30A- Final Reflection

Final Reflection

The most formative experience to me would be the first bug list. Coming into the class I saw myself as an optimistic tunnel vision-ed person who wasn’t very open-minded. The bug list broke me out of that though and forced me to open up to my environment and recognize what was happening around me even the negative things. This experience helped me open my mind to different opportunities and how to create an idea around it, this is an experience I will take with me for the rest of my life. My most joyous occasion was coming up with the name for my business Gator Garnish. The experience I am most proud of myself for accomplishing is the elevator pitches because I have always been against seeing myself on camera and that assignment broke me out that.     Now that we have reached the end I do not feel as if I am a wholehearted entrepreneur, but I have moved forward with developing an entrepreneur’s mindset. One recommendation I have for students taking the class is to take your time and don’t cram. The best advice I have to succeed in this course would be to work ahead and to foster this mindset work on your blog post every day.

29A- Venture Concept No.2

Business Name: Gator Garnish

Opportunity: My opportunity is called Gator Garnish and I created it to fulfill a dream. I have loved cooking as a hobby since a small child and as soon as I could I started cooking. I started with small things like pasta then I moved and now I am an experienced home cook. This skill became extremely important to me when I entered college. I saw the type of food that was in the food halls and I knew that it was not the right food to be eating. I am extremely thankful I could cook because it has helped me in so many situations where I was hungry, and I needed a meal countless time. As I moved on though I saw many young adults that just did not know how to cook. I would ask why they never learned how to cook, and they said it was either because they were too lazy to learn, or their parents simply did not teach them. This and the uprising of fast food and restaurants with delivery services such as Uber eats, and Bite Squad have more and more young adults do not learn how to cook. This is why I created Gator Garnish. I wanted a way for young adults to have a safe and fun way to learn the joys of cooking themselves without any other cook limiting their ability. I wanted young adults to actually have a way to learn how to cook and not just have gluten-free cookies shoved in their face. This is an opportunity that will be here for a long time, and the need for young adults to learn how to cook will only grow from here on out.

Innovation: Culinary classes are not a new thing; they have been things for a very long time however the quality of teaching they provide is another story. Most of the culinary classes I have been to have cut corners and done everything in their power in order to maximize profit for themselves. Why is my class different? Because the emphasis is on the student, the student is the top priority. My job is to teach how to enjoy cooking and that means I give the best teaching and materials I can to the student. Other cooking clubs and classes don’t even let the student cook. They just prepare the meal in front of them then lets the crowd try small serving sizes of the food. That is not the joy of cooking. To me, if someone joins a cooking class it’s because they want to learn how to cook, that is why in my club the main priority is making the student is in control of the meal at all times. There should not be a moment where the student should wish they were actually learning or cooking. When they finish that meal, it should be because of their own hard work. That is the difference between my club and the others. Other culinary clubs focus is showing that food tastes good. My priority is showing the student that they made that food taste good. But the class is not the only thing they receive. That is why for 10 dollars a month the student gets access to the class every week where they will learn three new recipes (appetizer, main course, and dessert), where the materials and tools will be provided, along with access to our patreon page. The club patreon page will have updates for the class and dozens of regular and video recipes that I will not teach in class. I feel that is should mention that we will have different classes for people who are vegan, vegetarian, or gluten-free. Also, on Fridays once a month we will take the meal that the students cook and use them to feed the less fortunate. This is a value that other culinary clubs would charge hundreds of dollars for. Yet my club is offering all of this for seven dollars. The value is what distinguishes my clubs from others.

Venture Concept: The need that I am trying to address with Gator Garnish is the rising epidemic of young adults not cooking, and to try to give back to the community. I hope to solve this issue by providing a cheap cooking class that’s run by young adults in order to show the joys of cooking and help young adults be more independent. I will do by providing a safe and an enriching environment with fresh high-quality ingredients, the recipes will be taught by individuals with cooking and teaching experience and there will be enough food for leftovers as well.

