week 12 reading reflection

1) I think the thing that stood out most to me was the section on Fatal Visions. I didn't know that Fatal Visions, like compromising strategy for growth, were even real things to worry about!

2) I am confused by the definition of risk, the probability of major financial loss, I didn't know risk pertained only to finances. In fact, I don't think it does so I am surprised they described it like that.

3) I would ask the author how a entrepreneur realizes what cell of the entrepreneurial strategy matrix their business is in, and I would ask if, during the failure stage of a life cycle, could some brands of a product succeed and some fail?

3) I do not think the author was wrong about anything, other than the definition of risk.

Venture Concept No. 1

As a student in ENT 3003, I have thought of a concept for a new venture. My concept is a new restaurant for brunch in Gainesville. I believe this restaurant should be within walking distance of campus, and should be accessible to students and residents alike.

I believe the students of the University of Florida need a new place to eat breakfast and lunch (brunch). Most of the places we have in Gainesville to eat brunch are not within walking distance, which means that students have to move cars from valuable parking spots. Also, most of the brunch restaurants have really long lines. I believe that if more brunch spots are opened, the clientele will be dispersed and lines will therefore be shorter.

Students are currently going to places like Peach Valley and The Flying Biscuit for brunch, however I believe my restaurant, Bacon and Biscuits, will be a much more convenient option. I think that the students of UF are pretty loyal to the places they already go, but I believe the ability to walk to the restaurant will sway their opinions.

The opportunity to open a brunch restaurant is a pretty big one. Brunch is a big deal these days, and a lot of students and families go on the weekends- even weekdays. I think the window of opportunity will be open for a long while. Breakfast food never really goes out of style!

My “innovation” will be the restaurant, Bacon and Biscuits. I would open this restaurant close to campus, probably midtown. Meals would be $8-12, depending on what you order, and appetizers would be less. I think I would also sell dry ingredient mixes, like biscuit mix and fritter mix, in local grocery stores, if the business does well. That was the venture that I added to my Amazon Whisperer page, and I think the dry ingredients would sell, if the business was already in good shape!

As I said before, I believe my customers will switch to my restaurant because it is within walking distance of campus. I also hope they will switch for the environment that I will provide, casual and trendy. I think word of mouth will really help get the majority of people to switch to my restaurant. A happy, helpful staff will be really important!

The competitors of Bacon and Biscuits are, as I said before, Peach Valley, The Flying Biscuit, and, recently, The Swamp Restaurant, which has opened for breakfast on Sundays. I believe Swamp has some weaknesses in this area as it is typically used as a bar, and isn’t really a clean, morning type environment. Most people probably won’t want to eat brunch at a bar, if they had another restaurant that they could walk to. Beyond this, Swamp is only open on Sundays, which is kind of a let down for people who want a good Saturday or weekday brunch. I believe that Peach Valley and The Flying Biscuit also have the weakness of distance from campus. As I said before, people really hate moving their cars.

I think customer support is going to be a huge factor in the success of Bacon and Biscuits. I myself am a loyal customer to Peach Valley, and do not usually agree to go to Flying Biscuit, even though I am sure it is just as good. I need this kind of customer support and loyalty if Bacon and Biscuits is going to thrive as a business.

I would need a staff of chefs, waiters/waitresses, hostesses/hosts, and management in order for this restaurant to run smoothly. These people are going to need to work well under pressure, be customer oriented individuals, and need to maintain an optimistic attitude. The size of the restaurant and customer base would define how many employees I truly need.

I believe my most valuable resource in developing this restaurant would be the chefs at my sorority. They would be able to teach me so much about what students like to eat for brunch, what “sells” best, menu suggestions, and how to deal with cooking for large groups.

Also, as I said previously, I really would like to sell dry ingredient mixes at local groceries, if the business takes off. I think it would be an added way to increase profits, as well as another way to increase customer loyalty. People that really like the restaurant will be inclined to buy the mixes to make at home!

If this venture really takes off, I would like to franchise, or at least open more Bacon and Biscuits in Gainesville. Beyond this, I could potentially look at other restaurant ventures in different culinary areas.

Amazon Whisperer

1) The revenue drivers are the foods and services from the restaurant that I will be opening to serve brunch.

2) I think that next I should prepackage things like biscuit mix or fritter mix to sell through grocery stores.

