1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?
Much like in the previous idea napkin, I still love all sports, my favorites being baseball, tennis, football, and hockey. I played tennis in high school and I was the captain of my team for three years, I now play recreationally in college. I've traveled to a lot of places and I have a knack for learning languages. I have a passion for streetwear clothing and I've bought and sold hundreds of articles of designer clothes. My business would obviously play a huge role in my life, it would be my source of income as well as a source of passion. I would think about it all the time but it wouldn't even bother me because nothing is better than seeing something that you've created truly coming to life.
2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs).
The product is a device that can sense whether or not a driver's brake or tail lights are malfunctioning and notify the driver so that he/she can get it fixed immediately. This satisfies the need of being safe while driving because the customers' lights are constantly being checked, which they wouldn't have been able to do before.
3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?
Anyone that drives a vehicle could certainly benefit from this product, but the prototypical customer would likely be middle aged or older and they must care a lot about their personal safety as well as the safety of others. That is the main thing that these people will have in common. Also, anyone who leases are rents a care would not be likely to purchase my product since they may not be allowed to alter the car in this way.
4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service.
Customers will believe that this product has value because it improves their safety will driving a car, which is typically the most dangerous thing you do every day.
5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has?
The fact that I have experience working for small businesses and I've already set up a small business of my own sets me apart from a lot of people because I have the experience. Additionally, I'm a computer science major so by the time a graduate I may even be able to program the device myself which would save me a lot of costs.
In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others.
I definitely believe that all of these elements fit together just fine. There is an unmet need for more safety while driving vehicles and this simple device will make people's lives safer and easier. I have the experience and the skills to make this business into a reality.
For the "feedback memo" -- please summarize at least two main points that you took away from the feedback you received. Also, please describe how you incorporated the feedback into this idea napkin.
One main point that I took away from my feedback was that I definitely need to make sure to focus in on my target age group rather than targeting all drivers as a whole. The second main takeaway that I got was that I need to target people that are not renting are leasing their cars.
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ReplyDeleteRyan, I think you did a good job and making sure you addressed every element so that it they all flow together. I'm glad to see you addressed your feedback of focusing on an "age group" of drivers, ultimately younger people are going to be as interested in your product. My feedback would be that I think you should also make sure to address cars that already have a safety feature that detects if their tail light is out or going out, in your idea outline. My car will alert me based on the speed of my blinker, so I think ideally your product would be for people with possibly older cars or of course who don't have a safety feature that alerts them. I think if you explain how your product would stand apart from that you, on the other hand, could still target to customers who already have on built in to their cars.
ReplyDeleteHi Ryan, reading your post I agree that you should try and target a specific audience. People with newer cars won't necessarily need your product so targeting customers who purchase used cars or people who already own older cars will benefit your business.
ReplyDeleteHi Ryan, I think experience can rule anything else. Also being an expert in that field can help you create this small business. I had this problem a couple months ago where my back lights were not working due to malfunction in the system. I would have liked for my car to have noticed this to me but because of the year and model I do not think it would have been possible. If you could apply this idea to all the whistles and gadgets in a car I think it would be wonderful. This could work in more "techy" and more "modern cars" and agree that your customers would need to be more specific.
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