What's your secret sauce?

1)    My human capital

I am extremely creative in my work, especially in my writing and art. I have the volunteer experience with animals and children, I put in everything when I volunteer with them. I have the knowledge from years of school and beginning in college. I have the skills, from my volunteer experience, to connect with animals and children. I have the judgment during my training of what work to do.

2)    Interview 1: Iliana is one of my closest friends, I’ve known her for seven years. She thinks I put in all the effort when it comes to the work. That I’m very focused once I begin the work. I have the skills from all my long experience. I am able to put in this work from knowledge of how long my work will take.

What I took from this overview of myself is that I am a hard worker, the most hard working in a team. And especially because of all my experience I am able to perform all these skills fully.

Interview 2: I’ve known Dita for almost two years, I played soccer with her and I’ve remained friends. She thinks I’m very focused, and can be very hard on myself and on others, my emotions can overcome me. I have the knowledge but that seems irrelevant with my emotions. I have the abilities, I can clearly communicate and focus on one thing until its completed. 

What I understand is that my emotions seem to take over me in my work, all my abilities seem to be thrown away by my emotions. I need to get my emotions under control from now on to succeed in my work.

Interview 3: Elizabeth was my classmate in my first semester and is now my best friend. She thinks I am very driven in my schoolwork, and put everything aside. That my emotions need to be controlled right now. That I need to have the ability to work alone and plan efficiently. That I have everything I need right now but I’m just not using them. 

My take away is that I’m all over the place, I’m lucky to have all the human capital accessible but I’m just not using it correctly. I feel this is all because of my emotions.

Interview 4: Jess and I became close friends a year ago. She thinks I’m using everything correctly- I’m enrolled at a great school, that I have the resources, that I have the extra experience than others.

From what I hear it sounds like I am succeeding, that I am ahead of others my age. That I am using my resources wisely and everything is leveled. 

Interview 5: I’ve known Grace the longest, we’ve been friends for nine years. She thinks I have all the human capital but my emotions outweigh the others. She knows I am currently trying to control my emotions so I can use my other human capital. That I have the knowledge to go to school and make wise decisions. That I have the skills and abilities from my extra experience.

What I take away from this is that I am so close to succeeding with my human capital, I just have to control my emotions but I have the other human capital already.

3)    Reflection

I see myself at different levels of my human capital, uncontrollable. Others see me as uncontrollable with my emotions, but able to succeed with my other human capital. I assess myself differently based on how long I’ve been involved in my human capital, my experience. What causes these differences is seeing the other levels others are at with their human capital, people close to me. I think my interviews aren’t correct about me but make me feel more confident in my human capital. I would correct only my emotions, having all the tools accessible and experience with it.

Figuring out buyer behavior no. 2

Interview 1: Mary’s cousin is a special education student. With providing education and physical activities to her cousin, price isn’t a concern. Quality is important because it needs to be durable (her cousin can drop and throw things). Her cousin doesn’t seem to prefer one style over the other. What is important is that her cousin is very distracted, is enjoying the activities she’s engaging in. Now, her family is more likely going to buy games and toys for her cousin online, financing their purchase. When thinking back on the purchase, what matters most is if her cousin is satisfied- if the product is distracting and interactive, if its good quality, attractive. What helps her family determine if this was a good purchase is if her cousin is continuing to play with the toy or game. What makes them think a purchase is a bad idea is if her cousin isn’t playing with it, or if her cousin destroys the toy or game.

Interview 2: Brittany’s sister receives special education. When buying a toy or game for her sister, price doesn’t matter, quality isn’t important because her sister lightly uses her toys and games and isn’t destructive, style isn’t important her sister is drawn to attractiveness. Buys the product both online and in store, uses both cash and can finance the purchase. What matters most is if her sister used the product. What helps determine if the product was a good idea if her sister is happier while playing with it, has a better mood because of it. What makes her think the purchase was a bad idea is if her sister doesn’t use the product.