3) I think selling things from the restaurant in stores will increase customer loyalty because they will buy the mixes from me, because they know they like the restaurant, versus other companies.

4) Red Lobster sells their biscuit mix in stores.

5) Almost everyone likes them, only two people gave less than a 5 star review, and they were 4 star reviews! They just said that they would rather have less than 12 in a pac, they said they have never seen a box with just one mix pack in the box. So, that is something I would have to do. 

6) I think this will help get the restaurant name out there and it would help me get people into the restaurant if they buy the biscuits/boxed grocery items first.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

1) I think the biggest surprise for me in this reading was the managing trade-offs section. This section was cool to me because I didn't think managing trade offs would have more than a small scale effect, however, when dealing with issues like crowdsourcing, trade offs make a large difference.

2) I think the part that was most confusing to me was Connecting Innovation to Strategy.

3) If I could ask the author two questions I would ask him how they came up with the innovation map and I would ask what kinds of trade offs he has had to make.

4) I do not think the author was wrong about anything.

My Unfair Advantage

10 resources:

the chefs at my sorority
my sorority sisters
my understanding of finance
my capability to work well with others
my experience in culinary classes
my knowledge of the student body and what they prefer
my ability to talk to people I don't know
my organization skills
my ability to look at things objectively
I intend to create a casual environment that is welcoming to the student body

1-the chefs at my sorority are valuable and rare because not everyone has the opportunity to talk to chefs on a personal level that feed 200+ people.
2- my sisters are not imitable and rare because they are part of the student body and they are all big fans of brunch (they know what they like)
3-my understanding of finance is valuable because it will help me run a business
4-my capability to work well with others is valuable because it will help me be a team member in the business
5-my experience in culinary classes is valuable and rare because not everyone who wants to run a restaurant has background in the actual service
6-my knowledge of the student body is valuable and inimitable because UF's student body is unique, and being part of it and talking to people in it has given me insight into what they like
7-my ability to talk to people I don't know is valuable because I will be able to speak to customers
8-my organizations skills are valuable because I will be able to keep the business running smoothly
9-my ability to look at things objectively is valuable because I will be able to look at the business as a whole without being biased to certain staff, ect.
10-I think my intention to create a casual environment that is welcoming to the student body is rare, as most brunch places aren't super casual and they aren't steps from campus

I definitely think my top resources are the house chefs and my sorority sisters combined, as the video at the top of this page suggests, the chefs know what the girls like and the girls are good examples of customers so I can talk to both "resources" and gain valuable information.

Elevator Pitch 3

My feedback from elevator pitch two was very positive, I know that I can still do a lot better and make them a little longer. I get nervous and either talk too fast or repeat myself so I definitely think I still have a lot to work on. In this pitch I tried to dress nicer and talk slower.

My Secret Sauce

 I think my human capital is unique because:
-I have knowledge of finances that would help in a business
-I have culinary background that would help me run a restaurant
-I am kind of a social butterfly, it is easy for me to meet/get along with new people
-I can be very objective, which could be good while running a business
-I am a good problem solver in stressful situations


This is what my friends think about me:

Okay, so Ali talked a lot about my dedication to my studies, specifically finance (if you're taking business finance, you understand) but this surprised me. Finance is kind of my life, I really enjoy it and it's challenging in a good way, but it was interesting to see that someone really thought of it as a main thing to say about me. So, I guess I was correct in saying that my background in finance would help.

Carsen said that I have no emotions, as most people do, but I never realized it could be a good thing. I think now that not being super emotional is part of the reason that I can be so objective in stressful situations. 

Riley also talked about my ability to work objectively and be a good leader. It was interesting to see her talk about me being mature, I didn't really know she thought that, or that anybody thought that at all. I think maturity could come in handy when running a business.

Laura seemed a little nervous, but she knows me better than anyone so I'm not sure why. She talked about me being a finance major and being emotionless (as everyone does-it's a joke amongst my friends). She didn't say anything too surprising, in my opinion. 

I asked my mom to be the fifth person I interviewed, and as she is not here I asked her to record herself. She doesn't know how to do that, so I asked her to text me her response. This is what she said (after I explained my business idea and the goal of this exercise):

"Amanda has always loved the idea of opening a restaurant of some sort, so it doesn't surprise me that this is what she chose as her idea. As far as skills go, she took culinary classes all throughout high school- so this is a good fit. She is a driven, hard worker and is very, very organized. Emotionally, she can seem cold at times but she really does care about things in an objective way."

