Venture Concept No.1

Venture Concept No. 1

Mom-Mobile

Venture Concept No.1

VENTURE CONCEPT NO.1

Opportunity:

I have identified an opportunity, a need, for parents in the sporting community.

• The need is to get the children of busy parents to the sports events that they need to attend.
• Parents are busier these days with the rising cost of living and the economy. They must work longer hours, they have more demanding jobs, they have more children. These parents have demands that need to be met and not enough time to meet them.
• This market is targeted for families ranging in ages that are located in cities and towns where there are numerous sporting activities outside of school, city sporting leagues for example.
• Customers are currently satisfying this need by using friends to take their children to these practices and by taking off of work, if they can.
• This is an ongoing opportunity. My personal opinion is that if more parents were willing, this would be a huge opportunity for business growth, however in today’s society parents are justifiably skeptical of these types of services. This would be more of an opportunity for older children, middle school age up to the age of being able to drive themselves. There will always be children who are involved in sports.

Innovation:

The service that I am offering is a transportation service designed to meet the needs of the children and the parents.  My plan is as follows:

• We would have a website that allows the parent(s) or guardian(s) to schedule transportation for their child(ren), either on a one time basis or a recurring basis. You would be able to schedule a simple pick up and drop off to practice or the parent would be able to schedule a pickup and drop off to and from practice. This website would also include the additional feature of purchasing a drink, snack or drink/snack combo for the child(ren). The drink price would be $1 for water, $2 for Gatorade, $1-2 for the snack, depending on what they chose, and the combo would likely start out at $3-4.
• My drivers will be clean cut, female college students that have been through a thorough screening including driving test, drug screen and level II background check. All drivers will be required to wear a uniform shirt so that they will be easily identified by both parents and children as employees of this company. The employees, I feel, would be the greatest resource to the company.  
• I would start off with a small fleet of vehicles that I would strategically use car wraps on for advertising and identification.  
• We will go to great lengths to provide a safe service. We will have a mobile application to accompany our website. We would have an alert system in place through this app to notify the customer, aka the parent, of when their child was picked up from the designated location and dropped off at the designated location. We are looking into the addition of webcams in the vehicles so that the parent may log on and see that their child is safely in the vehicle that they are supposed to be in.
• The price for this complete service is undetermined at this time.  There will be options to purchase individual rides, a set of rides, i.e. to and from practice, or you can sign up monthly if a parent knows that they will need this service on certain days of the week through the month. I do have the plan to offer discounted rates for those that sign up for a longer time frame of transportation, for example a month of service or a season.  

Venture concept:

The Mom-Mobile Service is an innovative way to get your child to and from sports practices and games when the parent(s) cannot get them there.  It is not uncommon for parents to struggle with getting their child to practices and/or games on time. By using this service, the parent’s time is relieved of the rushed and stressful feeling of getting their child or children to the sports facility. They also can benefit from a structured schedule while being assured that their children are safe with the implemented safety features.  With little professional competition in the Gainesville area market, the only other alternative is to have friends or family members transport your child to these events. Having spoken to some parents that take advantage of that opportunity, it is not always ideal and can leave them with a feeling of burdening the transporting parent or relative.

The competitors in this market are two small companies that provide transportation for children. One such company has been in business since the mid 1990’s, however not many people know of their existence. Neither of these companies have strong marketing campaigns, this is a weakness for their business. With my vehicles wrapped with my logo and catchy slogan “Let me be part of your village,” it will catch people’s attention and create traffic to my website.       

With Mom-Mobile, the customer is our top priority. We would strive to give parents peace of mind with someone whom both the parent and the child can be comfortable with. We would like our driver to be viewed as an extension of the family. Our prices would be competitive with the other companies, but affordable enough for most to take advantage of.

With employing college age females as drivers, I anticipate incorporating services such as scheduled babysitting and tutoring. Living in Gainesville, a college town, the possible employee pool is in abundance.

