Andrew Colgan ENT3003

I read the biography of Steve Jobs.  What surprised me the most about Steve Jobs was that he had dropped out of college, but that wasnt the surprising part, the surprising part was that he continued to attend certain classes that he found interesting.  The thing that i most admired about him was his attention to detail and his demand for excellence.  But that was also what i admired the least about him because some times his idea of perfection was too far fetched.  He faced alot of adversity and just kept fighting and pushing and got through it.  One part of the reading that was confusing to me is how he lost his position in his own company.  if i could ask him one question i would ask him where he came up with the ideas.  I think he would be very supportive of hard work.

My exit strategy for this company would ultimately to build it to a size that it is nearly self sufficient.  meaning that i would have to hire multiple crews and have foreman to over see these crews so i would not be required to be on site with these crews, allowing me more time to follow other ventures, or just simply spend the piles of money that i will be earning.  I have selected this strategy because why wouldn't i want to continue to make money while my employees did all the work and all iw ould have to do is make big decisions.  This exit strategy has overall been the driving force behind any sort of internal growth that i predicted for the company.

One instance that i have failed over this past semester would be in my pursuit of duck hunting.  early teal season came around in September and i had put in countless hours of scouting and general prep for this short one week season.  i was out in the marsh as many days as i could be.  i had a few ducks come into my decoy set but of course, i hadn't put enough prep into my shooting skills and missed every duck that i shot at that week.  that's pretty embarrassing for me because hunting is what i do, its pretty much my whole life and for me to have put this much work into it and still come out unsuccessful was aggravating.  but i never let it get me down, i never let the lack of ducks or my poor shooting skills discourage me from getting back up at 4 am the next morning and driving to the lake again and facing the mosquitoes and the heat.  every day i was out on the water i learned more and more, i like to think that i learn more from failure simply because ...

1. I can foresee the need for growth within this company.  whether that means expanding to one crew or 5 crews will greatly depend on the continuation in growth of the construction industry as well as the demand for my services. 3. After having interviewed three of the customers that i have preciously interviewed, i have decided that it may be necessary for my company to also expand into the erosion control and environmental services sector of the construction industry.  these jobs are what happens almost intermediately after the site development crew is done and they actually stick with the job until it is completed.  they put up the little black fences around the sites as well as the floating yellow plastic in water around sites.  these are in place to keep the construction debris from leaving the site and contaminating surrounding areas.  These sectors are also grossly under served in the construction industry and show great promise for growth New Market ...

The Opportunity: Construction is a huge industry in America today, and its only growing.  With this growth comes stress on the market for specialized services, these companies that offer the specialized services needed for construction are all over booked and focus mostly on large projects with their pre existing customers.  Those smaller projects, or new customers are pretty much out of luck when it comes to finding these specialized services.  the service that i am focusing on is the site development sector.  site development is what must happen to a new construction site before it is ever even considered a construction site.  a crew comes in and clears the land, levels the land, puts in access roads, parking areas, etc.  Many of the companies that offer these services are so booked that they dont even have the option of taking on new projects.  Even if these companies had openings they would focus mostly on large and easy projects that make them t...

1. I already have a working relationship with both a heavy equipment dealer and a trailer manufacturer. V- This is extremely valuable because it will allow me to get this equipment at the best price and receive the best service possible R- This relationship is not exactly rare but the quality of relationship that i have with these dealers is rare I- The relationship that i have with these dealers is practically impossible to imitate, because the dealer is my uncle. N- These relationships are not substitutable 2. I already own the trucks that would be required to haul the equipment. V- These trucks are extremely valuable to the business because without them the equipment and workers could never get to these job sites R- These trucks are not rare in any way, drive down any road and you'll see one just like them I- These trucks are very imitable. N- These trucks could easily be substituted with any heavy duty pick up truck on the road. 3. I have great connections into the ...

I read “how to fail at pretty much everything and still win big” by Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comics.  The main idea of the book was how he has dealt with his failures and learned from them and stayed motivated which eventually led to his success.  The material in the book connects to the material we’ve learned in class because we’ve learned about how entrepreneurship can be failure after failure but can also lead to great success if the work is out in and the person is dedicated. If I were to design an assignment for this class based on this book it would be a discussion of some of our biggest failures in life and how they actually taught us and shaped us into the people we are today.  One part of this book that really stood out to me was building our lives around systems and not goals.  I never really thought about the inherent issues with setting goals and how actually demotivising they can be if we slip even a little bit off of reaching our exact go...

Here's  the video.  Please excuse my less than ideal shirt collar positioning, I didn't realize it until I went to upload it.  In this pitch i payed more attention to having the pitch memorized and speaking more smoothly.  I also re worded most of the pitch to allow for a better overall flow of the pitch as recommended from my feedback.

The first Person that i talked to was John Wells,  he is the owner of JTS a small construction company based out of central Florida.  I would consider him a domain expert in the industry. I Found John because he is a friend of my father.  The contact that we had was at a gathering of friends.  The exchange involved me describing the class that i was in and the business plan that i was attempting to create was.  He provided me with some advice on the industry and also referred me to a friend of his who was in the same market as i intend to be in.  Including him in my network will enhance my ability to exploit this opportunity by him providing me with advice and contact information for possible new jobs and such. The second person that i talked to was Andy Morgan, he is the owner of a land development crew very similar to the business that i intend to create.  I would consider him an expert in the market that i plan to be involved in.  I was refer...

1) I am a man that is experienced in the outdoors as well as construction.  i intend on working for myself for as much as my life as possible.  once a business venture succeeds enough i plan to purchase a large tract of land and opening a hunting guide service.  Hopefully the site development business is successful enough to fund this venture. 2) The service that i intend to provide is site clearing and development in preparation for new construction on primarily previously undeveloped land.  Focusing on the jobs that are more difficult than most companies are willing to take on. 3) My customer will be the land owner or construction manager, these customers have land that they wish to have cleared and possibly leveled for construction of agriculture use.  These customers are unable to land contracts with larger site development firms and also don't have the ability to do the job themselves. 4) The customers will be willing to pay for this service because t...