16A - What's your secret sauce?

I believe what makes me different is the way I look at things. I always try to have a positive and realistic outlook on things. I think this is important aspect of me. I handle my emotions when faced with a difficult task and never let them over take me. I use my emotions as fuel to help overcome obstacles in my life. I try to be positive when taking on a difficult situation because I believe there is always a way to deal with something. 

Here are my five interviews.

https://soundcloud.com/dylan-st-germain/800-mashta-pl

In this interview Ted said that I have great people skills and I am able to relate to people. When I am selling things I know my things about there and make a great salesman.

https://soundcloud.com/dylan-st-germain/chad-interview-16a

In this interview Chad says I am able to control my emotions when I am dealing with a situation. Also he said I have showed values of a entrepreneur over the time he has know me. 

https://soundcloud.com/dylan-st-germain/austin-interview

Austin said I am determined to what I set my mind too. He said also I have been diligent in my passions and showed great interest in them.

https://soundcloud.com/dylan-st-germain/hunter-interview-16a

In this interview Hunter said that I have experience in the field of this company. He said this sets me apart from others with the situations of I have dealt with in this industry.

Interview 5

Kyle said that I am a very hard worker which sets me apart from others. He always in the time he has known me I handle my emotions very well. 

I see myself similar to how others see me. I think people believe I handle my emotions better than how I think I do. I believe that the interviews do have correct assumptions about me in the aspect that I show values to be a good entrepreneur. I think the reason others believe I handle my emotions better is because I don't show my emotions around others. 

14A- Halfway Reflection

I have used my creativity, resources, and thinking outside of the box. This course has required me to think in ways I haven't had to before. Constantly I find myself asking the question why is this a issue, is there a solution, why is this a problem. I believe I had slowly developed a different way of thinking because of this class. Rather than thinking of problems you have, your looking at problems that apply to a group of people.

A moment was difficult for me was the bug list assignment. This was at the beginning of the class so i was not use to thinking in this perspective. What helped me pull through is that I took the assignment slowly. I did it over the course of a few days and each day I just though of things that bugged me in my daily life. I have developed a tenacious attitude in the past two months. I am sure if I did the bug list again my ideas would be better just because I am more use to looking for those issues. All the assignments I believe have developed me into having a tenacious attitude.

Three tips I would give are do not wait until last minute to do the assignments, do not be afraid to come back to the assignment with a fresh mind. It makes coming up with ideas easier. Another tip would be think of ideas that apply to a group of people, it doesn't have to be a large group. 

15A - Figuring out buyer behavior NO.2

After conducting the three interviews I came up with a set of alternatives. For my customer base it seems that price does not matter as much as quality and types of plants. My customers are paying for the service and connivence of having plants shipped to there house. The two factors that matter most are quality and style.  My segment is more likely to buy online since my service will only be online. They will use debt or credit card to purchase the service. There will not be a way for them to finance the purchase. This is a subscription service so they will sign up for it and be charged monthly for the subscription.

What helps the customer determine if the purchase was a good idea is how much they enjoy the subscription, and the quality of plants they are receiving. The type of things they would think the purchase was a bad idea was if they didn't see if they were benefiting from the service of plants they are getting.  I interviewed five people from the ages of 20- 32. They all had some different views on what they thought would be important to them with my company. Many of them said that quality would be more important than price. If they were worried about the price of the plants they would go buy them at a garden center for cheaper. However they said they rather have the connivence of having plants shipped to there house. Also they said that this is a solution to them not being able to take care of there plants that they buy.  Since the plants would be replaced with new ones. 

In my interviews I learned what the my potential customers would really want out of the service which is quality and style. They want the plants to look nice and be able to be exposed to new variety of plants. My customers are paying for a subscription that offers them something that buying at a garden center wouldn't. It eliminates that hassle of having to drive to the garden center to search for plants. 