The three minor elements: First my most important service or resource in my club will be the community giveback day. Even though the need for volunteers is so great barley any young adults do. Also, when it comes to food the less fortunate is almost mocked every day with how much food the U.S waste daily. The ability to feed another less fortunate person is something that brings any new young adults to the club ready to learn. The next venture I would like to pursue is competitive cooking shows, for example, I take 4 novice young adult chefs and have them cook meals for a panel of judges and we give them super expensive and high-quality materials to cook with. Either that or becoming a YouTube personality like Binging with Babish. Finally, to be completely honest I am not really sure where the venture would go personally my mission is to teach how to love cooking. If the venture becomes wildly popular and more and more class kitchens open up in Florida that would be the endgame. But overall my mission for the venture is to help young adults grow more independent and mature through cooking. Everything else hopefully will fall in line after that. Where I want to be in life is helping people learn to love what they cook that means my place will be at the head of Gator Garnish I just hope to be able to use what profit I make back towards helping the student and improving the class for the students. Because this is my mission, I believe the venture will achieve my vision if I do what I need to do to provide for my students.

Feedback: The the feedback that I received on my last venture was extremely enriching. The advice that I received I would say is very useful and vital to molding my idea. The feedback I received was to implement different classes and recipes for people with different diets and dietary restrictions. The next piece of feedback I received was to make sure that the recipes that are adjustable for people who have food allergies or medical conditions. The final piece of feedback I received was to reconsider my pricing to make sure that I can fund the club and class.

Changes: The changes that I made to my venture were one, I have implemented new classes that exclusively teach vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, low-sodium, and sugar-free recipes to help cater to the customer that have food allergies or dietary restrictions. Next thing that I did was make sure the recipes that I have been adjustable when it comes to spices or certain ingredients to accommodate all students. The final thing I changed was I raised the price of the club to 10 dollars to get better quality tools, groceries, and cooking materials.

28A- Your Exit Strategy

My Exit Strategy

As I have said before the reason why I came up with the idea for Gator Garnish is, my friend and I went to a culinary club meeting on campus and when we arrived it was a cold large kitchen with people all in corners talking among themselves. When it was time to eat no one helped cooked and we were fed serving sizes of vegan cookies. I want to show people there is more to cooking then that, I want to show young adults that they can cook food that tastes good. I intend to work with the business as long as I can I would like to keep the environment very young adult-friendly so when the time comes I will pass on teaching to a person I see fit whether that be family, friend, or student. I will make the business decisions for the business then hopefully pass the business on to my children. The reason why I have chosen this exit strategy is, it fits my business perfectly. I want Gator Garnish to always feel like a home away from in order to do that having it stay in the family would help with that. Also, I personally would like to pass something that I love and is my dream on to my children, I think Gator Garnish would be something that I would want to stay in the family. I feel that my number one priority while crafting Gator Garnish was making sure the student learn, I think keeping the business within the family would only help with making sure that the business stays in the right hands and Gator Garnish can continue to do its best to teach the joy of cooking to young adults.

27A- Reading Reflection No.3

Andrew Carnegie, David Nasaw

1.   What surprised me the most? – The thing about Andrew Carnegie that surprised me the most is what he decided to do with his fortune. The fact that he decided to become the world’s largest philanthropist and donate so much of his money was extremely surprising to me.

b.      What did I admire the most? – The thing about Andrew Carnegie that I admire the most is his ingenuity. When faced with a multitude of struggles his intellect and intuition is what helped him build his empire.

c.       What did you dislike the most? – The thing about Andrew Carnegie I dislike the most is the way he treated his workers. It is documented that his workers would be under paid even though they were working long hours in extremely dangerous and hazardous environments.

d.      Did the entrepreneur face adversity? Then what did he do? – Andrew Carnegie has faced a lot of adversity in his life and part of the reason why he was able to create his dynasty was due to how he handled the adversity. When faced with bills that could have driven him bankrupt Carnegie revolutionized the steel making process cementing him in history.

2. What competencies did I observe? – The skills that I observed Carnegie has is he is a sort of jack of all trades. He understood business and steel making so he used his knowledge and proficiency in those two subjects and used that to build his business.

3. One part of the reading that was confusing? – I was extremely confused when he decided to use his fortune for philanthropy without thinking about his family or workers first, as the workers were under paid.

4. What two questions would you ask? – The first question I would ask is “Why steel?”, the reason why is, we know that he revolutionized steel making but I would like to know what motivated him to want to do that. The second question I would ask is “What message would you like to leave to the world?”, the reason why is, I want to know what moral compass drove Andrew Carnegie and I would like a deeper understanding of how he thinks.

