Arthur's Blog

1) As an exit strategy for Speech Bubble, I plan to grow and protect the venture as a family business so it can be passed down to my children in the future. 2) I have selected this strategy as I would like to see the fruit of my work grow and expand over the years. I have always dreamed and seeing something that I was able to star myself, grow into something meaningful that would help other people. For this reason, I believe this exit strategy is the most appropriate one for this plan come to pass. 3) This exit strategy has not changed my plans for this business, this exit strategy has been the same since the start of it. The plans to acquire and use resources have been the same since the beginning. Financially, I will use personal servings for the first investment on this business idea, on the technical part, I will use technical knowledge that I have acquired over the years to start building this mobile and web application myself.

Book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck 1) What was the general theme or argument of the book? The general theme of the book is how can we explain success through a psychology perspective. It explains the growth mindset, where we can use past failures as a step towards success in our future. 2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003? I think this book connects in multiples levels with different subjects which we have discussed and learned in ENT 3003. Among them, the most important was on how we see failure. How everyone fails and failing is not an excuse or a reason to stop us, but rather to make us learn from it so we can keep on loving forward towards success. 3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve? If I had to design an exercise for this class, based on this book, it would be for students to think of a situation where they fa...

1) One way I have failed this last semester was trying to read multiple business books at the same time while working full-time and studying part-time. It’s just not doable. 2) I learned that trying to do multiple things at the same time can be possible, however I will not be able to do all of them to the best of my ability given the time constrains. If I want to do the things I want to do, well, then I need to let of the things that are not crucial. 3) Failure is never fun, at least not as you go through it. Its disappointing to ourselves and to those around us that have seen us fail. The way I have dealt with failure recently was first being disappointed, but it did not take long for me to recover from it and keep going. I believe that this course has helped me be more optimistic about failure, not that anyone should seek failure, however, it is part of the process and that is okay. I have also learned that we can possibly learn more from a failure experience than from a succe...

Existing Market Step 1 What I think is next for this venture is adding other languages to the web and mobile application. The original language of the application is English and after one year of having the application up and running, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese will be added next. Step 2 The customers I have interviewed for this portion of this assignment agreed that adding more languages will be a great next step. They also asked for the possibility of adding a service for physical and occupational therapy. Since these are different from speech therapy, we would first need to evaluate and consider the viability of this option. Step 3 What makes the most sense is the initial plan to add other languages. After that, we might consider including other services like the ones suggested by these customers who are part of the market for this product/service. New Market Step 1 A Radical different market from the one I am currently in is parents who do homeschooling. Step ...

Major Elements Opportunity The opportunity for the proposed business idea arises from the fact that parents who have children that need speech therapy have to spend hundreds of dollars (if not thousands) every years in their children speech therapy needs. If they have insurance they only need to pay a small portion, however, for parents that do not have insurance, they have to pay out-of-pocket. There are no specific geographical location for this unmet need. It cover the whole US and other countries abroad as well. Customers do not have another alternative at the moment, they are obligated to pay for the high cost of speech therapy. This is a very big opportunity with lots of potential for growth. This opportunity will be "open" until I create this business, other companies copying this business model will probably follow along. If I can plan it correctly, I must build it fast and continue to innovate so I can stay ahead in the market. Innovation This is a innovation ...

Ten resources: Valuable Rare Inimitable Non-substitutable 1) Computer savvy to create web/mobile application V - I believe this is valuable since I will not need to hire someone to do it for me (at least not for a while) R - Rare because my knowledge is a compilation of multiple experiences I have acquired overtime I - It is imitable, however, it would not be easy to do so N - It is non-substitutable for the same reason it is rare 2) Having contacts in the technology industry for future needs at a lower cost V  - Very valuable as it will save me a lot of time in the future. R  - It is rare because I have multiple contacts in different sections of the technology industry I  - It is imitable, however, it would not be easy to do so N  - It is non-substitutable for the same reason it is rare 3)  First products of its kind V  - Very valuable for parents that will be able to save a lot of money R  - Very rare, there are none in the ma...

Book: The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users, Guy Kawasaki 1) What was the general theme or argument of the book? The general theme of the book/argument of the book was giving tips and tools that can be used to maximize awareness of your brand through social media. It also covers things that should be done to yield positive results and which things to do not, so there are no undesired results to your brand's image caused by poor social media marketing. 2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003? The main point of this course is for us to explore (as close as possible) what would it be like if we were to start our own business. All of these assignments which we do based in one business idea, shows us all different perspectives we need to observe and analyse in order to make an informed decision whether our business idea is viable or not. I believe the book complements everything we have learned in this course...

Domain Expert 1. This is Mary Owens. She has been a speech language pathologist for 23 years now. 2. Mrs. Owens is an domain expert for she has been working in the field for a great amount of years, and has worked in all different kinds of settings: schools, clinics, hospitals, etc. 3. I found her through a mutual connection on LinkedIn which is the same way I contacted her. 4. The nature of this exchange was purely a favor. Mrs. Owens did not ask for anything in return to give me a feedback on my idea, according to her, as long as it will help people communicate better, she is happy to help. 5. Including Mrs. Owens in my network will enhance this opportunity by a great amount. She was able to give me very useful feedback on this business idea. Market Expert 1. This is Mark Federman, he is also a speech language pathologist who has his own practice and has been running it for the last 12 years. 2. Mr. Federman is a market expert as he has been dealing with parents (who have c...

