Assignment 5A- Identifying Local Opportunities

Assignment 5A- Identifying Local Opportunities

1) Before Super Bowl, Miami's Little Havana faces exodus of Cubans, pressure from developers

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/01/31/miamis-little-havana-no-longer-majority-cuban-but-roots-remain/4587792002/

Essentially, the native Cuban population in Miami are experiencing a threat during this time due to the large amount of tourism and non-native hispanic populations migrating to the south for the upcoming Super Bowl game. This is also the main essence of the problem, along with the fact that having the title "Little Havana" isnt fitting anymore as the area's demographics are rapidly changing. Thus, the people who have the problem are native populations to "Little Havana"

2) Everything you need to know about coronavirus, the deadly illness alarming the world

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/01/29/coronavirus-what-are-symptoms-of-wuhan-china-novel-virus/4563892002/

The article mainly speaks about general information regarding the outbreak of the new coronavirus, where it has spread, and how to look out for it in question-answer format. The problem identified is that it has officially posed as an international public health concern, as noted by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization, and everyone should be aware of the virus and actively trying to prevent any sort of contraction. The people affected are currently populations in China, however communities worldwide also have the worry/problem

3) More Latino students than ever are trying to get their degree, but it’s fraught and costly

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/01/06/more-hispanic-students-than-ever-go-college-but-cost-high/2520646001/

In a series titled Hecho en USA, latino communities have been identified within the US and interviewed about their daily lives, how they live, work, and involve themselves in academics. In this specific article, young latinxs speak about the adversities they face when trying to attend post-secondary institutions, while trying to juggle work life and taking care of their families. Those affected by the problem are the low-income latinx communities living in the United States.

4) Thieves steal bronze Salvador Dali sculptures from Swedish gallery

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2020/01/30/bronze-salvador-dali-sculptures-stolen-swedish-gallery/4618991002/

From Stockholm, Sweden, at least two thieves have been reported to have stolen over 10 bronze sculptures created by Salvador Dali, the historically famous Spanish artist. The problem includes general crime, but even more drastic as it costed the art museum between $21,000 to $52,000. This poses as a problem for mainly the staff at the Couleur gallery in central Stockholm, as well as police officers working on the case.

5) Facebook privacy tool gives you more control on how you're being watched online

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2020/01/28/facebook-privacy-tool-how-prevent-facebook-stalking-you-online/4597226002/

This article is about Facebook finally releasing a long-awaited privacy tool that allows users to clear information (that would be otherwise exploited by businesses) about previous websites and apps they have opened. The release of this tool by CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in an attempt to clear the air about a "poor scandal-riddled narrative on privacy." The problem actually affects business that normally exploit personal information from Facebook, as well as the Facebook company because they will now not be able to take personal information from their users without consent anymore.

Assignment 4A- Forming an Opportunity Belief

Assignment 4A- Forming an Opportunity Belief

1) I believe a problem that currently exists is that there aren't enough affordable housing options near campus

2) When identifying this problem, I found that complaints regarding this issue came mainly from students. Most UF students have the same issue every year of looking for cheap, affordable housing options (somewhat) within walking distance to campus and decent enough to live comfortably in. During my time apartment hunting, I found it very difficult to find a place to live that was under or at my budget, close to campus, and suitable enough to live comfortably in. I asked around if my roommates/other friends were experiencing similar frustrations, and almost everyone I spoke with had the exact same problems I was facing. Thus, posing as a problem UF students face frequently, about every time the spring semester starts. Now, people procrastinate and end up paying very high rent prices to live decently close to campus, and even sacrifice the red flags of houses just to be able to reach campus quick and for an affordable price. I am about 65-70% sure this problem exists, mainly because most of the freshman/sophomore population tend to live on campus, and not all of the junior/seniors+ are constantly looking for housing.

3A) Prototypical Customer: A second-year male business student living a 15 minute walk from campus
4A) Question 1: What is the exact nature of the need?
Answer: Its just so hard finding a decent place to live that's also conveniently close to campus
Question 2: When do you become aware of the need?
Answer: Only when I had to find an apartment after my first-year living on campus
Question 3: How long have you had the need?
Answer: It started about a year ago, and I'm running into the same issue around this time of year too
Question 4: When/Why did you first become aware of your need?
Answer: Towards the beginning of my second semester in freshman year. I remember some of my hall mates talking about living at The Courtyards and basically begged them to let me live with them haha, especially since I was having so much trouble finding an affodable 1x1
Question 5: How are you currently addressing your need?
Answer: Uhh I'm probably just gonna renew my lease. My roommates and I get along pretty well and although it's not the fanciest, I can wake up 20 minutes before class in the business school

3B) Prototypical Customer: A second-year female theatre-major that takes a one-way 30-40 min bus ride

4B) Question 1: What is the exact nature of the need? 

