28-A Your Exit Strategy

28-A Your Exit Strategy

WOOHOOO it is exit strategy time. I plan on selling my business in less than 5 years, at a loss most likely.  In fact the sooner sold the better for me.  I selected this option because I did not enjoy my business.  I thought there was going to be good money in it, that it would be easy to sell my plans.  I found that being outside gave me skin cancer.  I found that the smell of paint is awful and stays with you all day, every day. I found that dealing with owners of parking lots, who did not care one wit about the customer that pulled into their parking lot, was no picnic and I are impervious to a good sales pitch.  

Because I was unhappy in my business, I found it hard to recognize opportunity.  It took one of my interviewees to give me the idea to find other business opportunities of painting on concrete.  I was unable to think past my parking lot issue.  I think because it was so hard to sell businesses on the idea, I felt that I was a failure at selling and thus, I would not be able to sell anything else.   I do also have to say this exercise made me think long and hard about a future, real life, business venture my husband and I were looking to take on in about 10 years.  I fear, that doing what we planned to do, would make us hate as a business what we love so much right now as a hobby.  I knew it was hard to be an entrepreneur, and now I realize it can make you hate what you love, because it is so hard to do.

26-A Celebrating Failure

26-A Celebrating Failure

Where I have failed a lot in the last two semesters is reading.  I love to read, but it turns out I do not appreciate reading non-fiction, informational overload books.  In the spring I had three classes that all required reading a textbook.  I would sit down daily and try to read, but would fall asleep every time.  I do work 40-45 hours per week in retail in a position that requires a lot of labor.  But I can read books I am interested in with no problem of ever thinking of tiredness or sleepiness.  I enjoyed the first book this semester of Steve Jobs. I had always wanted to read about him, so I got through that book easily.  But the other two books for this class, I read the first chapter and it took so many tries to get through because I was falling asleep I simply gave up.  I am so grateful there was no textbook to read for this class because I know I would have failed at that too.  

I have not really learned anything from it, other than realizing that I have an issue.  I mean, I have learned it is costly for my grades when I do not score well on tests because of not reading the textbooks.  

In my reflection of this failure, it makes me feel like I am inadequate.  I handle failure very poorly.  I blame myself and call myself stupid, or ignorant.  I take it hard; I take it personally.  I make all kinds of vows to fix it.  But if no one holds me accountable, I will continue to make the same mistake over and over again.  

This class has taught me that taking a risk may cause unhappiness.  I thought my business idea was a grand one.  Who likes small parking spaces—no one—I thought it would be easy to fix the problem.  But it was not easy.  Because the people who could fix the issue, were not the ones having the problem, thus they had no need to fix the problem and selling the idea to these people was like selling hot chocolate to people in the desert.  I would definitely NOT be one to take risks because of what I learned in this class.  I may have to work for a boss who has 100% say over what I can and cannot do, but I will not have to worry about where my next paycheck is coming from.

25-A What’s Next?

25-A What’s Next?

I am really through with this business venture, it turned out to not be something I loved.  In fact, I learned I hated being outside all the time. I want to sell.  However I will need some more money before I can travel the world so I am hoping to find some odd jobs.  I am off to interview my people.

·    Interview 1: One of my early interviewees, recommended that I look into painting the house numbers on the street curbs in my residential area.  It would be a good way to pick up a small amount of cash and would be fairly inexpensive of an investment.  

Interview 2: suggested that I needed to add specific kinds of parking spots for my lots.  Such as Electric car spots, Veteran spots, Pick-up spots, compact car, etc.  

Interview 3: suggested that I remember to put in crosswalks in the business when I am laying out their parking lot. 

I am currently looking into three different areas for a new market.  

I am most excited about partnering with local industrial/assembly/production plants and helping them plan the layout of the inside of their facilities according to 5’S Lean

I am also looking at partnering with local hospitals and making sure their helicopter landing pads are in good working order.  

I am also looking into going to office type businesses and offering my services for assigned parking.

Honestly, I was unable to interview anyone about these new ventures this week. It took me all week to come up with what else I could do with cement paint.  I have no idea if it is truly a lucrative business idea or not yet.

24-A Venture Concept No. 1

24-A Venture Concept No. 1

Safety Parking Lot Painting

Opportunity: Who has the need, or are the potential customer, are businesses that are losing their customers because they have unsafe parking lots.  The forces of change that comes from this is that their customers are tired of having to park far away from the door because they cannot park in a perpendicular parking lot, or worry about their car getting hit, or door-dinged while they are in the store.  The nature of this need is that my potential customer needs to find a way to lure their customers back to their store to make sales/money.  The customers are now doing nothing, they are just watching their customers leave the area.  This is not a huge opportunity.  The window of opportunity will only be until all the businesses change to the better parking lot situation.

Innovation: My product is not particularly innovative.  Anyone with the proper kind of cement paint and the ability to design a safe layout can do this job.  Because of this I will need to maintain excellent customer service and keep the prices fairly reasonable to prevent someone coming and stealing my customers. I will go to the customers parking lot and do extensive measurements and then go back to the office and create 60-degree angled, 105-inch wide parking spots in a layout that will use the maximum amount of area and have the most amount of parking spots.  I will then go to the parking lot and strip the old parking spot striping off the concrete.  I will then repaint the spots in the new lay-out.  To prevent loss of business, I will do this mid-week, and only do ¼ of the parking lot of a 4-day period.  I will be charging the customer for cost plus 10% if all material items.  I will charge $1000 per day for the labor and cost of machinery usage.  I am predicting that they average cost for an average sized parking lot will be about $7500 over 4 days of work and 1.5 days of planning.  

