30A- Final Reflection

1. This class was very enjoyable to my surprise. This is my last semester of classes so I had to fight off some senioritis, but it still ended up being one of my favorite classes I've taken. I will admit, sitting through some of the lectures was not the easiest for me. I had a lot on my mind including internships, work, and family issues so staying focused was a struggle. The most fun I had in this class was fully embracing my venture concept. Once I began creating and editing it, I fully embraced it as if I was actively creating this start-up. Enjoying this part of the class has made me look forward to one day chasing after this venture. 

2. This class was quite the journey. In the beginning of the class I was hoping to learn a lot from the lectures, but I ended up learning the most through the assignments. I did learn during the lectures, but interviewing prototypical customers and professionals in this field has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. I have a much better perspective of the field I will soon be entering so I will remember this forever. My communication skills are also much improved. Interviewing the type of people I hope to work alongside was experience I really needed. I am most proud of my persistence in this class. My final grade is something I am very proud to finish my college career with. 

3. I am much closer to having an entrepreneurial mindset then before. I now look for problems/opportunities in everyday situations such as just going to a doctor's appointment. I also found that I am much more productive than before. I embraced the entrepreneurial mindset by looking to stay productive and taking responsibility for how my day goes. This is very important to me as I look to start my own business over the next year. 

4. My one recommendation to the future students in this course is to look for opportunities in something you are passionate about. If you are passionate about your idea this course will fly by and you will truly enjoy it. I think passion is extremely important in developing the entrepreneurial mindset. If you are passionate about your opportunity and passionate about being successful, I believe you will develop the entrepreneurial mindset without having to actively focus on that. 

29A- Venture Concept No. 2

JC's Basketball Development School

1. The opportunity I am pursuing is a personalized online basketball training service that provides basketball skill development or athleticism training. This opportunity comes from the lack of accessible training around the entire globe. This unmet need of accessible basketball training is spread across basketball players of all skills levels and all ages. This is for players of any gender as well. Specifically, players in rural areas or low-income areas have the greatest unmet need for this because of the lack of nearby and affordable training programs. Additionally, basketball players with skills trainers still often have the unmet need of adequate athleticism training, expanding the number of people with a need I am solving. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the magnitude and range of this need. Many players no longer have access to gyms or basketball courts as many of leagues are postponed or cancelled. Also, many trainers are not currently training there players right now due to legal or safety issues caused by this pandemic. Due to the length of this pandemic, the need to fine-tune and improve their basketball skills is increasing. This extended period of time also reduces the loyalty of players who were previously training with skills trainers in person. The current magnitude of this opportunity will last until there is a vaccine approved to use for the Covid-19. However, even after this pandemic ends, this is still a very large unmet need for many players across the country or world. Players will still need player development and athleticism training when gyms reopen. There may even be long-lasting safety concerns that keep the amount of people with this unmet need slightly inflated. 

This service I am offering is radically innovative for the basketball training industry. I will be able to train players of all ages and skill levels across the world through video calls such as on FaceTime or Zoom. This means players are able to improve as a basketball player anywhere they would like, even directly in or outside of their home. Not only is the accessibility of this service innovative, but the personalized aspect of it is just as radical. Current training programs are tailored towards basketball players as a whole, rather than towards specific players or player types. This attention to detail will allow players' development to accelerate compared to normal training programs. Not only will this speed up and enhance their development, it also allows for a greater connection between the clients and I. Being able to address a player's needs and wants directly during a session will help create transparency that will allow the player to understand what my intentions are for improving their game. This allows me to find a balance between pushing the player out of their comfort zone and creating drills and games that they will find fun and enjoyable. As far as price goes, I believe it will vary depending on the length of the session the player selects. In the beginning I will charge $30 for a thirty minute session, $50 for an hour session, and $70 for a hour and a half session. This will encourage clients to purchase longer training sessions which gives me a greater opportunity to improve their skills which they will be able to more clearly feel and see. This encourages them to come back and continue using my service. Additionally, player type packages will be for sale as well. These programs are for specific player builds and are an alternative for the players who cannot schedule live sessions. Each program will provide one month's access to a basketball workout program with videos and explanations of each drill. Each one month program will cost $90.

