Halfway Reflection

1) To start early. Even though we are required to pick a schedule to keep us accountable during the course, I find that reading the future assignments early help because they may require more work or brainstorming. I recommend looking at the assignments for the next two weeks to get an idea as to how much time you will need to talk and meet with people and think creatively. Also, it doesn’t hurt to speak to more people than required.

2) Probably while working on Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2. It’s just difficult sometimes trying to schedule to talk to people while working, or ask other people if they know of anyone that meets a certain demographic that may or may not have animals. I would say I’ve developed a tenacious attitude because its rewarding to hear that people experience the need and understand the problem.

3) Three tips:

1) Work ahead.

2) Don’t be afraid to ask for constructive criticism.

3) If you’re passionate about your entrepreneurship, remember why you started when you begin to feel defeated. Many of the problems you will encounter will only force you to think of other solutions.

Reading Reflection No. 1

The entrepreneur I read about was Elon Musk in Ashlee Vance's book, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Musk is my favorite entrepreneur and I always like to read about what he's working on or how his projects/businesses are going.

1) 

• What surprises me the most is that Musk was able to create a video game as a self-taught programmer. It makes sense that with all of his business ventures (which are all very different if excluding the tech aspect), his ability to solve a problem started from a young age. Its also surprising to me just how many start ups he had (and the variety) before becoming successful. 
• What I admire most about Musk is that he's relentless. He's experienced many failures during his start ups and his current most well known companies, SpaceX and Tesla Motors, yet he continues to try to make improvements. I had watched an interview before of Musk giving a tour of his Tesla factory and gesturing to the couch that he would sleep on while working late. Vance wrote that Musk would sleep on his beanbag next to his desk during the time he and his brother, Kimbal, were working on Zip2. It seems that his ambition is still as present as his earlier years, except now he has more resources. 
• There isn't anything I could pick that I least admire, but the one thing I didn't like about the book was the part that Musk gave one of his employees a 2-week test when asking for a raise. This bothers me because Musk has spoken out about this and claims that Vance did not have the book independently fact checked. Vance does mention in the book that he told Musk he was going to write a book about him with or without his cooperation, and he would not let him read it beforehand for ethical reasons. 
• Musk experienced many failures. These failures created a pattern - they generated a profit for Musk to use to create his next bigger and better project. In both Zip2 and PayPal, Musk was eventually stripped from his role, but he made $22 million for his Zip2 share when it sold, and $160 million for his PayPal share when it was acquired by Ebay. Musk used the shares sold from PayPal to put money into SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and Solar City. Musk's first few rocket launches were not successful, which costed the company millions each time. His companies also suffered through the 2008 financial crisis, so much that they almost went bankrupt and Musk used his own money to keep them afloat rather than ask for the investors help. 

2) That Musk had the ability to turn a past failure into something better, or into a new opportunity. His failures allowed him to thrive in other projects, which ultimately helped him succeed. 

3) None of the reading was confusing to me. 

4) I would ask 1) How long do you think until Mars will be habitable? and 2) What's another opportunity that you think you could solve that could help our environment? I would ask these because SpaceX was founded to make human space exploration and life on other planets possible, and because SpaceX, Telsa Motors, and SolarCity all have something in common - the environment. 

5) Musk is a believer of failing because it means you are innovating. I do share that opinion. Failures provide insight as to what went wrong, which makes us figure out why that went wrong, and we can find another solution; it teaches us by allowing us to find new opportunities within those failures. 

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: For my segment, I decided to focus on retirees because they are known to travel a lot, and most likely do not have teenagers or young adults in the house that can care for pets. I do pet sit for some currently, and was able to speak to some of their friends who I do not pet sit for. All of them are married and retired, except one spouse is retired and works part-time. 

Interviews/Summary/Findings: Something they all had in common was that they had at least one annual trip around a certain time of year that they like to take in addition to traveling sporadically. This meant that these trips are usually bigger than last minute trips in terms of length, destination/distance, and costs. None of them used Google to find pet sitters and prefer to rely on word-of-mouth referrals because they trust them more. This is understandable to me because they are older and probably more concerned about who is staying in their house and looking after their pets and things. I did ask if finding a pet sitter far in advance was much easier than their last minute trips, and they did agree that it was less stressful because they had plenty of time to make arrangements. But, their need is also present when they want to go on a trip that isn't booked out as far in advance, and usually their referred pet sitters are booked. They then have to decide whether they want to book a kennel and go on the trip, or just stay home. One of the spouses told me that her husband has Alzheimer's, so its difficult enough to leave the house to run simple errands without worrying about him. This is a need that I hadn't thought of before, but it does line up with offering daily check ins. Another spouse, who works part-time, told me that when her husband travels, she would still like someone to check on her dog daily because he is used to having someone home with him most or all of the day. This lines up with daily check ins too, but both of them would like someone to spend a certain amount of time with their pet. This is an opportunity I've been approached with before, but I currently cannot devote more than 30 minutes in the afternoon when checking on an animal due to my full-time job. 

Conclusions: l believe they confirmed my initial belief about their need awareness. I wasn't surprised about how they found their information (word-of-mouth referrals) because that is how I get all of my clients. I do think this does make it more difficult to offer services because it depends on them finding me, but the advantages are that they likely already trust me (or it will be easy to gain their trust), and fees for services should not be an issue.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. My name is Savannah and I'm a fourth-year public relations major. I have nine years of experience working in a law firm and eight years of pet sitting. My full-time job has allowed me to work with many personalities and deal with new situations daily. I work well with others and independently. After graduation, I hope to obtain a job in the journalism field. I would like to eventually be an investigative reporter, and I hope to write a book someday. If I were to start this business, I think it would always remain as a second job to me just like pet sitting is right now. The exception would be that I would actually try to get new clients and a portion of the profits would help spay and neuter cats. If I had too many clients to handle, I would eventually need extra help. 

