30A- FINAL REFLECTION

1) Read through your posts from this semester. Recall all of the experiences you've had a long the way -- the highs, the lows -- the fun moments, and the moments of drudgery, and even the moments of dread.

I've done quite a lot of different kinds of assignments throughout the semester. It has been quite the emotional rollercoaster. There were a lot of easy assignments and a lot of annoying assignments. Interviewing so many people really was a hassle but I see how it was all trying to get us closer to becoming an entrepreneur.

2) What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing?

I really liked the Venture Concept assignment. It was the biggest assignment but having to put all of the individual assignment together to make one large business was an amazing idea to me. I really liked the bug list assignment too. I am proud of all of the elevator pitches I made it through in this class.

3) At the beginning of the semester, I mentioned that I wanted each of you to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Now, at the end, do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset?

To be honest I do not feel like an entrepreneur yet because I have not started my business. I do in fact feel closer to developing and entrepreneurial mindset because of this class though.

4) What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset?

I recommend to always triple check your declarations! Even if you double checked and you know they are declared just check one more time and it is 100% in fact declared! If you are taking multiple classes I would recommend setting up a planner of every classes due dates and lecture dates to stay on top of every assignment.  

29A- Venture Concept #2

I was cleaning up my room one day and I realized just how much plastic I use alone. I then took it out to my family’s trash can in the kitchen and almost everything in there was plastic! I thought, wow I really wish I had a super easy way to recycle; so, I started looking into it and found out that all recycling service charges would be added onto my garbage removal service. To me paying to recycle honestly seemed absurd and completely steered me and my family away from wanting to recycle. Then I started my Principles of Entrepreneurship class with Dr. Pryor and I was able to identify my own unmet need and decided to build an amazing business around the opportunity. There are some people who are already environmentally active and conscious so it would be pointless for me to market my service to these people. I decided that the best untapped market for my service would be large families who are always active but do not have the time or knowledge for recycling. Right now, most people are just throwing all of their trash and recyclables into the same bin and paying a trash service fee for them to take all of your accumulated trash away for you.



With my amazing service I will give every customer a bin for them to fill up with all of their recyclables for free and I will also take all of their recyclables away from them for free as well. I will be able to make money by recycling all of the recyclables that others were just going to throw away for it so sit in a land fill and take up space or even end up in our oceans. A great idea that I got from feed back was to have my weekly newsletter send out as an email instead of a piece of paper. It is more environmentally efficient and it is less of a haggle all of customers including myself. This weekly news letter would not only include recycling facts but also the amount of plastic they recycled and how much plastic I was able to recycle as whole thanks to all of my customers. I have identified my customer market as large families who are always active so they do not have the time or knowledge to recycle.



My venture concept would in fact solve the problem of not being able to recycle and actually having to pay to recycle on top of paying for your garbage removal service. All that I ask is that every container is completely empty and that it is on my list of recyclables. This list includes all seven types of plastic which are labeled for the most part, aluminum, paper, and even glass. Since the market I am really marketing to is large active families I will be able to show them just how much of difference they can make in starting our planets war on plastic. They will be able to recycle a lot of recyclables each week and hopefully start bragging to all of their friends and family about much they are affecting the world for how little effort and time. That is the whole point of my weekly newsletter email giving them real hard facts about how much weight they are pushing and what kind of effect they are making by adding to my company. I can start getting more customers by showing them the results of other family’s success and how much we can all accomplish by working together. The more that they talk to their peers about my service the more people that will also want to feel good about themselves because they too recycle and save the plant at the same time. Once I start getting a big enough clientele pool, I can start my service in other areas that are thriving will ignorance and recyclables.



EVERYBODY SHOULD RECYCLE! Honestly, I do not care about having competitors trying to copy my success. I actually want people to copy me and start on this movement! I see no problem with this since the more people copying me just means that there are more people recycling. Obviously, I still want to be the best recycling option around so I have to say that my weekly email about how much each customer recycles and how much my company as a whole is recycling would stand out from just about every other service out there. It adds a personal touch to my service for each customer that will hopefully uplift their spirits a little be able to a little honest humble bragging because they really are making a difference. This email will be able to show them just how much of a difference we all are creating.

