Opportunity
I have identified an opportunity to bring affordable and healthy food to those who have the most need for it, busy young adults. More specifically, my business is meeting the unmet needs of college students in the local area of Gainesville. Focusing on one's health is such a big trend in today’s society. Juice cleanses, subscriptions to specified meal plans, and other health food trends are extremely popular ways to maintain ones health and manage weight. However, these plans all have one thing in common, their price. The price to be thin and healthy in today’s society tends to be on the high side. This high price makes these forms of healthy eating inaccessible to most college students who are on a tight budget. My target demographic is young adults, specifically college students, who do not have a lot of time or means to eat well. This demographic usually opts for quick options rather than healthy options, so I have begun to formulate a business concept to account for these unmet needs. I have determined, through a series of interviews, that my target demographic would be more than willing to use my service. The demographics loyalty to their current fixes is not so strong that they would not be willing to try my service at least once. My window of opportunity for this business does not appear to have a set time frame; people will always want quick, healthy, and affordable meals. The location of this business would begin in Gainesville solely, but this could change in the future according to the success of the business and the overall desire of potential clients.
Innovation
My service would provide an extremely inexpensive and fast delivery of healthy/home cooked snacks and meals. Although this sounds like some services already provided in Gainesville, I have constructed this business to meet my personal unmet needs as well as the unmet needs of the people I have interviewed. Customers would pay money for my service because for the most part they have a desire to eat healthy and get food quickly, but they also have constraints like money, transportation, and time. My service would accommodate these needs leaving no reason not to utilize it. We would have a menu that includes snacks, drinks, full meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner between outlined hours), and healthy desserts. The snacks and drinks would include things like smoothies, juices, flavor infused waters, cut up fruits and veggies, healthy chips (i.e. kale chips, sweet potato chips, yucca chips), trail mixes and various yogurts. The meals would include a core set of meals along with a rotating specials menu to mix things up for repeat customers. The meal and dessert menu would also include items that accommodate certain food restrictions like lactose and gluten intolerance, vegetarian options, and vegan options. Although there are delivery services in place in Gainesville, what sets me apart is my variety of quality, healthy food options, as well as the quick and inexpensive delivery. One thing I have that nobody else has is the lack of a price minimum for deliveries. This is something I have personally run into when ordering from delivery services; why can't I simply order a yogurt and a drink without purchasing and entire meal? The main focus for this business is providing inexpensive healthy options. The prices of snacks, drinks, and desserts would all be under five dollars and the prices of meals would be under ten dollars. One might look at this and say sure this is possible if the portions are small, but our meals and snacks would be adjusted to meet the recommended serving sizes. Another important aspect of my business concept is the focus on employing college-aged students with the inclusion of flexible work hours. In reading the feedback I received on my first idea napkin, I have found a few common comments and found ways to clarify my concept in my responses above. The common comments include: "a service like this already exists in Gainesville", "this seems like it would be expensive", and "people do not eat healthy due to its cost". All of these are valid points. Delivery services like this do exist, but they tend to have slower delivery times, be expensive, and unhealthy. I have not found one that doesn't have a minimum amount for deliveries which is another constraint for my target audience. Honestly, all of these points only further prove my business concept. I have constructed my business plan to account for the reasons why people do not necessarily eat healthy now, and the solution is in fact my service.
Venture Concept
- Reasons customers would utilize my service:
- Young adults have an overall desire to eat well
- College students tend to be on a tight food budget
- Some young adults do not have access to cars or forms of transportation
- Competitors
- The various delivery services in Gainesville (i.e. Gainesville 2 go, 352 delivery, 2 dollar delivery, and Jimmy Johns)
- The competitors supply a similar service to mine, but their services are not meeting all the needs of the target demographic. This is where my business venture comes into play.
- The role of packaging, price, locations, etc.
- packaging definitely plays a big role because people love things that look cool, and logos and packaging that make artsy instagrams and photographs in general. This is a big part of marketing to my target demographic
- price is a big part of my business so this plays a rather large role in my concept and the unmet need of my target demographic
- thus far my location would be less important because it is meant mainly as a delivery service. However, this could change to adapt to the ever-changing needs of my clientele base.
- Businesses ability to adapt to changing needs:
- this is an important aspect of my business concept because I need to be able to accommodate new food based needs such as intolerances and diet trends.
- I would also need my business to have the ability to change location wise based on number of employees and orders each day.
Feedback
In reading through the comments on my first venture concept I noted how people really seemed to like my idea and they made a point of noting how the competition for this market is slim to none. Although this was nice to hear it did not lend much in terms of constructive criticism. However, some feedback I received through other posts helped me anticipate and acknowledge, in my venture concept, questions people may have had about the feasibility of my business as a whole. I completely get where these comments came from because if produce and eating well was this simple wouldn't everyone already be doing it already? This question was the most common by far, and I made sure to address it through out my updated venture concept (See "Innovation").