2) What are you offering to customers? Overnight pet sitting, daily check ins, and transportation to grooming appointments. 

3) Who are you offering it to? I'm offering this to primarily older adults based off of the majority of people I pet sit for. Most of them are in their 40's and older and travel often.

4) Why do they care? Customers want peace of mind knowing that their pets are able to stay in the comfort of their own home and someone is able to watch over the house while they're away. I've learned that my pro typical customer would rather pay someone to stay in his or her house than drop his or her pets off at a kennel. 

5) What are your core competencies? I'm trustworthy, dependable, and have plenty of references. I also offer competitive rates compared to local kennels.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others. 

I believe these elements fit together up until I start a new job and don't have a flexible schedule anymore. I would then need to hire help and potentially increase rates. I would say the weaker aspect would be taking dogs to groomer appointments because I've only done it a couple of times and it was for the same client.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: People that fall outside the boundary are people who travel with their pets, drop their pet off at someone else’s house, board them; already have someone to check on them; and cat owners. One person I spoke with travels with his dog, and another has his housekeeper check on his dog while he is away. Because of the convenience, I believe they fall outside of the boundary. They are not in need of a pet sitter because they are already paying someone or are able to take their pet along with them. I also spoke to a dog owner that drops off her dogs at a kennel to board while her and her family are away. She expressed she doesn’t mind dropping them off because she feels he is in good hands. I spoke to a married couple that drops their dogs off at a family member's house because the dogs are comfortable there and they do not have to pay. Lastly, I spoke to a cat owner who has a neighbor that stops by to feed him and scoop his box; She stated that she was okay with leaving her cat by himself because cats are more independent than dogs. 

What: The need I originally identified was that the cat population needs to be controlled by spaying and neutering. Of course, this can only happen if people go outside and upfront costs at their own risk and trap them, or another organization does it themselves; but there aren’t enough organizations or resources to contain it. If using a one-to-one business model by spaying and neutering a cat or dog from pet sitting jobs, my main need doesn't directly need to be supported from clients. 

Why: Some people are willing to spend extra money for an overnight pet sitter knowing that their pet can stay in the comfort of his or her own home. The people outside the boundary are primarily concerned about costs or already have arrangements for when they travel.

Inside the boundary	Outside the boundary
Pet owners that want someone staying in their house.	Pet owners that do not need a pet sitter.
An overnight pet sitter to care for the animal(s) and maintain the house (mail, plants, etc.).	They do not need a sitter because they have other arrangements and do not want to pay the costs.
The need exists because some people may not want to drop their animal off at a kennel.	Cat owners because cats do not require as much care and attention as dogs.

Solving The Problem

My selected opportunity is a pet sitting service with a one-for-one business model. I understand that it isn't possible to spay and neuter all cats and dogs or convince their owners to do so. I believe by combining the two, it can still contribute to fixing the problem while also making a profit. For instance, for every pet sitting a job, a cat or dog will be spayed or neutered. I believe this an an opportunity to profit from while also fulfilling a social responsibility. Services would include: dog-walking, overnight stay, and trips to the groomers.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1) Human's decision to not spay/neuter their pets result in the suffering and euthanizing of animals. Animals cannot speak for themselves and it is our responsibility to help control the population.

2)
Who: Cats and dogs, shelters, and pet owners
What: Overpopulation of cats and dogs
Why: Pets (cats and dogs, including free-roaming) are not spayed/neutered

According to the ASPCA, over 1.5 million animals are euthanized in shelters every year due to the over population of animals.

3)
Testing the who: I think business owners also have this need because free-roaming animals may not be welcome on their properties, which can result in them calling animal control and removing the animal(s).
Testing the what: Dogs and cats are not affected equally. Cats have this need more than dogs; The ASPCA states that more cats than dogs are euthanized each year. This could be because more dogs are adopted than cats.
Testing the why: Reasons why people do not spay/neuter their pets could be because: 1) they are not informed about how it saves lives, 2) they may not be able to afford it, and 3) they view an animal as disposable and less significant than a human life.

4) My interviews consisted of a pet sitting client, two foster parents (for animals), and two coworkers that own pets. The feedback from the interviews were favorable because they all share the same need, but I did receive insight as to why veterinarians may also share this need. The increase of spaying/neutering would increase their profits in two ways: the initial surgery of the animals and the continued care of the animals because of the likely longer lifespan. One foster parent that helps feed a cat colony on a business property (a gas station) has been attempting to trap and socialize the cats because management has threatened to remove them. There was a customer complaint about the cats which lead to their threat to call animal control. The colony is supposed to be protected, but she is having difficult in trying to find resources that will help her fight for the cats to stay. While the interviewees understood the importance of spaying/neutering pets, they were unable to provide a realistic approaching to prevent the problem from happening. Human kindness is the only option to provide rescue efforts for these animals, but it is not reliable. I'm learning this is a difficult opportunity, but I want to be able to solve it or at least provide something new to help lessen the suffering of animals. I'm curious as to how to propose legislation to an influential figure, like a legislator.