Assignment #24 Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity

The opportunity that I would like to pursue is college students who lose their keys while going out to bars and drinking. The overall “who” in this opportunity is college students, but this can be broken down even further to college students who drink, and even further to college students who drink excessively in crowded places. This has become an opportunity in the last few years because drinking is becoming more normalized and even encouraged. College movies that show students getting wasted at parties and going out to bars leaves the impression that that is what you should do in college. I defined this opportunity to college towns and the students that attend these colleges because that is where you see the most excessive drinking because there are usually bars that sell cheap alcohol to get drunk fast off of. I did not define it by legal drinking age because it is getting easier and easier to get a fake ID. Therefore, it is not only those of legal drinking age that go out to bars and drink excessively.

The reason this opportunity exists is because when college students drink excessively in crowded places, they are less control of their body and end up bumping up against a lot of people. During that time, it is very easy for a key to fall out of a pocket or purse and fall on the ground, never to be found. Those students that repeatedly have this problem currently do one of two things. Option one is try to stash the key in their shoe or another area they think will keep the key secured, or leave the key outside of their home in a secret place. Both options do not guarantee you will have your key at the end of the night and my product does. I found through my research that students are open to trying something new to keep their key on their body. It is typically the last thing they want to worry about while out drinking. From market research I believe that about half of the college students on one campus would buy this product. For the University of Florida’s campus alone this is roughly 20,000 students. The problem is that each student will most likely buy the product only once unless they lose it(while they aren’t out drinking). I think this window will remain open as long as the college party experience stays relevant, and I don’t she that changing any time soon.

Innovation

The product I will be creating will be called the Gotcha. Customers will have an option to pick from a bracelet, anklet, or clip that they will attach their key to and wear with their outfit when they go out to party. The Gotcha will 99% effective at preventing you from losing your keys.  The bracelet and anklet will come in many sizes so that customers can buy one that fits them perfectly. The clip will be offered in two sizes: small at 1 inch in length and a large at 2 inches in length. All of the products will be fastened with a specially designed latch that double locks to ensure that it will not come undone unless done on purpose. You will need to hold the latch down and twist it at the same time for it to come undone. The design of the products will be simple and stylish so that customers will want to add it to their outfit. By having it as a fashion piece we are able to come out with a first edition and add new designs as we go. This may encourage students who have already boughten one to buy another because they like the new design. We will sell the product for $15. At this price students will buy the bracelet because it is cheaper than the alternative of losing your key. These costs are buying multiple Ubers to go back to the bars and search for the key or having to call a locksmith to let you into your home. We are expecting about half of the students on a college campus to purchase this item. At the University this is roughly 25,000 units we would sell. At $15 a piece we are looking at a revenue of $375,000. Each year 13,000 students are admitted, so that is an additional 7,500 units to be sold every year and this is not including the additional units we would sell to preexisting customers. From the market research I have conducted I am expecting that the clip will be our best seller.

Venture Concept

The Gotcha products will solve the opportunity of students losing their keys by keeping the key attached to their body. By doing this this don’t need to worry about the key falling out of their pocket or purse or someone finding their hiding spot and getting into their home. Customers will buy this product because in the long run it saves them a lot of money and aggravation. I also believe that with enough influencers the Gotcha could become a trend on college campuses. I will get students to switch to this product through the influencers and explaining all the benefits that come along with owning a Gotcha. I think the hardest part about getting customers to switch will be finding the right influencers and who impacts the most people. Currently there is no direct competitor that sells a similar product, but companies that sell devices to hide your key in is my closest competitor. Their biggest weakness is that these devices can be well known and easy to detect as key compartments making it easy for someone to notice it and take the key out.

In defining my business concept, the price and distribution will be the most important. I have set the price at $15 because I believe that students are willing to spend at least that much on a normal accessory. I will distribute the products in two ways: first through local stores around the college and second through an online website. The packaging will be simple and list the benefits of the product and be very aesthetically pleasing. The customer support will be very limited until we are able to get our sales up. I do not foresee a lot of customers needing customer support so for the mean time I will handle all customer support myself. I will outsource the production of the product and buy the product in batches that I will store locally and distribute out as needed. I foresee myself being able to run the business by myself at first but once sales increase, I will need to hire one to two people to help with marketing and distributing the product.

Most Important Resource

I believe my top resource is my network. My connections throughout Gainesville as well as the business community as a whole will give me a leg up and is unique to me alone. No one else has my exact network and would not be able to form the same relationship with the people I do have in my network. This is what will set me apart from others and allow me to have a step up against competitors. 

What’s Next

The next step for the venture will be to create a way to keep students from losing their phone and IDs. I believe by pursuing this venture I will learn more about how students lose items while out drinking and could think of a way to prevent them from losing anything while out drinking.

What’s Next For Me

Over the first five years I hope to create a sold base market at the University of Florida and slowly expand to other universities. I will start with other universities in the state of Florida and slowly expand out through connections. In ten years, I hope to have created a steady business that can begin to manage itself and hopefully I will be able to either expand it even further or sell the company and start a new idea. This first venture will give me the experience and knowledge of what it takes to start a new business, so hopefully the creation of my second business will run much smoother.