Venture Concept No.1

My opportunity is unsatisfied UF students, including myself, with the UF dining services and the limited healthy food options on-campus. Students that live, or just eat, on-campus between classes have this unmet need. Most restaurants on-campus provide fast-food services, which means low-quality and mostly fried food. These are also often limited to cuisines that are most popular in the US, like classic American, Asian and Tex-Mex food. Broward dining center, which is the major dining center, is also overpriced for the quality of food it serves. There are many international students that can’t find authentic cuisines on-campus because most fast food is Americanized. In addition to that, there are students that would like to add into their meal plan restaurants that are not currently on-campus. Moreover, students don’t have the time and motivation to prepare their own meals if they live off-campus, because of their heavy workload. The forces in the environment creating this opportunity is basically the cheap and fast food for busy students that live on-campus. How customers currently satisfy this need is by cooking at home, eating mostly salads and fruits or getting Krishna lunch, which is vegetarian food. These customers are pretty loyal to what they are using, since it is less costly to eat at home, but it’s time consuming for students that have classes all day long. Krishna lunch is very popular as well, but its hours are limited to lunch time. This opportunity is big because with my idea I can create a healthy student community that will appreciate different international cuisines. I will also have the opportunity to satisfy a big number of students that leave on-campus.

The service I’m offering students is a new restaurant on-campus that will be hosting cooks around Gainesville and will be promoting their restaurant menus. The cooks will be cooking food from different cuisines that will cover multiple diet preferences, like vegans, vegetarians and meat lovers. I will this way provide fresh and healthy food to students from famous restaurants, or even new ones. There will be 1 different cook per day cooking for us lunch and dinner. More specifically, there will be 10 different cooks every 10 days. The food will be ready an hour in advance the restaurant opens and will be kept refrigerated so that it is fresh and safe when served to them. To approach more customers and make more money I will provide the menu of the day through a free app. This app will also give the chance to students to order one extra plate for half-price to go. There will also be discount coupons from supermarkets, like Lucky’s, Publix, Trader Joe’s etc. distributed to everyone that gets a meal, so that students are encouraged to buy their own groceries for cheaper. The deals will also be posted on the app as the “Save of the Day”. Students that are in a hurry can order food to go. The next new thing I’ve come up with is a fresh produce corner in which I will be selling fresh veggies, herbs and fruits produced on the backyard of the restaurant. Students can volunteer to help grow them. Therefore creating a strong-bonded community that cares about the food it produces. If students don’t want to buy any of the fresh produce they will be given fresh produce in a snack-size box before they leave, as a gift for joining us in our effort of sharing healthy food. All of these services will provide students fresh, healthy, diverse and reasonably prized food right on-campus. They will never get bored of it and they will get to enjoy food that they may have never tried before. They will also get accustomed to what there is out on the market to use in preparing their own meals. Essentially, what I’m selling is the opportunity to start eating healthy and to explore new cuisines for just $5-7.

My innovation will solve the opportunity by encouraging students to engage with fresh and healthy food, besides going only for the cheap fast-food options. By “awarding” them with fresh produce and giving out discount coupons I give them the motivation to go and take advantage of this opportunity of changing habits and start caring more of what they consume. I want to think I can provide them with the resources that are not yet available on-campus; the ones that provide students with healthier food options. And because I know students are pretty hungry I offer them the option to get one more full plate for just half price (just $2.5-3.5 extra). This opportunity will also promote the cooks’ skills and the restaurants they are working for. So it is a win-win for everyone. I don’t believe it will be very hard to get students try out my restaurant since I will be providing them with food they are accustomed to, but also the chance to try something new. I will also have a lot of “gifts” for them to develop their own loyalty to my restaurant. I believe students would actually switch to my new restaurant because of the diverse cuisines and the guaranteed vegetarian and vegan options. I know vegan and vegetarian option are limited on-campus. My competitors would have to be the fast-food restaurants on-campus that provide students quick, low-quality and cheap food. Their weaknesses are basically that they have standard menus and students get eventually bored of their food options. As I already mentioned I will be hosting 10 different cooks that will be coming every 10 days, so that if someone misses them one day, they will have the chance to come to the restaurant and enjoy the cook’s food the next week. The next month there will be 10 other different cooks coming in. The rest of the fresh food production that will be happening on the back of the restaurant will be student-managed. The cook, depending on their available time, can stay interact with the students or can leave once they’re done. In any case, there will always be culinary and other students helping them out with cleaning pantries, keeping track of the orders and keeping the food safe.

