Venture Concept No. 2

1.

Opportunity 

For my venture concept, a social media consulting platform for B2B purposes, the entity that has the need (opportunity) in this instance are the businesses that currently feel that their social media status is not where they want it to be, and do not have the resources and/or experience to address said concerns internally. The nature of the need is essentially that these businesses desire to have a greater social media presence, and most likely feel that a strong social media presence results in stronger sales for their product line and/or services. The forces that currently drive the need for my venture concept are the ever-increasing presence of various social media platforms in our daily lives. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, etc. are constant reminders of just how connected our world truly is, and many companies realize this. Developing a strong social media presence is an effective, and sometimes necessary, aspect in successfully running a business today. This market cannot be defined demographically or geographically, as it is a need businesses around the world could potentially have, ranging from a small startup to a multinational corporation. Businesses are currently meeting this need if they are attempting to run a successful social media platform on their own accord, whether or not it is actually successful. I firmly believe that there is huge opportunity for my concept to succeed, as social media and an online presence will only become more important for businesses in the coming years. The "window of opportunity" closes when other companies specializing in social media consultation and services begin to saturate the market with their own products and services. As to when that may actually happen, no one can say for sure, including me. This is primarily because of the current state of our technology and the rapid advancement of the internet and social media. In the last decade alone, MySpace, a social media platform the dominated the world is 2006, has become a thing of of obscurity while Facebook, which at the time was not that popular, has become the largest social media platform in the world.

Innovation

In terms of innovation, my venture concept is incrementally innovative. My concept's services include direct consultation and solutions for businesses who desire to strengthen their social media presence, which in turn results in a stronger brand and stronger performance. Although many social media platforms exist, my concept will work with all of them, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, etc. to improve whatever it is that the company desires to improve on any or all of these platforms. Whether it be reshaping their brand image and style, or increasing the number of followers and "likes" on their posts, my concept will address these concerns. My concept operates on the revenue generated from consultation sessions and developed strategies which are then implemented and adjusted accordingly to be tailored to the specific needs of the clientele my concept works with. To elaborate on revenue, my concept makes money from charging either by the session (whether it be hour, day, or week) or a negotiated price up-front (similar to other consultation services). For example, if a business sought advice on how to increase their followers on Instagram, and what kind of posts garnered more "likes," a day's worth of consultation would cost 400 USD, or a week's worth priced at 1500 USD. Obviously, these prices would be subject to change and could vary greatly, considering the amount of possible services my concept has the potential to deliver to clients.

Venture Concept

My innovation will solve and/or address the opportunity I discussed earlier by providing a service to businesses which strengthens their social media presence on various platforms, allowing them to build their brand and generate more revenue for their respective goods and services. Businesses will purchase my concept's services when they fail to meet their own expectations or needs on their own (in terms of social media), and realize that they do not have the resources or the expertise required to achieve their desired results. These would be the main reasons businesses would purchase the service, and since they realize the need on their own, there will be little difficulty in convincing them to switch. Since our services deliver an intangible product, there would be little to no need for packaging or distribution, and location would not be a major factor. I think that my concept would first take the form of a startup, with a several key employees that previously worked in consultation and similar roles before joining the company. I think the business would be fairly straightforward until it grows into a larger company, and would not have designated roles until that time.

The three minor elements

I think the "unfair advantage" that my concept will have comes from the expertise and knowledge of the employees working for the company, sharing one vision and common attitudes and goals for the direction and purpose of the company. Honestly, the entire success of the company and concept rides on the notion and belief that my concept would actually have these people at its disposal, and would not be able to exist and thrive without them. But since this is for a class assignment, I have decided that it's not a concern since it's a hypothetical scenario. I think the thing that will make it hard to copy my company's success is its rapid development in getting to the market before anyone else and gaining a strong foothold on the clientele base. I think the next opportunity that my company would tackle is the B2A sector, where individual customers who desire social media consultation could work with our company's existing products and services to meet their individual needs. In five years, assuming this company launches, I want to be in a position where the company is successful, growing, netting a healthy profit, and expanding into new areas. I, personally, desire to be in a position where I am actively involved in other companies, along with this one, and continuing to innovate and come up with new ideas that will help improve businesses and the lives of the everyday consumer.

2.

The feedback students gave on Venture Concept No. 1 was nearly all-positive, and the commenters unanimously agreed that I had a good concept and that I had developed good ideas for the direction and purpose of the company. I received only a minor piece of constructive feedback, which stated that I should be careful when working with social media because it is a very powerful tool and changes faster than almost any other medium of communication in the world today.

3.

Based off of the feedback given, I made no changes to my original venture concept because based off of the feedback, nothing needed to be changed or altered. The only real thing that I could change based off of what others told me is possibly the mindset and the attitude with how I treat new developments to social media and the repercussions that may come with it. Other than that, I don't really feel the need to change anything from the first iteration of the concept because I think it's pretty solid as it stands.