ENT Blog UF

1)      I am a sophomore Finance major at the University of Florida. I aspire to one day own and operate a successful business that generates enough revenue to provide myself and my family with a comfortable lifestyle. If I were to actually start the business that I have been describing in this class, my full focus would be to expanding the business and managing operations of the business to ensure success. 2)      I will solve the customers unmet needs by providing them a cleaning service for their marine vessels. 3)      I am offering this service to marina owners so that they can include my service in their list of  conveniences for boat owners, as well as individual boat owners themselves. 4)      The customer will pay money for my service because in the large scale, the cost of my service is negligible. Boats cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy and operate, whereas...

My prototypical customer is a middle to upper class boat owner who enjoys spending time on the water. Because of his/her love for the water and boats, they will either be a fisherman or a person who likes to take their family out on cruising adventures. The boat owner who owns a cruising vessel will likely have a family, but the fisherman may not. Most of the customers will be above the age of 24, as college students rarely own and use boats on a regular basis. Most likely, the target customer will be above 40 and have a well-paying job. A large percentage of customers may also be retired. People who are retired have more free time to spend on hobbies such as boating and fishing. I have a lot in common with this avatar, as I too like boating and fishing. I will likely have the same characteristics and interests as my target customer when I am older. I do not think that this is a coincidence, as I based my business idea off of something that I know well and enjoy.  ...

1) How do I set myself apart from everyone else? - There is only one Elliot Lopatukhin on this planet. Nobody else thinks the same way that I do. That means that all of my ideas will be original in some sense. Even if I have the same idea for a business opportunity, my strategy of attack for the business plan will be different than anybody else on the planet. - I believe that I am a logical person. I like to evaluate everything that I do and ensure that it makes logical sense and can be achieved. - I do not like to waste time. When I come up with a goal, I find the most efficient way to achieve this goal to make sure I am not spending any extra time doing so. This time can be spent doing other productive things. - I have different strengths and weaknesses than everyone else. I know what I am good at, and I also know what I am bad at. If I am tasked with something that I understand is my weakness, I will often reach out to friends and family to help me solve my problem ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt4fzWFUCwM&feature=youtu.be The feedback that I recieved from my original elevator pitch was mostly positive. One person told me that I should dress nicer, so I put on a suit jacket for this elevator pitch.

To be honest, I am not sure if I am doing this the right way because my answers and interviews seem very similar. My service is being advertised a niche in the marine market, and I feel like I am repeating myself in a lot of my blog posts. Maybe I am doing the assignments wrong. I do not know if that is specific to me or if others feel the same about their idea. Please let me know in the blog post response. As far as this assignment, the only alternatives outlined by my interviewees and myself would be to stick to the existing services that marinas offer them, which includes no cleaning, thus requiring my customers to clean the boats by themselves. I explained how the price of my service would be included in the marina’s monthly premium. Two of the interviewees said how this would mean that the price would not affect their decision to use my service and keep their boats at the marina where my service is offered. The third boat owner explained how he would prefer to clean his boat ...

1)      I read the book “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson. I was surprised that Steve Jobs payed such specific attention to detail. I admired his perfectionism but did not admire the fact that he was often very rude to the people around him. Obviously, Steve Jobs encountered some forms of adversity. He did not create a technological phenomenon without struggles and some failures, but these did not stop him from turning his ideas into reality. 2)      Steve Jobs was very creative and had a unique outlook on many issues and opportunities. He was innovative and used his creativity to become a revolutionary inventor. 3)      One part of Steve Jobs life that confused me was why he failed to acknowledge that he had a child. Steve Jobs chose to deny paternity of his daughter Lisa, and I still don’t really understand why he chose to do this. 4)      The first question that I would ask Steve Jobs would be ...

1)      This course requires a proper understanding of time management. Every week, I watch my Monday and Wednesday lectures on time, and then complete my weekly assignments on Thursdays and Fridays. I believe that this course is very helpful but it can also be easy to fall behind and miss an assignment. It is important to remember that there is word due every week. 2)      I believe that I have always been tenacious and rarely feel the desire to give up, especially when it comes to school or this class. I believe that one must develop a tenacious attitude, and once it exists it will never go away. 3)      Tip one- always stay on top of assignments and announcements on canvas Tip two- get in a habit of scheduling your weekly work, that way you never fall behind, which can easily happen because this is an online class Tip three- think outside the box; your business idea can actually become successful in the real wor...

https://youtu.be/Ms34ZOrLbis

Choosing a Segment: For this assignment, I chose a segment of middle-aged, successful and wealthy men, who own boats and store them at a marina. I chose this segment of the population because these are the types of individuals who would most likely benefit from my service. The first interviewee, Bryce, is a software engineer who enjoys spending his weekends boating and keeps his boat in a marina. I chose to interview him because I wanted to hear about his experiences with keeping a boat at a marina and if he was satisfied with his current marina. My second interviewee, Johnathan, is the owner of a plumbing company. He partakes in competitive fishing tournaments and is the captain of a very large center console vessel. I chose to interview him to see if he believes that a market for my service exists among competitive fisherman. My third interviewee, Eric, recently inherited a large sum of money, some of which he spent on a large boat. I chose to interview Eric because unlike the o...

1)      I, Elliot, am an aspiring young entrepreneur. I grew up in a coastal city in South Florida. I have put in hundreds, if not thousands of hours on boats captaining my own boat for fishing expeditions, and captaining other individual’s boats for cruising charters. With the knowledge that I have gained from spending all of this time on and around boats, I aspire to create a company that makes boat owners lives easier by providing them with a cleaning and maintenance service for their vessels. In five years, I hope to see my company have successful contracts with not only marinas in South Florida, but the Gulf Coast of Florida, and eventually coastal cities in other states as well. 2)      My plan is to offer boat owners with a service that comes to them and does basic maintenance and cosmetic restoration for their marine vessels. I am solving the customers unmet need because there are no existing services that offer the same convenience a...