11A

Assignment 11A

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?

I am a young entrepreneur. When I was in high school I created a company called “Tub Explosions” to market and sell bath bombs. While I am creative, I would need a technical person with an electrical engineering background to bring my idea to fruition and a patent attorney to file for a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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

I would be offering customers a stackable washer and dryer with the washer automatically opening and dumping the wet clothing into the drying, which would automatically start. While there currently are many stackable washers and dryers, to my knowledge, there are none which automatically cycle from one to the other. While there is an all in one washer/dryer, it take 4 hours from start to finish, which is far too much time.

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?

I’d be offering this product to anyone who needs a new washer and dryer and does not want to waste time moving clothes from the washer to the dryer.

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

Customers will be able to insert their dirty laundry into the washer machine and then not have to touch it again until they take it out of the dryer to fold it.

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

I am an entrepreneur with an overall idea of a product needed by the marketplace. However, I would need the technical support of an electrical engineer to design the product and a patent attorney to assist me in patenting it.

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 that my idea is sound and that there would be a market for these types of machines. However, without the technical background I am unsure if my idea is feasible. Additionally, unless the concept, once patented, is sold to a company already in the washer/dryer business, the production costs might be prohibitive.