As basketball continues to evolve, it is easy to fall behind in player development no matter how good a player currently is. Basketball players around the world are becoming aware of this which has greatly increased the demand for basketball training. By requiring no equipment and no specific location, this service allows any player with internet access the necessities to improve as a basketball player. The lack of supply in online training will lead players to pay for my service. The only competitors I will face are basketball training programs created by other basketball trainers. The weakness of these programs are that they are not personalized for the needs of specific players. Instead, they usually encourage random drills that will only fine-tune players' current skills rather than allow them to improve on current skills and develop new ones. Previous loyalties to other trainers are most likely diminishing due to the lack of contact because of the pandemic. Overall, the customer experience and ease of use and access are what makes up this business concept. Players will see greater results with this product than they would any other online program. Initially, I will have to do this by myself to profit and to ensure that players are receiving top-level training. As this business grows, I envision myself being completely booked for the entire week with more players inquiring about training. At this point, I hope to use my coaching and training network to hire other trainers that specialize in player development. 

My unfair advantage is my proven results and experience training basketball players. I have already trained basketball players of all levels, including children as young as five years old and professional players who play overseas. Having experienced training so many different types of players ensures that I can personalize a training program for any type of player to improve their game. My emphasis on player development instead of strictly skills training creates more value for the customers. 

My next potential opportunity is offering player development training for athletes of all sports. My website could act as the hub or all training. I could potentially have other coaches and trainers training athletes of their sport through this hub.

In five years from now, I want to be training more players than anyone else in the country. The format of my service makes this entirely possible. I also want to have multiple trainers working under me providing the same service. Ideally, I will pass along my younger clients to these trainers while I work with the advanced high school, college, and professional players. 

2 & 3. The feedback I received has been mostly positive. I had feedback from many of the athletes I interviewed who were worried about being available for a scheduled training session. To address this I added the player build programs designed for their specific player type. These are not live training sessions, they instead are prerecorded basketball workouts that can be viewed whenever the players can find time. The players I interviewed also expressed a need for athleticism training. To address this opportunity I am including athleticism training live workouts for players with a lack of equipment. For players who do standard equipment, I will offer a monthly workout program to improve speed, agility, vertical jump, explosiveness, balance, and injury prevention. 

27A- Reading Reflection No. 1

The book I read was How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. The overall theme I took away from this book was creating and sustaining personal growth through mental outlooks. The book talked a lot about the mindset and self-statements needed to mentally be prepared to succeed. This was even true for the physical traits that we should spend time on by creating a system rather than a goal. 

The book definitely enhanced a lot of my learning from this course. One of the main takeaways I got from this class is that entrepreneurship is a never-ending process. Scott Adams reinforced this idea towards personal development through his talk about creating a system. A system is consistent which is needed for growth. Constant and consistent work on someone's development will allow this to carry over towards business opportunities. Another takeaway that the book enhanced from the course was the ability to fail. Regardless of what someone is doing, they will fail at one point or another. Using failure as a tool for growth is the only way to ensure failure can be a positive. 

Reading this book helped me understand the value of energy. Scott Adams used his energy level to determine his tasks rather than planning everything out specifically. For example, Adams used mornings to creative work because that is when he had peak energy. Later in the day when he had less energy, he would do busy work. The exercise that I would create based off of this is an energy measurement. I think it would valuable for everyone to track their energy level on a scale from 1-10 every hour during a normal day to find when their energy peaks. This can be used to determine when they should be performing different types of tasks. 

The biggest surprise from reading this book was to "fake it until you make it." I have never agreed with or liked this saying. Even in many of my classes this was discouraged. However, in this book Adams makes a great point about doing this for shy people. He said that sometimes it is easier to act as someone else, so acting as someone who is not shy will allow someone to develop their speaking skills and confidence. He also said that acting as someone else allows a person to escape their comfort zone with less resistance. 

28A- My Exit Strategy

I plan to stay with my business for many decades before retiring. Training players is something I want to do for the rest of my life. The format of this training program allows me to train more players than I could in any other type of training format. This format also allows me to adapt to the trends in basketball because of the personalized aspect of the program. This current opportunity will keep me fulfilled my entire career which is why I chose this specific exit strategy.

