16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

1. Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique

Good Communicator:  Since I was little I have always been told that I am a good listener and this has helped me to develop communication skills. I always listen to a concern or inquietude and try to give my opinion in a polite way that can easy to understand.

Open mind: I always try to hear others because those comments can help me to grow in different aspects. I try not to get a negative comment too personally instead I try to look at what I can do to improve or what I am doing wrong.

Brave:  I think I am a brave person because I am always open to take different challenges and risks. When I was 21 years old I took the decision to leave my University in Venezuela and start a new career in the USA. It has not been easy at all and it took a lot of courage to make that decision, but 4 years later I am almost done with my dietetic degree.

Determined:  If I decided to start or reach a goal I am always looking for solutions or paths to archive what I want. I have had moments where I want to quit, but my determination to reach the end of a goal is always bigger. Maybe it takes me more time than I thought, but I always finish.

Incorruptible:  I have been raised with strong values from my parents which I really appreciate because I consider that thanks to that I am a good person. These values are so important to me that I would not break because I would be betraying myself. 

2) Interview the five people who know you the best. 

Interview#1

https://soundcloud.com/valeria-eugenia-perez-sarabia/valentina

My sister knows me well she mentioned almost all the skills that I consider that describe me. She considers that knowledge in nutrition is complete and that I have very good skills at the time of cooking and baking.

Interview#2

https://soundcloud.com/valeria-eugenia-perez-sarabia/veronica-interview

This was my little sister and I could see that she pretty much thinks that I am an empathetic person who likes to share and help people. Moreover, she mentioned my passion for dancing which makes me think that I love what I do and I have discipline.

Interview#3

https://soundcloud.com/valeria-eugenia-perez-sarabia/fernanda-interview

My cousin described me as a persistent person and that I like to help people. She mentioned that I am organized at the time of performing a task which is something that I had not noticed.

Interview#4

https://soundcloud.com/valeria-eugenia-perez-sarabia/interview4

I think that my friend knows me well and in all these years of friendship, she has always told me that talking to me is like therapy because  I pay attention to what she is saying. I can see that she noticed my determination to finish my goals.

Interview#5

https://soundcloud.com/valeria-eugenia-perez-sarabia/maria

In this interview, the main focus was on my values and how I have used them. I think to me it is really important to notice my values because this let know people the kind of person that I am. also, I learn that people see that I trust what I am doing at the time to do something.

After the interviews, I don't think that there is to much difference between what I think and what my family thinks. They talk a lot about what I like to help and I care about others, and that I am determined and passionate about my goals. I think these interviews are totally correct and I would not change anything of the list that I wrote. I think that both things together work well and describes my abilities and skills.

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

I continued interviewing families around 4 or 5 members and most of them have children between 3-10 years old. After talking with the 3 families I found a lot of similarities between them

The 3 families explained that they have been using online resources to buy a lot of things that they need even before the pandemic. However, some of them go to retail stores depending on what product they want to get. Couple moms mentioned different services that they use to get groceries such as Instacart or Amazon prime, so in this way, they do not have to go to the store with the little ones. All  3 families agree that the most important thing for them is the quality of a product or service because they want something that they are going to use or like. The second factor they consider is to compare prices between some stores, but in general, the main one is quality.

These particular families buy almost everything they can online and they pay online with either credit, debit cards, PayPal, or even Venmo. If they go to the store the preferred method would be debit or credit card. All of the families agree they use cash very few times, or they even said they never have cash.

Post-purchase evaluation

Each family had a different opinion on how to evaluate if their pursuance was worth it or not, but they were things that they have in common. Some of the families mentioned how the product works are important because they are looking for a good quality product that satisfies their necessities. Other families mentioned that they look for a good and responsible delivery service because they mentioned they have used other services in the past such as pick up and they always were missing things, or it was not the quality of service that they were looking for.

Report the findings

The responses from these families were similar they only differed in a few things. I could see that people are looking for quality because of the good quality of a product or service is what is going to solve your necessities. All families that I spoke with are familiarized with online shopping and delivery services.

