Venture Concept No. 2

Indoor Soccer

Opportunity:

• The opportunity I identified was the lack of indoor soccer businesses in the Gainesville area. I found this out while living in the city as a student, so I saw the unmet need through my eyes and I found people with the same unmet need. Geographically, this market does not exist in Gainesville, and demographically, a lot of my potential customers will be young adults, college students due to the overwhelming student population present. 
• Customers are  currently satisfying their need by playing recreational soccer, but this only applies for students at Santa Fe College and at UF since each have their respective programs. They appear to be pretty loyal to this activity because it provides game environments to the students once a week. 
• Another potential group of customers is the group of people that meets up to play Sunday league at the Forest Park. This can be a blend of college students, graduates, and even older people. 
• This opportunity is big because it would be a new addition to the seemingly low quantity of recreational things people can do during the day in Gainesville (or night), and since there are no other businesses of the same type open in the city, the window of opportunity should remain open indefinitely. 

Innovation:

• Since the service I want to provide has not been tried in this location, I believe that my business would be innovative for the city's population. It will be new and exciting to them and it will get a lot of hype and publicity in the time before its grand opening. 
• People will be able to play indoor soccer, a new recreational activity for the population during the day-time and at night as well, whenever they wish to play within the hours of operation. 
• It is innovative because people do not have to depend on the sun outside if they want to play after sunset or dry conditions outside. In Gainesville, it rains a lot and an issue people face is their recreational games getting cancelled and being stuck inside wishing to play. 
• I am providing the rental and use of my indoor fields inside my facilities for the desired amount of play-time. If it is one hour, the price for the rental will be $100, if it is for 90 minutes it will be $140, and for two hours, it will be $160. Customers can reserve the spaces on the internet, over the phone, or in-person. 
• The fields' dimensions accommodate 8 people (4v4) and be a reasonable sized field per person, 10 people (5v5) which will be the optimum size for the quantity, and 12 people (6v6) which is the maximum amount before the space feels cramped. 
• Additionally, customers can buy snacks and beverages before or after their games at the front desk. 

Venture Concept

• For the ability to play at whatever time they wish, under whatever outdoor conditions, people will switch to this new service. It is also not a matter of getting people to switch, since people can play both their recreational league and play indoor soccer games. They do not need to commit to just one since indoor matches can be scheduled at whatever day and time the party wishes. 
• Since there are no other businesses in the same industry in Gainesville, my business would have no competition. 
• The location and pricing would help define my business concept the most, considering it would be located in a college town, and students will make up the majority of the consumers. Its location must be easily accessible for people with and without personal transportation. And the prices must be reasonable since parties tend to split it evenly and cannot discriminate  people based on their income or background. 
• I believe that for this business, there should be only a handful of employees besides myself. There should be trustworthy people present that will be responsible and accountable when showing up to their shifts. The business will not require much maintenance for the employees or heavy lifting during their shifts. Instead they must be attentive to set up games and collect payments from parties and mark down reservations. Ideally the maximum number of employees present should be two people to have things flow smoothly and at optimum effort.

My "secret sauce" will be the fact that I am the sole provider of the services in Gainesville, FL. And if there are threats of new entrants, I will have gained a loyal customer base by the time the rival business opens. 

The next opportunity I would like to tackle is developing a soccer camp for the youth population and provide classes for children while their parents are at work or in other endeavors. 

Within 5 years I would want to have expanded towards another city in Northern Florida, because it is an area that is quite short-handed in the indoor soccer aspect. Within a decade, I wish to have locations set up in the coastal cities such as Jacksonville and Tampa near the original location of Gainesville, FL. 

The first venture will help me set up the standards that my customers will expect of me, and give me the time to modify my advertisement campaign and marketing strategy. 

In my feedback, I was given praise and support for having planned out my venture concept fairly well and because of this, I did not change anything from the first venture concept assignment. However, in the What's Next assignment, I was told that my existing market idea would be more complicated to pull off if I expanded to other regions as mentioned in the secret sauce section. For this reason, further research is required before I could ever wish to expand my operations. Another suggestion is to franchise the other locations, which would lower my risk of owning multiple locations, but still enjoy the additional revenue and have more time on my hands. This would be another option to further explore for the future of my business.

