Venture Concept No. 2

The Three Major Elements:       

Opportunity   

          College students have an under-met need for a place to study during the middle of the night.  This generation has an obsessive need and want to get ahead in life by working every chance they get at any hour they can.  Unfortunately, no one has recognized this need and therefore, these consumers don’t have a proper place to get work done in the middle of the night.  Currently, students have the option to work at home, which can be interrupted by roommates, family, neighbors, or simply the convenient location of both their bed and their TV/tablet.  Another option is to work at their school library (assuming their campus has a 24 hour library).  Unfortunately, the library doesn’t solve the issues most college students face, simply because there location isn’t ideal, more and more students take courses online, and most libraries require you to have a student ID when going to the library during the night.  I believe college students are the main demographic experiencing this unmet need.  However, the number of people who are attempting to create there own start-up companies is also growing which would provide a second demographic experiencing this unmet need.  Geographically, this need is located all over the country, but I believe the need is more concentrated in larger cities (both in population and land).  I think this opportunity is huge and shouldn’t go unmet.  The window of opportunity will exist, but not for long.  If enough people start to recognize the opportunity, the window will close.

Innovation

            I would like to create a coffee shop that is open all night long.  The coffee shop would create a place for people to work at night and properly fuel their bodies while running on few hours of sleep.  It works by creating an atmosphere where people can buckle down and work diligently for several uninterrupted hours.  Customers would have access to free Wi-Fi, and enough outlets to charge their many devices.  The coffee shop will offer not only coffee and other caffeinated beverages, but also healthy snacks and a small variety of meals.  Revenue drivers for my innovation would be the different beverages and foods, as well as a time based fee for customers to use a sleep pod.  The sleep pods would have a flat rate for each increment of time listed.  The purpose of the sleep pod is to refresh the customers when they’re feeling tired.  The rate for the sleep pods may be high at first in order to pay them off, but over time if people enjoy the service, then the prices may be lowered in order to encourage more users and then raised again when demand is high.  Another revenue driver would be the different office supplies that I would offer near the cash register.  Items like chargers, pens/pencils, paper, portable chargers, etc.  The only requirement of my service is that every customer must buy at least one item in order to use the free Wi-Fi or the coffee shop in general.

Venture Concept

            I think students who are dedicated to their work and driven to work hard in order to get ahead in life would be willing to switch to using my service and buying my products.  I don’t think it’ll be hard to get people to switch to my service.   Especially if I can market my service to the right audience, I think it could become a popular place for college students to work.  It’s just a matter of making the coffee shop semi-trendy so people will want to come.  A common concern for my venture, is attracting people to consume caffeine in the middle of the night.  However, there are a lot of people who prefer working at night due to the many distractions daytime brings.  Also, some people have no other options but to pull all-nighters to get there work completed.  I don't think serving caffeine will be an issue for the demographic I am targeting.  The competitors for my service would be college libraries and other coffee shops.  Luckily, most coffee shops close by 10 or 11 pm, therefore, they’d only be competition when our hours of operation overlap, or if a time comes when they too are open all night long.  College libraries have very specific hours and are closed for holiday breaks that coincide with the school.  Also, college libraries involve going to and parking on a college campus (as we all know, this can be a real pain).  College libraries only welcome students with an ID to that school to enter at night.  In creating my coffee shop, I would focus on the atmosphere first and foremost. I want my customers to feel comfortable and relaxed in the coffee shop in order to optimize their work time.  Because I would be open during the middle of the night, I would plan on only have a two workers on at the same time (at least in the beginning until business picks up).  I would have one person working in the front at the cash register and coffee bar and the other employee would be working in the kitchen and/or helping in the front depending on what is needed by the customers.

The Three Minor Elements:

1.     The most important resource for my venture would be customer service.  I want the focus of my business to be solely on the customers.  I want to build a strong relationship with customers to create loyalty.  I want every customer to feel unique and visible.  I don’t want the customers to find any reason not to come back or feel unwelcomed at my business.

2.     I think the next move for my business would be to create our own line of technology accessories.  The first product would be an adjustable tablet holder that attaches to tables, chairs, beds, and more.

3.     In five years, I want my business to be popular and appreciated.  I would like to begin franchising my business and open coffee shops all over the country.  In the next decade, I’d like to be running my business from afar.  I want to know what is happening with my coffee shops, but ultimately I don’t want to be super involved with the business. In the next decade, I’d like to be pursuing my next venture as an entrepreneur.  My first venture would provide me the necessary learning and experience I would need in order to continue my path as an entrepreneur. 


      Feedback

      A lot of the feedback I received was positive due to the people in this class relating to my demographic.  I definitely expected the people in this class to relate to my venture, however the same people posed a few concerns.  I received concern that people won't want to consume caffeine in the middle of the night.


      In my venture, I addressed the concern for caffeine consumption in the middle of the night.  The people I am targeting want to be awake during the middle of the night.  And even though I am providing caffeine in my coffee shop, I also am planning on including healthy snacks that will help naturally energize people without the need for caffeine.  People have a choice whether to consume caffeine or not.  The purpose of my shop is to provide a place to work in the middle of the night when most businesses are closed.