Assignment 30

After looking through my old posts, some of the more memorable ones are ones about self reflection, and seeing where I am, what skills I have that set me apart from everyone else, and where I hope to end up. Self reflecting was formative because it forced me to consider things that I don't usually think about, and this gave me better insight to myself. I enjoyed hearing people talk about me as well, so doing the assignment in which friends gave feedback on what makes my human capital unique was great to hear. I'm proud of the work I did to research this project and interview so many people I didn't even know about it. I definitely have more of an entrepreneur mindset because I took the initiative to speak to so many people about a topic I really didn't know all that much about. I would recommend future students to choose a topic they care about, because to do well, its important not to procrastinate.  It will make the research much more enjoyable. Also doing the work ahead of time will help keep them sharp and as a result more interested in the material because they have more time and consider what they are writing about and reflect on how their new ideas will help or hurt the company.

Assignment 29

In this Assignment I will start by talking about the opportunity of my business plan. The  opportunity has to do with solving the needs created by patients who are suffering from repeated bodily physical pain. This may include, but is not limited to back pain, ankle pain, knee pain, elbow pain, and neck pain. The similarity that all these types of pain have is that they are felt by the individual, and cause significant pain or discomfort that lessens the quality of life for the patient. This means that the person experiencing the pain cannot enjoy simple things such as walking, turning their head to look around, stand up, or bend over without putting so much stain on their body the the action becomes something that they almost entirely avoid. There are a few ways these people can look for treatment. The most common one is in the hospital. However, doctors that work in hospitals are often not sufficiently trained in chronic pain because they did not go to school to specialize in these areas. As a result, surgeries to alleviate the pain are over diagnosed, when in many situations it is not a surgery that would be most beneficial for the patient. Also, this problem is compounded because doctors often over prescribe narcotics to alleviate the pain that the patient is feeling. Narcotics help numb pain , so while it does help the patient feel better in the short run, in the long run it is not a sustainable course of action because of the long term health effects that narcotics provide. Also, this does not really fix the problem, which is the reason that the pain exists. Instead, it tends to focus more on blocking the pain itself, which is not ideal for a long-term solution. This opportunity provides a way for patients who suffer from this chronic pain to seek help by  targeting the source of the pain instead of the pain itself. This provides healthier, deeper solutions and reduces the possibility that the pain will reoccur. The market to which I am selling to are older, ideally wealthier people who have pain. Many doctors are already moving in this direction to help patients, but the vast majority are still comfortable working in hospitals, making it the perfect time to look into pain clinic options. In this situation, the patients are not loyal to the hospitals at all, but rather to wherever they will receive the best service for their health. This is important to keep in mind because we must keep in mind that the number one priority should always be to provide the best possible care for the customer. This is a great opportunity because it is ahead of the curve. With hospitals becoming more and more expensive, sometimes charging 50 dollars for a single Tylenol, people will start looking for other solutions.  This is a very practical solution that appeals to customers both because of its high level of service and also because of its more personal care. In addition, my business will to its best to optimize reactive care whenever possible, while still attempting to promote preventative care as well. 

This is an innovative business concept because not many people have done it yet. We are on the early side of providing people with high quality care on a smaller scale that specializes in individuality. We are selling a solution to pain. While the cost is complicated because the cost is dependent on the amount of visits, the difficulty of solving the pain issue, and the results of how successful we are, the cost system would be based on typical rates that hospitals charge for similar nerve block procedures, injections, and surgeries. However, our costs would be reduced because the smaller scale pain clinic means dealing with less bureaucracy.

I received helpful feedback on my last assignment. Tommy and Brooke were helpful because they pointed out the differences between reactive and preventative care, as well as why preventative care may be hard to execute in the scenario. I had to rethink how to structure my market because of these comments but I think that this will be helpful because I can target a more narrow group of people that are looking for specific solutions. Because of this feedback I thought about what my customers were looking for and changed my market structure to better target patients that were suffering from pain, meaning its a reactive service as opposed to a a preventative one. This more narrow focus will help me be more efficient in helping my customers. 

Assignment 28

I believe that my personal exit strategy depends greatly on the success for failure of the company while it exists and grows. Personally, if the company is still showing massive improvement in 5 years, as it rapidly expands and develops I believe that I would be much more unlikely to sell the company that if I were to grow it quickly in 3 years and then have it either sit or grow slowly during the next two. For this reason I believe that my strategy would be dependent of the relative success and current growth rate if the company in 5-7 years. Although after having it for a long time, I am certain I would begin to catch feelings for the company, it would make economic profit scene to sell it one it begins to peak and level off, if the offering price is good and if the company would be in good hands after I leave the company. I would like to ensure the ideals upon which the company were founded stay after I am gone, regardless of the price it is sold for. I am selecting selling the company after many years because it is the option that would bring in the most profit and help support my family. This exit strategy has affected my outlook because it is one way in which I could easily and quantifiably measure the success of the company.  I would use this money to invest in the future of my family and also buy a boat.

Assignment 26

Although I have had a successful semester overall, one area in which I fell short was in the racquetball intramural tournament a few months ago. I played with my friend James and we started off the tournament really well, winning decisive victories over our first 4 opponents. We let our easy victories get to our heads, and once we made it to the finals we were severely overconfident. This proved to be our downfall as we did not warm up or prepare for the final mentally, because we assumed it would be an easy road to win the championship. After the first couple points we could tell something was wrong as we were missing easy shots and playing with really poor movement. We made a brave attempt at a comeback but we fell short and lost ion a close game. While this failure was a bummer in the moment my friend and I realized why we played badly and decided we would not underestimate teams in the future. This is key because it shows that we did fail, but that failure should be seen as a positive, not a negative because of the way in can improve you when you learn from your past mistakes. For this reason I am much more likely to take a risk in the future.

