What's Next

Existing Market:

My target market are families with children between the ages of 6-16. These families would have their children active in extracurricular activities such as sports. I had thought that maybe what was next was branching out with different services, such as child care, but after interviewing a few people, their ideas seemed much more like franchising.

For this part of the experience, I interviewed 3 women who fit my demographic.  All three of these women had excellent ideas that I had not thought of up to this point.

At this point, I see the future of my business being so much more than I had originally planned. I had originally planned this very low cost start up business. It was suggested to me that if I spend a little more money in the front end, my business would perform better and be more profitable sooner. What I had imagined and put into my plan was stay at home moms, but after speaking with Erika, who is a local business owner in Gainesville, she pointed out some serious flaws with that decision. She also pointed out other flaws in my business plan and made some suggestions  for low cost advertising. She also gave me other suggestions that I will implement in further planning.

In speaking with these three women, I have thought about more revenue drivers to add to my business. I would be adding more services to the main service that I would be providing. I would not add any more products at this time, but I would be adding more services such as babysitting, tutoring, different options of pick up, maybe not just for sporting events. I have also changed who I would like to hire. Instead of hiring the stay at home mothers to be my drivers, I would hire college students with clean backgrounds. The more parents I talk to, the more I am finding that they love a parent driving their child or children, but they don't mind a college student as that is usually who they hire to babysit already.

New Market:

The different market that I started to target was those in their "Twilight" years. My current market is targeting families with children, the other end of that are those over the age of 60 who need rides. This is not an innovative idea as there are these transport services in abundance. It is simply a radically different market that I do believe I could incorporate into my business plan and if planned and executed properly has the potential to profit.

For this portion of the experience, I interviewed 3 people who could have used a service like this in the past or are facing needing a service like this in the future with a family member or themselves.

I would have to make a few changes to my current plan of providing a service for children to accommodate the older generation of clientele. I would need to consider hiring older drivers, as it was suggested that someone in their 60's would probably not like to "hang out" with a college student. My services would need to change as well, such as helping carry in groceries, small repairs or moving small items around the house. These services would be extra and would vary in price. It was also suggested that types of vehicles would probably be different for seniors than for the children. Accommodations would also need to be made for walkers, canes and possible wheelchairs.
Through this experience, I learned that it isn't only parents with children that are in need of extra help, it is many people.

It was also suggested that for maybe the seniors that are still very active and young at heart, they might prefer someone younger, college age up to middle age, to drive them around. The interviewee felt that they would know more about what was happening around town and might be more intune to the happenings around town. I think to fit this need, I would give the client the option of the type of driver that they would want.

As a stressed out parent, I am often consumed with my own issues and my unmet needs as a parent, that I overlook my surroundings. There are so many unmet needs that a service such as this could provide, from transportation to companionship. I am not surprised that this need exists or that people would be willing to pay for extended service for the seniors as many of the caregivers for this group are the working, struggling people who need this service for the children, the "sandwich generation" as one of my interviewees called it.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByQcuOmoc-ZnaG1KcmJSRHp1dDg
https://soundcloud.com/user-855894863/kristi-whats-next
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnNHNLWjRjaGpoR0k/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnMThMMW5sWTlZa2s/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnZVVNd2lTUkN5SjA/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByQcuOmoc-ZnamtSSWZ3QWFmNUk/view?usp=sharing