5. What was the entrepreneur’s opinion of hard work? – I believe that Andrew Carnegie would think that hard work is necessary to create success. It was those sleepless nights that Carnegie worked despite almost being bankrupt that created his fortune and legacy.

26A- Celebrating Failure

My Failure

I would say that my largest failure of the semester is not releasing any music. I have been making and producing music since I was a freshman in high school and one of my largest goals right now is to release a project of music. I told myself this semester would be the time that I would release some music, but I have yet to release music and it is my largest regret. The main reason why I feel as if I have not been able to release music is fear. I have taken days of work and deleted it immediately because I am afraid of the reception I will get. This is an issue that I am working on but multiple times I have deleted completed work because I was afraid it was not good. Another reason why I have not been able to release music is because I am currently going through a writer’s block. It feels almost like I am not motivated to work on music because I am not getting any new ideas.            What I learned from this situation is to give yourself time. Sometimes we get caught up in how fast life moves and we give ourselves these expectations that we feel we have to live up to. Sometimes it helps it stop take a deep breath and not put unnecessary pressure. It's good to keep some pressure on yourself to the point where it makes you competitive. But stressing yourself to the point where you aren’t able to function is redundant to making progress. Another thing I learned is to take things one step at a time but give 100 percent to that one step. Sometimes when we fail its easy to get trapped in our own minds and stay negative/ self-depreciative. But it is important to keep moving forward even if it is a crawl. For a very long-time failure terrified me, it scared me because I placed the world on my shoulders when the issues, I was scared of failing were simple. That was because I was in my own mind. I now handle failure as motivation.  In life failure is something that can either break you or strengthen you, the key is how you use it. I have accepted that failure is a part of life but, I put my best foot forward towards doing the right thing so even if I fail I know I gave my 100 percent.

25A- What's Next

Existing Market: As for what’s next for Gator Garnish I truly believe that networking is the way forward. On Twitter, you see it every day a young aspiring chef posting photos of his food in a post letting people know that they are available for catering services. I believe extend my cooking classes reach is what truly important. Spreading the word through social media, in conjunction with the real-life classes and the YouTube cooking video would truly create a viral product. Having a foot in every form of social media so you can get the most widespread demographic is my end goal with Gator Garnish. I spoke to three sophomores in my bio study group about the market and my product. I explained my product and all the parts of it and asked the first question “What should I be adding to my product?” Ana S. said, “Fun events like Taco Tuesdays and tender Thursdays.” She elaborated that by having these special events where we sell food, we can get more and more young adults into the class. Michael C. said, “A discord chat where all people can join and get updates about event and classes.”. Next, I asked the final question “What do you think people will want next?”, Frankie P. said “More volunteer work honestly, instead of only just feeding the less fortunate more volunteer opportunities like a soup kitchen or food drives would be a good addition.”, I walked away from my interviews with a good idea of how Gator Garnish should evolve with business.

New Market: A completely different market then the one that I am catering to would be to open a restaurant or deli. The reason why this would be the opposite of my product is, I deal with teaching people how to cook so they can be independent of restaurants. I believe that this information will be extremely valuable to my product because once people who are not remotely interested in cooking hear about the value and the opportunity to give back Gator Garnish provides; I think they will give it a second thought. On this note, I spoke to Lucas T. and Shania S. young adults who do not cook and have no desire to learn, and I explained what Gator Garnish was and what it offers. I also explained the community giveback day and using the feedback I received about my idea from the last set of interviewees, I also included the fact that we would also do food drives and soup kitchens. When I finished my presentation, I asked my first question “How do you think people

like you will receive my product?” Lucas said, “I honestly think it would make be people give cooking a second thought, when you explain how much they’re receiving for the price I think they would at least give it a shot once.”.  Finally, I asked, “What do you think I should add or change to reach the most people.” Shania said, “Personally I don’t think the patreon page should be exclusive to club members, you should have a separate twitter or Facebook page so people can always keep up with the club or its events.”, this surprised me because I had never considered this I thought that updating the club was all that matters but keeping a strong online presence is vital to keep the product afloat.             I am not very surprised by this new market because just as my main market the thing that will get the customer to purchase is convincing. If I can sell my product properly and relate it to the customer personally then my product will keep growing. My main market and opportunity have not changed as it coincides with this new market I have discovered. I need to take this information and cultivate Gator Garnish so it could be open to as many people as possible.