In my current 5 year plan, I will have successfully introduced these additional services and would have started a franchise. This is a need, not only in Gainesville, but in cities and towns across the nation.  

Celebrating Failure



I have failed at a lot of things. I fail constantly as a parent, I have failed at being a wife, I have failed in my job, I fail friends...the list can go on and on. I feel that I fail at something almost every day. I have had my own business and I am part of the statistic that small businesses close within 5 years. ME! Right here, this girl....totally failed. But that failure wasn't because my business wasn't good, it was because I more-or-less gave up. Life got hard so I closed it. I shouldn't have done that. It's hard to pick just one failure for this assignment when I have so many.

I have failed assignments this semester. I have not done some. I hate when I don't get assignments completed, I feel like a total failure. It makes me feel like I'm not a good enough student. I feel like I am almost 38 years old, I should have my shit together and sometimes I don't. Sometimes life gets in the way and things are unavoidable. That is when I become really hard on myself, like why can't I work full time, raise a child and go to school, I mean, it's only 1 class, right!?! Oh yeah, and let's throw in a move while we are at it.  Then I have to take a step back and laugh. It's okay, I'll know better for the next time this happens. I will know to read ahead and not let assignments sneak up on me. I'll know...     

Failure is incredibly hard to swallow when you are not expecting to fail. It can be embarrassing. You can go into a situation expecting to fail and it be okay or more acceptable, an easier pill to swallow or you can go into a situation completely unprepared for failure and just be absolutely mortified. I think that the people that find failure to be a complicated emotion are hard on themselves and expect more from themselves than they are capable of at times. I am this way. When I have the hardest time accepting failure is when I am the most hard on myself, but that can also turn into motivation to get it right, or at least better, next time. Sometimes I do not handle it well. Sometimes I get angry and throw things, which is extremely childish. I ultimately use it to better myself though. If nothing else, you realize what doesn't work and either you grow or use it to help others.

I absolutely am more likely to take a risk now than I was 4 months ago. This class has definitely opened my eyes to the possibilities that are around me. I feel that I have learned quite a bit.   

My Unfair Advantage

Business Knowledge: I have owned my own business before. I have knowledge of what it takes to keep it running.

• Value: This is very valuable.
• Rare: This is not rare as many people own their own businesses.
• Inimitable: This knowledge is easily imitated, as many people have it, but no one has the same experience, so this cannot be 100% duplicated.
• Non-substitutable: To me, this is not substitutable. You can take classes to prepare you, but until you have owned a business yourself, you don’t know what it is like.  

Customer Oriented: I am very customer oriented. I want my service to feel like an extenuation of a family experience.

• Value: This is a valuable characteristic.
• Rare: I don’t think that this is rare.
• Inimitable: I do think that this is easily copied.
• Non-substitutable: I do not think that this is easily substitutable.

My employees: My employees will me moms, just like myself. Moms who will take care of these children as if they were their own. Moms who are already providing this service out of the kindness of their hearts and not getting paid.

• Value: This is extremely valuable.
• Rare: This is rare.
• Inimitable: This can be copied.
• Non-substitutable: This could be substituted.

Personality:

• Value: Personality is extremely valuable when providing a service, especially a service involving children. It has been suggested by the people that know me the best, I have the personality to interact with the public.
• Rare: a good personality is not rare, but it is not that common either.
• Inimitable: An individual personality is not something that is easy to imitate.
• Non-substitutable: A good personality is not substitutable, but it can be duplicated. It can be faked.

Cost Conscious:  This would, ideally, be a service that everyone could be able to use, to be affordable.

• Value: This is valuable.
• Rare: This is somewhat rare with this type of service.
• Inimitable: This can be copied, but I don’t know who would be willing to do so.
• Non-substitutable: This is not substitutable.

Parent myself: I have been in the exact situation of the service that I would be offering.

