Half-way Reflection

In this course, I needed to display more responsibility than my other classes because I am the one who is in charge of my own grade. I was also forced to get out of my comfort zone with some of the assignments that involved talking to strangers. In these particular assignments I questioned whether or not I should even bother putting myself through these awkward situations since they were only worth 1 point. In the first "interviewing customers" assignment I was too uncomfortable with the idea of talking to strangers about my idea that I decided not to do it. But when another similar assignment came up, I knew I had to start acting like an adult and do the interviews no matter how much it bothered me. After I was completed with the assignment, I realized it was in my best interest to do them as they were helping me deal with experiences I was sure to see in the future. Advice I would give to people taking this course would be to not have expectations as to how these assignments are going to play out. You often will scare yourself and make it seem worse than it actually is. Also keeping a schedule really helped me stay on top of my work so that I wasn't missing any points. Lastly, I would tell people to look for the application of the things that your learning. Even though the assignments may seem weird at first glance, they are strengthening skills you need as an entrepreneur.

Free Money

I am planning on going to the new CVS on 13th St. because there will be a lot of people going to the grand opening or walking home. I am going to choose the people I give the dollar to based on qualities I like in their appearance, whether it is something they are wearing, their hair or even their bike. This will make starting the conservation easy as I could just compliment them on that and ask wear they got it from. I think I'll give away 3 of the dollars because I think a couple people won't want to take it without a legitimate reason.

*For the second video, after I said the reason why I wanted to give her the dollar and she denied, she almost looked scared so to ease the tension my girlfriend brought up that it was for a project. I didn't see this as a problem because she had already said no and was on her way.


This was one of the more awkward exercises we've had to do. Most of the people I went up to seemed really uncomfortable when I brought up giving them a dollar. I thought it would have been easier to give the dollar away but most people denied it. After some persistence, only 2 people accepted the money so my prediction was wrong. I think I underestimated how strange it would seem giving someone a dollar for essentially no reason. The people that said no probably thought there was some ulterior motive. For the most part my expectations were met; the people that looked shy, got uncomfortable and denied the money and the people that seemed relaxed were more open, usually accepting the money.

Week 7 Reading Reflection

I was confused about the part of the article that mentions the buying habits of people in the 1960s. The author didn't give an explanation as to why people without education became wealthy, and why the people with more refined tastes were price conscious. I would like to ask the authors why the consumers were this way because it seemed to have a big impact on the future of advertising. I was most surprised at how advertising may have effected the products being made. Specifically, the authors state how the use of imagery in advertising took the pressure off of companies to make new innovative products. I would also like to ask the authors what the best advertising agencies are in their opinion so I could see how they utilize the strategies mentioned. The authors seemed to be very accurate in this piece, only making claims after there was substantial evidence to do so.

Elevator Pitch No. 2

I only had a couple suggestions in the comments of my first pitch which were to cut the final seconds of the video because it was "awkward" and to stop "up-speaking" (to change the tone of your voice, turning your sentences into questions). Editing the video was an obvious improvement but it was something I was already aware of. The "up-speaking" on the other hand surprised me because I didn't realize I was doing it until I re-watched the video a couple times. At first I thought that was pretty useless advice, but after some analyzation I realized I could improve on that aspect of my presentation. So I tried to implement this feedback into my new pitch because I thought both ideas would benefit the pitch. I also decided to wear the same shirt because it helped illustrate my idea which was also a comment on my last post. 

Week 6 Reading Reflection

An aspect that left me surprised was that a supplier group is powerful if it is more concentrated than the industry it sells to. Questions I would ask the author are what would happen if a supplier only served 2 industries? Would it be much more dependent on its revenues?Additionally, I do not necessarily agree with the intensity of this authors’ idea of competition because there seems to be a lack of ethics involved— which I know SHOULD be taken into account. I did learn that eliminating rivals is a risky strategy and can backfire on you. 

Customers Interviews No. 3

Other than the initial reaction question, I decided to ask if the wait time lasts for over a day, would that effect your decision buying from my store, and my second question was whether you would prefer if the customization was done online or in-person. I am going to interview mainly guys because that’s who the brand would primarily be for, but I also would like to hear a girls opinion on the idea. In this exercise I learned that each interviewee had their own preference to whether or not they would rather design the shirt inside or online so it is obvious that I should include both in my business. I was most surprised by the differences in opinion each of the people had because I realized it would be hard to tend to everybody’s preference.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1. My name is Derek Baltar, I am interested in clothing design and my skills are surrounded on creativity and problem solving. I would say my talents include drawing and graphic design and in a broader sense, being personable and outgoing.  My aspirations would be to open my own store where the shopper can design their own clothes and I would eventually want design my own line. If I were able to start this business, I would see it taking up most of my time as it is something that I have always wanted to do.
2. The male clothing industry today is very polarized. There are the brands that put their name as large as possible, making you a walking billboard; or there are brands that are so simple, it's impossible to distinguish it. I would like to create a company the bridges the gap between these two sides by having a store that grants you the ability to create your own unique clothes.
3. My business idea would mainly tend to younger males but could easily be popular with any guy who is into fashion, regardless of his age.
4. I am sure many guys feel the limited selection when it comes to buying clothing. This brand would be very valuable to the industry because it would provide clothes that could fit any style the shopper desires while remaining distinct.
5. As far as I know, there isn't any stores trying to implement anything near my idea. I would say the closest thing to my brand would be the online websites where you customize the graphics on t-shirts but even that is very different. Those shirts have very limited options, allowing changes only in the color of the shirt and the graphic/font you decide on. My brand would be making shirts that are customizable from the top-down (i.e: trims, collars, buttons, colors, materials). As I eluded to before, those companies create graphic t-shirts while mine would grant the ability to choose the type of shirt as well as the customizable aspects making it recognizable. For these reasons, I believe my idea stands on its own.

I thought of this idea a couple of semesters ago so I have had some time to flush out the ideas that weren't cohesive with the overall concept. My one concern would relate to the fact that I want to have my own line of clothes that I've designed. Although the style would fit the types of shirts that would be customizable, I think it may be beneficial to focus all my attention on the customizable aspect because that's what really separates my brand from others. 

Elevator Pitch No. 1

It seems like the only goal of some brands is to plaster their name or logo as large as possible on their clothing, while others seem to make clothes so generic that they are indistinguishable. I have noticed a shortage of clothing brands that lie in between these two extremes. I would like to offer a style that is simple yet distinct; lacking the in-your-face branding that so many companies utilize. To put this into action I first thought I could just create my own clothing line that would fit these standards and although I would love to do that, I believe I came up with a more interesting idea. My proposal is to let the shopper design and customize clothes by changing the trims, materials, buttons, etc. using templates that I would provide. You can think of it as a Chipotle where there are all these ingredients to choose from but you only ask for the ones that you like. More specifically, I would like to have a small factory within the store that is on display, where you could see other "orders" being made. I came up with the brand name Demize which is a play on words with design and customize.