Week 14 Reading Reflection

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations? 

I liked reading about the factors in large corporations that have exhibited successful innovations because it was very good advice and things you wouldn't normally think would be that important such as atmosphere and small, flat organizations.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

The section about the entrepreneurial assessment instrument was confusing because I wonder if every entrepreneur even knows about it and there is a way to assess their skills.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Can you be both radical and incremental at times and still be successful? Because sometimes it is a good thing to take risks and jump to an idea.

How successful are companies that have innovation teams in regards to keeping everyone in the company on the same page when it comes to innovating? Because these teams are separate from the rest of the workforce so how do they stay as one big team.

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I agreed with everything the author wrote about in regards to entrepreneurial mind-sets and ethical challenges. I especially enjoyed reading about the environment awareness and green capitalism that was discussed.

Google Gold

During the course, I did not even really think about Search Engine Optimization because it did not ever cross my mind that someone would be searching for my blog I should have thought about it a lot sooner in the course. That being said, some of the activities I did for each blog post that could contribute to SEO were talking about solar energy and keeping it at the forefront of each post, since it is what my product was based around.

I didn't really use keywords, but there were phrases that I said multiple times in a lot of my posts, which included battery powered solar charging stations and sustainability.

YouTube was the only social media platform that I used to promote my blog through elevator pitches and customer interviews, but they really don't have more than 20 or so views so it wasn't very effective. For the most part social media was ignored.

My most viral post was "The Twenty Percent." I think it obtained the most traffic because I did a good job with my interviews and also because one student told Dr. Pryor how good of a job I did! 

I was on the first page of google results when I typed in "Jennie Carmody blog." So I guess using my full name really helped with SEO!

Very Short Interview Part 2

I revisited the owner of the Cymplify coffee shop here in Gainesville for part 2 of this interview. My impression of the initial interview was that I really didn't know much about entrepreneurship, especially based on the questions I asked. I felt a lot more comfortable interviewing this time because I felt that I was more confident in my knowledge about entrepreneurship and was able to ask more intelligent questions. 

This is the set of questions I asked:

How do you see your business growing in the next 5 years?
He said that in the next 5 years he sees his business growing more. He hopes to keep on putting on more special events in the lot near his business, such as more food truck rallies and small food and music festivals. He also thinks that partnering with local businesses would be a good idea for word of mouth advertising. 

That being said, where do you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years?
He said that he sees himself still running his business in the next few years, and hopes that business continues to grow and more opportunities for growth come about. He loves what he does and loves that everything in regards to his business are in his own hands, that is what he loves most about being an entrepreneur.

Do you have an exit strategy for your business?
He does not have an exit strategy for his business yet because he is still so dedicated and involved in its progress. But he says he will most likely sell the business when he gets too old to take care of it. 

I feel I have definitely grown in my abilities to understand entrepreneurship and what it takes to manage your own business. The entrepreneur did not really convey that I had progressed, but I believe he felt more comfortable in this interview than in the last when I was more hesitant to ask follow-up questions.