Interview 3: Eddie’s neighbor is a special education student. Price can be important to his neighbor’s family, quality is important as well because can become aggressive and damage, style is unimportant. Factors that are more important is pricing and quality, for the family and their son. The family is more likely to buy in store, paying in cash. What matters most is if they bought an inexpensive product that their special needs son can use that he won’t damage. What helps them determine if it was a good purchase is if it doesn’t break immediately, can be used repeatedly and at important times. What makes it a bad purchase is if its damaged right after buying it, if its rarely used.

What I came across was that these customers all have different buying methods and that their special needs relative or friend have different tastes. It was very important for a great quality product that couldn’t be destroyed and was distracting, pricing was as important. Most of all these relatives or friends to the special needs children wanted to make them happy and see that they were fully using the product.

Halfway reflection

With this course, I’ve learned that an entrepreneur pays attention to everything, not what the normal person would pay attention to. Entrepreneurs can find it in themselves their next project, even just based off of things that bug them. I’ve learned just how much goes into being an entrepreneur, many things like buyer behavior, how to make an elevator pitch, the difference between an invention and innovation.

I’ve already felt moments where I wanted to give up on this course, before even reaching the halfway mark. When it came to the first interviews of this course, before we learned how to give the right interview. Also, the week after that with the amount of homework due, researching in newspapers and more interviews. What kept pulling me through was how happy and relieved I would feel after those assignments were completed, and how it’d feel overall at the end of the semester being able to complete this course. I feel like with what I’ve learned so far in our lessons I’ve been given the tools for a tenacious attitude. The experiences that contributed to my tenacious attitude would be more and more interviews, and creating my first product idea and being confident in it after all the pieces came together.

The tips I would offer to foster tenacity is follow everything the teacher lectures on- how to give an elevator pitch, how to interview people you don’t know; keep repeatedly using those skills- so keep interviewing people; and to work ahead to give room for more creative thinking. And to develop the tenacious mindset it helps to follow the example of the other students in the course (especially those who post weeks in advance), it will take time to develop this mindset (I’m still learning), read the books on the reading list it follows other entrepreneurs tenacious mindset.

Coco Chanel: an intimate life by Lisa Chaney

In “Coco Chanel: an intimate life” by Lisa Chaney, it tells the true story of the rise of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel from poverty to money, starting her business selling hats to expanding and taking opportunities to sell more in fashion in the early twentieth century of Paris. 

In this work what surprised me the most was Gabrielle’s origin, she became an orphan at an early age and none of her family couldn’t/didn’t want to take on the responsibility of her and her siblings so she resided at a convent for all of her youth. And then, years later, she moved on to prostitution, and then became a mistress. What I most admired about Gabrielle was her hard work, she didn’t skip a beat and seemed to never take a rest, even after her lover’s tragic accident; also, how she took opportunities and turned them around, like during world war 1 and hiding in a basement overnight she sold pajamas to the other women hiding with her. What I admired the least about this entrepreneur was that she at some point came to taking up prostitution so she could have extra money next to her singing, when she could have instead continued as a seamstress. Very shorty Gabrielle came across failure at the beginning of her career, she was fully covered by her lover and wasn’t making enough money in her store, but the next day she pushed more production from her workers and more advertising and more sales.

Coco was very creative with her business, expanding from not just used hats to original clothing designs; she also knew how to grow her business with advertisements in fashion magazines and representation by famous actors and models. 

A part of the reading that was confusing to me was why the gave more depth to her lovers, because this story is clearly about Coco Chanel, but yet it was telling how her lover pushed to write books during the war, or her lover’s back story of his family.

How, Chanel, did you push yourself with your work, how did you find this motivation? And, why did you take up prostitution during that point in your life, why did you not go back to being a seamstress?

