What's Next? (assignment 25A)

Existing Market
Step 1- In the future, I would like to see my business move across the U.S perfecting its model and  making it a household name. I would like the business to become a brand and have a well-known logo and increase the company to have over 100 employees.

Step 2- After talking to some neighbors in my neighborhood, the information they told me was pretty interesting. One of them told me the next logical step would be to go into similar services related to plumbing and electricity work, like construction, flood cleaning, etc. She said that to do something like monopolizing that service area and make your company someone that "everyone knows like Stanley Steemer." The other two said things like spread across the U.S making your name huge, and or franchising it to make the spreading easier. After talking about what I had in mind for the future, they all said that it was a good idea and what they would've eventually got to, and that it was a good goal, but to keep my mind open for other things as well.

Step 3- Based off of all this feedback, I still believe that what I initially said makes the most sense and is still what I feel to be the best attack for the future. I think that maybe trying to incorporate some of the ideas regarding other aspects of the industry like steaming and construction could be a possible partnership to increase social capital and profits. They told me that in order to meet their needs the best, it needs to be a very transparent service, being that once their information is put into my system, their work should be taken care of as it is needed by scheduled check-ups and for when confrontation happens, the people need to be clean and professionally spoken.
         I definitely had these things in place in my business plan as they are things that people I have already spoken to told me. They said all the same things that these three people said and because of that I was prepared for their suggestions and had most of the answers to their questions and suggestions.

New Market
Step1- A very different market from the one that I am targeting is the part of the population that is in the cycle of hereditary poverty and falling in the lowest income level and living in a very old, well-acquainted neighborhood.

Step 2- To create value for people in this part of the population there are two potential options. For one, they are people that I could potentially train and have as an employee of my company. They most likely possess the basic knowledge of how plumbing and or electricity work are done and they may be interested in working for me. The second option is to have my company create a service plan that is made for low income individuals, using methods like financing and loans to get paid for the work that needs to get done.

Step 3- I went and did my best to talk to lower income individuals here in Gainesville and from the two people I talked to, they told me that hiring people to train is something that will definitely attract people and many people will be willing to work for me. They went on to say that other than that, they don't think many people would be interested in my work unless I could be the local competitors who were friends around the neighborhood charging extremely low rates. They explained that they rented their house, therefore their landlord took care of those problems, but they knew people around that would help them with smaller stuff for little to no charge. Therefore, I was not given many suggestions and would have to think harder to find a way to target this market.

Step 4- This new market was surprisingly similar to how I thought it was going to be. I was aware that most people in the lower income part of society usually are quite handy or know people that are, and therefore take care of plumbing or electrical work themselves. Also, they seemed to be in need for real jobs as during our conversation, they told me people in the neighborhood they lived would love to work for me but I told them I wasn't up and running yet, but got their information for the future.
       This really interested and shocked me as it shows how much of a struggle it is for many people in society to even get a job, when they have such a hear to work. I don't want to get ahead of myself and say that I know they are hard workers and capable people who will understand and act as needed for the job, but the way the people I interviewed acted, they seemed like good candidates. In the end, this market was not even close to an attractive market compared to my desired market; it is on the opposite side of the spectrum for my service and I'm not too confident it would work in that market.