Answer: The difficulty of finding housing near campus. Pretty common for most UF students I think.
Question 2: When do you become aware of the need?
Answer: I'm only just recently having this problem
Question 3: How long have you had the need?
Answer: I would say since the end of last semester. So, about 2-3 months
Question 4: When/Why did you first become aware of your need?
Answer: As I was trying to find a place to live since I'm not renewing. Basically when you (myself) told me you were moving out (this is my roommate)
Question 5: How are you currently addressing your need?
Answer: Touring apartments for the first time, and driving around looking for places that are renting. Although many of the houses near campus are really gross and unfurnished, so I may have to consider getting another apartment 10ish minutes from campus.

3C) Prototypical Customer: A fourth-year female med-student living on campus 

4C) Question 1: What is the exact nature of the need?
Answer: People are having trouble finding good housing off campus. Couldn't be me.
Question 2: When do you become aware of the need?
Answer: I'm only starting to become aware of this because I will be graduating soon, and I'm helping some of my other friends who are staying longer find a place to live
Question 3: How long have you had the need?
Answer: I havent really been affected by it, but I guess only within these past 3 weeks is when I became aware of it
Question 4: When/Why did you first become aware of your need?
Answer: Like I said before, about 3 weeks, and because I've been helping friends out but I'm sure they knew they would have difficulty finding a good place to live this late.
Question 5: How are you currently addressing your need?
Answer: Well I've lived on campus all 4 years I've been here and I had no problem with it. Honestly, it might even be better than some of the crazy ridiculous expensive apartments around here.

5) I learned that the best sample group of students to use for a study on this would be second to fourth year students who are not already living on campus. The most surprising thing I learned was that some people would actually rather just renew their leases rather than go through the hastle of finding affordable and decent housing near campus.

6) Repeated as shown

7) How much of your original opportunity is still there? Do you believe that your new opportunity is more accurate than when you started?How much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback? (In other words, is there a trade-off between adapting and staying firm?)
For the most part, my original opportunity is still there, however I just needed to adjust the demographics of my target audience.  I definitely believe my adjustment allowed my "new opportunity" to be more accurate than when I started, as I now have a more focused audience I can work with. I think adapting to the situation following feedback is extremely important, especially if you're an entrepreneur. If you aren't tailoring to the changing needs of your consumer group, then what are you even trying to advertise or help people solve?

Assignment 3A- My Entrepreneurship Story

Assignment 3A- My Entrepreneurship Story

While thinking about my entrepreneurship endeavors, I realized that to some extent, almost all of the projects I had been involved in (and even currently involved in) have had some aspects of entrepreneurship in them. It was exciting to think about my contributions to past projects in this light, and my most favorite experience was when I joined the Global Business Society/Global Gator Guide program, which was one of my first university-organization involvements as a freshman.

Beginning as just a "guide" in the program, I was matched with an exchange student from Vienna, Austria (to this day, we still keep in touch) and immediately fell in love with the buddy system the organization had. Our group had really amazing excursions to St. Augustine, Universal, and many more. I was chosen to be the head of the events committee, and even planned a new "go-karting and rollerskating" event that was successful and our exchange students loved! After just one Spring semester, I was elected the position of Chairman for the organization's Global Gator Guide program, which felt very surreal. Having felt like I had little-to-no experience for the position, I did what an entrepreneur does and took charge with as much confidence and independence possible. I saw all of what the old chairman had implemented and decided it was time to change a few things, such as our awards and semester excursions. The executive board seemed to respond really well to the changes, and were on-board to implement them during my first semester as Chairman. There was a lot of trial and error doing this, and I definitely failed in some of my attempts at redefining the logistics of out new events. However, I reflected and learned about what went wrong, communicated to my other fellow executive members the issue, and found a solution to try the next time around. Luckily, trying the new solutions I came up with proved successful and so far, the program seems to be at it's peak.

Why I enrolled in ENT3001

I hope to be able to launch my own project one day, specifically an event-planning company, and that is why I am taking this class! Not only did this fulfill a requirement for my major, but I was genuinely interested in learning about the trials and errors of entrepreneurs and what I should be looking out for when I hopefully begin my own business one day. While I didn't expect to learn step-by-step how to start a business, I have been very pleased with the information I've learned so far and am very relieved to have such a great professor for this class to make it all interesting and interactive. 