I think Chanel’s opinion of hard work would be that it is as intricate and detailed as fashion, there’s more and more layers to it. I share this opinion because once you think you’ve completed one thing with your work and you’ve pushed yourself then there’s more to that work to be completed. 

Figuring out buyer behavior no.1

Picking a segment:

I chose the segment of special education students. I chose this small group because they are the age interested in these involvement apps that can include games and education. And these are students that fit the current opportunity, now moved to online schooling where they’ll have access.

Interview #1: Allison is a therapist for special needs children, she has recently had parents approach her about their children’s low involvement in school, what moving to online schooling will mean for their children. Her current answer for these children are to provide them with more distractions, more involvement with toys and games at home, and to play with them outside. She creates ideas with other therapists for special needs children, they try to come up with plans, seeing also how to distracted their special needs children are in virtual therapy. She has had parents who’ve used younger children’s apps for their special needs child, but just as a distraction.

Interview #2: Ricca is a teacher for special education children, she felt that while teaching her students through video lessons was “hopeless,” she didn’t see there was a point to teaching through online. Her solution to her students missing out on education and activities was for parents to spend even more time at home going over the lessons and playing with their children. She provided the lessons and at home activities to the parents.

Interview #3: Alex has a brother with special needs, even before this quarantine he noticed how easily his brother became distracted, and before had never seen his performance in school. His solution to his brother not paying attention and playing in his school video lessons was to take away his toys and ipad he was playing on, but that just made his brother more upset. He confided in his mother about his worries, but she said it was fine for his brother to play on his ipad during school. His mother has been listening to his brother’s teacher and trying to help with homework and activities while at home.

Drawing conclusions:

What I gathered was that these therapists, teachers, family members had no solution to providing more education and activities to their special needs children. That it seemed “hopeless” and “pointless” to do online schooling because their students became easily distracted with what they had at home. There is a need to keep providing for our special education students, the same of how they would be provided if they were in school. There’d need to be more research on how to bring our special education students back to the app, a healthy way for our special education students to be involved in activities, what level of education are our students at, and how to be original from other apps out there for special needs children.

Idea napkin no.1

1)    You

I’m Lauren Lytle, a sophomore at the University of Florida, majoring in English with a minor in Innovation. My talents are I’m creative in writing and coming up with ideas, I am visual with art and in my writing, and I am good at soccer. My skills and experience are I’m great with kids, as a counselor assistant I’ve always connected with kids and related to them. Also while working at an adoption center, I’ve found I connect with animals. If I were to start this business I would see it more as something I value, more than money, helping people who are unaware they need help.

2)    What are you offering to customers?

I am offering an app for special education students that covers education and value. If these students aren’t fully involved in school work and have had there activities taken away from them during this time, this is an option at home.

3)    Who are you offering it to?

It’d be offered to special education students, and would give comfort to their parents who might feel that their child isn’t getting all their education and activities. They all have in common a new style of educating special needs children.

4)    Why do they care?

Customers will want this product if they feel their special needs child isn’t getting the same amount of schooling and is missing physical activities in online schooling. If they see their child distracted while in online school. If they notice their child becoming more distant ever since online schooling has started- do less school work, playing more games.

5)    What are your core competencies?

This isn’t just any child’s education game, its made just for special needs children, fitting their behaviors and what they are learning. What I have that nobody else has is time and an opportunity, with this virus sending children to home schooling; this gives special education students more time to play and learn through the app, an opportunity with the block special education students have faced with online lessons.

I think almost everything fits together, but the only thing I’d have to push more on is making this app as original as possible, with other apps out there existing like this with educating special needs children. I feel like the other elements back each other up though, and make me more confident especially with what’s setting me apart from everyone else.

Elevator pitch no.1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zEllMPJW-s

Testing the hypothesis part 2

Before, I asked people I knew had relation to special education- if they were educators, any relation- because I felt comfortable knowing they be more open to this need. Now, I asked people who weren’t as exposed to special education children- teachers for public school, families with children who had no learning difficulties. 