• Value: This is extremely valuable.
• Rare: This is not rare.
• Inimitable: Not easily copied.
• Non-substitutable: Cannot be substituted.

Self-sufficient: I am a pretty independent person. I ask for help when needed, but can do things on my own.

• Value: valuable capability
• Rare: sometimes
• Inimitable: no
• Non-substitutable: not substitutable

Networking: knowing people that can help

• Value: highly valuable
• Rare: not rare in general, but may be rare for my concept
• Inimitable: yes
• Non-substitutable: not substitutable

Low overhead: Can work from home and employees work from home.

• Value: This is extremely valuable from a cost standpoint.
• Rare: I don’t feel that this is necessarily rare
• Inimitable: the idea can be copied
• Non-substitutable: not substitutable

Low Start up Cost: Moms, cars, electronics and insurance 

• Value: This is valuable for the business.
• Rare: This is not rare, as many businesses start small.
• Inimitable: This can be copied.
• Non-substitutable: This cannot be substituted. 

My most valuable resource, by far, would be my employees, my moms. Without them, I would not be able to provide the service that I want to provide. I do not think that I would be able to hire non-moms and get the same work product. That is not to say that all moms are the same and provide the same amount of care. I would have to be selective when hiring, but without moms as employees, the service would not have the same feel.  

Amazon Whisperer

Mom-Mobile

My business idea is a service based business, a transportation system for children to or to/from sporting events that they are involved in. There would be two options to chose from when scheduling a ride for your child, a parent could pay just for a ride to the field/facility or chose the option for a ride to the field/facility and then a ride home after the practice or game. 

Revenue Drivers- As of right now I only have a few revenue drivers beyond the two service options - snack options. Chances are that if you can not get your child to practice or a game on time, you can not get that child/children a snack. We would be offering healthier snacks, drinks (gatorade and water) and a snack/drink combo.

Next Product Offering - I don't know that parents or children would necessarily need any products beyond that. If I had to expand products that I offered, it may be something like sunscreen or equipment rental in case someone forgot their gear. Coaches often have extra equipment for their players to use so I am not sure how beneficial that would be. I could also see something like this growing into a child care service as well. Since the heart of my company is just that moms are being moms, I can see where people may want to see us branching out for child care services as well. However, that would not be a service that would be provided until the company became more established.   

Improvement - I do believe that parents would pay for a mom-like service. As mothers, we can't always be there for our children so we rely on other moms to help out. Sometimes those moms fall through too, so I think that additional services that we could provide, whether it be extra equipment that people could pay to use or keeping sunscreen for our regular customers or having it on hand for people to buy or providing child care down the road, I believe that that type of service would create loyal customers and would enhance the customer experience.   

Product - Unfortunately, there are no products from Amazon that I can look up. I am not providing an "upgradable" product or even a product to sell with my service beyond food and drink. However, I am open to any suggestions that anyone has for a product to offer along with my service. 

Elevator Pitch No.3

Mom-Mobile

Unfortunately, I was unable to record the second elevator pitch to get any feed back, but I did receive feedback on my first pitch. Overall, I got some good feedback. I did not receive any negative or silly feedback. I only had one suggestion and that was to, perhaps, incorporate a price point, but I have yet to come up with a price or how I would structure the options for purchasing the service. That will be done soon. I did use the feedback to add a little about the safety features that I would have, i.e. the webcam and a website to log onto and check on the child's location. Other than that, my pitch is pretty much the same. I am open to any feedback that anyone is willing to give.  

Reading Reflection No.2

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big
Kind of the Story of My Life
By: Scott Adams

1. The general theme of this book, or what I took away from it was to take care of yourself and manage your energy, so that you can focus on different ventures and juggle business, family and personal time. That is okay to try new things and fail. You gain more experience with each failure and that experience may be great for a different venture. You can take what you learn about one aspect of your failed idea/venture and apply it to another concept and so on until you have so much knowledge that you will eventually get something right.

