Reflective Essay

So we have now come to the end of Entrepreneurship & New Venture Development, and what an enjoyable journey it has been. I still remember the first lecture where we were asked why we picked the module and what our dream job is. Although what I wrote in my first blog post is true with regards to the first question, I think the primary reason I picked ENVD is because it has no exams. Having said that, this module has been very hands on all year round. Reading my response to the second question now seems very vague. Up until now they have only been words, but over the year I feel like I have gained direction.

Corinne has definitely been an instrumental part to my learning especially in the way in which she conducts the lectures. She has always made them engaging, which is one of the reasons why this module is so different to the others. Each week was focused on teaching us a new key tool or skill and how to use it in a business environment. One key skill I vividly remember is storytelling or creating a persona. A video was shown to us called The Girl Effect: The Clock Is Ticking. It illustrates the importance of how one reacts when a story is told about a fictional character with real problems in contrast to just stating them. The idea is to evoke emotion with you so that it has a lasting effect. Paula Andruss has a great article which can be found here, on how storytelling has helped one individual and its significance.

Another key tool I remember is Diego Rodriguez’s “21 Principles of Innovation”. Out of the 21, the one I know in depth is number 17, ‘It’s not the years, it’s the mileage’. The highlights of this principle is that it is not about how many years you have been in an industry, rather more to do with how much experience you have. Applying this to my personal goals; whichever industry I finally go in to, I should look to keep on trying and do things over and over again in order to learn from my mistakes, if not to further develop my skills, rather than just trying once and moving on.

However, an important point to note here is that you should find out why you are failing. Remember, failure is all part of learning as well as being an important part of entrepreneurial growth. The best way to face failure is summed up by Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s okay to fail, because let’s face it, what is there to learn from being perfect? ‘If it’s not a hit, switch’ is a very good video which best describes what I’m trying to say and can be found here. Derek Silvers explains to us how the importance of persistence is so commonly misinterpreted.

Branding is another important concept introduced to us. I have often mulled over the importance of branding thinking ‘why do we need a brand?’ I have come to the conclusion that a brand is a mechanism of connecting you to your audience. The phrase ‘a picture speaks a 1000 words’ comes to mind here, in that a logo alone allows people to identify your product and form an opinion of what you are about, without you having to say a word. Here’s an article by Paula Andruss on the ‘Secrets of the 10 Most Trusted Brands’. The point I take from this is that the brand concept can be very simple but you must take appropriate actions to ensure the correct message is being conveyed and agrees with what you are trying to achieve.

This brings me to my next point, concerned with creativity. If I were to describe myself, creative would not immediately spring to mind. This isn’t to say I haven’t had my moments, but hey that’s probably why I’m doing Accounting & Finance. When I found out I had to write blogs as part of the assessment, I was a little confused thinking what relevance this could have. But I think the main issue is that I’m not really an ‘express my opinion in public’ kind of a person. Nevertheless, thanks to the spontaneous lectures which I feel have brought me out of my comfort zone; I have become more open to the idea of blogging. Due to this module I have come across many blogs, not all business related, and have begun to see how useful they can be.

Speaking of useful, here’s a thought: experiment. During one of our lectures we were asked to bring in a toothbrush. Weird? Yes I know, but the idea was to experiment and change different features to come up with something new. To put things into perspective, here’s a video on Eric Migicovsky and his product Pebble. The point to note here is how innovation helped him come up with his idea and how he has progressed since then. To give a broader view of innovation, here’s an interesting article by Steve Blank titled ‘Why Innovation Dies’.

To conclude, this module has been insightful to say the least. There is so much I have learnt in just one year, whether it be about myself or new theoretical information. Corinne has pushed us to constantly think outside the box and through the whole process I can honestly say I have learnt some valuable skills; skills I look forward to taking with me and applying in the future. Being confident and innovative are just some key qualities required to be an entrepreneur, but remember to keep an open mind as you never know when you’ll discover the next big thing. This brings me nicely to my last words for this module, a quote from Albert Einstein “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere”.

The Dreaded Dragons Den

So this week was our final lecture, where we had to present our ideas to the dragons. Up until now things had been running smoothly in terms of our progress thus far. We had made some changes here and there having spoken to Adam, so all in all I would say we were prepared for today.

