In Testing the Hypothesis - Part I, I found that there is a need for my opportunity, a kids car service. For right now, this service would be primarily for extracurricular activities such as sports practice, karate or dance.
In Part I, the demographic was established, parents with children ages 6-16, mostly working parents, were in great need of this type of service. For Part II, I found people in the same demographic, but that may not have this need. What I actually found were more people who were in need of this type of service.
I conducted a few interviews, and admittedly I sought out people who I thought would not use this service at all, for one reason or another. I was actually wrong. Whether people were just trying to be nice and supportive, I'm not sure, but before conducting the interviews, I asked for an honest answer. I only had two people that have a solution to this problem, using family members or friends to get their children to practice. One person, a single dad on a set custody schedule, just makes the accommodations needed by taking off of work. One thing is clear though, there is undeniably a need for this type of service, but whether people would feel comfortable enough to use it or not is another question.
Inside the Boundary
- WHO: Busy parents with children ages 6-16 in extracurricular activities.
- WHAT: The need is to get their/our children to practice on time and safely. If we can not do it ourselves.
- WHY: The need exists due to the fact that most parents have to work or have other obligations during the time that the child is to be at practice or an event.
Outside the Boundary
- WHO: Stay at home parents with children ages 6-16. Parents with alternative means for children to get to practice.
- WHAT: There is no time constraint for these parents. They have accessible rides for their children. They are able to get off work in time to get their children there or are able to take vacation time.
- WHY: They are already using their family and/or friends as resources to provide rides to these activities for their children. Safety precautions, they are skeptical of a service for their child.
Hi Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteI think that it's pretty interesting that while searching for people without the need, you actually found more people with it! Your interviews clearly provided you with much more information about the need in the community. I feel that you're really starting to develop this service well! Keep up the great work!
-Kimberly
Hi Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteI think this idea has a ton of potential. I do see some causes for concerns though. As a parent would you be willing to hand over your child to a stranger and allow them to drive them to a location? Also the insurance side of this is a huge issue because normal auto insurance only covers if you are not generating income. This means if the driver got into an accident the insurance would not cover the damages.
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ReplyDeleteHey Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with you that the primary issue facing this service is convincing potential customers of its safety, it's definitely something to continue to pursue! A couple of years ago, when I first moved to UF, my family--headed by two working parents--faced an applicable situation. The lease on my dad's car had expired, and due to our financial situation, he couldn't immediately find another car. As such, he had to borrow my little brother's car. The only issue was that both of my parents' jobs were far from his high school, and all of his friends lived far from our neighborhood. In essence, he was stranded at school for hours after dismissal while he waited for my mom or dad to swing by after work and pick him up.
Basically, what I'm saying is that, if you can somehow straighten out the safety issue, this could very well be a successful venture. I do know that similar services exist, but only as a wing of an existing business--I've seen karate schools that operate their own transportation services. Maybe, if you reached agreements with local karate schools, little league baseball leagues, and other extracurricular locations, you could attenuate the safety concerns of parents by working through operations that have already gained their trust. Good luck with your idea!
First off, please tell me how you managed to imbed your audio right into your post, without having to go to the website to hear it. I cannot figure it out.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, wow! This is a great idea! It like Uber for kids. My first thought was hesitation, because of all the horrible stories you hear about children being hurt and such, by adults. I say you install cameras in the transporting vehicle that can be viewed through an app at all times, while the child is on board. There can be a pick-up and drop-up notification service view phone, text, email, etc. so that the parent always knows the exact time the child is picked up and dropped off. The only big thing, in my opinion, is figuring out all the security measures needed to make this happen, and you are golden! There are app creators all over, so don’t fret on that.
I volunteer with kids in an afterschool program that helps fights childhood obesity by keeping kids active. I’m a track coach. I’ve heard from many parents that they would bring their kids more often if they had a way to get them there. There is a great need for this. I say to you, pursue this great idea as far as you can because I think you have a winning ticket! Way to go on this great idea!
Hi!
DeleteThe trick is creating a playlist. Make your interviews public, create a playlist and then when you click "share" it will give you a box, at the top of that box click on embed and then just copy the link and paste it directly into your blog post. I won't lie, I had to get my IT guy, at work, to show me how to do it. If you have trouble let me know and I will send you some screenshots.
Thanks for the positive input! If you care to followup on the security measures, I have outlined it a little more in my Idea Napkin post. Not a lot, mind you, but at least what I have in mind for the security measures.
Hey Carolyn, I think that your idea of having a driving service for kids with busy parents is an interesting idea. I personally had very busy parents, and growing up I had to catch rides with friends and buses. I do think that having a stranger picking up your children might be a hard pitch to sell, but I think your idea to restructure is a good idea. Possibly setting up a names list of parents in schools that also have kids doing afterschool activities and are willing to give rides may be a direction. I am sure you will find a great solution!
