buddingentreprendre - Tumblr blog

[buddingentreprendre]

budding

We’ve had two more lessons on entrepreneurship the past few weeks. One was on doing things that don’t scale. Personally, I understood this a bringing things that can’t be measured, like ideas, into a sort of physical manifestation which could be through a prototype or a minimum viable product. It stresses the importance of allowing these physical manifestations of your ideas to be a source of learning, I suppose, to show areas for improvement and growth in these ideas. Formulation of a well-designed product has to go through this sort of cycle, I’ve realized. But, throughout the discussion highlighted for the need to launch products fast as well which I think was a bit pressuring. It worries me personally that this rush to get ideas and products out quickly can come at the expense of the quality of the product. Sort of like what we’re currently doing but oh well.

But anyways, another topic discussed during the week were the fundamentals of pitching. It starts with the sprouting of the idea within yourself, then the sharing of this to a co-founder, then family and friends, then basically everyone else. These people can act as sources of funds to the person that comes up with the business idea. I’m not sure why, but personally, seeking funding from other people doesn’t sound very appealling to me. If I were ever to start my own business (which would probably be never), I would much rather that my endeavors were personally funded which I think would leave me with more legroom to continue making big decisions for my business without really having to rely on the input of others. That’s just my personal take though.

I also learned how strict pitching actually is! The 10-20-30 rule is actually a rule founded by Guy Kawasaki which refers to 10 Powerpoint slides being the most optimal number of Powerpoint slides, 20 minutes being the longest amount of time for you to speak and 30 being the smallest font size one can use in their Powerpoint. A pitching presentation should also contain 10 sections which highlight the problem your product seeks to solve, a detailed description of your proposed solution and the specific economics that would come with creating a business out of this proposed solution. With all this in mind, I’ve realized that it would truly take a special type of person to be able to sell an idea to a room full of investors. Sort of like how not everyone can be a leader, I think it one would have to have a degree of personal captivity to be able bring people to fund a vision. I can only wish to be able to do anything even close to that. 

Anyways, so far, my group and I haven’t discussed who will be presenting our business pitch. I’m honestly not sure about whether I’d like to volunteer to do it or not (it’s a moral dilemma, honestly). I’m also still thinking about what I’d like to do with the notes left by our instructor. Not sure about what the appropriate price tag for our type of product would be, I have not really seen any applications like ours but I think that a fair way of charging would be on a yearly basis, in which there’s just a flat rate for a certain number of product  information that they would like displayed on the application. This will definitely require a table. I think I’ll go do that later. I’ll also try to get on with discussing who’s going to be doing our business pitch (I personally don’t think I’m the right person for the job but I also don’t wanna be left answering questions about a product that I don’t care much for: yikes) and also on who will do the Powerpoint since there are now some very specific criteria meant for us to follow now. 

This journey has honestly been quite uninspiring. I mean, though I do like to read all these stories of these people turning their ideas into full-on businesses, the whole endeavor is still very unappealing to me. First of, I’d rather not capitalize off of the problems of other people unless it was something that actually improved their wellbeing or at the very least the wellbeing of the environment. Second of, I despise capitalism (and I know, then why am I studying business then? I like to think that I can make a change to our capitalist system) and would rather not benefit from a corrupt system that shows preference for the rich over the struggling lower classes. And third, it’s just something I’d rather not spend a majority of my time and money on. Like, I’ve always thought of opening a bookstore or my own bakery/cafe but never of making that my life’s whole mission, you know? I suppose I just prefer being a contributor to something bigger to being the ‘bigger’ thing itself. I think that’s it. Nothing wrong with being an entrepreneur and all that but it’s just not for me.

Bye for now, the budding has begun and I’m now sure about how I’m not cut out for this business thing.

[buddingentreprendre]

In·ad·e·qua·cy (/inˈadikwəsē/)

I think it’s been over two weeks since my last entry. So far, our group has been able to create our very own business model canvas (which we have yet to modify). I have been trying to come up with a reasonable pricing index for our our service based on how much it would cost to create and maintain the application as a whole. My personal research indicates that a MySQL database would cost about PHP 250,000-400,000 and about PHP 5-10 million for the application programming. Though I have yet to discuss this with my groupmates, I think that a good way to go about with the pricing would be by creating different price brackets for the type of product and which of these items are most fast-selling. I still have to ponder more on this though.