The next venture could be trying to get more customers to start recycling through my service. A cool idea could be that on the weekly newsletters I can show how many peoples recyclables I take care of and show them all the new recycling brothers and sisters that have joined our war on plastics.



In five years, I don’t want to be driving around picking up people’s recyclables. I want to be running multiple teams of people doing this for me. I also want to have started a real movement. This company is not all about making money which initially made me stand out from every other company like me. I want to genuinely change the world for the better.


I have gotten a lot of amazing feedback about my business class throughout this semester. One of the most influential criticisms was from a fellow classmate who told me to switch from an actual newsletter to an email newsletter. I get my memo out without wasting paper and it's very easy for my customers to trash it without feeling guilty about not recycling the paper.

I have changed a lot about my business because of the feedback I have gotten from my peers. I am very thankful for all of the insightful ideas that they gave me. If I were to start this business I really have thought very far ahead and have already avoided numerous obstacles along the way.

27A- Reading Reflection #3

1)What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The main theme of this book was explaining how the makers will embody the newest resolution. He talked about the industrial, digital, and the digital manufacturing revolutions.  He then goes on to explain how the makers are the newest of the revolutions.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

Chris Anderson explained how the industrial revolution was just humans building on past ideas to make them stronger. That's exactly what all we have been doing in this class with our business idea.

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

I think our professor had this book in mind when he created the business idea exercise. The idea of building off of an idea to make it stronger and stronger is a great example of what this author was trying to convey.

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations

My biggest aha moment was that makers was the new industrial revolution. He talked about how the maker fair was a great way for tinkerers to work together and share it with their communities to build on top of each others ideas. From tinkering to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship to industrial makers.

28A- Your Exit Strategy

At first I am going to be driving around getting peoples plastic and recycling it for them free of charge. I will be making a little bit of money but money is not what drives this company. The primary goal is to inform as many people as I can about how awful plastic and how important it is to recycle all recyclables. I do not plan on selling my company in the future. I would like to keep it in my family but I eventually want to hire people to recycle for me so I can focus on the big picture ideas for our ever growing plastic crisis. If its not cleaning up the oceans or our landfills then I want to find a radically innovative way to reuse plastic that will not harm our planet any more than it already has.

I have picked this strategy so that I could still have a company that recycles and is always trying to inform any and everyone to recycle while I am focusing on other plastic problems.

To be honest this is the first time I have thought about my exit strategy in this course so it did not affect my venture concept at all.

26A- Celebrating failure

Earlier this year in this entrepreneurship class I did assignment 6A Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulator Trends but unfortunately I forgot to declare that I actually completed the assignment. So I missed out on two points on my whole grade.

I learned to double check that I declared every assignment for the week. Thankfully, I have only made that mistake once. If I don't miss any more declarations and don't completely fail these next cupcakes I should just squeak by with the A.

Failure is hard but something my father has instilled in me since I was a child was to never make the same mistake twice. This class helped me realize that I will have many more failures going forward with my education. The only thing I can do is try to learn from my mistakes along with others mistakes as well.

25A- What's next

I have already talked about my weekly email offering my customers insight on much they are recycling and how much my company as whole is recycling. A cool new idea I though of was on this email I can welcome all new arrivals to our group and thank them for their recyclables.

My first interview was with Darryl Watkins. He has a large family and they do not recycle. He loved my entire plan and thought the newsletter and the free service were sure fire ways to attract and retain customers. His idea was when trying to get new customers I should explain my mission and values statement. He said that if I really wanted people to start recycling with me I should first explain why me.

The second interview in my existing market was with Hiroki Dione. I explained to him what my company was and how I planned on changing the world. He loved every detail I told him. He really liked the news letter idea and said that is a great innovation to my opportunity. He told me I was doing everything perfectly and that I have thought of everything I need to be successful.

The third interview in my existing market was with Jose Rivero. I explained to him what my company was and what I planned on doing and he loved it. I then asked him what else I could be doing that I have not though of yet. He gave me the great idea to get on social media and start making a presence. He said I might even be able to get new customers this way as well.

This exercise really helped me identify new possibilities and how to make some really great changes to my company. I will make a really good business plan and start giving my elevator pitch to all potential new customers. I can also make some social media pages to really start getting new people and starting a movement.

I decided to change from a B2C to a B2B market.

