Online Diary

Student Nurse

[zealouswhispersmoon]

Entrepreneurial Mind

The lecture series we had already ended. The first lecture video made me realize that believing in oneself, in one's abilities can lead to greater opportunities. No one would know that maybe with your simple idea, it may turn out to be your success. But there are actually times when you doubt yourself, so it is important not to get distracted and get fed up with negative thoughts. However, it is not always good to put your hopes up and expectations as it will lead to disappointments. The tendency is some will eventually lose interest or, much worse, give up on a business venture. 

Failure does really happen in a business; entering yourself in this kind of environment means placing a bet, it's either you fail or succeed. It is important always to try and try until you succeed; although it is a cliché phrase, but it will surely bring new learning and experiences to you and your business, making you stronger than ever before. We must consider that success is not always easy; there must always be time and effort to achieve a certain goal. In comparison, the second topic was all about pitching and fundraising. It was a great help, as it taught us how to present and create a great pitch for our team.

Throughout my journey on this course, I am thankful because I learned more about the entrepreneurial mind, not just about cooking and selling products, and more. Starting a business and getting it off the ground and then scaling it all the way to the up is a challenging journey for every entrepreneur, a constant work-in-progress. The success of one's business can only be determined by how much dedication you put into it.

[zealouswhispersmoon]

Startup Venture

Startup is a business venture who is in its early stage of operation which aims to resolve any real life issue with an innovative service or product. It serves as a platform for change and also has a level of uncertainty on it, like any other business they often fail, makes uncertain risk, and many more.

Startup ecosystem consists of a group of individuals, startups, and related organizations that works by helping aspiring individuals thrive into a new ideas and/or create new startups. However, here in the Philippines the investments in-lined with startups are not quite doing well. Philippines is one of the countries around the world with a slow internet connection but also known to be with the most use of social media sites. In today’s time, Philippines is now working towards to build a successful startup ecosystem to help create solutions to the number of problems that the country has been facing and will give emphasis to Filipinos who have talents and imaginative ideas.

We can’t just ignore the fact that sometimes our imaginations are going wild and ideas are just coming right into our minds to a point we want to make it happen which can be very beneficial to us and to the public. I am fascinated by the speakers of how devoted they are to the startup ventures. They shared a lot of information about the startup world, also their ups and downs experiences. After the two lecture series I realized that failure is part in something new, it is part in the success of a startup venture because individuals will have to take courage to rise up again to think of a new innovative approach to the problem. Sacrifices must also be made to make the business proper but with proper and thorough decision-making.

[zealouswhispersmoon]

CUSTOMER’S EMPATHY JOURNEY

In a business venture, one of the important things to consider is to what your target market may feel and think about your proposed service/products, to know if it will be able to make a market or not. We constructed our own Customer Empathy Map in order for us to understand what our customers are conceiving, thinking, or feeling. A total of eight (8) Individuals were interviewed through media platforms (Messenger and Google Meet).

HYPOTHESIS

Our hypothesis is that the WiFinest Café can provide the student’s needs. Aside from that, it can also address the problems and concerns raised by our interviewed respondents. Lastly, there is a large target market for the planned start-up business.

RESULT FOUND

Kindly refer to the graphs and charts presented above which presents the percentage of the outcome based on the customer’s responses.

TEAM DECISION

The team then decides to continue the business startup for the WiFinest Cafe. It is evident that the students of Central Mindanao University need secured internet connectivity and study area/place without being conscious of the power interruption based on the interview results. The team will continue gathering or interviewing a potential target market for our business. With these new data, we can further validate the data if the hypothesis or the goal and purpose is met with another set of respondents.

TEAM OPTIONS

The team came up with two (2) options in addressing the positive outcome of the interview, including the purpose and goal of the business startup.

1. To continue gathering complete and accurate data from the chosen respondents. This is to prove that our business startup will be useful and can provide for the student's needs and have a large target market.

2. To modify the proposed business startup. This is to address the needs and problems the respondents have stated, which is not included in the business startup's purpose and goals.

LESSON LEARNED

The customer empathy map was great tool for our business venture because we were able to obtain our target market’s opinion, and by that will have more ideas and knowledge on how to implement effectively and provide quality service to our customers.

CONCLUSION

The proposed business startup addresses most of the respondents' problems with slow internet connection, troubles of scheduled and unscheduled power interruption, and the need of a comfortable place to study. Some of the interviewed students answered that the café is useful for them and can help them in their problems, however, there were also some students who said no or are not sure if a café can be of a significant help. With further validation of the interviewees' responses, there is a more significant result for students who have positive feedback that a café could help them solve their problems and provide for their needs than those who said and prefer the opposite. With these results, we have also concluded that there is a large target market for the café, which coincides with the group's hypothesis for the WiFinest Cafe startup.

[zealouswhispersmoon]

EVALUATING THE POTENTIAL OF THE WIFINEST  CAFÉ

NARRATIVE OF THE EACH OF CUSTOMERS

For the past two weeks, our team conducted an interview to address the rising problems about their online class experience, a total of 8 respondents were interviewed through chats and video calls, documentations are presented below.

Student No. 1

The first student being interviewed said that the business startup will help lessen the burden of online classes to students like him who does not have stable internet connection and a gadget to use. He also said that the WiFinest Café can really help the students’ problem in terms of slow internet connection and unscheduled power interruption especially during examination week, wherein exams are being timed and will give students stress if they can’t pass on time or can’t take the exam on time.

