Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity

After thinking of my venture concept I needed to decide who the target audience would be. The target audience for my product is a college girl all the way to a working or stay at home mom. More specifically, everyone in my target audience has an extremely busy schedule on a day to day basis and also enjoys shopping. The force in the environment creating this opportunity is new technology. Most of my customers are females between the ages of 18-45. However, my customer base can be expanded to males in this age range as well. Although males could be interested in my product, I am primarily focusing on females because I find more females enjoy the connivence of online shopping and shopping in general. My customers are currently satisfying the need to online shop through amazon and online retailers. I think my customers are extremely loyal to amazon. What sets my product apart from is Amazon is that my product includes local boutique and you can get the item you ordered in the same day rather than waiting 2-3 days for a product ordered off of Amazon. I think this is a big opportunity and I have a large window of time because the online shopping market is huge. A lot of people enjoy the convenience of shopping from their home. 

Innovation

My idea is incrementally innovative, but extremely useful. My innovative idea is to have every big box store/local boutique in a 20 mile radius from a customer on one central app. On the app customers will be able to browse the different stores and select what product they need/want. Once they selected the product and are ready to check out they can chose to either pick it up from the front of the store or have it delivered. This will be an exception of retail stores/ big box stores require the customer to pick up the product in the front of the store and do not offer delivery.  For users my app will cost 99 cents. I will also reach out to companies offering them to pay to be advertised on my app. I would charge them a monthly fee of $10-$15, depending on how often they want their company to be advertised on the app. 

Venture Concept 

My innovation will save my customers time and is extremely convenient. I think customers will switch to my product because it is a lot cheaper than Amazon prime and my customers can get the products they want on the same day. My product is appealing because customer’s can take it anywhere because it’s an app and it’s extremely affordable. 

As stated in my previous post, my “secret sauce” is the connections I have in my local community. Having connections in the retail business will get me a good customer base and will also provide me with a lot of guidance and valuable information. What’s next for my venture is to be able to make my app available in any location in the U.S. In order to do this, I would have to contact a lot of local boutiques and retailers. 

Feedback

The feedback from my Venture No. 1 Concept was extremely positive. Most of the people that commented expressed that I hit my target audience and that my venture concept would save people a lot of time. One comment that stood out to me is that stores may not like my product because they want customers to look around the store and see as much inventory as possible. Taking this comment into consideration, I will give retail stores/big box stores the option to only have the option of picking up the product from the store so that it still forces the customer to go to the store, but still saves the customer time if they need. 

Reading Reflection No. 3

Inbound Marketing Brian Halligan

1.)    What was the general theme or argument of the book?

The general theme of this book is to educate the public on how to strategically market your company on the internet, so your company is recognizable and easy to access. In order to maximize a company’s effectiveness of marketing on the internet it is important to recognize that there are many ways to market on the internet, but that one or a few could be best for your company. 

2.) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

Out of all the three books that I have read for this class, this book enhanced my learning the most. First off, my major is public relations so I am very into the social media part of the business. This book gave me a lot of insight into strategic marketing strategies and how to maximize the effectiveness of my social media presence. This book enhanced what I am learning in ENT 3003, because Halligan showed me just how important internet marketing is to a company and how you can create a customer based off of marketing on the internet. After reading this book, before marketing my venture concept on the internet I will definitely be going through the necessary steps to make sure that I am maximizing effectiveness. For example, I will make sure that my product’s website is organic not paid on google. 

3. If you had to design an exercise for the class, based on the book you read, what would your exercise involve?

If I had to design an exercise for the class, based on what I read I would have the students in our class pick 2 companies, one big company and one small company. After picking two companies, I would have the students compare their marketing strategies on the internet and list the pros and cons of both. At the end I would have student’s explain which company has a more effective strategy and why and what the ineffective company can do to make their social media presence more effective.

4.) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

My ‘aha’ moment when reading this book was in Chapter 2. In this chapter, Halligan stresses that content is what makes your website important to consumers, not design. I was shocked to learn this because I always thought the design of the website was extremely important and is what would draw your customers in. After reading the chapter, Halligan explains that if your customers are not satisfied with what their reading or if it isn’t important to them they won’t give your company the time and day. 

Final Reflection

1. Overall, I really enjoyed taking this class. I had a lot of fun and had a chance to get out of my comfort zone. One of the lows I had was when the first interview assigned. I was definitely uncomfortable and extremely nervous. My high was conquering my fear and finally being comfortable with interviewing people and talking to people in a professional manner. I also enjoyed the assigned readings because every book I read was related to this class and definitely helped me advance my venture concept.

2. My most formative experience was having the opportunity to advance on previous assignments after hearing the feedback from our classmates. An experience that I will remember years later is actually coming up with a venture concept and all the tools that an entrepreneur needs to start a business and be successful. I’m proud of myself for getting out of my comfort zone and completing the elevator pitches and interviews.

3. After taking this class, I have definitely gotten closer to having an entrepreneur mindset. This class taught me that as an entrepreneur it is ok to fail and you need to fail in order to learn from your mistakes. 

