Towards Execution

At the beginning of every semester most students are occupied with the hustle and bustle of registering for classes, and purchasing new textbooks for their classes. My entrepreneurial idea is bathed from the need of finding EXTREMELY CHEAP textbooks. I want to create a website which will enable students to sell and buy textbooks from each other, and it will also be open to competitors.

That is how it started- just as an idea! However, the idea has progressed and built up into reality, and hopefully the website will be launched soon! Coming up with an entrepreneurial idea to me meant looking at the society around me, and identifying a need. In this way, textbooks are a MUST have resource for every student, however with the sky high cost that comes with getting them, I felt that something had to be done to make the process of getting the textbooks  easier for students.

 

To solve this need- expensive textbooks, a website has to be created to cater for students in different schools; it will initially be an online portal where any college student can log in, and search for his/ her school, and identify a class and either buy or sell the textbook from that class. This website would offer a cheaper and more convenient way to purchase and sell textbooks. Implementing the use of social media is key to the growth of the website. This is because if a student is selling his/ her textbook, they would tend to be proactive in getting the word out about their merchandise. In this, they will post links and short messages on their social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube … the list is endless. Excel will be used to facilitate the organization and presentation of the various transactions happening on the website, through the use of tools such as: conditional formatting, and pivot tables.

Since we are talking about ecommerce a PC is important for every user engaged in the transactions, as it pretty much acts as a gateway to the internet. However, with advances in technology, users will be able to log in to the website from their smartphones, and tablets. As time progressed, I also had a chance to identify the competition, and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. With most of the competition, for example textbooks.com, their user interface does not make it easy to find a textbook. In addition, all the websites I checked did not offer textbooks customized to the specific schools. The website which I am proposing will make it easy for students to find a textbook, whereby a student can click a desired subject or department of study, or even a school. Moreover, since students will be selling their used textbooks to other students, it will be possible for a student to find a customized textbook for their school.

Derek Sivers (http://sivers.org/multiply) says that: Ideas are just a multiplier of execution; Ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions. Since I started with just an idea, my IST 195 class has equipped me with knowledge which equals tools which I can use to execute and bring about reality. Tools such as: use of cloud computing, and adaptation of Adobe Photoshop which will be used to edit the pictures posted on the website to increase their marketability; incorporation of Windows Server 2008 Standard, and utilizing cryptography to enhance security in the website. For this product to launch, I will share my idea with the team at the Syracuse Student Sandbox (http://www.syracusestudentsandbox.com/about/), which acts as an incubator to give aspiring student entrepreneurs the resources to make their visions a reality. Additionally, I would meet up with the team behind The Raymond von Dran Innovation and Disruptive Entrepreneurship Accelerator (IDEA) (http://idea.syr.edu/about/) and discuss my idea with them, and come up with a game plan on the steps needed to execute the idea. 

SECURITY

Whenever a new semester starts students are in dire need of textbooks, but very cheap textbooks don’t come by easily, and my entrepreneurial idea is bathed from this NEED! I want to come up with a website which will offer students the opportunity to buy or sell their textbooks.

Due to the nature of this business, advanced methods of cryptography will have to be employed to secure the user’s data. Cryptography, which can simply be defined as hidden secret writing (Wikipedia), will enhance the site’s security as users log into their accounts. Hence, when users type their passwords, they can be sure that the business is applying information security protocols, like typography, specifically the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to secure their data.

Maintaining a clean website is very important, and as such I will make use of three suggestions adapted from:

http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security

1)      Identifying bad behavior

2)      Removing the badware behavior

3)      Preventing future infection

Badware such as: Malicious scripts; ,htaccess redirects, and hidden iframes will be thoroughly searched for by the website’s developers, so as to find the exact code. Once identified, corrective measures will be undertaken to delete the code, and prevent future infection.

Utilization of the Operating System

My entrepreneurial idea focuses on making it easier for students to find textbooks on campus! Students will have the ability to easily locate textbooks they want, and sell their own textbooks to other students on the internet. They will do this through a website which will facilitate the transactions.

                The website will have to be accessible across several platforms, but mainly: the various Windows versions, Mac OS X, UNIX, and Linux. This will be useful as it will enable everyone to be able to launch the website from different operating systems. My developers will have to severely test the website in the above mentioned platforms to ensure smooth operation, and swift correction in case of any malfunctions.

                Since the entrepreneurial idea will first operate as a start- up, I foresee the need to incorporate the use of Windows Server 2008. This is because of the new capabilities it offers, for example: enhanced server security; protection against malicious software attacks, and client support using Windows, Mac OS, UNIX, and Linux. Windows Server 2008 Standard will be ideal in the beginning stages of the business, due to the small volume of transactions.

Blogger Review- Kara Swisher

For almost every course a student signs up for on campus, a textbook is required. With the dire need of textbooks, it would be expected that they’re very easy to come by, however this is not the case! My entrepreneurial idea focuses on solving this need for students on campus!  

Kara Swisher has being cited as the most influential author covering the internet by the Industry Standard magazine. She has written many articles, and often her blogs will appear on All Things Digital: http://allthingsd.com/author/kara/    

Since Kara has posted many articles I specifically would want to zero in on:

http://allthingsd.com/20120925/what-will-marissa-do-as-new-ceo-unveils-turnaround-plan-today-can-she-avoid-layoffs-later/ 

In this article, Kara brings out the excitement surrounding Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer’s actions to turn around the downward growth of the company. Kara plays around with the strategy which Marissa was set to announce to Yahoo’s employees. Hereby, she points out that it will be inevitable for Marissa to lay off some of the 12,500 staffers so as to give the company a turn- around. In addition, Kara informs her audience that Mayer does not intend to outsource Yahoo’s advertising tech and search businesses, but rather would wish to invest in both. Newly hired, Jackie Reses, who has a private background in private equity will according to Kara be spearheading Yahoo’s “right sizing.” Ms. Swisher ends her article by highlighting her previous posts on the future of Yahoo under Mayer, and promising more news!

Kara’s blogging style is rather difficult, as she seeks to capture her audience from the beginning to the end of her article. Her title is big enough and the message is direct to give the reader a taste of the post’s contents. I like the way she starts her post; it is as if she is letting her readers in on a secret, and this motivates the reader to read on! Kara’s caption of Yahoo’s trademark with the exclamation mark syncs well with the blog’s message. Generally, in the body of her article, Kara cleverly gives a summary of the happenings in Yahoo in a way that the person who has not being following can easily catch up. Her post seems to be really informational as she really delves deep into her topic, and even goes to the extent of promising her readers more news! This makes her come out as humane. In conclusion, it is not a surprise that in her career she has being cited as the most influential reporter covering the internet by the Industry Standard magazine.

Adaptation of cloud computing and Adobe Photoshop

  Whenever a new semester starts students are in dire need of textbooks, but very cheap textbooks don’t come by easily, and my entrepreneurial idea is bathed from this NEED! I want to come up with a website which will offer students the opportunity to buy or sell their textbooks.

            The use of cloud storage offers a big plus to the company. This is mainly because it is efficient, and offers a win- win situation for everyone- the developers of my website, and the different users who will be posting the content they are selling. To start off I will enlist the services of a cloud storage provider, who offers some free storage space for registered users, typically like 25GB. This will be used to experiment on the cloud services. The use of encryption to aid security will be something which I will be looking to add to the website.

            Implementing Photoshop on the website is a recommendation which I will put on the website since students who post the different textbooks they are selling can edit their pictures. Adobe Photoshop enables the user to create an account and actually make use of some of their editing tools, like retouching, and cropping. All in all, the better the pictures look the easier it will be for them to get the textbooks sold.