Idea Napkin No. 1

1. Me: I'm James Donigan and I'm a freshman with a finance major. My talents include playing soccer and golf with interests in fishing as well as college football recruiting. I'm a very hard worker with excellent leadership and communication skills. These have led to valuable experiences such as being on the philanthropy committee and assistant treasurer for my fraternity. I've always loved entrepreneurship which drove me to take this class as well as thinking of a practical business. For the business I created, I think it could really take off and it would become a big part of my life as I believe in its success. If not that idea, any idea I would do, I would go all the way with it and put all my effort and energy into it.

2.  What I'm offering: Because people have always been complaining about the lack of outlets in libraries in general, I thought I should come up with an idea to fix that. For my company, it is actually both a product and service. First I would develop a transportable outlet that would be powered by the light through the windows and lights overhead. Secondly, I would develop an app that would identify which outlets were used and weren't used on a map. I think this two-step company will solve people's problems.

3.  Who I'm offering to: As I'm targeting my company to first college campuses, I have to sell to the school and the students. For my product, I will be selling these portable, light powered outlets to the school so they can put them in the library. For my service and phone app, I will sell these to the students who want it on their phone. This will be my first step and as I grow, I will expand into maybe possible businesses who want my product and service. 

4.  Why they care: People will definitely pay for my product and service due to their need. My product I'll sell will definitely be sellable to schools and businesses because it will attract people into their spaces making them smarter if they're at their school or business longer and work more efficiently. My service will definitely be able to attract and sell to the students because students will want to know where outlets are and if they need to walk to the library or not. Students love apps if it makes their life easier and mine will do just that.

5.  My core competencies: I'm definitely set apart from other companies because I believe neither of these ideas have been brought to the market so I'll be alone in that category. I'm hitting a specific population that has a dire need which will bring success. Also because it's a product and service company, I'm very flexible if one idea fails and the other succeeds. Thus, I'm not solely reliant on one specific thing.

I believe that all of these elements fit together to help bring success to my business as their is a definite outlet shortage. Although, like most businesses, there are weaknesses. I think my product will be the one place that might not be as successful because I think it's going to be very hard to pitch to schools why they need these portable outlets. I think in businesses, they'll like it because they will benefit from better workers and attract more money, but for schools, they don't really have any incentives in giving students more battery power. I think the service will be very easy to market and sell as apps are the hottest thing going right now especially if it is specific like mine.