But as far as classes go, we’ve had over two discussions with experienced individuals in the field of entrepreneurship. They’ve been very good informants on the ins and outs of start-ups businesses. But all its really done is make me realize how low the probability of me actually opening my own business is.

One new piece of knowledge I gained: the fact that start-up incubators exist. It made me feel so much better that there are people that actually exist to help out budding entrepreneurs hone and mold their business ideas. Hearing all these different stories from professionals definitely made me rethink how hard starting a fresh, new business can be. Especially when over 50% of start-ups actually fail within 5 years of them starting business. I wonder if they also extend help towards the acquiring of business permits and the like. Definitely something to look into.

It was such a downer to also be able to learn about how stifling the business ecosystem is in the Philippines though. After discussion, I was also able to reflect on how closed and cutthroat the world of business can be. Established businesses (almost) always continue to flourish while start-ups normally aren’t received very well. I think this might be due to the inelasticity of purchasing power in the country, which causes most to stick with products they already know rather than venture to try other alternatives. Just another reminder for one not to invest too much in opening a start-up. 

I believe that there is also a dire need for government policies that facilitate and promote the growth of start-ups in our country as well. I’ve taken notice that there are always a plethora of bright ideas that sprout from the hands and minds of Filipinos, but none of them ever receive ample funding nor government support to become sustainable business models. It’s both depressing and slightly angering.

Now I’m just making myself sad. Becoming an entrepreneur is definitely not for everyone. It always seems nice in theory but not so much in practice. I’m not cut out for this. And with everything I’ve learned so far, neither is the Philippines.

[buddingentreprendre]

Settling

As a group we’ve made some revisions to our original idea, after receiving feedback from our course adviser. Just this afternoon, we discussed the issues she’d pointed out in our original business proposal and we’d been able to answer most of the questions posed. We’d finally settled on the idea being for a mobile application. Also, we had decided to make our application a business to business endeavor built to benefit the consumers of these businesses. Charges made by the company will be made towards the businesses that choose to have their inventory published on the application as it serves as a means of involuntary marketing of the business whilst no charges will be made to the users of the application. 

We continued to discuss on what we wanted the application to be, others suggesting that we add an order and deliver feature on the application, but I think that that would make the application lose it’s panache as one might say. I personally see it as evolving into another version of Shopee or Lazada (which I’m not very fond of). Still thinking of other ways the application can be expanded to avoid this, however. Something unique. I will let you know if I’ve decided on anything by my next blog.

Following this revision, I continued to ask a few people about their thoughts and how much they would need such an application in the market. Though, due to some limitations experienced by my interviewee, they were only able to answer two questions. I do hope to have a wider range of questions to ask by next week, however. Here are a few of the responses I got:

I do continue to see a perceived need for the application for people between the ages of 18-26, so I do hope that we can continue developing this idea. But I have also continued to inquire about any significant points of pain experienced by my interviewees. This has allowed me to continue thinking for other ideas should our work in progress lead to a dead end. 

While I continue to worry (when did I ever stop?), I do hope that this idea is enough. Personally, data collection online is much more impersonal than I’d thought. But, I’m trying to create an all new set of questions that have more of a natural flow than what I’ve been doing thus far. Will update on my next blog on how that goes too!

Let’s hope that things continue to go as alright as they are now.   

Oh, and happy spook month!

[buddingentreprendre]

Throwaways

Since last week, we’ve been going through so many ideas! Following the basic ideation process, my group and I thought of products that would provide us with one thing that we loved most: convenience. There are so many what-ifs, it was almost mind-boggling. Most ideas were thrown to the curb when we’d realized how unfeasible it was or downright impossible but my group and I were able to come up with a final two. When I was thinking up something that I thought would be beneficial to me, and thought: what about medicine? I thought it lacked convenience in that area was something to be improved upon. Being an asthmatic, I do see the lack of ease in purchasing certain medications, especially in rural areas. Another member of our group also came up with an application that would help ease the inconvenience of going to a store, only to find out that whatever you were looking for was not available. 

