William Sanders Blog

I think the thing that most sticks out to me during this semester is building an idea from start to finish. It was extremely difficult to build the idea up and see it to fruition. The experience that I will remember for a long time is coming up with the idea. Coming up with the one idea was one of the hardest parts because I had so many different things that I was thinking about for this semester. The most joyous experience was coming up with everything associated with the idea. I feel like now I have a good base for if I was to actually start this business. I am most proud of coming up the final venture concept that is the base for the business for years to come. I do now see myself as an entrepreneur. I’m not sure if I will ever start the business I created in this class, but I feel like I have learned so much about what it takes to be an entrepreneur. In the future if I wanted to start a business, I feel like I have moved closer to the entrepreneurial mindset that would help me su...

Opportunity The need exists for students at the University of Florida that have a car and need to park on campus. The nature of this need is that they need a way to plan out their day so they aren’t always stymied by driving around looking for parking. The forces creating this opportunity are the fact that UF is growing at an extremely fast rate and that means more cars are on campus. The market is limited to students at UF in Gainesville. There is no way for customers to currently plan out where they want to park. There is no dedicated way to check whether parking lots are full or not except by driving around aimlessly. This opportunity is big because there are a large number of students at the University of Florida that have cars. The window of opportunity exists as long as UF keeps bringing in record amounts of students each year. Further research will need to be done on whether the market exists for other campuses. Other campuses have a large amount of parking lots as well and m...

I think my ideal exit strategy for this company would be to stay with the business for around a decade and then sell it to someone else. The reason I have picked this particular strategy is because eventually I think my product might become obsolete as technology moves ahead rapidly. Within the next 10 years, I think that my product will still be relevant and could command a high price from buyers. My exit strategy has influenced other decisions made in my concept. The main thing it has influenced is the fact that I want to spread the product quickly for maximum growth. In ten years when I would go to sell my business, I would want to have a maximum amount of growth to command a higher price when selling the company. After selling the company, I would attempt to stay on in some sort of board member role that way I could still be involved in retirement.

For the last reading reflection, I decided to read Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. The thing that surprised me most about Phil is that he first started his shoe venture by selling shoes out of the trunk of his car. That start to such a large and successful company such as Nike is incredible to me. The thing that I most admire about Phil is that he took chances and had great tenacity in starting his business. The thing I least admired about Phil was the fact that he set up factories in China. Some of those factories were eventually found to have sweatshop like conditions. Phil Knight did encounter adversity and failure. I think the main thing he did to get through those times was to just keep pushing. The main competencies Phil exhibited were his constant work ethic and his ability to let people work to their fullest potentials. In the early days of Nike, Phil had to work extremely hard to sell the shoes and build his brand. This hard work ethic along with the people he surrounded himself with...

This biggest time I have failed this semester is when I accidentally missed a reading assignment for one of my other classes. The reading assignments open weekly on canvas and are due on the day of the first class. Most of the assignments for the semester are stored on my calendar in Outlook so that I can easily maintain a schedule even when times get really busy. I did not put the reading assignments on my calendar because I thought I could remember them weekly. A couple of weeks ago I got really busy with other stuff and forgot to do the assignment. This failure was hard to deal with. The assignment was really easy and would only have taken me about 15 minutes to do. From this failure, I learned that I really need to put all my assignments and events on my calendar. I shouldn’t rely on purely remembering things because times get busy and easy assignments have a tendency to slip my mind. When I failed in this, I just tried to take it as a learning experience. I didn’t get mad or sad. ...

Existing Market The next market that I think would be good to target is other schools across the state of Florida that have similar parking problems. I think that in order to expand and grow the business there will be a need to expand to other areas and schools in the Florida area the best way to do that. It is local, so it won’t be completely out of my element and there are other campuses in Florida that are bigger and have more parking spaces and areas to look after. Cade In talking to Cade, he thought it would be a good idea to expand to other schools in Florida. His only piece of advice was that I should make sure to grow slowly that way my current markets that I am in don’t suffer from poor quality or inaccurate information. He also said that I should consider doing some sort of special event notification on the app, so students know that parking lots might be really crowded during certain times. Jacob In talking to Jacob, he also thought that there was a need to expand to other c...

