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July 2016
My Exit Strategy
This is the type of business I would love to expand and grow as much as I could, but if I were to receive a good enough offer in the next 5 years or so, I would highly consider it. I say this mainly because the main reasons I would start a business are to create financial security for my future, and in this case, provide an establishment that fosters the creativity of our society, especially the younger generations. That being said, if the people buying the company have a vision with which I agree and they offer an amount of money that will guarantee financial security, then I would consider selling the company.
My exit strategy hasn't really affected my idea for the company itself. I just plan to open one location at first in order to build the cultural foundation, then move on to building locations nationwide to provide a creative learning environment for individuals interested in engineering, design, and 3D printing in general.
My exit strategy hasn't really affected my idea for the company itself. I just plan to open one location at first in order to build the cultural foundation, then move on to building locations nationwide to provide a creative learning environment for individuals interested in engineering, design, and 3D printing in general.
Celebrating Failure
There are definitely many areas in which I failed during this semester, but one example that comes to mind is the "crow" pose in yoga. I started doing hot yoga at the Orlando Power Yoga studio a few months ago to increase my flexibility, posture, and lower body strength. I still can't do the crow pose that well, but in the first few classes I literally fell on my face, but now a few months later I'm able to hold the pose for about 3-5 seconds on average. There's a picture of someone doing the crow pose below.
I've learned that in order to accomplish certain things, there are pre-requisites that must be met. In this example, I have to have certain levels of mobility and flexibility in certain areas of my body, core strength, and overall balance and body control. This idea reverberates to many other aspects of life. I already knew that a foundation must be set in order to build a strong structure, but this practice of yoga has made me look at this idea in a more practical way so I can take the necessary steps to build stronger foundations in all areas of my life.
I definitely see failure as being hand-in-hand with progress. I actually discussed this exact topic in my Portmanteau post. Here's the link:
http://damethestoic.blogspot.com/2016/06/to-benefail.html
Since I think of failure as a necessity of progress, I do not get very disturbed emotionally when I fail at something. This class has definitely reinforced my thoughts on failure as well, so I think I'm more inclined to take risks, especially since I believe that we should take more risks when we are younger because we just might hit a huge success, and also because if we take risks now and fail, we will have time to recover, so there will be no permanent damage. It's pretty much the same as the common principle used in portfolio management in which a financial adviser will suggest a certain level of risk depending on one's age.
I've learned that in order to accomplish certain things, there are pre-requisites that must be met. In this example, I have to have certain levels of mobility and flexibility in certain areas of my body, core strength, and overall balance and body control. This idea reverberates to many other aspects of life. I already knew that a foundation must be set in order to build a strong structure, but this practice of yoga has made me look at this idea in a more practical way so I can take the necessary steps to build stronger foundations in all areas of my life.
I definitely see failure as being hand-in-hand with progress. I actually discussed this exact topic in my Portmanteau post. Here's the link:
http://damethestoic.blogspot.com/2016/06/to-benefail.html
Since I think of failure as a necessity of progress, I do not get very disturbed emotionally when I fail at something. This class has definitely reinforced my thoughts on failure as well, so I think I'm more inclined to take risks, especially since I believe that we should take more risks when we are younger because we just might hit a huge success, and also because if we take risks now and fail, we will have time to recover, so there will be no permanent damage. It's pretty much the same as the common principle used in portfolio management in which a financial adviser will suggest a certain level of risk depending on one's age.
