- Who am I? I have been exposed to home watch because my father does home watching for some customers and has a friend who also does home watch. My father has made a home watch software to save his friend some time, and now he is trying to sell the software to home watchers but he does not know how to advertise and distribute it. This is where I come in. I am a business student at UF. When I was in China this past summer, I did an internship for an education technology (edtech) startup called TCK EdTech and was made aware of the potential of the software market while I was working there. I aspire to distribute the software my father is making by networking with local home watching businesses.
- What am I offering? Users will pay a monthly subscription of $55 for access to a software on computer or an app for smartphones that will expatiate the home watch reporting process. They will be able to choose from our ever-expanding database of preformatted checklists or make checklists of their own, write notes, and upload pictures and create invoice. Users will have access to location distracting filters for their customers. They can transform their checklist, pictures, and notes into a professionally formatted email with their company logo and next visit date. The software will save all checklists, notes, and pictures in a low-data-usage archive on the local computer.
- The audience: I am offering this service initially to home watchers in the Naples, Florida region who have between 10-50 customers, preferably during summer. This will spread to other areas that have a large population of snow birds such as New York and California as these are the areas where home watchers thrive. Generally the home watchers with wealthier clients will be more likely to use the software because of the desire of those wealthier clients to receive professional, detail-oriented reporting.
- Why do they care? Home watchers will pay because they want to appear professional and detail-oriented so that they will get and retain home watch clients. The software will save home watchers time- it is central platform of data entry to prevent double entry when it comes to note writing, emailing, invoicing, and taxes. Double entry is one of the largest time sinks for home watchers. They will be able to spend this time doing more home watch and in turn will earn more money.
- My Competencies: I have experience running a startup company in China and know how to perform rapid product prototyping and integration of feedback. This means that if customers have any feedback regarding the services they want added to the program, the changes can be implemented in the next update. The program is constantly evolving so that home watchers can stay on the competitive edge in regards to home watch software. They also will have access to a help/service line which will help customers to set up the software for their business.
Although I don't have much experience making the software itself, I do know about the home watch market in Naples, Florida because I was born and raised there and it was made evident to me from my father's work and his network. The service is being offered home watch businesses in Naples because there are many snowbirds and thus a majority of the home watchers there have between 10-50 clients.
In order to be efficient with this number of clients, home watchers use home watch reporting software. Since home watchers are catering usually to a wealthier demographic the software be marketed as a professional, clean, and detail-oriented reporting brand as that is what the majority of wealthier clients positively respond to. Home watchers' use this software in place of the competitors because of the focus on constant innovation and improvement of the software as well as focus on customer service.
This selling point may not be unique enough for people to want to buy this software over the others available.
Reflection
I received no feedback but upon reading over the idea napkin over, I realized I had made some spelling errors which I corrected. Otherwise I did not adjust the idea napkin. I will be creating bug lists and looking for other marketing or and regulatory trends to try and find a new business idea in the coming weeks.
I think your business idea makes a lot of sense and there is obviously a market for it in Naples, would you implement this all over Florida or the US? I also think sense you grew up around this you are very knowledgeable in this idea and how to make it great and market it to the community. Since you kind of mentioned there may not be enough people that will want to buy this software I think you’ll have to market it and make it something that they NEED to buy.
ReplyDeleteI can tell your “passion” for this home watch project really fell off a cliff (or maybe it was never there to begin with?). The market isn’t really there in the way you would want it to be, people who are in it already have solutions in place. I think creating more bug lists and looking for more opportunities at this stage of the class is quite bold – and shows a commitment to furthering yourself. You could absolutely play out this last 10 or so assignments halfheartedly working on a project you don’t care about, and instead you are at least exploring the possibility of making a change, and that’s admirable.
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