20A Growing Your Social Capital

1. The first person that I talked to was for the domain expert category of the assignment. I could not find anyone that I could talk to that actually owned a gym, but I did, however, talk to someone that works at a gym and has been for a long time. I had them look at my idea napkin and asked them what their thoughts were on the idea. The return that I got from this person was them telling what they thought about it and any advice that they may give me. Including this person in my network is extremely valuable to me because they have worked at a gym for a while and seen how it works. he's seen people argue over whether they were using the machine or not. Basically he is able to tell me more about first hand experience in dealing with the problem. 

2. The next person that I interviewed is for the market expert category. This person does not market to gyms, but instead works for the same company that my dad works for which is a big electronics distribution company. Any type of electronics you can think of they distribute to other companies in the southeastern part of the US to sell, so he knows a lot about bringing in new customers for his company. I think this was a perfect person to talk to because he has first hand experience with doing research on smaller companies that they could sell to and benefit from. 

3. The last person that I talked to is for the supplier and he works at the same company that mentioned in the previous paragraph. This person however is in charge of getting all the electronics and shipping them out the companies that they are selling them to. This person would also be a great addition to my network because he has been doing for many years and would be able to tell me exactly how it works and the best way to go about doing it. 

This was definitely a great networking experience even though 2 out of the 3 people I talked to did not work or sell to the industry that my idea deals with. I had never really done anything like this before though and it was a great experience to talk to two people strictly about business and what they do that works and what they have done in the past that has not worked. I think this will really help me in my future career. 

19A Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am currently a senior here at UF studying Construction Management. I have many skills like I am good at drawing, fishing, and I am a good people person. If I was to start my business idea I feel like it would play a big role in my life because I would put all I have into it to make sure it would be as successful and profitable as possible. Once I started it I would only want it to grow more so it would play a very important role in my life.

2. The product that I want to offer as I have described before in my previous post is an app for the gym. It would include a live number of people at the gym, so you can see how busy it is before you go as you would have to check in and out with the app before going into the gym in a way that is similar to how you check into UF's gyms. It would also include a way to to reserve a machine or spot in line for a certain machine. You would go up to the machine and scan your app with the machine to check in. You would also check out with the machine once you finish your sets. This would hopefully reduce the amount of wait time for machines.

3. The product can be offered to literally anyone who goes to the gym or wants to go to the gym. Obviously it would apply more to the people that go to the gym very often, but anyone and everyone would be able to use it.

4. The customers should care because this product will hopefully make their time at the gym more enjoyable because they will not have so much down time in between exercises waiting for a certain machine or bench. This product would also be included in their gym memberships, so they would still be paying those same monthly payments that they always pay except it might be a few extra dollars each month now.

5. I believe that my product will set gyms apart from most other gyms because I do not know of any gyms that offer a product that is similar at all to the one that I want to offer. Most gyms have all the same equipment, but this product will really set gyms apart.

I believe that all of these elements fit pretty well together. The only thing that is weak about this business idea is that simply some people would not want the service at all, but that comes with every product that is ever made. Some people just like the way that going to the gym is now and wouldn't want to change it.

Two Main Points from Feedback
The first is that I originally said there would be live feeds of the gym to see how busy it is, but some people said that they would not like other people being able to watch them workout on a live feed which is completely understandable. So I took that away and instead made it so you have to check into the gym when you walk in (like UF's gyms) so you can see a live number of people currently at the gym to see how busy it is.

The second thing I took away from feedback is a couple people simply said that they would not like to use my product and just want the gym to stay the way that it is now, which I also understand but there's really nothing I can do about that.

18A Create A Customer Avatar

The great thing about my product that I want to offer is that it can be available to anyone, and it doesn't have to be a certain type of person. But everyone has a stereotype of a person that they think of when they think of someone who goes to the gym a lot. That stereotype is usually a college aged guy who is in very good shape. Although anyone could be the customer of what I want to offer I think this is a very good representation of the type of person that people see in the gym most often and therefore would be my pro typical customer. Another reason why I thought that a college aged guy who is in very good shape would be my pro typical customer is because almost everyone that I interviewed about my product to find out their thoughts fit into this description. This type of person is usually a poor college kid, so I would think that it would be best to try and make my product not very expensive. They also are normally very busy with school, but they find time to go to the gym anyways so it shouldn't affect them wanting to buy my product. Even though this is my pro typical customer, anyone and everyone can go to the gym so my product would be available to a lot of different type of people.

I have a lot in common with the type of person I have just described. I am a college aged guy who does go to the gym a lot, and I do not think it was a coincidence. I think the reason why I thought of this product is because it is something that I do a lot and think about a lot because I fit into the categories for that pro typical customer. 

15A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Interview #1
This person specifically stated that price matters the most to him when he considers a gym membership and if my idea of a system that allows you to hold a spot in line for a machine costs more money then he doesn't want it. I tried to reason with him and said that this system may cost a little extra a month and it comes with a lot of advantages, but he still wasn't sold. We then talked a little more about how this system should just be included in the base price of the gym membership and I agreed.

Interview #2
This person emphasized how much quality mattered to him over anything else. He didn't really care if this potential new feature would cost extra as long as the quality of the product was there. This was a very simple interview and it was very easy to convince him to buy this product if it ever came out because I guaranteed that the quality of the product would be there.

Interview #3
This person said that everything mattered to him. Quality of the product, price, ease of purchase, etc. We talked about how when you go to sign your gym membership that this product should be included depending on the gym. We also talked about how it would be billed monthly like your normal gym membership is. He liked how there wasn't really much of a change to the process except that you got a new product and maybe had to pay a little more.

Conclusion:
I learned a lot from these interviews and I learned that everyone is different in what they want when it comes to these types of things. But I think to get the best product you have to focus on people like the third person that interviewed who care about every aspect of the product. When you do this you end up making the best product you can possibly have and that is what will give you the best outcome.