My Unfair Advantage
Here's a list of some of the resources I have for my 3D Print Cafe:
1. I've spoken to several people I know who would be interested in providing capital to fund the idea, and a couple of these people were even interested in joining to help with the company. This financial capital will help the company turn from just an idea into a reality. It's not necessarily rare, and can be imitated. - (financial capital)
2. One of my roommates and friends, Chris, is an entrepreneur himself, and he has a huge network in the central Florida area, especially among the main demographic I will be targeting. He would help spread the word for the company via social media, etc., and would definitely be able to get some people to come check out our establishment. - (human/social capital)
3. My best friend, JD, is an amazing graphic designer. He can make very artistic and unique designs for anything from flyers to logos to apparel, and more. We could use digital flyers to promote on social media, and the apparel to sell in our location or use for "give-away" marketing campaigns. In addition, working closely with him would make it a lot easier to create the exact image I want for the company, and obviously I'll pay him for his time, but I'll get the best friend discount, of course. These services can be very expensive, and the communication can be very back-and-forth with the designers since edits will have to be made until the design is just right, so working with someone I know so well will not only save lots of money, but it will be a much more hassle-free process. - (human/social capital)
4. My girlfriend would also be willing to help with the company. She graduated with a degree in Marketing and now works for a digital marketing company in downtown Orlando. She would help manage our image and gain more customers through various social media outlets, e-mail marketing, perhaps a blog, etc. - (human/social capital)
5. One of my other roommates and friends, Aaron, is a very talented photographer and videographer. He would create promotional videos and photographs that we can use for advertising and marketing. He also knows how to do 3D Virtual Tours, the ones that can be found on Google Maps where you can virtually walk around a building and whatnot, so if people search us on Google, they can take a virtual tour of the establishment and see how it actually looks inside. - (human/social capital)
6. Another resource that we have is our channel of distributors that we acquired in the 'Growing Your Social Capital' assignment. I was able to obtain inventory files with quantity and pricing from several distributors, so this will make it much easier to get the ball rolling once funding comes through. This isn't necessarily rare or inimitable.
7. Our location can be seen as a valuable resource because this area of central Florida is surrounded by several large colleges. This is very valuable since our target demographic is mostly college students or younger. This is somewhat rare, but not necessarily inimitable.
8. One of my "capabilities" would be that I am very detail-oriented. With the type of atmosphere I wish to create, I believe the seemingly small details will play a large part in our success. I believe this is rare since I don't think anyone has the exact same vision of what I want to create, but perhaps after it has already been created, then it might be somewhat imitable, but not directly.
9. Another capability I have is that I am pretty experienced with creating and analyzing financial statements. This will allow me to closely monitor the results of our operations and marketing measurements and figure out where we need to improve or allocate more resources. This is somewhat rare and inimitable, but not very substitutable.
10. One thing that I guess I can consider as a beneficial resource is that I have a pretty good credit score. Apparently this could help show that I am responsible with money and could increase the chances of receiving business loans. This is somewhat rare, but not inimitable to non-substitutable.
I think the most valuable resource is the location because without our customers, the business would have no chance of prospering, and this location provides great access to many potential customers.
1. I've spoken to several people I know who would be interested in providing capital to fund the idea, and a couple of these people were even interested in joining to help with the company. This financial capital will help the company turn from just an idea into a reality. It's not necessarily rare, and can be imitated. - (financial capital)
2. One of my roommates and friends, Chris, is an entrepreneur himself, and he has a huge network in the central Florida area, especially among the main demographic I will be targeting. He would help spread the word for the company via social media, etc., and would definitely be able to get some people to come check out our establishment. - (human/social capital)
3. My best friend, JD, is an amazing graphic designer. He can make very artistic and unique designs for anything from flyers to logos to apparel, and more. We could use digital flyers to promote on social media, and the apparel to sell in our location or use for "give-away" marketing campaigns. In addition, working closely with him would make it a lot easier to create the exact image I want for the company, and obviously I'll pay him for his time, but I'll get the best friend discount, of course. These services can be very expensive, and the communication can be very back-and-forth with the designers since edits will have to be made until the design is just right, so working with someone I know so well will not only save lots of money, but it will be a much more hassle-free process. - (human/social capital)
4. My girlfriend would also be willing to help with the company. She graduated with a degree in Marketing and now works for a digital marketing company in downtown Orlando. She would help manage our image and gain more customers through various social media outlets, e-mail marketing, perhaps a blog, etc. - (human/social capital)
5. One of my other roommates and friends, Aaron, is a very talented photographer and videographer. He would create promotional videos and photographs that we can use for advertising and marketing. He also knows how to do 3D Virtual Tours, the ones that can be found on Google Maps where you can virtually walk around a building and whatnot, so if people search us on Google, they can take a virtual tour of the establishment and see how it actually looks inside. - (human/social capital)
6. Another resource that we have is our channel of distributors that we acquired in the 'Growing Your Social Capital' assignment. I was able to obtain inventory files with quantity and pricing from several distributors, so this will make it much easier to get the ball rolling once funding comes through. This isn't necessarily rare or inimitable.
7. Our location can be seen as a valuable resource because this area of central Florida is surrounded by several large colleges. This is very valuable since our target demographic is mostly college students or younger. This is somewhat rare, but not necessarily inimitable.