My most important resource in my business would be my passion for the wellness of the student community and the eagerness to raise awareness on how to eat healthy. All of the employers will be willing to help out and care about their customers. I am personally a very positive person and I encourage people to become better and be strong. My venture will promote exactly this. It will also bring people together through food and through sharing common worries and struggles. This caring spirit of my business would be hard for competitors to copy.

In five years, I would love to be an entrepreneur that would create projects to raise awareness of how to eat healthy. I believe my first venture will be a first step that will make a BIG difference and hopefully have a huge impact on people’s eating habits. My goal is to start here and continue spreading awareness outside of Gainesville. My projects could also be a result of my research on food products; hence my major in chemistry. I always had a passion about food and would love to do research on it to improve its quality and keep the food safe and clean for others.

Amazon Whisperer

• Describe the revenue drivers you currently include in your business concept for this class. Revenue drivers are the different ways you make money.

My revenue driver at the moment is my restaurant on-campus, which is basically an opportunity for students to eat healthier and get accustomed to different cuisines.

• Describe what kind of product offering you believe should be next. What's the next thing your customers want?

In one of my comments someone mentioned growing my own fresh veggies in the backyard of the restaurant so that I use what I make in my food. I could do that, but because this may take longer than expected I will bring fresh produce in the restaurant and demonstrate it to the customers. The fresh food stand will include a section with veggies and fruits, one for spices/condiments and herbs and one with whole grains/legumes that are used on the menu. I might be able to expand this idea with desserts too, which will be homemade.

• Describe how this "next" thing will enhance your existing product/service offering. Does it improve the user experience, does it increase customer switching costs, does it foster customer loyalty, etc.?

I believe this new service will foster customer loyalty, because demonstrating the ingredients I use in my food will serve the purpose of this restaurant. Students that are not used to buying or cooking with veggies and fruits can now know what they eat at the restaurant and will also be given free produce when they leave from the restaurant. This will encourage them to consume/cook with veggies more often. I think this is a very unique experience and hopefully it will work. I know that they already have a salad and food station at the Broward dining center, but my type of service is a little bit more different.

• Go to Amazon and try to find a product that is similar to the one you want to offer next. Describe the product. Include a picture of the product.

 This product has 3 stands. The upper one will include herbs and spices. The middle one will include veggies and the lower one fruits. Fruits are not commonly used when cooking. Most of the times their juice and zest is used to add flavor or they are used in salads or desserts. People can choose whatever they like from this stand and purchase it, to use it while they are cooking. Otherwise, we will offer them some of the fresh produce for free once they leave from the restaurant in the form of snacks.

• What are the customer reviews for the product? What, exactly, do customers not like about the product? What do they like about it?

The customers seem to love this product. They can choose where they want to put their produce. It's pretty big so they can store all their produce there that doesn't need to be refrigerated. Hangers come with it so you can also hang bananas on it. It is hammock styled which means you can swing each part to reach the food and it is easily assembled. There is air flow in between the produce so that it doesn't get bad quickly. The only thing the customers don't like is its dimensions, it takes up a lot of space. 

• Describe what design/usability changes you'd make to the product. 

The only changes I would make is make the dimensions a little bit smaller, even though for my restaurant that wouldn't be a big issue. I would also offer like a plastic base to go at each level so that small fruits don't fall off. 

• Describe why you think this product would make a good addition to your current product/service offering.

I think this would make a good addition to my current service since people will be aware of what is added in their food and they can also choose the produce they want to use for their next dish. It will overall encourage the consumption of fresh produce among students.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

The reading of today was "You need an innovation strategy" by Gary Pisano. Gary in this wants to demonstrate the real cause of why so many businesses fail to improve in their attempts to innovate. The author's answer to this is the lack of an innovation strategy. He highlights that companies follow common steps to develop their company's innovation aspect but these companies don't realize that there's no specific strategy that suits all companies. Aping their competitor's strategy is also not an answer. I agree with the author with this that some companies do what everyone else does making them incapable of realizing their actual values and goals. That's why more and more companies are now creating a group in which the company talks about their short-term and long-term goals and analyze their values and expectations from every single one in the business to achieve those goals. Connecting and organizing the many different roles of each section of a company towards the main goal is also crucial for success. This way the company is focused and determined.

What an innovation strategy does is "help you design a system to match your specific competitive needs.". Thus, having an innovation strategy involves understanding what innovation is and what's its value. Will innovation create value for potential customers, how will the company find that value and what types of innovations will the company pursue once the value is found? Everything becomes a plan, everything has a purpose. So, in addition to what the author mentioned, I added that companies should understand what innovation is and should know the different ways innovation can benefit both the venture and the customer.