We all met up before the presentation to have a run through and make sure everything was in order, and touch wood it was looking like everything had come nicely together. Now it was just the waiting around to go in. Whilst I was waiting to go in, I was feeling fine but then when it came to the last few minutes, the nerves started to kick in. It was like deja vu from the dragons den we had to do individually last year. Thinking about it now, I’m not really sure why I was nervous since I knew what I wanted to say. Nevertheless I was starting to panic a little bit and I was also starting to forget my lines. My colleague then reassured me that the presentation will be fine and that I was getting nervous just for the sake of it. Luckily she was able to pull my spirits up in time for our slot.

Walking into the classroom, we all felt confident. We all had big smiles and greeted the dragons. The presentation itself, I felt ran smoothly. Everyone knew what they wanted to say and delivered their parts professionally. We used an appropriate amount of time for the elevator pitch and highlights of the business plan, leaving enough time for the question and answers session. During the Q&A session, certain matters were brought to our attention, again matters we had overlooked. We did however pull together and come up with reasonable responses, instead of them staring at our blank faces. One major setback we had was not being able to speak to the relevant staff members regarding our idea. Some of the responses we would have liked to have given to the dragons hinged on us getting the information from those staff members. Other than this we did the best we could and were pleased with the final result.

Overall, the dragons did have positive criticisms and I don’t think they were totally opposed to the idea. This whole second semester has really highlighted the importance of time and it could be that our idea could have been improved if we dedicated more time to it in the beginning. Going forward, I have identified where my mistakes lie in this task and seek to improve them. If nothing else, I now know how to go about writing up a detailed business plan and have some idea on what it is like to present this to potential investors. Whether I look to become an entrepreneur in the future or not, the skills I have learnt here will definitely aid me in my professional life.

Feedback Session

Now that we’re nearing the end of our research and business idea development, it was time to get some feedback from some entrepreneurial experts. Prior to this week, we were told that the feedback would be given individually. Walking into the classroom however and seeing all the voluntary experts sitting casually made us believe that each group would go up and present their idea, which got us panicking. Luckily, the reason everyone was in one room was so that Corinne could explain the procedure and assign each group to the experts present. Our group was assigned a manager of John Lewis at the Kingston Hill branch, named Adam.

We felt quite confident about our idea as we split up however as fate would have it, this was about to change. As we explained our idea, Adam seemed to like it but had immediately spotted quite a crucial flaw. The flaw was getting the tutors to stick to their agreement, as what was there to stop them from not turning up. Also, if they didn’t turn up what would the consequence of that be. You would think something as obvious as this would have come to mind, but nevertheless we thought about ideas to overcome this.

At first this seemed quite tedious as every solution seemed to come with another problem in tow. Finally, we had come up with an ideal solution benefitting us as well as the students.

As well as receiving feedback from Adam, there was another group who joined us and we found both of us sharing some common problems. We heard their idea and gave feedback and they did the same. At first I was nervous about their response, however they were fond of the idea and brought up some valuable points to think about.

All in all, I found this to be a very useful experience. Receiving information from Adam and the other group helped us to further develop our idea in time for the Dragon’s Den presentation next week. Not only did the information help us, but the questions raised prepared us for what was to come. I learnt that an effective way to minimise future flaws if not mitigate them, is to go through each section and list the pros and cons. This way we can clearly see what works well and what needs more work on. Now its up to us to make the final changes in time for next week.

Research Back In Motion

This past week was dedicated to research and testing different sections of our business idea. Our aim was not to have the majority of the testing done as this requires a lot of thought and must not be rushed, as errors may be incurred.

Initially we thought that the first type of research we would conduct as you may have guessed, would be the surveys. Evidently this seems to be our go-to research method and is always number one on the list. However in this case we decided to interview students instead as this seems to be more effective, and will also serve as proof of testing a section of our business plan. Our interviewees were the potential students who would use our service as well as those who would consider doing the tutoring. The questions were tailored to address issues such as would they be interested in the idea, how much they were willing to pay or be paid what their current academic status was like.

