11A- Idea Napkin

1) You. Who you are? What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically, regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

My name is Jake Norman, I am currently a senior at the University of Florida. I am an Economics major coupled with a minor in Real Estate. I have a strong passion for professional and collegiate sports, health and fitness, dogs and entrepreneurship. I have aspirations of becoming a serial entrepreneur. All of my life, I have been entertained by the idea of being my own boss and pursuing my own personal entrepreneurship endeavors. I am well versed in a public speaking setting, confident in my ability to sell and passionate about my business and entrepreneurship endeavors. Though my idea is solely a government spending proposal and not a business, I think with enough lobbyist power and money, that the government making college education a priority would bring great returns. I do not see this idea playing a pivotal role in my life, but I believe it is something that should be pushed.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

The product or service being offered is a government subsidy, coming directly from government spending, that will make it more affordable for students to attend college without exercising their right to accept predatory like student loans. This government subsidy would be similar to the structure of “Florida Bright Futures.” This would require students to maintain an exceptional GPA, standardized testing scores, club or student government involvement, high school athletic experience and a clean track record. By incentivizing this to high school freshman, teaching them about student loans and the interest rates that can put them in a financial hole upon graduation, we will see a rise in the overall motivation of these high school students. 

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

This service would be offered to incoming college freshman. I believe that the opportunity for older students to go back to school should be an option offered as well. It is never too late to continue to grow your education, I think making it more affordable to attend college would create an incentive for these people to continue or begin their college education. The demographic and psychographic of our customer is simply any college student looking for financial help, who qualify for our requirements. These qualifying students will be well rounded and be educated on the benefits and harms of student loans and the interest rates that come along with these loans. This will make our service more important and relevant to these people.  

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe it's valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

Since this product/service is not something that can be bought, I cannot explain why customers would be willing to pay money to use this product, but this service will draw the attention of anyone who is planning on paying their way through college, plans to use loans to pay for college, or any overachieving student looking for a discount on their college education. Since student loan debt and the interest rates coupled with these loans are such a relevant and important part of the lives of many recent graduates, this creates this government subsidy valuable to just about any hopeful college student. This is an incredibly relevant and current topic that is affecting the lives of many college graduates, the economy and the business demographic that targets young professionals. The more money these young professionals are spending on their student loans, the less money will be circulated throughout the economy and the less money these professionals will be able to stash away. This puts them at a disadvantage financially, as they are never truly able to “hit the ground running.”

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

Since we are the only product/service of its kind right now, providing this government subsidy would set us apart from everyone else without “core competence.” Since this government subsidy would only be available for qualifying students, our core competencies would be: Academics, Community Involvement, Athletics and You. In our core competencies, “You” is what sets you apart from the many other applicants. As many applicants will be hopeful for this government subsidy, we will focus on what separates one applicant from another based off of what makes you who you are. This will ensure that the applicant and acceptances are all individuals with their own road and their own story.

In addition to these five elements, please spend a paragraph evaluating whether you believe these elements fit together or whether there are aspects of your business concept that are weaker / out-of-joint with the others. 

I believe these 5 elements blend together to create a government subsidy that will create an opportunity for many young students to strive for academic greatness, among many other things. This will create a desire for high school students to have a “complete” resume full of many activities that will help these students prepare themselves for college and the real world. Students maintaining an exceptional GPA will ensure that these students are applying themselves in class settings. Students excelling in standardized testing will teach them proper study habits. The lessons taught by athletics cannot be put into words and being involved in student government and clubs is crucial for some students to find their passions. These values and the importance of these requirements will set Americans up well for the future.