8. One of my "capabilities" would be that I am very detail-oriented. With the type of atmosphere I wish to create, I believe the seemingly small details will play a large part in our success. I believe this is rare since I don't think anyone has the exact same vision of what I want to create, but perhaps after it has already been created, then it might be somewhat imitable, but not directly.
9. Another capability I have is that I am pretty experienced with creating and analyzing financial statements. This will allow me to closely monitor the results of our operations and marketing measurements and figure out where we need to improve or allocate more resources. This is somewhat rare and inimitable, but not very substitutable.
10. One thing that I guess I can consider as a beneficial resource is that I have a pretty good credit score. Apparently this could help show that I am responsible with money and could increase the chances of receiving business loans. This is somewhat rare, but not inimitable to non-substitutable.
I think the most valuable resource is the location because without our customers, the business would have no chance of prospering, and this location provides great access to many potential customers.
Amazon Whisperer
For my 3D Print Cafe the main revenue driver will be when customers pay to print out their projects using our 3D printers. We will have a standard, pay-per-use pricing model that will depend on how long it takes to print the item, but we will also have a membership program that offers discounts and other benefits; this will appeal more to the frequent customers.
When it comes to revenue drivers, the next type of offering I would like to include is some form of educational courses and tutorials. The learning atmosphere I would like to create in this establishment is one of the most important factors, and I believe these courses would be beneficial to the existing customer base. Also, the courses will vary in length, with some being quick 1, 2 or 3-hour tutorials all the way to classes spanning over weeks or months, and the prices for the courses will vary depending on their length and materials required.
The courses would be on relevant topics within the umbrella of engineering and design, such as how to use specific design techniques with the CAD software, etc. - basically, any type of course that would help our customers gain the abilities and knowledge they need to create and design what they want. Of course, our customers who are part of the membership program will get discounts on these courses. I believe this will have a nice synergy with the learning environment we would be creating, and the customers who participate in these classes are much more likely to use what they learned to create something, therefore leading them to use our printing services.
When it comes to revenue drivers, the next type of offering I would like to include is some form of educational courses and tutorials. The learning atmosphere I would like to create in this establishment is one of the most important factors, and I believe these courses would be beneficial to the existing customer base. Also, the courses will vary in length, with some being quick 1, 2 or 3-hour tutorials all the way to classes spanning over weeks or months, and the prices for the courses will vary depending on their length and materials required.
The courses would be on relevant topics within the umbrella of engineering and design, such as how to use specific design techniques with the CAD software, etc. - basically, any type of course that would help our customers gain the abilities and knowledge they need to create and design what they want. Of course, our customers who are part of the membership program will get discounts on these courses. I believe this will have a nice synergy with the learning environment we would be creating, and the customers who participate in these classes are much more likely to use what they learned to create something, therefore leading them to use our printing services.
Growing My Social Capital
1. The first person I contacted was named Richard Stein. He is a 3D printing expert who works for 3D Printing Expert, Inc. He is a domain expert because he focuses on using the CAD design program to make prototypes for customers. To contact Richard I simply went to the company's website, called their number and asked if I could speak with someone who creates designs for their prototypes. They transferred me to Richard, and I explained that I am a UF student and asked him if I could ask a few questions about the 3D printing process. I explained my business idea and asked questions about the 3D printing machines themselves such as which they would prefer for my idea, how long they typically last, what kind of maintenance they need, etc. He kindly answered all of my questions and seemed glad to be able to help. He even told me I could stop by their location in Florida to check out some of their equipment and see how it works. In his opinion my idea was definitely possible, and he recommended looking into an appointment-based scheduling system. Richard was very knowledgable in this area and I believe that having included him in my network will help me learn a lot of the necessary information I need to operate this type of business.
2. The second person I was able to get in contact with is a market expert named Jason Kildridge, a marketing associate at Shapeways.com, a website that does something similar to what I envision for my establishment. On this site, one can design, buy, sell, or participate in an online community related to 3D printing. I could not find a phone number for this company so I had to do this by e-mail. I had to e-mail a couple times before they gave me an e-mail of someone in the marketing department. I told him I'm a student, etc. and asked some questions about what their main demographic tends to be and what part of their business seems to attract the most people. He told me that their main customers who make and order custom designs on their site is mostly between 20 and 35 years old whereas the people who buy 3D printed items that are posted for sale varies greatly and is not really concentrated in any distinct age group. He was very helpful and provided some resources and research tools that I can use to find more information that may help me successfully target my prospective market.