30A – Final Reflection

This course was overall a joy to experience, it was more unorthodox than most in the way it was designed and the tasks in its assignments were fun and gratifying once I completed them. In my opinion, the assignment, 16A - What's your secret sauce, was the most enjoyable because I was able to ask my closest friends what they genuinely thought about me. It was also informative because I had to identify what I thought were my most valuable skills and traits and I also found out other people's opinions of mine. I am most proud of myself for completing all the assignments that required me asking other people about the unmet need that inspired my venture concept because I had to approach strangers and hold lengthy conversations to get enough information to use.

I do not completely see myself as an entrepreneur, but I can at least admit that I have taken the first steps into becoming one. One experience that helped a lot in this process is the reading list assignments. I was able to read books and discuss their content to my peer group about the entrepreneurial skills and tricks I learned about. 

One recommendation I would tell future students of this course is to pick an unmet need that they would enjoy solving. I picked out mine because it was related to a topic I love, soccer, and on top of that, I actually shared the unmet need with a lot of people. It will make the course more personal, and should - in theory - make you more curious and willing to find a solution for it. In this course, you must stay on top of the lectures, read the assignments in advance, do not procrastinate them and try to get work done ahead of time, and lastly, enjoy it as I have.  

27A – Reading Reflection No. 3

Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online

1. The general theme or argument of the book was to teach people how to go from the traditional, interruptive, and outdated "outbound" marketing methods, to the better suited, modern, "inbound" marketing methods. 
2. The book connected and resonated with me because it added more detail to some of the concepts we learned in class about selling your products and services and engaging with people. It was overall, a great supplemental source of information. 
3. After reading this book, the exercise I would come up with is to select a chapter, and discuss which method seemed most influential to you for transition to inbound marketing.
4. What differed most from my expectations was what the book had to say about the methods of engaging people and how we as a society have changed in how we market our products and services to each other. A lot of what I had in mind about marketing was actually considered to be "outbound," and so my perpective on marketing changed significantly after reading this book. 

28A – Your Exit Strategy

For my exit strategy, I would select keeping the business until I am no longer fit to run it, whatever that reason may be. If at that point, I do have the option to pass it down to my children, I will take that option instead.
I have selected this exit strategy because I feel that once I am able to operate my own business, I would like to make it my full-time occupation. I would enjoy being my own boss, and I would want to enjoy it for as long as possible.
My exit strategy has definitely influenced my growth intentions and how I plan to acquire resources.
My business would bring me excitement seeing my business grow larger and larger, with aspirations of expanding to new locations, and even discovering entries to new markets. Additionally, since I plan on being the long-time owner, I aim to handle my dealings personally and build a reliable network with my suppliers and clients so that I can have a loyal customer base that keeps coming back for my services.

26A – Celebrating Failure

This past semester, I have failed quite a few times when it came to preparing for an exam in my other classes, or a cupcake in this course. I would procrastinate my responsibility of watching my lectures and going over the reading material necessary for staying up to date with my classes and in turn, would have a lot of catching up to do in the short period before I took my exams. After the first incident, where I did not score as high as I had hoped, I caught up on my material and stayed on course for a while before ultimately falling behind track again.

From this, I learned that dedication and willpower are critical for meeting your goals. It also helps to be organized and plan out your days in advanced. That way, you can stay on task, and you find yourself resisting distractions more. I personally, get annoyed when I know I put myself in a position where I know I could have done better had I just managed my time better. I use that negative feeling as fuel to improve myself a little bit more so that when the next opportunity comes around, I can be more efficient and wiser with my time.

With regards to this class, I have learned that failure brings more positive results than negative ones. You are able to see how you can improve your design, your ideas, by not succeeding at first try. I can say that I am more likely to take risks now than I was at the start of the semester because even if you fail, you get to learn how to win through that experience.

24A – Venture Concept No. 1

Indoor Soccer

Opportunity:

• The opportunity I identified was the lack of indoor soccer businesses in the Gainesville area. I found this out while living in the city as a student, so I saw the unmet need through my eyes and I found people with the same unmet need. Geographically, this market does not exist in Gainesville, and demographically, a lot of my potential customers will be young adults, college students due to the overwhelming student population present. 
• Customers are  currently satisfying their need by playing recreational soccer, but this only applies for students at Santa Fe College and at UF since each have their respective programs. They appear to be pretty loyal to this activity because it provides game environments to the students once a week. 
• Another potential group of customers is the group of people that meets up to play Sunday league at the Forest Park. This can be a blend of college students, graduates, and even older people. 
• This opportunity is big because it would be a new addition to the seemingly low quantity of recreational things people can do during the day in Gainesville (or night), and since there are no other businesses of the same type open in the city, the window of opportunity should remain open indefinitely. 