11A Napkin Idea

Hello my name is Dylan St.Germain. I am a 21 year old student at the University of Florida. I am a FRE major. My talents include fishing and surfing. I have experience in the agriculture business. I have worked at a plant nursery in Homestead, Fl. So I have some knowledge in that industry. I hope to one day become a entrepreneur. I see this business playing a big role in my life if I were to start it. I have a lot of interest in the agriculture industry. This business has to do with the agriculture so I am interested in pursuing it.

 I am offering a subscription service that delivers plants to peoples house. This is solving customers unmet needs because they will be able to conveniently get plants to there house and not have to go out of the way to get them.

My demographic customers are people who have houses who struggle to maintain there plants. The psychographic is people who have interest in homes and plants. People who love maintaining there homes and having curb appeal. All my customers have in common a interest in plants. 

Customers will pay to use my service because it offers convenience to customers to have plants delivered right to there door. They will be able to find new varieties of plants that they may not have known existed. It takes the worries away from them having to drive to the store and pick out plants. 

What sets this business apart from everyone else is that no one offers a subscription service for plants. This provides connivence to customers to help them make there houses look better. It will add pleasure to there life knowing that landscaping became easier for them. They will not have to worry which plants will live best at there house because if the plants do not live they will get replacements of fresh plants to there house. This company has what no one else has cause it provides a new easy way to maintain plants.  

I believe these five elements all fit together well. I think the elements of customers blends with why they care. My typical customer has a interest in plants so they care about this since it will help them make enjoying plants easier. Some aspects that I see are weak is I do not know if customers will want a constant flow of plants year around. They may only need plants in the spring and summer since this is normally the warm months. I also do not know if people have a need for this many plants. The solution to this though is they can chose the quantity of plants they want to get each month. So if they only need one they can get one. If they want more they can get that. So my business is flexible to want customers need.

12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior

The segment I have chosen is middle aged people. I chose this group because I believe this is who would be the average customer for my business. I interviewed a 43 year old women, 35 year old women and a 49 year old man. All the people I interviewed owned houses with average sized yards. Everyone I interviewed all felt they had struggle with maintaining plants. They saw difficult with know which plants were more maintenance free. Two of the interviews found that even if they are able to keep the plants alive, the plant would become overgrown and look bad. So eventually they would replace the plants with new young ones. All the interviewees wish they knew more about which plants would survive best during the seasons and how to keep the plants longer. They also wish there was a way that they didn't have to put so much effort in plants and just had them maintenance free. In my interviews I learned a lot of this groups needs. I found they wish they knew more about plants and they found it hard to keep up with them. They found a need for maintenance free type plants too.

13A - Reading Reflection No. 1

• Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance

I was surprised that about all the things Elon Musk has accomplished. I never knew Spacex was founded by him. I admire him how he was able to come from a broken family and become such a powerful entrepauer. I find it amazing how he never took no for a answer. He accomplishes ideas that people never think are possible. Such as with his electronic cars and Spacex program. What I least admire about him is how he doesn't make his companies profitable. They all spend a lot of money accomplishing amazing achievements. However they never make good returns. Elon experienced both adversity and failure, he never let that stoped him though and kept chasing his goals. I noticed that Elon exhibited competencies like determined, motivation, and innovation. He never saw that anything was impossible. He always saw there was a way some how to do whatever he was chasing. He accomplished most of the goals he set his mind too. I was confused how he was able to keep putting money into both these companies when they didn't make much return. I would have thought he would give up. I was confused also if he was setting these companies up to make profits for him or for him just to invite new things. If I could ask him two questions, I would ask how he was able to dream so big? If you could do it over again what would you change? I think his opinion of hard work was just to never quit pursuing your dreams. Even when they seem to not be able to happen keep chasing them and they will.

