The most spectacular failer celebrating failure

Oh man, this post is my jam. I'm going to have to spare details if I want to keep people from tuning out. Failure is something I have done A LOT of. In the eyes of some, I've failed even more than I think I have due to differing perspectives; I often reframe failure as progress. The whole "every failure is a lesson" thing is cliched, but hey, the philosophy has always worked for me.

Insert additional cliche about not fixing what's not broken here. 

This semester has had less failure than my previous semesters at the University of Florida. I think now that my career here is coming to an end, I'm perfecting the art of being an engaged off-campus student...which is awfully convenient. Why couldn't I have figured it out sooner? I suppose the answer is that I needed to learn the lesson again and again in various shades and only in time for graduation. Boo. 

So what have I learned this semester? Engage, engage, engage! I've coasted through higher education. I'm not proud of that fact. I have to push myself every day to engage with course material, and the problem is exacerbated by my status as an online student. I thank professors for everything they do to help (jokes, gimmicks, passion); I do see and appreciate the effort.

Let's get painfully specific. I just failed an International Business exam. Technically it was only a fail by my standards--I didn't get an "F"--but it was a fail all the same. It was a fatal combination of general discouragement--unfortunately the professor's insistence that everyone does poorly on the second exam and has to study twice as hard to get the grade they had on the first exam had the opposite of intended effect on me--and life stress brought on by work, school, kids and the death of my grandmother.

It makes me facepalm. This is not the first test I've taken unprepared, and I imagine I'll repeat offend in the near future. When I do something as careless as blowing off studying altogether (then do poorly) the inner dialogue is highly self-deprecating and always turns to "why am I in school, subjecting myself to this added stress anyway?" Stress does not look good on me, and it has become a much more regular force in my life since having children, so stress management is an extremely important work in progress. 

Am I more likely to take a risk now than I was four months ago? No. I think I've always been on the extreme end of risk taking and that each subsequent failure has drawn me closer to calculated risk and away from impulse. I'm impatient and impulsive by nature. Since that's not going anywhere, the name of the game is control, and oh, lucky day, I just so happen to be a control freak. Yay, for Type-A personalities!  

What about you? Yes, you! How do you deal with stress? What failures have you endured recently, and how do you use them to grow?

My exit strategy

I've alluded to it in recent posts--even though I see 1, 2, 3 Play as my baby, I have mentally prepared to let it go. After all, isn't...

...the end game? I'm a poor entrepreneur because I have a hard time viewing 1, 2, 3 Play as a cash cow or as an investment to cash out later, but the bottom line is that once I've implemented all my plans, it will be time for someone else to step in and run my baby so that I can move on to the next venture. As for time line, I think I would be in and out in 1-2 years. That may seem brief but once the business is up and running, it will be ready for its new owner.

I'm a wanderer and a problem solver; put those two together and I'm a wandering problem solver (which is pretty accurate). Although I love 1, 2, 3 Play, my passion lies in fleshing out the idea, not running the business. I'm passionate about creating solutions, and I would like to replicate that over and over again.  I hate admitting it, but the thought of running day to day operations is terrifying.

My intent to sell has made it easier for me to be objective and pull out potential problems with the business. I'm also well aware of the marketability and profit potential of 1, 2, 3 Play--it's a passion project but could be valuable to someone who doesn't intimately understand the struggles of parenthood.

Hey, it's a joy, too, but kids are hard work. The little guy pictured above keeps me on my toes. What having kids has taught me is invaluable for venture work. Ventures are kids. You slowly build them until their birth, they go through infancy and the toddler years onward toward teenagerdom and maturity; ventures take patience and planning and flexibility. I have the skills to create, develop to a certain point then release. Motherhood is my guide, and I'm down for the ride. 

Death

This post will be as simultaneously simple and complex as its title.

Each day for the past week I have sat down to work--whether it be for work or school--and come up blank. My grandmother, Barbara Nordstrom, is dead. It seems she's temporarily taken my drive with her despite my efforts to use the event as inspiration to work harder.

So I made the executive decision to give myself a break. I'm notorious for running myself into the ground, beating myself up for failing to meet the ridiculous goals I set, and I want to respect my feelings. One thing I've learned in this class is that I share many of the potentially destructive traits common among entrepreneurs, but I have self awareness and the strong desire to avoid self destruction.

Above is my awesome grandmother with Jonne Järvelä of folk metal band Korpiklaani. She was of unparalleled strength and open-mindedness, and she won't be soon forgotten. 

My venture concept in GIFs

1. You're a parent of one or more children under five.

 

2. You need a safe place to bring your baby/toddler. A place you can go regardless of the weather and a place you can, perhaps, conference with other parents. You need to get out of the house.

