Jean's Entrepreneurship Blog

Part 1-  The five things that I feel make me different are the following: Dedication/Motivation: For reasons far too personal for a blog post like this one to explain, I have a constant and burning spot that is always motivating me and reminding me to always push myself. Passion: When I develop a passion for what I am doing in any given moment, there is not much that stands in the way of me giving it my all. People Skills: There are certainly people who find themselves uncomfortable in social situations. I'm the opposite, I'm always comfortable even in "awkward" situations. I love meeting new people and building new relationships. Work Ethic: I will admit that I am sometimes easily distracted. But when push comes to shove and there's hard work to do, I'm great at putting my head down and getting it done. Conceptual Skills: When I am introduced to a new situation or made to learn something new, I believe I'm pretty good at wrapping my head around wha...

Parts 1-6      Last week, in part one of this assignment, I focused on three people who fit my segment (franchise owners). I specifically focused on need awareness and information search when conducting my interviews. This week, I conducted three more interviews. One was with my friend's mom who was a franchise owner. The other two were local franchise owners in my city's "town center" plaza. I mostly asked the same questions as last week, but this time I specifically inquired as to their "alternative evaluation" process, how/when/where they buy and what their post-purchase evaluation system is like. These questions included:          "What does your typical purchase look like?"      "What medium is typically used for when you place orders?"      "What is your most common payment method?"      "Who is involved in decisions when items are purchased?"      "Through what criteria do y...

1.  What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?      Throughout the course, I have used a number of behaviors to keep up with the requirements for this class. Two of these main behaviors I used was organization and "people skills". The main behavior was organization; without understanding the class structure and when to put aside time to do the assignments, this class would be very difficult. In fact, organization is basically a prerequisite for this class. Secondly, "people skills" are also essential. Before signing up for this class, I thought of entrepreneurship as a type of endeavor one goes through alone. Little did I know that it includes talking to people- a lot of them! And that is what makes a great entrepreneur- knowing your customer base! 2.  Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through?      Although I cannot attribute the "giving up...

The book I chose to read was "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson. I imagine it is the book most people in this course select to read, but I was genuinely interested as I am a huge tech nerd. 1.  What surprised me the most about Steve Jobs that I had not realized earlier was the sheer quantity of times he tried and failed and did different things. Before reading, I mostly knew Steve Jobs as "the iPhone man" that everyone recognizes with his famous turtleneck. As I read chapter after chapter of different products or companies he worked for, created, or attempted to "make big," I realized that "the iPhone" we all knew and loved him for was, in reality, one of the last things on a huge list of accomplishments and failures. Jobs faced more than a handful of failures (the Apple III, Macintosh TV, etc.), and instead of allowing himself to be defined by them, he persevered and instead came to be known for his successes (iPhone, iPod, iPad, etc.). However...

Parts 1/2/3/4/5 : Keeping in line with my opportunity of reselling unused restaurant inventory, I decided to select the franchise ownership segment of my venture's market. My father is a franchisee of a large restaurant chain. In order to get a good picture of what was going on, I decided to interview three different franchisees from the same franchise over Zoom. The first I originally interviewed did not have the unmet need, so that interview was excluded. Among the several questions I asked, highlighted questions include: "How has coronavirus affected your business?" "Has there been a shortage of demand in the past three months?" "How have you responded to said shortage?" "Have you changed your inventory management system?" "Are you faced with overstocked inventory that you will likely not use?" "Would you be interested in a service that resells that inventory to bring some cash flow to your business?" "Wh...

1. You : My name is Jean Vardaramatos. I am a current junior majoring in Business Administration at UF. I have a passion for law and hope to someday become a lawyer. I am a good people-person and pride myself on my ability to always stay motivated and dedicated when working. My business concept (helping restaurants affected by COVID-19 resell their overstocked inventory) would certainly have room for growth during coronavirus. However, it is obviously intended to be a short-term business, so I would have to see if the business model would be adaptable for future use. 2. What are you offering to customers : Restaurants all over the country are overstocked with food they won't be using due to shortages in demand. The service introduced by my business model is assisting restaurants in reselling the inventory they won't use in order to cut their losses. 3. Who are you offering it to : Any medium or large sized restaurant that is facing shortages of demand due to coronavirus. ...

In Part 1 of this assignment, my focus was on the following opportunity: Restaurants in the United States are overstocked with food items purchased wholesale that are good to use, but will not be used due to the shortage of customers caused by COVID-19. After conducting three interviews with restaurant owners (friends of my father) and three restaurant employees, I had come to the conclusion that although there may be disagreement as to the "why", all five had agreed an opportunity existed. Following those interviews, I have now completed five other interviews. These interviews were also with people inside the food business, ranging from local restaurants to chain restaurants. However, these people self-identified as not having the need identified previously. Here are my conclusions. based on my five interviews: Who:  There are certain people/businesses that fall outside of the boundary, even when sharing a lot in common with the others in my opportunity. The first type...

In one of my previous exercises, I identified an opportunity regarding the ridiculously lengthy lines and wait times in order to purchase a "Pub-Sub" (a sandwich line served by Publix in Florida). Specifically, I have had personal experiences with long wait times as well as having met countless others who also complain about the same issue. In fact, many who choose competitors such as Subway or Jersey Mike's specifically cite the long wait times at Publix for the reason they switched over. My potential solution is to provide services to Publix to facilitate a transition from serving "pub-subs" in Publix locations to serving them in standalone locations. Customers would be able to approach a "Pub-Sub" location just as they would a Subway or Jersey Mike's, rather than having to enter through Publix. Because the location would be specialized to serving sandwiches, Publix can reduce wait times by changing the layout and functionality of their workspa...