3. The last person I contacted was Tim Alvarado. He is a salesperson from NatureWorks LLC, a company that sells bioplastics and other materials that can be used for 3D printing. I was able to reach him at the number 952-742-0400. I asked about pricing of materials, what materials are the most popular, which are the most environmentally-friendly, and how much volume of sales they tend to do with their customers. He seemed pretty busy when I called, so he asked if he could take my e-mail and send over all the information once he got a chance. I waited, hoping he didn't just say that to get me off the phone, but he actually e-mailed me back answering all the questions I asked and providing me with an Excel file showing all the different materials they have, the regular prices, bulk prices, etc. He was very helpful and let me know that I could contact him if I had any further questions or concerns about which materials would be best for my situation.
This networking experience was definitely different than networking I've done in the past. Usually networking seems like such a pain, especially since I'm pretty introverted, but finding people online and contacting them over the phone and through e-mail was surprisingly effective. I thought it would be harder to have a genuine connection with someone with these forms of communication compared to face-to-face communication, but I was able to get very genuine help and advice from these people, and they all made it clear that I could contact them in the future. I often find myself hating on the negative aspects of social media and other online platforms that cause people to value likes, retweets, and followers more than things that actually contribute value, but at the end of the day the Internet is a very powerful tool, and using it has allowed an introverted person like myself to establish a network with very little stress.
2. The second person I was able to get in contact with is a market expert named Jason Kildridge, a marketing associate at Shapeways.com, a website that does something similar to what I envision for my establishment. On this site, one can design, buy, sell, or participate in an online community related to 3D printing. I could not find a phone number for this company so I had to do this by e-mail. I had to e-mail a couple times before they gave me an e-mail of someone in the marketing department. I told him I'm a student, etc. and asked some questions about what their main demographic tends to be and what part of their business seems to attract the most people. He told me that their main customers who make and order custom designs on their site is mostly between 20 and 35 years old whereas the people who buy 3D printed items that are posted for sale varies greatly and is not really concentrated in any distinct age group. He was very helpful and provided some resources and research tools that I can use to find more information that may help me successfully target my prospective market.
3. The last person I contacted was Tim Alvarado. He is a salesperson from NatureWorks LLC, a company that sells bioplastics and other materials that can be used for 3D printing. I was able to reach him at the number 952-742-0400. I asked about pricing of materials, what materials are the most popular, which are the most environmentally-friendly, and how much volume of sales they tend to do with their customers. He seemed pretty busy when I called, so he asked if he could take my e-mail and send over all the information once he got a chance. I waited, hoping he didn't just say that to get me off the phone, but he actually e-mailed me back answering all the questions I asked and providing me with an Excel file showing all the different materials they have, the regular prices, bulk prices, etc. He was very helpful and let me know that I could contact him if I had any further questions or concerns about which materials would be best for my situation.
This networking experience was definitely different than networking I've done in the past. Usually networking seems like such a pain, especially since I'm pretty introverted, but finding people online and contacting them over the phone and through e-mail was surprisingly effective. I thought it would be harder to have a genuine connection with someone with these forms of communication compared to face-to-face communication, but I was able to get very genuine help and advice from these people, and they all made it clear that I could contact them in the future. I often find myself hating on the negative aspects of social media and other online platforms that cause people to value likes, retweets, and followers more than things that actually contribute value, but at the end of the day the Internet is a very powerful tool, and using it has allowed an introverted person like myself to establish a network with very little stress.
Reading Reflection No. 2
Thinking, Fast & Slow, Daniel Kahneman:
1. The general theme of this book is that people are not rational thinkers. There are many psychological and economic concepts and theories that are based on the assumption that humans are rational in their decision making. The efficient market hypothesis is one such theory. However, the foundation of these theories seem to be crumbling as researchers such as Daniel Kahneman reveal that people are actually quite irrational in their behavior and decision making. Kahneman also goes deep into the idea of a 2-system way of thinking, in which our brain has a "System 1" which encompasses the fast, intuitive, emotional, and autonomous thought processes. "System 2", on the other hand, is used when we make slow, deliberate, conscious decisions. The author then describes ways in which these thought processes can lead to biases and heuristics in our way of thinking that lead to irrational behavior.