The feedback we received from this was quite positive, where students expressed genuine interest in our idea and wanted to know more. They also asked some meaningful questions of areas we hadn’t thought about, which again helped us develop the idea. Some of the information received however required us to make some changes in the business plan as expectations from both ends changed. Overall, we felt it was a insightful exercise and we can finally see our business idea shaping up to eventually become a successful venture. As this was the last lecture before Easter, we aimed to have everyone complete their sections in full by the time the holidays were over. Of course certain shortcomings were allowed since certain members were going home for the holidays. But if not the proof of concept, then the theoretical parts should be done.

Moving onto the lecture for this week, usually we would present to the class our findings of the previous week in order to get some feedback. This week however, focused on the philosophical view of entrepreneurship. We looked at Clay Christensen’s address to Harvard Business School students and talked about how different parts of his work related to us. A link to his work can be found here. Although this was something different to what we usually would do, I found it to be surprisingly insightful and it definitely gave me something to think about.

Back To Brainstorming

At this week’s group meeting we were back to brainstorming ideas. Having struggled so much the first time round we knew that this would be a tedious process, nevertheless it had to be done. The following quote summarises the mood for the first 30 minutes or so of our meeting:

“Inventions reached their limit long time ago, and I see no hope for further development” – Julius Frontinus

Seeing that this was the case we eventually sidetracked and began discussing social matters. Usually this is seen as a disadvantage of working in a group of friends, but not for us. As it so happened we had a tax test coming up and a member of my group asked me “Have you heard from that guy?” It was these six words that turned on our internal light switch as I explained what happened.

A couple of weeks back I received an email from a fellow classmate who wanted to receive some tutoring in Tax and was willing to pay for the service. At first I was a little shocked and thought this might have been a mistake but then I e-mailed the student asking where he got my contact details from. He said he simply looked at the results put up from the previous tests by the lecturer and saw my K number from there. Of course we all know Kingston University students have very creative email addresses and so all he had to do was add @kingston.ac.uk and hope for the best.

From there arose Tutors 4U, where we explored the idea of providing a tutoring service to Kingston University students. At first we all jumped right in throwing ideas here and there since we were so excited with this idea, but then a small reminder of where that led us last time quickly toned down the excitement. Learning from our mistakes, we decided to progress using baby steps. This means that initially we will be targeting those students enrolled on the BA(Hons) Accounting & Finance course, concentrating on the core modules. Being on this course ourselves, we know what the course entails and so allows us to be fully involved rather than going out and finding someone.

From here we decided that the next logical step would be to split the different constituent parts of the business plan between all members. This means that we could all focus on one section in thorough detail and spend our time efficiently since we are already so behind.

This week definitely had us in good spirits again. We certainly never thought we would come up with a business idea the way that we did, especially since other groups went logically from problems they faced and moving forward in that manner. Being in a good mood also served as a good motivator to get things done. We also agreed to have more frequent group meetings so that each part of the business plan can be tested in time.

Consolidation of Results

This week by far had to be the worst group meeting of all. At first I used to think not having all group members present was the worst, but not this time.

Being in good spirits from last week, we all went about doing the research; i.e. getting those surveys filled out and trying to speak to the appropriate members of staff. However, we all came back with very disappointing results. With everyone relaying their findings one by one, we quickly became aware of the many flaws with our idea. It is very difficult to pin point one main flaw as unfortunately there were so many. The first was the cost of getting the beds and all other required materials in relation to what the students were prepared to pay. Another was the allocation of space, whereby the majority of the rooms were in use and those that weren’t did not fit our criteria.

Apart from this, a major flaw we overlooked was the running of the service. It came to our attention that even if were able to secure a room, given the size of it we would be limited to the number of beds we could put in there. This would mean that for a big population of students only a few beds would be available at any one time.

There were also issues regarding safety in terms of the students and their belongings and storage for them.

All in all, this was a very disappointing set back; not to forget one we cannot afford to have at such a late stage. The feedback from the survey brought our attention to matters we did not even think about and stressed the importance of being thorough. Determined to turn this into a positive outcome, we learnt to think rationally when coming up with future ideas and not get carried away. However, there was still the problem of coming up with a new idea…

Research, Research, Research

Now that we are finally back on track, we were able to have a group meeting with everyone present. This in itself was progress for us. We thought it would be best to compile the survey questions together rather than burdening one person with it. This did not take very long and it was decided that each member would take a few surveys and get them filled out.

