My Customer's Avatar

My ideal customer for my idea of a cable company would be a young adult considered in the "cable cutter" population. These young adults don't like spending money on items that seem like a scam. The cable system set in place at the moment seems like a scam to many young adults, as they don't want to pay for something if they aren't going to use it. These young adults enjoy streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Most of these young adults also browse the internet a lot using sites like Amazon and Reddit. These young adults are most likely on the liberal sides of the political spectrum. Thus, they would focus on eco-friendly cars most likely. They don't like giving money to businesses that take advantage of their customers.

I have multiple things in common with my ideal customer. I don't like spending money on unnecessary things, I definitely view cable as one of those services that takes advantage of people. I also use sites like Netflix, Reddit, and Amazon.  I don't think this is a coincidence, because I think that I would be a customer of this service if it existed.

I think this is probably a funny customer avatar for my ideal customer:

Paranalysis

1) Portmanteau - Paranalysis

2) A state in which one is paralyzed from continuing or beginning any form of analysis.

4) I used this while doing homework with a friend. They actually told me that it was interesting how I came up with that. I just saw a news article that was talking about paralysis and then a few articles below it, the word analysis came up.  I combined both of them together. It's meant to be more of something to describe a past situation I suppose. It's not one of those words that can be used that often in a conversation like "chillax." I said the word with both my family and friends, it didn't catch on. I feel like it didn't catch on because it's so specific, meaning you can't use it that often. In situations that someone would be able to use it often, I feel like it would definitely catch on.

Halfway Reflection

1) Tenacity is definitely something that is needed for a course like this. The course is assignment heavy and requires a specific amount of time each week. One cannot get through the course without allotting a certain amount of time to it. Each assignment is different and requires you to learn a different aspect of entrepreneurship. The behaviors that need to be developed in order to be successful in this class are those of organization and time management. Individuals need to be organized in order to get their blogs done and watch the lectures. Each week there is a number of new assignments, time management is required in order to complete them effectively. Throughout the week, courses need to be watched, and then assignments will follow up on those courses. Overall, to keep up with this course, it's all about time management and staying organized with the assignments.
2) At one point I felt like giving up at finding a person to interview for one of the assignments. I pulled through with it because I knew that if I got one done, I would be able to continue with the assignment. I definitely feel like I've developed somewhat of a tenacious attitude in the past two months because of the class. The experiences that most contributed to this are definitely the ones that have made me utilize time management. I have had to develop a schedule to balance all my classes and be tenacious enough to keep going with it, in order to finish all my assignments for a week.
3) Three tips:

(1) Develop a schedule for when you will be doing your assignments for each class. This class requires a certain amount of time each week, that absolutely cannot be blown through by just carelessly answering questions.
(2) Read the assignments early on in the week when they come out, so that you know what you will have to do by the end of the week. Give yourself the necessary amount of time to complete each assignment. Some assignments might take an hour, others may take two or three. Know how long each assignment should take, and give yourself the proper time to complete them.
(3) Do the extra credit. Understand that it is ok to miss an assignment or two. Some of the assignments will require too much time to complete them, during a week that you just cannot afford to do them. I have ran into this problem a few times, the only way to capitalize on this is doing the extra credit.

Reading Reflection No.1

For my reading assignment, I read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in Steve Jobs, Apple, leadership, entrepreneurship, or even business in general. The book was excellent, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.  

• What surprised you the most?
• I think throughout the book I was surprised at the quirkiness of Steve Jobs. Previously I had read about the fact that he was a weird person in the way that he wanted to achieve success. But I really never knew how much of a weird individual he was in the way he handled things. The way that he motivated his employees and would obsess over ideas was astounding. Along with this comes his dedication to perfection. Jobs was dedicated to doing everything he could perfectly, and would not stop until it got to that level. Which in his head, perfection was likely never possible.
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
• He was never satisfied with his success. Despite selling a number of like 6 million units with the Apple II, he wasn't satisfied with the product he had created. Then when the Apple III and Lisa computers came out, he wasn't satisfied with those either. I think the ability to not be satisfied with a little taste of success says a lot about a person. I think it says how much that person wants to take their product/innovations/ideas to the next level. I also admired the way that he motivated his employees, he was able to tell them that anything was possible. It was his way of "distorting reality," he wanted to do so in order to make his employees think they could do anything, in turn, this would motivate them in ways no one could think of. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
• I least admire the fact that when his then partner got pregnant, he dismissed that the child was even his throughout the pregnancy. I think that this was definitely one of his low points as a person. At least he expressed regret over how he handled it, but I still think that he had major flaws when it came to him as a person. The other thing that I least admire about him was that his intensity and pursuit of perfection took away from him as a person. He wasn't much of a family man because of his intensity and weird personality quirks. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
• Jobs encountered adversity all of his life really, he had to battle with people over the fact that he was such an odd individuals with quirky behaviors. That was one of the reasons he was demoted early on with Apple. He had to claw his way back up to the top of Apple in order to assume full control of the company. Jobs had a commitment to perfection his entire life, and it could be seen with so many different aspects throughout his career. 

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

Persistence. Steve Jobs had a persistence for whatever he wanted to achieve that was incredible. Perfectionism also comes to mind. As I mentioned previously, Jobs was a perfectionist to the 10th degree. He wanted to keep developing his products until they were perfect pieces of art that could be used by everyone. The other competency that comes to mind is his intensity. Jobs' intensity was incredible, those that worked with him mentioned the fact that he pushed everyone around him to aspire for creating something better/higher. 