2. The main part of this book that I believe has enhanced my learning from this class is the description of the biases and heuristics that affect our decisions. These ideas are very important to know as an entrepreneur because people can easily fall victim to these biases and consequently make poor business decisions. Here are a few of the biases discussed in the book and how they could negatively affect an entrepreneur's decision-making ability:
- Confirmation Bias - This occurs when we subconsciously filter the information we receive so that we only focus on the evidence that supports our prior beliefs while we ignore the evidence that opposes our beliefs.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy - This is when someone has already invested into a project, idea, etc., but then it becomes clear that the project, for instance, is not profitable. However, since the person feels they have invested so much emotionally and financially, they will continue with the project even if it has been proven to be unprofitable, leading to more losses.
- WYSIATI - This stands for What You See Is All There Is. This bias is pretty self-explanatory; people tend to neglect possibilities that are outside of their personal experience. For instance, the Black Swan Theory comes from the idea that Europeans back in the day assumed that black swans did not exist anywhere in the world simply because they had not seen them in Europe, but black swans were actually found to live in Australia.
3. My exercise for the class would involve an experiment that would demonstrate the irrationality in our behaviors. I would probably use an experiment that focuses on prospect theory or the sunk cost fallacy. It would most likely involve asking a few simple questions and analyzing the presence or absence of these irrationalities.
4. One concept in the book that really jumped out at me was how people tend to have a much stronger emotional response to losses than to gains. For instance, if someone were to lose $3,000 in an investment, the feeling of loss would be very strong, causing much stress and anxiety. We could say the strength of the emotional response might be an 8/10. On the other hand, if someone were to gain $5,000 on an investment in which they invested the same amount of initial capital, the strength of their emotional response might be a 6/10 or 7/10. This causes the average person to be more risk-averse, especially after they have had negative experiences in the past. When it comes to investing, however, it is not always best to be overly risk-averse, and this can lead to inefficient portfolios, etc. I would like to continue exploring this topic going forward.
Idea Napkin No. 2
1. Who am I?
Nothing in this part has changed, and I didn't receive any feedback regarding who I am in the first post. So just to summarize what I said last time, I'm the type of person who enjoys continuous improvement and learning, and I have a wide variety of interests, and I would like to open a 3-D Print Cafe.
2. The Unmet Needs:
The unmet need that customers will have stems from the fact that 3D printers are still quite expensive and not very easy to use. We will solve these problems by having high-quality printers in our cafe that customers can use to print their projects, and if they need help using the machine, our staff will always be there to help and teach them to use the printers. One of the people who left a feedback on my post asked about how expensive the printers are and how that might affect how many I can have in the cafe, which would affect how many people I would be able to serve at any given time. I did some research and found that some of the most high-quality printers can be purchased for $1,000-2,000 each. I believe that if we purchased 5-10 printers for around $8-15k, we could break even on this investment in a relatively short amount of time, and we would be able to serve a good amount of customers at any given time. I don't believe this is too drastic of an investment for the printers compared to some of the business costs I have witnessed firsthand. Also, if we purchase too few printers and demand is too high, I see that as a good problem because we would just have to invest in more printers since the demand is already there.
3. The Demographic:
The demographic will include engineering and design students who are in high school, or anyone interested in 3D printing. I focused on being located in an area that is at the epicenter of 3 colleges to attract these students. Someone who commented mentioned someone they knew using it for medical purposes and that I should consider being near a hospital as well. I did some research on Google Maps and luckily there is a Florida Hospital only 10-15 minutes away from my ideal location. I would definitely attempt to schedule a meeting with someone at the hospital to see if they would be in need of our 3D printers, and I would offer the hospital a discount, of course.
4. The Value:
We will be providing value by allowing people to enjoy using 3D printers for hobbies, work or school without having to purchase such an expensive machine. Not everyone has the money to purchase one, and some people would only need to make a project here and there, so it wouldn't make sense for them to purchase one. Therefore, I am leaning towards combining a mixture of pay-per-use and membership payment models. We will also make the cafe a learning environment where people can learn more about design, engineering, and the use of the 3D printers.
5. What Separates Us?
Just like I mentioned in the first post, I believe that the open learning environment we will create will be very valuable to the customers, especially since they will all be working on similar subjects. I think this will cause people to mingle and work together, leading to synergies of communication in which people will be able to help and motivate each other to learn more.