I talked to Ote Williams who is a store manager at S&S Food Store. I pitched him my idea and told him I can set up bins in the store and our side the store next to the other trash cans with my name and contact info for any potential customer that may like to start recycling. Ote told me that I could have a top performers section on my emails to show my customers who is recycling the most.

The second interview in my new market was Bailey Burbono who is a store manager at Baker Salvage which is a local discount grocery store. I told her my business plan and what I wanted to do and she loved the idea. She said she wanted a very large bin because they use a lot of plastic. Her idea of what to change was to give local stores like hers that recycle with me a sticker to put in their window to show that they are environmentally conscious and to give me more new customers.

This exercise really helped me identify some great opportunities to make my company even better and efficient. I can start making a top performers list to make friends and family compete against each other to recycle more. Also having stores being able to label them selves as environmentally friendly would be a big boost for them and hopefully get my name out even faster. I think this B2B market is very interesting and might be a better way to go.

24A- Venture Concept #1

I was cleaning up my room one day and I realized just how much plastic I use alone. I then took it out to my family’s trash can in the kitchen and almost everything in there was plastic! I thought, wow I really wish I had a super easy way to recycle; so, I started looking into it and found out that all recycling service charges would be added onto my garbage removal service. To me paying to recycle honestly seemed absurd and completely steered me and my family away from wanting to recycle. Then I started my Principles of Entrepreneurship class with Dr. Pryor and I was able to identify my own unmet need and decided to build an amazing business around the opportunity. There are some people who are already environmentally active and conscious so it would be pointless for me to market my service to these people. I decided that the best untapped market for my service would be large families who are always active but do not have the time or knowledge for recycling. Right now, most people are just throwing all of their trash and recyclables into the same bin and paying a trash service fee for them to take all of your accumulated trash away for you.

With my amazing service I will give every customer a bin for them to fill up with all of their recyclables for free and I will also take all of their recyclables away from them for free as well. I will be able to make money by recycling all of the recyclables that others were just going to throw away for it so sit in a land fill and take up space or even end up in our oceans. A great idea that I got from feed back was to have my weekly newsletter send out as an email instead of a piece of paper. It is more environmentally efficient and it is less of a haggle all of customers including myself. This weekly news letter would not only include recycling facts but also the amount of plastic they recycled and how much plastic I was able to recycle as whole thanks to all of my customers. I have identified my customer market as large families who are always active so they do not have the time or knowledge to recycle.

My venture concept would in fact solve the problem of not being able to recycle and actually having to pay to recycle on top of paying for your garbage removal service. All that I ask is that every container is completely empty and that it is on my list of recyclables. This list includes all seven types of plastic which are labeled for the most part, aluminum, paper, and even glass. Since the market I am really marketing to is large active families I will be able to show them just how much of difference they can make in starting our planets war on plastic. They will be able to recycle a lot of recyclables each week and hopefully start bragging to all of their friends and family about much they are affecting the world for how little effort and time. That is the whole point of my weekly newsletter email giving them real hard facts about how much weight they are pushing and what kind of effect they are making by adding to my company. I can start getting more customers by showing them the results of other family’s success and how much we can all accomplish by working together. The more that they talk to their peers about my service the more people that will also want to feel good about themselves because they too recycle and save the plant at the same time. Once I start getting a big enough clientele pool, I can start my service in other areas that are thriving will ignorance and recyclables.

EVERYBODY SHOULD RECYCLE! Honestly, I do not care about having competitors trying to copy my success. I actually want people to copy me and start on this movement! I see no problem with this since the more people copying me just means that there are more people recycling. Obviously, I still want to be the best recycling option around so I have to say that my weekly email about how much each customer recycles and how much my company as a whole is recycling would stand out from just about every other service out there. It adds a personal touch to my service for each customer that will hopefully uplift their spirits a little be able to a little honest humble bragging because they really are making a difference. This email will be able to show them just how much of a difference we all are creating.

The next venture could be trying to get more customers to start recycling through my service. A cool idea could be that on the weekly newsletters I can show how many peoples recyclables I take care of and show them all the new recycling brothers and sisters that have joined our war on plastics.

In five years, I don’t want to be driving around picking up people’s recyclables. I want to be running multiple teams of people doing this for me. I also want to have started a real movement. This company is not all about making money which initially made me stand out from every other company like me. I want to genuinely change the world for the better.