My exit strategy has had a large impact on my decisions for this concept. Understanding that I wanted to find something that I could stick with throughout my career allowed me to search for an opportunity in an area I knew would satisfy me for a very long time. It also had a very large impact on deciding the format of my training. Typically, trainers rent out gyms or eventually build their own gym which either makes them stuck in one location or paying monthly rent. The online format will allow me to provide the same type of service without being effected by location. This means I can willingly move anywhere for my family as long as it is best for them. Lastly, the personalized format of my online training will allow my service the opportunity to adapt as basketball changes. This ensures that I can be successful throughout my entire career without being stuck behind. 

26A- Celebrating Failure

Something I repeatedly failed at this semester was my first attempt at making an elevator pitch. I have never been comfortable speaking in front of an audience or a camera for an extended period of time. To add to that, I had not recently talked to anyone because of Covid-19 which I believe added a little rust. When trying to record the speech, I knew exactly the topics I wanted to cover but I did not have it scripted. My first six or seven attempts I would get at least thirty seconds in before completely spacing out and forgetting what else I wanted to talk about. Eventually, I had my talking points memorized, it just came down to execution. I attempted the recording at least twenty times, starting over again and again because of I would stutter out of nerves.

I learned from this failure that I needed practice. At the beginning, I became frustrated having to start over again each time. Eventually instead of looking at each attempt as a failure, I began looking at it as practice. As a coach I understand performing rep after rep is the only way to improve. 

I used to really struggle failing at things. I always wanted to be perfect at everything and hated failing. This caused me to stay in my comfort zone too long which hurt my growth as a person and as a basketball player. I have a new perspective as a coach and understand that failing is a part of growth. I would rather have a player fail at doing something the right way then succeeding at something they are already comfortable doing. I've used this perspective and applied it to my own life. I now accept failure and use it as a tool to improve. This class has not changed my perspective on failure, but instead has strengthened my recently changed perspective. I fail at something everyday now which is better for me than when I used to stay in comfort zone. 

25A- What's Next?

Existing Market

1. The next service in my venture is athleticism training for basketball players. In addition to helping players improve their skills as a player, improving their balance, speed, quickness, and explosiveness can also be worked on. 

2. I interviewed three varsity basketball players for Saint Francis Catholic Academy. These three players believe that in addition to live training sessions, film sessions can be another service provided. Players can send me their game film or videos of them doing drills, and I can speak and draw over the video providing my feedback of what they did correct and what they need to work on. This makes it easier for players who do not have time for consistent sessions. They also suggested I do social media giveaways for players who post their progress on specific games or drills and use my own personalized hashtag. 

3. In the beginning of my training program I am only going to offer personalized online training. This fill focus specifically on skills training and player development. I will do giveaways to grow my social media presence and to create more interaction with players from around the country. 

    As I continue to grow and more of my time slots fill up, I am going to film breakdowns as suggested by the Saint Francis players. This allows players to learn directly from their own experiences as I provide insight from an outsider's perspective. The price for this will vary based on the length of the videos being sent in. Each video will be broken down within 24 hours of submission. 

    Eventually, I plan to grow my business to the point where I have other trainers working for me. This will allow me to positively affect and reach out to more players around the country. One day I plan to connect with trainers from many different countries and hopefully recruit them to join my team to reach a global client base. European basketball is way ahead of American basketball so this will not only add more players to our clientele, but will also provide for value for the other trainers and their players. 

New Market

1. The new market I will be targeting is athletes of all sports. 

2. There are two ways I could potentially add value to this market. One option is to have skills trainers of other sports work for the business and allow them to offer personalized online training to players of their sport. The other option is I can offer personalized athleticism training that will offer customized workout programs to any athletes based on their current weaknesses and strengths. This service will focus on teaching athletes the why behind each workout, so they will develop mentally as an athlete in addition to physical gains.

3. I interviewed two soccer players about this service. They both were much more interested in skills training for their sport rather than athleticism training. They explained that there is a lack of supply of soccer skills training which is what makes this online program so intriguing. They do not believe single-person training would be valuable enough for the usual price of individual training, so they suggested we do small group sessions instead.

4. I was very surprised about the lack of interest in athleticism training. Although I only interviewed two athletes, I assumed improving their athleticism would be much more important to them. After this interview I realized that many players enjoy getting better at their specific sport instead of their athleticism because the sport is more fun by itself. I do not think this will be the case for all athletes. 

