Week 14: reading reflection

I'm a dork. Ethics fascinate me so I've been waiting for this reading, particularly after reading some of Farrukh Siddiqui's blog. How many of us have thought about ethical considerations, social responsibility, while developing our ventures? Dr. Pryor has framed our venture creation through the lens of problem solving, but aren't we all thinking about potential profitability?

We'll get back to that. Right now, I want to know why Kuratko used the term bootlegging. What does it mean to say you should "expect clever bootlegging of ideas?" I don't think "secretly" working on new ideas on company time (as well as personal time, as if that makes it okay) qualifies as bootlegging, nor do I think it should be expected in an innovative environment. Isn't collaboration encouraged? Anyway, I understand what he was doing there--cute, Kuratko--but bootlegging didn't have to be brought into this. Are all innovative environments to be anarchal?

And did anyone else get the sense that Chapter 3 helped form the backbone of our course? Promoting intrapreneurship through experimentation and developing collaboration between intrapreneurial participants? Check out the mission and vision figure and tell me it doesn't ring a bell.

We're still on the topic of failure. I think the section on learning from failure is a nice reminder and encouraging.

I was a little surprised by the think big start small concept (EBO rules). I think my surprise lies in my inexperience. Throughout school, we talk about big business. This is the first course that's touched on start-ups, and obviously with a start-up you start small with big dreams. Duh.

Kuratko brought up hiring the right people. I want to take the opportunity to ask Kuratko what process he would use to vet employees for a) socially responsible business and b) innovative business. It seems like all the pieces are there for him to address this unless he already did, and I'm brainfarting. All my classes are starting to blend together, which is great and awful.  

In Chapter 4 I found more support for the reading creating our class. I wonder if we were intended to be social/civic entrepreneurs or influenced in that direction.

Oh! One final note, was anyone else offput by Kuratko's ethics of caring, saying that caring was a feminine alternative to traditional masculine ethics? Why did things have to be gendered, Kuratko?

                      

The very short interview, part 2

Okay, if you didn't hit play above, you should. Mark's laugh is absolutely hilarious. He's honest and real and relatable.

For those of you who missed round one, ahem, I'm talking about Mark Bradeis, the owner of A Change for the Better Painting and Power Washing operating in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Both of our conversations have been brief, but answers came easier this time. What was different? Well, I switched methods from "random assault" to "here are some questions, you have a week to answer." He spoke more freely when recording himself, though Mark is still a straight to the point kind of guy.

I know that I'm much more comfortable speaking with people about their businesses now. I have insight and, in some cases, knowledge/theory the practicing entrepreneurs only know abstractly through their work. A lot of things become illuminated when you apply "book learning" to "real life."

You can't see me, but I'm giggling at my use of quotation marks right now.

Let's wrap this up. Has it only been three months? For anyone else in the business program, this course is a continuation of what you'll learn throughout your time at UF. If you can exploit this course to get comfortable speaking and interviewing, do it! The skills are invaluable. We have to market ourselves every day, which is a reality I'm only now coming to terms with, and the ability to speak off the cuff, to project confidence about a concept you aren't 100% sure of, to develop that idea in the first place...what a semester.

Google gold medal (deliberately) not won here

Hear me out, viral marketing is great, and if you don't show up at the top of the results list in Google, someone else is capturing your clients, but for the purposes of this course, I didn't want to go for Google gold.

Aren't we all a little protective of our ideas? I chose the concept I've been working on this semester over my initial idea because I knew it would be difficult for anyone to implement and highly unlikely that it would be picked up and replicated in the Tampa Bay area specifically. We're vulnerable in this situation.

That being said, I did try to use "interactive indoor playplace" and "children under five" or variations thereof weaved inconspicuously through my posts. From my past experience as a freelance content writer, I can tell you I didn't use keywords nearly enough to top Google. My employers would request a word be used at least 15 times in 90 words. Yikes. It's like they don't realize how that's going to read.

Come to Dr. Joe's pediatric dentistry for kid-friendly service. The practice made to be kid-friendly, calming and just for kids. Kid-friendly, pain-free dentistry. Did I mention dentistry or kids? Kid-friendly, kid, kid, dentistry.

That's exaggerated, but some employer requirements did have obviously keyword heavy end products. As a writer, I hate producing work like that, which suits my strategy of foregoing SEO in favour of privacy.

Not very sporting of me, is it? Let's say I were trying to get the word out about my business. My keywords would stay about the same "indoor play," "interactive," "children under five," "developmental play" and maybe "air conditioning." There would have to be something about the facility being relatively weather-proof. Parents can bring their children any time, woo!

Social media would have to play a role, but I'm guessing Facebook would be the extent of it. Snapchat could be brought in, but that's really only impactful once a following is established. I'm not a big fan of social media; I find it invasive. After much apprehension I've jumped on Instagram and, as of yesterday, Snapchat, but I deleted my Facebook account three years ago and haven't looked back. So no shameless social media self-promotion has happened so far, though every post I publish I consider sharing via Google+. Friends would come check out the blog if I asked, but I don't think they would engage.

My secret sauce is my most viral post, but Idea napkin no. 1 is a close second, only one view short of a tie. Any post with the Swedish Chef is going to be hot. 

Should I admit I couldn't find my blog in Google results? No? Okay, let's forget about that bit then.