Later on, the author mentions different types of innovations such as routine, disruptive, radical and architectural innovations. It is said that routine innovations are not good for companies. I don't agree with that, as the author doesn't either. Routine innovations help explore the capabilities of the company. They also offer customers different versions of their product/service. These different versions help the company to always develop and do research, till the next innovation comes up. It kind of trains the "brain" of the company to always be active. Of course, competitors will follow, but if the company keeps developing, the imitators won't be able to reach their competitive advantage, unless a radical innovation comes up. In any case, depending on the goal of each company, the innovation strategy has to focus on improving either technologically or modifying the business model.

My Unfair Advantage

1.Positive attitude/influence- As said from people that know me well, I'm a positive influence to others. I can disseminate my happiness wherever I go, which is a great advantage. I add value in people's life, I show them the positive side of life and give them strength to keep going. I compliment others and tell them what I truly believe of their actions and themselves when I find it appropriate. I boost their confidence and show them they can achieve whatever they want as long as they believe in themselves. Of course, I choose those people that are able to accept my thoughts and accept me for who I am.

2.Trustworthy- A lot of people trust me and often ask for my advice. Even if I don't have a lot of experience, I can empathize with others quickly and try to give them the best solution to their problems. I'm a rational person, so I get to persuade others with what I'm saying. I often show them how to not only think of their side, but also other's people's point of view. I'm a great listener, too.

3.Connections- I love meeting new people and creating new unique relationships with others. I didn't use to be open with others when I was younger, and I'm still not as open as I want to be. I believe this is good, though, in the sense that I know how to choose the people I should trust the most. I still got a lot to work on this area, because I want to be able to promote myself more. But I believe I got a lot of friends and because of these connections I can easily get help from others.

4.Dual citizenship- I grew up in a family that had as major languages Greek and English. I would often go to the US when I was little and would always be exposed to families with different backgrounds and cultures. My father is a Social anthropologist and he studies a lot of different cultures. I remember when he would cook Chinese and Indian food at home. Through him I got really comfortable with other cultures and I learned how and why to RESPECT others. In my elementary school I also got exposed to other cultures, such as Albanians, Turks and Polish people. I knew at that age a lot of them were bullied and I could see how wrong this was.

5.Social media- I've used several social media platforms throughout my life and I have a good idea of how they work. I haven't used a large amount of them , but whichever I've used, I've been using them for an extended period of time. I've noticed the trends and know how to get my idea out there. Even if I'm confident with that, we will have to see if that's the case in the assignment "Going for the Google Gold".

6.Good at negotiating money, deals etc.

7.Living around the world- I have family around the world. My aunt and grandparents live in the US ( NY and FL). My brother and mother live in Greece and my father lives in Saudi Arabia. That can help me expand my company later one in my business venture

8.Money management- I know how to save money. I don't go for shopping very often and I always if what I'm buying is worth it's price. I've been living alone the past year so I've learned how to manage my expenses. I think I will be able to be better at money management if I get my own job.

9. Living right next to one of the busiest roads on campus, West University. Everything is accessible within that road and the nearby roads. There are a lot of restaurants on this road which makes it easier for me to create new contacts with restaurants. I can start hosting cooks from these restaurants and potentially get sponsored by them, too These are restaurants/ dessert places that UF students, including myself, visit a lot  (Chipotle, Bagels and Noodles, Jimmy Johns etc.) so it's an opportunity I can seize to market and promote my own restaurant on this road/location.

10. Cooking experience- I'm a member of the CASU club at UF this year and I have participated in many cooking classes. I've learned a lot so far and I can't wait to learn a lot more. One of the UF undergraduate students did his graduate thesis on offering cooking classes to UF students. He conducted research on how students eat so far and he wanted to see whether through the cooking classes they would change their eating habits. This helped me understand more of what eating healthy means and I also learned more ways to show that to people.

I believe positive attitude/influence is the most important resource I have since that's how I approach people that are essentially my potential customers. Others having a first good impression of me is very important, since this will attract more and more customers into my business. I want to add my magic touch into people's lives by giving them a chance to understand what's good for them. I'm definitely not an expert or anything like that, but I know that eating healthy is essential for both people's physical and mental health.Taking care of oneself is definitely the base for taking care of others. Finally, this resource is valuable because it will attract people to my restaurant. It will also add value into people's lives, bringing them together while eating and providing them with healthier options. It is rare, because in a business not many people are able to pass that type of attitude to the people around them. So making them happier will definitely add into their experience in my restaurant. It is inimitable because one needs to have the "positive"genes to truly be a positive influence and it's nonsubstitutable in the sense that it is just a personality trait that can be similar to others, but has a different effect on people.

