Assignment 11- Idea Napkin No. 1

Idea Napkin No. 1



1. Me

a. I am currently an Undergraduate student at the University of Florida on the pre-legal track pursuing my bachelor’s degree in Finance. Outside of the classroom I am involved in a group called the Florida Cicerones, which is directly involved with the alumni association on campus as well as gives tours to prospective UF students. This has increased my confidence as a public speaker, as well as increased my public speaking skills overall. As a finance major, I understand how investing money and putting aside money works, which is a skill that many people lack that will ultimately help with my business. My talents are my ability to connect and have conversations with stranger as well as my creativity. I aspire help the University of Florida become as efficient as it can be. I see this business as being something I could potentially focus my law career around, I would be able to do contracting in regard to finances and ownership of the software myself.



2. What I am offering to consumers?

a. I will be offering an app that has a map of the tables/seats in Library West and will allows students to self-check in at the library turning occupied seats red on the app and leaving available seats green so that students don’t have to waste time walking around the library searching for seats and will know ahead of time where empty seats are.



3. Who I am offering the service to?

a. My app is a little trickier than your average product to explain. I will be selling the software itself to the actual university library which will be paid for through the library’s technology funds (which they are granted each school year). However, my use will be undergraduate students “on campus” at the University of Florida. Ideally the user will live in a close range to campus so that they actually utilize the library. The age group of this consumer is roughly between 18-23 years old (including a few outliers). Because college students don’t have much discretionary income, I chose for it to be free for download since the library is paying for the software so that students could actually afford to use it. The one commonality between all of my consumers is they are students on campus who take their time very seriously and want to use it as wisely as they can.



4. Why do they care?

a. My consumers care because as I mentioned, their time is of the utmost importance to them. If a FREE app is able to alleviate their issue, I believe they will take advantage of it. The app is of value to them because it is literally creating more free time in their day by helping them to stop wasting their time. I don’t know about other students here, but personally I’d rather have 20 extra minutes at night to relax than to spend those 20 minutes on the hunt for a seat in Library West.



5. What are my core competencies?

a. There is one thing that sets me apart from a lot of business owners in that I am only 19 years old, so I feel as though students would be able to relate to me more than they would a 50-year-old business owner which gives me a slight advantage on customer loyalty. Other than that, I am not sure there is much that would set me apart from anyone else in terms of the software that I would be creating.



Evaluation



I think that these elements are able to fit nicely together. Being in Gainesville will allow me to connect with users and take advantage of the assistance that I could get from fellow students in regard to my business. There is one aspect I am a bit iffy about which is getting the library to use funds to buy into the software/ how much to charge for the software. I plan to have several back up plans in the case that Library West is uninterested such as selling it for a small price to students and creating an incentive to make them want to buy, or try marketing it to a smaller private university facing the same issues. Other than that, from the interviews I have conducted prior to this assignment it is evident that more than a few students have this need and I believe my app would be a success.