Reading Reflection No. 3 - Steve Jobs

1) What surprised me the most was how Steve Jobs was depicted as temperamental and hard to work with. I admired his drive and dedication to succeeding, however, I did not admire his attitude towards people and how he treated others. He encountered adversity when he was fired from Apple for having problems with so many people and lost a lot of money investing in Pixar and NeXT. His solution was convince Pixar to make animation for movies rather than focus on short films and other services. Pixar then partnered with Disney to make Toy Story, and the rest was history. 

2) Steve Jobs was a very driven person who always got what he wanted. He worked hard and truly believed in his visions and ideas. For example, when he wanted a job at Intel he walked in and refused to leave without a job, and he landed one. 

3) I was confused on Steve's business relationships with people. It almost seemed like he climbed over people to get to the top of the ladder. He left behind a lot of good working people that had helped him, I don't know why he would do that. It seems like he also tried to cheat people a lot, the book questioned whether he held back bonuses and did not split profits properly. 

4) I would honestly ask Steve Jobs why he was such a horrible person to work with and why he alienates himself instead of working with others as a team. My second question would regard why he invested so much money into NeXT after he was fired from Apple. 

5) I think Steve Job's idea of hard work is to make his vision a reality. If someone designed or engineered a product he turned it into money with his skills and perseverance. While I do agree with his take on hard work, I probably would have a better attitude about it all. 

Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is an agency that was established to ensure safe and healthful working environments for both men and women. OSHA regulations require that an equal number of facilities must be provided for both sexes. For women in construction, this provides an unmet need. The nature of this need is serious, being that female employees in the majority of sites do not have access to a sanitary restroom. Some might argue that separate facilities shows special treatment to women and that unisex restrooms should suffice, however, OSHA rule clearly states that “Employers should provide separate bathrooms for male and female workers.” Sanitation rules, including provisions for female employees in the construction field, have been in place for over 30 years. Despite this, the opportunity is now being created because of the rapid increase of women in the construction field. Demographically, I am targeting females in the industry, however, this spans the entire country and can maybe spread internationally.

The main issue present is that this is an unmet need and even OSHA has acknowledged it. OSHA describes the challenge as being that temporary restrooms are mostly unisex, and these facilities are usually not maintained. As a result, women cut out drinking water in an effort to not use the restroom. This can cause heat stress, urinary tract infections, and many other health issues. This is a challenge that I have personally gone through on the field. The bathrooms on my site were unsanitary, forcing me to drive 30 minutes roundtrip to the nearest Publix twice a day and limiting my water consumption to two bottles a day. I risked my health, spent extra gas, wasted time, and it was an uncomfortable situation overall. This opportunity is huge, not only in a business aspect but in an effort to change the dynamic of the construction industry, a male-dominant field. Construction is slow in regards to internal changes within the company, making my window of opportunity lengthy, which I can use to my advantage. 

 

Innovation

My innovation is called the “Pink-a-Potty”, a portable bathroom that is “pink” in color and meant to meet my female customer’s needs. It works just like any regular port-a-potty except that since it is meant just for female use it will be easier to maintain it as a sanitary facility. This restroom will offer feminine products for women and, to ensure female-only access, will also bring an external lock that can only be opened by punching in the correct code. This code will be changed on a monthly basis, or per the company’s request. Each “Pink-a-Potty” ordered will also come with a full service contract, so that the company trucks can come to the customer’s site once a week to empty out the restroom tanks and replenish supplies. The supplies will include toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and toilet liners. Inside of each “Pink-a-Potty” will be a toilet paper dispenser, a hand sanitizer dispenser, a toilet liner dispenser, a bag hook, and a shelf. Some of these items are not seen in your standard portable restroom. To have a successful business, I will match the prices of other portable restroom companies. For short term rentals I will offer portable toilets for $75-$100 a day per unit. For long term rentals, contracts over three months, I will offer a rate of $400-$900 a month per unit. The cost will vary based on how many units a customer would like and will include drop-off of the unit, pick-up of the unit once the contract has terminated, and a full service contract.

 

Venture Concept

An advantage that my innovation has is that it is a product that people already order, and is a necessity on any site or outdoor event. I think that customers will switch from standard port-a-potties to “Pink-a-Potties” because my company will also offer standard portable restrooms so that customers can make a one stop shop. For example, if Smith Construction has a contract for 10 portable restrooms that is up for renewal, they can switch to my company and open a contract for 7 standard toilets and 3 “pink” ones for the same exact cost. It will be easy to switch because they lose nothing, yet gain a new product, a safe workplace for women, and something that makes them standout as a construction company. My competitors would be other portable restroom companies, however, their weakness is that they don’t have my “pink” product. Distribution, customer support, customer experience, and the business location all play an important role in defining my business concept. I will need multiple trucks for distributing the toilets, special equipment to empty the waste tanks inside of them, and customer support to help clients order toilets and set up contracts. With great support and distribution, customer experience will be positive and I will have loyal companies that will use my products on all of their jobsites. To start out, “Pink-a-Potties” will have an in Miami, FL. The business will have 15 employees, 10 in the office and 5 out driving trucks. Eventually, my business will expand and I will open more offices and hire more employees. Roles for the employees include sales, service, accounting, distributing, and coordinating.