4. For future students taking this course, I would recommend to have fun with every activity. Don’t take anything to seriously and just go with your gut. At first the assignments may seem intimidating, but once you get a hang of the class it isn’t bad at all. To be successful in this class, always read your assignments in advance so you make sure you know how many days you need to complete the assignment on time. 

Making it Real

Below is the link to my resume:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwqRRwH-z_zPVVl4TmxpNWNBOE0/view?usp=sharing

My Exit Strategy

1. I plan to stay with my business for several decades because I think technology will keep advancing and continue to get bigger and bigger. As technology advances, so will my app. I think my app will be more successful as time goes on. When my app reaches it’s peak and is no longer popular, I will sell the app. I plan to put all the money I earn from this venture to my retirement fund. I don’t see myself protecting this venture as a family business. If and when the time comes if my children are interested in the business, of course it will be passed down to them. 

2. I have selected this exit strategy because I believe my app will continue to grow as time goes on. I am passionate about this product and I’m excited to see what’s in store. 

3. Since I plan to stay with my venture concept for a long time, I have been focusing on ways my product can grow. If I add more features to my app/expand the app my customers will be able to enjoy my product and I can acquire new customers in the process. 

What's Next

EXISTING MARKET

Step 1: The kind of product I would be offering next is to add more boutiques/big box stores to my app. Eventually the goal would be to have as many stores as possible available on the app across the United States.

Step 2: “What should we be doing that we aren’t planning to do?” 

I could not video my recordings because all my interviews took place over the phone. 

Interviewee 1: First I interviewed my friend in college who enjoys to shop online and is a frequent customer of Amazon. You could possibly look into teaming up with Amazon because both products have a similar target audience. Teaming up with Amazon would benefit your product immensely because Amazon already has a lot of loyal customers.

Interviewee 2: Next I interviewed my mom. She suggested having all local boutiques on board with a day-to-day delivery service. So, if customers live in a 10 mile radius of the store, the store will deliver it to the customer’s door that day. 

Interviewee 3: For my last interview I interviewed my sister. She liked my idea of expanding my app across the United States but said to make sure I’m successfully locally first before I start to expand.

NEW MARKET

Step 1: Overall, I believe my product is targeting a more affluent part of society so the new market I would be targeting is a poor part of society.

Step 2: My venture concept may be able to create value for people in this market because if these customers don’t have a car and need a product that day they can use my app to have it delivered to them. Also, these customers can use my product to order necessities such as paper towels. 

Step 3:  How they think your business might be help to them? Do they have any ideas?

Interviewee 1: First I interviewed my friend from college who is on a tight budget. She said she would be motivated to use the app if the app provided discounts or deals. 

Interviewee 2: Next I interviewed my friend who just graduated from college and is supporting himself for the first time. What was most appealing to him was that items could be delivered to him the same day. He doesn’t have a car, so he said this would be extremely convenient. 

Interviewee 3: For my last interview I interviewed someone who I used to babysit for who is now in high school. She said because she can’t drive yet this app would be beneficial for her. 

Step 4: I learned a lot from this new market and this assignment as a whole in general. What surprised me the most was the fact that this new market could be a big market for my product as well. I definitely should not have assumed that this market would not benefit from my product. 

Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

After thinking of my venture concept I needed to decide who the target audience would be. The target audience for my product is a college girl all the way to a working or stay at home mom. More specifically, everyone in my target audience has an extremely busy schedule on a day to day basis and also enjoys shopping. The force in the environment creating this opportunity is new technology. Most of my customers are females between the ages of 18-45. However, my customer base can be expanded to males in this age range as well. Although males could be interested in my product, I am primarily focusing on females because I find more females enjoy the connivence of online shopping and shopping in general. My customers are currently satisfying the need to online shop through amazon and online retailers. I think my customers are extremely loyal to amazon. What sets my product apart from is Amazon is that my product includes local boutique and you can get the item you ordered in the same day rather than waiting 2-3 days for a product ordered off of Amazon. I think this is a big opportunity and I have a large window of time because the online shopping market is huge. A lot of people enjoy the convenience of shopping from their home. 

Innovation

My idea is incrementally innovative, but extremely useful. My innovative idea is to have every big box store/local boutique in a 20 mile radius from a customer on one central app. On the app customers will be able to browse the different stores and select what product they need/want. Once they selected the product and are ready to check out they can chose to either pick it up from the front of the store or have it delivered. For users my app will cost 99 cents. I will also reach out to companies offering them to pay to be advertised on my app. I would charge them a monthly fee of $10-$15, depending on how often they want their company to be advertised on the app. 

Venture Concept 

My innovation will save my customers time and is extremely convenient. I think customers will switch to my product because it is a lot cheaper than Amazon prime and my customers can get the products they want on the same day. My product is appealing because customer’s can take it anywhere because it’s an app and it’s extremely affordable. 

As stated in my previous post, my “secret sauce” is the connections I have in my local community. Having connections in the retail business will get me a good customer base and will also provide me with a lot of guidance and valuable information. What’s next for my venture is to be able to make my app available in any location in the U.S. In order to do this, I would have to contact a lot of local boutiques and retailers.