Halfway Reflection

1.     Tenaciousness is a competency. 

What are the behaviours that you

have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?

I’d say it’s the way I approach people to conduct some interviews. I also have improved my speaking skills a lot. I can sometimes be procrastinated on my work, but this class has a clear deadline of assignment that I cannot miss them, so I basically to work on things earlier.

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? 

I’d say that entrepreneurship is about being creative and coming up with new ideas and initiatives. I sometimes afraid to think out of box. Also, I’m not confidence in myself like Is my idea good enough?

3.     Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about

1.     Do not start doing assignment on the day of deadline or the day before because some exercises are very time consuming.

2.     You’ll get to see different perspectives of people from reading others’ blogs and doing some interviews. That’s just the best way to learn about the environment around you.

3.     Try to go to class if you can make it because interaction and discussion in class are still important and you’ll feel completely different from watching videos.

Reading Reflection No.1

“Grinding It Out,” the Making of McDonalds and the story of Ray Kroc.

What surprised you the most?

I think what surprised me the most is that he started MC Donald’s when he was 52 years old. At this age, many people are already retired, and some of them would feel that they are too old to start a business.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

What I admire most about him are his optimism and determination toward his ideas. I admired him for being an industrial person and not easily giving up to all obstacles.

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

What I least admire is how he spent almost every minute with the business, leaving his family behind when he pursued the business growth in many places. He often encountered issues with the actual founder of the McDonald's restaurant. The relationship was worsening between Mr. Kroc and the brother, which lead to many legal problems

2.What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

            I think he had a very good sense of doing business like he knows how to treat employees and how to make customer satisfied. I would say that he’s a very wise man, and he can successfully critically analyse the market needs.

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

            I feel like the book is confusing a bit because it does not follow a chronological order.

4.If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask?

     I’d ask him about some tricks of starting a business and how to compete with other brands.

    Another one would be how did he come up with delicious burger and French fries’ recipe.

5.For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

     He is very determined, and he was a hard-working guy since he was a salesman. I’d recommend this book to a person who are afraid to start something new. He would be such an inspirational to those who’re struggling to pursuit life goals.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: The segment I chose is people from teenagers to adults. They could be any gender/ types of job. I target people who has middle-high income.

Interviews: 

1.              Person 1: Female age 21; She is a friend of mine who’s currently living in Thailand. She does points out the only reason she would want to rent is because she gets bored of what she already had. However, she pointed out that, in some cases, it’s impossible to rent. Last semester, she was an exchange student in Montreal, Canada for 6 months. She had to purchase new warm coat since rental services would allow to rent for just a week or two.

2.              Person 2: Male age 35;I know him from my internship, and he loves to go skiing. Although he already had several ski suits, he said that this business is interesting. He loves to post pictures on face book, and he thinks it’s a great idea to be able to change outfits without having to buy the whole price. However, he also points out that if the rental prices have to be low enough to encourage him to rent, instead of buying a new one.

3.              Person 3: Female age 53; She sees the needs of winter wear rental because of cost saving. She emphasises that the rental platform should be simple and easy to use for people of her age.

Conclusion: have chosen these three interviews based on the targeted customers that I planned. The results surprise me since they give recommendations on things that I have never thought about before.

Idea Napkin#1

1    1.I am an exchanged finance student from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. My dream is to open a business that I feel the needs of it. Moreover, I really love fashion and beauty; therefore, I hope to combine my business knowledge with my passion.

        2.The product and service I am offering to customers is a winter-wear rental service. Customers could rent winter-wear for a certain period then return to us. They can choose various styles, and different types ex. Ski suit and fur.

 I      3.I am offering this product and service to anyone who may believe buying these stuffs are a waste of money for hot climate countries but need them while they go on vacation.

        4.Customers would care about this product and service as it would allow them to save costs, and can always choosing new styles.

        5.The core competencies I possess is my desire to make winter-wear rental wear as convenience as possible; everything can be done online with excellent customer service.

I believe that these five elements fit together. This business has clear targeted customers and also the main purpose of why this kind of business should exists.

Elevator Pitch No.1

https://youtu.be/ru6UySsakGc

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: So, through my interviews, I found out that there are two groups that fall outside of my market. These individuals are those who seem not to travel abroad; therefore, they do not see the needs to rent winter-wear. Also, another group of individuals are those who have very high budget, and do not mind purchasing luxury winter-wear items.

What: I’d say that the need for winter-wear items are very depending on occasions. People who’re going to rent have purposes on Why they need them ex. Going on vacation.

Why: obviously, people who are inside the boundary are those who love to travel abroad during winter, fond of fashion, or want to save costs.

