Chaplin Fertig's ENT3003 Blog

1.)     Your exit strategy is paramount to your entire entrepreneurial endeavor. The U.S. Military works backwards with planning and timing so starting with your exit strategy and working backwards from it can be a great way to help guide your business to its ultimate goal. For me, my exit strategy is to ultimately sell the business for a large profit. I've read Peter Thiel's Zero to One  and in that book, he explains that the time to sell your project is when you are completely out of ideas to innovate. For me, that is my goal as well. 2.)     I believe that getting all of my ideas and innovation into my business is a great way for me to leave the project feeling complete. I can say I put every ounce of what I have into it. If I sell to early, I'll be wanting to put a bigger footprint into it. If I sell too late, I'll be wondering why I didn't sell it earlier. I feel when I am fully out of ideas, that is the time to pass ...

    The story of Phil Knight is one that truly inspires you to reach for your goals and dreams. What surprised me the most was the risk that he took going to Japan to meet with executives without a real backing to help him. This risk was high as they could have dismissed him, but he believed that he could stand up and pitch his idea to the executives of Tiger shoes. I admired the most the drive he possess to seek out his dream regardless of his classmates and parents opinions. It is very easy to take the words of a few people and drop your dream, but Phil Knight didn't do that.     What I least admire about Phil Knight is the fact that he proves me wrong. I keep waiting patiently for the "correct moment" to launch a business and seeing that isn't the way to do it makes me uncomfortable. Truly the lack of admiration in this factor is more of a jealousy, but I will use it moving forward to help me step out of my comfort zone. Facing the ad...

 1.)   This past semester, a friend of mine convinced me to start trading stocks on Robinhood. After seeing his gains from trading options, I decided that I could jump aboard as well and profit on the crazy market conditions. Very quickly, I realized that it wasn't that simple and I saw option after option expire worthlessly. I kept trying to purchase new options but each time coming up empty.      2.)     After fruitless tries, I realized that I wasn't really taking the time to research or put in the time to make educated decisions. I was blindly letting money go in hopes that it would pay off. I wasn't investing, I was gambling. I quickly realized that maybe I don't have what it takes to be an options trader. I realized that I should learn from my mistakes now before I become it becomes too late. Some might believe that I should have tried to learn to be better at it, but seeing my friend lose thousands made me think twice.  3.)  ...

Existing Market 1.      What’s Next? The business would start small. At first, it will be focused on undergraduate students. Eventually, it would expand to graduate students and professional students. It will continue to expand (both internally and externally). We will employ more volunteers and counselors as the demand increases. But as it moves to other campuses, students at those respective campuses will work for the company. 2.      After interviewing three customers in my current market, they all seemed to agree that once the product is excelling on UF’s campus that the next step is to move to another campus. One of them brought up the financial aspects of the business. How will it continue to make money, especially as you move to another campus? The startup plan would be similar to the one implemented on UF’s campus. I would pitch the idea and see if I can get the college to approve of it and then have it be included in the tuition for an ad...

Opportunity There is an opportunity on UF’s campus to create a better option for mental health resources. While technically the students have the ability to go to the current on campus facilities, I believe that there should be a remote option for students. Given the current state of the world due to the pandemic, telemedicine should be become more accessible. This will allow students to continue seeing the same counselor regardless of where they are geographically. The window of opportunity is the biggest it’s ever going to be. Right now, the concept of contactless interactions is becoming widely accepted. As a young person, I can say that in general, if I have the option to text or email versus go in person or even email, I prefer to text. This creates a huge opportunity that I think we should be able to harness.   Innovation I would like to create an app that allows students to talk about whatever they want, whenever they want. In a perfect world, getting mental health help woul...

Resources: 1.      My leadership ability – this resource is inimitable because of my experiences working in restaurants since I was 17 has honed this skill. I’ve seen a variety of management skills and it has helped me understand how to talk to my fellow coworkers. 2.      My reliability – I’m always consistent. This is rare because sometimes people will be late or inconsistent. But I am always punctual and give 110%; you always know what to expect when you work with me. 3.      Social capital with local businesses – I have existing relationships with quite a few small business owners in south Florida. They’ve given me great insight on what it is like to start a small business. 4.      Familiar with mental health – my personal experience with mental health has allowed me to understand it in a very unique way. It gives me more passion to help others with similar problems. 5.      My pe...

The book that I chose from the reading list was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. The title appealed to me straight away. I felt that the theme of this book is one that I try to live my life by: learn from your failures and become better. I liked his optimistic point of view on life. His concept of “be brief and say something positive” really speaks to us as entrepreneurs. Our goal is to find people’s needs and give them what they need. We constantly strive to make the world a better place. A great exercise for this class that connects this book would be finding a business or entrepreneur that we believe has faced failure and still remained positive or persevered. Then, reflect on how in our own lives we have failed and remained positive and determined. I think that most entrepreneurs fail a lot before they are successful once. My biggest surprise when reading the book was that he picks what activity to do based on his energy level. He’s more creative ...

Person 1: Domain expert He is an app developer who went to school at UF. I went to high school with him and I was able to facetime him to pick his brain. I wish I had been able to take him for coffee, but COVID-19… I asked him about the process of creating an app and he gave me a lot of insight! There was a lot about it that I didn’t know so learning about the whole process was great. He’s still new at his field, but he was the closest thing that I could find to an expert.   Person 2: Market Expert             I talked with an old employer about how to market to college students. I used to work for a property management company at a leasing office in Gainesville and their main target market was college kids. They brought up an excellent point that marketing has exploded on social media: Instagram, Facebook, and even Snapchat. I offered to help during the upcoming leasing season during move-in/ move-out (the busiest time of the ...

1.       I am Chaplin Fertig, a fifth-year business student at the University of Florida. I work at Crane Ramen as the lead server. I love working in fast paced, teamwork-oriented environments. I’ve been working in restaurants since I was 16 and I’ve loved every job! I meet so many different people in a single day, and I love interacting with people. This business would allow me to serve people in a completely different way. As a server, I get fulfilled when I do my job right and the customer gets the food and leaves happy. As a business owner, it would be very similar. I would love it if my business were able to make even one person happier.  2.       I want to create an app that helps UF students deal with the stresses of college. I don’t think the current resources that UF offers is adequate. For me, it was hard to find a consistent schedule that worked. This app would allow students to talk whenever they felt the need: whether i...

My customer avatar is an average UF student. He or she probably drives a Toyota Corolla or a Volkswagen Jetta. They probably binge watch their favorite tv on repeat: The Office or Friends. But they don’t have their own account—they’re still using their mom’s account. They like plants and buy them frequently, but then they usually let them die on their apartment windowsill. They’re a little lonely, even though they live in a four bedroom apartment and their roommates make a lot of noise. They don’t have children yet, but they eventually will want kids. They own a pet (either a dog or a cat) that they got despite their mother’s protesting. I've included a picture of my own cat!             I have a lot of stuff in common with the customer avatar! I watch the same tv shows over and over. I neglect my plants and they often die. And I definitely don’t have my own Netflix account. I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all because it is...