Conclusion 

These people all fit in my target segment. From these interviews, I learned that I could offer more payment methods to my customers. Initially, I was thinking to use just Venmo or Zelle but my customers may be able to pay with debit or credit card if I found a device. Moreover, I am happy to hear that my target customer are looking for quality products because that is one of the point of my bakery idea ( provide quality baked goods). In addition, I learned that I have to focus on providing a good quality delivery service since customers take that in consideration.

14A – Halfway Reflection

1. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? 

I think that I have developed my time management skills and try to be ahead with my assignments. I always try to turn the assignments in before the due date and try to be ahead by a week. This helps me to reduce my stress and be more aware of what I have to do in the assignment. Also, this helps me not to rush through my assignment and make sure that have met all the requirement. 

2. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

I would say that I felt like giving up 1 week ago because it took me a lot of time to complete my assignments and I got really frustrated. What pulled through this frustration is think that this is my last semester at UF and that I would be graduating by the end of the summer. Therefore, all the hard work would be worth it because my graduation is one of my biggest dreams. I do think that I have developed tenacious attitudes the past two months because I am determined to end my last semester with excellent grades, and to archive that I have been planing and working ahead to archive this goal. I think the fact that is my last semester motivates me to give my best to end this journey.

3)  What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset'?

• Work ahead: As soon as the class is open start working on your blog. Don´t wait till the last minute to work on your assignments because some of them take a lot of time. Time management is the key to be successful in this class.
• Open mind:  There is a lot of assignments where you are going to interview people or get feedback that is not the one that you want to hear, but this is the kind of feedback that would help you to develop your ideas and future assignments better. Don´t take feedback personally use it to improve.
• Watch Video Lectures: In this lectures, you would get a better understanding of what you need to do in your assignments and it can solve some of your doubts. Moreover, there are specific questions about the lectures on the cupcakes. Take notes and pay attention to the video!

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

For this activity, I decided to read the book of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

• What surprised you the most?

One of the things that surprise me the most is the fact that Steve Jobs dropped out of college. I think this surprises me a lot because I was raised in an environment where I was told that if you did not finish college then you could not be successful. In Venezuela is really hard to succeed if you are not professional and it is an honor to have the opportunity to have a good education. 

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I think what I admired the most is his determination of ¨ knowing what he likes¨  I think he was pretty good to listen to his instincts and he was able to see opportunities. For example, when he was in college he just went to the classes that he was interested in, and he mentioned a calligraphy class that he liked a lot. He mentioned that this helped him to design multiple typefaces and fonts for the mac. 

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I think while I was reading the book some moments I felt that he was kind of rude to some people. I think his personality was a little bit strange maybe because all he was described to be an abandoned person. However, I think an entrepreneur and leader should be more empathetic especially because you are going to work with other people. Actually, in the book, I read that some people said that was impossible to work with him

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Yes, in 1984 he the sales of two of his product ( Lisa and Macintosh) were really low almost none-existent. This was hard because in the past they have been successful. Therefore, what he did was decided to  make a combination of both ( Lisa and Macintosh) with the inventory  and create a new product named Macintosh XL

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

Steve was an independent person whos has a natural interest in electronics. I think as I mentioned before his determination of following what he likes lets him reach his success. Moreover, he could incorporate some of his artistic interest in his products, which means that he was an integral person.

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

Something that was pretty confusing was he I got to a chapter that was named Pixar. I had no idea that Steve Jobs was part of Pixard, and in my mind, I do not release his job with Pixar. I know that in some opportunity a read that he was interested in art and Pixar was kind of a mix of art and technology, but I do not see the similarities and it was confusing because I picture him in other kinds of companies.

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

I would ask him

If you have the opportunity to go to college and finish a career would you do it? What career would you pursue?

I would ask him to see if he thinks that you can learn valuable knowledge at college after his success. 

Since you worked with Pixar what other company would you be interested to work with?

I would ask this because since he likes art it would be interesting to see his ideas in another field.

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

I think Steve was pretty focused on being different and I think his opinion of working hard was to develop different things that were functional and simple. I do share it because to be successful you don't have to create something complicated. Maybe your product already exists, but you can innovate on it.

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Pick a Segment:  The segment that I will be selecting will be families around 4-5 people preferable with children around the ages of 4-16 years old. In my neighborhood, I have the opportunity to reach these families.