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

His trip to India. I guess this confused me because he was headed in a direction of success, and even got a job at Atari by walking into their headquarters and demanding it. The direction of success that I refer to is not the fact that he was headed in the direction of creating or innovating, but he was doing something productive after having dropped out of college. So, stopping work and going to India to pursue his interest in eastern culture kind of confused me. Throughout his career, he did this thing where he would kind of drop off for a little bit and come back with this determined demeanor. I think the fact that he left Apple multiple times and came back made him who he was. I think that him leaving and coming back so many times meant time for him to think of ideas and develop them with time. 

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

- What drove you to be so persistent to create/innovate throughout your life, was there something inside that you held from when you were a child, or was it just something you always had? 

I would ask this because as I mentioned earlier, he has to be one of the most persistent people I have ever heard of. I think the impression of persistence on his part stuck with me when I read about him going to Atari after he had dropped out of college and saying he wouldn't leave until he had a job there. 

- What is your definition of perfection? 

I would ask this because throughout his life he sought perfection. I don't think that he knew what perfection was in his mind. I think that he thought he would find it once he got to it. But really, he just kept innovating and developing new products in his journey to perfection. I would just like to see what his take is on perfection and how to get there. 

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

I think that Jobs opinion of hard work was achieving perfection. Which I think he would probably tell you that perfection never happens. That once a creator makes a machine that he feels satisfied with, he has failed. Because that was Jobs' attitude about innovation. He felt that innovation was continuous and it needed to keep happening in order to at one point reach perfection. I share the opinion of hard work needing to keep happening. 

Idea Napkin No.1

1) I am a Sport Management major. My talents are centered around sports knowledge and management. My experiences are in management and customer service. I also have some experience with baseball operations.
2) I am offering a cable service that is not offered right now, that will most likely be the model for cable companies of the future. The unmet need here is the fact that cable companies have a monopoly and they are able to get away by offering basic cable packages. These basic cable packages force people to pay for multiple channels that they won't watch. The cable service I am offering allows the customers to choose what they want to watch on a monthly basis, competing against those companies that have taken many of the viewership from cable. The cable service could have a few innovations added which my interviewees mentioned. The best one of these additions to the cable service being partnerships with other streaming services. This would be in the form of applications along with the cable service, it would provide easier access and versatility with the product.
3) The demographic that I am offering this product to are cable cutters. These cable cutters tend to be younger adults that are attempting to save money by not having to pay for cable. Thus, they "cut cable" and switch to streaming services. This demographic isn't limited to young adults, but it is certainly made up of mainly young adults. All of the customers have in common the fact that they want to save money, and watch good television. The cable service allows for this by allowing them to switch monthly from having all the channels they want to having none for a month.
4) Customers will actually pay money for this because firstly, they are tired of the monopoly and scamming that the current cable companies have. Secondly, it is a service that will actually be used. For example, I tend to watch ESPN, HBO, and other channels that may have sports played on them. So, I would take those channels, and just use those. If for one month I don't want to use those channels, I can do so. The customers won't feel locked in, essentially they will have the same feeling they do from this cable service as they do with Netflix.
5) What sets this cable company apart is the fact that they are willing to accept some sort of loss in money to gain market share. While other cable companies are forcing customers to buy their packages and be locked into contracts, this one uses the same model as streaming services. Even though this company could be making more by offering packages in the short term, my company chooses to gain market share for the future. Because in the next few years cable companies will be moving towards this model, and trying to get their feet in the business with other streaming services. My company would already have experience and partnerships with the current streaming services. Making the company thoughtful for its customers, and setting up a great long term goal of having more market share by providing a fair service.

These elements definitely fit together. The tough part will be establishing the company to have some sort of market share. The monopolies that currently exist within the cable companies would make it hard to break in the business. Once that has been broken in, it is just a matter of setting marketing strategy and tactics to gain market share. Eventually, with more market share streaming services would want to begin partnerships with the company as they realize how it can help both sides. Overall, I think the synergy is there for these elements, the company must know that there will be an initial barrier in order to breakthrough.

Tweaking the Innovation

My company idea of a creating a cable company that allows individuals to choose what they want to watch monthly has a unique product service mix, because of the fact that it takes a concept that already exists, and tweaks it so it can survive in the market for much longer. 

Revenue Drivers:

• Cable Service - All of the possible channels and installation services
• Partnerships - Possible partnerships with services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. 

I would say that the breadth of this business idea would be small, while the depth would be huge. This is because the cable service has so many different channels that individuals can choose.

The Cable Service:

The items within the cable service are each channel and the installation services. At the core of the cable service exists the benefit of having cable and offering channels for people to watch. At the tangible level are the channels that individuals can watch. The augmented level for the cable service would be allowing individuals to choose what they want to watch, rather than forcing them to sign up for a basic package that they will not watch most of the channels. The other item within the cable service would be the installation service. At the core, the benefit would be installing cable for the customer. The tangible would be the cable connection that the customer has after the installation. The augmented level could consist of no sign up fees and free installation.

Partnerships:

The items within the partnerships are unique because it is an opportunity that would involve having both companies agree to create one product together. At the core would be having an app within the cable service that you are receiving such as Netflix. The tangible aspect would be the app itself. The augmented level would be having integration of apps and cable, creating an easier way for costumers to access what they want to watch. 

Elevator Pitch No. 1

Cable Revitalized allows individuals to choose what they want to watch on a monthly basis. This allows cable companies to stay in business and compete against other cable cutting businesses. There are a few opportunities that exist with this idea that could involve integrating other businesses with it.
Here is my elevator pitch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncjx2R9I4m8&feature=youtu.be