I think that all of these elements fit very well together and build off of one another. The fact that people can work on their projects for lower costs will attract many customers. Then once they get there, they will be exposed to many additional learning opportunities. I believe this type of environment would be perfect for the demographic I am interested in.
These are the main points I took from the feedback:
1. I must further examine the costs of the equipment.
2. I have to determine a pricing model and see how long it will take to break even.
3. I learned that I can still look into more opportunities for other unique customers in my area.
4. I need to do some more interviews and surveys with prospective customers to determine an estimate of how many customers I can expect.
5. I need to decide if I should do a pay-per-use model, a membership model, or a combination of both.
I did some research and was able to use the feedback to find some new opportunities and make the idea for the cafe more clear in my mind than before. I looked into the costs of the equipment, the pros and cons of different pricing models, additional customer opportunities. My next step should be to survey more prospective customers to see the level of interest and use this data to estimate the number of customers we will have.
Nothing in this part has changed, and I didn't receive any feedback regarding who I am in the first post. So just to summarize what I said last time, I'm the type of person who enjoys continuous improvement and learning, and I have a wide variety of interests, and I would like to open a 3-D Print Cafe.
2. The Unmet Needs:
The unmet need that customers will have stems from the fact that 3D printers are still quite expensive and not very easy to use. We will solve these problems by having high-quality printers in our cafe that customers can use to print their projects, and if they need help using the machine, our staff will always be there to help and teach them to use the printers. One of the people who left a feedback on my post asked about how expensive the printers are and how that might affect how many I can have in the cafe, which would affect how many people I would be able to serve at any given time. I did some research and found that some of the most high-quality printers can be purchased for $1,000-2,000 each. I believe that if we purchased 5-10 printers for around $8-15k, we could break even on this investment in a relatively short amount of time, and we would be able to serve a good amount of customers at any given time. I don't believe this is too drastic of an investment for the printers compared to some of the business costs I have witnessed firsthand. Also, if we purchase too few printers and demand is too high, I see that as a good problem because we would just have to invest in more printers since the demand is already there.
3. The Demographic:
The demographic will include engineering and design students who are in high school, or anyone interested in 3D printing. I focused on being located in an area that is at the epicenter of 3 colleges to attract these students. Someone who commented mentioned someone they knew using it for medical purposes and that I should consider being near a hospital as well. I did some research on Google Maps and luckily there is a Florida Hospital only 10-15 minutes away from my ideal location. I would definitely attempt to schedule a meeting with someone at the hospital to see if they would be in need of our 3D printers, and I would offer the hospital a discount, of course.
4. The Value:
We will be providing value by allowing people to enjoy using 3D printers for hobbies, work or school without having to purchase such an expensive machine. Not everyone has the money to purchase one, and some people would only need to make a project here and there, so it wouldn't make sense for them to purchase one. Therefore, I am leaning towards combining a mixture of pay-per-use and membership payment models. We will also make the cafe a learning environment where people can learn more about design, engineering, and the use of the 3D printers.
5. What Separates Us?
Just like I mentioned in the first post, I believe that the open learning environment we will create will be very valuable to the customers, especially since they will all be working on similar subjects. I think this will cause people to mingle and work together, leading to synergies of communication in which people will be able to help and motivate each other to learn more.
I think that all of these elements fit very well together and build off of one another. The fact that people can work on their projects for lower costs will attract many customers. Then once they get there, they will be exposed to many additional learning opportunities. I believe this type of environment would be perfect for the demographic I am interested in.
These are the main points I took from the feedback:
1. I must further examine the costs of the equipment.
2. I have to determine a pricing model and see how long it will take to break even.
3. I learned that I can still look into more opportunities for other unique customers in my area.
4. I need to do some more interviews and surveys with prospective customers to determine an estimate of how many customers I can expect.
5. I need to decide if I should do a pay-per-use model, a membership model, or a combination of both.
I did some research and was able to use the feedback to find some new opportunities and make the idea for the cafe more clear in my mind than before. I looked into the costs of the equipment, the pros and cons of different pricing models, additional customer opportunities. My next step should be to survey more prospective customers to see the level of interest and use this data to estimate the number of customers we will have.
My Secret Sauce
Here are five characteristics that I think make me unique:
1. I think I'm better than most people at controlling my emotions. I like to think about things pretty logically and actually weigh the pros and cons of many situations. However, I think I have a good balance where I'm not overly methodical or anything like that.