Assignment 27

For the third reading assignment, I read the book The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki. This was a really interesting read that seemed extremely relevant because it made a lot of connections to things we experience in our daily lives. The book was centered around specific ways that organizations can effectively use Social Media to convey messages about its products as well as the ideals the company represent. In the contents of the book were embedded several of the selling and entrepreneurship ideals that we have been discussing all year. For example, The best ways to reach the customers immediate issues was discussed, as well as how to reach the customers on line in a way that addressed their most immediate problems. An exercise that the class could do would be to all go online and find three real examples of social media marketing, and then choose 2 of the most effective advertisements and discuss what they did well to promote their company. One surprising thing I picked up from the text was the idea of planning our the posts you are planning to post well in advance. This is a unique takeaway because I had not previously considered the implications of this strategy. I also had never thought about this before, as I usually view social media as being posted in the spur of the moment. 

Assignment 24

In this Assignment I will start by talking about the opportunity of my business plan. The  opportunity has to do with solving the needs created by patients who are suffering from repeated bodily physical pain. This may include, but is not limited to back pain, ankle pain, knee pain, elbow pain, and neck pain. The similarity that all these types of pain have is that they are internal, are repeated, and have to do with  movement. This means that the person experiencing the pain cannot enjoy simple things such as walking, turning their head to look around, stand up, or bend over without putting so much stain on their body the the action becomes something that they almost entirely avoid. There are a few ways these people can look for treatment. The most common one is in the hospital. However, doctors that work in hospitals are often not sufficiently trained in chronic pain because they did not go to school to specialize in these areas. As a result, surgeries to alleviate the pain are over diagnosed, when in many situations it is not a surgery that would be most beneficial for the patient. Also, this problem is compounded because doctors often over prescribe narcotics to alleviate the pain that the patient is feeling. Narcotics help numb pain , so while it does help the patient feel better in the short run, in the long run it is not a sustainable course of action because of the long term health effects that narcotics provide. Also, this does not really fix the problem, which is the reason that the pain exists. Instead, it tends to focus more on blocking the pain itself, which is not ideal for a long-term solution. This opportunity provides a way for patients who suffer from this chronic pain to seek help by  targeting the source of the pain instead of the pain itself. This provides healthier, deeper solutions and reduces the possibility that the pain will reoccur. The market to which I am selling to are older, ideally wealthier people who have pain. Many doctors are already moving in this direction to help patients, but the vast majority are still comfortable working in hospitals, making it the perfect time to look into pain clinic options. In this situation, the patients are not loyal to the hospitals at all, but rather to wherever they will receive the best service for their health. This is important to keep in mind because we must keep in mind that the number one priority should always be to provide the best possible care for the customer. This is a great opportunity because it is ahead of the curve. With hospitals becoming more and more expensive, sometimes charging 50 dollars for a single Tylenol, people will start looking for other solutions.  This is a very practical solution that appeals to customers both because of its high level of service and also because of its more personal care.

This is an innovative business concept because not many people have done it yet. We are on the early side of providing people with high quality care on a smaller scale that specializes in individuality. We are selling a solution to pain. While the cost is complicated because the cost is dependent on the amount of visits, the difficulty of solving the pain issue, and the results of how successful we are, the cost system would be based on typical rates that hospitals charge for similar nerve block procedures, injections, and surgeries. However, our costs would be reduced because the smaller scale pain clinic means dealing with less bureaucracy.

The small scale of this business will appeal to customers because they will receive more personalized care. Hospitals are our competitors, but many patients will seek us simply because they care about their own well being much more than any loyalty they may have to a specific hospital. While the number of employees depends upon how many customers we receive, I would expect to start with anywhere from 1 or 2 doctors, working together with 1-3 assistants. This should be enough to see anywhere from 50-70 patients on a weekly basis. However, as we get more customers I would expect this number to go up. The doctors are the most useful resource we have because of the value they bring, and how hard they are to replace. Following up with patients and increasing how many customers we have to grow the business are two future goals that I would like to have. In the next 5 years, operating with anywhere from 3-5 doctors and 5-10 assistants is where I would like to be.

Assignment 25

In terms of growing the business plan and coming up with potential ways we could grow in the future, talking with customers was really helpful. For example, one suggestion I had was to come up with a system that routinely checks in with past patients to make sure they are doing well and are free of pain and healthy. This is important for several reasons. Not only will it make sure our patients are doing well, but the fact that we reach out will promote a positive image for the company and ensure that our reputation spreads in a positive way. This will be likely to increase the amount of repeat patients who feel comfortable with our system and wish to come back in the future. \

Also, another idea which builds off something we were already going to do is working closely with our local hospital. While this hospital was already going to send us referrals and support our business, we could increase the effectiveness of this mutual cooperation and advertise more heavily inside the hospital itself in the form of flyers and representatives that can easily access potential customers.

We are primary targeting older, wealthy patients because they are more likely to get injured and are easier to collect money from than people with bad insurance or medicare. Young, lower income people are a radically different group. We could appeal to them by not having a full pain surgery on them, but instead have cheap flu shots that would help them stay healthier from sicknesses. This is low cost and does not take up much time. After talking to people, the only suggestion that seemed to be a potential option was to help these people not necessarily in the form of medical service, but by offering information sessions and internships.

These information sessions could be really helpful because they would educate the younger generation on medical facts and help promote the image of the company as well.