30 A Final Reflection

Some of the highs in this class include discovering more about myself and my best skills that I have while also identifying some things I need to improve such as my tone of voice and deliverability during an elevator pitch. I also had an enjoyable experience while creating my ideal customer avatar that really allowed me to think deeply about who I was going to market my service for. Lastly, the exercise that made us test our hypothesis was very helpful in that it helped identify flaws within my business plan. I most dreaded writing up the big post for my venture concept and also did not like having to do the elevator pitch 3 separate times.

The most formative or enriching experience that I had in this course was during the Growing your Social capital assignment that required students to conduct interviews with the intent of finding meaningful connections that could help the business idea. I was able to meet a restaurant manager in this process that gave me valuable information for starting my venture.

I would definitely consider myself to be more of an entrepreneur now than I was at the start of the semester. I have been through many interviews and self evaluations that have given me a better understanding of how to successfully take risks as well as own and operate a venture.

The best way to have success in this course is to really think outside of the box when developing that first venture concept to ensure that it is applicable for the assignments in the future. I know several kids who had to change their business idea completely because it was not applicable for later assignments. Also, It is essential to do the assignments before the last day because of the early 12pm deadlines in this course.

Venture Concept No.2

The main problem that I identified in previous exercises was the unmet need for delivery food within a stadium during football games and potentially other sporting events. I believe that a large opportunity exists for the huge crowds that American Football attracts. In Major league baseball stadiums, there are roaming vendors constantly offering and selling a plethora of snacks and goodies that fans can purchase from the convenience of their seat. In the NFL, roaming vendors exist to a much lesser extent.  I am trying to target the continuing trend of America prioritizing and valuing convenience. The target audience is people who think to themselves at football games, "oh, I am hungry but just can not bear to wait in line for 20-30 min at halftime for hot dog or mini pizza" To solve this issue, in addition to vendors continuing to operate normally with people queuing up for food during a timeout or halftime break, these vendors should offer an uber eats esque type option where fans can go on a stadium app and have food from the vendor delivered to their seat for a small $2 fee. Another feature of the app would be having the option to order your food in advance for a certain time to avoid the lines. If a football game starts at 4 and ends at 730, then you would have the option to place an order for delivery to your seat before the game and choose for it to be delivered at Halftime or a specific time like 530, when you expect the food lines to be long. This need has always existed but has become more of an ubiquitous issue as of late as people have never been more obese; Ergo, people are lazy and want convenience.

My customer base loves their food, television, and drinking. They do not care how they look or what people think of them and they exhibit passion for the game. The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking. 

I am trying to target the continuing trend of America prioritizing and valuing convenience. The target audience is people who think to themselves at football games, "oh, I am hungry but just can not bear to wait in line for 20-30 min at halftime for hot dog or mini pizza." People care because my service creatives time value and they don't have to miss some of the game to eat. As most fans are over 50, some people may not be physically able to able to keep getting up from their seat.

My value proposition focuses on creating a unique service that will satiate my target audiences needs in the most efficient and effective ways possible to provide a tasty and hasty service. I would have a contract with the NFL that gave my company exclusive rights to provide this service in NFL stadiums during games. I would also have access to all existing employees that are under employment with the stadiums so I would not have to focus on re-hiring, just training. 

Also, the stadium food app will give the chance for customers to build up reward points to earn prizes which will further incentivize fans to order. 

From a Demographic perspective, only 9% of current NFL fans are under the age 18 and NFL fans that attend games mostly come from the United States. However, the NFL has made a valiant effort to go international and let foreign fans from London, England experience games by moving 4-6 games overseas per season. For the most part, The fans in my target market are older than 50 and feel as if they are even older due to the way they mistreat their bodies with excessive eating and drinking. Customers are currently satisfying this need by getting up and standing in line at food vendors with long lines around the arena. This process limits the amount of time fans spend on actually watching the game and can be considered a hassle to keep getting up for fans who are older. Customers are very loyal to depending on standing in line for food during games because people love to eat and there are not any alternatives available. However, as soon as my concept is implemented and marketed well, customers will start to recognize the value my service provides and will eventually make the switch to having their food delivered to their seat for a small fee. I could expand on my idea by providing food delivery services for different sports in different countries depending on the circumstances. Thus, this idea could eventually be used in all arena's that have food vendors. The switching process would be efficient and simple as the app will be heavily advertised in and around arena's to gain brand recognition. A key factor with my food delivery service app is that the goal is to utilize current employees for the delivery jobs that food vendors currently have on staff. My differentiable factor will be organizational and operational efficiency. By utilizing current staff, vendors could avoid a re-hiring process and just directly train staff that are already familiar with the arena. There would be one or two "runners' per section in the stadium so each person has a designated area to deliver to in order to avoid confusion. This opportunity is huge and should be around as long as arena's are getting filled. For now, my idea is focusing on capturing NFL fans but this idea is easily applicable to other sporting events and even concerts.

I did not receive much feedback on my venture concept post but it revolved around ideas of potentially hiring a completely new sales force and the potential to add and expand on this idea in other events besides just football. 

I came up with a change in fees that it would cost to utilize my service. Also, I took the advice of starting out the business by running many promotions to get our name on the map. I also the considered the idea of creating a specialized training program to garner a higher tip rate for employees.