Student No. 2

The second student being interviewed said that the business startup will not help lessen her problems on online class. This is because even though she only uses phone and mobile internet to do her activities or have her online classes, she will still opt to pay 70 pesos of load for 7 days than paying the café’s charge which is 100 pesos per hour of stay. She also said that power interruptions, gadgets were not her main problem for online class, it is her capabilities, online sources, etc. to answer her activities, her astigmatism that she can’t take to look her phone for a whole day. Also, she said that it is still too risky to go out and students may crowd the whole place to avail the services.

Student No. 3

The interviewee said that she has no problems with internet connection, gadgets, power interruptions, but stated to have problems with eye strain, household chores, a noisy neighborhood. She said that it is a great idea and interesting having a café or a study area nearby which offers fast internet connection, unlimited power usage, and a place to chill or have a hassle free environment.

Student No. 4

The interviewee said that she has no problems so far with the internet connection. It is not like she has this very strong connectivity, but she stated that she is satisfied with it and she can even join live conferences and meetings with her professors. She said that it can be great to have a study café in the area, as long as the ambiance can make the students feel relaxed while facing their online classes. Moreover, she said that the location of the proposed café matters, especially that those who are in need of internet connection are from far-flung and remote areas.

Student No. 5

The fifth student being interviewed said that he is having a hard time dealing with this kind of learning platform. He also said that it is difficult to do online classes while facing a lot of distractions such as internet connection, power interruption, eye strains, and household chores. He added that online classes cost a lot of money especially for prepaid credits in internet. He said that it is a great deal, especially for students to have a café nearby where everyone can relax, do online classes without a hassle, and have stable internet connection without power interruptions, however, he added not everyone can have access to it since it will cost a lot of money, and all are not financially stable.

Student No. 6

The next student that has been interviewed said that her major concern about today’s situation are dealing with online classes and the internet connection. She said that it is a pain for her to submit her requirements on time since she has to look for a spot or area where she can have good connectivity. She said that in order to address the problem that is having, she decided to be more flexible and submit all her requirements ahead of time. However, she said that she’s more than willing to go for the tendencies of having study café or study area nearby who offers stable WiFi connections, has a good area for studying and doing online classes and has food and beverage. She doesn’t mind the expenses as long as she can have better connections and comfortable place to study.

Student No. 7

The interviewee said that he is currently not experiencing any problems with internet connections, gadgets, or even a suitable area for studying. The only problem he experienced is when there is a total black out in their community because he won't be able to use his laptop for attending meetings, classes or even group discussions but he has an alternative way of attending those events through his phone, using his regular internet data. The only problem is if there is no electricity, he said that the proposed business project would be of great help both to the student and also to the entrepreneurs behind.

Student No. 8

The last interviewee, talked about how difficult for her to have online classes at home, and even communicating is bit difficult because of slow internet connection in their area. They have internet, but sometimes it affects her online class or activity works because of her internet connection interruption or error. She has no problem with gadgets or her studying environment, electricity black out sometimes can be her problem. She said that the WiFinest Café is a brilliant idea and good business to launch for it will be of great help to all students who lacks of having gadgets to attend online classes and a speedy internet connection. However, she raises a small concern as to relate to our current situation which is the pandemic, safety and precaution should be observe in establishing the business to not add up to the alarming number of COVID-19 cases.

HYPOTHESIS:

The hypothesis for this startup is that the WiFinest Café can provide for the students' and teachers' needs and address the interviewed respondents' problems. Most of them have positive feedback or response to the idea of the said startup. Lastly, there is a large target market for the planned startup business.

RESULT FOUND:

Six out of eight respondents agreed to the terms of the WiFinest Café, and also gave positive feedback. Kindly refer to the info-graphics for a much clearer information.

TEAM DECISION:

Our team decided to continue with our business venture and continue gathering data to know the needs and problems in the chosen area.

TEAM OPTIONS:

The team came up with a two (2) options in addressing the positive outcome of the interview in which it includes the purpose and goal of the business startup.

(1)    To continue in gathering complete and accurate data from the interviewed respondents. This is because we can’t solely rely on those first eight respondents to claim that the business startup will be effective and will have a large target market.

(2)    To modify the proposed business startup. This is to address the needs and problems the respondents have stated which is not included in the purpose and goals of the business startup.

LESSON LEARNED:

Throughout the interview process, it is important to validate each results of the respondents in order to know if our project proposal will be able to help them in their problems concerning slow internet connection and not having a comfortable place to finish their school activities.

CONCLUSION:

To sum up the things we acquired in this activity, the WiFinest Café maybe one of the solutions to the people especially to students having difficulty connecting in the online world.

[zealouswhispersmoon]

Before, I thought entrepreneurship is something that I can acquire in the four walls of our very own institution wherein I just sit and listen to the instructor's discussion to know how to be a successful and effective entrepreneur. But I was wrong; I must first indulge in my surroundings where I can interact directly with the problem, where I can make my own decisions to see supplying evidence and not by my full assurance. As an aspiring entrepreneur, The Entrepreneurial Mind is a great tool for me in building and molding the inner drive within me to create a new venture or produce goods that I find interesting and love to help my community and profit as well. Joseph Schumpeter said that entrepreneurs are the backbone of the community; there are the ones who started economic growth and the answer to the need for socio-economic development. I must possess the entrepreneurial mindset within me to move forward in my preferred business, where asking for help is not considered a bad thing, accepts mistakes and learn to reflect from it, focuses on the present time to build my way in the future, and many more.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, there are many things to consider especially preparing for the possibilities of what might happen in the business world, embracing different kinds of challenges, and formulate solutions to resolve the evolving problem. Being able to achieve things in life, make it big or small, is everyone's dream. I may not be able to start my own business now, but I know someday I will be. I hope to make a better change in my community or even the world and develop good living standards and create wealth.