10A -Elevator Pitch

How many plants do you have in your yard? How many of them do you think you look beautiful? Well Plants are hard to take care of. There like kids. You must constantly give them care and feed them. Not everyone has time to be a master gardener in their daily lives. Your supposed to enjoy the beauty of plants. Why would you want to have to constantly worry about having to take care of them? That’s where I come in.  I am offering an online website where you can sign up for a subscription that delivers plants to you monthly or weekly. This way you can get rid of plants that die and replace with new ones that look healthy and fresh. You can choose from a variety of types of plants all the way from orchids to foliage plants.  When you sign up for this subscription you will be delivered right to your front door beautiful plants that will make your house look amazing. Simply pickwhich plants you would like to be delivered to you and we will provide you with them. According to the National Gardening Survey, the average household spends $401 dollars each year on gardening. The opportunity is huge for this industry. My subscription service will help make gardening simpler. Now you don’t drive to the garden center on your day off choosing a couple overpriced plants that will die by next week. With my subscription service you will always have a flow of wonderful plants being delivered to you to replace plants that may die or to add them the rest of your plants. I would like to take away your worries of taking care of these plants and help you enjoy the true beauty of plants. 

Here is the link to the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEUDPAIqRP4

8A- Solving the Problem

Solving the Problem

The opportunity is that there is a deliver for a online delivery for plants to customers houses. The concept behind this service is that many people do not know how to take care of plants. So there is a need for new plants to be delivered to them when the plants die. People have to go to gardern centers at Home Depot or Lowes to get plants. The selection at these garden centers are very limited. I believe people would find it convenient to have fresh plants delivered to them monthly rather than them having to drive and pick them up. The service I have chosen to do is subscription service for plants. This service will deliver plants to customers who sign up for the service. Customers will be delivered plants monthly. The plants will be from orchids to foliage plants. People can chose online which plants they want delivered to them. They can also the chose the quantity that they want delivered each month.

9A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: 

After my interviews, I discovered some more information on the opportunity that I did not think of before. The five people I interviewed ranged from 22-31 years old. In my interviews I found out that a lot of people are interested in a subscription service for plants. However some people do not know if they would like the commitment to plants monthly. So these people would fall outside of the bounder. The solution to this is just to allow customers to order plants online if they do not want a subscription. This way they don't have to have a commitment to getting plants year around. Also not everyone is interested in getting plants for there house in general so they would be out of the boundary. The who is anyone who is interested in getting plants easily delivered to there house.

What: This opportunity is banking on the concept that people won't take care of there plants and will eventually want new ones. So if people do take care of there plants and they last for 6 months or longer than they won't really need this service. Unless they would like to have new different plants at there house. With this opportunity they can have different type of plants delivered to them. So one month they could get orchids for there kitchen. The next month they could get topiaries for there porch. 

Why: The cause of the outsiders vs the insiders is some people enjoy plants more than others. Also some people know how to take care of plants better so the demand for the service is different between the outside and inside. I do not think this service will be for everyone. I do believe it will be for people who enjoy plants at there house and are looking for different varieties to be included at there house. 

Inside the Boundary

Who is In - People who are unable to keep up with the care of plants. Also anyone who would like new plants to there house and find new varieties of plants. People who have houses or yards.

What the Need is - The need is people want new plants delivered to there house. If they just want new plants for there yard, porch, or kitchen. They want to try out new varieties of plants they may not have know existed.

Why the Need Exists - The need exist because not everyone has a green thumb. Many people do not know hot to take care of plants. Plants become overgrown and eventually die. Also they may get weeds in the pot. Flowering plants quit blooming in certain seasons. As seasons change people want plant that thrives and blooms for the particular season.

Outside the Boundary

Who is Not - People whom know how to take care of plants or are not interested in plants. Many people with apartments do not need plants. There is not enough room for them.

What the Need is Not - There is not a need for new plants monthly or there is not a interest. People may be happy with getting a couple plants a year if that. So a subscription service would not benefit them.

Alternative Explanations - People may not have enough money to afford a subscription. They might see this as a luxury that is not necessary for there life. Also theres only limited space for plants are people houses. So they may not need plants constantly delivered to them. They made be able to take care of plants so they get long life out of plants they buy.