GOOD MORNING.
Whoever is reading this, wherever you are, I hope your day is either already bloody fantastic, or showing signs of improvement. If I can do something to contributing towards that, then my day will be fantastic.
Ready? Alright, let’s go. You’re entering the mind of a rambunctious university student. A little bit organised, a little chaotic, but 100% full of dreams. Hopefully these emails will, make you laugh a little and learn a little. As well as provide enough material to be assessed on. Hopefully…
The task here for this assessment is to answer a list of questions designed on finding an opportunity to pursue. So, let’s go.
Have I identified any opportunities in the past 6 months? (This is a brainstorm of everything I could come up with)
Travel Protection for books
I found that while travelling two hours to and from college the books I had in my bag were getting bent pages, bent covers, scuff marks and the corners were beginning to disintegrate/ get ruined. Now, I like my books in good condition. So, the solution I came up with is book cases for your books. They just slide over your book, then you pull out the book when you want to read it. The only similar product are cheap, plastic sleeves. My book cases would be personalised, handmade from leather or simple spongey fabric or even moulded from carbon fibre and decorated for the customer.
An Accountability App
An accountability service that people can use when they are committed to something. Anything from getting fit, staying on a diet to their careers or family- making a certain number of phone calls or emails a day, spending ‘X’ amount of time with their kids. The App links the partners to the customers via text or call. Each morning or evening the partner can text or call the customer to make sure what they are going to do that day, then check up in the evening to ensure it did happen. The partners get together with the customers, break down their goals and create strategies to reach those goals, then keep them accountable.
- Another idea similar to this is the use of productivity texting, a term I coined myself. For the last year or so, my best friend and I have been sending a text to each other every evening that lists all the things we did that day to move us forward in our lives, be it physically, academically, career wise or in our families. I’m beginning to do so with another of my good friends as well. I’ve got no idea if it could be turned into a product, but it’s just an idea.
Breaking down the corporate ice between big companies and consumers
We live in a world obsessed with speeding up processes and eliminating inefficiencies. One inefficiency that is often eliminated or restricted is customer service- automated emails, crappy call centres, regulated interactions. If companies had some sort of technology or training service that companies can use to train their employees or even the executives on the importance of genuine personal interactions and ingrain the best service possible in them, i think it would go a long way towards making people like them more.
‘The Little Things’
This is an app or email newsletter or technology that sends out texts/ alerts each day with a little piece of wisdom, insight or lesson from a book, website, podcast, video etc with a description of the source with it. Users can customise what sort of content they would like to receive- what subjects or categories they are interested in. The app can have a setting that focuses on GRATITUITY, as I have found through experience and research that once we are truly grateful for what we have, the quality of our lives and mental states skyrockets. The tech can send out a little thing each day to be grateful for or that we can appreciate and relate to- even just something as simple as the feeling of getting into a warm shower after a day being blown around by the icy wind.
Uni Community
An app connecting university students with common interests or who are looking for a specific skill to get together and explore those interests- e.g. musicians, video creators, writers, marketers, producers, athletes, comedians, artists, designers, advertisers, jugglers, sales people, mechanics. Anything.
If a marketer is looking for an artist or comedian or designer for a project- they can go on and search for it. You’ll be able to list your nationality, skills, experience etc. This will allow you to search for a particular type of skill you are looking for. Each person will be able to create a test that a potential match will need to complete to see whether they will be suitable to work with/ to see if they will get along well.
The app will creatively present a portfolio of work for each person so other users can make a judgement whether they are suitable/ worthy. Cafes/ clubs, restaurants/ other businesses can advertise on it, offer discounts, e.g. the ones around Macleay. Businesses/ services aimed at students can be advertised on it as well e.g. Honey (the online discount provider).
This could app could move into STUDENT COMMUNITIES AND EXPERIENCES AS WELL- adventures, beach days, pub or club nights, bushwalks, lunches, football games, movie nights, sport days- things that create new friends and experiences. But this can also be done with Facebook and snapchat and Instagram etc, so it will need to be thought through.
For example I am working on a project outside of college at the moment, and will be needing to create marketing strategies and video content soon. I have no experience in creating videos or editing, it would be much easier to work with another student who has a strong interest and knows all the technical sides to it and who can guide me through rather than learn it all myself.
Another Opportunity that could have something if fleshed out more would be a delivery service that goes around to restaurants/shops at the end of the day, picks up their unused or left-over food or clothes for low prices or free, then goes to designated spots where there are high levels of homeless people and delivers it to them. Or some other function/ model that ultimately provides left over goods that may be thrown out for those who need it. I’m not sure how this one will make money but I’m working on it.
My strong interests and passions
Sunsets and the sky in general
Fitness
Boxing
Running
Personal development and Growth
Family
Meeting and connecting with new people
Cars
Writing
Reading
Listening to podcasts
Learning
My Capabilities
Writing skills
Communication
Open
Humour
Healthy
Easy going
Driven
Creative
Open minded
Good research skills
Play Guitar
Was there any match between Opportunities, interests and Capabilities?
Accountability partner for habits and fitness --> my interest in personal development and fitness --> my health and communication skills
University/ skill sharing community app --> my interest in learning and creating new friends --> my writing, communication and social skills
Is there an opportunity that offers a good chance to build an enterprise? Why?
I’m not really sure if any of them have the possibility to be honest because I haven’t done any form or market research or proper idea sketching, but I think based on intuition either the book protection cover, the accountability app or the Uni Community are the most likely because the possible problems they offer a solution too seem too me at least, to be problems worth fixing. That being said, one of the worst mistakes I could make would be to assume that people have the same problems as me. If the University community app was liked by business and advertisers then it could be monetised, or through some sort of subscription model.
If I can find a way to properly monetise the service that provides services like food or clothes for those in need I think this could be an interesting enterprise to try and pursue, though it needs to be looked at from several angles to figure out whether it can be turned into an actual business OR incorporated into a different business or company- such as providing an online app that maps out the concentration of homeless people across a city that good hearted restaurant owners or clothes people can use to deliver their unused products in return for something e.g. advertising space. I'm not too sure yet. Well, there’s my answers for this week.
Before we go, I wanted to share one thing that’s stuck in my mind from the past week.
Did you know that if you were 5 kilometres down in the ocean, the amount of pressure you would be feeling is equivalent to 17 grown men sitting upon each other’s shoulders, upon your shoulders, with you wearing stilettos. The amount of force on the points of the stilettos is the force you would feel all over your body. Just something interesting I learnt last week from a BBC podcast- The Infinite Monkey Cage, “Oceans: What remains to be discovered?”.
Have a fantastic week and once again, thank you.
I’ll see you for the next part of the portfolio. Until then, keep moving forward.
Misha
P.S. DO NOT try stacking 17 men on your shoulders while wearing stilettos.
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