I believe that part of coming up with a product or service, is keeping yourself in mind. The questions: would I use this? Would this help me? How? I kept these ideas in mind as I did my interviews with two people I knew online. First, I wanted to find out what common inconveniences they experience on a daily basis were. Which led me to the question ‘is there any certain point of pain that you are experiencing at present?’. Their answers were as follows.

Given the current situation, they’re answers were incredibly timely and valid. I decided to ponder more on their insights, maybe if our current idea doesn’t pan out I’d have another one ready for suggestion? Still not too sure but their thoughts are definitely more valuable than they probably know. My second questions was followed by a brief description of both services (cleverly named A and B) and for them to simply gauge which service would be of more use to them as individuals. I hoped that this would help my group and I decide on which idea to go with for our business venture paper. Here were their answers:

Both had different responses and opinions on why that certain service in particular would be of more use to them. Nonetheless, I have relayed their answers to my groupmates which has helped us decide on which idea to go with: the application that adds to ease when searching for particular products. We’ve further developed on this idea since then, expanding it to a possible reservation and pick-up feature that would give customers the ability to reserve their favorite fast-selling items. 

I do think that there is much more to work on. Though there is room for many possibilities, there is also space for impracticality. Upon sharing our venture proposal idea with my mom, she’d brought up many valid concerns that I think I should bring up with my group in a constructive manner. One being, ‘what are the fast-selling items you guys are referring to anyway?’ or another was ‘how will you be able to make the connections for this app to find businesses for it’s database?’. All fair concerns which have even caused me to question the feasibility of our venture in mind. From now on, I will continue to note my other venture ideas, I guess I can’t expect for the first idea we decide to pour time and effort into to be an instant success. 

But, I suppose, you’ll never know until you try, right?

[buddingentreprendre]

The Seeds of Rebellion

For my first actual piece of raw information I will be sharing on this Tumblr page, I will be dedicating it to how everything began. But, be reminded that this piece will be separated into two different time periods in which I will be feeling very different things.

On our first week, it all started with the phrase ‘a startup is an act of rebellion’ by Ken Singer came up in class. Or at least, that was where it began to me. In class, we’d discussed how entrepreneurs, or rather ‘budding entrepreneurs’ were the rebels of the business world, the ones that would force change in a certain industry by providing better solutions to deal with a problem at hand. This would lead to a ripple of innovation throughout the industry, leading existing businesses to keep up with the new discoveries brought by these entrepreneurs. I think that was one thought that appealed to me most, thinking that how one radical introduction can actually cause change in the world of business. 

The current domination of technology-based companies had also been discussed heavily- I suppose we do have much to learn from these companies. Technology is a slate of business that is heavily susceptible to change and development, hence making it a good platform to profit off of. It made me realize how ideas for business can be anywhere, as long as you look good enough. Becoming an actual entrepreneur is never a linear process nor is actually starting your own business and cannot be taught. I guess you either are or you aren’t one. This sort of made me feel better about how I’ve been experiencing since the beginning of this class, the unease that I had somehow become a business student but had no interest in starting my own business. It made me think that ‘I’m still learning, maybe I can be better’. I do hope that that’s the case because if otherwise, it might be a sign from a greater being at this point.

By the next week, we began discussing the process by which many entrepreneurs follow in order to come up with innovative business ideas. The steps can be summarized as follows: (1) figure out what people are most frustrated with, (2) innovate a product or service that meets this need, (3) test to see if it works and (4) figure out how to market it to your potential customers. Having this process here honestly made the whole entrepreneuring thing feel so much more simple to me and less intimidating. I now feel more excited than ever to be able to come up with something that can change the lives of others for the better! However, it was also highlighted that throughout this process, it is important to always remember to look back on the problem that needs to be solved while also taking into account the skills you have that can aid in solving this problem. Personally, I would always enjoy in undertaking a project that involves aiding others and the environment. I’m still not too sure on how I would be able to incorporate that to my business ideas yet. I will try to update you on that. 

Till next time, our group has begun our sharing of ideas and I’m actually quite excited. 

[buddingentreprendre]

Goedendag! For my first post, I will be first writing about my aims for keeping this Tumblr page.

To gauge how much of a 'fit' I am in this whole entrepreneurship business.

To document my activities with my group and our plans.

To hopefully inspire others to do the same as we are.