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.

23A- My Venture's Unfair Advantage

My first resource would be my customer market.
It is valuable, not rare, it is imitable, and it could be copied.
My next resource would be my customer service.
It is valuable to each customer, it is rare to know the people who to take your trash off, it could be imitated and copied if someone really wanted to.
My next resource would be my free bins.
All trash disposal companies charge you either for the bin or for the service so it is valuable. rare, but it could be imitated if someone wanted to.
My next resource would be the service it self.
It is valuable, but it is not rare, and it is imitable if some one wanted to.
My next resource would be the truck I use to haul the plastic from the homes straight to the recycling facility.
The truck would not be valuable to anyone but me, it is not rare, and it is imitable. 
My next resource would be my reliability.
This is valuable to the customers, is not rare, and can be imitated.
My next resource would be my weekly email about the plastic.
This is valuable, it is rare, and it is imitable.
My next resource would be me. 
I am valuable, rare, and I am not imitable.
My last resource is my location.
This is valuable, it is rare, but it is also imitable.

My customer service and weekly emails would in fact be my best resources other than my customers themselves. If I keep them happy and informed I will keep my customers and my company.

22A- Elevator Pitch #3

I got some really good feedback on my last elevator pitch. Great comments with great feedback. I noticed the audio in my computer is not as good as I thought it was so I still had to change how loudly and confidently I spoke.

I changed a couple sentences here and there to make it flow a littler better and I spoke louder so that I could be easily heard. Third time is in fact the charm! Doing this assignment three times really got me comfortable with this speech and speaking in front of a camera.

21A Reading Reflection #2

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

The book I chose to read for my reading reflection #2 assignment was written by Scott Adams, "How To Fail At Everything And Still Win Big". Obviously the theme is how to fail over and over again yet still succeed.

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

This book definitely enhanced and connected with what I learned in ENT 3003. It shows you how to set a detailed schedule with the time, space,and the knowledge of how to get multiple systems. Adams prefers systems over goals.

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

My exercise for this class based on what this book taught me would be really hard assignment with a lot of goals and certain tasks to complete. Almost certainly people would not get a perfect score on their first couple of tries but after making them fail a couple of times and with a little help I can show them that you can actually learn from your failures.

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 when I realized that Adams really was right. It is so much better to focus on the systems of doing things rather than the goal. When you focus on the goal too much you seem to always fail. Completing a whole bunch of small systems can help boost confidence which in turns will make you win

Overall this was really great, funny, and witty book that can teach you a lot. I would recommend to anyone who fails a lot like me and still wants to succeed,

20 Growing Social Capital

The first person fits the domain expert. His name is Dustin Rowe and he loves to recycle just as much as I do. He is a friend of my dads and when my dad told him about my business he said he had to contact me. He told me that my market search was a good fit and gave me some advice on how to proceed with my business. Having Dustin in my network will help me trouble shoot any problems and I can bounce my ideas off of him as well.

The second person fits my market expert. Her name is Angela Ferry. She is an insurance sales rep and has a great understanding of my market. I met this lady through one of my friends cousins mother. I pitched her my business idea and told her what my market would consist of. She thought that my segment would really fit well with my business. Having her in my network could lead to gaining new potential clients in my segment.

The third expert would honestly be a plastic supplier. I did not see the need to contact them as they would see my business as trivial to their time.

This was actually a really cool exercise that helped me start to build my social capital. If I started my business I would have a good start on where to start because of this exercise. This did differ from all of the other networking exercises because I was able to establish a relationship with people that could help me start my business. 

17A- Elevator pitch #2

Elevator Pitch #2

I definitely noticed that I was talking very quietly and I moved a little too much. Both were very good tips for me.

I changed my tone and how loud I spoke during my elevator pitch. I tried to not move as much but also did not stand still.

18A- Customer Avatar

My prototypical customer avatar would have to be an older lady in her 40's with a large family that is always busy. If it isn't church on Sunday, the kids sporting events on Saturday, kids extra curricular actives after school during the week, or having to work a full time job her days are always busy. She rarely even has time for herself. Recycling is the last thing on this busy moms mind. All she knows is that little Timmy takes the trash out every week and it is taken care of for her. My idea will help her feel better about recycling almost hassle free while living a very hard and busy life for no fee at all! My monthly news letters about recycling facts would make her day just a little better and hopefully she will spread the good word of my service to all of her friends who are most likely also busy moms with large families.


I do have one thing in common with this busy mother and that is a full schedule. If it isn't working a full time job freezing my but off filling order at Walmart Dc I am home doing home work.

19A- Idea Napkin #2

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

I am Myles Finn! I am a hard worker and when I set my mind on something it will get done. My skills that I have acquired so far are a great work ethic, positive attitude, and adaptability. My aspirations for this business idea is to make a huge impact on our ever growing plastic crisis. That may mean finding a better way to recycle plastic, bringing great attention and action to this crisis or even just cleaning out the ocean of all the plastic. If I were to actually start this business I would just recycle a lot of peoples plastic while bringing attention to the crisis and eventually making a real impact. This business idea is just the stepping stone to what could come out of this. Some disagree with me and think that my service is a waste of time because most garbage disposal places will let you recycle. But you have to pay to try and make the world a little less plasticy? That is absolutely absurd to me! 

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

I am offering an easy way to recycle for my customers. I provide the bins and even pick up their plastic weekly free of charge. If the customer would like information, I could start informing them on this ever growing problem, showing them how big of a difference they are making, and hopefully have them tell even one person about me and my goals. I just want everyone to open their eyes and see that if every one pitches in and does their part we still have time to fix this issue.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

Demographically I would offer my service in my home town. Psycographic characteristics would be either laziness or lack of knowledge about our plastic crisis. All of my customers have the urge to recycle but do not have the means to and that is where I would come in with a personal impact on all my customers. My ideal prototypical customer would be large busy families that do not know how to recycle and do not want to pay to recycle.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

Aha! That is just it. I do not require any service fee since they are already paying me with their unwanted plastic! They care because once I talk to them a couple of times and they read the pamphlets that I leave for them they will get the same urge to recycle that I have. It is already bad enough that we have so many land fills just taking up some of our earth while harming it at the same time. If we all do our best to recycle we can fix this issue.

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

What sets me apart is my drive and knowledge of the crisis. A lot of people are aware of this issue and nobody takes advantage of the opportunity that I have identified. I want to see change in the world. If that requires a small time trash service that hopefully starts a movement then I would be very pleased.

I personally think that these elements do fit together quite well. My service is free with no requirements at all. I feel that I would be able to spread the positive message of recycling to a large group of people this way who would  hopefully tell other people . While spreading the word of recycling I will be making money off of other peoples plastic that they were just going to throw away. Impacting the planet and making a profit go together quite well to me.

Some people do not agree that this is solving a customers unmet need. Not having to pay to recycle makes a lot of sense and incentives more people to go with my service! It will be a lot of work but it is for a great cause! I just want everyone to pitch in and recycle. If that means I have to spread the news and get the ball rolling then so be it! I updated each question based on the great feedback I got from my fellow students.