2. I'm a good listener. It's important to show people that you actually value what they'e saying, and I've also always felt that a lot more can be learned from listening rather than speaking, especially when we are young.
3. I enjoy learning new things. This allows me to practice a mindset of continual improvement in areas that I'm interested in without feeling pressured to do so.
4. I have a good balance of confidence and humility. I'm confident enough to believe I can achieve my goals, but I'm more internally confident rather than arrogant. I'm also humble enough to know that I have room to grow but not so humble that I fall into self-doubt.
5. I have wide-ranging interests in all types of subjects. I feel like I can find the beauty in almost anything whether it's photography, languages, different cultures, math, science, etc. I just find everything interesting, and I think that causes me to be very open-minded, or maybe being very open-minded it's what's causing me to be interested in these things, I don't know.
I interviewed my roommates to ask them what they think makes up my human capital. They're pretty short interviews that get to the point. All 5 interviews can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-642057848
Interview 1:
- This interview was with my girlfriend, so it might be somewhat biased, but some of the characteristics that were mentioned were my ability to focus on tasks, desire to learn and my ability to be easy-going and get along with everybody.
Interview 2:
- In this interview my roommate mentions that I'm good at analyzing situations before making crucial decisions, and I'm good at gaining information by listening. It's funny that he said this because he's the exact opposite.
Interview 3:
- Interview 3 was with my roommate Devin. His main point was my work ethic and ability to stay focused.
Interview 4:
- My roommate Aaron emphasized my discipline and ability to look at things with a long-term perspective. He's known me the longest out of the people I interviewed, so I guess it makes sense that he'd mention this.
Interview 5:
- The last person I interviewed mentioned my ability to control my emotions and stay level-headed in tough situations. I kind of expected someone to say this.
Overall, it seems that my self-perception was very similar to how others perceive me. The characteristics that were mentioned in the interviews and were also included in my original list were: emotional stability, listening skills and my desire to learn. I pretty much expected nobody to mention my confidence because as I mentioned before, I'm more internally confident rather than arrogant or boastful. I've known all of these people for 2-5 years, so I think they know me pretty well. I hope you enjoyed.
1. I think I'm better than most people at controlling my emotions. I like to think about things pretty logically and actually weigh the pros and cons of many situations. However, I think I have a good balance where I'm not overly methodical or anything like that.
2. I'm a good listener. It's important to show people that you actually value what they'e saying, and I've also always felt that a lot more can be learned from listening rather than speaking, especially when we are young.
3. I enjoy learning new things. This allows me to practice a mindset of continual improvement in areas that I'm interested in without feeling pressured to do so.
4. I have a good balance of confidence and humility. I'm confident enough to believe I can achieve my goals, but I'm more internally confident rather than arrogant. I'm also humble enough to know that I have room to grow but not so humble that I fall into self-doubt.
5. I have wide-ranging interests in all types of subjects. I feel like I can find the beauty in almost anything whether it's photography, languages, different cultures, math, science, etc. I just find everything interesting, and I think that causes me to be very open-minded, or maybe being very open-minded it's what's causing me to be interested in these things, I don't know.
I interviewed my roommates to ask them what they think makes up my human capital. They're pretty short interviews that get to the point. All 5 interviews can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-642057848
Interview 1:
- This interview was with my girlfriend, so it might be somewhat biased, but some of the characteristics that were mentioned were my ability to focus on tasks, desire to learn and my ability to be easy-going and get along with everybody.
Interview 2:
- In this interview my roommate mentions that I'm good at analyzing situations before making crucial decisions, and I'm good at gaining information by listening. It's funny that he said this because he's the exact opposite.
Interview 3:
- Interview 3 was with my roommate Devin. His main point was my work ethic and ability to stay focused.
Interview 4:
- My roommate Aaron emphasized my discipline and ability to look at things with a long-term perspective. He's known me the longest out of the people I interviewed, so I guess it makes sense that he'd mention this.
Interview 5:
- The last person I interviewed mentioned my ability to control my emotions and stay level-headed in tough situations. I kind of expected someone to say this.
Overall, it seems that my self-perception was very similar to how others perceive me. The characteristics that were mentioned in the interviews and were also included in my original list were: emotional stability, listening skills and my desire to learn. I pretty much expected nobody to mention my confidence because as I mentioned before, I'm more internally confident rather than arrogant or boastful. I've known all of these people for 2-5 years, so I think they know me pretty well. I hope you enjoyed.
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