Michael Saba

The feedback I had gotten I took into consideration to better my approach when explaining what the lifestyle center actually functions as. I went into more depth on explaining what a Lifestyle center is and why it will work. I changed some of the description of what it was and also added why retail is not dead to my pitch to give my viewers a better understanding from my point of view.

The customer for lifestyle centers although can be geared toward practically anyone. Mostly it would be focused on Millennials as well as upper middle class and wealthy Americans. Most of the frequenters of the lifestyle centers would be anywhere between the ages of 18-45 and would be considered “foodies” valuing experiences over other things. Although many of these people will be accustomed to ordering many things through online retailers such as Amazon they will have a desire to see retail alive and well. Many of the millennials may choose to über or use Lyft rather than own a car and choose to rent an apartment rather than own their own home. The customers will be people who work in jobs such as retail or office and need a place to live and work together.   The avatar would be a man named Paul. Paul is a 22 year old recent college graduate looking to seek out a job in the finance industry. Due to low demand and high supply of finance majors Paul fails to get a job ...

i) The way I think about things. More descriptively my reason to think outside of the normal scope of things. When being presented with a problem I more than usually think outside of the box with my solution.   ii) My will to be successful in things I am interested in. When involved with a business I am interested in I will work 80-100 hour weeks to get the company where it needs to be.   iii) My will to understand different perceptions. Rather than immediately disagreeing with someone because they don’t believe the same as me. I will try and put myself in their eyes and in their perception to try and understand how they are viewing the problem.   iv) Saying what I truly feel without regard. In certain situations I will speak my mind whereas many other people keep things to themselves. Rather I say what I truly feel to people.   v) My ability to match personalities of people. When meeting a new person 9/10 of times I can match their personality ...

While interviewing I had discovered insight to how people feel and think about the subject as we dived deep. While interviewing Alex, we had went over what he currently uses as an alternative to the traditional mall and not surprisingly the initial answer was Amazon. However, when we dived deep more into the actual question, I had discovered that 90% of the time that Alex currently left his house was for 1 of 3 things. Work, Gym, and Food. This helped me realize that the lifestyle centers would have to 100% include having available jobs for people, a gym, and many restaurants for people to choose from. I had also asked Alex if when he went out, where and how often did he make purchases that weren’t these three things and the answer was surprisingly often. He had taken a look at his recent debit card statement and found that there were many spontaneous purchases throughout the days where he left his house. These purchases taken place at businesses such as Dunkin Donuts, Conven...

Having an advantage of already creating multiple businesses I found the first half of the class to be relatively simple and more of exercise of applying the skills I already have developed. Coming into the course you must hold an open mind with ideas and problems and alter the way you may normally think in order to be truly successful.   Having many set backs with any idea along the way the trick with being successful is the perseverance you maintain throughout the way. There will be flaws with your original concept of any business but overcoming the flaws to drastically change the idea for the better will ultimately create a better end product. I have developed a tenacious attitude as I have been faced with many problems in business as with the class.   Three tips I can offer going into this class would be to have a strong mental outlook on everything, meaning do not be pessimistic be optimistic. Don’t give up easily as there are many obstacles with the ideas you m...

I read the book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance.   Although I had previously been a fan of Elon Musk and all that he has done and does do, I had not realized the extent of which he has actually done! One of the most admirable points of Musk is his never end mission and resilience. Where most entrepreneurs will start to kick back and relax Musk chooses to proceed forward with another venture. After selling PayPal Musk could have been able to retire and enjoy his wealth, however this is when he put every dollar he had earned into SpaceX and Tesla. Although one of the main odd features of his success the least admirable characteristic would be is carelessness about many things he does. I personally find myself to care more than Elon seems to about the things he ventures into. However, although I don’t admire this characteristic, I feel that it is most needed for me ion some aspects to be more successful. One other aspect of hi...

While conducting interviews, the first person that I had interviewed was a small business owner with 5 retail locations of boutique stores. This serving to be a potential tenant of the lifestyle centers. When first conducting the interviews it had been prevalent that her business had been down over the past two years. Being located in a variety of different locations I asked her what her needs where when looking for new potential location in 2018.   She had stated that she needed places with “TONS of foot traffic” Her business relies on foot traffic and awareness that her store exists. Her stores that are facing significant loses are ones that have seen a drop in foot traffic due to many people opting to buy things online rather than in person. When looking for new places she is looking for new developments where people will frequent often and areas that are full of other tenants such as restaurants, grocery stores, or gyms. This serves to bring hundreds of people daily...

I have grown up in a real estate family, since a young age I had always been intrigued by the concept of real estate and all that goes along with it. As well with real estate I had also always been business minded. With the concept of Lifestyle Centers, I see this as undertaking a giant project. From the syndication of investors into the project, to the development and construction of one itself it can take place over the course of 3-5 years. This idea would definitely function as a career rather than a “side hustle.”   The development of these centers over traditional malls will provide customers with a commonplace to live, work, and play and accommodate to what traditional malls cannot.   The lifestyle centers will be prevalent to middle to upper class everyday Americans. This includes any person that currently goes to a gym, lives in an apartment building ranging from $1000-$3500 a month, and any person in the surrounding area that the center is constructed. ...