 

 

3. 1, 2, 3 Play is a wonderland of indoor play for babies, toddlers & Pre-K'ers. It's made for them.

 

4. You are relieved and mystified.

 

5. So, less this...

...and more this.

Venture concept no. 1

Opportunity

Born of the need for fun places to bring children under five, 1, 2, 3 Play is intended to help parents and their babies, toddlers and Pre-K'ers by providing a safe, stimulating and weather-proof environment. Florida is gifted with beautiful weather year round; we have very few cold days. However, we have a long rainy season, particularly in the Tampa Bay area where storms frequently come in over the water, and when it rains, parents lack options for indoor fun. We are either forced to create indoor activities at home, which only amuses the kids for so long, or to go to the same few crowded places (i.e. the mall, the aquarium) over and over again.

Parents want more options. 1, 2, 3 Play is an indoor facility with over 100 exhibits to keep kids busy. There are more than 100,000 children under the age of five in the Tampa Bay area with many more who flow through because of tourism. It's hard to say how long the window of opportunity will be open for a facility like 1, 2, 3 Play, but as of now, there just isn't a place to support parents of young (<5) children and their play.

Innovation

1, 2, 3 Play is inherently innovative. Other businesses and nonprofits have targeted older children, but no one has gone after the Pre-K and under crowd yet. Developmentally, they have different needs. I think there is a general consensus that children under five can derive value or have fun with activities and displays created for older children whereas older children cannot engage with something designated for younger children--"that's baby stuff"--so in order to capture the most people possible, places have aimed for the elementary and older market and assumed those parents will bring their younger children along, parents of younger children have no other options so they'll test it out and possibly add it to their rotations and overall, they'll end up capturing the entire market.

There is a large enough market to focus on children under five and their caretakers. Local businesses centered around moms and babies, like stroller exercise classes, are thriving because stay at home parents have the need to get out and participate in activities with their children. If you have children, especially if you've stayed home with them for any length of time, you know you have to get out in order to stay sane. Creating routines is key to happiness. I used to go to the library for story time on Wednesday, a mommy group Tuesday mornings and strollga Fridays--there was never enough to fill our schedule. We would go to the zoo, aquarium, mall, Grandma's, play dates and I still craved a place I could safely put my baby down, let him crawl, play, socialize.

Only $5 for a day pass means it will be affordable for most people to go to 1, 2, 3 Play. You pay per child rather than per adult; I know I've been irked by paying $50 for myself and another adult then an additional $15 for my child for something only my child will get any value out of. Rather than incorporating an annual option right off the bat, I would like to test the market for 3-6 months. I tend to think a family pass for $125 would be on target, but I'm not sure yet. I would really like feedback on the pricing!

Venture Concept

Well, I don't want to be redundant, and I think I've explained how 1, 2, 3 Play will meet the needs of my customers. Parents need places to bring their littles. I want to provide a place that not only meets but exceeds their expectations. 1, 2, 3 Play will have activities that cater to all the developmental needs of children under five, like a "farm" where they can harvest crops, tend to animals and drive tractors and a touch wall of different textures.

I can't divulge all the company secrets, but all aspects of the business have been designed with kids in mind and would be reviewed by child development professionals. There is no direct competitor. The closest businesses would be Great Explorations and the Glazer Kid's Museum, neither of which is geared toward children under five and largely lack incentives for the age group I'm focused on. In order to foster loyalty, customer experience is my top priority.

As a parent, the best experience, for me, means it isn't too crowded, there aren't much older children running my child over while he tries to play and everything is clean and SAFE. If I have to walk around patrolling my son(s) because I can't trust my surroundings, that diminishes the value of the experience for me. I would limit capacity, though I think it would take a little time to figure out how many people is too many people in the space. The biggest trouble with the crowd-limiting concept is whether to look at the number of children, the number of adults or both. A gradual roll out, rather than over-marketing, would help curb the crowds. Promotions would take place during the week rather than on weekends, which would be peak times. Would some customers complain about discounts being during the week when they're working? Perhaps. But I don't foresee that being a sticking point for people, meaning I think those patrons would still come to 1, 2, 3 Play.

The roles available in the business are many, but due to lack of capital, hiring would be modest at first. Admissions, janitorial staff, employees who supervise play are all necessary.
  

And the fine details

Is there a secret sauce? I think 1, 2, 3 Play would be hard to replicate primarily because of a high barrier to entry. For those who lack the passion and are strictly looking at the venture from a business perspective, it doesn't look like the biggest profit margins are here. After securing a building through either purchase or lease, everything has to be outfitted and people have to be hired--there's a high set-up cost. A business-minded person would then feel it necessary to have a blow out opening with a goal of filling the place with customers. The problem with that strategy is that customer experience would suffer, leaving people with the first impression that 1, 2, 3 Play is too packed and chaotic to enjoy.

