Assignment-20A-Growing Your Social Capital

1) One person must be a domain expert in your industry: Johnny - ( Early 50's - Full-Time worker   - College graduate )

• Who they are and what their background is: Johnny is a current manager at a movie theater close to my hometown. He has been a close family friend to my parents. He went to The Citadel and majored in business administration.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot: Johnny is filling in the slot of the domain expert and he fills this role by already having experience and authority from his career in the choice of business I plan to proceed with.
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: He has always been a close family friend and he was only a phone call away to get some useful information about how he runs a theater.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation: The nature of the conversation was very friendly. I asked him for a favor and for some feedback that relates to his career for my school project and he agreed to help me out. The return expectation maybe a favor for him down the road, but knowing Johnny, a simple thank you might be the only return expectation he would be looking for.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity: Including Johnny for my network will definitely enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because that is a tie to a professional in the same industry and his experience lead me toward the right direction in what I want to do for my theater.

2) One person must be an expert on your market: Jesus (HEY-zeus) ( Late 40's - Full-Time worker - College graduate )

• Who they are and what their background is: Jesus is a marketing rep for a movie theater that one of my friends use to work at. Jesus has been working for this movie theater since he graduated from UCF where he majored in educational technologies.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot: Jesus is filling the slot of the marketing expert. Jesus fills the position by his current work in the career he is in at the movie theater.
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: I was stuck on the marketing expert section for a while because I had no contacts or even an idea of someone to fill this spot. I called a friend of mine from community college and he said there was a guy named Jesus who was a marketing rep and gave me his information. I contacted him letting him know that I got his information from an employee and was strictly calling for advice in regards for a school project.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation: The nature of the exchange went very well and it was quite professional. He did a favor by helping me understand the terms of marketing in the ways a movie theater does things to succeed. The return expectation may be future help with his career or a possible negotiation if my business opportunity goes according to plan in the future.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity: Including Jesus in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity in the movie theater industry to where I can recognize specific marketing tactics that any movie theater may use to attract customers.

3) One person must be an important supplier to your industry: Antwon ( Early 30's - Full-Time worker - High School graduate )

• Who they are and what their background is: Antwon is a full-time truck driver for a food vendor supply company and consistently stops at numerous movie theaters in the state of Florida. Antwon was a good friend of mine in high school and never had any aspirations to go to college, but knew he had to work if he wanted to make it okay in this world.
• Which 'slot' you are filling with each person (i.e., domain expert, market expert, supplier), and how the person fills the spot: Antwon is filling the slot of the supplier in the way he makes deliveries to the type of business I want to pursue. 
• A description of how you found the person and contacted the person: Antwon has always been in my contacts on my cell phone and active on social media since high school. It was easy to reach out to him and pick his mind about some things on my business/opportunity and it was definitely something he didn't expect to hear from me about.
• The nature of the exchange you have with the person -- what favor did they do for you? What is the return expectation: The nature of the conversation was pretty easygoing and Antwon for the most part gave me his opinion on the way things are being ran at a movie theater nowadays and how things are constantly changing to adapt around the new age of customers. The return expectation might be future business with his company and also access to my movie theater down the road.
• How will including this person in your network enhance your ability to exploit an opportunity: With Antwon working in the truck delivery industry and including him in my network, he will surely enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity based off his opinions and experiences in working with movie theaters. More specifically the concessions concept of the theater.

Reflection: This experience absolutely gave me a good idea of how networking goes on in the business world. I think it was a good experience and provided me with good exposure of what to expect in future networking events. This certain networking experience differed from past ones because in the past I wasn't making connections for a school project. I was more in ways of trying to seek a job rather than a future investor/partner. 

Assignment-19A-Idea Napkin #2

1) You: Being a young college student, I know I obtain strong characteristics and certain set of skills to be a good entrepreneur. The experiences and social skills I hold with me from working in a movie theater will make a difference in my journey of entrepreneurship. My aspirations in starting my own movie theater business is to just take a risk in my life for once in a while and like I said from working in a movie theater, I have seen the ways certain things are run and I believe if I did things differently, I could end up seeing success in those certain changes of the business.

2) What are you offering to customers: I am offering my customers a rich and traditional movie theater experience that includes a cheaper cost in tickets and concession. Rewards, discounts, comfortability, and an overall good attitude in offering our service to them.

