Venture Concept No. 2

Opportunity:

For my venture an individual that would have a need for my idea would be someone who does not want to attend a typical four year college. They would however want to create a career path through a vocational school. My potential customers also enjoy working with their hands on automotive, commercial and off road tires. My need has been created and does not fall under an unmet need necessarily. The unmet need it does fill is for tire companies who have difficulty hiring qualified employees for these positions. One change causing this need is the lack of help avail able in the tire industry which I work in. It seems that employees don’t see forward growth and opportunity within the industry. My venture allows them to continue to progress and learn more over time through different programs. Currently my potential customers are doing on the job training. This process is very difficult as it puts more demand on current employees and management to train employees. Typically you are already running short handed and do not have the resources to train like we have in the past. I see short term loyalty with our process now. One of two things will usually happen. The first is the employee is not given a fair shot to be successful and gets frustrated causing them to quit. The second is management becoming frustrated with their progress and terminating them. I see this opportunity as a big one since I work within the industry currently. From my perspective in order to continue servicing customers our industry is going to have to innovate when it comes to hiring tire technicians. The window of opportunity will be open until the next individual sees it. I think it’s something that could be thought up any day.

Innovation:

My innovation is for a vocational school that prepares students for different types of tire technician jobs. The first class is for automotive tire technician. The second class is for commercial truck tire technician, and the third is for off the road tire technicians.  Each class will last three months so students can get into the workforce quickly. As students complete a section they will be given the opportunity to work with a career coach in order to help them find employment. I will make money from the students for the cost of the classes, small hand tools that are needed, books, and uniform costs. The classes would range from $300-$900 dollars. The price per class increases as more tools are supplied by the school for students to train with. Other cost for small hand tools will range from $10.00 - $15.00. The uniform cost will be $50 for each class taken.

Venture Concept:

The opportunity I identified was lack of trained tire technicians. Having a vocational school gives an individual a career path without going through a typical four year college. It also helps employers find qualified help and reduces the inconvenience of training new employees with no experience. The customers will buy my innovation because it gives them an opportunity to educate themselves for a certain field an gain the needed training to perform job tasks. For years people have gone to school to be electricians, plumbers, automotive mechanics, and to learn various other types of trades. This is just one more opportunity for them. Since my service would be new there would be no need to switch them to my service. Competitors could come from various places because the idea, once started, is not hard to copy. The venture would have ten employees. Various jobs would be trainers, owners, administrators, and career coaches. My most important resource is identifying the need for this program. As I have explained in the past this is a two fold scenario. First, it creates a career path and opportunity for an individual to earn a living. Second, it gives the tire industry well trained and qualified technicians. Identifying this need is something I have come up with working in the tire industry so there’s not a large amount of people that will see this right away. This gives me the advantage to start the program and work out any unforeseen issues before other identify it. My next idea for the venture would be an opportunity for students to come back and train as sales people, service managers, and other jobs related to the tire industry. Once the students gain the needed experience and are ready for the next step they could come back and continue their professional growth. Over the next ten to five years I would still be involved as the entrepreneur. I would want to continue to build on what I started. If successful I would like to expand my coverage area to offer the service to more individuals. 

 

Feedback:

I received positive feedback from my venture concept one assignment. One things some did mention was part of my program already being integrated into an existing program. They mentioned it could possibly minimize the potential success of the program. So far I have not found anyone offering the type of training my venture would offer. So based on my feedback I may do more research to ensure my idea would be successful. I also have changed my exit strategy. I think for the longevity of the program and for it to evolve into what I think it can be I would need to sell the concept to a company that has the means to grow the program more rapidly. This would help potential customers find access to the program faster as well as contribute quality employees to the tire industry.