24A- Venture Concept No.1

Business Name: Gator Garnish

Opportunity: My opportunity is called Gator Garnish and I created it to fulfill a dream. I have loved cooking as a hobby since a small child and as soon as I could I started cooking. I started with small things like pasta then I moved and now I am an experienced home cook. This skill became extremely important to me when I entered college. I saw the type of food that was in the food halls and I knew that it was not the right food to be eating. I am extremely thankful I could cook because it has helped me in so many situations where I was hungry, and I needed a meal countless time. As I moved on though I saw many young adults that just did not know how to cook. I would ask why they never learned how to cook, and they said it was either because they were too lazy to learn, or their parents simply did not teach them. This and the uprising of fast food and restaurants with delivery services such as Uber eats, and Bite Squad have more and more young adults not learn how to cook. This is why I created Gator Garnish. I wanted a way for young adults to have a safe and fun way to learn the joys of cooking themselves without any other cook limiting their ability. I wanted young adults to actually have a way to learn how to cook and not just have gluten-free cookies shoved in their face. This is an opportunity that will be here for a long time, and the need for young adults to learn how to cook will only grow from here on out.

Innovation: Culinary classes are not a new thing; they have been things for a very long time however the quality of teaching they provide is another story. Most of the culinary classes I have been to have cut corners and done everything in their power in order to maximize profit for themselves. Why is my class different? Because the emphasis is on the student, the student is the top priority. My job is to teach how to enjoy cooking and that means I give the best teaching and materials I can to the student. Other cooking clubs and classes don’t even let the student cook. They just prepare the meal in front of them then lets the crowd try small serving sizes of the food. That is not the joy of cooking. To me, if someone joins a cooking class its because they want to learn how to cook, that is why in my club the main priority is making the student is in control of the meal at all times. There should not be a moment where the student should wish they were actually learning or cooking. When they finish that meal, it should be because of their own hard work. That is the difference between my club and the others. Other culinary clubs focus is showing that food tastes good. My priority is showing the student that they made that food taste good. But the class is not the only thing they receive. For only seven dollars a month the student gets access to the class every week, along with access to our patreon page. The club patreon page will have updates for the class and dozens of regular and video recipes that I will not teach in class. Also on Fridays once a month we will take the meal that the students cook and use them to feed the less fortunate. This is a value that other culinary clubs would charge hundreds of dollars for. Yet my club is offering all of this for seven dollars. The value is what distinguishes my clubs from others.

Venture Concept: The need that I am trying to address with Gator Garnish is the rising epidemic of young adults not cooking, and to try to give back to the community. I hope to solve this issue by providing a cheap cooking class that’s run by young adults in order to show the joys of cooking and help young adults be more independent. I will do by providing a safe and enriching environment with fresh high-quality ingredients, the recipes will be taught by individuals with cooking and teaching experience and there will be enough food for leftovers as well.

The three minor elements: First my most important service or resource in my club will be the community giveback day. Even though the need for volunteers is so great barley any young adults do. Also, when it comes to food the less fortunate are almost mocked every day with how much food the U.S waste daily. The ability to feed another less fortunate person is something that brings any new young adults to the club ready to learn. The next venture I would like to pursue is competitive cooking shows, for example, I take 4 novice young adult chefs and have them cook meals for a panel of judges and we give them super expensive and high-quality materials to cook with. Either that or becoming a YouTube personality like Binging with Babish. Finally, to be completely honest I am not really sure where the venture would go personally my mission is to teach how to love cooking. If the venture becomes wildly popular and more and more class kitchens open up in Florida that would be the endgame. But overall my mission for the venture is to help young adults grow more independent and mature through cooking. Everything else hopefully will fall in line after that. Where I want to be in life is helping people learn to love what they cook that means my place will be at the head of Gator Garnish I just hope to be able to use what profit I make back towards helping the student and improving the class for the students. Because this is my mission I believe the venture will achieve my vision if I do what I need to do to provide for my students.