ReplyDeleteHello Carolyn.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea but have the same concerns you expressed and others who commented about the safety of the children. Also when it comes to the activities for kids like sports or karate I have experienced that the parents themselves pull together and help each other out with their kids. I have three kids of my own and today for example both my son and daughter have practice. What my wife will do is first drop off my daughter at volleyball camp and then continues on to take my son to his baseball practice but stay there with him. Once my daughters practice is over one of the moms from her volleyball team will then drop my daughter off at the park where my wife is at with my son. In reference to the outside boundaries you mention I think you may have stumbled on an additional opportunity there that at first might not have made sense. Great post!
Unfortunately, the last couple weeks being very busy with work and the kids school year coming to a close, I was not able to complete this assignment therefore I do not have a link to post.
I like how you're developing this idea! It's really great to see how you're getting the idea more and more tangible. It's nice to see how much thought that you've put into this. My recommendation is to think about how to cover paying, how much the drivers get, how much the parents pay, does any of it go back to the company itself and how? I'd also consider what's the circumference of people willing to drive, how to let parents know when the kids are picked up/dropped off, things of that ilk. Just logistics of your great idea.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Im super impressed that you managed to embed the interviews right on your page. Ill definitely be using your method to make my blog more professional and user friendly. Secondly, I like your idea, and think that its a very viable business to get into. How would you assuage parents fears about their child being transported by someone other than a close friend or family member?
ReplyDeleteCarolyn,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I personally used to be that kid growing up where I always was asking for rides home from school or a sports practice. I would always be the last one at practice if I did not get a ride home waiting for my parents to come and pick me up. I absolutely understand there being a need for a lot of different people to use this service. One boundary that I would take into consideration would be income levels. Usually, people have to work longer or the long hours to sometimes make ends meet, so what would be the appropriate income level that would be within your boundary?
Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea. Growing up, me and my three siblings had different games and practices every night, so, as you can imagine, my parents were constantly trying to get us to these games and practices. I think it would work best if the service had several schools within a small area that it picked kids up from and only dropped off at one or two sports complexes, this would reduce the costs on you.
Life is extremely busy nowadays, and it seems to find a way to make itself even busier. You have a very creative idea in mind. Nonetheless, when you were talking about some of the drawbacks, you mentioned that “whether people would feel comfortable enough to use [the service] or not is another question.” Personally, it is an unsurprising, yet sad truth that the world continues to lose more trust of each other day by day. When you turn on the news and hear about children being victims of kidnapping and other sorts of junk going on today, parents really consider who they are able to trust with their children. This especially falls under the realm of businesses associated with children.
ReplyDeleteI feel that you have a great idea here. Life continues to get busier and these days it is very likely that both parents work and I feel like single parents are a lot more common. Although it is nice when you can rely on family and friends to assist, it would be nice to not have to rely on them. With this kind of service you would be able to work and your kids could get to where they need to go. I agree the problem is whether they would feel comfortable. What kind of safety measures are you considering meaning chaperones? How would you market that these kids would absolutely be safe and not end up in the hands of unsafe people? I feel that might be the only concern. But overall great idea!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good idea. There are already a few services like Uber that are popular with everyone, but it is mainly used by adults. I think that a kid's car service would work well with working parents and parents with more than a few kids who need help wit getting multiple kids to activities. I can see why some parents would be wary of this idea and would not want someone they do not know driving their child around. If this idea were to happen I think that there needs to be some kind of assurance like special training certificates and assurance that the driver has a clean record so that the parents can see these things on the website.
ReplyDeleteLooking for people who you thought wouldn't need it and having them say they would need it shows how profitable and possible this idea could be. You would definitely need to make it a separate service from the likes of Uber due to the cars needing to have car seats and be suited for children. Picking the drivers would also need to be a much more selective process to ensure that the kids would be safe in the vehicle as well as with the driver. It seems to me like this assignment only strengthened the feasibility of your idea though!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn,
ReplyDeleteI really like that you were able to embed your interviews right into the blog post. I have only been able to put links to websites, so good job on that. I also really like your idea. I think that this is a great opportunity and you have come up with the perfect idea for how to solve this problem. Great job.
Hey Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteSo your idea seems like a very reasonable idea because many people do need this type of service. Of the issue with trust, safety, and all that I will ignore for the purposes of just focusing the idea as a potential concept to be implemented. So like service that transport the elderly, there should be a safe way transportation service for kids as well. This service will allow parents to not worry as much and know they child is attending wherever they need to be. It's a win win as parents will be satisfied and so will the children. I like your interviews they were accurate. Keep developing this idea. Nice work. Check out my blog at http://jpmorgan15.blogspot.com/.
Regards,
Juan Parra