    This market is just as intriguing as my current market. However, I do not have any knowledge on skill development in any sport other than basketball, so it may be a challenge trying to find trainers who are qualified enough while also seeking online coaching rather than in-person. 

    Eventually I can see my online personalized training programs to be available for any sport. Introducing this new market will allow me to positively affect more athletes than I previously intended. This assignment made me realize how important networking with coaches and trainers of other sports can be.  

24A- Venture Concept No. 1 (JC's Personalized Hoop School)

JC's Personalized Hoop School

The opportunity I am pursuing is a personalized online basketball training service. This opportunity comes from the lack of accessible training around the entire country. This unmet need of accessible basketball training is spread across basketball players of all skills levels and all ages. This is for players of any gender as well. Specifically, players in rural areas or low-income areas have the greatest unmet need for this because of the lack of nearby and affordable training programs. Currently, there is a pandemic caused by Covid-19 that enhances this need and even increases the amount of players with this unmet need. Most players do not have access to gyms and courts that they previously were able to use. Also, many trainers are not currently training there players right now due to legal or safety issues caused by this pandemic. Due to the length of this pandemic, the need to fine-tune and improve their basketball skills is increasing. This extended period of time also reduces the loyalty of players who were previously training with skills trainers in person. The current opportunity will last until there is a vaccine approved to use for the Covid-19. However, even after this pandemic ends (whenever that may be), this is still a very large unmet need for many players across the country or world. There may even be long-lasting safety concerns that keep the amount of people with this unmet need slightly inflated.

This service I am offering is radically innovative for the basketball training industry. I will be able to train players of all ages and skill levels across the world through video calls such as on FaceTime or Zoom. This means players are able to improve as a basketball player anywhere they would like, even directly in or outside of their home. Not only is the accessibility of this service innovative, but the personalized aspect of it is just as radical. Current training programs are tailored towards basketball players as a whole, rather than towards specific players or player types. This attention to detail will allow players' development to accelerate compared to normal training programs. Not only will this speed up and enhance their development, it also allows for a greater connection between the clients and I. Being able to address a player's needs and wants directly during a session will help create transparency that will allow the player to understand what my intentions are for improving their game. This allows me to find a balance between pushing the player out of their comfort zone and creating drills and games that they will find fun and enjoyable. As far as price goes, I believe it will vary depending on the length of the session the player selects. In the beginning I will charge $30 for a thirty minute session, $50 for an hour session, and $70 for a hour and a half session. This will encourage clients to purchase longer training sessions which gives me a greater opportunity to improve their skills which they will be able to more clearly feel and see. This encourages them to come back and continue using my service. 

As basketball continues to evolve, it is easy to fall behind in player development no matter how good a player currently is. Basketball players around the world are becoming aware of this which has greatly increased the demand for basketball training. By requiring no equipment and no specific location, this service allows any player with internet access the necessities to improve as a basketball player. The lack of supply in online training will lead players to pay for my service. The only competitors I will face are basketball training programs created by other basketball trainers. The weakness of these programs are that they are not personalized for the needs of specific players. Instead, they usually encourage random drills that will only fine-tune players' current skills rather than allow them to improve on current skills and develop new ones. Overall, the customer experience and ease of use and access are what makes up this business concept. Players will see greater results with this product than they would any other online program. Initially, I will have to do this by myself to profit and to ensure that players are receiving top-level training. As this business grows, I envision myself being completely booked for the entire week with more players inquiring about training. At this point, I hope to use my coaching and training network to hire other trainers that specialize in player development. 

My unfair advantage is my proven results and experience training basketball players. I have already trained basketball players of all levels, including children as young as five years old and professional players who play overseas. Having experienced training so many different types of players ensures that I can personalize a training program for any type of player to improve their game.

A potential opportunity later for my venture would be to offer athleticism training in the same form as personalized skills training. Being able to access and alter a player's workout program as it is happening is invaluable as it will prevent injuries and allow for maximum growth as an athlete.

In five years from now, I want to be training more players than anyone else in the country. The format of my service makes this entirely possible. I also want to have multiple trainers working under me providing the same service. Ideally, I will pass along my younger clients to these trainers while I work with the advanced high school, college, and professional players.