Interviews

First Family ( 3 children): This is a family of 5 whose children are around the age of 3-6 years old. I spoke with then about my idea and ask them several questions. Overall, they told me that they try not to buy sweets regularly because they don't want their kids to eat much sugar. However, the mom mentioned that she usually has a different kind of events ( not right now due to the Covid-19 pandemic) and she usually likes to bring any baked good, so she said that she could use my service.

Second Family ( 2 children): I pretty much did the same questions with this family. Overall, they were interested in using this service that I am offering. They mentioned that usually on the weekends they like to have either a piece o cake or cookies, but they said it was hard to find a good one. Moreover, they like the idea of the delivery since they don't like to go out too much over the weekend.

Third Family ( 3 children): I spoke a lot with this family because we found out that we have a lot of similar preference to baked products. This family used to bake before (especially the mom), but their daily life does not leave them time to bake. They mentioned that they are usually too tired to do it, so when I told them about my service they were excited. They were really interested when I mentioned bread because they love to have bread at home all the time. 

As I spoke with these 3 families I could that the common factor was they do not have time to bake and that's why they do not bake at home. Some of them told me that they get baked products from the retail store, but that those are not their favorite at all. Two out of three families mentioned Publix because they have good reviews on the internet and other relatives buy those products too. Therefore, when I mentioned the bakery that I want to start and describe how the product will be made the families saw it that as something different because the baked goods will be homemade.

Conclusion

After conducting my interviews I can conclude that the most common factor is that people do not have time to bake, and they decide to buy ready baked goods at common retail stores. Some of them mentioned that it is not their favorite option, but they still get those products from the store because it is easy. My product is attractive to them, but they still can get products from these stores or other bakeries if they want because that is their first thought. It would depend on how fresh or the taste they want.

11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

You: My name is Valeria Perez and I am a dietetic senior at the University of Florida. I have developed different skills throughout my life. I have been a dancer since I was 4 years old, and this has helped me to gain discipline.  I also enrolled in different sports such as basketball, tennis, and volleyball, but at the end of the day, my main hobbies are dance, photography, and baking. My career path has changed a little bit over time because 4 years ago I was a dental student and when I move to the United States I change to the field of nutrition. In my career, I had the opportunity to explore clinical nutrition and the culinary area of this field. I have been baking since I was very young, so the culinary nutrition area is really interesting for me. If I were to start a business it would be a family bakery business that will be important to me and my family. This will be a huge accomplishment for my family since we have been developing recipes, and in general, we love to bake. Therefore, a bakery will be a dream come true that will help us to get some extra income.

What are you offering to customers: I am offering bakery services where we will provide fresh baked goods such as a different kind of bread, different kinds of cookies, brownies, cupcakes, cakes. The customer will place their order online, and after we bake the product it will be delivered to their location (in Orlando area) This is a great option for people that do not have baking skills to get fresh homemade products.

Who are you offering to: My main customers are people that do not have baking skills or people that do not have to bake their own fresh-baked products. Moreover, the customer must live around the Orlando area since we are delivering the product.

Why do they care: They care because they are looking for good quality and fresh-baked products.  Moreover, the prices the customer will pay are almost the same as regular retail stores or other bakeries prices, and they will get that homemade and fresh flavor they are looking for. The products that my bakery offers are not preserved or frozen. In addition, we offer delivery of the products, so they won't have to go anywhere.

What are your competencies:   The main competencies are the banking skills that my family and I have developed all these years. Moreover, the recipes that my family and I have created are focused to be full of flavor. In addition, we have a little bit of experience on how to manage a bakery because back in Venezuela my aunt has her own bakery and we have helped her before.

Evaluation:  The ability that my family and I have to bake and create baked products gives me the opportunity to be successful with this idea I want to develop. I think all the elements fit and this business idea will work. The main factor that I am most worried about is the competition with big bakery companies since they are really well known, but I know that I create good quality bake products. Therefore, I will have to make sure to do a good marketing strategy to let people know about the bakery.

10A – Elevator Pitch No. 1

Click the link bellow

Elevator Pitch No.1