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?      I am Arthur Nascimento. I was born in Brazil and moved to the US at the age of 17 to learn English. Liked it so much so I ended up staying here. I met my wife in my first college class ever, about 7 years ago, and we've been happily married for almost 3 years now. If there is one thing my father taught me was to never be satisfied by working for other people, he always encouraged me to pursue my own dreams, according to him, if I don't do it for myself, I will end up working for someone else making their dreams happen.      I have started a couple ventures but those were just trials that permitted me to gain more knowledge and hand-on experience. I do have a consulting business but I don't plan on expanding it...

My prototypical customer is a mom, Daisy, who cares very much for her 2 children, John and Marcus. Both John and Marcus have speech therapy needs and Daisy has to take both of them to speech therapy every week. Daisy likes running and walking their family pet on Lake Eola Park on weekends. She drives a Toyota corolla and uses it to go everywhere. Daisy works at a DMV office, and she has been working there for 7 years now. She loves reading novels but most of all, she loves reading the Bible, she says it brings her closer to God. She is not too involved in politics, but she leans toward the conservative side. Daisy is 46, she lives with her husband Emmanuel and her two boys, John who is 6 years old, and Marcus who is 2 years old. What I have in common with Daisy is that we both like running and we both have the same faith, Christianity. I don't think that these things I have in common with her are a coincidence.

1) Five ways in which I believe I have human capital that is unique:     1. Problem Solving - Over the years I have spent working in a fast pace manufacturing industry, there are so many variables to everyday problems that I have been able to put my problem solving skills to great use and by doing so, I have also been able to get better at it. This encompasses all kind of simple fix solutions to situations that are very complex, data driven and if done correctly can save the company a great amount on money.     2. Determination - In my opinion, a key element in life. Nobody has gone far in life, whether in sport, business, or anything without determination. Even though I might get tired or even discouraged sometimes, it is almost rare for me to give up on something I believe.     3. Consistency - I am a very methodical person. The reason behind me being methodical is very simple. I don't like wasting time. Therefore, by being methodical, I spend "m...

I interviewed 3 parents who have children with speech therapy needs. Parents said that when it comes to speech therapy, is not the same as buying a product (example: computer), since it is a service, and a medical service which their children must have, they have no option but to pay the price for each therapy visit. Since they are not familiar with therapy itself, it is hard for them to evaluate the quality of the therapy. The only way they have to evaluate it, is through the progress of their children, and even by judging quality that way is very complicated, since they are not able to tell if their children had or did not have progress due to the quality of the therapy, or due to their children ability to advance their communication and cognitive skills through therapy. The only thing that is easy for them to determined the quality is the customer service they received at the speech therapy clinic. Factors that are important when considering a place for therapy for their childre...

1) Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? I believe that up until now I have been able to use behaviors/skills such as: resilience, consistency, determination, and others to keep up with the requirements of this course. 2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this? Well, I did not feel like giving up at any point in this course, because I like challenge. I see every assignment that we have to complete, as a challenge that must be overcome successfully. What made me pull through is the experience of learning more (in fact, as much as possible) about entrepreneurship and business, since this is something I truly enjoy. I believe that the past two months ...

1) You read about an entrepreneur: What surprised you the most? How when Steve Jobs came back to apple in 1997/1998 he recovered the company from over a billion dollars in loss and was able to bring it to over hundreds of millions of dollars in profit What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? What surprised me most was how tenacious and determined Steve Jobs was. He worked very hard to build everything he did. How he was able to use elements from his past to build principles used into apple products, such as the calligraphy course he took in college as well as his experience from working for Atari into how to make products simple and intuitive. What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? The fact that he did not believe that Lisa was his daughter, and that he had a paternity tests done to verify. Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? Yes, when we had completely left apple. He went onto another business ventures s...

1) Pick a segment The segment I picked for this assignment are customers with the following characteristics: (1) parents who have children who need speech therapy (2) do not have health insurance and have to pay for visits out of their own pocket (3) their child needs speech therapy in English. 2) Interviews a. Questions i. How often does your child need speech therapy? ii. What is the average cost you spend on therapy for your child per month? iii. Have you even been in a situation where you did not have money to pay for the therapy session? iv.  If so, what did you do about it? v. How often does that happen? vi. Would you be open to an alternative opportunity, where your child could still have a version of therapy, that would cost you very little amount of money per month? b. Summary Through the interviews conducted for this assignment, I was able to discover information I had no knowledge of before. Average monthly cost of therapy for interviewees were: Intervi...

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?      I am Arthur Nascimento. I was born in Brazil and moved to the US at the age of 17 to learn English. Liked it so much so I ended up staying here. I met my wife in my first college class ever, about 7 years ago, and we've been happily married for almost 3 years now. If there is one thing my father taught me was to never be satisfied by working for other people, he always encouraged me to pursue my own dreams, according to him, if I don't do it for myself, I will end up working for someone else making their dreams happen.      I have started a couple ventures but those were just trials that permitted me to gain more knowledge and hand-on experience. I do have a consulting business but I don't plan on expanding it...