What’s Next?

Existing Market

Step 1

Talk about what you think is what's next in terms of products and services for your venture.
As for what I think is next in terms of products and services for this venture, I think that obviously finding and building the facility for the first location is key. Shortly after is when advertising would begin, to get the word out about our company and get people excited about our grand opening.

Step 2

I interviewed: Dorothy Richardson, Alexia Bryd, and Kari Trozak, to get an understanding about what my target audience would believe is next for this company. I asked them "What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?" A lot of the feedback was along the lines of: get a starter loan, get facilities and equipment, find qualified teachers and trainers, and and plan advertising technique.

Step 3

What makes the most sense for this venture in terms of growing my existing market, I believe is building a foundation of trust and loyalty. After getting my venture open, I know that it is keen to deliver on everything we promote and advertise because that will be the first impression of the customer. When we begin promoting ourselves, part of our mission statement is that we are a family and we want to be a safe place for people. That said, employee-customer interaction is crucial. We need our employees to remember faces and get to know the customers so that they know we are interested in each of them individually.
There are probably only a limited number of ways to set a path for the future in order to achieve this, so this is what I have come up with: have design layout and profit plan for first five years, pitch case to bank for a loan, break ground and begin construction, start advertising to community and build up online presence, look for qualified and eager employees to train and teach customers, and begin interior work on building, have grand opening.

New Market

Step 1

Identify a radically different market from what you're currently planning to target. If you're currently targeting B2B, think about going after a B2C market. If you're currently targeting an affluent part of society, think about targeting a very poor part of society.
A radically different market from the one I am targeting are older women. My target audience are women ages 12-40, so targeting women ages 50+ would be a huge change in advertisement and in the way we would be teaching.

Step 2

I think that older women are still at risk people, maybe not for sexual assault, but but for assault and theft. Given the age difference, I think that an online presence is not as essential as community advertisements and getting promoted in the paper or certain magazines. I believe that the online presence would be more directed at their children or grandchildren, encouraging them to pass the information along. Finally, in terms of training, I think that there should still be a physical aspect, however I think that 3/4ths of the training should be in using self defense tools and being armed with something like pepper spray, at all times. Finally, I think that the classes are just as important and that everyone should be well informed about the statistics of sexual assault, assault and battery, etc.. People need to know what kind of risk they are in and how to defend themselves or reduce this risk.

Step 3

I interviewed Lucille-Ann Whalen and Donna Richardson to ask them how they think this business might help customers like them. They said that it would make a group of people who are often seen as and depicted as defenseless in most situations, gain some of their confidence back and know how to confidently steer clear of dangerous situations. Some adaptations I might have to make however, are having more on the spot trainers in case anyone needs help, along with medical examiners or nurses in the case of anyone getting hurt.

Step 4

I think that the most important thing to know is that age is not a condition that makes you not human. Everyone can still do things for themselves, they still have fears, they still have ambitions and want to learn. Maybe a few adaptations need to be made for whatever group of people you are focusing on, however that does not mean they can't do something, it just means they can do it in a different way.
This new market, for me is not as appealing as my existing one, and the reason for this is not because the new market shouldn't be focused on, it is only because the threat to the existing market is so huge, that it is hard to turn away from them right now.