Growing My Social Capital

For this exercise, I gave out my business idea to three professionals of the food industry.

The first one is Chef Bryan. He is the cook of CLO (Cooperative Living Organization), a residence hall behind Chipotle. That's where I live, too. He's been a cook there for a year now and he's been cooking food from scratch. Every resident adores him. He's worked as a cook at an Indian restaurant before. He has, however, other small jobs at the same time, to add to his income as a part-time cook. In my business he would be my supplier expert, the one that would bring in the food into the restaurant and would serve my customers by cooking for them. Having this person in my network will help me attract more cooks around Gainesville and lead me to new networks. Chef Bryan always cooks food for vegans and vegetarians, separately from meat lovers and makes sure there are vegetables in every single meal. All of these elements I think add up to the cook I'm expecting to hire in my own restaurant. He gave me a lot of useful tips when I showed him my business idea. I asked him several questions about the financing part of the business and he told me I should negotiate first the distribution of benefits with each cook I'll be hosting, so that I know what they require from me in return. He also was willing on working at my business If I managed to pull it together. I was really glad to create that type of connection.

The second person I met was the owner of Bagels and Noodles. This was my industry expert, since this person created his own restaurant. I imagined he would share all kinds of experiences to me so that I get an idea on how I could start my own business. I chose the owner of Bagels and Noodles, because he knows both American and Chinese market. I thought talking to him would be helpful since I will incorporate a lot of cuisines in my own business, as well. I focused however on the part of the industry and not on that of the market.

Week 10 Reading reflection

Oh gosh, financing is so complex. I never had imagined I would learn all these stuff. So for our Week 11 reading we had to read... Financial preparation is crucial for a business's life. If you don't finance your expenses and don't know how to manage money within your budget then you'll lose lots of mind and the venture will die. Because of this, planning is an important asset an entrepreneur can have.

To keep track of your expenses you have the balance sheet. Assets are the financial resources of the firm and liabilities are the claims that creditors have against the company.The residual interest of the firm's owners is called the owner's equity. All of these are included in the balance sheet.

One of the points made in a text in the book is the problem of uncollected or very delayed receivables. This means when you offer credit to your customers but they choose not to pay off that credit in a timely manner. This shows disrespect to the company's economic standing, because these type customers take advantage of their credit, but they don't know what kind of damage they do to the company's economy. The company is serving you to pay him, not to purchase things "for free" when they are not supposed to be.

That's why starting entrepreneurs should find a funding resource in case they fall into the trap of mismanaging their finances. In addition to that they should reflect on their customers activities and if they have been responsible towards the firm so that they can decide on whether they are worth on investing any more or not. You don't want to get a loan that will keep increasing when you don't have legitimate resource to invest in or have taxes payable. I would highly encourage as the writer states to offer discounts for early payment. This way you encourage people to pay you more often and sooner. This solves pretty much the problem and the customer is satisfies, too.

Finally, there is one thing I don't understand but I know it helps a lot for the entrepreneur's debt. This is the accumulated depreciation. Accumulated depreciation for either a building or equipment is the amount that is written off the book due to wear and tear. Is this feature used when you want to disregard the assets that cannot be used anymore? In the text, it is stated that this accumulated depreciation helps lower the tax liability. I don't quite understand the process till that effect.

Elevator Pitch No.3

So this is my 3rd elevator pitch. I was really amazed of the number of tries I did, because last time the tries were definitely a lot better. I got only a few comments for feedback. Everyone seemed to love my idea. The only thing I changed that my roommate noticed is move my body less, speak with a stable tone and look straight at the camera more. Enjoy! :)

My Secret Sauce

Well, I suppose there are a few things that differentiate me from others - besides my height of course. I would say I'm a determined girl that always tries hard to achieve a goal. I always studied hard and was an A student. In addition to that, my experience of my weight loss problem and my hormone problems made me understand that the balance between exercising and eating is very important for someone's well-being. Finally, I'm always positive towards life. I know attitude is a major element that can substantially influence your career path and your life decisions. Being positive, kind and supportive makes people around you feel safe and happy. I hope to create a bonded community eager to always improve - in my business this would be achieved through healthy food and exercise.

My roommate Manuela told me what makes me different is my positive attitude and the fact that I always look for positive things into a negative situation. My friend Kathan said I am very hardworking and determined. I'm respectful, honest and caring for other people, too. Gavin says I always take time to listen to other people, I'm very kind and bring out the best in others.

My mother told me what makes me different from others is that I like to always improve myself and try to make things better for myself and others. I'm diverse, love people and helpful towards others. My friend Franz told me my work ethic and my persistence to achieve my goals makes me different from others.

