Assignment 24A - Venture Concept No.1: Louis' Sponsor Venue

OPPORTUNITY

·       Who has the need: My need exists in those soccer clubs whom are mostly situated in lower-income neighborhoods. These clubs do not have the luxury of a customer base with a lot of purchasing power, so they must cut costs whenever possible in order to lower their prices. This leads to them providing an inferior good that is overall, detrimental to the development of their players.

·       Nature of the need: The nature of the need is that these clubs must find some way of elevating their product without losing their customer base. This means that prices must be maintained, but the quality of service must improve. This is where their need of more sponsorship comes in. The sponsorship could be in the form of sponsored tournaments or even the donation of goods.

·       Forces/changes creating the opportunity: The movement of migrant families from South America and the Caribbean Islands into the South Florida region is creating this need. These families are recently established so they do not have high paying jobs and thus cannot afford to send their children to soccer academies or expensive clubs.

·       Geography and demographics of the market: The market will be mainly restricted to the South Florida region when I first try to establish the business. As it expands, it will hopefully start to cover other lower-income regions.

·       Current customer satisfaction/loyalty: The small clubs usually ask for donations and volunteering from the parents. This has worked to some degree of success because the clubs themselves remain sustainable. If the opportunity for more direct sponsorship comes in, they would jump at the chance.

·       Size of the opportunity: I would say this is a big opportunity considering the sheer number of smaller clubs that are organized in the South Florida region; as well as the large population of migrant families whose children are primarily accustomed to playing soccer.

·       Time length of “window of opportunity”: This opportunity will be open until someone is able to successfully fill the need. So far, the solutions which the clubs use to sustain themselves can be considered temporary.

INNOVATION

·       What it is: A service that matches up soccer clubs with additional sponsors who donate equipment and organize/sponsor tournaments with other similar clubs in the area. That way, the management and coaches of the teams will not have to worry about providing these services for the player but will instead be more invested in their development.

·       What it does: This model will ensure that prices at those clubs remain the same while the quality of services and development which they provide to the players will increase. It will also increase the competitiveness of those clubs because the frequency and level of tournaments which they participate in will increase.

·       How it works: My business will first get into contact with sponsors and gauge their interest in our proposed business model. After establishing connections with a suitable amount of businesses, we will then move towards working with the clubs to work on establishing a necessary contract with the sponsors. As part of introducing the clubs with the sponsors, my business will require a fee from the clubs. My business will essentially be an agency that matches up clubs with sponsors. They will then be priced on the size of the sponsor which they request, the amount of equipment they will need from the sponsors, and the number of tournaments that are to be organized in the names of those sponsors.

VENTURE CONCEPT

·       Reasoning and difficulty: Customers will switch to my product because their current model is aimed towards sustainability and not growth. This means that the players themselves are not content with their development but settle for it because that is all they can afford. If I have a stable base of sponsors, I do not foresee that I will have too much difficulty getting them to switch.

·       Competitors and weaknesses/vulnerabilities: The idea itself has no competitors besides the sponsors themselves going out and finding the clubs to then establish a sort of conglomerate or coalition with them. The current vulnerability is that every moment that I spend not implementing my idea is time for someone else to come in and establish it themselves.

·       Roles of price packaging, price points, etc.: Much in the same way that different customers can get charge different prices for the same product, my business will provide sponsorship to clubs at varying prices. The business itself will be in South Florida and there will be sponsor bundles offered in terms of club size and location because of the relation to how these clubs will probably be playing in tournaments versus one another.

·       Organization and employees: My business will be organized as me being the manager and overseer of the distribution of sponsors to the clubs. I must first start out by gathering the interests of sponsors myself because I do not have any capital to invest in employees to do that for me and it would be a waste of money. My subsequent employees should preferably be those with at least a low-level law background because of the use of contracts in establishing relationships between the clubs and sponsors.

THREE MINOR ELEMENTS

·       My venture’s secret sauce will be the genuine concern that we have for the clubs and their players and the relationship that we establish with the sponsors. This might not seem like much of a secret sauce but I grew up in the area and I know of so many people who had to give up on their dreams because they did not have the resources to pursue them and that is something I am aiming to correct.

·       The next problem to address will be a managed route from those smaller clubs to the bigger academies. In a sense, my business will next establish connections with those academies.

·       I hope that my next venture will be something to tackle the economic development issues that plague Black neighborhoods. It is something which I constantly think about.