Having stayed at university quite late ourselves on numerous occasions, in this case helped us find relevant students to fill out the survey. The information we hoped to derive from doing this was whether theses students stayed back frequently and if available, would they make use of this service. Another key piece of information required was how much they were willing to pay for the service.

We also thought it would be helpful to find out who to speak to with regards to having the beds on campus. For this we went to the course administrator who emailed us with a list of people to contact. We found that trying to locate them in person was very difficult and so it would be best to send out an email. This way we wouldn’t waste time and could get on with other tasks.

This week certainly improved our team dynamic, where each member was having some form of input to the idea. We felt that we were making good progress and looked forward to meeting up next week to discuss our findings.

Brainstorming

Having attended the lecture last week, I now had a taster of what each group was doing and how far they have gotten. It was now up to us to come up with an idea as soon as possible, so that we can further explore it in the weeks to come.

For many days we brainstormed and really struggled to come up with ideas. The main difficulty we faced with this was getting all members present in order for them to participate. We did however combat this and come up with an idea, and then told the missing members to see what they thought. The idea was to get beds on the university campus to rent out to students who stayed back late in the library working or revising and feel like they need a nap or get a few hours sleep in order to feel rested.

Once we had everyone’s agreement on the idea, we dived straight into doing the research. The first thing that needed to be done was to compile a survey to see if the students liked the idea and if they were prepared to use it. We then had to look into the materials required such as the price of beds and disposable bed sheets. In addition to this, we had to speak to the university to see if our idea was plausible in terms of space on campus and as part of the university’s regulations. Now that we knew what had to be done, the next step was to assign each member a certain aspect of the research; where the results of doing so would be discussed at the next meeting.

During the course of this I had another lecture and again hearing how each group had further progressed, only reinforced the fact that time was of the essence. We did however aim to be back on track with the other groups by the following week via regular meetings.

Business Model Canvas

So today was the first lecture of the second semester where we were all going to present to the class, in our teams, what business ideas we had come up with over the break. Unfortunately for us, it seemed the holiday spirit got the best of us and in turn we came up blank.

Knowing that time was of the essence, we mulled over a few ideas, but hadn’t decided on anything in time for the lecture. Nevertheless we still went and I’m glad we did. Although we had a bit of an embarrassing moment where our group was called up but instead we just sat and looked at each other, knowing we didn’t have anything to present; it was interesting to see how far other groups had gotten so far in terms of their ideas and where they saw it going over the next couple of weeks.

Listening to the other groups made me realise just how far behind we really were, and so we collectively agreed to make a conscious effort to make sure we came up with something feasible and fast.

We were also given information on a business model canvas, and were meant to use it as a basis for our business model. A business model is vital as part of any business’s foundation as it allows you to lay out your idea on paper and see which sections make up your business. Examples of this include value proposition, key activities and key resources. Laying out your information in this way can help you visualise your business idea in an effective way, whilst being able to see which sections may need further exploration.

Speed Dating

This semester focused on us as individual entrepreneurs, showing us how to come up with ideas for a business. It also taught us how to develop our ideas, as well as thinking about the different areas that make up a business. All of this ensured that our learning was never one dimensional. Next semester then, is about coming up with an idea as a group, to develop a large business plan and to test it out. Before we can do that however, we need to find a team, which is what today’s lecture is about.

The first thing we did once we’d sat down in the lecture was tell Corrine what discipline we were from, i.e. what course we were studying. At first I thought she was asking us generally, just to find out about her students. But then when she started to write them on the board in columns, I figured it had something to do with the lecture. Once everyone’s course had been written up, we had to go and get a sticky note of the colour that related to our course. Next, we split up with one half of the class standing on one side, in a line, and the other side standing opposite us. We then had a few minutes to tell the person opposite us about ourselves e.g. what we are studying, our hobbies/interests etc. The ‘speed dating’ system ran quite smoothly and was actually quite fun to do.

This was a good exercise as we got to meet students we probably wouldn’t have normally spoken to. It was interesting to find out about the other students and what they were interested in. After doing this, most people had an idea of who they wanted in their group so the final thing left to do, was to tell Corrine.