3) Who are you offering it to: I am offering my service to obvious movie lovers, teenagers who are looking for a cheap and lifetime full of good memories. I am also offering my service to husbands and wives who have a big family, as we want to be a family friendly theater for the most part.

4) Why do they care: I believe these different group of people enjoy their experiences and times spent with others at a movie theater. But, most importantly if they realize it's very affordable, that would only start a trend of coming back for more visits and spreading the word out to their friends, family, and community.

5) What are your core competencies: The core competencies that my movie theater business will offer and take very serious is the ability to offer solid customer service and hospitality to all customers no matter the situation. I still think the customer membership system I plan to install as part of the business will give us an edge over other competitors.

I truly believe that all five of these elements fit together to make a successful business. The customer segment is what makes our business thrive. The business relies on all sorts of customers so it's important in the movie theater business to apply strong soft/social skills to customers. That's why I think the customer membership system is what will win them over to attract future revenue from future visits to where it's a reliable relationship between my business and the customer in the way they receive rewards and discounts from how many times they put money into the theater.

Feedback Summary: Two main points I took away from the feedback memo from my first napkin idea is that I wanted to a better job in identifying what I was trying to emphasize as to what would make my business successful, in that case it was the customer segment. The second point was to make better sense in how these five elements molded together and in that circumstance it was how the relationship with customers makes sense with all five elements together.

Assignment - 17A - Elevator Pitch #2

1) The pitch:     https://youtu.be/yVU-ATgCOm8      
 






2) A reflection on the feedback you received from your last pitch & 3) What did you change, based on the feedback?
  Some of the feedback from my last elevator pitch helped me in some ways and there were some things I tended to stick with in my second attempt in this assignment. Some suggestions that surprised me and I didn't even realize were the amount of hand gestures I displayed in my first elevator pitch. So I kept it in my mind to prepare to not use my hand movements as much while explaining my pitch, so for the entire video I kept my hands in the pockets of my coat to contain myself and not make it so distracting for viewers. I don't think I did a good job of delivering the message as clear as I wanted to, but my main goal was to not be so much distractive, for example with my hand gestures. Hopefully I can master the tone and smoothness of my speech to deliver a professional elevator pitch for the third attempt of this assignment.

Assignment - 18A - Creating a Customer Avatar

( Above is my created avatar from the link of the assignment instructions. )

( I don't know why his eye color is different from one another. )

   

I believe the picture presented above is my prototypical customer for my proposal of taking part in the business of the movie theater industry. The kind of hobbies my customer participates in besides watching movies, is playing a round of eighteen on the golf course, playing cards with his friends over the weekends, or he might even just enjoy reading a book while sitting on the beach. The car I could imagine that they would drive would be a silver Mercury Grand Marquis. I would think the type of TV shows they would include reruns "The Office", "Cheers", and maybe some "LivePD". My prototypical customer has a few children that are grown up and have a child of their own. I'm not sure if their children are adopted, but it's a possibility. Some of their favorite books would include biographies or autobiographies on their favorite celebrities or professional athletes. I believe some of my customer's favorite politicians would include Donald Trump and Bill Clinton. If I had to guess my prototypical customer's age, I would say mid, late sixties. I think they feel old enough to talk about how spectacular Marlon Brando was back in the day during his acting career.

Some of the things I would have in common with my prototypical customer is obviously our deep interest in the film industry. But also share interest in sports, both pro and college, and maybe politics depending on the interaction. I don't necessarily think it's a coincidence to have specific things in common with my prototypical customer because most males that enjoy going to the movies also enjoy other entertainment such as sports, politics, TV, etc.

Assignment- 15A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Steps 1-3: Interviewee #1 ( Jarvis- Male, Early 20's, Part-Time student, Full-Time worker ) : Throughout the interview I asked him the essential questions of what was most important to him when he thinks of planning a day/night to go see a movie at the theater. For example, "Is price the most pivotal factor for you when deciding to see a movie at the theater." Jarvis replied, "It's usually the first thing that comes to mind when I choose a movie theater location and that question is, "Who has the cheapest price?" Another question I asked was, "Does the quality of the theater, (style, size of each house, seating, etc.) make it more appealing for you to go to compared to others?" Jarvis said, "Sometimes it can be a decisive factor more than often. If the tickets are cheap, but the theater is not kept up and presented well, I will usually not come back to it unless I am very desperate."