As I mentioned in my Amazon whisperer post, the next move for me would be to incorporate food service into my business model. After that, I would build out an exterior play yard, provided I had the space and financing. And then? Well, as much as I love the business, I would sell it and find my next love, the next unmet need I can help provide.

Booby traps?

I may have fallen into some of the booby traps described by Dr. Pryor in the write up guide, but I like to think I've written this concept in a way that's easily readable and digestible. I would be happy to listen to any suggestions for the future and can't wait to see what others have done with their concepts. Leave a link to your post...with your constructive feedback, of course. I'm planning to read more than my allotted share of these this week so I'll be searching the blogroll for concepts to comment on. 

You, too, can be an Amazon whisperer

1, 2, 3 Play is an indoor interactive play zone for children under five. What drives revenue? Simple. Admission is where the majority of the business's revenue comes from, but what if we expand that pool? I realize our goal this week is to come up with the next product offering but what my customers want next is on-site, healthy dining. Well, on-site, affordable, healthy dining.

As a parent, I run into this problem all the time: we're out playing some place and need to eat more than the snacks that I've brought. If there isn't a snack stand/food truck/restaurant, or worse, if everything is gross and/or ridiculously expensive, we have to leave, and it's often too much of a hassle to go back, which means we spend the rest of the day at home or running errands. The kids miss out on additional play time they could have had. 

Adding a quick service restaurant to 1, 2, 3 Play would drive revenue, but more importantly it would solve a problem for customers. Although I can't compare my business or new addition to anything on Amazon, I can relate it to dining at the aquarium, zoo and current kid's museum. I've found there is an emphasis on accessible food (peanut butter and jelly, chicken tenders, fries, yogurt), which is great, but quality is lacking in hot items/items prepared on-site. I think given my current business model, it would make sense to bring in a local restaurant, but because I want to maintain full control of the restaurant and offer a variety of options, it would be delicate to have a sponsor/restaurant partner. Bringing in some juice from SoHo Juice Co. and getting other products similarly represented would be a great compromise.   

In case you're the kind of person who likes sifting through Yelp reviews, you can check out the Lowry Park Zoo's and Florida Aquarium's. You'll note most people who mention food simply say it's overpriced, but as someone who has eaten her way around all their respective food offerings, I'll add that the zoo over-seasons just about everything--inedibly so--and, as I said, the quality is lower than what I would like to offer. I realize I won't have a high enough volume to benefit from economies of scope, but I feel responsible to present something to my customers that I would happily accept myself as a customer.  

1, 2, 3 Eat - the next step in customer happiness.

Week 11: reading reflection

First, a link! You, too, can read this week's reading without the hassle of off-campus proxy.

I'm enrolled in GEB3373 International Business this semester with Dr. Amanda Phalin, and the Capsim business simulation is kicking my team's ass. I mean really burying us. What happened? We performed reasonably well in the practice rounds, and it looked like we were poised to capture a fair market share in competition. Our stock plummeted to $1.00, if that helps paint a picture.

Innovation strategy is what happened, a lack thereof. We were swimming in the performance pond but failed to present a product that delivered the speed and accuracy those customers need. We're still struggling with innovation, and as CFO, it's causing crazy anxiety for me. We're sinking, still failing to pinpoint what our customers care about and how to meet their needs.

Like Polaroid or Kodak, we aren't adapting fast enough, and if we can't catch up to our competitors, we'll be dead in the water.
  
And this week's reading dovetails perfectly with our Capsim disaster. Corning's strategy has notes of what we've been working on, namely avoiding outsourcing, but let's move away from my troubles.   

My biggest confusion this week is about the author's examples, which all seem rocky. Is there solid proof, or is every business's strategy a 50/50 shot at success? Corning, for example, has had success and failure over the years with their strategy so is the goal simply to have more successes than failures? 

The reading also touches on VRIN; where there is a valuable process/good/service, imitators will appear. 

I'm a little confused about the notion that routine innovation is suicidal, but I think that is based on a humdrum "okay, let's keep innovating without a clear goal or strategy" scenario rather than a sincere desire to continue to progress.

There is no one magic answer, I get that, but bringing that note to a discussion of crowdsourcing? Crowdsourcing is innovative, I suppose, and it does demonstrate the trade-offs the author is trying to explain, but it's a whole separate issue I would have left out of this article. Then again, maybe I'm wrongly hating on Pisano because of my bias against wishy-washy. 

What do you think? Gary Pisano doesn't say anything I can clearly call out as wrong. Can you find a loose thread? Do you agree "You Need an Innovation Strategy" isn't particularly innovative? 

Give me your words below!