The Idea Napkin

You

Who am I?

Tough question to answer as I believe self-awareness is not easy to achieve. However, I have a few ideas and facts about who I am.

I am a 19-year-old white male that grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta and later Tampa. Now my parents and little brother live in Switzerland and from that and studying abroad, I have been opened up to a whole new world.

What are your talents?

One strength I know I have is an incredible work ethic. I am a big believer in putting in hard work to accomplish something you want to achieve. I also believe I am very good at getting along with and connecting with people. I love talking to people and being around people. I am good a presenting if I know the topic well but often struggle with excelling in public speaking and would like to make this one of my strengths. One more talent I believe I now have is the ability to take action. Lots of people theorize about things they could do but never start. I have learned how to start things I am interested in, and by organizing and writing tasks out, I am able to continue working on and achieving these things.

What are your experiences?

Well, I can go ahead and list off the "technical experiences" I have that you would find on my resume.
I am the scholarship chair at Pi Kappa Alpha, I work as a fitness coach and Gainesville Health and Fitness, I have worked as a server at a horse track in Tampa, I am a mentor and the director of marketing for the leadership development program, and I interned for a financial risk management conference company in London. Is this stuff actually important? Who knows?

What are your aspirations?

This is my favorite question. I love asking this question to others and hearing their answers. Currently, for me, there are a few that jump into my mind. The first one is I want to run my own business. I just think its the coolest thing ever to create something tangible from what started as a thought. I also aspire to create great relationships throughout life. I want an awesome family, to stay very close with my friends, make tons of new friends, and help lots of people. Another aspiration I have is to stay physically fit my entire life because of how important fitness is to me. Lastly, I want to continue to travel the world and experience completely new things.

How do you see this business playing a role in your life?

I would see it playing a huge role in my life, maybe not immediately, but when it starts making sales and I begin putting real amounts of hours into it, yes. I feel as if I will see my companies almost as children to me (not to be weird but in the sense as in something you created). Because running my own business is so important to me, I would definitely see this business as my career for a long time until I move on to starting another business.

What are you offering to customers?

I see this as 4-fold.

1.) We are offering them the tangibles. Dog toys, dog treats, and dog essentials.

2.) We are offering them an experience. An experience of surprise when they open the box. An experience to share with their dog as they enjoy opening and using their gifts. An experience that could be viewed as a monthly "mini-holiday" for the dog and its family.

3.) We are offering them saved time. With toys, treats, and essentials shipped to their house, owners don't have to spend their time going to dog stores to buy this stuff. They just have to buy dog food at the grocery stores they already shop at.

4.) We are offering them assurance and peace of mind. The gifts we will select for the boxes are ensured to be the best quality and items that your dog will benefit from. There is no need to worry about selecting the right toys and treats that will be safe for your dog because we do that for you.

Who are you offering it to?

Its offered to all dog owners. I believe every dog owner would benefit from this service. However, to get specific, there are a few specifics. This service will not apply to:

• To start out, anyone outside the US, for shipping purposes
• Anyone that cannot afford it...however, this will be priced slightly competitors based on the plan you choose since it is focused on the necessities and not pampering the pup completely
• People that do not like surprises and enjoy shopping for their dog's toys themselves
• Dog owner's whose dog is very picky or has severe allergies

So the people who are buying this subscription service would be USA dog owners that want to save time, can afford to provide their dog with toys & treats, and would enjoy the experience and assurance of having the best dog-items shipped to their door monthly.

Why do they care?

Why will people actually pay money for this service?

• The convenience of having these necessary items for their dog shipped right to their door
• There is more value offered in the box than what you could get at retail. The box offers a much lower overall price than what it would be to buy all the items at retail. And the price includes shipping! (This is because we can get items in our boxes for below retail price. This is because of the items we put in our box, we always buy in large quantities from the manufacturer and pay for bulk prices. In addition, we offer a major incentive for these companies to be in our box... it's free advertising for them! If one of our customers loves the company's product in our box, they will reorder from them! So this lets us get even lower pricing. We all win!)

What are your core competencies?

What sets you apart from everyone else?

This really comes from our companies mission. Its that we believe that every dog should reap the benefits of this service. Every dog. That is why for every box we ship to a customer, we hand deliver a gift to a dog in a shelter. It's our reason for existing that will drive us apart from everyone else.

What do you have that nobody else has?

To go beyond the gushy stuff I said above and to get to the facts...we cater to a different audience. Current competitors are all geared at the segment of owners that pamper their dogs and often include an overkill amount of useless items in their box. The value of the box goes down when not every item is useful. That's where we are different, we make sure that every single item is useful and can help the dog each month. Because of this, we can price more competitively too.

*The pet service industry is rapidly growing. Not every dog in America is being reached by these types of services. That is a big reason why I believe this opportunity exists. For every Coke, there is a Pepsi. I believe there is plenty more room for competition.

Do these elements fit together?

I do believe these elements fit together. Everything seemed to make sense as I wrote everything out. This is also because I am largely basing my business off an already proven similar model. I am very gung-ho about this idea so I could be blind to these elements not fitting and would like to hear what you all think.