Who: those who fall outside the boundaries are people who have no connection to special needs children- teachers for private and public schools (not special education), parents and family members with children who have no learning difficulties, neighbors who can have normal communication with their other neighbors without any barrier because of special needs.

What: This need differs because it is very specific to just these children with learning difficulties, other children their age without those difficulties would be more advanced.

Why: because the outsider doesn’t have this connection that wouldn’t be in their lives daily, the outsider isn’t constantly exposed to this.

Interview #1: I talked to Sherri, she is an teacher for fourth grade students in public elementary school. Surprisingly, she has been exposed to some students who have had learning difficulties and have needed extra tutoring outside of school. She has no relation to any special education children, though. She didn’t consider during this virus what kind of education special needs children were receiving, she assumes online videos like the rest of the students. She also didn’t think about their involvement in school that their missing right now, activities their missing. She focuses on providing for her students right now and giving online tutoring to the students who need the extra help, which is more now.

Interview #2: I talked to Bill, he is a retired shop owner. When he did work before, he didn’t meet anyone with special needs when selling electronics. He also doesn’t have anyone in his family with special needs. Addressing that special education children were now doing online schooling and missing activities, he didn’t think about them, he didn’t even think about the kids in public and private schools moved to online schooling because of this virus because his children no longer live at home and are no longer in school.

Interview #3: Next I talked to Eileen, she is retired but she worked as the computers teacher for private elementary and middle school students. She did have some students who had special needs and needed extra help while she was teaching. She has no family members with special needs. Both of her children are no longer in school and live across the country, so she hasn’t been thinking about children moved to online schooling. 

Interview #4: Then I talked to Karen, she is a college scout for Flagler College. She doesn’t meet special needs children for scouting. Both of her children are no longer in school and they live on their own. She mentioned how this virus hasn’t been too much of a barrier for her scouting because she was done for the year for the college, she just hopes it doesn’t interfere with next year’s scouting in the fall, for students looking into the college.

Interview #5: Finally I talked to Jim, he is a retired banker. He doesn’t have any relation to children with special needs. His children are not in school and are living on their own. He hasn’t thought not only about special education children’s online schooling, but just kids from private and public school now moved to online. 

Inside the boundary	Outside the boundary
Who is in: Parents and family members to a child with special needs Teachers who teach special education	Who is not: Parents, family members, friends with no connection to someone with special needs Teachers who teach regular schooling, private and public school Workers with no contact during work to someone with special needs
What the need is: For children with special needs to receive the same education and activities they would receive in school if they weren’t online	What the need is not: People not understanding why these children can’t still use regular younger children’s apps, not understanding why they aren’t getting the same amount of activities and education online like other kids
Why the need exists: Because special needs children are more distracted, are less involved in online school and aren’t getting nearly the same amount of activities and education because all school was moved to online	Alternative explanations: Other children are also not getting the same activity time and experience, harder to receive this education through online These special needs children can keep using these younger children’s apps

This time it was more frustrating interviewing people with no connection to this need, even people whose children were no longer in school. It was like they hadn’t ever been in contact with someone with special needs. I know it would be even more confusing to pitch this idea to someone who hasn’t been exposed to children with learning difficulties, or they’ve never had this problem before.

The second most important part of entrepreneurship

Opportunity: Growing special needs children’s education and activities, if they’ve missed it in school because of distraction, if school is out of session, etc.

Product or Service: a free app available to special needs children on their parents phones or tablets, that uses education and activity through its games, and is as appealing to them as young children apps.

The whole purpose behind this app is that special education children are also in online schooling because of this virus, and because of that there attention isn’t fully present and they miss out on their education and are no longer participating in their activities as they would in person. And special education children are very involved in games at home, even young children games. This app would be a substitute for that and when school would change to in person again they could still use it for fun or if they miss any other school because of any other circumstances.