 

The Three Minor Elements

My venture’s unfair advantage would be my networking with various construction companies. Not only are these contacts potential clients, but they can also refer me to other businesses. The fact that I am a female in the industry, the exact market that I am trying to target, makes it hard for competitors to copy my success. My next opportunity would be to open a line of pink personal protective equipment, from hardhats to vest to safety glasses and more. In five years I would like to have opened more than a dozen offices around the country and have over 200 employees. In the next decade, I hope my venture has helped achieve my vision of creating an equal workplace for women in construction.

 

I received a lot of positive feedback on my venture concept. The only thing that my peers suggested that I should change is widening my market. Instead of strictly targeting the construction field, people were saying that I should also offer my product to fairs, concerts, festivals, and other outdoor events where temporary restrooms are needed. I have changed this in my second venture concept, while I am still focusing in the construction market, I will also offer the product to other types of clients.

 

Final Reflection

My most formative experience from this class was developing my venture concept. I enjoyed building my idea throughout the semester and tweaking it as feedback was given. Year later I think I will remember my “Pink-a-Potties”. My most joyous experience was creating the portmanteau. Using my word around work all week was a lot of fun. I am actually proud of myself for completing the bug list, that list was so hard for me to do and I was very close to giving up on it. It also created the idea for my venture.

I never thought I would believe this, but I do see myself as an entrepreneur because of this course. I have been using what we have been learning, from networking skills to idea napkins in my internship, construction company, and everyday life. I have moved a lot closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset as now I am starting to see problems or issues as opportunities.

A recommendation I would make to students going down this path in the future is to be intentional. You get what you put into this course. Also, the assignments are more enjoyable if you choose a venture that you are actually passionate and interested about. To perform best in this course, I highly suggest the use of a planner or agenda. Put the assignments on a calendar or use the tools given to you on canvas, the more organized you are, the least likely you are to forget about them or wait until the last minute.

Making it Real

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5u-csPg1I-gSHlRYU1fWTN1UHc/view?usp=sharing

Your Exit Strategy

1) My goal in life is to own a successful general contracting company. Therefore, as my exit strategy I would plan to sell this business in the next five years for a large return.

2) I have selected this particular strategy because I don't want this venture to get in the way of my lifelong goals. I don't think it would be difficult to run both companies for a while since they are both in the construction industry, but I would eventually want to put all of my focus into my construction company.

3) I think my exit strategy has influenced many decisions in my venture. Instead of targeting a wide market, I have decided to just target the construction industry because it would compliment my career. My recourses for this venture include contacts I have made in past construction jobs and ones that I will make in the future. Since I will sell the company in around five years, all of my decisions did not stray far from the construction world.

Celebrating Failure

1. This past semester I failed at creating a hardware schedule for my project at work. The construction company I am interning for assigned me to a 60-unit room renovation inside a five-star resort. One of my many responsibilities was to create a hardware schedule and it proved to be a pain to do. From self-closers, hinges, knobs, push pull plates, panic hardware, and maybe over two dozen other items, some that I didn’t even know existed, I had to count each one for each fixture, door, or cabinetry item. I thought I did an okay job until the order came in last week and it was time to install. Turns out, I read one sheet on the drawings wrong and didn’t realize that in the title block it said that it was Floor 4 and Floor 5 combined. When counting the hardware for that sheet I should have multiplied it by two since it included both floors, I just counted it as one floor. Nevertheless, we were down about 86 pieces of hardware and I am still dealing with this nightmare. I placed the order six weeks before I needed it to be delivered last week, so to order more it is another six weeks lead time before I can receive them.
2. What I learned from this fiasco is to take my time with tasks and to always double check my work. Also, creating a hardware schedule is something that I have never done before and wasn’t too comfortable doing. While it is great to try things on your own and teach yourself, I also think it’s important sometimes to ask for help. In this case, I should have asked the project manager for help or to at least double check my work before ordering the items.
3. Failure is both hard and embarrassing. While I didn’t get in trouble at work, nor caused anyone to be mad, it was still very embarrassing and threw a pretty decent obstacle in my project schedule. I don’t like failing and am a very prideful person, admitting I did something wrong is actually something that I struggle with. This class has changed my perspective on failure by showing me that it is okay to re-do things in an attempt to improve. We had several chances to fix our elevator pitches, idea napkins, and more assignments. I have learned that your first attempt is rarely perfect, it takes feedback from others and practice to get something right or improve something. I am definitely more likely to take a risk in the future, this class has taught me how to write my thoughts in a clearer way and how to network and approach people more comfortably.