Innovation:

• Since the service I want to provide has not been tried in this location, I believe that my business would be innovative for the city's population. It will be new and exciting to them and it will get a lot of hype and publicity in the time before its grand opening. 
• People will be able to play indoor soccer, a new recreational activity for the population during the day-time and at night as well, whenever they wish to play within the hours of operation. 
• It is innovative because people do not have to depend on the sun outside if they want to play after sunset or dry conditions outside. In Gainesville, it rains a lot and an issue people face is their recreational games getting cancelled and being stuck inside wishing to play. 
• I am providing the rental and use of my indoor fields inside my facilities for the desired amount of play-time. If it is one hour, the price for the rental will be $100, if it is for 90 minutes it will be $140, and for two hours, it will be $160. Customers can reserve the spaces on the internet, over the phone, or in-person. 
• The fields' dimensions accommodate 8 people (4v4) and be a reasonable sized field per person, 10 people (5v5) which will be the optimum size for the quantity, and 12 people (6v6) which is the maximum amount before the space feels cramped. 
• Additionally, customers can buy snacks and beverages before or after their games at the front desk. 

Venture Concept

• For the ability to play at whatever time they wish, under whatever outdoor conditions, people will switch to this new service. It is also not a matter of getting people to switch, since people can play both their recreational league and play indoor soccer games. They do not need to commit to just one since indoor matches can be scheduled at whatever day and time the party wishes. 
• Since there are no other businesses in the same industry in Gainesville, my business would have no competition. 
• The location and pricing would help define my business concept the most, considering it would be located in a college town, and students will make up the majority of the consumers. Its location must be easily accessible for people with and without personal transportation. And the prices must be reasonable since parties tend to split it evenly and cannot discriminate  people based on their income or background. 
• I believe that for this business, there should be only a handful of employees besides myself. There should be trustworthy people present that will be responsible and accountable when showing up to their shifts. The business will not require much maintenance for the employees or heavy lifting during their shifts. Instead they must be attentive to set up games and collect payments from parties and mark down reservations. Ideally the maximum number of employees present should be two people to have things flow smoothly and at optimum effort.

My "secret sauce" will be the fact that I am the sole provider of the services in Gainesville, FL. And if there are threats of new entrants, I will have gained a loyal customer base by the time the rival business opens. 

The next opportunity I would like to tackle is developing a soccer camp for the youth population and provide classes for children while their parents are at work or in other endeavors. 

Within 5 years I would want to have expanded towards another city in Northern Florida, because it is an area that is quite short-handed in the indoor soccer aspect. Within a decade, I wish to have locations set up in the coastal cities such as Jacksonville and Tampa near the original location of Gainesville, FL. 

The first venture will help me set up the standards that my customers will expect of me, and give me the time to modify my advertisement campaign and marketing strategy. 

25A – What’s Next?

Existing Market:

• For my existing market, I believe I should expand the services I provide around the north Florida area, as there is a low amount of businesses around the area. The nearest location with existing indoor soccer facilities appears to be Jacksonville, FL. With this information, I could expand more towards Tallahassee, the capital, which is also full of college students around the prototypical age group of late teens to mid twenties. 
• After successfully establishing my business in this city, and receiving a large amount of  popularity and publicity, I would want to start targeting the coastal cities of Jacksonville, and Tampa. These locations have a larger population than the college towns, and provide a new opportunity with the more varying customer age groups. 

New Market:

• Considering that indoor soccer matches are cheap when split per person, I believe that the new market should be providing services that are more expensive for an individual. I could broaden my services by implementing a soccer camp for the youth population in the cities. This would increase the flow of business I receive and provide a service that parents need. 
• Expanding into the soccer camp market allows me to target a younger age group while providing a service to parents that is in need, especially while school is out. During the summer, if no one is able to watch their children, parents could register their kids for my summer program. They will be looked after while the parents are at work and it will also be education and fun for the kids to participate in.