The Five Important Elements of my Business Concept:
1) Me: I'm a freshman at the University of Florida who loves to dance and work hard. I have always had an interest in business, ever since I joined the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) organization in high school. I did competitions and actually got to go to Nationals last year after winning first place in Business Presentation. This very thing got me into the idea of business, and increased my love for communicating with others. My aspiration regarding my business concept is to have it really take flight. It's one thing to come up with an idea but another to make it a reality- and I want to make mine a reality. This business would play a huge role in my life; in fact, I would dedicate all of my life to it.
2) What I'm offering to customers: I'm offering my customers a reliable, cheap, and personalized product that they will love. My patches of material would be so high in quality and durability that they would not tear. I would make this possible by increasing the thread count and making the material twice as thick. We would also perform personalized orders for customers who need a different type of material/ if they needed it to be for a specific type of dance floor (e.g. wood floors vs. spring floors).
3) Who I'm offering my product to: I'm offering my product to anyone who dances and therefore uses dance shoes. A large part of my target market is also dance moms and dads, the people who go out and buy their child the supply he/she needs for dance. I am closing out a large group of my market (those who don't dance), but the product truly just doesn't appeal to them in anyway. People who don't dance don't really understand the product.
4) Why they care: My customers care because they care for their sport, dance. Us dancers know how hard it is to keep buying new shoes, especially since they cost SO much money. Having my easy solution is a game changer for dancers everywhere. People will buy my product because they will know just how reliable it is.
5) My core competencies: Although a lot of popular dance websites exist, there is no other company doing what I am doing. There are patches on some dance websites, but they are only for attaching to your existing shoe to make it the best fit for the type of floor you use. My patches would be designed specifically for holes and also to fit the floor; not to mention that they will be so durable that intense customer loyalty will exist right away.
Does it all fit together? I think that all of the pieces of my puzzle fit well together, but there are some discrepancies in my idea. Even with much thought, I really don't know what kind of super durable glue with be used on my patches. The glue must be very strong but still flexible. Maybe I could get some people to work in a lab to figure out the composition for the ideal glue. Besides this part of my business concept, the rest of plan pieces together perfectly. I am aware of my market, and I know from experience how horrible it is to spend too much money on dance shoes.
Feedback Memo: My feedback was very polite and nice to read; people had said that I had one of the most organized blogposts that they've read this far. Yet, something that stood out to me would be the fact that neither of my commenters had danced/ knew anything about dance. It was weird to read because even though they didn't know anything about dance they still approved of my idea. But this got me thinking... my product only appeals to a slim amount of people. That's why in this post, I majorly changed around my "Who I'm offering to" section. I added in there how my market is smaller than I would like it, but that there is still a lot of potential. Even though I discovered this from my comments, I still think that my business concept has the ability to grow exponentially. Other than that, my commenters didn't give me constructive criticism in my feedback.
Hi Cassidy,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great business idea, although I am not very familiar with dancer shoes (like many other students as you mentioned). However, I can see how dancers would revert to your product for the reliability and quality. I personally do yoga, and one of the important aspects for me is the quality of the mat I'm using. If you aren't familiar, the mat truly makes all the difference. Some yoga studios have great house mats (for people to borrow), some just so-so. The difference is how slippery the mat is once you begin to sweat and the material of it. I think it would be neat if you could potentialy partner with dance studios to bring your product in a market where it would be recognized and grow exponentially. As I mentioned, I'm not familiar with this sport and whether or not having your own shoes starting out is mandatory haha, so this may not be of help at all. Overall, I enjoyed your post and agree that it was very organized :)
Hi, thank you so much for sharing these ideas. I think all of your points blend together nicely, and they will come in super handy when creating your business. And this is a great idea, especially in our society that hinders creativity and the arts. This will really help encourage people to get out of their homes and go embrace some culture. Perhaps even making an app for this would be a good addition to your ideas. This is a great idea and if you are interested in checking out my idea napkin, the link is http://kyrstind.blogspot.com/2016/03/idea-napkin-no-2.html. Thank you so much for sharing and I wish you the best of luck.
ReplyDeleteHi Cassidy
ReplyDeleteI danced for many years so I know exactly what you are talking about. I know the prices for not only the shoes, but the laces, ribbons, etc. Would you have one type of patch or different kinds of patches depending on the placement of the patch on the shoe, or depending on the kind of shoe? I had a thought which you may chose to use to not, but what if you include in your set of patches for dancing shoes, may one for tights? Its just a thought since I remember that tights ripping were always a problem.
here is my blog: http://2016entrepreneurs.blogspot.com
Hi Cassidy, if you are worried about appealing to a certain group of consumers you could consider expanding this idea to include consumers who would like to use these patches on their regular shoes, I think we all have owned a pair of shoes that we loved but had to get rid of because of wear and tear. Thank you for sharing your idea, I’ve included a link to my blog in case you wanted to check out my Idea Napkin #2 blog post: http://js-uf-ent3003-2016.blogspot.com/2016/03/idea-napkin-no-2.html
ReplyDelete