Julianna's Entrepreneurial Blog

1) You read about an entrepreneur: The entrepreneur that I read about was Ray Kroc in his book "Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald's."  This was an interesting read, but most interestingly, Kroc's success didn't occur until he was older, at 52 years old.  This is when he met the McDonald's brothers and they began to form a business.   Although Kroc tended to make hasty decisions and took risks, what made him successful and admirable was that he didn't let failure scare him or get him down. 2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?  Kroc was a risk-taker who didn't succumb to the fear of failure.  He had a tremendous work ethic which is necessary in an entrepreneur, and was extremely tenacious. 3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. One part of the reading that I didn't quite understand was what his real estate work concerned.  The text didn't explicitly say whether he h...

1)  Tenaciousness is a competency.  What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?  One behavior that I have used to keep up with this course is to look ahead and see how much time each blog post will take.  Some posts only take a few minutes, so I wait until the night before they're due to write them.  Other posts, like the ones that require interviews, will take me more than one day to complete.  Since I have looked ahead, I know if I need to allocate more time to completing a post. 2)  Tenaciousness is also about attitude.  Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this? A moment when I felt like giving up was when I was trying to find an internship for the 2019 fall semester.  I had applied to about 3...

1)  Pick a segment. The segment that I chose to focus on was people living in the Standard who were affected by homeless people loitering around that area. 2)  Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them.  My three friends Molly, Sarah, and Raegan who all live in the standard and frequently walk around that area. 3)  Begin with need awareness.  All three girls have demonstrated their grievances with the homeless population loitering around the Standard. 4)  Move to information search.  The girls that I interviewed said that they always knew about the growing homeless population in Gainesville, but that it started affecting them more significantly once they moved into the Standard.  This is when they became aware that the need existed. 5)  Report the findings of your research.  These interviews confirmed what I had already expected:  That almost every student living in the Standard ha...

1)  You.  I am a second year business student at the University of Florida trying to figure out what my passions are in life.  My talents include being sympathetic to the needs of others, organization, good writing skills, and creativity.  I have experience working for small companies and working with others through team sports and my sorority.  My aspirations are to be happy in life and find a career that I will be passionate doing.  If I were to follow through with my business concept (Comprehensive facility for the homeless called Homeward Bound Florida), I would be CEO and chief strategist.  I could see myself overseeing all parts of the business, looking to improve it, and energizing employees to do their best. 2)  What are you offering to customers? I am offering a comprehensive facility for the homeless of Alachua County, and way to get them back on their feet with the tools they need to be successful.  I am solving an unmet nee...

Who:  Are there certain people or certain businesses that, although they share a lot in common with the others in your opportunity, nevertheless fall outside the boundary? Why? The people that I interviewed who did not fall inside the boundary were mainly people who did not live near large masses of homeless people in Gainesville.  Mainly, these were UF students who live on campus, or students who aren't in the business school and don't often travel to the corner of University and 13th street.  Freshmen that I interviewed that lived near the stadium, like East Hall, or students in the honors college at Hume hall, were to geographically distant from the homeless population to really even notice their existence.  Although these students are similar to the other people I had interviewed who fell within the boundary, they nevertheless fell outside the boundary because of a slight geographic difference. What:  At what point does the need you identified differ fr...

The opportunity I have chosen to address is the growing homeless population in Gainesville. The homeless population has continued to grow over the past decade, and many of those demographic tend to suffer from mental illness and health issues.  Certain initiatives have been taken to try to decrease the homeless population in Alachua county and get them back on their feet and into the working population.  For example, in 2005 the City of Gainesville created a  Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness , and GRACE Marketplace was established.  GRACE Marketplace offers comprehensive services to help homeless people get back on their feet.  However, it has not been enough.  The homeless population in Alachua county continues to be an issue, and is growing. The solution I propose is a government-funded comprehensive facility similar to GRACE, but with added benefits—this organization will partner with Gainesville businesses who get a tax break if they hire people co...

The Opportunity:  There is a large homeless population in Gainesville and there are not enough resources to get them off the streets. The Who:   The Gainesville community at large who must deal with the homeless, and the homeless themselves who have a low quality of life. The What:   There is a large, and growing population of homeless people in Gainesville. The Why:   There are too many homeless people, living is expensive, and there are not enough shelters and services for them. Testing the Boundaries: Testing the who: Even though I am not personally homeless, doing something about the issue in Gainesville will still affect me.   Specifically, the homeless issue in Gainesville is particularly bad, but it also affects people nationally and in every city. Testing the what: Some people, not many, don’t mind being homeless.   Some people choose to live that way, and don’t want to accept help.   Whatever ...

Opportunity #1: “ Child-Welfare Activists Attack Facebook Over Encryption Plans” a.   Where I found it: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/technology/facebook-encryption-child-exploitation.html b.   What leads me to believe that this information suggests an opportunity might exist: An opportunity might exist for a way to catch child predators online, whether it be a third party company or software that can be used by Facebook. c.   Who is most likely to be the customer:   The people benefitting from the software (kids on social media), as well as the parents of those kids.   Also, the social media platforms utilizing the service will benefit because they will get a better reputation. d.   Is the opportunity relatively easy or relatively difficult to exploit, and why:   This opportunity is relatively difficult to exploit because creating the software necessary to catch child predators online would be very costly and it would take a lot of exp...