Assignment 11A: Idea Napkin No. 1

1) My name is Laura Franken, I am an exchange student from Germany and studying Business Administration for one semester at the UF. I am good at listening to peoples’ concerns and problems. This helps me to identify their needs and help them to solve their issues. Further skills are that I am gentle and open-minded towards others. During my apprenticeship as a bank clerk I realized that I am very ambitious and precise regarding the implementation of my aims. I want to make daily life issues easier for people and want to offer them a solution for their needs. This is why I believe that my heated bicycle seat cover is a first solution for satisfying a human need and the first step to start an own business.

2) The heated bicycle seat cover is a product that helps people riding the bike to keep their bottom warm during cold seasons. It is also a way to prevent getting a bladder infection because of a cold bicycle seat. A lot of people in Europe for example in the Netherlands or Germany ride the bike daily, even during the winter. This is an opportunity to meet their need of a warm bike seat.

3) People who are riding the bicycle also during cold season. They often have to ride it because it is the only possibility to get for example to their job or to university. Most of the people save time when riding the bike. Potential customers often live in countries or cities where riding the bike is quite common and a kind of trend. Especially people living in Europe are potential customers, because a lot of people take the bike there. Women are also main target group because they are often afraid of getting ill. Summary of key characteristics:

à People who are riding the bicycle

•          Also ride during cold seasons
•          Have to ride the bike
•          Often students or employees
•          Especially women who are afraid of getting ill
•          Riding the bike is a possibility to save time
•          Countries and cities where riding the bike is common
•          People often don’t have a warm location to park their bike

4) People often have no alternative to get to their job or to university. They take care of their health and want to protect it. There are annoyed by riding the bike on a cold bicycle seat during cold seasons. People will spend money to solve those problems and it will create a high value for them and they will just have to spend a small amount of money.

5) Currently there is no product like this existing. It would be a possibility to be first to enter the market, to exploit the customer’s potential and to generate relatively high profit margins.

I believe that these elements definitely fit together and I will be a good opportunity for starting the first business. The cost of production are quite low when offering a bicycle seat cover consisting of a grain pillow. But there are also still some potentials to improve this idea. For example to produce the cover with other heatable material which has a longer service life or wherefore people won’t need a microwave to heat it up.