. They would vary from hardcore athletes to some of the more casual people that workout every so often after work. Their hobbies include watching sports, outdoor activities, and the occasional night out to drink. For the more hardcore gym goers, I would bet they tend to drive sportier cars (probably red), whereas the more casual customers drive black and gray sedans that they use to get to and from work. The hardcore crowd is probably a younger one and probably don’t have many kids, whereas the casual mom and dad crowd have 2-3 kids. As for TV shows, the hardcore crowd probably watches more action/popular shows like The Walking Dead (well, back when it was popular) while the casual crowd is more of a husband and wife sitcom kind of thing. The hardcore crowd is most likely not that in to politics because they’re so caught up in their own image, but the casual crowd probably has some stronger opinions. Both crowds think they are in their 20’s, regardless of age.

I think I have a decent amount in common with both crowds. A few years ago I used to be much more hardcore about working out, whereas now I don’t take it as serious, although I would like to. I do drive a little manual sports car and enjoy both action shows and sitcoms. Hopefully I won’t be naive enough to not realize my actual age, but hopefully I’ll feel younger!

Elevator Pitch No. 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VPA9KO5FGQ&feature=youtu.be

I didn't do the past elevator pitch assignment, however I paid attention to what others were getting for feedback and tried to use some of those criticism when making my pitch. I have done elevator pitches before, but none were this long so this was new to me. It was also new in the sense that I was pitching a product and not myself, which it was I had previously done. I think getting more feedback now that I have my own video will be nice to see what I can personally improve, especially some of the smaller things that I may not have noticed. I think maybe doing a pitch in front of someone, even for this assignment, could actually help a lot.

Halfway Reflection

1.       This class isn’t necessarily an extremely difficult class but it is very easy to get behind on your work. I would suggest not getting in a habit of procrastination and keeping up the determination to try and get all the assignments done early in the week. This is something I have personally struggled with and it causes me to stress more than I would need to. Time management is the number one thing.

2.       One time I felt like giving up was during a football game being down 3 scores late in the 3^rd quarter. The way I got through it was through my teammates. Sometimes relying on other people for motivation can be a good thing and in a team atmosphere like that it’s infectious. Throughout the course of the last two months it has been really cool to see everyone’s ideas and their motivations behind them. This has definitely helped me feel tenacious to try to compete.

3.       My first tip to students is to set goals and milestones. Without these it’s very hard to have a drive to do something. You can look to these goals to create a fire inside you. My second tip would be to talk to others in times of doubt. Everyone always has times where motivation is low. Although I do think motivation comes from within oneself, I think other people can help you realize that motivation. My third tip is to make sure you’re doing something you enjoy. Having motivation to do something you don’t enjoy is extremely difficult so having fun while doing things drastically helps.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

The segment I chose is college students that regularly go to the gym. Obviously being a convenience, it can’t really be seen as an unmet need, but it did seem to be a strong desire. The interviews seemed to all bring up the point that when the gyms on campus are busy it is a hassle to have to type in your UF-ID and fingerprint yourself every time. This is something that most likely can’t change at UF, but when asked if they would be interested in the sort of app I was offering for a gym after college they all thought it was a great idea. One of the students I interviewed said he liked to be listening to music on his way to the gym to get him in the right mindset and that having to talk to someone at a front desk to sign in could ruin his routine and put off his workout. People said that having to manually sign in would be a big enough inventive to switch gyms to one that uses the app, but that if they didn’t have a membership at either yet it would definitely help sway their decision. It also seems to be more of a problem of how busy a gym is which is especially bad on campus, and this seamless sign in could help alleviate some traffic.

My findings in the interviews gave me hope that this idea could actually get put into action. It was clear that this isn’t necessarily a need of gym goers but would definitely be a quality of life increase. In terms of need awareness, these people sign in to a gym almost every day, and at some point they probably stop thinking about it after getting into the habit. However, I think even hearing about an idea like this would instantly turn on the light bulb to see it could be much better.

Idea Napkin No. 1

You. My name is Shaun. I am a Finance student at UF. The stock market and technology have always interested me. I want to be able to build a career utilizing some aspects of both of these things. However, this business idea would be more of something on the side just as a passion.

What are you offering to customers? I want to offer an app for your phone that uses the phone’s location to sign in and out of gyms without having to do anything. Simply as you walk in, it checks you in, and when you walk out, it signs you out.

Who are you offering it to? Anyone that goes to a gym can use this app. Hopefully it would be a quick transition process for the different gyms to accept using this app and set up their systems to be compatible with it.

Why do they care? This app is really just going to be used as a convenience factor. It would save time for both parties and potentially money for the gym because they wouldn’t need to buy fingerprint scanners or whatever else they would potentially use to check people in.

What are your core competencies? I think this could give people more incentive to go to one gym that uses the app over one that doesn’t. It could increase competition for rival gyms and increase customer happiness, helping retention rates.

I think this business idea is formed around convenience being a large factor in customer satisfaction. I do think this could be a great industry for something like this, as many people just want to walk in and get their workouts started. The fitness community is generally up to speed with technology because of their use of social media, so I don’t think it would be too big of an issue in terms of usability.