Refined Concept

ENT: 3003 – Venture Concept Update

Dan Parisoe, UF Student

The updated area’s based on feedback or contained below in underlined text.

Opportunity:

The opportunity consists of both unmet and under met needs in two distinct categories. 

The first category consists of the Generation X or Gen X demographic.  The individuals whom fall into this demographic are fairly set in their ways, and most of them are looking into the not so distant future for their impending separation from the work-force. The vacuum of under used financial planning in the demographic was most likely created from the baby-boomer’s failure to adequately plan.  The window of opportunity will be available for the next ten years at least.

 The next category for opportunity is the Generation Y or millennial demographic.  The window for opportunity will exist for quite some time in the future.  The mass exodus of the baby-boomers will create a lot of employment opportunities for this category, which will lead to a stable customer base.  Furthermore, the millennials are not as versed in the different investment or cost saving opportunities available.  However, unlike the previous generations, the millennials are planning for their retirement at a much younger age. 

Innovation:

I have decided to operate a service as part of my concept.  My service will consist of financial advice.  I will provide sound financial advice for my customers to help them with their day to day expenses or future planning. For instance, I would provide feedback to a millennial on whether their purchase of a house would be beneficial to their current financial outlook.  Or if they should invest in their company’s 401k or Roth 401k at a low, moderate, or elevated risk.

My concept will consist of three different price points.  The fee charged would be monthly and it would be sold as a membership expense.  Each price point is tailored to a specific amount of asset allocation or need.  That is, if you are a newly graduated college student who likely has very little in the way of investments or assets the fee would be $50 a month.  For the lowest tiered fee, you would receive access to advice through email or chat and a quarterly phone call to discuss any changes. 

The proceeding price points would add more service, and the fees would be $150 and $250 a month.  The larger membership fees would include personalized quarterly reports and face to face meetings.  As well as, impromptu phone calls for questions about purchases or investments and so on.

Venture Concept:

We are a society of the “now”; we want everything now and we don’t mind paying an incremental amount to obtain something.  The general idea is that we purchase a feeling, or piece of mind as some may call it.  You could think of it like a credit monitoring system.  That is, we buy credit monitoring to make sure that someone else does not run amuck of our credit.  Our society also is averse from accepting blame for shortcomings.  In other words, for only $50 a month you purchase piece of mind knowing that your financial decisions are being vetted by not only you.  That way in the event things go awry you can transfer blame.   

Our competitors consist of financial institutions and investment firms.  Of course, commercial banks may not be offering the greatest returns for your hard-earned dollars.  Investment firms can be rather costly to the person that uses them, since they typically charge a percentage of the amount of the funds.  For instance, if you had $100,000 and were being charged 2%, you would pay $2000 a year for their fund management. 

The price points for our service have a vital role in our concept.  Over the past several years society has become more inclined to ask questions about fees, especially since financial institutions have been under intense scrutiny.  The firm would be operated by a sole owner, who would be responsible for all the business decisions.

The original idea contained three price points of $50, $150, or $250 a month based on overall asset management.  However, after feedback from several individuals I have decided to mass market the concept of the $50 a month fee.  But for the management of larger asset accounts instead of paying monthly, an annual fee would be charged based on the individual service required.  In other words, if you do not need much assistance you would be able to purchase the monthly membership, but for a more specific tailor of your assets a reasonable fee would be mutually developed.

The Three Minor Elements:

One: After I conducted a VRIN analysis I learned that the company values were our most valuable resource.  At the forefront of our values is honesty and integrity.  I have 16 years of experience making decisions based on honesty and integrity in service of the public. 

Two: I will target a different market for growth within my venture.  The market segment that I choose to target next will be the millennial.  There are numerous millennials that are making the jump from college to career.  I have spoken with several people in this demographic and they would have liked help in discussing decisions that obtain a financial aspect.  I received feedback from my personal financial advisor on this concept.  His suggestion for a growth market was to target the baby boomer generation.  Over the next ten years they will fill the largest market segment in this state, according to him.  The information that he provided suggested that they will no longer need help saving for retirement, because they are retired.  However, a large majority of them will not know how to live on their retirement income and will need guidance so they can sustain their accounts until they are no longer needed.  I also received feedback from a high school friend who owns a rather profitable business.  He also suggested targeting the same generational market, and he provided marketing ideas in order to drum up membership sales.    

Three:  In the next five years, I would like to have grown my business enough to obtain a sustainable median income.  After ten years, I would like to be able to sell the business and existing goodwill for a sizeable nest egg.  The concept will help me carry-on with the ability to provide service to the public even after retirement.