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is an agency that was established to ensure safe and healthful working environments for both men and women. OSHA regulations require that an equal number of facilities must be provided for both sexes. For women in construction, this provides an unmet need. The nature of this need is serious, being that female employees in the majority of sites do not have access to a sanitary restroom. Some might argue that separate facilities shows special treatment to women and that unisex restrooms should suffice, however, OSHA rule clearly states that “Employers should provide separate bathrooms for male and female workers.” Sanitation rules, including provisions for female employees in the construction field, have been in place for over 30 years. Despite this, the opportunity is now being created because of the rapid increase of women in the construction field. Demographically, I am targeting females in the industry, however, this spans the entire country and can maybe spread internationally.

The main issue present is that this is an unmet need and even OSHA has acknowledged it. OSHA describes the challenge as being that temporary restrooms are mostly unisex, and these facilities are usually not maintained. As a result, women cut out drinking water in an effort to not use the restroom. This can cause heat stress, urinary tract infections, and many other health issues. This is a challenge that I have personally gone through on the field. The bathrooms on my site were unsanitary, forcing me to drive 30 minutes roundtrip to the nearest Publix twice a day and limiting my water consumption to two bottles a day. I risked my health, spent extra gas, wasted time, and it was an uncomfortable situation overall. This opportunity is huge, not only in a business aspect but in an effort to change the dynamic of the construction industry, a male-dominant field. Construction is slow in regards to internal changes within the company, making my window of opportunity lengthy, which I can use to my advantage. 

Innovation

My innovation is called the “Pink-a-Potty”, a portable bathroom that is “pink” in color and meant to meet my female customer’s needs. It works just like any regular port-a-potty except that since it is meant just for female use it will be easier to maintain it as a sanitary facility. This restroom will offer feminine products for women and, to ensure female-only access, will also bring an external lock that can only be opened by punching in the correct code. This code will be changed on a monthly basis, or per the company’s request. Each “Pink-a-Potty” ordered will also come with a full service contract, so that the company trucks can come to the customer’s jobsite once a week to empty out the restroom tanks and replenish supplies. The supplies will include toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and toilet liners. Inside of each “Pink-a-Potty” will be a toilet paper dispenser, a hand sanitizer dispenser, a toilet liner dispenser, a bag hook, and a shelf. Some of these items are not seen in your standard portable restroom. To have a successful business, I will match the prices of other portable restroom companies. For short term rentals I will offer portable toilets for $75-$100 a day per unit. For long term rentals, contracts over three months, I will offer a rate of $400-$900 a month per unit. The cost will vary based on how many units a customer would like and will include drop-off of the unit, pick-up of the unit once the contract has terminated, and a full service contract.

Venture Concept

An advantage that my innovation has is that it is a product that people already order, and is a necessity on a jobsite. I think that customers will switch from standard port-a-potties to “Pink-a-Potties” because my company will also offer standard portable restrooms so that customers can make a one stop shop. For example, if Smith Construction has a contract for 10 portable restrooms that is up for renewal, they can switch to my company and open a contract for 7 standard toilets and 3 “pink” ones for the same exact cost. It will be easy to switch because they lose nothing, yet gain a new product, a safe workplace for women, and something that makes them standout as a construction company. My competitors would be other portable restroom companies, however, their weakness is that they don’t have my “pink” product. Distribution, customer support, customer experience, and the business location all play an important role in defining my business concept. I will need multiple trucks for distributing the toilets, special equipment to empty the waste tanks inside of them, and customer support to help clients order toilets and set up contracts. With great support and distribution, customer experience will be positive and I will have loyal companies that will use my products on all of their jobsites. To start out, “Pink-a-Potties” will have an office close to major construction sites in Miami, FL. The business will have 15 employees, 10 in the office and 5 out driving trucks. Eventually, my business will expand and I will open more offices and hire more employees. Roles for the employees include sales, service, accounting, distributing, and coordinating.

The Three Minor Elements

My venture’s unfair advantage would be my networking with various construction companies. Not only are these contacts potential clients, but they can also refer me to other businesses. The fact that I am a female in the industry, the exact market that I am trying to target, makes it hard for competitors to copy my success. My next opportunity would be to open a line of pink personal protective equipment, from hardhats to vest to safety glasses and more. In five years I would like to have opened more than a dozen offices around the country and have over 200 employees. In the next decade, I hope my venture has helped achieve my vision of creating an equal workplace for women in construction.