Key Takeaway:
I think my mom (I mean, clearly) knows the most about me. She brought up my culinary classes and stated that they would help- and I believe they will. I never really think of myself as organized, I always thought I was just tidy, so it was interesting to see that she was the second or third person (can't remember) to say that I was organized.


I think I see myself more basically than others see me. I see myself as good in stressful situations while others attribute that to my organization and lack of emotional vulnerability. The people I interviewed also see me as very driven, which is something that never really crosses my mind. No, I don't think I would change anything about my list from part one. I think they all still hold true in some way, even if the people I interviewed said them in a different way.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

1) The thing that surprised me most was how many accounting principles went into this chapter, and how much accounting truly goes into entrepreneurship. It is not something I usually think about!

2) None of this is really confusing to me, as I have already taking Financial and Managerial accounting. Both of these classes prepared me well enough that the information in this chapter makes sense.

3) If I could ask the author two questions, I would ask:

"Is it possible to be a good entrepreneur without knowing much about the financial aspect of the business?"

"Is it easy to learn finances as you go, through trial and error?"

4) I really don't think the author was wrong about anything. He explained each accounting principle clearly in a way that was easy for me to understand and recall.

Week 9 Reading Reflection

1) The biggest surprise for me in this reading was that gathering information from secondary data was actually less expensive than gathering primary data. I would assume they would be relatively the same, as some places charge for use of their information.

2) I tend to always have a problem reading the graphic data in this book, and table 10.2 is especially confusing.

3) If I could ask the author two questions I would ask:

"Do the typical research questions you presented tend to give good, well rounded feedback?"

"Do ventures typically fail if they choose the wrong type of marketing philosophy. For example, if a company chooses to be sales-driven when they typically should be consumer-driven, will they still get by?"

4) No, this week I do not think the author was wrong about anything!

Idea Napkin No. 2

1) I'm Amanda, I am majoring in Finance and hopefully going to law school. This aspiration, however, has absolutely nothing to do with my idea- opening a restaurant specifically for brunch, closer to campus (walking distance). Since I've been a kid I have always been really passionate about cooking, and I always wanted to open a bakery. This option was never in the cards for me though, as my parents wanted me to go to school for something that required grad school.

2) Since coming to UF, I have noticed that brunch spots always have obnoxiously long lines, and they require driving off campus and giving up precious parking spots. So, for my entrepreneurship idea I decided I should 'open' a brunch restaurant instead of a bakery. The restaurant would be within walking distance of campus, so nobody would have to move their car. I have also thought about keeping the restaurant open later than your typical 7am-2pm brunch restaurant. I would like to keep this place as convenient as possible for students.

3) I'm offering this concept to students, as they are mostly the ones I see at brunch on the weekends. However, anyone is welcome. I know a lot of students bring their families to brunch when they are in town, and a lot of Greek students have big gatherings at these places.

4) I think they will care about my brunch spot as opposed to others because it will be close to campus, and hopefully won't have a massive line, as there will be more options in the area to disperse the clientele.

5) As I said in my last Idea Napkin, I have spent many years taking culinary classes and have been certified in a lot of food service areas. I also know a lot about finance, which means I will be able to run the business aspect of things while also having a grasp of what the chefs do. I think I would be pretty well rounded.  I am also beyond passionate about this idea, and I believe being happy with what you do plays a massive roll in how well the business does.

I think these elements join well together. I believe my passion and understanding of the food service industry couples well with the need for more brunch options in Gainesville. The only thing that doesn't make sense with me pursuing this venture is that it has almost nothing to do with my major.

Feedback Memo:

1) the commenters agree that this is an idea that is necessary in Gainesville
2) someone said that passion isn't always enough
3) they think I have enough of an understanding of the industry that I can do it
4) they think that since I'm doing it because I'm passionate about it and that it's not for the money, that I will go far.
5) it is a unique idea, as opposed to a regular restaurant

I incorporated these ideas by spending more time talking about the proximity to campus and talking about how passionate I truly am. I wish I had more negative feedback/constructive criticisms, however, because the feedback seemed to all be the same.