Assignment 29

Part 1: Original Venture Concept

Opportunity

Need: Someone wants to exercise but is unable or doesn’t want to go to a park or fitness center due to many potential factors (e.g. transportation or personal preference). The product/service I am providing is a home exercise solution: a plyo jump box bundled with common home exercise apparatus. Virtual personal coaching, access to discussion boards, and access to more videos are other potential revenue streams.

Who has the need:

-        Rural citizens that do not have access to a park or fitness center nearby.

-        People who do not have transportation to get to a park or fitness center to exercise.

-        People who otherwise do not go to a park or fitness center for other reasons such as personal preference (e.g. privacy), busy schedule, cost of membership/training sessions, conflict w/work, energy levels, and operating hours. For example, someone’s shift ends at 2am, no gyms open. Person gets most energy at 2am, no gyms open.

-        People who need guidance and structure to exercise but are otherwise motivated to exercise. Do not need physical one-on-one support.

-        People who get overwhelmed by all of the available information on fitness and who need someone reputable to guide them.

Who does not have the need:

-        People who enjoy exercising in a park or fitness center and who are able to.

-        People that need physical one-on-one support.

-        People who are unable to do bodyweight exercises.

-        People who live rurally but commute to a more urban area where there are parks and fitness centers (and they choose to go to those locations).

I’ve noticed that people would prefer to stay at home when doing certain activities such as watching movies. This translates into preferring not to go to the gym to exercise. People also question the benefits to cost of going to a gym since there are other methods for exercising.

There is a trend of people moving to exurbs rather than living directly in an urban area. I’m included in that demographic; I moved from Orlando to a more rural part of Ocala. This means that there are more limited, if any, options to go to a park or fitness center.

My market is defined geographically by infrastructure. More rural environments with limited or no selection of parks and fitness centers or environments where there aren’t many transportation options would be good for my idea. Urban markets would be too competitive with local public gyms, even if there were more potential customers due to population density.

Customers are currently satisfying the need of exercise by either pushing it aside, getting occasional exercise at a park or fitness center, or by doing workouts at home through YouTube and/or with friends. The most loyal of the bunch would be those who are proactive and watch YouTube videos, it has limited cost. You already pay for internet, the only added cost would be equipment.

I think the opportunity is large enough that someone could help a lot of people and make enough profit to sustain the company for several years.

The window of opportunity will be open most likely until the next economic downturn. People won’t be focused on exercising; they’d be distracted with other urgent things. Even then, exercise is a great stress reliever so perhaps it’d have the opposite effect.

Innovation

The innovation would be the bundling, the storage function, and the subscription model for the online resources. The bundling simply provides value by giving people everything they need to get started without having to scavenge through stores for each individual apparatus as they want it. The storage function is most important for those who need to save space, such as those who live in apartments or mobile homes. The online resources are for added value. Virtual personal coaching would be cheaper than physical one-on-one sessions, the discussion board would have certified professionals answer questions and start discussion, and more exercise demonstration videos help better engage the customer.

The plyo jump box bundle would be sold for $99.99. Another revenue stream would be a subscription for virtual personal coaching, access to discussion boards, and access to more videos. There would be different tiers for different levels of access, such as $10/month for one item, $15/month for two, and $20/month for three.

Venture Concept

Customers would switch because the product would allow them to get more exercise in their daily lives by accommodating to their current limitations and personal preferences. The online resources would allow them to get qualified information and guidance for their fitness journey.

Competitors would be other plyo jump box and apparatus manufacturers. Their weaknesses come from their lack of bundling. There is a product available that is similar to mine that is $400, probably because of the novelty of it.

Form function is important because of the storage component of the product. The price point would be important for certain individuals (e.g. busy college students that live off-campus). I’d try to do direct selling online. Customer support in the form of virtual coaching and discussion boards would be integral to adding more value.

I think my business would have 5-10 employees:

-        I focus more on the vision, perspective, and passion. I would work with my team to figure out how to best carry out the business to get towards our vision.

-        Someone to deal with supply chain management.

-        Someone to deal with marketing.

-        I’d have a couple of personal trainers that do the virtual coaching, male and female. They’d also do the exercise videos so that there’s a sense of continuity. The person you’d watch for exercise form would also be the one to guide you if needed!

-        I’d have a couple of people manning the discussion boards. Perhaps personal trainers/physical therapists/kinesiologists in the making.

My secret sauce is my vision, perspective, and passion. I also think that the discussion board would be unique, since many people simply sell home exercise programs and maybe personal guidance but not other ways to engage the customer community.

What’s next for the venture is community events to come together.

What’s next for me is continuing to empower individuals whether through exercise, consulting, mentoring, tutoring, etc.

Part 2: Feedback

I got mainly positive feedback on my first venture concept. I was told to think of something else to add to my secret sauce.

For my What’s Next, people suggested sticking with the existing rural market as selling to an urban market would be a tough sell because of the competition of public gyms.

Part 3: Changes

Bold statements in the venture concept are changes. I added why I wasn’t going to urban markets due to competition. I also added the discussion board as a secret sauce.