Venture Concept: What are the reasons customers will buy my product is because they realize that they need their customers to return to their stores.  It will be pretty hard to get customers to buy my service.  Most businesses do not feel, or even give the parking lot a second glance so it will be tough to sell them on this idea.  I could not find any competitors that redesigned parking lots, but I found a couple of parking lot painters.  Their weakness is they are not addressing the real issue, the safety issue of the kind of parking spaces that are in the lot. Price points will be important to get a customer on board.  Because most businesses do not care about the parking lot it will take a great deal to sell them, so a good fair price might make a difference between a sale and no sale. I figure I will need 4 employees. When stripping the old parking lot striping, and then repainting the new layout striping, I figure 4 people will be needed to do this in the allotted four-day period. 

My most important resource will be using my ability to sell a chicken an egg.  

I have no plans to stay in this business long enough to create or do any other kind of product.  

Plans for me are to retire and travel the world.  I started this venture to save money to travel the world.  When I get enough money I will try to sell the business off and begin my trek to travel the world.

23-A Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. Excellent customer service skills.

            Valuable: Yes.  This is not something everyone can do.  

            Rare: No.  While not everyone can do it, it can be taught easily.

            Inimitable: Yes.  Again, many can mimic excellent customer service.

            Non-substitutable: No.  You can never substitute excellent customer service.

2. Good salesperson.

            Valuable: Yes.  A good salesman is hard to come by.

            Rare: Yes.  A good salesman is hard to come by.

            Inimitable: Yes. It can be taught, so theoretically others can do it, but it is not easy.

            Non-substitutable: No.  A salesman is needed to get those customers to purchase.

3. 401(k) to use for startup.

            Valuable: sort of.  It gives me the ability to get started quickly and not have to save.

            Rare: no.  anyone can use their 401(k)

            Inimitable: Yes, anyone can use their 401(k)

            Non-substitutable: Yes, one can start up with other funds, or no funds even.

4. Very little products needed to get started

            Valuable: yes, less money to have to spend to get started

            Rare: no.

            Inimitable: yes

            Non-substitutable: yes

5. College degree in business

            Valuable: yes, gives me an edge that others do not have

            Rare: sort of.  A lot of entrepreneurs do not have one

            Inimitable: yes, anyone can get one

            Non-substitutable: yes, one does not need a degree to start up a business

6. Family support

            Valuable: yes, having that support will help me during tough times

            Rare: yes, not everyone has a family’s support

            Inimitable: yes most do have families that support

            Non-substitutable: yes one does not need ones family support to do this.

7. A large metroplex area to serve

            Valuable: Yes, it gives me more opportunities to make a sale.

            Rare: not really, there are a lot of big metroplexes.

            Inimitable: yes

            Non-substitutable: one could do this without a large metroplex, but it may be hard.

8. 18 years in retail. I know people with bad parking lots.

            Valuable: yes, I have inside people that will be able to connect with me and know me

            Rare: yes, not everyone has inside people in retail

            Inimitable: no.  My network is my own

            Non-substitutable: no, I will need it in the start-up process to get those early people.

9. I am a mom

            Valuable: yes, it gives me the ability to show my customer the mom concerns

            Rare: no, many a mom have concerns in their business ventures

            Inimitable: yes, others in my field can bring in a mom to express safety concerns

            Non-substitutable: yes, any parent or grandparent will have same effect.

10. passion and undying drive to get it done.

            Valuable: not really, it might help stay the distance

            Rare: no, most entrepreneurs have this same passion and drive

            Inimitable: yes, everyone can have this drive

            Non-substitutable: yes, you can still start a company with no drive.

My most valuable resource is being a great salesperson.  This is going to be the most important thing that will need to be done for the business, selling that parking lot change!!

22-A Elevator Pitch No. 3

the pitch

reflection: I was told to bring my pitch inside and get out of the wind.  Because I had to come inside I cannot be dynamic because of lack of space.  I assure you though I am standing :)

what did I change:  I came inside and redid the pitch with the same wording.

19-A Second Shot at Idea Napkin No. 2

I am Shae.  I am a 46-year-old wife of 28 years to my high school sweetheart. We had 5 fabulous kids that are all grown and raised now.  I am now fulfilling a dream of getting my college degree, thanks to my company paying for it 100%.  I have people skills that are out of this world.  My years of retail have helped me hone my people/customer service skills to perfection. I am a leader who likes to lead, not boss people around.  I would rather be working alongside my associates than telling them what to do and sitting on my butt watching them.  My hobbies include a love of quilting and reading a good book snuggled underneath a cozy quilt. My aspirations in life is to become wealthy so I can travel the world and see different cultures and landscapes.  This crazy business idea would make a great side job to get the savings going so I can achieve that world travel goal.

I am offering my customers a way to get customers back into their parking lots, literally.  I want to make parking spaces easier to navigate into and out of, and around in.  I will come in survey the entire parking lot and make a plan to use the maximum amount of space to give the maximum amount of parking spots in the safest way possible. I will remove old paint and restripe the entire lot appropriately.

My customers are businesses who have lost customers because of unsafe parking spots.  I will focus on customers that are within a 25-mile radius of my home which includes roughly 25 different cities.  I am mostly looking for older parking lots that need my customers will easily agree to update to appeal to their customers.

My customers will buy my services to get customers back into their store so they can make money.  

My secret sauce is my ability to win over the customer with my knowledge of what customers want through my years of customer service.  

These elements fit together and if I can convince the customer that their customers are leaving their businesses going elsewhere because they do not have time to waste having to park further away to avoid possible car damage.  

Feedback Memo:  I took away the fact that many of my comments continually complain that it is a waste of time to have poorly designed car lots for them.  They have to park further out to avoid damage. Or the miss out on a spot because someone in a bigger vehicle made the spot un-parkable because they parked incorrectly in the already narrow space.