I believe that overall what I think of myself is very similar to what my friends and family around me think, too.  I was really impressed of what others had to say about me, because I always expect to hear something I've never thought about before, which could be both negative and positive. The truth is I always try to make others feel better about themselves and I don't always know if that works. However, I'm really happy that I got to realize that I have a good influence to most of the people that surround me.

Idea Napkin No. 2

I'm Artemis Magliveras and was born in Greece. As a student majoring in Chemistry I was always interested in learning about food chemistry. I got more aware of how important having a healthy lifestyle is when I went through a period in my life where I wasn't as healthy as I wanted to be. I would exercise more than usual and, thus, lost a lot of weight. I didn't understand how important it was to keep a balanced diet with a balanced exercise. That deteriorated my health in some way. From that day on I was more aware of my limits and the food I was eating. This means I started to eat more, even if I didn't feel like eating, because I knew my body needed more energy than I thought it did. My father would also cook Asian and Indian food, which made me more interested in other cuisines. My aspiration is to raise awareness on how to eat more healthy and how important exercise is for one's health. So far, I have good communication skills and have gotten more involved with food, through cooking and winning an award for a recipe database I came up with some friends.

Since last year, I've been concerned about the food that is served on-campus and believe that students' choices are very limited. I think that my business idea of creating a new restaurant on-campus would make a lot of people happier. It will improve their college experience by offering them a more diverse menu, including meat, vegetarian and vegan options. Each day there will be one different cook from a different restaurant in Gainesville, cooking for UF students. The menu will be accessible on-line, as well as the option of ordering one extra plate for half price to-go. Students that get their meal will also get coupons with discounts from different supermarkets in Gainesville. This will encourage them to buy groceries and cook for themselves, too. In all, my service will provide students with healthier options at lower cost. This is the reason why students will pay for my service.

The restaurant will serve people of diverse backgrounds and diets, especially vegans and vegetarians.  As an international student, I always missed my homemade food so I really like the idea of multicultural food. This will give an opportunity for students to get accustomed to other cuisines as well and to never get bored of the same type of food options every day. Vegans and vegetarians I believe would also be able to have a guaranteed restaurant to serve their diets. In addition, all students need food that will boost their energy instead of depriving them of it. And healthy food does exactly that. It provides genuine energy to study and exercise. A lot of students at UF are hard workers and are into exercising, so they will definitely, and hopefully, appreciate this business idea. Lastly, I noticed in my customer interviews, a lot of students loved the idea of getting one extra plate for half, in combination to the supermarket coupons. I guess this financial strategy works well in attracting customers.

Although the service that I provide can be copied by anybody, the combination of my service and the environment is what makes my product unique. Young people in Gainesville have created a healthy lifestyle spirit by exercising a lot and cooking at home. This means that the community is very much aware of what means to be healthy. The campus, however, does not provide them with the appropriate supply to meet the demand of the students. Hopefully, my idea will change that and make students happier.

My goal is to get service from cooks in Gainesville, while at the same time sponsor their own businesses and, thus, create a collaborative relationship between us. This way both UF and other food services in Gainesville will benefit. My business idea would work upon UF's approval and funding. The only issues that might come is the food prices.I would try to make it as studentfriendly as possible ($5-7). Moreover, I would have to plan a year in advance the restaurant schedule, so that the cooks get the date booked for us. I will have to persuade all this different cooks to work for me, while they work for their own businesses. In addition to that, I will need to figure out how the money gained would be distributed to the different cooks, my restaurant and UF. Last but not least, I've been asked about how the food is going to be served in a timely manner. Just because it is going to be restaurant-like food, it is going to either be food that can be prepared and cooked within 15 minutes or be precooked meals that are going to be served heated and served. Finally, to ensure the quality of the food, the veggies will be grown behind the restaurant so that it is fresh and organic. 

I collected all this info and incorporated it into my Idea Napkin through my feedback on my last post and my 3rd customer interview. Below is the video of my 3rd customer interviews that I didn't have time to upload on time.

MULTI-COOK

Multi-cook, a newly UF funded dining service on campus, provides UF students with the option to eat healthier at lower cost. Everyday a cook from a local restaurant cooks lunch and dinner for the students, and thus ensures a wide variety of food for vegans, vegetarians, meat lovers, and so forth. With a different cook each day, the food options are diverse, healthy, and cost-friendly. The students have access to the menu via an app, and the chance to save money by ordering the second plate online at half price. The app also informs the students about the “Save of the Day”, the supermarket discount coupons offered with every meal.