Week 15 reading reflection

- The biggest surprise to me was the business model of SKS. How they put the poorer consumers first it is very unique

- Nothing was confusing.

- If your goal is to lower poverty then is that not causing a conflict of interest since that is the market segment you also target?

If you are targeting poor people how do you decide which poor person gets the loan?

-I did not disagree with anything written in the article.

Final Reflection

- The thing that stands out to me the most is how my idea changed over the semester. It started kind of vague and changed gradually into a very solid thing. That is what I will remeber the most because I have considered that if one day I have the resources I would love to build a gym like the one I have been describing this whole semester. I am most proud of myself for sticking through this class. I honestly thought this was going to be some easy credits but this class really pushed me out of my comfort zone.
-Honestly I do not see myself as an entrepreneur I think I have moved closer to that mindset but would not go as far as saying I am an entrepreneur.
- I would recommend that they get ready to feel awkward and just push through it and the class will be very easy if you can just step outside of your comfort zone.

Elevator Pitch #4

The main criticism I got from my last elevator pitch is that "so many people use cardio equipment everyday." That made me realize how uneducated the general population is on fitness. If all you do for your health is get on an elliptical, treadmill, or stairstepper for 30min to an hour you are not doing that much for your health. Long slow cardio, while better than sitting on the couch, is one of the worst things you can do to get into shape. Things like taking little rest in between exercises while lifting, no more than 90 seconds, or taking no rest with circuit style training are much more effective and efficient. To help with those concerns I came up with the idea of a simple website to have some basic information are fitness. This website would have a few videos and some articles to show that you do not absolutely need those cardio machines. Another thing is I changed it from zero cardio equipment to no big cardio equipment. The reason behind this is there are many bikes and rowers that are self powered using the motion of the machine to power the machine itself so in terms of cutting electricity cost having those machines would not have any effect. Bikes and rowers are also much simpler machines mechanically and do not break nearly as often as the big treadmills and ellipticals. At my gym there is always at least one treadmill and elliptical that is broken or needs maintenance. Used the same description because all most of the feedback is positive but some people stil cannot grasp the fact that ellipticals and treadmills are not necessary for fitness.

Venture Concept No. 2

The Opportunity: My target market would be people in small towns or low population areas that want to workout but have no serious gym near them. Only about 20% of Americans get the daily recommended amount of activity. The #1 excuse for not working out is lack of time. This could be alleviated if we could get gyms that are closer to people therefore, being more convenient and taking less time to drive to and from. The way this need is being filled now is in small fitness centers that a lot of these towns have. I do not think that people are loyal to these types of facilities and getting them to switch to a better equipped gym should not be hard. The other thing is some people are just not getting this need met at all by not going to a gym. I feel that this opportunity is huge. The area I grew up in, north west Florida, is littered with small towns and rural areas that would benefit from having a good gym.

The Innovation:

• Convenient locations
• Roll up doors/Skylights
• Educational website linked to memberships
• No big cardio equipment
• Pricing

*My gyms would be smaller but look at how this gym utilizes natural light

The Venture Concept: The basic concept in one sentence is this: A small gym in every small town. I developed this concept by seeing how Dollar General and Family Dollar compete with places like Wal-Mart and Target and that is that they put small stores in convenient locations and people are willing to pay a litter more in exchange for not having to drive to one of the bigger chain stores.  As I said in the opening portion the main reason this is a need that could be met is that there just are not these types of facilities available for people to use. To make it cost efficient to attack such a small market we would have to keep the cost of operating the gym as low as possible. Therefore all of my gyms would be big warehouse garage style buildings with roll up doors and huge skylights. This would keep the cost of utilities as low as possible. We would also not have big treadmills or ellipticals in my gyms. This also keeps the operations cost low. Buying and running power to those big cardio machines cost a lot of money and they also cost a lot for maintenance and they need maintenance often. By keeping those cost down we could translate that into lower membership costs. Over the past few years we have seen Planet Fitness become huge because the membership costs are so low. The other innovation would be a easy to use website that would be free with the memberships but also available to anyone who doesn't go to one our gyms with a subscription fee.. This website would have some tutorials on basic methods of training. Teaching people ways to train would help draw in some of the customers that would turn away due to the lack of cardio equipment. This website could also have other subscriptions for training guides or diets plans. By opening our website up to people other than members it could bring in more money and alleviate some the pressure of getting members. If I am going after small markets to be profitable I need to capture a huge percentage of that market but if I can get website subscriptions from people from anywhere around the world then that could be an effective revenue stream.

I did not change anything about my concept because the feedback was positive except some people still want to say I need to have treadmills and ellipticals. As I explained those pieces of equipment cost a lot to buy and cost a lot to maintain because they break a lot so I would keep those out of my gym using the website I talked about to post videos on better, more efficient forms of cardio. 

Google Gold

1. The activities I did were things like linking my blog when I commented on others I also used labels and some keywords.

2. The keywords I used were things like gym and Gainer for posts about my business and for other post I do not think I really used any other than the ones we were supposed to like the labels.

3.The only Social media I used we Youtube for the video recordings. This class was the first time I actually posted on Youtube so my account grew a little in that way.

4. Elevator Pitch #1 had the most views while Elevator Pitch #2 had the most comments. I think those were the most popular because they contained videos that made the post ore dynamic than just reading bulletted blog posts.

5. No I did not and I couldn't find where I made it. I think this is because the term gym is very basic and has a lot of results and also the term Gainer, while it is my last name there are thousands of supplements that are marketed as Gainers.

* Key word "Gainer" search.

Week 14 Reading Reflection

Biggest Surprise: Did not really find anything surprising. The chapters were earlier in the book and seemed simpler in content.

Something that was confusing: Nothing was confusing in these chapters.

Questions: Of the factors mentioned in chapter 3 which one do you think is the most important? Which one is the least important?

Something the author was wrong about: I did not disagree with the author on anything

Very Short Interview Part 2

For the first interview I talked to Jimmie Jennings of trainharderfitness.com. With the questions I asked I learned that Jimmie wished he had an education in marketing. I also asked what he attributed to his success and his answer was character. He thinks being well liked in the community is what has helped him sell his brand.

Question #1: Since our last interview what is the most significant thing to happen with your business?
Jimmie: "The Total Nutrition deal that I talked about last time. It has been very profitable and I am hoping to expand to more stores soon.

Question #2: Any new additions to the trainharder brand?
Jimmie:"Yes actually, I have a water bottle in Impulse Nutrition which is right up the side walk from Alter Ego Fitness (the gym he works in). I also have started making Ball Harder and Drink Harder shirts.

Question #3: Drink harder? Ball harder is still within the fitness industry but how can you be a fitness brand and condone drinking?
Jimmie, laughing: "Well it is just the town we are in. It is no secret Gainesville is a college town and a lot of college kids like to drink and workout so I thought it would be a good way to capitalize on the local market."

I already knew Jimmie from before this class but even with that the first interview felt a little awkward. This time I felt more relaxed and it seemed like he did as well.