2. I have to say that his "Passion is Bullshit" chapter didn't really go along with what I feel we talk about in class, but it was a funny chapter. Don't do what you are passionate about because you will grow to hate it. He did reiterate that failure is good, failure is okay. It's a learning tool that can lead to bigger and better ventures in the future.  

3. I have a couple of assignments that I might do: 1. I might would have student think back through out their lives and come up with 3 things that they are really good at and then find opportunities involving those things. Those are the things that you will, most likely, succeed at and 2. I might would have students write down affirmations for this class or any class they were taking, post it somewhere they look every day and then at the end of the semester have them report back to see how they affected them or if they helped in any way. .  

4. The biggest thing, for me, was his idea to take care of yourself in all aspects. When I think of being an entrepreneur, I think of working all the time and possibly working yourself to death. I think that because he had struggled with psychological and physical issues, he wanted to drive home that taking care of yourself can be done along with all the other demands of being an entrepreneur. You have to prioritize, manage your time and energy.

Idea Napkin No. 2

Mom-Mobile

The Bigger Picture

For those of you just coming onto my blog, my concept is a car service for children, specifically children who are in afterschool activities such as sports. 

You: I am a mom. A single mother that holds down a full-time job, while going to school and raising a VERY active soon-to-be 9 year old daughter. I have also worked in childcare and have been a preschool teacher. I can now add volleyball coach to my resume, which is what got my wheels turning in the first place. I am pretty good with kids, firm but fair. My aspirations would be to have a reputable service that caters to children ages 6-16. I care about reputation when it comes to my kid and I know that other parents do too, so it is important for me to have a safe, reputable business that serves children. 

What are you offering to customers? I would be offering safe transportation for children to get to or to/from practices. It's a paid car-pool service. I would also be offering part-time jobs to moms who otherwise would be stay-at-home moms. With these jobs, they would be able to take their children with them, they would not have to worry about child care while working.

Who are you offering it to? I am offering it to parents: single parents, very busy parents, parents with odd work hours, parents of multiple children.

Why do they care? They care about their children. They want their children to be active so they sign them up for sports, but they can't always get them to practice on time. Their children have to miss out on practice, maybe because one child is sick and the parent can't get out or maybe both parents have to work late on a day that practice is scheduled. They don't want their child to miss out. 

What are your core competencies? I am a mother of a child who is in this age range, who is also active in spring and fall sports. I have also been employed with the State Attorney's Office for over 10 years so I KNOW what goes on in our world and have a sensitivity to it. I think what I would have that no one else does is extra security measures for that very reason. I would have an alert system, notifying the parent of when the child was picked up and dropped off at practice as well as a webcam in the car so the parent could log on and see that the child was secured in the vehicle. It has also been suggested that I have GPS tracking in place as well, which I will be looking into. The drivers would also go through a Level II background check, have a test drive (or two) and random drug screens. We all want our children to be safe, but can't always be with them. I completely understand that position and want to create a business that people can trust and rely on. 

I believe that these elements do fit together. I believe that I have experience, both as a parent and as a provider. Like some of my feedback has said, this is something that parents already do for free. I agree. I have done it. I have picked up players and coaches and taken them to practice. What about the players that don't have someone close to take them? What about the players that might not know anyone, that are new to town? There are 1,000 "what ifs." There will be parents who would not put their kid in a care to save their life and that is fine, I understand that and appreciate it. My whole idea is based on a concept that is primarily for the children, but also fills a need for the parent.  

Feedback memo:
I only got one comment on my Idea Napkin No. 1. I did not incorporate any feedback into this assignment, as I had none. The commenter believed that I was setting my idea apart from competition in "a possibly saturated market" by it being a shuttle service for sports practices and games. This would be a great comment and something to think about if there were a saturated market. However, it is not. There are only two companies in Gainesville that offer this service, neither of which are highly marketed. It is my belief that not many parents know about these services. My thoughts on my business idea remain the same.