Opportunity The need exists for students at the University of Florida that have a car and need to park on campus. The nature of this need is that they need a way to plan out their day so they aren’t always stymied by driving around looking for parking. The forces creating this opportunity are the fact that UF is growing at an extremely fast rate and that means more cars are on campus. The market is limited to students at UF in Gainesville. There is no way for customers to currently plan out where the want to park. There is no dedicated way to check whether parking lots are full or not except by driving around aimlessly. This opportunity is big because there are a large number of students at the University of Florida that have cars. The window of opportunity exists as long as UF keeps bringing in record amounts of students each year. Innovation Applications on smartphones have made it much easier to access information on the fly. Mobile applications primarily serve as a way to pass time...

1. I have good human capital with my connections through the business school. This resource is very valuable because students in the business school have a wide range of experiences to help with growing a business. It isn’t really that rare because there are a lot of business students. It would be pretty easy to copy but I do think that it is non-substitutable because UF students are some of the top students in the country. 2. I have taken public speaking and networking classes to improve my social capital and ability to speak with others. This resource is valuable because the ability to speak with others is very important in selling an idea. It is rare because there are certain people good at public speaking and others that are not. It would be pretty easy to copy by taking classes but there is no substitute to good communication. 3. My knowledge of technology is very broad because I have decided to pursue a Master of Information Systems and Operations Management. Th...

Link To Pitch:  Elevator Pitch No. 3 The feedback I got on my previous post was again positive. The things I changed for this pitch are cleaning up the wording a little bit and trying to make it flow better. I also tried to dress as formal as possible to resemble exactly how I would be in my real pitch.

The book I choose to read was Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson. The main point the author is trying to make is that we are entering a third industrial revolution which involves digital manufacturing to produce products rapidly and efficiently. This book enhanced learning in ENT 3003 by providing a perspective on where business is heading in the future. I think that as an entrepreneur, one must be constantly looking at trends to gain a competitive advantage and keep up with the future. Many of the ideas presented in the book about digital manufacturing are very prevalent to any entrepreneur because they could help those getting into a business have a leg up on the competition and produce things in their own home. I think that if I were to design an exercise for the class based off the book, it would involve going and seeing the 3D printers in action that they have in Marston Science Library. I think that seeing them in action could really put many of the ideas in...

Nick Domain Expert through classes The person has mutual friends with me and I contacted him through those friends. Nick was very helpful in explaining the app building landscape for me. He has a lot of technical experience including building apps and other computer programs. Nick explained to me a little bit about the process of building an app and how to keep it secure. There was no return expectation from me. He enjoyed explaining his work and helping me out with a school assignment. Nick is very knowledgeable, and I think I could use his expertise and advice along the way with building this app. Jan Market expert through classes This person is a fraternity brother of mine. Jan is an advertising major that attends the University of Florida. He explained to me a little bit about the knowledge that he has learned about marketing to millennials in his advertising classes. Jan is a friend of mine so there was no return expectation. Having Jan in my network is great because I am not the ...

1) I am William Sanders. I would say that one of my best skills relating to business is the ability to lead and help a group come to a consensus. My experience with this comes from my internship at Lockheed Martin and my involvement here on campus. My aspiration is to graduate college and earn a high paying job in a city out west. This business would be a large part of my life if I were to start it. When I do something, I like to put in 100% and it wouldn’t be any different building a business. 2) The product I am offering as an app that offers students at the University of Florida to see what parking lots are open or full spot by spot. The app will also show historic fill times for each lot on campus to allow students to plan out their day and park more quickly and effectively. 3) My main customers are the students at the University of Florida. These students have problems with parking daily and are sick of driving around trying to find a spot. They want to have an app ...

The main customer I see for the parking app is a college aged student that likes the freedom of having a car. The people I can really see utilizing and liking the app are those students that really value being close to their car and having the ability to use it daily to suit wherever they need to commute. I think some hobbies my customers might have are going to the gym on campus as well as eating on campus. Many of my customers will probably want to commute to UF to go to class. I would say they typically drive a mid-range car and are probably interested in downloading the app to save their precious time they have during the day. I am very similar to the customer avatar. I really like having my car close by to get food and go to the gym. I think that it isn’t a coincidence that I have a lot in common with the avatar. I came up with the idea because I saw an unmet need in my own life and decided to base my app off that need.

Please click this link to go to my second pitch:  Elevator Pitch No. 2 The feedback I got on my previous post was relatively positive. One thing I changed for the second pitch is including some recent information about parking that was released a few days ago. I also cleaned up the wording a little bit to make it flow better. The most important feedback I got was on my attire. People really liked that I was dressed formally so I continued that into this pitch as well.