Inside the Boundary                                    Outside the boundary

Who:                                                               Who:

Young adults-middle age who love.               Those who don’t like to travel and don’t

travelling to cold places and want                 mind buying expensive winter-wear.

to save costs/be fashionable.

What:                                                              What:

Convenient                                                     They don’t need any winter-wear in Thailand/They

Cheaper than buying the new one             always buy luxury items.

Can always choose trendy styles

Why need exists:                                         

People don’t want to waste money.

People get bored easily.

Solving the problem

Winter Wear Rental in Thailand

Okay, so here are some problems I find with running a Winter Wear Rental:

Problem1: Demand will be high during Winter/holidays

The sales could be very fluctuated throughout the year. Therefore, the solution could be increase rental fees during holidays and discount or having promotion during low season. Doing this, the revenue receiving during high seasons will offset those during low season, being able to pay fixed costs and employee salaries.

Problem2: Still a need of physical showroom

From the interview, although I want to make it a complete online process from placing order to return, some customers want to see the product before they decide to rent. Therefore, I could rent a small showroom to display products, so customers and come and see.

Problem3: Delivery and rental Length time

The prompt delivery services could take about more than one day-2 days if the delivery is made from different region. Also, the length of rental time would be different among each otherwise we’ll lose opportunity costs. For example, rate for 2 weeks rental would be $50 while rate for 3 days would be $20.

o   Overall, the latter two problems are quite easy to figure out; however, I still believe that the solution to first problem might not be practical yet. Since we increase price during peak times, the rent volume could have dropped. Therefore, in the longer-term strategies, we might expand products to summer-vacay-beach clothing for customers to rent or try to diversify products that customers can rent throughout the year.

Testing the Hypothesis part1

Winter Wear Rental

·       Opportunity: The growth of e-commerce globally. In 2017, it reached around $2.3 trillion and is expected to hit $4.54 trillion in 2021.Specifically, in Thailand, the growth is expected to be a 20% increase in 2020.

·       The who: Business, B2B, B2C, individuals who sell buy things online.

·       The what: There is a large market for people to do online business; however, it could also create threads to offline such as retail.

·       The why: Everyone is using smartphone.

·       Testing the Who: Not only do e-commerce benefit from this, customers also find that it is very convenient for them: more selection of goods and save time.

·       Testing the What: It encourages individual to start selling things through platforms such as eBay and Amazon. Many people can start their business from uploading their products through Facebook or Instagram. Also, it’s very easy to contact with customers via emails or WhatsApp’s. The advertising costs are low comparing to the conventional method.

·       Testing the Why: People use smartphone nowadays because internet is all accessible. People can download the app to do online shopping, payment and delivery channels are also very simple.

·       Interview #1: This is an interview I made with my friend who goes to University in Thailand. She said she enjoyed online shopping because it provides more styles of clothes than going to the brick and motor store. She said that she doesn’t normally carry cash and the online payment is so easy via PayPal. She’s made suggestion on winter wear about allowing customers to make rental on their winter wear that is still in good condition.

·       Interview #2: This is an interview I made with my dorm neighbour. She told me that her favorite part about online clothe shopping is seeing how influencers in the internet wears it, so she’s able to deicide easier to purchase or not. She also loves reading reviews and says that most online business have excellent services.

·       Interview#3: This is an interview with my cousin. He likes the idea of rent, wear, and return, which all done in online platforms. He told me that doing a rental business online is very convenient; however, he also loves to see the real product before renting them; specifically, to touch materials and try them.

·       Interview#4: This is an interview with my American friend that I met in a finance class. Her thought towards online business is very positive. She always shops online, as there are not as many clothing stores in Gainesville. She thinks that an online rental store would be a great idea because you don’t have to go to the physical store to pick up.

·       Interview#5: This is an interview with my aunt. He said that the only thing he dislike about online business is when he doesn’t get what he expects. The photo available in the internet cold pass several photoshop that alters the products. However, he thinks there are several efficient delivery methods that makes prompt delivers, which supports online business.

·       Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you did not know before?

o   First, also people love online shopping, customers still need the off-line stores. For the winter wear business, some customers want to see the product. They want to feel how warm the jacket is, and will they fit with size.

o   Secondly, a girl from interview says that online shopping makes her decision to buy products easier because she loves to see what influencers wear and how people thought about it through reviews.

o   Third, a girl suggested me that winter wear rental should allow customers to trade their products. For example, if I have a coat that I don’t wear regularly, I can lease to the rental shop and make them rent to customers. It’s a win-win position because the rental shop will get commission rate without having to buy inventory, it can save initial costs.