Me and my lovely exchange students

Assignment 2A- The Bug List

Assignment 2A- The Bug List

1. Getting home and having a sink full of dishes that aren't mine
   WHY it exists: My roommates can be careless sometimes and inconsiderate of the rest of the house who need dishes to cook
2. Traffic going northeast getting to campus at 5pm
   WHY: People are getting off work at this time and everyone is in a rush to go home. Furthermore, students in off-campus apartments are trying to make it on campus for their student organization meetings
3. People not blowing their eraser shavings off the paper
   WHY: People erase something on their paper and don't care about it distorting the writing on their assignment, so they don't brush the eraser shavings off
4. My roommates leaving the lights on when they're not in a room
   WHY: My roommates can be careless (and have been raised differently than myself) and forget to turn off the lights, which raises our electricity bill
5. People being nosy in my conversation
   WHY: Other people just don't know how to mind their business sometimes and involve themselves in a personal conversation that I don't want them in
6. Being questioned about where I'm going
   WHY: Sometimes others are generally curious or concerned about my whereabouts, which is nice, however it can feel overbearing/suffocating to constantly be questioned where I'm going
7. My roommates being messy in the common area
   WHY: Again, my roommates can be inconsiderate and not take care of the things in the common room
8. Whenever someone slams my car door
   WHY: People were raised differently than I was and never had to worry about damaging car doors when they slam them
9. Having a conversation with someone and they use big words to sound smart
   WHY: Strangers may feel inclined to sound more intelligent when talking to me and therefore tend to use bigger, smarter sounding words
10. Man-splaining
    WHY: Men feel entitled to over-explain simple things as a means of feeling superior to women. It is not cool.
11. When people are inconsiderate of others's feelings
    WHY: Some people are not always raised to be considerate of the feelings of others and can therefore be inconsiderate in the things they say/do without even knowing they are
12. Friends/roommates using my belongings without asking
    WHY: As a friend/roommate, they may feel entitled to use my personal belongings because we are close and omit from asking before they use them, which can be annoying
13. When the material of a "female" t-shirt is significantly thinner than a "male" t-shirt
    WHY: Manufacturing companies know women will spend more money than men on clothes, and therefore create cheap material in their clothes so they wear out quicker and women then have to go back and buy more
14. When I'm talking to someone and they only look at their phone
    WHY: People may not understand that it can be rude, or they may just be really good at multitasking and look at their phones during conversations
15. People not using their turn signals on the road
    WHY: Drivers can sometimes forget or think it's not important to use turn signals on the road (even though its VERY important)
16. When I dress nice and nobody acknowledges my effort on my outfits
    WHY: The people I interact with may not know I made an extra effort to look good and don't feel the need to acknowledge my outfit choice
17. Cheap earrings
    WHY: Again, manufacturing companies (especially brands that don't specialize in jewelry) make cheap earrings that rust so women can go back and buy more
18. When people don't say "thank you" to customer service workers
    WHY: Some people have the mindset that since it's the worker's job to provide customer service, they don't need to be friendly or appreciative of their work. In reality, everybody should be kind enough to thank service workers for their labor
19. My company not introducing me when someone they know comes up
    WHY: My company may not think it's rude to introduce me, especially when they run into their friend and it's in passing, however in my opinion, it's polite and nice regardless
20. My friends being passive-aggressive with me when they're bothered instead of communicating to me the issue
    WHY: Many people handle their problems by being passive-aggressive and that's just how they've been raised to be, even though communication is key for any successful relationship

Reflection:

This assignment proved to be somewhat easier than what I had anticipated. Watching the extra videos attached to the submission page was very helpful as I was able to get started on a list of "bugs" a few days early. The day I finally sat down and made my list, I went in public and did the assignment in a coffee shop where I was able to people-watch and gain much inspiration from. Thinking of this list of "bugs" from a perspective of why the problem existed was a very interesting experience for me, mainly because I would frequently forget and think about why I disliked the "bug" so much.

However, when I would get stuck, I would think of a random word and play an association game in my head. If I thought of one word, I thought of another that was associated to it in some way and eventually led myself to a word that had to do with a pet-peeve of mine. When doing this assignment, I often found myself thinking of things that bothered me in regards to people's actions and not so much the mechanics of life. Thus, thinking of solutions to the bugs on my list were very difficult and even some left me without a solution. This exercise tested how self-aware I really am, and allowed me to be even more conscious of the things I do that could potentially be pet-peeves for other people.

First Blog Post

Fingers crossed that the first post publishes!