1 ) Five unique things: a. I have a great ability in being able to connect others together. b. When there are multiple views in a room I am very good at combining ideas and creating a good solution. c. I am very good at listening to others and understanding their problems. d. I am good at helping develop people and making them the best that they can be. e. I have a strong moral compass and admit when I am wrong. 2) Five People: a. Shawn: The main thing that I got from Shawn’s interview is that I am very good at expressing my emotions. I am very open about my struggles and triumphs and people find it easy connecting with that.  Shawn b. Scott: What I got from Scott is that I am very good with connecting with other people. I am very caring and can help people through tough times.  Scott c. Jacob: From Jacob I learned that I am very good at bridging the divide between people and knowing them enough...

1) Interviews: a. Carter: In talking with Carter, he told me that typically when he can’t find parking on campus he just goes to another parking lot after searching for a while. He told me that if he were to use an app he would want it to be accurate and convenient. If it wasn’t accurate then he wouldn’t be interested. Carter said that he mainly would use an app if he could be sure that it was up to date 24/7. b. Ian: Ian told me that when he can’t find parking near fraternity row that he normally just plans his time to miss peak time when parking lots are full. Otherwise he just parks somewhere else. He told me that if he were to use an app that he would want it to have a good interface so that it is easy to use. If it was inaccurate or glitchy he wouldn’t want to use it. c. Ryan: Ryan told me that he usually doesn’t have that many problems with parking. He said that he would use an app if it was built well on the off chance he has problems with parking. H...

It is very interesting to think that we have already hit the halfway point for this class. In that time, I have learned a lot about the entrepreneurship process and the business idea that I have thought of. The main behavior that I have used to keep up with these assignments is starting assignments early. To really get the most out of the class you really must put a lot of work in and that requires starting early to make sure that the assignments are done completely. One moment that I thought about giving up was when I had two tests around the time that the weekly assignments for this class were due. I wanted to just not do the assignments for the week because I was so tired from studying for my tests. I pulled through and did them anyway because I knew that not doing them would put me at a disadvantage during the rest of the course. I feel like I have developed a tenacious attitude by pulling through during the tough times. Three tips that I would give students are to start assignment...

1) One thing that really surprised me the most about Steve Jobs is his upbringing. I didn’t know that he was given up for adoption at such a young age. One thing about Steve that I admired most is his focus on even the most minute detail. Even down to the packaging, Steve tried to make Apple products into an experience. The main thing that I did not admire about him was the fact that he often put work ahead of family matters. Family is very important to me and I don’t like it when entrepreneurs put that on the back burner for their business. Steve did encounter adversity and failure especially when he was fired from Apple. But he was able to pick himself back up and get back to creating amazing products for different companies. 2) The main competency I noticed about Steve was his ability to create a reality distortion field. If he wanted an idea to happen he would make it happen. It was that desire and confidence that really turned Apple into a hugely innovative company. 3) ...

1)   For my segment I chose to interview students at the University of Florida that live near fraternity row. 2) Interviews: a. Taylor: Taylor told me that he does have problems with parking around the fraternity row area up by Flavet Field often. He told me that often times it is very difficult to find a spot in the lot behind Flavet Field. When I pressed him on what times he most sees this problem he told me that most of the time he sees this problem around the 6 pm time slot as well as the 9 pm timeslot. I asked him why he thought that was the case and he told me that at 6 pm he thought a lot of people were parking behind Flavet to play sports on the field. At 9 pm he said he thought that everyone was parking to settle in for the night in their homes on Fraternity Row. He told me that when looking for a solution to his problems that he usually just doesn’t move his car around those times so that he can keep the spot he’s in. b. Jeremy: Jeremy told me tha...

1)    I am William Sanders. I would say that my best skill relating to business is helping groups come to a consensus. Some primary experiences that have helped me develop this skill are my internships at Lockheed Martin and with a sales company based in Orlando. My aspirations are to graduate college and then get a good job that pays well. If I were to start my business concept I would foresee it taking up a large part of my life. Whenever I start something I always try to put in my all to see it be successful. Creating a business would be no different. 2) The product that I’m offering to customers is a way to see which parking lots are full or not. For students it creates a way to easily and efficiently find a spot without driving around all day. For the University of Florida, it improves student experience adding to the premier status of the school. 3) I’m offering this product to students at the University of Florida who have problems with parking on a daily ba...