Interviewee #2 (Aleanna- Female, Late 20's, Full-Time student, Part-Time waitress) : In my interview with Aleanna, I stuck to the same questions I previously asked Jarvis about what was the most pivotal factor in making a decision to see a movie at the theater. Aleanna said, "To me, it is the expense of the overall that makes the experience worth it." I went on to ask her, "If prices were raised and stayed at a consistent rate, what would be your next factor to choose a place to see a movie at the theater?" Aleanna stated, "That's easy, it would be the hospitality and the welcoming of how the theater makes you feel when you first purchase your ticket."

Interviewee #3: (Harold- Male, retired) : My interview with Harold was pretty short, but he was able to give me some good pieces of data. I stuck to the same route of questions in asking Harold. I asked him, "what is the one thing that gets you hooked into to a movie theater that makes you want to come back?" Harold replied,"The price. Whenever I get a good ang for my buck, I am instantly a fan." I went onto ask him if he ever had a preference on what he thought of the overall cleanliness of a theater and how that can disturb him during the experience, regardless of the inexpensive ticket price." Harold simply said, "It doesn't bother too much. When I go to see a movie, I'm there for a few hours to sit in a seat, watch my film, and leave. I try not to pay attention too much to those sort of details."

Step 4: How/where do they buy?: For all of my interviewee's and for my audience of customers, there is alternative ways to purchase tickets. They're able to buy movie tickets at the theater personally. Some other ways would be online through movie associated websites (EX: Fandango) and mobile subscription apps (EX: MoviePass). Transactions at the theater can be payed in cash and card. Through the online service transactions, there is usually a payment method that acessess a credit/debit card.

Step 5: Post-purchase evaluation: All three of my interviewee's Jarvis, Aleanna, and Harold believe the price has to be right in order to have that fulfillment of a successful post-purchase mindset. Jarvis and Aleanna think that overpaying for a movie ticket can make them think the purchase was a bad idea, regardless of how anticipated the movie was. Harold

Step 6: Report the findings: I believe that every person I interviewed provided honest answers and feelings. I was able to find some very useful information that helps me understand the customer segment for my plan to open my own movie theater business.

Step 7: Draw Conclusions: Based off my interviews, the most important concepts I have learned in terms of alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation does not represent  the people I interviewed for this assignment, but a vast majority of the people I have interviewed so far is that their decision is all surrounded by the subject of how expensive or cheap the cost is.

Assignment - 16A - Secret Sauce

1.) Accountability- Being accountable and present for others when they're in need, no matter the situation or circumstance.

2.) Trustworthiness- The ability to have others rely on trusting in me for many different responsibilities/scenarios.

3.) Honesty- Just being able to tell it how it is no matter the person or situation. Speaking up for what is right and what is wrong.

4.) Leadership- Pursuing and maintaining the role of a leader to guide a group of individuals through adversity.

5.) Perseverance- To not give up and quit when life is always throwing consistent challenges straight down my direction.

Interviewee #1: 
https://soundcloud.com/stuart-brown-960499629/keynen

Summary: I was happy to hear that Keynen said I was really good at retaining information and using it to the best of my knowledge for the future. Keynen is definitely a person that understands me through the good and the bad.

Interview #2: 
https://soundcloud.com/stuart-brown-960499629/jake

Summary: I am glad to see that Jake takes in all aspects of a person's life and defines why these aspects bring out the best in me as an individual.

Interview #3: 
https://soundcloud.com/stuart-brown-960499629/sal

Summary: Creating and maintaining a strong work relationship with Sal over the years, I am delighted to hear that Sal valued my hard work and accountability the most out of our friendship.

Interview #4: 
https://soundcloud.com/stuart-brown-960499629/jonathan

Summary: Jonathan is a lifelong friend of mine and I was overwhelmed with joy to hear the kind words he mentioned about my human capital. Most importantly when he said that perseverance is something that best represents me, referring to all of the ups and downs that have happened in my life.

Interview #5: 
https://soundcloud.com/stuart-brown-960499629/mitchell 

Summary: What my brother said in this interview really opened my eyes to realize that the people in your family can see your true value more than the people you thought you were close with outside of family.

Reflection: Based of all of the people that best knew me and the analysis they presented to me about myself, I have to say that there are a lot more similarities than differences in how I asses myself compared to how others see me. For as long as I have known these five individuals, I would say they are pretty spot on in how they describe the person I am, mainly because I have been through thick and thin with these guys and the bond we have is invincible. To be honest, after hearing what my interviewee's had to say about me, I would not change anything on my list because I know that those valued characteristics I put is what best represents me.