Saturday, August 31, 2019

3A – Your Entrepreneurship Story

One of the first times I was introduced to entrepreneurship was by my mentor, Ms. Daphne. Ms. Daphne has been the owner of a hair salon for 21 years employing multiple individuals. For me, that was a very inspiring thing to see because she was one of the few people in my life who are entrepreneurs. It showed me that there was a way (other than the typical 9-5) to have a career and make a living. Watching her run this business also showed me the immense amount of time and discipline it takes to run a small business. Nonetheless, this was on of the examples of entrepreneurship in my life that has shown me the possibilities of entrepreneurship.

I enrolled in this class because I am going to be an entrepreneur after college and I figured it could be helpful to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and begin generating business ideas.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Assignment 2A- Bug List


  1. When the Riders bus app does not accurately display the buses en route.
Why it exists: The RTS bus drivers may not input their bus route when their shift begins, thus it never shows up on the app. Alternatively, it may be the technical workers at RTS that are not reporting the routes to the app.
  1. When I ask a Walmart employee if a certain item is in stock and they verbally direct me to the isle rather than actually showing me to the item on the shelf.
Why it exists: Walmart does not emphasize excellent customer service, whereas if I go to Publix I am almost always physically taken to the item I am looking for.
  1. When I am in the financial aid office discussing private financial information, but everyone else in the building can hear my business.
Why it exists: The financial aid was not designed with audible privacy in mind as it is just one big room. While there are panels between each financial aid advisor there is nothing to contain the sound.
  1. When the first person in the “straight or right turn lane” at a red light is going straight and holds up every other driver trying to turn right.
Why it exists: The turning lane was combined with the straight lane in order to minimize the number of lanes on one street.
  1. Gainesville traffic on game days.
Why it exists: Everyone in town, as well as people from out of town tends to be at the stadium on game days causing a high concentration of traffic in surrounding areas.
  1. Bathrooms that do not have toilet seat covers.
Why it exists: Establishments do not wish to pay for paper toilet seat covers as it does not directly benefit them.
  1. ProctorU exams.
Why it exists: To ensure that students are following testing expectations during exams even when no physical test proctor is available.
  1. Gas stations that do not have free air pumps.
Why it exists: Many gas stations (with the exception of Wawa- to my knowledge) do not care to pay for an air pump that does not directly make them any money.
  1. Roller skating rinks that do not accept adult song requests.
Why it exists: Children and adults typically skate at the same time, thus the music is filtered for children.
  1. Apple’s removal of the headphone jack on the iPhone's.
Why it exists: Apple launched AirPods just a few months later which more people were interested in as a result of not being able to charge your phone and listen to music with traditional headphones.
  1. Campus buses that are overly crowded causing people to have to stand up the entire ride.
Why it exists: More students than one bus can hold having obligations on campus at the same time. Additionally, people who are late catching the next bus, thus overcrowding a bus they technically should not be on.
  1. McDonald’s ice cream machine always being down
Why it exists: Overuse of the ice cream machine. McDonald’s not teaching their general employees on how to fix the machine. Lack of regular maintenance of the machine.
  1. When shower drains are clogged in the communal shower at Jennings.
Why it exists: Residents do not pick up their hair after showering which clogs the drain. The bathrooms are not cleaned on a regular basis.
  1. When there is no common area to do work in a classroom building.
Why it exists: The buildings were designed to be teaching/lab areas only rather than study spaces for students in between classes. This could have been due to financial constraints.
  1. Texting complications between an Android and iPhone such as messages not sending.
Why it exists: The phones run on different operating systems.
  1. When the Reitz Union runs out of parking.
Why it exists: There are more people that need to park than available spaces. Reitz parking was not designed to fit the cars of all the people that need to park.
  1. When you decide to drive your scooter to campus in hopes of finding parking, but there is none.
Why it exists: There are more people that need to park scooters than available scooter spaces. UF parking was not designed to fit the scooters of all the people that need to park.
  1. When gloves at the boxing gym smell like sweat and musk.
Why it exists: The gloves must be cleaned after every use, but people do not do it. The gloves also need a deep clean every once in a while which probably is not done.
  1. When courses require you to purchase additional tools (such as TopHat) not included in the course fees.
Why it exists: Information about course fees that do not go directly to the school, are not included in course fees. Thus, a paid service like TopHat is not accounted for.
  1. When I spend all day on campus and my laptop dies and there is no where to charge it.
Why it exists: Many UF buildings were built many years before the rise in technology thus are not equipped with adequate charging stations (such as tables with built in outlets)

REFLECTION

While I think of myself as someone who does not sweat the small stuff and does not complain excessively, coming up with 20 bugs was not much of a challenge. The first 5 did come to me the easiest, but with a bit more thought the rest seemed to flow as well. Many of the bugs I came up with by putting myself in someone else’s shoes or recalling things people have told me in the past. Before I knew it, I had more than 20 bugs on the list and had to narrow it down. Thinking of the “why” actually put things into perspective for me and helped me remember that there is a reason for everything- even if it is not a good one.